Objective: To investigate whether micro ribonucleic acid (miR)-103 affects pancreatic cancer (PaCa) cells via PTEN-activated PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. Methods: Differences in miR-103 expression in 35 pairs of PaCa tissues and cell lines (SW1990 and PATU8988S) were detected
 by RT-qPCR. miR-103 inhibitor was transfected into PaCa PATU8988S cell followed by analysis of proliferation and apoptosis of PaCa cells by MTT assay and flow cytometry, respectively. Results: MiR-103 exhibited a significantly high expression in PaCa tissues and cell lines (p
 < 0.05). Besides, the exogenous inhibition of miR-103 expression in PATU8988S cells significantly inhibited cell proliferation and migration but increased apoptosis activity (p < 0.05). According to the prediction of TargetScan biological database, miR-103 could bind PTEN 3′
 untranslated region (3′UTR) and miR-103 was confirmed to suppress PTEN expression in a targeted way (p<0.05). Furthermore, down-regulation of PTEN activated PI3K/Akt signaling to affect the proliferation and apoptosis of PaCa cells (p < 0.05 or p <0.01). Conclusion:
 MiR-103 displays a significantly increased expression in PaCa cells and targets PTEN to activate PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, thus promoting malignant phenotype formation.


In this paper, we evaluate the distribution function of a bivariate gamma distribution which arises frequently in the literature.The calculation may be performed via a power series expansion in the correlation coefficient.


We study the associated production of real (isolated) or virtual photons (with their subsequent leptonic decay) and hadronic jets in proton-proton collisions at the LHC using the ${k}_{T}$-factorization approach of QCD. The consideration is based on the off-shell quark-gluon QCD Compton scattering subprocesses. In the case of virtual photon production, the contributions from $Z$ boson exchange as well as ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}^{*}\ensuremath{-}Z$ interference with the full spin correlations are included. The transversemomentum-dependent (TMD) quark and gluon densities in a proton are determined from the Kimber-Martin-Ryskin prescription or Catani-Ciafoloni-Fiorani-Marchesini (CCFM) equation. In the latter, we restrict to the case where the gluon-to-quark splitting occurs at the last evolution step and calculate the sea quark density as a convolution of the CCFM-evolved gluon distribution and the TMD gluon-to-quark splitting function. Our numerical predictions are compared with the recent experimental data taken by the ATLAS Collaboration. We discuss the theoretical uncertainties of our calculations and argue that further studies are capable of constraining the TMD parton densities in the proton.


NASA's MESSENGER mission has unveiled the first global digital elevation model (DEM) of Mercury, revealing in stunning detail the topography across the entire innermost planet and paving the way for scientists to fully characterize Mercury's geologic history.


Addresses the problem of electrode configuration design for recording electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. The standard 10-20 configuration, which is widely employed, uses 21 sensors and had been demonstrated to be inadequate. EEG researchers, therefore, have been using more sensors. However, no theoretical studies have been conducted on selecting the number of sensors and for placement of the electrodes. Here, the authors present a technique based on finite sum approximation to a continuous potential function on the surface of a sphere. They then borrow techniques from sampling theory to select the number of sensors and a suggest a strategy for placing them.<<ETX>>


Combined with modal analysis and harmonic power flow algorithm,the harmonic resonance analysis and assessment software is developed with C# and Matlab,which has,besides the general functions of harmonic analysis,two special features: all system resonances can be searched through frequency scanning,which are analyzed by modal analysis to find the serious harmonic resonance areas of power system and to represent their distribution with the participation factor index;the frequency scanning is carried out for the system installed with filter to optimize the filter parameters,which is repeated until the number of system resonance is far away from the number of harmonic source to avoid harmonic resonance or amplification caused by inappropriate parameter design.Simulation results show it is effective and correct.


Two multipath schemes are put forward.One is primary/backup mode,which only in the case of primary path is not available and the other path can take the charge of transmitting.The other is replication mode,which the packets are sent along all the multiple routes simultaneously.Both the schemes have not efficiently combined load bal- ancing and energy awareness in sensor networks.This paper proposes an energy-aware load-balancing delivery scheme in sensor networks.The data flow can be transmitted from the source node to the destination node along the multiple paths according to their Decisive Energy Ratio (DER),which is the proportion of the minimum equivalent residual en- ergy of each path to the sum of the minimum equivalent residual energy on all the paths.This scheme needs not to cal- culate the DERs periodically,so it is easy to be implemented and brings fewer overheads.Also,DER with Overload A- voidance (DEROA) is proposed to avoid heavy traffic on some critical nodes.The simulations demonstrate how well DER will achieve the delivery efficiency.


Model of the heat balance in an element of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) a fragment of bipolar plate with the linear air channel) is developed. Stability analysis of heat transport equations shows that stack operation is unstable with respect to small long-wave perturbations in temperature T. Expressions for the critical wave vector of dangerous disturbance and for the instability increment are derived. Physically, small perturbation of T increases local current; both these disturbances increase local rate of heat production, which gives further rise to T. This positive feedback loop is activated when perturbation occupies a significant fraction of channel length. Instability manifests itself as a slow temperature wave with growing amplitude, which moves along the direction of airflow. The characteristic time of temperature growth in the wave is on the order of 10 min to 2 h.


The utilization of teak leaf extract containing carotenoids for natural dyes on the manufacture of wall paint. Teak leaf extract boiled with 350 ml of water until boiling and filtered with screen mash T100. As glue is used a blend of tapioca flour and lime tohor as much as 75 grams with composition ratio (1: 3, 1: 1,3: 1). As a solvent used mix aqudes, PVAc glue and white cement. In this research, the process of making paint is by mixing all the material from pigment, adhesive, and solvent until homogeneous. Paint quality is shown through viscosity test, adhesion and density. The results of this study indicate that the best paint formulation composition is found in adhesive variation with a ratio of 3: 1 which produces density 1,3 gr/ml, viscosity 0,26 poise and 95% adhesion.


The paper analyzes the strength characteristics of welded joints made of TiNi alloy with a shape memory effect. Comparison of the level of tensile strength of welded samples made by the TIG method in an Ar and He medium was carried out using a universal machine Instron 5985. The study of the material structure was carried out on longitudinal sections using a JSM-6490LV electron microscope. The analysis of the chemical composition of the material under study in local volumes was carried out using an INCA Penta FETx3 energy dispersive attachment. The calorimetric parameters of the original and welded samples were obtained using a differential scanning calorimeter METTLER TOLEDO 822e.


In this paper, we investigate a multiuser mobile edge computing (MEC)-aided smart Internet of vehicle (IoV) network, where one edge server can help accomplish the intensive calculating tasks from the vehicular users. For the MEC networks, most existing works mainly focus on minimizing the system latency to guarantee the user's quality of service (QoS) through designing some offloading strategies, which, however, fail to consider the pricing from the server and hence fail to take into account the budget constraint from the users. To address this issue, we jointly incorporate the budget constraint into the system design of the MEC-based IoV networks and then propose a joint deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approach combined with the convex optimization algorithm. Specifically, a deep Q-network (DQN) is firstly used to make the offloading decision, and then, the Lagrange multiplier method is employed to allocate the calculating capability of the server to multiple users. Simulations are finally presented to demonstrate that the proposed schemes outperform the conventional ones. In particular, the proposed scheme can effectively reduce the system latency by up to 56% compared to the conventional schemes.


This study tries to make an evaluation on operational efficiency of nine publicly traded sports companies from the financial indicators data collected from their yearly reports from 2007 to 2011 based on DEA-Malmquist index.The results of this analysis indicated that publicly traded sports companies were not optimal in pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency in 2011,resulting in 66.7% inefficiency;the total factor productivity(TFP) of publicly traded sports companies decline during 2007—2011,a drop of 15.5%.Since there is no coordination between the pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency,causing them no good to play the role to technical efficiency;only one company which the TFP index is more than 1 and four ones which the technological progress rate is greater than or equal to 1 during 2007—2011,most of them have the technical regress phenomenon.


ZIELINSKA, OLGA ANNA. What are the Chances? Examining the Effect of Displaying Probability Rates on Web Health Searches. (Under the direction of Dr. Christopher B. Mayhorn). The Internet offers many benefits to people seeking health information, such as the convenience of accessing information at any time, and the protection of viewing information anonymously; however, such information is unregulated and can be misinterpreted. Escalation, the observed increase in medical severity of search terms within a single search session, could occur. For example, escalation occurs when an initial search for "headache" leads to a later search for "brain tumor". Researchers have recommended including incidence rates to reduce escalation; however, this phenomenon has yet to be tested empirically. Onehundred-and-fifty undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of three presentation groups (control, pictorial, and numeric) where they evaluated four search results pages. Incidence rates were not displayed in the control whereas participants in the pictorial condition saw incidence rates displayed as bar graphs and those in the numeric condition saw incidence rates displayed as percentages. Escalation was evaluated using the susceptibility and severity measures from the Risk Behavior Diagnosis Scale. Four symptoms were evaluated and each symptom was paired with four conditions: two benign and two serious. Perceived severity increased from pre-search to post-search (p<.001), but there were no display group differences. Benign susceptibility was highest when shown numerically, followed by pictorially, and lowest in the control. The numeric group was significantly higher than the control group (p=.001) and the pictorial group (p=.037); however, there were no differences between the control and pictorial group (p<.10). Similarly in the serious condition, the highest ratings were in the numeric group, followed by pictorial and the lowest susceptibility in the control. Numeric was significantly higher than the control (p=.003) and pictorial (p=.028), but there was no difference between the pictorial group and the control (p<.10). Although susceptibility was higher when incidence rates were present for both benign and serious conditions, rates were higher for benign conditions than the serious conditions (p<.001) suggesting that people are not escalating. The findings from this study could be helpful in understanding how patients comprehend healthcare information and could conceivably provide direction for how health care professionals distribute information to their patients. .


