Potentiometric titration in 95% methanol (I = 0.1 mol dm−3, Et4NClO4) has been employed to investigate the effect of N-methylation and N-benzylation of 1,4,10,13-tetraoxa-7,16-diazacyclooctadecane 1 on the binding of all three rings to cobalt(II), nickel(II), copper(II), zinc(II), cadmium(II), silver(I) and lead(II). The results show that enhanced selectivity for silver(I) is exhibited by the di-N-benzylated derivative 3 while the analogous dimethylated derivative 2 discriminates for both silver(I) and lead(II). The crystal structures of [Ag(1)]PF6, [Ag(2)]PF6, [Ag(3)]PF6 and [Pb(1)(NO3)2] have been determined. In the silver complexes the NH hydrogens of 1 and the N-methyl and N-benzyl substituents of the dialkylated derivatives 2 and 3 were found to lie on the same side of the mean donor planes of the co-ordinated macrocycles ('cis' arrangements). Density functional theory has been employed to model the silver complexes in both their energy-minimised 'cis' and 'trans' configurations. In accordance with the X-ray evidence, the calculations predict that the 'cis' arrangement is the more stable in each case. The crystal structure of the lead complex of 1 shows a 'trans' arrangement of its NH groups.


This paper develops a model in which a rapid expansion of the quality frontier by rich countries pushes poorer countries down the quality ladder and thereby leads to a widening dispersion of quality around the world as well as sluggish growth in poorer countries. This paper documents these features in the data, such as a recent rise in the dispersion of quality exported around the world between rich countries on the one hand and either poor countries or countries stuck in a middle-income trap on the other hand, as well as a widening dispersion of per-capita income among these groups.


It is vitally important to fostering the partnership between public health and medicine.From the public finance perspective,this paper explores the related effects of enough public finance support,tiered finance, and management operation separation reform of public hospital.Linked finance is suggested as an essential institu- tional instrument for forging a close partnership between public health and medicine


Two short‐period InAs/AlSb superlattices, grown with an AlAs‐like interface and an InSb‐like interface, respectively, were studied with Raman spectroscopy, x‐ray diffraction, and ellipsometry. Our measurements show that the InSb‐like interface grows perfectly pseudomorphically, whereas the sample with the AlAs‐like interface shows indications of relaxation and As interdiffusion. This different interface quality seems to be a fundamental problem, rather than the result of the growth technique.


The direct observation of the Brownian motion of DNA molecules in dilute solution confirmed that the Rouse-Zimm model properly describes the polymer dynamics


Background: In diabetes mellitus (DM) patients, myocardial infarction can occur in the absence of chest pain. Whether DM similarly mutes abdominal pain in chronic pancreatitis is unknown. Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 31 patients (predominantly males who smoke and excessively drank alcohol) diagnosed as an exacerbation of chronic pancreatitis from January 1992 to December 2003 was undertaken in Taipei Municipal Yang-Ming hospital.
Results: No statistical differences were evident in patient demographics and initial symptoms/signs between DM and non-DM subjects. Abdominal pain was the major symptom in both DM and non-DM subjects (80% vs. 93.75%, p=0.333). DM subjects displayed serum amylase levels of 95±127.58U/L, while the levels in non-DM subjects was 175.53±1126.98U/L(p=0.001).
Discussion: Unlike asymptomatic coronary artery disease in DM patients, DM does not mute abdominal pain in chronic pancreatitis. However, serum amylase levels vary in acute versus chronic pancreatitis and, in the latter, between DM and non-DM subjects.


Invasive Staphylococcus aureus infections are usually preceded by nasal colonization. Although surveys of S. aureus nasal carriage have been conducted


The rural tourism includes all the tourism activities in the countryside and natural surroundings,the tpurism style of which characterizes the natural scenery and special folk-custom cultural activities as an attraction,the urban residents as a goal market,and the relaxing entertainment,increasing knowledge and going back to nature as a purpose th satisfy the tourists.The regions wity the best predominance for devloping the rural tourism are the countryside in the outskirts of the cities of middling and big size.By analyzing the key contents of developing and building the rural tourism in the outskirts of a city,we discuss a policy to develop the rural tourism in the outskirts of the cities,in order to satisfy the tourists' demands for the tourism development.


Some presently used filter criteria are illogical. Besides satisfying D15/d85≤5 and D15/d15≥4, both the base and filter materials must possess grading stability when exposed to seepage. There are two reasons for grading instability; scantiness of intermediate grain sizes, which interrupts an internal filter formation process; and loose grains, which move through the void space between fixed grains. A mathematical model for washout of grains and internal filter formation (self‐filtration) in cohesionless materials is developed on the basis of grain and pore geometry considerations and found to agree with results from laboratory tests on sand and gravel mixtures. The model discloses both scantiness and loose grains and predicts the extent of grain washout and the volume decrease caused by the washout. For soils with a large content of fine grains, the hydrodynamic number is shown to have considerable influence on the extent of the washout of grains.


For one and half century,Marxism Philosophy was founded from criticizing and inheriting of traditional philosophy,and has developed from criticizing and reflecting on the rigescent understanding and using from its within.Marxism Philosophy has scientific intension and the studying on Marxism(including Marxism Philosophy) is more and more.Marxism Philosophy is "a meaning horizon which can't be transcended".


Introduction: The working attitude that is often done by human beings in doing work among others standing, sitting, bent, squat, walking, and others. Attitudes such as work are done hanging from the condition of the system's existing work. Forward head posture is the incident common much going on in modern times. It is described as a gesture of brought the heads of forward from the middle part of the shoulder. Head of moving forward, so the center of gravity shifted. To compensate this shift in the center of gravity, drift the upper body backward and shoulders slipped to future that head gets a move into the anterior than vertebrae. Every activity daily life needs a posture certain to be maintained. Any deviation from the normal pattern posture affecting the joints and muscle, so as to cause the pathological condition. An imbalance in the muscles causing shortening of fiber or lengthening next leads to changes in posture. This research aims to understand the relationship that activity sew against forwarding head posture (FHP) at a tailor.Methods: This study using design cross-sectional involving 30 respondents using purposive sampling. The data from respondents carried out using a quick check the exposure (QEC) and then in test measurements forward head posture. We analyzed the data by chi-square.Results: The statistics conducted by the SPSS-24 test using chi-square showed significantly (P value= 0,018). Where if the signs have been less than 0.05 so that h1 is accepted and h0 is rejected. Conclusion: There is a correlation that activity sew against forwarding head posture on a the tailors.


convictions that the Faculty of Arts should remain that foundation upon which all education was built. Throughout his presidency, the issue uppermost in Falconer's mind was academic freedom an aspect of his career that has attracted praise and criticism. While arguing that Falconer's record was uneven, Greenlee contends that from an institutional perspective, he achieved much. Controversies swirled over 'religious' instruction in the non-denominational University College. During World War •, there were calls for the dismissal of three professors f German descent. In the social ferment following the war, the Department of Political Economy was attacked as a centre of 'moderate radicalism,' and in the Departinent of History, Frank Underhill was charged with being unpatriotic for his views on the origins of World War •. In all these instances, Falconer managed to stop outside political interference his priority. Though Greenlee is generally even-handed in his judgment of Falconer, on the subject of academic freedom he may be too sympathetic. Falconer's handling of the controversies did have some negative results: the public pressure on the three German professors to resign was unbearable; after his ordeal, Robert McIver left to take up a position at Columbia where in the •95os, ironically, he headed up the academic freedom project. This is an important book: it deals with a Christian idealist who shaped the character of the modern University of Toronto. It also tells the story of a university buffetted by social change. For all these reasons, it is a major contribution to Canadian intellectual history and the history of higher education.


We describe a new well-preserved fossil flower, Virginianthus calycanthoides gen. et sp. nov., from the Early Cretaceous (Early or Middle Albian) of Virginia. The flower is multipartite and has a distinct, deep floral cup. The perianth and androecium are borne on the rim of the floral cup and arranged in several crowded series. Reconstruction of the flower indicates that the perianth is composed of about 12 closely spaced tepals with apically directed hairs on the abaxial surface. The androecium consists of approximately 30-40 closely spaced, sessile stamens. The anthers are dithecate and tetrasporangiate, with the pollen sacs borne toward the abaxial surface. Dehiscence is extrorse through laterally hinged valves. Pollen grains are monocolpate and reticulate and resemble the previously described pollen species Clavatipollenites minutus Brenner. Sterile structures in the transition zone between androecium and gynoecium are interpreted as inner staminodes. The gynoecium is composed of approximately 18-26 carpels borne in several series on the inner surface of the hypanthium. The flower is closely comparable to extant members of the family Calycanthaceae (including Idiospermum) and constitutes the earliest documentation of calycanthoid features in the fossil record. Differences from extant Calycanthaceae are mainly in details of the pollen sacs, anther dehiscence, and pollen morphology.


