The ubiquitous healthcare environment is one of the systems that benefit from wireless sensor network. But one of the challenges with wireless sensor network is its high loss rates when transmitting data. Data from the biosensors may not reach the base stations which can result in missing values. This paper proposes the Health Monitor Agent (HMA) to gather data from the base stations, predict missing values, classify symptom patterns into medical conditions, and take appropriate action in case of emergency. This agent is applied in the Ubiquitous Healthcare Environment and uses data from the biosensors and from the patient's medical history as symptom patterns to recognize medical conditions. In the event of missing data, the HMA uses a predictive algorithm to fill missing values in the symptom patterns before classification. Simulation results show that the predictive algorithm using the HMA makes classification of the symptom patterns more accurate than other methods.


Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a lethal X‐linked degenerative disease that is characterized by progressive skeletal muscle wasting and weakness. Few non‐invasive and widely available therapies currently exist to combat the skeletal muscle abnormalities in patients with DMD. Repeated exposure to heat therapy (HT) has been shown to attenuate skeletal muscle atrophy during immobilization and unloading, rescue denervation‐induced atrophy, and increase relative muscle mass and strength in models of ischemia‐induced muscle damage. The goal of the present study was to test the hypothesis that repeated exposure to HT would enhance skeletal muscle mass and contractile function in D2‐mdx mice, a model that recapitulates several of the human characteristics of DMD.


Ovarian failure is normal during menopause but pathologic before 40 years of age. The authors report a case of ovarian failure in a 16 year old girl, most likely due to Savage Syndrome, who started hormonal replacement for normal development of sexual characteres and for osteoporosis prevention. INTRODUCTION Ovarian failure is a normal occurrence during menopause, and this event is determined by genetic inheritance. Ovarian failure occurs before 40 years of age in 1% to 5% of women and is considered pathologic – premature ovarian failure. If ovarian failure occurs before puberty, the patient`s breasts will not develop and gonadal agenesis results. Despite the array of causes of ovarian failure, in most cases the etiology cannot be determined. The pathogenesis of spontaneous ovarian failure in most cases is unknown. Two mechanisms are presumed to play a role—follicle depletion and follicle dysfunction. If follicle deplection is suspected, the causes can be low inicial follicle number (pure gonal dysgenesis, thymic aplasia/hipoplasia or idiophatic) or accelerated follicle atresia (Turner Syndrome, autoimmunity, viral infections and others). In the case of follicle disfunction, we have to consider steroidogenic enzyme defects, autoimmunity, signal defects, specific gene defects and idiophatic (resistant ovary syndrome or Savage Syndrome). We present a case of premature ovarian failure in a 16 yearold girl and discuss the possible etiology, treatment and follow-up in these cases. CASE REPORT A 16 years old patient was sent by her doctor to our appointment because of primary amenorrhea. Her pubarche was at 14 years of age but she had no axillary hair, and the breast development was Tanner stage 2. She had no signs of hirsutism or galactorrhea. She had not started sexual intercourse. There was no history of infections, autoimmune disorders, radiation or chemotherapy. The gynecological examination revealed genital atrophy, with a apparentely normal vagina. Her pelvic ultrasound revealed a small tubular uterus and the ovaries had a volume of 2.35 cc and 2.44 cc. The thyroid function was normal, as well as the prolact, cortisol and SO4-DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate). She had high levels of FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) and LH (luteinizing hormone) and low estrogen and progestin levels. The karyotype was determined – 46,XX Figure 1 Picture 1 – The girl was Tanner Stage 2 Premature Ovarian Failure in a 16 year old girl 2 of 3 Figure 2 Picture 2 – Karyotype was 46 XX – normal DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION This 16 year-old girl had a normal karyotype, a partial development of secondary sexual characteristics and hypergonadotropic hypogonadism. This case is compatible with premature ovarian failure, probably a gonadotropin resistance, also referred to as Savage Syndrome, likely due to FSH receptor dysfunction. Biopsy is not advisable because diagnosing resistant ovarian failure will not affect management. We initiated in this case, as indicated in individuals with primary amenorrhea associated with all forms of gonadal failure and hypergonadotropic hypogonadism, cyclic estrogen and progestin therapy to initiate, mature and maintain secondary sexual characteristics, with good results. Prevention of osteoporosis is an additional benefit of estrogen therapy. References 1. Corrine K. Welt : Primary Ovarian Insufficiency: A More Accurate Term for Premature Ovarian Failure. eMedicine Obstetrics/ Gynecology 2008 June 2. Leite-Silva P, Bedone A, Pinto-Neto AM, Costa JV, Costa-Paiva L: Factors associated with bone density in young women with karyotypically normal spontaneous premature ovarian failure. Arch Gynecol Obstet. 2008 Dec 23. 3. Panay N, Kalu E.: Management of Premature Ovarian Failure, Best Pract Res Clin Obstet Gynaecol. 2008 Dec 15. 4. Vaishali Popat, Lawrence M Nelson : Spontaneous Primary Ovarian Insufficiency and Premature Ovarian Failure. eMedicine Obstetrics/ Gynecology 2007 June. Premature Ovarian Failure in a 16 year old girl 3 of 3 Author Information Marta Sobral Gynecology Resident Gynecology Department Hospital de Faro Faro, Portugal João Dias Specialist in Gynecology, Graduated Hospitalar Assistant Oncological Gynecology Department Hospital de Faro Faro, Portugal Olga Viseu Gynecology and Obstetrics Department Director Gynecology Department Hospital de Faro Faro, Portugal


Japan's obsession with slender women may harm unborn children and create long-term health problems for the Japanese population. Already, one in five Japanese women is starting pregnancy underweight, and many scientists have criticized the country's official guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy as too strict. Now, a new study shows that many pregnant women strive to keep their weight gain below even those targets. This combination of factors has produced an unusually high percentage of low weight births, which is likely the reason that the height of the average adult Japanese has declined every year for those born after 1980. The trend could create long-term health problems, scientists warn, and effect longevity.


Quantifiers have unique rhetoric functions and meanings in language use. This paper selects a lot of quantifiers from Chairman Mao Tze-tung's poems to illustrate their rhetoric functions, including their special role in forming hyperbole, metonymy, repetition, antithesis, personification, parallel structures, symbols, simile, metaphor and other figures of speech. It concludes that through Mao's master hand, the quantifiers in his poems have become an indispensable part of his artistic conception, thus playing a very important in achieving the ideal rhetoric effect.


[Objective] The aim was study the high-efficiency cultivation and matching management technologies of rabbiteye blueberry.[Method]Cultivation and matching management technologies of rabbiteye blueberry like planting spacing,tree management,garden plot management,etc.were studied.[Result]The reasonable planting spacing for cultivating rabbiteye blueberry was 1.5 m×2.0 m; As for tree management,training and pruning and fruit thinning could effectively improve single-fruit weight and fruit quality,while flower thinning had adverse effect on yield; As for garden plot management,it was better to use fermentive farmyard manure; As for production,suitable matching management technologies should be chosen according to the physiological characteristics of rabbiteye blueberry.[Conclusion] The research has provided technical reference for building the industrialization base of rabbiteye blueberry in southern mountain area of China.


GRETL, an acronym for GNU Regression, Econometrics and Time-series Library,' is a crossplatform software package for econometric analysis, written in the C programming language. GRETL is the first complete econometric software package to be released under the GNU software license. The software consists of a shared library, a command-line client program, and a graphical client program. It comes with many sample data files from Greene (2000) and Ramanathan, (2002), which are immediately accessible from the menu. It supports several least-squares based statistical estimators (including two-stage least squares and panel data methods), time series models (including the Cochrane-Orcutt procedure and VARs), and some maximum likelihood methods (logit and probit). It also has built-in commands for several econometric tests (including the Chow, Hausman, and Dickey-Fuller tests). It calls gnuplot to generate graphs and is capable of generating output in I4TEX format. GRETL has been written by Allin Cottrell based on ESL (Econometrics Software Library) code written by Ramu Ramanathan of the University of California, San Diego. It can be obtained from the world wide web at http: //gretl . sourcef orge.net/, where the source package and binary distributions running on GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows in the form of a selfextracting executable can be downloaded.2 The program is quite easy to install and use. It seems tailored for a wide range of potential users, and is suitable to be used for academic as well as research purposes. Particularly noteworthy is the


Multicarrier CDMA is being proposed as a predominant candidate for future generation wireless mobile communication. One of the major drawbacks of a CDMA system coupled with multicarrier modulation is high value of PAPR due to multicarrier transmission. This PAPR can be effectively controlled through proper selection of a spreading code. The objective of this paper is to perform an exhaustive evaluation and comparison of PAPR for various types of orthogonal spreading codes i.e. Walsh Hadamard codes, Golay Complementary codes, Orthogonal Gold codes and non-orthogonal Gold codes.


Full Mission Marine Simulator (FMMS) is a fully immersive Visual Reality (VR) System for marine education and training and is valuable and effective for fostering the qualified and competent seafarer. However, many problems, such as limited accessibility, high expenditure, and difficult maintenance etc, limit their pervasive use. Then we developed a partially immersive Desktop Marine Teaching System (DMTS) based FMMS which is low cost and easy to maintenance. Furthermore, one Web-based Marine Training Environment (WMTE) is proposed, which fully combining web technology, high fidelity simulation, and e-learning tools to create a more cost-effective and flexible training environment. In this paper, FMMS, DMTS and WMTE are combined together and supplemented each other to a multi-level VR system in the whole marine training process. Experimental results demonstrated that the multi-level VR system can provide a consistent and more effective medium for improving marine education and training.


