Service sector forms a growing portion of world economy; Archarya (2006) estimated that service economy accounts around 50% and 70% of the total value adds in the developing and developed countries, respectively. Wolfl (2006) reported that service industries, including social and personal services as well as business services, are performing poorly in terms of productivity growth. In overall sectorial comparison, the service sector still seems to lag behind manufacturing. There were various thoughts dedicated to improving service productivity. Sherman and Zhu (2006) proposed a data envelopment analysis (DEA) method to benchmark service performance. Li (2008a) compared between a manufacturing process and a service process, and suggested opportunities of improving service productivity across service cycle via software technology. In the service business, a recurring issue is how to optimize demand and supply to achieve business benefits for a service enterprise. Traditionally, academic researchers and industrial practitioners resorted to manufacturing production planning techniques such as System Dyanmics (SD) and Discrete Event Simulation (DES) to help solve service production planning problems. Antoniol, Cimitile, Di Lucca and Di Penta (2004) used queuing simulation to access staffing needs for a software maintenance project. Liu and Wang (2007) applied constraint programming as the searching algorithm to optimize resource assignment problems of linear construction projects. Li and He (2008b) devised new local search heuristics to optimize lead time and resource utilization for utility service enterprise; previously the focus of resource allocation was more on cost saving than on customer experience. Manufacturing production planning methods use statistic models to approximate demand and supply, and match demand with supply to identify and fix gaps. In a geographically-distributed service operation, resource planners tend to group demand and supply into regional buckets based on geographical and skill distributions of the business. They then apply production planning methods to optimizing each service operation bucket. During the matching, individuals in the demand and resource are often treated indifferently such that a uniform mapping between demand and supply can be arranged. Examples of matching are the required number of programmers for software work packages, civil engineers for construction activities and field technicians for telecom service tasks. In industrial practice, however, traditional manufacturing production planning methods have constantly met fierce challenges from service planning and operation community. The reason is that statistical approaches often try to abstract real-world problems so that standard mathematical models can be used to represent the problems. In doing so, original problems are often over-simplified perhaps even distorted and a large amount of key information gets lost. Take field service for example, every field technician has unique skills, geography and productivity; the matching between a task and a technician is not a simple linear mapping but determined by scheduling rules, location and type of next task, current location and skill of technician, travel time from current location to the next, onsite time spent by the technician for the task, etc. Taking a simple average and variance from the bucket won't reveal a Yang Li British Telecom, UK


Selenium administration resulted in a marked decrease in the activity levels of the liver succinate dehydrogenase, malate dehydrogenase, and lactate dehydrogenase while pyruvate dehydrogenase increased significantly (P<0.001) in the wistar rat. The degree of decrease of these enzymes was significantly less (P<0.001) when rats were treated with curcumin, a natural constituent Curcuma longa. Curcumin seems to prevent oxidative damage mediated through selenium and protect the dehydrogenases possibly through its anti-oxidative property.


"Friendship first,competition second" provide a new thinking from the perspective of the ethics.It reveals essentially the relation between the purpose and the means of sport from the two levels of theory and practice.The competition is only a means,its final aim realizes the function of the education,promotes moral perfection,play a positive role on the expression of the all-round development of human.It involves both the pursue of moral and admiting which competition is the essence of sport,but finally lay stress on the moral worth and human nature and humane solicitude in the competition


ABSTRACT: Constant monitoring of milk quality by the processing industries demands the use of methodologies that add agility and low-cost analysis, such as the use of electronic equipment based on infrared or ultrasonic spectroscopy. In the present study, quality of raw milk received by dairy farms from western region of Santa Catarina state, Brazil, was evaluated throughout two methodologies of analysis of chemical composition and compared, being that both equipment used standard procedures for calibration, considering as reference data from the classic analytical methods recommended in Brazilian legislation. Milk samples from 45 producers were analyzed for SCC, TBC and physicochemical analysis, performed at dairy's laboratory and at the official laboratory. Infrared and ultrasound methodologies for chemical composition of fat, protein and lactose were compared and correlated. The comparison of the methods showed that there was no significant difference for the mean values of fat (P=0.06); however, they presented significant difference for protein (P=0.001), higher for IR (3.23 vs. 3.33), and lactose (P<0.0001), higher for US (4.47 vs. 4.83). Correlation was positive and significant for fat (r=0.73, P<0.0001), protein (r=0.47, P=0.001) and lactose (r=0.51, P=0.0003). Considering the minimal composition required, TBC and SCC levels, 95.5%, 84.1% and 64.4% of the milk producers met the current Brazilian legislation, respectively. It was concluded that the methodologies have affected results, which may have been influenced by the correction factor used for equipment calibration, specifically for analyzed samples during the study period.


Data for a total of approximately 2900 commercial pigs tested in 12 trials from 1987 to 1990 at the Beaumont test station in Quebec were used to determine the effect of sex, sire breed, cross type and parity number of the dam on growth performance and carcass characteristics. Pigs were housed four to a pen and were fed commercial diets. Feed intake and growth rate were measured during the test, and carcass measurements were taken at slaughter and at 24 or 72 h following slaughter. Castrated males ate more per day, had a better gain and reached slaughter weight (96.4 ± 5.6 kg) at a younger age than gilts. Gilts had a better carcass yield and were leaner than castrated males. Commercial pigs sired from Duroc or Duroc–Hampshire boars had a growth performance superior to that of pigs sired by Landrace, Yorkshire or Hampshire boars. Progeny from Duroc or Duroc–Hampshire boars also produced carcasses with less loin fat, a thicker loin muscle, a higher estimated lean yield and a better classification index. Pigs...


Organizations have gone through many changes. They have reinvented themselves to meet the changing needs of their customers, the external influences and the cost pressures over which they have limited control. With the changes required, as a result of the housing transfer, there is an opportunity to refresh and invigorate what they are about as an organization. To work towards aspiration goals that will make us proud of what we achieve. This effort sets out an approach on how organization can continue improvement journey in 'Shaping up for Excellence'. It can be argued that the fine words in this paper, by themselves, do not improve anything. The key to change is in the culture of the organization; how they deliver the services to their customers and the improvements that will come through ensuring the skills, experience, motivation and the tools to deliver an excellent service are developed and available. The purpose of this document is to set a corporate framework and improvement plan for how we can 'shape up' collectively and achieve our goal of excellence in all aspects of our approach and delivery.


. Exact controllability is proven on a graph with cycle. The controls can be a mix of controls applied at the boundary and interior vertices. The method of proof first uses a dynamical argument to prove shape controllability and velocity controllability, thereby solving their associated moment problems. This enables one to solve the moment problem associated to exact controllability. In the case of a single control, either boundary or interior, it is shown that exact controllability fails.


A remarkable feature of the set of papers in this issue is the consistent pattern of tending to deal with non-linear situations as if they are linear that is shown by students widely differing in age and educational systems, and studying various topics within mathematics. Methodological issues about the difficulty of interpretation of student behavior, and the need to avoid attributing more rationality than is warranted, are raised. Suggestions about educational steps that could be taken to avoid an over-dependence on linearity are made.


Originally published by Harper and Row in 1972, this volume provides an overview of the major exceptionalities including physical and mental handicaps, as well as the 'gifted'. Also examines public school programs and community resources which deal with these exceptionalities. An excellent resource for those entering the field of special education and for practitioners.


Brinjal shoot and fruit borer (BSFB) is a serious pest of brinjal which can cause up to 90% yield loss and very difficult to control. An experiment was conducted in the Entomology Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University during December 2017 to April 2018 on the management of brinjal shoot and fruit borer using selected biorational insecticide based IPM Packages viz. spinosad + removal of infested shoot and fruit, abamectin + removal of infested shoot and fruit, emamectin benzoate + removal of infested shoot and fruit, cypermethrin + removal of infested shoot and fruit, spinosad + abamectin, spinosad + emamectin benzoate, spinosad + buprofezin, abamectin + buprofezin, emamectin benzoate + buprofezin, abamectin + emamectin benzoate along with an untreated control. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The effectiveness of IPM packages was evaluated based on following parameters viz. percent shoot and fruit infestation, percent protection of shoot and fruit over control, marketable and infested fruit yield (t ha−1), percent increase or decrease of marketable or infested fruit over control. All the IPM packages significantly reduced percent shoot and fruit infestation and significantly increased/decreased the marketable/infested fruit yield, respectively over untreated control at 7 days after spraying (DAS). Among the packages the best results were found in case of spinosad + removal of infested shoot and fruit (73.13% and 72.72% shoot and fruit protection, respectively over control; marketable fruit yield of 5.70 t ha−1 and 65.07% reduction of infested fruit yield) and emamectin benzoate + buprofezin (82.72% and 57.70% shoot and fruit protection, respectively over control; marketable fruit yield of 5.71 t ha−1 and 43.88% reduction of infested fruit yield) treated plots whereas the lowest protection was obtained from abamectin + buprofezin (15.67% and 20.70% shoot and fruit protection, respectively over control; marketable fruit yield of 2.87 t ha−1 and 13.43% reduction of infested fruit yield). Therefore, spinosad + removal of infested shoot and fruit and emamectin benzoate + buprofezin could be recommended as the IPM programme for the sustainable management of BSFB.


