Abstract Background Subthreshold nanosecond laser (SNL) has been proposed to reduce the risk of intermediate age-related macular degeneration (iAMD) progressing to late AMD. The phase 3 LEAD Study post-hoc analysis indicates a potentially large benefit from SNL treatment of eyes without reticular pseudodrusen. This real-world study reports the three-year outcomes of SNL treatment of iAMD without reticular pseudodrusen (RPD). Methods An observational retrospective single-centre cohort study of all patients with iAMD, centre-involving large soft drusen without RPD, treated with SNL and with three-year follow up. The primary outcome measured was progression to late AMD; neovascular AMD (nAMD) or geographic atrophy (GA). Results There were 120 eyes of 64 patients. At baseline, the cohort had a high-risk profile; drusen median area, volume and largest diameter were 0.70mm2 (IQR: 0.20 to 1.50), 0.03mm3 (IQR: 0.01 to 0.08) and 835m (IQR: 446.50 to 1398.50) respectively and hyperreflective foci were present in 56.67% and hyporeflective drusen cores in 25.83%. Eyes had a mean of 3.03 treatments. By three years, progression to late AMD occurred in 5.83% of eyes, all to GA. Mean visual acuity declined very slightly. Conclusion The three-year progression rate was low compared with published 36-month natural histories for iAMD without RPD. The progression rate was similar to the LEAD study SNL-treated group without RPD. This study supports the hypothesis that SNL for the iAMD without RPD may reduce progression to late AMD. Further investigation is warranted.


Understanding what is going on around us is equivalent to building models and confronting them with observations. However, we are dealing with the complex world in which variables involved are not known to any comparable degree of detail. What is complexity ? Complexity is an idea that is part of our everyday experience. Quite often, in analyzing complexity the very choice of what should be a pertinent variable may well be part of the problem we try to solve.


A novel mathematical model of micro socio-economic behavior is proposed. It is based on the new concept of the informational channel, viewed as an elementary socio-economic cell. The processes, taking place within this cell, are described by a set of partial differential equations that relate the two main aspects of a socio-economic system: energy (any material asset, such as money, material property, etc.) and information.
The solution is obtained in the form of the Volterra integral equation that relates the value of disturbance upon the socio-economical cell and the value of the wealth function, which is defined as an integral characteristic of both material and informational components.
Two basic cases of disturbance were analyzed: a constant and a single-pulse flux. In both cases, the results show a quite natural behavior. The proposed model might serve as a basis for more advanced analysis of socio-economical systems.


Flagella is an unique structure that presents in appropriate half of bacillus,few coccus,and all of spirilla and vibrio.It is associated with bacterial motility and plays an important role in bacterial infection and immunity as well as classification.This review focused on the research progress on bacterial flagella,including staining methods,the structure and function of flagella gene,as well as immunegenicity.of flagellin.


In order to find producers' execution strategy selection for operators' illegal command in coal mine,the paper researched coal operators' illegal command in production process,developed the environment of producer stocks under this kind of illegal command and the Strategy Adjustment method of operators and producers,and gave the conditions that may affect the command behavior of operators and the behavior of producers.The result shows that,In order to reduce producers' execution to illegal command,the upper bound of production reward and lower bound of punishment shall be restricted,and it is a key measure to ensure safety to strengthen the safety education for producers and make them aware of the importance of safety of life.The results have the certain reference value and significance to improve coal generating safety.


Phototransduction in Drosophila's microvillar photoreceptors is mediated by phospholipase C (PLC) resulting in activation of two distinct Ca-permeable channels, TRP and TRPL. Here we review recent evidence on the unresolved mechanism of their activation, including the hypothesis that the channels are mechanically activated by physical effects of PIP2 depletion on the membrane, in combination with protons released by PLC. We also review molecularly explicit models indicating how Ca-dependent positive and negative feedback along with the ultracompartmentalization provided by the microvillar design can account for the ability of fly photoreceptors to respond to single photons 10–100 more rapidly than vertebrate rods, yet still signal under full sunlight.


All rings are assumed to be associative and with non-zero identity element. A ring is said to be right (left) invariant if all right (left) ideals of the ring are ideals. The term 'invariant ring' and similar terms mean that both the right and left conditions in question hold simultaneously. A module M = MA is said to be flat if the natural group homomorphism M → M ⊗A L is a monomorphism for every left A-module L, and a multiplication module if for every submodule N of M there is an ideal B of the ring A such that N = MB. An ideal X of a ring A is said to be left pure if x ∈ Xx for every element x ∈ X. If X is a subset of a module MA, then we denote by r(X) the right annihilator of the set X in A. IfM is a multiplication module over a commutative ring and the ideal r(M) is pure, then M is flat [1]. The main result of this note is Theorem 1.


In this project, a real-time data acquisition (DAQ) system for healthcare purposes has been developed. The system is able to display readings for the pulse rate (BPM) and oxygen level (SpO2) locally. The system is constructed using a controller, a sensor, and the processing IDE software to display the graphic user interface (GUI). It shows real-time data with a minimal reading error range of 2–3% when compared with market design. This does not affect the final judgement about the medical condition of a user. The system would be useful for home-care patients, namely those who are suffering from heart diseases and people who need a home-care system. The system is cheap and simple to use for patients in home care as well as for those who are not able to go to hospitals.


We evaluate a number of the claims made in the debate between the prescriptive and critical literature that surrounds `excellence', with a particular focus on human resource and quality management. The critical literature contains two positions, broadly a traditional control perspective and the other concerned with the structuring of meaning. The empirical basis of the paper is an investigation of an HRM and quality initiative in a leading supermarket company. The initiative embodies many of the prescriptions of the gurus of excellence. We present both qualitative and quantitative data collected from shopfloor and managerial staff. Our findings lend little support to the traditional criticism that, if management objectives are realised, they are achieved through some combination of sham empowerment, work intensification and increased surveillance. Our evidence lends more support to the optimistic view that modern techniques of quality and human resource management can benefit employees. We suggest that the alternative concern with the way meanings are constructed has more plausibility, because the new managerial discourse of quality has affected the attitudes of a significant number of employees towards customer service. However, there was considerable variation in how employees received the programme's message and thus its effects are by no means uniform. Moreover, we encounter an unanticipated and previously unremarked consequence of managerial discourses, that employees use these as resources in their struggles with managers in order to bring managers into line with workforce expectations.


Objective: This study aims to examine the behavioral characteristics of children and adolescents who were bereaved by parental or sibling deaths. Method: Children and adolescents (4 boys and 4 girls) with a history of a first degree relative loss, who were admitted to the Marmara University Child Psychiatry Clinic in the last 12 months, were assessed. The behavioral problems were evaluated by clinical examination and the "Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL)". Results: The mean age of the sample was 11 ± 2.13 years. The time interval between the loss and the assessment was 15 months in avarage. The mean T scores were 53.88 ± 7.51 for CBCL Internalizing Scale, 51.00 ± 8.35 for Externalizing Scale and 53.38 ± 9.72 for Total Problem Score. One case was found to manifest clinically significant behavioral problem while four cases were in the borderline range for clinically significant distress. In an overall view, the sample did not show any significant behavioral problems. Discussion: Although the mean problem score of the overall group was not clinically significant, there is evidence that bereaved children and adolescents may manifest different behavioral problems.


The 'Bajo Grande' Wastewater Treatment Plant has a design capacity of 2.78 m3/s, and discharges into the Suquia River (Córdoba, Argentina). The river has an average flow rate of 10 m3/s, with lower values during the summer. Currently, the treatment plant does not have an accurate discharge-measurement system prior to the discharge into the river, which makes it difficult to evaluate the dosing of the disinfection treatment. The outflow rate is measured in a straight flume. However, at the inlet section of the flume, a 180° sharp bend induces a complex turbulent flow with instabilities and low-frequency velocity fluctuations which are not appropriate for flow quantification. In this type of flow, most of the in situ flow discharge-measurement systems have great uncertainty. Therefore, in situ flow measurements with an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler, Large-Scale Particle-Tracking Velocimetry techniques and a prototype-scale Detached Eddy Simulation model were combined to obtain a detailed characterization of the turbulent flow. The results provide flow rates, fields of mean flow velocity, temporal evolution, and characteristic parameters of the turbulence. This allowed a better understanding of the effects of turbulence and flow instabilities. The results provide a basis to validate numerical models used in the hydraulics design of contact chambers to improve the disinfection process.


One hundred sixty eight bacterial strains, isolated from soil and samples of vegetable in decomposition, were screened for the use of citrus pectin as the sole carbon source. 102 were positive for pectinase depolymerization in assay plates as evidenced by clear hydrolization halos. Among them, 30% presented considerable pectinolytic activity. The cultivation of these strains by submerged and semi-solid fermentation for polygalacturonase production indicated that five strains of Bacillus sp produced high quantities of the enzyme. The physico-chemical characteristics, such as optimum pH of 6.0 - 7.0, optimum temperatures between 45oC and 55oC, stability at temperatures above 40oC and in neutral and alkaline pH, were determined.


The origin of organic molecules occurring in complex media such as soils and sediments is still an enigma. In soils, for example, the occurrence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) is a major concern because these potentially toxic compounds may ultimately be transferred into food and drinking water. At present, two main hypotheses can be made for the origin of PAH in soils. PAH, or their precursors, can be synthesized by modem plants, within soil biomass and humic substance degradation. Alternatively, PAH may derive from fossil fuels and associated combustion products. In the present study, soils have been cultivated for 23 years with maize in order to label the organic matter with naturally {sup 13}C-enriched maize-derived carbon. {sup 13}C, {sup 14}C and molecular analysis of aromatic fractions from those soils show that the main part of PAH are ancient, most probably derived from fossil fuel and their combustion products.