Concrete block pavement is considered an ideal substrate for the application of photocatalyst materials. In the paving area, titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been the most widely used semiconductor because of its properties. However, zinc oxide (ZnO) has been recently used as an alternative material to TiO2 in heterogeneous photocatalysis, being applied mainly for the treatment of liquid effluents. In this perspective, the aim of this study was to evaluate the capacity of concrete blocks nanomodified with ZnO in the degradation of nitrogen oxides (NOx) as well as the impact of the nanomaterial on the mechanical properties and microstructural characteristics of concretes. For this purpose, concretes were produced with ZnO incorporation of 3 %, 6 %, and 9 %, being submitted to photocatalytic tests, simple compressive strength, flexural strength, and dynamic Young's modulus, as well as mercury intrusion porosimetry tests and image evaluations using scanning electron microscopy. Together, evaluation of the influence of nano-ZnO on cement paste hydration reactions was carried out. It could be concluded that the addition of ZnO to concrete provides photooxidative capacity to the material; however, it impairs the mechanical performance and the development of the cementitious matrix microstructure.


Sampling device amplified electrically non-invasive for the removal of glucose from a mammal through intact skin or a mucosal membrane without mechanical penetration, which device comprises the following components: a) a positive electrode (26A), b ) a negative electrode (26B), and c) an electrically insulating material between sub a) and b), so that the positive electrode, negative electrode and insulating material are physically arranged so that they present a single common surface (85) device to contact the same side of the skin or mucous membrane of the mammal and the device further comprising an analyzing component for glucose.


We propose a new Cahn–Hilliard phase field model coupled to incompressible viscoelasticity at large strains, obtained from a diffuse interface mixture model and formulated in the Eulerian configuration. A new kind of diffusive regularization, of Allen–Cahn type, is introduced in the transport equation for the deformation gradient, together with a regularizing interface term depending on the gradient of the deformation gradient in the free energy density of the system. The designed regularization preserves the dissipative structure of the equations. We obtain the global existence of a weak solution in three space dimensions and for generic nonlinear elastic energy densities with polynomial growth, comprising the relevant cases of polyconvex Mooney–Rivlin and Ogden elastic energies. Also, our analysis considers elastic free energy densities which depend on the phase field variable and which can possibly degenerate for some values of the phase field variable. We also propose two kinds of unconditionally energy stable finite element approximations of the model, based on convex splitting ideas and on the use of a scalar auxiliary variable respectively, proving the existence and stability of discrete solutions. We finally report numerical results for different test cases with shape memory alloy type free energy, showing the interplay between phase separation and finite elasticity in determining the topology of stationary states with pure phases characterized by different elastic properties.


In the material studied there were 50 women who at the time of the follow-up examination were not entirely satisfied with the sterilization (see Chap. 7). It has been considered desirable to give a more exhaustive account of the anamneses and subsequent course for each of these women. In this way an idea can be obtained of the degree of severity of the adverse mental effects and their relation to the woman's personality and social situation. Women without children, women under the age of 26 years and women sterilized on eugenic grounds seem to run a particularly great risk of being dissatisfied with a sterilization (see Chap. 8) . A full case history has been given for all those women who fall into these three groups, as it has been considered of great interest also to give an account of those women in these groups who were satisfied with the sterilization in spite of the unfavourable initial circumstances in question.


In this article the author for the first time in national historiography carries out the analysis of the journalistic creativity of the outstanding orientalist, founder of Russian sinology, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences N. Ya. Bichurin. In connection with the declared "Year of Literature in Russia" the problems examined in the article are particularly relevant, since Bichurin was very close to the circle of the prominent Russian writers and poets of the XIX century and left rich scientific-journalistic and artistic-creative heritage. The paper determines the socio-cultural role of N. Ya. Bichurin's publicism.


Every enterprise needs to monitor its computing system for possible unauthorized intrusion and other attacks and these activities should be part of its daily routine to safeguard enterprise information system. The ISO 17799 best practices for information security management specifically addresses these issues and provides detailed guidelines on how a secure management framework should be implemented. To capture the security requirements of an organization properly, a customized information security specification language is needed. This paper presents an XML based structured language ESRML (enterprise security requirement markup language) for specifying enterprise information security requirement conforming the ISO 17799 standard.


Determining the formation stage of South Fujian Culture(SFC) is a very important issue,as SFC boasts the most influential regional culture in Fujian with its most extensive coverage,involving the largest population group in Fujian Province.SFC has a longer history than East Fujian culture,it originated in the Tang Dynasty with Chen Zheng and Chen Guang who led immigrants to Fujian from central China,as the founding fathers.Researches in this area in the past decades failed to achieve convincing results due to the influence of the thoughts "Doubting Ancient History",underestimating the contributions made at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty to the development of Quanzhou and Chaozhou Region and their impact on the development of SFC,thus unable to yield correct results about the formation stage of SFC.


Window air leakage determinations as a function of test pressure are presented. It is an aluminum double sliding window used in social interest residential buildings. The same evaluation tests were performed after modifications in felt design to improve window air tightness and addition of another felt strip in sash crossing. Large differences in window air leakage and consequently heat loss were obtained with these changes. Energy savings obtained through this concept are very important.


There are large data sets maintained over geographically distributed sites in WAN.It is necessary to analyze and manage the data by using high-powered distributed and parallel processing system.The grid can meet the need.Knowledge grid uses basic grid ser-vices such as communication,authentication,information and resource management service to build specific distributed and parallel knowledge discovery tools and services.The characteristic of the knowledge grid is summarized,the architecture of the knowledge and service sets supporting knowledge mining application are discussed.Based on meta-learning model of the distributed data mining,the process of realizing distributed data mining using knowledge mining services provided by knowledge grid is offered.


Simple Summary Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive and intractable malignancy. Although a high-level expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a distinct feature of TNBC, targeting EGFR has not been successful yet. Here, we described a combination of the EGFR inhibitor gefitinib and IκB kinase (IKK) inhibitor IKK16 (Gefitinib+IKK16) as a potential therapeutic approach to treat TNBC. The combination of these drugs resulted in reduced cell viability and survival in TNBC cells in vitro. Mechanistically, several components of PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway were further downregulated by drug combination compared with single-agent treatments. Gene expression analysis revealed that several NF-κB/RELA targets were suppressed, and a couple of tumor suppressor genes were induced by the drug combination. Taken together, targeting IKK may potentiate EGFR inhibition in TNBC. Abstract Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) remains as an intractable malignancy with limited therapeutic targets. High expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has been associated with a poor prognosis of TNBC; however, EGFR targeting has failed with unfavorable clinical outcomes. Here, we performed a combinatorial screening of fifty-five protein kinase inhibitors with the EGFR inhibitor gefitinib in the TNBC cell line MDA-MB-231 and identified the IκB kinase (IKK) inhibitor IKK16 as a sensitizer of gefitinib. Cell viability and clonogenic survival assays were performed to evaluate the antiproliferative effects of the gefitinib and IKK16 (Gefitinib + IKK16) combination in TNBC cell lines. Western blot analyses were also performed to reveal the potential mode of action of this combination. In addition, next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis was performed in Gefitinib+IKK16-treated cells. The Gefitinib+IKK16 treatment synergistically reduced cell viability and colony formation of TNBC cell lines such as HS578T, MDA-MB-231, and MDA-MB-468. This combination downregulated p-STAT3, p-AKT, p-mTOR, p-GSK3β, and p-RPS6. In addition, p-NF-κB and the total NF-κB were also regulated by this combination. Furthermore, NGS analysis revealed that NF-κB/RELA targets including CCL2, CXCL8, EDN1, IL-1β, IL-6, and SERPINE1 were further reduced and several potential tumor suppressors, such as FABP3, FADS2, FDFT1, SEMA6A, and PCK2, were synergistically induced by the Gefitinib-+IKK16 treatment. Taken together, we identified the IKK/NF-κB pathway as a potential target in combination of EGFR inhibition for treating TNBC.


Amount of energy-related carbon emissions from different types of primary energy was estimated,including coal,oil and natural gas in Baoding,Hebei Province from 2001 to 2010 based on IPCC guideline.Results showed that the amount of energy-related carbon emissions had increased from 6.94 million tons in 2001 to 28.44 million tons in 2010,increased by 4.09 times,in which more than 90% came from the burning of coal energy,and industrial consumption accounted for about 85% of total coal energy consumption.A gray relational analysis model was established on the driving factors of carbon emissions such as economic scale,population scale,fixed assets investment scale,industrial production,industrial structure,urbanization rate,fixed assets investment structure,heavy industrialization rate and energy intensity.The empirical analysis result showed that the scaling factors are the strongest driving factors of carbon emissions.The most obvious change of the structure factors is that heavy industrialization has the largest impact on carbon emissions.The influence of energy intensity on carbon emissions has the obvious gradual characteristics.


The perivascular epithelioid cell tumors (PEComas) mimic rare epithelial mesenchymal tumors with epithelioid features and perivas cular clear cells that coexpress the muscle and melanocytic markers. The PEComas include lymphangioleiomyomatosis, clear cell sugar tumor, angiomyolipoma, and myomelanocytic tumors. We report a case involving 37yearold woman with a PEComa in the left parametrium. The patient was referred to our hospital with an adnexal tumor detected during medical examination. Therefore, she under went laparoscopic mass excision surgery. Immunohistochemical staining of the tumor cells indicated positivity for Melan A, HMB45, and desmin. Finally, the tumor was diagnosed as a PEComa. The patient is undergoing regular followup, and no recurrence has been noted at 2 years after the surgery.


The invention provides a machine tool having a function of setting the measurement reference point of a workpiece. A spherical measuring tip of a probe of an on-board measuring device is driven to move on the processing surface of the workpiece in one direction. After the spherical measuring tip leaves one end surface of the workpiece, coordinate values of the moment when the axial moving speed of the probe reaches the predetermined speed which is set in advance are detected. Besides, the action of the spherical measuring tip on the processing surface of the workpiece is executed in an opposite direction. Then, the coordinate of a middle point between one end surface and the other end surface of the workpiece is solved according to the two detected coordinate values, and the coordinate isset as the measurement reference position of the workpiece.


