© The Ecological Society of America www.frontiersinecology.org regimes. Thus a single integrative metric based on different inputs cannot be used to objectively compare different species where the focal questions regarding outcomes are different. Second, researchers are unlikely to have the resources or opportunity to assess between 10 and 20 impact measures. Up to now, 75% of studies quantifying the effects of alien plants have examined fewer than three impact measures and less than 1% have assessed more than five (Hulme et al. 2013). Of course, researchers could estimate more measures, but these would have to not only be uncorrelated (rarely the case for the most common soil or community-based measures) but also be pertinent to the question being examined (eg a study assessing the effects on pollinator effectiveness would not be informed by token measures of soil pH). Ecologists too often target a small, unrepresentative subset of alien plants; there are benefits to broadening studies to other species and ecosystems rather than Pragmatism required to assess impacts of invasive plants


implicated. Hystsrical aphonia is usually suddenly developed, patients waking in the morning to find the power of speech lost. On inspection, the larynx has usually a normal appearance, but sometimes congestion is present. This form of aphonia is generally associated with some other manifestation of hysteria. It must not, however, be forgotten that aphonia sometimes follows violent inflammation of the larynx. It is also occasionally the result of lead, or arsenic poisoning. Gerhardt believes that it is sometimes of rheumatic origin. Many kinds of treatment have been adopted for hysterical aphonia with indifferent success. Occasionally the mere examination with


A car in an open car park is on fire. The fire and the smoke unleash a heat that causes the temperature to rise. The open car park is made out of a steel frame and to be designed for a fire resistance of 60 minutes. This car fire is a local fire whereas flashover doesn't occur. The crucial point of the fire is when the steel frame reaches the critical temperature. If this occurs, the steel will fail and might lead to the collapse of the building. Because it is an open car park, it is assumed the natural ventilation will lead the smoke out of the building very fast. But the smoke can be trapped between the beams, which are present below the ceiling as a support structure for the floor system. The aim is to study whether the influence of trapped smoke between beams in an open car park is significant or not. And is it necessary to take the smoke into account during the design of an open car park when making use of the Bouwen met Staal guideline (BmS- guide), a guideline for the design of the fire safety of an open car park? In this study the influence of the smoke on the steel structure of the open car park was investigated by making use of a spreadsheet Car Park Fire (CaPaFi) and the software, Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS). CaPaFi is a spreadsheet which calculates the steel temperatures without taking smoke into account. It is based on real car fire tests and the Eurocode. FDS is a program that uses computational fluid dynamic calculations to run a simulation (model) of a car fire in an open car park. It calculates the steel temperature of the steel beams taking the effect of smoke into account. All the information for FDS is written in a script beforehand and run afterwards. A single car fire and a 3 car fire were modeled and studied. To verify the calculations in FDS with CaPaFi, a single car fire model was put up. Because there were still some differences in the results, 4 more models were set up with small adjustments in the first one to fine tune the model (model 2 to 5). According to the study 95% of the car fires are limited to maximum 3 (fully) burnt cars. So, 3 car fires were also taken into account and the smoke. There were two cases with 3 car fires: one with beam sticking out (model 6 with obstacles) and one with beams hidden in the ceiling (model 7 without obstacles). Based on the results of this study, it is found that the smoke which is trapped between the beams can be neglected when making use of the BmS-guide to design the fire safety of an open car park for the steel beams with a height smaller than 500mm. Also a reasonable explanation could not be found of why the temperatures of the steel beams of FDS are lower than the ones calculated by CaPaFi. And in a 3 car fire model points that are further away from the car fire can be disregarded because their steel temperature calculated by FDS, even though higher than CaPaFi, will never reach the critical temperature. At last, it is still unclear why the increased number of soot doesn't have any effect on the temperature of the steel beams in the single car fire model.


In this paper, the overall architecture of the monitoring and control system of Shanxi Radio and TVTransmitter Stations is elaborated, and its main technical characteristics is introduced. The multilevel monitoring system hasachieved efficient combination of management and broadcasting,providing an impor is introduced tant guarantee for safetytransmission.


OF THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts, Art History Department of Art & Art History The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico


In this paper we introduce and study some new subclasses of meromorphic p_valent functions.It is proved that Hp(a+1,c,α)Hp(a,c,α).Further integrals of functions in Hp(a,c,α) are studied.


In response to security threats to physical protection systems (PPS), monitoring their risk profile and assessing their vulnerability is an effective response. Aiming at the ambiguity and randomness in the assessment process, this paper proposes a vulnerability assessment method based on combined weights and cloud models. First, construct the security risk assessment index system, use the optimized mathematical model to find the optimal combination weight of the assessment index, obtain the cloud model digital characteristics of the assessment index and the comprehensive assessment cloud of the physical protection system with the help of the cloud generator, and construct the standard assessment cloud, At the same time, the final evaluation results are obtained by combining the improved cloud similarity calculation method, and finally the validity and feasibility of the model are verified by simulation experiments. The research results show that the model can obtain accurate evaluation results. Compared with methods such as fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, the evaluation method has higher reliability and better evaluation effect.


it had been a fundamental dispute for several decades, whether water passes epithelia such as kidney proximal tubule or small intestine along the transcellular, paracellular, or both pathways.

By discovery of the transmembranal aquaporin water channels (AQP), the molecular basis of the


Some patients just defy the traditional disease management model. Many are elderly, have complex medical needs, and find comfort in their frequent visits to the hospital emergency department. Find out how a pilot DM program is using hospice and home health care providers as partners to help manage CHF and COPD among the high-cost elderly, and how the DM approach maintains its effectiveness even in the patients' final days.


The regulation of cardiac function is a complex process in which nitric oxide (NO) is a mediator and the thyroid status has a role. Objectives: To study the involvement of thyroid status and NO synthases (NOS) on hemodynamic changes induced by acute hemorragic shock. Animals euthyroid (E), hyperthyroid (H) and hypothyroid (h), are divided into two groups, control (C), and hemorrhaged rats (H) (withdrawal of 20 % of blood volume). Right atrium (A) and left ventricule (V) were removed at 120 min of hemorrhage. Histochemical NOS activity (NADPH-diaphorase technique), NOS, caveolin 1 and 3 (cav 1 and 3) protein levels (western blot) were evaluated. The results are expresed as X ± ES, n = 9/ group. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by the ad hoc Bonferroni test was used for multiple comparisons. The 5% probability level was used as a criterion for biological significance. Results: Blood loss did not change neither eNOS and nNOS protein levels in A and V nor cav-3 protein levels in V. Conclusions: Acute blood loss increased NOS activity in A and V of euthyroid rats that correlated with changes in i-NOS protein levels. Hypovolemic state induced by acute hemorrhage induced changes in the cav-1 protein levels in A of hyperthyroid rats and in V of hyper and hypothyroid animals. The production of NO and its involvement in the cardiac adaptation to hemorrhage depend on the thyroid status. The coordinated expressional changes in NOS isoforms and their allosteric regulators, such as caveolin, may be viewed as a compensatory mechanism to maintain the production of bioactive NO. Figure 1. No caption available.


Abnormal muscular contraction in the upper neck or pharynx was associated with a globus sensation in two patients. One patient was a 24-year-old male and the other was a 52-year-old female. EMG showed abnormal rhythmic contractions of the geniohyoid muscle in the former case and the cricopharyngeus muscle in the latter. The characteristics of the muscle contractions were similar to those of palatal myoclonus.


ABSTRACT The estimated corn grain yield is dependent on plant density and should be monitored from the beginning of its development, especially between the phenological stages V3 and V10, since these stages are more responsive to management strategies. This study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of two methods [normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and plant occupation index (POI)] to estimate the density of corn plants, in order to identify the plant population in different phenological stages and corn grain yield. Two field experiments were conducted in two crop seasons and treatments consisted of four plant densities (4, 6, 8 and 10 plants m-2). The NDVI measurements of the vegetative canopy were performed in the growth stages V4, V5, V6, V7, V8 and V9 (2014) and V3, V5, V6, V8, V9, V10 and V13 (2015/2016). For the POI, the measurements were performed in the stages V5, V6, V8 and V9, in both crop seasons. The different plant densities were efficient in generating variability in the NDVI and POI values throughout the corn crop development cycle, and both tools were efficient in identifying density variations. It was observed that these tools should be used between the V4 and V9 growth stages.


California's recent earthquake laws are breaking new ground in public policy matters. In turn, these changes in law are also having significant impact on the approaches to civil and structural engineering designs for specific projects as well as for other aspects of engineering practice. For one example of the intent of the new laws, new hospitals must not only remain safe, but must remain functional after the event insofar as practicable. Secondly, although dams are to be constructed to the state-of-the-art of earthquake resistive design, they are not necessarily held to be 'perfectly' safe since downstream inundation maps are required and thereby an acceptable level of risk is implied for down-stream construction. Lastly, land use restrictions are having increasing influence with respect to new construction in earthquake geologically hazards areas such as fault zones.


The invention discloses a variable structure control method of a grid-connected photovoltaic system, used for controlling a two-stage circuit structure or a single-stage circuit structure. The method comprises the following steps of respectively determining each control point value, comprising V1-V6 and Vr1-Vr4, wherein a reference voltage value of a direct current bus is Vref, and an actual output voltage value of a photovoltaic battery array is VPV; and concretely controlling according to the following conditions: firstly, when the VPV of the photovoltaic battery array is ranging from V1 to V5, the grid-connected photovoltaic system works under the two-stage circuit structure and a two-stage control mode, and the set Vref of the reference voltage of the direct current bus is relevant to the size and the variation direction of the VPV; secondly, when the VPV of the photovoltaic battery array is ranging from V4 to V6, the grid-connected photovoltaic system works under the single-stage circuit structure and a single-stage control mode; and thirdly, when the VPV of the photovoltaic battery array is ranging from V4 to V5, the grid-connected photovoltaic system works under a hysteresis control mode. Through the method, the working voltage range is enlarged, and the equipment use efficiency is remarkably improved.