One of the many efforts by governments to decrease disease during COVID-19 pandemic was reducing social contact and distance learning. In the long run, these decisions had ramifications beyond the risk of contracting the virus. Young people studying at universities have been deprived of contacts with their peers and forced to efficiently use technology for the purpose of acquiring knowledge. It required the ability to maintain or regain mental health despite experiencing difficulties that is called "resilience". The main aim of this paper is to present the results of quantitative analysis of the perceived stress, cyber and psychological resilience of Polish students. The analyses show that majority of students use digital devices in an informed and safe manner while most of them presented high levels of stress and rather low or medium resilience, which may raise questions about the positive adaptation of students to remote learning and coping with pandemic situations in general.


Pleural implant experiments using Sprague-Dawley rats have shown that those injected with the carcinogen 15,16-dihydro-11-methylcyclopenta[a]phenenthren-17-one (11-methyl-17-ketone) intraperitoneally followed by silica fibres intrapleurally develop mesotheliomas. These tumours were histologically similar to those induced by crocidolite alone. The intraperitoneal injection of 11-methyl-17-ketone also induced leukaemia.


COVID-19 has brought increased attention to the importance of health literacy, including understanding of the transmission and prevention of disease. This study presents data from a project aimed at developing a computational modeling microworld to help middle school students learn about these topics. Specifically, the microworld is meant to help students model and test their ideas about how a disease spreads through a population and how an epidemic can be prevented. The paper analyzes one student's knowledge refinement through the building, testing, and debugging of a disease spread and prevention model. We model student refinement of thinking through steps of building initial models and predicting results, testing initial models and making sense of the results, debugging and retesting models, observing final models, and explaining results. Our findings suggest adolescents can learn about strategies for disease prevention through computational modeling. © ISLS.


Competition is a kind of economic category,and is the basis and motive power of market economic development.The subjects of market economy should compete by making use of competition mechanism,and obeying competition regulation.Competition and confrontation in economic operation greatly affect industrial development,but it also have positive significance.Therefore,enterprises should make good use of competition methods to achieve the winwin economic goal.


The invention discloses a method, device and terminal for recording voice information. The method comprises the following steps: monitoring sliding path of touch points of a touch object on a screen in a voice information recording process; diagnosing whether the touch points slide out of voice recording area or not; conducting pause on voice recording when the touch points slide out of the voice recording area. According to the invention, voice recording pause at any time according to requirements of a user in the voice recording process is realized; voice information recording efficiency is improved.


Described are a method and an apparatus for experimental simulation static or dynamic effects of physical stress variables of at least one real structure to be connected via at least one interface with the real structure Prufkorperstruktur. The invention is characterized by the combination of the following process steps: Determining at least one interface between the at least one real structure and the Prufkorperstruktur and creating a physical load variables representing the data set, - providing at least one actuator unit instead of the at least one real structure at the location of at least one interface and connecting the Prufkorperstruktur with the at least one actuator unit and - driving the at least one actuator on the basis of the physical load variables representing the data set to simulate the forces acting on the test specimen physical stress variables on the part of at least one real structure.


This paper presents a pricing method with respect to China stock warrants,based on dilution effect and implied volatility,and applies it to out-of-time prediction.The result shows that,whether in-time pricing or out-of-time prediction of warrant price model-guided nonparametric correction method based on dilution effect and implied volatility outperforms other pricing models including nonparametric correction method based on Ad hoc BS model,semi-parametric model and parametric model.


The internal pressure hollow fiber membrane was used to treat the backwash water from sand filters in a water supply plant.The treatment capacity was 2.4 m3/h.The result indicates that Giardia and Cryptosporidium in the backwash water from sand filters are completely removed by ultrafiltration.After disinfection,the treated water can be sent to the clean water basin,and the recovery rate is above 95%,which reduces the water resources waste and has no effect on the principal flow of the water supply plant.The ultrafiltration cost can be controlled within 0.13 Yuan/m3.


This paper wishes to illustrate the functioning of 400/220 kV Rosiori power substation from National Power Grid – Romania, during the permanent regime and the behaviour of the electric equipment of the power substation regarding this phenomenon. According to the obtained results, we suggest that the power substation functioning of quality parameters, according to the new requirements of ENTSO – E (European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity. The objectives of the study: each new or upgraded power substation being the critical power infrastructure should be subject to a well-functioning risk assessment, by: simulation of different operating modes, assessment of occupational health and safety risks, assessment of security risks an assessment of reliability parameters, in the context of ensuring safety and security of electricity supply.


This nationwide survey was conducted to evaluate the current status of the database system on gastric cancer patients in Korea. The Information Committee of Korean Gastric Cancer Association (KGCA) sent questionnaires about the database management to all 402 KGCA members in 110 institutes. In addition, we asked them to send the gastric cancer sheet and the pathologic report of gastric cancer used in their institutes. Response rates were (76/402) for individuals and (57/110) for institutes, respectively. Most of the university hospitals responded to the questionnaire (response rate of university hospital: , 44/59). A regular conference of gastric cancer and a digitalization of the database on gastric cancer patients were performed in 29 () and 43 () out of 57 institutes, respectively. MS excel was most commonly used for the digitalization of the database, followed by MS access and SPSS. A regularly formed gastric cancer sheet and pathologic report were used in 38 () and 49 () institutes, respectively. Hospital computerization, such as an Order Communicating System, an Electric Medical Record, and a Picture Archiving/Communicating System had been set up previously or would be set up in the near future in most institutes. In 25 gastric cancer sheets collected, the mean number of total items was 72.9 (). Identification datafor the patients, surgical data, and pathologic data were included on most of the sheets, but preoperative status, preoperative diagnostic data, and postoperative hospital course were not.


The cruise industry chain is composed of three industries,including cruise manufacturing,cruise ship service and cruise matching construction.Nantong Shipping College,for the international cruise crew management major,established the school enterprise cooperation mechanism of the double main body and the personnel-training mode of post-certificate integration,and improved the experimental training equipment.However,low training level and unreasonable curriculum design are in the face of the college.Improvement of cruise talents should be based on the cruise industry chain and education of vocational colleges and optimization of the professional function curriculum system to make the training levels meet development needs of the cruise.


Perelman has given a gradient formulation for the Ricci flow, introducing an 'entropy function' which increases monotonically along the flow. We pursue a thermodynamic analogy and apply Ricci flow ideas to general relativity. We investigate whether Perelman's entropy is related to (Bekenstein–Hawking) geometric entropy as familiar from black hole thermodynamics. From a study of the fixed points of the flow, we conclude that Perelman entropy is not connected to geometric entropy. However, we note that there is a very similar flow which does appear to be connected to geometric entropy. The new flow may find applications in black hole physics suggesting, for instance, new approaches to the Penrose inequality.


Second quantization is used to expand the product of two harmonic oscillator wavefunctions, of two different particles, centred on different sites, in terms of relative and centre of mass coordinate dependent functions.


This guide specifically supports the coursework for German 2991, 5790, & 7790, as well as Fairy Tales studies in general.


The technique of processing the test results to the destruction of samples cut from slings and dome fabric after prolonged use or storage of the parachute is described. The normal law of load distribution before failure is adopted.It is proposed to find the minimum breaking load as the lower confidence limit depending on the number of tested samples and a confidence probability of 0.99.The results of strength tests of samples from the parachutes of the landing D-5 series 2 of 1983, the spare Z-5 of 1984, and the rescue S-5K series 2 of 1989 are presented.A total of 301 samples were tested, including 54 samples from slings D-5, 48 samples from slings Z-5 and S-5K, samples from fabrics of domes on the base and weft. Samples from slings were cut out at the edge of the dome, in the middle, at the arc buckles.Fabric samples were cut radially from the top to the edge of the dome. The dependence of the strength characteristics on the location of the samples along the length of the slings or the dome panel has not been established.There are no gross errors in the tests according to the Grubbs criterion.The strength degradation coefficients of the slings and fabrics of the domes are determined as the ratio of the breaking load after long-term operation or storage to the initial values adopted during the design.The proximity of the degradation coefficients of slings and dome fabrics was noted. Based on the set of test results in order to obtain the minimum values of the degradation coefficients, a linear dependence on the life of the parachute is established.This period should be counted from the year the parachute was made.The dependence of the minimum degradation coefficients (maximum degradation) on the service life makes it possible to assess the drop in the strength characteristics of the structural elements with increasing service life. This dependence allows you to predict the maximum allowable landing speed when deciding on the extension of the life of the parachute.


Objective To investigate the relationship between the expressions of IL-17and FoxP-3and endometriosis(EMs). Methods By using immunohistochemistry method,the expressions of IL-17and FoxP-3in ectopic endometrium tissues of 35EMs patients,in eutopic endometrium tissues of 20EMs patients and in normal endometrium tissues of 15women were detected. Results The positive rates of IL-17in ectopic endometrium,eutopic endometrium and normal endometrium were 85.71%(30/35),20.00%(4/20)and 6.67%(1/15),respectively;that of FoxP-3in ectopic endometrium,eutopic endometrium and normal endometrium were 82.86%(29/35),30.00%(6/20)and 46.67%(7/15).The levels of both IL-17and FoxP-3in ectopic endometrium were higher than that in the eutopic and normal endometrium,and the expression of IL-17in eutopic endometrium of EMs patients was higher than that in normal endometrium(χ2=36.32,16.23;P0.05).But the difference of positive FoxP-3expression in between eutopic endometrium of the patients with EMs and normal control was not statistically significant(P0.05). Conclusion The overexpressions of IL-17and FoxP-3are likely involved in the occurrence and development of EMs.