An approximate unrestricted Hartree-Fock method is used to calculate spin densities in the odd alternant radicals cyclohexadienyl, benzyl, perinaphthenyl and triphenylmethyl and the linear polyene radicals from allyl to C19H21. The results agree quite well with the exact calculations and with empirical estimates as well as with experimental data on hyperfine splitting constants and E.S.R. second moments.


INTRODUCTION STEVENS (1) in working with Helmniithosporium sativumn found that the parasite, while being cultured in the laboratory, was very susceptible to even slight changes in the environment. These changes were expressed as variations in growth rate, color, aerial myceliumn, shape, septation, size of the conidia, etc. RAVN (2) had previously mentioned that septation in this organism was quite variable, so much so that it amounted to specific differences. Since there are only three common descriptive characters in this genus, shape, size and septation of the conidia, it is apparent that any one of them assumes considerable importance in identifying the species. However that may be, the fact that the organism is so variable makes it a desirable one with which to carry on selection problems. With this thought in mind it was planned to make selections within a clone and attempt to change the mean number of the septa.


Herbartianism and Dewey Tanio Shoji, Fukushima University This paper is a part of the continual study on Herbartian contributions to the development of teaching theories in the United States. The purpose of this paper is to make clear what effects Herbartianism had on the teaching theories of John Dewey. In his Lectures in the Philosophy of Education: 1899, edited by R. D. Archambault in 1966, we find some important indications to show that Herbartianism had a great influence on Dewey. In the Editor's Introduction of this book, Archambault says, that "The enormous amount of attention in these lectures to the principles of Herbartianism is evidence of its importance in general, and its influence on Dewey in particular." The lectures consist of four parts, and Dewey's attention to Herbartianism is paid almost in the latter half of the lectures, in "C. Organization of Subject Matter" and "D. Organization of Method." Focal points which Dewey discussed on Herbartianism in his lectures are culture epoch theory, concentration, apperception and formal steps. He used these principles "as a lever for working out his ideas." He criticized culture epoch theory most severely on the one hand, but appreciated it on the other in that, "The theory certainly meets our attempt to meet one of the fundamental considerations which has already been laid down, that is, the necessity in our educational theory of taking into account both the psychological and the sociological aspects of experience." Although not agreeing with the Herbartian on what is the core of concentration, he accepted without condition the fundamental point of the principle in his own theories of instruction. He interpreted apperception as "psychological aspects" of concntration, and paid his respect to the Herbartian psychology because it" has taught what was an ideal psychology for the school teacher". He could not give sufficient time to formal steps in his lectures because of the "inexorable pressure of time." But, in my opinion, his How We Think (1910) is, so to speak, a continuation of his former lectures. He gave elaborate consideration to "Recitation and Training of Thought" (Chapter Fifteen), almost always making reference to Herbartian formal steps. Dewey recognizes that the Herbartian principle on formal steps "is of great importance and has probably had more and greater influence upon the hearing of lessons' than all the others put together" Herbartianism did not play an important role in the development of Dewey's basic ideas on experimetalism in his Michigan period, but played some positive role in his formative years of teaching theories.


This paper introduces a robust corrective tracking controller for rigid-link electrically-driven (RLED) robot manipulators operating under motion constraints. Using models of the robot dynamics an environmental constraints, a dynamic model with decoupled position and force degrees of freedom (DOF) is obtained for the mechanical subsystem with respect to a set of task space coordinates. A corrective tracking control is then formulated for the decoupled manipulator dynamics and the electrical actuator dynamics. The controller is robust with respect to parametric uncertainties and additive bounded disturbances in the RLED dynamic model. The controller requires measurement of the robot link positions, link velocities, and motor armature currents.


Low-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Q$ </tex-math></inline-formula> resonant converter, such as series–series resonant converter, series resonant converter, and parallel resonant converter (PRC), are highly flexible and highly tolerant to coil misalignments. However, these kinds of topologies cannot be employed to the wide air-gap, low-coupling transformers because of their inadequate magnetizing inductance. On the other hand, high-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Q$ </tex-math></inline-formula> multiple-resonant converters such as series-PRC) and series-SPRC are very suitable for low-coupling compact wireless transformer applications. However, because these multiresonant topologies have several resonant pairs resonating at a single frequency, these parameter values ought to be consistent throughout the operating conditions to resonate at the same frequency. However, since the wireless power transfer (WPT) applications are required to be flexible and convenient to the customers, the wireless transformers are not supposed to be rigid and stationary. To solve the problem, a controllable inductor for a high-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Q$ </tex-math></inline-formula> multiresonant WPT system is proposed to extend the soft switching region and to keep the resonant circulating energy minimum even at resonant mismatch conditions caused by the misalignments or temperature variations of the wireless transformer coils. The performance enhancement of the multiple-resonant wireless converter is validated using the proposed controllable inductor technique, and also the feasibility of the proposed technique is proven under different mismatch conditions through 200-W hardware experimental results.


Titan/Centaur TC-3 was launched from the Eastern Test Range, Complex 41, at 02:34 PM EDT on Tuesday, September 9, 1975. This was the third operational flight of the newest NASA unmanned launch vehicle. The spacecraft was the Viking B, the second of two orbiting and landing missions to Mars planned for the 1975 Martian launch opportunity. The objective of the launch phase of the mission, to inject the Viking spacecraft onto the planned transfer orbit to Mars, was successfully accomplished. A review of the launch vehicle system flight data is presented.


Abstraction techniques provide formal guarantees for generic optimal control problems on nonlinear and hybrid systems. Computing an abstraction solving the problem over the whole state-space is computationally demanding in high-dimensional spaces. We circumvent this curse of dimensionality by introducing a hierarchical abstraction approach for solving an optimal control problem for nonlinear systems with three nested partitions. These nested partitions allow the construction of auxiliary systems that characterize simulation relations, which are suitably exploited to provide upper and lower bounds for a branch and bound algorithm to yield an optimal solution for the control problem. An example illustrates the proposed method.


This paper presents a comprehensive engineering approach to provide a dynamic cross-organizational middleware for decision support in the field of disaster management. The proposed methodology is based on three main components: i) integration of data and services from different systems of the relevant stakeholders ii) real-time interactive classical and map-based visualization of the integrated information iii) and provision of decision makers with various data analysis and control operations to optimize the management process. To this end, we first characterize the capabilities that such a middleware should implement. Afterwards, we will discuss the design and architectural aspects of these capabilities. The provided middleware is essentially a multi-tier IT platform that provides a plethora of features such as: data and service integration, geodata visualization and decision support, etc. A special care has been accorded to the performance aspect of the middleware. Finally, we present the results of an implementation of the aforesaid platform architecture to validate the proposed approach.


Both space optical system and laser communicating antenna need a large aperture optical system, which increases the load of a satellite. This paper proposes a new co-aperture optical system for space imaging and laser communication to decrease the mass of the satellite. On the basis of primary aberration theory, the design method of initial configuration of the co-aperture optical system was presented, in which the imaging and communication share primary and secondary mirrors and work at different fields. A co-aperture optical system was designed with a primary mirror with a diameter of 600 mm and a secondary mirror with a obstruction ratio of 0.225. The system shows good imaging capability and its Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) for all field of view is more than 0.47, very close to the diffraction limitation. The RMS wavefront of the laser sending section is far less than /20, and the sending laser beam is in good quality with a least divergence angle about 4 rad. The size of the light spot on the imaging surface is less than that of detecting surface, which satisfies the detecting request. Finally, the tolerance analysis was preformed and the assembling method was given. By sharing the primary and secondary mirrors, this design reduces the mass and volume of the system and satisfies the needs of space imaging and laser communication.


Based on the analyses and comparison of utility value between legitimate supplier and pirate, this paper selects the value difference as the reference point of profit and loss of legitimate supplier. Applying the value function effect of prospect theory into investigating the change of the reference point, we could find that the pricing strategy of legitimate supplier not only affects their own interests, but also may change the illegal activity of pirate and the purchase intention of consumer notably. For legitimate supplier, adopting low-price strategy is more conducive to increase their own interests, and could also mitigate the piracy problem. When using the weighting function effect of prospect theory reasonably, we could reduce the probability at which consumer chooses pirate effectively, and lower the cost of supervision relatively. In final, we point out the directions of future research, that is, how to apply prospect theory into exploring piracy control strategies combinations.


The growth in human population is estimated to reach 9.8 billion by mid-2050. To meet the food requirements, reducing the judicious use of fertilizers, agrochemicals and their impact on environment, soil, water, humans and the surrounding biodiversity we have to shift towards sustainable methods. Nanotechnology is one such technology that will help in crop production by improving the input use efficiency by minimizing their losses, site-specific, controlled delivery of fertilizers or agrochemical as per the requirement, increases shelf life, efficiency of the agrochemicals and reduces their recommended dosage. Nanoparticles are organic, inorganic or hybrid materials whose dimensions may range from 1 to 100 nm. Nanosensors can detect environmental stress and enhance the plant's ability to combat diseases, used in automation of irrigation; it is a rapid and accurate tool to detect insect and pest, which helps in timely application of agrochemicals. Nano-iron fertilizer was found to improve essential oil content, nano-zinc and boron fertilizers improved fruit yield and quality, nano zeolite can sustain the nutrients in the soil for long term and it enhance germination and plant growth. As nanoparticles enhances growth, they aid in early maturity of the crop, improves the plant's ability to tolerate stresses, hence they are effective tools in drought and flood-prone areas, they detoxify harmful pollutants especially heavy metals, pesticide residues. As nanoparticles have greater persistence, they may have long-term effect on plants, humans and also environment, but it has less impact than that of the normal agrochemicals. Advanced research is required to conclude in this aspect.