In his review of The Roman Revolution [RR], Arnaldo Momigliano alludes to the Roman
 matron Mucia Tercia, matron of the 1st century, known for being Pompey's spouse (106-48)
 and mother of Sextus (ca. 66-35). Mucia was a figure with fascinating life experience and a real
 proof of the importance of women as political agents of influence and impact in the last
 century of the Roman Republic. Mucia witnessed other examples of women with significant
 importance in the high political sphere of the Republic: Servilia, Fulvia; Julia, daughter
 of the future princeps; or the very same princeps' sister Octavia, among others.


The present invention provides an optoelectronic component (1), which semiconductor body having a contact portion (2) and two disposed on the semiconductor body (7,8), the semiconductor body having an active region suitable for generating radiation, (4), wherein the contact portion conductively connected with the active region, the contact portions having a connecting surface (70, 80) facing away from the semiconductor body, the connecting surface is provided on the connection side of the device, and is different from the device-side side is connected mirror-coated. Further, a method for manufacturing a plurality of such devices.


Objective To study the useful value of three dimensional computed tomographyh and multiplanar reconstruction (MPR) techniques in impacted teeth in bone. Methods Nine cases with impacted teeth in bone were examined with spiral CT. All cases received surface shaded display (SSD) and multiplanar reconstruction (MPR) method for reconstruction. Results The reconstruction image can clearly present the dental surface image including crown, root, neck and root bifurcation in three dimensional way, labial or palatal location, eruption orientation andrelation with dentition in anterior maxilla. Conclusion The three dimensional computed tomographyh and multiplanar reconstruction (MPR) techniques is a technique to display three dimensional surface configuration of teeth and to measure its location precisely. This technique can be applied to examine impacted teeth in bone before surgical and orthodontic treatment.


The problem addressed is that of finding a sound characterization of ambiguity. Two kinds of characterizations are distinguished: tests and definitions. Various definitions of ambiguity are critically examined and contrasted with definitions of gen- erality and indeterminacy, concepts with which ambiguity is sometimes confused. One definition of ambiguity is defended as being more theoretically adequate than others which have been suggested by both philosophers and linguists. It is also shown how this definition of ambiguity obviates a problem thought to be posed by ambiguity for truth theoretical semantics. In addition, the best known test for ambiguity, namely the test by contradiction, is set out, its limitations discussed, and its connection with ambiguity's definition explained. The test is contrasted with a test for vagueness first proposed by Peirce and a test for generality propounded by Margalit. Ambiguity is a notion important, not only to linguists, but also to philosophers. Yet, in spite of its importance, it has yet to receive a theoretically adequate characterization. In what follows, I shall address this deficiency. I find it useful to distinguish two types of characterizations: tests and definitions. They have distinct, though related, roles in theoretical inquiry. A definition furnishes necessary and sufficient conditions for that of which it is a definition; while a test furnishes only prima facie evidence for that of which it is a test, and not necessary or sufficient conditions. Accordingly, this essay falls into two parts: the first looks into the problem of defining ambiguity and the second the problem of testing for it. To eschew misunderstanding about the nature of tests and definitions in the context of linguistic theory, let me preface my essay with a sketch of the kind of linguistic theory I am presupposing. The purpose of this preface is to enhance appreciation of the treatment of ambiguity pro- vided here; it is not to defend the linguistic theory adopted. Ample literature already exists serving that purpose.


— Signal transduction pathways are often equipped with negative feedbacks. These feedbacks are often strong and of physiological importance as they provide robustness and signal homeostasis to the cell. However, these feedbacks constitute a major obstacle for targeted therapies in cancer treatment, as they counteract drug action and cause cross-activation of other pathways. Here we present a combined experimental and theoretical analysis of signal transduction conducted on a panel of cancer cell lines to systematically quantify feedbacks in EGF-Receptor signaling, and their consequences for cancer therapy.


The University of Melbourne welcomes the Productivity Commission's second five-year Productivity Inquiry. In this response, the University addresses a selection of the issues raised in the Interim reports, focussing on Report 3 and Report 5. The higher education sector plays an important role in educating the nation's future workforce and produces much of the nation's novel and applied research that enables firms to become more productive. Research translation occurs across the disciplines including in the social sciences. There is significant scope for innovation, through novel and diffused applications to boost productivity, and recognising the role of universities in Australia's ecosystem is fundamental to devising policy and funding settings to incentivise desired outcomes (Report 3). The nation's future productivity also relies on a properly funded university sector that enables institutions to deliver fully funded research and education and training. The Job Ready Graduates funding arrangements have rightly been identified as flawed and in need of urgent reform (Report 5).


Stroke is a severe, expensive, and common disorder. As Dr. Caplan points out in his editorial in this special Stroke Continuing Medical Education (CME) issue of Southern Medical Journal, the patient's life is never the same after a major disabling stroke, because of the loss of vocational, personal, and financial independence. During the past decade, which coincides with the Decade of the Brain, clinicians who treat stroke patients have gone from therapeutic pessimism to activism in cerebrovascular management. Neurologists have achieved the primary role in cerebrovascular management, and other physicians need to know that they can depend on neurologists for acute stroke management, such that there is a knee-jerk reaction—whether stroke occurs in the emergency room or in the intensive care unit—of calling the neurologist. In referring mild myocardial infarction patients for treatment, 90% of primary care physicians refer to a cardiologist, but only 30% refer mild stroke patients to the neurologist. Neurologists must educate other physicians and the public regarding stroke diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to achieve vascular protection and neuroprotection to minimize damage to the brain. This will allow the development of active strategies to treat stroke and prevent the brain's being ravaged by the effects of ischemia (ie, "struck"). In assessing cerebrovascular disease, remember the Virchow triad and the risk of vascular occlusion: abnormality of blood vessel wall, abnormality of the pump (cardiac disorders), abnormalities of the coagulation system (hyperand hypocoagulable states). In this Stroke CME section, Naidech and Weisberg discuss the role of chronic hypertension in stroke, Kelley and Minagar describe cardioembolic stroke, and Kahn outlines the common causes of hypercoagulable states in stroke. To know how to treat stroke, it is vital to know the brain and cerebral and vascular disturbances, and the imaging studies commonly obtained are outlined by Xavier et al. Medical and surgical treatment strategies are reviewed by Kirshner and Akers, including the possible role of angioplasty and stents. When these treatment strategies are not effective, acute stroke may occur. Vascular and neuroprotection strategies for treating patients who have sustained acute strokes are reviewed by Felberg and Naidech and in a separate article by Zweifler. Unfortunately, in some patients, these strategies are unsuccessful, and vascular cognitive impairment results. Strub reviews patients with such impairments. Quite a distance has been traveled during the past decade in stroke management. I hope that medical science will further reduce the devastating effect of stroke during the next decade.


There has been an increase in number of traffic accidents and interpersonal violence contributing to an increase in the frequency of maxillofacial trauma & mandibular fractures. (1,2) The symphysis is one of the most frequently fractured sites in the mandible after the angle and the condyle making up 18-20 % of the mandibular fractures in adults.(3)The objective of management of symphysis and para-symphyseal fractures include absence of pain, satisfactory dental occlusion, maximum inter-incisal opening (40 mm) and mandibular / facial symmetry.(4) Fractures of the symphysis and para symphysis are treated by open reduction with noncompressive miniplate fixation via the intraoral approach using the principles of Champy (5) and colleagues. Champy and colleagues found the "ideal lines of osteosynthesis" (tension band principle) and they advocated the use of two plates anterior to the mental foramina and use of one plate distal to it with a period of post-operative intermaxillary fixation (IMF) for about 34 weeks. But the use of two miniplates in the symphysis and para symphysis regions is associated with many postoperative complications like damage to the tooth Introduction Abstract Study was undertaken to study the use of single mini plate with Erich arch bar instead of two mini plates in fractures of the symphysis and Para-symphysis regions of mandible. To evaluate prospectively the clinical outcome, bony union, occlusal relationship, and complications associated with Single mini plate with Erich arch bar fixation of the symphysis and Para-symphysis fractures. A prospective study was conducted on patients with maxillofacial injuries reporting to the department of oral & maxillofacial surgery, IGGDC, Jammu, from January 2013 to February 2014. A total of 100 patients indicated for open reduction and semi-rigid fixation of isolated non-comminuted symphysis and para symphysis fractures were included in the study. Intraoral, open reduction & semi rigid fixation of non-comminuted symphysis and para-symphyseal fractures was performed using a single 2mm, 6-hole mini plate & 2 X 8mm mono cortical screws and Erich arch bars under general & local anesthesia. Patients with occlusal discrepancies were kept on 2 weeks of inter maxillary fixation by using elastics.The most common cause of the symphysis and parasymphyseal fractures was road traffic accidents followed by interpersonal rivalry, fall, sports injury, animal hit. Majority of the patients were between 20 45 years of age. Males sustained more injuries than females. All patients achieved bony union and there was no case of non-union, plate exposure or tooth injury. However malocclusion in 3% and wound infection (4%) were noted. For non-comminuted symphysis and para-symphysis mandible fractures, the application of single mini plate with mono cortical screws along with arch bars offers good surgical outcomes in most patients with minimal complications.