If clinical trials were sporting contests, then it would be fair to say that low-dose aspirin plus extended-release dipyridamole (Aggrenox) was the clear favorite against clopidogrel going into the Prevention Regimen for Effectively Avoiding Second Strokes (PRoFESS) trial (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00153062). The trial, reported on in this issue of the Journal by Sacco et al.,1 tested these two antiplatelet agents for secondary stroke prevention in their first head-to-head contest. In two previous large randomized clinical trials enrolling patients after stroke (the European Stroke Prevention Study 2 [ESPS2]2 and the European/Australasian Stroke Prevention in Reversible Ischemia Trial3 [ESPRIT, NCT00161070]), low-dose aspirin . . .


Electromagnetic signals coming from the pacemaker programmer can permanently damage multiprogrammable pacemakers. At a follow‐up of a six fold programmable VVI pacemaker (Phoenix 251–6, Pacesetter), the emergency VVI button was activated on the programmer after the programming of the pacing impulse had induced a loss of capture. The next telemetrical interrogation revealed an alteration to a threefold programmable Programmalith III. The inadvertent programming of the model number occurred, because the programming head was removed at one very specific time in the programming sequence of the emergency VVI command.


Aqueous absorption/stripping is the state-of-the-art technology for the capture of CO2 from coal-fired power plants. This technology is energy-intensive and has been applied to CO2 removal from natural gas, ammonia, and hydrogen gas streams. Energy requirements can be reduced by the use of a more-reactive solvent, operating the cross exchanger at a lower temperature, optimizing the stripper operation, and using innovative stripper configurations (vacuum and multipressure). This work calculates stripper performance with an algorithm in Aspen Custom Modeler (ACM) that incorporates thermodynamic studies, reaction rate measurements, physical properties, and contactor-specific information for three stripper configurationsa simple stripper operating at 160 kPa, a multipressure stripper operating at three pressures (330/230/160 kPa), and a vacuum stripper (30 kPa) for two solvents:  7m (30 wt %) monoethanolamine (MEA) and 5m K+/2.5m piperazine. The temperature approach is varied from 5 to 10 °C. With some approx...


Objective To study the stability of tetraacetyl-puerarin(4ac)in artificial gastric juice and intestinal juice.Methods The degrading content of 4ac was determined by HPLC.Results The linear range of 4ac was good between 0.062 5 and 1.0mg/ml,recovery was 101.05%(RSD=1.59%).4ac was stable in artificial intestinal juice(including with enzyme)at 25℃ and 37℃.T1/2 of 4ac was 18.99,9.76,13.33 h and 8.22 h in artificial gastric juice(including with enzyme)at 25℃ and 37℃.Conclusion It is stable in artificial intestinal juice and can be developed enteric preparation.


This paper presents the design of a 4th-order closed-loop continuous-time filter. This filter exploits an improved analog stage that makes linearity performance constant over the entire pass-band frequencies. In other words the filter has same HP3 at low and at high frequency. Hence the linearity performance are independent on the input tones bandwidth, whereas most of analog filters suffers from poor linearity when loop-gain reduces, i.e. close to the closed-loop poles frequency. In order to validate the hereby proposed design idea a 4th-order 25MHz–3dB bandwidth pseudo-differential filter has been designed and simulated in CMOS 28nm technology. The prototype consumes 820μW from 1V supply voltage and has 15dBm and 13dBm HP3 at 5&6MHz and 20&21MHz input tones, respectively.


In this note we describe a time symmetric version of the classical game Go. Time symmetry means that players move simultaneously without knowledge of the other player's move. In particular the classical Komi rule is removed, as well as the Ko rule. This is a perfect information game, (up to the fact that the other playe r's move is not not known on the given turn) to resolve the natural issues that can occur with simultaneity we use ideas inspired by quantum mechanics, but instead of a dice roll there is a certain deterministic ``quantum state'' reduction. This requires introduction of 2 new rules.


Attempts to shed light on the mental health needs of ethnic minorities and the inadequacies of the existing mental health needs for them. Considers the drawbacks in the delivery system and provides guidelines for improved assessment, treatment, treatment strategies and preventative measures. Uses analysis of recent psychological and sociological developments in the field of mental health.


A study of the interaction between the aims of African rulers, the British and Gold Coast governments, and Wesleyan missionaries in Dahomey between 1843 and 1867 suggests that neither Africans nor Europeans made any consistent distinction, at this time, between the religious and secular aspects of British influence in Dahomey.


This study was undertaken to determine whether fully grown oocytes isolated from the early antral follicles (2-8 mm size) of frozen-thawed buffalo ovaries are viable and can be rescued to undergo maturation, fertilization, and embryo development in vitro. Ovaries were cryopreserved just after being collected during slaughter from the local abattoir using in situ oocyte (ISO) cryopreservation. ISO cryopreservation is a multistep procedure that involves aspiration of follicular fl uid and then perfusion of antral follicles (10-12 mm size) and diffusion of whole buffalo ovaries with cryoprotectant agent (CPA), rapid cooling, storage, thawing and, fi nally, dilution and removal of the CPA with return to physiological environment. Data analysis revealed the quality of follicular oocytes isolated from ISO cryo ovaries appeared similar to that from fresh ovaries, and the percentages of the morphologically normal immature oocytes from ISO cryo ovaries appeared also similar to those from fresh ovaries. There were no signifi cant differences in the maturation (80.1%), cleavage (46.9%) and buffalo embryo development (30.4%) produced by immature oocytes of ISO cryo ovaries in comparison to the three observations in fresh oocytes of fresh non-cryopreserved ovaries (88.4%, 56.5% and 38.1%, respectively, p<0.05). Therefore, fully grown oocytes in early antral follicles (2-8 mm size) survive the cryopreservation protocol, as demonstrated by maturation, fertilization and embryo development in vitro.


The authors address the problem of spectrum reassignment in the averaged description of the vibrationally controlled time delay system in terms of the parameters of the vibrations. The formulas presented facilitate a search for stabilizing vibrations for a class of time-lag systems. Robustness of correction terms with respect to delays is also discussed.<<ETX>>


This utility model discloses a safety socket with a floating plug bush to solve a problem that people get electric shock accidentally when in contact with the plug bush. In order to achieve the purpose, the safety socket with a floating plug bush comprises a fixed body, a floating body and a positioning mechanism installed between the fixed body and the floating body. The floating body comprises a housing and the floating plug bush provided within the housing. The housing provides jacks for a jack-plug to plug in. The floating body is fixed in the fixed body in a floating manner and drives the floating bush to float along the plugging direction of the jack-plug under the effect of the jack-plug. The floating body is positioned in one of a first stable position and a second stable position in the fixed body under the effect of the positioning mechanism. When the floating body is in the first stable position, the floating plug bush is in contact with a power supply electric conductor provided within the fixed body to form electrical connection. When the floating body is in the second stable position, the power supply electric conductor is detached from the floating plug bush to form an open electric circuit.


This paper makes a comparison and contrast with the work of Johnes (1994). A similar set of survey results are employed to identify the variables which influence undergraduates' decision to take out student loans. In general income factors are not found to be significant. There is evidence that being in debt is influential. This concurs with Johnes' findings, although in this research credit card debts are also found to be a significant influence. The results suggest that marital status has a significant effect on taking out a loan, but the direction of the effect opposes Johnes results.


The railway between Lulea, Sweden, and Narvik, Norway, was completed in 1902, and renewed in the early 1960s. Several of its old riveted bridges were replaced by welded plate girder bridges. After only a few years, cracks appeared, then gradually spread in some of the plate girders. The cracks were arrested by drilling a hole at each crack tip. In the early 1990s, a bridge replacement programme began. Five similar bridges showed 100-200mm-long fatigue cracks at the ends of vertical stiffeners. They were constructed of two parallel, simply supported welded steel I-beams, with sleepers set directly on the top flange. One bridge was selected for detailed computer analysis. It has a span length of 11.6m, and its track lies on a horizontal curve with radius 600m. Its two main girders, 1900mm apart, are straight, 1000mm deep, and connected by cross framing approximately every 2.6m. The web plate of both girders is strengthened by a vertical stiffener at every cross frame. Preliminary analysis was made on the assumption that the cracks resulted from transverse bending of the web plate. A linear static analysis was performed, by modelling the bridge using a finite element analysis program. Four alternative bracing systems were also analysed. It was found that the simplest remedy was to attach the web stiffener to the flange.


Computer network provides convenience for the remote supervision of electric network, and promotes the working efficiency and safety for the electric network. The hardware components and the internal structure of the electric network monitoring apparatus in the whole monitoring process are introduced. The data-gathering server collects data from the electric network monitoring devices using Mscomm control with client/server structural model easy to be extended. VB language and Winsock control are used to compile the programs of the server and the client.


AbstractThe role of the primary detrital grain assemblage as a control on diagenetic pathways is reasonably well-understood in sandstones and limestones, but less so in mudrocks. We have documented diagenesis in mudstones from the Triassic Yanchang Formation that are dominated (>90% by volume) by grains derived from outside the basin of deposition (terrigenous-argillaceous mudstones or tarls). Major extrabasinal grains are K-rich clay, quartz, plagioclase, K-feldspar, lithic fragments, and micas. In terms of the quartz-feldspar-lithic grain compositions, the silt fraction in these samples is classified as arkose. Grains of intrabasinal derivation include particulate organic matter, phosphatic debris, and rare carbonate allochems. The principal chemical diagenetic components in these mudrocks have strongly localized spatial distributions at micrometer to centimeter scales. Chemical diagenetic components include cone-in-cone structures, replacements of detrital feldspar, pore-filling precipitates within ano...


