Background: One of the commonest complications of poorly controlled Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is Diabetic nephropathy (DN), which occurs in 30-40% of DM cases. It is important to identify the high-risk group who are likely to develop DN with the modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors. This study had the objectives to estimate and correlate the levels of the urine albumin creatinine ratio (UACR) with age, anthropometric measures, glycaemic control markers, lipids, and renal function. To estimate each variable as independent and multivariate risk factors. Materials and Methods: It was an observational and cross-sectional study conducted in a tertiary care center in Eastern India. Totally, 221 consecutive ambulatory T2DM subjects were recruited after obtaining their written consent. Results: The diabetics were classified as having diabetic nephropathy by the urine albumin creatinine ratio (ACR) of >30 mg/gm. 53.4% of our study group had DN. There was a significant risk associated with PPBS with p=0.043 (<0.05), serum creatinine with p=0.032 (<0.05), and urine albumin with p=0.0001 (<0.001). In the multivariate regression analysis of all these variables, there was a highly significant likelihood ratio for predicting DN with p=0.0001 (<0.001) with a predictive value of 74.5% in females and 75% in males. Conclusion: The additive factors contributed by the risk factors in the prediction of DN will benefit the DM in the prevention of DN. Keywords: diabetic nephropathy, risk factors, diabetic kidney disease, Asian Indian


The automotive industry plays an important role in the economic development of cities and the country as a whole. The article considers the features of the use of an electric car in the transport infrastructure of Russia. The article also identifies the main advantages of an electric car over a car that uses an internal combustion engine. To develop the smooth functioning of an electric car, large cities have identified the main directions of development that can be used to plan transport infrastructure in the regions of Russia. The author's mechanism for creating the infrastructure of charging stations in the region is presented. The analysis of each stage of the mechanism of creation of infrastructure of charging stations in the region is carried out.


In 1886, the legislature of Ohio enacted a law creating the State Board of Health. Ohio was the thirty-second state in the Union to provide for a state health department. Although engineering problems involving water supply and sewerage soon arose, there were no laws to provide control of public water supply and sewerage improvements until 1893. The legislature in that year passed a law requiring the submission of plans for proposed public water supply and sewerage improvements to the State Board of Health for approval. This law is codified as section 1240 G. C. The first projects submitted to the State Board of Health in compliance with this law were passed upon by members of the board and its secretary; no engineering personnel was employed. A general examination of public water supplies in Ohio was taken up in 1897 and members of the faculty of the Ohio State University were retained for this purpose. The investigation showed that some provision should be made for regular examination of public water supplies. Accordingly in 1898, the legislature passed a law providing for the annual investigation and report of the conditions of all public water supplies. It was following this enactment that provision was made for a division of laboratories and a division of engineering attached to the State Board of Health. For the period up to 1901 only one engineer was employed to carry on the work.


(57) Abstract: The present invention, where the gene product is about a plant cell comprising a heterologous polynucleotide encoding a gene product where it is expressed in plant cells containing a trichothecene resistance activity.


Abstract In a (k, n) visual cryptographic scheme (VCS), a secret image is encrypted into n shadow images in such way that any k or more shadows can be superimposed to visually decode the secret, and less than k shadows cannot obtain any information on the secret image. Most VCSs only share one secret image. A (k, n, s) multi-secret VCS (MVCS) is a (k, n)-VCS, which can share s secret images. Recently, Chen et al. introduced a novel (2, 2, 4)-MVCS. However, their scheme is insecure. The threshold property of Chen et al.'s (2, 2, 4)-MVCS is compromised. In this paper, we show how an attacker retrieves the secret information of Chen et al.'s (2, 2, 4)-MVCS from one shadow image.


The Harnack distance on space  and its conformal invariance were constructed and studied by Herron. In this paper, we obtain the Harnack distance on domains  in . Then, we use this concept to investigate some properties of the positive harmonic function class. These results are obtained in the complex plane, so it is advantageous to take some tools of the complex analysis. The main result of this paper is the property of the local uniform convergence of the positive harmonic sequences on a domain in the complex plane.


This study investigates the usability of the cathode ray tube (CRT) glass waste in a binder system. The raw materials – glass waste, river sand and cement were characterised. CRT waste was added in the amount of 30, 40 to 50 weight percent, as replacement for river sand. Glass chemical composition shows a high content in lead and alkaline oxides. Mortar prisms were prepared and kept under humid conditions. The mechanical properties were studied after 7, 28 and 90 days respectively. SEM with additional EDS was used in order to investigate the microstructure of the samples. All the samples containing glass waste achieved higher compressive strength than the control mortar. After 14, 28 and 42 days of maintaining the mortar in water no evidence of Pb was detected in the solutions.


Abstract : Cockpit lighting can interfere with the proper operation of night vision goggles (NVGs) in several specific ways. For each interference mechanism, the effect on the image seen through the NVGs is to reduce the brightness of portions of the image and/or reduce the contrast of the useful image (the view outside the aircraft). This reduction in brightness or contrast may be manifested as a reduction in visual acuity and/or as an observed loss of contrast or brightness. AFRL/HECV was requested by the FAA (this research effort was jointly funded by the FAA and AFRL/HECV) to investigate low-cost, alternative methodologies that can be used by civil aviation to evaluate NVG cockpit lighting compatibility. In order to facilitate the inexpensive evaluation of cockpit lighting interference with the operation of the NVGs, a field evaluation kit was developed. This kit makes it possible to conduct a low-cost version of the standard visual acuity test method currently used by the Air Force. This report describes the fabrication, components, and implementation of this field evaluation test kit, which was recommended to and delivered to the FAA.


This study analyzes the market quality differences, in terms of liquidity and volatility, between real estate investment trusts (REITs) and non-REIT common stocks. The 2008 financial crisis has significantly influenced the market quality for REITs. Our findings reveal intraday patterns indicating a lower liquidity, higher volatility, and greater price impact for REITs than non-REITs for the pre-crisis period. These relationships reverse during the post-crisis period with REITs becoming more liquid, less volatile, and cheaper to trade than non-REITs. Further, we document that post-crisis trading interest in REITs has increased significantly as reflected by increased volume, number of trades, and number of quotes.


Abstract In the early concept phases of programs, some approximate cost figures are often required to scope system program costs for development, production or life cycle, and to provide preliminary identification of cost drivers. The cost estimation process in these early, formative program stages is, however, hampered by insufficient knowledge of mission, configuration and environmental parameters. It is therefore necessary to use a heuristic approach, i.e., to fall back on cost estimates using modifiers of analogous systems where historical data exist. This paper describes the process of eliciting cost estimates and modifying cost assumptions which enable cost prediction of not well defined systems. It describes what kinds of cost models are acceptable and usable and how the data may be efficiently obtained. The choice of the 'right' experts (generalists, people with perception), the proper interviewing techniques (written versus oral, delphi, argumentative, etc.), the important role of the interviewer or moderator (reinforcing behaviour versus objective criticism), and the transformation of question responses into cost model inputs are discussed. The paper reveals the thought process and includes several examples of actually performed, early concept phase cost estimates and contains a list of several do's and dont's the author experienced in arriving at these early cost predictions.


ZrN/TiAIN multilayered coatings with nanoscale bilayer were synthesized by ion beam assisted deposition(IBAD).XRD,nano indenter,and multi-functional tester for material surface proper- ties were employed to investigate the effect of ion bombarding energy on microstructure and mechanical properties of the coatings.All multilayered coatings almost reveal higher hardness and elastic modulus than the rule-of-mixtures value of monolithic ZrN and TiAIN coatings.At bombarding energy of 200 eV,the momentum transfer between surface atoms and bombarding ions causes an increase in the areal density of multilayered coating due to ion bombarding.ZrN/TiAIN multilayered coating prepared at this bombarding energy possesses the highest hardness(30.6 GPa).Its elastic modulus,surface roughness and friction coefficient are also improved obviously.


The purpose of this study is to gain a deep understanding about the inner conflicts of female characters with the approach of literary psychoanalysis. This research uses content analysis method with qualitative approach. The results showed that of all characters experiencing inner conflicts, the character of Sabina the most dominant experiencing of inner conflicts. While the most dominant form of inner conflict occurs it is an approach-avoidance conflict. It can be seen that a form of the approach-approach inner conflicts there are 2.78% of data, form of approaching - avoidance inner conflict  there are 83.33% of data. Furthermore, the avoidance-avoidance inner conflict there are 13.89% of data. Based on these findings, the results of this study can be implicated into Indonesian language and literature learning at the SMA / MA level.


As the methods for determining pitting corrosion resistance of 18-8 stainless steel, we have known H.A. Smith's pit corrosion test, M.A. Streicher's electrolytically accelerated test, etc. However, the correlation between the results of these testing and the actual pitting corrosion in sea water is not clearly known. Having experienced an abnormal pitting corrosion on a propeller shaft of 18-8 stainless steel used on a small craft, which appeared quite different from normal pitting corrosion, we have conducted the dipping test of six kinds of austenitic stainless steel in sea water for one year to investigate into the cause of the trouble and take the counter-measures. In this test, we observed the corrosion behavior and reached the conclusion that this abnormal pitting corrosion is related with the growth of shells attached to the material. At the same time, H.A. Smith's pit corrosion test and M.A. Streicher's electrolytically accelerated test have also been conducted.


