Objective To study the therapeutic effect of small interfering RNA(siRNA)interference to silence STAT3 on rheumatoid arthritis(RA)in the rats,to evaluate the effectiveness,and to provide experimental basis for the gene therapy of RA.Methods The RA models of rats(CIA)were constructed by chickenⅡ collagen induced method.There were four groups in this experiment:normal group(the rats without arthritis),model group(the rats with arthritis but without treatment),negative control group(the rats with RA with messy coded RNA)and treatment group(the rats with RA with STAT3 specifically coded interference siRNA).Both siRNA were entrapped into lentiviral particles and were injected into the rats' joints.The general situations of the rats were observed and the pathological degrees of the joints were recorded every 7days and the pathological section of the rat joints were observed;the rats were sacrificed on the 35 th day and the pathological sections of the joints were scored.RT-PCR method was used to detect the STAT3 mRNA expression levels after siRNA interference and the expression levels of STAT3 protein in synovial tissue of the rats were detected by Western blotting method.Results The clinical and morphological appearance of the rats in treatment group was significantly lightened compared with model group and negative control group.Compared with normal group,the expression levels of STAT3 mRNA and protein in synovial tissue in model group and negative control group were significantly increased(P0.01),and the expression levels of STAT3 mRNA and protein in treatment group had no significant difference(P0.05);there was no significant difference between model group and negative control group(P0.05).Compared with model group,the expression levels of STAT3 mRNA and protein in synovial tissue of the rats in treatment group were significantly decreased(P0.05).Conclusion Local injection of siRNA can block the expression of STAT3,and thus can make significant improvements in pathological manifestations in the joints of RA rats.The mechanism may be related to the reduction of the expression levels of STAT3 mRNA and protein.


This Article examines the conflicting public policy arguments surrounding the vulnerable state of California's Delta levee system. While discussing the structural, financial, and political obstacles to rebuilding the Delta levee system, the Article focuses on the juxtaposition of the judicial evolution of liability under California's takings clause and the California Department of Water Resources proposals to increase state immunity as it relates to flood protection work. California's takings clause is modeled after the U.S. Constitution and its existing statutory tort immunity for failure of flood control projects is modeled after the Federal Flood Control Act of 1928. The argument presented in this Article may have persuasive force in other states that have similar legal foundations.


A BSTRA C T Wattenberg field is a large gas reservoir producing from the Lower Cretaceous Muddy "J" sandstone. A de tailed analysis of the Muddy "J" using trace fossil assemblages, cores, and subsurface mapping has led to a refined interpretation of the depositional environments. Previous work (Tohill, 1972, Matuszczak 1973, 1976) recognized the Muddy "J"of Wattenberg as a southwesterly prograding delta and described some of the deposltional environments found in Muddy "J" cores. This study delineates three distinct lithofacies intervals in the Muddy "J" that occur and can be mapped throughout the field. These three intervals are the delta front, delta plain and transgressive facies. Additional subenvironments (distributory mouth bars, marshes, bays, levees, channels, and crevasse splays) can be recognized in some cores. This interpretation is part of a continuing research pro gram aimed at improving field exploitation.


In this paper, we address an energy efficient sensor selection method in wireless sensor networks for cooperative spectrum sensing when only partial information about the sensors and primary user is available. Since it is very difficult to know signal-to-noise ratio for each node, we break down the node selection process as follows. First, there is not any information about the distance between the nodes and primary user. In this case, the probability density function of the received power from the primary user is obtained. Based on the probability density function of the received power, the average probability of detection is determined. According to the average probability of detection, the minimum number of nodes which should be distributed randomly to satisfy the average global probability of detection, is computed. Second, the location of the sensor nodes is assumed to be known while the distance between each node and primary user is not deterministic. Based on the convex optimization framework, we propose a numerical method to obtain the priority of the sensors for spectrum sensing. The sensing nodes are selected to satisfy the average global probability of detection and minimize the energy consumption. Simulation results show that our theoretical solution is in line with our simulation results.


This paper is a short presentation of a joint work with Mejdi Azar/ez, Christine Bernardi and Yvon Maday, which will be published in a book entitled "Spectral Methods for Axisymmetric Domains". Here we focus on the solution of a simple boundary value problem: the Dirichlet problem associated with the Laplace operator.


The identification of pectinolytic enzymes from two strains of Lachnospira multiparus grown on media containing pectin with differing degrees of methylation as the carbon source was investigated. Both pectinesterase and lyase activity were determined but there was no evidence of polygalacturonase being present as either an extracellular or intracellular enzyme.


THIS BOOK is a gift to the medical profession by an Oslerian physician who has gained a psychobiological orientation. More as a summing up of individual experience than as a critical or exhaustive review, Dr. McGregor describes simply and lucidly, for the medical practitioner, the elementary and fundamental facts of psychosomatic unity. With thoughtful conservatism he leads the reader back to the doctrine of organismal monism by way of physiology and the autonomic nervous system, and thus, briefly and engagingly helps define the liaison between organic and psychic mechanisms. Dr. McGregor does not concern himself in this book with recondite psychoanalytic concepts, nor does he engender opposition in the general reader by the use of unusual terminology. To the physician experienced in psychosomatic research the idealogical background of this book will seem somewhat superficial and a rehash of what is generally known. Treating emotional states denned on a conscious or preconscious level, though with an occasional dynamic rabbit up his sleeve, the author relegates consideration of the conversion neuroses and of such concepts as that of organ cathexis— perhaps rather unnecessarily—to the field of psycho-analysis. In four parts and nine chapters the


Gesellschaft-never from one concept to the other. Cox indicates as much but does not elaborate. I referred (Cahnman 1968, p. 143) to the controversy between Durkheim and Tonnies in a paper which has been available for some time, but any reader of any of Tonnies's major works could have concltuded that a Tonniesian type-construct is not identical with an actual society. Unfortunately, quite a few sociologists are not in the habit of going to the sources and prefer instead to quote the mistakes of their predecessors, who likewise did not go to the sources. However, I trust that the readers of the A1JS will not fail to note that two comprehensive volumes on Tonnies are now available in English, the Tonnies reader in the Heritage of Sociology Series and A New Evaluation.


In September 2005, the KSC Launch Services Program received an unexpected call from the manufacturer of the launch vehicle for NASA's long-planned mission to Pluto. The news was not good...


ABSTRACT Synchronous transmissions (ST ) is a wireless communication technique that has been shown to be particularly efficient in low-power multi-hop networks. Since 2011, research on ST mainly focused on the physical layer defined by the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. Nowadays, another pervasive technology is embedded by default in almost all connected objects: Bluetooth. Thus, researchers recently started to investigate whether the benefits of ST also apply to Bluetooth. This paper presents the results of an experimental study of ST using the popular and low-cost nRF52840 Dongle, which supports all modes of the Bluetooth 5 standard as well as IEEE 802.15.4. We measure the packet reception rate for different parameters known to affect ST for all physical layers supported by the platform. We use a data exploration application that allows to extract useful information from the measurements and uncover new insights. We validate that ST is viable on Bluetooth, as previously shown. Moreover, we highlight that successful ST on Bluetooth cannot be explained by "constructive interference" or capture effect alone: multiple effects interplay in a way that is not yet fully understood.


We claim that, in presidential democracies, the effect of increasing fragmentation on government spending should be conditional on polarization, defined as the ideological distance between the government's party and other parties in Congress. We build a model where this result follows from negotiations between the legislature and an independent government seeking the approval of its initiatives—as in presidential democracies. Using cross-country data over time, we test the empirical validity of our claim finding that, in presidential democracies, there is indeed a positive effect of fragmentation only when polarization is sufficiently high. The same is not true for parliamentary democracies.


The cybersecurity information exchange framework, known as CYBEX, is
currently undergoing its first iteration of standardization efforts
within ITU-T. The framework describes how cybersecurity information
is exchanged between cybersecurity entities on a global scale and how
the exchange is assured. This framework is intended to facilitate
cybersecurity entities to work together beyond national and/or
organizational boundaries. Currently, ITU-T Draft Recommendation
X.1500 defines the framework. The editors designated for the progress
of the Draft Recommendation are (in alphabetical order): Inette Furey
(DHS), Youki Kadobayashi (NICT), Bob Martin (MITRE), Angela Mckay
(Microsoft), Stephen Adegbite (FIRST), Damir Rajnovic (FIRST), Gavin
Reid (Cisco), Tony Rutkowski (Yaana), Gregg Schudel (Cisco). On
behalf of ITU-T Q.4/17, this draft introduces the overview of CYBEX
in the IETF.


Monte-Carlo rendering algorithms have traditionally a high computational cost, because they rely on tracing up to billions of light paths through a scene to physically simulate light transport. Traditional path reusing amortizes the cost of path sampling over multiple pixels, but introduces visually unpleasant correlation artifacts and cannot handle scenes with specular light transport. We present gradient-domain path reusing, a novel unbiased Monte-Carlo rendering technique, which merges the concept of path reusing with the recently introduced idea of gradient-domain rendering. Since correlation is a key element in gradient sampling, it is a natural fit to be performed together with path reusing and we show that the typical artifacts of path reusing are significantly reduced by exploiting the gradient domain. Further, by employing the tools for shifting paths that were designed in the context of gradient-domain rendering over the last years, we can generalize path reusing to support arbitrary scenes including specular light transport. Our method is unbiased and currently the fastest converging unidirectional rendering technique outperforming conventional and gradient-domain path tracing by up to almost an order of magnitude.