The present invention relates to an electromechanical friction shock absorber for use in a washing machine, wherein the laundry drum rotates on a horizontal axis. Electromechanical friction shock absorber (10) comprising: at least one cylindrical shock absorber piston (26); at least one damper body (18) surrounding the shock absorber piston (26), the plunger (26 ) telescopically movable together along the same work axis (X-), from the end portion of the support plunger (26); characterized in that - the at least one brake shoe (23), via a sliding surface (39, 40) seated in a gap provided in the damper body (18) (34, 35) and around the plunger (26), and a mobile body (18) on the same work axis (X); - at least one a friction element (30), located in the brake shoe (23) and a damper inside the outer plunger (26) is fixed by retaining plane (37), the friction element (30) along a working axis (X ) does not contact the surface of the brake shoe (23); and - at least one locking ring (36), the shock absorber piston (26) is supported on the damper body (18), to prevent the friction element (30 ) removing the body (18). By electromechanical friction damper according to the present invention, the amount of laundry, the load caused by the imbalance, and the speed of rotation of the drum as a result of all these parameters the amount of movement of the drum in real time and full-time dynamic control of the movement of the washing machine drum.


We present an alternative model of V2028 Cyg, a B[e] star of FS CMa type. The star V2028 Cyg is atypical among FS CMa stars due to its composite spectra of B4III and K2II-Ib type. Our modelling of the temporal variability of the Hα line bisectors indicates as the most probable model a geometrically and optically thick disc, which is surrounded by a dusty ring seen almost edge-on. This provides a possibility that the K-spectral component is formed in the disc.


A cation-exchanged synthetic saponite, Mn+y(Mg3)oct.(Si4–xAlx)tet. O10(OH)2(interlayer cation; Mn+= Al3+, Zr4+, Ti4+, etc.), has a large surface area at high temperatures and a high catalytic activity as a solid acid due to its 'card-house structure'.


That involves the conversion of biomass pyrolysis conversion processes of refining technology, especially one that is mainly used for urban living garbage treatment and energy conversion of biomass refining conversion processing MSW pyrolysis conversion processing method, mainly to solve design and technical issues related to refining conversion technology and other biomass conversion processing device. Advantage of the present invention are: organic heat through fission principle, it "refined" into easy to handle and use of renewable gas, liquid, solid three-state primary energy substances; reach to solve solid waste flow control heating and energy efficiency technology and engineering process for the balance; this garbage treatment project has a smooth and simple and safe and reliable.


Halogen-free flame retardant compositions comprising thermoplastic elastomers, which exhibit flame retardance and low-smoke emission. The flame retardant compositions comprise a) one or more thermoplastic elastomers, and b) from at or about 18 to at or about 50 weight percent, the weight percentage being based on the total weight of the flame retardant composition, of a flame retardant mixture comprising: b1) at least one flame retardant comprising a phosphinate, diphosphinate and/or polymers thereof; b2) a phosphorous-containing amino composition; and b3) a zeolite.


The biblical entreaty zakhor – Hebrew for 'remember' – has been central to the efforts of diaspora Jewish scholars, religious leaders, politicians and others to suture the suffering past to the present. The imperative to not only remember but also commemorate histories of suffering is ubiquitous among conflict-generated diasporas as well. For diaspora Croats, victim-centred themes regularly surface in identity narratives, focusing on memories of trauma and suffering after the establishment of the Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia in 1945. While the manipulation of victimhood narratives and the rehabilitation of controversial histories by Croatian political elites have been examined extensively, the persistence of memories focused on suffering among diaspora Croats has received less scholarly attention. In this article, I ask why, 30 years after the end of the Homeland War and the establishment of the Croatian state, do victimhood narratives continue to resonate for diaspora Croats particularly from the Herzegovinian region of the former Yugoslavia who arrived in Canada between 1945 and 1990. What role do memory activists in Canada originating mainly from Herzegovina play in lubricating and mobilizing memories that reinforce victimhood? Finally, how does the desire for validation and legitimacy beyond diaspora communities factor into commemorations and initiatives focused on collective suffering? The focus here is on research conducted between 2019 and 2020 in Toronto when diaspora commemorations and the memory narratives that have sustained them came under increased critical scrutiny, challenging the veracity of Croatian victimhood claims.


Event-based sensors are a novel sensing technology which capture the dynamics of a scene via pixel-level change detection. This technology operates with high speed (>10 kHz), low latency (10 μs), low power consumption (<1 W), and high dynamic range (120 dB). Compared to conventional, frame-based architectures that consistently report data for each pixel at a given frame rate, event-based sensor pixels only report data if a change in pixel intensity occurred. This affords the possibility of dramatically reducing the data reported in bandwidth-limited environments (e.g., remote sensing) and thus, the data needed to be processed while still recovering significant events. Degraded visual environments, such as those generated by fog, often hinder situational awareness by decreasing optical resolution and transmission range via random scattering of light. To respond to this challenge, we present the deployment of an event-based sensor in a controlled, experimentally generated, well-characterized degraded visual environment (a fog analogue), for detection of a modulated signal and comparison of data collected from an event-based sensor and from a traditional framing sensor.


INTRODUCTION TO THE FUTURE Niels Bohr once said, ''It's difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.'' The line has been repeated so often it has become a cliché, but that makes it no less true. Given the rapid rate of discovery in medical imaging and the changing health care environment, accurately forecasting the next five years would be a challenge. The next twenty-five years are a tabula rasa. Almost anything could happen. So let me start with the only thing I am sure of—the future success of radiology will depend in large part on whether there is continuing important innovation in imaging that makes its way into practice. You can write it down. Future success depends upon more of the same extraordinary development of new technologies that has underpinned radiology's current ''Golden Age.'' According to Elias Zerhouni, radiologist and former director of the National Institutes of Health, the future practice paradigm will be P4 medicine: Predictive—New tests will probe for genetic and environmental influences affecting our predispositions to disease, allowing more targeted, less costly surveillance than current methods. Personalized—Treatment will target specific disease and patient characteristics unique to the individual and will be more effective and have fewer side effects. Preemptive—It is an axiom of medical care that finding disease earlier in its course is better than discovering disease after it has become established or widespread. Participatory—Patients have increasing access to health-related information. Patient expectations of participating in medical decision-making will only increase in the future. The direction of imaging research is both being dragged along by the transition to molecular-based P4 medicine and, in some cases, leading the way. What is now developing in the realm of molecular imaging portends an acceleration of innovation that might one day overshadow imaging's remarkable past. Consider the following metaphor for how molecular imaging discovery could ideally satisfy the demands of P4 medicine. The year is 2036. An outwardly healthy-appearing young woman lies fully conscious in a sophisticated advanced imaging device called the Omniscient, awaiting her first annual whole-body screening examination. The Omniscient employs a completely safe radiant energy, discovered during testing of experimental weaponry. A technologist administers a safe, odorless gas—a molecular contrast agent—then conducts a scan that broadly assesses genomic risk for a number of serious diseases. In this case, the agent attaches to specific cellular receptors, identifying a genetic lesion that predisposes Lucinda to the highly aggressive lung cancer #236R (by this time, there are 335 known genetic variants of cancers arising from the lungs). A second gaseous agent specifically seeks out any evidence of active #236R, detecting a sub-millimeter lesion in the left upper lobe. A software program highlights the abnormality and sets off a beeping sound as reinforcement. The scan finds no other hot spots, showing with exceedingly high reliability that there are no metastases. Finally, the technologist directs the Omniscient to transmit a new and unique set of energy pulses precisely focused on the abnormality. The pulses cleave the contrast agent's molecules attached to the cancer cells, transforming the agent into a highly effective therapeutic molecule. The molecule triggers tumor cell apoptosis but leaves the surrounding normal lung tissue unharmed. Lucinda is cured of a condition that formerly was nearly uniformly fatal. She drives herself home immediately following the procedure. Insurers happily pay for annual