Despite irregular spatial sampling spatially continuous topological statistics appear to be suitable for analyzing in-shoe PP data. Topological results are visually (and anatomically) richer than zone results, and they also do not require ad hoc foot discretization; topological procedures automatically detect the anatomical extent of the underlying pressure signals. Implications for in-shoe foot movement and multisubject analyses will be discussed. References


A 1.5V supply, low power consumption and fast switching integer-N frequency synthesizer is presented. The synthesizer consists of LC-tank VCO with quadrature output, D-type flip-flop (DFF) prescalar swallow-counter, phase-frequency detector, charge pump and 4th order loop filter. A noble design procedure for loop filter is also presented with the aid of MATLAB program. The phase noise of VCO is -106dBc/Hz @1MHz offset. Total power consumption of synthesizer is 20.5mW. Settling time is 40/spl mu/s. The synthesizer is fabricated by TSMC 0.25/spl mu/m CMOS technology and is suitable for HiperLAN n and IEEE 802.11a lower side-band applications.


The cutter has an adjustable set square (4) for the positioning of the pieces of ceramic and a single driving mechanism (5) that includes an adjustable driving head (6) fitted with a positioner (63) with an eccentric snub (64), some elastic means (65) for the fixing into some seats (41) of the adjustable set square (4) and some means (66) for the height regulation of the positioner (63) in regard to the main body (61). The eccentric snub (64) is coaxially fixed to an axis (64a) allowing the possibility of vertical movement in a lower opening (63a) defined in the positioner (63) and moved laterally in regard to the geometric axis of said positioner; the rotation of the positioner (63) determining a circular movement of the eccentric snub (64) around the geometric axis of the positioner (63) for the adjustment of its angular position.


This paper is a didactic article on the optimal experimental designs, primarily for the linear models. Its objective is to give the definitions and the methods of construction of the principal optimal plans met, with a lighting based on very simple examples. The public concerned is initially that of the engineers of research who wish to improve their experimental approach, relatively to experimental problems characterized by constraints of various types. Mots-clés : Plans d'expériences, optimalité, régression, didactique.


In this paper we outline a post-processing system for compressed video sources, aimed at reducing the visibility of coding artifacts. To achieve optimal video quality for compressed sources, it addresses artifact reduction and video enhancement functions as well as their interdependency. The system is based on the Unified Metric for Digital Video Processing (UMDVP), a quality metric that estimates the level of coding artifacts on a per-pixel basis. Experiments on MPEG-2 encoded video sequences showed significant improvement in picture quality compared to systems that do not have UMDVP control or that do not consider the interdependency between artifact reduction and video enhancement.


The fragmentation mechanism of the carbon black was analysed. According to the experiments, the influence factors of the different type of carbon black and its physical character for the carbon black fragmentation in the pneumatic conveying system were introduced. It was pointed out that the pipe length and its layout and the conveying parameters such as conveying pressure and velocity of the pneumatic conveying system were the main influencing factors about the fragmentation rate. The bases for solving the problems better when using the pneumatic conveying system and optimizing the design of the pneumatic conveying system were suggested.


Blood oxygenation level‐dependent (BOLD)‐weighted and vessel‐encoded arterial spin labeling (VE‐ASL) MRI provide complementary information and can be used in sequence to gauge hemodynamic contributions to cerebrovascular reactivity. Here, cerebrovascular reactivity is assessed using dual echo VE‐ASL MRI to understand how VE labeling preparations influence BOLD and ASL contrast in flow‐limited and healthy perfusion territories.


Nutritional function of the organism depends on three different but correlated systems: the digestive system, the respiratory system, and the excretory system (2). Capture, modification, and absorption of nutrients is carried out by the digestive system, which has been studied from different points of view in detail. Thus, main organs and their functional and physical properties are well-known. Moreover, several studies on the composition, physical appearance, aroma and fragrance of excrements have been done (3). However, any work related to the psychological aspects of the act of defecation and its consequences has not been published.


First, the entrepreneur theory is analyzed. Second, its using for reference is provided for studying the entrepreneur resource in China. At last, the conditions of developing the entrepreneur resource in China are interpreted.


In the sense of understanding of social problems , which returns to the changing and unstable society, there are some actions carried out under the human rights approach and NNA that have done in the country, First at the necessity to transform and revert centric adult and institutionalizing of participation patterns; Against that, this investigation shows the systematization of experiences of the political and citizen, children and adolescents in the city of Ibarra from 2000 to 2010 participatory process; to analyze the impact of management, the voicing and imaginaries, the exchange of lessons and discover the different perceptions and political process looks of citizens of NNA. Deeply, the speeches that are contradictory practices and highlight the participation not as an instrument of state but as a right of citizenship.


Jumping locusts continually change the shape of their body and wings to right the aero-posture and keep glide steadily, presumably to exploit the profound effect of morphology on Subsequent Attitude Adjustment (SAA) performance. The attitude adjustment is a significant theme for locust jumping and considerable progress has been accomplished recently in bio-locust SAA study. Firstly, based on the morphological characteristics of the locust locomotion, the SAA model was established. In addition, it was validated qualitatively by an exercise testing and simulation. Finally, a prototype was developed and the SAA mechanism was validated qualitatively. This work proved that the mechanism of bio-locust SAA is an effective method for bio-robot air-righting.


We provide an overview of well-documented factors that predict and explain national and cultural differences in happiness. A brief history of the culture and happiness research is offered, followed by a literature summary on how cultural variations in happiness is related with objective life conditions, lay cultural beliefs of happiness, emotion patterns, characteristics of the self, and excessive concerns of social evaluation in East Asian cultures. We also briefly comment on findings from the culture-person fit research, and introduce recent biological and ecological papers that may point to new research directions for the culture and happiness field.


The invention relates to azole compounds of formula (I) wherein the substituents have different meanings, in free form or in salt form. They can be prepared, for example, by acylation or, by ring opening aziridine OR oxazole. The compounds can be used as PHARMACEUTICALS, ESPECIALLY AS SELECTIVE INHIBITORS hydroxylases 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 IN THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES IN TISSUE PROLIFERATION AND DIFFERENTIATION SENSITIVE VITAMIN D.


The reflection properties of light wave propagation in one-dimensional quasi-periodic metallic photonic crystal (PC) are comprehensively analyzed by transfer matrix method. In this work, we form a Fibonacci sequence quasi-periodic PC composed of metal and dielectric. The results demonstrate that the reflection stop band is strongly dependent on the periodic structure, metal thickness and incident angle. For this structure, the reflection stop band ranges from the visible light region to near-infrared region. Compared with the periodic metallic PC, the reflection stop bandwidth of our structure is wider. When the metal thickness increases, the reflection stop band is significantly enlarged. Furthermore, the reflection stop bandwidth slowly gets narrow and shifts to short wavelength region with the increase of incidence angle. Considering TE and TM wave at all incident angles, there is an omnidirectional reflection bandgap with width of 241nm for our investigated quasi-periodic metal PC.


Objective To analyze the nutritional condition of the patients with chronic liver failure.Methods Compared with the control group of 30 patients of hepatitis B,80 patients with chronic liver failure were selected.The nutritional status were evaluated,Triceps skinfold thickness were measured and SGA score were calculated.The patients were treated by enteral and parenteral mixed nutritional support and the application of SGA score in nutrition assessment for patients were obvserved.Results Pretreatment energy intake in patients with chronic liver failure decreased(18.37 ± 5.08) kcal·kg-1·d-1,nutrient composition was not unreasonable.Skinfold thickness decreased(16.70 ± 5.36)mm,and improved SGA score increased(19.05 ± 2.67).Improved SGA score decreased after treatment.Conclusion In patients with chronic liver failure,there is insufficient energy intake,malnutrition.Improved SGA score to some extent can reflect malnutrition state of patients.


To improve the profile of the slab after SP and increase the production efficiency,a new SP tow-step anvil is put forward.The experimental and FEM results show that compared with the old anvil,the peak of the "dog bone" reduces and the thick of the middle slab increases after SP when applying the new tow-step anvil.Meanwhile,the slab width adjustment efficiency of the tow-step anvil increases.Under the same deformation conditions,the slab warp after SP reduces obviously.


The main goals of this essay are to describe and make clear the philosophical implications of self-cultivation concerning the concept of inwardness and examine how it contributes to the formation of the Confucian identity. In two representative Korean Neo-Confucian debates, the Debate on Supreme Polarity between Yi Ǒnjŏk and Cho Hanbo and one of the issues in the Horak Debate about the original substance of the tranquil state (mibal) of the mind, we can see that self-cultivation plays a crucial role in establishing the Confucian identity. For example, the debate between Yi and Cho shows how to teach people to achieve an ideal Confucian character by interpreting "learning human affairs below (hahag-insa)" and "reaching the heavenly principle above (sangdal-chŏlli)" differently. The concept of inwardness is significant as well as problematic in understanding the sense of rivalry against Buddhism earlier and the Yangming School later in the intellectual history of Korean neo-Confucianism. Those who think of themselves as true followers of Confucius and Zhu Xi criticize that a subjective way of experiencing inwardness is close to Buddhism and misleads one in the pursuit of some lofty metaphysical entity without any practical concerns. Despite such a criticism, some Neo-Confucian scholars have emphasized that the original substance of the mind is the tranquility of inwardness. In this vein, we will investigate what kind of philosophical identity most Korean Neo-Confucians have embraced as their own. Their consistent argument for keeping the balance between honoring the virtues and inquiring about learning leads to the claim that the achievement of self-cultivation should contribute to making the world peaceful. Thus, the matter of inwardness often described as deliberate solitude is not so much a subjective realm like religious confession, but vivid experiences of daily life that have never been separated from the manifestation of the Way (dao). In conclusion, the core issue of the Neo-Confucian identity having a sense of rivalry against heresy aims at the matter of practice, i.e., how actively and properly one participates in transforming the world.