Dissipative particle dynamics is a particle-based mesoscopic simulation method. Classic dissipative particle dynamics cannot be used to simulate heat transfer in fluids since the total energy of the system is not conserved. In this article, two-dimensional unsteady heat conduction is first investigated using dissipative particle dynamics with energy conservation. The energy conservative dissipative particle dynamics results are compared with the FLUENT simulation data, and it demonstrates that they are in good agreement with each other. Then, forced convection heat transfers in microchannel of the same wall temperature and different wall temperatures are simulated, respectively, by using periodic boundary condition of dimensionless temperature. The results show that the velocity, temperature, and dimensionless temperature distributions are consistent with theoretical results. Finally, we give a qualitative analysis about the applicability of the energy conservative dissipative particle dynamics approach in simulating flow and heat transfer in rough microchannel.


To determine the relationship between the frequency of self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG), diet and the level of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) among children with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Material and methods. The study was conducted in 39 children with type 1 diabetes mellitus in Khanty-Mansiysk. Of these, 20 (51.3%) are girls and 19 (48.7%) are boys, aged from 4 to 18 years. The main group (14 people) performed glycemic control ≥6 times a day, in the comparison group the control was less frequent (less than 6 times a day). Results and discussion. In the group with a high frequency of glycemic control, HbA1c levels significantly decreased, compared with the children of the comparison group, and reached the target HbA1c level (<7.1%) of 71% of patients, In patients whose glucose monitoring frequency was less than 4-6 times a day, the chances of reaching the target HbA1c level significantly decreased to 17% (p<0.05). Conclusion. Frequent blood glucose levels, the use of the XE system and the continuous glucose monitoring system in children and adolescents with DM1 reflect a commitment to diabetes control and allow achieving the target HbA1c level.


Objective: To observe the effects of ginkgo biloba extract(EGb) on apoptosis following renal ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats. Methods: The model of bilateral post-ischemic renal injury by clamping renal pedicles for 45 minutes following 24-hour reperfusion was established. Pathologic and ultrastructural changes were examined by optic and electron microscopy. Apoptosis of tubular cells was assessed by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) method, and the percentage of apoptosis was detected using flow cytometry. The plasma concentrations of creatinine and urea nitrogen were measured for the assessment of renal dysfunction. Results: The damage induced by ischemia/reperfusion was less markedly in EGb pretreated group. Sections of ischemia/reperfusion group showed apoptotic body in hematoxylin and eosin(HE)-stained. The apoptotic cells of uriniferous tubules were increased significantly in ischemia/reperfusion group than those in sham operation group. The TUNEL positive cells and the percentage of apoptotic cell in EGb group decreased significantly (P0.01), and the tissue damage ameliorated markedly compared with ischemia/reperfusion group. Conclusion: Inhibition of apoptosis may be responsible for the (renal) protective effects of EGb in rats with renal ischemia/reperfusion injury.


Objectives The purpose of this study is to explore the perception of online theoretical classes, online clinical practice and clinical practice conducted in hybrid(online/offline) learning of nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The qualitative study was conducted to gain insight into students' learning experiences. It is also to provide data for teaching and learning methods suitable for the new environment.
Methods 553 statements were collected from 83 nursing students who experienced both online theoretical classes and clinical practice and offline clinical practice. The collected data were analyzed by the proposed domain analysis by Spradley(1980) and Newing et al.(2011). The meaningful experience or attributes of the statement were selected as the subject. While identifying the subject as a similar concept, the domain was constructed by categorizing statements. By confirming the relationship with the concept, the classification system was composed of major domain, middle domain, and minor domain.
Results The data analysis results consisted of 6 major domain, 55 middle domain, and 70 minor domain. The major domain of nursing students' perception of online theoretical classes are 'the harmony between unfamiliarity and recency' and 'growing pains of learning alone'. The major domain of nursing students' perception of online clinical practice are 'diversification of ontact learning' and 'insecure learning journey'. The major domain of nursing students' perception of clinical practice are 'valuing of experience' and 'difficulty of field sensitivity'.
Conclusions Online classes need to be designed to be realistic and stimulate interactions. Learners are required to develop self-management skills and efforts to manage students' stress levels in clinical practice sessions need to be continued.


.Solid State M-2-MeO-CP compounds, where M stands for bivalent metals (Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn) and 2-MeO-CP is 2-methoxycinnamylidenepyruvate, were synthesized. Simultaneous thermogravimetry and differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), elemental analysis and complexometry were used to establish the stoichiometry and to study the thermal behaviour of these compounds in CO and N atmospheres. The results were consistent with the general formula: M(L) ·H O. In 2 2 2 2


To solve the problems that the vibration signals from a gearbox are usually noisy and fault samples are usually insufficient,an intelligent diagnosis for gear fault identification based on feature-level information fusion by using discrete w avelet-SVM(support vector machine) is presented for multi-class gear fault diagnosis.According to this method,feature vectors w ere fused after extracted from gear vibration signals by discrete w avelet transform and they w ere input into a multiple-fault classifier of the support vector machine for fault identification.The experimental results show that this method can achieve precise classification quickly w ith small training samples and the diagnostic accuracy identification rate can reach 96.67%.The peak and peak factor are the most sensitive characters for gear fault diagnosis and the diagnostic accuracy rate can reach 95% by using the characters to perform multi-sensor information fusion.This method is more suitable for practical application of gear fault diagnosis and can provide theoretical basis for the further innovation research on fast multi-class gear fault diagnosis.


What if I cannot pay a court fine by the due date? Any fine imposed by a court is payable within 28 days from (and including) the day on which the


A number of 1-R-3-hydroxypyrazolo [3,4-b] pyridines are obtained by cyclocondensation of a 1-R-5-aminopyrazolin-3-one with β-dicarbonyl compounds.

The first step of this synthesis involves the most reactive carbonyl group exclusively and, competitively, the 4-position and the amino function of the pyrazolone.

The orientation of the reaction is dependent on the nature of the β-dicarbonyl precursor.


The Quick Urban and Industrial Complex (QUIC) dispersion modeling system was developed with the goal of improving the transport and dispersion modeling capabilities within urban areas. The modeling system has the ability to rapidly obtain a detailed 3D flow field around building clusters and uses an urbanized Lagrangian random-walk approach to account for transport and dispersion (e.g., see Singh et al., 2008; Williams et al., 2009; and Gowardhan et al., 2009). In addition to wind-tunnel testing, the dispersion modeling system has been evaluated against full-scale urban tracer experiments performed in Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City, and New York City (Gowardhan et al., 2006; Gowardhan et al., 2009; Allwine et al., 2008) and the wind model output to measurements taken in downtown Oklahoma City.


ESSAYS ON MIGRATION, ENERGY USE, EMISSIONS, AND SCHOOL ASSIGNMENT By CODY KARL REINHARDT 4/1/2018 Committee Chair: Dr. H. Spencer Banzhaf Major Department: Economics This dissertation has two essays. The first studies migration patterns in the U.S. and the relationship between migration patterns and energy use and carbon emissions. It uses a two-city model of energy use and household migration to analyze emission implications from city level green policies. Per-household emissions are calculated for the largest 49 MSA's in the U.S. and data on migration patterns used to assign substitute locations to migrating households. Results show large differences in net carbon emissions from migration, which has implications for a wide range of policies affecting migration decisions. The second essay studies how school quality is assigned to properties through various methods. It first replicates methods in the literature, such as assignment by distance and district means, and adds new methods to assign measures of school quality to census blocks. Next, these assignments are compared to a new dataset of school assignment to determine accuracy. Both distance matching and assignment by district means are shown to be relatively inaccurate methods of assignment. The accuracy also varies over space and district size. ESSAYS ON MIGRATION, ENERGY USE, EMISSIONS, AND SCHOOL ASSIGNMENT BY CODY KARL REINHARDT A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies of Georgia State University GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY 2019 ACCEPTANCE This dissertation was prepared under the direction of the candidate's Dissertation Committee. It has been approved and accepted by all members of that committee, and it has been accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Economics in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies of Georgia State University. Dissertation Chair: Dr. H. Spencer Banzhaf Committee: Dr. Kyle Mangum Dr. Daniel Kreisman Dr. John Winters Electronic Version Approved: Dr. Sally Wallace, Dean Andrew Young School of Policy Studies Georgia State University May, 2019


The stability of the minerals is different and the discrepancy of their response to the different preserved environment is very large for different species.The stability of the mineral from the different formation conditions is firstly presented.Then the influence factors of light temperature and humidity on mineral stability is analyzed,and last how to conservation is proposed.