This homefront history of Queensland society during World War One concentrates upon themes of social and ideological conflict in the realms of class and ethnic relations. An attempt is made to show how the ordeal of total warfare exacerbates rather than creates such crises and confrontations by a wider examination of the era from 1900 to 1920. During the war itself, class struggle, ethnic tensions and ideological confrontations all intensify considerably in vehemence, despite initial appearances of social unanimity. Demands for loyalty and charges of disloyalty become explicit, as anti-radical and anti-alien scapegoating reaches new peaks. The role of the State becomes more expansive and intrusive, as normal hegemonic controls fall under increasing stress, and social agitation and resistance mounts. The introduction to this thesis attempts to place the work within its Australian historiographical context, presents a detailed and thematically coherent content analysis of this dissertation (see pp.iv-vii) and discusses methodological approaches to the issues encompassed herein. In Chapter One, a precursive range of pre-war crises is investigated, revealing dominant patterns of social consciousness and behaViour in peacetime Queensland. Boer War inVOlvement, racial invasion scares, internal ethnic antagonisms and anti-socialist campaigns are all examined to show the predominance of Imperial, militaristic, xenophobic and anti-radical sentiment in the society. In Chapter Two, the loyalist response to the outbreak of the Great War is reviewed, and its degree of unanimity questioned. The waning of war support before the first conscription referendum and the State's attempts to buttress this by such bureaucratic procedures as censorship and propaganda are revealed. Warfront realities and homefront misperceptions are constantly juxtaposed, as a dawning awareness of warfare's actualities nevertheless encourages gradual social disillusionment and alienation. Chapter TIlree deals with the growth of anti-Germanism as a pervasive ideology of I'mI' support, with profound consequences for the large German minority in Queensland. Anti-Germanism adds a new dimension to ethnic excl llsi veness in the society, and provides a base l..!P0n which renewed antialien and anti-radical campaigns can develop. Chapter Four examines socialist, syndicalist and paci fist respon <;es to the war si tllation in the context of ,9urgeoning working class discontent over socio-economic conditions I war-induced psychological suffering and bureaucratic encroach-. ments. Loyalist reactions to anti-war activists are similarly detailed as social polarization increases prior to the first· conscription plebiscite. Chapter Five deals in depth with the two conscription struggles in Queensland, with particular emphasis upon class, ethnic and ideological conflict. Invasion fears, and anti-radical, anti-alien alarms dominate each campaign, as social division, hysteria and violence become acute, and State and Federal governmental confTontation increases. Chapters Six and Seven return to the themes of alien and radical scapegoating, following the watershed of the two, failed conscription referenda. In Chapter Six, social and official loyal.i st responses to a number of non-British groups are highlighted; while, in Chapter Seven, loyalist mobilizations against an increasingly radical challenge in Queens land in the wake of the Russian Revolution are detailed. Antagonistic 'Stop the War' and 'Win the Wart initiatives encourage an eA~anding rift between State and Federal regimes, as Queens land becomes wide ly regarded as 'the most dis loyal State t in the Commonwealth. L'hapter Eight deals with the social and ideological crises accompanying the Armistice and the pos t-war reconstruction period. It demon;:;trates that anti-alien, anti-radical actions climax in a 'Bolshevik scare' period of 1918 to 1920, wherein loyalist! dis loyalist conflict and vio lence once more become critical throughout many Queens land centres. Right-wing mass mobilizations of loyalist citizens; returned soldiers and the conservative press combine with official initiatives by the Commonwealth government to put radical and revolutionary activists to rout and to repress and intimidate certain members of non-British ethnic groups, including Germans, Russians and Southern Europeans. In conclusion, the outcome of social crises and conflicts, intensified by the ordeal of total warfare is reviewed and the contention that Queensland society exhibited the most active disloyalty in Australia during the war years is scrutinized. It , ~ is suggested that, in Queensland~ the precepts of Imperialistic nationalism, militarism and racism dominated social consciousness in this era, whilst minority affiliations with socialism, republicanism, pacifism and internationalism were curbed and depleted by the ferocity of mass loyalist assaults. It has been thought desirable, because of the extent and fullness of footnoting, to present references in collected form at the end of chapters.


Combining with the status and role of forestry,the modern forestry was defined and the evaluation index system was established which consists of 3 levels including forest ecosystem system indicators,forestry industrial system indicators and forest culture system indicators and 13 aspects including forest ecosystem,wetland ecosystem,desert ecosystems,conservation of biodiversity,production capacity of woodland,industrial efficiency,industrial structure,industrial intensive level,industrial security,ecological cultural infrastructure,forestry culture industry,popularization and publicity of ecological cultural knowledge and the social development of forestry culture.


We discuss questions arising from the recent work of Schellekens[17], and also from an earlier paper by Schellekens and Yankielowicz[19]. We summarise Schellekens' results, and proceed to discuss the uniqueness of the c = 24 self-dual conformal field theory with no weight one states, i.e. the Monster module V ♮ [8]. After introducing the concept of complementary representations, we examine Z 2 -orbifold constructions in general, and then proceed to apply our considerations firstly to the specific case of the FKS constructions H (Λ) and then to the reflection twisted theories e H (Λ)[5]. Our techniques provide evidence for the existence of several new theories beyond those proven to exist in [5] and conjectured to exist in [19].


Superconducting (SC) electrodynamic suspension (EDS) has a wide application prospect due to the advantages of no active control, self-stability and large gap, especially in the ultra-high speed maglev, rocket launching, Electromagnetic Aircraft Launching System and other high speed fields. SC coils and null-flux Ground Coils which are the primary and secondary windings respectively are applied in a typical EDS system, in that the null-flux ground coils provide levitation and guidance force. The calculation of electromagnetic forces that has been extensively studied by scholars all over the world is the basis of the design and optimization of the system. However, due to the limitation of complex structure, the calculation formula is often so complicated that the results have to be obtained by means of finite element method and numerical simulation. This paper aims to derive an analytical calculation of electromagnetic forces for SC EDS system based on some reasonable assumptions. The experimental data of MLX01 on the Japanese Yamanashi testline was used to verify the calculation model of this paper. In order to get a further validation, a small EDS rotary table was built based on null-flux ground coils and permanent magnets. The results of the experiment confirms the effectiveness of the proposed analytical calculation model.


Video and television art, so the story goes, started with Nam June Paik. That he first turned to television in Wuppertal, West Germany, before moving to New York has remained at best a peculiar side note to discussions of the relationship between art and television, which, at least on this side of the Atlantic, appear largely dominated by art made in the U.S. What is more, even at the presumed moment of its origin, Paik himself deflected the honor of being the first television artist. In a text published on the occasion of his 1963 exhibition Exposition of Music Electronic Television at Galerie Parnass in Wuppertal, Paik opens with a credit that today most art historians would find obscure and, even for those on more intimate terms with postwar European art, bizarre: "As is well known Prof.


A stable crack extension is a precondition for fracture toughness tests using chevron-notched specimens. The paper analyses the stability problem for crack extension in two chevron-notched specimens suggested by ISRM. Stability factors are calculated with various compliances of testing machine under different loading conditions. It is pointed out that the loading manner, compliance of the testing machine, as well as the specimen configurations have great influence on crack growth stability.


The NASA Advisory Council Task Force on the Shuttle-Mir rendezvous and docking missions examine a number of specific issues related to the Shuttle-Mir program. Three teams composed of Task Force members and technical advisors were formed to address the follow issues: preliminary results from STS-71 and the status of preparations for STS-74; NASA's presence in Russia; and NASA's automated data processing and telecommunications (ADP/T) infrastructure in Russia. The three review team reports have been included in the fifth report of the Task Force.


Summary This article surveys the work of the last decade or so on politics, government and representation in early‐modern Portugal. Traditional views of a 'precocious' absolutism are shown to have been modified by a newer understanding of political power as plural and dispersed. Underlying this perception has been the study of 'political culture' conceived as a deep and wide‐ranging grammar of political discourse expressed not only in the formal and symbolic, but also in the informal and less 'visible' aspects of political behaviour. A final section discusses the new, revisionist historiography of the Cortes, with its de‐mythification of the medieval assembly and the rehabilitation of the early‐modern Cortes as a ritual manifestation of the bond between king and kingdom.


Treatment decisions of Adolescent cataracts  and results have lifelong implications. The outcome of pediatric cataract surgery in  developing countries remains poor as a result of late detection, inadequate surgical facilities and expertise for children, lack of pediatric anaesthesia and inadequate follow-up.  Methods: This was a prospective  institutional study to review the patients of Cataracts in 10-18 yrs age presenting to OPD of a rural tertiary Government Hospital from Jun 15 to Aug 16 The patients were examined for Visual Acuity, Slit lamp examination and Fundus exam to note Vision, type of cataract, cause of cataract and any associated ocular/ systemic condition. They were operated and final visual outcome noted.    Results—52 adolescent cataracts were studied. 40 were traumatic in origin and 12 of developmental type. 10 (19.23% )  cases showed Visual acuity 6/18. Conclusion- Traumatic cataracts showed good results, Few Developmental cataracts  had amblyopia.


ABSTRACT While undergraduate students may be able to find appropriate scholarly sources, they often struggle to use those sources when writing. This study aimed to improve students' writing by targeting one specific skill: synthesis, or the ability to integrate multiple sources. Students in a psychology course viewed a video tutorial prior to writing an introductory literature review. Those who viewed the tutorial were more likely to cite two or more sources per paragraph compared to those who did not view it. Students' survey responses also indicated that they found the tutorial helpful, suggesting it has promise as an instructional tool.


Summary Arthroplasty of the wrist joint was previously performed mainly with silicone implants, which in many studies have shown high frequencies of wearing. In the beginning of the 1980s, early reports of nonconstrained spherical implants, used both with and without cement fixation, were encouraging, despite the difficulties in balancing the implants into the center of movement of the wrist joint. The introduction of biaxial implants has improved these results, which are reliable in terms of functional range of motion, stability, and pain relief. The biaxial implant introduced by Beckenbaugh is used without cement with stemmed components for both the radial and carpal parts. Loosening of the distal component has been reported, and a revision implant with a longer stem has been designed. The Universal Total Wrist Implant designed by Menon has a stemmed radial component, but the carpal component is fixated to the fused distal carpal bones with titanium screws. Loosening has not been reported, but instead, a rather high frequency of early dislocations. A new implant design (UTW2) has recently been introduced to overcome these difficulties. Arthroplasty of the distal radioulnar joint is, in most cases, performed with a hemiarthroplasty replacing only the ulnar head. Arthroplasty of the wrist joint is today a common and reliable procedure, which could be performed mainly in patients with rheumatoid arthritis as an alternative to wrist fusion.


