Because of its wide availability, low cost, versatility, and clinical use, stress echocardiography has become increasingly recognized as a valuable tool in the assessment of patients with regurgitant valvular heart disease. Exercise testing is favored compared with pharmacological stress testing for risk stratification in asymptomatic patients and can identify what might otherwise be considered as a moderate valve disease. It has been shown to provide insights into exertional symptoms disproportionate to resting hemodynamics in these patients and to facilitate individual risk stratification. Aggravation of valvular regurgitation severity, exercise-induced pulmonary hypertension (PHT), impaired left ventricular (LV) contractile reserve, inducible ischemia, dynamic LV dyssynchrony, and altered exercise capacity, together with the development of symptoms during exercise echocardiography, provide the clinician with straightforward prognostic information, therefore enabling a more accurate definition of the optimal timing of intervention in patients with valvular regurgitation.1,2 In contrast, dobutamine stress echocardiography has little value in cases of valvular regurgitation. Dobutamine infusion is almost systematically associated with a decrease in the severity of regurgitation; however, it might be of interest in the detection of LV contractile reserve and inducible ischemia.

The most common form of exercise used in conjunction with echocardiography is immediate postexercise imaging on a treadmill or upright bicycle ergometer. However, semisupine exercise testing on an appropriate tilted table allows continuous echocardiographic monitoring, which represents an advantageous tool for quantifying changes in valvular regurgitation severity, LV function, and pulmonary pressure (Table). This exercise stress echocardiography modality (ie, per-exercise echocardiography) is the most used in Europe, and we strongly suggest this approach in the setting of valvular heart disease to detect evanescent changes. A symptom-limited graded exercise test is recommended, and ≥80% of the age-predicted upper heart rate should be reached in the absence of symptoms. The test is adapted to the clinical conditions …


The Cochrane Collaboration has asked its expert committee on financial links to consider whether the lead author of the review into the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, Marc Arbyn of the Belgian Cancer Centre in Brussels, fully disclosed any conflicts of interest.

The review, which found the vaccines to be effective and safe, has been the subject of complaints that it failed to include all relevant trials or to make clear their possible sources of bias. Cochrane has rejected the criticism, saying that only five trials were omitted and that including them would have made no difference to the review's conclusions.

In the declaration of interests Arbyn said that he had received travel grants from Sanofi-Pasteur-MSD and GlaxoSmithKline and that …


This extensive note synthesizes current psychological and neuroscientific research on how people make decisions with moral implications. Research summaries and scenarios illustrate critical issues.Learning Objective: Introduce students to the connections (and contradictions) between classical philosophical concepts and modern scientific findings.


It is well known that pass-through current, caused by the output buffer circuit of an IC during its transient state, can be a dominant source of the radiated field from the printed circuit board (PCB). In this paper, a modeling method is proposed to analyze this radiated field with a full-wave electromagnetic simulator using the method of moments (MOM). An analysis on the decoupling method, specifically for the case in which the IC is placed on a multi-layer PCB with segmented power and ground plane structure, has been carried out and found that there is close relationship between the PCB layer structure and the adequate location of decoupling capacitors. Our simulated results showed that there is a case that a general rule "decoupling should be placed close to VCC pin" is not adequate. Measurements have also been done with experimental model and the results are presented.


Not every ophthalmologist seems to realize the extreme importance of having the anterior focus of each eye at exactly the same distance, and many who try to obtain this fail because of the improper methods used. If the anterior focal points are not exactly at the same place the ciliary muscles in their ceaseless efforts to find a position of rest will be under a constant seesaw. Every ophthalmologist finds cases in which comfort and good vision can be obtained for each eye separately, yet when the patient looks with both eyes, he complains of discomfort and dizziness and of not being able to see clearly. The problem is how to remedy this. Many patients with glasses have the same visual acuity in each eye. After refracting such cases, and while they view distant test-types with both eyes, I take a plus and minus sphere of .25 diopter strength and place


To adapt the fast development of economics,the strategic adjustment of state-owned economy in our country has been going on several years.The paper attempts to divide the strategic adjustment into three stages according to macroscopic(market adjustment)——macroscopic(enterprise operating mechanism adjustment) ——macroscopic(optimized national economic system adjustment).In order to produce the essence and indicate the further reformed direction about the state-owned economic layout and the strategic adjustment,the paper analyses this process simply according to the related dates of a resent decade.


OBJECTIVES
To investigate the association between feelings of countertransference (CT) at the early psychiatric care provided to trauma victims and treatment outcome.

METHOD
The Assessment of Countertransference Scale was used to access CT after the first medical appointment. Fifty psychiatric residents cared for 131 trauma victims of whom 83% were women, aged 15 to 64 years. Patients had been consecutively selected over 4 years. Were evaluated the clinical and demographic characteristics of patients and the correlation with the therapists' CT feelings. Patients were followed-up during treatment to verify the association between initial CT and treatment outcome, defined as discharge and dropout.

RESULTS
The median number of appointments was 5 [4; 8], absences 1 [0; 1], and the dropout rate was 34.4%. Both groups, namely the discharge group and the dropout group, shared similar clinical and demographic characteristics. A multivariate analysis identified that patients with a reported history of childhood trauma were 61% less likely to dropout from treatment than patients with no reported history of childhood trauma (OR = 0.39, p = 0.039, CI95% 0.16-0.95). There was no association between initial CT and treatment outcome.

CONCLUSIONS
In this sample, CT in the initial care of trauma victims was not associated with treatment outcome. Further studies should assess changes in CT during treatment, and how such changes impact treatment outcome.


A fourth-order ΔΣ time-to-digital converter (TDC) is presented to achieve high time resolution and wide signal bandwidth. The proposed TDC is based on a 2–2 multi-stage-noise-shaping (MASH) architecture, which is built by cascading two identical single-loop second-order gated ring oscillator TDCs. To avoid common-mode errors such as supply noise and leakage current, a novel time-mode arithmetic unit with differential structure is proposed, which is expected to be the fundamental block for time-mode signal processing. Implemented in 65nm 1.2V CMOS technology, the proposed TDC achieves 336fsrms integrated noise or 1.2ps equivalent resolution within 5MHz bandwidth at 200MS/s while consuming 0.89mW.


The invention discloses a jujube, pea and sweet osmanthus sauce chewing tablet comprising the following components in parts by weight: 2-8 parts of Chinese yam, 2-6 parts of jujube, 2-6 parts of pea, 1-3 parts of sweet osmanthus sauce, 1-3 parts of microcrystalline cellulose, 0.02-0.04 part of beta-cyclodextrine, 8-12 parts of starch, 0.001-0.003 part of limonin, 0.01-0.03 part of xylitol, 0.01-0.03 part of mannitol, 0.01-0.03 part of hydroxymethyl cellulose and 0.01-0.03 part of magnesium stearate. The jujube, pea and sweet osmanthus sauce chewing tablet has the effects of tonifying spleen and lung as well as nourishing Yin and benefiting Qi and is suitable for treating phthisis with the symptoms such as cough, hectic fever, night sweat, mental fatigue, weakness, reduced appetite and the like caused by hypofunction of both the spleen and the lung.


The behavioural patterns of Angora goat does were recorded at the feeding trough. Four agonistic activities were distinguished which include hooking, bunting, pushing and biting.


In order to improve the control precision and reliability of liquid viscous soft-start device of large scale blet conveyor, the paper de- signed a kind of combined electro-hydraulic digital valve. The valve consisted of several switch valves based on liquild pulse modulation theory. It possesses the advantage of strong anti-pollution ability, simple structure and low price, and is suitable for application of electro- hydraulic servo system controlled by computer in some large scale mining machinery equipment such as long distance belt conveyor.


The paper deals with the issue of standards and specifications applied to educational digital content. Content packaging has to comply to standards to assure its interoperability and portability, as well as facilitate search and discovery, accessibility, and (re)use. Two most common packaging standards for educational content are described in the paper: already recognized and widely used ADL SCORM, and a newcomer in the field, IMS Common Cartridge, which successfully overcomes some problems of using modern Web technologies in education. We also describe our experience in implementing these standards, the problems, and advantages of using such packaged content.


Premises. The bodybuilding is the sport practiced by the persons who intend to develop a proportioned body and a musculature massive and symmetrical as much as possible, but to reduce drastically the fat layer under the skin in the same time. With this aim in view we have considered that an efficient use of the training method by "giant sets" for the back strength development will contribute to the muscular strength development under endurance conditions, to the contouring of the muscular groups involved in the effort and to the diminution of the body weight. Method. That is why we decided to organize a study of case within the "Tonik Fitness Club" of Bucharest, along a one year long training mezzo-cycle period (December 2009), four training sessions a week, with only one subject aged 34. The athlete's evolutions were recorded at each workout for back strength, by means of the statisticalmathematical method and of the anthropometrical measurements and control trial results graphical representation method. Results. The results of the anthropometric measurements make evident a decrease of the waist and an increase of the thoracic amplitude at the final test. And the results of the control trials regarding the back musculature strength under endurance conditions, appraised by pull-ups and by tractions at the cable machine, prove an increase of the reps number at both trials. The growing of the back musculature strength was obtained thanks to an efficient use of the method by "giant sets" during the training sessions and by the observance of a proper diet, elements that lead to the increase of the muscular mass and to the weight loss. Conclusions. The correct use of the methodic procedure for the muscular strength development under endurance conditions at the back level during the body building training sessions lead to an increase of the muscular strength and of the muscular mass. The efficient utilization of the procedure by "giant sets" during the back strength training sessions contributed to the development of the muscular strength under endurance conditions and to the contouring of the muscular groups involved in the effort and to the decrease of the body weight.


