The option аdaptive friction clutch with the number of pairs of friction DFG, more than one, in realization of the load curve in the shape of a curve having a point maxima, within the range, which has a higher than Option coupling with the number of pairs of friction DFG, unity, response accuracy in including being equal to each other torque values at the boundaries of the specified interval. The most accurate response, possessing a variant of the аdaptive friction clutch, which has the number of pairs of friction DFG greater than one, being equal to each other torque values corresponding to the values of the coefficient of friction, and the presence of high quantities of rotating within the time interval over which the coefficient of friction.


Recent experiments have suggested that a modulated masker can interfere with detection of a signal of similar modulation rate, in a manner analogous to the familiar critical‐band concept in the frequency domain [Houtgast, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 85, 1676–1680 (1989)]. An experiment with sinusoidally modulated maskers did not show such a critical‐band effect in either normal‐hearing listeners or in patients electrically stimulated on the cochlear nucleus. Maskers consisted of 500‐ or 1000‐Hz sinusoidal carriers sinusoidally modulated at 4, 10, or 16 Hz with a modulation index of m=0.5. Thresholds for modulation depth were obtained for the same carrier modulated at signal frequencies of 1 to 32 Hz (in 1‐Hz steps). Modulation masking was observed only when the masker and signal modulation frequencies were equal. The magnitude and form of the masking patterns depended strongly on the relative phase of the two modulators. Prior results might have shown critical‐band type interference patterns because of the stocha...


Neuroplasticity is the capability of the brain to adapt its structure and function to new environments. It is essential for learning, memory, and brain repair after brain damage. Neuroplasticity can also be utilized to assess human ability or potential for excellence in a particular discipline. One method is to assess the brain activity of people who excel at a given topic, such as chess, math, or music composition. Researchers can uncover the neural markers of experience and talent by comparing their brain patterns with those of average performers or beginners. Previously, researchers discovered that London taxi drivers have larger hippocampi, a part of the brain associated with spatial memory and movement, than control subjects. This was attributed to their extensive training and experience in navigating the complex city streets. Neuroplasticity can also be used to enhance human talent by providing optimal conditions for learning and performance. This may include electrical or magnetic pulse stimulation of the brain, the use of neurofeedback or biofeedback techniques, or the application of cognitive strategies such as purposeful practice, spaced repetition, and interleaving. These techniques try to change the brain's activity and connectivity in ways that aid in skill learning and retention. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive brain stimulation method that administers mild electrical currents to the scalp, has been shown in prior research to improve mathematical abilities in healthy people. Finally, neuroplasticity can be utilized to discover human talent by measuring brain activity in experts and learners, as well as to improve human talent by providing optimal learning and performance settings. Neuroplasticity provides a viable path for understanding and increasing human potential across a wide range of fields.


Spread-spectrum techniques for improving Electromagnetic Compatibilities are investigated. This requires generating Constant Envelope Wideband signals. We produce them via chaotic maps that yield pseudo random time series, used afterwards to modulate sinusoidal waves in frequency. How to assess a maps's suitability for such task is also discussed.


Since I wrote in The Permanente Journal (TPJ) (Fall 2005) about post-tsunami malaria in Indonesia, there have been several requests from TPJ readers regarding access to and anticipated availability of rapid diagnostic test kits (RDTs) for malaria. It is with regret that I relate that there is no intent to market these in the United States. There are several reasons for this, some valid, some not. Worldwide, the use of RDTs is a vital part of the World Health Organization's program for malaria control, to preserve the use of newer, more expensive regimens for actual malaria cases.

RDTs are certainly, at a minimum, grossly comparable to an experienced microscopist and confirmation by a reference laboratory can be readily arranged after a diagnosis is suspected.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) often opposes the use of these kits for diagnosis of malaria. In a conversation with the malaria officer on duty, my suggestion that they were of use was disparaged. Unfortunately, as is sometimes the case, an organization such as the CDC does not respond to the requirements of actually delivering care. When an organization has ready availability of world-class parasitologists, there is little need for RDTs. On the other hand, few of us practice in such an environment. Kain et al1 described an average delay of three days between the time of ordering a malaria smear and confirmation of the diagnosis in nonspecialist Canadian medical centers.

In view of the rarity of malaria in this country, our best laboratory technicians are inexperienced in making this diagnosis and even experienced parasitologists can make errors in their reading of blood smears. Our average hospital laboratory is likely inferior in sensitivity to RDTs and probably in specificity as well, particularly if we consider only P falciparum, the only species that is rapidly fatal. One published small series2 from Bethesda Naval Hospital reviewed the diagnostic accuracy of these two modalities among Marines with febrile illness evacuated from Liberia. Ten of 32 cases were accurately identified by RDTs and the same ten by thick smear. One of 32 patients had a positive RDT and a thin smear that was originally read as negative, but confirmed subsequently to have been positive.

In 2004, in the US there were only 1324 reported cases, 49% of these were P falciparum.3 This seems to be a strong argument that our local labs will not be able to enhance their expertise in this disease. This would be even more significant for smaller hospitals in areas with less foreign travel among their patients.

Different RDTs have been studied in various studies in nonimmune returning travelers from malarious areas. The accuracy of various tests does vary, but later generation tests for P falciparum routinely demonstrate sensitivities greater than 90% (88–99%) and specificities that are 95–100%. The conclusion of the meta-analysis by Marx and colleagues4 is that "rapid testing will lead to the detection of most clinically relevant P falciparum cases, with considerably better accuracy than that expected from routine microscopy in nonspecialist settings."

The arguments against the test are: the accuracy is not perfect; it is heat sensitive and it does not monitor the level of parasitemia, nor confirm efficacy of treatment. I believe these are false arguments. RDTs are certainly, at a minimum, grossly comparable to an experienced microscopist and confirmation by a reference laboratory can be readily arranged after a diagnosis is suspected. Identifying and starting treatment is the most vital part of diagnosis. The monitoring progress, while vital, can be arranged once a diagnosis has been confirmed. The argument of heat sensitivity seems disingenuous in North America where laboratory reagents are controlled for quality and stored in nontropical conditions. This is an argument of questionable validity even in tropical areas.

In summary, in the US we are stuck with less effective diagnostic capabilities for malaria, when compared to most Third World countries. This is not expected to change in the foreseeable future.


Nongeniculate calcareous algae are bio-constructors of many marine habitats, some of which are considered biodiversity hotspots. The genus Sporolithon is widely distributed around the world. As part of a review of material from the Brazilian continental shelf we found Sporolithon episoredion, that extend its distribution range into the Atlantic Ocean, Sporolithon ptychoides , which is widely distributed across oceans, and a new species of this genus named Sporolithon elevatum sp. nov. This species presents sorus 2–3 cells elevated above the thallus that sloughs off when senescent, paraphyses with 2–3 cells and a basal layer of elongated cells in areas where sporangia develop. The new species was found at 133 m depth. This study contributes to the understanding of the diversity in this genus and indicates the importance of systematic studies in the framework of conservation programs and evaluation of impacts in an area under exploitation activities.


In order to comprehensively consider the impact of human activities on runoff simulation and improve the accuracy of runoff simulation, so as to make a more accurate prediction of the future runoff of the Hanjiang River Basin, this study improved the reservoir module of the Wespa model, adding two parts: reservoir inflow data correction and water storage and outflow data calculation without measured data. Use the improved model to verify its applicability to the Hanjiang River Basin, then, choose the ones who has the most familiar trend with the historical data in the future climate model data (CMIP6). Put the selected data in the model to predict the runoff of Hanjiang River from 2021 to 2060. By analyzing the future runoff trend of Ankang, Huangjiagang and Huangzhuang in the Hanjiang River Basin from 2021 to 2060 and the changes of average runoff, seasonal runoff and monthly runoff compared with the historical period (1981–2020), the conclusions drawn are as follows: 1) The improved Wetspa model has good applicability in the Hanjiang River Basin; 2) The future runoff of Ankang section is decreasing, while that of Huangjiagang and Huangzhuang sections is increasing; 3) Compared with the reference period, the average runoff of the three sections in the future shows an increasing trend, which indicates that there will be flood risk in the future; 4) Compared with the reference period, the runoff proportion of the three sections will increase in spring and winter, and decrease in autumn. Attention should be paid to the risk of drought in autumn. In terms of months, the proportion of runoff from April to June increases, decreases from September to November, and increases and decreases in other months are uncertain.


This article explores the gendered dimensions of genocidal hate propaganda before and during the Rwandan genocide and proposes that the international tribunal consider these cases with an intersectional approach that attempts to fully appreciate the harm inflicted upon Tutsi women.


Rural residential land is the main space of a farmer's life, rural culture, and social relations. Prior research of rural residential land has focused more on its evolvement in plain and traditional agricultural areas. Yet, there is no clear picture of rural residential land expansion, especially in ecologically fragile areas. This study analyzed the characteristics of rural residential land expansion based on 30 m spatial resolution land-use datasets of the Baota District of Yan'an City, Shannxi Province, and further explored the influencing factors and mechanisms of rural residential land expansion through binary logistic regression (BLR) modeling. Our findings indicated that the area of rural residential land in the Baota District increased by 116.16% during 1990–2015. More than 75% of the residential land expansion came from the occupation of cropland. Moreover, rural residential land expansion was heterogeneous in the rural regional system. The expansion scale, speed, and mode diversity of rural residential land decreased with the increased distance to urban built-up areas. Geographical conditions and resource endowments are the primary internal driving factors; urbanization and policy implementation are two major external driving forces. The authors suggest that the realization of regional sustainable development in ecologically fragile areas should strengthen urban–rural integration, focus on constructing central towns, and ensure ecological protection measures.


