A cleaning material, a cleaning tool and a method of cleaning a surface is disclosed. In one embodiment, a cleaning material comprises a backing including a first surface and a second surface, and an array of 20 to 1000 upstanding stems per square centimeter projecting from the first surface of the backing. Each stem has a height from 0.2 and 2.0 millimeters and a shore hardness less than 105A. In one embodiment, the method of cleaning a surface comprises providing a cleaning material having an array of 20 to 1000 upstanding stems per square centimeter, wherein each stem has a height from 0.2 and 2.0 millimeters and a shore hardness less than 105A, wiping the cleaning material over a surface to be cleaned, and capturing debris between the stems of the cleaning material.


This article analyses the system of the Near-Video-on-Demand (NVOD) which is based on the digital cable TV platform; the function and the working process of the NVOD headend equipment; the service channel bandwidth of the NVOD system which is exerted in the digital cable TV platform; and how to achieve Video-on-Broadcast and Video-on-Demand in the data network.


A culturally perceived imaginative item will coordinate the solace, comfort, and adequacy in regular daily existence. The Internet of Things, or IoT, is an organization of interconnected enlisting gadgets, mechanical and automated machines, things, animals, or people with exceptional identifiers (UIDs) and the capacity to move information across an association without the requirement for human-to-human or human-to-PC cooperation. The Internet of Things, or IoT, is an organization of interconnected enrolling gadgets, mechanical and mechanized machines, things, animals, or people with novel identifiers (UIDs) and the capacity to move information across an association without the requirement for human-to-human or human-to-PC participation.In metro urban areas, purchasing and shopping in monstrous shopping centers has turned into an everyday action. The Internet of Items (IoT) alludes to the most common way of connecting everything on the planet to the web. Individuals buy a wide scope of things and spot them in their shopping baskets. Following the culmination of the buy, one should continue to the charging counter to make an installment, which is both tedious and disappointing. The significant objective in making this model was to decrease human work, dispense with lines, and abbreviate charging time for clients. The model is comprised of RFID labels that are utilized to distinguish items, as well as a RFID per user that filters items as they are set in the truck and shows the outcomes on a LCD show. The NodeMCU will save the data from the RFID labels. NodeMCU is utilized rather than a WiFi module. The information is then moved to the server from the charging counter. The client just requirements to take care of the bill at the charging counter. The objective of this undertaking is to assemble and make sense of how the Internet of Things (IoT) can be utilized in a shrewd shopping basket.


A survey of the status of instream biota was required for Pencil Pine Creek, Cradle Valley, in relation to the discharge of wastewater from a proposed new wastewater treatment plant, collection and discharge system (Figure 1). This document describes the approach, methods and results of the survey which was conducted in late September 2005. The survey assessed the current status and condition of instream biota � benthic macroinvertebrate, fish and aquatic vegetation � at sites at and downstream of the proposed new discharge point in Pencil Pine Creek (i.e. receiving water sites). Several reference sites were also sampled to provide a local context for the biota observed at the receiving water sites � both upstream in Pencil Pine Creek and in the Dove River. These latter data will also serve as future reference/control data for any ongoing monitoring of changes in Pencil Pine Creek once the proposed WWTP discharge commences.

Additional sampling was also requested of aquatic biota at two sites associated with the discharge from the Cradle Mountain Lodge complex, which discharges into an unnamed tributary of Pencil Pine Creek.


Thank you very much for reading bringing out the best in everyone you coach use the enneagram system for exceptional results. As you may know, people have search hundreds times for their favorite books like this bringing out the best in everyone you coach use the enneagram system for exceptional results, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some infectious virus inside their computer.


This work reports the personal computer implementation of a real-time simulator based on the widely used Electromagnetic Transients Program, version Alternative Transients Program (EMTP-ATP) software for testing protection and control devices. The proposed simulator was implemented on a conventional PC with a GNU/Linux operative system including a real-time kernel. Using foreign models programmed in C, ATP was recompiled with the PortAudio (sound card I/O library) with tools for writing and reading the parallel port. In this way, the sound card was used as a digital-to-analog converter to generate voltage waveform outputs at each simulation time step of the ATP, and the parallel port was used for digital inputs and outputs, resulting in a real-time simulator that can interact with protection and control devices by means of hardware-in-the-loop tests. This work uses the minimum possible hardware requirements to try to implement a real-time simulator. Due to the limitation of two channels, this simulator was used mainly to demonstrate the implementation methodology concept at this stage; this concept could potentially be expanded with more powerful hardware to improve its performance. The performance of the implemented simulator was analyzed through interactions with a real intelligent electronic device (IED). Furthermore, a comparison with the results obtained by means of the well-known real-time digital simulator (RTDS) was presented and discussed.


newcomers in the Americas, but it did not formerly represent a significant threat to First Nations because "the high level of nutrition offered by bison predation" held the disease at bay. (100) But in the 1880s the disease killed thousands in the context of malnutrition, overcrowding on reserves, exposure, poor sanitation, and provisions contaminated with bovine tuberculosis. The relationship between government malfeasance and this epidemic is made especially clear through Daschuk's comparison of the Plains Cree and the Canadian Dakota population; "the Dakota were not dependent on government rations and subsequently did not succumb to the epidemic of tb in the 1880s." (125–26) Further hardship occurred in the wake of the North-West Resistance of 1885, when First Nations were wrongly blamed for the outbreak of violence and literally "punished to death." (180) This book enriches our understanding of the effects of both the Columbian Exchange for Canadian First Nations and the Dominion government's Indian policy. It is a welcome addition to an established sub-genre of Canadian Aboriginal history with valuable points comparison with existent books by Maureen Lux, Mary-Ellen Kelm, Robert Boyd, and Paul Hackett who have also considered the subjects of Aboriginal health and the effects of the Columbian Exchange. Like John Lutz's Makúk: A New History of Aboriginal-White Relations that explores the history of Aboriginal employment in British Columbia (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2008), Daschuk's book is grounded in a familiar contemporary problem – in this case the current health disparity between the Indigenous and mainstream populations in western Canada. (ix) What Daschuk's study reveals, too, is that the policy failures of the Dominion government in the late 19th century had long-term consequences, as it became medical orthodoxy in the early 20th century that "indigenous peoples were biologically more susceptible to disease than the mainstream population." (185) Hence resources were not allocated for their medical care because of this "fact," contributing to the creation of enduring stereotypes about the poor health of First Nations people. Daschuk's book is a vital resource that delineates the cost of the Canadian government's failure to honour its treaty pledges to First Nations. Returning to the hook that began this review, this book reveals the malevolence of Macdonald and the lengths to which First Nations suffered in the name of Dominion expansion. The historic devastation of Aboriginal communities by disease from 1870 on was not accidental, and we must acknowledge this fact today. Kenton Storey University of Manitoba


Vague set is a valid tool for processing uncertain information.The similarity measure of two uncertain patterns is important for intelligent reasoning.It is also a key problem to measure the similarity of vague values or vague sets in vague information processing systems.Many methods for similarity measure of vague sets have been proposed in recent years.However,these methods could not precisely describe the essences of the similarity between two vague sets.In this paper,some evaluation criterions for similarity measure of vague set is proposed by analyzing existed similarity measure methods and evaluation criterion.For measuring the similarity of vague sets,a new method is proposed.A new concept named differentiation ability is also developed.Simulation results show that our methods are better than existed methods.


Although it does not provide a "magic cure" against secession, internal selfdetermination, both in effect and in practice, diminishes the desire for external selfdetermination and softens the tendencies toward separatism. The recognized and internationally proclaimed right of self – determination of the people gets a new lease of life through the implementation of its internal aspects as a possible way for the accommodation of the differences of separate groups that exist in society. Although it has still not been established as a right, the legal grounds for practicing internal selfdetermination can be found in several international documents and the moral basis for identity and the need to practice it within a particular group or sense of group distinctiveness. Since there is insignificant support in the standards of international law for the accommodation of different expectations based on the need to protect and promote any so-called separate nationality, in our efforts to endorse security and peaceful coexistence it may be better to look at the internal aspects of the right of selfdetermination from a different angle and try to find solutions through measures that are part of the state's democratic traditions. The internal aspect of self – determination offers a wide range of options that need to be taken into account. Although, these are far from perfect, they are still based on presumptions and have many limitations, the costs of the realization of internal selfdetermination comprise solutions that are worth trying out. Building on theoretical research, this paper addresses the modalities for the realization of internal self – determination. An overview of the necessary tools for addressing the right of self-determination envisages the possible ways that can provide the means for accommodating differences between the existing communities within the established states. The effectiveness and efficiency of these models, depends as well on commitment, and the strong and clear efforts of national and international institutions for using democratic means in the process of conflict settlement.


Fairness opinions are a regular feature of every major corporate transaction. We analyze the conflict of interest problems that afflict fairness opinions and the extent to which courts should give weight to such opinions.


All chronic medical conditions have an impact to some extent on the quality of life (QOL) of those affected. The impact of epilepsy may be greater than that of some other chronic conditions, partly because of the unpredictability of seizures, and partly because of the associated stigma. In recent years there has been a growing recognition that assessing the impact of epilepsy must extend beyond counting seizures. Consequently there have been a number of initiatives to measure the QOL of people with epilepsy.


The assemblages of the decapod crustacean remains from the Middle Miocene (Badenian) of the Fore-Carpathian Depression (exclusively the Korytnica Clays) and of the Carpathians COlIltain predominantly fragments of finger tips or chelae attributable to xanthid crabs. One species of the dorippid crabs is described new, Dorippe? carpathicp. sp. n. The occurrence of the genera MacrophthaZmus and Dorippe supports closer affinities to the Recent tropical/subtropical Indo-Pacific realm.


Granular reasoning proposed by Murai et al. is a mechanism for reasoning using granular computing, and the concept of "focus" has been proposed as a key concept of granular reasoning. On the other hand, the authors have proposed another concept of granularity, called "visibility". In this paper, we try to capture the concepts of visibility and focus as modalities of modal logics by introducing Scott-Montague models that illustrate the visibility and focus by modal operators, respectively.