Protein A has become a well-established platform for capturing of monoclonal antibodies and Fc-fusion proteins. Various Protein A resins have been commercialized, one with a higher dynamic binding capacity than the other. Especially the latest generation of Protein A resins was developed to bind large quantities of mAbs and Fc fusion proteins. One drawback of these resins is that host cell protein (HCP) clearance can be depending on the feedstream comparatively lower than for standard Protein A affinity resins. When aiming for a 2-step platform process, no compromises can be made with regards to HCP removal of the capturing step. The remaining impurity burden would have to be covered by just one subsequent chromatography step. Hence, development of strategies or procedures to reduce the HCP content of the Protein A elution pool are key for the development of such purification processes. Post load washing steps during Protein A chromatography may improve HCP clearance of the capturing step. However, the employed wash buffers must not affect other product related quality criteria, such as aggregate levels and mAb activity. Besides, the impact of different wash steps on the parameters determining process economics, that is product recovery, dynamic binding capacity and resin lifetime, should be evaluated. MATERIALS & METHODS


Abstract : In a time of information glut, observations about complex systems and phenomena of interest are available in several application areas, such as bioinformatics, computational biology, and electronic text processing. As a consequence, scientists have started searching for patterns that involve interactions among the objects of analysis, to the effect that research on models and algorithms for network analysis has become a central theme for KDD. The intuition behind the plethora of approaches relies upon a few basic types of networks, which are identified by specific local and global topological properties, and which the authors term "pure" topology types. In this paper, the authors do the following: (1) survey pure topology types along with existing sampling algorithms that generate them; (2) introduce novel algorithms that enhance the diversity of samples, and address the case of cellular topologies; (3) perform statistical studies of the stability of the properties of pure types to alternative generative algorithms; and (4) perform a joint study of the separability of pure types in terms of their embedding in a space of metrics for network analysis. The results show that the sampling algorithms entail low stability of topological properties entailed by alternative algorithms, and lead to weak separability topology types. The authors spell out the implications of these results for practitioners. They conclude that real world networks hardly present the variability profile of a single pure type, and suggest the assumption of "mixtures of types" as a better starting point for developing models and algorithms for network analysis.


Review(s) of: Mary MacKillop: A Window of Hope, by Monica Cavanagh rsj, (Melbourne: Wilkinson Publishing, 2010), pp.96, $9.95. Review(s) of: Mary Mackillop on Mission to Her Last Breath: Correspondence about the Foundations of the Sisters of St Joseph in Aotearoa New Zealand and Mary's Final Years 1881-1909, by Sheila McCreanor rsj, ed. (North Sydney: Trustees of the Sisters of St Joseph, 2010) pp.401, $37.95.


A 74-year-old man presented with a 2-year history of painless swelling of the pulp of his left middle finger. There was no history of prior trauma, and his medical history was unremarkable. On examination, he had a single soft, nontender swelling, 17 · 20 mm in size, of the pulp of his finger (Fig. 1). The swelling was freely mobile and the overlying skin was normal. There were no other significant dermatological lesions. Ultrasonography showed a well-defined swelling, free from the tendon sheaths and the distal interphalangeal joint, with a fine echogenic pattern suggesting a gelatinous material. Needle-aspiration cytology was attempted without success. A 4-mm punch biopsy was made through the skin surface, whereupon an apparently encapsulated swelling was identified and expressed intact. The contents were sent for histopathological examination. Following the punch biopsy and extrusion, the swelling completely settled and the wound healed with a small scar.


Objectives: In view of the promising potential of plant molluscicides, 10 plants indigenous to Sudan and of common use in Sudanese folk-medicine, were screened for their molluscicidal activity, using two local snail vectors, Bulinus truncates and Biomphalaria pfeifferi . Results: At different concentrations up to 500 ppm., seven plant samples were found to be lethal to both of the snail species. The pet. ether/CHCH 3 (1:1) extracts of 6 plants were lethal as molluscicidal agents while only two plants showed 100% mortality to the snails as methanol extracts. The two most active plants that killed both snail hosts ( ≤ 50 ppm.), were obtained from the whole plant of Ambrosia maritimae (Asteraceae) and the fruits of Croton zambesicus (Euphorbiaceae). These two plants when phytochemically screened for their active constituents, they showed the presence of sterols and cardenolides. Conclusion: Vegetable molluscicides can be grown and can be used by communities in endemic areas to combat schistosomiasis.


Background: Positive birth outcome is often the result of adequate utilization of recommended antenatal services. Time of first antenatal visit, number of recommended visits and the content of care are the determinants of adequacy of care. National Family Health Survey III reveals a gap between availability of services and utilization of the services by antenatal women in Chennai. Objective: This research was taken up to evaluate the role of focused counseling of antenatal women and their family members on adequate utilization of antenatal services. Materials and Methods: This is a non randomized controlled study carried out in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, with 150 women in each of the intervention and control group. Antenatal women registering within 12 weeks of pregnancy were enrolled and followed throughout pregnancy. Women in the intervention group received both focused counseling and routine care given by the health centre, while women in the control group received routine care given by the health centre alone.  Observation: The number of women who had all five recommended visits and those who had at least one visit per month in the third trimester was higher in the intervention group. Hemoglobin estimation was done in 66% and 54% of antenatal visits in the intervention and control groups. Urine analysis was done in only 50% of visits in both groups. Mann Whitney U test was done to compare the overall utilization of recommended services during the antenatal visits between the study groups. Utilization of services by the intervention group (Mean rank 162.76) was higher than the control group (Mean rank = 129.35) with a statistically significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.001). Conclusion: Utilization of recommended services was higher among women who were given focused counseling. Maternal education status is more pertinent than the education of the spouse in influencing utilization of services However laboratory services like hemoglobin estimation, blood sugar estimation, and urine analysis for albumin and sugar were suboptimal in both groups. Focused counseling, if provided as part of routine health care services to  antenatal women and their family members will not only give them better understanding on the importance of recommended services to be availed, but also empower them to demand the services.


The objective of this study was to investigate the change over time in hearing threshold levels (HTL: s) among employees in different occupations. The question was; does the improvement of HTL: s during the 1970's and 1980's shown in previous studies continue into the 1990's? The subjects were selected from the existing HTL database in the county of Östergötland in Sweden and separated in age groups of 30-39, 40-49 and 50-59 years old. The time periods for audiometry were 1971-1976, 1981-1986 and 1991-1996. The subjects had been exposed to occupational noise more than two hours a day and the categories of occupation were mechanical work and wood processing. A total number of 15054 audiograms were included in the statistical analysis. The results show that the HTL: s of people employed in these occupations have decreased between the 1980's and the 1990's and the trend with decreasing noiseinduced hearing loss in Sweden during the 1970's and 1980's continues into the 1990's. The difference between the right and the left ear was also investigated and in all groups with side difference the HTL was larger at the left ear. Possible explanations to the improvement might be a wider use of hearing protectors at work and during military service. The results show that the hearing conservation programs still are meaningful and that the awareness of noise induced occupational hearing loss has improved. 1 INTRODUCTION In many countries the most prevalent irreversible industrial disease is noise-induced hearing loss [1]. According to the National Board of Occupational Safety and Health in Sweden [2] noise is the third most common cause of occupational disease for men in Sweden. It has been reported that the decrease in prevalence of noise-induced hearing loss in Sweden during the 1970's and 1980's has stopped during the 1990's [3]. The main aim of this study was to investigate the change over time in hearing threshold levels (HTL:s) among employees in different occupations in the Swedish County of Östergötland. The secondary aim was to compare the results to available reference material of normal hearing. The question was: has the improvement of hearing threshold levels during the 1970's and 1980's stopped during the 1990's? 2 METHODS The audiograms were selected from the existing HTL database in the county of Östergötland in Sweden. The selection criteria were: • Category of occupation: mechanical work, wood processing • Age at test: 30-39; 40-49; 50-59 years • Time period for audiometry: 1971-01-01 to 1976-12-31; 1981-01-01 to 1986-12-31; 1991-01-01 to 1996-12-31 Copyright SFA InterNoise 2000 2 • Noise exposure: >2 hours/day • Gender: male The dependent variable was hearing threshold level by air conduction. The test frequencies included in the statistical analysis were 4, 6 and 8 kHz for right and left ears. The data were summarised as median, 1 and 3 quartile values for grouped distributions [4]. A total of 15058 audiograms were included in the statistical analysis unequally distributed over 18 groups. As reference data ISO 1999 database A for males [5] was used. The hearing threshold levels of this highly screened otologically normal population have been corrected according to Passchier-Vermeer [6]. To estimate the number of normal-hearing subjects a classification according to Klockhoff et al [7] was used. Normal hearing was defined as HTL:s less than or equal to 30 dB HL at 500 Hz and less than or equal to 25 dB HL at 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 kHz. 3 RESULTS 3.1 Improvement over time The group of mechanical workers shows a continuing improvement of hearing threshold levels during the 1980's and 1990's for all three age-categories (figures 1, 2 and 3). The group working with wood processing shows an improvement from the 1980's to the 1990's in the youngest age group of 30-39 years (figure 4). The age group 40-49 years improves significantly from the 1970's to the 1990's (figure 5). The age group 50-59 years improves at 4 kHz from the 1970's to the 1990's (figure 6). The statistically significant average decrease in median hearing threshold levels at 4 and 6 kHz from the 1980's to the 1990's in the youngest age group is 1 to 3 dB. In the age group 40-49 the average decrease is 3 to 6 dB. In the oldest age group the average decrease is 5 to 8 dB. The median hearing threshold levels at 4 kHz and 6 kHz in the 1990's do not differ significantly between wood processing workers and mechanical workers in any age group. There are also improvements at the frequency 8 kHz. Both among mechanical workers and wood processing workers the youngest age group has improved by 1 to 3 dB. In the age groups 40-49 and 50-59 years only the mechanical workers have changed significantly from the 1980's to the 1990's. The 40-49 years old improve by between 3 and 4 dB and the 50-59 years old by between 5 and 9 dB. There is no significant difference between wood processing workers and mechanical workers at 8 kHz in any age group in the 1990's. 3.2 Frequency and side differences All median threshold levels are significantly better at 8 kHz than at 6 kHz in the group of mechanical workers. In the group working with wood processing the result is the same during the 70's and 80's but there is no significant difference between 6 and 8 kHz in the 1990's. There is also a difference between the left and the right ear in many groups. For all groups with such a difference the median threshold level is poorer for the left ear than for the right ear. 3.3 Normal hearing The results from the classification show that the percentage of normal hearing subjects increases over time. In the 1990's the percentage of mechanical workers classified as normal-hearing on both ears was 66% among the 30 to 39 year age group, 34% among 40 to 49 years and 13% among 50 to 59 years. In the group of wood workers the figure was 57% among 30 to 39 years, 28% among 40 to 49 years and 11% among 50 to 59 years. Expected percentages with normal hearing are 89% at an age of 39 years, 70% at an age of 49 years and 46% at an age of 59 years. 4 DISCUSSION 4.1 Improvement over time The youngest age groups in both occupational categories have median hearing threshold levels in the 1990's as low as is possible to measure at the mixed screening levels of 0, 10 and 20 dB HL which have been used on different occasions. The significant improvement from the 1980's to the 1990's in the youngest age group is probably partly an artefact caused by the increased use of screening level at 10 dB in the 1990's compared to the 1980's. Even if the significant improvements are small in median values the improvements in 3 quartile, which reflects the most sensitive or most exposed part of the population, are obvious. Copyright SFA InterNoise 2000 3 Figure 1: HTL for 30-39 year old men with mechanical work. 4.2 Normal hearing In spite of the trend with continuing decrease in median HTL:s and percentage of subjects classified as normal-hearing there is still a large difference to the median HTL:s and estimated percentage of normal-hearing subjects in the reference material. 4.3 Future research In the process of performing this study it became clear that the possibility of following population changes with regard to occupational hearing loss has become very limited. Several large databases that were kept active into the early 90's have since been closed down. Since prevention of occupational disease requires constant monitoring and feedback, the lack of such databases in the future may turn into a serious weakness already during the next few years with regard to the epidemiology of occupational noise-induced hearing loss. 5 CONCLUSION Noise-induced hearing loss is still significant among exposed groups. However, the improvement of hearing threshold levels during the 1970's and 1980's has continued into the 1990's.