Recently peracetic acid (PA) has been reported in the dental literature as a possible root canal irrigating solution. It has the advantage of bringing together in one product antibacterial activity and ability to remove smear layer. For selection of root canal irrigating solution it should take into account not only its therapeutic benefits, but also the possible cytotoxic effects, since it can contact the periapical tissues. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cytotoxicity of PA at different concentrations in comparison with 2.5% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) through the study of the L929 fibroblasts metabolism and the cytoskeleton. L929 fibroblasts in culture were exposed to different concentrations of PA and NaOCl and to the culture medium for 24 hours (control). After this period, it was evaluated the cell metabolism by methyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay and the cytoskeleton by staining actin and α‐tubulin. Data were analyzed by two‐way ANOVA and Bonferroni post test (α = 0.05). The solutions had an effect on cell viability/metabolism in a dose‐dependent manner. The cell viability decreased progressively as the concentration of irrigating solutions was increased. 0.5% AP showed similar cytotoxicity to 2.5% NaOCl (p>0.5); the AP at concentrations of 1%, 2% and 2.5% showed higher cytotoxicity than 2.5% NaOCl (p<0.5). The cytoskeleton suffered progressive structural changes as the concentrations of the solutions were increased. It was concluded that the AP is more cytotoxic than NaOCl. However, further studies evaluating other cell parameters and employing other PA‐based solutions need to be performed.


ws influence the thermal and lighting comfort of rooms as well the energy demand for heating, cooling and lighting significantly. The accordant tasks of thermal solar control and daylighting are contradictory as to radiation transmission and often are realized with a loss of light transmission, resulting in artificial lighting during sunny periods. This disadvantage can be avoided by light directing solutions , i lluminating deep room areas by daylight . T he development of a cost effective, non-tracking micro structured daylighting system is described in this paper. The system is fixed in the upper area of a window above eyelevel and illuminates the room with sunlight from solar altitudes between 15° and 65° by redirection to the ceiling and scattering from there deep into the room without causing glare. Ray-tracing calculations are employed to identify basic design rules for the configuration of micro structured daylighting systems. The results of the simulations show the advantage of combinations of lens-like with prism-like geometries in comparison to conventional micro prism arrays regarding the overall light redirection efficiency as well as the producibility and cost efficiency. Measurements at cast PDMS prototypes and large scale industrially produced PMMA panels with dimensions of 1500mm x 400mm x 4mm confirmed the simulation results. Optimization leads to freeform geometries which can further be improved by selective roughening of specific micro surfaces. By integrating the light directing panel in the gap of a specially coated double glass unit high thermal insulation (u < 0.8 W/(m²K)) and solar control can be achieved. Design principles for the application in windows and sky lights in combination with solar shading facilities are shown, demonstrating a wide range of architectural solutions.


Revised! ENH117, a 10-page illustrated fact sheet by Daniel F. Culbert, describes this unusual native cycad — its habitat and range, description, non-landscape uses, landscape characteristics and uses, propagation and pest management — and the rare atala butterfly for which it is the sole host — legal status, management, and atala gardening. Includes references. Published by the UF Department of Environmental Horticulture, March 2010.


Because fermented liquid in chlortetracycline fermenter has high viscosity and complex composition, conventional instruments can't directly measure its total sugar content of fermented liquid. At present, offline artificial sampling measurement is usually the way to measuring total sugar content in chlortetracycline Fermenter. it will take too much time and manpower to finish the measurement., and the results will bring the lag of control process. To realize automatic measurement of total sugar content in chlortetracycline fermenter, we developed an automatic measuring device for total sugar content based on STM32 microcomputer. It can not only realize the function of automatic sampling, filtering, measuring of fermented liquid and automatic washing of the device, but also can make the measuring results display in the field and finish data communication. The experiment results show that the automatic measuring device of total sugar content in chlortetracycline fermenter can meet the demand of practical application.


Despite mounting evidence regarding global climate change and its associated impacts, the United States has not transitioned away from oil and other fossil fuels toward more sustainable sources of energy. This article examines a common cultural narrative regarding U.S. energy policy – the notion that we are – addicted to oil. While this phase is often used in discussions regarding energy policy in the United States, the term – addiction is a charged one, and it has potential implications worthy of examination. This article describes the criteria for addiction using the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). It then applies those criteria to our nation's relationship to oil. Application of Prochaska and DiClemente's Stages of Change Model (1983) then provides a basis for drawing further parallels regarding the role of addiction in diminishing human potential that may be applied on a cultural scale.


The knowledge gain of micro-grid operation control schemes for micro-grid application is important for graduate and undergraduate students. In this paper, the issues on photovoltaic integrated to grid system and the control schemes are discussed from basics and the level of students' understanding. Initially the basic photovoltaic modeling, maximum power point tracking techniques, and grid synchronization are presented. For grid synchronization, the mostly used synchronous reference frame-phase locked loop is considered here. For the understanding of the students, the control schemes are applied in three different cases with the help of MATLAB Simulink and the results are analyzed. The authors hope that the electrical engineering students may gain the knowledge about the effective use of solar energy and also grid synchronization technique for a reliable power supply to the critical loads in the topic control schemes on photovoltaic integrated grid system and proceed for their project or research work. The suggested scheme is duly simulated in MATLAB Simulink environment and also realized as a hardware prototype; the simulation and hardware results reveal that the suggested approach provides clear directions for a resilient operation of a micro-grid that embodies necessary renewable sources and storage elements.


Greater flexibility is needed to create more person centred care in drug treatment services, but the prohibitionist ideas that underpin clinical practice need to be tackled too, says Judy Chang


Dear Reader, Let us get ready to face the global healthcare challenges with positive attributes and approaches to regulatory pathways. Resisting evergreening and extreme imbalances in Intellectual Property and patient practices may be a good option to continue from the Uruguay Round, TRIPs and the Doha Declaration perspective.


This database presents theoretical cross sections based on the Binary-Encounter-Bethe (BEB) model for a large number of atoms, molecules, and radicals of interest in modeling low-temperature plasmas in magnetic fusion devices, plasma processing of semiconductors, radiation damages to materials, and cleaning of air pollutants by corona discharge. The database includes molecules such as H2, H2O, NO2, O3, SiH4, and SF6. For each target, the database compares the BEB cross section to available theoretical and experimental data.


One of the most serious remaining challenges in speech recognition is dealing with corruption of speech signal by other nuisance speech ("babble"). A promising approach to solving the problem of separating the signal of interest from the detractors is to inject direction dependent signatures into all signals received, which has been realized by bat-inspired biomimetic pinna—dynamic periphery. Changing the shape of a biomimetic pinna during the recordings introduces substantial time-variant signatures into speech signals. To investigate the utility of these signatures, we have used bioinspired signal representations (cochleagram and spikegram) as input for speech classifiers based on Gaussian mixture models (GMM) and hidden Markov models (HMM). The speech samples used were obtained from open source databases: spoken digits and alphabets from Carnegie Mellon University were mixed with babble or noise samples from Columbia University. Since the time-variant signatures were found to depend strongly on the direction of the sound source, we attempted to include datasets from different directions for training and testing to feed into the classifiers. The results indicate that dynamic periphery can substantially improve recognition and that these effects depend on the signal representation as well as the angular composition of the training dataset.One of the most serious remaining challenges in speech recognition is dealing with corruption of speech signal by other nuisance speech ("babble"). A promising approach to solving the problem of separating the signal of interest from the detractors is to inject direction dependent signatures into all signals received, which has been realized by bat-inspired biomimetic pinna—dynamic periphery. Changing the shape of a biomimetic pinna during the recordings introduces substantial time-variant signatures into speech signals. To investigate the utility of these signatures, we have used bioinspired signal representations (cochleagram and spikegram) as input for speech classifiers based on Gaussian mixture models (GMM) and hidden Markov models (HMM). The speech samples used were obtained from open source databases: spoken digits and alphabets from Carnegie Mellon University were mixed with babble or noise samples from Columbia University. Since the time-variant signatures were found to depend strongly on the dir...


The best approximation method of equiripple is one of finite impulse response (FIR) filter design method. The principle of minimizing the maximum deviation is adopted here, and the best match of frequency response between the ideal and the actual filter can be achieved. The paper describes how the equiripple approaching method is used to establish a model of FIR band-stop digital filter (BSF), and gives the running result of FIR BSF under the MATLAB environment. The experiment result demonstrates that the performance of the solution is stable, the effect is good and the expected purpose has been achieved.


A control and relative localization approach for a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) flying in a forest environment is proposed in this paper. To achieve robust mutual relative localization of agents in such an obstacle-rich environment, we propose a decentralized localization approach based on a comparison of the workspace observation by onboard sensors of cooperating UAVs. We propose sharing sparse local obstacle maps to estimate bearing and distance between swarm members by fitting spacialy and time-distributed scans. Moreover, we propose fully decentralized flocking control rules adapted for deployment in such demanding conditions of real forests. The proposed approach was verified in the realistic Gazebo simulator, as well as in outdoor experiments. The approach introduced in this paper was also compared with a state-of-the-art method for relative localization and navigation of a swarm through a forest.


In introduction, the paper determines an anthropological propositions of Nikolai A. Berdyaev's philosophy underlying his teachings on creativity. According to him, a man is not just an object of nature, but its supernatural subject. He is a measure of all things, a microcosm. Next follows deliberation about the nature of cognition where Berdyaev equates a gnoseology with the creativity act, because only acting can provide knowledge. Further on, in the section about creativity, Berdyaev diverges from the patristic, negative anthropology based on atonement of original sin, and directs toward a positive man's mission that is not only to create, but to enrich 'life' of the God Himself. Finally, his learning about philosophy of history is presented: people preparing for the coming of the 'Kingdom of God' through creativity (in the form of a metahistorical order) are also created as free persons. Therefore, the process of world 'objectivization' is canceled, and the 'second coming of Christ' is prepared.