SYNOPSIS. Paramecium multimicronucleatum has been cultured for 20 years on a medium of salts, vitamins, amino acids, fatty acids, ribosides, and stigmasterol plus a little nondialyzable fraction (NDF) of baker's yeast. Fractionations of NDF identified 2 essentials: (a) in a fraction 300,000 daltons. For 2 years now P. multimicronucleatum has grown well with ovalbumin and glycogen replacing NDF. Besides ovalbumin, concanavalin A satisfies the protein requirement; this lectin attaches to sugar residues in glycogen. Studies with a fluorescent dye, PGA-1A, a stilbene derivative, provides further evidence for the polysaccharide requirement. This dye attaches to polysaccharides; when added to glycogen, and this in turn is added to a culture containing ovalbumin, fluorescent blue vacuoles appear within 2–3 h. When dye + glycogen were added to a culture without ovalbumin, no fluorescent vacuoles were found. A protein appears involved in formation of food vacuoles; this fits the pattern for endocytosis described in recent reviews. Besides glycogen, mannan gave good growth. Dextrin and amylopectin gave only fair growth through 7 serial transfers; glucose, maltose and amylose did not sustain growth. Strain 51 of P. tetratrelia, which grows well in NDF medium, grows well when NDF is replaced with ovalbumin and glycogen.


Editorials by Brundtland and Pershagen

Travel—how, where, and how often we do it—has major implications for the health of individuals and of the population.1 Transport activities impact on health, both negatively and positively; and transport policies are now a key determinant of health. Health has to be included on the transport policy agenda if gains are to be achieved, and health professionals have a key role in this. In this article on the implications of transport policies, I draw on an extensive review to which many experts contributed and which will soon be published as a book by the World Health Organisation. I also draw on the preparatory work for the charter on transport, environment, and health2 which was adopted at the ministerial conference on environment and health held in London this week.

### Summary points

### Physical activity

Cycling or walking can bring major health benefits—half an hour a day can halve the risk of developing heart disease. This …


The article makes a study on how to improve business English teaching in higher vocational and professional education,including its education target and the reform of curriculum and methodology,for the purpose of cultivating practical personnel to meet the social requirement and achieving the continuous development of business English teaching in higher vocational and professional education.


To investigate the intramolecular van der Waals interactions between two divalent selenium centers in the solid state and in solution, we have prepared methyl 2-(methylselenyl)benzyl selenide (1), ethynyl 2-(methylselenyl)benzyl selenide (2), and 2-(methylselenyl)benzyl selenocyanate (3). By means of NMR spectroscopic studies we have determined the 77Se NMR chemical shifts of the signals of the Se centers of 1–3 and their long-range 4JSe,Se coupling constants. These results, and the X-ray structural studies of single crystals of 3 and 11, a quasi-dimer of 2, point to an Se···Se van der Waals interaction and short Se···H distances in 1–3. These measurements were supported by quantum chemical calculations on 1–3 at the MP2/6-311+g(d)//B98/6-311+g(d) level of theory, which showed a preference for the endoX and endoH conformations of 1–3. This finding was confirmed by calculations of the 77Se NMR chemical shifts of 1–3 by GIAO-B98 and GIAO-PBE calculations.(© Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2009)


In this thesis, we implement latent variable models, including latent class analysis (LCA) and hidden Markov models (HMMs), to estimate whether or not an infant has acute respiratory infection (ARI) each day, using 4 common ARI symptoms. Many studies define ARI as a simple function of the observed symptoms ignoring the measurement error and time dependence across successive days. LCA accounts for the measurement error, but not the time dependence; HMMs account for both. We implement three computational approaches to estimate HMMs: EM algorithm, MCMC-based Bayes inference, and the method of moments spectral algorithm. Using pilot simulation experiments, we compare these three methods and conclude that EM algorithm and MCMC inference produce more accurate estimates of model parameters but are much less computationally efficient compared with the spectral algorithm. In an analysis of respiratory infection data for Nepali infants, we compare rule-based, LCA and spectral HMM approaches. The LCA results show that all four symptoms have high specificities but much lower and different sensitivities. The HMMs provide estimates of incidence and transition rates but its estimates of the marginal rates, directly observable from the data, are biased downward. Further investigation of its utility for ARI monitoring is needed to address questions remaining about the bias in the spectral implementation of HMMs with low prevalence outcomes. Thesis Advisor: Dr. Scott L. Zeger, Professor, Department of Biostatistics Committee Member: Dr. Joanne Katz, Professor, Department of International Health


The bacterial community structures of the marine sponge, Dactylospongia metachromia, collected from Chuuk of Micronesia on February 2012, were analyzed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). The DGGE fingerprints of two individuals of D. metachromia, CH607 and CH840 showed the same band patterns. The sequences derived from DGGE bands revealed 93~100% similarities with known bacterial species in the public database and high similarity with uncultured bacterial clones. The bacterial community structures of both D. metachromia sponges (CH607, CH840) were composed of 6 phyla, 8 classes: Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, Cyanobacteria, Spirochaetes. DGGE fingerprint ? based phylogenetic analysis revealed that the bacterial community profiles were identical in two individuals of the same sponge species collected from the same geographical location.


The effects of oriented strandboard (OSB) furnish properties, including strand length, width, thickness, and surface orientation, on the concentrated static load (CSL) and other mechanical properties of OSB were evaluated using a mixed level experimental design. The effects of board density and fines content were also investigated. Laboratory panels, 711 mm by 711 mm by 11 mm (28 in by 28 in by 7/16 in), were prepared with the specified variables and tested for CSL deflection and ultimate load. Samples cut from undamaged portions of the panels were evaluated for bending modulus of rupture (MOR), modulus of elasticity (MOE) (3-point bending), and shear strength (5-point bending). The surface response results of the mixed level experimental design indicated that longer strand lengths and higher densities were associated with higher modulus of elasticity (MOE), modulus of rupture (MOR), and shear strength in both major and minor directions, higher ultimate CSL load, and lower CSL deflection under 890 N. The contributions of the other variables to the optimum response were varied. Stepwise multilinear regression analysis indicated that longer strand length significantly improved CSL performance and MOE and MOR in both major and minor directions. Higher surface strand angle significantly increased CSL deflection under 890 N load and decreased MOE and MOR properties in both major and minor directions. Higher local density significantly improved CSL performance, maximum shear in the major direction, and MOE and MOR in both major and minor directions. Higher fines content significantly impaired CSL performance and MOE and MOR in the major direction.


Objective To investigate the role of HPK1 in hippocampus neuron apoptosis induced by oxygen-glucose deprivation(OGD).Methods Immunofluorescence technique was used to investigate whether there was HPK1 in hippocampus neuron under the fluorescence microscope and the confocal microscopy.DAPI staining was used to investigate the role of HPK1 antisense oligodeoxynucleotides in hippocampus neuron death induced by OGD.Results It was found that HPK1 were expressed in rat hippocampus neurons cultured in vitro and administration of HPK1 antisense oligodeoxynucleotides could significantly decrease the apoptosis of hippocampus neurons which induced by OGD.Conclusion Knock-down of HPK1;expression provides neuroprotection against the apoptosis of hippocampus neurons which induced by OGD.


Films of amorphous Ge nanoparticles in S$i_{3}N_{4}$ on heated Si and quartz substrates at 300°c were obtained by co-sputtering Ge, and S$i_{3}N_{4}$. The films structure and photo-electrical behaviour were studied through transmission electron microscopy and, current- voltage and spectral photo-current investigations, respectively. The spectral photo-current were correlated with results obtained from transmission electron microscopy. Under illumination the current present a high increase with about one order of magnitude compared with the dark one. The photo-current spectra show a widening in near infrared to 0.97eV. Internal quantum efficiency values for-1V and 0V were determinedt


The training of a motor skill promotes physical performance and depends on several variables. For women, the menstrual cycle is the one to be highlighted. Studies have focused on the analysis motor skills during this period and emphasize hormonal issues with low attention to the physcal performance. Thus, the objective of this study was to verify the physical performance in different motor skills during the phases of the menstrual cycle in two different cycles. During eight weeks, twelve women, divided into a trained and begginer group, underwent training for different motor skills, and at each stage of the menstrual cycle performed performance tests. The results suggest a higher strength of the lower limbs and a greater capacity of endurance in the Luteal phase in relation to the Follicular phase, but for the flexibility there were no significant differences, suggesting that there is no influence of the menstrual cycle on this motor skill.


Dimeric homochiral ruthenium complexes [L2Ru{dppz(11-11′)ddpz}RuL2]4+(L = 1,10-phenanthroline, 2,2′-bipyridyl; dppz = dipyrido[3,2-A: 2′,3′-C]phenazine) bind extremely strongly to duplex DNA with different binding geometries for the ΔΔ and ΔΔ enantiomers of the phenanthroline complex but with similar geometries for the bipyridyl complex enantiomers.


There is growing evidence that increased physical fitness and physical activity (PA) rates are positively associated with academic achievement. Recent efforts toward Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs (CSPAP) include the use of PA breaks during academic learning activities. This study examined the acute and chronic effects of PA breaks (via GoNoodle) on the reading fluency of 384 elementary school children. Reading scores (words per minute, reading accuracy, and words retold) increased significantly in certain chronic and acute conditions. Findings provide additional support of the growing body of research for the use of PA for enhancing academic achievement, specifically reading fluency.


This work is part of the teacher improvement strategy approved by the board of directors of the Higher Polytechnic Institute of Huambo (ISPH) belonging to the University "Jose Eduardo dos Santos" (UJES) in 2015, this time new content to be taught in the program of the Public Health discipline in the course of electromedicine, in particular the one concerned with dealing with the essential foundations of the Ebola epidemic, a topic previously not analyzed with the necessary depth. The results of the interviews and surveys developed for a sample of students where the knowledge they have of the aforementioned epidemic are analyzed, also present the main contents that will be addressed in the elaborated issue which allows to know the essential elements of the disease.