Six healthy male volunteers were each given a single 20 mg dose of 14C-labeled nitrendipine as an oral suspension. Urine, feces, and plasma were collected after dosing and assayed for total radioactivity. Urine and plasma were also assayed by capillary gas chromatography for nitrendipine and five metabolites. A mean of 77 ± 7.3% of the dose was excreted in the urine over 96 h, 70% was excreted within 24 h, and 76% within 48 h of dosing. The 48 h cumulative urinary excretion of nitrendipine metabolites accounted for 42 ± 4%, of the dose. Thus, ∼ 55% of the radioactivity excreted in the urine was present in the form of measured metabolites. Fecal recovery of radioactivity accounted for 8.1 ± 4.0% of the dose. Total recovery of radioactivity in urine and feces collected over 96 h was 85.1 ± 8.1% of the dose. When mean plasma levels of unchanged nitrendipine and five metabolites were compared with the concentration of total radioactivity in plasma, nitrendipine accounted for 2.4%, and the five metaolites for 80% of the total radioactivity in plasma detected 0–12 h after dose. The highest concentrations of nitrendipine, metabolites, and total radioactivity were attained between 0.5 and 1.5 h after dosing. The results show that on the average at least 77% of the dose was absorbed after oral administration, and only 8% of the dose was excreted in the feces. Most of the radioactivity in plasma and urine was attributed to nitrendipine and five metabolites.


We search for temporal variations of principal tidal constituents in strainmeter records, for instruhents which are closely located to the source regions of large earthquakes in Japan. To obtain temporal variations, we apply the BAYTAP-G (Bayesian Tidal Analysis ProgramGrouping Model) to data sets of 30day lengths with time lags of l day. For the Ol constituent of the laser strainmeter record at the Rokko-Takao station, characteristic changes are observed in its amplitude-phase diagram a few years prior to the 1995Robe Earthquake (Mw6.9). Although the observed values are narrowly distributed in the amplitude-phase diagram before l992, they become broader and a doughnut-pattern appears prior to the occurrence of the earthquake. For the case of the 1994Far Off Sanriku Earthquake (Mw7.7),the same pattern is also noted at the Esashi station. There are no similar significant patterns in the M 2 constituent. Temporal correlation with the changes of b-values and micro-earthquake seismicity are also suggested.


Structure and characteristics of a delta wing is introduced.Fluent on the air by the angle of attack and the occurrence of boundary layer turbulence simulation of separation,are studied the flow of the air spoiler of this delta.Simulation results obtain by the simulation analysis of the results obtained for compressible turbulence on the delta of the external.


Parametric Tile Pasting P System (PTPPS) is a new computational model, based on the structure and functioning of living cells, to generate tiling patterns, using simple rules of gluing tiles (pasting rule) at their edges and geometric operations on the tiles. In this paper, a variant of PTPPS, namely Tissue-like Parametric Tile Pasting P System, with new geometric operations, to generate non-periodic patterns is introduced. The computational complexity of the system and the power of the system with different geometric operation are also discussed. Key-words: P systems, Pasting system, Two dimensional pattern.


Polyurethane sealant was composed of isocyanate and hydroxide group compounds with some fillers. The production was effected by temperature, time, mix of the reactant, cats etc. the single form polyurethane sealant's constitute technics , performance token and mostly factor of effecting sealant was discussed in this paper.


Previous studies have demonstrated relationships between religiosity, physical and mental health-related outcomes, and healthy collective longevity. This qualitative study investigated the elements of pleasure and fulfillment in older adults living in the super-aged society of Japan and the rapidly super-aging society of Thailand. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 older adults—seven from Japan, and seven from Thailand, covering five topics: (1) pleasures in daily life; (2) purpose in daily life; (3) thoughts about aging; (4) things they do actively for their health; and (5) things they worry about. Data were analyzed using the Steps for Coding and Theorization method. Japanese older adults mostly engaged in individually accomplished pleasures, whereas Thai older adults aimed to experience pleasures involving others. Thai older adults viewed aging as a natural phenomenon and stressed the importance of self-regulation. The Japanese participants, however, focused on activities that would avoid the burden of long-term care, maintain their current lifestyle, and help with self-improvement and lifetime learning. Although Thai older adults derived pleasure and fulfillment from being helpful toward others, Japanese older adults' narratives indicated that they tended to worry about others. Differences between the two countries' lifestyles, environments, beliefs, and religious contexts explain the differences in the mechanisms by which Japanese and Thai older adults experience joy, fulfillment, and purpose in life. These results suggest ways to improve quality of life, extend healthy life expectancy, and prevent cognitive decline in older adults thriving in aging societies.


The caprellid amphipods Caprella scaura and C. penantis are recorded for first time in the Laguna Madre from Tamaulipas. Both species are cosmopolitan and with exotic numerous records worldwide. The finding of C. scaura is also the first record for the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. This caprellid was collected among green-algae Ulva lactuca that colonized tidal inlets at Laguna Madre. While that specimens of C. penantis were collected between seagrass Halodule wrightii.


The invention discloses a thermal pyrolysis combination method and device and relates to a coal chemical industry technology. A fuel is pyrolyzed in a low-speed bed pyrolyzing furnace, the generated semicoke is discharged from the bottom of the pyrolyzing furnace, sent into a circulating fluid bed gasifier by virtue of a semicoke returning device so as to be subjected to gasification, and coal gas generated by the gasifier, carrying solid particles, enters in a cyclone separator; the gasification temperature of the gasifier is 900-1,200 DEG C, the fuel thermal pyrolysis temperature in the thermal pyrolyzing furnace is 50-200 DEG C lower than the temperature of the gasifier; pyrolysis gas generated in the pyrolyzing furnace is introduced into the upper part of the gasifier or introduced into the cyclone separator together with the coal gas generated in the gasifier; and the solid particles gathered by the cyclone separator are sent above the dense phase area of the pyrolyzing furnace by virtue of the returning device so as to provide heat for pyrolysis of the fuel. The method and device disclosed by the invention are used for pyrolysis and gasification of coal, biomass and other carbon-containing fuels, the generated coal gas has the advantages of high thermal value and low tar content, and the system is simple.


With rapid development of smart hardwares and networking protocols, more and more IoT sensors are becoming publicly accessible through the Internet. Many semantic enhanced IoT sensors store the captured events in their description files, making the build of a generic IoT search engine possible. Crawling the events captured by these sensors is a fundamental step towards building this IoT search engine. However, this step faces a challenge due to sensors' sleep behavior and limited energy supply. Using traditional web access strategy for IoT application may cause unpredictable latency in receiving events with low power efficiency. In this paper, firstly the issue how to crawl newly captured events from periodically sleeping sensors is formulated as a schedule problem, which can be solved by constrained optimization. We take expected latency as the optimization object, as this indicates whether the wanted events can be gathered by crawlers in time. Then a sleep-aware schedule method, named EasiCrawl, is proposed for achieving near-optimal expected latency in receiving events. Finally, EasiCrawl is evaluated by simulations and a case study with real-world data from Xively. The simulation results show that EasiCrawl has lower latency than the periodic and greedy crawl strategy.


Lampetra macrostoma n.sp., a freshwater parasitic lamprey, is distinguished from related species L. tridentata, L. lethophaga, L. folletti, L. minima, and L. similis by its parasitic habit and very large disc. Other characters distinguishing the species from L. tridentata are its longer prebranchial length, large eye, weakly pigmented velar tentacles, and its ability to remain in freshwater. The recently metamorphosed form readily survives in freshwater and probably is non-anadromous even though it can survive in salt water. The new species has been discovered in two lakes on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, where it attacks large numbers of resident salmonids. Because of its ability to survive and feed in freshwater, it poses a definite threat to freshwater fishes.Key words: lamprey, new species, non-anadromous lamprey, salmonid parasitism


Insufficient attention is sometimes paid to the temperature of the anaesthetised or surgical patient. Ideally, normothermia should be maintained throughout anaesthesia, but this is not always possible. Although animals more commonly suffer a drop in temperature (hypothermia) whilst under general anaesthesia, this article will concentrate on hyperthermia, as this is just as important to control and which, if ignored, could result in lasting effects on the patient.


This paper is a deliberately provocative exploration of some of the issues surrounding the challenge of meeting current demands for a highly skilled workforce, whilst at the same time providing a broad and balanced experience for all young people in the UK. It does this by exploring the skills of the future and the breadth of the curriculum. The paper proposes a way of bringing these two objectives together by focusing on depth of understanding as well as providing breadth of experience. It is argued that only by developing a depth of understanding of design processes by structured progression will design and technology education make its unique contribution to pupils' general education. The paper concludes that in order for this to be achieved, the design and technology community in the UK needs to focus on four key issues: outcomes; contexts; perspectives and pedagogy.


This paper presents an efficient method for solving the broken characters problem in the recognition of Vietnamese degraded text. Basically, the broken characters restoration process consists of three main steps: 1) analyzing and grouping connected components into connected areas; 2) building directed graph from connected areas; 3) applying a best first search A* to all its possible sub-graphs in order to an optimal strategy to rejoin the appropriate connected areas. Our experiments were carried out on the testing dataset, consists of 21690 low quality word images which are exported from 925 different quality of document pages. This method correctly finds 94.37% of the dataset.


