Personalized politics entails a process where votersprefe- rences are no longer attached to the preferences of a certain political party. Individuals decide who they will vote for by assessing politicians' appearance, personal characteristics and nonverbal behaviour instead of arguments and policy-issue standings. Moreover, this personalization is not exclusively related to voters but also dominates the behaviour of politi- cians and the media. In order to explore such phenomena in more detail, this article uses the 2009 presidential elections in Chile as a case study. A quantitative content analysis of can- didates' press coverage in three major newspapers was con- ducted in order to determine both the predominant themes behind this personalization trend and the actors causing this personalization. The findings showed clear evidence of a per - sonalization of the political discourse that resulted from the interaction or transaction between votersperception of can- didates' personalities, the candidatesself-reported traits, and how the news media emphasised these traits.


Mixing in a viscous medium, such as in polymerization processes, is worth noting. To control the polymerization process for improving the product quality, it is important to understand the mixing process. Also, it is essential to understand the flow behaviour in the stirred-tank reactor for the equipment design and from the point of view of the large-scale transition of the process. Local and general characteristics of mixing in the reactor are related to the design and selected speed of the agitator. 3D-modeling of the flow in the cylindrical reactor with the paddle stirrer was carried out using the potential of a supercomputer. Numerical results showed good consistency with experimental results and correlation developed by other researchers. To determine the best mode of introduction into the paddle space of the stirrer, two efficiency criteria were used: with respect to power and mixing time.


The method of threshold exceedances is used to reliably estimate the outage probability due to per-span polarization dependent loss (PDL). Bit-wise achievable information rate (BW-AIR) data for 10,000 instances of the link PDL are obtained using a simulation model that accurately captures the effect of PDL on both the signal and amplified spontaneous emission noise. The root mean square error between the mean excess function and a theoretical fit to it, and the average squared absolute error are compared for the critical step of determining the threshold above which transformed BW-AIR data are represented by the generalized Pareto distribution (GPD). Four techniques are considered for determining values of the two parameters that specify the GPD. The outage probability is defined in terms of the BW-AIR being less than a threshold value for the generalized mutual information (GMI), as determined by a specified value for the normalized GMI. To thoroughly demonstrate the approach, the dependence of the outage probability on the per-span PDL, the number of spans, and the constellation entropy is considered for 32 Gbaud, dual-polarization 64-ary quadrature amplitude modulation with uniform and probabilistically shaped constellations. The extent to which the outage probability can be reduced by decreasing the constellation entropy is quantified.


Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a DNA virus belonging to the Herpesviridae family, which causes various diseases with diverse symptoms, such as pneumonia, hepatitis, meningitis, retinitis, gastrointestinal ulcers, and cutaneous ulcers, especially in immunocompromised patients. CMV-related cutaneous ulcers often develop in the anogenital region and occasionally cause life-threatening complications. We report two patients with CMV-related cutaneous ulcers indicating an ominous clinical prognosis and severe [...]


The invention discloses a P-type carbon quantum dot/N-type silicon nano-wire array hetero-junction solar cell and a method for manufacturing the same. The P-type carbon quantum dot/N-type silicon nano-wire array hetero-junction solar cell is characterized in that an N-type silicon substrate layer is used as a base region of the solar cell, and an In-Ga alloy metal film back electrode layer is arranged on the lower surface of the N-type silicon substrate layer; an N-type silicon nano-wire array is arranged on the upper surface of the N-type silicon substrate layer; a P-type carbon quantum dot thin film layer wraps the surfaces of N-type silicon nano-wires in the N-type silicon nano-wire array; a metal electrode layer is arranged on the surface of the P-type carbon quantum dot thin film layer, and the P-type carbon quantum dot thin film layer is in ohmic contact with the metal electrode layer. The P-type carbon quantum dot/N-type silicon nano-wire array hetero-junction solar cell and the method have the advantages that a process is simple, the P-type carbon quantum dot/N-type silicon nano-wire array hetero-junction solar cell and the method are applicable to large-scale production, the solar cell with high light absorption capacity and photoelectric conversion efficiency can be manufactured by the method, and a foundation is laid for applying silicon nano-array structures to solar cells.


I was interested to see in Dr Gething's letter, on the problems scientists face in acquiring the information they need, his criticism of the poor standard of reproduction of many reports, particularly mathematical work produced by the traditional typewriter and stencil. It is time this feeling was voiced openly?scientists have long endured a level of quality in such material they would not accept to-day in buildings, equipment and ancillary staff. The picture is not all black, however, and several workers at least are concerning themselves with the vastly expanding field of what is known as 'information printing '.


In the electric drives scenario, the automotive is one of the most active and promising application fields. So far, electric steer eliminated many elements of a hydraulic system, with fair fuel economy in the process. The next step, the electronic steering, is in progress. It will definitively substitute any mechanical connection with the steering wheel by wire-transmitted digital signals to one or more remote electric motors. Obviously, the design of any control strategy has to pass through hardware verification. At the early stages, or when a real car prototype is not easily available, the design could greatly benefit of a hardware-in- the-loop (HIL) emulator, to enable the fast control prototyping. In the paper, a reduced-order model, implemented with a high-dynamic electric drive, substitutes the real mechanical load. The model details, the system architecture and the experimental results are presented in the paper. I. INTRODUCTION The conventional steering systems include different forms of mechanical and hydraulic connections between the steering wheel and the steering valve. In simplest terms, the steering wheel rotation is proportionally amplified by the steering valve to obtain a proportional articulation angle. Since the two systems (steering wheel and steering power system) are mechanically coupled, there is a built-in inherent force feedback to the operator at the steering wheel proportional to the steering conditions. Electric steering (E-Steer) represents a substantial improvement (1,2). It uses a small but powerful electric motor to increase the mechanical forces created when the driver moves the steering wheel. E- Steer and other electric systems eliminate many elements of a hydraulic system: pumps, fluid reservoirs, hoses and the rubber-belt-and-pulley system. Consequently, there are engine power and fuel savings in the process. Steer- by-wire also provides benefits in terms of noise, vibration and crashworthiness, due to the loss of the steering column, as well as opening up the tremendous possibilities of vehicle stability control.


Conjugation, or mating, is a major form of horizontal gene transfer, contributing to the spread of antibiotic resistance and virulence genes in bacterial populations. During conjugation, DNA is transferred from donor to recipient cell through a large multi‐protein DNA translocation channel produced in the donor cell. We are interested in understanding the localization of the conjugation machinery of the conjugative element ICEBs1 of Bacillus subtilis. We previously identified several proteins that make up the ICEBs1 DNA translocation channel, including the peripheral membrane protein ConE and the transmembrane protein ConB. ConE fused to green fluorescent protein (GFP) localizes to the cell membrane, predominantly at the poles. ConE interacts with the bitopic membrane protein ConB. This interaction is functionally important as ConE‐GFP mislocalizes to the cytoplasm in a strain deleted for conB. Here, we discovered that a fusion of ConB to the red fluorescent protein mCHERRY also localizes to the cell membrane at the poles, similarly to ConE‐GFP. We also show that ConB‐mCHERRY localization is independent of other conjugation proteins, but dependent on its own transmembrane segment. Finally, we discovered which domains of ConB are required for ConE‐GFP localization. Our work provides new insights into the subcellular localization of two conserved interacting proteins that are critical for mediating horizontal gene transfer.


Introduction: Intrauterine fetal death after 20 weeks of gestation is a pregnancy-related problem. The rate of stillbirth in each area is an indicator of health status and prenatal care in that specific region. In different countries, the rate of stillbirth has been reported as 4 to 20 per 1000 births. Several factors contribute to the occurance of stillbirth including timely identification and intervention. This study aimed to investigate the causes of stillbirth in Kalat city during 2009-2012.
Methods: In this retrospective, descriptive study, the population included all pregnant women, who experienced stillbirth during their term delivery. Data were collected by interviewing the parents, reviewing the health records, and completing the standard questionnaires.
Results: Findings indicated that 81% of expecting mothers experienced stillbirth, and 18.7% of them lived in villages. Overall, 75% and 25% of the mothers were within the age range of 18-35 and > 35 years, respectively. In this study, 62.5% of the mothers had received prenatal care and 12.5% of the subjects had experienced stillbirth; also, 18.7% and 6.2% of the mothers had (at least) one and two abortions, respectively. The sex ratio of stillbirths were against and 50%. In total, 18.7% of women did not consume supplements during pregnancy. The causes of mothers' admission to healthcare centers were fetal movement reduction (or lack of it) in 31.2% of the cases, spotting or bleeding in 25% of the cases, onset of labor in 18.7% of the cases, abdominal pain in 6.2% of the mothers, and seizures in 6.2% of the mothers; also, in 25% of the cases, the cause of admission was uncertain. Causes of stillbirth included eclampsia (12%), meconium aspiration (13%), hypertensive disorders (19%), detachment (18%) and 38% were unknown.
Conclusion:Based on the findings, fetal or neonatal death has psychological consequences for families. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the quality of prenatal care and familiarize mothers with the risk factors during pregnancy.


We hear a lot about the retreat of students from public life. The annual surveys suggest they care less each year about the environment, racial understanding, community-action programs, or even discussing political issues. So their generation has been repeatedly accused of apathy⎯simply not caring. Yet as I travel to speak, visit classes, and lead workshops at campuses throughout the country, I see less indifference and more learned helplessness⎯the feeling that they can't change the world, so why try?