Confronted with the challenges of new economic makeover,owing to distortion or imbalance,the traditional corporate information can not reflect the real economic phenomenon,but may mislead the management and investors when making decisions in macro and micro aspects. Based on the vision of economics,the paper attempts to explore the mechanism of economics from property rights of financial information,primary ethical issues during financial information disclosure,and the equilibrium and control of information,so as to dig out the real causes for the impact upon corporate information,sift and improve the path selection of corporate information.


Background: Among the causes of high Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in Indonesia is anemia. Iron deficiency anemia, the most common type of anemia, frequently occurs in women of childbearing age because they experience menstruation each month. To diagnose iron deficiency, serum ferritin level could be used as one of the indicators. This study aims to know whether there is an association between menstruation patterns and serum ferritin level in brides-to-be in Padang.
Method: This study was conducted using an analytic observational method with a cross-sectional design. A Total of seventy samples of brides-to-be aged 20-30 years were gathered using a consecutive sampling technique. This study was conducted from November 2019 until April 2020. Data on menstruation patterns were collected through a questionnaire. Data of serum ferritin levels were acquired from venous blood sampling and measurement of serum ferritin levels with The Electro Chemiluminescence Immuno Assay (ECLIA) method. Bivariate analysis of this study used Independent T-test.
Results: This study showed sixty-eight point six percent of respondents were experiencing abnormal menstruation patterns while the mean of serum ferritin levels was normal (sixty-two point zero seven ± thirty-nine point forty-five ng/ml). The Independent T-test showed p-value = 0,921.
Conclusion: There was no significant association between menstruation pattern and serum ferritin level in brides-to-be in Padang.

Keywords: iron deficiency anemia, women of childbearing age, menstruation patterns, serum ferritin levels.


This article seeks to articulate a cultural connection between nineteenth century Missourians and their production, distribution, and use of alcohol. Admitted as a state in 1821, Missouri was at geographic and cultural crossroads along the western border of the United States and many of the people who resided in the state found that alcohol was a significant social conduit in addition to supplementing their income. Sources such as sales records, personal letters, and newspapers reveal that over the century, the state witnessed an influx of migrants from across the United States and parts of Europe who each held their own convictions about spirits, which served to enrich Missouri's alcohol culture.


Some claim that 'incommensurability' poses serious problems for the standard account of rationality and for the case for markets in economics. Incommensurability may indeed involve violations of basic axioms, such as completeness, transitivity and continuity. Sen's version of the maximization view of rationality avoids these problems. This view when combined with one axiom--local insatiability--allows us to prove a theorem with the same general thrust as the first fundamental welfare theorem. To this degree, the case for the market is vindicated. This result can be seen as non-welfarist because it involves a notion of 'resentment' which may be best understood in terms of opportunity. A 'standard' statement of the first welfare theorem can also be proven if we focus on quasi-orderings. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.


The next few years will witness the construction of several new 6.5 - 10 meter class astronomical telescopes. Imaging with these large instruments not only requires us to gain better understanding of the nature of atmospheric phase distortions over large spatial scales but should also motivate the adaptive optics community to rethink the ways in which we sense wavefront structure. At infrared wavelengths, direct interference of spatially coherent infrared starlight affords engineers of adaptive optical systems for filled apertures a ruler against which to measure all wavefront sensor designs. Direct interferometry tells use exactly what we want to known, the relative value of the wavefront phase at various points across the telescope pupil. Direct interferometry, implemented by splitting off a small fraction of the available photons using a suitable pupil mask, pins down phase difference values that can be used as verification for any wavefront sensing scheme. One technique investigated toward the goal of the application of interferometric techniques to filled aperture telescopes is described below. In this Fourier transform-based technique, direct interferometry provides phase information for the control of adaptive optics systems without the necessity for an independent wavefront sensor. Here we describe and analyze the noise properties of one technique for faint stellar sources.


Abstract Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) has become a staple in the cyber-attack measurement and reporting diet. Be it sensationalist and hyperbole-filled language, or the lack of any meaningful and consistent measurement methodology, the end result is the same: zero clarity concerning an already complex subject matter that serves to continue rather than counter the cyber-crime threat. The public discussion (via media reports) and business insight (through myriad methodologies of mis-measurement) need to be better framed if we are to truly confront the growing problem of cyber-crime. Who the criminals were is of less import than how they got in; compromise indicators are more valuable to other businesses than the financial cost to that particular victim. The measurement metric dial has moved too far towards attribution and needs to be reset to prevention and a business-based analysis of risk once more. The data upon which threat intelligence and attack surface trend analysis resources are based must become more granular if it is to be more relevant across all business sectors. If we continue to go down the road of never disclosing or identifying the security components that failed or the components that were not in place when a breach happened, we will never make any progress against an elusive enemy. Fredrick the Great of Prussia said it best when he declared, "he who defends everything, defends nothing". We need data on how to defend and this is only derived from an open sharing of relevant and accurate attack information without fear of punitive litigation.


Human–machine cooperation (HMC) driving can realize the sharing of vehicle control rights between drivers and autonomous driving systems. However, the system disturbances and parameter uncertainties introduced by HMC driving are also inevitable. To solve the above problems, this study proposes an HMC steering torque control method based on the model reference adaptive control (MRAC). First, to describe the driver's operating behavior and the transient characteristics of the steering system and the vehicle, an HMC vehicle-road model with steering torque input is established. Then, the exponential decay function is taken as a reference model to increase the decay rate of road lateral deviation. Besides, for the problem of model parameter uncertainties, the parameter adaptive laws are designed in the control process, and the robust term is considered into the parameter adaption law to improve the robustness of the closed-loop system. Robust stability under bounded disturbances is guaranteed by boundary estimation of unknown disturbances between driver input and steering load. Finally, simulations and experiments are carried out to verify the proposed control strategy. The results demonstrate that the proposed control strategy can converge rapidly under the disturbances and parameter uncertainties introduced by HMC.


This district chhatarpur is know after the name of the great warrior of the region Maharaja Chhatrasal. It is a district of Madhya Pradesh, India. Gond, Saur, Kondar, Sansiya are the names of the tribes of the district. Saur and Kondar are the main tribes. Both are enlisted in the list of tribes, declared by ministry of tribal affairs, Government of Madhya Pradesh . Saur is mentioned at serial number 44 and kondar is mentioned at 22. The ethnomedicinal study of the tribes shows that there are some plants in local flora , which are being used in treatment of bacterial infection. As per the identification from Botanical survey of India , Allahabad , the two such plants are Enicostemma axillare and solanum virginianum . The ethanolic extracts of both plant have been evaluated against six bacterial strains . The results indicated that both plants exhibited antibacterial activity against six bacterial strains . All the bacterial strains were obtained from microbial type culture and collection , institute of microbial technology Chandigarh , India – The coustomer number is 8445.


The article presents current information on the intracellular molecular genetic mechanisms in osteoarthritis. From review of the published literature, common themes emerged as active areas of research over the past year including studies in the areas ofepigenetics, Wnt signaling, the role of inflammatory pathways in OAand studies on OA biology in bone. Key findings in these areas were summarized and implicationsfor future therapies were discussed. Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common disease of the joints, causing severe pain, stiffness, difficulty in movement, swelling, crepitus, and leading to a disability. OA is characterized by progressive destruction of articular cartilage in the joint space narrowing interchondral, causes the formation of osteophytes, subchondral sclerosis and synovitis [1]. The knee joint is the most clinically significant portion of the primary focus of OA. One of the modern methods of evaluation of joint disease is a radiographic evaluation, which reflects the severity of the disease according to the degree of degeneration of the joint. There is a so-called grading scale Kelgrena St. Lawrence (Eng. Kellgren-Lawrencegradingscale) [2]. The etiology and pathogenesis of OA remains unclear, but is usually associated with several physiological factors such as for example obesity and aging [3]. However, presently it is known that the biochemical factors play an important role in the genesis and development of OA [4]. Research in the basic biology of osteoarthritis (OA) continue to grow along with the increase of work on elucidating the mechanisms underlying the destruction of cartilage. In this review, we have attempted to summarize all the basic molecular genetic aspects of the emergence and development of osteoarthritis.


FIELD: chemistry. SUBSTANCE: invention relates to use of a composition obtained by reaction of polyisocyanate with index 100-250, which is diphenyl methane isocyanate, optionally containing a homologue which contains 3 or more isocyanate groups, and/or a version of such a diisocyanate with monoalkylether of polyoxyalkylene monoamine having average molecular weight of 550-3000 and content of oxyethylene higher than 50% by weight, calculated based on the weight of monoamine and an alkyl group having 1-4 carbon atoms as a plasticiser in thermoplastic and thermosetting materials which contain less than 50% hard units, and containing a certain number of urethane and/or urea groups. The invention also relates to a method of producing a plasticised thermoplastic or thermosetting material with content of hard units of less than 50%, which contains a certain number of urethane and/or urea groups, using said composition, as well as the material itself. EFFECT: novel composition which is suitable as a plasticiser, is liquid at atmospheric pressure, does not migrate or is not released onto the surface of materials containing a certain number of urethane or urea groups, and is more effective than earlier urethane plasticisers. 11 cl, 4 tbl, 4 ex


Object re-identification (ReID) is an arduous task which requires matching an object across different non-overlapping camera views. Recently, many researchers are working on person ReID by taking advantages of appearance, human pose, temporal constraints, etc . However, vehicle ReID is even more challenging because vehicles have fewer discriminant features than human due to viewpoint orientation, changes in lighting condition and inter-class similarity. In this paper, we propose a viewpoint-aware temporal attention model for vehicle ReID utilizing deep learning features extracted from consecutive frames with vehicle orientation and metadata attributes ( i.e ., type, brand, color) being taken into consideration. In addition, re-ranking with soft decision boundary is applied as post-processing for re-sult refinement. The proposed method is evaluated on CVPR AI City Challenge 2019 dataset, achieving mAP of 79 . 17% with the second place ranking in the competition.