Measuring the appropriate level of teacher compensation for different working conditions requires overcoming a number of empirical challenges, including defining and measuring differences in qualifications, effects of non-wage compensation, financial constraints, and lack of market clearing. We address those challenges in a study of teacher compensation in Alaska's 462 public schools in 53 districts. Each of our three linked empirical specifications produces a set of different compensation adjustments needed to offset differences in working conditions across schools and communities. However, an overall pattern is clear: if districts wish to attract and retain teachers of similar qualifications across all schools, schools serving mainly racially minoritized and low-income populations will need to pay substantially more than they currently do. Estimated required compensation adjustments are quite large in some cases, illustrating the need to address working conditions and other factors that affect teachers' choices to accept and stay in jobs at high-need schools.


Despite a number of successful approaches in predicting the spatiotemporal patterns of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and quantifying the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions starting from data about the initial outbreak location, we lack an intrinsic understanding as outbreak locations shift and evolve. Here, we fill this gap by developing a country distance approach to capture the pandemic's propagation backbone tree from a complex airline network with multiple and evolving outbreak locations. We apply this approach, which is analogous to the effective resistance in series and parallel circuits, to examine countries' closeness regarding disease spreading and evaluate the effectiveness of travel restrictions on delaying infections. In particular, we find that 63.2% of travel restrictions implemented as of 1 June 2020 are ineffective. The remaining percentage postponed the disease arrival time by 18.56 days per geographical area and resulted in a total reduction of 13,186,045 infected cases. Our approach enables us to design optimized and coordinated travel restrictions to extend the delay in arrival time and further reduce more infected cases while preserving air travel. Network approaches are key to understand epidemic spreading, inherently driven by human mobility patterns and constrained by transport systems. In this work, the authors develop a country distance framework to capture the spread of COVID-19 on top of the airline network, analyzing the effectiveness of mobility restrictions in the presence of multiple outbreaks and suggesting strategies for optimized coordinated travel restrictions.


Part A: SCIENTIFIC FRAMEWORK FOR AEROSOL SAMPLING. Chapter 1: Introduction. Aerosols. Particle size. Elementary particle size statistics. Aerosol measurement. Sampler performance characteristics. References. Chapter 2: Fluid and aerosol mechanical background. Fluid mechanical background. Aerosol mechanics. Chapter 3: Experimental methods in aerosol sampler studies. Introduction. Methodology for assessing sampler performance. Scaling relationships for aerosol samplers. Test facilities. Test aerosol generation. Reference methods. Assessment of collected aerosol. Aerosol sampler test protocols and procedures. Chapter 4: The nature of air flow near aerosol samplers. Introduction. Line and point sink samplers. Thin-walled slot and tube entries. Thick-walled tubes. Simple blunt samplers facing the wind. Blunt samplers with orientations other than facing the wind. More complex sampling systems. Effects of freestream turbulence. Chapter 5: Aspiration in moving air. Introduction. Thin-walled tube samplers. Blunt samplers. Chapter 6: Aspiration in calm and slowly-moving air. Introduction. Sampling in perfectly calm air. Slowly moving air. Chapter 7: Interferences to aerosol aspiration. Introduction. Interferences during aspiration. Interferences after aspiration. Chapter 8: Mechanisms for aerosol particle size selection after aspiration. Introduction. Elutriation. Filtration by porous foam media. Centrifugation. Impaction. Diffusion. Other particle size-selective mechanisms. Part B: STANDARDS FOR AEROSOLS. Chapter 9: Framework for aerosol sampling in working and ambient environments. Introduction. Exposure to aerosols. Framework for health-related aerosol sampling. Non-health-related aerosol standards. References. Chapter 10: Particle size-selective criteria for coarse aerosol fractions. Introduction. Experimental studies of inhalability. Particle size-selective criteria for the inhalable fraction. Overview. Chapter 11: Particle size-selective criteria for fine aerosol fractions. Introduction. Studies of regional deposition of inhaled aerosols. Criteria for particle size-selective sampling for fine aerosol fractions. Overview. Chapter 12: Limit values. Introduction. Aerosol-related health effects. The processes of standards setting. Occupational exposure limits (OELs). Ambient atmospheric aerosol limits. Special cases. Part C: AEROSOL SAMPLING INSTRUMENTATION AND APPLICATIONS. Chapter 13: Historical milestones in practical aerosol sampling. Introduction. Occupational aerosol sampling. Ambient atmospheric aerosol sampling. Chapter 14: Sampling for coarse aerosol in workplaces. Introduction. Static (or area) samplers for coarse aerosol fractions. Personal samplers for coarse aerosol fractions. Analysis of performance data for inhalable aerosol samplers. Passive aerosol samplers. Chapter 15: Sampling for fine aerosol fractions in workplaces. Introduction. Samplers for the respirable fraction. Samplers for the thoracic fraction. Samplers for PM2.5. Thoracic particle size selection for fibrous aerosols. Sampling for very fine aerosols. Simultaneous sampling for more than one aerosol fraction. Chapter 16: Sampling probes for stack sampling. Introduction. Basic considerations. Stack sampling methods. Sampling probes for stack sampling. Sampling for determining particle size distribution in stacks. Direct-reading stack-monitoring instruments. Chapter 17: Sampling for aerosols in the ambient atmosphere. Introduction. Sampling for coarse 'nuisance' aerosols. Sampling for 'black smoke'. Sampling for total suspended particulate in the ambient atmosphere. Sampling for fine aerosol fractions in the ambient atmosphere. Meteorological sampling. Chapter 18: Sampling for the determination of particle size distribution. Introduction. Rationale. Aerosol spectrometers. Cascade impactors. Other spectrometers. Particle size distribution analysis by microscopy. Chapter 19: Sampling for bioaerosols. Introduction. Standards for bioaerosols. Technical issues for bioaerosol sampling. Early bioaerosol sampling. Criteria for bioaerosol sampling. Inertial samplers. Centrifugal samplers. 'Total' and inhalable bioaerosol. Other samplers. Chapter 20: Direct reading aerosol sampling instruments. Introduction. Optical aerosol-measuring instruments. Electrical particle measurement. Condensation nuclei/particle counters. Mechanical aerosol mass measurement. Nuclear mass detectors. Surface area monitoring. Analytical chemical methods. Bioaerosol monitoring. PART D: AEROSOL SAMPLER APPLICATIONS AND FIELD STUDIES. Chapter 21: Pumps and paraphernalia. Introduction. Air moving systems. Flowrate. Collection media. Analysis of collected samples. Chapter 22: Field studies of aerosol samplers in workplaces. Introduction. Personal and static (or area) sampling. Relationship between 'total' and inhalable aerosol. Converting particle counts to particle mass. Field experience with samplers for respirable aerosol. Classification of workplace aerosols. Diesel particulate matter. The future of workplace aerosol measurement. Chapter 23: Field studies of aerosol samplers in the ambient atmosphere. Introduction. 'Nuisance' dust. Total suspended particulate (TSP) and black smoke (BS). Black smoke and particle size fractions (PM10 and PM2.5). Transition to particle size-selective sampling. PM10. PM2.5. Personal exposures to PM10 and PM2.5. Classification of ambient atmospheric aerosols.


The bootstrap is a convenient tool for calculating standard errors of the parameter estimates of complicated econometric models. Unfortunately, the fact that these models are complicated often makes the bootstrap extremely slow or even practically infeasible. This paper proposes an alternative to the bootstrap that relies only on the estimation of one‐dimensional parameters. We introduce the idea in the context of M and GMM estimators. A modification of the approach can be used to estimate the variance of two‐step estimators.


Laser spectroscopic studies of elements in the heavy actinide and transactinide region help understand the nuclear ground state properties of these heavy systems. Pioneering experiments at GSI, Darmstadt identified the first atomic transitions in the element nobelium. For the purpose of determining nuclear properties in nobelium isotopes with higher precision, a new apparatus for high-resolution laser spectroscopy in a gas-jet called JetRIS is under development. To determine the spectral resolution and the homogeneity of the gas-jet, the laser-induced fluorescence of 164Dy atoms seeded in the jet was studied. Different hypersonic nozzles were investigated for their performance in spectral resolution and efficiency. Under optimal conditions, a spectral linewidth of about 200–250 MHz full width at half maximum and a Mach number of about 7 was achieved, which was evaluated in context of the density profile of the atoms in the gas-jet.


The identification of flow pattern is a basic and important issue in multiphase systems. However, it is difficult to discern due to the complexity of two-phase flows. In this paper, ordinary Kriging(OK) is applied to reconstructed the two-phase flow patterns using some accurate data. Three typical flow patterns are preset to verify the effectiveness of the method and two quality assessments are used to verify it. Computational results demonstrate that two-phase flow patterns can be reconstructed successfully. The method is feasible for fluid measurement applications.


ABSTRACT LUNGE PERFORMANCE IS INTEGRAL TO PERFORMANCE IN THE SPORT OF BADMINTON. FOR THE STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING COACH TO APPROPRIATELY CONDITION THE LUNGE PATTERN, IT IS IMPORTANT THAT THE UNIQUE DEMANDS OF THE BADMINTON LUNGE ARE WELL UNDERSTOOD. THIS ARTICLE WILL CONSIDER THE KINETICS, KINEMATICS, AND DIFFERENT VARIATIONS OF THE BADMINTON LUNGE, IDENTIFY THE POTENTIAL DETERMINANTS OF LUNGE PERFORMANCE, AND HIGHLIGHT SOME OF THE KEY TRAINING CONSIDERATIONS. IT IS PROPOSED THAT PROGRAMS DESIGNED TO DEVELOP THE LUNGE SHOULD ULTIMATELY CONSIDER 4 COMPONENTS: STABILITY, STRENGTH, POWER, AND SPECIFIC ENDURANCE.