Significance Neurons develop diverse dendrite morphologies to achieve specialized functions. Certain neurons completely fill their receptive fields with evenly spaced dendrites, while others only partially occupy available space with sparse dendrites. How a similar extracellular environment regulates dendrite patterning of different neurons has been elusive. Here we show that Drosophila space-filling neurons require epidermis-derived heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) to cover the body wall, while other sensory neurons sharing the same receptive fields are insensitive to extracellular HSPGs. HSPGs promote dendritic growth and maintenance of space-filling neurons by stabilizing microtubules in dynamic high-order branches. HSPGs do not function through the only known HSPG receptor leukocyte antigen-related (Lar) nor by transporting extracellular diffusible ligands. Our results reveal important mechanisms by which HSPGs regulate neuronal morphogenesis. Neurons sometimes completely fill available space in their receptive fields with evenly spaced dendrites to uniformly sample sensory or synaptic information. The mechanisms that enable neurons to sense and innervate all space in their target tissues are poorly understood. Using Drosophila somatosensory neurons as a model, we show that heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) Dally and Syndecan on the surface of epidermal cells act as local permissive signals for the dendritic growth and maintenance of space-filling nociceptive C4da neurons, allowing them to innervate the entire skin. Using long-term time-lapse imaging with intact Drosophila larvae, we found that dendrites grow into HSPG-deficient areas but fail to stay there. HSPGs are necessary to stabilize microtubules in newly formed high-order dendrites. In contrast to C4da neurons, non–space-filling sensory neurons that develop in the same microenvironment do not rely on HSPGs for their dendritic growth. Furthermore, HSPGs do not act by transporting extracellular diffusible ligands or require leukocyte antigen-related (Lar), a receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase (RPTP) and the only known Drosophila HSPG receptor, for promoting dendritic growth of space-filling neurons. Interestingly, another RPTP, Ptp69D, promotes dendritic growth of C4da neurons in parallel to HSPGs. Together, our data reveal an HSPG-dependent pathway that specifically allows dendrites of space-filling neurons to innervate all target tissues in Drosophila.


A brief description of the housing industry developments in China is given in the paper. Housing industry modernization will be greatly promoted by the implementation of science and technology projects and makes a great benefit for the national economy. By the implementation of housing industry modernization research project, it can be ensured to obtain breakthroughs in research on the key technologies,therefore, considerably increase the contribution rate of scientific and technological progress of housing industry,and refine engineering quality and economic,social and environmental benefit, and make the housing industry a real modern industry. To gain all the objectives of the project, great efforts still need to be made.


Paul Roquet's The Immersive Enclosure: Virtual Reality in Japan is a welcome and highly impactful monograph that rewires our understanding of the history, technology, and narrative potential of virtual reality (VR) in Japan. It does so with a captivating mix of research methods, from media history to textual analysis, and even to ethnographic observations from the author's own experiences at VR events in Japan. The Immersive Enclosure succeeds not only by providing a nuanced, and hitherto largely unknown, historicization of VR in Japan, but also by encouraging readers to think through the cultural and political signifi cance VR poses when the headset enables users to turn away from reality in the fi rst place. Roquet's book is a welcome addition to the growing library of English-language scholarship within Japan studies that focuses on video games, while equally adding to and complicating arguments around otaku consumption present in edited volumes centering on Japanese media studies more broadly. This book also follows a key intellectual through-line fi rst established in Roquet's previous Ambient Media by enjoining us to consider the complex dynamics of human


The space sector is currently undergoing a push from the industry, several governments, and academia to enable routine satellite servicing in orbit. Among the many challenges, the complex dynamic i...


Atomic Force Microscopes (AFMs) are widely used for the investigation of samples at nanometer scale. In this paper, we present the modeling, the identification and the control of a metrological AFM. The metrological AFM is used for the calibration of transfer standards for commercial AFMs. Therefore, the focus of the presented work is on scanning accuracy rather than on scanning speed. The contribution of this paper is the combination of 3 degree-of-freedom (DOF) control, including position feedforward, with an AFM with fixed cantilever and a piezo-stack driven stage. The amount of coupling between all DOFs is assessed by a non-parametric MIMO identification of the AFM. Since the dynamics appear to be decoupled in the frequency range of interest, feedback controllers are designed using loopshaping techniques for each DOF separately. Position feedforward is added to the stage in x and y direction, which improves the tracking performance by a factor two. The controlled stage is able to track scanning profiles within the sensor bound of 5 nm. With the proposed control method, the metrological AFM can produce images of the transfer standards with a sensor bound of 2 nm. Furthermore, real-time imaging of the sample is possible without the need for a-posteriori image correction. Finally, it is shown that the proposed control method almost completely compensates the hysteresis in the system.


Objective To evaluate the renal dynamic imaging in the judgment of the renal function in patients with type-2 diabetes mellitus so as to provide reference for clinical treatment and prognosis predicting.Methods 68 patients with type 2 diabe- tes mellitus were allocated to a DM1 group(n=12,UAER20μg/min)and a DM2 group(n=26,UAER20μg/min~200μg/ min)and DM3 group(n=30,UAER UAER200μg/min)according to their UAER.The comparison of the glomerular filtration rate(GFB),the renal function curve peaktime(Tp)and the 20-min residual rate(C_(20))and drainage half time(T_(1/2))parameters to the control group(NC,n=12)had also been done.Results In the DM1 group,the GFR was statistically higher than that in control group(P0.01),and the GFR in the DM3 group was statistically lower than that in control group(P0.01).The renal function parameters of T_(1/2)and C_(20)in the DM2 and DM3 groups much more prolonged than that in the control group(P0.05 in DM2/NC and P0.01 in DM3/NC),especially the Tp in the DM3 group much more prolonged than that in the control group too (P0.01).Conclusions The renal dynamic imaging can diagnose the GFR in type-2 diabetes mellitus earlier than the labo- ratory results,judge the injury of the renal function and provide reference for clinical treatment and its follow-up.


A semi-empirical model is presented for describing the interionic interactions in molten salts using the experimentally available structure data. An extension of Bertaut's method of non-overlapping charges is used to estimate the electrostatic interaction energy in ionic melts. It is shown, in agreement with earlier computer simulation studies, that this energy increases when an ionic salt melts. The repulsion between ions is described using a compressible ion theory which uses structure-independent parameters. The van der Waals interactions and the thermal free energy are also included in the total energy, which is minimised with respect to isostructural volume variations to calculate the equilibrium density. Detailed results are presented for three molten systems, NaCl, CaCl2 and ZnCl2, and are shown to be in satisfactory agreement with experiments. With reliable structural data now being reported for several other molten salts, the present study gains relevance.


A channel-selecting low-noise amplifier (CS-LNA) with blocker filtering is presented for a SAW-less diversity path receiver (RX) in frequency-division duplexing cellular systems. A hybrid N-path bandpass filter/band-reject filter (BPF/BRF) feedback network is applied to the LNA to create close-in reject bands around the passband to suppress transmit leakage and improve the out-of-band (OOB) input-referred third-order intercept point (IIP3). Control of the frequency and depth of the reject bands is demonstrated with analysis and simulation. A gm2-gm3 cancellation linearization is applied to improve the in-band (IB) linearity. Adaptive LO swing and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) thick-oxide devices are demonstrated to improve the power-handling capability. The proposed CS-LNA is implemented in 32-nm CMOS SOI and operates from 0.4 to 6 GHz with the maximum rejection larger than 60 dB and power-handling capability up to 17 dBm. The prototype demonstrates an OOB IIP3 of 36 dBm and IB IIP3 of 10 dBm at 1 GHz. To the authors' knowledge, this is the highest blocker rejection, power-handling capability, linearity, and the widest tuning range for an LNA with tunable filtering.


The frontier land between the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon in teh south-east of the peninsula, has always been coveted by the nobles of both kingdoms. At the beginning of the XVth e., a growing legal uncertainly appeared as regards who it belonged to, due to the impredictability of Juan II of Castile, who granted and dispossessed it and even gave it to others nobles without having declared the previous transfer invalid. The most controversial moment took palce with the "Pacheco", Juan and his son Diego. The latter, after the land had gone back to the crown in 1476, insisted all his life on his demand for it claiming that the "Reyes Catolicos" had seriously failed to fulfill the agreement signed with them. Their heirs kept on demanding the ownership until the second half of the XVth e., and the even tried to buy the city of Villena or, if it were not possible, the city of Chinchilla, in order to justify the title of marquis


Superconducting Conductor on Round Core (CORC) cables fabricated by several high temperature superconducting (HTS) tapes are able to carry enormous electrical current density, to be widely used in a variety of superconducting applications such as power transmission, fusion, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, the AC losses induced in the superconducting tapes under alternating current or magnetic field generate heat dissipation which can reduce the electric power efficiency. Therefore, it is essential to analyze the AC loss behavior of CORC cables as well as consider methods to reduce it. This paper presents an AC loss study of CORC cables with several different superconducting layer thicknesses. The CORC cable simulation model is built in a software suite named COMSOL Multiphysics utilising the finite-element method (FEM) solved by the three-dimensional (3-D) H-formulation. By implementing FEM simulations, the cases of increasing the degree of freedom of superconducting layers have been considered, and the AC losses of a single layer CORC cable model with three tapes mounted around the core have been calculated and analyzed for different layer thicknesses. Simulation results are verified with experimental results measured in previous literature.