A study was conducted to estimate the thromboembolic potential of different Mechanical Heart Valve (MHV) designs and the effect of valve orientation (valve axial misalignment during implantation) on it. CFD simulations of turbulent, transient, non-Newtonian blood flow patterns generated by two types of MHVs (monoleaflet and bileaflet) and the effect of valve orientation were conducted using the Wilcox k-ω turbulence model. Platelet shear stress histories (cumulative effect of shear stress and time) were calculated and averaged over a large number of platelet trajectories within the flow field, and compared with in vitro Platelet Activity State (PAS) measurements conducted in a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) model. Platelets were circulated in the LVAD with Carbomedics bileaflet and Bjork-Shiley monoleaflet MHVs correspondingly. The PAS measurement indicated that PAS induced by the tilted St. Jude bileaflet MHV and the untilted valve was very similar (P>0.1). The bileaflet MHV activated platelets at a rate of more than 2-fold than that observed with the monoleaflet MHV (P<0.05). This confirmed the CFD platelet shear stress histories, which clearly indicated a higher level of stimulation of platelets for the bileaflet MHV.Copyright © 2004 by ASME


Mapping the static magnetic field via the phase evolution over gradient echo scans acquired at two or more echo times is an established method. A number of possibilities exist, however, for combining phase data from multi‐channel coils, denoising and thresholding field maps for high field applications. Three methods for combining phase images when no body/volume coil is available are tested: (i) Hermitian product, (ii) phase‐matching over channels, and (iii) a new approach based on calculating separate field maps for each channel. The separate channel method is shown to yield field maps with higher signal‐to‐noise ratio than the Hermitian product and phase‐matching methods and fewer unwrapping errors at low signal‐to‐noise ratio. Separate channel combination also allows unreliable voxels to be identified via the standard deviation over channels, which is found to be the most effective means of denoising field maps. Tests were performed using multichannel coils with between 8 and 32 channels at 3 T, 4 T, and 7 T. For application in the correction of distortions in echo‐planar images, a formulation is proposed for reducing the local gradient of field maps to eliminate signal pile‐up or swapping artifacts. Field maps calculated using these techniques, implemented in a freely available MATLAB toolbox, provide the basis for an effective correction for echo‐planar imaging distortions at high fields. Magn Reson Med, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


This paper makes a contribution to the debate on the economic effects of military spending using a large cross-country panel data-set for 1988–2006. As well as providing a relatively up to date analysis, sub-groups are created that allow the analysis to focus on groups of countries at different income levels and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), an area which has seen a large number of damaging conflicts. Estimating the empirical growth model gives results that show variation across the sub-groups, with the general picture of significant negative short-run effect and insignificant long-run effect of military burden on per capita GDP growth, not consistent across the different income groups. In addition, breaking down the SSA group into those involved in conflict and those that are not, provides some further intriguing findings that suggest the value of further work on the impact of conflict on growth.


The satellite industry is driven by the need to reduce costs. One way they have sought to do this is by reducing the size and weight of the satellite because of the extremely high cost per kilogram incurred launching a payload into orbit. The main difficulty in this approach is the lack of power capacity in a small satellite. One of the largest loads on a satellite's power system is the communications system. This has driven the need for a low-power communications system. This document examines a novel method of communicating optically with a low-Earth-orbit satellite from the ground without the need for a laser on the payload. The goal is to show the feasibility of such a system as a solution to the small satellite low-powered communication problem. Specially, that the system described herein: is capable of ground to low-Earth-orbit communications, has very little space-borne mass, and draws little power from the satellite. First, the system (hereafter referred to as LOWCAL "Lightweight Optical Wavelength Communication without A Laser in space") will be explained with details of the formats used and the link budgets. Discussions will be presented on the development of some of the system hardware (the laser diode driver, liquid crystal driver, and decision electronics for both the up and down links.) Finally, experimental test results of the entire system operating in a laboratory environment are presented and compared to theory. The results of the laboratory experiment support the original thesis: retro-modulated optical communications can meet the needs of the small satellite community. The system is capable of 10-kbps communication, has low space-borne mass, and draws little power from the satellite (less than 100-mW measured for the laboratory experiment, less than 1.5-W calculated for the Shuttle experiment).


Leukotriene B4 (LTB4) was recognized as an arachidonate‐derived chemotactic factor for inflammatory cells and an important drug target even before the molecular identification of its receptors. We cloned the high‐ and low‐affinity LTB4 receptors, BLT1 and BLT2, respectively, and examined their functions by generating and studying gene‐targeted mice. BLT1 is involved in the pathogenesis of various inflammatory and immune diseases, including asthma, psoriasis, contact dermatitis, allergic conjunctivitis, age‐related macular degeneration, and immune complex‐mediated glomerulonephritis. Meanwhile, BLT2 is a high‐affinity receptor for 12‐hydroxyheptadecatrienoic acid, which is involved in the maintenance of dermal and intestinal barrier function, and the acceleration of skin and corneal wound healing. Thus, BLT1 antagonists and BLT2 agonists are promising candidates in the treatment of inflammatory diseases.


The temporal evolution of electron density in a nanosecond pulsed argon microplasma is measured using a combination of Stark broadening and the optical emission line-ratio method. In the initial discharge period (0–100 ns), the electron density can reach as high as ∼1018 cm−3. It decreases to ∼1017–1016 cm−3 in the early afterglow period (100 ns–1 µs after the ignition) and ∼1016–1013 cm−3 in the late afterglow period (1–20 µs). It is demonstrated that the optical emission spectroscopy (OES) line-ratio method can obtain the electron density in the range 1013–1016 cm−3, while in the range 1016–1018 cm−3, the Stark broadening technique with argon 2p–1s lines (in Paschen's notation) is a better choice. These results are in good agreement with those from the Stark broadening technique with hydrogen Balmer lines. Finally, a possible mechanism for such a density evolution is briefly discussed.


In his report in the October 2017 issue of MEDICC Review, Vega-Jiménez stressed that the design and integration of a prediabetes (intermediate hyperglycemia) registry would serve as an essential prevention strategy to improve population health outcomes in Cuba.


The paper analyzes contamination factors in children and adolescents from the foci of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. The analysis of a study of these disease sources, the people who discontinued treatment and contacted with the children and adolescents in the foci demonstrated that these were mainly male alcoholics, as well as unemployed, intensive-phase therapy non-compliant inpatients, patients who went home without permission; 16% of them had convictions. The contacted children and adolescents from a group of patients who discontinued treatment were significantly more frequently stated to have a hyperergic response to tuberculin (10.8%) than those who continued treatment (3.4%) (p ≤ 0.05). Two children and 3 adolescents (15%) fell ill in the treatment discontinuation group. One (3.0%) adolescent did in the treatment continuation group (p ≤ 0.05).


Everywhere the world over war and human conflicts have become a common phenomenon. This is true in the Middle East in Africa in the Americas and in Europe. Nations are pitted against nations. Internal wars are tearing apart nations as is the case with Somalia Sudan DRC Chechnya among others. Consequently there has been a gross loss of human lives property damage and other human sufferings. In our beloved country Kenya though there has not been a civil strife of high magnitude cases of sporadic conflicts have always bedeviled us. The Pokot/ Marakwet clashes are decades old also true with Turkana and Pokot. In 1992/93 the politically instigated ethnic clashes in the Rift Valley and Coast provinces left thousands dead displaced and homeless. The recent Mai-Mahiu clashes did the same. The people of the Northeastern province have known no peace. State-instigated violations of human rights have been reported since independence. Many Kenyans have been killed tortured and denied their basic rights and freedom. Torture and arbitrary killings by police and others occur too frequently. Some Kenyans are killing others using illegally acquired arms. Poverty levels are on the rise and this has only acted to perpetuate social ills. (excerpt)


ABSTRACT Sesquiterpene lactones (SLs) are the active constituents of a variety of medicinal plants used in traditional medicine for the treatment of inflammatory diseases and other ailments. Objective In this study, we evaluated whether budlein A modulates the activation of innate and adaptive immune cells such as neutrophils and lymphocytes. Material and Methods Our research group has investigated several plant species and several compounds have been isolated, identified, and their medical potential evaluated. Budlein A is a SL isolated from the species Aldama buddlejiformis and A. robusta (Asteraceae) and shows anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive activities. Advances in understanding how plant-derived substances modulate the activation of innate and adaptive immune cells have led to the development of new therapies for human diseases. Results Budlein A inhibited MPO activity, IL-6, CXCL8, IL-10, and IL-12 production and induces neutrophil apoptosis. In contrast, budlein A inhibited lymphocyte proliferation and IL-2, IL-10, TGF-β, and IFN-γ production, but it did not lead to cell death. Conclusions Collectively, our results indicate that budlein A shows distinct immunomodulatory effects on immune cells.


The phenomenon of entanglement sudden death (ESD) in finite dimensional composite open systems is described here for both bi-partite as well as multipartite cases, where individual subsystems undergo Lindblad type heat bath evolution. ESD is found to be generic for non-zero temperature of the bath. At T=0, one-sided action of the heat bath on pure entangled states of two qubits does not show ESD.


Abstract A theory is developed that describes acoustic microstreaming around a gas bubble undergoing small radial and translational oscillations in the presence of a distant rigid wall. It is shown that the presence of the wall can change the amplitude and the phase of the bubble oscillations in such a way that the intensity of acoustic microstreaming is increased considerably as compared with that generated by the same bubble in an infinite liquid. This occurs if the driving frequency is close to the resonance frequency that the bubble has in the presence of the wall. Equations for acoustic microstreaming in the boundary layer at the wall are also provided.


Although WSRF (Web Services Resource Framework) and Java-based hosting environment have been successful in dealing with the heterogeneity of resources and the diversity of applications, the current Grid middleware has several limitations to support on-demand resource provisioning effectively.
 This paper proposes DynaGrid, a new framework for WSRF-compliant applications. Many new components, such as Service Door, Dynamic Service Launcher (DSL), Client Proxy, and Partition Manager, have been introduced to offer adaptive, scalable, and reliable resource provisioning. All of these components are implemented as standard WSRF-compliant Web services, hence DynaGrid is complementary to the existing Grid middleware. The experimental evaluations are performed on a real test bed with practical applications including the Map Reduce application. The results indicate that DynaGrid effectively utilizes Grid resources by allocating only the required number of resources adaptively according to the amount of incoming requests, providing both the scalability and the reliability at the same time.