Finding order in twos In nematic liquid crystals, the local orientation of the molecules hovers around an average direction. The orientational control bestows unusual optical properties. In theory, with the right sort of two-dimensional shape, it should be possible to create nematics with biaxial ordering, but this has proven elusive. Mundoor et al. dispersed colloidal rods into a nematic solvent (see the Perspective by Poulin). Within a range of temperature and concentration, the rods ordered orthogonally to the solvent molecules, thus giving the mixture the type of properties that one would expect from a biaxial liquid crystal. Science, this issue p. 768; see also p. 712 Self-assembly of colloidal and molecular rods yields orthorhombic nematics with switchable biaxial optical properties. Order and fluidity often coexist, with examples ranging from biological membranes to liquid crystals, but the symmetry of these soft-matter systems is typically higher than that of the constituent building blocks. We dispersed micrometer-long inorganic colloidal rods in a nematic liquid crystalline fluid of molecular rods. Both types of uniaxial building blocks, while freely diffusing, interact to form an orthorhombic nematic fluid, in which like-sized rods are roughly parallel to each other and the molecular ordering direction is orthogonal to that of colloidal rods. A coarse-grained model explains the experimental temperature-concentration phase diagram with one biaxial and two uniaxial nematic phases, as well as the orientational distributions of rods. Displaying properties of biaxial optical crystals, these hybrid molecular-colloidal fluids can be switched by electric and magnetic fields.


This paper studied on cyclone spillway tunnel of parabolic type convey from hydraulic properties such as flow pattern discharging capacity pressure distributions and energy dissipation rate.The results showed that flow pattern discharge capacity and the pressure distributions be able to meet the requirements and the total energy dissipation rate of 90%.It has the conditions of serving as a diversion tunnel reconstruction body.


Luteinizing hormone (LH) is a member of the heterodimeric glycoprotein hormone family. As these hormones are members of the cystine knot growth factor superfamily, each subunit is composed of a pair of protease-resistant hairpin loops, designated L1 and L3, on one side of the cystine knot and a protease-sensitive loop, L2, on the other side. N-linked oligosaccharides are attached to L2 and L3 in the alpha subunit common to all glycoprotein hormones and one N-linked oligosaccharide is linked to L1 in the LH beta subunit. A second Nglycosylation site is found in beta L1 of other hormones. When associated with the LH beta subunit, the common alpha subunit is glycosylated in a LH-specific manner. The Asn-linked oligosaccharides are essential for biological activity and variations in their structures somehow modulate LH activity. Total deglycosylation of LH increases receptor binding affinity, but virtually eliminates biological activity. In the alpha subunit L2 oligosaccharide plays a critical role in conferring biological activity, but this is modulated by beta L1 oligosaccharide. Accordingly, it is essential to characterize the oligosaccharides at both alpha L2 and beta L1 in order to predict the biological activity of LH. The present study is part of an effort to simultaneously characterize LH N-glycosylation sites using mass spectrometry. Site identification relies on the mass differences in the glycosylation signal sequences, or sequons, which differ in the second residue of the AsnXaa-Thr sequon (NIT, NHT, and NAT for oLH and NVT, NHT, and NTT for hLH).


Objective To study the changes of perfusion parameters in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) perfusion technique. Methods Perfusion CT images were obtained in 30 patients with HCC and 30 control subjects. A single-slice dynamic CT was performed after an intravenous bolus injection of 50 ml of contrast material and continued for 50 seconds at a speed of 4.0 ml/s. The parameters were calculated by deconvolution method, and perfusion maps and quantitative parameters were created. Results For HCC, the decreased parameters such as HBF, HBV, HPP and the increased parameters such as HAP, HAI in HCC were differentiated from the apparently normal liver adjacent to cancer and the normal liver region (P0.05). All the parameters between the normal liver adjacent to cancer and normal liver region have no differences (P0.05). Conclusion Perfusion CT can provide quantitative information about arterial and portal blood flow of HCC.


A diode-pumped quasi-three-level Nd:GdVO4 laser emitting at a wavelength of 912 nm corresponding to the 4F3/2 — 4I9/2 transition of the neodymium ion and at the second-harmonic linewidth of 456 nm after intracavity frequency doubling in a KNbO3 crystal is studied. The maximum output power at the fundamental frequency was 2.96 W and the conversion efficiency amounted to 48 %. The second-harmonic output power achieved 220 mW for the conversion efficiency of 15 %.


ECR (electron cyclotron resonance) sources are now commonly in use for the production of highly charged ions. For the operation of this type of source a solenoidal magnetic field is necessary. In the present work the influence of this axial field on the extracted ion beam is investigated. The ion optics are mainly determined by the curvature of the plasma boundary. Computer simulations demonstrate the dominant role of space charge.


Our summer issue begins with a three-part special section on phenomenologies of perception in screen media. These articles focus on novel technological means of representing embodied, lived experience, as well as ways that visual media can impact embodied spectatorship. Each examines media artworks that attempt to represent the seemingly intangible, such as loss, decay, and temporality. The authors in this section offer nuanced and ethically oriented phenomenologies of vision, motion, and time. In "Projecting the Colors of Vision," Wendy Haslem discusses how artists working in animation, cinema, and virtual reality use visual media to represent the lived experience of sight loss. Haslem analyzes the "haptic optics" of Yoav Brill's Ishihara (2010), Derek Jarman's Blue (1993), and James Spinney and Peter Middleton's Notes on Blindness (2016) to show how these artists use technological tools and experiments with color to represent diverse, embodied experiences of visual disability, and to encourage "empathic awareness" in viewers. In his article, Yifei Sun critiques the analog-contingent theories of movement put forward by Henri Bergson and Gilles Deleuze. Sun modifies aspects of Deleuze's Cinema 1: The Movement-Image to offer a theory that accommodates the qualities of digital film. Sun considers the possibilities for software art to produce what he calls "voyeuristic authorship" and applies his "ontology of decay" to Marc Lafia and Fang-Yu Lin's The Battle of Algiers (2006). In "Aesthetics of Slowness, Aesthetics of Boredom," Giulia Tronconi examines slow cinema's phenomenology of time. Tronconi offers an incisive reading of Tsai Ming-liang's films I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2006) and Days (2020) that reveals how the filmmaker uses "felt duration" as a strategy to cultivate "empathic contemplation" and "respectful observation" in viewers. The author engages with the work of Schopenhauer and Heidegger and with Deleuze's Cinema 2: The Time-Image to explain the political and ethical potential of delaying movement in film.


GaN metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) ultraviolet photodetectors with titanium tungsten (TiW) transparent electrodes were fabricated and characterized. It was found that the 10-nm-thick TiW film deposited with a 300-W RF power can still provide a reasonably high transmittance of 75.1% at 300 nm, a low resistivity of 1.7/spl times/10/sup -3/ /spl Omega//spl middot/cm and an effective Schottky barrier height of 0.773 eV on u-GaN. We also achieved a peak responsivity of 0.192 A/W and a quantum efficiency of 66.4% from the GaN ultraviolet MSM photodetector with TiW electrodes. With a 3-V applied bias, it was found that minimum noise equivalent power and maximum D/sup */ of our detector were 1.987/spl times/10/sup -10/ W and 6.365/spl times/10/sup 9/ cmHz/sup 0.5/W/sup -1/, respectively.


We give a counter example to the comparison principle for the multipoint BVPs (by
Xuxin Yang, Zhimin He, and Jianhua Shen, in Mathematical Problems in Engineering, Volume 2009,
Article ID 258090, doi:10.1155/2009/258090). Then we suggest and prove a corrected version of
the comparison principle.


Chairman: Paul T. David, University of Virginia Papers: Donald R. Matthews and James W. Prothro, University of North Carolina, "Southern Images of Political Parties: A Comparison of Negro and White Attitudes" Howard Penniman, Georgetown University, "The Republican party's Strategy Problem in Dealing with the South" Discussants: Harry Holloway, University of Oklahoma James A. Moss, Union College William B. Prendergast, Director of Research, Republican National Committee John C. Wahlke, Vanderbilt University


Intraperitoneal adhesions are a common problem in abdominal surgery. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of Statofilm, a novel antiadhesive film based on cross‐linked carboxymethylcellulose and atorvastatin, with that of sodium hyaluronate–carboxymethylcellulose (Seprafilm®) in the prevention of postoperative intraperitoneal adhesions in rats.


Peptide deformylase (PDF) is a non-heme iron enzyme that contains a mononuclear iron(II) center bound by two histidines, one cysteine, and a catalytically active water/hydroxide ligand. This enzyme catalyzes the deformylation of the N-terminus of newly formed polypeptides, and is found mostly in bacteria. It has come under scrutiny as a target for new antibiotics, and therefore its mechanism of action is of interest from a practical as well as fundamental perspective. Examination of the primary sequence, structure, and function of PDF suggest that this enzyme belongs to the mononuclear zinc enzyme family, yet there is strong evidence that the metal ion in vivo is iron(II), not zinc(II). Moreover, the zinc(II) form of the protein, Zn(II)-PDF, is much less active than Fe(II)PDF. In order to understand the role of the metal ion in the mechanism of PDF, and in particular, the unusual metal dependence of the reactivity of this enzyme, we have synthesized a series of model complexes of the active site. The hydrolytic reactivity of one of these complexes, (PATH)ZnOH, will be presented in regard to carboxylic ester (4-nitrophenylacetate) and phosphate ester (tris(4-nitrophenyl)phosphate) substrates. Detailed kinetic analyses, including pH-rate profiles and activation parameters, point to different mechanisms of hydrolysis for the different substrates, and demonstrate the flexible nature of zinc(II) in a tetrahedral, NNS(thiolate) environment. The synthesis and structural characterization of zinc(II)-formate and iron(II)-formate complexes will also be described along with theoretical calculations on these and related complexes. A rationale regarding the low reactivity of Zn(II)-PDF as compared to Fe(II)-PDF is proposed based on a combination of the kinetic and structural results described above and recent data on the enzyme.


Alumina nanotemplates integrated on silicon substrate with pore diameters of 12?100?nm were prepared by galvanostatic (constant current) anodization. High current density (e.g.?100?mA?cm?2) promoted a highly ordered hexagonal pore structure with fast formation rate independent of anodizing solution. Alumina formation rates of 2000 and 1000?nm?min?1 were achieved at current densities of 100 and 50?mA?cm?2, respectively. These rates were approximately two orders of magnitude greater than other reports in the literature. Different electrolytes of sulfuric acid (1.8?7.2?M), oxalic acid (0.3?M) and mixed solutions of sulfuric and oxalic acids were evaluated as anodizing solutions. At fixed current density, sulfuric acid promoted smaller pore diameter with lower porosity than mixed acids and oxalic acid. The I?V characteristics of aluminium anodization show the measured voltages at given current densities strongly depend on solution composition, operating temperature, and bath agitation. The pore diameter of the silicon-integrated alumina nanotemplate varied linearly with measured voltage with a slope of 2.1?nm?V?1, which is slightly smaller than reported data.


