The self-lensing of a massive black hole binary (MBHB), which occurs when the two BHs are aligned close to the line of sight, is expected to produce periodic, short-duration flares. Here we study the shapes of self-lensing flares (SLFs) via general-relativistic ray tracing in a superimposed binary BH metric, in which the emission is generated by geometrically thin accretion flows around each component. The suite of models covers eccentric binary orbits, black hole spins, unequal mass binaries, and different emission model geometries. We explore the above parameter space and report how the light curves change as a function of, e.g., binary separation, inclination, and eccentricity. We also compare our light curves to those in the microlensing approximation, and show how strong deflections, as well as time-delay effects, change the size and shape of the SLF. If gravitational waves (GWs) from the inspiraling MBHB are observed by LISA, SLFs can help securely identify the source and localizing it on the sky, and to constrain the graviton mass by comparing the phasing of the SLFs and the GWs. Additionally, when these systems are viewed edge-on the SLF shows a distinct dip that can be directly correlated with the BH shadow size. This opens a new way to measure BH shadow sizes in systems that are unresolvable by current VLBI facilities.


This paper presents the specification, implementation and characterization of a self-contained biosensor system based on surface plasma resonance (SPR) technology. The paper covers SPR theory of operation, biosensor system goals, hardware design, software design, system test via immunoassay and suggested applications.


Objective To analyze and determine rules governing domestic cases of human eperythrozoonosis over the past 16 years in accordance with evidence-based medicine.Methods Literature in the China Journal Full-text Database(1994-2010) was reviewed and then an evaluation table was established.Results More patients were male than female and many were very young.Clinical manifestations varied and were most often fever,anemia,and fatigue.RBC and Hb decreased in most patients,WBC,PLT,and TBIL were mostly normal,and ALT mainly increased.The most widely effective drugs were aminoglycosides and tetracyclines,including gentamicin and doxycycline.Conclusion Human eperythrozoonosis resulted in complex and varied clinical manifestations and laboratory.Rules governing human eperythrozoonosis must be studied in order to decrease misdiagnoses and missed diagnoses.


PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a drilling tool having a drill body provided with a cutting bit on the drilling side and also having a bore formed in the axial direction and receiving a replaceable central drill and used for drilling on rocks by the rotation percussion. SOLUTION: A central drill 6 is set movably in the axial direction on a drilling tool 1, and a horizontal slot 13 is formed in the state of being eccentric to an axis 44 in the longitudinal direction 44 of a drill and used for rotating securely the central drill, and a bar-shaped or a tubular holding member 12 engaged eccentrically on a central drill shank 7 can be inserted into the slot 13.


Full-band Monte Carlo simulations were carried out to investigate hot carrier effects associated with impact ionization under the lateral electric field profiles typical of submicrometer Si-MOSFETs. It is shown that the temperature dependence of the band-gap energy of Si plays an important role for hot carrier suppression at low temperature in submicrometer devices. On the other hand, as the device size shrinks into the sub-0.1 regime, in which the high-field region is comparable in size to or smaller than the energy relaxation length, the number of electrons with energy below the supply drain voltage becomes less sensitive to temperature. As a result, the suppression of impact ionization at low temperature in sub-0.1 /spl mu/m devices could be ascribed to both quasi-ballistic transport characteristics and temperature-dependent band-gap energy.


2 DOF half-car model with 6 semi-active suspension units is utilized to evaluate the tracked vehicle dynamic performance simulated by several suspension control algorithms. The target of this research is to improve the ride comfort to maintain operator's handling capability when the tracked vehicle travels fast on the rough road. The control algorithms for suspension systems, such as full state feedback active, full state feedback semi-active, sky-hook active, sky-hook semi-active, and on-off systems, are evaluated and analyzed in view point of ride comfort. The dynamic performances of vehicle are expressed and evaluated by vibratory characteristic evaluation curves, performance indices and frequency characteristic curves. The simulation results show that the performances of sky-hook algorithms for ride comfort nearly follow those of full state feedback algorithms and on-off algorithm is recommendatory when the vehicle runs relatively fast.


The first part of the present study is a description of the Kashubian population inhabiting the Hel Peninsula. Further, the author follows the changes of the dietary pattern and the nutritional habits of this population over a span of more than one hundred years. The past nutritional habits (prevailing in the 18th century and in the first half of the 20th century) were reproduced on the basis of ethnographic source materials. The present day diet was determined on the basis of the data obtained by way of weekly family questionnaires and daily individual questionnaires distributed in September, June and November in Jastarnia among Kashubian families and school children. The results were then compared with the literature data and discussed.


In our paper we will address two major empirical components, using a sample of fifty six banks, divided into four groups belonging to eight countries for a period of ten years (2003-2012) divided into three phases before, during, and after the subprime crisis. First, we would compare the efficiency of Islamic and conventional banks by using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Then we will use the parametric approach (Tobit model) to determine the impact of determinants of financial stability on banking solidity. To sum up, the stability of Islamic banks, especially investment essentially amounts to their asset quality that have a positive and remarkable effect during the crisis, but the weakness of their counterpart returns to the negative leverage and liquidity.


AbstractThe thesis of the present paper is that there exists a sampling subspace in the testing of hypotheses where a Type II error is made for completely illogical reasons from the standpoint of probability. The hypothesized distribution, A, contains an α error rate for a rejection level, while the alternate distribution, B, contains a (usually larger) β error rate. The unit normal Z values for α and β are coincident in the sampling space, but the actual intersection of A and B is closer to the mean of A, so that there are more B's than A's in the sampling subspace between the intersection and the (Zα, Zβ) point. It is in this sampling subspace that the Fool's Type IIa error is made; i.e., the tested hypothesis is not rejected, but there are obviously more B's than A's. The thesis of the present paper is that, from the standpoint of maximum likelihood and union intersection, only a fool would make that kind of error. Consideration is also given to the case of unequal probabilities of populations or condi...


Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients in Australia have access to a variety of medications. There has been an increasing trend towards using biologic monoclonal antibodies, such as infliximab, adalimumab, and vedolizumab, over recent years. These intravenous infusions have provided a new set of logistical problems for IBD clinicians in the hospital setting. Administering these infusions requires a confident infusion center, up-to-date knowledge on current management, and appropriately trained and skilled infusion staff. Although there are similarities between these infusions (timeline of induction and maintenance infusions, method of receiving, and streamlined authority prescriptions), there are administration and reconstitution differences that should be noted for their impact on setup times, infusion duration, patient preparation, and waiting times. At Concord Hospital, a large metropolitan tertiary referral hospital in Sydney, the increase in infusions over the past 4 years has been noticeable (Table 1). A more than twofold increase in infliximab infusions alone has been seen. The recent addition of vedolizumab (now on Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme listing, not just clinical trials access) will very likely follow a similar linear increase in infusion numbers over the coming years. This dramatic increase in infusion numbers has required careful management, and one method has been to use the accelerated infusion protocol for infliximab. The accelerated protocol shortens the infusion time to 30min, from the standard 60min, for patients who have successfully tolerated nine infusions previously. The cumulative time saved using this method is estimated to have been 35 h of nursing (and patient) time in 2012. This increased to an estimated 97.5 h in 2015. Furthermore, the accelerated infusion protocol is not associated with any increased risk of infusion reaction in patients, while providing a significant cost-benefit to the institution and a convenience benefit to the patient. Although each patient is assessed and given careful consideration prior to each infusion, infusion reactions are still common and require specific management. Infliximab reaction rates are still low (3–27% depending on the study). Current protocols provide a potential pathway to reinfuse patients who have had a reaction to infliximab, and our own experience has been that seven of 16 patients who have


LncGAS5 was formerly identified as a tumor suppressor gene, involved in multiple cancers. GAS5 was recently reported to be an indicator for CRC progression and prognosis, but its role in colorectal carcinogenesis was still unclear. The current case-control study was to investigate the association of the indel polymorphism rs145204276 within promoter of GAS5 and CRC susceptibility. Statistical analysis showed that when compared with genotype ins/ins, ins/del or del/del genotype upregulated CRC susceptibility (OR=1.33, 95% CI=1.08-1.62, P=0.006 and OR=2.09, 95% CI=1.50-2.91, P=0.006) in the codominant model, and other genetic models betrayed similar tendency. The positive genotype and phenotype correlation was identified by in vivo analysis, and gain-of-function assay in vitro found the modulation was modulated through influencing GAS5 transcription activity. In addition, stratified analysis found the association was more prominent in cases with higher tumor stage. Taken together, we firstly reported that a new functional indel polymorphism could modulate CRC risk by affecting GAS5 transcription activity. Further support from other similar investigations and functional validations are required for our current study.


This paper aims to evaluate the sustainable project risk and stakeholder management for pension funds projects' performance in Kenya. This paper highlights that current project management practices of Kenyan Pension Funds do not always ensure project success that secures desired market returns on these investments. The main problem with projects management practices being mentioned as planning, project implementation, cost and time overruns and quality achievement. As the pension schemes are also expected to continue to invest in alternative assets given the broadening of the allowable investment categories and to take advantage of the public infrastructural projects under the big four agenda (RBA, 2021), it becomes paramount to identify and implement sustainable project management practices for performance of the pension funds projects. The outcome of this paper showed that integration of risk management and stakeholder management practice was one of the key project management practices that would contribute towards pension funds projects' performance.