In this work, a shear-driven two-phase particulate flow of monodispersed and polydispersed granular materials has been studied experimentally and numerically as a function of solids concentration and restitution coefficients for different operating speeds N (70 -130 rpm) in a lab-scale rotor-stator agglomeration reactor. A coupled computational fluid-particle dynamics (CFPD) model was developed consisting of a steady-state flow field of the continuous phase coupled to a transient particle tracking of the discrete phase. This was achieved via a one-way coupling between the continuous and the discrete phase by including the effect of drag, lift, pressure gradient, virtual mass forces, as well as granular collisional forces in describing the particle-particle, particle-wall and the fluid-particle interactions. The spatiotemporal evolution of the flow pattern, discrete phase properties, and influence of the operating conditions on the granular properties were characterized. The validation of the numerical model developed in this study was carried out based on the theoretical analysis of the rotor-stator flow and the PIV flow measurements. The results showed that the particle sizes were uniformly distributed within the reactor after steady-state conditions, while a small region of high particle concentration was observed near the rotor due to low vorticity and turbulent intensity around the region. In terms of the operating conditions, the restitution coefficients and the operating speeds do not have a significant influence on the granular properties apart from the small region around the shaft where there is a correlation between these parameters. The particle sizes, however, show a positive correlation with the granular properties. Also, a wider particle size distribution was observed axially towards the stator, which might be attributed to the pumping effect of the Batchelor flow in this direction. It was also concluded that the discrete phase velocity does not seem to vary significantly with the restitution coefficients. Furthermore, the vertical velocity and vorticity profiles give a reasonably good agreement between the CFPD model predictions and PIV measurements. The minor observed deviations were mainly due to some of the experimental limitations rather than the robustness of the CFPD model or the numerical code.


This thesis aims to examine what strategies can be identified at LBGTQ-certified libraries in Sweden when arranging public events. The strategies are based on Douglas Rabers (1996) theory about lib ...


Poverty in the conditions of a transformational economy represents economic relationships between an individual and government and an individual and a corporation due to unequal distribution of a country's public wealth, which is characterized by the dominant, in whose foundation lies a sharp differentiation of income levels due to property redistribution, week national labor market, disproportions in phases of public production, abolishment or reduction of subsidies, inflation-related income redistribution, labor transfer from state-related to private employment, etc. In author's opinion, the main cause of poverty is the property and management's transformation-related development of a capitalistic economy, for which poverty and unemployment are eminent signs. The relationship between employment provision and poverty reduction can be seen in the phase of production. If an individual is not employed, then he or she cannot receive initial income. One should acknowledge that if an individual's labor activity does not provide a minimum level of income due to which he or she can efficiently sell labor abilities then such type of labor activity cannot be considered a true economic one. Therefore, the individuals, whose incomes are less than minimum living standards, cannot be considered fully productive members of any society. Unemployment and poverty are closely related. The growth of an economy does not necessarily lead to the growth of employment. The growth of an economy, employment and poverty reduction only happen due to provision of an effective employment, which means: for an individual guarantee of a reasonable labor income during long-term period; for an employer the growth of labor productivity and effectiveness of production. High competition level between employers will lead them to improve the production effectiveness, and bring more effective, productive and, consequently, more expensive employees. All of the aforementioned reasons will guarantee high quality of business activities.


In molecular phylogeny of Malpighiaceae, the Ptilochaetoide clade is composed of Dinemagonum, Dinemandra, Lasiocarpus and Ptilochaeta, found in the sub-desert and desert regions of South and Central America. The taxonomic relationship between the genera of the group is little discussed and phylogenetic studies point out to the need for an evolutionary approach using morphoanatomical characters. Thus, based on the recurrent contribution of leaf anatomy to taxonomic studies in Malpighiaceae, we characterized the leaf anatomy of seven species of the Ptilochaetoide clade and listed relevant anatomical patterns for their circumscription. For this, we used standard anatomical techniques and the anatomical data were discussed phylogenetically. The anatomical data such as: petiole/midrib contour, petiole/midrib vascular system conformation, presence/absence of trichomes and mesophyll organization were useful for the elaboration of the identification key. Character states: Plane-convex midrib contour, isobilateral mesophyll and absence of trichomes were considered informative for the subclade composed by Dinemandra and Dinemagonum, while in the other genera, no relevant morphotypes were recognized. The absence of accessory bundles, presence of druses and sheath extension are common features in the clade and contribute to the group description. These findings reaffirm the effectiveness of leaf anatomy in taxonomic and phylogenetic studies in Malpighiaceae.


Abstract. This study was carried out in the Gori Valley catchment of Uttarakhand, Western Himalaya, to document more fully the distribution and ecology of ferns and lycophytes at a montane site divided into 7 elevation sampling zones from 1,800–4,000 m (subtemperate to alpine) across a distance of approximately 30 km. A total of 16 families, 33 genera, and 92 species were found. Species richness, total species density ha–1, diversity, and Pielou's species evenness per elevation zone (m) were calculated for each zone. The data were used to evaluate three hypotheses addressing changes in density and species distribution in relation to the biogeographic and climatic conditions across the seven elevation sampling zones. Total density of ferns and lycophytes tended to decrease from Zone 1 toward Zone 7; although Zones 1-3 (sub-temperate) had clearly higher mean densities than those in Zones 5-7 (alpine). The highest density was found in Zone 1 (Lilam 1,800 m) and lowest density was found in Zone 6 (Burfu 3,450 m). After finding a significant difference among all mean densities for each elevation zone (p < 0.001), using a non-parametric Welch's ANOVA, a Games-Howell test for pairwise comparisons of the means showed that each of the mean densities for species in Zones 1 to 3 was significantly different from each of the species densities in Zones 5 to 7 (p < 0.05). The mean densities for Zone 4 were not significantly different from any of the other zonal mean densities (i.e., 1–3 and 5–7), suggesting that Zone 4 is a transitional zone between two end member Zones (1–3 and 5–7).


The numerical implementation of an efficient single source surface integral equation algorithm for the problem of electromagnetic wave scattering by complex structures is discussed. Its salient features include the invariance of an equivalent surface representation and the recursive region-by-region solution algorithm.


Ethynylpyridines show straight and zigzag chain patterns formed by ⋮C−H···N hydrogen bonds; cross-stitching of zigzag chains by C−H···N hydrogen bonds leads to two-dimensional networks with predictable topology in 5-ethynylpyrimidine.


The present invention provides a visible light induced light guide plate (1) for the backlighting of liquid crystal displays. The light guide plate 1 has two parallel sides (lateral face) (10, 11) and at least one edge surface (edge face) (13), said edge surface acts as a light input surface and preferably. The light guide plate 1 is B The total content of the metal oxide of the second metal in a composition of the glass is less than 3% by weight. Al


Designing complete systems or system components, it is of vital importance for the manufacturers nowadays to optimally fulfil the ever increasing demands pertaining to safety, durability, reduction of energy consumption, noise reduction, improvement of comfort, accuracy, etc. This, for instance, applies to all types of traffic and transportation systems like rail vehicles, automobiles, airplanes, and ships.


An attempt was made to determine the sanitary state of butter by employing technics for the control of foreign bodies, fungi, parasites and insects in this food-substance. 360 samples of national and foreign butter were examined. With regard to the control of the fungi the largest proportion was 35,8% positive microscopical fields with filaments of mycellia, The rates varied from a minimum of 14% to a maximum of 84% positive microscopical fields with filaments of mycelia. With regard to the foreign bodies the average number was 1545 per 100 grms of butter examined. Regarding the parasites and insects 10% of the samples examined showed parasites and insects. The data collected gave evidence that certain creams in use are deficient as to the methods of collection, separation, preserving, of hygiene in general. The most favorable domestic measure for preventing butter from becoming stale is to keep it in the ice-chest in saltwater, which could be frequently chanted.


Based on the limitation of existing neural network model,this paper puts forward the thought of this model: miniaturizes the forecasting network,trains the network in real-time way,adopts the average of abundant forecasting,adds some rules to assistant forecasting.Relative to the traditional neural network model,this model focuses on dynamic training and dynamic forecasting,increases three rules(rule of dealing with abnormity,rule of retraining,and rule of adopting the average) to assistant forecasting.It presents the computing flow of this model and explains the whole process of this model with an example.Numerical example suggests the correctness and feasibility of this model.The contradistinctive result of this model and other five models indicates the validity and superiority of this model.