A lot of stadium will be built or re-built for holding the 12th National Games in Liaoning.In order to avoid the commercial operation risk after the 12th National Games,planning in advance is needed.The article,by the method of documentation and interviews,on the basis of describing the status of the stadium and the commercial operations,analyzes the postgame stadium operation in terms of economy,system,culture,nature and geography factor,etc.,and puts forward some commercial operation solutions,so as to afford reference and guideline for postgame stadium commercial operation.


The apparatus consists of a freezing chamber upon which the object is frozen, and two pails filled with ice and salt. The pails are so arranged that when either of them is raised the other is lowered, and in consequence, the cold brine, which forms as the ice melts, can be made to flow back and forth through the freezing chamber which is between the pails and connected with them by rubber tubing. The freezing chamber is a hollow cylinder made of brass or of iron, nickel-plated both inside and outside. Fig. i shows a section of the chamber, actual size. The brine enters one A of the tubes at the side and es-


Abstract The study aimed at examining the extent of involvement of rural men and women in trainings organized by selected Rural Poverty Alleviation Programmes in Kwara State; and how training has affected their participation in such programmes. The subjects studied consisted of 186 men and women randomly sampled and interviewed using a structured interview schedule from September to December, 2003. Data analysis involved the use of both descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings from the study revealed that less than 20 percent of rural men and women had access to the various training opportunities available at the rural level. Many women participated in trainings that improve their gender role performance. Respondents had access to and control over trainings organized by Agricultural Development Programmes, Family Economic Advancement Programme, Village Alive Women Association and Cooperative Societies. Access to and control over trainings organized by Rural Poverty Alleviation Programmes (RPAPs) is a determinant of participation in the studied RPAP's, but access to training is more an important determinant than control of training. However, some of the RPAP's did not provide training opportunities for the beneficiaries.


In this article, we describe a package for nonlinear time series forecasting using autoregressive neural networks (and multilayer perceptrons by imposing some restrictions to the model) with adaptive activation function; The use of the package and some functionality are illustrated for one nonlinear time series.


The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of time-dependent boundary perturbation on the flow of a viscous fluid via asymptotic analysis. We start from a simple rectangular domain and then perturb the upper part of its boundary by the product of a small parameter \begin{document}$\varepsilon$\end{document} and some smooth function \begin{document}$h(x, t)$\end{document} . The complete asymptotic expansion (in powers of \begin{document}$\varepsilon$\end{document} ) of the solution of the evolutionary Stokes system has been constructed. The convergence of the expansion has been proved providing the rigorous justification of the formally derived asymptotic model.


The present study pretends to describe an alternative way to look at Vector Spaces as a scaffold to produce a meaningful new theoretical structure to be used in both classical and quantum QSPR. To reach this goal it starts from the fact that N-Dimensional Boolean Hypercubes contain as vertices the whole information maximally expressible by means of strings of N bits. One can use this essential property to construct the structure of $N$-Dimensional Vector Spaces, considering vector classes within a kind of Space Wireframe related to a Boolean Hypercube. This way of deconstruct-reconstruct Vector Spaces starts with some newly coined nomenclature, because, through the present paper, any vector set is named as a Vector Polyhedron, or a polyhedron for short if the context allows it. Also, definition of an Inward Vector Product allows to easily build up polyhedral vector structures, made of inward powers of a unique vector, which in turn one might use as Vector Space basis sets. Moreover, one can construct statistical-like vectors of a given Vector Polyhedron as an extended polyhedral sequence of vector inward powers. Furthermore, the Complete Sum of a vector is defined simply as the sum of all its elements. Once defined, one can use it to compute, by means of inward products, generalized scalar products, generalized vector norms and statistical-like indices attached to a Vector Polyhedron.


Analogies are widely used in the teaching process and by designing them, teachers use the knowledge of experience to stimulate and facilitate scientific knowledge learning. Thus, the objective of this study was to understand, from a teaching perspective, the mechanisms involved in the process of elaboration and use of analogies. Using a qualitative approach, the data were collected through semistructured interviews of three Biology professors. In addition, the data were also collected through classroom observations of Biology classes in High School. The data were analyzed by Content Analysis. The results show that, although they are unaware of theoretical studies related to the subject, teachers use analogies elaborated under the influence of the initial training, the sociocultural context which they come from, the familiarity with certain biological contents and, above all, the professional teaching experience. Thus, previous planning of analogies, disciplinary knowledge of contents and the professional experience of teachers are factors that facilitate the analogical reasoning of teachers, enhancing their (re) elaboration and use in the teaching process.


Objectives: The goal of this study is an overall assessment of natural resources potential and environmental "health" of the city of Ishim according to the indicating characteristics of small mammals. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The assessment of natural resources potential was made by means of biological monitoring with the use of species biodiversity and cenosis stability indicators. The animals were collected by means of non-selective non-recoverable capture method. Snap traps were placed in trap lines, the animals were identified by morphological and craniological characteristics. The material was collected near Sinitsino village, which is located on the territory of nature reserve in Ishim district. Findings: Within the anthropogenic impact gradient, significant changes have been indicated. Including statistically significant decrease in the number of small mammal species, a simplification of taxonomic cenosis structure, change of their ecological structure in favor of the increase of the percentage share of eusynanthropes and synanthropes and the decrease of the relative share of anthropophilic and neutral species to the extent of their total extinction in both settlement zones.A consistent decrease of species diversity index and stability of small mammal's community has been indicated all the way from the parkland zone towards the high-rise building area. By means of quality cluster analysis, it has been proven that the zone of city inarable land is differentiated from the parkland zone. Such findings can be explained by the loss of connection with native habitat, the increase of complex influence of urbanization factors, which results in extinction of some neutral and anthropophilic species, a decrease of the number of red-toothed shrews, which take a higher trophic level than other rodents, etc. Application/Improvements: The study has revealed that the essential conditions for the conservation of species biodiversity potential of Ishim include such factors as preservation of greater greenfield areas and protective habitat capacity and a variety of microsites.


Wide classes of explicit solutions of the Manin‐Radul and Jacobian supersymmetric KP hierarchies are constructed by using line bundles over complex supercurves based on the Riemann sphere. Their construction extends several ideas of the standard KP theory, such as wave functions, ∂‐equations and τ‐functions. Thus, supersymmetric generalizations of N‐soliton solutions, including a new purely odd ''solitino'' solution, as well as rational solutions, are found and characterized.


In this paper we introduce and study Mealy multiset automata, presenting some useful properties of multisets and comparing various approaches. We present the notions of bisimulation, observability, and behavior for Mealy multiset automata. We give a characterization of the bisimulation relation between two Mealy multiset automata, and a result relating their general behavior and sequential behavior. We define cascade and direct product of Mealy multiset automata. Then we introduce Mealy membrane automata corresponding to elementary P systems.


In assessing the criteria for deciding when aid should be granted or refused to countries where government policies contradict the economic and social prerequisites of development, Dudley Seers is right to stress the importance of two principles, which are too often ignored: Aid for development purposes presupposes the active cooperation of the recipient country. The basic aims of aid should be seen as part of a longterm plan.


Real-world tax systems distort investment and financing decisions. Therefore, taxes are integrated into capital budgeting models. However, these models use very simplified tax bases. Investors typically assume tax bases to be equal to cash flows less depreciation allowances. We analyse the investment incentives resulting from such a simplified tax planning. The analysis is based on a stochastic business simulation model applying empirical data from different industries. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we cover a wide variety of business developments. We show that using cash flows minus depreciation allowances as a tax base generates deviations compared to investment planning with a detailed tax base in accordance with current tax laws. The anticipated NPVs or future values of companies can be too high or too low, depending on the company's legal structure and industry. Using only cash flows as a tax base leads to an anticipated future value which is always too high. But these deviations are small compared to incorrect forecasts of interest rates or tax rates. For example, if the income tax is reduced to 37%, while the anticipated tax rate is 42%, or if the interest rate increases by 3 percent points, the future value and the deviation are much higher compared to tax base-induced deviations. Hence, investors should pay more attention to the forecast of interest rates and tax rates, as opposed to reproducing a more detailed tax base of investment projects.


Perhaps best known as the genomics pioneer who defied all the odds to decode the book of life and publish its contents years ahead of the government funded Human Genome Project's projected completion date; J. Craig Venter has done it again – this time in the nascent field of synthetic biology.


Recent studies show that spectrum sensing in cognitive radio exposes vulnerabilities to adversaries. An intelligent adversary can launch sensing disruption in the sensing duration, by putting spoofing signals in allowable bands to prevent secondary users from accessing. In the meantime, the adversary can also attack secondary users by traditional jamming, once they access the spectral bands and start transmission. Both attacks can significantly degrade the performance of a cognitive radio system. In this paper, we address the design of an energy constrained intelligent adversary. More specifically, a global optimization problem is formulated, to optimally distribute its energy between spoofing and jamming, so that the average sum throughput of the secondary users is minimized. To simplify the computation complexities, we divide our optimization into a 2-step problem: first optimally spoof and then optimally jam. Numerical results show that, to induce the worst effect on the average sum throughput of the secondary users, there is a tradeoff between spoofing and jamming: 1) when spoofing and jamming capabilities are comparable, the optimal attack is a combination of partial-band spoofing and partial-band jamming; 2) when spoofing is more effective, a spoofing only strategy is required; 3) when jamming capability dominates, a jamming only attack should be adopted.