While cocain intoxication in this operation is usually limited to loquacity and slight mental exhilaration, in some rare cases disagreeable hysterical symptoms, extreme nervousness, crying, restless movements and even hysterical transient paralysis occur and render the limiting of the amount of the drug used desirable. The application of cocain over the entire operative field in the form of a mud of cocain and epinephrin, as advised by Freer, makes an intense insensibility possible with the use of much less cocain than when the usual 10 per cent. solution is employed. I have found, however, that even less of the drug, merely a minimal amount, will produce profound local anesthesia if the cocain mud be applied directly over the nerve trunks supplying the septum at their entrance on the septum, where they are quite superficial. The most important of these nerves is the septal branch of the anterior ethmoidal nerve, which


Objective To analyze the epidemiological and pathogenic characteristics of hand foot and mouth disease(HFMD) for the disease control and prevention.Methods The surveillance data were analyzed by using descriptive epidemiology in Longyan.Results Totally 6 804 HFMD cases were reported and incidence rates(1/105) were 2.86,3.64,43.83,50.60 and 140.77 from 2006 to 2010 respectively.The rate in 2-years-old group was the highest,male was higher,the percentage of children was more than 93%.Totally 71 severe cases and 8 death cases were reported.The two peaks were in May and September.The pathogen was CoxA16 in 2006 and 2007 and EV 71 after May of 2008.Both EV 71 and CoxA16 were found in 2009 and 2010.The major pathogen of severe cases was EV 71.And all EV 71 virus were C4 sub-genotype.Conclusion The HFMD cases was increasing in recent years in Longyan City and the prevention and control should be strengthened for under 5 years old children and specially for scattered children.


although a two-stroke engine is suitable for small vehicles because of its compactness and performance, it has the disadvantage of high hydrocarbon emissions with low exhaust gas temperature. High emissions and low exhaust gas temperature. High emissions and low exhaust gas exhaust control system. The article describes the development of the Suzuki Motor Co of a two-stage catalytic system designed for emission contrl of two-stroke engines meeting Japanese emission requirements for 1978. /TRRL/


Direct self-terminated Pt electrodeposition on carbon paper enables precise control of loading Pt mass, from the sub-microgram to the sub-milligram scale. This can provide insight into the low limits of Pt use for reasonable performance of a proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer.

publisher-specific, author manuscript: http://rsc.li/journals-terms-of-use


According to the shield beam failure condition of the hydraulic powered support in No.10414 coal mining face of Yangliu Coal mine,the paper had analysis on the influence factors of the welded joint breaking,fracturing and other phenomenon occurred in the shield beam of the powered support.With the comparison on three replacement plans of the integrated powered support replacement,the powered support withdrawing with a pilot gateway and the powered support withdrawing in delay,the powered support withdrawing in delay was determined to rapidly replace the shield beam and other large parts of the powered support.The technical plan of the powered support replacement was clarified.The paper had a detail introduction on the preparation conditions of the coal mining face,the requirements of the roof support and steel meshing,the face pushing requirement and the replacement process of the shield beam powered support.the practices showed that the powered support replacement plan of the fully mechanized coal mining face could release a realize,safety and economic replacement of the shield beam in the hydraulic powered support.


Recently, ~ of soybean is decrease because of the pest (Spodoptera sp.). Until now, the control of Spodoptera
sp. depend on using of chemical element. N~ effect from using of synthetic chemical element is the appearance of
secmdarypest, the death of useful insect and there is high pesticide residue in biotic also abiotic component in agroecosystem.
The residue ofpesticide will disturb ofhuman health and environment balance. Because of that, so be done developing of
control method with use biological agents which have pa1hogenicity to host. One of biological agents is entomopathogeuic
nematodes. The aim of the research are using in vitro technology of entomopathogenic nematodes mass production as a
biological control agents to pest (Spodtptera sp.). The research do in laboratory ofHPT UPN "Veteran" East Java, also a
location of field. The result of the research is get 300.000-350.000 IJIspon size ·1,5 cm3. There is increase preference of
mortaJity persentage of the pest at the high sooner of dosage 1reat.ttlent. Maximal mOOality at 4 days after application. Lethal
Dosage Value (LOso) is 1926,862 Ulplant. Conclussion, the entomopalhogenic nematodes (Steinernema spp. Tulungagung
isolate) is effective to control Lepidoptera larvae until 4 days after application and the optimal dosage for control of
Spodoptera sp. is IDso 1926,862 Ulplant (Infective Juvenilelplant).


Recently there has been a spate of projects which have released classical Sanskrit and Tibetan E-texts. There appears, however, to have been little or no collaboration between each project and this has resulted in a growing number of transliteration schemes. In this paper we describe these schemes and their differences and propose a method by which they can be distinguished automatically.  We begin by separating the various transliteration schemes and then extract from them various features through which identification becomes possible. With Sanskrit, it turns out to be extremely difficult to identify all the schemes by this method alone. In consequence we rely on sandhi, a sound phenomenon in Sanskrit to increase the probability of identification. This foundation can form the basis for software identification of the various styles of E-text.


The monthly returns on equity and mortgage real estate investment trusts (REITs) are analyzed over the period July 1976 to December 1992. The results indicate that risk premiums on equity REITs are significantly related to risk premiums on a market portfolio of stocks as well as to the returns on mimicking portfolios for size and book‐to‐market equity factors in common stock returns. Mortgage REIT risk premiums are significantly related to the three stock market factors and two bond market factors in returns. Also, mortgage REIT shares underperform by an average of 6.8% per year.


This article discusses the variant of dowry in religious texts (Qur'an and Hadith). This research bibliographycal concluded that first the Qur'an never express with word mahar to the dowry, which connotes a transactional-materialistic, but rather use the word s}aduqat that leads to the philosophical significance of universality and restore meaning to the meaning that must be given a dowry by the male thus shifting the materialistic perception symbol of love. Second , an order to giving dowry is not a absolute command but the command is relative and tentative in the socio-cultural context that is constantly changing. So, looking at the concept of dowry from the perspective of the Qur'an affirms that the concept of al-Qur'an is true in any society. Keyword : bride-price, al-Qur'an perspectif, s}aduqat.


This bachelor thesis deals with the design and creation of a website for the STSM field Development Group, which is taught at Tomas Bata University in Zlin. The concept of the content management system is explained and the technologies that are used within these systems are described. Using the multi-criteria analysis methods, an appropriate content management system is chosen for the actual implementation of the site. A site and user structure is created. In addition, the actions taken to meet GDPR conditions are described.


Introduction: In order to achieve breastfeeding efficiency, World Health Organization proposes education of mothers during pregnancy by health care professionals. Objective: To observe the perceptions of mothers regarding breastfeeding. Methods: Descriptive quantitative study following exploratory technique. Research was carried out at the Centro de Saude Escola Capuava in Santo Andre, Sao Paulo, Brazil. The population consisted of 29 mothers submitted to the first postpartum visit. Results: The mean age of mothers was 26 years and the mean number of children was 1.8. Most of them are married or have stable union (93.1%) and completed high school (62.1%). A total of 51.7% are currently employed; 58.6% had cesarean section. Most (69.0%) of newborns were breastfed in the delivery room. Of mothers, 79.3% have protruding nipples, and 55.2% showed no fissures; 37.9% did not have any care regarding nipple cleaning, the remaining used various procedures, most commonly breast milk alone (17.2%) and ointment alone (13.8%). The frequency of breastfeeding was quite variable. Of newborns 89.3% presented correct latch. Of mothers, 96.6% reported receiving all the necessary information in the prenatal and postpartum; 44.8% intend to early introduce pacifier for their newborn. Conclusion: The instructions given during pregnancy and postpartum become important and gradually produce positive results, it is worth emphasizing that the nurse becomes a key part in achieving the guidelines during pregnancy and postpartum periods.


Our concept of the butterflies (Hesperioidea or skippers plus Papilionoidea or true butterflies) has been broadened by the inclusion of the Hedylidae (Scoble, 1986), a group of about 40 species of Neotropical Lepipdoptera. Superficially moth-like as adults, hedylids exhibit several specialized characters associated with various families of butterflies. They may have diverged little from the unknown ancestors of true butterflies. The butterfly-like characters of all stages in the life history are summarized; particular note is made of the egg.


List of Illustrations Preface Richard Raskin Acknowledgements Introduction: Concentrationary Cinema Griselda Pollock and Max Silverman Chapter 1. Night and Fog: A History of Gazes Sylvie Lindeperg Chapter 2. Memory of the Camps Kay Gladstone Chapter 3. Opening the camps, closing the eyes: image, history, readability Georges Didi-Huberman Chapter 4. Resnais and the Dead Emma Wilson Chapter 5. Night and Fog and the Concentrationary Gaze Libby Saxton Chapter 6. Auschwitz as Allegory in Night and Fog Deborati Sanyal Chapter 7. Night and Fog and Posttraumatic Cinema Joshua Hirsch Chapter 8. Fearful imagination: Night and Fog and concentrationary memory Max Silverman Chapter 9. Disruptive Histories: Toward a Radical Politics of Remembrance in Alain Resnais's Night and Fog Andrew Hebard Chapter 10. Cinema as a Slaughter bench of History: Night and Fog John Mowitt Chapter 11. Death in the Image: The Responsibility of Aesthetics in Night and Fog (1955) and Kapo (1959) Griselda Pollock Notes on Contributors Bibliography Index


Based on the water quality monitoring in the cage aquaculture section of Yangcheng Lake,with the samples taken from bottom-layer waters,this paper presents the correlation study on three major water quality parameters that are used to indicate organic water pollution-permanganate index(PI),BOD5 and TOC,which are analyzed by statistical approaches.Results reveal that notable correlations exist between any two of the three parameters though seasonal changes have been found,e.g.,the correlation coefficients are all higher than 0.900 during July whereas they drop down to 0.800 during winter,the dry season.The ratio of varied ranging from 0.48 to 0.72,with an average of 0.59,in the central part of the Lake and it has been found the BOD5/TOC ratio became lower during the leisure season(no aquaculture activity) or the raining season,indicating some more complex polluting compounds have existed in the Lake other than the pollutants brought in by the cage aquaculture,which are likely from industrial and/or non-point agricultural sources.