Fault localization defines information models from raw runtime information as the input, depicting program behaviors for supporting localization algorithms. It is natural that an elaborate information model is desirable and likely to improve the effectiveness of fault localization, because it typically depicts subtle and more program runtime behaviors. In fact, much work on fault localization assumes and exploits this intuition. However, there has been no large-scale study to confirm or refute this folklore. This paper fills this void—indeed, an animated debate on this topic has led to this work. We present a large-scale empirical study for a deeper understanding of the impact of information models on fault localization. Specifically, our study evaluates four representative information models and reveals that an elaborate information model has no strong correlation with localization effectiveness. Furthermore, based on the results, we analyze and suggest the directions of designing information models for fault localization on an extensively studied topic.


Abstract In this paper, we studied the limit properties of the last exit time and the first crossing point for the stationary dependent chi-sequences which are generated by stationary weakly and strongly dependent Gaussian sequences. It is shown that the last exit time and the first crossing point are asymptotically independent and dependent for weakly and strongly dependent case, respectively.


To review a new technique during total thyroidectomy that facilitates parathyroid gland preservation and selective autotransplantation utilizing topical 2% plain lidocaine as a spasmolytic/vasodilator agent.


Trend detection is an important task in failure data analysis in both reliability and maintenance. Usually, detecting certain possible trend in failure events of systems or items is the first step of data handling, and the result of trend detection indicates some directions for further statistical analysis of these data. Available statistical tests commonly used for detecting trends in failure events collected over time as well as the underlying hypotheses being tested are reviewed in this paper. Directions for future research on statistical trend tests are suggested at the end of the paper. These suggestions will address issues concerning analysis of failure data obtained from single and multiple systems.


A liquid crystal display and a detecting method, the liquid crystal display device includes a TFT substrate and the driving power source line, the TFT substrate includes M scan lines and N data lines, the liquid crystal display device further comprises a switching unit, the switching unit adapted in the liquid crystal display during detection of Mura source under control of the control signal is turned on and the driving power line M scanning lines. The detecting method comprising: applying a control signal to the switch unit; N data lines to the data signal is applied; determined according to the current brightness of the liquid crystal display of the liquid crystal display Mura source; applying the control signal to stop the said switching unit. Liquid crystal display and detection aspect of the present invention provides a method, it is possible to shorten the detection time of the liquid crystal display Mura source, reducing testing costs.


Microsurgical testicular sperm extraction (mTESE), combined with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) represents a chance for azoospermic men with Klinefelter′s syndrome (KS) to father children. The objective of this study was to identify predictive factors for the success of mTESE from adolescents and adults with KS.


The purpose of this work was to: develop a methodology to predict annular flows using a multidimensional four-field, two-fluid Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) computer code; develop closure models which use the CFD predicted local velocities, phasic volume fractions, etc...; implement a numerical method which allows the discretized equations to have the same characteristics as the differential form; and compare predicted results to local flow field data taken in a R-134a working fluid test section.


Since the outbreak of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in 2001, The Conservation of European scavengers has been the subject of a legal dilemma: Either we can strictly protect scavenger species ([ 1 ][1]) or we can destroy livestock carcasses, the scavengers' main source of food ([ 2 ][2]–[


The invention discloses an iridoid glycoside compound and a preparation method and application thereof. The preparation method comprises the following steps: (1) respectively extracting a finished Reduning injection product with ethyl acetate and n-butanol so as to obtain n-butanol extract; (2) subjecting the n-butanol extract to HP-20 macroporous adsorption resin column chromatographic separation and ethanol-water gradient elution so as to obtain a 25-35% ethanol elution part; and (3) successively subjecting the 25-35% ethanol elution part to silica gel column chromatographic separation, ODS column chromatographic separation, HW-40 column chromatographic separation and preparative liquid phase HPLC separation so as to obtain the compound. The compound provided by the invention can be used for treating hand-foot-and-mouth disease.


Objective To investigate an easy and accurate method for the identification of Whitmania pigra Whitman and Poecilobdella manillensis.MethodsThe protein polypeptides in Whitmania pigra Whitman and Poecilobdella manillensis were analyzed by high performance capillary electrophoresis(HPCE).ResultsThe HPCE result showed that the protein polypeptide of Whitmania pigra Whitman was significantly different from that of Poecilobdella manillensis.ConclusionHPCE can be used for the identification of Whitmania pigra Whitman and Poecilobdella manillensis.


The aim of this action research study was to embed the theoretical tenets of the Canadian Model of Occupational Performance and its structures in a way that was appropriate to, and would be used by, all staff within an integrated health and social care setting. The action research involved 10 phases of reflection and action, with data analysis occurring between the cycles. The findings showed the importance of taking time to embed theory before implementing model structures in order to prevent those structures, and particularly the paperwork, becoming superficial. In addition, the importance of using theoretical structures (models) flexibly and adapting them to particular services was identified. A more generally applicable finding was that occupational therapists can and should demonstrate their theory through their practice and that this can be done by using a model to illustrate their clinical and, more specifically, their conditional clinical reasoning (Mattingly and Fleming 1994). In addition, the demonstration of clinical reasoning proved vital in making the client-centred and occupational beliefs of the model overt. It was concluded that implementing theory and using occupation-based literature (Williams and Bannigan 2008) in this way can take a long time but is worthwhile because it provides a sound and strong base for the profession's identity.


In this article, I will discuss about Pukung Pahewan. It is a name of the prohibition area with certain terms and extents. Pukung Pahewan comes from the Ngaju Dayak language. Pukung means island or region, while pahewan means prohibition. The determination of Pukung Pahewan refers to certain objects such as trees, stones, and other objects that are sacred to a particular region, which should not be disturbed or destroyed, including the surrounding area. Moreover, Pukung Pahewan is determined by customary agreement with certain characteristics, i.e. the Diwung/Handiwung tree, Lunuk/Banyan tree or other large trees, the presence of sacred, and sometimes required by the Bird's Nest/Antang. The concept of Pukung Pahewan by the Dayak Ngaju community in many areas of Central Kalimantan proves to eliminate the notion that a shifting cultivation system can damage natural resources.


Abstract Forty-eight cows were used in two switchback feeding trials to compare animal performance on concentrate rations high in meat and bone meal, on conventional dairy mixtures, and on barley alone. Although isolated incidents of feed refusal occurred, rations containing animal protein were palatable. Silage intake was depressed when ground barley was the only concentrate fed (P


Malaria is an acute systemic illness caused by infection with Plasmodium parasites that lives part of its life in humans and part in female Anopheles mosquitoes. It remains one of the major killers of humans, population worldwide.

 To study clinical trends and prevalance of malaria in Abbasia Fever hospital over a period of two years.

 This study was conducted in co-operation between Tropical Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University and Abbasia Fever hospital. The current study was conducted on 200 Malarial patients admitted to Abbasia fever Hospital in Cairo (time) to be treated according to the protocol of treatment of malaria which was approved by Ministry of Health in Egypt.

 According to the treatment of malaria, the present study revealed that the best response in studied cases was to the mono-therapy. Concerning the clinical outcome of the studied cases, most of the studied cases (189 patients) were cured in the sense of clinical and parasitological improvement. Regarding comparative results among the studied cases, complicated malaria was more frequent in male and non-Egyptian and pregnant women.

 Malaria should be considered as a cause of fever in relevant target patients. Malaria disease is commoner in the younger ago group. In Egypt, no endogenous malaria cases have been reported since1998 until 2014 a malaria outbreak was discovered in Aswan. Malaria cases in Egypt are usually coming from endemic area in Africa. Mortality due to malaria disease is unusual, and may result from improper chemoprophylaxis and missed diagnosis or late treatment. Monotherapy is preferable than Combined therapy (polytherapy) as it is more effective among the studied malarial cases. Tools of prophylaxis are insect repellents, protective clothes, bed nets and chemoprophylaxis.


Objective To investigate the clinical manifestations, histopathological patterns and causes of misdiagnosis of primary malignant tumor in small intestine (PMTSI). Methods The clinical data of 90 cases of PMTSI confirmed by pathology admitted from 1981 to 2002 in our hospital were retrospectively analyzed. Results The main pathological patterns of PMTSI were adenocarcinoma, leiomyosarcoma, lymphoma and malignant neurilemmoma. The common clinical manifestations were abdominal pain, anemia and hemorrhage, jaundice, weight loss and intestinal obstructions. Preoperative diagnosis rate was 22.2%(20/90). It was easily misdiagnosed as other digestive tract diseases and pelvic disorders. Preoperative misdiagnosis rate was 77.8%. Conclusions The main pathological patterns of PMTSI are adenocarcinoma, leiomyosarcoma, lymphoma and malignant neurilemmoma.Its clinical manifestations and diagnostic examination methods are not good enough, which usually leads to misdiagnosis ,so attention must be paid.


The EMS low-speed maglev train usually adopts the modular magnetic bogie structure,and the module is the basic unit with the functions of suspension,guidance and propulsion.The module comprises two suspension points connected by a rigid girder,and the motional states of the two points are coupling.Generally the two points are considered to be isolated from each other;the motional coupling is regarded as disturbance to each point and is suppressed by enhancing the robustness of the suspension controller.In this paper the coupling problem of the module of the EMS maglev train is studied from the viewpoint of mechanical motion,and a decoupling arithmetic is proposed to solve it.Based on rational simplifications and assumptions,a mathematical model of the module suspension system is presented,and the essential of motional coupling of the module is analyzed on the basis of the mathematical model.Then a scheme to realize electric decoupling by means of feedback linearization is put forward.The results of simulation show that the motional coupling of the module has great effects on dynamical characters of the suspension system;the decoupling scheme is effective to simplify the!design of the suspension controller and improve the performance of the suspension system.