We report a novel configuration of symmetrical electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs) comprising a plastic crystalline succinonitrile (SN) based flexible polymer gel electrolyte, incorporated with sodium trifluoromethane sulfonate (NaTf) immobilised in a host polymer poly (vinylidine fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVdF-HFP). The cost-effective activated carbon powder possessing a specific surface area (SSA) of ~ 1700 m2g-1 containing a large proportion of meso-porosity has been derived from tea waste to use as supercapacitor electrodes. The high ionic conductivity (~3.6×10-3 S cm-1 at room temperature) and good electrochemical stability render the gel polymer electrolyte film a suitable candidate for the fabrication of EDLCs. The performance of the EDLCs has been tested by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and galvanostatic charge-discharge studies. The performance of the EDLC cell is found to be promising in terms of high values of specific capacitance (~270 F g-1), specific energy (~ 36 Wh kg-1), and power density (~ 33 kW kg-1).


Within school settings race continues to be one of the most formidable obstacles for Black children in the United States (US) school system. This paper expands the discussions of race in education by exploring how the social links among race, space, and place provide a lens for understanding the persistence of racism in the educational experiences of Black children. This paper examines how differences in a rural versus urban geographical location influence a student's experience with race, racism, and racial identity across four generations of Black people in the context of school and community. Implications for research and practice are discussed.


ABSTRACT Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) is a fundamental mission of the clinical microbiology laboratory. Reference AST methods are based on bacterial growth in antibiotic doubling dilution series, which means that any error in the reference method inherently represents at least a 2-fold difference. We describe the origins of current AST reference methodology, highlight the sources of AST variability, and propose ideas for improving AST predictive power.


The molecule tracked in the experiments described here was a fluorescently labeled 155 basepair (bp) DNA construct containing a 601 nucleosome positioning sequence [1]. The DNA was prepared by PCR and was labeled with biotin, Cy3B and ATTO647N by incorporation of fluorescently labeled, HPLC purified primers (IBA GmbH). PCR primers were as follows: 5'-TTGG CTGGAGAATC CCGGTGCCGA GGCCGCTCAA TTGGTCGTAG ACAGCTCTAG CACCGCTTAA ACGCACGTAC GCGCTG-3' (Cy3B-labeled nucleotide is underlined) 5'-biotin-TTGGACAGGA TGTATATATC TGACACGTGC CTGGAGACTA GGGAGTAATC CCCTTGGCGG TTAAAACGCG GGGGACAGC-3' (ATTO647N-labeled nucleotide is underlined) In the DNA the Cy3B and the ATTO647N were located 76 bp (24 nm) apart. Since this distance was significantly bigger than the Förster radius of the fluorophores (≈ 5.5nm) there was no FRET as confirmed by FCS experiments (data not shown).


Reviewing briefly on various types of campus architecture, this article concentrates on enclosure spaces, from Oxford and Cambridge to Yale and Princeton and many other specimers thereafter which produced quiet, intimate, academic atmosphere and irresistable attraction. In the project of building complex of the School of Science for Tsinghua University, the author presents a design of unique Tsinghua identity in the context of existing buildings.


The dialdehyde starch was synthesized with cassava starch and oxidant NaIO4 in "virtual homogeneous phase" system.The effect of reaction time,reaction temperature,NaIO4 concentration,reaction pH value,and the mole ratio of NaIO4 to cassava starch on the dialdehyde content of product were investigated.The dialdehyde content of the product were made from 64.1% to 90.3% in the selected experimental scale.


Wifi Fingerprinting is a widely used method for indoor positioning due to its proven accuracy. However, the offline phase of the method requires collecting a large quantity of data which costs a lot of time and effort. Furthermore, interior changes in the environment can have impact on system accuracy. This paper addresses the issue by proposing a new data collecting procedure in the offline phase that only needs to collect some data points (Wi-fi reference point). To have a sufficient amount of data for the offline phase, we proposed a genetic algorithm and machine learning model to generate labeled data from unlabeled user data. The experiment was carried out using real Wi-fi data collected from our testing site and the simulated motion data. Results have shown that using the proposed method and only 8 Wi-fi reference points, labeled data can be generated from user's live data with a positioning error of 1.23 meters in the worst case when motion error is 30%. In the online phase, we achieved a positioning error of 1.89 meters when using the Support Vector Machine model at 30% motion error. Keywords—Wifi fingerprinting; indoor positioning; machine learning; genetic algorithm


A wide tuning range, low phase noise and spurs, multi-gigahertz frequency synthesizer was realized in 0.13 mum CMOS using a fully-sampled feed-forward loop filter. Both the integral and proportional loop filter paths use sample and hold switched-capacitor networks that completely isolate the oscillator from the charge-pump switching transients. The sampled nature of the filter, together with a digital domain implementation of the ripple-filtering pole spread the impulsive energy coming from the charge-pump current injection over several reference clock cycles, resulting in a dramatic reduction of the oscillator control signal ripple and thus a very low reference spur level. A multi-regulator PLL architecture reduces the supply injected noise and spurious tones, allowing the integration of the synthesizer on the same die with a large digital core, as required by modern single-chip receiver SoCs. PLL specifications include: < 1deg rms double-sided integrated phase noise from 1 kHz to 10 MHz, -85 dBc reference spurs, < -80 dBc supply injected spurs, 300 times 750 mum2 die area and < 100 mW power dissipation from a single 2.5 V supply.


In this thesis we examine two different rateless codes and create a rateless unequal error protection code, all for the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. The two rateless codes are examined through both analysis and simulation with the hope of developing a better understanding of how the codes will perform and pushing the codes further toward implementation. After analyzing and simulating the rateless codes by themselves, we compare using a rateless code to two different forms of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), namely Chase combining HARQ and incremental redundancy HARQ. We find that the rateless codes compare favorably to both forms of HARQ. In addition, we develop a code that has both rateless and unequal error protection (UEP) properties. A rateless code adapts to the quality of the channel and achieves capacity but all of the information bits are decoded at the same time and thus the bitstream cannot be prioritized. In addition, if only a finite number of retransmissions is allowed, the range of available rates that a rateless code can provide is limited. In contrast, a UEP code provides a prioritization of the bitstream, and an arbitrary range of rates but does not achieve capacity. The rateless UEP code, or RUEP code for short, provides the prioritization of a bitstream that UEP provides, and also adapts to the quality of the channel as a rateless code does. The RUEP code provides bitstream prioritization while being more efficient than a traditional UEP code and is capacity achieving for some channel realizations. In addition, the RUEP code provides a larger range of available rates than a rateless code when only a finite number of retransmissions is allowed. Acknowledgments This thesis would not be possible without the guidance and support of many people. First, I would like to thank the EECS department and Professor Jae Lim for supporting me as a TA for my first and second semesters at MIT, respectively. Next, I am truly grateful for the opportunity to be a Draper Fellow. As my Draper advisor, Chris Yu has provided great guidance, feedback, encouragement, and support for my work. Chris has done a great job of providing me freedom to explore the problem and yet guidance at the same time. Also at Draper, I consider Phillip Lin an unofficial co-advisor. The numerous technical discussions and thesis draft feedback that Phil has provided have been invaluable. This work would …


Real-time database management systems (RT-DBMS) have the necessary characteristics for providing efficient support to develop applications in which both, data and transactions have temporal constraints. However, in the last decade, new applications were identified and are characterized by a large geographic distribution, high heterogeneity, lack of global control, partial failures and lack of safety. Besides, they need to manage large data volumes with real-time constraints. Scheduling algorithms should consider transactions with soft deadlines and the concurrency control protocols should allow conflicting transactions to execute in parallel. The last ones should be based in their requirements, which are specified through both quality of services functions and performance metrics. In this work, a method to model and develop applications that execute in open and unpredictable environments is proposed. Based on this model, it is possible to perform analysis and simulations of systems, to guide the decision making process and to identify solutions for improving it. For validating the model, a case study considering the application domain of sensors network is discussed.


Background: The dopaminergic and renin angiotensin systems interact to regulate blood pressure.Disruption of the D4 dopamine receptor gene in mice produces hypertension that is associated with increased renal AT1 receptor expression. We hypothesize that D4 receptor can inhibit AT1 receptor expression and function in renal proximal tubules (RPTs) cells from Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats, the regulation of D4 receptor on AT1 receptor is aberrant in RPT cells from spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). Methods And Results: The D4 receptor agonist, PD168077, decreasedAT1 receptor protein expression in WKY RPT cells but increased the receptor expression in SHR RPT cells. The inhibitory effect of D4 receptor on AT1 receptor expression in WKY RPT cells was blocked by a calcium channel blocker, nicardipine or calcium free medium.Angiotensin II increased Na+-K+ ATPase activity in WKY cells.Pretreatment with PD168077decreased the stimulatory effects of angiotensin II on Na+-K+ ATPase activity in WKY cells. However, in SHR cells, the inhibitory effect of D4 receptor on angiotensin II-mediated Na+-K+ ATPase activity was aberrant; pretreatment with PD168077 augmented the stimulatory effect of AT1 receptor on Na+-K+ ATPase activity in SHR cells. We also infused angiotensin II via renal artery, found sodium excretion decrease, while in the pre-infusion with PD168077, the inhibitory effect of Ang II on sodium excretion was decreased in WKY rats, increased in SHRs. Conclusions: We suggest that a differential interaction between D4 and AT1 receptors may play a role in the differential regulation of sodium excretion and blood pressure in hypertension.


Abstract. In general, context-based adaptive variable length coding (CAVLC) decoding in H.264/AVC standard requires frequent access to the unstructured variable length coding tables (VLCTs) and significant memory accesses are consumed. Heavy memory accesses will cause high power consumption and time delays, which are serious problems for applications in portable multimedia devices. We propose a method for high-efficiency CAVLC decoding by using a program instead of all the VLCTs. The decoded codeword from VLCTs can be obtained without any table look-up and memory access. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm achieves 100% memory access saving and 40% decoding time saving without degrading video quality. Additionally, the proposed algorithm shows a better performance compared with conventional CAVLC decoding, such as table look-up by sequential search, table look-up by binary search, Moon's method, and Kim's method.