ABSTRACT One hundred fifteen members of the organization Parents Without Partners were surveyed for their communication attitudes in a study examining the relationship between rhetorical sensitivity and a dramatic, stress-producing situationthe loss of a spouse through death, legal separation, or divorce. The survey measured the ways the subjects matched three communicatcr types; (1) the rhetorically sensitive person, one who generally accepted the variability cf communication and interpersonal relationships and did tot try to avoid stylized verbal behavior; (2) the ',noble self," one who would see any variation from personal norms as hypocritical and a denial of integrity; and (3) the ',rhetorical reflector," who would present a different self for each person or situation. The results of the attitude survey revealed that the widowed subjects scored significantly lower on rhetorical sensitivity and significantly higher on noble self than did the divorced/separated subjects. No significant differences were found between the two groups as rhetorical reflector types. Based on these results, it was hypothesized that the grieving process may differ for the twc groups, creating variations in the way these people reorder their sccial systems after the loss of a spouse. (RL)


Transcriptional regulation of gene expression is one of the most ubiquitous processes in biology. But while the catalog of bacterial genomes continues to expand rapidly, we remain ignorant about how almost all of the genes in these genomes are regulated. One of the ways genes are regulated is through external signals. To that end, we begin by presenting a general theory of allosteric transcriptional regulation using a statistical formulation of the Monod-Wyman-Changeux model, which we rigorously test using the ubiquitous simple repression motif in Escherichia coli. We then move to consider the consequence of the regulatory sequences themselves on gene expression. Here we apply a massively parallel reporter assay, Sort-Seq, to build models that describe the sequence-dependent binding energies of transcription factors and RNA polymerase to DNA. By coupling such models to our thermodynamic models of regulation, we construct a genotype to phenotype mapping that predicts gene expression as a function of regulatory sequence. We first demonstrate this approach in the context of the allosteric simple repression motif, and then show how it can be applied broadly across a bacterial genome, in conjunction with mass spectrometry, to uncover how genes are regulated.


The formation and growth of cerebral aneurysm (CA) involves numerous complex biological, biochemical and mechanobiological processes. Vascular endothelium is largely affected by hemodynamics. The response of endothelial cells (EC) to shear stress has been identified as the prime initiator of CA formation and growth. This paper presents a critical overview of the state of the art work on EC responses to hemodynamic parameters and endothelial dysfunction (ED) associated with CAs.


Abstract : This research examines the use of alternative workweeks to improve productive work at naval activities ashore. These activities have limited control over the number of personnel assigned by the Bureau Naval Personnel. Attempts to increase productivity must be achieved with personnel assigned. Therefore, potential increases in productivity and retention must be accomplished through innovative leadership. In order to increase productivity from personnel assigned, it is necessary to improve morale and command buy-in. This might be accomplished by changing how the Navy Standard Workweek (NSW) is executed. This research examines theoretical productivity increases under alternative workweeks using the established NSW as a benchmark, as set forth in OPNAVINST 1000.16K, Navy Total Force Manpower Policies and Procedures.


ABSTRACT Observational studies on the association between fish and poultry intake and the risk of total cancer mortality have been reported with mixed results. Thus, we aimed to assess this association by conducting a meta-analysis of prospective studies. We performed a literature search on PubMed database through February 1, 2017 to identify relative prospective studies. A random-effects model was used to calculate the summary estimates. We identified fourteen prospective studies involving 2,378,204 participants and 96,712 cancer mortality events. Comparing the highest category of consumption with lowest category, pooled relative risk (RR) of total cancer mortality was 0.99 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.94–1.05) for fish (10 studies) and 0.96 (95% CI, 0.93–1.00) for poultry (8 studies), respectively. However, we failed to identify any dose–response association based on a limited number of eligible studies, with a pooled RR of 0.98 (95% CI, 0.92–1.05) and 0.97 (95% CI, 0.88–1.07) for each 100 g per day increment in fish and poultry consumption, respectively. In summary, this meta-analysis indicates that consumption of either fish or poultry is not substantially associated with lower risk of total cancer mortality. The observed weak inverse association for high poultry consumption needs to be verified in additional large prospective studies.


Democratic backsliding is a growing concern globally. This paper contributes to the discussion by documenting irregular patterns in 2019 general election in India and identifying whether they are due to electoral manipulation or precise control, i


Meteorus corax (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) is reported for the first time from Finland and Russian Karelia. The Finnish specimens were reared from standing dead pine where Monochamus galloprovincialis (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) was presumably the host, and in addition, from firewood presumably from Callidium violaceum (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae). The specimens from Russian Karelia were reared from pupae, which almost certainly originated from the larvae of Pytho depressus (Coleoptera, Pythidae). No parasitic hymenopterans have previously been recorded from the family Pythidae. The genus Meteorus includes several species yet to be found from Finland.


21-year old Bangladeshi man with no past medical history presented
with abdominal pain for 10 days.
He described his abdominal pain as a periumbilical colicky in
nature, started mild then progressed to severe 4 days prior to ED
presentation. It worsened with food ingestion. He had lost around
6 kilograms over a month.
The pain was not associated with diarrhea, nausea or vomiting. He
did not have dysuria, change in urine color, nor fever. He did not
have history of black stool, fresh bleeding per rectum. He did not
have sick contact, and he did not have skin rash or joint pain. His
past medical history is significant for Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori)
associated gastritis, which was treated successfully, 3 years ago.


8 The monopile foundations of offshore wind turbines in shallow waters are susceptible to 9 be affected by tidal scour, which takes away the sand and soil around the monopiles and poses 10 a serious threat to the safety of the turbines. To mitigate this issue, much effort has been made 11 previously. However, all of the existing protective measures do not have added value other than 12 scouring mitigation. In view of this, a new scour mitigation measure that utilizes tidal current 13 turbine (TCT) is investigated in this study, which can not only reduce the scour around the wind 14 turbine foundation but can also generate clean power simultaneously. In the research, the 15 proposed method is studied by using a combined numerical simulation and laboratory testing 16 approach. Both numerical calculation and experimental results have shown that a TCT installed 17 in front of the monopile foundation of an offshore wind turbine does have a positive role in 18 reducing the scour around the foundation when it generates electricity in the meantime. 19 Moreover, the contribution of the TCT to scour reduction can be further improved through 20 optimizing its installation position in front of the wind turbine. 21


The present invention provides a silicon-carbon composite material and its preparation method, the material containing a lithium ion battery, which belongs to the field of lithium ion battery technology, which can solve the conventional silicon-carbon composite negative electrode material and a lithium ion battery cycle therefrom prepared poor performance, poor conductivity problems. The method of preparing the composite material of the present invention comprises the steps of mixing silica coating step, a carbon dioxide layer coating step and deprotection step. The method of preparing silicon carbide composite material according to the present invention use reserved apertures to accommodate the volume of silicon particles embedded lithium during expansion, and the conductive network in advance dispersing the carbon material in the pores to improve the conductivity of silicon-carbon composite material, to achieve mitigation or even eliminate the electrochemically active material due to volume expansion of the powder shedding phenomenon, the effective cycle life of the silicon-carbon composite. Silicon carbide composite material according to the present invention are prepared by the above method. A lithium ion battery according to the present invention comprises the silicon carbon composite.


Natriuretic Peptides are hormones secreted by the heart in response to cardiomyocyte stretch. The principal biological action of NP is natriuresis, diuresis and vasodilation. These are salutary effects in acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF). Some patients admitted with ADHF have very low NP levels. It is unknown if this is due to a defect in biosynthesis or inadequate stimulation.

 We analyzed data from the National heart Lung and Blood institute sponsored ESCAPE trial which included patients admitted with acute decompensated heart failure who underwent hemodynamic assessment with pulmonary artery catheters at admission and after diuresis. Our aim was to evaluate if there were characteristic hemodynamic findings among patients with very low NP levels at admission which differed from those who had elevated NP levels at admission.

 We performed a secondary analysis of the ESCAPE Trial. We defined very low BNP as patients with BNP level at admission <50 pg/mL. We then compared baseline characteristics between the groups. Continuous groups were compared using X-square test, and Categorical variables were compared using Wilcoxon-signed-Rank-Sum test. We compared groups by Demographic, Anthropometric, Laboratory, and Functional status. We then performed propensity matching on Age, Sex, and BMI and then compared groups.

 25/351 patients had very low BNP (<50pg/mL). Patients in the low BNP group had higher BMI than those with elevated BNP (35.8 vs. 28.9 p<0.001). The cohort with low BNP was younger. (50.2 vs. 56.4 p=0.029). In propensity matched cohorts of Age, Sex, BMI. Cardiac output was elevated in the low BNP cohort. (5.2 vs. 3.9 p=0.011). However, Cardiac Index was similar between the groups (2.2 vs. 2.0 p=0.244). Patients in the Low NP group had lower pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) compared to those with elevated BNP. (16.5 vs. 25.4 p=0.023). The groups had similar RA pressures (11.5 vs. 13.0 p=0.515). The calculated transmural pressure (PCWP – RA pressure) was lower in the low NP group. There was a reduction in BNP levels at discharge among the group with elevated BNP at admission (1072.6 (baseline) 798.8 (discharge)) In the low BNP group there was an increase in BNP at time of discharge (20.2 (baseline) to 172.7 (discharge)). In follow-up, the low BNP group had reduction in BNP compared to their discharge levels. The group with elevated BNP had elevated BNP at follow-up in 3 and 6 months. Length of stay was shorter in the Low BNP group (6.2 vs. 8.8, p=0.052).

 In this secondary analysis of the ESCAPE trial, we find that those patients admitted with ADHF who have unexpectedly low BNP have lower transmural pressures at baseline compared to those who have elevated BNP levels. This suggests that there may not be adequate stimulus for cardiac wall distention and release of BNP.