We consider a possibility of describing spin one-half and higher spins of massive relativistic particles by means of commuting spinors. We present two classical gauge models with the variables xμ, ξα, χα, where ξ, χ are commuting Majorana spinors. In the course of quantization both models reproduce Dirac equation. We analyze the possibility of introducing an interaction with an external electromagnetic background into the models and generalizing them to higher spin description. The first model admits a minimal interaction with the external electromagnetic field, but leads to reducible representations of the Poincare group being generalized for higher spins. The second model turns out to be appropriate for description of the massive higher spins. However, it seems to be difficult to introduce a minimal interaction with an external electromagnetic field into this model. We compare our approach with one, which uses Grassmann variables, and establish a relation between them.


Enhancing employee engagement and job satisfaction are desirable outcomes of every organization, since they are believed, on one hand, to reduce turnover intention, and on the other hand, to bring loyal customers and thus success to the organization. Cabin crew represent the front line of each airline and they play an essential role in delivering service quality, therefore their engagement and job satisfaction is vital for the organization. This thesis aims to examine the extentto which cabin crew engagement and job satisfactionare predicted by empowerment and leadership support, using a nonrandom sample of 103 flight attendants from an airline in the Middle East region. The research focuses on the linear relationships between leadership, empowerment, job satisfaction and employee engagement, and proposes theoretical concepts and validated measurement scales encompassing these variables. After testing the hypothesized relationships between the variables, using multiple regression analysis, the results of the first hypothesized model revealed that cabin crew engagement is mainly predicted by empowerment, followed by job satisfaction, whereas leadership support did not explain any variance in cabin crew engagement. While testing the second hypothesized model, the results demonstrated that both empowerment and leadership support predict cabin crew job satisfaction. Most findings were in line with a number of previous studies, however the nonsignificant prediction of employee engagement by leadership support was unexpected. This interesting result suggested that there might be some gap between employees and leadership, since cabin crew engagement is not predicted by leadership support to any extent. Thus, based on the current findings, the study elaborates on theoretical and practical implications and suggests future research directions. The findings of the current thesis are believed to contribute to the research on cabin crew engagement and job satisfaction. Furthermore, the researcher hopes that these findings would make the airline's management consider more carefully the leadership training process so that leaders will learn how to inspire and engage cabin crew.


Fibre reinforced composite materials are demanded by the industry especially for the applications where weight reduction is critical because of their high specific strength, ability to resist corrosion. The present work aims on evaluation of various mechanical properties of glass fiber reinforced polymer composites (GFRP) with inclusion of single walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) in different weight fractions. Before performing the tests, the specimens were allowed to immerse in fresh water and sea water simultaneously for a period of 11 days (110 Hours) under hydrostatic pressure and further observing the amount of moisture content that has been accumulated in the specimens if any. This type of material can be used in marine industries as an alternative material for fabrication of hull of a ship and also used to design and fabricate various components of a ship.


The prediction of new compounds of the composition AII2BIIIB′VO6 was carried out, the type of distortion of their perovskite-like lattice, the space group were predicted, and the parameters of the crystal lattice of the predicted compounds were estimated. When predicting, only the property values of the chemical elements were used. Programs based on machine learning algorithms for various variants of neural networks, a linear machine, the formation of logical regularities, k-nearest neighbors, support vector machine showed the best results when predicting the type of distortion of a perovskite-like lattice. When evaluating the lattice parameters, the programs based on algorithms for orthogonal matching pursuit and automatic relevance determination regression were the most accurate methods. The accuracy of predictions of the perovskite-like lattice distortion type was no less than 74 %. The accuracy of estimating the lattice linear parameters was within ± 0.0120 – 0.8264 Å, and the accuracy for angles β with monoclinic distortion of the lattice was ± 0.08 – 0.74 deg. The calculations were carried out using systems based on machine learning methods. To evaluate the prediction accuracy, an exam recognition in the cross-validation mode was used for the compounds included in the sample for machine learning. The predicted compounds are promising for the search for new magnetic, thermoelectric and dielectric materials.


Purpose: An ill-defined proportion of patients undergoing urethroplasty fail to experience improvement in lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) despite being stricture-free. We aim to identify the incidence, associations and causes of "LUTS failure" after urethroplasty. Materials and Methods: Patients undergoing urethroplasty over a 6-year period were offered enrollment in a prospective study examining urinary function after urethroplasty. Patients were assessed preoperatively and 6 months postoperatively using the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) and cystoscopy. "LUTS failure" was defined as ≤3-point improvement in IPSS despite an anatomically successful urethroplasty. Multivariable logistic regression was utilized to evaluate the association between patient factors and "LUTS failure." Results: Of 365 patients meeting inclusion criteria, mean postoperative IPSS (20.3 vs. 5.4, p <0.0001) and median urinary quality of life (UQOL; 5 vs. 1; p <0.0001) were significantly improved. Despite being stricture-free, 7.7% of patients reported "LUTS failure" and 10.1% reported UQOL nonresponse. On multivariable logistic regression, increasing age (OR 1.04, 95% CI 1.01–1.06; p=0.006) and hypospadias (OR 18.2, 95% CI 2.1–156.0; p=0.008) were associated with "LUTS failure," while stricture location (p=0.76), length (p=0.14), previous urethroplasty (p=0.96), failed endoscopic treatment (p=0.17), type of urethroplasty (p=0.93) and other etiologies were not. Qualitatively, the most likely causes of "LUTS failure" were detrusor underactivity (39.3%), overactivity (21.4%), pelvic floor dysfunction (21.4%) or benign prostatic hyperplasia (14.3%). Only increasing age was associated with UQOL nonresponse (OR 1.03, 95% CI 1.01–1.07; p=0.02). Conclusions: While many patients experience improved voiding function after urethroplasty, 7.7% experience "LUTS failure" and 10.1% report UQOL nonresponse. Both occurrences are independently associated with increasing patient age and most commonly related to detrusor underactivity.


Presented herein are methods and compositions for targeted amplification of DNA and sample identification. The methods are particularly useful in validation and quality control of samples and to confirm that WGS sequence data is properly paired with a patient sample prior to delivering sequence data to a physician or to a patient.


A predictive control model of radiant floor heating system is developed based on BP (back propagation) neural network, Which consists of input layer(14), hidden layer(16) and output layer(1). The model is trained with the experiment data and the on-line correction predictive control is conducted. The maximum relative error between the indoor temperature given by the on-line correction predictive control and that measured in the experiment is only some 6%. The model will be used to improve the control accuracy of radiant floor heating system and the level of indoor thermal comfort by controlling temperature.