This study describes the use of inkjet printing for the preparation of test materials containing gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on a biologically relevant matrix and discusses the methods of using time‐of‐flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF‐SIMS) for their spatially resolved quantification. Evaluation of test materials containing AuNPs with nominal diameters of (30, 80, 100, and 150) nm deposited onto gelatin with loadings ranging from 34 fg up to 67 000 fg per spot suggests that ToF‐SIMS has the sensitivity and the dynamic range to quantify NP deposits in a biological matrix at toxicologically relevant concentrations, although it was not capable of reliably determining the size of the AuNPs from the intensity data. Regardless, the ability to extract intensity data from individual regions of interest (ROIs) showed that spatially resolved quantification is possible, even when multiple features exist in a single image and in a single depth profile. The argon gas cluster source used for sputtering led to a matrix removal effect where the matrix surrounding the AuNPs became negligible, which may facilitate the preparation of quantitative test materials.


Shiv.K Kumar, one of the prominent modern poets, is not only an illustrious writer but also a preeminent academician. He writes poems on varied themes like death, love, sex, and pain etc. This research paper focuses on two major poems "Birth of Adam" and "Birth of Eve", one of the three sections, entitled Genesis from his Sahitya Akademi award winning work Trapfalls in the sky. During his study in Cambridge University for his PhD degree, the poet read the Holy Bible and with that influence he created his own Adam and Eve and presented it as if God is telling about his creation.


Methyl jasmonate (MeJ) affects the regulation of secondary metabolism, and it is considered to be a promising elicitor in the culture of cells, tissues and plant organs. High-performance liquid chromatography method was used to identify the composition of ecdysteroids in hairy roots of Silene linicola . MeJ was found to have a stimulating effect on ecdysteroid biosynthesis in this culture. Addition of MeJ at a concentration of 100 μM increased the biosynthesis of 20-hydroxyecdysone by 74% (day 3), and that of turkesterone by 35% (day 6). The share of turkesterone in total ecdysteroid content in the investigated samples was up to 60%, and the content of 20-hydroxyecdysone was up to 30%. The study shows that MeJ is a promising stimulator of ecdysteroid biosynthesis in hairy roots of S. linicola .


Objective To investigate the effects of managed ventricular pacing(MVP) algorithm on cumulative ventricular pacing proportion(Cum VP%) in patients with pacemakers.Method Pacemakers with MVP algorithm were implanted in 10 patients.Conventional DDDR mode was programmed in the first month post operation,and then MVP algorithm was programmed in the second month.The time percentage of pacing and sensing status in either mode was calculated respectively,and the difference of CumVP% was compared.Results During DDDR mode,CumVP% was high in all the patients;but during MVP algorithm,except permanent Ⅲ degree atrioventricular block,CumVP% was remarkably reduced.Conclusion Compared with conventional DDDR mode,MVP algorithm significantly reduces the CumVP%.


Empowerment of employees is essential in any organization or company. In order of any organization to flourish and be at par with others, leaders or managers have to strive harder to encourage and motivate and empower employee or faculty. With empowerment as the main target for success, each member in an organization or company can produce great materials, resources and learning tools, clear vision and mission, goals, and objectives. Empowerment is a process that keeps going. Bandura's Social Cognitive theory and Self-Determination theory (Baundura, 2001; Deci & Ryan, 2008) contribute to employee or faculty empowerment and aid them to determine the choice of task and foster positive attitudes. Faculty will feel free and possess the competence to resolve problems and contribute their ideas for the success of an organization (Fock, Hui, Au, & Bond, 2013). The purpose of this study was to find out how administrators foster and empower teachers in an English language institute. This study used a qualitative research design (case study) approach. Interviews, observations, document analysis and other necessary documents that may be needed for the research design will be used. The participants were ESL teachers from selected Adventist Higher Educational Institutions in the Philippines. This study would benefit the leaders first as well as the faculty in an educational institution.


Phenomena of electron,neutron,atomic and molecular diffraction have been studied in many experiments,and these experiments have been explained by some theoretical works.The authors study single-slit diffraction of C60 with a quantum mechanical approach,and the calculation results are in good agreement with experiment data.


PurposeWith increasing managerial attention on the strategic promotion of brand-related sustainability initiatives (BSI), this study explores the psychological role of image congruence of the triad comprising brand, BSI and self-concept (brand–sustainability–self-congruence; BSSC). The study assesses the predictive effect of BSSC on consumers' brand evaluations and its variation according to the brand types and consumers' attributes. The purpose is to provide managerial suggestions as well as theoretical implications to build an effective BSI strategy from the perspective of consumer psychology.Design/methodology/approachThe data from 409 respondents in Japan are assessed to discuss the relationships among BSSC based on actual/ideal self-concept (actual/ideal BSSC), brand trust, brand affect and purchase intention according to hypothetical BSI settings.FindingsThe results suggest a significant role of BSSC in consumers' brand evaluation mechanisms associated with BSI: mostly, actual BSSC affects non-luxury brand evaluation, while ideal BSSC affects luxury brand evaluation. Likewise, the effects of actual/ideal BSSC seem to vary according to consumers' income levels.Practical implicationsThe results suggest that managers strategically consider consumer psychology of brand evaluation with actual/ideal BSSC, income levels and brand attributes such as luxury level in BSI planning. Thus, they may predict its contribution to brand equity, leading to companies' performance being compatible with environmental contribution.Originality/valueThis study uniquely extends the self-congruity theory and discusses the psychological brand evaluation mechanism comprising BSSC, presenting the switching role of actual/ideal self-concept according to brand types and consumers' attributes.


The exposure dosage for the population of Middle Europe, due to fallout (Srgo, Cs137 and C14), is discussed and calculated, including geographical distribution, stratosphere residence, radioactive decay, plant uptake, soil leaching and dilution of the radionuclides with stable elements in nature. Children born in the period 1955-1958 will receive the greatest internal dose from strontium90, about 1400 mrems per 30 years. Maximum dose rate is calculated and found to occur in 1961-1962. Doses are calculated for the period 1954-2000.


This paper is concerned with the statistical dependency effects in chaotic map processes, both before and after their discretization at branch boundaries. The resulting processes are no longer chaotic but are left with realizable statistical behavior. Such processes have appeared over several years in the electronic engineering literature. Informal but extended mathematical theory that facilitates the practical calculation of autocorrelation of such statistical behavior, is developed. Both the continuous and discretized cases are treated further by using Kohda's notions of equidistribution and constant-sum to maps which are not onto. Some particularly structured chaotic map processes, and also well-known maps are examined for their statistical dependency, with the tailed shift map family from chaotic communications receiving detailed attention. Several parts of the paper form a brief review of existing theory.


A new framework for enhancing the knowledge-based linkage between behavioral and physical design of VLSI circuits is presented. The framework incorporates new abstractions and metrics that lead to more efficiently defined CAD algorithms by improving the handling of electrical and physical effects which are important in producing efficient layouts. This is accomplished by defining a new behavioral to physical design relationship (linkage) and defining a more useful set of heuristic measures related to electrical characteristics which impact layout. A measure of layout complexity also is derived which can be estimated early in the behavioral modeling process.


Whether ankle equinus predominantly contributes to or ensues from an adult-acquired flatfoot deformity (AAFD) remains unknown. Regardless of the exact nature of this relationship, current evidence supports a distinct role for concomitant gastrocnemius recession or Achilles tendon lengthening during surgical correction of significant AAFD deformity. Achieving the appropriate degree of surgical correction for components of ankle equinus, hindfoot valgus, and/or Chopart collapse that may contribute to AAFD requires proper clinical evaluation and an appreciation of contributory pathophysiology. Review of recent literature describing gastrocnemius contracture and its potential role in AAFD provides a platform from which to approach this challenging problem.Level of Evidence: Diagnostic Level V. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.


Summary 1. By administration to rabbits of plasmin produced by activation of human plasminogen with human urine activator, fibrinolysis in the blood was obtained without observable side effects. 2. A single injection of plasmin protects the animals from a fatal intra vascular coagulation produced by a subsequent thromboplastin administration. Among the control animals treated with inactive plasmin, ⅔ of the animals died from pulmonary thrombosis or massive intracardial coagulation of the blood.


Background and Aim: The role of emotion regulation in mental illness and learning and functional abilities of adolescent students has been confirmed today and is an important basis for the emergence of emotional and behavioral disorders during adolescence. Accordingly, this study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of mindfulness-based group therapy (MBGT) on cognitive emotion regulation (CER) in female adolescents. . Methods: The study had a pretest-posttest design with a control group and a two-month follow-up. The statistical population included all high school students in Saveh city (Markazi province) in the academic year 2016-2017, from which 30 people (15 in the experimental group and 15 in the control group) were selected by cluster sampling and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The study tool was the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) developed by Granefski et al. (2001). The experimental group received eight sessions of mindfulness training, and the control group received no intervention. Data were analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA. Results: The results suggested that MBGT affected CER in female adolescents and that this effect was stable in the follow-up phase. The results also indicated that MBGT increased positive CER and decreased negative CER (P = 0.01). Conclusion: According to the findings, counselors and psychologists are recommended to use MBGT as an effective method to increase positive CER in female adolescents.


The magnetic ordering of Ce0.8 Tb0.2 Ru2 has been investigated by neutron scattering above and below the superconducting transition point at 2.6 K. Ferromagnetic short range ordering has been found with a correlation length of 15.6 AA at 1.5 K. No significant difference between the ordering in the normal and in the superconducting phase has been observed.