The monitoring of increased intracranial pressure (ICP) is desirable in the diagnosis and treatment of patients suffering from traumatic brain injury (TBI) or hydrocephalus, for it can provide an insight into the mechanism of the head injury. Therefore we developed a novel miniature diaphragm-based Fabry-Perot (F-P) sensor for ICP measurement. The presented sensor exhibits a linear response to the applied pressure over the range of 0~25 kPa, with a sensitivity of 39.2 nm/kPa and a resolution of 0.13 kPa. In addition, we offered two kinds of packaging methods. Compared with the sophisticated process involved in making a commercially available fiber optic sensor for ICP monitoring, the reported sensor is simple to be fabricated and low-cost.


According to the previous studies,ginseng saponin can be converted into a variety of rare ginsenoside in vitro.They played the key role of pharmacological activity in vivo substances.The microbial transformation and solid -state fermentation technology is the basis for industrial production of rare ginsenoside.In this paper,the studies on ginsenoside biotransformation research survey and ginseng solid fermentation process were explored,and the existing problems and the main development direction of ginseng biotransformation were forecasted


Christopher Ford just spoke about compliance assessment and compliance enforcement, which are two concepts very inter-related and essential to nonproliferation. I will too focus my presentation today on compliance, but more specifically on its linkage with verification, another important element in nonproliferation. The Concise Oxford Dictionary describes compliance as the "action in accordance with request, command, etc."' Compliance with nonproliferation obligations could then be understood as either a result of a threat of retaliation by others, or deriving from a voluntary decision to enter into such obligations. The first type of compliance was most recently experienced in 1991 when the Security Council imposed stringent disarmament obligations on Iraq, threatening "grave consequences" in case of non-compliance (and "grave consequences" in the diplomatic lingo means "military attacks"). The inspections, therefore, implemented in Iraq from 1991 to 1998 and from November 2002 to March 2003, were extremely intrusive and unrestricted.


Abstract : Is there a better way to measure defense readiness? This Strategy Research Project (SRP) examines the Defense Readiness Report System (DRRS) to see if it (a) provides an objective assessment of capabilities to meet the mission priorities established by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) (b) meets the objectives of the National Security Strategy prescribed by the President and (c) carries outs the objectives of the National Military Strategy by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This SRP then analyzes DRRS indicators of lagging, coincident, and leading to determine their validity for measuring readiness. Finally, this SRP considers the relevance of assessing Mission Essential Task List (METL) to accomplish a Combatant Commanders (CCDR) mission.


OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing) technology provides interactive query-driven analysis of accumulated and consolidated business data for the purpose of decision-making and knowledge extraction. Visualization is increasingly used as the means of gaining insight into huge data volumes of multidimensional data as the former exploits the profound ability of the human vision system to recognize patterns. This paper describes a new generation of analysis tools, characterized as Visual OLAP and based on the emerging visual exploration paradigm. In contrast to conventional tools that employ visualization primarily as user-friendly data presentation, visual OLAP turns visualization into the key method for both query specification and exploratory analysis. We propose a comprehensive visual exploration framework, which implements OLAP operations in form of powerful data navigation and allows users to explore data using a variety of interactive visualization techniques. A taxonomy of visual metaphors, from classical business charts to advanced 3D, multiscale, and hierarchical layouts accounts for different types of analytical tasks. A unified framework is obtained by


Abstract A noncommutative Poisson transform associated to a certain class of sequences of operators on Hilbert spaces, with property (P), is defined on some universal C *-algebras (resp. nonselfadjoint algebras) generated by isometries. Its properties are described and used to study these universal algebras and their representations. As consequences, we obtain a functional calculus, isometric (resp. unitary) dilations, and commutant lifting theorem for the class of sequences of operators with property (P). Our "geometrical" approach leads also to new and elementary proofs as well as extensions of some classical results.


Summary. The results of investigations of exhaust emissions in a livestock building from a farm tractor coupled with a feed wagon have been presented. The investigations were performed in an open space building divided into boxes with the livestock count of 60 cows.


A shoe of swash plate type compressor is provided to improve the sliable contact by realizing smooth lubrication between the shoe and a swash plate, or the shoe and a piston, and prevent lowering of the durability of the shoe by easily discharging alien substances by forming a chamfered part between an outer peripheral part and a swash plate contact part of the shoe. A shoe of a swash plate type compressor is placed between a piston and a swash plate. The shoe is formed of a spherical part(710) slidably combined with a concave spherical part of the piston when the shoe is seen from a longitudinal section, and a flat swash plate contact part sliably contacting with the swash plate at an opposite side of the spherical part. A plurality of concave parts(740) are formed along an outer peripheral part(730) between the spherical part and the swash plate contact part.


Objective
To investigate the effect of quality control circle on reducing incidence of fecal incontinence dermatitis of intensive care unit (ICU) patients.

Methods
Quality control circle team was set up and theme was determined then retrospective analysis was carried out for the occurrence of defect in patients with fecal incontinence dermatitis from January to May 2014 before quality control circle activities. Occurrence reasons were explored and corrective measures were formulated and implemented.After the implementation of quality control circle,the occurrence of defect from June to October 2014 was observed.

Results
After the implementation of quality control circle,the occurrence of fecal incontinence dermatitis reduced from 24.5%(24/98) to 10.4% (10/96) and the difference was statistically significant,χ2=6.65,P<0.05.

Conclusion
Quality control circle is effective for reducing the occurrence of ICU fecal incontinence dermatitis and continual improvement of nursing quality.

Key words:
Intensive care units; Quality control circle; Fecal incontinence dermatitis


The studies were conducted for the development, quality evaluation and shelf life of cooked buffalo meat sausage samples prepared with different levels of fat (20-30%) and carrot powder (0-5%). The research work was designed by response surface methodology and therefore the range of two independent parameters viz. fat (20-30%) and carrot powder (0-5%) was selected. The quality of sausage samples was evaluated on the basis of physicochemical characteristics like, moisture content, ash content, fat content, protein content, pH value, and TBA number. The samples were packed in combination film and stored under refrigerated condition (0oC) and for shelf life studies quality and analysis of sausage samples was carried out after every five days till the end of shelf life. The moisture content in the samples was observed in the range of 61.14 to 62.35% in fresh condition and it observed less decrement in the moisture content in samples having zero or low amount of carrot powder comparatively with the samples having higher amount of carrot powder during the refrigeration storage period. The ash content was observed in the range of 1.9 to 2.3% in fresh condition and slight increment in ash content was observed due to reduction in the moisture content during storage. Similarly fat content was found 14.12 to 16.67% in fresh condition, while an increase in fat content was found in sausage samples during refrigerated storage (0oC). It was due to the decrease in the moisture content of sausage samples. The protein content of all sausage samples was found in the range of 18.37 to 18.70% in fresh condition. The increase in protein content was found due to similar reason of decrease in moisture content. The pH values of the sausage samples were found in the range of 6.132 - 6.412 in fresh condition and it was found that sausage sample having 21.46% fat content and 4.27% carrot powder had lowest decrement in the pH. The sausage samples found spoiled at TBA no. ≥ 0.20 and shelf life cooked buffalo meat sausage found of Twenty-one days under refrigerated condition.


In the prospective study we included 74 women whose gestation course was not complicated by preeclampsia, 53 pregnant women with moderate preeclampsia, 3 patients with serious preeclampsia; we analyzed the particularities of gestation course and outcomes of labor. Preeclampsia during pregnancy is associated with the threat of miscarriage, sub and decompensated placental insufficiency and syndrome of fetal growth retardation, pyelonephritis, hepatocellular dysfunction, the occurrence is higher in serious preeclampsia. Preeclampsia, of severe form in particular, increases the rate of cesarean operations and the volume of blood loss in labor. Serious preeclampsia is associated with premature labors, acute fetal hypoxia, perinatal mortality, low statural-weight values of newborn infants and complicated course of neonatal period. The revealed correlative relationships between the above mentioned obstetric complications show the similar mechanisms of their development. According to the results of our study the pregnant women with genital infection are in the risk group of preeclampsia development in the 1 st trimester of gestation, the pregnant women with the threat of miscarriage, subcompensated placental insufficiency have the risk of preeclampsia development in the 2 nd trimester of gestation.


Open Data platforms are information sources that maintain themselves by their user's
collaboration. In a collaborative environment, it is possible to build a repository where we can
retrieve a big amount of data, which help the development of new experiments and
researches. These repositories can be used for sharing and scientific experiments result
analysis on simulations. This article proposes the facilitation of collaboration from
independent user's, institutes and companies that want to share and contribute with
information from various data bases, using a ETL (Extract Transform Load), also known as
software tools that are useful to extract information from a source, to transform these data to
the wanted way, and to load them into the repositories of the opened platforms, publishing the
information for all that have interests in it.


The stock price of companies listed in the LQ45 Index has decreased almost in all sectors, except the mining and infrastructure sectors are still in the green zone. This study aims to examine the effect of Return on Equity on stock prices and the size of the Company on the company's stock price. The sample was selected using a purposive sampling method, while the data used was secondary data in the form of financial report data. The model is estimated using data panel regression, namely Common Effects Models (CEM), Fixed Effects Models (FEM), and Random Effects Models (REM). The results of this study indicate that financial performance has no significant effect on stock prices, and the size of the company also has no significant effect on stock prices.


Purpose/ Aim of the study: The objective of the present study is to analyze the aspects related to autobiographical memory in patients with chronic pain compared to a control group. In addition, an attempt was made to assess the variables that might influence autobiographical memory. Materials and Methods: This was a case-control study conducted on patients with chronic pain and controls with no pain. Subjects included 29 patients with chronic pain and 29 control patients. Demographic data, clinical data related to pain, as intensity and use of analgesics, comorbidities, as depressive disorder and anxiety disorder, were assessed. Neuropsychological evaluation included the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and the Autobiographical Memory Test, Brazilian version. Results: The main type of pain was lower back pain (31.0%), the mean current frequency of pain was 22.3 + 10.8 days/month, and mean pain intensity was 8.1 + 1.6. Quantitative analysis did not differ significantly in the Montreal Cognitive assessment (22.5 versus 23.7; p = 0.18), Autobiographical Memory Test words remembering (30.2 versus 31.8; p = 0.58) and the latency time to respond (115.8 s versus 114.6 s ; p = 0.42). Qualitative analysis of memories evoked by neutral words revealed that chronic pain patients had more memories of negative content. These findings were not influenced by comorbidities. Conclusions: The present results show that patients with chronic pain have changes in autobiographical memory compared to a control group, more specifically related to memory content (unpleasant memories) than to memory extension or latency time to assess memories.


