Spontaneous age‐dependent epithelial cell hyperplasia occurs in the lateral and dorsal, but not the ventral, lobes of aging Brown Norway (BN) rats. Diminished antioxidant enzyme activities and increased formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) promote the pathology of many aging disorders. We investigated the hypothesis that prostatic epithelial cell hyperplasia in the BN rat was related to age‐dependent and/or lobe‐specific changes in superoxide dismutase (SOD).


Premarital Prediction of Marital Quality or Breakup: Research, Theory, and Practice. Thomas B. Holman. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. 2001. 328 pp. ISBN 0-306-- 46326-1. $54.50 (hardback). In this book, Thomas B. Holman presents research from a series of studies conducted with a large database that he and his colleagues have been working on since 1987. In many ways the book reads like a monograph. In Chapter 1 he reviews the literature on the prediction of marital quality and marital dissolution by premarital factors and presents a general model of marital quality based on premarital predictors. Chapter 2 is a description of the sample, the methods, and the variables. Chapter 3 is a summary of results using marital dissolution as the outcome variable. Chapters 4-7 are the results that use relationship quality as the criterion variable. The predictor variables employed in these chapters are family of origin (Chapter 4), individual characteristics (Chapter 5), social context (Chapter 6), and premarital interactional processes (Chapter 7). Chapter 8 is a set of four other longitudinal studies derived from a different data set. Finally, Chapter 9 is a discussion of the results, which includes the implications of these findings for couples interventions. By focusing on premarital predictors of the development of marital discord, Holman answers a call in the marital literature to more carefully examine courtship and engagement (e.g., Noller & Feeney, 1998; Stanley, Markman, St. Peters, & Leber, 1995). Unfortunately, there are methodological flaws in the research that limit its value to researchers and clinicians. Many of these would need to be addressed before these studies could be published in peer-reviewed journals. One of the most striking features of the data presented in the book is the composition of the sample. Over 75% of the sample indicated they were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (i.e., Mormon), and over 95% of the sample is Caucasian. These numbers severely limit the generalizability of these data outside the state of Utah (according to the 2000 census Utah is 91.2% White, and, according to the Mormon church, Utah is approximately 73% Mormon). Holman acknowledges the reader may be concerned about the high percentage of Mormon representation in the study and suggests that Mormons and non-- Mormons tend not to behave differently in their marriage. However, he indicates that there are differences in courtship behaviors and attitudes, with Mormons emphasizing the importance of marriage and premarital sexual abstinence more than non-- Mormon counterparts. Although Holman writes that the composition of the sample is the "Achilles heel" of the book, it would help the reader who is not familiar with Mormon religion and culture to understand the external validity of the research if there were more data and discussion of the sample and how it may differ with more religiously and ethnically diverse populations. …


The N-body problem is a classical famous problem which has attracted a lot of attention. It consists of describing the complete behavior of all solutions of the equations of motions for a given initial condition. Still related to this kind of problem Euler in 1772 describe the three-body problem in his eort to study the motion of the moon. Later on Jacobi in 1836 brought forward the main mathematical interest in an even more specic part of the three body problem, namely the one which is reduced to a conservative two degrees of freedom problem. This has somehow brought up an extensive study on mechanics. Despite of all this eort of great mathematicians, in general the N-body problem for N> 2 is still unsolved.


2Department of Midwifery, Poltekkes Kemenkes Surabaya, Indonesia; firstname.lastname@example.com

ABSTRACT

One of the efforts made to improve the knowledge, skills and competence of midwives is the Midwifery Update training. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of midwifery update training on increasing knowledge of midwives in midwifery services. The study design was a post-test only control group design. The population consisted of an experimental group of 41 people and a control group of 41 people. The experimental group had the midwifery update training in 2019, while the control group was midwives who had never attended midwifery update training in 2019. The experimental group and the control group were selected by using cluster sampling technique after that the sample selection used simple random sampling. Data analysis was used independent samples t -test. The mean knowledge results of the midwifery update group that had never attended midwifery update training was 55.11, while the mean knowledge results of the midwifery update group knowledge was 75.19. Based on the independent t-test, it was found that the t-count results were -8,987 with a p-value of 0.000 (<0.05), so there was a difference of knowledge between midwives who had not attended training and had attended training. As the conclusion, the midwifery update training is effective in increasing the knowledge of midwives so that midwives are required to take part in the midwifery update training.

Keywords: training; midwifery update; knowledge


ICNIRP was formed in 1992. In 1998 ICNIRP published its thermal (heating and shock) guidelines. These have been widely criticized for rejecting evidence of adverse health effects at sub-thermal or biological and cancer levels. Many scientists now feel that, unless ICNIRP adopts appropriate biological guidelines, it should be disbanded or its membership should be replaced by those who accept biological evidence. Such scientists could be drawn from the authors of the BioInitiative Report in 2007 or the International Commission for Electromagnetic Safety (ICEMS) or the many medical doctors who have petitioned governments to set new standards, along with the many other concerned scientists around the world who argue that to protect the human race it is essential to have biological and cancer safety guidelines.


A localization algorithm for wireless sensor networks is proposed based on the analysis of range-free coarse-grained centroid algorithm.The proposed algorithm improves localized nodes ratio by multihop centroid calculating,and improves localization accuracy by decentralizing process and signal strength-weighting process.The simulation results show that the average localization error will be reduced to about a half and the localized node ratio will be increased to near 1 under low node density,compared to the original centriod algorithm.


This article is about 'an-other' technique into the Individualizing examination of a case of disease (after following the guidelines of the Organon). It is the integration (according to my understanding) of *Footnote 9 to aphorism 16 of the 6th edition of the Organon of Hahnemann: "Most severe disease may be produced by sufficient disturbance of the vital force through the imagination and also cured by the same means" and *Carl C. Jung's techniques of (Dream) Active Imagination and Amplification.


The utility model discloses a blocking and dredging structure for debris flow prevention in the field of water conservancy and hydropower engineering. The blocking and dredging structure mainly comprises porous dams and a comb dam in a riverway. The porous dams are provided with through holes and are arranged in a classified mode, and sizes of the through holes in the porous dams gradually decrease from the upstream to the downstream. The comb dam is located at the downstream of the porous dams, and a high-position water inlet tower is arranged at an opening of a water drainage hole. The blocking and dredging structure has the advantages that as the multiple porous dams in which the through holes gradually decrease, object sources are blocked in a classified mode and are convenient to clear, the comb dam can dredge river and take away the object sources in water, and finally influences of debris flow on the water drainage hole can be further prevented. The prevention method combining blocking and dredging is adopted in the whole blocking and dredging structure, and therefore the problems that the object sources are difficult to dredge in valleys due to the object sources are abundant in the valleys, influences are severe and other problems are effectively solved; the blocking and dredging structure has the advantage that silt can stay in the valleys and other advantages.


Saprolegnia parasitica and Aphanomyces astaci are parasitic water moulds belonging to the Oomycetes. Despite their importance as parasites they are very little studied at the molecular level and th ...


A DIARIST OF THE SIEGE of Lathom thus recorded the Parliamentarian summons. By the second half of 1643 Parliamentarian troops held the whole of Lancashire with the exception of Greenhalgh, and the Earl of Derby's seat of Lathom House, a large building with towers, turrets, and battlements situated near Ormskirk and governed by the Earl's wife, Charlotte, in his absence. As the Earl was one of the leading Royalist commanders in the North of England and prominent in Lancashire, Lathom House was an obvious magnet for the King's sympathizers and therefore a target for the Parliamentarians. As head of the household at Lathom, Countess Charlotte had responsibilities as military commander loyal to the King (a traditionally masculine function), wife, and mother. The combination of these roles caused controversy during the 1640s and historiographical debate ever since. Both friendly and hostile contemporaneous authors merged the issues of religion and gender to produce their own versions of the siege itself and the wider world around them. The siege lasted for three months, but Countess Charlotte's own political views and attitudes were not extinguished afterwards. Her conduct during the siege and belligerent behaviour towards the Interregnum regimes coloured her dealings with those government officials she had to contact in order, for example, to negotiate an income. Modern historians have not appreciated that Countess Charlotte's activities during the 1640s and 1650s do not simply represent her brief acquisition of a taste for military command. They are also the expression of her own attitudes and feelings towards the political, social, and religious changes of the times. However, before Countess Charlotte's role is assessed, it is necessary to examine the events of 1644.


The impact of communication technologies, such as telephone and mobile phone, on travel behaviour have been studied extensively in the Nigeria urban environment, while the rural areas have been insufficiently studied. This study therefore explores, using data from 246 sampled respondents from ten rural settlement, the impacts of mobile phone on rural travel behaviour in Ijesaland, Southwestern Nigeria, particularly within the realm of the four popular telecommunication propositions of substitution, inducement, complementarities and neutrality. The analysis suggests that the impacts of the mobile phones on travel behaviour in rural areas are complex and dependent on the trip purposes. Furthermore, results also shows that the neutrality impact of mobile phone on travel behaviour is insignificant. The implications of these findings therefore are that with the improvement and subsequent increases in the provision of mobile phone facilities, connections and services in rural areas, the problem of immobility and poverty associated with poor transport infrastructure and services in the rural areas will ultimately be improved.


Theorizations on the factors affect the social identification processes Author: Juan_Jose Villalon_Ogayar Current knowledge of the social identification process requires taking into account the social experience of individuals in relation to the basic social institutions, as well as controlling how the evolution and transformation of social experiences influence each one of the analytical dimensions of the social identification process. The relationship between social experience and identific...