The utility model discloses curtain wall assembling, overturning and hoisting equipment. The curtain wall assembling, overturning and hoisting equipment comprises a plane assembling trolley, an overturning emitting trolley and a lifting hoisting trolley; the plane assembling trolley and the overturning emitting trolley are arranged in the same floor; the lifting hoisting trolley is arranged in the previous floor; an unit curtain wall is assembled on the plane assembling trolley, conveyed to the overturning emitting trolley to be overturned, and then is hoisted in place by virtue of the lifting hoisting trolley. According to the curtain wall assembling, overturning and hoisting equipment disclosed by the utility model, the plane assembling trolley can be freely lifted convenient for splicing; the problem that the overturning cannot be carried out indoor can be solved by virtue of the overturning emitting trolley; the lifting hoisting trolley has amplitude adjusting function, so that the construction efficiency is improved; and the application mechanical equipment can be precisely controlled, and has high controllability and high precision in operation.


A piezoelectric quartz microactuator based on a new driving mechanism is reported. The actuator is fabricated by anisotropic etching of a Z-cut quartz substrate and operatred by means of piezoelectricity. The uniqueness of the actuator is that large static displacement is generated under AC volutage at the mechanical resonant frequency (8.5 kHz). Therefore, we call it a pseudo-static displacement actuator. The pseudo-static displacement is relatively large (40 µm), considering the size of the actuator (5 mm across). Furthermore, it is 20 time larger than the displacement in true DC volage operation.


Iterative closest point (ICP) algorithms are widely used in the literature for the estimation of relative transformations using 3-D light detection and ranging (LiDAR) point clouds. This class of algorithms proves to be efficient when the 3-D data share sufficient overlapping parts and a good initial guess is provided. However, large relative motions and mutual occlusion of objects in real-road scenarios hinder traditional optimization-based ICP from achieving optimal estimation. This article explores both direct and feature-based 3-D LiDAR scan matching using the ICP framework in different contexts, such as parking, residential, urban, and highway scenarios. In order to guarantee the scan matching performances in scenarios with scarce geometric information and fast ego-vehicle motion, we propose an adaptive semidirect scan matching (SD-SM) method together with an alignment uncertainty quantification. The proposed SD-SM is tested on both the public KITTI and self-recorded LS2N datasets, which accomplishes the robust six-degree-of-freedom (DOF) pose estimation and consistent scene reconstruction. We demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms the state of the art and achieves the leading results with 68.3% average relative fitness and 5.71-cm average root-mean-square error (RMSE).


By taking into account base–base stacking interactions we improve the Generalized Model of Polypeptide Chain (GMPC). Based on a one‐dimensional Potts‐like model with many‐particle interactions, the GMPC describes the helix–coil transition in both polypeptides and polynucleotides. In the framework of the GMPC we show that correctly introduced nearest‐neighbor stacking interactions against the background of hydrogen bonding lead to increased stability (melting temperature) and, unexpectedly, to decreased cooperativity (maximal correlation length). The increase in stability is explained as due to an additional stabilizing interaction (stacking) and the surprising decrease in cooperativity is seen as a result of mixing of contributions of hydrogen bonding and stacking. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers, 2004


This paper presents a linearly polarized beam reconfigurable microstrip parasitic antenna deployed with rectangular parasitic elements. In this design, three variation of beam steering is controlled adopting two RF switches (currently copper pins for proof of concept). The effects of some parameter changes such as the spacing between parasitic element and center element and size of the parasitic element are analyzed in order to investigate the beam steering characteristic of this antenna. The proposed antenna able to steer the main beam to three different directions +30°, 0° and - 30° while maintaining constant return loss bandwidth around center frequency of 5.8 GHz. Operating around 5.8 GHz frequency, this antenna is capable to be used for WIFI and WIMAX applications.


In connection with the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the law of the RF «On the Status of Judges in the Russian Federation», the author presents an assessment of the existing theory and practice of understanding the principle of the independence of judges in criminal court proceedings through the prism of the requirements imposed on judges. Two aspects are stressed - committing actions that diminish the authority of the judicial power (violations of the Judges Code of Ethics) and the conflict of interests. Having analyzed the established work practice of the Judicial Qualification Committees of the subjects of the Russian Federation, the author states that there is no unified approach to proving the violations of the procedural law and their connection with the violation of the Judges Code of Ethics. The section of the article devoted to the necessity of avoiding a conflict of interests highlights that the currently used legal regulation of this issue is non-systemic, and also presents a description of the position of Judicial Qualification Committees regarding the differentiation of approaches to evaluating a conflict of interests for candidates to judges and for acting judges. The conducted research allowed the author to state that if the abovementioned Code provides for an opportunity to disqualify a judge due to violations of ethical prescriptions, then the corresponding clauses should be reflected in the law and should totally exclude multiple interpretations. In its turn, in order to develop a uniform practice of understanding a conflict of interests by Judicial Qualification Committees, it is necessary to provide a legal regulation of the so-called feedback with the goal of providing them with motivated decisions on the appointment of the candidates they approved as judges or the refusal to do so, which will contribute to ensuring the consistency of the law enforcement practice and will give the Committees confidence regarding the correctness of their decisions.


that link the multifaceted dimensions of Innovation Systems (ISs) to economic systems over time. This dissertation is composed of a compendium of four interrelated papers. The first one, 'How Innovation Systems and Development Theories Complement Each Other' coauthored with Mario Pansera, aims at relating selected theories of development to IS. The second paper, 'A New Panel Dataset for Cross-country Analyses of National Systems, Growth and Development (CANA)', written with Fulvio Castellacci, provided full time series data over the last three decades for 134 countries. The paper offers an alternative to missing data issues for cross-country analyses. We constructed a data set composed of 41 indicators, measuring innovation and technological capabilities, and other absorptive capacity variables. The paper 'Innovation, Absorptive Capacity and Growth Heterogeneity: Development Paths in Latin America 1970–2010', written with Fulvio Castellacci, analyses the long-run development paths in 18 Latin American countries, by relating absorptive capacity, innovation and economic growth variables. The final paper, 'The Dynamics of National Innovation Systems: A Panel Cointegration Analysis of the Coevolution Between Innovative Capability and Absorptive Capacity', written with Fulvio Castellacci, investigates the dynamics of national IS. The results indicate that the dynamics of national IS is driven by the coevolution of three innovative capability and absorptive capacity. This general result differs and takes specific patterns at different levels of development. A central conclusion points out the coevolution between innovative capabilities, absorptive capacity and economic development. This highlights that reductionist approaches that do not consider the multidimensional nature of development are likely to fail to provide pertinent assessments. Two main recommendations come out: first, the combination of innovation and imitation policies is the best practice that could be suggested to policy-makers; second, solutions should be country-specific: based on the revealed capabilities and the interactions among them, societies should coordinate and agree on how to construct the competences they need.


The utilization of plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) has started to garner more attention worldwide considering the environmental and economic benefits. This has led to the invention of new technologies and motifs associated with batteries, bidirectional converters and inverters for Electric Vehicle applications. In this paper, a novel design and control of chopper circuit is proposed and configured with the series and parallel connection of the power electronic based switches for two-way operation of the converter. The bidirectional action of the proposed converter makes it suitable for plug-in electric vehicle applications as the grid is becoming smarter. The DC–DC converter is further interfaced with the designed multilevel inverter (MLI). The reduced switches associated with the novel design of MLI have overcome the cons associated with the conventional inverters in terms of enhanced performance in the proposed design. Further, novel control strategies have been proposed for the DC–DC converter based on Proportional Integral (PI) and Fuzzy based control logic. For the first time, the performance of the entire system is evaluated based on the comparison of proposed PI, fuzzy, and hybrid controllers. New rules have been formulated for the Fuzzy based controllers that are associated with the Converter design. This has further facilitated the interface of bidirectional DC–DC converter with the proposed MLI for an enhanced output voltage. The results indicate that the proposed hybrid controller provides better performance in terms of voltage gain, ripple, efficiency and overall aspects of power quality that forms the crux for PEV applications. The novelty of the design and control of the overall topology has been manifested based on simulation using MATLAB/SIMULINK.


Financial institutions have extended their competitive realm through issuing warrants as retail products. By comparing products from different financial institutions which are similar in all respects, but are differently priced through different implied volatilities, market inefficiencies are demonstrated. Competition between issuers lead to clearly identifiable market strategies. It is further argued that issuers, by providing less than complete market information, have developed a position of relative strength, compared to the buyers of warrants.


The background error covariance is an important component in data assimilation systems, which largely dominates the error correlations between different analysis variables. This study aimed to assess the impact of the determination of the background error length and variance scale factors on the track and intensity forecast of hurricane systems for radar radial velocity (Vr) data assimilation. To test the sensitivity of the background error length scale and variance scale, multiple data assimilation analyses were performed using a 3D variational data assimilation method with a parameter‐sweeping strategy for the case of Hurricane Ike (2008) by varying the decorrelation length scale (LEN_SCALING) and the variance (VAR_SCALING) of the background error step by step. It is shown that, in radar Vr data assimilation, generally smaller variance scale and length scale factors tend to improve the prediction of the hurricane track. Setting both VAR_SCALING and LEN_SCALING equivalent to 0.4 provides a better track than other combinations. In particular, the impact of the variance scale factor on the track forecasts is larger than that of the length scale factor. There is no direct impact of tuning variance scales and length scales on the forecast intensity for the first few forecast hours. Tuning length scale factors less than 0.4 provides smaller forecast errors of minimum sea level pressure and maximum surface wind with increasing forecast lead time.