Studies evaluating the relationship between soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR), a biomarker inversely related to body iron stores, and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are scarce and inconclusive. Furthermore, sTfR concentrations have been observed to be significantly higher in obese than in nonobese individuals. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the relationship between sTfR and the risk of T2DM in obese and nonobese subjects.


B o o k R ev ew s 39 purposes. Lance van Sittert's account of the dispersal of the prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) across the Eastern Cape presents a rich mixture of biological, economic, and social effects. This case foreshadows the experience of many regions with exotic plants (e.g., Melaleuca quinquenervia in South Florida), which can swiftly be reclassified from beneficial import to destructive invader. What is most intriguing about the case of Opuntia in South Africa, however, is that such variable definitions depended largely on geographic location or social class. Because of its usefulness as fodder and food product, stock farmers in drought-prone areas and the rural poor generally refused to comply with official efforts at eradication. Taken together, the cases presented here demonstrate that despite its particularities, South Africa's environmental history shares much with its neighbors in southern and eastern Africa. Conversely, the cases also reveal that however striking the similarities with other settler societies, South Africa cannot be conveniently slipped into explanatory models developed for North America or Australia. Volumes such as these, necessarily incomplete yet wide-ranging in scope, provide the basis for a synthesis that will subsequently make this field accessible to a much wider audience. Graduate students and scholars interested in how the dynamic relationship between people and their environment has shaped contemporary South Africa will find much of value here. Todd H. Leedy


This paper contains information related to a study conducted to learn the possible correlation between visual-spatial skills and auditory discrimination abilities and the academic performance in Mathematics and English as a Foreign Language (EFL), respectively. It also considered the role of multiple intelligences over academic performance in these subjects.
The study was conducted on 32 students aged 12 to 15 who were doing their first year of Secondary Compulsory Education in an ordinary education centre in Pamplona (Spain).
The measuring tools were: PAF auditory discrimination test (Valles, 1990) to analyze auditory discrimination abilities; copy and memory reproduction of a complex geometric shape test (Rey, 1942) to check the visual-spatial skills and a questionnaire to measure Multiple Intelligences (adapted by McKenzie, 1999). End of year results of Mathematics and English as a Foreign Language were also considered.
Results show that there is no significant correlation between auditory discrimination skills and academic performance in English as a Foreign Language, while results prove that there is a positive and significant correlation between visual-spatial skills and acade-mic performance in Mathematics. Besides, there is evidence that the most influential intelligence over academic performance in Mathematics and English as a Foreign Language is the musical intelligence.
Considering these results and the needs observed in our students, an intervention programme to develop visual-spatial skills and auditory discrimination skills from the multiple intelligence's theory perspective is suggested. This way, an improvement in the academic performance in both areas is expected.


Over the past two decades, the organisation of religious education classes in Switzerland has undergone profound reforms. Amid the increasing secularisation and pluralisation of the religious landscape, many cantons have introduced a compulsory course that falls under the responsibility of the state and is aimed at teaching basic knowledge about a variety of religions. These reforms have enabled a harmonisation of the syllabi for religious education across the country and have prompted the adaptation of teacher training programmes. Because of the many diverse social expectations surrounding these new courses and the diverse academic traditions in the field of religious education, however, a unified conception of these courses is still absent. In this article, we discuss the ongoing construction of religious education teachers' professional ethos within this fluid context. In particular, we discuss the perspective of teacher trainers on pragmatic questions concerning religious plurality and the place of teachers' and pupils' personal (religious) experiences in the classroom, and pay attention to different representations of 'religion' and distinct ideas regarding the purpose of these courses as they have a major impact on the professional attitudes expected from teachers.


In modern times, because of the the advancement of social media platforms, fake news relating to different purposes has been increasing day by day. Fake News on the internet is defined as a fabricated article with the intention to mislead, usually for profiting. Fake news and hoaxes have been there since before the advent of the Internet. Hoaxes have existed for a long time, since the "Great moon hoax" published in 1835. Along with the increase in the use of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter etc. news spreads rapidly among millions of users within a very short span of time. This paper's purpose is to investigate the concepts, approaches and algorithms for identifying fake news articles and their creators from online social media platforms and assessing their performance. This paper introduces two models for detection of fake news. First by text classification where different classifier models were applied and it was found that RNN(LSTM) gave the best accuracy of 93 %. Second by crowd analysis where Parameter tuning method gave the best accuracy of 80 %.


The Vinland map was first revealed to the world in 1965, when it was bought by Paul Mellon and presented to Yale University for the Beinecke Library. It was announced as a mid-fifteenthcentury world map, drawn probably in the general area of the Upper Rhine; the inscriptions and the outlines of Greenland and Vinland showed, startlingly, that the eleventh-century Viking voyages to America were known to learned circles in central


According to national guidelines or directives, monoclonal ABO reagents may be required to detect Ax and Bweak subgroup red blood cells (RBCs). Many routine laboratories do not have access to naturally-occurring ABO subgroups that can be used as weak controls for these reagents. Group O RBCs modified with synthetic analogs of blood group A and/or B glycolipids (KODETM technology) to mimic weak ABO subgroups could be used for quality control purposes. Samples: KODETM RBCs were prepared according to a previously described procedure.1 RBCs were modified with 15 different concentrations of synthetic glycolipids, ranging from 1000 μg/mL to 0.06 μg/mL for KODETM-A and 5000 μg/mL to 0.3 μg/mL for KODETM-B. The concentration was decreased by doubling dilution steps. For both KODETM-A and KODETM-B RBCs, repeat samples were produced for four selected concentrations as a consistency measurement and all KODETM b t h t t d i t i li t Aim of the Study


Objective To investigate the value of diffusion weighted imaging( DWI) in estimating tumor angiogenesis and pathologic grading of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Methods Routine MRI,DWI( b = 800 s / mm2) and DCEMRI scanning were performed in fifty seven patients with extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma before operation. ADC value of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma was measured. MVD and VEGF expression were detected in extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma tissue samples using immunohistochemical methods after operation. The relations between ADC value and MVD,VEGF or pathologic grading of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma were analyzed. Results There was negative correlation between ADC value and MVD of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma( r =- 0. 36,P 0. 05). The ADC value of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma with positive VEGF expression was lower than that with negative VEGF expression( t = 2. 68,P 0. 05). ADC value decreased with pathologic grading increasing( F = 18. 51,P 0. 05). Conclusion ADC value can reflect tumor angiogenesis and predict pathologic grading in extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma,and DWI contributes to evaluating the biological features of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma in vivo.


It is ever a grace and a benediction to be able to come to a halt … to turn aside from the things that occupy and preoccupy our minds in the daily round, to take a long intimate look at ourselves both retrospect and prospect…. It is at such times that we are free to remember! From within the quiet of our spirits we may see with startling clarity the meaning of past experiences. (Thurman 1961, 114)


Argon ion laser excitation of covalently linked porphyrin–tryptophan compound in the presence of 1,4-benzoquinone in benzene-d6 resulted in strong 1H-NMR polarizations of tryptophan moiety. These CIDNP effects are reasonably explained by the mechanism involving the secondary electron transfer from tryptophan moiety to porphyrin cation radical as the key step.


This paper investigates the distribution of word formation data through network visualisation, as an entry point for the exploration / analysis of productivity in affixal derivation in Classical Latin. This study uses data from the Word Formation Latin lexicon, a derivational morphology resource for Latin, where entries are analysed into their formative components, and relationships between them are established on the basis of word formation rules.


The effect of reduction conditions of Pd SiW 12 /SiO 2 catalyst was examined for direct oxidation of ethylene to acetic acid in a fixed bed reactor. Due to the higher palladium dispersion, the catalyst reduced by H 2 at 200~300 ℃ showed higher catalytic activity than that reduced with hydrazine. The selectivity and space time yield of acetic acid were improved, by adding a suitable amount of 1,2 dichloroethane into the feed gas. The deactivation of the catalyst Pd Se SiW 12 /SiO 2 was observed during the continuous test of 206 h, which was regarded as caused by the sintering of palladium particle and the spillage of the tungstosillic acid.


The research topic is greatly related to the academic frontier of hydrology & water resources and the significant requirements of socio-economy and ecological protection, which has theoretical and practical implications. I have reviewed the previous version of this paper (hess-2020-461) and glad to see the changes based on my previous comment. The first reviewer also pointed out some concerns about this paper and gave the details about the paper (see the marked supplements), and I quite agree with them. I believe they are helpful for the authors to fully revise the paper. In my view, before the paper can be published, the authors should consider not only the concerns and remarks from the first reviewer but also the following three points:


This paper examines how the language situation in Switzerland affects, and may be affected by, the choice of languages for Internet use within the country. It focuses primarily on language choices on a mailing list for members of a Pan-Swiss medical student organization. English has become the lingua franca, the preferred language of intra-Swiss communication, within this group. The use of English by list members is charted over four calendar years to determine when and how this change occurred. Qualitative analysis of comments by the members in the e-mails themselves and in interviews provides clues as to why English has become so important on the mailing list. The paper concludes by considering the implications of this case for the linguistic situation in Switzerland in general and for the global spread of English via the Internet.


This is a review of the theory of the motivic fundamental group of the projective line minus three points, and its relation to multiple zeta values.