 Type of funding sources: None.


This article presents some psychosocial aspects of disability linked to the person–environment relation that teachers should share in the psychology classroom. Disability is an often-overlooked form of diversity, one that teachers should discuss alongside race, gender, sexual orientation, social class/socioeconomic status (SES), religiosity, and aging. The experience of disability and disability culture are important topics that should be shared with and understood by secondary and postsecondary students, particularly because people with disabilities are no longer at the social margins of everyday life in the United States. To that end, I review definitions for disability as well as a nascent model for understanding the experience of disability, some select but fundamental psychosocial constructs regarding disability, and a representative negative (stigma and stereotyping) and positive (disability identity) context example from the social psychological literature on disability. I then close with suggestions for teaching about disability.


X. Liu,1,2,3,* M. P. M. Dean,3 Z. Y. Meng,1 M. H. Upton,4 T. Qi,5 T. Gog,4 Y. Cao,3 J. Q. Lin,1 D. Meyers,3 H. Ding,1,2 G. Cao,5 and J. P. Hill3 1Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China 2Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing, China 3Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA 4Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA 5Center for Advanced Materials, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506, USA (Received 9 January 2016; revised manuscript received 21 April 2016; published 10 June 2016)


Type of funding sources: None.
 Introduction
 Low adherence to healthy lifestyle and CVD preventive medical treatment is a seriouse problem in lowering of CVD morbidity and mortality. Using modern medical, psychological and remote technologies may help to increase patients" adherence.
 Purpose
 To study the efficacy of medical and psychological counselling using remote technologies in rising patients" adherence to CVD preventive treatment.
 Methods
 The study included 140 patients with risk factors for cardiovascular disease (RF CVD), who were divided into two comparable groups: group of medical and psychological counselling with the use of remote technologies (n = 70) and group of control (n = 70).  The study lastet 12 months. Level of adherence was measured via standard Morisky-Green"s 4-item questionnaire as well as via additional questionnaire developed by authors for this study.
 Results
 Comparative analysis of the level of adherence in the two groups did not reveal statistically significant differences at baseline. After 12 months, the experimental group showed a statistically significant increase in adherence to preventive treatment compared with the control group (р=0,001)
 Conclusion(s)
 Medical and psychological counselling using remote technologies is an effective method for rising patients" adherence to CVD preventive medical treatment


We present a semiautomatic manufacturing process that allows fabrication of macroscopic stack-like actuators from rolls of raw dielectric elastomer material. The proposed geometry and fabrication procedure incorporates thin films of dielectric material, allowing a drastic reduction of the typical high voltages required by dielectric elastomer actuators. Moreover, the semiautomatic process overcomes many traditional manufacture difficulties, such as the handling and packaging of dielectric films, and power distribution to the compliant electrodes of the actuator. Furthermore, the resultant multilayer devices can be used either as contractile or expanding actuators.


Through optimizing the daily precipitation climatology, a new high‐resolution (0.25° × 0.25° lat./lon.) gridded daily precipitation analysis over Mainland China was developed based on the optimal interpolation (OI) method. This product, based on about 2400 gauge stations over Mainland China from 1955 to the present, is called the China Gauge‐based Daily Precipitation Analysis (CGDPA). In this study, using independent precipitation observations as the benchmark, CGDPA and the Climate Prediction Center Unified gauge dataset (CPC_UNI) from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are validated from May to September of 2008–2010 on a 0.5° × 0.5° lat./lon. grid. The CGDPA has smaller bias and root mean square error, and higher spatial correlation with the validation data than CPC_UNI. Further investigation indicates that this improvement is mainly owing to the larger number of gauges used in the CGDPA. The East Asia gauge analysis (EA_Gauge) is also introduced to comparatively evaluate the capabilities of monitoring precipitation events with different rainfall rates over Mainland China. CGDPA can capture more strong rainfall events while CPC_UNI and EA_Gauge tend to smooth the precipitation structure and miss more local strong rainfall events with precipitation larger than 25 mm day−1 over Mainland China. The long‐term precipitation time series described by the CGDPA and EA_Gauge agree very well while CPC_UNI substantially underestimates precipitation especially over the sparse‐gauged regions and after 1982. CGDPA is thus suggested as a readily available input to applications over Mainland China, whenever possible.


Abstract The triple-layered polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and barium titanate (BaTiO3) nanocomposites were prepared using sol-gel method. The structure of polymer is often complex after introducing the nanoparticles. Such properties of BaTiO3 nanoparticle filled PVDF nanocomposites have been investigated by X-ray diffraction and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. XRD and FTIR result indicate the significant improvement in structural morphology of triple layered polymer nanocomposite. Pyro and piezoelectric result also shows the improvement in pyroelectric and piezoelectric coefficients, which is due to enhancement of β-phase.


Introduction: Missionary Feminism PART I: ENCOUNTERING GENDER AND CHRISTIANITY IN THE AFRICAN MISSION FIELD 1. The Pedagogy of Protection: Female Education in Madagascar, 1867-1901 2. Beyond Baptism: The Politics of Conversion in Uganda, 1895-1907 3. Christianizing Womanhood in Madagascar, 1901-1923 4. Christianizing Womanhood in Uganda, 1910-1930 PART II: EVANGELIZING AND EMANCIPATING THE METROPOLE 5. Rethinking Christianity and Colonialism in the Wake of Total War 6. Feminizing Church and State: Mission Christianity and Gender Politics, 1910-1928 7. Globalizing Christian 'Sisterhood,' 1900-1930 Conclusion


The purpose of the following thesis has been to study librarians' attitudes towards comics for grown up people. I have compared the attitudes among the staff in two public libraries in Sweden, Malmo public library and Lund public library. I have conducted five interviews with librarians and observed how the comics are handled in each library. I have also carried out a literary study of the history and theories of comics. Initially a definition of comics is presented, and then an overview of the development of comics and of some theories regarding them is offered. This is followed by a brief review of comics in Swedish public libraries. In the concluding discussion I present an explanation of how librarians attitudes towards comics are reflected in each of the two libraries in the exposure, budget and acquisition of comics. Furthermore, I question the extent of the knowledge about literary theories concerning comics which librarians posses. The conclusion is that the librarians in Malmo and Lund have a positive attitude towards comics for adults, but there is, especially in Lund, a lack a profounder knowledge about them and the literary theories connected to them. I recommend that if libraries want to see departments for comics that are functioning well, it is necessary to engage librarians with a special interest in comics.


Chitin obtained from the fermentation of Tiger Shrimp (Penaeus monodon) shell by using Providencia stuartii could be hydrolyzed into N-acetylglucosamine and another simple compound such as oligo-glucosamine. There is a limited research study regarding the isolation of oligo-glucosamine which also have a functional property. The study aimed to determine the best polar solvent and ratio sample and solvent (1:1 and 1:2, v/v) to precipitate oligo-glucosamine with the highest concentration. The polar solvents used in this study were ethanol, acetone, acetonitrile, ethanol-acetone (1:1, v/v), ethanolacetonitrile (1:1, v/v), and acetone-acetonitrile (1:1, v/v). Moreover, the yield obtained from precipitation by using those solvents were also investigated in this study. The result showed that combination of ethanol and acetonitrile (1:1, v/v) with ratio solvent-sample 1:1 (v/v) gave the highest concentration of oligo-glucosamine. The yield obtained was 0.12% (based on the volume obtained after fermentation) or 0.09% (based on the weight of chitin used for fermentation).


Aim: To investigate the prevalence rate and the epidemiological features of hyperuricemia( HUA) among the adult residents in Guangxi province,and to search the risk factors of this disease.Methods: The multistage stratified cluster random samepling,including Cross-section survey,questionnaire survey,physical examination,blood tests and urine tests,was implemented among 9,000 residents above 18 years old in Guangxi province. The surveys on and relevant risk factors were the key. All the data were analysed by SPSS v13. 0,and then the risk factors that relevant to hyperuricemia were applied to a Binary Logistic Regression analysis. Serum uric acid was determined by GOD-PAP and hyperuricemia was defined as the level of blood uric acid ≥420 μmol /L. Results: Among 7,924 completely surveyed subjects of 9,000,the average age was 46. 27 ± 17. 28 years old,meanwhile the male /female ratio was1∶1. 4. Approximately,prevalence of HUA of those people was 13. 1%,and that percentage was 22. 6%and 4. 9% in male and female respectively. The figure was 8. 5% among urban residents,and 16. 5% among rural ones. The standardized prevalence of HUA of residents in Guangxi province was 14. 6%,in consideration of the constituent ratio of gender and age which were concluded by nationwide population census in 2010. A Binary Logistic Regression analysis indicated that gender,aging,deficiency of renal function,alcoholism,BMI,work intensity,inhigh triglyceride( TG) and high low density lipoprotein( LDL) in serum,are independent risk factors of hyperuricemia. Conclusion: The standardized prevalence rate of hyperuricemia of adult residents within Guangxi province was 14. 6%,then male possessed a higher prevalence than female,and so did urban residents than rural ones. Male,aging,deficiency of renal function,alcoholism,work intensity,BMI,high TG and high LDL in serum,were relevant risk factors of hyperuricemia in this province.


Endoscope has been widely used in clinical examination of gastrointestinal diseases. Many automatic endoscopic image classification algorithms based on dictionary learning are proposed to assist doctors in diagnosing diseases, where the learning method of shared dictionary and class-specific dictionaries enables training dictionary to be more discriminative. Nevertheless, in the process of dictionary learning, the appearance of common features in class-specific dictionaries may cause low classification accuracy. To remedy this deficiency, herein we introduce a coherence constraint between low-rank shared dictionary and class-specific dictionaries. The proposed dictionary learning method is applied to the classification system of endoscopic gastrointestinal images, including normal, polyp and ulcer images, whose experimental results prove that it has promising classification performance.