Two Pseudomonas sp PCN5 and PCB2 were isolated from the sludge contaminated by coke\|plant water for a long time.Their degradation performance and growth curves on anthracene phenanthrene and pyrene were tested.Under the condition of single PAH existence,after 10 hours reaction,the removal rates of anthracene pyrene and phenanthrene were 91\^8%,75\^6%,and 26\^2% by PCN5,and 28\^3%, 67\^5%,81\^3% by PCB2 respectively.In the mixing system of anthracene,phenanthrene and pyrene,the phenanthrene could be degraded easily by both PCN5 and PCB2,while pyrene had the least competitive ability to be degraded and transformed.After 130?h reaction,the removal rates of total\|organic\|carbon(TOC) produced by mixing PAHs were 38\^9% by PCN5,and 73\^7% by PCB2.The growth curves of PCN5 and PCB2 were similar.The concentrations of both strains reached to the highest point after 11 day cultivation.Compared to the original concentration point of PCN5 was 10000 times,and that of PCB2 was 8000 times.


Background:This study investigated the influence that the "Environmental Leadership Professional Development" program had on preschool teachers. The program's aim is to enhance environmental awareness, thus developing environmental citizenship and leadership. The program offered experiential and reflective learning, meetings with environmental researchers and educators, discussions, a course website, and most uniquely, an environmental venture exemplifying active environmental leadership and citizenship conducted by the learners and accompanied by intensive professional support.Material and methods:Data sources included questionnaires presented before, immediately after, and one year after the program, and the portfolios documenting the venture's processes and outcomes.Results:The qualitative evidence attests to affirmative change among the participants, who demonstrated personal growth and empowerment as educators and leaders, even a year after the program ended.Conclusions:The results indicate that the "Environmental Leadership Professional Development" program may serve as a professional development model for empowering teachers to become both environmental leaders and environmental citizen role models.


Ghana's bauxite is exported in the raw state with no value addition. One way to achieve value addition is to carbothermally upgrade the ore into magnetic and nonmagnetic fractions, followed by separation using a magnet. This work investigates the carbothermal upgrading of the Awaso bauxite ore using reductant generated from locally available saw dust (SD) and coconut shells (CNS). Composite pellets of bauxite-reductant were prepared, air-dried and cured for 72 hours. The cured pellets were placed in a fire-clay crucible and heated in a custom-made gas-fired furnace for 30 minutes. The fired composite pellets were separated into magnetic and non-magnetic portions using a low intensity hand-held magnet. The various portions were then characterised using XRD, XRF and SEM analyses. XRD results showed magnetite as the predominant species present in the magnetic fraction whilst the non-magnetic fraction showed alumina as the predominant peaks along with some traces of unreduced hematite, silica, carbon and titania but no hercynite.


We have connected the various automatic construction systems for shield construction by a high speed network. We have developed a "Total Shield Construction Control System" (KSGS Kajima Shield General Control System) that controls all the systems in a centralized control room. This control system has already been installed on site. The features of this system are reported here.


The fixed-width multiplier is attractive to many multimedia and digital signalprocessing systems which are desirable to maintain a fixed format and allow a little accuracy loss to output data. This brief includes a comparative study of different fixed-width Booth multipliersPT(most accurate fixed width multiplier) and DT(least area requirement) fixed width multipliers with the Proposed accuracy-adjustment fixed-width Booth multipliers that compensates the truncation error using a multilevel conditional probability (MLCP) estimator.To consider the trade-off between accuracy and area cost, the MLCPprovides varying column information to adjust the accuracy with respect to system requirements. Unlike previous conditional-probability methods, the proposed MLCP uses entire nonzero code, namely MLCP, to estimate the truncation error and achieve higher accuracy levels. And a comparative study of different fixed width multipliers based on MLCP using differentfast adders such as carry look ahead adder, Kogge-stone adder etc are also included. The design was modeled using Verilog, simulated and synthesized using Xilinx ISE 14.7.


INTRODUCTION:
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a wear and tear type arthritis. It has two primary processes; breakdown of cartilage in joints and abnormal bony growth formation called Osteophytes. It is a chronic degenerative disease that leads to structural alteration and biochemical changes of synovial membrane and joint capsule. WHO reports worldwide osteoarthritis affects 9.6% of men and 18% of women ages above 60 years and condition will be the fourth leading cause of disability by 2020.
OBJECTIVES:
To assess the effectiveness of hot affusion bath with Epsom salt on knee related symptoms among patients with osteoarthritis of knee.
STUDY DESIGN:
Quasi experimental study.
METHOD:
40 study subjects belonging within the age group of 50-65 years, participated in the study. The study participants were instructed treated with Hot affusion bath with Epsom salt, thrice a week alternatively for three weeks. Assessment with WOMAC index and goniometer taken at baseline and after three weeks.
RESULT:
The study showed the presence of significant reduction of knee related symptoms like pain, stiffness and improve range of motion.
CONCLUSION:
The study proved that Hot affusion bath with Epsom salt is found to be effective in reduction of knee related symptoms like pain, stiffness among patients with osteoarthritis of knees.


This study explores negative paranormal and spiritual experiences in the light of William James's concept of 'diabolical mysticism '. The aim was to investigate the characteristics of these experiences, how they are interpreted by those who experience them, the rea.ciions of others, and their overall influence on people's lives. The methodology used semi-structured interviews to develop a grounded theory. Seven participants were interviewed, five had psychiatric admissions after their experiences, and two did not. Experiences included 'spirit possession', 'poltergeist', 'ghosts', 'alien abduction' and massive spiritual energy. Analysis genera-ied six themes: (a) negative paranormal or spiritual experiences cannot be defined on purely affective quality; (b) they adversely affect the sense of self; (c) they unbalance or disturb; (d) they cause distress, as people cannot make sense of them; (e) other people's reactions have enormous influence; and (f) they appear to be part of a process, suggestive of problem-solving or spiritual emergency. Results suggest it is not possible to differentiate between experiences with transformative potential and those that are purely destructive, by considering them in isolalion. Instead these experiences need, to be considered, in the wider context of social environment, and long-term influence on people's lives. The paper crdi.cises the inadequacy of existing clinical and psychiatric approaches, and calls for transpersonal psychology to take a lead in this area.


The electrocardiogram (ECG) signals contain many types of noisesbaseline wander, powerline interference, electromyographic (EMG) noise, electrode motion artifact noise. Baseline wander is a low-frequency noise of around 0.5 to 0.6 Hz. To remove it, a high-pass filter of cut-off frequency 0.5 to 0.6 Hz can be used. Powerline interference (50 or 60 Hz noise from mains supply) can be removed by using a notch filter of 50 or 60 Hz cut-off frequency. EMG noise is a high frequency noise of above 100 Hz and hence may be removed by a low-pass filter of an appropriate cut-off frequency. Electrode motion artifacts can be suppressed by minimizing the movements made by the subject. The chapter introduces the types of common noise sources in ECG signals and simple signal processing techniques for removing them, and also presents a section of Matlab code for the techniques described.


Diagnostic cytology of the cerebrospinal fluid is not fully established nowadays. The reasons are: 1) It is difficult to collect cells, because cell number is very limited in the CSF. 2) The tumor cell does not always appear in the CSF of patient with glioma. 3) When the glioma cells appear, they are very scanty in numbr. 4) The procedure in making diagnosis of the glioma cells are still in confusion, now. 5) Morphological criteria for the diagnosis of tumor kind and malignancy of the glioma cells are not fully established. In order to collect the CSF cells effectively and without causing morphological damage to the cells, many kinds of attempt had been made. Recently, Kolar and Zeman (1968) constructed and apparatus reforming Sayk's sedimentation chamber method, and which provided cytomorphologic preparation of good quality in the small circle on the glass slide. However, from 20-90% of the CSF cells are lost in the filter paper. Then we deviced an apparatus of centrifugating sedimentation chamber itself, to make CSF stream in the chamber straight to the slide glass and increase the gravitation vector on the cells to 100-500G. We succeeded in increasing the collected cell number about 20-40 times than that using Kolar's apparatus. There is not any significant qualitative change in the cells caused by increased G. Cytological diagnosis of the CSF glioma cells can not be carried out according to Papanicoloau's criteria. Because, 1) not all of the glioma are malignant as is said in other organs, 2) when the glioma is malignant in character, morphological malignancy of the cells is lower than that of other organs. We make the diagnosis of CSF glioma cells following the procedure described below: Investigate as many normally and reactively appearing cells as possible, and then find out unusual cells which seem to be without the limit of reactively appearing cells; estimate the possibility of brain tumor on the basis of percent rate of the appeared unusual cells; if possible, make diagnosis of tumor kind and malignancy, following the morphological specificity of the cells. We succeeded in obtaining electron-microscopic picture of the CSF cells, and found some good informations, comparing the picture fo operation material from the samee patient, in making the diagnosis of the glioma cells. Also, we succeeded in labeling the malignant glioma cells in histoautoradiographic prepara• tion, incubating the CSF by "H-Thymidine, in vitro. It seems probable that this technique contribute to determining the malignancy of the glioma cells appeared in the CSF.


On a visual tristimulus colorimeter, normal trichromatic subjects applied the perceptual criteria «neither blue nor yellow», «neither green nor red», and «heterochromatically equally bright» to unsaturated colours in order to construct an opponent colour space. Such an opponent colour space is related to the instrumental colour space defined by the colorimeter. By introducing a fundamental colour space and a set of physical colour stimuli, physiologically relevant transfer equations are established and demonstrated on various spectral efficiency functions


In this paper, we look at enhancing the results obtained by a baseline model for reading comprehension style question answering on the Stanford Question Answering Dataset ( SQuAD 2.0). The baseline model is based on Bi-Directional Attention Flow ( BiDAF ). In order to improve on the baseline model provided, we first try to change the Bi-Directional LSTM(bi-LSTM) at the heart of the model with a Gated Recurrent Network(GRU) and look for performance improvements. To get further improvements, we attempt to study the effects of changing some hyper-parameters such as learning rate and the drop probability. We find that the GRU performs better than the bi-LSTM in all the metrics. The reduction in learning rate seems to only increase the time taken, but the increase in the drop probability has the effect of cratering the performance as well as disrupting the updates in a non-smooth manner.