The vast capabilities of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs)—such as in assisting scientific research, conducting military tasks, and repairing oil pipelines—are limited by high operating costs and the relative inaccessibility of power in the open ocean. Wave powered AUV charging stations may address these issues. With projected increases in usage of AUVs globally in the next five years, AUV charging stations can enable less expensive and longer AUV missions. This paper summarizes the design process and investigates the feasibility of a wave powered, mobile AUV charging station, including the choice of a wave energy converter and AUV docking station as well as the ability to integrate the charging station with an autonomous surface vehicle. The charging station proposed in this paper meets many different commercial, scientific, and defense needs, including continuous power availability, data transmission capabilities, and mobility. It will be positioned as a hub for AUV operations, enabling missions to run autonomously with no support ship. The potential market for this design is very promising, with an estimated $1.64 million market size just for AUV technologies by 2025.


The article deals with a trajectory control system development for the omnidirectional mobile robot. This kind of robots gives the possibility to control separately each degree of freedom due to special design of the wheels, which greatly facilitates the solution of the spatial control tasks and makes it possible to focus directly on the development of algorithms. Control law synthesis is based on kinematic model of a solid body on a plane. Desired trajectory is defined as a smooth implicit function in a fixed coordinate system. Procedure of control design is represented by using a differential-geometric method of nonlinear transformation of the original model to the task-oriented form, which describes the longitudinal motion along a trajectory and orthogonal deviation. Proportional controllers with direct compensation of nonlinear terms are synthesized for the transformed model. Main results are represented by nonlinear control algorithms and experimental data. Practical implementation of considered control laws for the Robotino mobile robot by Festo Didactics Company is done for illustration of this approach workability. The cases of straight line motion and movement along a circle are represented as desirable trajectories, and the majority of practical tasks for mobile robots control can be implemented by their combination.


This paper deals with local as well as global active noise control (ANC) using a parametric array loudspeaker (PAL) possessing intriguing properties: sharp directivity, low sound pressure decay by distance, capability of steering directivity, etc. After briefing some properties of a PAL necessary for ANC, this paper presents pinpoint control using a PAL for suppressing the sound pressure at a designated location, hence local control. It is shown that unlike conventional ANC in which a voice coil loudspeaker is used, the pinpoint control may achieve the sound pressure suppression without causing spillover. Using the same sound control source, PAL, this paper then refers to global control, termed trivial control in the art, enabling one to generate a global zone of quiet. The trivial control strategy falls into a category of acoustic power control based on a trivial condition requiring the collocation of a primary source and a control source. The trivial condition formerly avoided because of literally trivi...


Introduction he birth of a mentally retarded child raises serious problems that challenge all family members and creates tensions in families, especially the parents (1). Since the concept of family connotes a unity, a problem that involves one family member interferes with the performance of the whole family (2). A mentally retarded child can have undesirable effects on the family base and family performance; therefore, it puts the family under physical, mental, social, and economic pressures (3). One of the challenges that parents of the mentally retarded child are facing is their quality of life in this regard (4). Mothers spend more time with mentally retarded children and take responsibility for their education in addition to routine life duties. Therefore, their quality of life may be more affected by the presence of these children (5). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the quality of life is defined as "The individuals ' perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value system in which they live in T Abstract


This paper explores the interplay between the five regulations (14 CFR § 25.105, 14 CFR § 25.107, 14 CFR § 25.109, 14 CFR § 25.113, and 14 CFR § 25.121) and their interactions with two other regulations: 14 CFR § 25.149 and 14 CFR § 25.904. Together, these laws control the means by which the takeoff runway requirements of transport category aircraft are computed. Inspection of airline pilot manuals indicate the popularity of "reduced thrust" or "flex-temp" takeoff procedures that are not discussed in popular aircraft design texts. This paper documents the design and certification implementation strategies that the designer should take when including de-rated thrust takeoff procedures and alternative decision speed strategies into the aircraft conceptual design process.


Recent evidence from Pakistan points to significant pro‐male bias within households in the allocation of education expenditures. This raises two important questions. Is less spent on enrolled girls than boys through differential school‐type choice for the two sexes; for example, through a greater likelihood of sending boys to fee‐charging private schools? And, if indeed this is the case, are girls thereby condemned to lower quality schooling, on average, than boys? By asking these questions, this paper makes three contributions to the literature. Firstly, this is one of a very few studies in Pakistan to explore the question of the relative effectiveness of public and private schools despite there being an unprecedented expansion of fee‐charging private schools in the past two decades. Secondly, unlike existing papers that focus on primary schooling, this study looks at potential learning gaps by school type for students in their last year of middle school (Grade Eight), very near their transition to secondary schooling. Thirdly, it exploits unique, purposively‐collected data from government and private school students, and thus, in estimating achievement production functions, is able to control for a number of variables typically 'unobserved' by researchers. The findings reveal that boys are indeed more likely to be sent to private schools than girls within the household, so that differential school‐type choice is an important channel of differential treatment against girls. Private schools are also found to be of better quality – they are more effective than government schools in imparting mathematics and literacy skills. Girls lose out vis‐à‐vis boys in terms not only of lower within‐household educational expenditures, but also in terms of the quality of schooling accessed.


with one-year survival rates of up to 90%. Methods: Analysis of case reports and series. Results: Post transplantation lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLD) represent a serious threat to long term survival. PTLD are among the most frequently identified malignancies following transplantation, with an incidence of between 0.5% and 20%, depending on the type of organ transplanted. Over the last decade it has become evident that PTLD represents a distinct entity in terms of pathogenesis, presentation and management. Discussion: Growing experience in the treatment of PTLD, especially using a CD-20-directed antibody as a single agent in first-line therapy, has resulted in individualized treatment strategies with acceptable toxicity and improved cure rates. This article discusses pathogenesis, risk factors, clinical presentation, diagnostic staging and treatment modalities.


Take home messages:  Increasing biodiversity, particularly wildlife populations, can benefit farmers by improving agricultural productivity potential.  Biodiversity is important for the regulation of ecosystem processes and delivery of ecosystem services.  Farming approaches can be tailored to benefit wildlife and biodiversity, which in turn can increase ecosystem stability in the face of environmental change, without reducing the potential for agricultural yield.


This paper presents the preliminary experimental results of the use of some agro-industrial wastes (corncob, sunflower seed shells) as sorbents for Methylene Blue dye removal from aqueous environments. There were studied the main factors with high influence on the dye sorption process: temperature, sorbent amount, solution pH, dye concentration, and contact time. The results indicate that these materials have a good potential to remove the studied dye, and can be used as adsorbents into a treatment of industrial textile effluents before recycling or reuse, or discharging into the sewage system.


This paper proposes the single radiator multi-port antenna with a slot-coupled feeding structure that can estimate the direction of arrival without using multiple array elements. The proposed single patch radiator with a director, which can obtain a high gain characteristic, replaces the multiple array elements. The slot-coupled feeding structure is designed to achieve broadband characteristic in the frequency range of 7 GHz to 9.8 GHz. Then, to observe the direction finding performance, the monopulse ratio which does not require time synchronization is obtained with a root-mean-square error of 0.02.


Regulatory authorities in general agree that the role of mutagenicity tests in the assessment of carcinogenicity is limited to two main aspects. Firstly the screening of many compounds cheaply to see which should be subjected to much more costly long-term tests for carcinogenicity in animals or to a full battery of mutagenicity tests such as recommended by the Canadian authorities.1 The recent flurry of interest in the possibility that some hair-dye constituents constitute a cancer risk is based on positive results obtained in bacterial mutagenicity test systems. At a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences in March 1975 Bruce Ames2 reported that 150 out of 169 hair dye formulations which depend for their action on the oxidation of various aromatic diamines by hydrogen peroxide are active in producing mutations of the so-called frame-shift type in a strain of Salmonella typhimurium highly sensitive to the production of this type of mutation. Base-pair substitution mutations were not produced in the same strain, and no frameshift mutations were produced by any ofthe agents in a number of other frame-shift-sensitive strains of the same organism. Some of the agents tested were active only after mixture of the diamine with hydrogen peroxide. The agent found by Ames to have the most activity was 2,4-diaminoanisole, which is closely related to 2,4-diaminotoluene, which in turn is known to cause tumours when fed to rats.3 A more recent report by workers in Britain has blown on the embers of the fire started by Ames and his colleagues. Searle et a14 have found, in an experiment that was incomplete at the time their paper was published, a slightly increased incidence of virus-associated tumours of the lymphoid system in two strains of mice in response to the repeated application to the skin oftwo proprietary hair-dye preparations. The mechanisms underlying the increase in incidence have not been investigated by the workers concerned. Since non-specific factors, such as changes in hormonal and nutritional status, can appreciably influence the age-standardised risk of lymphoid neoplasia in mice,5 it would be unjustifiable to assume that changes reported were a direct result of mutations produced by the test materials. A feature of chemically-induced as distinct from virus-induced cancers is that they are heterogeneous with regard to antigenic structure. It would be interesting to see whether the lymphoid neoplasms seen in mice exposed to hair-dye constituents are distinguishable from each other or from the common virus-induced lymphomas of mice. Searle and his colleagues4 concluded that their findings indicated a need for a comprehensive toxicological evaluation of hair colourant constituents, in particular of nitrophenylenediamines, which have previously been little investigated. This is certainly the case-not so much because of the positive results reported by Ames and Searle and their colleagues, but mainly because it is prudent to establish the safety of commonly used chemicals, particularly those absorbed into the bodies of men and women who use them,6 and particularly if the chemicals concerned are structurally related to known carcinogens. Not surprisingly this policy had in fact already been acted upon before Ames and his colleagues held their press conference. In 1973 Kinkel and Holzmann7 reported that p-toluenediamine, resorcinol, and m-diaminoanisole gave rise to no toxic effects when applied repeatedly to the skin of rats over a period of two years, and more recently negative results in tests for chronic toxicity, teratogenicity, and effects on reproduction in various species have been reported8 for a number of hair-dye constituents including some nitrophenylenediamines. The accumulation of such evidence from properly designed long-term studies on animals together, if possible, with epidemiological data from human studies should provide the main basis for deciding whether commonly used chemicals are likely to constitute cancer hazards for humans. Scares based on wild extrapolations from ultra-shortterm studies in artificially susceptible laboratory systems serve to confuse issues rather than to elucidate them.