Underwater Wireless Sensor Network (UWSNs) have been proposed to monitor underwater regions such as seas and oceans. A typical example of an UWSN consists of a set of underwater sensor nodes and a set of sink nodes that are deployed at the sea surface. Using acoustic transmission, the sensors send their collected data to at least one of the sinks in what is known as the anycast transmission problem. One of the major problems with underwater nodes is their limited power, which means that transmission collisions are very costly. In this paper, we propose a collision-free anycast transmission scheduling algorithm for UWSNs. The proposed algorithm is a location-based routing algorithm that schedules transmissions between sensor nodes and sink nodes in order to minimize the energy consumption and possible collisions. We perform a set of experiments using the NS2 Aqua-Sim simulator to show that the proposed algorithm can provide up to 26% in energy savings compared with a simple greedy algorithm.


Test methods for testing positioning machines (10), said machine (10) having an end effector (28), using a length measuring system (22) which is designed to follow with a laser beam to the end effector (28), comprising the steps of : - determining the coordinate (r → - positioning of the end effector (28) on at least two positions (p - measuring at least one distance difference (.DELTA.d - calculating the at least one distance difference (.DELTA.d - comparing the at least one measured distance difference (.DELTA.d


A hierarchical structure for the tasks of the electronic control units devoted to automotive engine control is proposed. The architecture, at its highest level of abstraction, is divided into three parts: the driver interpreter, the engine controller, and the actuator controller. The lower hierarchical structure of the actuator controller block is detailed and applied to the case of an equivalent single cylinder engine. The implementation of the proposed architecture is shown to be compliant with the function block approach of the proposed IEC 1499 international standard.


Samples of data generated by the coding scheme now being used by the military to collect statistics on equipment malfunction were analyzed by psycholinguistic means. Frequency-to-rank distributions plotted on logarithmic coordinates were compared with Zipf's generalization and were found to be markedly aberrant. It is deemed likely that this reflects a lack of sufficient feedback from the users of malfunction data to those who report the data and to those who are responsible for the design of the coding scheme.


A visual performance degradation prevention and / or amelioration and provide a new composition for the prevention and / or treatment of eye diseases. A xanthophylls or novel compositions and novel ophthalmic compositions comprising a workpiece of water chestnut genus plants containing workpieces its salts and water chestnut Genus. Preferably, at least one of the xanthophylls lutein, astaxanthin, beta-cryptoxanthin, zeaxanthin, meso zeaxanthin, canthaxanthin, is selected from the capsanthin and fucoxanthin, workpieces of water chestnut plant of the genus Tsunonashibishi, Himebishi, water chestnut, Toubishi a workpiece of at least one water chestnut genus selected from Torapa-Natansu and Onibishi, composition. Particularly preferably, lutein or compositions containing workpieces salt thereof and Toubishi. .FIELD 1


Objective: To review our experience with a polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) protective shield used as an adjunct to protect the newly restored palate in wide bilateral cleft and complex fistula closure without diet restrictions. Design: Clinical cohort study. Setting: Division of Plastic Surgery and Maxillary Surgery. Patients: A selection of 22 cleft palate children undergoing (tertiary) palatal fistula repair (n = 16) or closure of a complex wide primary palatal defect (n = 6). Interventions: One month prior to surgery, a plaster model of the palate was made adding a 5- to 8-mm-thick layer of dental putty to the level of the dental arch. On top of the putty, a 1.5-mm-thick PMMA shield was created to cover the postoperative elevated and restored palate. Main outcome measures: Fistula recurrence rate, postoperative complications, days of hospitalization. Results: All patients maintained durable and safe palatal closure without fistula recurrence within the follow-up period, varying from 1 until 4 years. Recovery was fast, with a mean duration of hospitalization of 1.5 days. All patients could directly resume their normal diet. Conclusions: A PMMA shield has been shown to be a safe and helpful adjunct in complex fistula repair and late anterior palate repair.


Terahertz (THz) tomography is a rather novel technique for nondestructive testing that is particularly suited for the testing of plastics and ceramics because THz radiation can easily penetrate these materials. Previous publications showed a large variety of conventional algorithms adapted from computed tomography or ultrasound tomography which were directly applied to THz tomography. Conventional algorithms neglect the specific nature of THz radiation, i. e. refraction at interfaces, reflection losses and the beam profile (Gaussian beam), which results in poor reconstructions. An important material parameter is the complex refractive index since it indicates different material characteristics such as filler content, moisture and inhomogeneities like cracks and air cavities. The aim of this thesis is the development of an efficient reconstruction algorithm to compute the complex refractive index from transmission coefficient and travel time measurements. A hybrid algorithm has been developed based on the algebraic reconstruction technique (ART). ART is adapted by including refraction (Snell's law) and reflection losses (Fresnel equations) and we include a priori information about the interface and layer geometry of the sample. The concluding results were obtained both with synthetic data as well as real measurements and demonstrate that the "Modified ART for THz tomography" significantly improves the quality of the reconstructed images compared to conventional techniques.


Deciphering the complex milieu that makes up the tumor microenvironment (TME) and the signaling engaged by TME cytokines continues to provide novel targets for therapeutic intervention. The IL‐6 family member oncostatin M (OSM) has recently emerged as a potent driver of tumorigenesis, metastasis, and therapy failure, molecular programs most frequently attributed to IL‐6 itself. In a recent issue of The Journal of Pathology, Kucia‐Tran et al describe how elevated oncostatin M receptor (OSMR) expression results in a feed‐forward loop involving the de novo production of both OSM and OSMR to facilitate aggressive properties in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Here, we discuss how new findings implicating OSM in conferring aggressive cancer cell properties can be leveraged to suppress metastatic outgrowth and therapy failure in SCC as well as other cancers. Copyright © 2018 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This study is designed to assess the archaeological potential of an area of land (presently school playing fields) immediately to the south of the Lady Adrian School (Courtney Way, Cambridge). This land lies to the north of the centre of Cambridge City, within Chesterton Parish, east of Gilbert Road and north of Milton Road (TL 45300 60000). The land is the proposed site of the new Milton Road Primary School. The study was commissioned by Dean Clark (Design Team Leader) of Cambridgeshire County Council (Property & Procurement) in advance of a planning application.

Although no archaeological remains have been recorded within the development area, the present study shows that the site lies within a rich and important archaeological landscape. The site has significant archaeological remains surrounding it, notably the complex multi-period site at Castle Hill (Shire Hall) lying c900m southwest and the extensive Roman (and multi-period) site(s) on Arbury Road and around Kings Hedges, some 500-1300m north.

Prehistoric (Neolithic) remains have been found 400m to the west (on Stretten Avenue).

Within 500m of the subject site are known Roman remains located to the south of Arbury Road (lying less than 400m to the north of the development area) and the Roman Road of Akeman Street also less than 400m to the west (along present day Carlton Way).

There are known Saxon remains to the south and east of the proposed development area, and these include an Anglo-Saxon cemetery site (Swann's Gravel Pit) now occupied by the Westbrook Centre (off Milton Road).

Historical cartographic evidence has confirmed that the subject site has not been developed since at least the 19th century and most probably was agricultural since the medieval period at least.

This lack of development is the most likely explanation for the absence of any archaeological discoveries on the site and given the extent of known archaeological remains in the vicinity, remains of Roman and perhaps Saxon date may reasonably be expected to be encountered.


Atmospheric path radiation remote sensing images are based on values of atmospheric path radiation in remote sensing data dependent only on the state of atmosphere but not ground conditions.Although atmospheric path radiation causes interference to observation of the earth,it provides crucial information such as atmospheric transmitting characteristics,atmospheric modification of remotely sensed images,regional atmospheric status,and atmospheric environment quality.Therefore,it is important both in theory and practice to generate atmospheric path radiation images by extracting atmospheric path radiation values from the remote sensing images and the corresponding surface reflectance.


The human population has been growing rapidly in recent years. One of the most basic needs of people is food. Many countries around the world invest in the food industry. Climate change, population growth, urbanization, natural disasters, and agricultural efficiency are important factors affecting food production. Companies must constantly control their production, marketing, and supply chain process depending on the rapidly changing competitive conditions. Supply chain management is an important process for companies to be successful and ensure their continuity in the food industry, as in many industries. Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method is widely used in supplier evaluation. In this study, it was aimed to determine the best supplier of food production company using the AHP method. In the study, three different suppliers were evaluated according to five different criteria by taking the opinions of four experts working in the purchasing department. As a result of the study, the best supplier has been selected.


This paper studies the bilayer codes for anytime reliable transmission over three terminal relay networks. We propose an anytime code structure and provide a theoretical analysis of bilayer anytime transmission when uncoded relaying takes place over the relay-destination channel. Through asymptotic analysis, we show the anytime characteristics of the proposed relaying scheme. We find the theoretical delay exponent through the mathematical induction technique and compare it with the delay exponent obtained from numerical results. Through simulation results, we also show the finite-length performance of the proposed bilayer anytime code.


The study of the philosophy of human life on this earth is visualized in the behavioral patterns of the people in which they were born. Such behavior reflects the cultural pattern of the ancestors of the community which is passed down from generations. The concept of Sajatina Hirup was adopted from the journey of life that is applied among the community residing in the village of Mekar Wangi, Saketi District, Pandeglang Regency, Banten Province, Indonesia. The journey of life is illustrated in three parts, namely birth, life, and death. While Islamic's point of view in life on this earth conditioned by habluminannas, habluminnallah, and habluminalam. The concept of Sajatina Hirup is expressed in Pencak Silat, in the salutation phase and the three Prasetya moves. It is also supported by the costumes in Pencak Silat which relfect deep philosophical values of human life. The Sundanese philosophy of life is analyzed based on the depth of the meanings contained in the presentation of the Prasetya moves.