EuTiO3 (ETO) has recently experienced a significant revival of interest because of its possible multiferroic properties, which are currently the focus of much research. Unfortunately, ETO is an unlikely candidate for enlarged multifunctionality since the mode softening—typical of ferroelectrics—remains incomplete, and the antiferromagnetic properties appear only at 5.5 K. However, a strong coupling between lattice and Eu spins exists and this leads to the appearance of a magnon–phonon-hybrid mode at elevated temperatures as evidenced by EPR, muon spin relaxation experiments and model predictions based on a coupled spin-polarizability Hamiltonian. This novel finding supports the notion of strong magneto-dielectric effects being realized in ETO and opens up new strategies in material design and technological applications.


In this paper, the effect of feeder cable on the nonlinear voltage distribution among the stator windings of a PWM inverter fed induction motor is discussed. The feeder cable-induction motor model is developed in ATP, the PC version of EMTP to simulate the nonlinear voltage distribution among the turns and coils of the motor windings during PWM wave fronts. The high frequency equivalent circuit parameters of the cable are calculated using the Cable Constants routine in ATP and those of the motor are computed using finite element analysis. The model developed can be used to simulate the various types and configurations of cables, the effects of rise-time of the wave front, and terminal filters on the voltage distribution. Simulation results obtained show that though the terminal voltage doubles during the switching transient, the voltage distribution among the turns of the line end coil does not change appreciably with the introduction of feeder cable between the inverter and the motor.


An ensured supply of drinking water is a major purpose of water reservoirs. The input and accumulation of sediments and nutrients in the reservoir body can cause strong growth of algae and cyanobacteria which leads to significant quality-related use restrictions. Continuous monitoring of the reser-voir water quality can help to indicate such trends at an early stage. Small and lightweight cameras are promising to be used on UAV platforms as close range remote sensing system of water reservoirs. We present the set up of such a monitoring system which main elements are a hyperspectral camera and a thermal infrared imaging sensor on a UAV and show first results from a field campaign at the Passauna reservoir close to Curitiba, Brazil.


The invention relates to a method for operating a brake system (10) of a vehicle (1), wherein the braking system (10) at least one a wheel (2, 3, 4, 5) of the vehicle (1) assigned braking device (6, 7, 8 , 9), which is fed for applying a braking force to the wheel (2, 3, 4, 5) is provided, and the brake fluid from a master cylinder (11), and (a cross section adjustment member, and a latch 12) (with the braking device 6, 7, 8, 9) connected to the conveyor (13), wherein to reduce the braking force the brake fluid from the brake device (6, 7, 8, 9) controlled by the cross section adjustment and / or regulated in the buffer (12) released and using the conveyor (13) into the master brake cylinder (11) can be promoted. It is provided that the discharge of the brake fluid from the brake device (6, 7, 8, 9) of the brake system (10) at least temporarily takes place with a discharge flow rate which is greater than the maximum volume flow of the conveying device (13), and a given upon occurrence operating state of the braking system (10) of the exhaust volume flow is reduced. The invention further relates to a brake system (10) of a vehicle (1).


Abstract Since the pioneer work by H. Cramér, the asymptotic estimate of ruin probabilities has been extensively investigated by many researchers. Under heavy-tailed claims, Lin (2012, Insurance: Mathematics and Economics 51 (2):422–429) established the second order asymptotics for the ruin probabilities of the ordinary renewal risk model. In this paper, we extends the corresponding result in Lin (2012, Insurance: Mathematics and Economics 51 (2):422–429) to the case of the delayed renewal risk model.


RadioisotopiC techniques are potentially of considerable value to clinical pharmacology. Scintigrams and uptake studies are of particular interest, as they permit one to visualize lesions in many organs and to obtain simultaneously quantitative information on the degree of abnormality in the area of the lesion. Bone metastases take up increased amounts of fluorine‐18; the present study was an investigation of the effect of therapy on this abnormal uptake. In eight patients with metastatic lesions to bone, chemotherapy or hormonal therapy produced temporary improvement in five, as ;udged by roentgenographic or clinical criteria, during the first four months after initiation of therapy. Serial scintigrams and quantitative uptake studies throughout this period showed that the abnormal ratio in fluorine uptake remained unchanged, despite the other evidence of emporary regression of metastases. Although the duration of time chosen for this study was consistent with that commonly used by physicians for evaluation of the effect of a given type of chemotherapy, our results suggest that such short‐term studies must be interpreted cautiously.


We would like to thank Labate et al. (2022) for their commentary on our article on epistemic injustices against Indigenous Peoples in the biomedical study of ayahuasca (Schenberg & Gerber, 2022). Given the multifaceted and multidisciplinary approach necessary to improve knowledge, practices, and regulation of ayahuasca use, we need constructive criticism from diverse fi elds including anthropology, policy, law, biomedicine, philosophy, and soci-ology, among others. Epistemic injustices are only unethical, also " epistemically


Reciprocating compressors generate vibrations caused by pulsation-induced forces, mechanical (unbalanced) free forces and moments, crosshead guide forces and cylinder stretch forces. The traditional way of mitigating the vibration and cyclic stress levels to avoid fatigue failure of parts of the reciprocating compressor system (piping, separators, dampers, and compressor) is to stiffen the structures by e.g. the installation of additional pipe supports or steel structures. This is becoming more and more challenging because compressor speeds are increased, resulting in higher frequencies to be mitigated. Higher frequencies require stiffer structures which is often not possible because the available space and the absence of stiff structures in the vicinity is limited. This is especially the case for high elevated pipe systems, e.g. the pipe between the separator and suction damper. At mechanical resonance, the damping ratio determines the amplitude of the vibration: more damping decreases the vibration and cyclic stress amplitude leading to lower fatigue failures. Mitigating vibrations of rather low damped systems is possible by applying the concept of constrained layer damping (CLD). The technique has been used for decades in other industries such as the space and automotive industry, but is not often (if at all) used in reciprocating compressor systems up to now. Another way of mitigating vibrations is the application of a tuned mass damper (TMD) system which is often used in ships, building and bridges. The disadvantage of TMD systems is that fatigue failure of the TMD can occur if not damped sufficiently. This paper presents the investigative work performed on the potential of using CLD and a TMD for a U-pipe configuration and a pulsation damper. The application of CLD to increase the damping of the TMD to avoid fatigue failure of the TMD is also discussed into detail. Detailed, material characterization, FE calculations and design optimization has been performed, followed by experiments. By means of measurements it is shown that a large reduction in vibration and cyclic stress levels can be achieved. Reduction factors between 13 and 42 have been achieved with a TMD system and 20 for a CLD application. This paper explains the principle and optimized design of a CLD and damped TMD systems and will show the effectiveness for two different parts of existing reciprocating compressor systems.


Based on a critical review of previous work, this paper shows that prosodic phonology models do not account for all broken plurals in Arabic especially in the case of singular forms comprising two or more different plurals


In this paper, we present an effective online tube-based model predictive control (T-MPC) solution for autonomous driving that aims at improving the computational load while ensuring robust stability and performance in fast and disturbed scenarios. We focus on reformulating the non-linear original problem into a pseudo-linear problem by transforming the non-linear vehicle equations to be expressed in a Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) form. An scheme composed by a nominal controller and a corrective local controller is propossed. First, the local controller is designed as a polytopic LPV-H$_{\infty}$ controller able to reject external disturbances. Moreover, a finite number of accurate reachable sets, also called tube, are computed online using zonotopes taking into account the system dynamics, the local controller and the diturbance-uncertainty bounds considered. Second, the nominal controller is designed as an MPC where the LPV vehicle model is used to speed up the computational time while keeping accurate vehicle representation. Employing reachability theory with zonotopes, the MPC changes online its state and input constraints to ensure robust feasibility and stability under exhogenous disturbances. Finally, we test the presented scheme and compare the local controller performance against the LQR design as state of the art approach. We demonstrate its effectiveness in a disturbed fast driving scenario being able to reject strong exogenous disturbances and fulfilling imposed constraints at a very reduced computational cost.


feed, it is a process which results from a complex interaction of hormones. These hormones induce significant morphologic changes in the breast during pregnancy, initiate the secretion of milk, and maintain milk production.2,3 Prolactin appears to be the most important hormone involved in the onset and maintenance of lactation; however, other hormones, including estrogen and progesterone, are involved. Lactogenesis increases significantly in the postpartum period, when estrogen and progesterone levels decrease. The tactile stimulus to maternal nipples by the suckling infant prompts afferent impulses to effect the release of prolactin from the pituitary, which stimulates milk flow. Continued milk production requires a delicate interplay of prolactin and other hormones. Lactation may falter for a variety of reasons, including weak sucking on the part of the infant and maternal stress, infection, or fatigue.4 Metoclopramide has been used recently when lactation falters. It stimulates prolactin secretion and thereby enhances milk productjon _3>5+ The purpose of this report is


The first conductivity type layer and the nitride semiconductor element having an active layer 12 between the second conductivity type, an active layer 12, the nitride containing a well layer (1) and, Al made of a nitride semiconductor containing In and Al semiconductor by the barrier layer 2 made of a quantum well structure having at least, the laser device having excellent luminous efficiency in the short wavelength region can be obtained. It said well layer (1) is With this arrangement, it is possible to realize a light emitting device excellent in luminous efficiency in the short wavelength region of 380㎚.


The magnetic properties of Mn3−xCoxGa Heusler alloys exhibit a very interesting feature. While the Mn-rich alloys (x = 0.1−0.4) are similar to Mn3Ga as they crystallize in a tetragonally distorted variation of the Heusler structure and exhibit comparable hard-ferrimagnetic properties highly useful for spin-transfer torque applications, the Co-rich samples (x = 0.6–1) exhibit cubic Heusler structures, have soft-magnetic hysteresis loops, and follow the generalized Slater-Pauling curve indicating half-metallic ferrimagnetism. The Curie temperatures of all alloys are above 700 K allowing for high operating temperatures.


Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is characterized by sustained inflammatory processes in the gastrointestinal tract. One of the most threatening risks for IBD patients is the development of colorectal cancer, resulting from the chronic inflammatory state. Current IBD treatment presents limitations in safety and efficacy. As such, it is of paramount importance to find novel therapeutic strategies. The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of flavonoids are widely recognized. Flavonoids currently found in our daily diet are likely to yield biological actions at the gastrointestinal level, suggesting a potential protective effect in IBD. However, the number of studies concerning the effects of flavonoids on intestinal inflammation is limited. This chapter intends to summarize the known effects of flavonoids in the different phases of IBD inflammatory pathways, covering all the concerning available in vivo studies.


Within and beyond geography, there has been a growing concern in understanding how and why exclusion can occur within 'gay spaces', with a specific focus on Western Europe and North America. Heidi Nast's (2002 Queer patriarchies, queer racisms, international Antipode 34 874–909) work on the 'white queer patriarch' has taken this work further by exploring the multiple, interrelated, historical and contemporary factors that can lead to exclusion and exploitation. Despite growing interest surrounding South Africa's new liberal queer agenda, issues of contemporary exclusion among queer groups as a direct result of race and racism have remained relatively unexplored. By incorporating elements of Nast's schema, this article will examine the power that exists in the creation and framing of essentialistic 'white' and 'coloured' queer male subjects in Cape Town's gay village. These subjects will be shown to simultaneously draw on historical inequalities while also re-imagining them in contemporary settings to re-inscribe perceptions of classed and gendered difference. The creation of such inequitable subjects helps us understand how exclusion can become real and normalised within a space such as Cape Town's gay village in a way that draws on a history of material inequalities and discursive perceptions of race.


The human brain is regarded as the most important organ since it is in charge of memory, emotions, innovation, perception, receiving, and a plethora of different coordinating abilities of the body. If any growths begin to form in the brain, these key skills are profoundly harmed. This growth is classified into two types: primary tumors and metastatic tumors. The most well-known method for identifying brain illnesses is particularly challenging due to factors such as synaptic development, size, and structure of the brain. Artificial intelligence approaches are being utilized to assist specialists in detecting cancerous development and supporting their choices. As a result, the research concentrates around offering a method for classifying pictures as Tumor or No Tumor. To extract features, global and local thresholding approaches were used. Thepade SBTC (TSBTC) has been used to extract global features. Thepade SBTC (TSBTC) extracted features ranging from 2-Ary to 10-Ary for the dataset. The Niblack Thresholding approach is used as the local thresholding technique to extract the features. The characteristics retrieved globally and locally are combined. The Brain Tumor dataset utilized in the experiment was obtained from Kaggle. A total of 400 images were used, with 200 images belonging to the tumor category and 200 images belonging to the non-tumor category. The performance criteria used include accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. Unlike individual feature extraction algorithms, the fusion of extracted features employing global and local feature extraction techniques yields promising results. To classify images as Tumor or No-Tumor, a total of ten classifiers were implied, of which eight are individual machine learning classifiers, and two are ensemble classifiers. The eight machine learning classifiers are namely Bayes Net, Naïve Bayes, Multilayer Perceptron, Logistic Regression, Simple Logistic Regression, SVM, Random Forest, and Random Tree. The ensemble classifiers are Random Forest (RF) + Random Tree (RT) + Bayes Net and Random Forest(RF) + Random Tree(RT) + Multilayer Perceptron(MLP).


The reasonable deployment of the location of multi-sink in Wireless Sensor Networks(WSNs)is efficient to prolong the network lifetime.This paper at first establishes network lifetime models based on the WSNs with random distribution.Then the expression of the network lifetime is deduced.Furthermore,a placement algorithm named Region Density Firs(tRDF)is also proposed which makes us to determine the optimal place of the sink nodes easily.This algorithm is validated by a simulation test and the results show that it is effective to prolong the network lifetime.


Remarkable performance of the Frequency Response Analysis (FRA) technique in transformers' fault detection, structural similarity between transformers and electrical machines, and the importance of machines' condition monitoring are the main reasons for studying FRA in the electrical machines. In this paper, the application of the FRA method for electrical machines fault detection is investigated by experimental tests on a three-phase wound-rotor asynchronous machine. First, the effect of the rotor position on the sound and defective stator frequency responses is assessed under different circuit connections. Second, the applicability of the FRA for detection of the stator inter-turn and phase to phase short-circuit faults and insulation weaknesses is evaluated by considering fault resistance, location, and severity. Third, the best circuit connection for fault detection is determined. Finally, the performance of a wide range of statistical indices that are used for FRA results comparison is studied to find the best one. A new index for FRA interpretation is also introduced.


The article, published in the Indian journal Take On Art, examines the work of Common Culture and their photographic and video work.
The article is centred on a discussion between Grant Pooke and Common Culture, the British Photography, Film & Installation Collective about cultural politics, cultural creativity and the realities of effective and successful collaboration.


ABSTRACT This paper aims to establish a new statistical framework for measuring global flow of funds (GFF) based on its inherent mechanisms. It advances a previous theoretical discussion and develops a practical operational statistical matrix. Based on theoretical and practical possibilities the paper gets existing data from the International Investment Position, the Coordinated Direct Investment Survey, the Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey, and International Banking Statistics are integrated for measuring GFF. The main outcome is a prototype GFF matrix that includes stock data geographically disaggregated by country/region and selected financial instruments. The paper presents a GFF Matrix compiled with the pattern of 'Country vis-à-vis Country' matrix, and through using the GFF matrix to analyze the basic status, mutual relationship and existing problems between China, Japan, and the United States in the external financial positions.


The article describes the cognitive means by which the perception and processing of textured material in media discourse is carried out. The authors present the typology of this toolkit and its opportunities in modeling the country's media image addressed to the sociocode of a national culture.
The relevance of the study is due to the significant role of modern media in shaping the image of a specific territory in mass consciousness, which directly determines the character of economic, political and social relations in society.
The purpose of the article is to identify and characterize possible cognitive-linguistic mechanisms for modeling a productive media image of a country based on mental representations of society, originating in culture and guaranteeing the effective use of the corresponding constructs of mental operations, value preferences and behavior patterns of information flows consumer.
Based on linguo-culturological analysis, conditions and frames of modeling, the image of Russia is considered in the content of the Chinese mass media. The empirical base of the study was made up of more than 200 texts of the Chinese media of various formats. The media discourse represents both common nuclear concepts and archetypes of the national view of the world in Russia and China (collectivism, patriotism, home, family, power, nature), and the ambiguous stereotypes of Chinese citizens about Russians and Russia that have been developed over the time. Stereotypes are embedded in the traditional expressive narrative which, due to a combination of expressive means, aesthetic and impressive power of verbal potential, has a purposeful impact on the audience, maintains the necessary national identity in Chinese society in the «We — They» paradigm.
With respect to Russia's strategic interests, it is important to actualize the common constructs of Chinese and Russian mentality in the mass media which will not only awaken the original cultural memory of a person but also allow to bring the people of China and Russia closer together.


In order to increasing measurement accuracy,the paper pointed out some key problems in determining cohesive index of bituminous coal,from sample preparation,temperature control,operational process and measurement technology.


The research of two kinds of environmental hydrogen embrittlements in intermetallic at room temperature is summarized in this paper.Environmental embrittlement of intermetallic involves two main processes:generation of atomic hydrogen and diffusion of hydrogen in the alloy.The experimental results have verified that the ways of hydrogen atom generation are surface reaction of active elements with water vapor in air and catalysis reaction of molecular H_2 induced by transition metal atoms in gaseous hydrogen. The efficient method of suppressing environmental embrittlement of intermetallic is alloying.The moisture-induced environmental embrittlement can be suppressed completely by boron-doping in Ni_3Al alloy.The basic mechanism of the suppression effect of boron is related to severe reduction of hydrogen diffusivity along the grain boundaries.Effective suppression of the moisture-induced environmental embrittlement by Fe-doping in Co_3Ti alloy is related to the reduction of the surface reaction kinetic of Co_3Ti alloy with water vapor.The H_2-induced embrittlement can be suppressed completely by boron addition in the ordered Ni_3Fe alloy.The suppression mechanism is that boron atom segregates to the grain boundary,reducing the grain size and increasing the mechanical properties of the alloy.Boron in the ordered Ni_3Fe alloy clearly increases cohesion of grain boundary and decreases the diffusion coefficient of hydrogen along grain boundary.


Since DVB-T is not optimized for reception in a moving vehicle, – as is the case with GSM or UMTS – mobile coverage measurements are subject to significant limitations when performed with conventional receivers. The common 8K FFT mode, in particular, only allows measurements at walking speed in many cases since reception would otherwise be interrupted. The vehicle has to be stopped repeatedly in order to perform sample measurements; detailed information on actual coverage is practically impossible. The R&S ® TSM-DVB (FIG 1) makes all this a thing of the past. With its two sophisticated DVB-T receive paths for diversity reception (FIG ) and two antennas, it considerably increases the receive power and even allows measurements at speeds of up to 150 km/h. Coverage measurements in city traffic and even on freeways are no longer a problem.