Because the complexity of theory formulas and abstract features of associated conceptual models are existed in the electromagnetic field and wave curriculum. By combining with the long-term accumulation of teaching experience,the software simulation is used to visualize the electromagnetic field theorem models and distribution characteristics. Consequently,the method is to simplify the derivation calculation process,to optimize the course structure,and to improve the teaching effectiveness with saving course time.


This paper describes a method for a rank-based analysis of data for competitive usability evaluation. The technique works with data collected during scenario-based usability studies. In a scenario-based study, participants are asked to perform realistic tasks (scenarios) with products. Dependent measures commonly include such variables as time-on-task, successful task completion rates, and subjective ratings, reported at the scenario level. Scenario-based studies are sometimes used to set benchmarks or testable behavioral objectives for products. Multivariate statistics such as discriminant analysis can be used with raw data to determine if one product differs from another on the basis of patterns of dependent variables; however, multivariate statistics cannot be used to demonstrate that one product is more usable than another if the designs are based on different usability tradeoffs. Converting raw data to ranks allows the establishment of rank-weighting schemes that combine different dependent measures and allows the assessment of relative product usability. The data that are generated can be analyzed with rank statistical methods. The elimination of various types of biases associated with missing data is also presented. This method of analyzing competitive usability data is a mixture of the subjective and the objective. To use the method, several subjective decisions concerning rank weighting and control of biases must be made before applying the objective part of the method. Application of the method allows a single composite number representing relative usability to be assigned to a product, simplifying product usability comparison.


Anthropogenic activity has increased recent sediment concentrations of Pt and Pd in Boston Harbor by approximately 5 times background concentrations. Surface sediments and downcore profiles were investigated to evaluate Pt and Pd accumulation and behavior in urban coastal sediments. There is no clear correlation between temporal changes in Pt and Pd consumption and sediment concentration. However, Pt/Pb and Pd/Pb ratios suggest that Pt and Pd flux into the Harbor may not be decreasing with cessation of sludge input as rapidly as other metals. This is supported by the large discrepancy between fluxes associated with sludge and effluent release and those calculated from surface sediment concentrations. This evidence supports catalytic converters as a major source of Pd and Pt to Boston Harbor but cannot preclude other sources. Pd does not exhibit signs of post-burial remobilization below the mixed layer in the sediment cores, although near-surface variability in Pd concentrations may indicate a labile Pd co...


The South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (SACAT) began operation on 30 March 2015. It replaced a number of other Tribunals and Boards such as the Residential Tenancies Tribunal and


Bamboo plants, especially Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis), grow rapidly and are suitable resources for reuse loop. With the aim of utilizing Moso bamboo for future application in food materials, cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) were prepared from bamboo pulp via alkaline cooking with wet milling after an enzymatic pretreatment. The certification test revealed that bamboo CNFs were more nano-sized than microfibrous cellulose which is a recognized food additive. Accordingly, the CNFs cannot be classified into the microfibrous cellulose category. Therefore, we conducted bacterial reverse mutation test, in vitro mouse lymphoma TK (thymidine kinase) assay, and in vitro cell micronucleus test on the Chinese hamster lung cell line and confirmed that the bamboo CNFs exhibited no mutagenicity. Furthermore, a repeated dose 90-day oral toxicity study was conducted on rats using 1 wt% bamboo CNFs suspension, which revealed no abnormality on longterm ingestion. No deaths were observed in any of the administration groups throughout the test period and no effects of the test substance were observed on rats under general conditions, urinalysis, and ophthalmologic examination. In addition, hematological examinations, blood biochemical examinations, organ weight measurements, necropsy findings, and histopathological examinations performed after the administration period showed no effects of the test substance on the rats. Since no toxicity due to the test substance was observed in either the male or female administration group, the no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) under the test conditions was determined to be 200 mg/kg/day or more for both males and females. Tomoko Shimokawa JAPAN TAPPI JOURNAL Vol. 75, No. 11 ─ 58 ─ 1034


In this work, we propose a method to combine both the "purchasing-reviewing" behavior dynamics and reviewing sentiments to find when would the customers like to review the E-commerce delivery service after purchasing, and what were the exact sentiments in these reviews on delivery service. The experimental results indicate that the proposed methods can extract information about customers' sentiments on E-commerce delivery service efficiently from the massive online review data.


Introduction. For the first time the Epic of Jangar became known in scientific circles after B. Bergmann published a German account of The Song of the Battle between the Heroes of Jangar and Shara Gyurgyu the Terrible in the early 19th century. Since then, the Jangar had become known in the world as the Kalmyk heroic epic. After the publication of newly discovered songs of the Jangar at the beginning of the 20th century in Mongolia, it became known as a Mongolian epic. In the late 1970s, after publishing numerous songs of the Jangar in China, the epic became known as epic legacy of the Oirats of Russia, China and Mongolia. One of the scientific centers of China which has been actively searching for the Jangar texts for 41 years is Inner Mongolia University. From 1977 to 2018, teachers of the Mongolian Faculty undertook ten scientific expeditions to the Oirat-inhabited areas of Xinjiang. Goals. The article seeks to introduce the history and results of field expeditions to Xinjiang made during 41 years in order to record new songs of the Jangar epic. For the first time in the history of modern Mongolian studies, the paper describes the results of large-scale field works that have been carried out for four decades. During the first expedition in 1977 to Hoboksar, a University teacher Chojinjav managed to meet the prominent Oirat storyteller Yerempil and record six songs of the Jangar epic. In 1978, the expedition already consisted of three researchers and explored Bortala Mongol and Ili Kazakh autonomous prefectures. In those days, over 40 storytellers were identified and 60 songs of the epic were recorded. Each subsequent expedition brought its own results. One of the longest search expeditions took place in 1996, which lasted almost thirteen months and covered the Bortala Mongol, Ili Kazakh and Bayingolin autonomous prefectures, including Tarbagatai district. During that time, the University teacher D. Taya identified more than 40 storytellers and recorded 90 songs of the Jangar. Conclusion. Thus, for four decades, the University of Inner Mongolia was conducting systematic and systematic search works which gave tangible results — names of new talented storytellers-jangarchis were discovered, a huge layer of new and numerous versions of already known chapters of the Jangar were recorded but most importantly — scientific confirmation of the existence of a living epic tradition among the Oirats of Xinjiang was obtained.


1 Funding for this research was provided by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Training for Peace in Africa Programme (TfP). 2 Mani, Rama, Beyond Retribution: Seeking Justice in the Shadows of War, (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002). relations will be restored, and sustainable peace achieved.2 As a result, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement ending the civil war called for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that will provide a forum to "address issues of impunity" and facilitate national reconciliation.3 While the TRC was instrumental in providing critical space for people to render testimonies about what happened during the war, "very little, if any, process of


State of the art approaches to autonomous systems face the challenge of sensor data fusion, abstraction, classification, and prediction of events. The trend is going towards the integration of more and more sensors into automation systems, which will reach a number of sensors comparable to the amount of sensory receptors in the human body in the not too distant future. While today's technical systems cannot cope with such a flood of information to be processed rapidly, these challenges are mastered exceptionally well by the human brain. Based on this observation, in prior work, a biologically inspired model for sensor data processing has been proposed [1]. This socalled neuro-symbolic information processing model is based on a functional model of the human perception system. Here, an extension of this concept to spatial and temporal aspects of perception is presented. The challenges for solving these tasks as well as the strategies to master these challenges based on perception-nets are presented.


Aim:  To investigate tacrolimus (Tac)‐based treatment in juvenile autoimmune hepatitis (AIH). Twenty patients (13 girls; age, 8–17 years; median, 13.25 years) with AIH were treated with two daily oral doses of Tac. Six of them had advanced liver disease and/or cirrhosis.


The purpose of designing intake sumps is to provide sumps with satisfying inlet conditions.Inlet flow pattern of inlet sumps is determined by sumps and inlet conditions.By using CFD method,nnumerical simulation of three-dimensional turbulent flow in volute intake sumps was conducted under inlet conditions without bias angle and with bias angle.Comparisons between inlet flow patterns in volute intake sumps and those in rectangle intake sumps showed that volute intake sumps are insensitive to the impacts of bias flow,with the hydraulic performance being superior to that of rectangle intake sumps.


We solve analytically the Kadanoff–Baym equations for a noninteracting junction connected to an arbitrary number of noninteracting wide-band terminals. The initial equilibrium state is properly described by the addition of an imaginary track to the time contour. From the solution we obtain the time-dependent electron densities and currents within the junction. The final results are analytic expressions as a function of time, and therefore no time propagation is needed – either in transient or in steady-state regimes. We further present and discuss some applications of the obtained formulae.


Dupilumab is a potent inhibitor of interleukin (IL) 4 and 13 cytokines implicated in asthma. Moderate-to-severe, persistent asthma patients treated with medium-to-high dose inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and long-acting beta-agonists (LABA) and with blood eosinophils >300 cells/µL (101 patients) or sputum eosinophils >3% (3 patients) were administered dupilumab or placebo for 12 weeks or until asthma exacerbation. At Week 4, LABA was withdrawn. Fluticasone was then withdrawn over 3-4 weeks. Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), serum thymus and activation regulated chemokine (TARC), immunoglobulin E (IgE), eotaxin-3 and blood eosinophils were measured. Mixed model analysis with least square mean values are reported. FeNO markedly decreased despite ICS withdrawal (dupilumab vs placebo mean % change at Week 12: -28.7% vs +35.0%; p 1 ) improved on dupilumab and this correlated with reduction in FeNO (r=-0.408, p=0.009) at Week 12. Dupilumab reduced bronchial and systemic biomarkers associated with T-helper 2 inflammation (FeNO, TARC, eotaxin-3, IgE) in moderate-to-severe persistent asthma patients. The correlation between reduced FeNO and improved FEV 1 suggests that effects on Th2 inflammation lead to improved pulmonary function.