By exposing the giant-grain Cu interconnects in SiH/sub 4/ ambient at 200/spl deg/C and annealing it in Ar ambient at 450/spl deg/C, we have succeeded in performing self-aligned surface-silicide passivation on the Cu interconnects. The surface-silicide passivated giant-grain Cu interconnect exhibits one order of magnitude longer lifetime against electromigration than the non-passivated giant-grain Cu interconnect.


The aim of this paper is to investigate the bark of Picea abies as a potential source of phenolic compounds. The extraction of polyphenols was performed using different organic solvents followed by basic hydrolysis. After total content of polyphenols determination, high performance liquid chromatography procedure was used to assess the phenolic compounds in spruce bark extracts .The obtained results allow us to compare the efficiency of extraction agents from yield and individual compounds separation point of view.


Background: Ring tourniquet syndrome is not uncommon and patients will present with pain, swelling, ischemia, and finger wounds related to previous ring removal attempts. It may be due to application of undersized ring or related to swelling around a previously well-fitted ring.
Objective: This study aimed to describe epidemiologic features, predisposing conditions, and treatment outcomes of strangulated fingers.
Methodology: In this prospective observational study, we enrolled consecutive patients who presented to any of the three selected emergency departments at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Alert trauma center and Hawassa University Comprehensive Specialized Hospital with ring tourniquet syndrome between January 01, 2017 and December 31, 2019. Data collected after getting ethical clearance.
Result: Among 33 patients enrolled, 52 % were female and the mean age was 24 (1.5 - 56) years. Eleven (33%) presented after wearing undersized ring, 7(21%) had trauma to the ipsilateral hand, wrist and/or forearm, and 7(21%) were psychiatric. The mean duration of ring incarceration was 3 days (4 hours – 3 weeks). Thirty-one patients (93%) reported previous attempt of removal of the constricting agent. Twenty-two patients (69%) required destruction of the constricting object and 5 patients (15%) need ray's amputation of the finger. There were no reported major complications.
Conclusion: Ring tourniquet syndrome is not uncommon in our setting, and since most of the incarcerated rings required ring-destructive technique, the health personnel need to be had at least ring or k-wire cutter.
Key words: strangulated finger, ring incarceration, Tourniquet Syndrome, ring devices,


Liposomal bupivacaine was first made available for Food and Drug Administration (FDA)approved use in 2011 with the promise of obtaining long-lasting analgesia with only a single injection. It is only clinically available in one form (Exparel; Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc, Parsippany, NJ) and has been advertised as being effective for up to 72 hours. In light of the opioid epidemic, providers from many specialties hoped the prospect of effective prolonged pain relief would be achieved with this new long-lasting formulation. However, clinical trials comparing liposomal bupivacaine to conventional longlasting local anesthetics are generally unsupportive of these claims,1–3 especially if industry-driven studies are excluded. Despite the lack of evidence of superiority over conventional local anesthetics, liposomal bupivacaine continues to be widely used in clinical practice. One challenge with liposomal bupivacaine is the limitation it places on supplemental local anesthetic administration to address inadequate analgesia. The FDA label for Exparel states that no additional local anesthetic should be used within 96 hours of liposomal bupivacaine administration. What are the options if a patient who had local infiltration of liposomal bupivacaine for an abdominal surgery incision, periarticular injection, or intercostal nerve blocks experiences uncontrolled pain? To date, no study has been published evaluating the safety of subsequent conventional local anesthetic administration after using liposomal bupivacaine. For the regional anesthetist, determining if, when, and how to safely dose additional local anesthetic for rescue blocks is a difficult challenge.


A plurality of transmission paths communication system connectable to the communication device, appropriate data transfer is to provide a sustainable multiplex communication system when the communication abnormality in any of the plurality of transmission paths has occurred. Optical multiplexer 91 provided in the mounting device transmits the data of the mounting operation through the transmission path 95 of the plurality of light paths 96 (1) ~96 (n). Multiplexing means 102 of the optical multiplexer 91 multiplexes data (such as data E1) in the frame data FD outputted from the respective devices. Multiplexed frame data FD are transmitted distributed by the communication distribution unit 103 to each of the optical path 96 (1) ~96 (n). The control unit 109 sets the priority according to the characteristics relative to various data, it is changed based on the data to be distributed to the normal optical path when the disconnection occurs in one of the optical path to the priority.


Reexamines the evidence for various newspaper and magazine pieces that scholars have attributed to Franklin and makes forty new attributions to Franklin.


1. The unstirred layer of fluid bounding the posterior surface of the rabbit cornea and contact lens has been directly measured using an optical apparatus.


The effects of N2O plasma annealing on the structural and leakage current characteristics of amorphous and crystallized TaOx thin films deposited on a TaN/Ta bottom electrode by chemical vapor deposition at 350°C were investigated. An interfacial Ta(O,N) layer was formed following the oxidation of the TaN electrode after plasma annealing the TaOx films of ∼25 nm thickness, which decreased the effective capacitance of the thin film capacitors, and the Ta(O,N) layer grew with increasing annealing time or temperature. The growth of the Ta(O,N) layer up to a thickness of 38 nm followed a linear oxidation law with an activation energy of ∼0.74 eV for the annealing of the amorphous TaOx films in a temperature range of 300°C–450°C. However, an activation energy of ∼1.18 eV was found for the linear oxidation of TaN within an oxidation thickness of 22 nm, and then, the oxidation switched to a parabolic process with an activation energy of ∼0.8 eV for annealing the crystallized TaOx films. The current–voltage (I–V) relation of the TaOx films was asymmetric with respect to the biasing polarity, and the leakage current decreased with increasing annealing time or temperature due to the formation and growth of a Ta(ON) layer. Barrier heights of 1.08 and 0.74 eV were evaluated from the temperature dependence of the I–V characteristics for the Schottky emission in the amorphous and crystalline 50-nm-thick TaOx films annealed in N2O plasma at 350°C for 10 min, respectively.


A novel method for surface charge sensing using the Ψ-MOSFET is presented. Systematic measurements of out-of-equilibrium body potential were performed on SOI wafers. The interest of Ψ-MOSFET as a biochemical sensor is experimentally proved. The advantages of this method are good sensitivity, simplicity and low-voltage reading compared to the conventional ID-VG method.


The invention provides a timing control device and method and an electronic device. The problem that a television program is missed due to the fact that people forget or misremember play time and/or a play channel of the television program at present is solved. The timing control device comprises an information obtaining unit, a selection unit and a processing unit, wherein the information obtaining unit is used for obtaining at least one television program relevant with interest information and television channels respectively corresponding to the television programs and play time according to the received interest information; the selection unit is used for determining to-be-played television programs in the at least one television program; and the processing unit is used for performing the processing relevant with the to-be-played television programs in the play time corresponding to the to-be-played television programs. The timing control method is used for performing the processing for achieving functions of the timing control device. The electronic device comprises the timing control device. The technology can be applied to the field of information processing and control.


Abstract We give a new and elementary proof that the equation x3−1=31y2 has only the integral solutions (x, y)=(1, 0), (5, 2), (5, −2).


The grounded guard trace ring is usually utilized to suppress the crosstalk noise interference in high-speed printed circuit boards or IC packages. Although the guard ring can reduce crosstalk, its performance is greatly affected by the effectiveness of its design. This paper first investigates the mechanism of the crosstalk noise cancellation with a grounded guard ring. The paper then discusses and analyzes several grounding patterns. Based on this investigation, guidelines to improve the performance of a guard ring are proposed. It is found that the best grounding patterns for guard trace ring is to ground at the two ends instead of using multi-point grounding. The theoretical analysis and the developed technique are verified by electromagnetic (EM) field distribution plots and the 4-ports scattering parameters that are simulated in ANSYS HFSS 3D electromagnetic simulation software. Experiments were finally conducted to validate the analysis and the proposed technique.


A pre-operational annealing process is under investigation as a potential means of preventing a sudden reduction of ionic conductivity in a Beta"-alumina solid electrolyte (BASE) during use. On the basis of tests, the sudden reduction of ionic conductivity, followed by a slow recovery, has been found to occur during testing of the solid electrolyte and electrode components of an alkali metal thermal-to-electric converter (AMTEC) cell. At this time, high-temperature tests of limited duration have indicated the superiority of the treated BASE, but reproducible tests over thousands of hours are necessary to confirm that microcracking has been eliminated. The ionic conductivity of the treated BASE is also measured to be higher than untreated BASE at 1,073 K in low-pressure sodium vapor. Microcracking resulting in loss of conductivity was not observed with treated BASE in one high-temperature experiment, but this result must be duplicated over very long testing times to be sure of the effect. Shorter annealing times (10 to 20 hours) were found to result in significantly less loss of mass; it may be necessary for the packed powder mixture to evolve some Na2O before the Na2O can leave the ceramic.


alism and realism relate to one another). Let me close by again emphasizing that Proops' book covers an extraordinary amount of ground, and as such, I have been able to comment only on a small fraction of it. Among numerous other topics, I have not been able to comment on such interesting (and occasionally controversial) theses as the following: (i) that Kant embraces a methodological thesis he (mistakenly) takes to be a form of Pyrrhonism (pp. 15–29); (ii) that transcendental illusion helps empirical inquiry (pp. 450–2); and (iii) that thinkability and logical possibility must come apart for Kant, since transcendental realism is (on Proops' reading of Kant) logically impossible but nonetheless thinkable (pp. 459–60). I hope readers will explore these and other themes in Proops' extremely valuable contribution to the scholarship, which is, as far as I am aware, the most comprehensive exploration of the Dialectic currently available.


To evaluate the robustness of various RFID Tag antennas against close to metallic objects or liquid bottles, the concept of the antenna clearance, which shows the minimum distance from an obstacle with stable resonance, will be useful. We propose a new definition of the antenna clearance employing the variation of power reflection coefficient with the characteristic impedance of its feed line. A conducting wire of half wavelength is used as an obstacle. Plural definitions of antenna clearances of both an H-shaped antenna and a dipole antenna are compared respectively in this paper.