The synthesis of the poly(dichloro- or dibromophenylene oxide)s was achieved by the thermal decomposition of diammine-bis(2,4,6-trihalophenolato)copper(II) complexes in the solid state by atom transfer rearrangement radical polymerization. The thermal decomposition was performed either at different temperature ranges, 110 - 250 °C, for 3 h, or at the maximum conversion temperature for different time intervals, 3 - 48 h. Maximum yields of polymers were obtained at 190 °C and 3 h. The polymers were characterized by FTIR, 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy, SEM, TGA and molecular weight determination by viscometrical methods. All the polymers were rigid, having high Tg values between 178 and 189 °C. Only small amounts of Cu were detected by AAS.


This paper involves a method based on covariance agent to cluster distributed adjustable resources, including photovoltaic, wind power, energy storage and other potentially adjustable resources, including the following specific steps: collecting DAR data and external characteristic data such as solar radiation intensity, wind speed, ambient temperature and humidity; Analyze the correlation between the external features and the DAR set, select the external features with the highest correlation as the correlation coefficient, replace the correlation coefficient with the covariance and multiply the variance of the DAR distribution; With the goal of minimizing the maximum variance of all DAR clusters, the clustering model and characterization parameters are determined to form a faster and more reliable clustering method; Compared with the variance of brute force calculation, the reliability and timeliness of multi-resource clustering are verified by Python simulation. This method does not need to enumerate and calculate all DAR combinations, and has the advantages of simplicity and accuracy, and is more guaranteed than brute force calculation.


This reseach aims was to find out how much of the total solid waste generated both organic and inorganic solid waste weight calculation is done in the village Batan. This type of research is descriptive research with sampling propotional stratified random sampling method. From the data obtained is then perfomed calculation of average waste generation per capita per day, and presentage of the composation. Result of the study found that the average weight of waste generation on the Linkungan IX 0,30 Kg/soul/day, Lingkungan XI 0,37 Kg/soul/day and the Lingkungan XII 0,343 Kg/soul/day. The perecentage compotition of the organic waste of the Lingkungan IX at 57% and 43% inorganic waste, Lingkungan XI 54% organic and 40% for inorganic waste and Lingkungan XII where as 54% of organic waste inrganic 46%. Average weigth of waste to high-income households 1,03 Kg/soul/day, was 0,99 Kg/soul/day and allow 1:03 Kg/soul/day. The perecentage weigth of waste product by high-income households the Lingkungan IX, XI, XII respect tively 32%, 37%, 31%. Modereta income households in the Lingkungan IX, XI, XII respect tively 33%, 35%, 34%. Are for low-income households in the Lingkungan IX 31%,35% Lingkungan XI and XII 34%.


Tables of the lines found on two tracings each of the ultraviolet spectrum of Tau Her, B5 IV, and Zeta Dra, B6 III, made by the Copernicus satellite and possible identifications are given. The ranges 1025-1451A for Tau Her and 1035 to 1425A for Zeta Dra are covered by the U2 spectrometer at a resolution of 0.2A; the ranges 2028 to 2959A for Tau Her and 2000 to 3000A for Zeta Dra are covered by the V2 spectrometer at a resolution of 0.4A. The observed density of lines in the U2 region is 1.1 lines/A for Tau Her and 1.7 lines/A for Zeta Dra. In the V2 region it is 0.8 lines/A for Tau Her and 0.9 lines/A for Zeta Dra.


This article is Restricted Access. It was published in the journal, Politics Review [© Philip Allan] and is available from: http://www.philipallan.co.uk/content.aspx?PAGE=PROD366:&SUB=18


A formula for the sub\-differential of the sum of a series of convex functions defined on a Banach space was provided by X. Y. Zheng in 1998. In this paper, besides a slight extension to locally convex spaces of Zheng's results, we provide a formula for the conjugate of a countable sum of convex functions. Then we use these results for calculating the sub\-differentials and the conjugates in two situations related to entropy minimization, and we study a concrete example met in Statistical Physics.


Supplementary data ml http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/suppl/2009/02/27/rsbl.2008.0644.DC1.ht "Data Supplement" References http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/5/2/172.full.html#ref-list-1 This article cites 11 articles, 1 of which can be accessed free Subject collections (292 articles) cognition  • (1578 articles) evolution  • (1157 articles) behaviour  • Articles on similar topics can be found in the following collections


Because geologic sedimentation and hydrofracturing processes are not homogeneous, the reservoirs of enhanced geothermal systems (EGSs) are also heterogeneous; this has a significant influence on the electricity generation performance of EGS. Presently, there are a lack of systematic and profound studies on the effect of vertical permeability heterogeneity in stratified formation on the electricity generation performance of EGS. In order to uncover the effect of vertical permeability heterogeneity on electricity generation performance of EGS, in this work we analyzed the influence of vertical permeability heterogeneity on electricity generation performance of EGS through a numerical method based on geological data at the Yangbajing geothermal field. The results indicate that when the average permeability of stratified formations is constant for a homogeneous reservoir, the system attains maximum water production rate, maximum electric power, minimum reservoir impedance and maximum pump power; with the increasing of the vertical permeability heterogeneity, the water production rate gradually decreases, the electric power gradually declines, the reservoir impedance gradually increases and the pump power gradually declines. When the average permeability of stratified formations is constant, with the increasing of the vertical permeability heterogeneity, the injection pressure and energy efficiency only changes very slightly; this indicates that the vertical permeability heterogeneity is not the main factor affecting the system injection pressure and energy efficiency.


A plasticity-based damage model is proposed for inelastic analysis of structural concrete in this paper. Drucker-Prager-type plasticity is adopted in the formulation of the constitutive equations. Numerical validations have been performed for the proposed model with a driver subroutine developed in this study. Numerically predicted behaviour with the proposed model seems reasonably accurate for the cases of uniaxial tension and uniaxial compression when compared with experimental data in the literature. Numerical tests for multi-axial compression cases under various states of hydrostatic confinement stress have been carried out. Results indicate the validity of the proposed model for simulating plastic damage phenomena under various loading paths.


This manuscript establishes relational model of corporation's input and output, and proves the theory with case studies. The changing environment influences the corporation profoundly and Supply Chain Knowledge Flow is a a large part of that changing environment. Corporations have to follow Supply Chain Logistics and Supply Chain Information Flow, which connect knowledge activity between different corporations. The knowledge output of the corporation is interrelated with two elements, which are the knowledge activity of the corporation itself and its partner..


Simple Summary Neuroblastoma is the most common extra-cranial solid tumor of childhood arising from the developing sympathetic neuroblast. Despite intense multimodal therapy, more than half of patients with high-risk neuroblastoma relapse with incurable disease. The Yes-Associated Protein (YAP) has been shown to play a critical role in many types of cancers, including neuroblastoma. YAP has also been recently highlighted as an important regulator of the tumor microenvironment (TME) that can affect cancer growth and response to therapies. Here, we focus on YAP and its role in neuroblastoma and the TME that underscores the therapeutic potential of inhibiting YAP in this highly aggressive pediatric solid tumor. Abstract Neuroblastoma is the most common extra-cranial pediatric solid tumor that accounts for more than 15% of childhood cancer-related deaths. High risk neuroblastomas that recur during or after intense multimodal therapy have a <5% chance at a second sustained remission or cure. The solid tumor microenvironment (TME) has been increasingly recognized to play a critical role in cancer progression and resistance to therapy, including in neuroblastoma. The Yes-Associated Protein (YAP) in the Hippo pathway can regulate cancer proliferation, tumor initiation, and therapy response in many cancer types and as such, its role in the TME has gained interest. In this review, we focus on YAP and its role in neuroblastoma and further describe its demonstrated and potential effects on the neuroblastoma TME. We also discuss the therapeutic strategies for inhibiting YAP in neuroblastoma.


As part of the White Paper on Crime process, consultation with a wide range of groups is underway. The aim of this consultation session with young people was to listen to, understand and document the views of children and young people on crime in Ireland, to find out which crime-related issues matter to them and how they thought Irish society should respond to crime into the future. Consultation with young people is an important part of the White Paper on Crime process. The general outline for the consultation was to explore the following questions: 1. Why does crime happen? 2. How does crime happen? 3. What from your experience can be done to prevent crime? What have you seen that works? What doesnâ?Tt work? 4. What can be done to improve things?


The purpose of this study is to determine the role of the National Zakat Agency Baitul Maal Hidayatullah Tulungagung Mustahiq in improving welfare and to determine the constraints on zakat management conducted by the National Institute Amil Zakat Baitul Maal Hidayatullah Tulungagung. This study used interview and observation methods. The result of this study is the role of the National Institute Amil Zakat Baitul Maal Hidayatullah Tulungagung people in channeling funds are based on the 4 programs, giving endowments Qur'an, education by providing scholarships to disadvantaged children, the social construction of mosques and indigent compensation, as well as  assistance of cattle, goats and catfsh. Keywords: Role of Zakat Institutions, Collection, Distribution, Baitul Maal Hidayatullah, Welfare of Mustahiq.


Objective: One of the most typical ways of transmitting the infection is by hand; thus, much emphasis has been placed on hand hygiene. In this regard, this study aimed to determine the effect of tea tree oil and lavender on bacterial samples found in nurses' hands. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was performed on all nurses working in ICU wards. The samples were selected by an easy non-probability sampling method. The research tools were demographic information questionnaires and a bacterial culture registration form. In the intervention phase, on the first day in the first experimental group, 2 drops of lavender oil, on the second day, 2 drops of tea tree oil, and on the third day, 2 drops of distilled water were poured on the nurse's palm, and their hands were massaged for 10 seconds. Before and after the intervention, culture samples were taken from each group. The obtained data were analyzed with the Chi-square test, paired t test, and ANOVA in SPSS software v. 20 at a significant level of less than 0.05. Results: The most common organisms isolated at the beginning of the study were Staphylococcus epidermidis (76.8%), Staphylococcus aureus (8.8%), Klebsiella spp. (7.9%), and Escherichia coli (6.5%). The use of lavender oil and tea tree has been effective in reducing the microbial load of the palm. Hand massage with lavender oil had less effect on reducing germs (P=0.003), but tea tree oil had a more significant reduction of pathogens (P=0.001). Conclusion: Lavender and tea tree oil reduced the microbial load of nurses. Both methods have been effective, but the effect of tea tree oil was more significant. Therefore, their use in handwashing is recommended to eliminate palm bacteria in ICU staff.