: One of the goals of higher education in Indonesia is to develop and disseminate science, technology and/or art and to seek its use to improve people's lives and enrich national culture. From the tridharma of lecturers, two of them are conducting research and community service. This, of course, must be supported by the existing system in each university. With the existence of a research and community service information system, of course, it is very helpful for lecturers and LPPM universities to collect data. The information system that has been built produces applications that suit user needs, namely lecturers and LPPM.


In order to predict the muscular forces of the upper limb for four movements (flexion - extension, pronation - supination), a kinematic and dynamic model is developed on an open access platform (OpenSim Biomechanics) that allows movements of the shoulder joint, elbow and wrist. The model allows to find the forces of the main muscular actuators during a given trajectory. A main (generic) model was scaled to generate a sample of 35 subjects. 30 subjects were obtained by the so-called scaled manual, based on anthropometric factors and available directly from Opensim. Five more subjects obtained the result by exploration, based on trajectories of movement analysis from movement analysis laboratory and exported to OpenSim. Making use of the analysis tools in the OpenSim platform and of several scripts created in parallel, it has been possible to generate models of them to estimate the ranges of the forces of the main muscular actuators. It was found that the muscular forces during flexion and extension between 400N and 1000N, for the movements of pronation and supination the muscular forces varied between 200N and 400N.


Abstract The synthesis of amphiphilic thiophene 1 and pyrrole 5 were achieved via Wittig and Friedel-Crafts reactions respectively. The ability of 1 and 5, as well as 3-heptadecylthiophene and poly(3-heptadecylthiophene), to form Langmuir-Blodgett films are discussed.


To report a case of smoldering vogt-koyanagi-harada disease with extraocular involvement. A 45-years-old male presented with diminished vision in BE for one 1 — week associated with redness, pain, watering, intolerance to light with tinnitus also gives a history of similar complaints, in the past 2years. Examination revealed both eye visual acuity CF1/2 meters. Slit-lamp examination showed conjunctival ingestion, mutton fat KP's, sluggishly reactive pupil with multiple broken posterior synechaie. Fundus showed grade 2 vitreous cells with multiple opacities, diffuse retinochoroidal thickening with disc edema. Tonometry was 16 and 29 mmhg respectively. B-scan showed multiple vitreous echo's, diffuse retino-choroidal complex thickening with multiple shallow serous retinal detachment. After routine investigations patient was started on topical and systemic steroids. Lumbar puncture showed 82% lymphocytic pleocytosis. The patient recovered well with 6/24 vision in BE with a resolution of fundus finding at 6week followup. High index of suspicion, timely diagnosis and management are crucial to prevent vision threatening complications in VKH disease.


Advances in location-based services (LBS) demand high-throughput processing of both static and streaming data. Recently, many systems have been introduced to support distributed main-memory processing to maximize the query throughput. However, these systems are not optimized for spatial data processing. In this demonstration, we showcase Cruncher, a distributed main-memory spatial data warehouse and streaming system. Cruncher extends Spark with adaptive query processing techniques for spatial data. Cruncher uses dynamic batch processing to distribute the queries and the data streams over commodity hardware according to an adaptive partitioning scheme. The batching technique also groups and orders the overlapping spatial queries to enable inter-query optimization. Both the data streams and the offline data share the same partitioning strategy that allows for data co-locality optimization. Furthermore, Cruncher uses an adaptive caching strategy to maintain the frequently-used location data in main memory. Cruncher maintains operational statistics to optimize query processing, data partitioning, and caching at runtime. We demonstrate two LBS applications over Cruncher using real datasets from OpenStreetMap and two synthetic data streams. We demonstrate that Cruncher achieves order(s) of magnitude throughput improvement over Spark when processing spatial data.


Dependent on the conditions, crystallisation of polymorphs from solvent may be under kinetic or thermodynamic control. In the latter case the nature of the solvent will be immaterial in respect of the polymorph produced. The conditions under which each of these factors may apply are analysed in detail. The transition point between two dimorphs may not present a sharp divide in which crystallisation above and below the transition temperature produces the high melting and the low melting polymorph, respectively. It is shown that even in those cases where the choice of solvent appears to be critical this may be a secondary effect related to the concentration attainable in that solvent at a certain temperature rather than a specific effect dependent on solvent−solute interaction. A corollary to these considerations is the necessity to determine solubility curves and metastable zone widths in order to be able to control polymorph crystallisation.


In this study,inhibitive effect of protamine was determined on common food-contaiminating microorganisms and their relevant MICs were obtained.Bacteriostatic activaties on gram-negative microorganisms were found enhanced when protamine was compounded with glycine and sodium acetate and/or together with a freezing process.


This paper reports on a water inrush hazard, which occurred during the construction of the Chaoyang tunnel in Libo County, Guizhou Province, China. On 10 June 2018, a continuous water inflow of about 57 thousand m3 of water within 40 min took place at the tunnel excavation face, resulting in three casualties. The objectives of this study are to investigate and discuss the water inrush process of this atypical case. Further, an inclusive description of the implemented emergency responses will be provided. The principal causes of this tunneling incident include the karst geological condition at the construction field, hydraulic conductivity induced by the connection between karst water system and surface water body, and effects of excavation and precipitation. Moreover, based on a preliminary investigation and analysis, three main control measures to overcome similar incidents in the future are proposed: (1) Performing "water inrush risk grading" in areas prone to water inrush; (2) undertaking comprehensive geological forecast for a synthetic analysis; and (3) employing a monitoring system during the construction, and educating workers on self-protection skills. These effective management measures are bound to benefit underground engineering constructions with regard to water inrush risks.


Background The prevalence of renal posttransplantation amputation and its impact on allograft and patient survival have not been widely reported. Methods We used an incident cohort of patients who underwent renal transplantation between June 2004 and September 2009. Amputation data were obtained using Medicare institutional claim forms. Baseline demographics and comorbidities, such as peripheral vascular disease (PVD), diabetes, ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, hypertension, and smoking, were captured. The chi-square and t tests were used for statistical associations. Kaplan–Meier survival curves were plotted for renal allograft and patient survival. Independent associations between patient factors and amputation were examined using multivariable Cox regression analysis. Results Of the 85,873 renal transplant recipients, 1062 patients had amputation. The prevalence of amputation was higher in those with PVD versus those without PVD at listing (5.6% vs. 1%; P=0.0001). Mean allograft survival was 55.5±0.55 months in patients with amputation versus 60.6±0.06 months in patients without amputation (P=0.0001). All-cause mortality was higher in patients with amputation versus those without amputation (19.9% vs. 7.3%; P=0.0001). Mean allograft survival was 60.97±0.67 months in non–African Americans without amputation versus 55.7±0.65 months in non–African Americans with amputation. Allograft survival was 59.73±0.13 months in African Americans without amputation versus 54.9±1.06 months in African Americans with amputation. In patients with amputation, race did not have any impact. Infectious complications were noted in 39 patients leading to death. Conclusions Amputation is associated with decreased allograft and patient survival. Early detection and preventive strategies for PVD may decrease amputation rate and improve survival.


Oxide semiconductor In2O3 has been extensively used as a gas sensing material for the detection of various toxic gases. However, the pure In2O3 sensor is always suffering from its low sensitivity. In the present study, a dramatic enhancement of sensing characteristic of cubic In2O3 was achieved by deliberately fabricating p-n heterojunction-like NiO/In2O3 composite microparticles as sensor material. The NiO-decorated In2O3 p-n heterojunction-like sensors were prepared through the hydrothermal transformation method. The as-synthesized products were characterized using SEM-EDS, XRD, and FT-IR, and their gas sensing characteristics were investigated by detecting the gas response. The experimental results showed that the response of the NiO/In2O3 sensors to 600 ppm methanal was 85.5 at 260°C, revealing a dramatic enhancement over the pure In2O3 cubes 21.1 at 260°C. Further, a selective detection of methanol with inappreciable cross-response to other gases, like formaldehyde, benzene, methylbenzene, trichloromethane, ethanol, and ammonia, was achieved. The cause for the enhanced gas response was discussed in detailed. In view of the facile method of fabrication of such composite sensors and the superior gas response performance of samples, the cubic p-n heterojunction-like NiO/In2O3 sensors present to be a promising and viable strategy for the detection of indoor air pollution.


Bath gray water organoleptically did not appear to be significantly contaminated liquid. However, in order to re-use them, they need proper treatment. When recirculated in a household, they cannot pose a threat to human life. Based on their appearance, it seems that the solution to the problem is the use of cartridges filter. The article presents the results of the filtration of gray water from the bath through the filtration system with a housing double stage polypropylene-carbon filter FCCA-STO and to determine the impact of individual filter layers on wastewater treatment, tests were carried out on a single polypropylene FCPS10 and carbon FCCA filtration cartridge. The aim of the study was to determine the suitability of the selected housing filter cartridges for the treatment of bathing gray water for their reuse. For the tests were used natural bathing gray water from a two-family building inhabited by seven people. Wastewater were fed to the filter with a constant flow rate of 0.1 dm3·s–1. The assessment of the work of the filters based on parameters such as: COD, BOD5, suspension, dry residue, decay and turbidity. The conducted tests have shown a slight improvement in most of the quality parameters of gray water after filtration through selected housing cartridge filters. Only for turbidity, the reduction in the value of the pollution indicator was noticeable. The cartridge fi lters used in tests, acted like ordinary mechanical filtration cartridges. For the considered gray water, the use of analyzed cartridge fi lters can only be used for their initial purifi cation.