Quorum sensing is a mechanism in which bacteria coordinate the expression of certain genes in response to their population density.Many marine vibrios are important pathogens in aquaculture and many pathogenic vibrios are found to control the expression of virulence factors by quorum sensing system. The frequent use of antibiotics is leading to the rapid development of resistance. There is an urgent need to develop alternative ways to control infections caused by bacterial pathogens in aquaculture.Disruption of bacterial quorum sensing has been proposed as a new anti-infective strategy. This article summarize the quorum sensing systems in marine vibrios, the modes of signal interference and their potential applications in aquaculture.


The Geomorphic Oscillation Assessment Tool (GOAT) quantifies terrain roughness as a mechanism to better explain forward arming and refueling point (FARP) suitability for Army aviation. An empirically driven characteristic of FARP consideration, surface roughness is a key discriminator for site utility in complex terrain. GOAT uses a spatial sampling of high-resolution elevation and land cover data to construct data frames, which enable a relational analysis of component and aggregate site suitability. By incorporating multiple criteria from various doctrinal sources, GOAT pro-duces a composite quality assessment of the areal options available to the aviation commander. This report documents and demonstrates version 1.0 of the GOAT algorithms developed by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). These details will allow users familiar with R to implement it as a stand-alone program or in R Studio.


Reconstruction of the shoulder joint by replacement of the upper part of the humerus and glenohumeral joint was first attempted by Rovsing, who used a fibular bone graft as a replacement for the proximal part of the humerus in 1910. Individual cases of fibular replacement were subsequently published with generally poor functional results 1,2.8,9 More recently, prosthetic replacement of the upper end of the humerus with attachment of the rotator cuff and other muscular remnants to metal loops on the prosthesis was described 3,4.6, In one of these cases , the patient regained active abduction to 45 degrees; but the amount of active abduction, flexion, and rotation was not mentioned in the other reports. In Parrish's three cases ofallograft replacement of the proximal end of the humerus using cadaver bone, all three patients had deltoid atrophy, anterior subluxation of the humeral head, and varying degrees of avascular necrosis at last follow-up. Active abduction was 30 degrees in two and 20 degrees in one of these patients. Active external rotation was 10 degrees in two patients and less than 10 degrees in one. In the case presented here, a fibular-bone graft and a long-stem Neer prosthesis were used in an attempt to create a stable, congruous glenohumeral articulation and adequate insertions for the rotator cuff, deltoid, and pectoralis major where tendon-to-bone healing could occur.


Everyday communication mostly occurs in the presence of various background noises and competing talkers. Studies have shown that musical training could have a positive effect on auditory processing, particularly in challenging listening situations. To our knowledge, no groups have specifically studied the advantage of musical training on perception of consonants in the presence of background noise. We hypothesized that musician advantage in speech in noise processing may also result in enhanced perception of speech units such as consonants in noise. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the recognition of stops and fricatives, which constitute the highest number of Persian consonants, in the presence of 12-talker babble noise between musicians and non-musicians. For this purpose, stops and fricatives presented in the consonant-vowel-consonant format and embedded in three signal-to-noise ratios of 0, −5, and −10 dB. The study was conducted on 40 young listeners (20 musicians and 20 non-musicians) with normal hearing. Our outcome indicated that musicians outperformed the non-musicians in recognition of stops and fricatives in all three signal-to-noise ratios. These findings provide important evidence about the impact of musical instruction on processing of consonants and highlight the role of musical training on perceptual abilities.


We report a longitudinal survey of a 53-year-old man suffering from right knee osteoarthritis who has undergone total knee replacement (TKR). We aimed at evaluating the effect of a short preoperative isokinetic strengthening program on the functional status, pain, and quadriceps and hamstrings strength before and after TKR. The patient performed a 4-week (6 sessions) preoperative isokinetic strengthening program of the quadriceps and hamstrings. The findings for the concentric strength at 60∘/s, 6-minute walk test (6MWT), and Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) were recorded. At baseline the patient presented with an overall KOOS score of 44%, a 6MWT of 444 m, a 63% and 21% strength deficits of the quadriceps and hamstrings, respectively. Following the strengthening program, the quadriceps strength of the operated limb improved (+121 Nm; +83%), but the function as reflected by the KOOS score remained unchanged. Following the TKR, the concentric isokinetic strength of the quadriceps reappeared altered (63% of deficit) despite pain and functional improvements. This case report underlines the importance of functional evaluation rather than the maximal strength to assess the effectiveness of TKR. However, further studies are necessary to conceptualize the meaning of maximal strength measurement and the impact of associated deficits, if any.


Although rare in most developed countries, tuberculous and brucellar spondylodiscitis are still frequent in the mediterranean countries. Management of spondylodiscitis may require a surgical intervention in cases of spinal cord or root compression, bone destructions and deformities, unsuccessfull medical treatment or large abcesses.To study characteristics and outcome of surgically treated tuberculous and brucellar spondylodiscitis.Medical records of patients who were admitted into the physical therapy and rehabilitation ward immediately post surgery of the spine were retrospectively studied. The study included records from January 2010 to December 2020.Twenty patients were diagnosed with tuberculous or brucellar spondylodiscitis for which they underwent surgery. The mean age of diagnosis was 49.7± 11.9 years. The sex ratio was 1:1. The diagnosis was delayed in 60% of the cases due to atypical presentations. Fatigue was reported in 45% of the patients, back pain in 60% of the cases, radicular pain in 15% of the cases, fever in 20% of the patients and abnormal gait in 60% of the cases. Tuberculosis was identified in 75% of cases and brucellar infection in 25% of the cases. On biology, elevated inflammatory markers were noted in 60% of the cases. Intradermal reaction for tuberculosis was positive in 9 patients while cultures allowed the diagnosis of tuberculosis in 1 patient. Wright serology test confirmed the diagnosis of brucellar infection in all 5 cases. In the remaing ones, vertebral biopsy or intraoperative samples allowed the diagnosis of the tuberculous spondylodiscitis. Cervical spine involvement was noted in 5% of cases, lumbar spine in 25% and dorsal spine in 30% of the cases. All patients recieved antibiotics and spinal immobilization. Surgery was indicated in 78.6% of cases for spinal cord decompression and in 21.4% of the cases for voluminous abcesses. Anterior approach was used in 7.1% of the cases and posterior approach in 92.9% of cases. 23.1% of the patients benifited concomitantly with spinal fusion surgery. Post operative success was immediately confirmed by recovery of normal gait in 15.4% of the patients. Complications after surgery were reported in 35.7% of the cases. They consisted in spinal instability in 60% of the cases, abcesses in 20% of the cases and the emergence of secondary articular localizations in 20% of the cases. 28.6% of the patients underwent a second surgery mainly to stabalize the spine. Before surgery, walking was impossible for 65% of the patients and 12 months after surgery only 30% of the patients couldn't walk (p=0.001). 15.8% of the patients developed later on pressure ulcers and 45% of the patients were prescribed appropriate wheelchairs.Spinal surgery in tuberculous or brucellar spondylitis may be indicated if medical treatment is insufficient and especially if neurological complications occur. Surgery may be invasive with various complications but sometimes it could be the only option to treat a neurological deficit.[1]Guerado E, Cerván AM. Surgical treatment of spondylodiscitis. An update. Int Orthop 2012; 36: 413–420.None declared.


Abstract : This thesis investigates a novel approach to identifying discriminating features of communications involving abusive hosts. The technique uses per-packet Transport Control Protocol (TCP) header and timing features to identify congestion, flow-control, and other low-level network and system characteristics. These characteristics are inherent to the poorly connected, under-provisioned, low-end, and overloaded hosts or links typical of abusive infrastructure, making them difficult for an adversary to manipulate. Supervised classifiers use these features to infer likely abusive network hosts. Prior work investigates such features to opportunistically identify inbound abusive traffic. This thesis seeks to perform active probing to generally characterize abusive infrastructure. Our approach is IP address and content agnostic, and therefore privacy-preserving to permit wider deployment than previously possible. On real-world traces obtained from accessing approximately 40,000 Alexa and 30,000 known-abusive web sites, we achieve a classification accuracy of 94 percent with a 3 percent false positive rate using only transport features. Our results suggest that transport traffic analysis can block and identify, in real-time, abusive hosts unknown to blocklists, and provide a difficult-to-subvert addition to existing schemes.


The vacuum arc cathode spot can be applied to pretreatment of thermal spray because it can remove oxide layer on the metal surface. However, the cathode spot affected by the oxide layer remains unclear. In this paper, the dynamics and energy balance of cathode spot affected by the vapor from the oxide layer and the metal surface were elucidated. The distribution of temperature, electromagnetic field, and velocity were calculated by the 3D electromagnetic thermal fluid simulation. As a result, the cathode spot moved to oxide layer side because the vapor from oxide layer raised the electrical conductivity near cathode surface. The vapor induced ion current to oxide layer side, and ion heating on metal surface increased.


AbstractThis paper seeks to calibrate an existing analytical framework to develop building repair fragility models using a restoration dataset collected through a longitudinal field study in the ci...


Benzo(e)pyrene is a weak carcinogen and mutagen in contrast to theoretical calculations that predict substantial carcinogenic potential for this positional isomer of benzo(a)pyrene. Earlier short-term studies have shown metabolism in intact cells strongly favor attack of B(e)P by the mixed function oxidases at the K-region and distal to the bay-region. Current studies have extended incubation times to four days to determine if long-term induction would result in formation of bay-region metabolites and could account for the weak positive carcinogenic and mutagenic activity reported in the literature.


Summary Relatively simple EDTA titration methods for the determination of muscle calcium and magnesium are given. Calcium is precipitated with ammonium oxalate; the oxalate is destroyed by heating with perchloric acid; and then the calcium is titrated with EDTA using either calcein or Calred as the indicator. Magnesium is precipitated with oxine; the oxine is destroyed by heating with perchloric acid; then sufficient EDTA is added in the presence of either calcein or Calred until the color of the indicator changes, after which the magnesium is titrated with additional EDTA using Eriochrome Black T as the indicator.