The drift of plastic envelopes floating close to the sea surface is related to the gradient wind. The results indicate that in westerly situations a shallow layer near the sea surface moves in approximately the same direction as the gradient wind with about 2 per cent of its velocity.


Blind channel identification (BCI) is known from communications as a bitrate saving alternative to the more conventional pilot-based identification of source-receiver transfer functions. In multi-microphone signal processing, however, the source signal is per se not available for acoustic channel identification. The emerging bin-aural signal processing discipline is a good example where BCI may thus be considered necessary for tasks such as acoustic localization or equalization. This paper evaluates current algorithms from BCI in order to make a pair of hearing-aids aware of time-varying head-related transfer functions without knowledge of the source signal. Thereby, unrestricted bitrate is assumed to share both ear signals in a central processor. Using simulations of binaural signals, we explore four two-channel adaptive identification algorithms and three evaluation criteria as candidates for hearing-aids. Depending on the criteria, the study shows striking similarities for specific configurations of algorithm and data, but also reveals important differences.


ABSTRACT The attitudes of parents involved in the process of inclusion are of paramount importance. The aim of this study was to examine parents' attitudes towards the constructs associated with pre-school inclusion with two goals, which were related to construct dimensions and differences in parents' attitudes regarding whether or not they have a child with SEN. Among 296 parents, selected by the cluster sampling technique, 202 parents with children in classrooms in Slovenian Carinthia (85 had a child with SEN) participated in this study. Fifty items were used to measure parents' attitudes and their openness to the inclusion of children. The results showed that parents of children with SEN are more open to inclusion, perceived positive social effects and benefits for children with and without SEN and had fewer negative feelings about the inclusion effects on children without SEN, than parents of children without SEN. Research results suggest the importance of contributing to parents of children without SEN in achieving successful inclusion.


Peers provide a context in which child and adolescent development occurs. Peers may right wayward developmental trajectories, buffering the effects of deleterious risk factors. Adverse peer experiences also may distort developmental pathways, contributing to psychopathology. Numerous distinct peer constructs that signal developmental perturbations have been identified and associated with indices of psychopathology. This chapter reviews peer experiences in early childhood (i.e., social withdrawal), school-age youth (i.e., peer status, peer victimization, and friendship), and adolescence (i.e., peer influence) that are associated with psychological symptoms. This chapter highlights developmental psychopathology approaches for understanding transactions between peer experiences and multiple development systems. New directions for research, integrating affective neuroscience theories, psychophysiology findings, and more complex cascade models of development are discussed. The peer context is highly relevant for understanding psychological and even biological functioning in youth. Ongoing research integrates findings from the peer relations literature with research in related scientific disciplines.

Keywords:

peer relations;
peer status;
social withdrawal;
peer victimization;
peer influence;
friendship;
psychological symptoms


THIS paper' contains little or nothing that is new. It is merely an attempt to examine once more a very old problem, that of the decline of citizenship in the Roman world. The main question discussed here is whether the causes for this decline which we can sum up under the category of political, or those which we can most conveniently designate as intellectual, were primary and fundamental. Of course there were many other causes. The one put forward by Rostovtzeff may be quoted as an example. "The main phenomenon which underlies the process of decline," he says, "is the gradual absorption of the educated classes by the masses and the consequent simplification of all the functions of political, social, economic, and intellectual life, which we call the barbarization of the ancient world."2 The cause suggested by Professor Rostovtzeff is sociological rather than political or intellectual. Perhaps this indicates how arbitrary it is to define the problem as it has been defined above. In the last analysis, it is probable, the cause of the failure of any civilization can only be explained in terms of the whole. Yet if any one cause is to be selected as fundamental, it is perhaps one of the two which have been suggested. Political life, as it is reflected in the forms of government and collective living, sums up and expresses the most vital elements in any organized society. Intellectual life might seem to be fundamental, in that the ultimate source of all action in a society lies in what takes place in the individual mind. To reach down to this, would seem to touch the very foundations of the historical process; and a long line of historians seem to have acted on the assumption that it did. Professor Cochrane, to whose important book Christianity and Classical Culture I have been deeply indebted, was of this company. "What here confronts us," he wrote of the decline of the Empire, "is in the last analysis a moral and intellectual failure, a failure of the GraecoRoman mind." He accepted the two main alternatives suggested above, only to reject the former. No one but political liberals, he believed, would explain the decay of Roman citizenship as being due fundamentally to the failure of the forms of political life. It is clear that the choice of either of these alternatives involves the whole problem of causation in history. It involves both philosophy and metaphysics, a discussion of which would here be out of place. The attractiveness of Professor Cochrane's choice lies in the fact that it ex-


In this paper, using Cluster multi-spacecrafts observation data during January to April of each year from 2001 to 2006, we have studied the solar wind penetration events into the Earth's high-latitude magnetosphere. When the IMF is northward, although the formation of the entry layers depends on the direction of IMF, we pointed out that it mainly depends on the IMF Bx component and the influences of IMF By component could be weak.


Long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) pinpoint star-forming galaxies as they are linked to the deaths of massive stars. In most cases, these galaxies have been found to be blue, sub-luminous and of low-metallicity. However, our recent survey have demonstrated that a sizeable fraction of GRBs reside in massive, dusty and star-forming extremely red objects (EROs, (R  − K )AB  > 3.5). The most remarkable case is the host of GRB 080207, one of the reddest galaxies ever associated with a GRB. This discovery suggests that at least a fraction of GRB afterglows trace a subpopulation of massive starburst galaxies, which are markedly different from the most studied blue, sub-luminous and compact GRB host galaxies.


We report the International System (SI) value of the quantized Hall resistance (R<inf>H</inf>) determined by using a calculable capacitor at the electrotechnical laboratory (ETL). As the result of our measurements at ETL, a most reliable value of h / e2 has been estimated as 25 812.8036 Ω<inf>SI</inf> with a systematic uncertainty of 0.25 ppm root sum square (rss) and a random error of 0.20 ppm one standard deviation (1σ).


The design of an ultra-wideband antipodal Vivaldi antenna to operate at frequency range from 2.1 GHz-27 GHz for microwave imaging applications is proposed in this paper. It includes regular triangular slits and opening rate of the aperture that extends the lower end of frequency band limitation and improves the radiation characteristics. Good radiation characteristics in terms of improvement of front-to-back ratio and gain are achieved. A prototype of the proposed antenna is fabricated and tested. The result of measurement of magnitude of reflection coefficient is in a good agreement with the simulated result. Feasibility of this antenna for the use in microwave imaging technique to obtain high-range resolution images of construction materials is demonstrated.


The paper deals with Arab-Jewish confrontation in Palestine at the beginning of the 1920s in correlation with the preparation and publication of Churchill's "White paper" in June of 1922. The paper analyzes the effectiveness of British policy of Arab-Jewish relations regulation in the Holy Land.


Based on a detailed investigation of a variety of current software test models, a novel behavior-based software test model is first proposed. It includes several activities, namely test design, test plan, test case generation, test execution, test result analysis and test reuse. And they are laid out in the whole lifecycle of software development process. Then the model is intentionally applied to a large software test application project which is called American on-line as early as possible. The practical result shows that the software test model has a good bug-mining operation and can generate test cases efficiently in the regression test.


The spoken language expression is an important respect in Chinese teaching,it is an important index of weighing students' overall qualities as well. However, nowadays,there are quite a few students in technical school aren't able to "speak". The author combined with years of Chinese teaching practice, has launched a spoken teaching reform in technical school and proposed the pattern of a course -----Spoken Communication.It also has carried out positive discussion in defining the name of course and its nature, position, developing the direction and measure of spoken reform in education and improving students' spoken communication ability in effective way and many aspects,etc.The students' spoken ability are expected to be improved, thus change the current situation that the Chinese teaching is regarded as the weak link in technical school.


Abstract : This is the first annual report of the TRADOC Library and Information Network (TRALINET). The report discusses background of the TRADOC Library Program; factors leading to the TRALINET concept; TRALINET resources, development, and implementation; network membership: and network administrative and operational activities. The formal network structure has only existed since 3rd quarter FY 79 and is designed to serve 44 TRADOC Morale Support, School and Academic, and Technical library systems. It is viewed as a prototype for the larger Army library system.


Keppler, L. D., Baker, C. J., and Atkinson, M. M. 1989. Active oxygen production during a bacteria-induced hypersensitive reaction in tobacco suspension cells. Phytopathology 79:974-978. In tobacco cell suspensions, onset of the hypersensitive reaction induced syringae (wild-type, a pathogen of wheat) was used to induce a hyperby phytopathogenic bacteria can be monitored as increased extracellular sensitive reaction in tobacco cell suspensions. P. s. syringae B7, a Tn5 pH. Previous reports suggested that active oxygen-initiated lipid insertion mutant that does not induce a hypersensitive reaction, and peroxidation preceded this increased extracellular pH. Here, we investi- P. s. tabaci, a pathogen of tobacco, were used as controls. All bacterial gated the timing of active oxygen production and increased extracellular treatments induced transient increases in both active oxygen and extrapH during the onset of the hypersensitive reaction. Active oxygen levels cellular pH between 0 and 1 hr. Concomitant increases of extracellular were monitored by measuring light production (chemiluminescence), in pH and active oxygen levels were observed between 2 and 4 hr only the presence of luminol. Increase in active oxygen levels over time in tobacco cell suspensions undergoing the hypersensitive reaction correlated with increased extracellular pH. Pseudomonas syringae pv. (inoculated with wild-type bacteria).