Research background. The present final paper presents an analysis of the effects of physiotherapy on foot function when treating the hallux valgus deformity. The research object was the change of the deformity degree of the great toe, foot pain, muscle strength, load distribution in the sole, trajectory of the sole's center of gravity and foot's contact with the movement's surface in different stages of walking after the treatment. Objectives of the research were to analyze scientific literature about the hallux valgus, the concept of foot function and its treatment; determine the changes in the deformity degree of the great toe, pain intensity and muscle strength prior to and after the physical therapy exercises; assess the load distribution in the soles of the respondents, trajectory of the sole's center of gravity and foot's contact with the movement's surface in different stages of walking prior to and after the physiotherapy exercises. Methods. The study was carried out at the Out-Patient Recuperation Center of the Public Institution Šiauliai National Hospital. The computer-aided pedobarographic assessment of the foot was performed by a representative of the Bauerfeind Company at the Manual Medicine Clinic. The study was carried out from December 2013 to April 2014. Twelve respondents afflicted with hallux valgus deformity participated in the study. The duration of the exercise sessions was 11 Results. According to the analysis of the research data, the intensity of pain was influenced by both the exercises and the use of orthopedic supports. However, the pain decreased more after physiotherapy compared to the use of orthopedic supports. The changes in the deformity degree of the great toe and muscle strength were also positively affected by exercises. In EKt group the muscle strength of the tested muscles changed by 1–2 points. In the EO group the muscle strength and the deformity degree of the great toe remained unchanged after the use of orthopedic supports. Following the analysis of the load distribution in the sole, trajectory of the sole's center of gravity and foot's contact with the movement's surface, it became obvious that the physiotherapy had positive a impact on the decrease of load distribution points in different places of the sole and the trajectory of the sole's center of gravity for the respondents in the Conclusion. After the exercises the toe of one patient was aligned properly and the remaining patients were close to achieving proper alignment. Also, the exercises had a positive influence on the foot's contact with the movement's surface. The EO group did not observe any positive changes after using the orthopedic supports, i.e. the load distribution points, trajectory of the center of gravity and foot's contact with the movement's surface were not altered.Keywords: hallux valgus, foot function, physical therapy.


Waity et al explore how southeastern North Carolina is building more resilient food systems after COVID-19 Feast Down East is a regional nonprofit dedicated to creating a healthy, accessible local food system that supports economic growth in southeastern North Carolina Founded by Leslie Hossfeld and Rev Mac Legerton, it began as The Southeastern North Carolina Food Systems Program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW), to address poverty and high job loss in the Southeastern North Carolina region--one of the three major areas of poverty in the state Now known as Feast Down East, the nonprofit has developed a vast network of partnerships with both private and public agencies in 11 counties Today, three main programs make up the heart of the organization: farmer support, produce distribution, and the Local Motive Mobile Farmers Market Each of these programs is essential to the overall mission of the group


This is a moving and inspiring book, chock-full of the best insights of systems thinking applied with a sustained and passionate commitment to working with families in child welfare agencies.


In this paper, the general features of β-cyclodextrin and their applications in the textile industry have been reviewed. The use of β-cyclodextrin in the textile industry is of great significance due to its wide range of application. One of the key aspects is the attachment technique of β-cyclodextrin to the textile's surface. This review deals with this in depth. Some quantification and characterization methods of Textile-β-cyclodextrin are discussed. In the last few years, the new direction in textile research is the functionalisation of textile systems. It is believed that β-cyclodextrin will play a very important role in these new developments. β-cyclodextrin can act as a host for various guest molecules. This enables the development of fabrics that release chemical compounds such as fragrances and antimicrobial agents. It is concluded that there are many possibilities for the development of new textile products with advanced properties based on β-cyclodextrin.


We apply a recently developed analytic but approximate method to study the behavior of polydisperse linear and branched polymers in an athermal solution and near various kinds of surfaces. We consider equilibrium polydispersity controlled by a set of activities. The method allows us to account for polymer connectivity and excluded-volume effects and goes beyond the random mixing approximation. The density profiles of various kinds exhibit oscillations for bulk densities φmb larger than some threshold bulk density φmT. The origin of these oscillations is related to the decreasing branch of the recursion function, as explained in the text. The correlation length ξ related to these oscillations increases as φmb increases. On the other hand, the correlation length ξ controlling the approach of various density profiles to their respective bulk values in the range φmb<φmT increases as φmb decreases. The free energy and the entropy are uniquely determined. Various surface properties are also easily determined. W...


E2Fs and the retinoblastoma protein family, C. Sardet, L. LeCam, E. Fabbrizio and M. Vidal signalling to the C-terminus of p53, C. Cain, S-Y Sheih, and C. Prives chromosome translocations generating chimeric transcription factors, unique genetic events with pleiotropic cellular consequences, Y. Labelle and P. Delattre the runt domain transcription factor, PEBP2/CBF and its involvement in human leukemia, Y. Ito and S-C. Bae EBNA2 - a viral transcription factor essential for the immortalization of human B Lymphocytes by the Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), L Waltzer, F. Meggetto, A. Sergeant, and E. Manet.


This article discussed the objective of HRM experimental curriculum, its characteristics and program design. HRM experiment program will let students have more personal practices within their lecture time and it is better to improve student's skills, capabilities rather than teachers tell them.


The zinc-containing slags from lead blast furnace and copper smelter are treated using a slag fuming process, where heavy volatile metals such as zinc and lead are recovered by reduction and evaporation from the molten slag bath. However, the traditional slag fuming technologies use a significant amount of fossil fuel as energy source and reductant, thereby emitting a considerable amount of greenhouse gases. Furthermore, the manoeuvrability of the process is limited due to the limited workable range of air and fuel ratio. However, if the fossil fuel burners are replaced with electrically powered non-transferred arc plasma torches as an energy source, the overall carbon usage of the process can be reduced significantly. Additionally, the high plasma temperature and the ability to control the atmosphere inside the reactor enables the process to produce higher output. A dynamic steady state thermodynamic flowsheet model of the submerged plasma slag fuming process has been developed in FactSage 7.0 based on Metallo Belgium's industrial-scale submerged plasma slag fuming furnace. This model describes the chemical reactions, phase equilibria and heat transfer in each sub-unit operation, and the heat and mass transfer between the subsequent sub-unit operations of the slag fuming process. The model was validated on several process batches.


Infestation of maize fields by Striga asiatica in coastal Kenya is increasing due to continuous mono-cropping of cereals without replenishment of soil nutrients, hence reducing land productivity. This may therefore lead to food insecurity if a viable solution is not found. A study was conducted to determine if integrating striga resistant maize and cowpea spatial arrangement could offer an effective solution to the striga problem. The study was conducted at KALRO Matuga in 2012 and 2013. A randomized complete block design, with three replications, was used. Maize varieties differed significantly in their stover yield in 2013 LR seasons but the varieties did not show any significant effect on striga stand counts in both seasons. Spatial arrangement of intercropped cowpea significantly influenced maize grain and stover yields in 2013 LR season. Maize variety V2 showed some tolerance to striga weed. This variety is therefore recommended for multi-locational evaluation under the National Performance Trials (NPTs) to ascertain its superiority to the current commercial maize varieties (Coast Maize Composite, Pwani Hybrid 1 and Pwani Hybrid 4). Within row spatial arrangement of intercropped cowpea gave higher maize yields than the between row arrangement. Farmers are therefore likely to realize improved maize yields by adopting the within row spatial arrangement of intercropped cowpea. * Corresponding Author: H.M. Saha  email@example.com International Journal of Agronomy and Agricultural Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2223-7054 (Print) 2225-3610 (Online) http://www.innspub.net Vol. 7, No. 6, p. 25-33, 2015 International Journal of Agronomy and Agricultural Research (IJAAR) ISSN: 2223-7054 (Print) 2225-3610 (Online) http://www.innspub.net Vol. 5, No. 1, p. 14-22, 2014


Objective: We sought to determine whether an interactive, training-based approach to data validation would effectively reduce data element discrepancy rates in subsequent years.

Methods: Fifty-eight Massachusetts hospitals participate in the Coverdell Stroke Registry and collect data on stroke-care processes using national definitions. From 2007 to 2009 auditors visited selected sites annually to assess data accuracy. Initial data element selection was based on performance measure inclusion. Subsequent audits focused on new data elements and those with frequent errors. Full-day site visits included: re-abstraction of approximately 10 charts and discussion with hospital staff to clarify discrepancies. Emphasis was on teaching to promote data quality improvement. Written feedback was sent to the coordinators following each visit. Variable-level discrepancy rates were calculated as the number of errors for a given variable over the total number of cases reviewed system-wide. A "low" discrepancy rate of 20% were considered "high".

Results: From 2007 through 2009, a total of 78 stroke registry variables were audited in more than 1,300 patient records during 147 unique hospital visits. The mean variable-level discrepancy rate decreased significantly from 11% in 2007 to 5% in 2008 (p = 0.006) and remained at 5% in 2009. Evidence of decline in the "high" discrepancy rate elements were of particular interest as they became the focus of various training opportunities, including the audit visits. The percentage of variables with a "high" range of errors significantly declined from 20% (10 of 51) in 2007 to 3% (1 of 36) in 2008 to 0% (0 of 46) in 2009 (2007 vs. 2009; p-value = 0.001).

Conclusion: The on-site audits proved to be teachable moments for hospital staff resulting in highly effective and valuable one-on-one training. Commonly identified errors were also highlighted at periodic Registry trainings, and subsequent revisions to the data collection tool and reference guides may also have facilitated improvement. While various approaches to assess data reliability exist, using the chart audit as a vehicle for abstractor training was effective in improving discrepancy rates. Further research is warranted.


Australia has large reserves of bauxites, which would be suitable for the production of alumina refractories, abrasives and aluminium chloride, provided the iron content of these bauxites can be reduced. A fluidized bed leaching technique which facilitates the handling of viscous, high solid content slurries was used to treat bauxites containing 4.5-11% by wt. Fe203 with solutions of hydrochloric acid and hydrochloric acid plus ferric chloride. The effect on leaching kinetics of acid concentration, reaction time and leaching temperature, and ferric chloride additions is reported. A product which meets the iron concentration specification for refractory grade bauxite (<2.5% Fe203) has been produced.