During drilling,some problems were occurred,such as overbalanced drilling,bit freezing,bit wear and tear and long drilling cycle etc.because of the large horizontal change of reservoir pressure coefficient,high fluid column pressure and the long well section of hard formation with abrasive property in Qiongxi structure.Aimed at these problems,some technical measures were put forward,i.e.based on different formation features,different drilling fluid system can control effectively hole collapse;under the condition of hole stability,adopting the first recommendatory casing programme in the paper.Using recommendatory bit sequence can reduce time on trips.Gas drilling solved the problem of improving drilling speed in key well section.


In this paper, we report the humidity-sensing behaviour of neodymium oxide (99% pure, Johnson & Matthey, London). It was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and by measuring the mass loss. From SEM, the average particle size is 60–90 nm and particles have a random pore size. XRD reveals that at room temperature the sensing material is Nd(OH) 3 and is crystalline in nature. When neodymium oxide was annealed at 200°C and at higher temperatures, it became Nd 2 O 3 . The particle size calculated from Scherrer's formula varies from 100 to 110 nm. A pellet of this material was made using a hydraulic pressing machine (M.B. Instruments, New Delhi) for use as a sensing element after thermal annealing at temperatures of 200, 400, 600 and 800°C. After each step of annealing, the sensing element was placed in a specially designed conductivity holder and exposed to humidity inside a chamber with controlled humidity. Variations in resistance due to the adsorption of water vapour through the sensing element were observed. The sensitivity of the sensing element, the repeatability and the effect of temperature on morphology and sensing characteristics were studied.


Y ossI BEILIN, Israel's impresario of the 1993 Oslo accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), appreciates the political power of an accomplished fact. While serving in the Labor-led governments of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, Beilin strove to ensure that the Oslo process would establish many such facts: new agreements with PLO leaders, new Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and high public expectations of "peace now." These, he explained in articles and speeches, would constrain future Israeli leaders, even (or especially) those who disapproved of Labor's peace policies. And so they have. Benjamin Netanyahu, a fierce critic of Oslo, formed Israel's current Likud-led government over a year ago. The ensuing months have seen substantial Palestinian rioting (in Hebron this past July and throughout the West Bank last September), terrorism (most notably, the suicide bombings in a Tel Aviv cafe and in Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market), and the unapologetic exploitation of such violence by the Palestinian Authority (PA) for diplomatic purposes.


The article summarizes the factors that have the most significant negative impact on the development of social and economic spheres of rural areas. Research on the response of human capital to destructive manifestations in the economy is highlighted, as well as a number of factors of manifestation of these destructive phenomena in the development of rural areas.
Analyzed the most priority problems of development of rural areas in relation to each stage of social progress. Isolated and characterized the key steps in the development of the agricultural sector and its spatial framework of rural territories, namely with the settlements in which they lived rural, and has concentrated material and technical means of production.
The highest priority issues of rural development in relation to each stage of social progress are analyzed. The key stages of development of the agricultural sector and its spatial basis – rural areas, namely with the settlements in which the villagers lived and the material and technical means of production were concentrated, are highlighted and characterized.
Special attention is paid to the causes of migration of the rural population, which in turn has led to the search and analysis of certain measures to inhibit the negative effects of this process. It was found out that the implementation of agrarian and land reforms, as well as the transition to a socially oriented model of market economy had a negative impact, resulting in an increase in the number of degrading villages and the formation of new organizational and legal forms.
A number of negative trends affecting the development of the agricultural sector have been identified, among which the social resources of rural areas are a priority. It was found that the main element of social resources of the village is the rural population, the lion's share of which belongs to labor resources, which act as a link, which determines the interdependence of its economic and social development.
It is substantiated that the constant presence of the socio-economic system, which is a rural area, in a state of counteraction to "external shocks" causes changes in the specific content of the characteristics of the environment and its resources, which requires consideration of its state in developing strategic rural development programs. The basic principles of formation of human capital reproduction potential
of rural territories are allocated, functions of rural territories as a habitat and vital activity and directions of purposeful policy of rural development are generalized.
Key words: reproduction of human capital, rural areas, sustainable development, rural development.


The mass spectrum of baryons in the spin-3/2 sector is computed in quenched lattice QCD using a tadpole-improved anisotropic action. Both isospin 1/2 and 3/2 (the traditional decuplet) are considered, as well as members that contain strange quarks. States with positive and negative parities are isolated by parity projection, while states with spin-3/2 and spin-1/2 are separated by spin projection. The extent to which spin projection is needed is examined. The issue of optimal interpolating field is also investigated. The results are discussed in relation to previous calculations and experiment.


In the current dissertation research, we resolved the different predictions and explored how moral self-esteem enhancement influences an individual's social judgments. By testing the effect of moral self-esteem enhancement in the current dissertation study, we first demonstrated that moral self-esteem was a dynamic, proactive motivational factor that could be changed by situational factors, such as by recalling people's previous moral actions (Study 1). Then we reconciled the different predictions about whether situational factors will make individuals render harsher moral judgments by linking the influence between the change of moral self-concept and affective reactions. When the nature of the social situation was clear, individuals tended to change their affective reaction to respond to the social situation in their judgments. In general, individuals with enhanced moral self-esteem intensified their affective reactions in their social judgments (Study 2). Finally, we emphasized the importance of the interaction between moral self-esteem enhancement and the nature of the social events. When the nature of the social events was ambiguous, individuals would rely on their self-concepts to make motivational attributions. In general, participants with moral self-esteem enhancement would seek for consistency between their self-concepts and their cognitive intention inference (Study 3 and Study 4). In the end, the theoretical contributions and the future research directions were discussed.


Pharmaceutical controlled release composition comprising as active substance one or more fumaric acid esters selected from dialkyl esters (C1C5) of fumaric acid and monoalkyl esters (C1-C5) of fumaric acid, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, in the that the release of the fumaric acid ester, when subjected to an in vitro dissolution test using 0.1 N hydrochloric acid as a dissolution medium during the first 2 hours of the test and then 0.05 M phosphate buffer pH 6.5 as a dissolution medium, it is as follows: within 70 hours after the start of the test, a maximum of 70% w / w of the total amount of fumaric acid ester contained in the composition for oral use is released in the treatment of hyperproliferative, inflammatory or autoimmune disorders by administering a daily dosage of 240 to 840 mg of active substance administered in one to three doses.


The purpose of this study is to analyse the flexural and ultimate bending moment of prestressed concrete beam with openings. There are various types of openings on concrete beam but the focus here on circular openings.
The major objectives of this study are to determine the modes of failure of pre-stressed concrete beam with circular web openings and to determine the ultimate strength and deflection Of pre-stressed concrete beam. The thesis identifies that if construction of the concrete beam with web openings are not designed wisely, will lower the strength of beam and may collapsed. It further outlines the efficient method taken to overcome this problem.
The method used is by operating the ANSYS software. Comparisons are made between the software generated graphical results and results from doing manual calculation. It is proved that the values obtained are similar and that it is an effective and faster way to calculate and get results using the finite element software.


p21 is a versatile protein with a lot of different functions. P21 controls several cellular processes in the tumor, including cell cycle, DNA repair, apoptosis, senescence, autophagy, and the tumor microenvironment, in response to radiation exposure. The fact that it is engaged in both of these processes makes things much more puzzling. As a result, truly grasping p21 continues to be a challenge. Researchers have begun to pay attention to p21 and consider it a potential radiotherapeutic target because of its robust regulatory role. The methods by which p21 performs contradictory tasks should be the focus of future study, as well as how to control its oncogenicity selectively. In biological systems, p21 can play a range of roles according to its many post-translational modification sites. The ability to strike a balance between p21's many functions might be the secret to successful radiotherapy.


Nine new cases of histidinemia have been found in four different sibships and in two successive generations in the same family. No history of consanguinity is present. The father of the propositus is normal. The pattern of inheritance appears to be autosomal dominant. Since these patients have absent or decreased skin histidase activity and they excrete decreased amounts of N-formiminoglutamic acid following histidine loading, they probably represent an intermediate genotype between the typical histidinemics and individuals with normal skin histidase.


In 2011, the Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA) Botswana Chapter, partnered with the Journal of Social Development in Africa (JSDA), in order to produce a Special Issue of the Journal. The OSSREA Botswana Chapter was founded in 1985, and draws membership from educational and research institutions, non-governmental organisation, as well as individual social science researchers and graduate students. The JSDA which is a peer-reviewed Journal hosted by the University of Zimbabwe's School of Social Work, has been in circulation for over 25 years without interruption. The Journal publishes analyses, findings and recommendations relating to social development in Africa, including theoretical, empirical and descriptive works and relevant scholarly discussions of ethics. The Special Issue of UIQJSDA focused on key issues relating to Botswana's socio-economic development policies and practices. The partnership between OSSREA and the JSDA demonstrates the ongoing efforts of the two entities to promote mentorship and capacity-building in the area of research and publications.


Through analysis of the characteristics of target star point and the background in star map,a new algorithm for star extraction based on self-adaptive background prediction is proposed.To predict the background accurately and give attention to the algorithm speed,the regional maximum background prediction is only used at the edge of the background and the fixed weight background prediction is used in other parts.The residual star map is segmented and the target area of the star point is extracted.The threshold value can be obtained self-adaptively.The precise location of the target star is calculated by the centroid algorithm.The experiments show that the performance of the proposed algorithm is superior to the other existing star extracting algorithms.As an effective star extracting algorithm,it can avoid many false alarms caused by strong edge and can predict the background accurately.