Consequent to the widely recognized influence of rapid population growth on streetism, this paper examines the spatial and socio-economic dimensions of the street children phenomenon in Ibadan, Nigeria. The study analyses the intra-urban pattern of child streetism and analyses the characteristics of street children in the study area. The study participants are children working and or living on the streets of Ibadan, the administrative headquarters of Oyo state, Nigeria. The study enumerates street children in selected activity nuclei in urban high, medium and low residential densities. 10% of the observed number of street children was included in the survey using the convenience sampling method. In all, a total of one hundred and fifty-two (152) copies of questionnaires were administered to the willing street children. The study employs Z-scores to compare the intensity of the problem and ANOVA to analyze the variation in the incidence of street children within urban residential densities. The result of the ANOVA shows that with f=14.587 and p= 0.001, there is a significant difference in the observed variations in the incidence of street children among residential densities.


Combining with the status and actual demand of the ceramic tile and brick enterprises,it designs a read-time monitoring and production control system. It shows the detail about the real-time monitoring network,overall structure and functional module of the system,and some relative key technologies during the system implementation.


Abstract The effects of cell differentiation and mitogen and phorbol ester stimulation on the formation of 8‐methoxypsoralen (8‐MOP)‐DNA photoadducts in murine T lymphocytes were examined using 3H‐8‐MOP. While there were no significant differences in 8‐MOP photoadduct formation among BALB/c thymocytes, splenocytes, splenic T cells and MRL/1pr lymph node cells, BALB/c bone marrow cells showed fewer photoadducts than did the lymphocytes. This suggested that proliferating progenitor cells may be resistant to 8‐MOP photoadduct formation. Incubation of purified splenic T cells with lectin mitogens for 2 h or with phorbol 12‐myristate 13‐acetate (PMA) for 2–43 h resulted in reduction of 8‐MOP photoadduct formation in the DNA, whereas 64 h cultivation with these agents augmented the photoadduct formation. The reduction of photoadduct formation induced by phytohemagglutinin was restored by the further addition of a protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor, H‐7, to the culture. Thus, it is assumed that the reduction of adduct formation evoked by mitogens and PMA is mediated in part by the activation of PKC in the cells. On the other hand, the augmentation of the adduct formation induced by the longer‐period cultures with mitogens and PMA appeared to be caused by down‐regulation of PKC. The present study showed that the stimulatory signals in which PKC is presumably involved affect the ability of cells to form 8‐MOP‐DNA photoadducts.


Load prediction is significant for stable and economical running of city gas supply system.Load prediction error which is composed of modeling error and extrapolative error can be influenced not only by prediction method but also by the regularity and randomness of gas load.Combined research of relationship between load regularity and prediction error,the method of quantitatively estimating lower or upper limit of gas load error based on wavelet analysis and step difference is proposed and applied in a real case to analyze regularity and stability of gas load in different areas and periods.This research provides theoretical foundations for the reasonable load prediction estimation and method selection.


Data mining also called knowledge discovery is a pr ocess of analyzing data from several perspective a nd summarize it into useful information. It has tremendous application in the area of classification like pattern recognition, discovering several disease type, analysis of medical image, recognizing speech , for identifying biometric, drug discovery etc. Th is is a survey based on several semisupervised classification method used by classifiers , in this both labeled and unlabeled data can be used for classification purpose.It is less expensive than ot her classification methods . Different techniques surveyed in this paper are low density separation approach, transductive SVM, semi -supervised based logistic discriminate procedure , self training nearest neighbour rule using cut edges, self training neare st neighbour rule using cut edges. Along with class ification methods a review about various feature selection methods is also men tioned in this paper. Feature selection is performe d to reduce the dimension of large dataset. After reducing attribute the data is given for classification hence the accuracy and pe rformance of classification system can be improved .Several feature selection m ethod include consistency based feature selection, fuzzy entropy measure feature selection with similarity classifier, Signal to noise ratio,Positive approximation. So ea ch method has several benefits. Index Terms: Semisupervised classification, Transductive support vector machine, Feature selection, unlabeled sampl es


Objective To investigate the effects of hyperbaric oxygen(HBO) on subgingival plaque morphology of animal periodontitis. Methods Periodontitis was formed with silk thread sutured combine with high content sugar diet. For HBO therapy, they were exposed to a pressure of 0.25 MPa (2.5 ATA), breathing pure oxygen one session a day for 60 mins. And the animals received 2-week treatment sessions. The changes of suhgingival plaque morpholoy of each animal group were analyzed by Congo red negative staining and the suhgingival anaerobes were identified and counted as routine in base time, week 8, therapeutic stop (week 10) and 1 month after therapeutic stop (week 14). Results Assessment of spirochetes, straight rods, curved rods and fusiformas indicated that statistically significant differences were found in group HBO in week 10 when compared with periodontitis group, and more significant differences of anaerobes could be found when comparisons were made between HBO group and periodontitis group ( P 0.01) . Very significant increase could be detected in coccoid cell of HBO group than those of periodontitis group in week 10, but no significant differences were observed in coccoid cell, straight rods, curved rods, fusiforms, spirochetes and anaerobes between week 10 and week 14 ( P 0.05) . Conclusion The percentage of straight rods, curved rods, fusiforms, spirochetes in animals markedly decreased after HBO therapy, and the therapeutic effects could last for more than 1 month.


Norepinephrine (NE), an endogenous neurotransmitter, is involved in cognition as well as anxiety and depression. NE mediates its actions through the activation of adrenergic receptors (ARs). This study explored the effects of increased α1AAR activation on anxiety and depression in mice. Different sets of mice with varying degrees of α1AAR expression and activation were used in behavioral tests for anxiety and depression. The mice sets included transgenic mice with increased α1AAR expression, transgenic mice with a knockout of the α1AAR, mice treated with the α1AAR agonist cirazoline, and groups of normal control mice. The tail suspension and forced swim tests were used as models of depression and the light/dark, marble burying and elevated plus‐maze tests were used as measurements of anxiety. In addition, the open field test was used to determine the mobility of these animals. It was found that mice with increased α1AAR activation, in comparison to normal mice, demonstrated anxiolytic and antidepressant‐like behavior in several of these models. The mobility of these animals was similar. These results suggest that activation of the α1AAR reduces anxiety and depression in mice without affecting their mobility. This study was supported by NSF CAREER 0347259, NSF REU Site 0639227, NIH P20 RR016741, UND REFUNDU Program, American Physiological Society, and the Bower, Bennet & Bennet Endowed Research Award from ONU.


Non-isothermal studies of dehydration of double selenate hydrates of the type M(I)2Se04.M(II)Se04.6H20and their D20 analo~ues have been carried out [where M(I) = K(I) and M(II) = M~(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(lI) or Zn(II)]. Activation energy has been evaluated for each step of dehydration from TG, DTA and DTG curves simultaneously. Enthalpy change has been evaluated from the DTA peak area. Order of reaction for dehydration is found to be unity. The nature of dehydration is affected in the case of Mg(II), Ni(II) and Zn(II) salt hydrates on deuteration. Thermal parameters have been compared with the corresponding double sulphate hydrates.


Reliable transmission in Intermittently Connected Mobile Networks (ICMNs) is a challenging work because the effective and reliable connection between the source and destination can not be sustained in ICMNs. To reliably hand over data to the destination, many dissemination-based routing protocols are proposed. Dissemination-based routing protocols assure nodes including intermediate nodes and destinations have more chances to receive packets, which will increase the probability that the packets can be correctly received by the destination. However, the existing error recovery mechanisms in network layer use the simple CRC to check the data packets independently, and discard the error packets even if one correct packet can be obtained from more than one partly error packet. In this paper, we propose a novel Network layer Error Recovery method based on FEC, named NER. NER divides a data packet into RS blocks and insert redundancy to each block. So the intermediate nodes and destinations can recover a correct data packet from multiple partially error copies of the same packet. The simulation results show that NER can obviously increase the delivery-ratio in ICMNs.


The Canary Islands are a group of 13 islands (of which only seven are inhabited), situated some 60 miles off the northwestern coast of Africa, and forming two provinces of Spain. The native pre-Hispanic population of the islands were the Guanches,' who are said to have come from the nearby North African coast. However, before the Canaries became part of Spain in 1496 (the conquest began in 1402), the islands had been settled and visited periodically by the Portuguese, French, Dutch, and other European groups, which, at one time or another, assumed roles of some importance in the process of shaping the population of the islands. The presence of the above-mentioned groups has been studied in a number of monographs (for example, Donnet, 1895; Hardisson, 1947; Verlinden, 1960). However, our purpose in this brief article is to discuss the presence of black African slaves brought to the Canary Islands during the sixteenth. seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries from the West African coast. This can be considered a preliminary effort only, since there is very little material on the subject. The number of studies dealing with the black population in the Canaries are scarce because the only references to it are


Copyright: © 2018 Motohiro Sawatsubashi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract Objective Sinonasal lesions with IgG4-related disease (IgG-RD) have been reported recently. Although the previous reports noted cases of IgG4-RD with rhino-sinus involvement, there are no reports regarding eosinophilic chronic rhinosinusitis (ECRS) with IgG4-RD. We experienced five cases of ECRS with IgG4-related disease which differed from cases involving sinonasal lesions that were reported previously.