In March 2000 a Ministerial Conference on Tuberculosis and Sustainable Development was held in Amsterdam in response to the threat to public health posed by the continuing rise in tuberculosis (TB) worldwide. At the close of the conference participants issued the Amsterdam Declaration to Stop TB a document that describes the magnitude and seriousness of the global epidemic and points toward the possibility of stemming it. According to reports TB is linked more strongly with poverty and rapid social change than any other major disease. Every year 2 million people in the world die of TB and 8 million new cases occur. Most of the new cases are found in developing countries. The WHO says that mycobacterium tuberculosis infects 1 of every 3 people in the world. In developed countries the disease was mostly under control but with increasing poverty the association of TB with HIV/AIDS and insufficient public health efforts are leading to a rise in incidence in these areas. The increasing number of multidrug-resistant TB strains throughout the world exacerbates the problem. Hence by signing the Declaration to Stop TB the conference participants committed to achieve the goal of detecting at least 70% of infectious cases by 2005. They also emphasized the need for national and international partnerships among all stakeholders in society including government the private health sector industry nongovernmental organizations and people in the community.


The term congenital (or intrauterine) pneumonia is commonly used to describe an apparently inflammatory disease of the lungs found at autopsy in a small proportion of infants who are stillborn or who die in the first few days of life. There is general agreement that asphyxia is an important factor in the pathogenesis and that histological lesions common to the pneumonias of later life are usually absent. The purpose of this paper is to review these rather unusual features and to question the inflammatory nature of the disease.


Since the 1960s, the US foreign policy has been characterized by relative stability in interaction with the dynamics of the Palestinian conflict. Well-established American institutions, legal, constitutional and political restrictions, and various groups of interests and pressure, especially the Jewish lobby, research centers, media, and American public opinion, which mostly support the Israeli point of view, are the important factors in developing and defining the foreign policy of the United States. One more factor relates to international and regional shifts. As the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was going on, and since the signing of the Oslo Accords in the early 1990s, the first issue among the priorities of successive US administrations in the Middle East until regional developments imposed other priorities as a result of the events of September 2001, and the subsequent occupation of Iraq in 2003. The emergence of Al Qaeda, the turmoil of the Middle East region and the disturbance of its political, social and religious structure coincided with the emergence of the so-called Arab revolutions of 2011 and extremist jihadist organizations such as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. Therefore, the role of Trump administration was determined by developments within the US on the one hand, and by the interaction of events in the Middle East region on the other hand.


This paper presents a privacy-preserving framework for organizations that need to share their logs of intrusion detection systems with a centralized intrusion log management center. This centralized center may be an outsourced company that provides an intrusion detection management service to organizations or a system of the National Computer Emergency Response Team that probes the attacks targeting organizations that have critical information systems. For reasons of ensuring privacy, we adopt the notion of l-Diversity in the course of collecting intrusion logs from organizations. Within our framework, an organization ensures the people in the center cannot discern the exact origin of any intrusion log among the other l-1 organizations. Also, it is not possible to precisely identify the classification type of an intrusion log from among other l-1 types. Within this framework, the intrusion log management center can analyze the anonymous data, since the proposed privacy preserving solution creates little information loss. If required, it sends an alarm to the appropriate organization within a reasonable time. The center has the option of publishing useful information security statistics about specific organizations or about the whole ecosystem by using the privacy preserved intrusion logs.


The number of fractures related to osteoporosis is expected to increase. Therefore, clarifying the risk of acute kidney injury (AKI) associated with each type of antiosteoporotic drug may avoid discontinuation of osteoporosis pharmacotherapy due to onset of AKI. This cross‐sectional study using disproportional analysis and a pharmacovigilance database assessed the risk of AKI with various antiosteoporotic drugs by analyzing data entered into the US Food and Drug Administration's Adverse Event Reporting System from April 2014 to March 2021 and the Medical Data Vision database in Japan in November 2021. All antiosteoporotic drugs were investigated, including bisphosphonates, selective estrogen receptor modulators, denosumab, romosozumab, abaloparatide, and teriparatide. In the analysis of US Food and Drug Administration's Adverse Event Reporting System data, disproportionality for decreasing AKI was observed for oral ibandronate (reporting odds ratios [ROR], 0.22; 95%CI, 0.09‐0.45; P < .01), bazedoxifene (ROR, 0.26; 95%CI, 0.05‐0.77; P = .01), and intravenous ibandronate (ROR, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.14‐0.86; P = .01). In the analysis of the Medical Data Vision data, the incidence of AKI was lower in patients taking intravenous ibandronate (odds ratio, 0.22; 95%CI, 0.06‐0.89; P = .03), and the incidence of AKI was higher in patients taking oral alendronate (odds ratio, 2.40; 95%CI, 2.08‐2.77; P < .01). Risk of AKI may differ even among oral antiosteoporotic drugs, and the evidence of this association should be assessed further in future drug safety studies.


The mass spectrum of stellar black holes (BHs) is highly uncertain. Theoretical models of BH formation strongly depend on the efficiency of stellar winds of the progenitor star and on the supernova (SN) explosion mechanism. We discuss the BH mass spectrum we obtain using SEVN, a new public population-synthesis code that includes up-to-date stellar-wind prescriptions and several SN explosion models. Our models indicate a sub-solar metallicity environment for the progenitors of the gravitational wave source GW150914. We show that our models predict substantially larger BH masses (up to ~100 Msun) than other population synthesis codes, at low metallicity. In this proceeding, we also discuss the impact of pair-instability SNe on our previously published models.


Di‐cis 1,3,5,7‐octatetraene has been prepared in an n‐octane matrix at 10 K and the emission and one‐ and two‐photon excitation spectra have been measured. The di‐cis guest fits into the n‐octane host in two sites. In both of these sites the 1 1Ag to 2 1Ag origin is strictly one‐photon forbidden, two‐photon allowed establishing that both sites are centrosymmetric. The 1 1Ag to 2 1Ag and 1 1Ag to 1 1Bu excitation energies in both sites are approximately the same as the corresponding energies for the all‐trans isomer in the same host. A vibrational perturbation has been identified and analyzed.


Markus Winkler, Von Iphigenie zu Medea. Semantik und Dramaturgie des Barbarischen bei Goethe und Grulparzer.Tubingen: Niemeyer, 2009. vi + 278 pp. Markus Winkler is professor of German at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, but some of us may remember him from his years on the faculty of Pennsylvania State University. In 1995 he published an admirably nuanced and differentiated study of Heine's changing relationship to pagan myth, Mythisches Denken zwischen Romantik und Realismus. Since then he has gone ad fontes, so to speak, to core texts of German engagement with Greek tragedy, Goethe's Iphigenie auf Tauris and Grillparzer's Das goldene Vlies. Central to the endeavor is an analysis of an attempt to overcome barbarism with a humanism that nevertheless retains the exclusion of the barbaric other. Ancient Hellenocentrism becomes modern Eurocentrism, with implications for the evolution of colonialism and racism, resulting in invidious contemporary discourses in regard to immigration, terrorism, and "the clash of civilizations." The postcolonial cast of the argument is evident; thus prominent among Winkler's theoretical resources is Edward Said, particularly in regard to ambiguous counterpoint in subtexts and the hybridity that causes the humane and the barbaric to interpenetrate even when they are meant to be kept distinct. Winkler traces the concept of the barbaric from Greek antiquity, when it initially denoted the sound of a foreign language but came to devalue foreign culture as crude, primitive, and violent. He follows the treatment of the mythic material from Euripides through the Romans such as Seneca, French classicism, particularly Rotrou and Racine, and Enlightenment versions of the Iphigeneia story, in which the Greeks kill Thoas, to Goethe, who, however, retains the opposition of Greek and barbarian: Thoas is to be elevated to Greek humaneness through Bildung, but remains isolated and an unsuitable marriage partner for Iphigenie, who longs to rejoin her own culture. Yet the Greek culture is implicated in the barbaric, especially in the rituals of human sacrifice in the atrocities of the house of Atreus, the intended sacrifice of Iphigenie by Agamemnon, and Medea's killing of her children, to which there are two references in Iphigenie. Indeed Thoas, resentful of condescension, taunts the Greeks with these evidences of their barbaric heritage.Winkler points out that Goethe's Iphigenie is the first in the tradition to have suspended the sacrifices of foreigners from the outset (107), but in the Parzenlied the overstressed heroine at least temporarily recurs to the old, wild, barbarie ideality of family Winkler detects myth criticism and the ambiguity of the archaic and the anthropocentric in Greek tragedy itself (in Euripides in particular, I should think) in order to claim Goethe's rootedness in the Greek original. Winkler presents Das goldene Vlies as a parody of and supplement to Iphigenie. Here there is no elevation to the humane. Jason and Medea ultimately remain enclosed in their ethnic identities. Love cannot break these compulsions. Their "Zerrissenheit . …


In recent years, a number of new oral anticoagulants have been registered that counteract coagulation through direct inhibition? of thrombin (dabigatran) or by binding to factor Xa (apixaban, edoxaban, rivaroxaban). The efficacy and safety of these drugs have been tested in several randomised double-blind studies, all of them sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry. The results of these studies are not without controversy; commentators have pointed at missing data and problems regarding measurement equipment, and a substantial number of the studies had methodological shortcomings. When used in orthopaedic surgery, the factor Xa inhibitors apixaban and rivaroxaban have proved to be superior to enoxaparin (Number Needed to Treat NNT approx. 40), while non-inferiority of dabigatran could not be proven in all cases, and none of the studies proved its superiority. The studies regarding their application to treat atrial fibrillation are particularly characterised by the large numbers of patients included, which means that minor differences in outcomes easily become significant, while still small in absolute? terms. Hence it is not surprising that nearly all of the studies found efficacies superior to that of warfarin, although only non-inferiority could be shown for rivaroxaban. The NNT is high: about 250 patients. Studies regarding the application of these drugs to treat thromboembolisms are also characterised by similarly high NNTs. These studies also proved only non-inferiority, not superiority over warfarin. Most of the studies discussed in? the article were initially designed as non-inferiority studies. The points of concern associated with this type of study have been comprehensively discussed in Gebu 2015; 49: 27-34 (see the box below). Evaluating the studies of direct-acting oral anticoagulants against these points of concern highlights a number of issues. Hardly any of the studies justify the use of non-inferiority research. In opting for a non-inferiority study the researchers appear to assume in advance that the efficacy of the direct-acting oral anticoagulants will be hardly better than existing treatments, if at all. The choice of non-inferiority margins is not justified in all studies, and the margins chosen are strikingly wide. As a result, non-inferiority is concluded even if the new anticoagulants are much less effective than existing treatments. And if the analysis is based on the intention-to-treat group, this conclusion is even more readily drawn. All in all, therefore, the study designs leave much to be desired.