2. Phylogenetic, ontogenetic, and functional development 3. The general structural organization of the neocortex 4. General neurophysiology of the cortex 5. Spontaneous and evoked cortical potentials 6. Functional topography of sensory and motor areas 7. The association cortex 8. Significance of the cerebral cortex for cognitive and symbolic activity 9. The allocortex and limbic system 10. A general model of cortical function: concluding considerations


Abstract. Aim. The aim of the work was to study the characteristics of the ecology, the chorology and genesis of thesnout beetles of Ptochus genus in Dagestan, as well as designing the maps of their ranges. Materials and methods . The work was based on the materials of expedition and ecology-faunistic studies conducted from 1999 to 2017 in various regions of Dagestan using the basic entomological methods. For mapping were used the following source materials: the database created by the authors for the study group, the map of the Republic of Dagestan taken fromthe National Atlas of Russia, topographic maps from MapInfo 15.2 and maps made in Adobe Illustrator CreativeCloud. Results . The characteristics of the ecology and geographic distribution of the snout beetles of Ptochus genus in Dagestan have been studied; the following maps are created: "The areas of the snout beetles of Ptochus genus of Dagestan" and "The areas of the snout beetles of Ptochus genus of the Botlikh trench of Dagestan". Conclusion . In the fauna of Dagestan, 7 species of Ptochus snout beetles, associated with arid steppe and semidesert landscapes,ed distribution maps and bioecological features, a hypothesis was put forward on the genesis of the study group in the territory of Dagestan.


Performance of Management Protocols.- Efficient Information Retrieval in Network Management Using Web Services.- On Delays in Management Frameworks: Metrics, Models and Analysis.- Performance Analysis of SNMP over SSH.- Complexity of Service Management.- Uncertainty in Global Application Services with Load Sharing Policy.- Predictable Scaling Behaviour in the Data Centre with Multiple Application Servers.- Quantifying the Complexity of IT Service Management Processes.- Ontologies and Network Management.- Ontology-Based Knowledge Representation for Self-governing Systems.- An Ontology-Based Approach to the Description and Execution of Composite Network Management Processes for Network Monitoring.- Towards a Managed Extensible Control Plane for Knowledge-Based Networking.- Management of Next Generation Networks and Services.- Voice Quality on the Internet in 2005 as Measured by www.TestYourVoIP.com.- A WSDM-Based Architecture for Global Usage Characterization of Grid Computing Infrastructures.- Management of DiffServ-over-MPLS Transit Networks with BFD/OAM in ForCES Architecture.- Business and Service Management.- Detecting Bottleneck in n-Tier IT Applications Through Analysis.- Fast Extraction of Adaptive Change Point Based Patterns for Problem Resolution in Enterprise Systems.- Business-Driven Decision Support for Change Management: Planning and Scheduling of Changes.- Security and Policy Based Management.- Using Argumentation Logic for Firewall Policy Specification and Analysis.- ZERO-Conflict: A Grouping-Based Approach for Automatic Generation of IPSec/VPN Security Policies.- Conflict Prevention Via Model-Driven Policy Refinement.- Short Papers.- Minimum-Intrusion Approaches for In-Service BER Estimation in Transparent WDM Networks.- Ontology-Based Policy Refinement Using SWRL Rules for Management Information Definitions in OWL.- Reconfiguring Self-stabilizing Publish/Subscribe Systems.- Policy and Profile: Enabling Self-knowledge for Autonomic Systems.- Supporting Approaches for Network Management.- DECA: A Hierarchical Framework for DECentralized Aggregation in DHTs.- Towards Distributed Hash Tables (De)Composition in Ambient Networks.- CMDB - Yet Another MIB? On Reusing Management Model Concepts in ITIL Configuration Management.


Maintenance of cerebral energy metabolism and neurotransmitter amino acid homeostasis are crucial elements for preservation of normal brain function. Hence the scope of this thesis was to elucidate ...


Uterus‐like mass composed of a cavity lined by mucosa resembling endometrium and surrounding smooth muscle layer simulating myometrium is an extremely rare disease entity of which the histogenesis is presently unknown. A 39‐year‐old, gravida 2, para 2, woman presented with sudden onset of lower abdominal pain and was found to have left adnexal mass with unusual image diagnostic appearance. The adnexal mass arising from the left ovarian ligament was excised by laparoendoscopic single‐site surgery. Histopathological diagnosis was uterus‐like mass of ovarian ligament.


Software testing practices can improve software reliability. This is a fact that the long history of disasters caused by poorly tested software should not allow us to forget. However, as software grows, its test suite becomes larger and its execution time may become a problem to software developers. This is especially stronger for agile methodologies, which preach a short develop/test cycle. Moreover, due to the increasing complexity of systems, it is not enough to test software only in the development environment. We need to test the software in a variety of environments. In this paper we investigate how the Grid can help with both problems and present a framework to use the intrinsic characteristics of the Grid to speed up the software testing process.


[Objective]To analyze the epidemic features of infectious disease,and provide scientific evidence for developing control measures.[Methods] The descriptive epidemiology method was adopted to conduct analysis on surveillance data of infectious disease collected from 1998—2007.[Results]8584 cases of 14 kinds of category B infectious disease were reported,87 were death cases;697 cases of 6 kinds of category C were reported,with 15 death cases.A total of 9281 cases were reported,102 were death cases,with the annual incidence and mortality rate of 299.93/100 000 and 3.29/100 000.The incidence of intestinal infectious diseases were 92.62/100 000~166.85/100 000,holding the first place of infectious disease,with the annual incidence of 123.51/100 000.The incidence of respiratory infectious disease raised from 48.37/100 000 in 1998 to 98.22/100 000 in 2007,holding the second place of infectious disease,with the annual incidence of 105.64/100 000.The incidence of zoonotic diseases and arthropod-borne diseases were 14.66/100 000~78.64/100 000,holding the third place,with the annual incidence of 38.29/100 000.The incidence of blood and sexual transmission diseases raised from 14.4/100 000 in 1998 to 40.69/100 000 in 2007,holding the fourth place,with the annual incidence of 32.47/100 000.[Conclusion] In the last decade,the incidence of intestinal infectious disease in Sandu county has been in a high level,however there is a small decline;the incidence of respiratory infectious disease,zoonotic diseases and arthropod-borne diseases,blood and sexual transmission diseases has obviously increased.


This paper introduces and inherit the multi-level trusted system model that solves the Trojan virus by encrypting the privacy of user data, and achieve the principle: "not to read the high priority hierarchy, not to write the hierarchy with low priority". Thus ensuring that the low-priority data privacy leak does not affect the disclosure of high-priority data privacy. This paper inherits the multi-level trustworthy system model of Trojan horse and divides seven different risk levels. The priority level 1∼7 represent the low to high value of user data privacy, and realize seven kinds of encryption with different execution efficiency Algorithm, the higher the priority, the greater the value of user data privacy, at the expense of efficiency under the premise of choosing a more encrypted encryption algorithm to ensure data security. For enterprises, the price point is determined by the unit equipment users to decide the length of time. The higher the risk sub-group algorithm, the longer the encryption time....


Large-scale floods have the potential to generate substantial economic losses. Within Europe, governments have dealt with these losses in different ways, which may or may not have enhanced adaptability of their societies. In this research we develop a classification of insurance and compensation systems to deal with losses from floods. We suggest that, from the perspective of adaptive capacity to uncertain future risks, commercial flood insurance is to be preferred on the basis of the assumption that commercial insurance premiums are better capable of transferring price signals of actual flood risks. Such systems can therefore give stronger incentives for risk reduction. Next, we describe the actual insurance and compensation systems for dealing with flood losses that have been set up in 19 European countries. Our findings are that the availability of commercial flood insurance is widespread in Europe. However, actual market penetration can be called high (50% or more) in only 7 countries. To get an indication of the dynamic behind this, we statistically assess whether or not the choice of flood risk management system and factors such as market penetration are related to flood risks and socioeconomic aspects, such as population size and GDP. This analysis indicates that country surface area and population size seem to be the dominant factors for determining the type of flood insurance system, and therefore possibilities may exist in some European countries to increase the share of commercial flood insurance. In some countries flood hazards and flood risks may be too high for the private sector to provide full cover. This implies also that there is a continued role for governments in helping to increase the market penetration of private flood insurance, as well as for loss prevention programmes. Further harmonisation of insurance regulation in Europe could increase the possibilities for private insurance companies to take on risks.


Modernization of Agriculture plays a vital part in china' modernization,and the key way to strengthen and develop agriculture is to increase the product competitiveness.This paper begins with the definition of product competitiveness and its related theories,discusses the influencing factors of our agricultural product competitiveness.Based on the above seven countermeasures are put forward,which includes adjustment of industrial structure,establishment of series of standardization,scientific innovation and so on.


We prove the boundedness properties for the multilinear operator associated to the generalized fractional singular integral operator for the extreme cases.


Learning of continuous valued functions using neural network ensembles (committees) can give improved accuracy, reliable estimation of the generalization error, and active learning. The ambiguity is defined as the variation of the output of ensemble members averaged over unlabeled data, so it quantifies the disagreement among the networks. It is discussed how to use the ambiguity in combination with cross-validation to give a reliable estimate of the ensemble generalization error, and how this type of ensemble cross-validation can sometimes improve performance. It is shown how to estimate the optimal weights of the ensemble members using unlabeled data. By a generalization of query by committee, it is finally shown how the ambiguity can be used to select new training data to be labeled in an active learning scheme.