Aim: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of spot urine protein-creatinine ratio for detection of proteinuria in Preeclampsia.
Methods: Cross Sectional Descriptive Study was conducted in a total of 38 pregnant women in Paropakar Maternity and Women's Hospital in study period of 3 month. The correlation between protein- creatinine ratio in spot urine samples and urinary protein excretion in 24-hour collections were analyzed.
 Results: Comparison of 24 hours urinary protein and protein- creatinine ratio in women with preeclampsia shows a significant correlation (r=0.911, p<0.0001). The cut-off protein-creatinine ratios which gave maximum area under the curve for 300mg protein for 24hrs was 0.27 (sensitivity: 94.6%, specificity: 100%, PPV: 100%, NPV: 33.3%); 2000 mg urine protein excretion was 2.1 (sensitivity and specificity of 100%); 3000mg protein excreted for 24hours was 3.0 (sensitivity: 83.3%,
specificity: 92.3%, PPV: 83.3%, NPV: 93.3%. Area under the ROC for 24hours urine total protein of >300mg, >2000mg and >3000mg/day were 0.946 (95%CI 0.873-1.019), 1 (95% CI 1.00-1.00) and 0.957 (95%CI 0.897- 1.016) respectively.
Conclusions: Spot urine protein-creatinine ratio is as accurate as to 24 hours urine protein determination of proteinuria in Preeclampsia.


Objective To study the feasibility and curative effect of laparoscopic radical resection of rectal carcinoma. Methods Sixty-two cases were enrolled in this study between Feb 2003 and Mar 2005, including 32 cases undergoing laparoscopic radical resection (19 Dixon and 13 Miles) , and 30 cases undergoing open radical resection (22 Dixons and 8 Miles). Results The mean operation time of laparoscopic group was 195 min, and open group was 156 min (P 0. 01). The mean operation time of the most recent twenty cases was only 174 min. The intra-operative blood loss in laparoscopic group was less than open group (130 ml vs. 393 ml, P 0. 01 ). The number of cleared lymphaden was not different (11.7 pieces vs. 13.3 pieces, P 0. 05 ). The GI and urination function of laparoscopic group recovered faster than open group ( evacuated was 2. 7 days vs. 3. 7 days, P 0. 01; solid diet intaking was 3. 6 days vs. 4. 7 days, P 0. 01 , the time of detaining urethral catheter was 4. 1 day vs. 6. 0 day, P 0. 01). The hospital stay was shorter (9. 9 days vs. 13. 0 days, P 0. 01 ). But hospital expenses in laparoscopic group was higher than open group ( 22. 5 thousand yuan RMB vs. 19. 2 thousand yuan RMB, P 0. 05 ). Conclusions Laparoscopic radical resection of rectal carcinoma parallels with open surgery in safety and effectiveness, and less traumatic, faster patients recovery in addition.


This paper focuses on the global asymptotic properties of the SIR diffusive model for infectious diseases. Using the analytic technique with Lyapunov functions, we developed conditions for the global attractor of a unique disease steady-state and the disease free equilibrium. The most eminent refuge to the model is the direct Lyapunov mapping. We investigate the global well-posedness of the mathematical model, determine conditions on Ro for which non-trivial equilibrium states exist, and examine their global stability. We are interested in finding the model's basic reproductive number, which determines whether the disease dies out or persists in the population. Finally, we consider a series of computational results to verify the theoretical results. The extensive numerical simulations show the dynamics of different population groups over time. The effects of different parameters on the compartments are shown in detail. The findings allude that the dynamics of the system are entirely estimated by the deterministic value Ro.
Dhaka Univ. J. Sci. 69(3): 161-170, 2022 (June)


The Viking communications system discussed comprises a UHF relay link and an S-band communication link. The design of both links was guided by the design of the mission itself and its constraints. The most important of these are: the available launch opportunities; the effect of interplanetary distances on the power and bandwidth of the S-band link; weight; reliability and survival in the Martian environment; the up-link command philosophy; the landing problem; and the requirements for planetary quarantine and cleanliness. The Viking mission, with its orbits and trajectories, launch and landing sequences is described and illustrated.


The article presents the application of two sets of Ni-doped carbosils in the solid phase extraction of explosives. The adsorbents were prepared by two different methods. The first set of carbosils was obtained by mechanochemical deposition of potato starch and nickel salt on the surface of silica gel, and subsequent carbonization. The second set of carbosils was obtained from the same precursors and under quite similar conditions, i.e. with the exception of mechanochemical deposition of potato starch replaced by the gelation step. The prepared adsorbents were applied in solid phase extraction of explosive nitrate esters, and nitroaromatics from aqueous solutions. The adsorption and desorption steps were evaluated separately. It was found that textural properties, influenced by carbon deposit and nickel content, have a large impact on the solid phase extraction results. The recovery rates obtained onto carbosils prepared by mechanochemical method are approximately thrice as high as those observed for carbosils prepared by gelation method. It was shown that the composites with moderate nickel content can be used as effective materials for extraction both of aliphatic and aromatic explosives.


Boas (2009) has established that the recent trends in computational lexicography encompass computational methods and tools designed to assist in various lexicographical tasks, including the preparation of lexicographical evidence from many sources, the recording in database form of the relevant linguistic information, the editing of lexicographical entries and the dissemination of lexicographical products. In line with this development, Intan Safinaz's research (2011) on frame-based analysis on Malay corpus has produced essential semantic information compiled in a reference database that can assist lexicographers in editing dictionary entries for Malay-English bilingual dictionaries. This paper aims to discuss the framebased analysis that incorporated Frame Semantics methodology and the benefits of compiling the database as a reference database. The entry 'memberi' is analysed and the findings contribute to the semantic content of the reference database. This reference database is able to facilitate the task of editing entries of the Malay monolingual dictionaries, Malay-English bilingual dictionaries, as well as the Malay language reference books. This paper also discusses the possibility of building a Malay FrameNet based on the architecture of the English FrameNet which was set up at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley. The proposed methods of building the Malay FrameNet is also inspired from the FrameNets of other languages for example the German, French and Japanese FrameNets. The setting up of the Malay FrameNet can be seen as an effort towards processing the Malay language and strengthening the Malay computational lexicography as well as encouraging future linguistic and computational lexicography research and cooperative efforts in natural language processing of the Malay language.


The paper presents the results of a study of solid-phase equilibria in the Tb–Te system and the thermodynamic properties of terbium tellurides obtained by the methods of electromotive forces and X-ray diffraction analysis. Based on the experimental data, it was established that the TbTe, Tb2Te3, TbTe2 и TbTe3 compounds are formed in the system. For the investigations of the alloys from the two-phase regions TbTe3+Te, TbTe2+TbTe3, and Tb2Te3+TbTe2, the EMF of concentration cells relative to the TbTe electrode was measured. The EMF of concentration cells relative to the terbium electrode was measured for the TbTe+Tb2T3 region. The partial thermodynamic functions of TbTe and Tb in alloys were determined by combining the EMF measurements of both types in the 300–450 K temperature range, based on which the standard thermodynamic functions of formation and standard entropies of the indicated terbium tellurides were calculated.


Mediterranean coastal areas have been cultivated for long time. Wetlands areas situated near to the coast have been drainaged by using drainage channels. Heavy metals can be transferred from soils to the channels under agricultural management practices, especially under flood and furrow irrigation (the most important in the area studied). Anthropogenic inputs, including excessive use of agrochemicals and manure, in agricultural soils contribute to an increase of the content of some toxic heavy metals [1].


Summary form only given. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a byproduct of oil refinement and comprises a significant portion of natural gas deposits. Therefore, efficient H2S treatment and utilization are crucial to the oil and gas industry. The minimum dissociation energy of H2S (into hydrogen and sulfur) is only 0.2 eV/molecule. Such low energy requirement of dissociation of H2S into sulfur and hydrogen is important commercially. Such prospects are particularly important for oil industry, which consumes large amounts of hydrogen in oil hydro-desulfurization for production of low sulfur fuels and could benefit from both low cost method of H2S utilization and local hydrogen production.The process of hydrogen sulfide, dissociation was studied in a non-equilibrium pulsed discharges at high and moderate overvoltage. Discharge geometry allowed to switch from streamer to spark mode. Separate series of experiments were conducted for dielectric barrier discharge geometry. An energy cost of H2S dissociation was measured at low pressure conditions. Comparison of these results with recent results from gliding arc "tornado" (GAT)1 discharges allows to extract basic mechanisms which control H2S dissociation in the discharge. These results are particularly important for the oil industry as it considered economically feasible to industrially implement dissociation technology that has energy requirement of undter 1 eV/molecule. These findings allow for further development, optimization, and scaling of reactors based on direct plasma dissociation of hydrogen sulfide.


The present invention relates to a method of searching for interaction of the same molecule a physiologically active substance, to a method of screening a target molecule from both in vivo and in vitro. The present invention provides a first detection molecules and the second detection molecules, wherein the first search agent binds the mobile reactants position by acting force applied from the outside is moved (localizer), the 2 search substance binds to the labeling substance (label). Accordingly, the complex of the first search substance and the second detection molecules are reversibly search by varying the intensity of the acting force applied from the outside, this effectively screening the target molecule by can. .FIELD 1


A tambour or roller blind system comprising tambours 9,10, cylindrical rollers 14,11, and spigots 12, 15 is used at the front and at the back of a chair 1 or any other piece of furniture where the main body is adjustably mounted on a supporting base 2 to block accidental access to the space between the body and the base, which is variable according to the position the chair is adjusted to, in order to avoid entrapment of pets, children or limbs. The sides of the chair are blocked by side walls 8 comprising overlapping movable panels. A second alternative embodiment includes replacing the front tambour system with a guided flap mechanism comprising flap (18, Fig 6) hinged from its lower edge at (19, Fig. 6) and guided at its top edge by arcuate guides (21, Fig. 6). A third embodiment uses a modified version of the tambour, at the front of the chair, where the part of the tambour (25, Fig.9) that is not exposed, is housed fully expanded on horizontal guides (26, Fig 9) which run towards the back of the chair.