The system error caused by equipment is the major factor that restricts time synchronization performance between stations. The two-way satellite time and frequency transfer (TWSTFT) is the most accurate time synchronization method that is generally accepted currently. SATRE Modem is the common reference terminal of TWSTFT. When the temperature, carrier power and code pattern change, its reference time delay and transmit time delay will change also. In this paper, The measurement method of reference time delay and transmit time delay of SATRE Modem is introduced, furthermore, the measure data in different environment is obtained. After the analysis and discussion, the variation characteristics of reference time delay and transmit time delay of SATRE Modem is given. It can provide technology support for reducing the system error and improving accuracy of time synchronization.


Computer vision imply several morphological and mathematical process. Image compression requires methods which involves algorithms and image processing techniques. AHBE system (Algorithm of Huffman combined with Bit Extraction method) provides a novel method to image compression when high quantity of light is present. Preprocessing images is useful in robotics applications to avoid noised data providing relevant information and normalized vector of data. Hoffman algorithm is a greedy technique that is combined with Bit Extraction technique that improves bright and contrast for images obtaining an image equalization in a novel way compressing binary pixels code.


Nor Anisa. 2012. A Sociopragmatics Analysis of Refusal utterance in Prince of Persia: The Sands of time and King Arthur Movies. Thesis. English Department. Advisors: (1) Dr. Saifuddin Ahmad Husin, MA, (2) Puji Sri Rahayu, MA.
 The research discussed about a sociopragmatics analysis of refusal utterance in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and King Arthur movies. The purposes of this research are to describe the ways and to know politeness strategies of refusal utterances use in the movies.
 This research is done through qualitative/descriptive research method. The data available for this research are collected through conducting library preliminary research, consulting references to supervisors, selecting references, note-taking from references, watching the movies then identifying the refusal utterances speakers use during the movies.
 The writer while writing this research paper used at least three techniques: editing the entire data gained to make sure if the presentation has been completed or not, clarifying the data to make it simpler towards preparation, and listing the refusal utterances to be identified and grouped in order to make it more practical to the final presentation.
 The result of the research reveals that there are in general two ways of refusal utterances which are used during the movies, namely direct and indirect strategies. The direct strategies can be uttered through of two ways namely using performative verbs and non-performative statement. But, indirect strategies can be uttered through of nine ways, namely using wish; an excuse, a reason, an explanation; statement of alternative; set condition for future or past acceptance; promise of future acceptance; statement of principle; attempt to dissuade the listener; avoidance; and lack of enthusiasm. The writer also found three politeness strategies used in the movies, they are bald on record, positive politeness, and off-record indirect.


achieved using a simple fabrication strategy. These advantages successfully isolated the competing AFM-FM interactions and related effects from the rod in a direction-confined manner, making the work distinct from related studies. The uniqueness of the structure also enabled the observation of subtle magnetism such as frozen spins (FS) at the core-shell interface. This allowed us to investigate how the FS mediated the AFM-FM exchange interactions and their evolution with temperature in a systematic fashion. Interestingly, the properties of the rod were shown to be controllable by manipulating the core-shell interdependency, thereby providing a playground for the development of similar structures with other tailored properties.


BACKGROUND: Microvascular measures of vascular dysfunction during acute mental stress may be important determinants of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), especially among younger and middle-aged women survivors of an acute myocardial infarction. METHODS: In the MIMS2 study (Myocardial Infarction and Mental Stress 2), individuals who had been hospitalized for a myocardial infarction in the past 8 months were prospectively followed for 5 years. MACE was defined as a composite index of cardiovascular death and first/recurring events for nonfatal myocardial infarction and hospitalizations for heart failure. Reactive hyperemia index and flow-mediated dilation


Experimental results obtained from cascades and one stage compressor performance tests before and after erosion were used to test a fault model to represent erosion. This model was implemented on a stage stacking program developed to demonstrate the effect of erosion in a multistage compressor. The effect of the individual stage erosion on the overall compressor performance is also demonstrated.Copyright © 1989 by ASME


In this paper, we analyzed the features and limitations of the existing domestic and international software test management tools. Combined with the test requirements of military software test in our country and the relevant specification, analyzes the application of software testing management tools in each link of the military software testing process. Use software testing management tools can overcome by artificial test management limits, strengthen the test work of the organization and management. To ensure the accuracy of test work, consistency at the same time, the effective control of test quality, coordination test resources better, improve the testing efficiency. The research content of this paper provides an important reference for military software testing.


Abstract:In this article I discuss the "unnatural" as depicted in experimental Victorian and post-modern fairy tales, and I argue for thinking about cognitive narratology, fairy-tale studies, and a re-elaborated uncanny together. The article showcases how specific Victorian and postmodern fairy tales focus on reshaping fairy-tale tropes in surprising and defamiliarizing ways. I focus on how the complex figure of the mirror, the feeling of wonder and the wondrous features of fairy tales, and the idea of hybridity as a manifestation of complexity and heterogeneity, all contribute to the uncanny in literary fairy tales by Lewis Carroll and Italo Calvino.


Deaf children have difficulties to remember things through vision. The study aimed to design and evaluate learning through reading conceptual framework by multimedia stories. The subjects are 16 deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) children, aged 10 to14, from two elementary schools for the deaf in Thailand. The reading experienced with experimental multimedia and the control (teachers without multimedia) groups were designed and conducted over a 20-week period in each school. The evaluation was conducted including the observation, interviews with instructors, DHH and DHH' parents. There was a significant increase in vocabulary learning skills of the DHH children in the experimental group (Z = 2.53*, Z = 2.53*) and a non-significant effect in the control group (Z = 1.58*, Z = −2.38*). The result shows that DHH in the experimental perception with words and sentences, while in the class DHH ability for learning and concentrating on multimedia will be till the end.


Objective The structure-function of TM-TNF-α w as studied to illustrate the molecular mechanism of target cell apoptosis inductio n. Methods Site-directed mutant -87/Phe TM-TNF-α w as reconstructed into eukocyte expression vector pcDNA3.0 and transiently transf ected into Cos-7 cells. The mutein on transfected cells surface was tested for its cytotoxicity, the effect on the induction of target cell death manner and NF -κB translocation using MTT method, annexin Ⅴ and Western blot. Re sults The substitution at position of 87 had no effect on the cytotoxicity of TM-TNF, but the mutein could induce the change of target cell death manner, from apoptosis to necrosis, and promote NF-κB translocation from the cytoplasm into nucleus. Conclusion The result s suggested that the amino acid at position 87 may be one of the key residues to mediate apoptosis. The domain containing this residue may be the function regio n inducing apoptosis.[


The emergence of the Internet as a new communicatio n medium has profoundly changed many aspects of society and it is now having a commensur ate impact on education and training. There are growing demands for flexible provision, continu ing education, and lifelong learning, and educational institutions and training organisations across the world are under pressure to integrate new technologies into teaching and learning (Connol ly, MacArthur, Stansfield, and McLellan, 2006). Over the last few years, eLearning has devel oped to a point where it now provides a credible alternative to more traditional forms of e ducation and training, as well as providing new opportunities to both educators and learners (Gunaw ardena & McIsaac, 2004). During the same period, there has been a shift in e ducational theory from behaviourist towards social constructivist models of learning. A behavio ur st perspective views learning as being acquired through a series of linear steps to achiev e a predefined goal in which periodic questions test progress and reinforcement of learned behaviou r. In contrast, social constructivist models affect all aspects of a learner's cognitive, emotio nal, social, and cultural development in which learning is contextual. Illeris (2002) views learni ng as consisting of three dimensions: knowledge and skills; feelings and motivation, and the social d mension of communication and cooperation – "all three of which are embedded in a societally situated context". This shift presents a number of significant challenges to both educators and learne rs. While researchers have expressed their hope that co nstructivism will lead to better educational software and better learning (for example, Brown et al., 1989; Jonassen, 1994; Connolly and Stansfield, 2006) and many researchers cite many ad vantages for eLearning, these views are not universally agreed and eLearning may have significa nt disadvantages that may outweigh the advantages. At the same time, while some tutors bel ieve that the quality of eLearning courses can be comparable to traditional place-bound courses (f or example, Dutton, Dutton, and Perry, 2002), there are also many tutors who are suspicious of su ch courses and have significant reservations about the loss of face-to-face contact between inst ructor and learner. Learners are attracted by the flexibility ("anytime, anywhere, anyplace") of eLea rning but are also suspicious of the of the medium. In this paper, we examine current views on learning a d examine the potential advantages and disadvantages of eLearning for education and traini ng within chemistry. We then present a survey of staff attitudes to eLearning in analytical chemi stry that has helped inform the design and development of eLearning within a training organisa tion in the chemical industry.