Compatibility of affi xes (including quantitative compatibility) is viewed in this article as one of the essential characteristics that should be taken into consideration in the process of complex characterization of affi xes. Affi xative anomaly coeffi cient appears to be the value that determines valency correlation between homonymous affi xes. The given article offers a status classifi cation of prefi xes built on the basis of values of AAC. The article also presents an attempt to examine the obtained results in the chronological aspect.


• Plans and oversees District construction projects; • Assists the Director of Facility Services, Planning and Capital Projects in developing and submitting, to the California Community College Chancellor's Office, the annual five-year construction plan, completing the Facility Utilization Reports, developing and refining plans for scheduled and deferred maintenance projects; • Assist in coordinating District facility development with appropriate local agencies; • Assist in coordinating and directing the work of the District facilities planning committees with the architects in the planning of new facilities and the rehabilitation of older facilities; • Assist in coordinating the development of Initial Project Proposals (IPP's ) and Final Project Proposals (FPP's) for submittal to the California Community College Chancellor's Office; • Develops bid specifications and supervises facility project bid processes; (insuring that appropriate insurance, bond and administrative requirements are satisfied)' • Administers construction contracts for major and minor construction projects; • Provides for inspection of construction work in progress; • Maintains records and develops reports as required; • Supervises the scheduling and utilization of District facilities leased under the Civic Center regulations; • Operate light to moderately heavy construction/maintenance equipment such as fork lifts, trucks, and tractors; • Establish and maintain cooperative working relationships with those contacted in the performance of duties; • Communicate effectively orally and in writing; • Demonstrate a sensitivity to and understanding of the diverse academic, socioeconomic, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds of staff and students and of staff and students with physical and learning disabilities; • Performs other duties as assigned.


In order to realize the development of health, oral health as an integral part of the whole human health. Pregnant women are one of the vulnerable groups care of oral health care. In the event of pregnancy, occurring patterns of change in the maintenance of oral hygiene becomes worse. These changes are caused by hormonal changes that marked the onset of nausea, vomiting, feeling of fear when brushing your teeth. The results of a preliminary study on 10 pregnant women in Sub Bintoro randomly during routine activities posyandu average values obtained OHI-S is 3.3 (poor category). It also obtained data indicating maternal knowledge about how to brush teeth still low. This study aims to determine the effect of gestational age, the level of knowledge about brushing teeth, the degree of oral hygiene in pregnant women in Sub Bintoro. This type of research is quantitative descriptive cross sectional survey research approach. The population of pregnant women Bintoro Village, District Demak, Demak which amounted to 80 people. Sampling was done Proportional stratified random sampling method, a number of 55 people. The data were analyzed by descriptive quantitative, with the Spearman rank correlation test, regression test sdan with linear regression. The results showed maternal gestational age mostly in the third trimester of 29 people (52.7%), the level of knowledge in good condition category 40 people (60.6%), the degree of oral hygiene pregnant women mostly in the category of OHI-S are 25 persons (37.9%). There is a significant relationship between the degree of knowledge of dental and oral hygiene, according to the results with the Spearman rank correlation test with CI 95% (α = 0.05), obtained p.value = 0.000. There is a significant effect on the degree of knowledge of dental and oral hygiene, according to the results of linear regression test with CI = 95% (α = 0.05), obtained p.value = 0.000. Pregnant women are advised to maintain and increase the maintenance of dental hygiene at all stages of gestation, following the extension of activities by health personnel, maintaining and improving ways of maintaining oral hygiene.


Purpose
Low productivity in construction is typically blamed on the seemingly complex and chaotic nature of construction, which emerges as the stakeholders do not have an adequate picture of the evolving situation. The ever-increasing volume of situation data owing to the recent advances in IoT devices and reality capture platforms provide a unique opportunity to capture the actual situation data of construction projects accurately at a fraction of the cost compared to manual status tracking and reporting. This paper aims to investigate the concept of a situation picture, challenges in collecting situation data and its benefits.

Design/Methodology/Approach
Empirical data is collected through interviews in California and Finland, and by organizing workshops.

Findings
We contribute to literature on managing operational information by defining the concept of a situation picture in the context of construction, specifically from the blue-collar's perspective during on-site activities. We present the key components of a conceptual information model that represents a situation picture in construction.

Research limitations/implications
The applicability of conceptual information model of situation picture is not tested in practice, but the model will provide a starting point for research to comprehensively integrate social and digital information exchange for improving workflow.

Practical implications
The paper claims that designing and building comprehensive information management infrastructure would contribute to solving the problems of low productivity, quality and safety in construction projects.

Originality/value
Research on situation picture and situation awareness is scarce in the context of construction. The study links various information management technologies and practices to actual construction productivity.


Objective: to explain the evolution of innovation management indicators at the Research Center for Exploitation, Manufacture, and Recovery of Equipment and Parts, Faculty of Electromechanics, Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz University of Camagüey, Cuba, five years after progressive implementation of a program to strengthen its capacity for innovation, as part of previous research follow up. Methods: logical-historical analysis, and analysis and synthesis. Results: The results of measures implemented were positive in terms of science and innovation, which are critical for the research center, as ties with companies, publications, and attendance to conferences have increased, as well as greater visibility nationally. Conclusions: the program is appropriate and pertinent, since the highest priority is given to R + D + r management, as the main driving force of the other critical activities at the facility. Retos de la Dirección 2020; 14(1): 137-158 139 On the other hand, the results in terms of the number of researchers and improvements in basic laboratory conditions.


A report is given on laboratory investigations into model waters containing Cu2+-, Ni2+- or Zn2+-ions and tartrate, citrate, NTA or EDTA as complexing agents. There were determined residual concentrations of the metal ions at different shares of complexing agents, which are achieved by the precipitation with lime and chalk. Chalk is added in order to secure the required exess of calcium ions without causing an overalkalinization of the water. In the range of pH = 8…9, however, residual concentrations lower than 1 mg/1 are achieved only for copper ions in the presence of tartrate.


The present invention relates to a polyurethaneurea elastic yarn with excellent disentanglement and a method for producing the same and, more specifically, to a polyurethaneurea elastic yarn with excellent unwinding property having a peanut-type cross-section and a method for producing the same, wherein NCO% is 2.60 to 3.00% at the polymerization of polyol and diisocyanate; and the average value of cross-section heterogeneity of the elastic yarn is 2.0 to 3.5 and the standard deviation thereof is 0.01 to 1.0 as a result of using 100% of ethylenediamine as a chain extender.


In a 1947 paper, John K. Wright proposed the term "geosophy" to capture "the study of geographical knowledge from any or all points of view," a discipline that would explore all "geographical ideas," both "true and false." This geosophy has led to a certain interest in parallel, imaginary or popular geographies. In the field of French-language geography, it will continue late in the day in a questioning of para-geographies produced by amateur or nonacademic geographers, rather close to certain Anglo-Saxon debates relating to popular geographies. His article attempts to reverse this point of view by turning these para-geographies into legitimate theories of space that are not recognized as such, as they are stated in a language other than that of science. It is a more poetic language, which resorts to allusion, implicit and imagery, whereas scientific writing prefers clarity, explicitness and factuality. As a result, these parallel geographies have not been elevated to the rank of a certain scientific dignity by the institution of geography and, more broadly, the sciences interested in the territory. I explore here some of Pier Paolo Pasolini's productions by focusing on the geographical knowledge of which they are both the product and the vector. To do so, I mobilize literary and film materials from his oeuvre. If Pasolini was not a researcher, as defined by academia, he was at least someone who was searching. His work, which aimed at broadening reflection on the way society functions, with a view toward its spatial organization, might have contributed to geographic knowledge.


Abstract: Recent work of our research group demonstrated the applicability of a calibrated bio-geochemical model, BIOME-BGC, for estimating current annual increments (CAIs) of Mediterranean forests. In the current case, the model is applied to assess the gross primary production (GPP) of nine beech forest sites in Italy using a previously produced data set of meteorological data descriptive of a ten-year period (1999-2008). The obtained GPP estimates are integrated with relevant autotrophic respirations and allocations to derive forest net primary production (NPP) averages for the same forests. The simulations are performed assuming different levels of ecosystem disequilibrium, i.e. progressively taking into account the effects of specific site history in terms of woody biomass removal and stand aging.The NPP estimates, converted into CAIs by means of specific coefficients, are validated through comparison with data derived from tree growth measurements. Results indicate that the modelling of quasi-equilibrium conditions tends to produce overestimated CAI values, particularly for not fully stocked, old stands. The inclusion of information on existing biomass introduces a partial improvement, while optimal results are obtained when information on ecosystem development phase is considered. The implications of using different NPP estimation methods are finally discussed in the perspective of assessing the forest carbon budget on a national basis.