Tissue puncture is ubiquitous in medicine, from percutaneous injections and biopsies to laparoscopic surgical access, epidural anesthesia, and cranial drilling; over 10 million puncture procedures are performed each year in the US alone. At the moment of puncture when the tissue fails at the tip of a puncture device, the tip of the device may travel farther than intended and impact underlying tissues or organs, causing dangerous and potentially deadly complications. Tissue puncture is performed on significantly varied tissue types and patient populations with countless different methods and devices; however, it is crucial to note that essentially all puncture procedures follow a common set of fundamental physical principles and are governed by many of the same characteristic parameters and phenomena. As such, broadly applicable devices and strategies may be developed to increase the safety and precision of tissue puncture across all medical disciplines. In this work we develop a general definition and common theoretical basis for medical tissue puncture, and extract key parameters which can be optimized to increase the safety and precision of puncture procedures. This work has resulted in the development of a test apparatus to measure tissue surface deflection during high-velocity deep tissue puncture. In addition, we have experimentally demonstrated that during deep tissue puncture with medical needles, for certain needle-tissue systems there exists an optimal insertion velocity such that tissue deflection is minimized. A first-order theoretical model is developed and suggests that this optimum velocity behavior is due to increasing hydrodynamic friction forces at higher insertion velocities. From this common fundamental approach to tissue puncture, several devices have been developed which may be applied to a variety of medical procedures to increase puncture precision. Specifically, a flexural tip-retraction mechanism actively opposes the forward "plunge" acceleration of a puncture device and is scalable for many medical and non-medical puncture applications. In addition, audible-frequency vibration of a puncture device is found to significantly decrease insertion force without causing additional immediate tissue damage, as confirmed by live tissue histology study. Results of this work may have significant effects on future device development. Thesis Supervisor: Alexander H. Slocum Title: Pappalardo Professor of Mechanical Engineering


For many years, I didn't embrace the technological advancements that were helping so many. It took meeting some of my fellow peers with diabetes at the Students With Diabetes conference in 2011 who used insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors to realize the impact that this technology could have on my life. At work and school, I can go about my normal business thanks to these pieces of technology. They are more than just tools to help me survive. They are a part of me and have become essential to helping with my day-to-day aspect of living with diabetes.


Yuji MATSUZOE, Nobuyuki AKIYAMA, Toshiaki YACHI and Syuichi CHIKAMATSU In an automatic detection system for small particles on patterned wafers, the optical system which eliminates insensitive regions on a linear image sensor has been developed . The real image of wafer is splitted into two parts by the split mirror set on the real image plane of the detection system. The insensitive regions are eliminated by setting the linear image sensors whose pixels are shifted by a halfpixel relatively, on these two real images. The relative displacement between the two real image detected by the sensors is 0.5•}0.1 pixel over the view field of 3mm and the shading of images is 23% . The intensity of images with the split mirror becomes twice as much as that with the half mirror.


This study assesses whether economic interest groups (business associations and trade unions) enjoy better access to the policymaking process than citizen groups. It compares the interest group population in Switzerland with those sets of groups present in the administrative and legislative venues. The study devises an aggregate measure of access to policymaking as a whole, which weights access according to different venues' importance. It theorizes the granting of access as a sequential process. Policymakers first decide whether to grant any access at all (selection stage) and then decide on the amount of access (allocation stage). Empirical evidence shows that policymakers do not discriminate between economic and citizen groups at the selection stage, but that they subsequently grant more access to economic groups. These findings qualify existing research, which interprets economic groups' superior access as the resilience of neo-corporatism, while also questioning the pluralizing effect of multiple policymaking venues.


among all functions u ∈ W 1,p(Ω) with u−u0 ∈ W 1,p 0 (Ω) for a prescribed u0 ≥ 0. We assume that λ is a positive constant. Then the minimizer u satisfies (in a certain weak sense, see Theorem 2.1) the following overdetermined system ∆pu = 0 in {u > 0}, u = 0, |∇u| = c on ∂{u > 0} ∩ Ω (1.2) with c = λ/(p − 1)1/p. Here ∆pu = div(|∇u|p−2∇u) is the p-Laplace operator. We are interested in the regularity properties of the so-called free boundary Γ = ∂{u > 0} ∩ Ω.


We demonstrate strongly driven resonance fluorescence from a single InGaAs quantum dot in a planar microcavity by measuring the coherent oscillations in the second-order correlation function, g(2)(t), of the photoluminescence.


Through analyzing related researches of light reduction measures applied on highway tunnel portals,the paper introduces and summarizes the types,merits and demerits,and application scope of light reduction measures. In addition,combining with the domestic application status of light reduction measures utilized in highway tunnel portals,the paper briefly generalizes some considerable factors of light reduction measures in practice.


This essay provides a general framework for thinking about art and international justice, and more specifically the work of international courts. As international justice searches for new methodologies and instruments of inquiry, aesthetic experience proves to be a lens through which it is possible to deepen our understanding of international justice as a specific social practice in its dynamic form. Art is both a representation of reality and an affective state in which both participants in judicial proceedings and outside observers can interact and experience justice directly. This essay and the symposium as a whole demonstrate that art is implicit in the rhetoric of international courts, their architectural design, and their commemorative practices expressed by symbolic reparations and outreach activities. In convening this symposiumwith my coeditor Karima Bennoune, who is UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, we aim to start a discussion on the connection between art and international justice. The latter discipline embodies the rules of conduct that have universal or quasi-universal application, reflecting shared consensus about certain areas of human activity that are of global or transnational concern. Ironically, if viewed from a static point of view, international law, while aiming at universality, is prone to fragmentation.1 Academic debates addressing this dichotomy are plentiful,2 yet they tend to focus on material outcomes of the process of the administration of justice—judgments and legal texts—often leaving untouched the actual direct experience of law's active participants and outside observers. There is thus scope to develop new methodologies that engage with the discipline of international justice from a different, more experiential, standpoint.3 This is where art and creative expression can prove to be useful tools for studying international justice. This introduction discusses the overarching discipline of international justice and the specific bodies tasked with interpreting it, namely international courts. The arguments regarding the value of engaging with creative expression extend to both international justice and to international courts interchangeably, unless a clear distinction is made. Furthermore, the essay adopts a wide understanding of art that encompasses its representational and


The paper investigates the current tendencies of modern industrial enterprises development, analyses the conformity of available principles of construction of systems of logic management of the concept «Industry 4.0» is spent. The principles of constructing a logical control system are described and its architectural model is proposed with the possibility of its integration into digital engineering industries. An example of solving the task of synchronizing the work of machine and robotic equipment with the application of the described approach to the construction of a logical control system as well as the possibility of transferring diagnostic information to higher control levels is given.


Based on J.V.Boussinesq'solution, the additional stress in the foundation under the trapezoid-distribution line load is analyzed. The formula for the additional stress in the foundation under the center line of trapezoid-distribution load along the Y-axis is deduced in details in this paper. By means of the formula, the different calculation formulas for the additional stress in the foundation under the load of rectangular, triangular and semi-infinite long stripe are determined along with the change of the initial conditions. The formula can be applied to the additional stress's calculation of space problem more widely. The presented formula in this paper is better than that seems to be dispersed and complicated in the reference books. Therefore, the calculation result has practical significance.


The purpose of this paper is to study the existence of fixed point for a nonlinear integral operator in the framework of Banach space 𝑋∶=𝐶([𝑎,𝑏],ℝ𝑛). Later on, we give some examples of applications of this type of results.


This paper addresses the importance of the diagnosis of "personal communities" as relational systems that may influence the academic pathways of young immigrants. As part of a longitudinal study of the academic persistence of young people in their transition from compulsory to post-compulsory education, a "personal network questionnaire" has been developed. This instrument allows the relational structure of students to be captured and represented, and the impact of this structure on educational outcomes to be analysed. It measures and explores the network of inter-relations with adults (family, educational and recreational professionals, etc.) and peers in different settings. The theoretical elements underpinning its design and implementation are the interweaving of the student social capital and social support system to which they have or may have access to, and the Social Network Analysis (SNA) approach as the methodological framework. This network approach is rendered highly significant and valuable for professionals in educational diagnosis to assess relational vulnerability and design programs of intervention and counseling. With graphic techniques, we can somewhat address this challenge by examining patterns in relational data, experimenting with these data and putting forward hypotheses.


The aim of this paper is to examine and describe the framing of the concept gender within the Colombian anti-gender campaign against the peace accord between FARC-EP and the government of Colombia. ...


Objective To determine the epidemiological value of molecular variation analysis for the predominant strains with the seasonal influenza surveillance.Methods Percentages of visits for influenza-like illness(%ILI)had been analyzed as an indicator of influenza virus activity in the community.Naso-pharyngeal swabs from the patients with ILI were propagated and isolated for viruses.The HA1 region of the predominant viruses were tested by RT-PCR and sequenced subsequently.The analyses of pairwise amino acid variations,genetic clustering,and phylogenetics were performed.Results Total of %ILI was 6.67% and there was a summer peak from May to July.Total of 50 sporadic outbreaks of influenza were investigated and the peak of the outbreaks preceded the peak of %ILI by approximately two weeks.The annually isolating rates of influenza virus was totally 11.63% and fell below the peak of %ILI about 4 weeks.The predominant strains included subtype H3N2(59.5%)and type B(37.0%).Phylogenetic clustering analysis of influenza H3N2 virus revealed that there were 2 branches,including the viruses isolated from January to April,and other months of 2007,respectively.The vaccine straines recommended by WHO and representative strains recommended by CCDC were clustered in Branche 1.Although some amino acid changes at antigenic sites were found in subtype H3N2 and type B viruses,none of new circulating strains for genetic reassortment or antigenic profiles had been determined.Conclusions This has confirmed the epidemiologic significance and value of the molecular variation analysis in seasonal influenza surveillance as an essential public health component for monitoring the incidence and distribution of influenza and predominant strains.