In this paper, a deep learning model with an optimal capacity is proposed to improve the performance of person part segmentation. Previous efforts in optimizing the capacity of a convolutional neural network (CNN) model suffer from a lack of large datasets as well as the over-dependence on a single-modality CNN, which is not effective in learning. We make several efforts in addressing these problems. First, other datasets are utilized to train a CNN module for pre-processing image data and a segmentation performance improvement is achieved without a time-consuming annotation process. Second, we propose a novel way of integrating two complementary modules to enrich the feature representations for more reliable inferences. Third, the factors to determine the capacity of a CNN model are studied and two novel methods are proposed to adjust (optimize) the capacity of a CNN to match it to the complexity of a task. The over-fitting and under-fitting problems are eased by using our methods. Experimental results show that our model outperforms the state-of-the-art deep learning models with a better generalization ability and a lower computational complexity.


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Introduction Hydroxyurea (HU) is the only FDA-approved medication to treat adults with sickle cell anemia (hemoglobin SS disease, SCA). Two studies showed improved survival with long term HU therapy. Conversely, subsequent studies reported most patients continue to die by the fifth decade of life despite long term treatment. Further, no studies have shown that HU prevents organ dysfunction. In this work, we sought to assess the effect of HU dosing on survival and organ function in SCA in a cohort of patients at a single referral institution.

Methods Adults with SCA enrolled on the Bethesda Sickle Cell Cohort Study between January 2001 and October 2012 were included in this retrospective analysis. The NIH Biomedical Translational Research Information System was used to electronically retrieve clinical notes, administration records, and medication orders. Computer-assisted review facilitated the extraction of HU dose histories. Survival, laboratory, and cardiopulmonary parameters were compared between enrollment and most recent follow-up based on HU status and fetal hemoglobin (HbF) response.

Results Of 388 subjects with SCA, 254 (65%) were treated with HU at a median dose of 19.4 mg/kg/day. Mean follow-up was 3.58±3.53 years. Of subjects prescribed HU, 166 (65%) were on a therapeutic dose. Subjects taking HU had a significantly higher HbF (9.2 versus 6.8%, p=0.0003) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV, 96.2 versus 88.3fL, p<0.001) at their initial visit compared to those not taking HU. A similar pattern was seen at the last visit for HbF (12.0 versus 6.5%, p<0.0001) and MCV (99.2 versus 87.4fL, p<0.0001), suggesting that HU was administered for a prolonged period of time. Total hemoglobin was not different between groups at either visit (8.9 versus 9.0g/dL at initial visit, p=0.41 and 8.9 versus 8.8g/dL at most recent visit, p=0.66 in HU versus no HU patients, respectively).

There was no difference in overall survival based solely on HU treatment (p=0.11). However, subjects prescribed therapeutic HU doses (15-35 mg/kg/day, N=166) were more likely to be alive than subjects who never took HU (N=131, p=0.04). Survival was similar when comparing sub-therapeutic HU (N=46) to no HU (p=0.52) groups, and survival was also similar between subjects prescribed sub-therapeutic HU versus therapeutic HU (p=0.46). Multivariate analysis confirmed HU dose is independently associated with prolonged survival (p=0.006).

At enrollment, creatinine was lower (1.2 versus 0.8mg/dL, p=0.0016), total bilirubin was greater (3.3 versus 2.8mg/dL, p=0.02), and tricuspid regurgitant velocity was higher (2.6 versus 2.5m/s, p=0.03) in patients on HU. There were no significant differences in ejection fraction, brain natriuretic peptide, transaminases, alkaline phosphatase, or direct bilirubin. Further, there were no differences for any markers of organ function at the most recent follow-up.

To determine if the best HU responses were associated with improved organ function, subjects were divided into groups based on whether their maximum HbF was within the lowest or the highest quartile. The HU dosages were 24.1 versus 4.8mg/kg/day in the high versus low HbF groups, respectively (p<0.0001). Maximum HbF was 26.1% as compared to 1.5% in the low HbF group. Ejection fraction was higher and transaminases and creatinine were lower at both visits in subjects with the highest HbF levels (see [Table][2]). After adjusting for age, only creatinine remained lower in the high HbF group at enrollment (p=0.007).

View this table:

Conclusions HU therapy correlates with prolonged survival and preservation of organ function, but only when given in therapeutic dosages. These HU associations are not observed for sub-therapeutic doses less than 15 mg/kg/day. Patients should be treated with a maximum tolerated HU dose to achieve the highest possible HbF response, ideally before organ damage occurs. Additional studies are indicated to further confirm these findings.

Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

 [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-2.gif
 [2]: #T1


Objective:To compare the status of internet use and Internet Addiction Disorder(IAD)in adolescent students,and analyze the influencing factors for their IAD.Methods:A questionnaire was used to survey 905 students.882 availability questionnaires were taken back(the effective rate was 97.5%).Results:The use of internet are various between for middle school and college students.There is great difference in IAD rate(P0.05)between middle school students(20.3%)and college students(5.8%).The influencing factors for middle school students and college students are different.Conclusion:Considering the influencing factors of IAD in middle school and college students,the effective comprehensive interventions should be developed.


Interfacing robotic systems with nuclear fuel fabrication processes resulted in a number of interfacing challenges. The system not only interfaces with the fuel process, but must also interface with nuclear containment, radiation control boundaries, criticality control restrictions, and numerous other safety systems required in a fuel fabrication plant. The robotic system must be designed to allow operator interface during maintenance and recovery from an upset as well as normal operations.


The invention discloses a time-series data exception detection method and a system thereof. The method comprises the steps of receiving time-series data collected by one or more than one sensor arranged in a machine, wherein latest observation data in the time-series data is taken as to-be-monitored data; calculating the relative outlier distance between parameters in the to-be-monitored data and proper-length time-series corresponding parameters which are cached in the machine, so that outlier data with outlier identifications is further obtained; screening exception observation data from the outlier data by utilizing the correlation of parameter values in the proper-length time-series data, and positioning exception parameters in the exception observation data. According to the time-series data exception detection method, the time-series data exception detection accuracy is increased, and the exception detection correctness is guaranteed.


Describes an objective method for using shrub height to estimate leaf biomass within reach of deer. The method can be used in conjunction with surveys of shrub height, shrub density, and shrub species composition to evaluate deer habitat over large areas and to predict trends in forage availability with further forest growth.


Diarrhea remains a public health problem in Indonesia. Based on health profile of Semarang City in 2012,IR (Incidence Rate) diarrhea 112 per 10.000 children under five years. From 37 public health center in the city of Semarang (2012), Public Health Center Lamper Tengah included public health center with IR highest diarrhea that amounted to 27 per 1000 children under five years. This research aimed to find out the association of type of water source, bacteriological qualityof water, andpersonalhygienewith the incidence ofdiarrheain children under five years in the working area of Public Health Center Lamper Tengah Semarang. The research using observational type with cross sectional design. The population in this study were children aged 12-59 months who visited taken Public Health Center at Lamper Tengah in October 2013-March 2014. Total samples were 83 respondents with proportional random sampling method. Analysis of the data used is chi-square test.The results of this research show the variables that are association with the incidence of diarrhea is type of drinking water source (p = 0,003), bacteriological quality of drinking water (p=0,001), mother habit of washing hands before feeding children(p=0,008), mother habit of washing hands after defecation (p=0,015), children habit of washing hands before eating (p=0,002), children habit of washing hands after defecation (p=0,005), maternal practices to manage food and beverage (p=0,001), and nail hygiene conditions of mother (p= 0,006). Whereas, variables of  type of clean water sourceand nail hygiene conditions of children were not significant relate (p>0,05). From this research it was concluded that variables related to incidence of diarrhea children under five years in the working area of Public Health Center Lamper Tengah Semarang is type of drinking water source, bacteriological quality of drinking water, mother habit of washing hands before feeding children and after defecation, children habit of washing hands before eating and after defecation, maternal practices to manage food and beverage and nail hygiene conditions of mother.


The right to ownership and control of natural resources under the Nigerian law is constitutional. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) section 44 (3) and item 39 Schedule II of the Exclusive Legislative List vests the control and management of the natural resources and hydrocarbon operations on the federal government for the common good and benefit of the citizens. This article aims at examining the constitutional provisions and its implications for environmental law and practice. It examines some theories of ownership of mineral resources and analyses the decisions of the Supreme Court of Nigeria on the subject, particularly the case of Attorney-General of the Federation v. Attorney General of Abia State & 35 Others (No. 2) (2002) 6 NWLR (Part 764) 542 where the Supreme Court of Nigeria made several judicial pronouncements on the constitutional question of the derivation principle and ownership and control of natural resources in the Nigeria Federation. This article concludes by advocating for reforms and further research on the subject matter. It recommends the adoption of what is obtainable in other jurisdictions like Canada and South Africa.


The architectural and spatial arrangement of the monastery in Novyi Zagoriv is considered. The evolution of its development has been defined and the stages of the monastery's development have been determined. Observation of monastic structures were conducted. Based on the analysis of the technical condition of the monastery buildings that have survived until today, the restoration approaches for preservation the monument have been developed.


In this article free vibration of a Timoshenko nanobeam with variable cross-section is investigated using nonlocal elasticity theory within the scope of continuum mechanics. Small scale effects are modelled after Eringen's nonlocal elasticity theory while the non-uniformity is presented by exponentially varying width through the beam length with constant thickness. Analytical solution is achieved for both Timoshenko beams and nanobeams with different boundary conditions including both ends being simply-supported (S-S), both ends being clamped (C-C) and one end clamped other free (C-F). It is shown that section variation accompanying small scale effects has a noticeable effect on natural frequencies of non-uniform Timoshenko beams at nano-scale. In order to illustrate these effects, Natural frequencies of single-layered graphene nano-ribbons (GNRs) with various boundary conditions are obtained for different nonlocal and non-uniform parameter which shows a great sensitivity to non-uniformity in different shape modes.