Protrusions of (Ba, Sr)TiO3 (BST) crystallites were found to appear on BST film surfaces prepared by liquid source chemical vapor deposition (CVD) at a substrate temperature T s=420° C and a reactor pressure P=1.5 Torr. Such protrusions were successfully suppressed by two-step deposition, where BST films consisted of a buffer layer and a main layer; the buffer layer was a CVD-BST film about 60 Å thick annealed in N2 ambient. By this two-step deposition on Pt electrodes, the BST film properties of equivalent SiO2 thickness t eq=0.56 nm, leakage current J L=1.2×10-8 A/cm2 at +1.1 V and dielectric loss tan δ=0.011 were achieved at a total film thickness of 230 Å, along with a coverage of 80% at a trench of aspect ratio 0.65 and sufficiently low absorption current.


Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of volume status on the progressions of renal disease in normovolemic and hypervolemic patients with advanced non-dialysis-dependent chronic kidney disease (CKD) who were apparently normovolemic in conventional physical examination. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective interventional study performed in a group of stage 3–5 CKD patients followed up for 1 year. Three measurements were made for volume and renal status for every patient. The fluid status was assessed by a bioimpedance spectroscopy method. A blood pressure (BP) value > 130/80 mm Hg prompted the initiation or dose increment of diuretic treatment in normovolemic patients. Result: Forty-eight patients (48%) were hypervolemic. At the end of the 1-year follow-up, hypervolemic patients were found to have a significantly lower estimated glomerular filtration rate and higher systolic BP compared to baseline. Hypervolemia was associated with an increased incidence of death. Conclusion: We have shown that maintenance of normovolemia with diuretic therapy in normovolemic patients was able to slow down and even improve the progression of renal disease. Volume overload leads to an increased risk for dialysis initiation and a decrease in renal function in advanced CKD. Volume overload exhibits a stronger association with mortality in CKD patients.


Rising complexity of engineered systems, increasing needs for coordination among specialized design teams, and the emergence of component-based design modalities have created a need for component-based design optimization tools. Further, many modern systems are dynamic, and dynamic performance is a core component of the design objective. This work builds on a hybrid methodology for component-based design optimization by expanding the formulation to dynamic systems. The method is applied to select a planar quadrotor's components and input trajectory to minimize the to complete a dynamic mission.


The most important standard in wireless local area networks is IEEE 802.11. This is why much of the research work for the enhancement of wireless network is usually based on the behavior of IEEE 802.11 protocol. However, some of the ways in which IEEE 802.11 medium access control layer behaves is still unreliable to guarantee quality of service. For instance, medium access control layer packet delay, jitter and packet loss rate still remain a challenge. The main objective of this research is to propose an accurate estimation of the medium access control layer packet delay distribution for IEEE 802.11. This estimation considers the differences between busy probability and collision probability. These differences are employed to achieve a more accurate estimation. Finally, the proposed model and simulation are implemented and validated - using MATLAB program for the purpose of simulation, and Maple program to undertake the calculation of the equations.


The Director's Forum series is written and edited by Michael Sanborn and Robert Weber and is designed for guiding pharmacy leaders in establishing patient-centered services in hospitals and health systems. Another specific goal of this column is addressing many of the key challenges that pharmacy directors currently face, while also providing information that will foster growth in pharmacy leadership and patient safety. Previous articles in this series have discussed the many different aspects of pharmacy management and leadership challenges. This feature addresses an innovative solution to pharmacy department information sharing.


Sai Phanindra Venkatapurapu: A novel role for the RGS protein Sst2 in yeast signaling revealed by mathematical modeling and live cell imaging. (Under the direction of Timothy C. Elston.) G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling is fundamental to various cellular processes such as cardiac contractility, immune response and gradient sensing. Budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, detect gradients of mating pheromone as shallow as 1-5% across their diameter and generate appropriate morphological response. Receptor polarization has been implicated in pheromone gradient sensing and recent work has suggested that endocytosis is important in establishing polarity of membrane proteins. However, the precise mechanisms that regulate the endocytosis of the receptor Ste2 to establish a polarized receptor distribution have not been fully characterized. The Regulator of G-protein Signaling (RGS) protein, Sst2, negatively regulates G-protein activity and facilitates mating pathway desensitization in yeast. It has been previously suggested that Sst2 interacts with the receptor Ste2 through its DEP domains. In the chapters that follow, we use an integrated approach that combines computational and experimental methods to demonstrate that following pheromone stimulation, Sst2 inhibits Ste2 endocytosis and stabilizes it at the plasma membrane. We also show that disrupting the binding interaction between Sst2 and Ste2 by a point mutation Q304N in Sst2 leads to loss of Ste2 polarization. Our mathematical model predicts pheromone-induced synthesis of Sst2 as a key factor in establishing Ste2 polarization. We verify this prediction by replacing the endogenous promoter of SST2 with a promoter that is not responsive to pheromone. Thus, in this work, we show that by inhibiting Ste2 endocytosis, Sst2 plays a positive role in the yeast pheromone response. By discovering a novel positive role for a negative regulator, this work has provided an improved understanding of how RGS proteins and GPCRs interact in yeast. GPCR signaling is a highly conserved pathway and RGS proteins bind GPCRs even


The article argues that companies should think carefully before responding to a rival's merger activity by pursuing major acquisitions of their own. It is noted that such hastily-arranged deals are often not well-considered, can come at a steep price if a bidding war breaks out, and frequently involve less-than-optimal target firms. Several alternative strategies are discussed including strategic retreat from peripheral markets, focusing more on innovation and organic growth, and building a counterposition by means of multiple small acquisitions. INSETS: WINNING THE BATTLE . . .;. . . BUT LOSING THE WAR..


Elongate ocular peduncles have been independently evolved by many non-predatory, burrowing crabs. It is suggested that the burrowing habits of these crabs have provided the selective pressures for the evolution of these structures, primarily in the avoidance of predation whilst feeding on the surface. The development of elongate peduncles has necessitated structural modifications of the anterior carapace; in portunids these modifications are mainly of the anterolateral carapace margins, whilst in ocypodids and goneplacids they are mainly of the front. In the nineteenth century many authors, following Leach (1815), used as a convenient character by which to subdivide the Crustacea the presence or absence of ocular peduncles, thereby forming the Cstalk-eyed,' or podophthalmus, and the 'sessile-eyed,' or edriophthalmus, species; Bell (1853) and Bate & Westwood (1863, 1868) in their monographs on the British Crustacea are good examples. The presence of ocular peduncles is characteristic of, amongst others, the order Decapoda. In this group the peduncles generally extend for a distance equal to no more than one and a half times the length of the cornea; a number of brachyuran species, however, exhibit these structures in a greatly exaggerated form, the peduncles extending for a distance equal to about ten times the length of the cornea in some cases. Barnes (1967) briefly commented on the evolution of elongate ocular peduncles in one brachyuran genus, Macrophthalmus, and these comments may, in modified and extended form, be applicable to other brachyuran genera. The present paper will thus be concerned with the evolution of such structures in the Brachyura as a whole. This will be discussed in three sections: the distribution of elongate peduncles within the Brachyura; the selective pressures leading to their development; and the structural modifications of the carapace that have resulted from their evolution. THE GENERA


Grading rules for consistent and lumped elements are opposite. Optimal mass matrices on finite difference considerations are very sensitive to mesh grading. Sensitivity of the solution accuracy to the mesh ratio increases with element order.


ABSTRACT The present study explores the internationalisation of secondary schools. It focuses on the assessment of the intercultural competence (IC) of returnees who participated in an annual study-abroad programme offered by the Italian educational association Intercultura (a non-profit organisation). The precise aim of this research is to find possible assessment indicators of IC, specific to the context of student mobility in secondary schools. To reach this goal, a qualitative methodology was adopted; 21 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the returnees, their parents, friends, teachers and Intercultura volunteers. The findings suggest that the elements to be considered in assessing the IC of returnees should include, among others, curiosity towards people perceived as having different cultural backgrounds, interest in global issues, self-awareness, new understanding of home context, knowledge of host context, ability to make critical comparisons, adaptability and ethnorelative view.


The article seeks to help find common ground, in the Trilateral context, on the approach to current developments relating to North Korea as well as on long-term policy regarding the Koreas. We are aware of the close and long-established interaction between the Koreas, China and Russia, and the particular interests of the latter two in the Korean peninsula. For India, this is by no means a remote area but indeed an integral part of our growing engagement with East and Northeast Asia. The well documented record of trafficking in nuclear weapons and missile technology between North Korea and our immediate South Asian neighbourhood is a matter of utmost concern. The justified anxiety about the proliferation related implications of North Korea's nuclear weapon and missile activity should reinforce purposeful rethinking on the correct ways and means of ensuring non-proliferation and eventual global nuclear disarmament. Also relevant is the larger picture involving North Korea's internal dynamic and development, its reform programme, incipient globalisation, trends in North Korea's relations with Japan and South Korea, especially inter-Korea exchanges and the long term agenda of reunification, and the prospects for the six-party talks and the role of the US.


tab3way cross-tabulates three variables and displays any combination of cell frequencies, cell percents, row percents and column percents. "Missing" categories may be specified. It optionally provides row, column and supercolumn totals by temporarily augmenting observations in the existing data set and making a new category (labelled "TOTAL") for each variable to accommodate these totals. This is version 2.03 of the software.