Despite the growing importance of a 'triple bottom line' approach to mega sport event research, limited longitudinal research has been carried out to understand and explain resident perceptions of the impact of such events. The aim of this paper is to develop a deeper understanding of the social dimension of Olympic tourism development, by exploring resident perceptions of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games within the two respective communities of Weymouth and Portland in England. This paper reports the first stage of a repeated cross-sectional longitudinal study conducted in 2007. It highlights that generally residents were supportive of hosting the event in the local area but were concerned over perceived traffic congestion, parking issues and potential increases in the cost of living. A factor analysis identified five factors that explained 60.5% of the variance in resident perceptions, with the largest factor comprising 'positive social impacts', followed by 'negative impacts', 'transport issues', 'positive economic impacts' and 'price rises.' Differences were found between these factors and socio-demographic characteristics. Implications for mega event managers and future research are outlined.


This study asks why the civil war in Afghanistan persists. Put slightly differently, what is preventing the state/government from achieving outright victory, against the rebel forces? A central theme in civil war research is that 'weak states' are prone to (prolonged) civil war; state-weakness seems to be the variable around which there is the most theoretical agreement. There is a strong sense that state failure -- whether defined as failure to monopolize legitimate violence or failure to deliver development, good governance and basic services -- is a principal driver of contemporary civil conflicts, often resulting in prolonged crises. In investigating the puzzle, this study tests the weak state framework. The study explores the relationship between state-weakness and the particularities of insufficient institutional capacity (including governance) in the conflict-ridden country of Afghanistan. The study argues state-weakness deprives the state/government from ensuring a favorable war-outcome; state weakness also robs the state/government of societal support, and thereby political legitimacy.


Consider an incompressible fluid of density p and kinematic viscosity v in an infinite two-dimensional domain. We assume that the fluid has a uniform velocity U ∞ , in the direction of the positive x *-axis of a rectangular Cartesian coordinate system Ox* y* , at large distances from a fixed flat plate of zero thickness which occupies the interval − l x * Ox *. Of special interest here is the structure of the flow when e ≪ 1 where Re being the Reynolds number of the flow. A first examination was made by Blasius (1908), using Prandtl's theory of the boundary layer, who found inter alia that the leading term of the drag D on one side of the plate is given by the numerical factor being determined by Goldstein (1930).


This research was conducted to assess the relationship between the role of administrators in training programs and the motivation level of the trainees. The data were collected through a survey method conducted on employees at a government agency in East Malaysia. The outcomes of SmartPLS path model analysis show three important findings. First, administrators' roles in training programs are significantly related to trainees' motivation. Second, provision of support is significantly linked to the motivation of the trainees. Third, communication is significantly related to the motivation level of the trainees. Thus, the findings indicate that administrators' roles, support, and communication act as significant determinants of trainees' motivation in an organizational sample.


The influence of genetic, hormonal and neurogenic factors on the cellular component and lipid content of two specific fat organs in non-obese and obese inbred mice was recently described.' It was suggested that genetic factors possibly intrinsic to adipose tissue imposed a specific developmental pattern upon the grossly organized components (fat organs) of the adipose tissue of the body in terms of lipid content and lipid-free mass. However, this genetic regulation appeared to be intimately related to hormones and neuroregulatory mechanisms. The data further suggested that no single specific fat organ was critical in the relationship between appetite regulation, weight gain and fat organ metabolic activity; but rather the "total mass" of adipose tissue distributed throughout the body was the important consideration in any postulated regulatory mechanism. The following series of experiments were carried out to further investigate the inter-relationships between lipid content of individual fat organs, total body lipid content as reflecting the total adipose tissue mass, food intake regulatory mechanisms and the development of obesity in the mouse.


BioClinica, which is backed by Water Street Healthcare Partners and JLL Partners, has acquired Synowledge. No financial terms were disclosed, Based in Miami, Florida, Synowledge is a pharmaceutical and biotech company. PRESS RELEASE NEWTOWN, Pa., Sept....


This paper examines the problem of jobshop scheduling with either makespan minimization or total tardiness minimization, which are both known to be NP-hard. The authors propose the use of a meta-heuristic procedure inspired from bacterial phototaxis. This procedure, called Global Bacteria Optimization (GBO), emulates the reaction of some organisms (bacteria) to light stimulation. Computational experiments are performed using well-known instances from literature. Results show that the algorithm equals and even outperforms previous state-of-the-art procedures in terms of quality of solution and requires very short computational time.


Background: The coronavirus disease (SARS-COV-2) is an infectious disease caused by a coronavirus (Covid-19), which was first detected in clusters of pneumonia-like diseases in Wuhan City of china on December 31st, 2019. WHO already declared a global pandemic in April 2020 when this infection spread to more than 230 countries. Overall, 20-30 % of cases in the United States have required hospitalisation, resulting in a substantial burden on health care workers and the U.SHealth care system and other world economies including developed and developing countries like India. The Indian national expert group on vaccine administration for covid-19 (NEGVAC) will guide all aspects of covid-19 vaccine planning in India. In response to alleviate the severity of Covid-19 infection spread, our scientists have developed one vaccine with AstraZeneca collaboration, as Covishield and another Covaxin from serum institute. The aim is a prospective study on the effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccine among health care providers. Aim(s): The study aims to describe the role of the vaccine in health care providers exposed to sars-cov-2 infection during the post-vaccination period of 6 months duration. The objective is to Primary To evaluate the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine among health care providers. Secondary - evaluation of the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccine among different age groups of health care providers, detected Covid-19 positive by RT-PCR Test before vaccination. Evaluation of the effectiveness of covid-19 vaccine among a subgroup of Health care providers in which RT-PCR tests were found negative before vaccination. Material(s) and Method(s): This project was completed after covid-19 vaccines among exposed health care providers with and without prior history of covid-19 infection and followed up for a post-vaccination period of 6 months to assess the incidences of Covid-19 cases. The covid-19 vaccine intelligence network(CO-WIN) systems digital platform will be utilised to track the enlisted health care and frontline workers for vaccination and administration of vaccine on a real time basis. Result(s): The total number of RT-PCR confirmed cases among participants was 126(11%) out of 1140;which comprises of;in fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated and non-vaccinated participitants were 39(5.5%), 77(19.25%) and 10(26.31%) respectively. Conclusion(s): The covishield vaccine provides significant protection against the covid-19 infection, hence rapid vaccination along with other social measures likes hand sanitization, use of mask and social distancing are the most important weapons of humanity to fight this horrible disease named covid-19 Infection. Copyright © Necati Ozpinar. All rights reserved.


Anti-predator defence behaviour of Holocnemus pluchei (Araneae, Pholcidae) was studied in the laboratory and the field. Bouncing, in which this web-building spider moves its body rapidly up and down while keeping its legs on the silk, was the most frequent response to disturbance. Less often, H. pluchei left the web when disturbed. Experiments were carried out to determine the types of stimuli that elicited bouncing and leaving the web: tactile stimulation (striking the spider with a brush) and air movement (blowing on the spider) elicited bouncing and leaving the web, but there was no evidence that chemical stimuli from potential predators were important. Tactile stimulation elicited stronger responses than air movement. There were no evident differences in how H. pluchei responded to tactile stimulation in the laboratory and the field.


Nowadays, web search has become an important approach to retrieving information. Incorporating context factors such as device type and location to improve search performance has attracted more and more attentions. However, impacts of offline human activities (i.e., background activity) on web search haven't been fully explored yet, although intuitively, some of them exist. To reduce this gap, we examine user's web search behavior during activities of different themes by studying a 9-day Internet access logs in a large convention center, as well as web search preferences with respect to other factors, such as device type, query language, in these activities. Our results show that, the background activity causes a large proportion of activity theme related queries, while it has little influence on theme irrelevant ones. In addition, even if in the same activity context, differences in query language, device type, device vendor and search engine lead to various changes in web search behavior.


The PicoBlaze™ module is a fully embedded 8-bit microcontroller macro for the Virtex™-II series. Although it could be used for processing of data, the PicoBlaze macro is most likely to be employed in applications requiring a complex, but non-time-critical state machine. This revised version of the popular Constant (k) Coded Programmable State Machine (KCPSM) macro (PicoBlaze) has also been developed with one dominant factor being held above all others–its size. The result is a microcontroller that occupies just 84 Virtex-II slices, which is 33% of the smallest XC2V40 device and incredibly less than 0.25% of the XC2V6000 device. Together with this small amount of logic, a single block RAM is used to form a ROM store for a program of up to 1024 instructions. Even with such size constraints, the performance is respectable in the 40 to 70 MIPS range, depending on device speed grade. The PicoBlaze module is totally embedded into the Virtex-II device and requires no external support. Any logic can be connected to the module inside the Virtex-II device, meaning that any additional features can be added to provide ultimate flexibility. It is not so much what is inside the PicoBlaze module that makes it useful, but the environment in which it lives. Notes: 1. For Virtex-E and Spartan™-II/IIE designs, see XAPP213.


In the literature in applied ethics one sometimes runs across discussions which suffer from a certain hysterical tone. Such a tone need not be a sign of insincerity, or even a faulty conclusion on the part of the author. It is a sign that the arguments lack conviction and the author seeks to make up for this by emotional rhetoric. I recently came across such an article in one of the lesser known law reviews. The author took as his target of criticism the following policy. Since 1987, in a joint venture of the U.S. Public Health Service and state and local health departments, newborns' blood testing, previously mandated by states for other diseases such as PKU and galactosemia, has included testing for the presence of antibodies to HIV. Since the presence of HIV virus in an infant can only have come from the birth mother, this allows investigators to determine the mother's HIV status without testing her blood. The results of the testing are "unlinked," that is, any identification of the mother/infant is permanently removed before the blood is tested for HIV. All positive results are recorded along with various demographic factors, and these are used to gauge the extent of HIV infection. The purpose of such studies is to determine the incidence of seroprevalence, to target geographical areas for resource allocation, to assess the completeness of reporting, and to monitor the impact of various programs. Now, if one looks hard enough, it is possible to raise ethical qualms. Perhaps the main one is that by removing any link between a positive test and the mother, one cannot provide her with counseling and palliative drugs such as AZT. But I am less interested in the pros and cons than in the rhetoric of the discussion. By the third page of the article we are confronted with the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. In this study, chronicled movingly in James Jones's Bad Blood, rural black men were tested for syphilis and then left untreated (even after the discovery of penicillin) in order to observe and record the natural history of the disease, surely one of the clearest cases of unethical medical practice in our history. The author claims that "history is now repeating itself" with the current epidemiological study. But it isn't until some fifty pages later that anything like an argument is presented for this claim. Even if that argument were better than it is, that linkage pummels, rather than persuades, the reader. What is the basis of the claim? An argument from analogy. In both studies: 1. There is no treatment offered to the individuals who test positive. 2. Treatment is available. 3. There is no counseling or education of the affected individuals. 4. There is no informed consent to the testing.