Two small RCTs (Ahimastos et al. 2006, n=40 and Shahin et al. 2013a, n=33) found that, compared with placebo, over 24 weeks, ramipril 10 mg daily improved maximum and pain-free walking times and distances in people with stable intermittent claudication, a symptom of peripheral arterial disease. However, while these differences were statistically significant, the clinical importance of the results is unclear. No adverse effects were reported in 1 study. In the other study, the adverse effect most often reported with ramipril was cough, which led to discontinuation in some cases.


The present invention, to a subject with a retinal disease, provides a method of treating a retinal disease comprising administering an effective amount of a neurotrophic factor. Useful neurotrophic factor in the present invention is a midbrain astrocytes derived neurotrophic factor, and store dopamine neurotrophic factor. The present invention further includes pharmaceutical compositions and kits comprising MANF and CDNF.


A discussion by J. Brookes Knight, Carl O. Dunbar, and Robert E. King advocating the inclusion of beds bearing Omphalotrochus and Waagenoconcha in the basal Permian of Russia and of the Andes mountains.


Beyond its critical role in protein synthesis, RNA has vital structural, functional, and regulatory roles in the cell. The shape of an RNA molecule primarily determines its function in organic systems, so there is notable interest in the computational prediction of RNA structure. Pseudoknots are relatively rare but important structural elements which are difficult to predict computationally. RnaPredict is an evolutionary algorithm (EA) developed for the prediction of RNA secondary structure. This research evaluates RnaPredict after its enhancement with the thermodynamic model from HotKnots, a model specifically designed to compute free energies of structures containing pseudoknots. The performance of the EA is evaluated against the original HotKnots algorithm. RnaPredict significantly improved upon the sensitivity and specificity of structures predicted by HotKnots.


Dental and occlusal anomalies are common in individuals with cleft lip and palate, placing them at risk for speech sound distortions. Speech-language pathologists and dental practitioners frequently interact when presented with clinical problems secondary to dental and occlusal anomalies. This is especially true when treating a child with a cleft lip and palate. The speech sound error types must be identified and their etiologies evaluated to develop appropriate management plans. The purpose of this review article is to describe the types of dental and occlusal anomalies that are common in individuals with cleft lip and/or palate and discuss the impact these anomalies have on articulation.

 A review of the literature was completed with a focus on prevalence, definitions, and descriptions of dental and occlusal anomalies in individuals with cleft lip and palate. The impact of dental/occlusal anomalies on speech production is described.

 There is sufficient evidence that dental and occlusal anomalies have an impact on articulation, but the relationship of dental or occlusal status is not always a direct one. The phonemes most affected by aberrant oral conditions are sibilants, though other phonemes may be impacted as well. These speech errors are considered to be obligatory oral distortions in that they are made in response to an oral structural defect. These speech errors are not typically amenable to speech therapy, but rather require orthodontic and/or surgical correction. Such treatment can be effective in improving these errors, often spontaneously, however, speech therapy may be necessary (and most effective) following correction of the dental and/or occlusal anomalies if errors persist.


Summary A technic was described for separation of cell wall and internal protoplasm from cells of Mycobacteria. Data are presented which demonstrated that cell walls produced lesions when injected intradermally into rabbits, whereas protoplasm failed to produce these lesions. Cell walls were also shown to be capable of inducing hypersensitivity of the delayed type. Separation of these morphological elements resulted in definite separation of one element possessing certain biological activities from material not possessing these characteristics. Such initial fractionation of the cell should facilitate purification and characterization of substances which elicit typical tissue responses to infection with tubercle bacilli.


150 words): In primates, posterior auditory areas are thought to be part of a dorsal auditory pathway specialized in processing spatial information. While a number of human studies support this notion, neuroimaging evidence in macaques is missing. Here we provide new evidence based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the macaque monkey indicating that auditory space is represented based on a distributed hemifield code rather than on a local spatial topography. Hemifield tuning emerges from an opponent pattern of positive and negative fMRI signals across the cerebral hemispheres that dependents on the suppression carried by interaural delay cues. Importantly, this pattern in right posterior region generates enough spatial information to segregate space across hemifields. Taken together, our results suggest that primate auditory cortex represents space based on a distributed hemifield code and that posterior specialization for space arises from this form of coding. Functional neuroimaging of ventral and dorsal stream pathways in the macaque auditory system


Nathaniel Hawthorne's fiction has left a lasting impression on writers, scholars, and readers around the world. His impressive output includes "The Scarlet Letter", "The House of the Seven Gables", "Young Goodman Brown," and "Rappaccini's Daughter", all staples of high school English classes. "Bloom's How to Write about Nathaniel Hawthorne" offers valuable paper-topic suggestions, clearly outlined strategies on how to write a strong essay, and an insightful introduction by Harold Bloom on writing about Hawthorne. This new volume is designed to help students develop their analytical writing skills and critical comprehension of this important writer and his works.


Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom has seen two waves; the first starting in March 2020 and the second in late October 2020.  It is not known whether outcomes were different in the first and second waves.

Methods: The study population comprised all patients admitted to a 1,500-bed London Hospital Trust between March 2020 and January 2021, who tested positive for Covid-19 by PCR within 3-days of admissions. Primary outcome was death within 28-days of admission. Socio-demographics (age, sex, ethnicity), hypertension, diabetes, obesity, baseline physiological observations, CRP, neutrophil, chest x-ray abnormality, remdesivir and dexamethasone were incorporated as co-variates. Proportional subhazards models compared mortality risk between wave 1 and wave 2. Cox-proportional hazard model with propensity score adjustment were used to compare mortality in patients prescribed remdesivir and dexamethasone.

Findings: There were 3,457 COVID-19 admissions, 2,494 hospital discharges and 619 deaths. There were notable differences in age, ethnicity, comorbidities, and admission disease severity between wave 1 and wave 2. Twenty-eight-day mortality was higher during wave 1 (25.7% versus 13.2%). Mortality risk adjusted for co-variates was significantly lower in wave 2 compared to wave 1 [adjSHR 0.41(0.30, 0.56)p<0.001]. Analysis of treatment impact did not show statistically different effects of remdesivir [HR 1.22(95%CI 0.91, 1.62),p=0.18] or dexamethasone [HR 1.31(95%CI 0.80, 2.14),p=0.29].

Interpretation: There has been substantial improvements in COVID-19 mortality in the second wave, even accounting for demographics, comorbidity, and disease severity. Neither dexamethasone nor remdesivir appeared to be key explanatory factors, although there may be unmeasured confounding present.

Funding: None.

Conflict of Interest: None declared by authors.

Ethical Approval: This project operated under London South East Research Ethics Committee (reference 18/LO/2048) approval granted to the King's Electronic Records Research Interface (KERRI); specific work on COVID-19 research was reviewed with expert patient input on a virtual committee with Caldicott Guardian oversight.


Introduction. Ukrainian society suffers from aggressive information influences. Information attacks traditionally increase before elections in Ukraine, when citizens receive and consume masses of information. Presentation of information about the candidate ensures the voter's right to objective, comprehensive and impartial information, defined by the Election Code.
Relevance of the study. The relevance of the study is determined by the need for a detailed analysis of aspects of informing voters about political candidates at the regional level.
Methodology. The main research method was content analysis, during which 9 programs were studied. The method of description made it possible to outline all the aspects of each of the program releases obtained as a result of the content analysis. Differences in formats and thematic direction of programs were determined by the method of comparison. The method of systematization made it possible to organize the results obtained during the research, the method of generalization – to draw meaningful conclusions of scientific intelligence.
Results. In order to present to the electorate the candidates for the post of mayors of Uzhgorod, Sumy and Chernivtsi, the regional branches of Public broadcaster prepared and aired 12 programs: 9 issues of the project «Electoral district. Local» and 3 – «Electoral district. Debate».The content analysis showed that the programs of all branches contained the following structural components: a videocard of the candidate, self-presentation, questions from the editors of the public, questions from community residents. The programs of the Zakarpattia branch received the fewest views on YouTube video hosting, from 173 to 1090 views. The most are the information products of the Bukovyna broadcaster: one of the releases was viewed by more than 12,000 users.
Conclusions. «Electoral district. Local» and «Electoral district. Debates» became the first projects of regional television, which systematically and in detail provided viewers with information about the candidates, their programs and created a platform for discussion between politicians. We consider the study of discussion programs and other formats implemented by regional branches of the public broadcaster of Ukraine to be promising.


Abstract: In a delightful article, Richard Stanley derived, algebraically, the "surprisingly simple" formula, 3 · 7, for the sum of the cubes of the n-th row of Stern's diatomic array. In this note, we find an elegant bijective proof of this surprising fact, that explains it and gives insight. The novelty is that this gorgeous bijection was discovered by a computer (SBE), with minimal guidance by a human (DZ). This debunks the conventional wisdom, held by some human supremacists, that computers can only compute, but they can't give insight. In [S], the following double sequence a(n, k) is defined 2(2−1)


When participating in tutorial dialogues, human tutors freely refer to their own previous explanations. Explanation is an inherently incremental and interactive process. New information must be highlighted and related to what has already been presented. If user interfaces are to reap the benefits of natural language interaction, they must be endowed with the properties that make human natural language interaction so effective. This paper describes the design of a user interface that enables both the system and the user to refer to the past dialogue. The work is based on the notion that the dialogue history is a source of knowledge that can be manipulated like any other. In particular, we describe an interface that allows students to visualize the dialogue history on the screen, highlight its relevant parts and query and manipulate the dialogue history. We expect that these facilities will increase the effectiveness of the student learning of the task.