Protein transduction domainsPTDs also called cell permeable proteinsCPP or membrane translocating sequencesMTS are small peptides that are able to ferry much larger molecules into cells independent of classical endocytosis. This property makes PTDs as an ideal tool to transfer proteins and other molecules into living cells for research purposes. The transmembrane transit mechanism of PTDs and its applications in research advance were reviewed in this paper.


In the last decade, the Internet and World Wide Web have changed the way people communicate, conduct business and manage their daily lives. Traditional brick and mortarstores are already being supplemented by a multitude of electronic storefronts populating the World Wide Web. The transition from brick-and-mortar businesses to click-and-mortar businesses is happening in all sectors of the economy.Online shopping has offered new and varied opportunities to consumers. Therefore, to attract and retain customers; e-marketers need to have a clear knowledge on online consumer behavior. In the present research study an attempt has been made to understand the online consumer behavior and to analyse the customer perception regarding website features.
Key Words- Online Marketing, Website Features, Online shopping


The reactions of pyridine and 3-picoline with cyclohexanone and 2-methylcyclohexanone, and of pyridine with 4-t-butylcyclohexanone, in the presence of magnesium amalgam have been studied quantitatively. In the latter case the conformations of the products have been established. The cis--trans-isomer ratio was 54·2:45·8. With 3-picoline, attack took place predominantly at C-6. The results are thought to fit a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition or a co-ordination of R2[graphic omitted]·O[graphic omitted] at nitrogen followed by nucleophilic cyclisation mechanism.


We discuss model-independent tests of the so-called cosmic distance duality relation (CDDR),η = DL(L)(1+z)−2/DA(z) = 1, where DA(z) and DL(z) are the angular diameter and luminosity distances, respectively. Using the general expression for X-ray gas mass fraction (fgas) of galaxy clusters, fgas∝DLDA1/2, we show that fgas observations jointly with type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) data furnish a validity test for the CDDR. We also show that the relation between current fX-ray and Sunyaev-Zeldovich gas mass fraction (fSZE) observations is given by fSZE = ηfX-ray, where η quantifies deviations from the CDDR. In order to perform our analysis we use 38 fgas measurements recently studied by two different groups.


The basis steps of a 2D crack analysis finite element software FRANC2D/L in simulating fatigue crack growth was introduced and this software was utilized to simulate the process of fatigue crack growth of center hole-edge cracks on finite plate.Comparing the simulation curves with the experimental data,the two results agree well,which proves the reliability of this method in simulating fatigue crack growth.By employing FRANC2D/L in simulating fatigue crack growth of MSD with multiple collinear holes on finite plate,the relationship curve between length of each hole-edge crack and fatigue growth life is obtained.The simulation result shows that,under the same circumstance,the fatigue growth life of center hole-edge crack on finite plate is much higher than the one of center hole-edge crack in MSD structure;the fatigue growth lives of each hole-edge crack in MSD structure are different because they have suffered different effects.In addition,the paper also presents the process of fatigue crack growth of multiple MSD cracks without and with main crack.The result shows that the coalescence behavior tends to happen in MSD cracks with main crack and then lends to destruction of the structure.


AbstractLinear elastic fracture mechanics has been widely used for fracture analysis of cracked metals. For ductile materials, it is known that the yielding of a crack front results in the easing o...


Grasping objects are common phenomenon in daily human activities. Force myography (FMG) signal, a noninvasive technique can record muscle movements while a human participant grasps different objects and be categorized using machine learning (ML) algorithms. In this paper, a popular deep learning technique is presented for hand grasp recognition. A novel convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture was implemented in learning grasps via force myography. Twelve participants wearing an FMG band on dominant hand's forearm performed six hand grasps. Training dataset consisted of one-handed grasping small objects of different shapes and sizes either wrapping or pinching with fingers with a variety of arm poses. The proposed FMG-based CNN model obtained cross-trial classification accuracy of 96% (population mean) and was found comparable with other ML techniques. Pretranined Alexnet (with ImageNet dataset) through transfer learning was implemented to classify the hand grasps for comparison. The proposed model outperformed the pretrained Alexnet in terms of validation accuracy, loss, and training time. For future FMG-based practical applications, it would be advantageous to use the model for transfer learning where comparatively smaller datasets are desirable for training purpose.


ABSTRACT SEVEN pole anchorage systems were tested for their relative strength of resistance to lateral loading. The systems include concrete collars, gravel and crushed rock backfills, concrete beam and 2X6 plank. This paper reports the results of these tests.


The sensitivity of physiological measures to mental workload was investigated in a ¯ ight simulator. Twelve pilots had to ¯ y through a tunnel with varying levels of di culty. Additionally, they had to perform a memory task with four levels of di culty. The easiest memory task was com bined with the easiest tunnel task and the most di cult memory task with the most di cult tunnel task. Between the tunnel tasks, subjects had to ¯ y a pursuit task in which a target jet had to be followed. Rest periods before and after the experiment were used as a baseline for the physiological measures. Mental workload was measured with heart period, continuous blood pressure, respiration and eye blinks. Several respiratory parameters, heart rate variability, blood pressure variability and the gain between systolic blood pressure and heart period (modulus) were scored. All measures showed diOE erences between rest and ¯ ight, and between the pursuit and the tunnel task. Only heart period was sensitive to di culty levels in the tunnel task. Heart rate variability increased when respiratory activity around 0× 10 Hz increased, which occurred often. The modulus was hardly in¯ uenced by respiration and therefore appears to be a better measure than heart rate variability. Among the respiratory parameters, the duration of a respiratory cycle was the most sensitive to changes in workload. The time in between two successive eye blinks (blink interval) increased and the blink duration decreased as more visual information had to be processed. Increasing the di culty of the memory task led to a decrem ent in blink interval, probably caused by subvocal activity during rehearsal of target letters. The data show that physiological measures are sensitive to mental eOE ort, whereas rating scales are sensitive to both mental eOE ort and task di culty. 1. Introduction M ental workload is a comprehensive concept with many aspects. There is not a single measure that can capture all these aspects. Therefore, it is better to use a com bination of techniques than to use a single measure. The methods to measure workload can be divided into four groups (O' Donnell and Eggem eier 1986): perform ance on the main task, secondary task techniques, subjective ratings and physiological techniques. In the present experiment mental workload, as a function of task di culty and the addition of a secondary task, is evaluated by a subjective …


Based on the water supply-demand data from 2003 to 2011,we establish the GM(1,1) model to predict the water supply and water demand of Chinese provinces and municipalities in 2025 except Taiwan,Hong Kong and Macao.By minimizing the total cost,we adopt a linear programming model to realize the water transfer and water desalination to prevent water shortage in the areas mentioned above in 2025.The strategy will help to sustain water resources in China.


For eight years, employees and students of the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnology at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań have been providing support activities in guarded centres for foreigners in Poland. Their work involves organising play and art, craft and music activities for children and adult foreigners. This offer has benefited at least 500 foreigners. The second form of assistance is the organisation of workshops for police officers (expansion of their legal, socio-cultural and psychological knowledge, formation of tolerant attitudes, etc.).


In this paper, analytical Moment Method (MoM) is used as one method for analyzing the equivalence between a flat solid rectangular plate and an array of bond wires. In addition, fuzzy Electromagnetism (EM) method is firstly used to derive the formulas of the inductance and capacitance of bonding wire array. To verify the validity and accuracy of proposed formulas for the bonding wire array, several structures with different numbers of bonding wires have been analyzed and simulated. Very good agreements can be found between the simulated S-parameters from the structures and that of the corresponding equivalent circuits. The proposed formulas can be used effectively in the design of practical bonding wire array in internal matching of transistors and IC packaging etc.


A "holistic approach" and "synergism" working for the health of all species. Those are the buzzwords of the One Health movement, which aims to bring veterinary and human health closer together. Because people and animals form such a close-knit ecosystem—and most new or re-emerging diseases come from animals—the classic divide between veterinarians and doctors is hampering disease control, three scientists argued when they began promoting the concept 3 years ago. But the Dutch Q-fever outbreak provides a vivid example of how those two worlds often don9t get along, especially when the stakes are different for each.


Aiming at the problems such as large deformation resistance and difficulty in deforming during hot working of high-temperature a alloy Ti600,all specimens were handled hydrogen treatment respectively by five different hydrogen content(mass fraction) from 0.1%to 0.5%,and dehydrogenated by vacuum annealing.The microstructure evolution and tensile properties of Ti600 alloy at thermal temperatures were studied.The effects of thermo-hydrogenation treatment on the microstructure,grain size,as well as high temperature mechanical,heat processing plasticity and the variations regularity were investigated.The result shows that the microstructures of Ti600 alloy are refined to some degree.The thermal plasticity of Ti600 alloy is improved obviously with hydrogen increasing from 0.1%to 0.5%.


This paper analyzed the main problems limited the agricultural development in the northeast region in China.Some suggestions were put forward for sustainable and healthy development of regional agriculture.


The preparation of multi-walled carbon nanotubes(MWNTs) body-modified graphite and the poly-(Azure A) film were introduces.Effects of some experimental conditions on the current response of the biofuel cell anode were investigated.The result showed that,when pH=6.5,scanning potential range was of-1.0 ~+2.0 V,the graphit-MWNTs/PAA/GOD/PEI anode made by the poly-(Azure A) film obtained at 10 circles,had the best performance.The maximum current density delivered by the assembled bioelectrode reached 0.021 mA/cm2 at-0.375 V(vs.SCE) in PBS(pH=7.4) solutions with 0.1mmol/L glucose.The results demonstrated that the graphit-MWNTs/PAA/GOD/PEI bioanode was a promising architecture for further development of enzyme electronic devices.