In this study, diffusional and antimicrobial properties of the active‐multilayer plastic films (LDPE/polyamide/LDPE‐2% antimicrobial agent) were assessed. To understand the diffusion of antimicrobials from the active plastic films containing nisin, potassium sorbate, silver substituted zeolite, or chitosan, the active‐multilayer plastic films has been put in different food simulating solutions. The food simulating solutions had various pH (3.0–7.0) and water activity (0.65–0.95) levels and were incubated at various storage temperatures (5–25°C). The release experiments for the combinations of the factors were set according to three factors face‐centered central composite design (CCF) of the response surface methodology (RSM). The diffusion rate constant (D) was calculated using Fick's law approach. The D of nisin and silver substituted zeolite was affected by pH or temperature, while aw is not a significant factor. However, Dps was found to be the highest and depended on all factors (4.45–10.04 × 10−14 cm2/s). Furthermore, no chitosan release was detected from the film matrix. The antimicrobial effectiveness of the films against microorganisms that were Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Candida albicans, and Aspergillus niger varied according to the film type, which was verified by a challenge test on the kaşar cheese surface. Moreover, nisin and silver substituted zeolite incorporated films showed great potential to inhibit bacteria, yeast, and molds. All active films, which were studied, had featured tasks for being active food packaging material and diffused in allowance limits.


Traditional Korean music is classified into aak (ceremonial music) minsogak (folk music) and jeongak (classical music) or pungnyubang music, in which the traditional aak and minsogak are merged. First, among aak, jongmyo jeryeak expresses the merit and virtue of the successive royal families, and munmyo jeryeak the learning and virtue of the Confucian school. From this perspective, the lyrics, rhythmic structure, and restraint and simplicity of the dance movements expressed in ak embody the doctrine that "great music is supposed to be easy," and clearly reveal beauty of solemnity and grandeur. Next, jeongak best demonstrates the refined nature of the Korean people. Sujecheon possesses "the beauty of slow continuity" and "the beauty of strength and gentleness" that lead to "the beauty of neutrality," the ultimate principle of the Confucian cultivation of mind. Yeongsan hoesang also demonstrates "the beauty of neutrality," through "the beauty of slow continuity." Meanwhile, pansori 's aesthetics can be found in the various forms of traditional literary art, a dynamic voice, and Confucian moral aesthetic. Also, one cycle (batang) of sanjo as a whole moves from tension to relaxation, but in its relationship to each rhythm or within the same phrase, the contrast of tension and relaxation shows an orderly structure in its own way, spread across several layers.


Unhealthy dietary habits are among the major risk factors for chronic diseases, particularly if adopted during the early years of adulthood. They are becoming more frequent due to the nutritional transition that is affecting populations across developing countries where traditional healthy diets are being progressively replaced by more westernized dietary patterns. Students generally develop unhealthy eating habits during their stay at the university. University Students' eating behavior seemed to be moderated by university characteristics, such as residency, student societies, university lifestyle, and exams. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore, how such factors psychologically influence Sri Lankan university students' eating behavior,using a qualitative research design. Applying a semi-structured interview method, six interviews were conducted with 2 male and 4 female university students selected under the convenient sampling method from the University of Peradeniya. All the collected data were analyzed using the thematic analysis method. Results showed that after the transition from secondary school to university, when independence increases, students are continuously challenged to make healthy food choices. Students eating behavior is reported to be influenced by individual factors (e.g. taste preferences, self-discipline, time and convenience), their social networks (e.g. (lack of) parental control, friends and peers), and physical environment (e.g. availability and accessibility, appeal and prices of food products).


We give three algebraic constructions of splitting algebras of monic polynomials with coefficients in arbitrary commutative rings with a unit, and of the corresponding Gysin homomorphisms.


In the next-generation linear colliders, the low-energy e{sup +}e{sup -} pairs created during the collision of high-energy e{sup +}e{sup -} beams would cause potential deleterious background problems to the detectors. At low collider energies, the pairs are made essentially by the incoherent process, where the pair is created by the interaction of beamstrahlung photons on the individual particles in the oncoming beam. This problem was first identified by Zolotarev, et al[1]. At energies where the beamstrahlung parameter {Upsilon} lies approximately in the range 0.6 {approx} 1/2{Upsilon}. Thus within a tolerable exiting angle, theremore » exists an upper limit for {Upsilon} where all coherent pairs would leave the detector through the exhaust port[4]. A somewhat different analysis has been done by Schroeder[5]. In the next generation of linear colliders, as it occurs, the coherent pairs can be exponentially suppressed[2] by properly choosing the {Upsilon}({approx}< 0.6). When this is achieved, the incoherent pairs becomes dominant. Since the central issue is the transverse momentum for particles with large angles, we notice that there is another source for it. Namely, when the pair particles are created at low energies, the intrinsic angles of these pairs when produced may already be large. This issue was first studied in Ref. [1]. In this paper we reinvestigate the problem, following essentially the same equivalent photon approach, but with changes in specific details including the virtual photon spectrum. In addition, various assumptions are made more explicit. The formulas derived are then applied to the collider parameters designed by Palmer[6].« less


Quantum computation with quantum gates induced by geometric phases is regarded as a promising strategy in fault tolerant quantum computation, due to its robustness against operational noises. However, because of the parametric restriction of previous schemes, the main robust advantage of holonomic quantum gates is smeared. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a solution scheme, demonstrating nonadiabatic holonomic single qubit quantum gates with optimal control in a trapped Yb ion based on three level systems with resonant drives, which also hold the advantages of fast evolution and convenient implementation. Compared with corresponding previous geometric gates and conventional dynamic gates, the superiority of our scheme is that it is more robust against control amplitude errors, which is confirmed by the measured gate infidelity through both quantum process tomography and random benchmarking methods. In addition, we also outline that nontrivial two qubit holonomic gates can also be realized within current experimental technologies. Therefore, our experiment validates the feasibility for this robust and fast holonomic quantum computation strategy.


Morocco is an endemic area of tuberculosis, where lung disease occupies the first place. Skin tuberculosis represents only 1 to 2% of extra pulmonary tuberculosis [1]. Its diagnosis is difficult to establish because of the polymorphism of the anatomo-clinical presentation and the multiplicity of differential diagnoses. We report the case of a child who had developed bifocal tuberculosis after tuberculous contagium, and the skin tuberculosis led to discovering pulmonary tuberculosis. Cutaneous tuberculosis occurs in several clinical forms that can coexist or complicate each other. It remains a current disease, the diagnosis of which is difficult because it is often unknown.In the case of a secondarily ulcerated and irregular nodular skin lesion, failure to respond to conventional treatment should lead to histological and bacteriological examination. Peri-orificial cutaneous tuberculosis, although rare, must also be mentioned in the face of a symptomatology that is dragging and resistant to symptomatic treatment. The improvement of living conditions and the implementation of an anti-tuberculosis control approach are essential for the eradication of the disease.


A vehicle-pedestrian impact is a complex phenomenon in which a large number of variables take part simultaneously determining the injury severity of the pedestrian. Statistical techniques were applied to data from 43 pedestrian accidents that occurred in Madrid, following a similar approach to the one applied in previous publications from authors. In this case, however, the general research objective has been oriented to model the pedestrian head injury severity as a function of the head impact speed instead of the pedestrian impact speed, and a reduced number of independent variables that affect the pedestrian impact kinematic. In previous studies authors have estimated the head injury severity using the pedestrian impact speed. The results of this paper are focused on analyzing variations on head injury severity estimations considering both the head impact speed and the pedestrian impact speed (vehicle speed); and the pedestrian impact kinematic variables influencing these variations. As a specific objective of this research the previous methodology has been applied to review thoroughly the results about the potential influence of several autonomous emergency braking systems (AEB) estimated in the previous paper of authors. The vehicle-pedestrian collisions have been in-depth investigated following a common methodology, including on the spot data collection, analysis and reconstruction to estimate the pedestrian impact speed, the head impact speed and the pedestrian kinematics. Every single case has been virtual simulated using the PC-Crash® software. The first is a reconstruction of the real accident and the following are simulations in which the operation of AEB systems are emulated. For this paper, the methodology used to estimate the head injury severity has been described previously. In summary, from the location of head contact, the collision speed and vehicle characteristics, the probability of suffering a severe (AIS3+) head injury (ISP, Injury Severity Probability) is obtained. The findings show that the head impact speed is lower than the pedestrian impact speed in the 79% of the cases. Otherwise the Injury Severity Probability considering the head impact speed is lower than the IPS estimated with the pedestrian impact speed in the 68% of the cases due to the influence of the impact area stiffness. In some cases a low reduction of the pedestrian impact speed due to the AEB systems would increase the estimated ISP (ineffective AEB cases). The interaction among collision speed, vehicle frontal design and pedestrian parameters is more relevant for the severity of the pedestrian head impact than the speed by itself. Considering the head impact speed for the ISP estimation, the number of ineffective AEB cases increases. Limitations of this research are the sample size (only one city and frontal collisions) and that no unhurt accidents have been included. The injury severity assessment within this study only considers head impacts to the front surface of the vehicle, injuries provoked by subsequent impacts were not taken into account. Hence it can be an interesting subject for further research.


: As a consequence of the strategy of choosing the control parameters (that is, tuning gain, process feedback gain and three model parameters – steady-state gain, settling time and time delay), the proposed P-IMC algorithm enjoys a quasi-universal practical applicability. The main purpose of this paper is to analyse how the weighting coefficient α of the proportional component P of the P-IMC algorithm may affect the control quality, thereby providing useful information to the manufacturer and human control operator. Moreover, this paper presents certain useful results regarding the influence and effect of the parameters of the proposed model upon the control performance of a control system.


Submarine mine water inrush has become a problem that must be urgently solved in coastal gold mining operations in Shandong, China. Research on water in subway systems introduced classifications for the types of mine groundwater and then established the functions used to identify each type of water sample. We analyzed 31 water samples from −375 m underground using multivariate statistical analysis methods. Cluster analysis combined with principle component analysis and factor analysis divided water samples into two types, with one type being near the F3 fault. Principal component analysis identified four principle components accounting for 91.79% of the total variation. These four principle components represented almost all the information about the water samples, which were then used as clustering variables. A Bayes model created by discriminant analysis demonstrated that water samples could also be divided into two types, which was consistent with the cluster analysis result. The type of water samples could be determined by placing Na+ and CHO3− concentrations of water samples into Bayes functions. The results demonstrated that F3, which is a regional fault and runs across the whole Xishan gold mine, may be the potential channel for water inrush, providing valuable information for predicting the possibility of water inrush and thus reducing the costs of the mining operation.