F I R S T MEETING 1 . The Annual General Meeting of the Society was held in the Old Combination Room, Trinity College, on Thursday, 28 January 1932, at 4 . 1 5 P.M. Mr H. J. M. MILNE propounded several new restorations in Sappho. In the odes, at least in those of the first book, for which alone sufficient evidence survives, there appears to be often a definite relation between the opening and the closing passages. Analyse, for example, the relevant lines in the Ode to Aphrodite: (1) II oiKiXoOpave... Xurtro/iaC ere = Invocation (2) Mi; /J.' aaawri.. .Ovfiov (3) ' A \ \ a TW8" ?X0e These three elements are restated in inverse order in the final stanza, viz.: (3) EA.0e poi /ecu vvv (2) XaXen-av 8c... iitpifivav (1) 2w 3' aura... eircro = Invocation The poem comes full circle, as it were, and ends upon the opening theme with a rondeau-like effect. So too with the other complete ode, viz.: (1) Oi /xkv linn](av...7recr8<nv (2) "Eyw Se Kr}vo...ZpaTa.i (2) TSs K« fioWoifiav.. .irpocrunrio (1) To. Au8(i)v ap/Lara...Tre<r8ona.)(evTa.<i


In this study, a novel method to obtain user-dependent human activity recognition models unobtrusively by using the sensors of a smartphone is presented. The recognition consists of two models: sensor fusion-based user-independent model for data labeling and single sensor-based userdependent model for final recognition. The functioning of the presented method is tested with human activity data set, including data from accelerometer and magnetometer, and with two classifiers. Comparison of the detection accuracies of the proposed method to traditional userindependent model shows that the presented method has potential, when the method is tested with two classifiers and five persons, in nine cases out of ten it is better than the traditional method, but more experiments using different sensor combinations should be made to show the full potential of the method. 1 Problem statement and related work Smartphones have become increasingly common and people carry them everywhere they go, this means that nowadays almost every one has a device capable to be used to recognize activities. This of course enables a lot of possilities to the field of activity recognition. As known, smartphones include a wide range of sensors, such as magnetometer, gyroscope, GPS, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, thermometer and barometer. Still, most activity recognition studies use only accelerometers in detection, for instance [1], [2], [3], [4]. However, by fusing the sensors of a mobile phone more accurate models could be build than using only one sensor [5]. On the other hand, this improvement comes at the expense of energy efficiency. While smartphones have a limited battery capacity, the sensor fusion-based recognition is seldom a usable approach when the aim is to monitor everyday life 24/7. This calls for innovative solutions to employ sensor fusion. For instance, in [6] a smart and energy-efficient way to deploy the sensors of a mobile phone to recognize activities was presented. The method presented in the study uses the minimum number of sensors needed to detect user's activity reliably and when activity changes, more sensors are used to detect the new activity. By using this type of smart sensor selection, the battery life can be improved by 75%. In addition, in [7] the idea to use sensor fusion to build adaptive recognition models was presented. In the study, a method 471 ESANN 2016 proceedings, European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks, Computational Intelligence and Machine Learning. Bruges (Belgium), 27-29 April 2016, i6doc.com publ., ISBN 978-287587027-8. Available from http://www.i6doc.com/en/.


The thesis focuses on two major aspects. Firstly, it offers a discussion of
the evolution of the notion of 'historicity' in the thought of various Russian
thinkers and cultural historians with particular reference to the ideas of Berdiaev,
Bakhtin and Likhachev. It also addresses the problem of the contribution made to
the twentieth-century humanities by the 'Slavonic Renaissance' of the early part
of the twentieth century. Secondly, the work examines various views on the issue
of historical time and its perception and representation in artistic work, focusing
primarily on the specificity of artistic time in the prose of Ivan Bunin. The
discussion of this issue is based on four of Bunin's substantial works (The
Shadow of the Bird, The Life of Arsen 'ev The Emancipation of Tolstoi and Dark
Avenues), examining the problem of historical time from semantic and formal
points of view. The analysis of the novel The Life of Arsen 'ev emerges as central
to the whole discussion since it approaches the problem of the notion of 'path
through life' and its significance both for an understanding of Bunin's work and
in relation to the discursive practice of the 1920s and early 1930s in Russia.
Moreover, for Bunin this category proves to be both a feature of artistic thinking
and of generic significance, extending the boundaries of understanding and
portrayal of historical time in its various aspects.


The Aduma region of the Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia, contains multiple surface and in situ Middle Stone Age (MSA) occurrences that include lithics and spatially associated faunal and hominid remains. While one Aduma site may, on the basis of lithic comparison, be assigned to an early phase of the MSA, both absolute dates and lithic typology indicate that the remainder represent a significantly later stage of this industrial tradition, likely dating to ca. 80,000 to 100,000 years ago. Assemblages were deposited on an aggrading alluvially dominated landscape which included riverine and floodplain environments. Chronological changes in landform and raw material availability within the geographically limited Aduma region provided a dynamic context that required behavioral flexibility to adapt successfully. Analysis of ten assemblages from eight sites provides the basis for characterizing the Aduma sequence, setting it into broader sub-Saharan context and reconstructing aspects of hominid subsistence strategy and lithic economy. The Aduma lithic assemblages constitute a regional variant within the MSA characterized by a distinctive range of point, scraper and core types. Most striking are the small "microlithic" size of multiple types all produced by MSA technologies and the increasing emphasis on smaller tools over time, which suggests a process similar to yet independent from that which culminated in the appearance of the Late Stone Age. Faunal remains indicate use of multiple habitats with a strong and consistent reliance on riverine resources including large easily predated fish. Based on cranial remains, the Aduma hominids fall within the range of anatomically modern humans. Intersite comparison reveals a scheduling of subsistence and manufacturing behaviors typical of some ethnographically known hunter and gatherer groups. As raw material availability changed over time, lithic manufacturing and utilization patterns varied in an economically rational manner to maximize efficiently the use of scarce and valuable stone types. I N T R O D U C T I O N This article reports on a series of Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites excavated in the Aduma region, Middle Awash valley Ethiopia (Fig. 1) between 1993 and 1998 under the aegis of the Middle Awash research project. They derive their significance in part from the fact that they document a portion of the MSA sequence from a region in which little information is available and thus constitute a useful addition of data to the African archaeological record. The sites also serve to define a distinct regional tradition within the MSA and how it developed over time. Within the last decade, with the recognition that both anatomically modern humans and "complex" behaviors first appear in the MSA, increasing attention has been focused on this tradition. Understanding of the MSA, however, has been constrained not only by data limitations themselves but because of the narrow and restricted framework within which this industrial tradition has been viewed. While the debate over modern human origins is clearly of anthropological signifiA D U M A E T H I O P I A M I D D L E S T O N E A G E • 2 7 cance and MSA data relevant to its resolution, one negative and unintended side effect is the tendency not to address MSA behaviors in their own right, to ignore potentially unique features and the fact that the MSA constituted a set of changing functioning cultural systems which persisted over a broad expanse of sub Saharan Africa in excess of 200,000 years. Although the paucity of well-dated sites and sequences is partly responsible, also minimized in the "modern origins" debate is the fact that MSA adaptations vary significantly over both time and space; such homogenization not only blurs detail but also makes it difficult to discern adaptations specific to time and place. At Aduma, because of the number of sites excavated and assemblages analyzed, because they are constrained in both time and geography and because they show a range of behavioral variation it is possible to gain some insight into late MSA adaptation within this region. The Middle Awash Valley Ethiopian Aduma sites reported here are significant within this context. The localities that were given systematic inspection are mapped on Fig. 2. The excavated materials comprise 10 assemblages that include lithics and spatially associated vertebrate faunas from eight sites referred to as A1, A2 (VP1/1 and VP 1/3), A4, A5, A8, A8A, A8B. They represent a distinct localized variant within the Horn of Africa. While a second set of comparable sites (Shea et al., 2002) is possibly present in the Southern Ethiopian Rift Valley in the Omo River Kibish formation, archaeological data are insufficient to delineate clearly the boundaries of what is herein termed the "Aduma Figure 1. Location of the Middle Awash region, Aduma and the Ardu sediments. The area from Aduma village North to the furthermost Ardu sediment is denoted in this article as "Aduma." 2 8 • P a l e o A n t h r o p o l o g y 2 0 0 5 Industry." Aduma provides an example of a regional tradition which, while clearly MSA in technology, developed in relative independence following a trajectory towards lithic miniaturization over time; it provides an excellent comparative example to the better known South African sequence. Although at Aduma synchronic paleoenvironmental diversity is limited by a tightly constrained geographical area of only 15 sq. km, rapid geomorphological change characterizes this tectonically active region and the 10 assemblages which constitute the Aduma sample provide insight into how MSA hominids adapted to changing resource availability over time.


Article history Received: 10 November 2019 Accepted: 19 November 2019 Published Online: 31 December 2019 In this study, we fabricate Si/SiGe core-shell Junctionless accumulation mode (JAM)FinFET devices through a rapid and novel process with four main steps, i.e. e-beam lithography definition, sputter deposition, alloy combination annealing, and chemical solution etching. The height of Si core is 30 nm and the thickness of Si/SiGe core-shell is about 2 nm. After finishing the fabrication of devices, we widely studied the electrical characteristics of poly Si/SiGe core-shell JAM FinFET transistors from a view of different Lg and Wch. A poly-Si/SiGe core -shell JAMFETs was successfully demonstrated and it also exhibits a superior subthreshold swing of 81mV/dec and high on/off ratio > 10 when annealing for 1hr at 600°C. The thermal diffusion process condition for this study are 1hr at 600°C and 6hr at 700°C for comparison. The annealing condition at 700oC for 6 hours shows undesired electrical characteristics against the other. Results suggests that from over thermal budget causes a plenty of Ge to precipitate against to form SiGe thin film. Annealing JAMFETs at low temperature shows outstanding Subthreshold swing and better swing condition when compared to its counterpart i.e. at higher temperature. This new process can still fabricate a comparable performance to classical planar FinFET in driving current.