Organizational identification is a psychological variable that explains individual's sense of belongingness towards his or her organization. The study's main purpose is to determine the relationship between organizational identification and turnover intention among operational level employees at Resort X. This study also explores the level of organizational identification as well as the level of turnover intention among operational level employees at Resort X. The methodology used in this study is quantitative data approach. 86 sets of questionnaires are distributed to the employees from operational level at Resort X by simple random sampling. The finding indicates that there is a negative weak relationship between organizational identification and employees' turnover intention. It is recommended that future researchers tofurther study both variables in a different industry.


This research aims to identify the main practices used for the creation and dissemination of tacit knowledge in product development process in automotive industry companies. This descriptive qualitative research was performed by case study. The survey was conducted in two large automobile companies in the ABC Region (Brazil – State of Sao Paulo). The staff managers of product development areas responded to semi-structured interviews script that was composed by a) Company and interviewed profile, b) Practices applied for creation and dissemination of tacit knowledge, and c) Identification of the contributions of creation and dissemination of tacit knowledge. The main practices observed in the two companies for the creation and dissemination of tacit knowledge were very similar, possibly due to the fact that both work in the automotive industry, although the operationalization of these practices assumed distinct features in each one of them. The creation and dissemination of tacit knowledge practices verified were the encouragement of regular courses and specialization, socialization of individuals through regular meetings, study groups, brainstorming, lessons learned, knowledge cafes and constant informal conversations among the employees.


Copyright: © 2013 Halder A. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Chromosomal abnormalities are a major cause of genetic disease. It accounts for a large proportion of reproductive wastage, congenital malformations, mental retardation and most importantly, in the pathogenesis of cancer. Chromosomal study, also conventionally known as cytogenetics is indicated to diagnose known chromosomal syndrome, multiple malformations, unexplained psychomotor retardation (with or without dysmorphism), abnormalities of sexual differentiation and development, infertility, monogenic disorder associated with dysmorphism, cancer, recurrent pregnancy loss, pregnancy at risk for aneuploidy (prenatal/preimplantation/preconception) and in coming days for neuropsychiatric disorders, neurodegenerative disorders, microdeletion/microduplication syndromes and so on. Chromosomal study is also indicated for comparative mammalian cytogenetics, chromosome evolution, localization of disease gene, detection of chromosome breakage and mutagenicity study.


Received for publication November 24, 1950. * Present address: Department of Microbiology, New York University, New York City. t Present address: Division of Bacteriology, Kitasato Institute, Tokyo, Japan. currence agglutinins for coliform bacilli in fecal extracts. It is with the incidence and possible significance of coproagglutinins directed against Escherichia coli that this report is primarily co cerned.


Transfer matrix method (TMM) was used to study the phenomena of 'slow'- and 'fast'-light in a single two-port ring-resonator (TPRR) circuit theoretically. Their classifications into 'slow'- and 'fast'-light with negative and positive group velocity (v_g), where 'slow' means |v_g| c, will be introduced. The role of such phenomena in controlling light-matter interaction and pulse delay/'advancement' will be discussed.

Direct experimental observations on pulse temporal behaviors in the regimes of 'slow'- and 'fast'-light with negative and positive v_g will be demonstrated, showing large and small pulse 'advancement' and delay, respectively. Pulse splitting phenomenon as a transition from a highly delayed to a highly 'advanced' pulse and vice versa, will also be experimentally demonstrated. Theoretical simulations on the pulse delay and 'advancement' based on the TMM and Fourier transform, which show a good qualitative agreement to the experimental results, will also be presented.

 The exploitation of 'slow'-light, either with positive or negative v_g for enhancing light-matter interaction will be discussed through evaluating their effects to the performance of integrated-optical refractometric sensor. It will be shown that when the light is 'slow', either with negative or positive v_g, there is enhancement of the sensor sensitivity. An integrated-optical sensor which exploits such properties and exhibits sensitivity of one order better than the present day state-of-the-art commercial Mach-Zehnder interferometer refractometric sensor, will be presented.


Evaluation of technology maturity is an important work in the process of technology transition. This paper briefly introduces the foreign evaluation methods of technology maturity, analyses intensively Technology Readiness Level (TRL) and its application in the defense acquisition. It will present an useful reference to establish domestic evaluation method of technology maturity.


Low consumption, with a low distortion amplifier is, in particular, a driver and a plurality of impedance network to provide a feedback path between the input of the driver stage at the output of the main output terminal, includes a driver amplifier stage and the main output. Impedance network also provides a coupling path between the load on the driver and the output of the main output. Impedance network may all be formed of a resistor, a capacitor, or a combination of networks. Is the additional feedback path is added between the driver stage in load can be to flatten the frequency response at low frequencies. And a main driver output stage can each be operated in Class AB mode, and B, and / or a Class G or H mode. Between the main driver and the output terminal may be an intermediate amplifier driver stage is added.


In recent years, the Hofstede model of the cultural framework has captured the attention of scholars interested in the topic (Sivakumart & Nakata, 2001). This model explains that different cultures hold different values related to their work (Hofstede,1991). The argument of this study and also in other previous studies is that these values are not excluded to individual relations towards work itself, but also towards relationships with co-workers and as well as toward the organization and so forth. This paper contributes to the literature of cultural influence on the workplace especially Hofstede"s theory by understanding the unique context of Saudi Arabia and its impact on Saudi female workplace. Provides a coherent picture of Saudi culture and avoids any bias since the researcher is a female who is born and raised and have worked in the Saudi Arabian workplace environment. Therefore, this paper envisions to explore the relationship between the religious and cultural environment of Saudi Arabia in the workplace of women. Yet, this paper would enrich the feminism theory from a new approach, an approach that deals with Islamic Saudi women in the workplace and whether veiling and segregation entail advantages or disadvantages to Saudi women.


Since traditional reserves estimation method cannot make full use of production exploration data and reproduce the distribution of spatial data,they are difficult to give an accurate guidance for subsequent production.This article assumes that Krige is used to calculate reserves firstly,then attempts to import Sequential Gaussian Simulation algorithm which is commonly used in reservoir modeling into the deposit reserves update.A large open-pit molybdenum mine was taken as a case to prove the algorithm,then a model which contains different sizes and classification of reserves was obtained.The result was analyzed from the view of frequency histogram of grade distribution and variation function.Finally the conclusion is drawn that Sequential Gaussian Simulation applied for reserves update can reproduce grade distribution of experimental data perfectly and it can be help for subsequent production.


We describe the Koszul dual of the operad Quad of quadri-algebras, show the koszularity of Quad and give the formal series of Quad and its dual, which proves a conjecture due to Aguiar and Loday. A notion of quadri-bialgebra is also introduced, with applications to the Hopf algebras FQSym and WQSym.


Purpose – The objective of this paper is to present an assessment of the factors that influence the process of developing and implementing the architectural program (design brief) for buildings projects.Design/methodology/approach – Published literature has been analyzed and interviews with a group of design professionals and owner's representatives were conducted for the purpose of identifying the factors that influence the process of developing and implementing the architectural program for building projects. This resulted in the identification of 28 factors, which were classified into several groups. A questionnaire was developed that included the identified factors to assess their level of importance. Responses to the survey were received from 50 Architectural/Engineering (A/E) design firms and three major owners of building projects. These 53 respondents were distributed throughout the Eastern Province, Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.Findings – The research has confirmed the importance of all the ...


(57) by improving the top and bottom of the structure of the summary drum, to improve the protection against the appendage of the drum. A blow molded plastic drum (24) has a new top structure (30) and the bottom structure (34), and impart strength to protect the drum (24) and its appendage . By integrally molded top structure (30) having a sufficient depth of the recess (46), the closure is protected for use drum insert and its. Further, the bottom structure (34) comprises a liquid reservoir (130) structural members and formed by Hasamikira parison in the blow molding step (168). Drum (24) has a top wall to limit the internal freed (44), a cylindrical side wall (26) and bottom wall (58). Protection recess (46) is suitably formed by the chime (40) and / or top further downward concave wall (44) (46), the first fitting (50), a second fitting (85) and closure ( 60) is located lower than the top edge of all including the top, the chime (40) of the closure (60).


T dissatisfaction with performance ap. he praisal systems has reached a critical stage. In one recent survey I conducted of 297 managers from Midwest companies, 32% rated their performance appraisals as &dquo;very ineffective,&dquo; while only 4% reported that performance appraisals were &dquo;effective to a large extent.&dquo; Another survey, of 181 Midwest manufacturing and service organizations, revealed that 11 % have stopped using annual appraisals, while another 25% plan to discontinue them within the next two years. Any analysis of the performance appraisal process uncovers a host of problems. Many systems, say the critics, encourage mediocrity by rewarding those who set easily attainable goals. Moreover, supervisors can make a wide range of errors when using rating scales to evaluate staff. Also, the common practice of assigning merit raises based on a forced distribution automati-


For many years, business has invested significant resources in information technology, hardware, software, and manpower. The Productivity Paradox is the seeming lack of productivity gains despite the increased investment in IT. For many years the existence of a Productivity Paradox has been the subject of research interest. Conflicting results have been obtained from a variety of data sets. Until this time however there has been no study that has investigated European companies' use of information technology and its impact on productivity.
The objective of this study was to investigate information technology productivity with a new data set from a European published source, and measuring productivity using both market and financial based measures.
Results of the study indicated that information technology did have a consistent positive impact on firm level productivity in Europe for the years 1996, 1997, and 1998. Both market and financial based productivity measures provided consistent positive significant returns with regard to IT productivity.
The major contribution of the study is that it provides an analysis of the impact of European information technology on firm and economic productivity.