A greatly increased level and duration of suppression of HIV replication has become possible with the use of protease inhibitors in combination with nucleoside analogues as antiretroviral therapy [1,2]. The long-term effectiveness of protease inhibitors, and other antiretroviral medications, is dependent upon strict adherence to the prescribed regimen, since HIV resistance to these drugs can develop with subtherapeutic doses [3,4]. Consequences of poor adherence include not only diminished outcome for the patient, but also the public health threat of multidrug-resistant HIV, and widespread transmission of drug-resistant virus, similar to that seen with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis [5].


This research is aimed as knowing the contribution of Qur'anic Memorization, Student's Motivation and Student's Vocabulary Mastery toward Student' English Reading Achievement in the tenth grade students of MIA 1 and MIA 3 SMA Science Plus Baitul Qur'an Boarding School Sambirejo in academic year of 2017/2018. The type of this research is quantitative associative research. The sample of this research was 49 students taken by cluster random sampling technique. The technique to collect data used test and questionnaire. The researcher used SPSS version 19.0 to analyze the data which consist of descriptive statistic, classic assumption test (normality, linearity, multicolinearity, and heteroscedasticity), multiple regressions and hypothesis testing such as t-test (partial), f-test (simulation), coefficient of determination, and predictor contributions. The result shows that Fresult is higher than Ftable (24,233 > 2,80) and the significance value is 0,000 < 0,05. The result of coefficient determination (R2) is 61,8%. It means that Qur'anic memorization, Student's motivation, student's vocabulary mastery, simultaneously contribution toward reading comprehension.

Keywords: Qur'anic Memorization, Student's Motivation, Student's Vocabulary Mastery, Students English Reading Achievement


Sulfaminoheparosans (SAHs) are biotechnologically derived heparin analogs composed of sulfated glucuronic acid/iduronic acid and glucosamine. Though structurally and functionally similar to heparin (UFH), SAHs are resistant to digestion by heparinase‐I. To test the hypothesis that SAHs inhibit heparinase‐I, studies were undertaken to determine the effect of two derivatives of SAH with MWs of 6 kDa (Bio‐6) and 20 kDa (Bio‐20), respectively on the depolymerization of heparin using a defined system containing UFH (10 mg/ml), 0.1 M CaCl2, graded amounts of Bio‐6 and Bio‐20 (5.0 – 0.62 mg/ml) and heparinase‐I (0.1 U/ml). Heparinase‐I digested both UFH and enoxaparin into lower MW oligosaccharides (MW= 3–5 kDa). Both Bio‐6 and Bio‐20 concentration dependently inhibited heparinase‐I resulting in the decreased generation of the lower MW oligosaccharides. Inhibition of the depolymerization of heparin was stronger than that of enoxaparin. On a gravimetric basis, Bio‐20 was a stronger inhibitor than Bio‐6. Functional studies using the activated clotting time in whole blood and the activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) in citrated plasma confirmed these observations. Similar results were obtained with other LMWHs such as dalteparin, tinzaparin and fraxiparin. These results suggest that SAH derivatives are capable of inhibiting heparin digesting enzymes such as heparinase‐I and that additional studies are warranted to investigate the modulatory actions of SAHs on other heparin digesting enzymes such as heparinase‐II, heparinase‐III and heparanases


With the development of technology, sensor networks, and non-conventional power generators, weapon equipments become more and more complex, and their missions become more and more diversified. Further, many real world systems operate in phased-missions where the system requirements and success criteria vary over consecutive time periods, known as phases. For mission success, all phases must be completed without failure. In order to ensure accomplishing missions successfully, many subsystems adopt redundancy techniques to improve the mission reliability. Particularly, redundancy is an effective method to improve the reliability of mission critical systems. Hence, there is a great need for accurate and efficient reliability evaluation of phased mission systems with phase dependent redundancy configurations and requirements. This paper presents a new method for reliability analysis of phased-mission systems with warm standby subsystems. In the analysis, multiple sub-systems were considered where each sub-system uses warm standby redundancy. The operational and standby failure rates of a component can vary with the phases. Similarly, the configuration of each subsystem can vary with the phases. The proposed algorithm is developed based on: (1) a modularization technique, (2) an easily computable closed-form expressions for conditional reliability of warm standby sub-systems with phased dependent success criteria, and (3) a recursive formula for accounting the dependencies of sub-systems across the phases. As cold and hot standby configurations are special cases of warm standby configuration, the proposed method is also applicable for analyzing the phased mission systems with cold and hot standby redundancies. The reliability evaluation algorithm is illustrated using an example of fault tolerant computing system.


Purpose: investigate the impact of musical rhythmic education on the development of artistic abilities of gymnasts 6–8 years. Material & Methods : study involved 20 gymnasts aged 6–8 years who are trained at the initial training stage in the Youth Sport School of rhythmic gymnastics. During the study, the following methods were used: theoretical analysis and synthesis of scientific and methodical literature; pedagogical observation; pedagogical testing; pedagogical experiment and methods of mathematical statistics. Results : analysis of the development of artistry showed that by all criteria the average scores in the group corresponded to the average level: plasticity – 3,3 points; expressiveness – 3,2 points; rhythm – 3,0 points; dancing – 3,4 points. Conclusion: as a result of the introduction of various methods and means of musical rhythmic education, the improvement of indicators was established, namely, the plasticity of movements increased by 1,0 points, expressiveness – by 1,4 points, rhythm – 1,5 points, by dancing – 1,1 points.


In this paper,characteristics and differences of phaseⅠarea,phaseⅡarea and shape variability of brain admittance differential loop are discussed,and the function of brain artery are evaluated.It may give assistance to clinic diagnosis and cure.


This qualitative study examined the implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in Virginia and how this implementation impacts student achievement. Three research questions were the focus of this study. First, how is a local rural district implementing components of ESSA related to school improvement? Second, what are principals' beliefs about the potential benefits and liabilities of the implementation of ESSA regarding school improvement? Finally, what are the recommendations to principals regarding improving the implementation of ESSA to enhance the effectiveness of school improvement? This study supported the idea that entrepreneurial or creative thinking is essential in providing sustainable success for improvement in schools. A document review of school improvement plans found that schools contained elements of best practice and were in alignment with the requirements for school accountability under ESSA. Structured interviews were conducted to explore principal beliefs and perceptions of ESSA accountability and school improvement policies. Common themes identified from school improvement plans included recognition of gap groups, specific academic goals for gap groups, steps or initiatives to close gaps groups, implementation of social emotional learning, and steps to increase attendance. Common themes from principal interviews included principals identifying the benefits of evaluation measures beyond standardized testing,


This paper shows the newly developed modification of the double sinusoidal wave modulation used for multilevel converter. The proposed modulation makes it possible to change the modulation factor for each level of the converter to control the balance of each dc voltage and also can reduce the higher harmonics as same as sinusoidal modulation. This multilevel converter system has prospective configuration for the high voltage application such as the large motor drive without transformer.


The progress and problems in the primary synthesizing methods(such as liquid-phase precipitation method,sol-gel method,electrochemical deposition method,low temperature solid method and hydrothermal method) of manganese dioxide(MnO2) and its modification methods(such as doping and composite) were summarized.The development prospect of high performance MnO2 electrode material was forecasted.


Studies of crystallization of a sol-gel derived alumina thin film showed on a critical role of spinodal-like wrinkling. The wrinkling that depends on a humidity gradient in the film provides nucleation sites with high supersaturation located at the top of topological islands that occur as a result of the wrinkling. Nucleation of crystal nuclei takes place at these sites at a significantly lower temperature as it would be the case for homogenous nucleation. The crystal growth continues through different supersaturation regimes that are defined by the wrinkling topology. We showed how the crystallization can be efficiently suppressed to higher temperatures by minimizing the humidity gradient in the dip-coated film by controlled drying.


Tin hydrides having one or two pyridyl groups show unique reactivity in the reduction of alkyl halides under radical conditions, indicating the potential of intramolecular coordination for the control of radical reactions.


Nepeta crispa Wild is an aromatic plant endemic to Iran; locally known as Mofarrah, it has been widely used in traditional medicine. The objective of this study was to enrich yogurt with various concentrations of dry Nepeta crispa and evaluate the effects on its physicochemical properties and sensory characteristics. The aerial parts (leaf, flower, and stalk) of Nepeta crispa Wild were collected from three sampling stations in Hamedan Province, Iran. The collected samples were cleaned and crushed to obtain fine powders and flakes that were mixed with stirred yogurt at different ratios (0.25%, 0.5%, and 0.75% w/w). Five quality parameters – acidity, moisture, pH, fat, and salt – of the Mofarrah-enriched yogurt were measured. A sensory panel also evaluated the samples for sensory acceptability. The results showed that the mean acidity, pH, moisture, salt, and fat varied significantly (P<0.05) between the enriched yogurt and control samples. The enriched samples were all of acceptable sensory quality.


A torsion balance arrangement housed in a specially designed chamber was used to study the effect of atmospheric humidity on the normal adhesion of single polyester, nylon, cotton, and glass fibers, which were contacted at right angles. Marked increase in fiber-to-fiber attraction detected at humidities in excess of 60% is attributed to capillary condensation from the vapor phase. Experimental results are interpreted in light of what is known about capillary condensation in small pores and the adsorption of moisture onto fiber surfaces.


The steady and dynamic rheology behaviors of UHMWPE/Kaolin composites prepared by a polymerization-filling method were investigated with capillary and parallel plate rheometer. The composites showed an unusual rheological behavior.The material could be smoothly extruded through the capillary and the addition of Kaolin particles could decrease the apparent viscosity, dynamic viscosity, complex viscosity and the moduli of the melt. The relationship between rheological behaviors and the unique structure governed by polymerization-filling was further discussed.