Maulana Jalal-ud-Din Muhammad, later known as Maulana-i Rum (our Master of Anatolia) or simply Rumi, was an eminent thinker, jurist, poet,mystic and founder of the Mevleviyah Silsilah-Tarigah (a Sufi order). It is not easy to do justice to Rumi's greatness, and versatility, exuding such love and zest for life and, at the same time, carrying such a capacity for suffering, difficult to sustain in a single lifetime, which was less than the proverbial three-score and ten. Jalal-ud-Din Muhammad (1207-1273) was born in Khorasan, in the historic city of Balkh, its spiritual setting still permeated with the influence of Buddhism. Balkh, a great centre of learning, was also the birthplace of Hazrat Ibrahim Adham, an outstanding early Sufi of the classical period and was partly on that account, a hospitable region for Tasaivwaf (Theology of Islamic Mysticism) as it developed in its characteristic Persian form. Jalal-ud-Din's family had the double privilege of having descended, on the one hand, from Hazrat Abu Bakr Saddiq and Hazrat Ali and, on the other, from the royal house of Balkh. Jalal-ud-Din's grandfather was a noted Sufi and deeply respected by the rulers, so much so that the king, Muhammad Khwarzam Shah, had given his daughter in marriage to him. Baha-ud-Din Muhammad Waled (1148-1231), Jalal-ud-Din's father, was born of this marriage. Jalal-ud-Din's ancestors were known for their piety, virtue, learning and mystical leanings. His father subscribed, to the theological beliefs of Islam and was also an ardent believer in and exponent of Tasawzvaf of the Khorasan mystical tradition. His integrity and moral leadership had such force that he could take a critical stand even against authority and issued Fatwahs (judgements on controversial matters). From morning until mid day Baha-ud-din taught at the Madrassah where he had been appointed to a chair by the Sultan. Afternoons were reserved for students interested in the mysteries and explanations of esoteric religious truth. Though trained as a theologian, it was the mystic interpretation of the faith that engaged him more than rational discussions of philosophical premises


The invention discloses a scrophularia ningpoensis planting method. The scrophularia ningpoensis planting method comprises the steps of soil preparation, root and bud cultivation, field management, pest control, harvest and processing. Soil conditioner is added to the soil of the planting field, and then a seeding substrate is laid on the surface layer. When the method is used for planting scrophularia ningpoensis, the acre yield of the scrophularia ningpoensis is high, the quality of the scrophularia ningpoensis is good, and the damage caused by diseases and pests is small.


In this study, the effects of curing white Portland cement (WPC) and hydroxyapatite mixed with white Portland cement (HAp/WPC) pastes in water and the in vitro biological environment on the compressive strength and bone-like apatite formation were examined. The compressive strength of both WPC and HAp/WPC pastes increased with longer curing periods in water. The compressive strength of WPC and HAp/WPC pastes was 51.88 and 25.67 MPa, respectively, after curing in water for 28 days. The compressive strength of both samples continuously increased during in vitro testing in a simulated body fluid (SBF). After 4 weeks of immersion in a SBF, the strengths of cured WPC and HAp/WPC samples were 59.01 and 28.06 MPa, respectively. It is due to continued hydration of WPC. The addition of HAp to WPC decreased the compressive strength of the sample. Alternatively, it enhanced bone-like apatite formation on the surface of the samples.


We report the case of a 9-months-old boy that has presented a steroid-dependent post-pneumococcal chronic aseptic meningitis was associated with persistence of pneumococcal cell wall components in cerebrospinal fluid during more than 20 months. Suggesting that this antigenic persistence could be involved in post-infectious manifestations through innate immunity response.


The purpose of this study were to analyze the organization structure effectiveness in production department of PT. Goodyear Indonesia, to determine influencing factor in effective structure in PT Goodyear Indonesia and develop strategy to improve associates understanding on the new organization structure. The data were collected from 40 associates, spread from front line through key managers in production department of PT. Goodyear Indonesia. The study began in April through August 2003, with descriptive method.
Range of Criteria, Chi square and Rank Spearman correlation were used to analyze the data. Based on range of criteria, the result showed that the new organization structure in production department of PT. Goodyear Indonesia was effective. Based on chi square analysis, the result showed there were relationship between age and experience with effectiveness but no relationship between education and job rank with effectiveness. Based on Rank Spearman correlation, the result showed that the organization structure effectiveness in production department of PT. Goodyear Indonesia were influenced by :
1. Work Environment work and satisfaction
2. Relationship among associates
3. Responsibility and accountability
4. Communication
5. Associate adaptation and organization response
6. Work tools and associate attitudes
To improve further on the organization effectiveness, all associates has to work consistently based on a system, rewards and punishment should be transparent, make corrective action on a system, increase audit frequency, develop small team to solve the problems.


SUMMARY

The Cattle Egret is a dry season visitor to Rokupr in Sierra Leone during the bird's non-breeding season. There are no cattle in the area to attract the herons and they obtain nearly all their food from small isolated areas of vegetable gardens which are associated with all the villages. The number of herons associated with each garden is closely correlated with the area of that garden and is about two birds per acre.

The daily life of the birds is discussed, in particular the pre-roosting assemblies and the flight to roost, and it is shown that each flock leaves for the roost at the same time each day, about 30–35 min. before dusk.

Observations made at a particular roost showed that all the Cattle Egrets reached the roost before dusk and from these observations, combined with those made on the feeding grounds, it is concluded that the number of Cattle Egrets using the roost is determined by the number and area of the feeding grounds that lie within 30–35 minutes flying time (about 12 miles) of the roost.

Other species using the roost are briefly discussed.


Aims and Objective: Gastrointestinal malignancies are among the most lethal
of all malignancies and are equally notorious for rapidly progressing to advanced
stages even in the absence of serious symptoms, thus leading to delayed diagnoses
and dismal pro...


&NA; We conduct meta‐analyses of the estimated impacts of corn ethanol on food and fuel prices, as well as greenhouse gases, and analyze the implications for the balance of trade. The meta‐analyses suggest that corn ethanol has minor effects on greenhouse gas emissions and significant yet moderate effects on food and fuel prices. However, corn ethanol has a relatively significant impact on fuel security in terms of reductions in the import of oil to the U.S. and its overall effect on the U.S. balance of trade.


Inthis paper, theimplementation ofadigital signal processor (DSP)basedH.264decoder foramulti-format set-top boxisdescribed. Baseline andMainprofiles aresupported. Using several software optimization techniques, thedecoder hasbeen fitted intoalow-cost DSP.Thedecoder alonehasbeentested in simulation, achieving real-time performance witha 600MHz system clock. Finally, ithasbeenintegrated inamulti-format IP set-top boxusing acommercial development boardbasedonthe DSP @ 600MHz. Testsina realenvironment havebeen performed using this boardwithgoodresults.


What role does formal education play in the political socialization of youth? The article presents findings from a national survey in 2002 of more than 11,000 youths aged 13–19 in Norway. Indicators of political socialization are: an index of expressed interest in politics and social issues, participation in membership organizations of a political kind, political activism, and unlawful forms of political protest. Except for unlawful forms of protest, interest in politics and social issues, and actual participation, increase with educational achievement and especially with ambition for higher education. But all forms of political participation (but not mere interest in politics) increase with greater than average conflict with teachers and school authority. These findings persist after controls for social class, parental education, and political socialization in the family.


The spectrum of the noise in helicopters is complicated because the rotor and blades produce intense low‐frequency noise components, and the gears and transmission produce narrow‐band peaks in the mid‐frequency range. Thus the helicopter provides an excellent proving ground for theoretical models of auditory masking. The rounded exponential model of masking [Patterson et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 57, 1788–1803 (1982)] has been extended to predict threshold at low frequencies and high levels by incorporating the results of recent laboratory studies. Two experiments were then performed to test the model's ability to predict masked audiograms gathered in the presence of helicopter noise. In one experiment the masker was presented via headphones in sound attenuating chambers to 12 listeners, in the other the masker was presented via loudspeakers in a Lynx helicopter simulator to six listeners. The results show that a very simple auditory filter, Roex (p), and mild asymmetry (upper side sharper) can predict the...


We present results of simulations with the Max Planck Institute Martian general circulation model implementing a hydrological cycle scheme. The simulations reveal a seasonal water "pump" mechanism responsible for the upward transport of water vapor. This mechanism occurs in high latitudes above 60° of the southern hemisphere at perihelion, when the upward branch of the meridional circulation is particularly strong. A combination of the mean vertical flux with variations induced by solar tides facilitates penetration of water across the "bottleneck" at approximately 60 km. The meridional circulation then transports water across the globe to the northern hemisphere. Since the intensity of the meridional cell is tightly controlled by airborne dust, the water abundance in the thermosphere strongly increases during dust storms.


Hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) is the most common inherited disorder of iron metabolism. It is characterized by elevated intestinal iron absorption and the progressive deposition of iron in tissues throughout the body, notably in the parenchymal cells of the liver, heart and pancreas.


CD39 is an ectonucleotidase that regulates platelet function by phosphohydrolyzing ATP and ADP. In the setting of ischemic injury, CD39 may also maintain blood fluidity by promoting fibrinolysis. P...


A 0.15mm2 Bitcoin mining engine is fabricated in 14nm CMOS with highest-reported energy-efficiency of 0.063J/GHash at 250mV, $25 ^{\circ}\mathrm {C}$. Fully-unrolled SHA256 datapath with Bitcoin-specific look-ahead/deferred digest optimizations and 3-cycle distributed scheduler provide 31/56% digest/scheduler delay reductions, resulting in 10% higher energy-efficiency with dual-Vcc operation. 3-phase latch-based clocking with stretchable non-overlapping clocks eliminates all min-delay paths, reducing total sequential power consumption by 50%. Robust mining operation over a wide supply range of 230–900mV is demonstrated, with 10–760MHash/s throughput measured at $100 ^{\circ}\mathrm {C}$.