This paper proposes an Eye Gaze Tracking (EGT) technique using a single eye image that can be easily calibrated and mapped for Human Computer Interaction (HCI). The technique employs both geometric and trigonometric relationships to find a user's Point of Regard, followed by calculating user-dependent variables for final mapping onto a user interface (UI). Experimental results show acceptable accuracy with minimal focal errors.


Current microscopic imaging techniques allow to record biological specimen with sub-micrometer resolution in 3-D (over time). They open completely new ways to observe and understand signaling in living organisms. Although these advances in microscopic hardware provide means to perform exciting new studies that have not been possible so far, their potential is rarely exploited due to a lack of tools for reducing the terabytes of recorded images to the small number of meaningful quantities required to answer an underlying biological question. The pure amount of data precludes manual analysis, and many questions, microscopic images could answer, will never be asked. To allow large scale microscopic image analysis, algorithms are required that detect events of interest, relate them to the anatomical structure under investigation and automatically output quantitative measurements with statistical confidences.2 Although vague, this description already contains very important key words, namely "detect": we need general detectors that can be trained for specific structures using manually annotated sample data; "relate": we have to model the surrounding anatomy and give means of uniquely assigning anatomically relevant coordinates to these structures; "quantitative": we want to be able to get an unbiased quantification of structure parameters or event distributions; "confidence": we must be able to measure statistical significance. Within this thesis we will develop a system that fulfills this specification at the example of modeling the root apical meristem of Arabidopsis thaliana. We will present an end-to-end image analysis pipeline that is able to automatically correct light attenuation in confocal multiview recordings, detect nuclei using a trainable general-purpose detector specifically trained for that task, map detected events to a root specific coordinate system and automatically extract statistical data of mitosis distributions in different mutant populations. To reach all these goals different techniques from image processing and machine learning have to be combined. On the measured image intensities we apply a variational energy minimization to estimate their underlying fluorophore distribution. We designed a physically motivated image formation model based on ray optics which is able to simulate the effects of tissue dependent local signal attenuation, photo bleaching and noise introduced by the detector. Based on a comparison of the measurements to the intensities predicted by that model a dense attenuation field and the underlying intensities are estimated. Additional prior information can be easily included in the model. To stabilize the ill-posed reconstruction problem we introduced different smoothness priors on the attenuation field leading to excellent results on synthetic data and very good reconstructions on real biological samples. For modeling the root, several techniques are combined. First nuclei as anatomical reference structures are detected using a trainable detector framework based on rotation-invariant general purpose features. Then a variational energy minimization with robust data term is employed to trace the root axis and give a spatially varying root thickness estimate. Finally cell layer labels are assigned to the detected nuclei using another supervised classification. We conclude the thesis with a statistical comparison of mitosis distributions in different Arabidopsis mutants with very subtle phenotypic differences. Our model was able to find formerly unknown 2Often this sentence is the full specification an expert in biology gives to a computer scientist developing such a system.


The statistic results of the density distribution of Mesozoic intrusive rocks reveal that the density of basic igneous rocks is higher than that of acidic igneous rocks. The spatial density distribution of extrusive rocks and that of intrusive rocks show regularity, i.e., relatively high density or low density areas are concentrated in specific sites. Therefore, to explain the regional tectonics of northern Hebei Province, this paper suggests the existence of a branch of mantle plume, in which high density basic igneous rocks are located at the center and low density acidic igneous rocks are situated on the edge. The structure of the branch plume might have controlled the regional ore-forming process.


Abstract Objectives: The effects of marijuana on driving pose a significant public health concern. More studies on chronic marijuana use in driving are needed. The study objectives were to (1) assess differences in the Standardized Field Sobriety Test (SFST) and driving performance outcomes between chronic medical marijuana users and nonusers and (2) identify a cutoff tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) concentration above which chronic medical marijuana users demonstrate driving impairment. Methods: This prospective cross-sectional study assessed 31 chronic marijuana users and 41 nonusers. Rapid Detect Saliva Drug Screen 10-panel was administered to all participants. Participants were given a simple visual reaction time test (SVRT) and SFST consisting of the horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN), the one leg stand (OLS), and the walk and turn (WAT) tests. The STISIM Drive M100 driving simulator assessed driving performance. Driving parameters included standard deviation of speed (SDS), deviation of mean lane position, off-road accidents, collisions, pedestrians hit, and car-following modulus, delay, and coherence. Cannabinoid blood plasma was obtained from marijuana users. Results: Marijuana users and nonusers did not differ in age (40.06 ± 13.92 vs. 41.53 ± 15.49, P = .6782). Marijuana users were more likely to fail the SFST (P = .005) and the WAT (P = .012) and HGN (P = .001) components. Marijuana users had slower SVRT (P = .031), less SDS (P = .039), and lower modulus (P = .003). Participants with THC >2 ng/mL (P = .017) and TCH >5 ng/mL (P = .008) had lower SDS. Participants with THC >2 ng/mL (P = .021) and THC >5 ng/mL (P = .044) had decreased modulus. Conclusion: Chronic marijuana users had slower reaction times, deviated less in speed, and had difficulty matching a lead vehicle's speed compared to nonusers. The effects on SDS and modulus were present at cutoffs of 2 and 5 ng/mL.


Ecology and life History of the mudskipper, Boieophthaimus pectinirostris were investigated based on the specimens collected from the Korean roasts from 1978 to 1994. The spawning of this species takes place during the period from June to August. Prolarva hatched from egg was 3.3mm in total length, and began to bottom life in TL 16.0mm of 40 days after hatching. The stomach contents were principally diatoms. In the foraging behavior, this species were conducted at the wet soft mud on the upper tidal zones. The burrowing observed in the intertidal mud flat was YL type. B. pectinirostris is restricted to western and southwestern coast of Korea, but their habitats and individuals are being reduced by the result of reclimation to tide land.


An algorithm for haze determination was developed based on the atmospheric optical properties to determine the concentration of particulate matter with diameter less than 10 micrometers (PM10). The purpose of this study was to use digital camera images to determine the PM10 concentration. This algorithm was developed based on the relationship between the measured PM10 concentration and the reflected components from a surface material and the atmosphere. A digital camera was used to capture images of dark and bright targets at near and far distances from the position of the targets. Ground-based PM10 measurements were carried out at selected locations simultaneously with the digital camera images acquisition using a DustTrakTM meter. The PCI Geomatica version 9.1 digital image processing software was used in all imageprocessing analyses. The digital colour images were separated into three bands namely red, green and blue for multi-spectral analysis. The digital numbers (DN) for each band corresponding to the ground-truth locations were extracted and converted to radiance and reflectance values. Then the atmospheric reflectance was related to the PM10 using the regression algorithm analysis. The proposed algorithm produced a high correlation coefficient (R) and low root-meansquare error (RMS) between the measured and estimated PM10. This indicates that the technique using the digital camera images can provide a useful tool for air quality studies.


A plasmid pcDNA-GPV-VP3 was transfected into goose embryo fibroblast cells(GEFs),and the expression of VP3 protein was detected every 12 hours.28-day-old healthy goslings were immunized with different dosages of pcDNA-GPV-VP3 by gene gun bombardment and intramuscular injection(i.m.),respectively.Blood samples collected on day 3,7,14,21,28,35,49,63,77 and 105 post-immunization(PI) were measured by T-lymphocyte proliferation test.In results,the VP3 gene of goose parvovirus(GPV) was successfully expressed in GEFs at hour 24 PI and the expression reached peek at hour 60 PI.D490nm of T-lymphocyte cells from the immunized goslings reached peak on day 35 PI.D490nm in the i.m.and gene gun bombardment groups were very significantly higher than that in the PBS control group on day 14-63 and 7-63 PI respectively,and significantly higher than that in the GPV attenuated vaccine group on day 14-63 PI and that in the empty plasmid group on day 21-49 PI.The results showed that the good cellular immunity effects were induced with pcDNA-GPV-VP3 by i.m.and gene gun bombardment.


Addition of arginine, tryptophan and lysine to poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) has resulted in a new series of enhanced degradation biomaterials. Degradation was performed at 70°C and degradation behavior was studied using water uptake, mass loss, pH value change, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and tensile properties. The results indicated that PLLA containing amino acids degraded more quickly than pure PLLA. In PLLA containing arginine, lysine, or tryptophan, crystallinity of the latter decreased after 8 days degradation while crystallinities of the other two composites increased. Destroying crystallites assists with deeper degradation and in vivo assimilation. Initial tensile strengths of all undegraded bars were almost the same. Furthermore, pH value changes indicated that additive amino acids could neutralize acidic degradation products, which may be a solution to the bacteria-free inflammation induced by the acidic products. The results indicate that the composite biomaterials may be useful for future clinical application. POLYM. COMPOS., 2009. © 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers


For t normal populations,likelihood ratio test about the mean equality is proposed.It summarizes the three kinds of testing method,likelihood ratio test,test of bootstrap p-value and test of bootstrap.The problem on testing about the mean equality of multiple normal populations is solved by monte carlo.The results of simulations show good performance of the methods in terms of test validity.


The onset speed of gas induction and the power consumption after gas induction were studied in a gas-induced type agitated tank. In such an agitated tank, four unique baffles which were shorter and narrower than the conventional ones were adopted. Two 45° downward pitched blade turbines (PBT) in series were used as impellers. Gas induction could be formed by the dual impellers operated above the onset impeller speed. Several geometric factors and operation parameters were considered by theoretical aspects and the dimensionless analysis to study the onset of gas induction and the power consumption. In all experiments, air and tap water were used as working fluids. Results revealed that a lower agitation speed and less power consumption were needed for the present tank than a narrower full-length baffled agitated tank. In the present tank, the least specific power consumption was found when the liquid level was about 1.9 times the tank diameter. Two correlation equations were obtained to predict, respectively, the onset speed of gas induction and the power consumption after gas induction. Comparison between the present type and various other gas-inducing type agitated tanks were also discussed.