At present,the highest voltage of AC transmission lines in service in China has reached 1 000 kV.To accurately calculate the power frequency electric field of EHV/UHV transmission line,the authors propose a calculation model with consideration of conductor corona discharge on the basis of the charge simulation method(CSM).This model simulates the motion and recombination process of the space line charges in the ion flow field around the conductors in entire cycles until the power loss reaches a steady state.The ground level power frequency electric field is determined by the charges in conductors and surrounding space.The innovation of the model is that the quantity of electricity per unit length of each sub-conductor is simulated by one line charge.Simulation results are compared with the results in literatures to verify the correctness of the proposed model.The electric field on ground underneath 1 000 kV3-phase 8-bundle AC transmission lines is simulated using this model,and the results are compared with the measured values.Conclusion is drawn that corona discharge leads to about 5% enhancement in the power frequency electric field.


A pulsed neutron source is described which gives 106 neutrons in a burst which is 2×10−8 second wide. The plasma of an ion pump is used as the source of deuterium ions which are accelerated to 200 kv before striking a deuterium target, where the D(d,n)He3 reaction produces 2 to 3 Mev neutrons.


This paper analyzes the basic connotation and advantages of mechatronics technology in intelligent manufacturing. This paper analyzes the practical application of computer artificial intelligence technology in numerical control technology, sensor technology, production and processing technology, intelligent robot and system integration. This paper takes electromechanical pneumatics as an example to design an artificial intelligence system. First of all, this paper attempts to use the radial basis function-based meshless method to carry out aerodynamic numerical simulation. Then a simple aerodynamic case is processed with Fluent; finally, a simple comparison is made with the results obtained by the mechatronics pneumatic meshless method. It is found that the radial basis function collocation method is a real mechatronics aerodynamic meshless method and the algorithm is simple. The research results of this paper can assist the in-depth study of computer artificial intelligence technology in mechatronics systems.


Multi-campus-school-running pattern is widespread in universities,which brings many new problems and puts forward some challenges for the construction of university libraries. This paper analyzes the development direction of multi-campus library,probes into some measures that should be taken in the construction of management system,the construction of literature resources and the construction of service system of multi-campus libraries,and points out that constructing high-quality library is an inevitable trend for the construction of first-class university.


This paper reviews work on binary phase-only (BPOF) and ternary phase-amplitude (TPAF) correlation and highlights recent investigations of neural network approaches for augmenting correlation-based hybrid (optical/electronic) automatic target recognition systems. The theory and implementation of BPOF and TPAF correlation using available spatial light modulators is reviewed, including recent advances in smart TPAF formulations. Results showing the promise of neural networks for enhancing correlation system operation in the areas of estimating distortion parameters, adapting filters, and improving discrimination are presented and discussed.


Abstract : This project has involved a quantitative theoretical interpretation of electron spectroscopic data with a view toward elucidating the chemical environment and electronic structure of atoms in the bulk and adsorbed on solid surfaces. We have most recently examined XPS, XAS, and AES data for the high temperature superconductors, and CEELS, AES, and NEXAFS data for chemisorbed carbon species on metals. Electron/photon stimulated desorption (ESD/PSD) was also of interest. Here, an interpretation of spectroscopic data allowed for the first quantitative determination of a dissociative attachment cross-section on a surface and new knowledge about the trajectory of the desorbing atom.


Temporal relations between events is a valuable source of information which can be used in a large number of natural language processing applications such as question answering, summarization, and information extraction. Supervised temporal relation classification requires large corpora which are difficult, time consuming, and expensive to produce. Active learning strategies are well-suited to reduce this effort by efficiently selecting the most informative samples for labeling. This paper presents novel active learning strategies based on support vector machines (SVM) for temporal relation classification. A large number of empirical comparisons of different active learning algorithms and various kernel functions in SVM shows that proposed active learning strategies are effective for the given task.


In 2003 four Brazilian companies swift among the ten best performing forest products companies in the traditional Annual Green Gold Championships (GGC) company performance benchmarking. The winner is Cenibra closely followed by Klabin. In last year's benchmarking these two companies reached only the positions of 23 and 96, respectively. The Brazilian Suzano and Bahia Sul also performed well and positioned 6 t h and 7 t h , respectively.


New ground-based telescopes and instruments, the return of the NICMOS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and the recent launch of the Spitzer Space Telescope have provided new tools that are being utilized in the study of planetary nebulae. Multiwavelength, high spatial resolution ground-based and HST imaging have been used to probe the inner regions of young PNe to determine their structure and evaluate formation mechanisms. Spitzer/IRAC and MIPS have been used to image more evolved PNe to determine the spatial distribution of molecular hydrogen, ionized gas, and dust in the nebulae and halos.


For photocatalytic CO2 reduction, the synergistic effect of Lewis acidity and basicity on CO2 activation is worthy of study. On the basis of a large number of oxygen defects (Lewis acidity) and hyd...


This paper explores the expectations which students and employers have of a professional doctorate programme. We present a mixed method study of more than 50 students on a professional doctorate programme at a UK. We explore four themes which have emerged from the study: cohort experience; structure and academic support; personal impact; and employer perceptions. We critically assess these findings against other published studies, and draw conclusions which we believe are of use in the future development of professional doctorate programmes.


Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of the hydrazine derivatives of carbohydrates and related compounds. Hydrazine, hydroxylamine, and hydrogen peroxide are highly reactive nucleophiles that add to carbonyl compounds to give N - and O -adducts, which are not usually isolated. The chapter presents an account of the rich chemistry of the hydrazine derivatives of sugars, the versatility of their structures, and their availability, which makes them valuable enantiomerically pure synthons for chiral products. For example, reduction of aldose hydrazones affords an important class of chiral amino- and iminodeoxy sugars that contain nitrogen in place of the oxygen present in the rings of natural sugars. These imino sugars exhibit a wide spectrum of biological activities, mainly attributable to their ability to act as enzyme inhibitors. Also of considerable interest are the carba-sugars—the carbocyclic analogs of monosaccharides—which are readily available from inosose phenylhydrazones. Members of both these classes of compounds—the carba-sugars and the imino sugars ("aza sugars")—are capable of inhibiting enzymes because they mimic the enzyme's natural substrates (the sugars). This chapter provides an overview of saccharide hydrazones and glycosylhydrazines and also discusses about saccharide osazones and poly(hydrazones).


Insertional mutagenesis with a known mobile DNA insert can generate mutations that are marked by a molecular tag. When the insertion disrupts a gene, causing a mutant phenotype, the tagged mutant gene can easily be cloned using the DNA insert as a molecular probe. D N q sequences of the cloned mutant gene can then be used to isolate the corresponding wild-type allele. This procedure, known as gene tagging, facilitates th;! analysis of both mutant and gene. In higher organisms the gene tagging technique was first used in Drosophila, with well studied transposable elements as tags (1). Although transposable 1 elements were long since known to be present in plants, the active use of plant transposons, for gene tagging purposes, first required their molecular characterization. Both maize and snapdragon transposons subsequently became


This paper outlines a method of sequentially joining steel laminations together using a high strength brazed joint to produce laminated tools. Individual joints were produced by using a heated platen rather than a furnace. Lap shear test samples were used to evaluate the tensile strengths of bonded laminates. Two laminate gauges were tested, 0.8mm and 1.6mm. Ranging trials were undertaken to determine optimum time to produce the joint. Constants for the trials were platen temperature, laminate material, braze material, joint area and joining pressure. At optimum conditions, that is the least time taken for highest tensile strength, the 0.8mm laminate averaged a strength of 4.7kN in 120 seconds' heating time and the 1.6mm laminate averaged 9.3kN in 210 seconds.


Cost estimation is a process of estimating and forecasting the total cost required of
executing the engineering activities from project initiation till project completion. In
semiconductor manufacturing industry, project managers encountered several obstacles
with regards to cost estimation. There are no proper guidance, no standardization and no
project budget breakdown overview on the cost estimation. Consequently, these have
incurred no consistency in project cost estimation among project managers, poor cost
management and mitigation plan shown by project managers with regards to high
percentage difference between the actual and estimate (plan) which is more than 20
percent. Hence, there is a need to develop a systematic framework or a proposed approach
for cost estimation in order to help and support the project managers which handling the
package assembly project in INN Company, Malacca. This research proposes a
methodology that uses bottom up approach via Activity Based Costing (ABC) to estimate
a project cost with five key cost elements using Excel-based cost estimator. The package
assembly projects that are being discussed and analyzed are projects complexity of I, 2
and 3. The cost model is validated with the historical data while the testing data are
validated with the actual data. Mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) is calculated to
measure the forecast accuracy. With the full implementation of the established cost model,
it helps the company to achieve 7 percent of MAPE in 2015 as compared to 13 percent
(2014) and 16 percent (2013). The outcome of the cost model is satisfactory as the MAPE
of 7% is obtained as compared to an industrial target of 10%. It is recommended that
thorough studies and analysis could be studied to understand greater details of cost
element. Web Portal is the recommended tool for the cost estimation in future as it is a
collection of webpages that support multiple web browsers.