The purposes of this qualitative descriptive study are (1) to describe the linguistic rules of the webtoon digital comic "Lucunya Hidup Ini", (2) to describe the implications of the webtoon digital comic "Lucunya Hidup Ini" as a medium for learning anecdotal texts at the high school level. The subject of this research is the digital comic Webtoon "Lucunnya Hidup Ini" episodes 20, 23,35, 42, 93, and 242.The object of this research is the linguistic elements of anecdotal texts in Webtoon digital comics and their implications as a medium for learning anecdotal texts. Methods of data collection in the form of note-taking methods and documentation methods. Data analysis techniques used are data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions.The results show that (1) the digital comic Webtoon "Lucunya Hidup Ini" covering 6 episodes has found six linguistic elements of anecdotal texts contained in the form of past event sentences, rhetorical sentences, conjunctions, verbs, commands, and exclamations. This story is worthy of being used as a medium for learning anecdotal texts because it covers half of all linguistic elements of anecdotal texts. (2) The implication of using the webtoon digital comic "Lucunya Hidup Ini" as a medium for learning anecdotal texts at the high school level is very relevant to learning anecdotal texts because they contain the same linguistic elements. In addition, the "Lucunya Hidup Ini" Webtoon has the implication of triggering student interest in learning.


With the development of the global network economy, competition in the global market has become increasingly fierce, the scale and number of commercial projects have continued to grow, and the requirements for human resource planning and management have become higher and higher. Traditional human resource management methods are often based on the personal subjective experience of managers, which is easy to make mistakes. Moreover, with the use of database technology and related computer technology in it, the amount of data in enterprises has increased sharply. Finding the information needed by the enterprise in the data information is related to the success or failure of the operation of the enterprise. At this time, the decision tree application based on data mining can analyze and process the data, and provide a basis for the management of human resources scheduling. The purpose of this article is to study the human resource intelligent scheduling algorithm based on the decision tree algorithm, analyze the decision tree algorithm in detail, find the core problem of the decision tree algorithm, integrate human market resources, and solve the key problems in modern human resource management. It provides a reference for the decision tree algorithm in human resource intelligent scheduling. Experiments show that the human resource scheduling based on the decision tree algorithm significantly shortens the cycle project, up to 27.5%. It greatly saves the time spent on human resource scheduling, which meets the expectations of the experiment.


More than thirty years after the term was coined by David Rosewarne (1984), linguists have not come anywhere near to agreeing on a linguistically sound definition of the concept of 'Estuary English' (EE). Nevertheless, the term has come to stay. According to John Wells (2013), "we can now expect to be readily understood if we describe someone's speech as 'estuarial'". In this paper, I will argue that 'Estuary English' is the name for a heuristic conceived of and popularized by linguistic laypeople and therefore defying expert linguistic analysis in terms of Aristotelian categories, even sociolinguistically "enlightened" ones. Following Taylor (2003) and Kristiansen (2008), I will suggest describing the resulting folk-linguistic category in terms of the graded structure/prototype approach. In support of the prototype hypothesis, I will present data from an on-going project in perceptual dialectology. It includes judgements of gradience of membership of 171 speakers from the South East of England, the Midlands and Scotland. Asked to rate the recordings of three young middle-class speakers from three Southeastern towns, these speaker-listeners are remarkably consistent in their responses and sometimes remarkably at odds with the analysis of expert linguists.


This paper proposes the notion of E-stability to conciliate Pareto efficiency and fairness. We propose the use of a centralized procedure, the Exchanging Places Mechanism. It endows students a position according with the Gale and Shapley students optimal stable matching as tentative allocation and allows the student to trade their positions. We show that the final allocation is E-stable, i.e. efficient, fair and immune to any justifiable objection that students can formulate.


We have measured for the first time the Hall conductivity on the metallic side of the metal-insulator transition in a percolating system as a function of the metal volume fraction $v$. The Hall coefficient ${R}_{H}$ in granular Sn: Ar mixtures diverges as ${R}_{H}\ensuremath{\propto}{(v\ensuremath{-}{v}_{c})}^{\ensuremath{-}g}$ with the critical volume fraction ${v}_{c}=0.26\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.01$ and the critical exponent $g=0.49\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.07$. The experimental value of $g$ is compared with different existing theoretical estimates and calculations of $g$, respectively.


This paper proposes the conception of metric space, demonstrates the metric space of earth spatial information and discusses some important foundamental technical issues under certain metric space of earth spatial information. The significance of sphere model and the limitation of O-QTM partition is discussed, and the significance of ellipsoid model in global-GIS is pointed out.


This chapter presents some of the possibilities and approaches that are used in the application of AI (artificial intelligence) and AR (augmented reality) in the new learning environments. AI will add another dimension to distance learning or eLearning that in some cases already includes AR (augmented reality) virtual learning environments. Because of this advent in available technology and the impact it will have on learning, assessment of newly structured parameters and their impact on student outcomes is crucial when measuring student learning. For some of us there might be a concern about the domination of AI as seen in the movie The Terminator, but we can take ease in the notion that it is not only AI versus humans. A new version of human augmented intelligence (HI) is being developed as we speak.


Contact resistance ( R C ) is universally present in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and the performance of OFETs can be easily affected by R C , which will result in poor performances such as low mobility ( μ ), large threshold voltage ( V T ), and non-ideal transfer/output characteristics. In this article, we provide a comprehensive review on the effects of R C in OFETs. We start with a brief introduction of the origin of R C and its effects on OFETs, followed by the commonly used methods for extraction of R C . Then, methods for reducing R C are thoroughly discussed. Especially, fabricating monolayer molecular crystal (MMC) OFETs is highlighted as one of the key solutions to reduce R C effectively. The final section describes the challenges in MMCs preparation and concludes with an outlook for further reducing R C to enhance the performances of OFETs.


Background: Non-adherence to anti-hypertensive medications poses a significant problem in the treatment of patients with presumed resistant hypertension (RH). Our recent study has shown that therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is a useful tool not only for detecting medication non-adherence but also exploring the barrier to antihypertensive drug therapy, resulting effective BP control. However, the cost effectiveness of TDM in the management of resistant hypertension has not been investigated.

Method: A Markov model was used to evaluate life-years, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), costs, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios in RH patients receiving either TDM optimized therapy or standard best medical therapy (BMT). The model ran from the age of 30 to 100 years or death, using a cycle length of 1 year. Efficacy of TDM was modeled by reducing risk of hypertension-related morbidity and mortality.

Results: In the age group of 60-year olds, TDM gained 1.07 QALYs in men and 0.97 QALYs in women at additional costs of є3,854 and є3,922, respectively. Given a willingness-to-pay threshold of є35,000 per QALY gained, the probability of TDM being cost-effective compared to BMT was ≥95% in all age groups from 30 to 90 years. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were influenced mostly by the annual frequency of TDM testing, the rate of non-responders to TDM, and the magnitude of effect of TDM on systolic blood pressure (Figure).

Conclusion: Therapeutic drug monitoring presents a potential cost-effective health care intervention in patients diagnosed with RH. Importantly, this finding is valid for a wide range of patients, independent of gender and age.

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This article describes the Huntsville-Madison County International Airport and Intermodal Center, which occupies over 3,000 acres. Its two parallel 8,000-foot-long runways, separated by nearly a mile, enable two 747s to land simultaneously under instrument conditions. There is even room for the Army's C5A cargo plane, the biggest plane in the world, to land. An air cargo apron has room for five wide-bodied jets to park side by side and unload simultaneously. One hundred yards from the air cargo apron is the International Intermodal Center. Running beneath an enormous rail-mounted gantry crane are 4,800 feet of railroad track in four parallel 1,200-foot-long sections that connect to the Norfolk Southern rail system two and a half miles away. A $250,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission allowed the rail connection to be made. In the terminal building are U.S. Customs agents, private customs house brokers and a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector. And still within the airport's 3,000 acres is an industrial park and free trade zone that is now home to many corporate giants. It is a grouping of transportation and industry unique in the United States. The intermodal terminal handles two kinds of traffic: container on flat car and trailer on flat car. When cargo arrives by truck at the terminal's gate it encounters the first of a series of innovations. In a system like a drive-through bank teller, the trucker talks with a traffic manager by closed circuit television, his paper work is whooshed to the office by pneumatic tube and seven TV cameras inspect the container or trailer for structural problems. Once inside the terminal the trucker parks his rig in a 12-foot-wide parking space perpendicular to the railroad tracks. The huge gantry crane can pick up the trailers and containers and rotate them 90 degrees. The crane can perform up to 17 lifts an hour. Economically, the Huntsville-Madison County International Airport and Intermodal Center has without doubt been a huge success.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: As is common with many technologic advances, adoption of minimally invasive kidney cancer surgery (MIS) has somewhat outpaced rigorous research comparing MIS to traditional techniques. After observing multiple, atypical recurrences among those with low stage disease; we sought to compare cancer-specific outcomes among patients with T1 kidney cancer undergoing open versus MIS excision. METHODS: Using SEER – Medicare data, we identified patients over 65 with unilateral, clinical stage T1N0M0, non-urothelial kidney cancer who underwent surgical excision (i.e., radical or partial nephrectomy) as initial treatment between 2004 and 2013. After stratifying the cohort based on whether surgery was open or MIS, we evaluated for an association between approach and four outcomes: overall and cancer-specific survival, rates of second kidney cancer surgery, and rates of post-operative systemic cancer therapy. Regression was used to account for differences across study groups–included covariates: histologic sub-type, grade, radical versus partial nephrectomy, receipt of second treatment, year, Charlson co-morbidity, and age at diagnosis. RESULTS: 5,150 patients met criteria for cohort inclusion. 3,062 (59.5%) underwent MIS. Cox-regression demonstrated no differences in overall or cancer-specific survival associated with surgical approach (HR=1.02, 95% CI 0.91-1.14 and HR=1.00 95% CI 0.87-1.15, respectively; open surgery = reference group). Kaplan-Meier analyses showed no differences in rate of second surgery, however recipients of MIS were more likely to receive systemic cancer therapy (Figure). Importantly, the association between MIS and increased receipt of systemic therapy persisted after adjusting for covariates (HR=1.32; 95% CI 1.09-1.59; p=0.005). CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with T1 kidney cancer, surgical approach (open vs. MIS) was not associated with differences in overall survival, cancer-specific survival, or receipt of second cancer surgery, however, those receiving MIS were more likely to receive systemic cancer therapy post-operatively. As systemic therapy is typically reserved for patients with disease recurrence, this may indicate an important difference in cancer-specific outcomes attributable to surgical approach. Figure. No caption available. Source of Funding: none