Editorial Dear Colleagues, Happy New Year! It is a pleasure to present you the 198 issue of the AGB Newsletter. Congratulations to Paul Beck who obtained his Ph.D. at Leuven University on the topic of asteroseismology of red giant stars. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours. There are some terrific jobs and Ph.D. places working with fantastic people: in Onsala and in Melbourne, for instance. Please see the Food for Thought below; contributions are welcome on the point of recent developments in our field, until the end of this month for the 199 issue, and about research priorities by the end of February for the 200 issue. The next issue is planned to be distributed around the 1 of February.


Optimal industrial structure will promote economic development.In this paper,around Bohai economic region is background area and Beijing is research area.For the purpose of providing reference for Beijing's industrial structure optimization and upgrading,the paper combines vertical analysis and horizontal comparison of Beijing's industry structure together,uses shift-share model(SSM) to do the horizontal analysis and finish the vertical analysis through dynamic shift-share model(DSSM).The analysis result indicates that,it is very important for Beijing industrial structure promotion to improve the competitive powers of various industries and to develop the tertiary industry vigorously.


With starch hydrolysate as carbon source,the selected and mutated mutant strain from Streptococcus zooepidemicus was used to ferment hyaluronic acid.Basic on statistical thermodynamics and microbial kinetic model,the dynamic model was established to describe the entire fermentation process of cell growth,product formation and substrate consumption,then model parameters was identified.The results showed that calculated values fitted the actual experimental data well,which indicating that the model could describe the hyaluronic acid synthesized course used starch hydrolysate as carbon souce by the mutant under the normal conditions.


The two different dental fillings as composite and amalgam, doped with SiO2 nanoparticles, had been prepared. The optical properties as absorbance , absorption coefficient , transmittance , refractive index , reflectance , extinction coefficient and optical density , had been studied for both of composite and amalgam dental filling at different values of SiO2 nanoparticles weight. The effects for both diode laser power and laser exposure time in the optical properties for composite and amalgam dental filling had been studied. It can be concluded that the silica nanoparticles consolidate the optical properties for dental fillings, while increasing the laser power and laser exposure time induces more optical properties. This behavior can be attributed to the highest absorbing elements in filling with nanoparticles, and the vast increase of molecules excitation had been occurred within dental filling treatment by laser. The main conclusion is that the composite dental filling has more optical properties than amalgam dental filling as the many minerals which exist in composite and increase the absorption process as well as all the adjacent optical processes.


The estimation of time-delay and time-scaling is required in many signal processing applications. A parabolic approximation was recently suggested for fine estimation of time delay from sampled signals. The method directly extends to scaling estimation by a parallel multi-rate sampling of the analog received signal. Such rescaling can be implemented by digital techniques and two efficient algorithms are here devised and analysed.


Long gone are the times when class-based political parties with extensive membership dominated politics. Instead, party politics has become issue-based. Surprisingly few studies have focused on how the issue content of West European party politics has developed over the past decades. Empirically, this books studies party politics in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK from 1980 and onwards. The book highlights the more complex party system agenda with the decline, but not disappearance, of macroeconomic issues as well as the rise in 'new politics' issues together with education and health care. Moreover, various 'new politics' issues such as immigration, the environment, and European integration have seen very different trajectories. To explain the development of the individual issues, the book develops a new theoretical model labelled the 'issue incentive model' of party system attention. The aim of the model is to explain how much attention issues get throughout the party system, which is labelled 'the party system agenda'. To explain the development of the party system agenda, one needs to focus on the incentives that individual policy issues offer to large, mainstream parties, i.e. the typical Social Democratic, Christian Democratic, or Conservative/Liberal parties that have dominated West European governments for decades. The core idea of the model is that the incentives that individual policy issues offer to these vote- and office-seeking parties depend on three factors, namely issue characteristics, issue ownership, and coalition considerations. The issue incentive model builds on and develops a top-down perspective on which the issue content of party politics is determined by the strategic considerations of political parties and their competition with each other.


Dear Editor, W.C. Liao et al. [1] used a Taiwan claims database (National Health Insurance Research Database, NHIRD) to demonstrate that, after adjustments for comorbidities, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with a subsequent higher risk of dementia. Furthermore, the incidence of dementia is higher in patients with COPD who experience more episodes of acute exacerbation. The authors used 1 million beneficiaries randomly sampled from 2010 and their medical claims from 1996 to 2010 in the NHIRD. Patients diagnosed with COPD between 1998 and 2008 were identified, but there was no mention of the use of the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) for COPD diagnosis. In our study, eligible study patients were those who received a discharge diagnosis of COPD (ICD-9-CM codes 490–492, 496) during hospitalization between 1 January 2002 and 31 December 2011. Furthermore, only the first hospitalization of each patient was considered. A total of 8640 patients with COPD fulfilled the criteria. Identifying patients with COPD by using hospital outpatient department diagnoses overestimates patient numbers because of claims for reimbursement (some kind of medication). Discharge diagnoses are more accurate than those from the outpatient department. Previous studies have evaluated the ICD-9-CM validity of the NHIRD [2,3]. Furthermore, the number of admissions and emergency room visits by patients with COPD may not indicate acute exacerbation of COPD. There are many reasons for hospital admission among patients with COPD, including urinary tract infections, stroke, acute coronary disease and congestive heart failure. Patients with more frequent acute exacerbation of COPD may not fully represent the severity of the disease. The latest Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease guidelines [4] consider symptoms alongside the degree of pulmonary function when classifying patients. In addition, studies have shown that cognitive function is impaired in patients with COPD with or without hypoxemia [5,6]. The mechanisms that cause dementia in patients with COPD merit further study.


Objective To investigate the neuroprotection against permanent focal cerebral ischemia induced by morphine preconditioning(MP) and to look for the effective time window of preconditioning.Methods Healthy male BALB/c mice were randomly divided into Sham operation group(n=8),MCAO group(n=8) and MP groups(n=40),and MP groups were further divided into 30min,12h,24h,48h,72h group according to the interval between MP injection and MCAO.The infarct volumes,edema rate and neurological deficit scores were evaluated at 6 hours after MCAO.Results The mice exposed to morphine at 12h or 24h before MCAO had smaller infarct volumes,lower edema rate and better neurologic deficit scores,as compared with the mice who were injected with saline(P0.05).However,injection of morphine at the other time(30 min,48 h,72 h) before MCAO didn't significantly reduce the infarct volumes and edema rate,and didn't improve the neurological deficit scores(P0.05).Conclusion Morphine preconditioning can relieve MCAO-induced ischemic injuries,and the protective effect may be time-dependent.


ABSTRACT A review of case studies of the year 2000 of the negotiation team of Muenster revealed that the negotiators had to deal with foreigners in 32.7% of all crisis incidents. Thus, negotiations were affected by interethnic issues. The following article describes how crisis communication changes between cultures. Case studies and examples for each guideline of intercultural negotiations are included.


Objectives: The main purpose of the study was to assess the ability of adults with bilateral cochlear implants to localize noise and speech signals in the horizontal plane. A second objective was to measure the change in localization performance in these adults between approximately 5 and 15 mo after activation. A third objective was to evaluate the relative roles of interaural level difference (ILD) and interaural temporal difference (ITD) cues in localization by these subjects. Design: Twenty-two adults, all postlingually deafened and all bilaterally fitted with MED-EL COMBI 40+ cochlear implants, were tested in a modified source identification task. Subjects were tested individually in an anechoic chamber, which contained an array of 43 numbered loudspeakers extending from –90° to +90° azimuth. On each trial, a 200-msec signal (either a noise burst or a speech sample) was presented from one of 17 active loudspeakers (span: ±80°), and the subject had to identify which source from the 43 loudspeakers in the array produced the signal. Subjects were tested in three conditions: left device only active, right device only active, and both devices active. Twelve of the 22 subjects were retested approximately 10 mo after their first test. In Experiment 2, the spectral content and rise-decay time of the noise stimulus were manipulated. Results: The relationship between source azimuth and response azimuth was characterized in terms of the adjusted constant error (Ĉ). (1) With both devices active, Ĉ for the noise stimulus varied from 8.1° to 43.4° (mean: 24.1°). By comparison, Ĉ for a group of listeners with normal hearing ranged from 3.5° to 7.8° (mean: 5.6°). When subjects listened in unilateral mode (with one device turned off), Ĉ was at or near chance (50.5°) in all cases. However, when considering unilateral performance on each subject's better side, average Ĉ for the speech stimulus was 47.9°, which was significantly (but only slightly) better than chance. (2) When listening bilaterally, error score was significantly lower for the speech stimulus (mean Ĉ = 21.5°) than for the noise stimulus (mean Ĉ = 24.1°). (3) As a group, the 12 subjects who were retested 10 mo after their first visit showed no significant improvement in localization performance during the intervening time. However, two subjects who performed very poorly during their first visit showed dramatic improvement (error scores were halved) over the intervening time. In Experiment 2, removing the high-frequency content of noise signals resulted in significantly poorer performance, but removing the low-frequency content or increasing the rise-decay time did not have an effect. Conclusions: In agreement with previously reported data, subjects with bilateral cochlear implants localized sounds in the horizontal plane remarkably well when using both of their devices, but they generally could not localize sounds when either device was deactivated. They could localize the speech signal with slightly, but significantly better accuracy than the noise, possibly due to spectral differences in the signals, to the availability of envelope ITD cues with the speech but not the noise signal, or to more central factors related to the social salience of speech signals. For most subjects the remarkable ability to localize sounds has stabilized by 5 mo after activation. However, for some subjects who perform poorly initially, there can be substantial improvement past 5 mo. Results from Experiment 2 suggest that ILD cues underlie localization ability for noise signals, and that ITD cues do not contribute.