A new recursive output connection switched-capacitor (SC) DC-DC converter for high-voltage harvesters is proposed in this paper. The novel architecture of the recursive output connections in each SC stage significantly reduces the conduction loss, which is the dominant loss in cascaded SC converters for low conversion ratios. Four configurable-ratio SC stages are connected through configurable series/parallel stage interconnect, which provides a wide range of harmonic conversion ratios ranging from 1/3 to 1/13. The proposed SC converter is fabricated in $0.35 \mu \mathrm{m}$ high-voltage CMOS process, achieving efficient operation over an input voltage range of 17V to 45V and wide output power range of $25 \mu \mathrm{W}$ to 10mW with peak efficiency of 90.2%. Load and line regulation is provided by a two-step controller, which periodically tracks the optimal conversion ratio and switching frequency.


I am concerned that the article Psychological Consequences of Malignant Melanoma: Patients' Experiences and Preferences (art&science November 15) endorses an assumption that malignant melanoma only affects the skin.


To provide a large‐scale assessment of serum protein dysregulation in diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis (dcSSc) and to investigate serum protein correlates of SSc fibrotic features.


In recent years, digital technology and research methods have developed natural language processing for better understanding consumers and what they share in social media. There are hardly any studies in transportation analysis with TripAdvisor, and moreover, there is not a complete analysis from the point of view of sentiment analysis. The aim of study is to investigate and discover the presence of sustainable transport modes underlying in non-categorized TripAdvisor texts, such as walking mobility in order to impact positively in public services and businesses. The methodology follows a quantitative and qualitative approach based on knowledge discovery techniques. Thus, data gathering, normalization, classification, polarity analysis, and labelling tasks have been carried out to obtain sentiment labelled training data set in the transport domain as a valuable contribution for predictive analytics. This research has allowed the authors to discover sustainable transport modes underlying the texts, focused on walking mobility but extensible to other means of transport and social media sources.


One of the few major afferent routes to the central nervous system (CNS) is the vagus nerve [1]. While there are many different outputs, including motor output, from the CNS, afferent nerves tend to be processed at the brainstem or spinal cord level. An exception is the vagus nerve, and as a result of this unique vantage point to the CNS and through it to various parts of the body, stimulation and modulation of the vagus nerve afferents have become an area of burgeoning research with multiple implications for health and disease [2]. The vagus nerve has been implicated predominantly for cardiovascular health, including the prevention of sudden death[3]. Vagal stimulation not only decreases heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) but also importantly creates a more positive healthy profile for heart rate variability (HRV). Indeed, vagal stimulation has been shown to acutely treat arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation [4,5]. A potential major effect is reducing the chance of sudden death through the tragal effects on HRV [6]. By virtue of the afferent Abstract


Advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs) and other key enabling technologies (KETs) are expected to have a major impact on productivity, efficiency, profitability and employment in major industrial sectors worldwide. Thus, development of AMTs and KETs is considered essential if the European Union is to achieve the strategic goals set out in the European Commission's Employment, Growth and Investment priorities. Indeed, AMTs and KETs are among the top priorities identified as necessary to support the competitiveness of European industries in the context of the European flagship on industrial modernisation. This study builds upon and extends results that were obtained in the context of the Advanced Manufacturing Technologies for Competitiveness AMTEC project, in which the technological profiles of the patent portfolios of the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard companies were constructed using patent-based analysis. In particular, their technological competences were investigated and it was found that European companies invest in KETs, and in particular in AMTs, as these technologies are considered to be vital for maintaining current competitiveness. However, other countries also invest heavily in AMTs and KETs. It is therefore very important for the EU to define a strategy that aims to find a suitable position in the global value and innovation chains and that selectively augments existing capabilities. To this end, a methodology based on patent analysis was applied to assess the capacity of the world's top R&D investors in developing AMTs. Particular emphasis was placed on complex AMT patents that also pertain to at least one of the five KETs. These patents are considered important because they represent AMT applications used for the development of KETs in general or, conversely, they represent other KET applications that can be incorporated into AMT systems. The main questions addressed by this study were (1) In which countries are the most important inventors of AMTs and applicants for AMT-related patents located? (2) Is it possible to analyse internationalisation patterns and knowledge flows between world regions and countries? and (3) Are there any special patterns and clusters between AMT-related technological fields and the five core KETs and, if so, which companies are responsible for the development of these technological applications? Developing and patenting AMT-related technologies is particularly important for firms in the Aerospace & defence, Industrials, Automobiles & parts and Electronics & electrical equipment sectors. Moreover, the more specialised a sector is in developing AMT-related technologies, the less internationalised the AMT-related activities of the firms in the sector appear to be. In general AMT-related R&D activities of European- and US-based firms are more internationalised than the activities of Japanese- and Asian-based companies. It was found that many Scoreboard firms based in the USA, Japan, Germany, France and the UK own and develop a large number of AMT-related patents. However, there are also many inventors of AMT-related technologies based in other countries, such as China, India, Canada, Italy, Belgium and Spain. Finally, the ratio of complex AMT patents to the total number of AMT-related patents is close to 8%, the vast majority being patents that relate to micro- and nano-electronics, advanced materials or photonics. Companies that own these complex patents are often relatively small firms that are highly specialised in the development of AMT-related applications.


Staff beliefs about challenging behaviors may influence staff behavior towards those who challenge. Staff behaviors in turn have been implicated in both the development and maintenance of challenging behaviors. Very few previous research studies have focused on staff definitions of challenging behavior. In the present study, 50 staff working with adults with mental retardation rated potentially challenging behaviors in terms of: (a) whether they thought the behaviors were challenging, and (b) whether the behaviors should be the focus of intervention. Results confirmed previous research findings in that behaviors primarily having negative effects on individuals, rather than staff and services, were less likely to be identified as challenging. Practical implications of the study findings and directions for future research on staff beliefs about challenging behavior are discussed.


A semiempirical LCAO molecular orbital computer program is used to study optical and magnetic properties of Cr3+ ions in noncubic sites in various host crystals. In particular, it is found that the principal contribution to the zero‐field splitting of the 4A2 ground term of t23 in a trigonal field arises primarily from the 2T2 term of t23 and not from the 4T2 term of t23e, as is usually presumed.


The electron field emission characteristics of nanocrystalline Si thin films prepared by KrF excimer laser crystallization of ultrathin amorphous Si films and subsequent thermal annealing is reported. Stable and reproducible field emissionbehavior can be observed for the crystallized Si films. The turn-on electric field is reduced from 17V/μm for the as-deposited sample to 85V/μm for the crystallized one, and the emission current density can reach as high as 01mA/cm 2  The improvement in field emission characteristics is attributed to both the change of film surface and the formation of high-density nanocrystalline Si, which induces the enhancement of internal local electric field.


The hypothesis in this study were there is an effect of work motivation on the performance of elementary school teachers at Cempaka sub-district of OKU Timur district, there is an effect of compensation on the performance of elementary school teachers at Cempaka sub-district of OKU Timur district, and there is an influence of work motivation and compensation together on the performance of elementary school teachers at Cempaka sub-district of OKU Timur district. The researcher collects the data by using observation, interviews and questionnaires. The analysis is used the correlation analysis of the t test and the F test. The results of the data analysis are there is an effect of work motivation on the performance of public elementary school teachers at Cempaka sub-district of OKU Timur district, there is an effect of compensation on the performance of public elementary school teachers at Cempaka sub-district of OKU Timur district, and there is an effect of Work Motivation and Compensation together on the performance of Public Elementary School teachers in at Cempaka sub-district of OKU Timur district.


Lincomycin and Clindamycin are two new antibiotics studied successfully in China.In this paper, 35S-labelled products--35S-Lincomycin and 35S-Clindamycin were madeby biosynthetic and semichemical synthetic methods. They were subjected to trials in pharmacology studies. Owing to the fact that Lincomycin is a metabolite of strepto-myces when it is prepared by the fermentation method, the microbes will pick up (NH4)2SO4 from the fermentation culture as a nutriment. Hence Na235SO4 was added to the fermentation culture-medium via biosynthetic method to obtain 35S-Lincomycin. Then 35S-Clindamycin was prepared by semichemical synthetic method from 35S-Lincomycin.After the purification of the semiproduct, it was esterified by sulfinyl chloride and chlorinated by carbon tetrachloride solution of triphenyl phosphine and then hydrolyzed with sodium hydroxide, and extracted by dichloromethane. Finally, the product was obtained by acidification with hydrochloric acid? the specific activity of both 35S-Lincomycine and 35S-Clindamycin being 2.3-2.8 mCi/mM, the activity percentage of recovery from the initial to 35S-Lincomycine being 8%, the chemical yield from 35S-Lincomycine to Clindamycin being 70%. The Rf value of 35S-Linco-mycine checked very well with the single spot of biologically standard unlabelled Lincomycine.