The purpose of this study was to examine the role of entrepreneurship training on strategy implementation among business enterprises in Nakuru County. The study objectives were to establish how new venture creation and growth training affected the strategy implementation of enterprises operating in Nakuru County and to establish how innovation management training affected strategy implementation of enterprises operating in Nakuru County. This study adopted a descriptive research design based on a survey strategy. Data was collected using structured questionnaires from selected business enterprises in Nakuru County and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Social entrepreneurship training was found to have a significant effect on strategy implementation; entrepreneurs dedicated their resources to address these social needs mostly through CSR programs. Findings also showed weak positive significant relationship existed between innovation management and strategy implementation, the study showed that while training was provided to ensure that innovative new processes were implemented effectively and personnel encouraged to stay abreast of developments in their functional fields and to share their knowledge with others innovation management received little attention. The study recommends entrepreneurs not ignore societal aspects, they should expose their staff more to business ideas and management approaches related to their actual business in order to enable them create more value for the business, More emphasis should also be placed on evaluation of innovation management needs to be given sufficient attention in the businesses enterprises as they all contribute significantly to strategy implementation process.


Functional magnet resonance imaging (fMRI) has become a standard non invasive brain imaging technique delivering high spatial resolution. Brain activation is determined by magnetic susceptibility of the blood oxygen level (BOLD effect) during an activation task, e.g. motor, auditory and visual tasks. Usually box-car paradigms have 2 - 4 rest/activation epochs with at least an overall of 50 volumes per scan in the time domain. Statistical test based analysis methods need a large amount of repetitively acquired brain volumes to gain statistical power, like Student's t-test. The introduced technique based on a self-organizing neural network (SOM) makes use of the intrinsic features of the condition change between rest and activation epoch and demonstrated to differentiate between the conditions with less time points having only one rest and one activation epoch. The method reduces scan and analysis time and the probability of possible motion artifacts from the relaxation of the patients head. Functional magnet resonance imaging (fMRI) of patients for pre-surgical evaluation and volunteers were acquired with motor (hand clenching and finger tapping), sensory (ice application), auditory (phonological and semantic word recognition task) and visual paradigms (mental rotation). For imaging we used different BOLD contrast sensitive Gradient Echo Planar Imaging (GE-EPI) single-shot pulse sequences (TR 2000 and 4000, 64 X 64 and 128 X 128, 15 - 40 slices) on a Philips Gyroscan NT 1.5 Tesla MR imager. All paradigms were RARARA (R equals rest, A equals activation) with an epoch width of 11 time points each. We used the self-organizing neural network implementation described by T. Kohonen with a 4 X 2 2D neuron map. The presented time course vectors were clustered by similar features in the 2D neuron map. Three neural networks were trained and used for labeling with the time course vectors of one, two and all three on/off epochs. The results were also compared by using a Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistical test of all 66 time points. To remove non- periodical time courses from training an auto-correlation function and bandwidth limiting Fourier filtering in combination with Gauss temporal smoothing was used. None of the trained maps, with one, two and three epochs, were significantly different which indicates that the feature space of only one on/off epoch is sufficient to differentiate between the rest and task condition. We found, that without pre-processing of the data no meaningful results can be achieved because of the huge amount of the non-activated and background voxels represents the majority of the features and is therefore learned by the SOM. Thus it is crucial to remove unnecessary capacity load of the neural network by selection of the training input, using auto-correlation function and/or Fourier spectrum analysis. However by reducing the time points to one rest and one activation epoch either strong auto- correlation or a precise periodical frequency is vanishing. Self-organizing maps can be used to separate rest and activation epochs of with only a 1/3 of the usually acquired time points. Because of the nature of the SOM technique, the pattern or feature separation, only the presence of a state change between the conditions is necessary for differentiation. Also the variance of the individual hemodynamic response function (HRF) and the variance of the spatial different regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) is learned from the subject and not compared with a fixed model done by statistical evaluation. We found that reducing the information to only a few time points around the BOLD effect was not successful due to delays of rCBF and the insufficient extension of the BOLD feature in the time space. Especially for patient routine observation and pre-surgical planing a reduced scan time is of interest.


Background Some studies have shown that low birth order is a risk factor for developing atopy, although these results remain inconclusive. Those studies put forth the hygiene hypothesis, which states that early childhood infections in siblings may protect against atopy. Hence, an inverse relationship between family numbers and atopy was found. Atopy may be diagnosed from a history of atopy in an individual or his family, and can be confirmed by specific IgE for allergens or positive skin prick tests. Objective To assess for an association between skin prick test reactivity in atopic children and their number of siblings. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in May to June 2010 in elementary school children at the Kampung Baru District, Medan Regency, North Sumatera. Subjects were divided into two groups. Group I had children with 3 siblings (75% and 53.1%, respectively; P=0.003). Conclusion Atopic children with 3 siblings.


In recent years, judicial districts have begun to place many of their public records on the Internet in searchable databases. Prior to Internet publication, sensitive material contained in court documents was protected by the phenomenon of "practical obscurity." Today, however, many of the documents are available online are exact replicas of the documents submitted to the courts—complete with social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, tax information, and the private details of many people's lives. With this information available at the click of a mouse, the government increase the risk of identity theft or other misuse of this sensitive information. In order to curb these problems, this Note urges legislatures to enact statutes prohibiting the online publication of personally identifying information. These statuses, though, should place a burden on lawyers, and not the courts, to remove this information from court documents. Such legislation should help curb the amount of personal information on the Internet while holding attorneys responsible for safeguarding the interests of their own clients.


Discrimination in rate making commonly based on three principles. — Rates should conform to long-period normal values, 43. — Composite demand or joint supply are involved, 44. — The case of composite demand explained; overhead should be apportioned equally to all classes of service, 46. — The case of joint supply explained; overhead should be apportioned according to demand, 53. — How this principle can be applied in practice, 60.


supported by the Comprehensive Risk Analysis and Management Network (CRN) This report presents the findings of the 6th International Expert Workshop on "Societal Security and Crisis Management in the 21st Century", held in Stockholm, Sweden, on April 22–24, 2004. The report documents the changes in national security concepts and provides new models and concepts for redistributing responsibilities and funding for dealing with the challenges of the 21st century.


This is a response to the commentary "English Proficiency Tests and Communication Skills Training for Overseas-Qualified Health Professionals in Australia and New Zealand" by Rosemary Wette, published in Language Assessment Quarterly, Volume 8, Issue 2, 2011.


Background: This article was based on the study on the assessment of evaluation capacity in the transport sector in South Africa. The purpose of the study was to test the Six Sphere Framework (SSF), which is an innovative evaluation capacity diagnostic tool developed by the Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results (CLEAR-AA) based in South Africa. Objectives: The article presents the findings emanating from the study and new knowledge on how evaluation capacity assessments can be conducted in the transport sector in South Africa. Method: A variety of methods including a survey, semi-structured interviews, document review and focus group discussions were used to collect data from primary and secondary sources. In all the cases, research questions were structured around the six components of the framework. Similarly, the presentation of the findings was arranged in themes that mirror these components. Results: The article locates the SSF within the current evaluation capacity development literature and argues that existing evaluation capacity assessment tools are inadequate to understand pertinent issues affecting the use of evidence in the transport sector in South Africa. Conclusion: In this regard, the framework is recommended as an innovative tool to assist evaluation practitioners and scholars to better understand evaluation capacity constraints within a broader context that involves logistical, technical, contextual, social and political dimensions. It also offers an important insight on how these components interfaced to shape the organisational value system that impacts the use of evidence in the transport sector in South Africa.


The field of literature is the field of mimesis. So that it occurs, an object suitable for depiction, a subject that performs it and a language that makes it viable as well as a reader to receive it are imperative. The object to be re-created can be real or virtual and the means for its re-creation is the word. Words aimed at reaching beyond the threshold of real. Throughout the times several forms of representation were created varying, in different ways, the diverse narrative instances. This variation has been attached to the concept of subject and the language usage possibilities that gained momentum at certain periods of art and literature. Clarice Lispector fits in this stream of history and tradition. The conspicuous rational individual subject, the "author" that begins to be outlined in the transition to modernity had, generally speaking, a transparent language as a tool in order to reveal the landscape that unfolded before his eyes. These poles have become more complex through the centuries notwithstanding. The subject showed himself decentralized and fragmented, unknown to his own self. Who narrates? Words had become suspicious. Putting it in words is to annihilate the object? Would it be better to gag what cannot be said? The object showed its opacity and oddness. What would be fitting for depiction? These are the questions – highlighted in this work – that animate Clarice's oeuvre, notably in her last novels: The stream of life [Água viva], The hour of the star [A hora da estrela] and A breath of life [Um sopro de vida]. The very format of contemporary novel goes parallel and feeds itself on these queries. The structurally classical novel – that envisaged rendering the subjective universe of the individual hero that is born with modernity – was shaken in its rock-steady foundations. A composing manner, which not only continuously intertwines character and narrator and author but also makes use of silence as a vanishing point for the narrative framework as a vortex that seems to drag the writing's own movement, becomes more acute. The fictional pact alters itself, the silence and word play brings itself to light – central points in the novels analyzed that will be focused through the literature/psychoanalysis interface.


1:1 CONCERTS is a performance initiative where a listener and a musician share a ten-minute, non-verbal musical encounter in a non-traditional performance space. The authors conducted a survey and focus groups with musicians, listeners and 'hosts' (facilitators) of 1:1 CONCERTS
 in Australia, seeking perspectives on their experiences of the Concerts during the COVID-19 pandemic. David Camlin's three dimensions of music ‐ aesthetic/presentational, praxial/participatory and social ‐ served as a framework for data analysis. The intimate locational
 and musical aspects of the encounter generated feelings of connection, privilege and pleasure for many participants; for some, COVID-19 lockdowns, social distancing and live-arts deprivation heightened those feelings. We argue that while 1:1 CONCERTS retain presentational features typical
 of western classical music concerts, the model emphasizes the praxial and social dimensions of music-making, prioritizing process as well as product in ways relevant for music and music-making as a social resource, well beyond the pandemic.