The expression 'Clausewitz connection' has become the standard go-to term for showcasing how keen many Marxists were in citing and applying ideas from On War to their revolution. That being said, the 'connection' has often been exaggerated, and Azar Gat made this case effectively by digging up the original exchanges between Marx and Engels and showing they were by no means devout Clausewitzians, even though they read and commented at least sections of it. Gat's intervention brings us much closer to reality, but nonetheless overstretches in the opposite direction. Using a similar method to Gat, this essay continues unearthing further details into the relationship, but adds another dimension, by considering the surprising fact that while the Communists were indeed citing Clausewitz, not as much as has been claimed, their Anarchists co-revolutionaries in the anti-bourgeois movement were not citing him at all. This exclusive relationship tells us something about how the two groups understood the ethics of political violence as 'instrumental' in the Clausewitzian tradition, or as a 'right' in the Hegelian tradition, and how this complicated the integration of Clausewitz into communist doctrine, and made him altogether irrelevant to anarchist doctrine. Normal 0 false false false EN-CA X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */
 table.MsoNormalTable
 {mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
 mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
 mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
 mso-style-noshow:yes;
 mso-style-priority:99;
 mso-style-parent:"";
 mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
 mso-para-margin-top:0in;
 mso-para-margin-right:0in;
 mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
 mso-para-margin-left:0in;
 line-height:115%;
 mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
 font-size:11.0pt;
 font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
 mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
 mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
 mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
 mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
 mso-ansi-language:EN-CA;}


* Gaston Memorial Hospital, Gastonia, North Carolina 28054 ** Associate Clinical Professor of Otolaryngology, Medical University ofSouth Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina and Director, McCloud Regional Medical Center, Plastic Surgery Institute, Florence, South Carolina 29501 D ouble and triple interlocking skin suturing techniques are presented with the advantage of minimizing time, yet maintaining all the advantages of the interrupted closure.


Non-coding RNAs, including LncRNAs, function in regulating glioblastomas' numerous oncogenic phenotypes, such as invasiveness and stemness of glioblastoma stem cells. These LncRNAs contain long non-encoding RNA transcripts >200 nucleotides in length, many of which show cell type-specific expression. In this project, we investigated how TRPM7, a promoter for glioma's proliferation and invasion, regulates LncRNA and contributes to glioma tumorigenesis.

 1) Total RNA, from either with A172 glioma cells or A172 glioma cells with TRPM7 knocked out (A172 KO), were extracted and then parallelly subjected to Human Cancer Pathway Finder, RT2 LncRNA PCR Array. 2) We then analyzed the prognostic role of LncRNAs using a publicly available bioinformatics data set (www.Oncolanc.org). 3) We examined the effects of TRPM7-regulated LncRNA, and its downstream molecules miR301a-3p and FosL1 oncogene, on the proliferation and invasion of glioma cells in A172 and PDX-L12 cells by either inhibition or activation of the above molecules.

 1) Data analysis from RT2 data resulted in a list of 10 downregulated and 7 upregulated LncRNAs whose transcripts are statistically significant with fold changes greater than 2.0 by TRPM7 knockout. 2) The results showed that TRPM7 functions as a positive regulator of LncRNA, HOTAIR, which is an unfavorable prognostic factor of 7-year overall survival in glioma patients. 3) In addition, we found that LncRNA HOTAIR sponges miR-301a-3p to promote proliferation, invasion, and stemness of glioma through upregulating the oncogene FosL1. 4) Furthermore, we identified that FosL1 is a novel prognostic marker of glioma patients.

 Our results demonstrated the role of TRPM7-regulated LncRNA HOTAIR as a miRNA sponge in glioma, which shed new light on LncRNA-directed therapeutics in glioma.


Abstract The development of new semiconductor devices exploiting quantum size eflects demands unprecedented levels of control and understanding of thin film growth at the atomic level. One of the main methods employed is molecular beam epitaxy, in which single crystal films are produced from the interaction of thermal, neutral, collision-free atomic or molecular beams with a substrate surface in ultra-high vacuum. After a description of the basic processes used for both elemental and compound semiconductors, some of the more important aspects of the surface chemistry andJilm growth dynamics involved are discussed, including some indication of the experimental and theoretical techniques which are required for this work. Specific examples are cited to illustrate our present level of understanding and the ways in which this is being exploited to fabricate complex structures.


In the research work named resilience in students of educational institutions, one of the greatest challenges that in our times will be played in Peruvian society will be touched. The word resilience is used to express the behaviors of people who can resist, overcome and follow the obstacles they have. It was singled out in the social sciences to determine those individuals who, despite having everything against it, can live their lives successfully and healthy psychologically (Rutter, 1993). At the present time there are several methods that help us to protect ourselves from the risk, in this way the children are shown before the psychosocial stress and the setbacks in a different way, which depends on the environment in which it is or simply of the genetic factor; a clear example would be that of a family environment in which one intervenes in the individual differences of the infants, this influences in the degree to which the impact of the adversity continues in the time; recent experiences provide opportunities for a point of modulation in effects; the optimal experiences do not cause a great security effect but they manage to be useful to avoid certain risk factors; and that the cognitive and affective process of the experiences contribute in the strength that develops. That is why you have defined the parameters with which multiple intelligences can be analyzed, and a comparative study of the most important investigations, as well as the antecedents that exist, is made.


Equivalent overdetermined and underdetermined bivalent Belnap–Dunn type semantics for the logics determined by all natural implicative expansions of Kleene's strong 3-valued matrix with only one designated value are provided.


The paper covers cognitively oriented studies of the discourse as a concept. It is claimed that the concept in question has gained its place in linguistics and other related fields. The problem is viewed in historical retrospect as well. Both terms viz. discourse and text were originally used indiscriminately, to develop, in the course of time , owing, primarily, to Van Dijk's works, into heterogeneous, mutually complementary phenomena. Nowadays, these terms are to be differentiated, each one covering a sphere of its own.


We report the latest progress on extreme ultraviolet frequency combs and their applications, including the recent demonstration of long coherence time in XUV and on molecular alignment at 100 MHz repetition frequency for high harmonic generations. Article not available.


Hydrogen can be generated by the interactions of the core melt with containment structures and water during severe accident in a nuclear reactor. In case of releasing into the reactor containment, it can induce the hydrogen combustion. It may result in detonation in a nuclear power plant and can threaten the containment integrity. Various mitigation measures such as PAR(passive mitigation system) were prepared to prevent the hydrogen combustion in containment. Although the related safety measures were prepared, Hydrogen combustion is still one of the key issues in nuclear power plant. Many researches on Hydrogen combustion in nuclear power plant have been performed. The large scale experiments on the effect of obstacles and transverse venting on flame acceleration and transition to detonation have been conducted by SNL[1]. Experimental research on hydrogen and fission product behaviour in containments have been done in THAI test facility[2]. Kim et al.[3] have performed numerical analysis of hydrogen flame acceleration in a containment. Combustion is a complex phenomenon accompanying not only heat and mass transfer but also chemical reactions so that the related numerical analysis needs lots of computational resources. Recently various opensource tools such as Cantera[4] and OpenFOAM[5] are available that can handle the problems involving chemical kinetics, thermodynamics and transport process. In this study parametric analysis has been conducted using an open source solver[5] as a preliminary research for the analysis of hydrogen combustion phenomena in a reactor. The numerical model for the analysis was introduced and parameter's effect was evaluated. The preliminary application on hydrogen flame propagation in a channel has been conducted.


Rapid calculations of the dispersion relation can be made for a hot, Maxwellian electron magnetoplasma, with collisions and for any angle β between the wave normal and static magnetic field without using the low-temperature or the quasi-static approximations. The dispersion equations of Lewis and Keller [1962] are discussed and interpreted for the purpose of computer programming; these equations are valid for a Vlasov-Maxwellian plasma and contain a particle-preserving collision term. Examples of dispersion curves for homogeneous plane waves show: (1) protrusions from some refractive-index surfaces and (2) the usual multiplicity of solutions for a Maxwellian plasma when the real and imaginary components of the refractive index are of similar magnitude. For a wave frequency 1.11 times the plasma frequency and about 1.78 times the gyrofrequency, a minimum is found in the collisionless damping at β = 0° and a maximum is found at about β = 14°. Three alternatives for the gyroresonance observations on topside ionograms can be found from a study of the dispersion curves near the gyrofrequency: (1) an energy transfer between the highly damped whistler mode and electrons in the vicinity of the sounder, (2) the field resulting from the multiplicity of solutions mentioned above, and (3) an evanescent field.


Celery (Apium graveolens) is an indigenous plant belongs to family Apiaceae. The present study was designed to evaluate the in vitro antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity of aqueous leaf extract of Apium graveolens (ALAG). The scavenging activity of ALAG was screened for superoxide, hydroxyl, hydrogen peroxide, nitric oxide and DPPH radicals using ascorbic acid as standard. The anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated by using HRBC membrane stabilization assay and albumin denaturation assay using diclofenac as standard. The ALAG showed concentration dependent activity in superoxide, hydroxyl, hydrogen peroxide, nitric oxide and DPPH radical scavenging activities. The ALAG showed anti-inflammatory activity by stabilizing erythrocyte membrane and significant effect on denaturation of protein at a concentration range of 100-500μg/ml. The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity of Apium graveolens might be due to the flavanoids, tannins and phenols.


A 32-year-old woman with one previous successful pregnancy had an ultrasound scan at about 16 weeks gestation which confirmed her dates and revealed a placenta covering the 0s. She was admitted at 27 weeks gestation with painless vaginal bleeding which settled spontaneously. An ultrasound scan revealed a minor degree of placenta praevia. A repeat scan at 34 weeks gestation showed a normally situated placenta. Because of the antepartum haemorrhage, induction of labour was planned for 40 weeks gestation. At amniotomy there was a brisk, fresh blood loss per vaginam of about 100-200 ml and the fetal heart ceased to be detectable within 2 min. Uterine activity was stimulated with oxytocin. A stillborn female infant weighing 3345 g was born spontaneously. Fetal death was due to exsanguination from ruptured vasa praevia.


The following case study illustrates the clinical role of mental health professionals who specialize in the treatment of people with diabetes. This case describes the diagnostic dilemma presented by a patient with diabetes and a history of severe hypoglycemia complicated by other medical, psychiatric, social, and functional problems.