AIM: To optimize cross-sectional chest imaging usage by identifying frequency and risk factors associated with thoracic metastases in cervical cancer patients after initial definitive treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study conducted during 2004–2015 examined 361 consecutive patients with pathologically proven cervical carcinoma with at least one-year follow-up. Electronic medical records and all available imaging modes were used to record and assess patient and tumour characteristics and timing of thoracic metastases. Associations with these characteristics and thoracic metastases were assessed using univariate and multivariable Cox proportional hazards modeling. RESULTS: Of all 361 patients, 31 developed thoracic metastases. Multivariate regression results showed that adeno/adenosquamous carcinomas (hazard ratio [HR], 2.46; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06 to 5.72), other-histology (HR, 5.61; 95% CI, 1.81 to 17.42), high International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage (HR, 2.84; 95% CI, 1.09 to 7.37), and presence of initial intra-abdominal lymph node metastases (HR, 2.46; 95% CI, 1.02 to 5.90) are associated significantly and independently with Abstract


The solenoid magnetic actuator has been widely used as an actuator for MS (magnetic switch). Thus, conventional MSs continuously consume electrical power to maintain a closed state. To address this problem, an innovative structure which uses a permanent magnet to generate holding force in the closed state without electrical power is suggested in this paper. Further, the permanent magnet is dedicated to the opening operation and the closing operation by means of its magnetic force. In other words, an eco-friendly MS is proposed in this research. However, this structure has a critical problem in that, if unexpected external force is applied to the MS when in the open state, the MS returns to the closed state by the force of the permanent magnet and remains in the closed state, causing an unintended operation of the load. To solve this problem, a novel inter-locking mechanism is proposed. Hence, we termed the proposed novel MS the MSPI (magnetic switch using a permanent magnet and an inter-locking system). In addition, analysis and design methods for the MSPI are proposed in this paper. The usefulness of the MSPI and the accuracy of the analysis and design methods are confirmed through an experiment.


Trade history between Brazil and the United States is long and complicated but it is only in recent years that the trade balance has become more equal in terms of both imports and exports. As Brazil continues to establish its position in the world economy and expand its export market it is only natural that it seeks to increase exports to its single largest trading partner, the United States, and maintain the market share already established. In order to achieve success in these regards Brazil must have a deep understanding of the American political economy system. Part of this entails understanding barriers that must be overcome by Brazilian businesses to access United States markets, particularly the access of certain products at the industry level. This research supports that four criteria are integral to access the U.S. market. The four criteria are: 1) Imports are relatively free of restrictions/regu lations 2) Issues are relatively more important to the Braz ilian agenda than the American agenda 3) Active representation in the US market system 4) Issues have been addressed in multilateral arena I applied these criteria to six case studies at the industry level and found that all of the industries faced barriers in accessing the U.S. market system.


The genetic diversity and relationship of Pericopsis mooniana collected from Pulau Laut, South Kalimantan, was analyzed using RAPD markers. Currently, the natural distribution of P. mooniana in Pulau Laut no longer exists. Instead, PT Inhutani II, as the concession holder in the area, had collected the remaining P.mooniana and planted it in the seed orchard, arboretum, or around PT Inhutani's mess/office. Forty-two samples from four locations: mess/residential house (3), seed orchard (33), arboretum (3), and PT Inhutani II Unit Stagen (3) were analyzed using seven RAPD primers. Our study showed that the total genetic diversity of all populations was low (He = 0.191 ± 0.013). P. mooniana collected from seed orchards had the highest diversity (He = 0.289 ± 0.021), while the lowest was from mess/residential houses (He = 0.134 ± 0.025). The genetic relationship data indicated the possibility that P. mooniana from mess/residential house, arboretum, and seed orchard may come from the same origin. These results can be used to support the development of ex-situ conservation plots to avoid inbreeding depression. At the same time, the genetic diversity will be helpful in its conservation and further utilization, such as establishing the plantations to reduce the pressure of the species in nature and provide valuable timber production in Indonesia.


Objective –  to study the mycrobiota of the objects in the environment of the Radiology Department of the Perm Regional Oncology Hospital for adult patients. Materials and methods.  The objects for microbiological examination were indoor air, the items of general and special medical equipment, the hands of the staff and patients, and sanitary equipment. The total number of samples was 63, including 12 air samples and 51 swabs from the objects in the hospital environment. Results.  The high level of contamination of the Oncology Hospital environment by micromycetes was identified. The amount of positive samples was 90,5 ± 3,6 %. Fungi were detected in 100 % of air samples. Almost half of them were Penicillium species (49,7 %), the percentage of Aspergillus was 29,1 %. The intensity of contamination of various premises in the Radiology Department of the Oncology Hospital by fungi ranged from 50,6 ± 25,5 CFU/m 3  to 2,0 ± 0,9 CFU/m 3 . However, no significant differences in the intensity of units contamination were revealed (t = 1,9; p > 0,05). The average «fungal load» was 19,4 ± 7,2 CFU/m 3 . The prevalence of yeast fungi was detected in swabs from the objects of the hospital environment. The highest contamination was found on the ventilation grates (6812,0 ± 1394,0 CFU/dm 2 ) and the bedside tables (2427,0 ± 129,3 CFU/dm 2 ). Conclusions.  A high level of contamination of the environment of the Radiology Department of the Oncology Hospital by micromycetes was identified. Fungi of Aspergillus and Penicillium species prevailed in the air. The intensity of contamination did not exceed the threshold value. Yeast fungi prevailed in swabs from objects of the environment. The most contaminated were ventilation grates in the wards, bedside tables and patients' hands. The intensity of contamination of the objects in the hospital environment by micromycetes does not depend on the intended usage of the premises in the hospital and duration of hospital stay of oncology patients.


Based on a review of current situation about the research work,an introduction is given to some theoretical methods commonly used at home and aboard,with emphasis placed on the strut-and-tie method and the shear friction method as well as their characteristics and applicability,and some problems needed for further study are put forward.It is pointed out that the perfection of shearing mechanism model,the improvement of computational method,and the combination of numerical analysis with experimental study are the trend of further research on reinforced concrete corbels of small shear span ratio.The present study provides a train of thought for further research on the building code of reinforced concrete corbels having small shear span ratio.


Considered is OTA testing of future generation communications systems, especially of Devices-under-Test of large electrical size and with highly directive antenna patterns. The channel is assumed to be dominated by a single continuous cluster. Two methods of stochastic cluster emulation by discrete incident fields, modelled as plane waves, are investigated. With both methods, a potential problem with calibrating OTA set-ups was noticed. Random variations in received power of more than 15 dB were observed in cases of angular symmetry around the DuT heading. With omnidirectional antennas, these variations can be reduced to less than 0.1 dB by selecting the initial phases. On DuT antennas with different angular phase responses, this has limited effect, still up to 6 dB variations were seen. Only for the MPAC emulation method, introducing angular asymmetry in the array reduced random variations to smaller than 0.15 dB. Additional deterministic power variations, depending on the method either ripple or bias, were observed too. On the highly directive pattern of a car, the ripple could be stronger than 10 dB (peak-to-peak) for a 12-antenna OTA ring, the bias up to 5 dB. The more OTA antennas, the smaller these deterministic power variations. Recommendations for calibration of MPAC set-ups and designing OTA antenna arrays are given.


Investigations of the adsorptions of representative gases (NO2, NH3, H2S, SO2, CO, and HCHO) on different Ag-functionalized monolayer MoS2 surfaces were performed by first principles methods. The adsorption configurations, adsorption energies, electronic structure properties, and charge transfer were calculated, and the results show that the adsorption activities to gases of monolayer MoS2 are dramatically enhanced by the Ag-modification. The Ag-modified perfect MoS2 (Ag-P) and MoS2 with S-vacancy (Ag-Vs) substrates exhibit a more superior adsorption activity to NO2 than other gases, which is consistent with the experimental reports. The charge transfer processes of different molecules adsorbed on different surfaces exhibit various characteristics, with potential benefits to gas selectivity. For instance, the NO2 and SO2 obtain more electrons from both Ag-P and Ag-Vs substrates but the NH3 and H2S donate more electrons to materials than others. In addition, the CO and HCHO possess totally opposite charge transfer directs on both substrates, respectively. The BS and PDOS calculations show that semiconductor types of gas/Ag-MoS2 systems are more determined by the metal-functionalization of material, and the directs and numbers of charge transfer process between gases and adsorbents can cause the increase or decline of material resistance theoretically, which is helpful to gas detection and distinction. The further analysis indicates suitable co-operation between the gain-lost electron ability of gas and metallicity of featuring metal might adjust the resistivity of complex and contribute to new thought for metal-functionalization. Our works provide new valuable ideas and theoretical foundation for the potential improvement of MoS2-based gas sensor performances, such as sensitivity and selectivity.Investigations of the adsorptions of representative gases (NO2, NH3, H2S, SO2, CO, and HCHO) on different Ag-functionalized monolayer MoS2 surfaces were performed by first principles methods. The adsorption configurations, adsorption energies, electronic structure properties, and charge transfer were calculated, and the results show that the adsorption activities to gases of monolayer MoS2 are dramatically enhanced by the Ag-modification. The Ag-modified perfect MoS2 (Ag-P) and MoS2 with S-vacancy (Ag-Vs) substrates exhibit a more superior adsorption activity to NO2 than other gases, which is consistent with the experimental reports. The charge transfer processes of different molecules adsorbed on different surfaces exhibit various characteristics, with potential benefits to gas selectivity. For instance, the NO2 and SO2 obtain more electrons from both Ag-P and Ag-Vs substrates but the NH3 and H2S donate more electrons to materials than others. In addition, the CO and HCHO possess totally opposite charge ...