Parameters of physical development and body composition in children 9-15 years according to data anthropometry and bioimpedance analysis was stuided. It was shown that the length and lean body mass are more intensive in boy compared to girl in puberty. Body fat varies in different directions during growth and development: the relative fat mass decreases in boys and increases in girls. There are strong correlations between parameters of physical development, the stage of puberty and DHEA levels.


This paper deals with a modification of the standard assignment problem, where subsets of resources express preferences in being, or not being, assigned together to the same activity. The problem arises in several real settings, among which the job assignment of the crew personnel of an airline company. We provide an integer programming formulation for both the Split Preference Problem, where couples of assignees do not want to work together, and for the Join Preference Problem, where, oppositely, couples of assignees want to work together. The mathematical nature of the two problems is indeed different, as for the first one it is possible to determine a minimum cost flow formulation on a suitable graph, and thus a polynomial time algorithm, while for the second one we face a NP-hard problem and device some heuristic solution approaches. Experimental tests conducted on instances of variable size confirm the effectiveness of the models and of the algorithms proposed. � 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


Natural convection heat transfer enhanced by electrohydrodynamics (EHD) is experimentally investigated in this work. Four kinds of electrode arrangements on a plate fin heat sink are made and tested under a controlled environment. Previous and present test results show that the rate of heat transfer with EHD is greater than that under natural convection due to the corona wind generated by the electron avalanche mechanism. To identify the effect of EHD, the enhancement ratio, defined as the heat transfer coefficient with EHD (hEHD) relative to that without EHD (hNC), is proposed to examine the performance. Generally, the enhancement ratio increases with the supply voltage regardless of the electrode arrangement or with the electrode polarity. This ratio reaches a maximum of around 4.4 within the operating voltage of 0 ~ 18 kV. For a fixed voltage, the negative polarity has a better performance compared with the positive one no matter the electrode arrangement and the electrode distance. In addition, the threshold voltage for the negative polarity is also lower than that for the positive one. Both phenomena can be attributed to the greater emission current emitted from the electrode surface for the negative polarity. For a fixed electrode distance, there is an optimal electrode density under which the area impinged by the corona wind is insufficient, and beyond which the flow interference by adjacent electrodes is encountered.


A fractal analysis of slip lines on the surface of a plastically deformed GaAs/GaAlAs heterostructure has been performed using atomic force microscopy. The high resolution of atomic force microscopy allowed us to analyze a very large interval of magnifications ranging from 1100 to 1 110 000. The fractal behavior of the slip line pattern was only observed in a decade of magnification. At the highest magnifications (40 000–1 110 000), the less fractal tendency of the slip line pattern confirms that the slipping of dislocations is an efficient method to cut a quantum well into quantum wires with a ''natural'' reasonable degree of homogeneity.


The mineralogical composition study on amphibole in the Yenshanian granite in the south middle part of the Da Hinggan Mountains revealed that the amphibole belongs to calcic amphibole.The major composition of amphibole from early stage of early Yanshanian period and from early stage of late Yanshanian period show that their host rocks were mainly crust mantle type and crust type respectively.Major compositions of amphibole in granites were different and related to different mineralization.Amphibole in Cu mineralization related granite in early stage of early Yenshanian Period is characterized by high content of MgO, SiO 2, and its M * ranges from 0.24 to 0.54(0.37 on average). And the amphibole in Sn polymetal mineralization related granite in the early stage of late Yenshanian Period is rich in ΣFeO and poor in MgO and SiO 2,and its M * ranges from 0.10 to 0.27(0.19 on average). The major compositions of amphibole in the granites, trace element composition and isotopic composition of granites were effective index to distinguish different metallogenic granitic bodies.


Process screw compressor has been applied comprehensively in petrochemical indus- try because of its unique performance.The arti- cle makes suggestions on reference standard, process request,structure,material,performance test and configuration of accessorial system for discussion in the technical negotiation between customers of design institute and manufacturer.


Leaf epidermis of 8 species of plant,which belong to Brassicaceae have been examined under light microscope(LM).The main conclusions are as follows:the shapes of leaf epidermal cells in 3 species of Isatis and 5 single genera of Eulidieae were usually polygonal or irregular.There were no significant differences in each other.The type of stomatal apparatuses of the upper epidermis and the lower epidermis had better consistency,which was mainly anisocytic,rarely anomocytic.The stomatal size,the stomatal index and the stomatal density showed some differences,but no significant regularity.The study has verified that Isatis was closely related to Euclidieae.


society, Öhm's study flows smoothly into a Chapter  review of the Wunlit peace process and subsequent turn-of-the-century efforts to pressure warring elites to stop fighting. These conferences helped abate internecine southern conflict, precipitating the landmark  agreement ending the southern war with Khartoum. While the book as a whole is well-organised, one cannot help but note the quality of these chapters in relation to the more general review of South Sudanese history that bookends them. The development of Migdal's 'state in society' concept is well-reviewed, but the history of early southern nationalism in Chapter  and of post-independent Sudan in Chapters – serve effectively as frames for the more detailed research described between them. JUSTIN D. LEACH Troy University


AMERICAN industry seems reconciled to an ever-increasing level of benefits as a percentage of total compensation. General Electric in 1956 paid $47 million in benefits ; last year, the company paid $2:16 million, a 36o percent increase. This cost jump was all out of proportion to the company's io percent increase in number of employees and to the consumer price index's climb of 62.5 percent. These figures present the benefits story in a nutshell, not only for GE, but for nearly every employer in the


For three summers, 2015, 2016 and 2017, undergraduate students from around the United States came to North Dakota to participate in a NSF sponsored Research Experience for Undergraduates program focused on CubeSat software. This program was the first NSF-sponsored Research Experience for Undergraduates program focused on CubeSat software. This paper presents the final results from all three years of that program. INTRODUCTION Small satellite programs provide students with numerous benefits including the opportunity to have hands-on access to spacecraft hardware. Building on the benefits enjoyed by numerous programs nationwide, a program was created to provide software-related research experiences to undergraduate students. Software is an area of growing importance for spacecraft as computational capabilities improve, enabling numerous novel mission types that were previously impractical or impossible. Softwaredriven missions [1], [2] are currently possible and the use of federated systems [3]–[5] is poised to provide significant benefits now and in the future. Because of these and other similar developments (including similar mission concepts in the UAV space), having a workforce skilled in the development of aerospace software is critical. Between 2015 and 2017, undergraduate students came to North Dakota to participate in a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program focused on CubeSat software. This paper presents the results from all three years of that program. First, it provide a brief background on small satellites and previous work related to their educational and other uses. Next, the characteristics of the participants in the three years of the REU are presented and discussed. Then, focus turns to the benefits that the participants enjoyed from participation. Specifically, their preand postparticipation levels of several characteristics are presented and compared, for each program year. Following this, the participants' beliefs about the attribution of the gains that have been identified are examined. Participants were asked to indicate their level of agreement with the attribution of enhancements in each area to program participation and these results are presented. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of what has been discussed and related future work. BACKGROUND Small spacecraft are commonly used for educational purpose [6], [7] and they are increasingly gaining use for commercial [8], governmental [9] and military uses [10]–[12], as well. Previous work has discussed the benefits of small satellites, in general [13] as well as the impact undergraduate student research experiences related to this topic [14]. An extended discussion of the benefits of projectbased learning and small spacecraft can be found in [6], [7]. Details regarding student expectations and their attainment are discussed in [15], [16]. The efficacy of undergraduate student small spacecraft research is considered in [17] and specific program impact in computing is discussed in [18]. More details about launching an assessing small spacecraft programs can be found in [19]. ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS The REU participants, over the course, of the three years came from a wide variety of locations and backgrounds. Student participants included a mix of individuals from research universities as well as non-research four year colleges and universities and community colleges. The participants all had completed at least a semester of college before attending the program. Several were entering their fifth year as a 'supersenior'. Figure 1 depicts the breakdown of the participants' class in school by REU year. Report on the First NSF CubeSat Software Research Experience for Undergraduates Straub 2 32 Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites 2015