The study of cyanobacteria isolated from hypersaline environments is of interest because of their metabolic and ecophysiologic versatility in adapting to extreme conditions of salinity, temperature, irradiance and nutrient availability. The effect of salinity at 0‰, 35‰, 70‰ and 100‰ on the growth, dry weight, and pigment, protein, carbohydrate and lipid production of the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. was determined. Bioassays were kept in ALGAL medium equivalent to 8m M NaNO 3, constant aeration, 12:12 h photoperiod, 28 ± 2oC and 156 µmol quanta m –2 s –1 of irradiance. The cyanobacterium was able to grow under all salinities tested. Cell density was optimized at 35‰, with 607.64 ± 14.35 cells mL –1 . The highest values of dry weight (3.87 ± 0.03 ng cell –1 ), chlorophyll a (41.86 ± 0.39 fg cell –1 ), β-carotene (9.03 ± 0.15 fg cell –1 ), zeaxanthin (9.74 ± 0.24 fg cell –1 ), proteins (1.95 ± 0.05 pg cell –1 ) and carbohydrates (1.80 ± 0.05 pg cell –1 ) were obtained at 100‰; however, the highest lipid content (0.45 ± 0.04 pg cell –1 ) was reached at 0‰. This Synechococcus strain shows halotolerance and the capacity to modulate the production of enriched biomass with pigments, proteins, carbohydrates and lipids in terms of salinity.


AIM: To obtain a high and stable expression analog of human basic fibroblast growth factor by genetic engineering. METHODS: The cysteins 78 and 96 of natural hbFGF polypeptide was substituted with serines by means of site-directed mutagenesis. Using pET-3c as vector, the mutated polynucleotide was cloned and then transferred into BL21 (DE3) plysS. After induction by IPTG, the analog was obtained and analyzed by SDS-PAGE. RESULTS: After purification the form of soluble mutant increased remarkably but the forms of dimmer and higher multimer were reduced greatly to no more than 8% of the total recombinant protein. By MTT assay, the analog showed the same biological activity. This new analog represented a desirable complementation for native hbFGF to develop pharmaceutical drug in clinical use. CONCLUSION: Substitution of certain amino acids of polypeptide without altering native protein's bioactivity to get the analog is an effective means to increase stability of foreign protein and its solubility in E.coli.


Dictionary of Statistics and Methodology Vogt, 2005, 3rd edition. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design Creswell, 1998.In this Third Edition of his bestselling text John W. and key elements of each of five qualitative inquiry traditions: narrative research.Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches John. In this Third Edition of his bestselling text John W. Creswell explores the.Book Info: In this Third Edition of his bestselling text John W. Creswell explores the philosophical underpinnings, history, and key elements of each of five.


We propose an abstract theory of collaborative content management and version control for collections of semi-structured documents. Our fs-tree model generalizes versioncontrolled file systems and XML files alike, which allows us to specify and implement version control algorithms that seamlessly work across the file/file system border. An added value of this model which incorporates symbolic links and XML inclusions as first-class citizens, is that we can significantly enhance workflow consistency, spaceefficiency, and processing speed on working copies by eliminating link copy redundancy. To evaluate our model and algorithms we have implemented a prototype Subversion client based on the ideas put forward in this paper. The locutor system has been heavily used in day-to-day work and bears out the expected space efficiency and consistency gains. If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharping my ax. — Abraham Lincoln


Linking of love between the people suffered considerable modifications, after as many social and economic changes. The current world detaches fluidity of the relationships, searchs in satisfying their necessities and diffidence in relation to the other to survive. This work retakes the differentiation between loving and liking, the experience lived for ego and id, considered to winnicott's psychoanalysis. Love is seen as difficulty in perceiving the other as different of itself and the lived relationship to satisfy their necessity, differently of winnicott's liking, had as related


Objective: Under the guidance of holism in TCM,preparing focal cerebral ischemic model in cat by perfusing cortical artery with Ringer's solution in order to investigate the influence of functional status in non-ischemic cerebral region on the degree of injury in ischemic region.Methods: Anaesthesia of cats(2.5±3.5)kg was induced with 4% pentobarbital sodium in a dose of 40mg/kg(i.p).Then,craniotomy was performed by dissection with electric saw,and ectosylvian gyrus and cortical artery to it,from the middle cerebral artery,were exposed.Cortical artery of ectosylvian gyrus was perfused with Ringer's solution,and proximal part of the artery was clipped.After perfusing for 5 min,the perfused cortical region was removed.ATP content of it was determined later.In fales-operated group,cortical artery was not perfused after exposed.Results: In 5 min,the perfused cortical region showed ischemia obviously.ATP contents of false-operated group and ischemic group induced by perfusing Ringer's solution were(1.28±0.23)pmol/gprot(n=6) and(0.29 ±0.19) pmol/gprot(n=5),respectively,(P0.05).The reduction of ATP in perfused region was 77.3%.Conclusion: Perfusion of cortical artery can be used to produce focal cerebral ischemia in cat.This model is suitable to investigate the influence of functional status in non-ischemic cerebral region on the degree of injury in ischemic region.


The present invention relates to pedestrian's safety devices above and below a kind of vertical shaft for mine, including ratchet safety locking device (30), human-body safety armor (29) and cable (17), human-body safety armor (29) and ratchet safety locking device (30) are linked using safety belt, underground operators wear human-body safety armor (29) climbing vertical shaft, and safety device handle ratchet wheel safety locking device (30) is run on vertical shaft cable (17);Replace operating personnel to be hooked using binding using walk away safety rope, rides the modes of palisades and vacantly climbing or decline, avoid that float stone is fallen or personnel slip vacantly, mine down-hole operating personnel can be avoided to climb, and iron is terraced or rope ladder lifting process has an accident;The device installation process is simple, is fallen, can be moved up and down with the position change of personnel using double insurance mechanism protecting human bodies, saves oneself or other people assist to rescue.


Full potential linearized augmented plane wave band structure calculations were performed for hexagonal RENi5 (RE = rare earth) compounds in order to investigate reproducibility of lanthanide contraction by ab initio studies. The a and c parameters were optimised using a paraboloid t, starting from the same initial values for all compounds studied. The trend in lattice parameters across the RE series obtained from the calculations was found to be in general agreement with experimental data. A comparison of results obtained by generalized gradient approximation and generalized gradient approximation with additional Coulomb correlations calculations is presented for several double counting schemes.


Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR&ggr;), a member of a nuclear transcription factor family, has been previously demonstrated to have antiinflammatory activity. The effects of PPAR&ggr; activation in the development of an immune response are less well characterized. Through evaluation of PPAR&ggr; heterozygote mice (PPAR&ggr;+/−) and specific PPAR&ggr; agonist ligand binding, we evaluated the immunologic effects of PPAR&ggr; activation in a well-described model of colitis. Increased susceptibility to dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis as defined by body weights, histologic injury, and survival was observed in the PPAR&ggr;+/minus; mice in comparison to wild-type mice. Three different PPAR&ggr; ligands (troglitazone, pioglitazone, and rosiglitazone) demonstrated beneficial dose-related treatment effects when administered prior to the onset of colitis. However, no protection was observed when PPAR&ggr; ligand activation occurred after the onset of colitis. The reduction in DSS-induced inflammation noted with PPAR&ggr; ligand treatment was associated with decreased interferon-gamma and tumor necrosis factor-alpha and increased interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-10 levels as assessed by quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Consistent with this shift towards a T helper (Th2) cytokine dominance, PPAR&ggr; ligand treatment stimulated increased GATA-3 expression. These results indicate that the protective effects exhibited by PPAR&ggr; ligands in intestinal inflammation may be due to immune deviation away from Th1 and towards Th2 cytokine production.


Article discussing modeling nonlinear optical properties of transition metal complexes and the basis set, effective core potential, and geometry effects.


Idiopathic spinal cord herniation is a rare disorder, consisting of a ventral displacement of the spinal cord through a dural defect. The resulting adhesion and vascular compromise lead to neurological impairment. We report the case of a 54-year-old male, with a previous urological surgery resulting in chronic vesical catheterization, with a worsening paraparesis associated with anesthesia below T10. The magnetic resonance imaging showed a ventral displacement of the spinal cord at T7/T8 with an enlarged posterior subarachnoid space at that level. A four-level laminotomy was performed followed by spinal cord herniation reduction and closure of the anterior dural defect with a dural replacement. The patient had a partial recovery of his motor deficits regaining his ability to walk with the support of a single crutch. The purpose of this study was to highlight the existence of this extremely rare cause of paraparesis, which is often misdiagnosed.


Higher-order anisotropic flows ${v}_{4}$ and ${v}_{6}$ of charged hadrons in heavy-ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider are studied in a multiphase transport model that has previously been used successfully for describing the elliptic flow ${v}_{2}$ of identified hadrons in these collisions. We find that the same parton scattering cross section of about $10\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\text{mb}$ used in explaining the measured ${v}_{2}$ of charged hadrons can also reproduce the recent data on their ${v}_{4}$ and ${v}_{6}$ from $\text{Au}+\text{Au}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200A\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\text{GeV}$. It is further found that ${v}_{4}$ is a more sensitive probe of the initial partonic dynamics in these collisions than ${v}_{2}$. Moreover, higher-order parton anisotropic flows are non-negligible and satisfy the scaling relation ${v}_{n,q}({p}_{T})\ensuremath{\sim}{v}_{2,q}^{n∕2}({p}_{T})$, which leads naturally to the observed similar scaling relation among hadron anisotropic flows when the coalescence model is used to describe hadron production from the partonic matter.


LED's characteristics varied by the change of temperature. Therefore, this study designs a digital photo power control system. The system is able to stabilized RGB LED's photo power within -30°C to +80°C.