The present research explores the interactional nature of oral tasks carried out in two types of learner dyads in terms of their likelihood to foster negotiation for meaning during Language Related Episodes (LREs). Quantitative data analyses reveal how learners in same L1 dyads, Spanish English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, and in different L1 dyads, Canadian learners of Spanish and Spanish learners of English participating in a virtual exchange, modify their speech using negotiations and clarifications to make it comprehensible to their interlocutors. Eighteen different L1 dyads of university learners doing a virtual exchange (Canada-Spain) and eighteen dyads of Spanish-speakers learning English at the Spanish university carried out three oral communicative tasks online following the same procedures. Data were transcribed, LREs were identified, quantified for each dyad, and analyzed to determine their characteristics in terms of types of triggers, modified output, and type of feedback provided. Initial findings point to substantial differences in meaning negotiation occurring during LREs in each group. Different-L1 dyads exhibit more clarifications, meaning negotiation, and provide more feedback, which leads to higher amounts of comprehensible and modified output than learners in same L1 dyads.


The effect of temperature and humidity on the infection of wheat head tissues by four fungal species causing head blight (Fusarium avenaceum, F. graminearum, F. culmorum, Microdochium nivale) was studied by controlled- environment experiments. Detached spikes were inoculated at flowering with a spore suspension and incubated at different temperatures (10.0 to 35.0°C), wet and in a saturated atmosphere. Infection frequency of glumes after different incubation times (4 to 72 hours) was determined by re-isolation of the fungi that had been inoculated. Regression models were then elaborated and used to compare species and to define their cardinal temperatures for infection. F. avenaceum and F. graminearum showed the highest infection frequency, with optimum at 28.0-29.0°C; M. nivale and especially F. culmorum had a lower infection frequency, with optimum at 18.0°C and 26.5°C, respectively. Spikes were then inoculated at optimum temperature for each species, either in the presence or in the absence of a film of water, under different regimes of relative humidity (100% to 65%). Reduction of relative humidity during incubation increased the frequency of glumes infected by F. culmorum, whereas it created unfavourable conditions for the other species.


Melanoma is the most dangerous form of skin cancer with the majority of deaths arising from metastatic disease. Recent evidence implicates Rho‐activated gene transcription, mediated by the nuclear localization of the transcriptional coactivator, megakaryoblastic leukemia‐1 (MKL1), in melanoma metastasis. Here, we examine correlates of Rho expression and activity as well as markers of differentiation, migration, morphology, and tumorigenicity in a panel of human metastatic melanoma cell lines. Three melanoma lines with evidence of high Rho activity also show an aggressive and undifferentiated phenotype. These melanomas selectively overexpress RhoC but not RhoA and also have increased expression of mRNA for P75, a neural crest stem cell marker and decreased expression of melanocytic differentiation markers, MITF and TYR. To target the Rho/MKL transcriptional mechanism, we have developed a small molecule inhibitor of Rho‐regulated transcription. CCG‐203971, at low μM concentrations blocks nuclear localization of MKL, produces a more melanocyte‐like cellular morphology, decreases MKL target gene expression, and inhibits cellular migration of aggressive undifferentiated melanoma cells. These data link melanoma cell differentiation with Rho activity and support targeting the Rho/MKL transcriptional pathway as a novel approach to melanoma therapeutics. (Supported by NIH –T32‐GM007767)


Wi-Fi networks (or, more formally, IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Networks) are today ubiquitous. Everyone "connects to the Wi-Fi" in homes, offices, hotels, airports, trains and other public places. Sometimes we encounter situations where the signal strength is excellent, but the data rate is low. What causes this? The answer is complicated and requires an understanding of the 802.11 protocol. More specifically, how phenomena known as carrier sense blocking and interference impact WiFi performance. In this paper, we study this (and more) via 802.11g simulations using NetSim.


The reaction of [Th(I)(NR2)3] (R = SiMe3) with [K(18-crown-6)]2[S4] results in the formation of [K(18-crown-6)][Th(η(3)-S3)(NR2)3] (2). Oxidation of 2, or its uranium analogue, [K(18-crown-6)][U(η(3)-S3)(NR2)3] (1), with AgOTf, in an attempt to generate an [S3](•-) complex, results in the formation of [K(18-crown-6)][An(OTf)2(NR2)3] (3, An = U; 4, An = Th) as the only isolable products. These results suggest that the putative [S3](•-) ligand is only weakly coordinating and can be easily displaced by nucleophiles.


Background : Mianeh plain is one of the Mianeh – Hashtrud study region that located in east part of this region. Methods : Mianeh aquifer restricted by Germichai river from North, Aidoghmush and Shahrchai from West and gezeluzan river from South and this aquifer created by sedimentation of these rivers. This region from geologically and structurally aspects located in Alborz – Azarbaijan zone and contain different rock units from Paleozoic to Quaternary age Results : From climatology aspects this region falls in the semi-arid area on the base of Domartin classification. Water of this aquifer have sodic and classic caloric composition because of effects of geological, climatologically, hydrological and chemical composition of geological formation. From the view point of drinking, industry, and agriculture consumption the water of western region including Hesar village and industrial city and north including Galan Gedar and Sabz villages is in the worst form Conclusion : The water of aqifer in the recharge region at northern part of the aquifer is somehow acceptable and drinking, industrial, and agriculture usages are possible.


Abstract The "two-constants" theory introduced first by Laplace in 1805 is the currently accepted theory describing isotropic, linear elasticity. The original, microscopically-descriptive Navier-Stokes [MDNS] equations were derived in the course of the development of the two-constants theory. From the viewpoint of these equations, we trace their evolution and the notion of tensor following in historical order the various contributions of Navier, Cauchy, Poisson, Saint-Venant and Stokes 1, and note the concordance between each.


The article examines the feasibility of brand globalization in the modern environment of international marketing. Success in competition in foreign markets depends not only on the quality and price of products, but also on the use of marketing tools, among which a special place is occupied by branding technologies. For export-oriented companies, branding is one of the main elements of market activity. It was found that the brand is one of the significant non-price means of competitiveness management in the international market. As a result of the impact of globalization, the value of brands is growing, there is a need to create new and expand them into new product markets. It creates additional competitive advantages of the international company – the owner of the brand – in the field of product, pricing, distribution and communication policy. The main prerequisites for the success of brands at the global level are: unique marketing tools; brand functional features; flexibility of the company's actions; modern communication strategy; taking into account the cultural features of the country and its state symbols. A comparative assessment of the value of the most successful global and domestic brands. It is noted that the company's marketing decisions are important for the success of the brand. The issue of domestic brands entering the global market is quite relevant, because to increase the level of competitiveness at the global level, export-oriented business must operate under its own brand. It is established that the main problems for Ukrainian business on the world market are the following: non-acceptance of Ukrainian brands by foreign consumers; unpreparedness of some brands for certification and standardization; lack of support for brands at the consumer level, because the support of the product is carried out only to the level of distributors; lack of effective support for exporters at the state level. To overcome these problems, domestic com-panies should use such tools to adapt to global development trends as the constant introduction of innovative technologies in production processes, focus on social issues, strengthening consumer interests, transforming the values of the organization to increase internal and external competition.


Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory dermatosis caused by multiple factors in vivo and in vitro, such as genes, environment, psychiatric and psychological factors, etc. Various immunocytes, especially all subsets of CD4+ helper T cells, with their cytokines form complex regulatory networks, such as the interleukin(IL)-23/T helper type 17(Th17)axis and IL-4/Th2 axis, to regulate the initiation and progression of psoriasis. The innate immunity mediated by antigen-presenting cells(APC)and natural killer cells and acquired immunity mediated by T cells constitute the basis for maintaining immune homeostasis. This review summarizes recent advances in psoriasis-related innate and acquired immunocytes and associated signaling pathways, which may help to further clarify the immunological pathogenesis of psoriasis.