Fe‐Co films deposited in an alternating multilayer structure by a magnetron dc‐sputtering method have an artificial superlattice structure with crystallographic coherence between constituent layers. The films are bcc with (110) planes parallel to the film surface. The lattice constant of films is smaller than for bulk Fe and decreases linearly to about 2.81 A with increasing Co layer thickness. The films are ferromagnetic with an easy magnetization direction in the film plane. The magnetization of multilayer films in comparison with that of Fe‐Co alloy films with similar compositions is smaller for films with a thicker Fe than Co layer, and larger for films with a thinner Fe than Co layer. The large magnetization of Fe‐Co films is attributed to the large magnetization of bcc‐Co in comparison with that of bulk hcp Co.


Abstract We propose a new discretization of an initial value problem for differen- tial equations of the first order in a Banach space with a strongly P-positive operator coefficient. Using the strong positiveness, we represent the solution as a Dunford- Cauchy integral along a parabola in the right half of the complex plane, then transform it into real integrals over (−∞,∞), and finally apply an exponentially convergent Sinc quadrature formula to this integral. The integrand values are the solutions of a finite set of elliptic problems with complex coefficients, which are independent and may be solved in parallel.


Abstract Motivated mainly by streams of research that suggest industry expertise of audit committee (AC) is the best-qualification for directors, and that evidence on the value of this expertise is limited. This study examines whether AC financial expertise is associated with audit report timeliness and mainly explores the effect of AC industry expertise on audit report timeliness by supporting AC financial expertise. The study used a sample from a unique setting and pooled regression analysis, and the study reveals that AC financial expertise is not associated with reducing audit report delay. More significantly, it documents that a reduction delay in audit reporting, improving audit timeliness, is more apparent when the members' industry expertise level enhances AC's financial expertise members. This study also records that AC members with financial expertise and industry expertise are strongly associated with decreasing the audit report delay. Financial expertise is associated with a shorter audit report delay in the subgroup of industry expertise. Overall, this study highlights the added value of industry expertise with financial expertise in improving audit committees' effectiveness in the context of timely reporting.


The adjustable speed pumped storage unit with AC excitation is an advanced technology of power generation for the grid regulation. This paper introduces its development, principle and construction, describes the technical advances. The operation,application and development trend are analyzed. Based on comparison between technical and economic, the appropriate capacity proportion of this kind of unit in the power grid is presented.


This study investigated the relationships between 100m crawl swimming speed and isokinetic muscular strength and endurance measured during shoulder extension, elbow extension and arm pull. Subjects were nine high school and college female crawl swimmers. Isokinetic muscular strength and endurance were measured at both sides of upper limb joints in a supine position by using Cybex II machine. Results were as follows; 1 ) Significant correlation coefficients to the swimming speed were obtained in the peak torques of shoulder extension measured at angular velocities of 30, 120, 180, 210, 240 and 300deg/s (r=0.685 to O . 825) . The highest correlation coefficient was at 210deg/s. 2 ) Significant correlation coefficients to the swimming speed were obtained in the peak torques of elbow extension measured at O (isometric strength) and 30deg/s (r=0.752 and O . 749) . 3 ) Significant correlation coefficient to the swimming speed was obtained in the peak torque of arm pull measured at 30deg/s (r = 0.845). 4 ) There were no significant correlation coefficients to the swimming speed in the average peak torques of shoulder extension and elblow extension measured fifty times in every two second at 210deg/s. These correlation coefficients (r= O . 639 and O . 663) were, however, higher than those in arm pull (r=0.436). 5 ) The peak torque of shoulder extension measured at 210deg/s showed the highest percent contribution to the swimming ~peed (about 50 to 60 %) . These results will be useful finding for training and measurement of muscular strength, anaerobic power and anaerobic endurance of the * ^~L*~:~!~~~~-~l~=F~1 ~*~~~~~i~ **NEC7]j-)1;~~ ~l~;~~7 )~ * * * ~~~;~1~~4~)~~* Institute of Health & Sport Sciences, versity of Tsukuba * * NEC Green Swimming School * * * Tsuru University Uni upper limb joints for crawl swimmers.


Background: In spite of technological advancement and substantial efforts towards wellbeing ofgeriatric subjects, an upward trend of morbidity prevails in geriatric age group. There are severalfactors which may influence the overall health status of elderly subjects and put them in adversecondition. Objectives: [1] To assess the extent and pattern of perceived morbidities in studysubjects [2] To find out the correlates of perceived morbidities. [3] To find out type and source oftreatment utilized by study subjects. Setting: urban Varanasi. Study design: community basedcross sectional study. Study subjects: 616 geriatric subjects (> 60 years). Tool and technique:predesigned pretested proforma used to elicit information after taking consent from subjects.Results: of all 37.7% and 28.4% subjects had one to two and > 3 self reported morbidities,respectively. The commonest morbidity pertained to musculoskeletal system (28.8%). Modernmedicine was utilized by 63.9% subjects. Government health facilities were utilized by 56%subjects. There existed significant association between age, type of family and occupation ofstudy subjects and their self reported morbidities; and age was identified as correlate of morbidityby logistic model; subjects in the age categories > 80 years (AOR 5.79; CI 2.49-13.49) and 70-79years (AOR 2.24; CI 1.44-3.47) had significantly (p<0.01) more AOR in comparison to subjects inage group 60-69 years. Conclusion: Multi-morbid condition has been a serious problem in oldage group; predominantly affecting the health of study subjects and deteriorates theirperformance as well. As the age increased the proportion of morbid condition also increased. It ishighlighted that among all socio demographic and economic factors morbidities are attributed toageing.


Aims:  To test the possibility that wines available in the marketplace may contain culturable yeasts and to evaluate the 5·8S‐ITS rDNA sequence analysis as adequate means for the identification of isolates.


Abstract Data on bioeroding sponge ecological distributions are sparse despite their important role in tropical reef erosion. Difficulties with in situ species identification and estimation of biomass have impeded field studies and remain a problem. An extensive transect study has been conducted at Orpheus Island, Central Great Barrier Reef. Encrusting Cliona orientalis, Aka mucosa and Zyzzya criceta were identified in the field, other sponges were grouped according to colour and papillar diameter. The sponges were not host-specific and frequencies per substrate type varied. Encrusting C. orientalis was almost restricted to massive coral substrates (> 90 %), whereas all brown papillate sponges were also abundant in branching corals. The latter encompass papillate C. orientalis, Pione vastifica, Pione caesia and other species. Only A. mucosa and C. orientalis occurred adjacent to live coral. C. orientalis harbours photoactive zooxanthellae and requires high irradiation levels. A. mucosa has specialised in living in substrate buried in sediment, erect fistules reaching into the water. A. mucosa persists on the sandy zone, where no other species was successful. The entire species composition changed across the reef. Species richness increased with substrate availability, and biomass was highest at the reef edge, where water turbulence is most pronounced.


In this book, David B. Wong defends an ambitious and important new version of moral relativism. He does not espouse the type of relativism that says anything goes, but he does start with a relativist stance against alternative theories such that there need not only be one universal truth. Rather, Wong proposes that there can be a plurality of true moralities existing across different traditions and cultures, all with one core human question as to how we can all live together. Wong's interesting position draws from Western and Eastern philosophies, psychology, evolutionary theory, history and literature.


This chapter demonstrates how Josephus depicts King Agrippa II, his role and his actions during the Jewish war. The Jewish war had destroyed the Herodian power in Judea, and so after 70 c. e. Although Josephus opposed Herodian power in principle based on his hierocratic ideology, he regarded Agrippa as the sole remaining option for an at least minor Jewish participation in the administration of post-war Judea. However, both the Herodians and Josephus failed in their attempt to rewrite the past. Josephus quickly abandoned his temporary pro-Herodian stance, and Agrippa and his family finally had to acknowledge that the era of the dynasty in Judea had come to an end. Thus, Agrippa, although he had fought along with the victors, after the war in fact belonged to those who actually had lost it. Keywords:Agrippa II; Herodians; Jewish War; Josephus; Judea; post-war


Various test results show that hard rock in high geostress tends to be broken more easily,which provides us a good opportunity to investigate non-explosive mining when unloaded.The characteristics of stored energy in hard rock metal mines under high geostress are described.Consequently,the possibility of the continuous mining methods in deep metal mines is analyzed.At present,there are two mandatory conditions to realize non-explosive mining in deep metal mines.One is the high-performance equipments,and the other one is the site-specific geographical conditions,such as well developed rock discontinuities.After unloaded in excavation,the strength of rock mass is weakened by the redistribution of high geostress,which is helpful for seepage of groundwater and thus the number of unstable blocks increases.These conditions provide the advantages for non-explosive continuous mining.In this paper,a geological survey of deep phosphate deposit in Kaiyang phosphate mine is carried out.The rock classification of deep phosphate deposit in this project is put forward according to rock mass classification system(CSIR).Non-explosive mining test for the deep phosphate deposit ore is implemented in Kaiyang phosphate mine.The results of geological survey and non-explosive mining test demonstrate the feasibility of hard rock cracking in high geostress region.The excavation damaged zone(EDZ) of roadway is tested and its scale is larger than the range of the blasting-disturbed zone.The rock mass in EDZ could be efficiently cut by a low power road header.It is easier to cut rock mass in the excavation damaged zone than full-face excavation.It shows that non-explosive mining can be employed in high geostress hard rock for its effectiveness in mining-induced fracture.