Calculations on the energy exchange between free electrons and electromagnetic radiation are presented. The full Klein-Nishina cross section is used to evaluate average scattering coefficients for an electron moving with arbitrary velocity. A number of useful series expansions for the mean energy and mean square energy transfer rates are given. A Fokker-Planck equation which includes induced scattering is used to derive a generalized diffusion equation in frequency for multiple scattering of photons off nonrelativistic electrons. The relationship of the Klein-Nishina cross section with that of classical electromagnetic radiation theory is also elucidated.


In this paper, we choose almost four hundred households in Zhengzhou city for investigating their daily travel behavior. And combined with the statistical data about the Zhengzhou transportation, we estimated the CO2 emissions of Zhengzhou residents commute and obtained some conclusions: in 2001-2010, the carbon dioxide emissions of Zhengzhou urban residents is growing, and its growth rate is similar to the growth of the private cars of CO2 emissions and the traffic CO2 emissions of per person. The change of CO2 emissions of buses and taxis are quite minimal, whose emissions ratio in the total carbon dioxide emission of residents daily travel is decreasing gradually; the traffic low-carbon standard of Zhengzhou residents is a high-carbon mode due to the low-carbon index, which is greater than 1.2 except in 2005, which for the city residents transport CO2 emissions, the growth rate was much greater than the growth rate of per capita consumption expenditure. The increasing income and the growth of daily commuting distance could induce to more motor vehicles and longer annual mileage. The further optimization in the public transport network not only promotes a small increase in carbon emissions from buses, but also will inhibit the rapid growth of carbon emissions from private cars and optimize the structure of the resident's transportation carbon emissions, which may be an opportunity for the carbon reduction of the residents daily commute.


Abstract Nineteenth‐century Palestine mapping projects based on systematic land surveying reached a peak with the Ordnance Survey of Western Palestine between 1871 and 1877, conducted on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund by officers of the British Royal Engineering Corps. Various other nineteenth‐century proposals for an organized survey of the country—some of which bore partial results while others were never implemented—are also presented. The surveying of one region, Mesopotamia, during the 1830s and 1840s, forms the basis for the discussion of the reasons for the relative lateness of the topographical survey. The sacredness of the region seems not to have been a sufficiently convincing motive for entrepreneurs to organize and finance such a survey. The main reason for the delay in mapping the country as a whole was that it was not especially important, either strategically or geo‐politically, for the European nations engaged in the international struggles in the Middle East until the last quarter of the nineteenth century.


A substrate support pin assembly is provided to recycle a substrate mount by preventing a pin head from protruding from an upper surface of the substrate mount. A substrate support pin assembly includes a substrate support pin(15), a pin guide(16), and a holding ring(20). The substrate support pin comprises a main body and a pin head. The pin head has a diameter greater than that of the main body. The substrate support pin penetrates a pin hole of the substrate receiving member. The pin guide is installed inside the pin hole of the substrate receiving member. The body of the substrate support pin penetrates the pin guide. The holding ring is implemented on the pin guide inside the pin hole. The main body of the substrate support pin penetrates the holding ring.


The planned new capital is in the province of East Kalimantan. Until now, East Kalimantan Province has 2 very important cities, namely Balikpapan and Samarinda. The purpose of this study was to identify traffic growth due to the new Indonesian capital in Kutai Kertanegara and Kab. Penajam Paer Utara. The location of the intersection that is very important to review is the Jl. Soekarno Hatta – Jl. Projakal. The intersection will be reviewed from the geometric side, side resistance and operating performance until 2026. This intersection is very important because it connects Balikpapan City and Samarinda City on national arterial roads other than toll roads. The steps taken are to conduct a geometric survey, side barriers and traffic surveys at the Soekarno Hatta - Projakal intersection. After the survey has been carried out, the next step is to predict the growth of motorized vehicles until 2026. After knowing the growth of motorized vehicles, the calculation of the performance of the unsignalized intersection of Jl. Soekarno Hatta – Jl. Projakal. The results of the analysis show that the degree of saturation has exceeded 1.0 in 2021 and 2026. So efforts are needed to improve the performance of these intersections in the future.


The care that needs to be taken by lawyers when dealing with the issue of transfer of property and interests between family members such as husband and wife is discussed. The main laws that need to be taken into consideration are the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 and the Family Law Act 1975.


We consider the properties of a pollution tax when the regulated firm has a discrete choice of technologies with which to reduce pollution. The firm's technology choice makes possible two sequences of play: the traditional one in which the regulator moves first, committing to a tax rate before the firm adopts a technology, and an alternative one in which the firm moves first by adopting a technology. We find that a range of pollution levels, including possibly the first-best one, are unattainable when the regulator moves first. The regulator may be better able to achieve the first-best outcome when the firm moves first.


Summary 1.It is established that a high concentration of case in is associated withhard curd milk and a low concentration with soft curd milk. 2.It is clearly indicated that the concentration and manner of dispersion of the fat are important in influencing the curd character. 3.A higher concentration of calcium and phosphorus is found in hard curd milk than in soft. 4.It is demonstrated that the role of the whey constituents in determining curd character must be a small one. 5.By correlating the results of quantitative analysis with measurements of viscosity, conductivity and buffer action, it seems to be established that the suspensoid phase differentiates a soft curd milk from a hard curd milk that is, that the fat, casein, and calcium phosphates by means of their concentration and manner of dispersion seem to control the curd character. 6.Attempts to find decisive differences in composition between caseins from soft and hard curd milks were not successful but the possibility that such differences may exist is not wholly eliminated.


Carbon fiber reinforced plastic composites are used in many applications due to their superior properties. Drilling is the most frequently used machining process due to the need for assembly of carbon fiber reinforced plastic parts in mechanical structures. Rotary ultrasonic machining has been successfully used in drilling carbon fiber reinforced plastic composites. Reported investigations on rotary ultrasonic machining of carbon fiber reinforced plastic cover several output variables (including cutting force, torque, surface roughness, material removal rate, fiber delamination, tool wear, and power consumption). However, there are no reported studies on cutting temperature in rotary ultrasonic machining of carbon fiber reinforced plastic. This paper presents an experimental study on cutting temperature in rotary ultrasonic machining of carbon fiber reinforced plastic using two measurement methods (thermocouple and fiber optic sensor). Comparisons between these two methods are made and relations between input variables (ultrasonic power, tool rotation speed, and feedrate) and cutting temperature are experimentally determined.


Cryostratigraphic mapping in the main shaft of the CRREL tunnel indicates secondary modification of original Pleistocene‐age syngenetic permafrost. Layered, lenticular‐layered and micro‐lenticular cryostructures within undisturbed silt characterise the syngenetic permafrost. Thawed and refrozen deposits are characterised by massive and reticulate‐chaotic cryostructures. The micro‐morphology of typical cryostructures, as observed through an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM), is described. It is inferred that preferential cryogenic modification has occurred due to fluvio‐thermal erosion operating along ice wedges. Soil and ice pseudomorphs are the manifestation of this process. Gravel, silt, ice and mixed (silt/ice) pseudomorphs occur within silt. Ice pseudomorphs are formed by thermokarst‐cave ice ('pool ice') which filled thermokarst pits, channels and gullies. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


A robust active optimal-control scheme is presented for the vibration control of a seismically excited structure. The conventional optimal-regulator-control scheme for civil engineering structures with fixed-base assumption and without an observer is found to be quite ineffective for soft soils, where the effect of soil-structure interaction is prominent. A new algorithm is developed including the effect of soil-structure interaction in which soil is represented by the frequency-independent springs and dampers. The effect of the variation of soil parameters on the control scheme is taken into account by the introduction of an observer. An acceleration-type observer is used, which minimizes the difference of accelerations between the real structure and the mathematical model. The scheme is found to be robust for a considerable range of variation in the soil stiffness. The system involves an inherent instability due to the effect of observation spillover, which is corrected by prefiltering the sensor data. On the other hand, no control spillover is observed.


Riparian plant diversity is sensitive to changes in groundwater in arid regions. However, little is known about how plant diversity responds to changes in environment along riverside-desert gradients in riparian ecosystem. Our objectives were to (i) identify riparian plant diversity along riverside-desert gradients in Tarim desert riparian forests, (ii) analyze the impact of environment variables on plant diversity, (iii) determine the optimum groundwater depth for different plant life-forms. Six transects 90 quadrats (with each size 100 m × 100 m) distributed vertically to river bed along riverside-desert gradients ~30 km in length were surveyed. At each quadrat, the morphological features of riparian plant communities were measured, and the groundwater depth, soil water, soil salinity, soil nutrient were also monitored at same sites. Three distinct vegetation communities were identified based on cover and richness in the tree, shrub and herb layers: the riparian zone, the transitional zone and the desert margin zone. Twelve species were indicators of the three vegetation communities. Riparian plant diversity was influenced by groundwater depth, distance from river, soil moisture content, soil salinity and soil nutrient by redundancy analysis. In response to groundwater depth, the optimal groundwater depths for species diversity, evenness and shrub cover were 2.8, 2.7 and 3.7 m, respectively. Therefore, maintaining high plant diversity requires managers to ensure stable groundwater depth for different plant life-forms rather than for some of them.