Key words:
Psoriasis; Immunology; Cytokines


The invention discloses a preparation method of a high-strength corrosion-resistant copper pipe for a heat exchanger. The high-strength corrosion-resistant copper pipe comprises a copper matrix and alloy metals. The alloy metals comprise, by weight, 0.5-0.6% of magnesium, 0.08-0.09% of silver, 0.2-0.4% of tin. 0.012-0.014% of zirconium, 0.012-0.014% of niobium, 0.05-0.06% of nickel, 0.005-0.008% of titanium and 0.02-0.04% of mischmetal. The mischmetal comprises yttrium, berkelium and lanthanum according to a mass ratio of 1: (0.15-0.2): (0.4-0.5). The preparation method utilizes upward continuous casting, rolling and drawing processes to replace casting, sawing, heating, extrusion and pickling processes of the traditional preparation method so that processes are greatly simplified, continuous production is realized, a period is short, and efficiency is high. A copper pipe prepared by the preparation method has oxygen content satisfying the oxygen-free copper level standard, has fine grains, and has mechanical strength, high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance and wear resistance obviously superior to the same performances of the existing copper pipe.


Submitted for the DAMOP06 Meeting of The American Physical Society Coherent acceleration of matter waves in circular waveguides OMJYOTI DUTTA, MARKKU JAASKELAINEN, PIERRE MEYSTRE, Dept. of Physics, University of Arizona — We consider the theory of coherent acceleration of matter waves in a circular waveguide. Loss of coherence during the acceleration process is modeled by taking into account excitations to higher transverse trap levels and the inclusion of classical noise in the accelerating force. The acceleration is optimized in the sense of generating a minimal amount of population in the excited mode in the perturbative limit by using a time dependent acceleration force which has the temporal profile of Blackman pulse. Omjyoti Dutta Dept of Physics, Univ. of Arizona Date submitted: 27 Jan 2006 Electronic form version 1.4


We present a principled solution to the problem of transferring grasps across objects. Our approach identifies, through autonomous exploration, the size and shape of object parts that consistently predict the applicability of a grasp across multiple objects. The robot can then use these parts to plan grasps onto novel objects. By contrast to most recent methods, we aim to solve the part-learning problem without the help of a human teacher. The robot collects training data autonomously by exploring different grasps on its own. The core principle of our approach is an intensive encoding of low-level sensorimotor uncertainty with probabilistic models, which allows the robot to generalize the noisy autonomously-generated grasps. Object shape, which is our main cue for predicting grasps, is encoded with surface densities, that model the spatial distribution of points that belong to an object's surface. Grasp parameters are modeled with grasp densities, that correspond to the spatial distribution of object-relative gripper poses that lead to a grasp. The size and shape of grasp-predicting parts are identified by sampling the cross-object correlation of local shape and grasp parameters. We approximate sampling and integrals via Monte Carlo methods to make our computer implementation tractable. We demonstrate the applicability of our method in simulation. A proof of concept on a real robot is also provided.


Abstract In this work a procedure is proposed to determine an optimal distribution of b-values in diffusion MRI measu-rements. The optimization procedure uses a method of Maximum Likelihood Estimation which can operate on any given number of b-values, values of the diffusion coefficients (ADC) and measurement noise strengths. Optimal b-values are calculated for white and gray brain matter. An optimi-zation for more than one ADC is demonstrated using multiple target values.


Given an $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}>1$ and a $\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}$ with unbounded continued fraction entries, we characterize new relations between Sturmian subshifts with slope $\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}$ with respect to (i) an $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ -Hölder regularity condition of a spectral metric, (ii) level sets defined in terms of the Diophantine properties of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}$ , and (iii) complexity notions which we call $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ -repetitiveness, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ -repulsiveness and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ -finiteness—generalizations of the properties known as linear repetitiveness, repulsiveness and power freeness, respectively. We show that the level sets relate naturally to (exact) Jarník sets and prove that their Hausdorff dimension is $2/(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}+1)$ .


If a new pipe material is to be used for gas or water service, a number of factors must be considered. Some of the factors affecting plastic pipe performance are: Installation, long-term strength, aging resistance, chemical resistance, type of failure, permeability, and quality control procedures. These factors are all susceptible to laboratory evaluation, and it is the purpose of this paper to study such a laboratory evaluation. Of course, there are other factors (such as cost) entering into the suitability of a new material for gas or water distribution piping, but these are not subjects for laboratory study. Although a laboratory study can supply considerable information about a material, the final choice of a material is often ultimately a matter of engineering judgment, based on its projected use and the conditions under which it will perform.


This article presents a conceptual model of the field director's role outside of field education, specifically in the following 3 areas of leadership: (1) curricular, (2) programmatic, and (3) institutional. A survey was conducted to explore the field director's input targeted in these areas beyond prescribed field education tasks. The results showed that 3 structural variables (field director as faculty member, field director in tenure-track position, field director as member of a program's administrative team) were significant in influencing the amount of input by field directors and in contributing to their self-perceptions of feeling valued.


Risk analysis of highway sign supporting structures and sound barriers was done. Stochastic wind load was modeled by using extreme value distribution from site measurement and the variability of structural parameters was considered. Limit state functions were defined to assess structural stability by wind and risk of highway facilities was analyzed by combining wind hazard. According to the numerical analysis results, sound barrier post shows significantly higher risk than highway sign supporting structures. This is caused by the fact that the design codes of the structures are different. To distribute wind induced risk in highway structures, unification and improvement of design codes are required based on risk assessment.


In this paper, we focus on the positioning of an unknown radio interference source (RIS) in cellular networks. To locate the unknown RIS in the current cellular system-s without modifying existing base station (BS) structure, we propose a novel positioning scheme based on received signal strength (RSS) information at the BS antenna ports. To solve the positioning objective function, we propose an algorithm named gradient search to achieve a good tradeoff between the positioning accuracy and computational complexity. The results show that the proposed positioning algorithm has a comparable accuracy with the maximum likelihood (ML) solution. Whereas, the computational complexity is much lower and it can be easily implemented in real systems.


The aims of the research were to identify the genes responsible for Albinism. The genes have been identified and analyzed using BLAST.The genes responsible for causing albinism are OCA and OA.Albinism is caused by a mutation in one of several genes. Four forms of OCA are now recognized – OCA1, OCA2, OCA3 and OCA4; some are further divided into subtypes.Each of these genes provides instructions for making one of several proteins involved in the production of melanin. Melanin is produced by cells called melanocytes, which are found in the skin and eyes. A mutation may result in no melanin at all or a significant decline in the amount of melanin thus resulting in albinism. The phylogenetic relation of the genes responsible albinism has been established using various bioinformatics tools like Clustal Omega, MUSCLE, PHYLM, MEGA X and BioEdit. This phylogenetic study has helped us analysis how these genes have evolved with time and what level similarity exists between these sequences. This study paves path for the future analysis of the genes and drug designing foralbinism.


The nation is recovering from Wimbledon pandemonium and the cricket season is upon us. Crispin Andrews takes a look at these two quintessential English sports and asks what is being done to inspire youngsters and develop the next generation of sporting st


The hot pressing molding process was used to prepare flame retardant basalt fiber fabric/polylactic acid composite,and the influences of the mass fraction of polylactic acid,hot pressing pressure and temperature,and flame retardant agent mass fraction on the tensile strength,bending strength and limiting oxygen index of the composite were examined.Through orthogonal experiments,range analysis and single factor analysis,the optimal process conditions for making the composite were obtained as follows: mass fraction of flame retardant agent 30%,mass fraction of polylactic acid 64.6%,hot pressing pressure 5 MPa,and hot pressing temperature 185 ℃.The results showed that although the mechanical properties of the basalt fiber fabric/polylactic acid composite prepared with addition of flame retardant agent magnesium hydrate reduced slightly,they were still better comparatively,and its limiting oxygen index could be increased up to 35.2%.


In this study, samples were taken from six conventional water treatment plants for disinfection by‐products analysis. Results from the analysis revealed that trihalomethanes (THMs) concentrations in all samples were below regulatory levels (100 μg/L). Although the national standard for haloacetic acids (HAA5) has not yet been promulgated in Taiwan, samples from two water plants contained HAA5 concentrations exceeding the USEPA limit (MCL of HAA5 of Stage 1, 60 μg/L). THMs and HAA5 were found to be the major disinfection by‐products in all water treatment plants. It was noted that the concentration of HAA5 in most samples was higher than that of the trihalomathanes. However, the formation potential of THM (THMFP) was found to be higher than that of HAA (HAAFP). Good correlation also was found between THMFP (or THMFP) and HAA5 (or THMs). In evaluating the performance of the treatment processes, it was found that conventional water treatment processes followed by activated carbon were effective in removing d...


Owing to the urban construction and rural surplus labor force,more and more peasants are flooding into cities to look for jobs.Their coming not only makes cities flourish and economic development,but also increases peasants income.But at the same time more social problems caused by these disadvantaged groups have appeared,such as"stay peasants",health care,unemployment compensation,behind in payment,children's education,peasant workers reeducation,prostitution of rural women and so on.These problems need us to multi-think.


✓ The postnatal development of the skull base was studied by dissection and radiography in 15 subjects, and the findings were correlated with the occurrence of traumatic cranionasal and crainioaural cerebrospinal fluid fistulas in seven children. The authors conclude that indications for operative repair of these fistulas are as strong in the child as in the adult, although diagnosis is sometimes more difficult.