Dr. Leonie Kronborg is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Educational Psychology and Inclusive Education in the Faculty of Education at Monash University in Australia. Leonie has initiated and developed gifted education courses and taught gifted education/talent development units of study at the postgraduate and preservice levels for 25 years. Leonie is Vice President of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children, Editor-in Chief of Gifted and Talented International and on the Editorial Boards of Gifted Child Quarterly, Journal for Education of the Gifted, Journal for Advanced Academics, Gifted Education International, and Australasian Journal of Gifted Education. She is a past president of the Australian Association for the Education of Gifted Children, and the Victorian Association for Gifted and Talented Children (VAGTC). She is currently president of the Association for the Education of Gifted and Talented Children in Victoria (AGATEVic). Leonie was awarded Life membership of the VAGTC in 2006, an NAGC (USA) Doctoral Student Award for a superior degree of scholarship in 2009, the Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence in 2012, the Monash University Vice-Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence in 2013, and the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children's Distinguished Service Award in 2021. She has many articles and chapters on giftedness and gender, eminence and talent development, teacher education and professional learning in gifted education publications. https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/leonie-kronborg /publications/ Henshon: What led you to the field of gifted education?


Objective: To investigate the genotype of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and its relationship with resistant profiles. Method: A total of 86 non-duplicate MRSA clinical isolates were collected in Chengdu. MIC of five different antibacterial agents against the isolates were determined by agar dilution method. PCR amplified the mec associated hypervariable region (HVR) of MRSA, and the genotypes were classified based on the fragments of amplified products. The correlation of genotypes and antimicrobial resistance was analyzed. Results: 86 strains of MRSA from Chengdu were grouped into A, B, C and D genotypes based on HVR polymorphism, the most common types were A(52.3%) and D(39.5%), followed by B and C. Most strains of genotype B and C were multi-drug resistant. All strains were sensitive to vancomycin. Conclusions: MRSA were multi-drug resistant, and can be divided into 4 genotype based on the HVR PCR amplified products. HVR PCR method is a rapid and convenient method for molecular epidemiology study of MRSA infections, vancomycin or vancomycin combined with amikacin or rifampin may be the effective treatment for MRSA infections.


The mix proportion design process and mixing material selection of self stirs common concrete mixed by cement,water,sand and stone basic material were generalized.Combined with practical construction experience, several matters need attention in common concrete mix proportion design were analyzed and discussed,and the corresponding preventive measures were proposed,so as to make concrete mix proportion obtained engineering requirement and applied every scope widely.


Low-pressure inductive plasma was used to study SiO2 and Si3N4 etching with NF3/hydrocarbon chemistry. NF3 and a hydrocarbon were used so that fluorine and carbon could be supplied from feed gases other than global warming fluorocarbons. Etch rates of SiO2 are less than the Si3N4 etch rates over a wide range of conditions. With 50 W of wafer power, the SiO2 etch rate was of the order of 25 nm min−1 while the Si3N4 etch rate was of the order of 50 nm min−1. Similarly to a fluorocarbon chemistry, the etch process yields a very thin carbon-based steady-state film whose characteristics were determined with ex situ x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). From mass spectrometry and XPS, CHxF, CF2 and CF3 were produced but in small concentrations compared with CHx and CN. Comparisons of normalized F 1s spectra of nitride and oxide show that relative concentrations of CF2 and CF3 on SiO2 are much lower than the concentrations on Si3N4. It appears that SiO2 preferentially reacts with CF2 and CF3 only but not with C–C or CHxF. Differences in the abilities of SiO2 and Si3N4 to react with C–C structures contributed to higher etch rates of Si3N4.


AIM
To prepare a soluble human Era(hEra) protein and to measure its bioactivity.

METHODS
Human era cDNA gene from pUC19 plasmid was subcloned into the expression plasmid pMAL-p2x. pMAL-hEra was transducted to E.coli TB1 and the strain was induced by isopropyl beta-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG).

RESULTS
The expressed MBP-fused protein existed in a soluble form. The fused protein made up 23.9% of the total cell lysate. It was purified by amylose affinity chromotography and digested with Factor X. Although the fused segment was dissected, the remained hEra protein was unstable in the solution with the passage of time. The activity assay showed that hEra was a GTPase that could bind GTP and hydrolyze GTP to GDP.

CONCLUSION
Human Era protein can be expressed in a soluble form and it has been proved to be a kind of G protein by the experiments in vitro. The study is important to further research into the function of human era gene.


We numerically and experimentally investigate the influence of single defects consisting of a missing antidot on the spin configurations in rectangular permalloy antidot lattices. The introduction of such lattice defects leads to the nucleation of complex domain structures after the decay of a saturating magnetic field. Micromagnetic simulations yield four typical domain configurations around the defect having distinct energy densities. The existence of the four spin configurations is confirmed by magnetic force microscopy on antidot lattices containing individual defects.


Two China-based geographers test the importance of market conditions and local institutions in determining the locational pattern of foreign direct investment in real estate development (FDIRE), a major component of China's urban growth since the 1980s. Using data from 35 major Chinese cities, they trace the diffusion of FDIRE from a concentration in China's major coastal cities in the late 1990s to a more dispersed pattern including large inland cities in 2008. In addition to investigating the general association between FDIRE, local market opportunities, and liberalized economies/more developed land markets, the authors assess differences in the locational behaviors of developers from Hong Kong-Taiwan-Macao and foreign countries. A concluding section explores the implications of FDIRE activity for the restructuring of China's urban system. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F210, L850, O180, R330. 3 figures, 7 tables, 35 references.


Sugarcane is an important cash crop for several countries and it is mainly used for sugar and ethanol production. Sugarcane is the common name of a species of herb. The official classification of sugarcane is Saccharum officinarum, and it belongs to the family Gramineae. It is common in tropical and subtropical countries throughout the world. It is one of the principle crops of South Gujarat and Saurashtra region of Gujarat state. This crop consumes heavy amount of nitrogen fertilizer and get affected by bacterial and fungal diseases for which chemical treatments are not recommended. Most of the countries use approximately 200– 400 kg N ha −1 which is costly and hazardous for environment. International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 4 (2017) pp. 240-252 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com


Insular dwarfism is common in mammals. Many theories have been put forward to explain it, including competitive release, predation release, resource limitation and limited dispersal abilities. However, recent analyses have challenged many of these assertions and indicate that size evolution is more complex with populations and species developing unique patterns of morphological variation. We explore the evolution of body size in a poorly studied island carnivore, the pygmy raccoon Procyon pygmaeus, and compare it with other mainland and island populations within its genus. We studied 36 males and 42 females of the endemic and endangered pygmy raccoon on Cozumel Island, Mexico, from 2001 to 2003. Insular P. pygmaeus are, on average, 17.5% smaller in linear dimensions than their closest mainland relative. Minimum linear rate of size change was 6.21% per 1000 years or 5.43 darwins. Size reduction is likely to have been an adaptation to fewer resources and predators. Our population genetic examination identified different patterns of divergence than the morphological examination, indicating that the rate of morphological evolution likely exceeds that represented in this genus' neutral genetic history. This case study highlights the importance of an autecological approach toward examining insular dwarfism given that clear patterns are not visible across the Carnivora.


The species,amount,morphological characteristics,and physiological activity of microbes in Daqu,fermented grains,pits,pit mud,brewing water,drying hall and other places of Luzhou-flavor Qing liquor were analyzed and the microecological system of Qing liquor had been preliminarily established.Besides,5 Aspergillus strains,4 Rhizopus strains and 4 yeast strains with excellent performance were successfully isolated in this study,which was of guidance significance in producing high quality Qing liquor.


PROTEUS studies the main strategies devised by Western philosophy in representing time in cosmology. It aims to modify current metaphysics and its relationship with cosmology in the light of recent scientific debates in quantum gravity and quantum cosmology, thereby boosting a new research field in the history and philosophy of cosmology.


This study aimed to research meal quality and the dietary behaviors of college students for desirable dietary lives and provides basic data for nutritional education by examining polymorphism distribution of the UCP2 gene according to gender, by investigating attitudes in terms of their dietary habits and dietary lives, and by analyzing serum lipid levels and body composition. A survey was conducted with a total of 222 students - 93 male and 129 females. Based on a selfreporting method, the questionnaires were answered over 20 minutes, and UCP2 insertion/deletion gene polymorphism and blood samples were also analyzed. The results showed that the male students and female students had average BMI of 22.50 and , respectively. According to answers regarding their dietary lives, 51.4% of the students showed 'irregular eating' patterns, which is regarded as something to be corrected. In terms of eating regularity, 51.6% of the male students and 59.7% of the female students had irregular meal schedules. As the most important meal of a day, 64.0% of the students answered 'breakfast' but only 53.6% answered that they ate breakfast everyday. In addition, 39.8% of the male students and 50.4% of the female students ate between meals 'once a day'. When questioned if they were satisfied with their body shape, 17.8 and 45.2% of the male students answered they were 'satisfied' or needed to 'gain weight', respectively, whereas 17.8 and 77.5% of the female students answered they were 'satisfied' or needed to 'lose weight', respectively. The results of the UCP2 gene polymorphism analysis showed that 33.7% of the males belonged to the DI heterozygote group, 64.2% belonged to the DD homozygote group, and 2.1% belonged to the II homozygote group. For the female students, 63.4% belonged to the DI heterozygote group, 35.1% belonged to the DD homozygote group, and 1.5% belonged to the II homozygote group. According to the blood and serum lipid analyses, the male students showed average HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and hemoglobin levels of 57.20, 93.80, and 15.00 mg/dL, respectively, while the female students presented average levels of 56.69, 102.88, and 13.13 mg/dL, respectively. In conclusion, this study found no significant effects in terms of UCP2 gene polymorphisms, but it is suggested that practical plans must be designed that allow college students to use nutritional knowledge in their daily lives, and in particular, nutrition education needs to be develop that would enable female college students to recognize their bodies appropriately and to control their weight in desirable ways.