Cognitive impairment (e.g., memory loss, increased distractibility, and confusion) can present a difficult diagnostic problem for clinicians because it can be symptomatic of many underlying and undetected clinical conditions. Careful diagnosis is crucial because some causes may be progressive and irreversible, whereas other causes may be reversible with medical or psychiatric treatment. Some of the more noteworthy causes are related to medication, alcohol, aging, depression, and, as in this case study, the possible consequences of recurrent severe hypoglycemia related to diabetes.1 Diabetes, of course, may cause an increase in cognitive decline over the course of time because of vascular risk factors.2 Some evidence suggests that acute hyperglycemia may have a negative impact on cognitive performance.3

Depression is the most common of the reversible causes of memory impairment, and people with diabetes are twice as likely to suffer from depression as those without diabetes.4 Recent evidence suggests that diabetes may create alterations in regions of the brain that are associated with affect regulation and increase the risk for developing a depressive disorder.5 Fortunately, problematic medications can be modified, and alcohol misuse or depression can be treated. Unfortunately, despite its relevance to the course of diabetes, depression is recognized and treated in fewer than one-third of people with diabetes.4

The relationship between recurrent severe hypoglycemia and cognitive impairment remains unclear. Both prospective and longitudinal studies of cognitive function have been so plagued by methodological problems that it is difficult to unequivocally determine whether patients who experience repeated episodes …


About the Editors. Preface. Acknowledgements. Abbreviations. List of Contributors. 1 Introduction. 1.1 Development and Status of Mobile and Wireless Communications. 1.2 Expectations of Data Traffic Growth. 1.3 Development Towards IMT-Advanced. 1.4 Global Research Activities. 1.5 WINNER Project. 1.6 Future Work. References. 2 Usage Scenarios and Technical Requirements. 2.1 Introduction. 2.2 Key Scenario Elements. 2.3 Service Classes and Service Requirements. 2.4 Requirements for System Capabilities. 2.5 Terminal Requirements. 2.6 Performance Requirements. 2.7 Spectrum Requirements. 2.8 Dependency of Requirements. 2.9 Conclusion. Acknowledgements. References. 3 WINNER II Channel Models. 3.1 Introduction. 3.2 Modelling Considerations. 3.3 Channel-Modelling Approach. 3.4 Channel Models and Parameters. 3.5 Channel Model Usage. 3.6 Conclusion. Acknowledgements. References. 4 System Concept and Architecture. 4.1 Introduction. 4.2 Design Principles and Main Characteristics. 4.3 Logical Node Architecture. 4.4 Protocol and Service Architecture. 4.5 Conclusion. Acknowledgements. References. 5 Modulation and Coding Techniques. 5.1 Introduction. 5.2 Basic Modulation and Coding Scheme. 5.3 Coding Schemes. 5.4 Link Adaptation. 5.5 Link Level Aspects of H-ARQ. 5.6 Conclusions. References. 6 Link Level Procedures. 6.1 Introduction. 6.2 Pilot Design. 6.3 Channel Estimation. 6.4 Radio Frequency Impairments. 6.5 Measurements and Signalling. 6.6 Link Level Synchronisation. 6.7 Network Synchronisation. 6.8 Conclusion. Acknowledgements. References. 7 Advanced Antennas Concept for 4G. 7.1 Introduction. 7.2 Multiple Antennas Concept. 7.3 Spatial Adaptation. 7.4 Spatial Schemes. 7.5 Interference Mitigation. 7.6 Pilots, Feedback and Measurements. 7.7 MIMO Aspects in Relaying. 7.8 Conclusion. Acknowledgements. References. 8 Layer-2 Relays for IMT-Advanced Cellular Networks. 8.1 Introduction. 8.2 Motivation for Layer-2 Relays and Prior Work. 8.3 Relay-based Deployments. 8.4 Design Choices for Relay-based Cellular Networks. 8.5 System and Network Aspects. 8.6 System-level Performance Evaluation. 8.7 Conclusion. Acknowledgements. References. 9 Multiple Access Schemes and Inter-cell Interference Mitigation Techniques. 9.1 Introduction. 9.2 Multiple Access Schemes. 9.3 Inter-cell Interference Mitigation Schemes. 9.4 Conclusion. Acknowledgements. References. 10 Radio Resource Control and System Level Functions. 10.1 Introduction. 10.2 IPCL Layer. 10.3 Radio Resource Control. 10.4 Centralised, Distributed and Hybrid RRM Architecture. 10.5 System-Level Performance Results. 10.6 Conclusion. Acknowledgements. References. 11 Sharing and Flexible Spectrum Use Capabilities. 11.1 Introduction. 11.2 Spectrum Technologies Framework. 11.3 Detailed Design of a Spectrum Assignment Negotiation Mechanism. 11.4 Spectrum Assignment Enabling Mechanisms. 11.5 WINNER Sharing with FSS. 11.6 Performance Evaluation of Spectrum Assignment Mechanisms. 11.7 Conclusion. Acknowledgements. References. 12 ITU-R Spectrum Demand Calculation for IMT-Advanced. 12.1 Introduction. 12.2 ITU-R Work on Spectrum Requirements of IMT-Advanced. 12.3 ITU-R Spectrum Calculation Methodology. 12.4 Software Implementation of Methodology. 12.5 Estimated Spectrum Requirements of IMT-Advanced. 12.6 Conclusion. Acknowledgements. References. 13 System Model, Test Scenarios, and Performance Evaluation. 13.1 Introduction. 13.2 Performance Assessment of Wireless Networks. 13.3 Interface between Link and System Simulations. 13.4 Test Scenarios. 13.5 Spectral Efficiency and Number of Satisfied Users under QoS Constraints. 13.6 End-to-End Performance Evaluation. 13.7 Conclusion. Acknowledgements. References. 14 Cost Assessment and Optimisation for WINNER Deployments. 14.1 Introduction. 14.2 Cost Assessment Framework and Assumptions. 14.3 Cost Components. 14.4 Cost Assessment Models. 14.5 Reference Deployment Scenarios and Cost Assessments. 14.6 Conclusion. Acknowledgements. References. Index.


Discriminant function analysis (DFA) is a data-reduction technique used to make decisions about naturally occurring group membership. It can answer theoretical questions but has proved especially useful in applied research. In this entry we begin with an overview of DFA, describing the two types of DFA investigation and its three main procedures, followed by a summary of DFA's potential and its limitations. We then explain the steps needed for interpreting DFA results, and conclude with two recent examples of the use of DFA as a statistical tool in psycholinguistic research.

Keywords:

applied psychology;
assessment methods in applied linguistics;
psycholinguistics;
research methods in applied linguistics


E.H. Carr contrasts 'realism' with 'utopianism' in his major work in theorising international relations, but he ought to have contrasted it with 'moralism', which is a complex set of attitudes that give unwarranted priority to moral considerations in explaining and justifying human action. 'Moralism' is a flawed approach to politics. One should distinguish it from 'utopianism', which is made up of different strands, not all of which are equally problematic. One strand which has been historically important was centred around an attempt to describe and realise a perfect unchanging society, and Carr seems to have this in mind primarily when he speaks 'utopianism'. However, there has been another strand which has focused on the social construction of 'impossibility' in politics, and our potential ability to undo that construction. Such utopianism is compatible with realism.


Abstract Globally, a major agenda in health and development has been HIV/AIDS mitigation measures among the youth. This follows the prevalence of sexual activity at a younger age, a burgeoning youth population that does not attend school and high unemployment that seems to push youth into alternative life patterns that involve risks to their health. Young people in Tanzania are more exposed to HIV/AIDS due to multiple factors, ranging from lack of SRH knowledge, to socio-cultural issues and poverty. Despite the fact that all people are susceptible to HIV transmission, youth – especially girls – are at the highest risk due to gender imbalances that prevent them from having support and decision-making power. Whereas numerous studies have concentrated on urban settings through a quantitative approach, this study investigated a wide-range of socio-cultural and gender related issues in rural and urban settings of Mbeya region, through a qualitative approach. The study involved 54 respondents. Qualitative data collection techniques included in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and document review. The findings show that the majority of youth had heard about HIV/AIDS and its related effects; however, condom use, and attendance at SRH services was low. The challenges contributing to HIV/AIDS prevalence amongst youth include: lack of decision-making power; drug and alcohol abuse; inappropriate information about HIV/AIDS and SRH; and, household poverty. The study concludes that youth should be better incorporated in addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and the Tanzanian government should create a supportive environment to access youth use of SRH services and more effective implementation of its policies.


In this paper, we explore the concept of inner and outer functions to come up with two novel parametric families of Nyquist pulses. Aside from requiring only two design parameters, the proposed pulses yield an enhanced performance compared to the sophisticated flipped-inverse hyperbolic secant (asech) pulse, that was recently presented in the literature. While the construction of parametric families originates from the work of Beaulieu and Damen, the usage of inner and outer functions guarantees a higher flexibility in the choice of the composite family members. The proposed pulses may have a slower decay rate than the well-known raised-cosine (RC) pulse, but exhibit a more pronounced decrease in the amplitudes of the two largest sidelobes and this accounts for their improved robustness to error probabilities. In the following, it is clearly demonstrated that a lower bit error rate (BER), compared to the existing pulses, can be achieved for different values of the roll-off factor and timing jitter. Moreover, a smaller maximum distortion along with a more open eye diagram are attained as well.


In this paper, we study the power and channel allocation problem for multicarrier non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) full duplex (FD) systems. Owing to the presence of multiple interfering users transmitting over the same channel, the considered allocation problem is nonconvex. With the aim of designing a limited complexity solution, we propose an algorithm based on the minimization of the weighted mean square error, which achieves performance reasonably close to the optimum and allows to clearly outperform a conventional orthogonal multiple access approach. Numerical results assess the effectiveness of our proposal.