Sections of bean stem cultured on nutrient agar containing 1% starch and 10 mg. per liter of 2,4-D showed extensive proliferation after 15 days. Areas of starch degradation in the medium containing 2,4-D were clearer and more extensive than in medium without 2,4-D. Reducing activity of the endodermis, phloem, cambium, and xylem parenchyma was demonstrated by the use of triphenyl tetrazolium chloride.


Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Saitama Institute of Technology, 1690 Fusaiji, Fukaya 369-0293, Saitama, Japan 2 Technology Center (Electroplating), DOWA METALTECH Co., Ltd., 1781 Nitte, Honjo 367-0002, Saitama, Japan; firstname.lastname@example.com (Y.S.); email@example.com (K.S.); email@example.com (K.A.) * Correspondence: email@example.com; Tel.: +81-48-585-6827


Therefore the purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of a learning model that is guided learning model (Discovery Learning) on the ability to understand students' mathematical concepts. This research was conducted at MTs. Miftahul Ma'arif Pelambik which takes place from February to March 2020. The subject of this research is class VII MTs. Miftahul Ma'arif, the sample used was class VII B as a control class and class VII A as an experimental class. The instrument used in this study was the Learning Implementation Plan (RPP) with the Discovery Learning learning model and written test in the form of a description of the material with the set and the form of algebra. This research is a quantitative type of experimental research, while the form is The Non Equivalent Conrol Group Design. Data analysis using t test using the formula of separated variance t test results showed t_count> t_table namely 5.15> 3.17 then H_0 was rejected. Thus the results of this study are effective discovery learning models (Discovery Learning) on the ability of understanding MTs students' mathematical concepts. Miftahul Ma'arif.


We have investigated the shear flow behavior of a dynamically symmetric polymeric bicontinuous microemulsion using rheology and in situ small angle x-ray scattering. The microemulsion consists of a ternary blend of poly (ethylene-alt-propylene) (PEP), poly (butylene oxide) (PBO), and a PEP-PBO diblock copolymer. Steady shear experiments reveal an unusual shear thickening behavior at the onset of the non-Newtonian regime, which is consistent with the strain hardening and frequency thickening (at large strains) under oscillatory shear. Scattering experiments indicate development of anisotropy in the bicontinuous structure within the thickening regime. Subsequent shear thinning is observed at intermediate shear rates. Shear-induced bulk phase separation is detected at very high rates. This work complements previous studies on a dynamically extremely asymmetric bicontinuous microemulsion, and thereby establishes the universal rheological properties of polymeric microemulsions. Possible underlying molecular me...


To systematically review anatomical and functional outcomes of switching therapy from bevacizumab and/or ranibizumab to aflibercept in patients with persistent macular oedema secondary to retinal vein occlusions (RVO). A systematic search of aflibercept for the treatment of persistent macular oedema secondary to branch and central RVO was performed in EMBASE, PubMed and Cochrane databases prior to June 2017. The main outcome variables described were best‐corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central macular thickness (CMT). All results were analysed and pooled using random‐effects models with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Eight studies met the inclusion criteria with a total of 137 eyes, incorporating both branch and central RVO. Meta‐analysis demonstrated a nonsignificant change in BCVA at 6 and 12 months following switch to aflibercept (4.40 letters, 95% CI: −3.10 to 11.90, p = 0.25 and 3.10 letters, 95% CI: −1.74 to 7.94, p = 0.21, respectively). Significant improvement in mean CMT was observed after switch to aflibercept at 6 (−256.00 μm, 95% CI: −318.00 to −194.00, p < 0.001) but not 12 months (−118.00 μm, 95% CI: −261.00 to 25.00, p = 0.11). Switching from bevacizumab/ranibizumab to aflibercept may improve persistent macular oedema secondary to RVO. However, there may be a limitation in the potential of visual recovery.


A severely brain damaged woman in a minimally aware state should not have artificial feeding and hydration withdrawn to allow her to die, a high court judge has ruled.

Mr Justice Baker, at the Court of Protection in London, decided that the 52 year old woman had "some positive experiences" that could be extended, and rejected arguments by her family that feeding should be discontinued.

In a series of cases dating back to 1993, the court has allowed artificial feeding, which constitutes a form of treatment, to be withdrawn from patients in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). The latest case, which the judge described as "unique," is thought to …


Abstract This paper examines China's water governmentality in advancing the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC). It attends to how discourses, used as a political instrument, are framed, justified and contested in the reshaping of international hydrosocial territories. China's official and popular discourses present the LMC as promoting multilateral politics, economic benefits and social integration, while they obscure polarizing politics, external interventions and regional conflicts. Using strategies of positive publicity first, top-down communication and mutual empathy creation, these discourses aim to deflect attention away from controversies and geopolitics in the region to construct governable hydrosocial territories. However, in a transnational context where the Chinese state cannot unilaterally control geographical imaginaries, alternative discourses depict China as a "hydro-hegemon" that poses threats to downstream countries. The discursive dichotomy reflects multiple ontologies of water and power struggles in international river governance, bringing regional stability and sustainable development into question.


PURPOSE: A parching device for seasoning marine plants is provided to prevent the reduction for taste and quality of processed foodstuffs caused by scorching and sticking raw materials and spices to the inside of a container, to minimize inconveniences caused by frequently washing or replacing the container by making the container clean after completing the process, and to improve working efficiency by lowering the height of a body. CONSTITUTION: A parching device for seasoning marine plants is composed of a body(10) including an opening and closing port(11) formed at the upper part to put raw materials in and an opening unit formed at the lower part to horizontally slide and insert a container; a parching container(30) arranged at the inner upside of the body to receive the raw materials input through the opening and closing port for a predetermined time, heat and agitate the raw materials, and then discharge downward the materials through a discharge outlet(31); and a receiving season-container(70) for receiving first raw materials inserted through the opening unit of the body and collected through the discharge outlet of the parching container and receiving and mixing various kinds of condiments, sesame oil or spices selectively dispersed from a plurality of spice containers(28a).


Objective: To study on the release of Chuangyangling/Absorbable Gelatin Sponge Compound and establish its quality standard.Methods: Gas chromatography was used to examine the release rate in vitro of the main ingredients of Chuangyangling/Absorbable Gelatin Sponge Compound.Results: The solution was stable within 24 h basically.The release rate of Borneol at 1,2,24 h was 36.79%,54.54%,96.12% respectively.Conclusion: The method of design is reasonable with well stability.The established quality standard is applicable for the quality control of Chuangyangling/Absorbable Gelatin Sponge Compound.


A series of wholly aromatic hyperbranched polyimides were successfully prepared by condensation polymerization of a triamine monomer, tris(4-aminophenyl)amine (TAPA), and a series of commercially available dianhydride monomers such as 2,2-bis(3,4-dicarboxyphenyl)hexafluoropropane dianhydride (6FDA), 3,3',4,4'-diphenylsulfonetetracarboxylic dianhydride (DSDA), and pyromellitic anhydride (PMDA). The synthesis involves the formation of hyperbranched polyamic acid precursors in the first step and the thermal or chemical imidization in the subsequent step, which is similar to the conventional two-step method for the synthesis of linear polyimides. Different monomer addition orders resulted in different hyperbranched polymers even if the same kinds of monomers but different molar ratios were used. When a dianhydride solution was added to the TAPA solution (manner 1), an amine-terminated hyperbranched polyimide was obtained, whereas the addition of TAPA solution to a dianhydride solution (manner 2) yielded an an...


Image identification involves estimating the properties of an imperfect imaging system from an observed image prior to the restoration process. In this paper we present a novel identification technique for multichannel image processing using the maximum likelihood estimation (ML) approach. The image is represented as an autoregressive (AR) model and blur is described as a continuous spatial domain model, to overcome some major limitations encountered in other ML methods. Cross-spectral and spatial components, which are inherent to multichannel imaging systems, are also incorporated in the model to improve the overall performance. Also, it is shown that blur extent can be optimally identified from noisy color images that are degraded by uniform linear motion or out-of-focus blurs. The novelty of this approach in identifying the blur of multichannel images is a major contribution in producing visually acceptable results which is significant for higher processing levels.


Objective To investigate the effect of internal fixation in refractory pelvic fracture.Methods Forty patients with severe refractory pelvic fracture were treated by internal fixation.The reposition was evaluated by Tometta and Matta reduction evaluation,and the treatment effect by Majeed functional recovery assessment.Results Screw internal fixation was used in 40 patients.All were clinically healed 4~8 weeks after operation.Six were complicated by deep venous thrombosis,and cured by anticoagulation therapy.Thirty-six patients were followed up,2 months ~ 4 years.Excellent fracture reposition was seen in 21 patients,good in 13,general in 3,poor in 3,with an excellent rate of 85.0%.Conclusion Internal fixation in pelvic fracture can reduce occurrence of its complications and has excellent reposition and functional recovery.


In this paper the deflections determined from short term static load testing on the approach viaducts of the bridge over the river Sava in Brod are used to evaluate different numerical grillage models. The approach viaduct decks are made up as partial-precast ribbed deck continuous over piers by casting a continuous concrete diaphragm between the ends of adjoining longitudinal girders. In practical calculations the longitudinal members are assumed to be fully continuous for traffic and composite loads using constant sectional properties along the longitudinal members although this assumption is not entirely correct. The aim of this paper is the verification and improvement of the grillage model of the concrete approach viaduct of the bridge over theriver Sava in Brod utilizing field testing and numerical grillage analysis.


The rise of and reactions to identity politics and practice have precipitated renewed debates about ontology in geography. Actor‐network theory (ANT) and 'non‐representational theory' have much to offer these discussions. Their de‐centered notions of 'agency', topological (rather than Cartesian) spatial imaginations, and what I term 'humble' ontologies offer a way out of the seeming paradox presented by various binarisms underlying contemporary social theory and philosophy, such as structure/agency, essentialism/constructionism, subject/object, and theory/practice. The value of these approaches is very apparent when considering a particularly politicized form of identity practice: queer identity quests. They lead to (among other things) ontologies of place, placelessness and movement that are new, fresh, enriching and potentially empowering.