The author, a distinguished psychologist and psychiatrist now a professor at the Institute of Human Relations at Yale University, has performed an incredible task in authoring this book. The writing is delightful to read—easily understandable and smooth. There is a minimum of technical jargon, and, when special terms are used, they are clearly explained immediately. The type is easy on the eye, and the text is well demarcated with appropriate bold-faced subheadings. There are extensive name and subject indices and a detailed bibliography in the form of footnotes with, however, many disconcerting repetitions. The contents of the 22 chapters may be roughly divided into personality development, psychodynamic principles, syndromes (reactions) and therapy. The author's frame of reference is a combination of "psychobiology" and psychoanalysis with the latter predominating. Although current psychoanalytic theory is stressed, Cameron raises many significant questions which remain unanswered. Since this is a textbook long needed


Direct inversion method is used to obtain the xenon interaction potential from the extended principle of corresponding states. We have employed the experimentally reduced viscosity collision integrals obtained from the corresponding-states correlation, and performed an INVERT to determine the reduced potential energy curve corresponding to this collision integral. Comparison of this with the potential independently known from molecular-beam scattering shows a good agreement with the Lee potential.


In this paper, using capillary zone electrophoresis method determined Vitamin C content in brown rice. 20 mmol/L borax solution and 20% acetonitrile concentration, 20kV voltage, 254 nm UV detection wavelength was chosen for electrophoretic analysis condition. Measured vitamin C content in brown rice was 0.043 mg/g (RSD=7.1%) (n=7).


An experimental apparatus has been developed at UNR to study few-body dynamics in target atoms, molecules, and projectile ions. For example, ionization-excitation cross sections will be studied at intermediate incident projectile velocities. Projectile ions are extracted from a small accelerator, with an energy range of 20 to 150 keV. Ions then collide with gaseous atoms or molecules in a differentially pumped gas cell, and are finally collected in a Faraday cup. A grazing incidence monochromater is used to measure the EUV radiation produced by the collision event. Cross sections are derived by normalizing this data to the ion beam current. An electron gun can be mounted in the experimental chamber to provide data for calibration of the EUV monochromatic. Calibration data and preliminary cross section measurements for ionization-excitation of He by proton impact will be reported.


Examination of DEAE-cellulose chromatography clearly demonstrated the presence of the enzyme cleaving 2-methylisocitrate into pyruvate plus succinate in the methylcitric acid cycle. The enzyme differed from the usual isocitrate lyase of Candida lipolytica, and was herein given the trivial name of methylisocitrate lyase. The chromatography also proved the mutant strain of C. lipolytica, producing 2-methylisocitrate from odd-carbon n-alkanes, to lack this methylisocitrate lyase. The presence of isozyme of isocitrate lyase was not detected in C. lipolytica. The isocitrate lyase of C. lipolytica could cleave 2-methylisocitrate at a rate of 3% of that of isocitrate cleavage. On the contrary, methylisocitrate lyase hardly acted on isocitrate. Two lyases differed in chromatographic elution patterns, pH optima, kinetics of thermal inactivation, and behavior with inhibitors, such as itaconate and oxalate, in addition to substrate specificity. The experimental results revealed that methylisocitrate lyase is impossible to be the isozyme of isocitrate lyase, and justified the previously proposed ideas that propionyl-CoA is oxidized through the methylcitric acid cycle in C. lipolytica and that the absence of this enzyme in the mutant strain caused the extracellular accumulation of 2-methylisocitrate from odd-carbon n-alkanes.


Mobile blog or "moblog" provides a coherent purpose for strategic educational change through lifelong education and the creation of a knowledge society. Many studies have been conducted on using conventional blogs in teaching and learning yet only few have focused on moblogs. Moblogs allow trainers to empower themselves through the acquisition of both explicit and tacit knowledge. Thus, this study aims at designing, developing and implementing moblogs as a platform for a new hybrid e-training approach, which was tested to generate a two-stage model for meaningful hybrid e-training. The data were collected from 213 Information Communication Technology (ICT) trainees which were subsequently tested using confirmatory factor analysis with AMOS 7.0 to obtain the best-fit measurement model for an integrated meaningful hybrid e-training model using moblogs. The results revealed that: (i) hybrid e-training influenced the achievement of meaningful e-training; (ii) learning styles influenced the acceptance of hybrid e-training; and (iii) learning styles preferences influenced the achievement of meaningful e-training.


Tissue-engineered intervertebral discs demonstrate long-term functional integration in rat and goat disc replacement models. Dependable discs Intervertebral disc degeneration causes back and neck pain, sometimes necessitating disc fusion surgery. Although fusion may alleviate symptoms, it does not address the underlying cause of degeneration. As an alternative to fusion, Gullbrand and colleagues developed tissue-engineered discs for disc replacement by sandwiching hydrogel and polymer materials seeded with cartilage or mesenchymal stem cells between acellular polymer endplates. Engineered discs integrated with native discs, maintaining their structure and showing near-native mechanical properties 5 months after implantation in a rodent disc replacement model. Similar results were seen 2 months after implantation in a goat model, demonstrating the translational feasibility of this tissue engineering approach. Tissue engineering holds great promise for the treatment of advanced intervertebral disc degeneration. However, assessment of in vivo integration and mechanical function of tissue-engineered disc replacements over the long term, in large animal models, will be necessary to advance clinical translation. To that end, we developed tissue-engineered, endplate-modified disc-like angle ply structures (eDAPS) sized for the rat caudal and goat cervical spines that recapitulate the hierarchical structure of the native disc. Here, we demonstrate functional maturation and integration of these eDAPS in a rat caudal disc replacement model, with compressive mechanical properties reaching native values after 20 weeks in vivo and evidence of functional integration under physiological loads. To further this therapy toward clinical translation, we implanted eDAPS sized for the human cervical disc space in a goat cervical disc replacement model. Our results demonstrate maintenance of eDAPS composition and structure up to 8 weeks in vivo in the goat cervical disc space and maturation of compressive mechanical properties to match native levels. These results demonstrate the translational feasibility of disc replacement with a tissue-engineered construct for the treatment of advanced disc degeneration.


In this paper the authors present an interesting method for mobile earth fault localization in resonant grounded grids. The method is based on an additional current injection with a non-grid-frequency current and detection with magnetic-field sensors in close vicinity of the line. The advantage of the presented method is that a mobile earth fault localization-unit for the operation personal is provided. Especially in medium voltage grids this method provides an interesting method for earth fault localization.


This paper compares various defogging techniques such as Dark Channel Prior (DCP), Improved Dark Channel Prior (IDCP), IDCP with guided filter, IDCP with histogram specification, Tarel method, Anisotropic diffusion and Adaptive defogging in HSV color plane. For the purpose of comparison these techniques were implemented on MATLAB-09. The result shows that Adaptive defogging technique has highest value of PSNR among all the techniques having lowest MSE, NCD and MAE value. The computation time for removal of fog is found to follow the trend from low to high is: Anisotropic diffusion, Tarel method, DCP, IDCP, IDCP with guided filter, IDCP with histogram specification and Adaptive defogging.


Mellander (12) was the first to obtain an electrophoretic pattern of skimmilk and of casein. Other investigators (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 14, 21) studied various preparations of casein. Slatter and Van Winkle (15) heated skimmilk to 65, 75 and 85 ° C. for 30 rain. and observed changes in the electrophoretic patterns as a result of the heat treatment. The whey proteins of milk and colostrum have received considerable attention in the past few years (1, 2, 3, 7, 9, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19). While whey is considered to contain six or more components, only the immune globulins (16, 17) and fl-lactoglobulin (1, 2, 9, 11, 18, 19) have been studied in detail. The present research was undertaken to compare the electrophoretic properties of raw skimmilk with those of the same skimmilk heated at one well controlled heating temperature and time of exposure.


This paper describes an investigation of the relationships between vigilance, performance on a. simulated driving task, and physiological measures of arousal. Changes in performance on the vigilance task occurred which wore like those frequently reported for vigilance tasks carried out alono, but changes characteristic of vigilance tasks with divided attention were not found. A marked doclino in physiological arousal was not directly related to changes in either the vigilance or driving performance. It is suggested that a curvilinear relationship best explains the data, where both high and low arousal may lead to poor performance.


The flanged open-ended coaxial probe is studied using a full-wave model. Influence of parameters like a gap, sample thickness, set-up measurement geometry, probe impedance, size of the flange and size of the sample are investigated and presented. Study is limited to dielectric materials with different characteristics (low loss, high loss). The results showed that error in an air gap is the most important parameter that affects the permittivity measurement accuracy, but also several other parameters are important and present considerable constraints regarding application of open-ended coaxial probe. We also identified the optimal measurement geometry in order to minimize the effect of these parameters.


Recent genome-wide association studies have introduced several genetic variants which contribute to the late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD). Polymorphisms of CHAT, TOMM40, and SORL1 genes have been reported to be associated with the LOAD phenotype. This study was endeavored to evaluate the association of the CHAT rs3810950, TOMM40 rs1160985 and SORL1 rs11218304 polymorphisms with the LOAD in the Turkish-speaking  Azeri population of northwest Iran. In a case-control study, we included 174 cases: 88 cases with LOAD diagnosis and 86 healthy individuals. Peripheral blood samples were collected and the genomic DNA of all participants were extracted. Genotyping was carried out by the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. We did not observe any significant association between the CHAT rs3810950 and SORL1 rs11218304 alleles with the LOAD. However, both the TOMM40 rs1160985 minor allele T and TT genotype showed significant negative associations with the LOAD. Hence, the TOMM40 rs1160985 polymorphism could be considered as a protective genetic factor against the LOAD in the Turkish-speaking Azeri population of northwest Iran.