Preface 1. The GLC years: In conversation with Anna Minton 2. The GLA years and beyond: In conversation with Anna Minton 3. Boris Will be the Death of Me 4. Rebuilding the Party, Rebuilding Britain 5. Ken: A Personal Portrait: Interview by Angharad Penrhyn Jones 6. 'I Don't Know Much About Art ' - but...


Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Reduning injection in children with herpangina.Methods Totally 120 children with herpangina were randomly divided into treatment group(n=60) and control group(n=60).Based on the routine therapy,patients in the treatment group were administered Reduning injection intravenously(0.6~0.8 mL/kg) once daily and those in the control group were administered ribavirin injection intravenously(10 mg/kg)once daily,for 3-5 days.The time for pyretolysis and extinction of herpes,as well as the adverse reactions in two groups were observed. Results The time for pyretolysis and extinction of herpes in the treatment group were significantly shorter than those in the control group(P0.01).The total effective rate and excellent effective rate of the treatment group were significantly higher than those of the control group(P0.05).No adverse reactions were observed in both groups.Conclusion Reduning injection is more effective than ribavirin injection in the treatment of herangina in children.


Coronary heart disease is the most deadly heart disease,so for that reason it's needed early diagnosis of this disease for medication efficacy. The one way of early diagnosis of Coronary Heart Disease done by a cardiologist is through the record of electrocardiography (ECG). Coronary heart disease detection can be automated by creating an ECG pattern recognition software. This requirement needed a quite high accuracy to obtain accurate diagnose result. In this research, implementation and performance analysis of RPROP(Resilient Propagation) method will be done to recognize ECG pattern of coronary heart. The result show that RPROP method give good performance in accuracy. The accuracy of ECG pattern recognition reach 100% for training data set and 84.21% for testing data set . Keywords: Electrocardiography (ECG), Artificial Neural Network, RPROP, Coronary Heart Disease


Making use of recycled and reused building materials and products in the building industry is well understood as an effective way of reducing the environmental impacts associated with materials. To facilitate the recycling of materials, buildings should be designed as recyclable buildings—buildings that enable the dismantling and the reuse or recycling of building elements and materials. However, currently buildings are seldom designed in this way. Environmental benefits have proved insufficient to encourage the production of recyclable buildings, and other benefits, in particular economic and social benefits, appear to be key in increasing the production of such buildings. This paper reports on a study of the social and economic benefits of recyclable buildings. The study investigates current building materials and components and their ability to be dismantled and reused or recycled. A questionnaire and interviews with building designers were used to investigate the potential and the barriers to the use ...


Being an archaeology professional in Portugal means, for the vast majority, working under job insecurity and labour law deregulation, in unworthy and unfair working conditions. In this sense, the elaboration of a Caderno Reivindicativo (a list of demands) for work in Archaeology is a concrete proposal for discussion and mobilization towards change and improvement of working conditions. Therefore, it is a fundamental and urgent line of action for STARQ – The Portuguese archaeologists' union. By inviting others to discuss the announced claims, STARQ seeks to expand the understanding of workers' rights, creating among them a greater sense of organization and unity, essential to the achievement and warranty of their rights


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Since the beginning of archaeology in the Pacific, monumental stone architecture has been repeatedly examined to help answer the enduring questions of Polynesian history: what are the origins of various peoples, how did Polynesian voyaging change in extent and intensity, what past contacts influenced cultural development, and what developments were internal? Stone structures throughout much of Polynesia, for example, the heiau , marae , tohua , and ahu moai , display similarities that have long been recognized to reflect shared history (e.g., Emory 1943; Fornanader 1969; Bellwood 1970), but they may also reflect similar past activities. Ubiquitous in Polynesia, specific sets of ceremonial architecture (e.g., heiau) are often defined in reference to the oral-traditional and ethnohistoric records of various groups (CacholaAbad 1996). Definitions of ceremonial architecture may also be linked to particular explanatory goals, or they may be implicit. Recent attempts at constructing a definition applicable to multiple sets of architecture (Graves and Sweeney 1993; Graves and Ladefoged 1995) suggest that ceremonial architecture consists of an outlined court that is sometimes raised


The phrase 'domestic soldiers' taken from Jennifer Purcell's book of the same title epitomises the attitude the government sought to pervade the home front and domestic sphere during the Second World War. The home front was promoted and portrayed as another battlefront with housewives at the fore. This position was constantly reinforced by posters, radio, magazines and newspapers, a version of 'soft propaganda' promoted by the British government. The mechanics of rationing, the ration books, coupons and points system are well documented. This case study will look at both food and clothing and examine some of the reality behind the popular images and rhetoric. How did housewives cope and what were the tactics available to them in times of ever increasing challenges and tensions?


In the areas of clinical diagnosis, gene expressions are known to have latent qualities as they denote the state of cells in molecular rankings. But the sample sizes are relatively small compared to the number of genes. Hence, the need to develop an efficient gene selection algorithm is appropriate to enhance predictive accuracy and as well prevent unfathomable conditions from the extensive quantity of genes. This article proposes an improved binary artificial bee colony algorithm (BABC) based on chaotic catfish effect for feature selection. Chaotic effect was added to the initialisation procedure of BABC, and further introduced chaotic catfish-bee for new nectar exploration, which can thus improve the BABC algorithm by preventing bees from getting trapped in a local optimum. The experiment shows that this new method indicated an elaborate feature simplification which achieved a very precise and significant accuracy of nine among the 11 datasets compared with other methods.


Abstract This paper focuses on virtual commissioning of a robotic manufacturing system, its theoretical background, and an analysis of its importance in the design of automated and robotic systems. Virtual commissioning allows the PLC control program to be tested and debugged on a created digital model of the machine, called a digital twin of the machine. Just this solution can simulate and optimize the automated system design itself without the need to have real hardware (PLC, automation elements, or the whole machine/equipment). Virtual commissioning offers an effective alternative to reduce the risks and effort of real commissioning of the machine. This makes it possible to reduce the time to market and increase flexibility, efficiency, and quality. Virtual commissioning in a single-control system is a simple solution; we can either use the Software-in-the-Loop method with emulated PLC control, simulated behavioural model, and co-simulation model or Hardware-in-the-Loop method with real controller. The problem appears when we have various types of controller, including an industrial robot controller. The paper deals with the theoretical background and partial outlines of solutions in the use of different types of the control system, if interconnections or emulators for different control systems are available. The recommended solution is to use a separate solution for the 3D simulation of the robotic system and an independent solution for the behavioural model, which will be tested in the future.


Partially reconfigurable devices are able to execute several tasks in parallel and allow for on-line reconfiguration. To manage such devices at runtime, the scheduler in the operating system has two more modules for hardware tasks: placer and loader. Placer is to find appropriate places in reconfigurable devices and loader is to do the reconfiguration for hardware tasks. In order to satisfy the timing constraints in hard real-time systems, we propose a fast online real-time scheduling algorithm. Our algorithm will be based on correct empty resource management and will utilize the reconfiguration reuse. The experiments show that the developed scheduler leads to substantial performance gains.


Many of the technology students in the first two years do not understand how the coursework is applied in the practice of engineering. These courses introduce engineering students to the type of tasks they are expected to handle on the job after graduation. Courses in automated manufacturing including computer numerical control (CNC) machining, materials handling, time and motion study, etc. should be designed to provide students hands on training towards their professional goals. The objective of this project is to manufacture a product using a complete manufacturing system. It includes manufacturing processes such as machining, materials handling, assembly, and inspection. The project also involves time and motion study, flow process charts, and operation sheets as usually required in an industrial production operation. The sample project presented here deals with the manufacturing of a shuttle selector manifold in an industry environment. The manifold was manufactured by a group of students in a local manufacturing company. Methods engineering and work measurements functions were performed wherever possible. The manifold is designed to work on hydraulic systems using petroleum based fluid up to 3000 psi.


. Phosphorus was extracted from 32 field soil samples with water (P w ), with 0.5 M NH 4 -acetate-0.5 M acetic acid at pH 4.65 (Paaac) and by a method in which freshly precipitated iron hydroxide is used as the sink for P desorbing from the soil (P ( method). Pi is supposed to be the quantity of reversibly adsorbed P in the soil. The results of the three chemical methods were compared with the ones obtained in a bioassay in which four yields of ryegrass were grown in 0.2 dm 1 of soil. The grass took up P effectively and the Preserves of the soils were probably the growth limiting factor. The quantities of P taken up correspondedto 5 —21 % (median 10 %) of soil inorganic P. The uptake of P by the grass was approximately twice the quantity of P, (median 25.9 mg/dm J) and several times higher than the quantities of P" (median 6.3 mg/dm') and P A aac (median 6.4 mg/dm 3). The results of all three chemical methods predicted P uptakeby ryegrass accurately, the correlation coefficients (r) ranging from o.BB*** to o.93***. However, in soils low in P (P AAAc <median), P uptake correlated more closely with P, (r = o.B7***) than with P" (r = 0.57*) or Paaa c (r = 0.64**). The phosphorus taken up by ryegrass and extracted by the chemical methods probably originated in the same type of P reserves of the soil. The extractions with water or AAAc seem to be sufficient for ranking Finnish soils according to their reserves of plant-available P. If a more quantitative measure of the size of desorbable reserves of P is needed, the determination of P| may be of use.