The investment funds play an important role in the securities markets, because of the characteristics and advantages that attract investors, being an effective means of pooling savings, allowing small investors to invest their money under the supervision of specialized equipment, and supporting the real valuation of securities and improving Its conditions and conditions for the benefit of the investor and the national economy. These funds avoid the difficulty of managing investment funds by small investors because of the knowledge and experience they require to deal with the mechanisms of capital markets. Thus, investment funds are one of the collective investment regimes that have emerged to allow individuals who do not have the necessary expertise to invest, as well as the existence of regulatory agencies that reassure and encourage investors to carry out their investment projects.


Oxidative stress underlies pathological complication in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Heme Oxygenase‐1 (HO‐1) is a potent endogenous antioxidant gene that plays a key role in decreasing oxidative stress. Sirtuin1 (SIRT1). The aim of this study is to determine whether HO‐1 acts through SIRT1 to form a functional module within hepatocytes to attenuate fructose‐mediated steatohepatitis and hepatic fibrosis. Effect of fructose, on hepatocyte lipid accumulation and fibrosis in murine hepatocytes and in mice fed a high fructose diet in the presence and absence of CoPP, an inducer of HO‐1. Fructose increased heme and decreased HO‐1, SIRT1 and pAMPK levels in hepatocytes (p<0.05). Fructose supplementation increased the expression of FAS levels; this increase was negated by CoPP. Concurrent treatment with CoPP and SIRT1 siRNA increased FAS expression suggesting that HO‐1 is upstream of SIRT1 and suppression of SIRT1 attenuates the beneficial effects of HO‐1. A high fructose diet increased insulin resistance and fibrotic markers in mice (p<0.05). Induction of HO‐1 increased SIRT1 levels ameliorated fructose‐mediated lipid accumulation and fibrosis in liver (p<0.05 vs. fructose). Taken together, our study demonstrates, that HO‐1 induction attenuates fructose‐induced hepatic lipid deposition, prevents the development of hepatic fibrosis and abates NAFLD‐associated vascular dysfunction. Support NIH Grants HL‐55601, HL34300 (N.G.A.)


Fires, which are an intrinsic feature of southern African ecosystems, produce biogenic and pyrogenic losses of nitrogen (N) from plants and soils. Because of the long history of fires in these savannas, it was hypothesized that N 2 fixation by legumes balances the N losses caused by fires. In this study, the N 2 fixation activity of woody legumes was estimated by analyzing foliar i 15 N and proportional basal area of N 2 fixing species along experimental fire gradients in the Kruger National Park (South Africa). In addition, soil carbon (C) and N pools, foliar phosphorus (P) and gross N mineralization and nitrification rates were measured, to indicate the effects of fires on nutrient stocks and the possible N cycling processes modified by fires. Although observations of increased soil C/N and mineralization rates in frequently burned plots support previous reports of N losses caused by fires, soil %N did not decrease with increasing fire frequency (except in 1 plot), suggesting that N losses are replenished in burned areas. However, relative abundance and N 2 fixation of woody legumes decreased with fire frequency in two of the three fire gradients analyzed, suggesting that woody legume N 2 fixation is not the mechanism that balances N losses. The relatively constant %N along fire gradients suggests that these ecosystems have other mechanisms to balance the N lost by fires, which could include inputs by atmospheric deposition and N 2 fixation by forbs, grasses and soil cyanobacteria. Soil isotopic signatures have been previously used to infer patterns of fire history. However, the lack of a relationship between soil i 15 N and fire frequency found in this study indicates that the effects of fires on ecosystem i 15 N are unpredictable. Similar soil i 15 N along fire gradients may reflect the contrasting effects of increased N gaseous emissions (which increases i 15 N) and N 2 fixation other than that associated with woody legumes (which lowers i 15 N) on isotopic signatures.


Objective:  This study aimed to evaluate the impact, in a regional setting, of a multi‐strategic partnership approach for reducing benzodiazepine use in the management of insomnia, as recommended in Australia's National Policy on Quality Use of Medicines.


semantic relationship (eg.synonymy, Our world is made up of multiple interconnected agents. The interactions between these components can be represented using complex networks. A network is composed of nodes, that represent the agents, and edges which are links that indicate interactions, connections or relationships between the nodes. For example, in the Facebook social network the people are the nodes and the edges denote friendship. Other examples of complex networks are neural networks, metabolic networks, food webs, transportation networks, the World Wide Web, the Internet, social networks of connections between individuals, organizational networks and networks of business relations between companies, networks of citations between papers, and many others. Some examples of real world networks are presented in Table 1. RANZIVELLE MARIANNE L. ROXAS-VILLANUEVA


The subject of the work - conceptual bases of perfection of the bank's profit management mechanism. The aim of the article is to study the mechanism of management of the bank profits. Method and methodology of work - used general scientific and special methods, such as comparison, the scientific abstraction, induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, and the like. The results - in the article discusses the conceptual bases of perfection of the mechanism of management of bank profits. It is proved that the main purpose of profit management is to ensure the maximization of the welfare of owners and stakeholders of the bank in the current and prospective periods in conditions best meet the needs of businesses and individuals in banking services. The concept of improving profit management mechanism of the bank, the efficiency criterion which is to identify the reserves for increasing the efficiency of banking operations on the basis of the analysis of the components of its financial results and profitability of the work.


For patients with apical periodontitis, the development and maintenance of regenerative endodontic procedures can provide them with various biological and clinical benefits. These include the ability to improve the immune system's response to tooth decay, the establishment of a functional pulp-dentin complex, and the development of root formation. The mechanism by which this type of treatment is performed is regarded as a model for the restoration of a damaged tooth. Numerous studies have been conducted on the various components of pulp tissue engineering, including the development of scaffolds, biomolecules, and stem cells. Unfortunately, these studies have revealed that the current clinical method for revascularization can lead to unfavorable outcomes. The development and maintenance of regenerative endodontic procedures can provide them with various clinical and biological benefits. It can lead to the establishment of a stronger and more stable tooth, which can reduce the risk of fracture. Currently, the preferred method of treating patients with non-vital pulps is to undergo apexification. However, this procedure may no longer be the best option for those with severe apical periodontitis. Revascularization is a promising treatment method that has been shown to be safe and effective. review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the various challenges that stem from the development and maintenance of regenerative endodontic procedures. It also highlights the current research findings that can help improve the clinical practice of this type of treatment.


Assembling the anaerobic reaction system with the home-made UASB reactors,after inoculating with flocculent sludge,the process of start-up of UASB and the property of internal sludge was researched. By calculating the methanogenic activity and t sludge reactor maximum volume load,we can see that after starting inoculated UASB with flocculent sludge mature granular sludge can be effectively formed. Contrast experiment showed that adding particulate activated carbon in the initial stages could help to rapid-start-up of UASB. The performance of granular sludge formed in the reactor is superior to mature granular sludge under the condition of without additives,and the system treatment efficiency is stable.


Paper presented at the European Academy of Management Conference EURAM, Reykjavik, Iceland, June 21-24, 2018. Multi-party systems bring together various stakeholder groups or group representatives and offer an platform for sharing their diverse interests, knowledge and expertise in order to develop and realize joint goals. They display complex relational dynamics in which within-group interactions (interpersonal interactions within each stakeholder party) as well as between-group interactions (interactions between the stakeholder parties) intertwine to generate bottom-up and top-down influences. Bottom-up influences describe the relational dynamics that arise from the stakeholder parties influencing the way all other parties are perceived, that is, having an impact on the overall system. Top-down influences refer to how relational dynamics characterizing the larger system influence the stakeholder parties. So far, the literature on multi-party systems lacks systematic investigations of these concurring types of influences. Our study investigates the dynamic interplay between experienced conflict within one's stakeholder party, and perceived collaborativeness as well as conflictuality of the other stakeholder parties, using a simulation and adopting a longitudinal perspective. Our results show that changes in task conflict at the stakeholder party level positively predict changes in perceived collaborativeness in the overall system, while changes in relationship conflict at the stakeholder party level positively predict changes in perceived conflictuality in the system. Moreover, we show that changes in perceived overall conflictuality leads to a proportional change in relationship conflict experienced within the stakeholder parties. We discuss our results in terms of their practical implications for the development of multi-party collaboration as well as their theoretical contributions to the multiparty literature.


It is observed that every construction project is unable to perform as per planned objectives as it faces variances in terms of cost, time, quality, safety, specifications, liable to various constraints pertaining to it. Conventional Scheduling techniques that uses push approach has to perform each activity right, the first time- every time in order to make the forthcoming activities follow the schedule. In this study we have introduced Pull Scheduling approach to overcome the delays resulting from wastes in a real estate project. Waste's typical cost as Construction businesses have started using Lean Construction to reduce waste and boost productivity. The proportion of project costs that do not include performance costs ranges from 5.38% to 14.70%. In order to implement lean concepts, which place a strong emphasis on waste minimization and efficiency improvement, building sites in India must first detect waste and its underlying causes. Lean Scheduling (LS) was employed to address efficiency and waste problems and to adapt to the challenges of the construction industry as a future project management philosophy. A comprehensive literature review is carried out to determine real time issues faced in real estate industry using a pilot questionnaire survey and overcoming those challenges using lean tools. Finally, a method for choosing the most fitting lean resources by pull scheduling was suggested. The key contribution of this study is to reinforce the decision-making capacity of the builders in their choice of the most suitable construction-coordinated method on real estate project. Keywords: Lean Construction Techniques, Pull Scheduling, Just-In-Time, Indian Real Estate Industry, Lean Thinking, Lean Concepts, Value stream mapping, Construction waste.