With dramatic changes and recent advances in multimedia, digital technologies through computers propose new ways for introducing kids to the literacy. Literacy educators have stated that traditional printed books are not sufficient and electronic books have the potential to change reading skills. As a valuable tool in educational settings new and varied forms of technology, specifically, interactive CD-ROM storybooks have been used in classroom literacy learning by students and teachers. Although, several studies indicate that interactive CD-ROM storybooks help children develop visual recognition and increase reading comprehension, the results of the experimental studies previously carried out in this area have been conflicting and often hard to interpret. Therefore, the main purposes of this review are to identify the potential benefits, functions and disadvantages of interactive storybooks and assess mixed results of previous studies related to interactive CD-ROM storybooks


acclaimed as one of the most powerful engines for reducing hunger and poverty. And deservedly so. Lack of education undermines productivity, employability and earning capacity, leading directly to poverty and hunger. Every year of schooling increases individual wages by about 10 percent, worldwide. Investments in education have resulted in higher returns than investments in physical capital. In the rural areas where the vast majority of the world's hungry people live, research shows that a farmer with four years of primary education is, on average, almost 9 percent more productive than a farmer with no education. When combined with the availability of inputs such as fertilizers, new seeds or farm machinery, the productivity increase rises to 13 percent. It is not only by increasing productivity and incomes that education reduces hunger and malnutrition. Better education for women, in particular, is strongly associated with improvement in their children's nutrition and in family health (see page 16). The MDGs set the target of ensuring that every child in the world receives a primary school education by the year 2015. But progress towards the goal of universal primary education has been slow and uneven. More than 121 million school-age children remain out of school. Two-thirds of them are girls, and most of them live in rural areas in the regions where hunger and poverty are most widespread. Among those children who do attend school, one-third drop out before they acquire basic literacy and arithmetic skills. On average, adults have completed only 3.5 years of school in sub-Saharan Africa and only 4.5 years in South Asia. These are also the two subregions where hunger is most prevalent and where progress in reducing it has lagged (see map and graph). To reach the MDG target, the rate at which out-of-school children are being enrolled in schools would have to quadruple. If enrolments in sub-Saharan Africa continue at the current pace, fewer than half the countries in the region will reach the target (see graphs, facing page).


atrophy were treated with bilateral maxillary sinus floor elevation. For each patient were randomly assigned a "test" side and a "control" side, different from each other exclusively in the compo-sition of the graft material. The "control" sides were composed by corticocancellous freeze-dried bone chips and the "test" sides were composed by corticocancellous freeze-dried bone chips engineered in a bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells concentrate. After three months bone biopsies were performed on the grafts and histological specimens were made in order to evaluate the healed bone from an histological point of view. Histologically all the specimens showed active remodelling signs and all the tissues were free of inflammatory cells. "Control" side specimens showed a substantial persistence of the grafted bone and, with the interposition of connective tissue, a considerable amount of newly formed bone. "Test" side specimens showed a much more represented cellular component compared to the "control" sides. The grafted bone trabeculae, when de-tectable, were completely imprisoned inside new formed bone, in direct contact with it and without interposition of connective tissue. Freeze-dried bone can be used successfully as graft material in the treatment of maxillary atrophy. The same bone engineered with stem cells showed a greater histological integration potential comparable with autografts histological morphology. Further studies are needed to confirm these hypotheses. study provides further support to the no-tion that FDBA bio-engineered with MSCs and PRP can significantly improve bone formation as compared with FDBA alone and can represent the treatment of choice for sinus floor elevation. In turn, rapid and adequate reconstitution of maxillary bone thickness can significantly improve the bio-mechanical performance and hence clinical outcome of dental implants. Further studies are needed to determine the long-term behaviour of this grafting material, especially con-cerning the possibility of delayed resorption.


Spiral antennas have been widely used in the THz regime as ultra wide band-width feeds for dielectric lenses. Indeed, the impedance behavior of such antennas is very flat over the frequency band, especially when logarithm spirals are used. Even so, these feeds generate a relatively wide field inside the lens and this results into a poor illumination of the lens. In this contribution, we will demonstrate how the performances of these lens antennas can be considerably improved by using a small air gap between the spiral and the dielectric material.


Although originally found and explored in solid-state electron systems, topological phases of matter have been found to play important roles in various other systems of waves in periodic media. In particular, engineering photonic lattices with non-trivial topological properties is the rapidly growing area of research in photonics [1]. Topological phases of photons and electrons have similarities and also differences. One major difference is that photons are bosons and they are often dissipative. Many of the phenomena known in topological phases of electron systems assume that, quite naturally, electrons are fermions and they are not lost from the system. It is thus an important question to ask how such phenomena known in fermionic non-dissipative systems can appear in bosonic dissipative setup of photonics. One of such phenomena that I will analyze in this talk is the quantum Hall effect, an effect which states that the Hall current is proportional to the topological Chern number of occupied energy bands.


Hidden Singer is a television program in Korea. In the show, the original singer and four imitating singers sing a song in hiding behind a screen. The audience and TV viewers attempt to guess who the original singer is by listening to the singing voices. Usually, there are few correct answers from the audience, because the imitators are well trained and highly skilled. We propose a computerized system for distinguishing the original singer from the imitating singers. During the training phase, the system learns only the original singer's song because it is the one the audience has heard before. During the testing phase, the songs of five candidates are provided to the system and the system then determines the original singer. The system uses a 1-class authentication method, in which only a subject model is made. The subject model is used for measuring similarities between the candidate songs. In this problem, unlike other existing studies that require artist identification, we cannot utilize multi-class classifiers and supervised learning because songs of the imitators and the labels are not provided during the training phase. Therefore, we evaluate the performances of several 1-class learning algorithms to choose which one is more efficient in distinguishing an original singer from among highly skilled imitators. The experiment results show that the proposed system using the autoencoder performs better (63.33%) than other 1-class learning algorithms: Gaussian mixture model (GMM) (50%) and one class support vector machines (OCSVM) (26.67%). We also conduct a human contest to compare the performance of the proposed system with human perception. The accuracy of the proposed system is found to be better (63.33%) than the average accuracy of human perception (33.48%). key words: singer authentication, autoencoder, neural network, artificial intelligence


Abstract  The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of lifetime posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Turkish male alcohol‐dependent inpatients, and to investigate the relationship of lifetime PTSD diagnosis with anxiety, depression, hopelessness, erectile dysfunction and psychosocial problems related with alcohol dependency. Eighty‐two male inpatients who met DSM‐IV criteria for alcohol dependence and 48 subjects without substance use disorder as a control group were included in the study. Subjects were applied the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM‐D), the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM‐A), the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST), the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) and the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF). Rate of lifetime PTSD diagnosis was found to be 26.8% among alcohol‐dependent inpatients. The mean age of patients with lifetime PTSD was lower than in patients without this diagnosis, while there were no significant differences between these two groups in terms of age of first alcohol use, lifetime major depression, current depression, presence and severity of erectile dysfunction. Mean scores of HAM‐D, HAM‐A, BHS and MAST in the group with lifetime PTSD were significantly higher than the group without this diagnosis. There was a positive relationship between lifetime PTSD diagnosis and depression, anxiety, hopelessness and severity of psychosocial problems related to alcohol dependency, while there was no relationship between lifetime PTSD comorbidity and erectile dysfunction in alcohol‐dependent patients.


Highlight Ogura and colleagues present a novel electrocautery dilation device for endoscopic ultrasound-guided procedures. The distal end of the outer dilator contains a 3-Fr metal tip, allowing a smaller burning effect than with conventional devices. This novel device may have clinical impact for endoscopic ultrasound-guided procedures as tract dilation device.


Two erbium doped fiber laser configurations are conceived and constructed; A ring fiber laser and a linear cavity fiber loop laser. A comparative investigation tests were carried out. It is found that both the output power and the side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) for the two structures were significantly different. The measured laser power and the side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of 11 mW and 75 dB respectively were higher for the linear cavity configuration. A lower output power and SMSR of 3 mW and 61.5 dB respectively were obtained with the ring laser configuration. Both lasers were pumped with a 90 mW pump power, and had a reflectivity of 90%.


This study aims to: 1) test and analyze the role of knowledge management and competence in innovation, 2) test and analyze the role of knowledge management and competence on organizational performance, 3) test and analyze the role of innovation on organizational performance, 4) test and analyze the role of management knowledge of organizational performance through innovation, 5) testing and analyzing the role of competence on organizational performance through innovation, and 6) testing and analyzing the role of knowledge management and employee competence on organizational performance through innovation at PDAM Ketapang Regency. The research was conducted by PDAM Ketapang Regency employees, totaling 71 employees. The sampling technique uses saturated samples. Methods of data analysis using descriptive analysis and quantitative analysis with path analysis. The results showed that: 1) there was an influence on the role of knowledge management and competence on innovation, 2) there was an influence on the role of knowledge management and competence on organizational performance, 3) there was an influence on the role of innovation on organizational performance, 4) there was an influence on the role of knowledge management on organizational performance through innovation, 5) there is an influence on the role of competence on organizational performance through innovation, and 6) there is an influence on the role of knowledge management and employee competence on organizational performance through innovation at PDAM Ketapang Regency.