Context Using absorbed antibiotics to prevent travelers' diarrhea is costly, has side effects, and promotes resistant organisms. Rifaximin is a nonabsorbed antibiotic approved for treating travelers' diarrhea. Its effectiveness in preventing the condition is unknown. Contribution In this randomized trial, 210 adults who were newly arrived in Guadalajara, Mexico, took 1 of 3 dosages of rifaximin or placebo for 2 weeks. The rate of travelers' diarrhea was 53.70% in the placebo group and 14.74% in the treated groups. Treatment caused minimal changes in fecal flora. Cautions It is uncertain whether these findings are generalizable to geographic areas where Escherichia coli is not the major pathogen. The Editors More than 50 million persons travel annually from industrialized countries to warm climates. Of these, 40% experience diarrhea (1), which results in an average incapacitation of 24 to 30 hours per affected person (2). However, chronic post-travel symptoms may prove to have even greater clinical and public health importance than the temporary disability. It has been reported that 2% to 10% of travelers who develop diarrhea have persistent cases (3, 4), and more recent studies have shown that bacterial diarrhea, including that in travelers, leads to postinfectious irritable bowel syndrome in 4% to 31% of patients (5-10). Prophylaxis with absorbed antibacterial drugs is a costeffective way to prevent travelers' diarrhea (11). However, this approach has not been recommended because of side effects, possible development of resistance to drugs with other important extraintestinal uses, and availability of effective therapy (1, 12). Rifaximin exerts antibacterial activity by inhibiting bacterial synthesis of RNA (13). The drug has been available in Europe, Asia, and Latin America for treatment of acute bacterial diarrhea (14) and chronic intestinal conditions, including bacterial overgrowth and hepatic encephalopathy (15, 16), and was recently licensed in the United States for therapy for uncomplicated travelers' diarrhea. Rifaximin has been shown to be safe and effective for treatment of travelers' diarrhea in Mexico, Jamaica, Guatemala, and Kenya (17-19). The availability of an effective drug with less than 0.4% absorption offered an opportunity to reexamine the use of antibacterial drugs in the prevention of travelers' diarrhea. Methods This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was investigator-initiated and was filed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. We used the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) approach (20) to report our results. The Committees for the Protection of Human Subjects at the University of TexasHouston Health Science Center and the University of San Diego approved the study protocol. Participants Students from the United States who were at least 18 years of age and were attending classes in Guadalajara, Mexico, during July and August 2003 were eligible for enrollment within 72 hours of arrival in Mexico. During the students' orientation period, the principal investigator of the study informed them of ways to avoid diarrhea, including safe food selection. Students lived in local homes with local families, where most meals were consumed; expected diarrhea rates were equivalent to those for meals consumed in public restaurants (21, 22). Participants were young students who were free of unstable medical problems, such as type 1 diabetes mellitus, asthma requiring variable medication dosing, or active seizure disorder. Interventions Eligible participants who came to the clinic with diarrhea were randomly assigned to the next available study number, which indicated 1 of 4 groups: rifaximin, 200 mg/d; rifaximin, 200 mg twice daily; rifaximin, 200 mg 3 times per day; or a placebo tablet 3 times per day for 2 weeks. We believed that 3 times daily would be the optimal dosing of this nonabsorbed luminal antimicrobial agent because it would ensure the presence of active drug in the small bowel at the time of mealtime challenge with pathogens. In previous studies, we demonstrated that bismuth subsalicylate prevented travelers' diarrhea when given with 3 daily meals and at bedtime, but not when given twice daily (23, 24). Identical-appearing placebos were given to blind the study with respect to total dose and dosing frequency. The first dose, which was active for all rifaximin groups, was given in the clinic at enrollment, and subsequent tablets were taken after daily meals. Outcomes For 3 weeks, participants maintained a daily diary of symptoms and signs rated as mild, moderate, or severe. They also noted the form and timing of all stools passed and the timing of medication taken. They were seen daily at the school clinic Monday through Friday. At the time of diarrhea or mild diarrhea, participants collected stools that were submitted to our laboratory in Guadalajara, where technicians confirmed form and looked for gross blood and pathogens (25, 26). Participants presenting to the clinic with active diarrhea received either levofloxacin or azithromycin, which have previously been shown to be effective for this illness (27); these participants were withdrawn from the efficacy study but were followed for safety. Neither mild diarrhea nor occurrence of symptoms in the absence of diarrhea led to premature removal. We calculated the overall protection rate for diarrhea as follows: (attack rate for the placebo group attack rate for the rifaximin groups combined)/(attack rate for the placebo group 100). The study's primary end point was occurrence of diarrhea, defined as passage of at least 3 unformed stools within a 24-hour period plus 1 or more of the following signs or symptoms of enteric infection: abdominal pain or cramps, nausea, vomiting, fever (temperature 37.8 C), fecal urgency, passage of gross blood or mucus in stool, tenesmus, or moderate to severe increase in intestinal gas. Secondary end points included comparison of the study groups for occurrence of mild diarrhea (defined as passage of 1 to 2 unformed stools plus a symptom) and number of days of occurrences of moderate to severe enteric symptoms per 100 person-days of observation. Five Escherichia coli colonies from each stool sample were transferred to peptone stabs and were transported to Houston, Texas. There, the samples were evaluated for enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli and enteroaggregative Escherichia coli by DNA probe for detection of heat-labile toxin or heat-stable toxin (25) or by HEp-2 cell assay (26), respectively. Participants were asked to provide stool samples after 7 and 14 days of treatment. These samples were tested for Enterococcus species by plating samples onto Streptococcus faecalis medium (Bacto SF Medium, Difco Laboratories, Detroit, Michigan) and Bacto Bile Esculin Agar (Difco Laboratories) and incubating them at 45.5 C for 72 hours. For samples from half of the participants (the workload the laboratory could handle), intestinal coliform flora were quantified by using methods described elsewhere (28). In this subset of participants, colony counts of aerobic gram-negative coliform bacilli per gram of stool were determined after plating stool on Mueller Hinton agar (Becton, Dickinson and Co., Sparks, Maryland) with and without 64 g/mL of rifaximin, the upper level of the drug for inhibition of bacterial enteropathogens (29). We determined the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of isolated bacterial pathogens from diarrhea cases, along with single isolates of Enterococcus and coliforms per participant from stool samples obtained on days 7 and 14, by using published agar dilution methods (29) and following recommendations of the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (now the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute), Wayne, Pennsylvania. The concentrations required to inhibit the growth of 50% or 90% of the strains (MIC50 and MIC90) were determined for bacterial pathogens and for fecal flora isolates. We used the daily checklists in the participants' diaries to detect drug reactions. Once per week, participants were asked targeted questions about adverse events. Symptoms of enteric infection used to define travelers' diarrhea were not considered drug side effects. We monitored safety by determining complete blood count and serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, and creatinine before the first dose of medication was given and shortly after each participant completed 14 days of treatment. Sample Size We selected our sample size on the basis of comparable sample sizes in previous prophylactic studies and by calculating a power of at least 90%, a significance level of 0.05, an 80% protection rate for those receiving rifaximin, and a 40% attack rate for those receiving placebo. We selected an apparently high power overall (approximately 93%) to adjust for the possible necessity of performing up to 3 separate comparisons of rifaximin and placebo for the primary efficacy end point. More casesan additional 10%were added to the trial to help ensure adequate power. Randomization Treatments were randomly assigned to consecutive numbers by using an allocation ratio of 1:1:1:1 for the 4 study groups in blocks of 8. In Houston, Texas, the systematic randomization allocation method was used to develop the random assignment of study groups (30). Persons in Mexico who enrolled participants were unaware of the assignment schedule. Statistical Analysis The comparability of study groups was assessed by using the KruskalWallis, chi-square, and Fisher exact tests (Stata, version 5.0, Stata Corp., College Station, Texas). Enrolled participants were part of an intention-to-treat analysis in which all clinical information provided was included. For the analysis of time to diarrhea and mild diarrhea during the 14 days of treatment, KaplanMeier survival curves were constructed for each study group and the log-rank test was used to make pair


The surrounding rock stability of large underground caverns in a pumped storage power station is one of the most crucial problems in hydropower project design and construction. In the construction of hydropower projects in Southwest China, many underground soft-rock caverns in are excavated. Influenced by the high sidewall, high ground stress, large burial depth, and hydrodynamic pressure action, the deformation of the cavern is special, especially in terms of its soft-rock distribution. At present, most research of underground engineering on soft-rock stability focuses on small-scale tunnel excavations in homogeneous geological conditions, with limited studies on the large-scale excavation of deeply buried underground powerhouses in complex geological structures, featuring extensive soft-rock-layer exposure on the cavern wall. Therefore, it is particularly important to investigate the excavation method of and support measures for soft-rock caverns under complex geological conditions. Based on laboratory rock mechanics testing (petrographic analysis, uniaxial compressive strength tests, shear tests, and triaxial compression creep tests) and the distribution characteristics of the surrounding soft-rock layer of the proposed underground powerhouse, obtained from the survey, we discuss the excavation and support measurements. These include the influence of support measures on the deformation of the underground excavated cavern considering the inclination of rock layers, the impact of the excavation under supported conditions on the deformation of the underground cavern, and the correlation between the lining thickness and stress variation within the lining.


Fine particulate matter exposure is a leading cause of death and disease globally. The transportation sector is responsible for over 50% of fine particulate matter emissions. Governments and vehicle manufacturers are looking to curtail this problem through policy reform and technological development. In this work, we present a new strategy to displace emissions from Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) called Adaptive Green Zone (AGZ) control. When operating in AGZ mode, vehicle controllers optimize for emissions in high-sensitivity areas and optimize for performance and range elsewhere. The vehicle interprets data from local pollution monitors in real-time to determine which driving mode is appropriate for a given location. We developed computational simulations to evaluate the performance of a Honda CR-V that was modified to operate as a PHEV. With AGZ control, vehicle emissions in Green Zones were eliminated with a minimal impact on fuel economy. Future work will continue to expand this concept by studying the effect of AGZ control from multiple vehicles and through physical implementation of AGZ control.