Population growth increases the threat to global food security. Kazakhstan, a major agricultural nation, has made significant contributions to world food security; however, a wide gap exists between its food yield and that of other major crop-producing countries. Increasing food productivity in Kazakhstan through enhancing the utilization of natural endowments under existing cropland conditions would help alleviate global food pressure. Therefore, we elucidated the factors restricting Kazakhstan's food productivity and proposed reasonable countermeasures. We analyzed the food production structure based on yearbooks. Correlation and stepwise regression were conducted on crop yield potential factors. The states of Kazakhstan were classified by hierarchical cluster and agronomic characteristics were evaluated using normalized scores. Wheat (60.3%), barley (14.9%), and potatoes (16%) are the main food crops produced in Kazakhstan. The ideal regional environment-based geographical crop configuration is "Northern—Wheat, Southern—Barley and Wheat, and Western—Potatoes." The key limiting factors of wheat yield are water shortage and soil alkalization, while for barley, it is soil alkalization. The current planting distribution in Kazakhstan is suboptimal. Water-saving irrigation and agricultural runoff, staple crop planting layout optimization, organic fertilizer promotion, drought-resistant crop variety cultivation, and agricultural technology training must be prioritized to overcome crop yield constraints in Kazakhstan.


FDG-PET/CT imaging correlates with long-term outcomes during early bactericidal activity testing of tuberculosis drugs in patients. Imaging early TB drug responses Monitoring bacterial counts in the sputum of individuals with tuberculosis (TB) during 2 weeks of drug treatment is a key part of developing new TB drugs. However, such studies do not always correlate with the clinical response seen during a full 6-month drug regimen. Xie et al. performed these studies for three first-line TB drugs as well as moxifloxacin. One hundred sixty participants with TB underwent FDG-PET/CT imaging at the start and finish of the 2-week drug regimen. The PET/CT findings correlated better with the clinical response to TB drugs than did bacterial counts in sputum. PET/CT imaging may improve new TB drug evaluation before phase 3 clinical trials. Early bactericidal activity studies monitor daily sputum bacterial counts in individuals with tuberculosis (TB) for 14 days during experimental drug treatment. The rate of change in sputum bacterial load over time provides an informative, but imperfect, estimate of drug activity and is considered a critical step in development of new TB drugs. In this clinical study, 160 participants with TB received isoniazid, pyrazinamide, or rifampicin, components of first-line chemotherapy, and moxifloxacin individually and in combination. In addition to standard bacterial enumeration in sputum, participants underwent 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-d-glucose positron emission tomography and computerized tomography ([18F]FDG-PET/CT) at the beginning and end of the 14-day drug treatment. Quantitating radiological responses to drug treatment provided comparative single and combination drug activity measures across lung lesion types that correlated more closely with established clinical outcomes when combined with sputum enumeration compared to sputum enumeration alone. Rifampicin and rifampicin-containing drug combinations were most effective in reducing both lung lesion volume measured by CT imaging and lesion-associated inflammation measured by PET imaging. Moxifloxacin was not superior to rifampicin in any measure by PET/CT imaging, consistent with its performance in recent phase 3 clinical trials. PET/CT imaging revealed synergy between isoniazid and pyrazinamide and demonstrated that the activity of pyrazinamide was limited to lung lesion, showing the highest FDG uptake during the first 2 weeks of drug treatment. [18F]FDG-PET/CT imaging may be useful for measuring the activity of single drugs and drug combinations during evaluation of potential new TB drug regimens before phase 3 trials.


This paper introduces the construction background of battery energy storage station(BESS) in Qinghai multi-energy complementary demonstration project. Based on the integrated topology structure of BESS, the structure of dispatching and energy management system (EMS) for large-scale BESS is established. The dispatching and energy management strategy participating in automatic generation control(AGC) of BESS are put forward. On this basis, a dispatching and EMS for large-scale BESS is developed and applied in the 50MW/100MWh BESS in Qinghai multi-energy complementary demonstration project. The AGC functions are realized. It can be seen that the system meets the design requirements based on the operation data.


Wetlands are important in global carbon (C) cycling with a high potential for C storage while simultaneously serving as the largest single CH4 source. Consequently, understanding C cycling in wetlands is crucial, especially in systems impacted by disturbances such as soil alteration, nutrient addition or fire. This study investigated factors regulating microbial C processing in subtropical wetlands in the context of both nutrient levels (phosphorus (P)) and fire. The study site was the Hole-in-the-Donut (Everglades National Park, Florida), a fire-adapted ecosystem undergoing restoration from agricultural impact. Following restoration (complete soil and vegetation removal), C cycling was elevated and methanogenesis was C-limited. In native sites, methanogenesis was stimulated by C and P, however, a greater response to P was observed. Amending soils with various C-sources indicated that hydrogenotrophic methanogens were dominant and
substrate-limited, while fermentation appeared to be P-limited. Thus, nutrients appeared to indirectly regulate CH4 production by affecting substrate availability. Fire is also an ecological driver affecting both C and P forms and availability. In a field fire experiment, C cycling was stimulated initially; however, minimal heat transfer coupled with constant microbial biomass suggests nutrients were a regulating factor. Incubation of soils with fire residues demonstrated that char stimulated gas production in all soils, while ash stimulated production only in native soils. Comparison of these results with direct C and P additions, suggests char acts as a source of C and P while ash simulates an addition of P. This work highlights the role of disturbance as a determinant of wetland greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. During succession at restored sites, decreasing P availability with time will reduce gas production leading to increased C storage. Contrasting effects of fire residues
indicates that residue proportion (determined by fire frequency and intensity) will determine net C cycling, where C sequestered as char could be offset by elevated GHG production within 1.5 and 7 months in native and restored sites, respectively. These results demonstrate a complex relationship between GHG production, fire, and the alteration of soil nutrient availability, and the need for further investigation to better manage these systems C cycling for GHG mitigation. ( en )


These are two updated data files, one appendix with a character matrix that corrects an error in the one originally published with the paper and one a figure illustrating character changes across the phylogeny for which the figure was left out although the figure caption was published.


The photoconducting static and dynamic properties of the system poly-N- vinylcarbazole/Copper-phthalocyanin are investigated. The organic photoconductors are deposited from solution on planar indium tin oxide electrode patterns. An all-organic photodetector with polyanilin electrodes is realized. The possible integration of the photodetector directly into a passive or active organic waveguide is demonstrated. As an example an integrated organic opto-optical switch detector system is discussed.


BACKGROUND AND AIM: The retained primary tooth (RPT) is a tooth that remains beyond its exfoliation time, which can cause some problems. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of RPT in unusual ages in Larestan, a city in Fars Province, southern Iran. METHODS: In this cross-sectional population-based study (April-October 2015), clinical and radiological evaluations were done for all patients referred to Larestan dentistry clinics. The characteristics of RPT were evaluated. All data were analyzed statistically using SPSS and MedCalc software (α = 0.05). RESULTS: Among 2106 patients, 145 (6.88%) had at least one RPT. The most frequent RPT were primary canine in the maxilla (42.45%) and second primary molar in the mandible (33.01%). The main cause of RPT was absence of permanent successor tooth congenitally (67.45%) and impaction of it (33.54%). The most tooth mobility was class III (17.92%) and the second molar in mandible had the most mobility (6.60%). Root resorption was seen in about 45% of patients, which level 3 was the most (24.76%), mostly in second molar in mandible. Infra-occlusion was seen only in 5.18% of patients. There were significant correlations between root resorption and age (r = 0.175, P = 0.0360) and gender (r = 0.171, P = 0.0400), mobility and decay (r = 0.470, P < 0.0010), as well as infra-occlusion (r = 0.262, P = 0.0010). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of RPT in unusual ages was not high in this study, but exact examination can detect the RPT earlier, to prevent the related problems by suitable treatments. Studies in larger population are recommended.


The investigation of new alternative methods of electrical generation has allowed the development of renewable energies such as the photovoltaic energy, becoming a great potential alternative. Although the prediction of photovoltaic energy is relatively easy, both during the sunrise and sunset, its great variability can create a totally random character dependant on the clouds. For all this, a conflict can be generated between a revolutionary type of energy and an electric system that is not ready for it. Taking into account the previously mentioned, this work focuses on analysing and proposing control strategies in order to attenuate the power fluctuations by means of storage systems. This work has as its main objective to reduce the capacity and degradation of the battery to the maximum.


The word "algorithm" is best understood as a generic term for automated decision-making. Algorithms can be coded by humans or they can become self-taught through machine learning. Cultural goods and news increasingly pass through information intermediaries known as platforms that rely on algorithms to filter, rank, sort, classify, and promote information. Algorithmic content recommendation acts as an important and increasingly contentious gatekeeper. Numerous controversies around the nature of content being recommended—from disturbing children's videos to conspiracies and political misinformation—have undermined confidence in the neutrality of these systems. Amid a generational challenge for media policy, algorithmic accountability has emerged as one area of regulatory innovation. Algorithmic accountability seeks to explain automated decision-making, ultimately locating responsibility and improving the overall system. This article focuses on the technical, systemic issues related to algorithmic accountability, highlighting that deployment matters as much as development when explaining algorithmic outcomes. After outlining the challenges faced by those seeking to enact algorithmic accountability, we conclude by comparing some emerging approaches to addressing cultural discoverability by different international policymakers.


ABSTRACT Two acyclic CB[n]-type hosts (1 and 2) which possess four 2° or 3° amide arms are reported. Host 2 has four 3° amide arms that exist as a mixture of E- and Z-isomers. 1H NMR was used to qualitatively investigate the binding properties of 1 and 2 which indicates they retain the essential binding features of macrocyclic CB[n] hosts. We measured the Ka values of 1 and 2 toward guests 6–14 by ITC. Neutral hosts 1 and 2 bind less tightly than tetraanionic hosts M1, ACB1, and ACB2. We attribute the lower Ka values to the absence of secondary ion-ion electrostatic interactions for host•guest complexes of 1 and 2. The secondary amide functionality on 1 decreases affinity by the formation of intramolecular NH•••O=C H-bonds. Tertiary amide host 2 binds even more weakly than 1 due to backfolding of the amide N-CH3-groups of 2 into its own cavity. Graphical abstract