We introduce a model of graph-constrained dynamic choice with reinforcement modeled by positively <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha$</tex-math></inline-formula>-homogeneous rewards. We show that its empirical process, which can be written as a stochastic approximation recursion with Markov noise, has the same probability law as a certain vertex reinforced random walk. We use this equivalence to show that for <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha > 0$</tex-math></inline-formula>, the asymptotic outcome concentrates around the optimum in a certain limiting sense when "annealed" by letting <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha \uparrow \infty$</tex-math></inline-formula> slowly.


Theoretical psychoanalysis, as developed from Jacques Lacan to Slavoj Žižek, provides us with ade- quate conceptual tools to rethink Obama's political rhet- oric as a postmodern marketing discourse, which aims not at fulfilling consumers' needs and/or satisfying their demands but rather aims at a discursive entrapment of their desire and/or its phantasmatic scenario. The article analyses the 2008 and 2012 Obama presiden- tial campaign, and his renown Cairo speech by dem- onstrating the three catchphrases Yes We Can!, Hope, and Forward! as embodiment of the three unconscious scenarios of the American dream. The three sound bites are designated as master-signifiers of Obama's empty speech, the Lacanian concept that enabled understand- ing the ups and downs of the zeal and spell of the charis-


Water is one of our state's most precious resources. Groundwater from aquifers (underground layers of porous rock or sand containing water, into which wells can be drilled) supplies over half of the water used in the state. Protecting the quality of this vital resource is the responsibility of all Texans. For many years groundwater has been pumped through water wells. Over the years, many wells around homes, farms, industrial sites, and urban areas have been abandoned without being properly plugged. Not only are these wells potential means for contaminants to reach the groundwater, many are safety hazards to children and animals. Although plugging an abandoned well takes time and money, these wells are a threat that cannot be ignored. Under Texas law, a landowner is responsible for plugging abandoned wells on his or her property and, therefore, liable for any water contamination or injury that might result from such a well. This publication is provided to help landowners understand how to plug a well properly. It is recommended that before you begin the process of plugging an abandoned well that you seek advice from your local groundwater conservation district, a licensed water well driller in your area, or the Water Well Drillers Program with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR).


15 .We determined the specific biomass burning biomarker levoglucosan and potassium in an ice core from the TALos Dome Ice CorE drilling project (TALDICE) during the mid-late Holocene (7506000-6000 750 yr BP). The levoglucosan record is characterized by a long-term increase with higher rates starting at~4000 yr BP and higher peaks between 12500 and 21500 yr BP. The anomalous increase in levoglucosan centred at ~2000 yr BP is consistent with other Antarctic biomass burning records. 20 Comparisons between levoglucosan and the biomass burning potassium (Kbb) suggest that potassium can increase the information obtained from a single fire proxy, although Kbb is often best used in conjunction with other biomass burning markers. Multiple atmospheric phenomena affect the coastal Antarctic Talos Dome drilling site, where the Southern Annual Mode (SAM) is the most prominent as the Southern Annual ModeIndex (SAMA) correlates with stable isotopes in precipitation throughout the 25 most recent 1000 years of the ice core. If this connection remains throughout the mid-late Holocene, then our results demonstrate thate changes in biomass burning, rather than changes in atmospheric transport, are the major influence on the TALDICE levoglucosan record. Comparisons with charcoal syntheses help evaluate fire sources, showing a greater contribution from southern South American fires rather than from Australian biomass burning. The levoglucosan peak centred at ~2000 yr BP occurs 30 during a cool period throughout the southern hemisphere, yet during a time of increased fire activity in both northern and southern Patagonia. This peak in biomass burning is influenced by increased vegetation in southern South America from a preceding humid period, where the vegetation desiccated during the following cool, dry period. The Talos Dome ice core record from 6000 yr BP to ~750 yr BP currently does not provide clear evidence that the fire record may be strongly affected by anthropogenic 35 activities during the mid-late Holocene, although we cannot exclude at least a partial influence. Formattato: Tipo di carattere: 17 pt, Grassetto, Inglese (Stati Uniti d'America) Formattato: Tipo di carattere: 17 pt, Grassetto, Inglese (Stati Uniti d'America) Formattato: Tipo di carattere: 10 pt, Inglese (Stati Uniti d'America) Formattato: Inglese (Stati Uniti d'America)


Issues of security and compression of transmitted data have become an important concern in multimedia technology. In this study, we propose an efficient approach to secure video sequences in real time using the method of choosing reference images that is based on the Faber-schauder Multi-scale Transform to reduce the data flow. The encryption step is based on the principle of affine encryption to achieve transposition and to perform some manipulations such as puzzle to reduce the amount of bits to be processed on the image. Testing this approach on video sequences revealed an improvement in data flow and provides a stronger security and a good encryption time.


Asymmetrical lower limb loading during landing may lead to overuse knee injuries if one limb is required to repetitively attenuate greater load. Symmetry of the peak vertical ground reaction force (vGRF) and knee moment generated in the lead and trail lower limbs of healthy female volleyball players during landing from a lateral-moving jump were determined. Each participant performed five jump-landings moving left and moving right onto two force platforms (1500 Hz). Peak vGRF (BW) and peak knee extensor moments (Nm/kg) were obtained and analysed. A symmetry index was used to calculate the functional symmetry of knee loading patterns during landing. No significant between-limb differences in the vGRF or knee moment magnitude were observed. However, functional asymmetry was identified and appeared to be influenced by movement direction. When players moved right, there was an average asymmetry of 18.1% and 16.1% for the vGRF and knee moment, respectively. This suggests that the dominant (lead) limb attenuates more load than the non-dominant (trail) limb. Based on these results we recommend that when investigating the magnitude of the vGRF or knee extensor moment generated during landing, one force platform is sufficient. However, dual force platforms are recommended when conducting injury prevention research.


PCM/FM system is one of the most widely used in the rocket telemetry system. Target spacecraft reentry telemetry telemetry signals in the process of low signal noise ratio (SNR), that the breakthrough tradition demodulation method of demodulation threshold problem, combined with the PCM/FM signal phase characteristic, the research based on a baseband complex rotating orthogonal symbol detection software (MSD) to solve method, and the corresponding synchronization algorithm is applied to ensure the smooth operation of the demodulation. The simulation and test results verified the soft demodulation algorithm can make the demodulation threshold effectively reduce.


A semiempirical potential used to model catalytic reactions occurring on solid surfaces as well as gas–solid energy transfer has been generalized to include the possibility of removal of atoms from the surface. Hence, the model is appropriate for future dynamical studies of combustion of solids, erosion, etc. A comparison is made between the present model and a pairwise additive potential for molecular hydrogen interacting with an iron surface. Unlike the pairwise additive approximation, the present semiempirical potential is capable of generating the experimental activation barrier to adsorption and the absence of molecular adsorption.


Infertile hill country grasslands are a vastly under-utilised pastoral resource in New Zealand. Three years of trial results on this class of land in eastern Southland are summarised. Five grasses (Grasslands Nui ryegrass, Wana cocksfoot, Matua prairie grass, Roa tall fescue and Maru phalaris) were oversown together with Huia white clover and subterranean clover. These were compared with a resident pasture, all under two fertility levels and two rotational grazing managements, and with unimproved pasture. The use of fertiliser and rotational grazing doubled the productivity of the unimproved rangeland to ca. 10,500 kg DMlhalyear. The addition of


Purpose
The effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth is widely believed to be contingent on the development of the financial sector. Nevertheless, as the possibility that the effect of financial development on growth being contingent on FDI has been neglected in existing literature, the authors have investigated it in this paper. In general, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of financial development and FDI on economic growth in Sudan using annual data from 1970 to 2014.

Design/methodology/approach
Since most of the macroeconomic variables are subject to unit root problem, the time series data are assessed using unit root and cointegration tests with/without structural break. Moreover, the study uses the fully modified ordinary least squares and the dynamic ordinary least squares techniques to estimate the long-run model.

Findings
The results of the cointegration tests provide evidence that a long-run relationship exists among variables even after accounting for the structural break. The results show that financial development and FDI are positive and significant in explaining economic growth in Sudan. Financial development is found to be more beneficial to economic growth than FDI. Moreover, the findings reveal that FDI leads to better economic performance through financial development. Interestingly, the findings of the study show that the effect of financial development on economic growth is further enhanced by the inflows of FDI.

Research limitations/implications
The government should focus on promoting FDI in more productive sectors. In addition, further cooperation with multinational enterprises is needed to increase FDI in the country.

Originality/value
This is the first paper that empirically examines both the interlinked impact of FDI on growth through financial development and the impact of financial development on economic growth through FDI in Sudan using appropriate econometric methods.


Children and adolescents are one of the most vulnerable social groups in the community. Copenhagen declaration has emphasized the fact that particular efforts should be devoted to children and adolescent protection with an aim for extension of social protection and decrease of easy vulnerability of humans. Children and adolescent behaviour is like a mirror which depicts the processes going on in the society, as well as the existing social and economic controversies. At present one can witness negative tendencies in children and adolescent behaviour in Latvia: they drop school early, lead a vagrant life, get used to drugs, violence grows, especially that of severe crimes. In the Resolution of the European Parliament of June 21, 2007 "On Juvenile Delinquency – Role of Women, Family and Community" it is also written, that children enter the world of crime much earlier. Certain emotional and behavioural peculiarities of children and adolescents can be taken as a norm at a definite age, however, there exist also such behavioural peculiarities, which essentially differ from the accepted norms. Causative factors of delinquent behaviour, as well as its consequences, are at a level of multiple systems. But, the first and the most significant in any person's life is the family, and, consequently, it is important to learn and analyze what are the factors in the family which determine the formation of delinquent behaviour.