This paper discusses performance measurement in university libraries, based on examples from the University of Wollongong (UoW) in Australia. The introduction highlights the integration of information literacy into the curriculum and the outcomes of a 1998 UoW student satisfaction survey. The first section considers performance indicators in context, including the UoW's use of the Australian Quality Council's "Australian Business Excellence Framework." The second section describes the development of performance indicators, including a framework that provides expectations/critical success factors and performance indicators for several stakeholders (i.e., university executive, clients, staff, suppliers, and community). The third section addresses benchmarking, stressing the importance of benchmarking as a means of identifying best practice and of continuously improving all aspects of performance. The following uses of performance measurement are identified: to indicate the library or information services' alignment with broader organizational goals; to demonstrate the integration of information services with the key activities of the organization or community; and to support the library's position as the organization's primary information manager and service provider. (MES) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Performance Measures, Benchmarking and Value PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY


The articles in this book follow various strands in the scholarly agenda of a research field that has emerged over the past three decades under the heading of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Studies within this field have one foot in linguistics and one foot in sociology, and their main focus is on dominance relations by elite groups and institutions as these are enacted, legitimated, reproduced or challenged in text and talk. This volume takes the research agenda of CDA to the global arena and to the power politics associated with the waging of contemporary wars. It illuminates the discursive construction of newly emerging political formations and sensibilities through detailed studies of a range of public and popular discourses associated with the Iraq War, including political speeches, media coverage, pedagogical materials and computer games. Taken together, these studies make a forceful argument for the value of exploring the role of the 'soft' power of language and images in giving credence to a globalized culture of war. Exposing the symbolic dimensions of 'hard' military and economic realities in the international arena, they show that the politics of territory, money and weapons is intricately bound up with the mediated language of transnational flows and the narratives through which they are made to cohere. The volume makes both substantive and methodological contributions to our understanding of the language of politics. As is pointed out in the editor's introduction ('The Soft Power of War: Legitimacy and Community in Iraq War Discourses'), the book uses the Iraq War as a case through which to explore two central theoretical issues: (1) The issue of legitimacy, which addresses 'the ways in which political and media discourses construe the war as a legally and morally acceptable project' (p. 3). Legitimacy, it is shown, is an ongoing discursive project, and in this case the hard power of war required the soft values of humanitarian care for the Iraqi people and concern for global security. (2) The constructedness of the notion of international


Objective To understand the incidence of hearing loss in a power plant workers exposed to noise and explore the relationship between hearing loss and cumulative noise exposure. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in 356 employees exposed to noise for more than one year without any ear disorders. Their age, sex and hearing loss and noise level in the workplace were investigated. Results Incidence rate of hearing loss was 31.74% in the workers exposed to noise. There was no significant difference between different sex on incidence rate of hearing loss (χ 2=3.47, P0.05). But the incidence rate of hearing loss was increased with cumulative noise exposure, there was a typical dose-response relationship. It was obviously positive correlation ( r=0.991 6, P0.05). Conclusions Cumulative noise exposure could be used to reflect the level of the workers noise exposure roundly and is one of the best potential candidate models for assessing the dose-response relationship between hearing loss and industrial continuous noise exposure.


1. In a recent paper Intriligator [9] examines an " average rule " for selecting a lottery on the alternatives in a social choice context in which each of m individuals (i = 1, ..., m) has a choice-probability vector (q,1, ..., qin) on the alternatives A1, ..., A. with qij > 0 for each (i, j) and Yjqij = 1 for each i. The number qij " is the probability that individual i would choose alternative Ai if he could act alone in deciding among the alternatives ". The general class of social choice rules considered in [9] consists of those rules which assign a " social probability vector" to each m-tuple of individual probability vectors. Within


Stein's method, first introduced in [6], is a powerful tool to bound the distance between a probability distribution and the Gaussian distribution. Over the past decades, Stein's method has been extended to other distributions including Poisson [2], exponential [1], χ [3], and gamma [4]. At the core of Stein's method is a differential operator T , which generates a differential equation known as the Stein equation characterizing the target distribution π:


The importance of examining the location of China's steel development is not confined solely to the steel industry. It reflects to a large extent, the Communist policy on industrial location in general. The new steel centres have been planned to form the nuclei of industrial complexes. To counteract the pre-Communist concentration of industry in the coastal areas, the Communist régime has emphasised from the beginning that a wide dispersion of industry is desirable from the standpoint of economic development and national defence. In planning new capital construction, therefore, regional development constitutes a key-note while sources of raw materials and fuel supply, consumption centres, future mechanisation of agriculture and national security become the major determinants of industrial locations. As a result of adherence to this policy, a new pattern has emerged for the location of China's steel industry.


The D0 Run2b stave structure has been tested to determine the pressure drop along the cooling line and suggest a possible cooling pipe size. The measured pressure drop, charted versus the flow rate, shows good agreement with what is theoretically predicted, the latter underestimating the experimental data in the worst case with a 5.5% error. At a fixed flow rate of 175-ml/min and bulk temperature of -15 C, a cooling pipe formed from a 0.158'' (4.0mm) ID tube would meet the 3.0 psi target pressure drop. With the same piping and a bulk temperature of -10 C the pressure drop is around 2.3 psi.


Bacterial resistance towards the use of synthetic drugs has created a havoc in the modern era of health sciences. Medicinal plants may pave the way for alternative source of medicines that can overcome bacterial resistance. In this regard, employing three different extraction procedure
 (Maceration, Decoction and Soxhlet) aqueous extract of Moringa oleifera and Azadirachta indica were prepared and observed for bacterial inhibition and antioxidant properties. Phytochemical screening results revealed the presence of phenols, flavonoids, reducing sugars and saponins.
 Percentage scavenging activity primarily DPPH assay shows Moringa oleifera Soxhlet 6th (MOS 6th) with the highest percentage scavenging activity. Similarly, total flavonoid content estimation results rendered Moringa oleifera Decoction (MOD) as the highest flavonoid containing
 sample (68.97 ± 0.9) mg RUE/ml. Antibacterial efficiency of the extracts was monitored against Streptococcus mutans (gram-positive) and Escherichia coli (E. Coli) DH5 (gram-negative) bacteria, 96-well microtiter two-fold dilution reveals lowest MIC of 625 μg
 ml–1 for Neem soxhlet 6th cycle (NS 6th) against Streptococcus mutans while Moringa oliefera soxhelt 2nd cycle shows a low toxicity pattern (MIC 5000 μg ml–1). However, only three extract (Neem Soxhlet 2nd cycle, Moringa oleifera
 Soxhlet 2nd cycle and Neem Soxhlet 6th cycle) shows inhibitory potential against E. coli. Furthermore, zone of inhibition acquired via agar-well diffusion assay well corroborates with the results of 96-well pate. Based on extraction procedure, Soxhlet method establishes a good toxicity
 profile against the studied organism.


The dedicated satellite gravity missions have provided homogeneous and uniformly accurate information on the long and medium wavelengths of the Earth's gravity field. Since the launch of GOCE satellite gravimetry mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2009, several global geopotential models (GGMs) have been published. This study evaluates the recent GOCE-based GGMs over the area of Poland. The evaluation has been performed with the use of the EGM08 as well as high-precision GPS/levelling control traverse consisting of 184 stations. One GOCE-only GGM, four GOCE/GRACE satellite-only GGMs, and one GOCE/GRACE GGM combined with terrestrial gravity data have been selected for the evaluation. The results of inter-comparison of the models as well as their accuracy assessment have been discussed.


The purpose of the paper is the quantification and identification of the mechanism of financing the general government deficit. The theme of this paper is topical because the issue of the budget deficit is a topical issue both within the scientific community and decision makers in the public. The time period for which analyzed consolidated budget deficit is 2009-2015, and arrangements for financing the budget deficit presented in the paper are: financing from tax increases by reducing spending, by issuing monetary and public debt. The results of analysis of the evolution general government deficit in 2009-2015 shows that the time was reduced from 36400.1 million lei in 2009 to 10361.3 million lei in 2015. The paper does not aim to bring solutions to reduce the budget deficit and aims at exposing the general government deficit in 2009-2015 timeframe and identify opportunities for its financing, so the future can serve other studies focused on the possibilities of influencing the deficit general government.


WASHINGTON, August 21, 2002 — The next 50 years could see a fourfold increase in the size of the global economy and significant reductions in poverty, provided that governments act now to avert a growing risk of severe damage to the environment and profound social unrest, according to a new World Bank report. In nearly 50 years, the world could have a gross domestic product of $140 trillion and a total population of nine billion people, up from six billion today. Without better policies and institutions, social and environmental strains may derail development progress, leading to higher poverty levels and a decline in the quality of life for everybody, according to the World Development Report 2003. The World Bank is calling on heads of state, ministers, private sector leaders, and civil society representatives at next week's World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg to reaeh agreement on steps that can be taken now to ensure that poverty-reducing growth does not come at great cost to future generations. Misguided policies and weak governance in past decades have contributed to environmental disasters, income inequality, and social upheaval in some countries, often resulting in deep deprivation, riots, or refugees fleeing famine or civil wars. Today, many poor people depend on fragile natural resources to survive. Similarly, trust between individuals, which can be eroded or destroyed by civic unrest, is a social asset with important economic benefits, since it enables people to make agreements and undertake transactions that would otherwise not be possible. Development polices need to be more sharply focused on protecting these natural and social assets, the report said. The World Development Report 2003 suggests new alliances are needed at the local, national and global levels to better address these problems. The burden for development must be shared more widely. Rich countries must further open their markets and cut agricultural subsidies that depress incomes of third world farmers, and they must increase the flow of aid, medicines, and new technologies to developing countries. Governments in the developing world, in turn, must become more accountable and transparent, and ensure that poor people are able to obtain secure land tenure, as well as access to education, health care, and other basic services. The report says that the next few years offer the opportunity to shape investment patterns to make more efficient use of natural resources, to protect the environment, and to bring deep reductions in poverty. The Bank is urging world leaders to take advantage of the spirit behind such recent milestones as the Monterrey Consensus, the compact adopted by the United Nations at the March 2002 International Conference on Financing for Development, and the New Partnership for Africa's Development, an initiative by African leaders, to establish a global effort for attaining sustainable development. "Low-income countries will need to grow at 3.6 percent per capita to meet the United Nations' Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty by 2015, but this growth must be achieved in a manner that preserves our future," said Ian Johnson, Vice President of the World Bank's Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Network. "It would be reckless of us to successfully reach the Millennium Development Goals in 2015, only to be confronted by dysfunctional cities, dwindling water supplies, more inequality and conflict, and even less cropland to sustain us than we have now." The latest World Development Report (WDR 2003) stresses that the burden of guaranteeing sustainable development must be shared locally, nationally, and globally: • Developing countries need to promote participation and substantive democracy, inclusiveness, and transparency as they build the institutions needed to manage their resources. • Rich countries need to increase aid, cut poor country debts, open their markets to developing country exporters, and help transfer technologies needed to prevent diseases, increase energy efficiency, and bolster agricultural productivity. • Civil society organizations contribute when they serve as a voice for dispersed interests and provide independent verification of public, private, and nongovernmental performance. • Private firms contribute when they commit to sustainability in their daily operations and also create incentives to pursue their interests while advancing environmental and social objectives. "The world must act to help its poorest people manage their own resources and build their productivity and