The importance of Dr. Guillaume's work for the study of prophecy lies in his intimate knowledge of Arabic literature and thought. He accepts the normal contrast between the two types of religion represented in Israelite history, and seeks for parallels with Hebrew prophecy in both Mesopotamia and Arabia. It can hardly be said that the quest is successful ; the ' ' ecstatic ' elements certainly to be found in Islam cannot be shown to


ABSTRACT Supramolecular organised materials were prepared from nonionic surfactants and the following macrocyclic ionic liquids: n-tert-butylthiacalix[4]arenes containing quaternary ammonium fragments with amino acid substituents. Tetraethylene glycol monododecyl ether and decadiethylene glycol monododecyl ether were used as nonionic surfactants. They form lamellar and hexagonal mesophases in aqueous media, respectively. Liquid crystal and structural properties of these systems were studied. Intermolecular interactions of system components leading to formation of lyomesophases were estimated. Molecular structure of thiacalixarene contributes to the formation of a hydrogen bonding with surfactants. This process, in turn, initiates formation of a denser packed hexagonal structure. Graphical Abstract


The economic importance of wheat diseases in Australia was estimated in 1988 (Brennan and Murray 1989), 1998 (Brennan and Murray 1998) and 2008 (Murray and Brennan 2009). The value of wheat and area sown has changed over time, but the expression of yield losses as a percentage of the production enables comparisons between surveys (Table 1). Estimates were made for the northern (central and northern NSW plus Qld), southern (southern NSW, Victoria and SA) and western (WA) grain growing regions of Australia. Five key diseases, reported to increase in prevalence with the adoption of CA, have all steadily risen in their importance across all three regions (Table 1). The cereal root disease Take-all (Gaeumannomyces tritici) has generally declined in estimated importance over time. This may reflect the intensification of cropping over this period which has seen a reduction in the area of annual grass-legume pastures. The grass component in ley pastures is known to significantly contribute to elevated levels of take-all in following cereal crops as they serve as an alternate host for the causal pathogen (MacLeod et al. 1993).


Refi ning of petroleum and gas condensate with output of once-run fractions is one of the well-studied and proven technologies. Nevertheless, permanent clamping down of quality standards for once-run fractions make toll manufacturers look for fresh engineering solutions, which will rise competitive advantages of fi nal products. At that, special attention is paid to elimination of injurious additives amount. High concentrations of theses additives could both negatively affect the price of products, and limit the access of a vendor to the global market. The paper reveals few state-of-art technologies aimed at refi ning of gas condensate with hyperconcentrations of mercury using a fractioning plant in the Novatek – Ust-Luga LLC.


A n unprecedented push to coordinate biobanks in Europe is moving closer to completion, a project trumpeted as enabling researchers to discover cancer treatments more quickly by harnessing data from millions of biological samples. The Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI) wrapped up its 3-year preparatory phase in January, funded by a € 5 million grant from the European Union. The project recruited 270 associated organizations, mostly biobanks, potentially linking 20 million biological samples in 33 countries. A dozen charter member countries , including France and Italy, have raised another € 150 million to fi nance their biobanks ' participation as implementation of the project begins this year, according to BBMRI.


A completely inactive renin precursor was found in hog kidney extract and was separated by two cycles of pepstatin-aminohexyl-agarose or Affi-Gel Blue column from active renin and its active higher molecular weight form (M1-= 50,000-63,000). This inactive renin had no alfinity for pepstatin, but gained this affinity after trypsin activation. The trypsin activated form of inactive renin was completely inhibited by antibodies raised against pure hog renin. In addition, this inactive renin could also be completely activated by trypsin even after acidification at pH 3.2. The molecular weight of inactive renin shifted from 43,000i 1,500 to 41,000 :1: 1,400 daltons after trypsin activation. After trypsin activation, inactive renin was able to bind the renin binding protein in hog kidney extract to form a high molecular weight renin (Mr=60,000), although it had not been able to do so before activation. These results show that the inactive renin found in the present study is different not only from active renin or acid-activatable form of renin but also from its active higher molecular weight forms found previously by other investigators.


A design for a birefringent dispersion prism is proposed in this paper and polarized dispersion is analyzed when white light passes through a birefringent prism or wollaston prism.


Failure management is a key component in the attempt to provide a reliable environment. This article proposes a solution to increase the reliability of distributed systems based on the Chord Peer-to-Peer overlay. our solution is aimed at providing accurate failure information about the nodes in the system. This is a very difficult task in Peer-to-peer networks due to their dynamic nature and the inability to obtain reliable data from failure detectors. We propose a failure history service used to share failure information between peer-to-peer nodes. This novel service ensures that the information about the current state of a node, as well as its failure history, is as accurate as possible even when facing a large number of node failures. This solution aims to increase the reliability of distributed systems based on the Chord peer-to-peer overlay by providing accurate data which can be used to analyze failures over time.


In recent studies, a simple non-coherent communications' scheme based on energy detection is proposed for massive single-input multiple-output systems, where transmit symbols are decoded by averaging the received signal energy across all antennas. In this paper, we investigate the effect of correlated Rayleigh fading on the performance of the aforementioned systems. Specifically, we derive the analytical expressions of the symbol error rate, achievable rate, and outage probability. Furthermore, the asymptotic behaviors of these expressions in regimes of large numbers of receive antennas, high channel correlation, and high signal-to-noise ratio are investigated. The analytical results demonstrate the adverse impact of channel correlation on the error probability, which can be attributed to the fact that channel correlation reduces the degrees of freedom. Our analysis also shows that channel correlation poses little influence on the achievable rate. Besides, an upper bound of the achievable rate is given when the number of receive antennas goes to infinity. Finally, the numerical results are presented to verify our analysis.


Weed Science is facing two critical challenges. They are funding and interdisciplinary research, which to some extent are intertwined, but I will attempt to discuss them separately. Although some of my remarks may be critical of weed scientists let me say at the outset that the main reason we have these two challenges is because we have been highly successful, thanks to our visionary and dedicated scientists over the years. We have stayed ahead of the curve and have done too good a job. I would like to point out here that contrary to the beliefs of many outside our profession, we do more than spray and pray. We are ahead of the curve because we have conducted extensive and intensive research on application technology, formulations, environmental impacts, metabolism, mode of action, tillage practices, and many other areas.


In this paper, we present an ultrasensitive reflection-type optical refractive index (RI) sensor with rotatory biased weak measurement. In our scheme, based on the optical rotatory dispersion effect, a bias phase is introduced by the postselection process. The bias phase without dispersion effect makes stronger postselection and smaller coupling strength accessible. Experimentally, our scheme obtains an enhanced sensitivity of 13605 nm/RIU while detecting fewer photons, which can effectively alleviate the saturation effect of the detector. We demonstrate a RI resolution of 1.8×10 RIU. With response model and noise analysis of the CCD detector, we show that the performance of the RI sensor depends mainly on the long-time correlated noise of the light source and detector, and prove that our scheme gains advantages due to its high sensitivity. An ultimate resolution of 10 RIU can be attained for our system.


The thesis discusses some difficulties involved in teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Japanese universities and proposes cooperative learning techniques as a partial solution to these problems. This recommendation is supported by a selective review of the literature on group work in second language teaching and research on the negotiation of meaning in second language acquisition. Results of a study conducted in a Japanese university show that cooperative learning groups outperformed individual learners on many measures and performed equally well on others. The thesis concludes with specific recommendations for the use of cooperative learning techniques in EFL classrooms in Japan. (Author/KM) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** An Application of Cooperative Learning to Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Japan A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY


In the United States, the relationship between education and political participation in the cross-section is well known: better educated people tend to be the types that get involved in politics. Extant theories suggest that this relationship exists because (1) people who are better educated have more of the skills they need to do the work of political participation (Verba, Schlozman and Brady, 1995) and (2) people who are better educated are more likely to know other political actors, i.e. they have higher status in the kinds of social networks that matter for political involvement (Nie, Junn and Stehlik-Barry, 1996; Rosenstone and Hansen, 1993; Huckfeldt, 1979).


Wepresentherea collection ofDNAsequence analysis programs, called "PCSequence" (PCS),whichare designed to run on theIBMPersonal Computer (PC).Theseprograms are writtenin IBMPC compiled BASICandtakefull advantage oftheIBMPC'sspeed, error handling, andgraphics capabilities. For a modestinitial expense in hardware any laboratory can use these programs to quicklyperformcomputeranalysis on DNAsequences. Theyare writtenwiththenoviceuser inmindandrequire very littletraining or previousexperience withcomputers.Alsoprovided are a textediting program forcreating andmodifying DNAsequence filesanda communications program whichenablesthePC to communicate withandcollectinformation frommainframe computers andDNAsequencedatabases.