The invention relates to a novel 5/8 wiring copper ring which comprises a copper ring part, a bolt and a positioning screw hole, wherein the copper ring part is an irregular annular cylinder body; a once formed obtuse angle is arranged on the left side of the copper ring part; the positioning screw hole is formed on the right side of the copper ring part; and the bolt is arranged in the positioning screw hole, and is made of copper. A conventional wiring copper ring is changed, the copper ring part is the irregular annular cylinder body, the once formed obtuse angle is arranged on the left side of the copper ring part, and multiple connected lead wires are fixed in the obtuse angle effectively by the bolt, so that the leads are not liable to fall off and are easy to mount.


This case study examines the learning, identity and language development experienced by "overage" 8 th -grade students who have been left behind two or more years in their New York City middle school and are participating in an extended-day video documentary program. The students practise a range of literacy skills naturally embedded in the documentary production process. The topic they have chosen to explore through their video project is teen sex. This program seeks to create a vibrant and active learning space that is planting the seeds for what might grow into a sustained program of youth-generated media in their school. Observing and listening in on the students in this case illustrates practical applications of learning theories including multiple discourses, double abstraction, situated learning, and cognitive apprenticeships and proposes new possibilities for literacy development with low-performing students as well as the kind of hybrid informal/formal learning environments needed to support such development.


This observation has raised two important questions: (1) can such a fluctuation in OHC be attributed to natural variability, as has been suggested, and (2) if the excess heat in the climate system due to greenhouse forcing did not get absorbed (partly) by the upper ocean in those recent years, then where did it go? Considering the large difference in heat capacity between the ocean and the atmosphere it a redistribution of the heat between these two components of the climate system seems unlikely. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the observed slow-down of the upper ocean warming may be explained by an additional increase in the deep OHC and/or an additional loss of heat at the top of the atmosphere.


Most monosomics of the solid-stemmed variety of common wheat, S-61S, were shorter than normal. Many had thinner culms, but monosomics XIII and XVI had thicker culms. Although the effect of loss of homoeologous chromosomes on culm dimensions was generally similar in S-615 monosomics and Chinese Spring nullisomics, the most extreme member of each group was not always the same in the two varieties. The differences between solid stem in monosomics and normal lines of S-615 were due to loss of the chromosome affecting pith production and not to secondary effects caused by changes in culm dimensions. Nevertheless, within lines of genetically similar plants there was a small but consistent association between short culm and solidness, between thin culm at the tops of internodes I, III, and IV and hollowness, and between thin culm in the center and lower parts of internode I and solidness. This has a bearing on interpretation of data in monosomic analysis of solid stem.


It was the purpose of this study to develop an oral oligonucleotide delivery system based on thiolated polymer/ reduced glutathione (GSH) system providing protective effect towards nucleases, permeation enhancement and controlled drug release. [...]


Resume. The aim of the work was to study modern diagnostic criteria and surgical approaches to the treatment of ovarian tumors.
The objectives of the work were to highlight the arsenal of diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities of modern medicine for various ovarian tumors, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of methods and select the optimal algorithm for managing patients with this pathology.
Materials and methods. A retrospective study of cases of ovarian tumors in patients over the past 5 years, studied the current data of the world literature on this topic.
The conclusions of the work indicate the need for a comprehensive approach to the diagnosis and treatment of ovarian tumors and an individual approach to the patient in each case.


This paper shows how a computer graphics terminal can be used as an aid to teaching root locus still a powerful method of system synthesis and evaluation, by allowing the student to interact with the program. Sensitivity information is an important by-product of the implementation.


Snowfall events are considered as a factor of spatial distribution of snow cover thickness, its snow water equivalent and stratigraphy formation. Under the term of snowfall it is understood an event of solid atmospheric precipitation (snow) with duration of certain period of time (up to one or several days) with intensity of not less than 0.1 mm per day and the temperature below zero, i.e. under condition of snow cover presence. Snowfalls' intensity is characterized as a sum of precipitation (its snow water equivalent) during this snowfall. For the time period of 1960–2016 on the basis of meteorological data for 45 stations situated on the territory of Russia (not less than two in each of 19 climatic regions) the events of snowfalls are determined, as well as their frequency and averaged intensity for each winter season. Snowfalls' spatial and temporal distribution is analyzed on the basis of the compiled maps of averaged frequency (number per season) of all snowfalls and snowfalls of defined intensity (0.1–2.5, 2.5–5, 5–10, 10–20 and more than 20 mm). The materials of obtained distribution allow revealing the features in distribution of snowfalls of different intensity for the various regions and the possibility to model generalized regional stratigraphy of snow cover.


Since the emergence of the Internet and Web 2.0, the possible decline and eventual demise of traditional radio and television (TV) broadcasting has been highly debated among many experts of the industry. This chapter seeks to identify the patterns in consumers' behaviors and the evolution of radio and TV broadcasting brought about by Web 2.0 to prove the validity behind this topic, through understanding these changes. We will then propose a modified product life cycle for radio and TV broadcasting in which its decline phase is replaced by an evolution phase due to the Internet. The implications of these findings will be discussed, along with suggested prescriptions on how to avoid the problem of facing demise. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-147-4.ch031


A boron(III) complex of peripherally hexachlorinated subphthalocyanine, Cl 6 SubPc is a very promising small-molecule acceptor for application in organic photovoltaics. In this chapter the recent experimental results in the field are compared, and a critical review is given of the published works on the solar cells with the planar or bulk heterojunction architectures. The thin film properties of Cl 6 SubPc are also considered. The approaches to the further modification of the molecular structure of boron(III) subphthalocyanine-type compounds for the enhancement of their photoelectrical properties are discussed.


Decay half-lives are evaluated in the framework of a Woods-Saxon potential model for various clusters decay. In this model cluster -decay are considered as penetration of the cluster-particle through the potential barrier formed by the nuclear, Coulomb, and centrifugal interactions between the cluster - particle and core. The spins and parities of the parent and core nuclei as well as the quadruple deformations of the core nuclei are taken into account for evaluation of the cluster-decay half-lives. The cluster -decay half-lives for isotopes nuclei156-162Hf agree well with the experimental data.


In response to a stimulating article by David C. Geary on the value of understanding the evolutionary basis of learning as a guide to instruction, I raise several objections. When evolutionary theory is used to explain everything from sex differences in math and reading to why children are bored in school, it loses its explanatory power. There is also the problem of falsifiability, which is a central tenet in the scientific method, and the problem that a large portion of the population does not believe in evolution. The most important message from evolutionary psychology is the incredible adaptability that people have in response to new challenges, which I contend is the most valuable lesson we can learn from our evolutionary past.


Objective: To assess tympanic membrane (TM) closure rates achieved by 3 operative procedures in simple underlay myringoplasty with fibrin glue (SUM) for TM perforation. Method: A SUM was performed under local anesthesia under a microscope in patients with perforated TM defects of 50% or less. In those with defects exceeding 50%, we chose a method allowing SUM to be conducted under general anesthesia. A SUM using an endoscope was performed in cases with curved EAC. Results: A total of 158 ears were treated by SUM. There were 60 ears on which a SUM was performed using an operating microscope under local anesthesia, and complete closure was achieved in 54 (90%). Eighty-four ears were treated by a SUM under general anesthesia, and closure was achieved in 74 (88%). Endoscopy (1.9 mm in diameter) was performed in 14 ears, of which 13 (93%) attained TM closure. There were no significant differences in closure rates among the surgical procedures selected, and neither enlargement of perforation nor decreased hearing acuity occurred, as compared to the preoperative condition, even in patients suffering reperforation. Conclusion: This operative procedure is simple and minimally invasive, and provides a satisfactory perforation closure rate. The present data indicate that selection of operative procedures appropriate to various disease states may permit greater extension of surgical indications.


The use of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Composites is one of the latest significant developments in the field of bridge construction. FRP composites have been the material of choice in the aerospace industry since 1960s. However, only recently glass FRP composites have been gaining both popularity and acceptance as one of the structural materials of choice because of their high strength and stiffness to weight ratio, and corrosion resistance. This paper demonstrates the possibility of combining composite materials with a low-cost construction material (i.e. concrete) resulting in a new concept of designing lightweight, corrosion immune, yet inexpensive beams having acceptable structural properties. Pultruded FRP beam section-to-concrete slab is proposed to behave under bending as a composite beam. The objectives of the proposed research are to investigate the composite behaviour of FRP members with reinforced concrete slabs and comparing the behaviour of fully encased FRP beams with that of FRP beams mechanically anchored to the concrete. An experimental program was conducted to demonstrate the behaviour of the pultruded FRP beam-toconcrete slab in composite action. Three large scale specimens of 2.25 m length were tested under four-point loading. The first specimen is a pultruded FRP beam used as a control beam. The second specimen consists of pultruded FRP beam-to-concrete slab acting as a composite beam. The third specimen is a fully concrete encased FRP beam. The test results indicated the feasibility of using hybrid FRP-concrete beam to increase the load carrying capacity in flexure as well as beam stiffness. The outcome of this research provides substantial information for both designers and researchers in the field of FRP composites.


OBJECTIVE
To study the auxo-action of Merogel (hyaluronic acid) for operative cavity epithelialization after endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS).

METHOD
Sixteen patients (32 sides) were observed, in which all sinuses(maxillary, frontal, ethmoid and sphenoid) were operated on by ESS. For the purpose of control study, the left nasal side was used as Merogel group, and right side contrast group. The patients were followed-up for 12 weeks.

RESULTS
In Merogel group, the curative rate was 93.75%, improvement rate 6.25%, and average time of epithelialization was 3.4 weeks. In contrast group, the curative rate was 87.50%, improvement rate 12.50%, and average time of epithelialization was 8.3 weeks. It was distinct that in Merogel group, the epithelialization time was shorter than that in contrast group.

CONCLUSION
Merogel has auxo-action for operative cavity epithelialization after ESS.