To compare patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) for patients with symptomatic renal stone disease treated by flexible ureterorenoscopy (fURS) and shockwave lithotripsy (SWL) Historically, surgical outcomes are measured by surgeon-specific outcomes such as 'stone-free rates'. More recently, there is increasing emphasis on PROMs to ascertain a patient's perspective of their own surgical outcome. Despite this, the literature in reference to renal stone-specific PROMs following stone treatment remains limited. Data were collected in a prospective multi-centre study. Patients undergoing fURS or SWL were asked to complete the validated Cambridge Renal Stone Patient Reported Outcome Measure ( CReSP) on the day of initial treatment and at weeks 1, 6 and 12 post-operatively. Data were collected for 119 patients. Three were excluded as stone metric and demographic details were incomplete. Sixty underwent SWL and 56 underwent fURS. Median stone size was 7.52 mm. There were no significant differences in baseline PROM scores between the treatment groups. At 1 week, the PROM scores were significantly higher in the fURS group compared to SWL (27.40 ± 0.85sd versus 22.51 ± 1.07sd; p < 0.05). However, at 6 and 12 weeks, the PROM scores were significantly lower in the fURS group (18.51 ± 2.27sd versus 23.67 ± 1.30sd; p < 0.05) and (17.01 ± 2.29sd versus 22.49 ± 1.49sd; p < 0.05), respectively. By week 12, overall scores for anxiety and social factors were more favourable in the fURS cohort. Our study suggests that fURS is associated with a short-lived increase in morbidity in comparison with SWL, which may be due to ureteric stenting in the majority of patients post-operatively. However, fURS patients appear to report significantly better PROM scores in the longer term. This appears to be associated with more favourable anxiety and social factor scoring over the treatment period. Not applicable.


2D DCT plays an important role in image procession and video encoding. Based on all I\|frame video encoding of MPEG\|2, 2D DCT is implemented on FPGA. 8×8 2D DCT is changed into eight 1D DCT combination with some butter\|fly operations and reordering operation. It is provided in simulation that the implementation of 2D DCT can run at 74.25 samples per second with only one 1D DCT module.


The invention pertains to an optical device comprising a substrate with two main faces, and, on at least one face, a first coating which is in contact with a second coating, the first coating being positioned between the second coating and the substrate, the first coating is a release layer, adapted so that it can be selectively activated in order to diminish mechanical properties or adhesion enabling the second coating to be fastened to the substrate.


I.H.F. is a consultant for Advanced Medical Optics, Bausch & Lomb, iScience Surgical Corporation, Carl Zeiss Meditec and Omeros Corporation, and receives research and travel support from Eyeonics, Alcon Laboratories, STAAR Surgical and Rayner. R.S.H. has no financial disclosures. M.P. is a consultant for Advanced Medical Optics, Advanced Vision Science, Visiogen, Carl Zeiss Meditec, Bausch & Lomb, Medtronic Xomed, iScience Surgical Corporation, VisionCare, Ethicon, Celgene Corporation and Gerson Lehman Group, and receives research and travel support from Eyeonics, STAAR Surgical, Alcon Laboratories and Endo Optiks.


The holographic antenna approach is adapted for operation in the microstrip regime to re-radiate the surface wave (SW) excited by the patch antenna. This paper discusses the design of the holographic surface, as well as its integration with the microstrip patch. The initial design concept was developed by assuming small perturbation to the SW, which was subsequently verified through full-wave Method-of-Moments (MoM) simulations. While this method is simple and intuitive, it will be shown that significant improvement to the broadside gain and SW efficiency of the microstrip patch can be achieved at the cost of increased area.


This study looked at 3,016 models in 1,972 ads from 12 women's, men's and general-interest magazines. A majority of models in the Japanese, Chinese and Korean ads were female. Most women and men were NOT shown in occupational roles; of those that were, men prevailed over women in the 'high-level business' and 'professional' categories by about 2 to 1. The products most strongly associated with women were cosmetics (Japan) and clothes (Korea and Hong Kong). Men were most strongly associated with clothes (Hong Kong and Korea) and entertainment/ information (Japan). Although Asian culture accords respect to the elderly, almost no Asian women over 50 appeared in the ads studied.


Abstract The aim of this paper is to analyse political activity in the mass media discourses of states with more democratic and more authoritative regimes respectively, so as to show a clear difference in the context of a formal analysis of mass media content. The current study examines political news on qualitative online media portals in Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. Thirty years ago, these states began their independent transition from a closed system to openness/democracy. However, at today's transition point, only Lithuania is considered a democratic country. In different periods Ukraine has been considered an example of competitive authoritarianism, while Belarus deviated towards complete authoritarianism and dictatorship. All political news items between 2005–2020 (for delfi.lt – since 2007) were collected with the help of the Python program. To measure the indicators, several Python programs were designed. The results of the research confirmed that the intensity of political activity differs in the mass media discourses of states with more democratic (Lithuania, Ukraine) and more authoritative (Belarus) regimes. Furthermore, a clear difference was shown in terms of five indicators, average indicators and the dynamics thereof.


Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are self-organizing system consists with tiny, battery powered sensor nodes with limited processing, storage and communication capabilities that are often deployed in very harsh and inaccessible environment in order to gather data about some phenomenon from the outside world. The cluster based architecture is an efficient way for extending the lifetime of a WSN. The message transfer between two cluster head consumes more power than, between a cluster head and an intermediate node, as the distance of communication is greater in former. The power consumption of node can be lowered by passing message through the intermediate nodes i,e. cooperative communication and hence prolonging the network lifetime. The network lifetime can further be enhanced by restricting the area of flooding by a node, to find the next hop. Our proposed method defines the region of flooding depending on the location of the source node and the destination node, in a cluster grid defined network. Flooding in a small area is observed to be far more power economic than flooding in the entire cluster for prolonging the network's life time. Partitioning the destination cluster grid into different size of sub clusters depending on the location of destination node is more power economic as well as useful for faster communication as compared with existing algorithm that has been further confirmed by the simulation result and by analysis.


A full length of cDNA encoding SM22 alpha from chicken gizzard smooth muscle was cloned and sequenced. Cloned cDNA had a total length of 1214bp and contained a single open reading frame which encodes 200 amino acids with a calculated molecular weight 22214. The predicted amino acid sequence was in complete agreement with the sequence determined by Pearlstone et al. using Edman degradation method (J. Biol. Chem. 262:5985, 1987) except for two additional residues, isoleucine and serine at the C-terminus.


With the development of Internet technology in recent years,Internet has penetrated our life.On the other hand,there is a growing crime rate of and constantly upgrading crime forms,hence a increasingly perniciousness to the society.Traditional crimes take on new forms with the development of Internet.Facing the highly increasing rate of Internet crimes,it is great significant to study the Internet crimes and enhance the preventive countermeasure.


The global burden of viral hepatitis B is substantial, and monitoring infections across the care cascade is important for elimination efforts. There is little information on care disparities by immigration status, and we aimed to quantify disease burden among immigrant subgroups.


The touch-sensitive device, several pickup sensors and at least one excitation transducer includes touch plate coupled. Each sensor is configured to sense bending waves in the touch plate, the excitation transducer is configured to induce bending waves in the touch plate. The apparatus may further comprise an active buffer circuits, each of the active buffer circuits is coupled to one of the sensors. Controller coupled to the sensor via the active buffer circuits is coupled to the excitation transducer via a non-active buffered connection. The controller, in response to detection signals received from the sensor, and is configured to calculate a contact position on the touch plate. Using this device, capable of executing various calibration, including touch plate and sensor calibration. By detecting a change in the touch-sensitive device calibration and performance may be tracked over time.


Arguments between response to intervention (RTI) with curriculum-based measurement (CBM) and traditional, individual psychoeducational assessments encourage a false dichotomy between alternatives that are not mutually exclusive, but complementary. This article discusses strengths and weaknesses of both approaches, touches on current legislative issues, and suggests that judicious, appropriate use of both types of assessment enhances the value of each. Initial identification of students who might need specialized instruction is better done with CBM than with individual psychoeducational assessments. RTI approaches would usually be more efficient than individual assessments and should reduce the need for such assessments. However, when RTI does not solve the problem or there are multiple, severe, and complex referral concerns, individual psychoeducational assessments are still essential. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 901–908, 2006.


We consider secure two-party computation in the client-server model. In our scenario, two adversaries operate separately but simultaneously, each of them corrupting one of the parties and a restricted subset of servers that they interact with. We model security in this setting via the local universal composability framework introduced by Canetti and Vald and show that informationtheoretically secure two-party computation is possible if and only if there is always at least one server which remains uncorrupted. Moreover, in our protocols each of the servers only needs to communicate with the two clients, i.e. no messages are exchanged directly between servers. This communication pattern is minimal.


HMS automation refers to use of computers, associated peripheral media such as Disks, Printer, Optical media etc. and utilization of computer based products and services in the performance of all type of Institutions functions and operations. Computers are capable of introducing a great deal of automation in operations, functions since they are electronic, programmable and are capable of control over the process being performed.


Purpose: Necrolytic Acral Erythema (NAE) is a pruritic, psoriasis-like skin disease characterized by sharply marginated, erythematous to hyperpigmented plaques with variable scale and erosion on the lower extremities. Histologically, it resembles a group of skin disorders known as the necrolytic erythemas, which include necrolytic migratory erythema (seen with glucagonoma), pellagra (seen with niacin defi ciency), and acrodermatitis enteropathica (seen with zinc defi ciency). NAE was fi rst described in 1996 in association with hepatitis C (HCV). A 73-year-old female was referred to GI for reconsideration of HCV treatment. She had failed treatment with Peg-IFN and ribavirin for genotype 1b HCV in the past. She presented to Dermatology with a pruritic, painful rash that had developed on her legs. Aft er an initial diagnosis of xerotic eczema and failed treatments with hydroxyzine, vaseline, urea cream, and clobetasol, a skin biopsy was performed, establishing a diff erential diagnosis that included the necrolytic erythemas. Zinc and glucagon levels were normal. Th e diagnosis of NAE was established, and she was referred to GI for reconsideration of HCV treatment given the discomfort associated with her rash. She refused treatment for HCV. Her rash underwent a waxing and waning course. Initially, she was given a course of clindamycin that resulted in marked improvement. However, 2 months later the rash recurred, and she was empirically started on zinc 220 mg daily along with another course of clindamycin without much immediate improvement. She developed bilateral LE edema and weeping from the skin lesions for which she was placed on low-dose diuretics which resulted in marked improvement. She has remained on zinc supplementation and her rash has remained stable. NAE is a rare skin disease associated with HCV. A waxing/waning course seems to be the most common natural history. Zinc supplementation and HCV treatment with interferon and ribavirin are the only identifi ed treatments. Empiric supplementation with zinc has been associated with improvement, even in patients with normal serum zinc levels. In one case, discontinuation of zinc supplementation was associated with exacerbation of the disease. In another patient who was found to have low serum zinc levels, zinc therapy resulted in rapid recovery. Th e addition of interferon and ribavirin has been described to have benefi ts beyond zinc alone, even without signifi cant reduction in HCV viral load. While our patient refused treatment for HCV, her rash seems to remain stable on zinc supplementation. Th is case illustrates NAE as a skin disease associated with HCV responding to treatment with zinc supplementation.