RefeRences 1. Baindara P, Mandal SM. Antimicrobial peptides and vaccine development to control multi-drug resistant bacteria. Protein Pept Lett 2019;26:324-31. 2. Vasconcelos SNS, Sciani JM, Lisboa NM, Stefani HA. Synthesis of a Tyr-Tyr dipeptide library and evaluation against tumor cells. Med Chem 2018;14:709-14. 3. Nyanguile O. Peptide antiviral strategies as an alternative to treat lower respiratory viral infections. Front Immunol 2019;10:1366. 4. Walls AC, Park YJ, Tortorici MA, Wall A, McGuire AT, Veesler D. Structure, function, and antigenicity of the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein. Cell 2020;181:281-92.e6. 5. Wan Y, Shang J, Graham R, Baric RS, Li F. Receptor recognition by the novel coronavirus from Wuhan: An analysis based on decade-long Access this article online


The effect of Cs adsorption on secondary‐electron emission from MgO/Au cermets has been studied by both a rapid yield measurement technique and Auger electron spectroscopy. The presence of Cs enhances the emission from these materials, but the Cs is weakly bound and is easily removed by electron bombardment. The emission is not adversely affected by the possible alloying of Cs with Au.


The present invention discloses a separation and purification method for vitamin A palmitate. The method is applicable for separation of a reaction product from the following reaction: retinol acetate reacts with palmitic acid by the catalysis effect of immobilized lipase to synthesize the vitamin A palmitate. The separation and purification method comprises the following steps: 1) removing the palmitic acid by low temperature crystallization; 2) separating the vitamin A palmitate and the retinol acetate by a liquid-liquid extraction and separation method or a silica gel column chromatography separation method. According to the present invention, the process conditions of the separation and the purification are optimized; the liquid-liquid extraction and separation method of the present invention has advantages of simple operation and low equipment requirements; with the silica gel column chromatography separation method, the high purity vitamin A palmitate can be obtained.


Emulsified water is generally present in crude oil as a result of the mixing occurring during production operations. The formation of emulsions leads problems in production and also transportation. Therefore, they need to demulsify through demulsification process. This research is to study the effect of chemical demulsifier in order to separate the water and oil from water in oil emulsions. Chemical demulsification consist of the addition of small amount of breaking agent to enhance the phase separation. Thus, there have four groups of breaking agents have been selected which were consisted with amine, natural, polyhydric and alcohol demulsifiers group. Each group of demulsifiers has been tested on stable emulsions. Sample emulsions were prepared by using Tapis blended with heavy crude oil and Span83 was added to enhance emulsions stability. After mix the demulsifiers into the emulsions, they were left for gravity settling process. From the research work, found that amine demulsifier group exhibited the highest efficiency to break the emulsion compared to polyhydric, alcohol and natural group. This result was influenced by the hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity characteristic of the breaking agent. Those factors have effect the solubility of the chemical demulsifier either more soluble to oil or water phase. Beside, the molecular weight of the demulsifiers also affects the efficiency of the demulsification process.


In this study, a first-principles search for the possible hydrides with the prepreerence sites of hydrogen in AB(2) C14-type Laves structure was carried out for the Sc-Mn-H system. The obtained structural parameters were close to the available experimental results. Total energy was calculated by ab initio pseudopotential method within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) to density functional theory (DFT). Formation energies of ScMn(2)Hx (x =0.75-3) hydrides are systematically investigated to analyze the influence of the hydrogen content and hydrogen sites in the alloy on the site preference of hydrogen in the hydrides on the basis of crystal and electronic structures and structural stability. The calculated results show that ScMn2H0.75 with the P3 space group has the highest stability for all hydrides. The density of states, the charge density distribution were investigated in order to get insight into the underlying mechanism for structural stability, electronic bonding nature of ScMn2Hx and the preference of hydrogen entering into C14-type Laves structure. The results show that the prepreerence site of H atom in C14-type Laves structures is 3d(x 2x z) site in P3 (No.143) space group.


blood transfusion bank served as controls. NAG activity in serum was determined by a fluorometric assay previously described for total NAG activity in urine (5). We analyzed 0.1 niL of serum diluted 20-fold with 10 mmol.IL sodium phosphate buffer, pH 7. NAG isoenzyme patterns from sera were obtained by electrofocusing (Ampholine PAG plate, pH range 3.5-9.5). After focusing, the isoenzyme profile of NAG activity in each sample and the pH gradient was obtained by cutting the entire length of gel into 0.5-cm segments and incubating them in the usual reaction medium or water. The results show a significantly (P <0.05) higher NAG serum activity in the group of renal-transplant recipients than in the control group (Table 1). The transplant recipients exhibited a wide range of NAG activity (varying by about sixfold), with a large standard deviation from the mean. The broad variation among individuals evident in this study was confirmed by further large-scale investigations (n = 234, 520 ± 181 LIL, range: 218-1917). In the 43 transplant recipients, NAG activity (y) correlated with neither serum creatimne (x: 72-617 nmol/L) as an indexof kidney function (y = 0.41x + 594, r = 0.18) nor time after transplantation (x: 1-155 months) as an index of immunosuppressive treatment (y = 1.28x + 474,r = 0.24). Isoelectric focusing of serum samples from controls and from renal-transplant recipients with above-normal activities (>500 U/L) showed a major peak of enzymatic activity in profiles corresponding to isoenzyme A (p1 4.8-5.2); NAG isoenzyme B content was low or could not be detected. In addition, an intermediate peak ofNAG activity (p1 6.2-6.6) was present as a minor peak in the controls but accounted for about 40% of serum NAG activity in the renal-transplant group. This report shows that NAG activity in sera from renaltransplant recipients exceeds that in healthy subjects, whereas NAG concentrations in sera from chronic renalfailure patients are significantly lower (P <0.001) than those of the control group (3). The intermediate form, NAG I, appears to be the main cause of increase in total NAG activity in serum from renal-transplant recipients, and qualitatively resembles the alterations associated with use of oral contraceptive steroids (6), pregnancy (7), or various disorders such as diabetes mellitus (8) and liver diseases (9). The source of increased serum NAG I activity in renal-transplant recipients is therefore nonspecific.


The effect of chronic exposure to petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) pollution on the concentrations of glucose, serum and liver malondialdehyde (MDA), protein carbonyl and the histology of liver tissues of the native fowl (Gallus domesticus) from Egbema in the Niger Delta Area (NDA) was studied. Identical fowls from an unpolluted area of Mbaise served as the control. Results showed no significant difference (P<0.05) in the mean glucose concentration obtained for fowls from both environments. The values obtained for serum and liver MDA and protein carbonyl for the test and control fowls were found to be significantly (P<0.05) different. There were elevated concentrations of MDA, protein carbonyl in the serum as well as MDA from liver homogenates of fowls from Egbema when compared to those of fowls from Mbaise. Histological changes were also observed in the liver sections of fowls from Egbema as against none in the liver sections of fowls from Mbaise. These changes were characteristically necrotic and inflammatory. Thus, the findings from this study show, in clear terms, that PHC pollution (crude oil and gas flaring) markedly affected the Egbema environment and induced changes in tissues of the native fowl whose nativity and ancestry are from there. Original Research Article International Journal of Biochemistry Research & Review, 4(3): 233-242, 2014 234


Nine species (including five new to science) of non-lafystiid stegocephaloid amphipods have been recognized within the collections of the Canadian Museum of Nature from the NE Pacific (Alaska to Oregon), viz. Acanthonotozoma rusanovae Bryazgin 1974 (Acanthonotozomatidae), Iphimedia rickettsi Shoemaker 1931 (Iphimediidae), Parandania boecki (Stebbing 1888), Phippsiella cascadiensis n.sp., Stegocephalexia penelope n. gen., n. sp., Stegocephalopsis mamillidacta n. sp. (Stegocephalidae). Odius kelleri Bruggen 1907 is reallocated to Cryptodius n. gen., and C. unguidactylus n. sp. and Imbrexodius oclairi n. gen., n. sp. (Odiidae) are also described. Keys are presented which allow the genera of Odiidae of the world, and of this collection of species, to be distinguished.


Nowadays, software engineering is moving towards the development of ubiquitous and distributed applications. This tendency is constrained by parameters such as mobility and heterogeneity that characterise the current situation of a user. In this work, we aim to integrate the separation between aspects for the context aware services development process by using the MDA taking maximum advantages of this approach. We aim to automating the development process by using tools, which ensures better productivity, improve product quality and facilitates the maintenance. A meta model allowing modelling any contextual information and taking into account the separation of aspects and the context in the early stages of development is proposed. Web services adaptation to different contextual situations by automating the development lifecycle of services and exploiting all the performance conditions is our concern and the transformation step is investigated and a transformer is developed. This provides greater relevancy...


Backdoor listing can enable enterprises to go public quickly to raise funds and promote industrial development, but backdoor listing insider trading is an important issue that cannot be ignored. Information leakage will lead to market fluctuation in the backdoor listing. Insider trading will increase the stock price before the backdoor listing, reduce market liquidity and increase the backdoor cost. This article selects this year's hot topics"Backdoor listing of 360 Technology Limited"as a case, combined with the method of market model, stock turnover rate and the change of the number of shareholders analysis before the 360 Technology Limited backdoor listings there is no large-scale phenomena of insider trading, but there are signs that there may be a small insider trading. The government should strengthen the supervision of information disclosure and crack down on insider trading.


By using pectin (PEC) as carrier material and doxorubicin (DOX) as a model drug, the blank PEC nanoparticles (PEC-NPs) and the DOX-loading PEC nanoparticles (DOX-PEC-NPs) were prepared by microemulsification method and drug adsorption. The aim of this study is to investigate the anticancer activity of DOX-PEC-NPs in vitro to understand the advantages of PEC-NPs as an anticancer drug delivery system. The particle size, polydispersity index (PDI) and zeta potential of PEC-NPs were (276.80 ± 2.80) nm, (0.140 ± 0.014) and (?19.83 ± 0.21) mV, while those of DOX-PEC-NPs were (283.73 ± 3.26) nm, (0.157 ± 0.034) and (?18.00 ± 0.44) mV. The entrapment efficiency (EE%) and drug-loading rate (LR%) of DOX-PEC-NPs were (92.10 ± 0.60)% and (18.72 ± 0.10)%, respectively. Using an MTT assay, the DOX-PEC-NPs were proved to greatly inhibit the viability of MDAMB- 231 cells, A549 cells and NCI-H1299 cells, and the anticancer activity was higher than that of the DOX solution in these cells. The PEC-NPs had no cytotoxicity against the three tested cells. An inverted fluorescence microscope and flow cytometry were used to observe the intracellular uptake of DOX. The DOX-PEC-NPs resulted in faster and more DOX uptake than DOX solution in the tested cells. The results indicated that the PEC-NPs may be a potential anticancer drug delivery system which could reduce the dose and increase the activity of anticancer drugs.