The increasing increase in agro-industrial production is causing concern about the amount of waste generated. However, these wastes can be used as value-added by-products. Thus, this work aimed to develop an alternative to use of pearl variety pineapple residue in cookie. Cookie formulations were made with 5% (A), 10% (B) and 15% (C) flour from dehydrated pineapple shells in relation to the wheat flour used. Sensory attributes (color, taste, texture, appearance and aroma) were evaluated using a 9 point hedonic scale and purchase intent with a 7 point scale. Results were submitted to Tukey test at 5% significance level. The acceptance index was applied to verify the best product and analyzed for the physical, chemical and centesimal composition characteristics, performed in triplicate. Cookie B obtained an average score above 7 points for all sensory attributes and an average of 5.43 in the tasters' attitude profile test, with the highest acceptance rate (85.53%). There was an increase in the diameter and thickness of cookie B, which yielded about 80%. The product complies with acidity, gray and moisture legislation and can be considered a food as high fiber content.


This study investigated optimisation of media and primary-protocorm development stages to enhance secondary-protocorm production as a novel means for propagation of terrestrial orchids, including taxa of conservation concern. Seeds of Caladenia latifolia were germinated asymbiotically on ½-strength Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium fortified with 5% (v/v) coconut water. Resulting protocorms at 3, 5 and 7 weeks of growth were subcultured to protocorm-proliferation media treatments consisting of ½-strength MS basal-salts medium with 6-benzylaminopurine (BA) and α- naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) singly or in combination. Conversion of seeds to primary protocorms was high (87–92%). The highest percentage of secondary-protocorm proliferation was 40.1%, using 5-week-old protocorms (early Stage 4 of protocorm development) as explants and cultured on ½-strength MS with a combination of 5 µM NAA + 2 µM BA. Half-strength MS media containing a single plant-growth regulator (BA or NAA) were substantially less effective (<10% protocorm proliferation). The present study has provided a novel approach to sequential protocorm production that will be of value particularly for threatened orchids with limited seed availability. Protocorm proliferation in vitro enables a renewable supply of protocorms with which to conduct propagation, cryostorage and pilot restoration programs.


The embodiment of the invention discloses a clock synchronization method, device and equipment in a packet network for solving the problem that a reception end cannot correctly determine a reception time of an event message. The method comprises the steps of: receiving an encrypted message; recording a reception time of the encrypted message; storing the reception time of the encrypted message; decrypting the encrypted message; determining a type of the encrypted message, wherein the encrypted message comprises the event message; and determining the reception time corresponding to the event message. For the received encrypted message, the reception time is firstly recorded, the encrypted message is decrypted, and the specific message type is determined; and if the received encrypted message is the event message, the reception time corresponding to the event message is determined. Compared with the prior art of decrypting and then determining the reception time, the embodiment of the invention can enhance the accuracy of the synchronization of a host clock node and a slave clock node in the condition of ensuring the security.


In the summer of 2004, an experiment was conducted to assess the moderating effect associated with the planting of green plants on rooftops on the thermal environment of the rooms below. Comparisons were made using different plant types and a variety of associated thermal affects were compared. Temperatures were measured at several points in the vertical on the roof surface material, within the roofing material measurements were made in different types of structural members, within the ceiling, and just below the ceiling in the rooms below. Separate measurements were also made in zones created by arranging the plants in different configurations. Zones were compared by varying the amount of irrigation water and vegetation cover; zones covered by greenery were compared with zones of exposed roof surface. Temperatures were measured from August 16 to September 15. The results showed that, on the hottest day of summer day on record in Yokohama Japan, August 20, temperatures in the zones covered by greenery were moderated by 1 to 4°C in the vertical direction when compared to areas of exposed roof surface. The ground, or roofing, acted to cool the atmosphere for 249 hours in the exposed zones, and for 287 to 449 hours in the zones covered by vegetation. Furthermore, a temperature difference of 10°C in diurnal and nocturnal temperatures was observed between areas that were covered by vegetation and those that were exposed.


Land surface biophysical parameters are very important in modeling the exchange of energy, water and carbon between continents and the atmosphere. Nevertheless, current global land surface products, mainly produced from satellite observations, are limited both spatially and temporally. A sophisticated temporal and spatial filtering algorithm (TSF) was developed to fill the gaps and provide continuous products. This algorithm was used to produce value-added FPAR products over North America. The MODIS FPAR products are processed in this paper. The reprocessed FPAR products show improved spatial and temporal characteristics and can be applied by various models.


HitIct, a Chinese corpus for the evaluation of lossless compression algorithms based on ANSI code, was proposed.In accordance with the principle of application representativeness, Complementary principle and openness principle, a large number of candidate files were obtained from the Internet, and then average compression ratio, average correlation coefficient, compression ratio correlation coefficient and standard deviation were used to select the files that give the most accurate indication of the overall performance of compression algorithms.Experimental results show that this collection has a good representativeness and stability, and can be used as the supplementary test set of the main benchmark for comparing compression methods.


This paper discusses a vision-based method which allows a self guided vehicle to recover its 2-D absolute position and orientation. The floor surface is permanently encoded with the terms of a pseudo-random multi- valued array. This encoding requires only one code-symbol per quantization interval, independent of the desired resolution.


The optical transmission of a xenon flashtube has been measured at wavelengths from 2500 to 10 000 A and at currents up to 5000 A/cm2. It is found that the absorption increases with current and with wavelength. Above about 5000 A and a current of 4000 A/cm2, a discharge tube 1 cm thick is nearly opaque. At shorter wavelengths or lower currents, the discharge is fairly transparent.


Objective To analyze the islet β cell function and the insulin resistance of different components of impaired glucose regulation(IGR).Methods A total of 463 adults diagnosed as IGR and 200 adults diagnosed as NGT by 75g OGTT,were included for the analysis of the islet beta cell function and insulin resistance.Results In the IFG group,HOMA-IR was significantly higher than in NGT and IGT group(P0.05),ISI-Stumvoll was lower than in NGT group,but higher than in IGT group(P0.05);HBCI/IR were lower than in the two groups(P0.05).HOMA-IR and HBCI/IR of IGT group were between the NGT group and the IFG group.ISI-Stumvoll,the first and second phase insulin secretion index were significantly lower in IGT group than in NGT group and IFG group(P0.05).In the IFG plus IGT group,HOMA-IR was the highest among all the groups;ISI-Stumvoll was lower than the NGT group and the IFG group;HBCI/IR were lower than the NGT group and the IGT group;the first and second phase insulin secretion index were the lowest among all the groups.In the non-diabetic population,along with the increasing of fasting plasma glucose(FPG) or 2h plasma glucose(2hPG),HOMA-IR was increased gradually,ISI-Stumvoll and the first and second phase insulin secretion indexes were decreased gradually(P0.05).Conclusions IFG is originatd from severe hepatic insulin resistance and basal islet β cell dysfunction.IGT is originated from marked peripheral insulin resistance,and post-glucose-loading β cell dysfunction with near-normal basal insulin secretion.In the non-diabetic groups,FPG and 2hPG are positively correlated with insulin resistance,and negatively correlated with islet β cell function.


A task management system that automatically optimizes the schedule of a person by context-aware interleaving of activities can enable persons to be involved more efficiently in daily activities of interests. As a technical basis for such a task management system, we propose the activity broker architecture. The core of this architecture is formed by the activity scheduler that can effectively schedule personal activities in different contexts in a real-time fashion. As a first step towards realizing the overall activity broker architecture, we present our solution algorithms to the real-time context activity scheduling problem. Furthermore, we conduct extensive experiments to evaluate and to compare the performance of the proposed algorithms. The results show that a person can obtain more productive schedules with the assistance of the activity scheduler.


Investment is a commitment of funds at the moment which is expected to generate additional funds in the future. By investing in securities, an investor expects to receive benefit or return. Before taking an investment decision investors certainly need to do a first consideration, so that investments can provide income security and growth of a good investment. Analysts and investors generally always strive to do the analysis in order to be able to earn an attractive rate of return, that is by identifying which stocks should be selected. One of the identified factors can affect whether a stock is good management and corporate performance. To determine whether the bad performance can use ratio analysis, capital stock.. So with this analysis tool can help the investor or prospective investor as the information that can support the investment decision. The results of this analysis is the company PT. Telkom, Tbk has the best performance among the three companies. Then for a sequence of both the PT. Indosat, Tbk, which also has a good performance. And for the third sequence is PT. Form an integral part of Global, Tbk, which has a less good performance where there are two ratios whose values are always below the industry average, the ratio of EPS and Dividend Income Ratio. Companies are eligible to become an investment option is PT. Telkom, Tbk and PT. Indosat Tbk where during the period of three years in a row from the fifth value ratios at the two companies have always been above the industry average. While for the PT. Form an integral part of Global, Tbk considered less suitable as an investment option due to poor performance.


The Kindler syndrome, the fourth major type of hereditary epidermolysis bullosa (HEB), is a rare autosomal recessive genodermatoses, characterized by trauma-induced blistering, cutaneous atrophy, and progressive poikiloderma, in association with mucosal inflammation. We report tow new sibling cases of this rare syndrome.


Moroccan transhipment hub Tanger Med has reached full capacity but is still looking to add business before its new development opens. Emmanuel Mair reports.


Agriculture is probably the most potent tool of salvaging unemployment and poverty. Yet, agrophobia persists, even among agriculturally educated youths, necessitating a continued interest in the methodical analysis of youth dynamics in agriculture. This study was designed to survey the influence of general self-efficacy, gender, institutional category and disciplinary affiliation on agrophobia among final-year agriculture students in Ibadan, Nigeria. Four hundred and twenty eight semi-structured, self and randomly administered copies of a questionnaire yielded data whose analysis reveal that 21.2% of respondents exhibit a 'high' fear of agriculture. General self-efficacy is negatively and significantly associated with this phobia ( p 0.05). Hence, psychological capital is relevant in efforts to dwindle youths' fear of agriculture. Being female, a college rather a university student and being in neutral rather than plant and animal-related disciplines are associated with exhibiting significantly less agrophobia.