A kind of MDT polysiloxane was prepared by step hydrolysis and polycondensation of alkoxysilane. It could be cured at elevated temperature with existence of microencapsulated platinum catalyst. The effects of crosslinkable groups' contents and PhSiO1.5 content on properties of cured silicone resin were studied in detail. When the contents of crosslinkable groups were 20mol% to 30mol% and the PhSiO1.5 content was 25mol% to 30mol%, the cured silicone resin had good tensile strength, flexural strength, moderate elasticity, and low viscosity. With the increase of PhSiO1.5 content from 17mol% to 32mol%, Tg of the silicone resin could be improved by 50°C to 128°C. The thermal stability was explored by thermo gravimetric analysis. The onset temperature of thermal degradation and the center temperature of thermal degradation were 486°C and 548°C, respectively. The average dielectric constant was about 2.45 and the dielectric loss tangent value was less than 0.01. The silicone resin also showed a high-volume resistivity of 5.6×1016Ω•cm. These results suggest that such silicone resin is suitable for utilization in electronic packaging.


In this paper, we present new Hamiltonian operators for the integrable couplings of the Ablowitz–Kaup–Newell–Segur hierarchy and the Kaup–Newell hierarchy. The corresponding Hamiltonians allow nontrivial degeneration. Multi-Hamiltonian structures are investigated. The involutive property is proven for the new and known Hamiltonians with respect to the two Poisson brackets defined by the new and known Hamiltonian operators.


Introduction Who's Indigenous? Whose archaeology? Ainu People of Japan Archaeology & Indigenous People in Siberia The Use of Archaeological & Anthropological Evidence in Aboriginal Rights Cases Social Scientists & Native Title Cases in Australia Indigenous Peoples Rights to their Cultural Heritage Strands of Indigenism in the Andes Museums & Communities in Africa Archaeologists, Indigenous Peoples & Heritage in Argentina Representation & the Kogi Social Images Through Visual Images The Maguta Museum for the Ticuna People, Amazonas, Brazil Artefacts, Archaeologists & American Indians Honour they Ancestor's Possessions Indigenous Claims & Heritage Conservation Applied Archaeology.


This paper attempted to address the open problem - a general theory of parameter adaptive control (deterministic plant). By delivering three criteria on the stability and convergence of deterministic self-tuning control systems, we show that virtual equivalent system concept and methodology might lead to a general theory for adaptive control system. Actually with the presented criteria, a unified analysis of deterministic self-tuning control systems is carried out. Specifically, two criteria are used to judge the stability and convergence of deterministic self-tuning control systems, which are independent of specific controller design strategy and specific parameter estimation algorithm. And the third criterion is used to judge the stability and convergence of one-step ahead self-tuning control with arbitrary parameter estimation algorithms.


The approximation capability of the Takagi-Sugeno model are investigated in this paper. This kind of model features a functional consequent which is usually a first-degree polynomial in the inputs. The importance of the constant term in such a polynomial is highlighted showing that if it is discarded the Takagi-Sugeno model features the same approximation power of the simpler constant-consequence systems.


We investigate the iterated Kronecker product of a square matrix with itself and prove an invariance property for symmetric subspaces. This motivates the definition of an iterated symmetric Kronecker product and the derivation of an explicit formula for its action on vectors. We apply our result for describing a linear change in the matrix parametrization of semiclassical wave packets.


Now a lot of higher vocational colleges are actively implementing the project of learning through working. The paper clarifies some problems of quality supervision during the project, such as establishing the supervision organization, perfecting the supervision standards and finding out the corresponding measures.


Government regulations and public pressure have resulted in the use of composting as an alternative waste handling system for dairies. Utilization of locally-produced manures by vegetable production operations may increase crop yields with less conventional fertilizer. Despite its ability to stabilize nutrients and lower manure volume, composting has costs in time and equipment, so some growers prefer using uncomposted manure. Dairy manure compost at 22 (LC), 45 (MC), or 90 (HC) Mg·ha−1 or uncomposted dairy lot scrapings at 45 Mg·ha−1 (DL) were tilled into soil before seeding a dryland muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) crop. All plots, including an unamended control (UC), were fertilized with a total of 23N-14P-0K (kg·ha−1). After removal of the cantaloupe in late summer, a drip irrigated broccoli (Brassica oleracea var.botrytis Mill.) crop was planted into the identical plots, and sidedressed with 112 kg·ha−1 N. Muskmelon yields from DL, LC, MC, HC, and UC plots were 9.6, 6.9, 4.1, 9.0, and 2.9 Mg·ha−1, respectively. Broccoli yields from DL, LC, MC, HC, and UC plots were 4.2, 3.6, 4.4, 4.1, and 2.2 Mg·ha−1, respectively. All rates of compost or manure increased yields of cantaloupe, and the subsequent broccoli crop. Use of the manure resulted in highest increase in potential net income from sales of muskmelon and broccoli.


s of Literature CEREBRAL ANEURYSMS/SAH AB-75 56-84 Acute Surgery of Cerebral Aneurysms and Prevention of Symptomatic Vasospasm — Auer LM (Department of Neurosurgery, Graz University, A-8010 Graz, Austria) — Acta Neurochir (Wien) 69: 273-281, 1983* A treatment protocol for a controlled open study in patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) from cerebral aneurysms is presented, applying acute surgery and pharmacological prevention of symptomatic vasospasm: In patients clinically graded I—III (Hunt and Hess), operation is performed within 48 to 72 hours. After aneurysm clipping, the calcium-antagonist Nimodipine is administered 1. topically during operation, 2. intravenously until day 14 after SAH, 3. perorally until day 21 after SAH. Preliminary results in the first 31 patients show no management mortality and no severe management morbidity. Severe symptomatic vasospasm has never occurred. At 3 months follow-up investigation in 27 of the 31 patients, 5 had minimal neurological deficit; all patients are fully resocialized, working in their previous professions. AB-7557-84 Retrospective Analysis of 162 Consecutive Cases of Ruptured Intracranial Aneurysms. Total Mortality and Early Surgery — Bolander HG (Department of Neurosurgery, University of Umea, S-901 85 Umea, Sweden), Kourtopoulos H, West KA — Acta Neurochir (Wien) 70: 31-41, 1984* A retrospective analysis of 162 consecutive cases with ruptured intracranial aneurysm treated during the years 1979-1981 is presented. Total mortality was 33%. Eighty-four patients were in Botterell grades I—II and 62 were operated with a direct attack on the aneurysm. Thirty-eight were operated early with a mortality of 5% compared with 13% for those operated late. There was no difference in morbidity between the two groups. Of the patients operated with clipping, 66% made a "complete recovery" and 21% were classified as independent. Signs of delayed ischaemia were recorded in 42% of patients operated early as compared with 25% in the late surgery group. The frequency of rebleedings in the total material was 15%. Hospitalization time was significantly reduced in the early operated group. The importance of analysing the total management mortality and morbidity for evaluation and comparison between early and delayed surgery is discussed.


Objective To assess the effectiveness and safety of local application of Tranexamic acid(TXA) in reducing blood loss in total knee arthroplasty(TKA). Methods Studies were identified by computer from the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials(Central, 2013, Issue 3), MEDLINE(Jan. 1966 to Oct. 2013), EMBASE(Jan. 1966 to Oct. 2013), CBM(Jan.1978 to Oct. 2013) and VIP(Jan. 1978 to Oct. 2013), relevant journals or conference proceedings were also searched manually.Weighted mean difference(WMD) of blood loss, drain, decreased hemoglobin values, D-dimmer and postoperative KSS function score, odds ratio(OR) of transfusion in topical TXA-treated group versus placebo group were calculated across studies. Results Eight RCIs met the criteria for metes-analysis. The use of topical TXA significantly reduced total blood loss[WMD=-302.05, 95%CI(-345.05,-259.05), P 0.001], and drainage[WMD=-253.70, 95%CI(-293.75,-213.65), P 0.001],hemoglobin was less reduced[WMD=-0.64, 95%CI(-0.85,-0.43), P 0.001], reduced transfusion rate[OR=0.29, 95%CI(0.17,0.48), P 0.001], without rising the risk of D-dimmer and changing KSS account postoperative 3 months and half a year compared with placebo group. Conclusion This meta-analysis indicates that the use of topical TXA for patients undergoing TKA is effective and safe in reducing total blond lass and the requirement of blood transfusion.