Abstract A new membrane system has been developed by BP for refinery and chemical plant olefin purification and recovery. This facilitated transport system, coupled with distillation, offers lower capital and operating costs than conventional distillation alone. Initial results on lab scale hollow fiber devices indicate membrane flux ranging from 8.75×10−6 to 8×10−5 m3/m2/sec (2.5 to 23 scfd/ft2) and selectivities from 150 to 300. Pilot plant experiments on propylene/propane and ethylene purge gas recovery over three to six months duration show membrane stability and product purity of 98.5% or greater using refinery grade propylene feed. Hybrid system optimization data for membranes and distillation indicate that using a side draw from the distillation tower provides advantages in terms of membrane area, purity of feed to the membrane, and low per-pass recovery coupled with high overall propylene recovery. Membrane performance data under various conditions will also be presented. In addition to performanc...


Headwater catchment hydrology and biogeochemistry are influenced by climate, including linear trends (nonstationary signals) and climate oscillations (stationary signals). We used an analytical framework to detect nonstationary and stationary signals in yearly time series of nutrient export [dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), nitrate (NO3−‐N), and total dissolved phosphorus (TDP)] in forested headwater catchments with differential water loading and water storage potential at the Turkey Lakes Watershed in Ontario, Canada. We tested the hypotheses that (1) climate has nonstationary and stationary effects on nutrient export, the combination of which explains most of the variation in nutrient export; (2) more metabolically active nutrients (e.g., DON, NO3−‐N, and TDP) are more sensitive to these signals; and (3) catchments with relatively low water loading and water storage capacity are more sensitive to these signals. Both nonstationary and stationary signals were identified, and the combination of both explained the majority of the variation in nutrient export data. More variation was explained in more labile nutrients (DON, NO3−‐N, and TDP), which were also more sensitive to climate signals. The catchment with low‐water storage potential and low water loading was most sensitive to nonstationary and stationary climatic oscillations, suggesting that these hydrologic features are characteristic of the most effective sentinels of climate change. The observed complex links between climate change, climatic oscillations, and water nutrient fluxes in headwater catchments suggest that climate may have considerable influence on the productivity and biodiversity of surface waters, in addition to other drivers such as atmospheric pollution.


The objective of this research was to evaluate the response of Amaranthus hypochondriacus L. race Mercado to plant density and fertilization doses in the variables: yield, plant height, stem diameter, panicle size, and index of plants with lodging. The study factors were: planting density (D) (156 250, 208 333 and 260 417 plants ha), nitrogen levels (40, 80 and 120 kg ha), potassium levels (zero and 20 kg ha) and application of 40 kg ha of phosphorus as a constant. The arrangement of treatments consisted of a 3x3x2 factorial in an experimental design of completely random blocks with four repetitions and 18 treatments. The experiment was conducted in the 2017 and 2018 cultivation cycles in Tochimilco, Puebla, Mexico. The cultivation practices were carried out according to the technical itinerary of the conventional direct sowing system, which consists of placing in each sowing hole a variable number of seeds to ensure that in each hole several plants grow and then perform a thinning, in which the smallest plants are uprooted and three, four or five plants are left in each sowing hole depending on the experience of each farmer. The results show highly significant differences (p< 0.01) in yield, plant height, length and width of panicle by individual effects and interactions of D, N*K and N*K*D. It was concluded that the decision made by producers to leave three, four or five plants per sowing hole is a decisive decision in the production of amaranth.


This article examines two works by contemporary Chinese artist Xu Bing: A Book from the Sky and A Book from the Ground. Focusing on the relationship between text and image in each of these works, it explores the relation between verbality and visuality in multimodal literary art. It argues that the schema of image-in-text and image-as-text underlines different discourses of communication as articulated in these works. A Book from the Sky expresses a negative view of the communicative potential of language by masking up the verbal signifier as an image and puncturing it of semantic meaning. A Book from the Ground, on the other hand, envisions a futuristic realm with a radically different linguistic order, where verbal texts are functionally taken over by visual signs. Seen as a continuum, the language problematic identified in the earlier work finds a solution in the latter, as played out by the different tensions between text and image. In each of these cases, translation serves as a litmus indicator of t...


Ecological modeling based on radiocarbon dates sheds light on key questions on the biogeography of horses. Wild horses thrived across Eurasia until the Last Glacial Maximum to collapse after the beginning of the Holocene. The interplay of climate change, species adaptability to different environments, and human domestication in horse history is still lacking coherent continental-scale analysis integrating different lines of evidence. We assembled temporal and geographical information on 3070 horse occurrences across Eurasia, frequency data for 1120 archeological layers in Europe, and matched them to paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental simulations for the Late Quaternary. Climate controlled the distribution of horses, and they inhabited regions in Europe and Asia with different climates and ecosystem productivity, suggesting plasticity to populate different environments. Their decline in Europe during the Holocene appears associated with an increasing loss and fragmentation of open habitats. Europe was the most likely source for the spread of horses toward more temperate regions, and we propose both Iberia and central Asia as potential centers of domestication.


Introduction: Spiral density waves are launched in Saturn's rings at locations of orbital resonances with nearby moons. These waves provide a means of probing fundamental properties of the ring such as mass, thickness, and collision velocities [1, 2]. These properties constrain models of the origin and evolution of Saturn's rings. Density waves are collisionally damped, and the damping therefore provides a measure of the ring viscosity which can in turn be used to estimate a vertical thickness or scale height for the ring disk and a mean interparticle collision velocity. The self-gravity of the disk introduces a dispersion in the wave propagation [3, 4]: m (R) ( ) 2 = 2 (R) 2 G k (1)


The objective of this research was to investigate the effect of substitution of wheat flour with sweet cassava flour and rice flour on physical and sensory qualities in a gluten-free Takoyaki. The different ratios of cassava flour and rice flour were performed at five recipes, including 55:45 (HN55), 65:35 (HN65), 75:25 (HN75), 85:15 (HN85) and 100:0 (HN100) and then analyzed their quality attributes. These results indicated that increasing the ratio of cassava flour in Takoyaki products revealed the decrease in hardness (p ≤ 0.05) and the colour of products were a darker brown with lightness (L*) redness (a*) but yellowness (b*) was de-creased (p ≤ 0.05). Next, the sensory evaluation suggested that an increase of ra-tios of cassava flour was also significantly reduced in the likeness score in ap-pearance, colour, crispness, softness, oiliness, and overall liking (p ≤ 0.05) by us-ing a 9-point hedonic scale. This work clearly shows that HN55 is like Takoyaki from wheat flour (as control) since the sensory evaluation has been indicated at like moderately to very much. So, the sweet cassava flour is potentially used to prepare gluten-free products, but it may be necessary to improve due to some containing the specific odour.


In this chapter, we will present an "in silico" simulation study of the interactions between (mechanical) Ventricular Assist Devices (VADs) and the native cardiovascular system. In this study, we aim at a quantitative description of these interactions which is based on a mathematical modeling concept and a numerical simulation approach of the underlying physiological and pathophysiological processes. Much progress has been achieved in the design of ventricular assist devices; VADs are now in position to provide patients suffering from a seriously impaired ventricular function with an excellent hemodynamic support. Although the implantation of VADs is already routinely done in clinical settings, the planning and carrying out of such interventions is nevertheless a challenging task. In the planning phase, cardiologists and heart surgeons must, among other things, consider the interactions of the ventricular assist device with the native cardiovascular system which are to be expected after the implantation of a VAD. Thus, Claudio De Lazzari1,2* and Bernhard Quatember3 1National Research Council, Institute of Clinical Physiology U.O.S. of Rome, Italy 2National Institute for Cardiovascular Research, Italy 3Medizinische Universitaet Innsbruck, Austria *Corresponding author: Claudio De Lazzari, National Research Council, Institute of Clinical Physiology, U.O.S of Rome, Via S.M. della Battaglia, 44, 00185 Rome, Italy, Tel: +39 06 49936222; Email: firstname.lastname@example.com Published Date: December 30, 2015


The comparison of three major hyperelastic constitutive models was discussed,and the uniaxial tensile mechanical behavior of rubber used in tires was tested based on non-linear mechanics theory.Assuming the rubber was totally incompressible,the method to obtain material constants of three hyperelastic constitutive models——Neo-Hookean,Mooney-Rivilin and Yeoh models was proposed.The mechanical properties of tire at inflated state were analyzed by different constitutive models in Ansys software.The results showed that the simulation of linear elastic model coincided with the test data better when tire was under small deformation.


Diabetes is a chronic disease and the major types of diabetes are type 1 and type 2. On aging, people with diabetes tend to have long-term problems in hypertension, coronary artery disease, obesity, and nerves. Given the increasing number of complications in recent years, by 2040, 624 million people will have diabetes worldwide and l in 8 adults will have diabetes in the future. Machine learning (ML) is evolving rapidly, many aspects of medical learning use ML. In this study, tension-type headaches (TTH) were associated with diabetes using SPSS, Pearson correlation, and ANOVA tests. Data were collected from Delhi NCR Hospital. It contains 30 diabetic subjects. The purpose of this study was to correlate diabetes analysis from TTH and other diseases using the latest technologies to analyze the Internet of Things and Big Data and Stress Correlation (TTH) on human health. The authors used Pearson correlation to correlate study variables and see if there was any effect between them. There was an important relationship between the percent variable, the total number of individuals, the number of individuals, and the minimum variable. The age (field) of the number of individuals to one of the total number of individuals showed a strong correlation (1.000) with a significant value of p (1.000). Overall, cases of TTH increased with age in men and do not follow the pattern of change in diabetes with age, but in cases of TTH, patterns of headaches such as diabetes increase to age 60 and then tend to decrease.