Influential citizens of the French city of Lyon embraced the cause of expansion during the nineteenth century. Religious zeal led to the founding of the Oeuvre de la Propagation de la Foi during the Restoration, and local Catholics continued to lend fervent support to overseas missionary endeavors. But even when the religious impulse towards expansion stood at its zenith, the Lyonnais did not overlook the more concrete advantages to be secured through the acquisition of Algeria and the opening of China to Western trade. Economic motivation took on far more importance during the second half of the century when the devastation of French sericulture by pebrine forced the magnates of the silk industry, the most important local industry and the only French industry dominant in the international market, to look elsewhere for new supplies of raw silk. The Far East, the world's greatest silk-producing region, became the focus of attention, and the Lyon Chamber of Commerce, the most effective local organization devoted to the cause of imperialism, supported the opening of Japan, called for the wringing of new concessions from China, and backed the acquisition and development of Indochina. Just as within the larger pattern of French municipal imperialism the business communities of Bordeaux and Marseille acquired vital stakes in West Africa and North Africa, so also Lyon's business community came to play a pivotal role in French undertakings in Eastern Asia where the Lyonnais soon pushed their activities beyond the confines of the all-important silk trade.


Along with gas field thorough development,some gas wells start to produce formation water.These problems have seriously affected the entire factory regular production.In this paper,through analyzing various factors to affect separation effect of separators,some improvement suggestions were put forward.


Abstract The rapid increase in offshore oil and gas production has intensified the need for a pipe material that will stand up in coastal waters and marshes. Corrosion problems are severe; steel pi...


This paper illustrates the use of discrete-choice analysis, a nonmarket valuation technique, for assessing the effect of different management or fishing site quality variables on demand for urban fisheries. The study was carried out in three fishing ponds that are a part of the Close-to-Home Fishing Program in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. We found that, on average, anglers were willing to pay more for physical infrastructure improvements, such as flush toilets ($3.81/year) and docks ($1.28/year), than for having larger channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus stocked ($0.23/year for a 4-in increase). Willingness to pay for improvements to the ponds was less for minority anglers than for other anglers. Having relative values for potential management changes for a fishery helps to inform fisheries managers about what characteristics are valued most by anglers, allowing managers to better serve the anglers' interest and to justify the costs of implementing these changes.


On a summer evening in 1957 Robert Piatt* asked me if I would be willing to accept the vacant office of Treasurer of the College. Early next morning I ftiet him on the steps of the Athenaeum?an appropriate place because the old College was very much a part of that world?and, with some hesitation, said yes; never dreaming that this would involve me as custodian of the fabric in the planning, building, furnishing and running of the new College building. This was first occupied ten years ago and the Editor has asked me to consider how far the new building has fulfilled its purpose as seen by its College planners; and to ask how far the building actually given us by the architect, which clearly far exceeded the ideas of those planners, may have contributed to the changes that have taken place in the College in the last ten years. But first let me put on record some facts that may be in danger of being forgotten. In 1957, the Treasurer, the Registrar, the Assistant Registrar and the Secretary were crowded into the small book-lined room adjoining the Censors Room (well remembered by older Fellows and Members as the place where they awaited the verdict of the notorious final viva and, if successful, were immediately relieved of a cheque). The four large desks were already strewn with plans for a modest extension upwards of the existing building, however inadequate such an extension must needs have proved.


Microsphere,as a potential formulation with wide application in pharmaceutical field,has developed rapidly in recent years.It has particular advantages in cancer treatment,bacterin immunity and protein administration for its specific characteristics.In this paper,the clinical application of microsphere in terms of targeting or un-targeting administration was reviewed,and its current problems which limited its applications and the corresponding solutions were also introduced briefly.


The prevalence of hypertension (HTN) is two‐fold higher in low birth weight (LBW) women at age 60 relative to normal birth weight (NBW) counterparts. Yet, the mechanisms that contribute to greater cardiovascular risk (CVR) in LBW women are unknown. Previous studies from our laboratory demonstrate that intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) programs persistent estrus and a significant increase in circulating testosterone (T) and blood pressure (BP) in female Sprague Dawley (SD) IUGR rats at 12 months of age. Androgen receptor (AR) blockade abolishes HTN in female IUGR at 12 months of age indicating a role for the AR in the etiology of age‐dependent HTN in female IUGR. We previously reported that ovariectomy (OVX) at 10 weeks of age has no effect on BP or T levels in NBW (control) SD rats at 4 months of age. However, OVX at 10 months of age induces a significant increase in BP and T in SD controls compared to intact SD controls by 12 months of age. However, the importance of T in OVX‐induced HTN, a model of menopausal HTN, is not known. We tested the hypothesis that OVX‐induced HTN in female SD rats in later life is T dependent. Rats underwent sham (intact) or OVX at 10 months of age followed by vehicle or flutamide, an AR antagonist (8mg/kg/day, SC at 12 months of age for two weeks). Total fat and lean mass were measured via Echo MRI pre‐OVX and after treatment (Paired T‐test). BP was measured in conscious, chronically catheterized rats following treatment (2way ANOVA; Tukey's multiple comparison). BP was increased in vehicle OVX control relative to vehicle intact control (137±3 vs.129±3 mmHg, respectively). However, BP did not differ upon comparison of flutamide OVX control versus vehicle OVX control (140±7 mmHg) suggesting that OVX‐induced increase in BP in control rats does not involve a role for the AR. As observed previously, BP was not further elevated by OVX in IUGR. Furthermore, BP was decreased by 19 mmHg in flutamide intact IUGR relative to vehicle intact IUGR. Yet, BP was decreased by only 10 mmHg in flutamide OVX IUGR versus vehicle OVX IUGR suggesting that the importance of the AR in BP control may differ in ovarian intact IUGR versus ovarian deficient IUGR. OVX induced an increase in total fat mass, but attenuation of the OVX‐induced increase in total fat mass by flutamide was specific to IUGR (Table). Therefore, this study indicates that the AR contributes to enhanced CVR in female IUGR regardless of ovarian status, but not in OVX control SD rats.


I n his Letters of Advice to his Son, Britain's Lord Chesterfield wrote: The world can doubtless never be well known by theory: practice is absolutely necessary; but surely it is of great use to a young man, before he sets out for that country, full of mazes, wind-ings, and turnings, to have at least a general map of it, made by some experienced traveler. The Earl of Chesterfield saw the world as being analogous to a confusing maze, and sought to offer some direction to his son on how best to deal with the twists and turns of London's politics and high society. The analogy of the maze can just as aptly be applied to critical care research and practice. Although the terms maze and labyrinth are often used interchangeably, they refer to very different items. 2,3 Mazes are multicursal; they contain multiple potential paths, including dead ends. Labyrinths are unicursal, with a single path that leads to the center. Mazes and labyrinths both have ancient origins and both have become popular activities in contemporary culture. However, their objectives and strategies are different. In a maze, the goal is to find one's way through the confusion of multiple paths to an exit, often with the added objective of finding the shortest or quickest route. In a labyrinth, the goal is to calmly follow the path that has been prescribed to reach the center. The walls of a maze are usually high enough to prevent visualization of the paths and exit. It is easy to feel lost in a maze, but a maze also offers challenges and thrills that the labyrinth does not. Alternately , with a bit of faith in the labyrinth's design, a participant can find it a calming and thought provoking experience. Interestingly, in colloquial terms, mazes are " run, " whereas labyrinths are " walked. " Running the Maze Mazes have a long history as important model systems for studies of cognition, stress, and anxiety. The idea of " a rat in a maze " is ingrained in our culture , and serves as a metaphor for seeking one's way out of a difficult problem. On some days providing care to a critically ill patient can seem like the most complex maze, filled with wrong turns, dead ends, and frustration. On such days even the most insightful and experienced nurse can feel like a lab rat …


The foot fault scoring system of the ladder rung walking test is used to assess walking adaptability in rodents. However, the reliability of the ladder rung walking test foot fault score has not been properly investigated. This study was designed to address this issue.Two independent and blinded raters analyzed 20 rat and 20 mice videos. Each video was analyzed twice by the same rater (80 analyses per rater). The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and the Kappa coefficient were employed to check the accuracy of agreement and reliability in the intra- and inter-rater analyses of the ladder rung walking test outcomes. Excellent intra- and inter-rater agreement was found for the forelimb, hindlimb and both limbs combined in rats and mice. The agreement level was also excellent for total crossing time, total time stopped and number of stops during the walking path. Rating individual scores in the foot fault score system (0 to 6) ranged from satisfactory to excellent, in terms of the intraclass correlation indexes. Moreover, we showed experienced and inexperienced raters can obtain reliable results if supervised training is provided. We conclude the ladder rung walking test is a reliable and useful tool to study walking adaptability in rodents and can help researchers address walking-related neurobiological questions.


Objective:To determine nootkatone and yakuchinone A in the fruits of Alpinia oxyphylla Miq.at 5 to 65 day growth phase by RP-HPLC.Methods: The chromatographic separation was achieved with a Phenomenex Gemini C6-phenyl analytical column(250 mm×4.6 mm,5 μm) by gradient elution with acetonitrile(A) and water(B) [0-15 min,A-B(30∶ 70);16-50 min,A-B(30∶ 70)→A-B(44∶ 56);51-60 min,A-B(44∶ 56);61-65 min,A-B(44∶ 56)→A-B(70∶ 30)] as the mobile phase,with a flow rate at 1.0 mL·min-1.Detection was carried out at 240 nm.Results: The linearities of nootkatone and yakuchinone A were 0.06-2.03 μg(r=0.9999) and 0.004-1.14 μg(r=0.9995),respectively.The average recoveries by the method were 97.53% and 98.31%.The contents of the two compounds showed a stable tendency after 55 days during the growth phase.Conclusion: The result can provide a scientific reference for the harvest time of the fruits of A.oxyphylla.