With a unique 3D geometry, a broadband polarizer and single-polarization resonator are demonstrated by wrapping a microfiber on a specialized rod with a hybrid polymer-metal-dielectric nanostructure, respectively. The polarizer has an extinction ratio of more than 20 dB over the spectra range of 450 nm. The resonator has a Q-factor of ~ 80,000 with excellent suppressing of polarization noise. By functionalizing the rod surface with nanoscale silver film and tuning the coil geometry, performances can be improved by optimizing those parameters. Such kind of miniature singlepolarization microfiber and resonator are impossible to be realized by conventional fabrication process, and has the potential in gyro and current sensors.


Leptospirosis is a worldwide anthropozoonosis that infects livestock, including sheep as the carriers to other animals and humans. The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of Leptospira spp. in sheep from two slaughterhouses in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil and its association with epidemiological variables. Serum samples from 182 sheep were evaluated for Leptospira spp. antibodies by microscopic agglutination test (MAT). Results indicated 34/182 (18.68%; CI95% 13.70-24.98%) positive serum samples, mainly to the serovar Copenhageni (17/34; 50%; CI95% 33.99-66.01%). Bacterial growth in the Fletcher medium was detected for 13/34 (38.24%; CI95% 23.87-55.08%) animals, and confirmed by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and sequencing for only two kidney samples from two animals. Thus, treatment and vaccination of sheep, besides rodent control, can be useful to prevent the infection in the studied region since sheep are important Leptospira spp. carriers, and its transmission to slaughterhouse workers is mainly through the manipulation of visceral tissues.


Cutaneous metastases of visceral neoplasms are rare conditions, and urothelial or transitional cell carcinomas are responsible for less than 1% of cases. We report the case of a 50-year-old male patient who progressively developed multiple cutaneous nodules on his head, abdomen, axilla, and groin, some with ulceration. Skin biopsy and immunohistochemistry were consistent with cutaneous metastasis of urothelial carcinoma. Computed tomography scan revealed generalized metastasis in internal organs. In this rare case, cutaneous metastases were the presenting sign of the disease and, as reported, a sign of bad prognosis.


The family Nikolić of Rudna was one of the most important families of Serbian descent from Hungary. The history of this noble family is largely unknown, as it didn't receive much attention in the historiography. The present document was written by a member of the Nikolić family and addressed to the adopted son of baron Mihajlo Nikolić, Jovan Tirfelder. The document is an excellent information source about the history of the family. The document was written in German in the first decades of the 20th century. It comprises six pages and nowadays it is preserved, in a good state of conservation, in the document collection of the History department of the National Museum of Banat from Timișoara. The document comprises five short chapters: 1. General data about the Serbians in Hungar, 2. Sources about the history of our family, 3. The name of our family and its notation, 4. The history of our family end 5. Remarks regarding the use of the genealogical charts. The original documents regarding the history of the family before 1848 were lost during a fire, which occurred in Rudna during the 1848-1849 revolution. That is why it was necessary to use other sources in order to write the present document: e.g.: National Archives of Hungary in Budapest or the Archives of the Timiș County. A short history of the family, which contains previously unpublished aspects, constitutes the most significant part of this document and of the present article. Another part of the article is dedicated to the baron Fedor Nikolić of Rudna. He was the most important member of the family and a notability in Banat in the second half of the XIXth century. As a deputy, he represented various districts of Banat in the Hungarian parliament. He had an important position in the governing body of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1882-1886). Additionally he led several associations and commercial companies from Banat and Hungary and received various titles and medals.


Operational excellence is generally known as a management system integrated across critical functions that is geared towards continually improving operational performance. Functional areas such as health, environment and safety, quality and human resources are the focus of many corporate-wide operational excellence programs. Operational excellence also focuses on improving areas such as customer orientation, employee empowerment as well as process, and systems optimization. It is widely viewed as critical to sustaining business performance improvement. Although it is difficult to find a universally accepted definition, or even common foundation in many respects, operational excellence remains a popular term in the business world. Many organizations have developed their own version of organization excellence, influenced by such individual factors, other similar institutions or even third-party service providers. A mining organization is no different from other organizations in that adopting and implementing effective operational excellence programs can dramatically improve business execution and performance across regional or global interests. This paper brings together various perspectives of operational excellence and reconciles them for a useful composite for the mining industry. While most agree that operational excellence should include normal functions in a manufacturing operation such as production, maintenance and engineering and processes such as quality, environmental and continuous improvement, many other factors for operational excellence seem to vary from perspective to perspective. Thus, programs that manufacturers engage in may seem the same, but may, in fact, be different in key areas. This may affect organizational performance in tangible ways. Management must buy into the company's definition of operational excellence and be dedicated to achieving it. A review of many of the existing definitions of operational excellence, explicit or embedded as part of a program, seems to yield the following common factors: Mining for operational excellence


Delay-Tolerant Networks are used to enable communication in challenging environments where nodes are intermittently connected and an end-to-end path does not exist all the time between source and destination, e.g., Intermittently Connected Mobile Networks (ICMNs). Therefore, network environments where the nodes are characterized by opportunistic connectivity are appropriately modeled as Delay-Tolerant Networks (DTN). In this paper, we have investigated the performance of DTN routing protocols, namely Epidemic, PRoPHET, and Spray-and-Wait (Binary version) in an ICMN scenario. Their performances are analyzed in terms of delivery probability, average latency, and overhead ratio of varying message generation rates and number of mobile nodes, respectively. Opportunistic Network Environment (ONE) simulator is used as the simulation tool for evaluating these performance metrics. The outcome of this work shows that for the ICMN scenario, the best DTN routing technique is Binary Spray-and-Wait, whereas Epidemic routing exhibits the worst performance in terms of all the metrics considered here.


The features of the dynamic interaction of a solid with a vibrating surface based on the use of generalized forms of description of the manifestations of unilateral constraints are considered. Mathematical models of dynamic interactions with the introduction of additional external forces and elastic ties that affect both the formation conditions of poor connection, and the path of movement during free of approach are developed. Approaches to the development of mathematical models to determine the conditions for the formation of dynamic reactions in the vibrational structure consisting of several interconnected elements, including with the possibility of pre-pressing by elastic ties and power factors are proposed. Methods of theoretical mechanics, theory of mechanisms and machines, oscillation theory, control theory and methods of applied mathematics and computational modeling are used to solve objectives of the study.


The molecular packing and resultant charge transport behaviors of semiconducting polymers are widely known to be temperature‐dependent. Due to the limitation of measurement methods, previous studies on molecular packing behavior have been mainly focused on a very limited temperature range, and therefore cannot support the understanding of charge transport behaviors. In this study, with a homemade temperature‐dependent grazing incidence XRD measurement chamber, the relationship between molecular packing structure and charge transport properties of diketopyrrolopyrrole‐based polymers is investigated across a wide temperature range of 98–623 K. Glass transition temperatures of the alkyl side‐chain and aromatic backbone are identified through the observation of clear transitions in the thermal expansion coefficients of d−d packing and π−π stacking, respectively. A correlation between the π−π stacking distance and charge transport properties is then established using an extended Miller−Abrahams model. The turning point of the charge transport and the failure of the polymer‐based devices are proved to be caused by packing structure changes due to increased temperatures. Such an examination over a wide range of temperatures improves the understanding of the charge transport properties of semiconducting polymers and helps construct thermally stable devices to be used in extreme conditions.


How should I go about forming the group?  Who? Don't base study partners on friendship; look for people who stay alert in class, take notes, ask questions, and respond to the teacher's questions.  Where? Hold study group sessions in a place free of distractions with room to spread materials out.  How long? Study groups should meet for no more than 2-3 hours at a time.  When? If possible, try to meet on the same day(s) and time(s) each week. Treating the study session like you would a class helps you keep to a schedule and ensures that everyone will attend.