An attempt is made to relate several common dimensions of business-level strategy to their organizational contexts. A model is developed that predicts the structural and environmental correlates of a strategy on the basis of the number and uncertainty of its contingencies. It is shown that strategies of complex product innovation, marketing differentiation, market breadth and conservative cost control each have pronounced but very different relationships with bureaucratic and organic structural devices of uncertainty reduction, differentiation and integration, and with environmental dynamism, heterogeneity and hostility.


Submitted for the OSF08 Meeting of The American Physical Society Solvent Effect on Linear Photophysical Properties of a Two Photon Absorbing Dye JENNIFER MONAHAN, AFRL/RX, SOCHE, WSUChemistry Dept, JOY ROGERS-HALEY, AFRL/RX, UES Inc., JONATHAN SLAGLE, AFRL/RX, AT&T Government Solutions, RAMAMURTHI KANNAN, AFRL/RX, Systran Systems Inc, LOON-SENG TAN, AUGUSTINE URBAS, AFRL/RX — The nonlinear photophysical properties of two-photon absorbing materials have been of great interest but have not been well understood. The Air Force Research Laboratory has developed a two-photon absorbing dye termed AF240 which consists of an electron donating group linked to a π-conjugated center then to an electron withdrawing group. A solvent study was undertaken in which AF240 was investigated in order to determine the effect of solvent on the linear photophysical properties. These properties include the ground state molar absorption coefficient, steady-state emission, time resolved emission utilizing time correlated single photon counting, and triplet absorbance spectra. The ground state and triplet absorbance spectra indicate a slight red shift due to an increase of polarity of the solvent. Dramatic red shifts in the steady state emission also have been observed which result from an increase in the polarity of the solvent. The formation of an intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) state has been observed and determined to be the origin of these changes with solvent. Jennifer Monahan Air Force Research Laboratory-Materials and Manufacturing Directorate (AFRL/RX), SOCHE, WSU-Chemistry Dept Date submitted: 01 Oct 2008 Electronic form version 1.4


We discuss some aspects of cohomological properties of a two-dimensional free Abelian gauge theory in the framework of BRST formalism. We derive the conserved and nilpotent BRST-and co-BRST charges and express the Hodge decomposition theorem in terms of these charges and a conserved bosonic charge corresponding to the Laplacian operator. It is because of the topological nature of free U(1) gauge theory that the Laplacian operator goes to zero when equations of motion are exploited. We derive two sets of topological invariants which are related to each-other by a certain kind of duality transformation and express the Lagrangian density of this theory as the sum of terms that are BRST-and co-BRST invariants. Mathematically, this theory captures together some of the key features of Witten-and Schwarz type of topological field theories.


Our laboratory is currently studying the experimental thulium fiber laser (TFL) for ablation of kidney stones. Previous studies have reported increased stone ablation rates with TFL operation at higher pulse rates; however, stone retropulsion remains an obstacle to more efficient stone ablation. This study explores TFL operation at high pulse rates in combination with a stone stabilization device (e.g., stone basket) for improved stone ablation efficiency. A TFL beam with pulse energy of 35 mJ, pulse duration of 500 μs, and pulse rates of 10-500 Hz was delivered through 100-μm-core, low-OH, silica fibers, in contact mode with human uric acid (UA) and calcium oxalate monohydrate (COM) stones, ex vivo. TFL operation at 500 Hz produced mean UA and COM stone ablation rates up to 4.4 and 1.4 mg/s, respectively. High TFL pulse rates produce increased stone ablation rates that may be suitable for future translation into the clinic.


Article is devoted to clinical aspects of application in daily practice of the dentist of hot gutta-percha on the carrier. The analysis of features of application of this technique in comparison with a method of a lateral compactions of gutta-percha is carried out. At a preclinical stage carried out comparison of apically permeability of the fangs which have been sealed up with application of these techniques. In clinic within 3 years treatment of complications of caries of 878 teeth at 645 patients aged from 18 till 75 years was carried out. During research lack of reliable distinctions in efficiency of application of these techniques is established.


This paper investigates, through numerical modeling, the extent to which the energy of the received signal from an array-based pulse-echo system can be maximized for a specified reflector geometry, location and orientation. This is done by the use of an optimized transmitted acoustic field and receiver characteristics. The transmit/receive behavior is implemented through the delay values applied to the individual transducer elements. The paper describes the modeling, and optimization steps required for this effort. For three simple, yet distinct, reflector types, the paper shows that the method can be used to identify which one of the three reflectors is actually present.


Dense, disordered packings of particles are useful models of low-temperature amorphous phases of matter, biological systems, granular media, and colloidal systems. The study of dense packings of nonspherical particles enables one to ascertain how rotational degrees of freedom affect packing behavior. Here, we study superballs, a large family of deformations of the sphere, defined in three dimensions by | x 1 | 2 p + | x 2 | 2 p + | x 3 | 2 p ≤ 1, where p ∈ (0 , ∞ ) is a deformation parameter indicating to what extent the shape deviates from a sphere. As p increases from the sphere point ( p = 1), the superball tends to a cuboidal shape and approaches a cube in the p → ∞ limit. As p → 0 . 5, it approaches an octahedron, becomes a concave body with octahedral symmetry for p < 0 . 5, and approaches a three-dimensional cross in the limit p → 0. Previous characterization of superball packings has shown that they have a maximally random jammed (MRJ) state, whose properties (e.g., packing fraction φ , average contact number ¯ Z ) vary nonanalytically as p diverges from unity. Here, we use an event-driven molecular dynamics algorithm to produce MRJ superball packings with 0 . 85 ≤ p ≤ 1 . 50. To supplement the previous work on such packings, we characterize their large-scale structure by examining the behaviors of their structure factors S ( Q ) and spectral densities ˜ χ V ( Q ), as the wave number Q tends to zero, and find that these packings are effectively hyperuniform for all values of p examined. We show that the mean width ¯ w is a useful length scale to make distances dimensionless in order to compare systematically superballs of different shape. Moreover, we compute the complementary cumulative pore-size distribution F ( δ ) and find that the pore sizes tend to decrease as | 1 − p | increases. From F ( δ ), we estimate how the fluid permeability, mean survival time, and principal diffusion relaxation time vary as a function of p . Additionally, we compute the diffusion "spreadability" S ( t ) [Torquato, Phys. Rev. E, 104 , 054102, (2021)] of these packings and find that the long-time power-law scaling indicates these packings are hyperuniform with a small- Q power law scaling of the spectral density ˜ χ V ( Q ) ∼ Q α with an exponent α that ranges from 0.64 at the sphere point to 0.32 at p = 1 . 50, and decreases as | 1 − p | increases. Each of the structural characteristics computed here exhibits an extremum at the sphere point and varies nonanalytically as p departs the sphere point. We find the nonanalytic behavior in φ on either side of the sphere point is nearly linear, and determine that the rattler fraction φ R decreases rapidly as | 1 − p | increases. Our results can be used to help inform the design of colloidal or granular materials with targeted densities and transport properties.


This review article is based upon the relationship about service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Science Direct, ABI/INFORM Global, EBSCO Host and Emerald scholarly databases are inspected for service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty studies. Meeting or exceeding customers' expectations becomes one of the key issues for most service companies because service plays much more important role in today's marketing strategy. Literature suggests a positive association among service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Moreover, literature indicates the antecedents of customer satisfaction and loyalty such as responsiveness, reliability and empathy. This study emancipates the literature of service quality orientation in connection to customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.


With the development of information technology, spatial data plays an increasingly important part in both people's daily life and industrial manufacture. The demand of spatial data processing and retrieving is challenging traditional database technology. The emergence of spatial database has greatly raised the efficiency of spatial data handling. As the key component of spatial database, spatial index technology got a booming development in the past few years; kinds of new index structure is being developed, improved, and eliminated. This article pays attention to the spatial index structure; we first give a survey on the mesh index structure, present the classical R-tree index structure and its variations, then according to the nature of GIS data, we develop a new spatial index structure for GIS data composing the advantage of mesh index and R-tree index, and verify its high efficiency experimentally.


The concept of an orthogonal polynomial $p_n (x)$ is extended by defining a generalized orthogonal function $p_\nu (x)$ of nonintegral degree $\nu$. A sufficiency condition is then found under which a generalized orthogonal function which satisfies an identity of the type known as Dougall's identity (for a generalized orthogonal function of nonintegral degree), will also satisfy the related S-type identity (for a generalized orthogonal function of integral degree).The sufficiency condition is applied to Legendre associated functions, generalized Legendre associated functions, and to Jacobi functions.


It was reported in preceding paper,2) that several kinds of 5'-nucleotides were excreted by incu bating resting intact cells of Zygosaccharomyces oja mutant in an alkaline medium in the presence of orthophosphate. That the presence of orthophosphate stimulated markedly the excretion of 5'-nucleo tides suggested the responsibility of polynucleotide phosphorylase on autodegradation of endogenous RNA. Further verification to the responsibility of the enzyme on authodegradation of RNA was demonstrated in this report using cell-free extract of Z. soja mutant. Incubating the cell-free dialy zed preparation in an alkaline buffered medium, formation of several kinds of nucleotide was veri fied. The resemblance of the composition of excreted nucleotides to that of RNA degradation product was also observed. That orthophosphate and magnesium ions were verified to be essential for auto degradation of endogenous RNA indicated that polynucleotide phosphorylase mainly played a role in the autodegradation. The finding that nucleoside diphosphate could not be obtained as the deg radation product of endogenous RNA by polynucleotide phosphorylase illustrated that the breakdown of nucleoside diphosphate formed was rapidly brought about by the action of pyrophosphatase present in cell-free preparation.