From University of Leeds; M.R.C. Clinical Genetics Research Unit, Institute of Child Health, The Hospital for Sick Children, London; Department of Child Health, University of Sheffield; Division of Medical Genetics, Department of Medicine, University of Manchester; M.R.C. Blood Group Research Unit, The Lister Institute, London; M.R.C. Population Genetics Research Unit, Oxford; and The Moore Clinic, The J'ohns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, U.S.A.


This study investigated the microstructure and thermal conductivity of as-cast and as-extruded binary Mg–Mn alloys. The large grains and fine α-Mn particles contained in the as-cast alloys were observed. After extrusion, the average grain sizes significantly decreased, typical basal fibre texture was generated and high amount of nano particles precipitated from the α-Mg matrix. The thermal conductivity of both as-cast and as-extruded Mg–Mn alloys gradually decreased with the increase in Mn concentration. As-extruded alloys exhibited lower thermal conductivity than as-cast alloys except for the as-extruded alloys containing higher Mn concentrations (>1.2 wt-% Mn). Compared with binary as-extruded Mg–Al and Mg–Zn alloys reported in literatures, thermal conductivity of the as-extruded Mg–Mn alloys was higher when the solute content was greater than 0.5 at.-%.


Nanocrystalline Ni0.64Zn0.36Fe2O4 ferrite powders with very fine crystalline grains were prepared by a chemical coprecipitation method by using FeCl3,ZnCl2 and NiCl2 as raw materials and calcined at 800 and 1 000 ℃ for 2 h,respectively.The phase structure of Ni0.64Zn0.36Fe2O4 was characterized by X-ray diffraction.The morphology of the powders was observed by scanning electron microscopy.Its magnetic property was characterized using vibrating sample magnetometer at room temperatures.The results show that it has ferrimagnetism,and the experimental value of molecular magnetic moment is lower than the theoretical value because surface structure defects result in a magnetic spin glass structure.


Along with the rapid development of social economy, a new socialist countryside landscape construction is in full swing on the land of China. Handling rural road landscape development problems in new rural construction is the content need to explore and summarize in the practice. This paper, though the analysis about composing factors of agricultural landscape and road landscape, combining with the ecological design principles, explores ecological model of ecological agriculture traffic and road landscape in the future from the aspects of township roads, village roads, field roads.


As the complexity of a modern microprocessor increases rapidly, the methods of testing/debug take up increasing silicon area and create a cumbersome routing problem. The core power distribution network (PDN) of a microprocessor supplies power to a majority of underlying circuits. In this paper, we propose to explore use of the PDN in a microprocessor as a communication channel for test/debug purposes. Although, there are some common characteristics with power line communications (PLC) over power grid in a residential network, PLC over a PDN is very different in channel characteristics, tolerance to voltage fluctuations and noise characteristics. Further, decoupling capacitors attached to the package and the PDN of a microprocessor makes the PDN a bulky low pass filter. However, it is well known that the parasitic inductance of a decoupling capacitor is more significant beyond the self resonant frequency, and our measurements on an Intel microprocessor indicates that the low pass filter becomes leaky at higher frequencies beyond 1 GHz. In this work, measurements are used to model the PDN of a microprocessor as a communication channel and estimate the path loss characteristics as well as the channel impulse response. Link budget is calculated for the proposed communication system and receiver design considerations are derived. Measurement results and power supply noise analysis indicate that the use of jitter-robust pulse shapes, spread-spectrum techniques and strong coding would be required to communicate reliably over the PDN of a microprocessor.


The invention discloses a construction method for integration of a concrete silo internal lining steel rail and a silo wall slip form. The method comprises the following steps: when the height of the internal lining steel rail is reached to the limestone silo construction according to design requirement, a silo wall inner formwork of the slip form is removed, and a ring steel plate is arranged at the design height of the silo inner side; effective number of steel rails are vertically arranged on the ring steel plate, and connected with one another through reinforcement steel bars, and the steel rails are welded with anchoring reinforcement steel bars connected with the silo wall reinforcement steel bars; after the position, distance and verticality of the steel rails are corrected, the joints between the reinforcement steel bars and the steel rails are welded; and the anchoring reinforcement steel bars and the silo wall reinforcement steel bars are tightly bound and arranged on the silo wall inner formwork again, and the concrete is continuously cast between the silo and the steel rails until the design height of the silo is reached, thereby improving the wearing resistance of the silo, prolonging the service life of the limestone silo by 15 to 20 years, reducing manpower consumption by 110 working days, reducing material consumption by 30,000 yuan, saving the time of welding, arrangement and secondary casting of the steel rails and shortening construction period by 30 days.


Biochar is one of amandement soil that comes from imperfectly combustion (pyrolysis) form of natural charcoal. The addition of biochar as a soil reparing was able to increase the carbon in the soil that able to improve soil characteristic soil. The purpose of this study was to find out the influence of residual biochar enriched with amonium sulphate on soil chemical and physical properties, and plant growth on various soil acidity levels. Treatments tested for this study were biochar residues enriched by amonium sulfate, N fertilizer (BN), biochar residues (B), without biochar, N fertilizer (N), and control (K) and various degrees of soil pH, i.e. pH 6-7 (P1), pH 4-5 (P2), pH 5-6 (P3). Twelve treatments were arranged in a randomzed block design with three replicates. Variables observerd were properties of soils (pH, C-Organic, CEC, N-total, and aggregate stability), and maize growth parameters (plant height and the number of leaves). The results showed that aplication of biochar of residues maize cob enriched with amonium sulfphate and various pH soil had interactions towards soil CEC and soil N-total, and had an interactions towards plant growth at plant age of 8 weeks-10 weeks, and number of leaves at age 9 weeks-10 weeks.


The ability to recognize three-dimensional (3-D) objects accurately from range images is a fundamental goal of vision in robotics. This facility is important in automated manufacturing environments in industry. In contrast to the extensive work done in computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM), the robotic process is primitive and ad hoc.
This thesis defines and investigates a fundamental problem in robot vision systems: recognizing and localizing multiple free-form 3-D objects in range images. An effective and efficient approach is developed and implemented as a system Free-form Object Recognition and Localization (FORL). The technique used for surface characterization is surface curvatures derived from geometric models of objects. It uniquely defines surface shapes in conjunction with a knowledge representation scheme which is used in the search for corresponding surfaces of an objects. Model representation has a significant effect on model-based recognition. Without using surface properties, many important industrial vision tasks would remain beyond the competence of machine vision.
Knowledge about model surface shapes is automatically abstracted from CAD models, and the CAD models are also used directly in the vision process. The knowledge representation scheme eases the processes of acquisition, retrieval, modification and reasoning so that the recognition and localization process is effective and efficient.
Our approach is to recognize objects by hypothesizing and locating objects. The knowledge about the object surface shapes is used to infer the hypotheses and the CAD models are used to locate the objects. Therefore, localization becomes a by-product of the recognition process, which is significant since localization of an object is necessary in robotic applications.
One of the most important problems in 3-D machine vision is the recognition of objects from their partial view due to occlusion. Our approach is surface-based, thus, sensitive to neither noise nor occlusion. For the same reason, surface-based recognition also makes the multiple object recognition easier. Our approach uses appropriate strategies for recognition and localization of 3-D solids by using the information from the CAD database, which makes the integration of robot vision systems with CAD/CAM systems a promising future.


We find the maximum number of maximal independent sets in two families of graphs. The first family consists of all graphs with n vertices and at most r cycles. The second family is all graphs of the first family which are connected and satisfy n ≥ 3r. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 53: 270–282, 2006


Two types (imine and boronate) of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) having a porphyrin unit have been synthesized. The two highly crystalline porphyrin COFs (COF-366 and COF-66) display excellent chemical and thermal stability and are permanently porous. Two-dimensional extended layered structures of the two COFs demonstrate very high charge carrier mobility values (8.1 cm2 V−1 s−1).


During the last three years a Kharkov X-ray generator NESTOR is under design and construction in NSC KIPT. According to the design report, electrons are injected in the storage ring at 100 MeV and ramped up to final energy 225 MeV. Due to compact design of the ring the injection trajectory of the beam will pass through fringe field of a NESTOR bending magnet. It brings additional difficulties on design of an injection channel. In the paper the layout, results of design and calculations of NESTOR injector channel are presented. The channel consists of two bending magnets, five-lens, asymmetrical, objective and two-lens matching cell to compensate dispersion and focusing effects of a dipole magnet fringe field and injection system elements (inflector). Presented results shows that designed lattice provides matching of injected beam parameters with the storage ring acceptance, is stable to element alignment errors and is easy controlled. The final values of the channel lens gradients can be defined only after measurements of inflector field profile.


The issue of ethics of research in educational sciences is focused on similar areas as it is in other social sciences, e.g., anthropology, political science, psychology or sociology. The codes of ethics in research in social sciences mainly follow general principles and set standards [14], [15], [16], [17]. These usually are general principles such as Professional Competence; Integrity; Professional, Scientific, and Scholarly Responsibility; Respect for People's Rights, Dignity, and Diversity; Social Responsibility (comp. [14], [16]). The above principles are subsequently elaborated in ethical codes into numerous standards; e.g. in the case of the Code of Ethics of the American Educational Research Ethics is one of the themes of educational sciences. Its position is in disciplines such as the history of pedagogy, philosophy of education, the theory of education, general pedagogy, didactics, andragogy or adult education, special pedagogy, research methodology of educational sciences, school legislation and other. Ethical norms were influenced by ideology in the Czech and Slovak environment before 1989. Ethics in educational sciences have gradually been revised after 1989. The presented paper focuses on the analysis of scientific texts on research methodology of educational sciences (pedagogy, andragogy or adult education, special pedagogy), dealing with research ethics and published in publishing houses of nation-wide distribution (Grada, Karolinum, Paido, Portal) in 1990-2015. Examined are ethical aspects of both quantitative and qualitative researches with regard to the development of contemporary global as well as local society.


The right to deduct input value added tax ("VAT") depends on a direct and immediate link to a taxable persons taxable activities. The disposal of shares is either out of scope of VAT, since it is not considered an economic activity, or exempt from VAT. Consequently there is, in general, no right to deduct input VAT for costs relating to such a disposal. However, the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") has stated that when there is a direct and immediate link to a taxable persons overall economic activity there can be a right to deduct the input VAT on such related acquisitions. How this direct an immediate link is to be decided has however been the question for many cases in front of the CJEU. During 2017 the Swedish Supreme Administrative Court ("HFD") held its judgment in the Sveaskog's case. The court concluded that Sveaskog should have a right to deduct input VAT for costs acquired in connection to the exempt disposal of shares. Since the purpose of the disposal was to liberate capital to Sveaskog's remaining taxable activities, HFD considered that there was a direct and immediate link to Sveaskog's overall economic activities. As a consequence of the judgment, the Swedish Tax Agency ("SKV") published an opinion (stallningstagande) in which it states that only in case the purpose of the disposal is to liberate capital to the remaining economic activity in the company, there can be a right to deduct. Providing management services should be excluded from such remaining economic activity. SKV hence excludes the possibility to deduct when the disposal is for the benefit of the subsidiaries of the selling company. Since VAT is harmonized within the EU, the national courts and authorities have to interpret the Swedish VAT Act (Mervardesskattelagen) in conformity with the case law from the CJEU. The question subsequently arising is, if the Swedish legal position is in line with EU-law and the CJEU's case law. The authors conclusion is that the case law from the Swedish court post Sveaskog is in line with the case law from CJEU, but that SKV's opinion (stallningstagande) of the right to deduct is infringing the principle of neutrality. (Less)


We developed a hydrostatic and stationary white dwarf envelope model for the study of the post-outburst phases of classical novae and their soft X-ray emission. We considered several white dwarf masses and chemical compositions typical of classical novae. Our results show that the luminosity, maximum effective temperature, and envelope masses depend on the white dwarf mass and on the chemical composition. Envelope masses for which equilibrium solutions exist are pretty small (∼10 −7 −10 −6 M� ), thus leading to a short duration of the soft X-ray emitting phase of classical novae, in agreement with most observations. The models we present provide a useful tool for the determination of the white dwarf properties from observable parameters in the X-ray range.


The number of delta rays with energies between 50 and 150 keV that are produced by heavy nuclei in emulsions is calculated. The Z(2) dependence predicted by the first Born approximation is corrected by a direct calculation of the Mott exact phase-shift scattering cross section. Comparisons are made with corrections predicted by the second Born approximation. When the phase-shift results are applied to the problem of charge identification, corrections of up to 4 units of charge for 1.457-GeV/nucleon nuclei with charge Z = 75 are found.


The performance of Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play important role in economic development of a country, and it has been widely discussed that SMEs are the driving engine of economic development. In other words, by growth of SMEs, economy will be diversified, private sectors will be strengthened, unemployment will be decreased, technology and production will be improved. For SMEs in order to grow, sustainable economic performance is needed. The aim of this study is to identify the main factors affecting the economic performance of SMEs in Mongolia, make recommendation to improvement of the economic performance so that SMEs in Mongolia further influence the growth. This study uses data collected from World Bank Enterprise survey, and will use quantitative method to analyze the factors affecting the economic performance. The result of the study will be helpful for SMEs to orient itself and for policy makers. Keywords: Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Mongolia, Economic Performance DOI : 10.7176/EJBM/11-21-16 Publication date :July 31 st 2019


The main aim of the present investigation is to examine the imapacts of Cattaneo-Christov double diffusions, variable properties and activation energy on Eyring-Powell non-Newtonian liquid over a non-linear stretching surafce numerically. The features of applied magnetic field and velocity slip condition is also considered in the modeling. The flow governing system of partial differential equations (PDE's) is simpliefied into a non-linear differential system through the relevant similarity transfromations and determined flow equations are resolved numerically. The distributions for flow field, temperature and species, skin-friction coefficient, rate of heat and mass transfers for the impactsundry flow variables has been reported subject to the two-dimensional (2D) plots. The comparison has been emphasized with the published outcomes through a table and found that a good agreement for the present numerical procedure. The fluid velocity is diminished for escalating slip parameter. It is revealed that that the related solutal and thermal energy fields are declined for escalating values of solutal and thermal relaxation time parameters. The dimensionless velocity is an enhancing function for the Eyring-Powell fluid parameter K. The thermal and concentration layers are improves for the variable thermal conductivity and solutal diffusivity. The current investigation has the significant features in maintain of advanced nuclear reactor systems.


The malfunction diagnoses and elimination of shortwave arsenic line invisibility after emission spectral line for HCD-Ⅱ hollow cathode light source that was manufactured by AVIC Beijing Institute of Aeronautical Materials were introduced.


Results of a study to determine the influence of five different Class C fly ashes on inhibiting expansion due to alkali-silica reaction (ASR) are presented. Five different sands with varying degrees of ASR, combined with the five different fly ashes, were investigated. An accelerated test method (ASTM P214) was used to detect potentially deleterious expansion of mortar bars due to ASR. Replacement levels of 0, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30% of cement by weight were investigated for all five fly ashes and for all five sands. Four of the fly ashes were effective in reducing to negligible levels ASR expansions. Varying amounts of fly ashes were needed for effective control of deleterious expansion. Some fly ashes at lower levels of blending (10 and 15%) actually increased expansion. One fly ash was not effective in inhibiting expansion as a result of ASR, even at 30% replacement. Fly ashes with high alkali contents (1.92%) were effective in inhibiting expansion related to ASR. Test results indicated that some Class C fly ashes at adequate replacement levels effectively reduced expansion to negligible levels, even in highly reactive sands.


Let X be a manifold with corners and denote by M 1 (X) the set of boundary hypersurfaces in X. If D C M 1 (X) then, by using the calculus of b-pseudodifferential operators, we define quantization maps from the K-cohomology groups K*(T*X, T*X ID) to the analytic K-homology groups K*(X, CD), where CD = nM (X)\D. We prove that these maps are always isomorphisms realizing Poincar6 duality. We then specialize to manifolds with boundary where we extend various results of Atiyah, Patodi and Singer. First we study the asymmetry of the boundary spectrum of an elliptic b-pseudodifferential operator, A, by introducing an appropriate eta function and investigating its meromorphic properties; in particular we prove that s = 0, an a priori pole, is a regular point. Next we connect the boundary spectral asymmetry of the operator A to its index as a Fredholm map between r-weighted Sobolev spaces; thus we express the index as the sum of the value at s = 0 of the eta function described above and the value at s = 0 of the difference of the b-zeta functions associated to A*A and AA* respectively: indr(A) =-r(O, I(A)) + b((A*A)-b((AA*) For generalized Dirac operators this formula gives the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index theorem. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is a pleasure to thank my thesis advisor, Richard Melrose, for everything he has taught me and for many important suggestions that greatly improved this thesis. I also thank him for his enthusiasm, wisdom and good humor: I indeed feel privileged to have had such a distinguished mentor. I acknowledge interesting and enlightening discussions on the matter of this thesis with : Mazzeo. I especially thank my friend Siye Wu for so many pleasent conversations and for our collaboration on automorphisms of current algebras. I thank all the people in the Department of Mathematics of M.I.T. for creating such a stimulating environment. The financial support of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche in Italy and of M.I.T. is also gratefully acknowledged. I heartly thank Cathy Cassety for her love, companionship and support. My deepest gratitude goes to my parents, Maria Pia and Giorgio Piazza. This work is dedicated to them.


In our article in Communities, Children and Families Australia (Mendes, Snow and Baidawi, 2014), we noted that care leavers are a traumatised group of young people recovering from childhood abuse, whose needs have been sorely neglected by policy makers and under-resourced by service providers. We argued that interviewing care leavers, whilst certainly not without risks, gives voice in the public sphere to their traumatic and sometimes confronting experiences. Indeed, many care leavers have commented in interviews that they hope an airing of their needs and experiences will influence improvements in policy and practice and, hence, benefit other young people leaving care in the future. So it is imperative that research strategies and procedures serve to advance the rights of care leavers, and do not in any way exploit their participation, or worsen their existing distress.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Since allergic fungal sinusitis (AFS) has been described in 1983, only a few cases have been reported in the domestic scientific journals. This leads to alleviate the strict criteria because many patients with allergic mucin and fungal hyphae reveal negative results of allergic skin test or serologic tests for fungal antigens. To classify these patients, the term `eosinophilic fungal rhinosinusitis (EFS)' was first coined in 1999. The objective of this study was to evaluate the clinicopathological features of EFS. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: The authors retrospectively reviewed medical records of 21 patients who had been diagnosed as EFS between June 2002 and November 2003 at the department of otolaryngology, Asan medical center. RESULTS: Chief complaints at first visits were in the order of nasal obstruction, postnasal drip, headache, foul odor, and rhinorrhea. Nasal endoscopic findings showed nasal polyp, purulent discharge, and fungal debris. 14.2% of patients revealed no abnormal findings. All patients had increased intrasinus attenuation at non-contrast media-enhanced CT. 47.6% of patients had complete opacification of maxillary sinus predominantly. No patients had the evidence of type I hypersensitivity for fungal antigens. Twenty patients had undergone endoscopic sinus surgery and surgical specimens proved to have allergic mucin with fungal hyphae. Postoperatively, four patients (20%) had recurrent symptoms and polypoid mucosal changes, which showed responses to short term oral steroid therapy. CONCLUSION: EFS is a frequent type of fungal sinusitis if surgical specimens are carefully examined histologically. Out of patients who received endoscopic sinus surgery, bi-meatal approach for the maxillary sinus lesions, and local steroid therapy, 80% were cured with no sign of relapse. The existence of eosinophilic infiltration and allergic mucin leads us to believe that focal allergic reaction occurs inside the sinus