The purpose of this study was to determine calcium and carbohydrate contents in beef meatballs with oyster mushrooms. The research used Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 1 factor pattern. Data was collected by performing experiment on each treatment, T0 (control treatment 100% of beef); T1 (40% of oyster mushrooms 60% of beef); T2 (50% of oyster mushrooms 50% of beef, and T3 (60% of oyster mushrooms 40% of beef). Calcium and carbohydrate contents were measured using spectrophotometer method. Calsium content of each treatments was 60 mg; 71,33 mg; 96,33 mg; 111,67 mg/ 100 g meatball for T0, T1, T2, T3 respectively. The highest calcium's content is found in T3 (111,67 mg) and the lowest calcium's content is found in T0 (60 mg). Carbohydrate content of each treatment was 2,72 g; 3,93 g; 4,02 g; 6,67 g/100 g meatball for T0, T1, T2, T3 respectively. The highest carbohydrate content is found in T3 (6,67) g and the lowest carbohydrate content is found in T0 (2,72 g).


e15104 Background: ASCO defined clinically meaningful trial endpoints in colorectal cancer (CRC) as absolute overall survival (OS) of 3-5 months and OS hazard ratio (HR) ≤0.67. Few tools predict clinically distinct subgroups from heterogeneous populations. Effect size (Glass's delta) calculates the absolute difference in clinical outcomes relative to the standard deviation of control group. We hypothesized that effect sizes ≥1 would be useful in predicting subgroup populations of clinical significance for trials with an indeterminate HR. Methods: Prospective phase II-III trials in metastatic CRC were queried from clinicaltrials.gov and cataloged by clinical outcomes of PFS and OS. Effect size was back-calculated from trials reporting 95% confidence intervals and compared with absolute difference in clinical outcome and hazard ratio. Results: 46 prospective trials were evaluable including 49% with biomarker selection, 57% in the first-line setting, and more commonly studied with targeted therapy over chemotherapy (70 v. 30%; p < 0.001). EGFR inhibitors were studied in 34% and VEGF inhibitors in 23%. Both effect size and HR correlated similarly with PFS (correlation coefficients, R = 0.65 vs. 0.76) and OS (R = 0.83 vs. 0.84) across these studies. Of studies with an indeterminate HR (0.69-0.86; n = 24), 10 studies had a significant effect size (Glass's delta > 1), indicating the potential for sub-populations with improved clinical benefit within the experimental treatment group. These included 4 trials with planned biomarker analyses. Remaining trials were enriched for studies investigating anti-angiogenic therapies (83% vs. 23%, p = 0.001), including bevacizumab, aflibercept, regorafenib, and ramucirumab. Conclusions: Effect size holds potential as a measure to indicate the presence of subpopulations of patients benefiting in clinical trials. Those trials with a significant effect size despite an indeterminate HR should be examined closely for such populations. In CRC, effect size indicates the potential of a subgroup of patients who benefit significantly from anti-angiogenic agents. Further investigations are needed to validate effect size as a tool to delineate improved clinical outcomes from heterogeneous populations.


The invention relates to a valve device (10) for an opening provided on a body of a vehicle trough, with at least one pivot arm (12), and with a flap (14) by at least one connecting means (16) at least positively connected to the pivot arm (12) connected and is to be stored on the pivot arm (12) pivoted to the structure, so that the flap (14) to the pivot arm (12) to the structure between at least a closed position for closing at least a portion of the trough and at least one open position for releasing the relatively portion is pivotable, wherein the connecting means (16) provided at least one on the flap (14) first latching element (20) and at least one with the first detent element (20) is latched to the second latching element (26), which along at least one direction (32) relative to the pivot arm (12) is movably supported on the swing arm (12).


This paper presents a method for estimating the population in Ano Poli of Thessaloniki based on a satellite image with the contribution of Remote Sensing and GIS. With this method, the Remote Sensing contributes to the classification of the image and to draw buildings by the satellite image and GIS is used to calculate the housing extent of the study area and consequently the population estimate. For the realization of the work a satellite image, a Digital Elevation Model and the Erdas Imagine® 2014, the Imagine Objective of Erdas Imagine® 2014, the eCognition Developer® 64, ArcMap® 10.2.2 and Geomatica software are used.


The invention relates to a improved process for the preparation of Losartan and its potassium salt, which comprises (i) reacting bromo OTBN with BCFI in the presence of a base and a phase transfer catalyst to get cyano aldehyde, reacting the cyano aldehyde sodium azide in the presence of tributyl tin chloride to form aldehyde tetrazole, reducing the aldehyde tetrazole with sodium borohydride to give Losartan and, if desired, converting it to its potassium salt by known method.


ABSTRAC Background Behavioral treatment itself is mostly done by people that can lead to medication errors. Drug advertising has contributed to the behavioral treatment alone. If this are not being balanced with the correct drug information, then people will be plunged toward irrational drug use. Objective To describe drug consumption behavior among the housewives and to analyze the impact of drug ads towards the housewives. Methods This study was an observational study with cross sectional design. Using the simple random sampling, research sites in Kelurahan Bendungan Kecamatan Gajah Mungkur RT 005 / RW 002 Semarang and gained a total of 40 people as a subject. Data were collected by using questionnaire that was filled by the subject themself. Descriptive data analysis performed by chi square and fisher exact test. Results Housewives that were influenced by drug ads have no irrational drug consumption behavior and 23 people have rational drug consumption behavior. The result of multivariate analysis that were using logistic regression analysis showed that there was no significant impact of drug ads towards drug consumption behavior among the housewives at the research location after considering occupational state as confounding variable and the significant p value was 0,998. Conclusion There is no significant impact of drug ads towards drug consumption behavior among the housewives. (Kelurahan Bendungan Kecamatan Gajah Mungkur RT 005 / RW 002) Keywords: Drug Advertisement, Drug Consumption


Background : Moxifloxacin is an 8-methoxyquinolone compound which has been shown to have the best activity of the quinolones against M. tuberculosis but there is no literature showing the rate of cross-resistance between moxifloxacin and the other quinolones such as ofloxacin. Therefore, we tested the activity of moxifloxacin against ofloxacin resistant M. tuberculosis by a study of cross-resistance. Methods : We tested MIC's of moxifloxacin and ofloxacin by proportion method against 34 M. tuberculosis isolates showing resistance against ofloxacin at 2.5μg/ml concentration and 13 ofloxacin susceptible isolates from specimens submitted to clinical laboratory of National Masan Hospital from March 2003 to March 2004. Results : For ofloxacin susceptible isolates, MIC50 and MIC90 of ofloxacin were all 1.25μg/ml, and MIC50 and MIC90 of moxifloxacin were 0.31μg/ml and 0.63μg/ml respectively. For ofloxacin resistant isolates, MIC50 of ofloxacin was over 10μg/ml and MIC50 of moxifloxacin was 5μg/ml ,MIC90 of ofloxacin and moxifloxacin were all over 10μg/ml. The rate of cross-resistance between the two was 67.6%(23/34) at 2.5μg/ml concentration. Conclusions : Moxifloxacin showed activity against 82.4%(28/34) of ofloxacin resistant M. tuberculosis at 10μg/ml, but more studies are needed so that moxifloxacin will be used for patient with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis including oflokacin resistance. (Tuberc Respir Dis 2004; 57:405-410)


We report a case series of six women with peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) who incidentally underwent echocardiography prior to the clinical presentation of PPCM. For comparison, we identified controls, matched 2:1 on age, race, body mass index, gestational age, and hypertensive disorder. Among the six cases, all were diagnosed with PPCM during the post‐partum period. Pre‐PPCM echocardiograms were performed between 17.7 weeks of gestation and 13 days post‐partum. Baseline left ventricular ejection fraction and size were normal and similar to the 12 matched controls (60% ± 6.6% vs. 61.4% ± 6.3%, P = 0.63) or left ventricular end‐diastolic dimension (4.6 cm ± 0.2 cm vs. 4.5 cm ± 0.4 cm, P = 0.689). There was a trend towards a less negative (more abnormal) mean global longitudinal strain in cases compared with controls (−14% ± 4% vs. −18.3% ± 4.5%, P = 0.0658). Mean global circumferential strain was significantly less negative (more abnormal) in cases compared with controls (−21.5% ± 5% vs. −29.3% ± 7.6%, P = 0.0329). We conclude that women who develop PPCM have normal left ventricular ejection fraction during gestation preceding PPCM, indicating that the disease develops acutely in the peripartum period. Abnormal strain can be detected, however, suggesting that strain imaging could represent a screening method in populations at high risk for PPCM if confirmed in future studies.


The current study intends to investigate the impact of indoor air pollution on health outcomes in Pakistan using data from 400 households in the Multan district. In order to find the presence of Indoor air pollution, readings of PM2.5 is used. The ordinary least square (OLS) method is used for data analysis. The study finds that indoor air pollution has a significant impact on physical and behavioral health symptoms. The study also finds that household head age, household size, household income, environmental concern, and the use of air cleaning device are the significant factors of physical health symptoms, while the variables household head age, education, household income, environmental concern, and environmental awareness are the significant factors of behavioral health symptoms. It is concluded that indoor air quality is essential in influencing the health status of the households. This study suggests that attempts should be made to improve indoor air quality by improving the housing structure and the socioeconomic status of the households.


Summary Current genitourinary medicine patients (202) and potential future patients (542) completed a questionnaire-based survey to determine their preference for obtaining test results, their acceptability of including a named infection on contact slips and to report expectations about the acceptable length of an appointment. Overall, most respondents (78% [n = 582]) felt it unacceptable to be only contacted if their results were positive ('no news is good news'). In the clinic, a majority preferred a contact slip to be coded (68% [n = 137]), in the general public views were balanced. Significantly, more people in the general population expected an appointment to last no longer than 30 min (32% [n = 173] cf. 10% [n = 21], P < 0.001). A clear preference was expressed to receive sexually transmitted infection test results even if they are negative. Telephone and face-to-face contact were most popular with relatively few choosing mobile telephone text messaging or email as their preferred option.


Emotions as intense feelings for reactions to something affect someone in interacting with others such as in determining choices, actions, and perceptions. The emotional state of an individual can be seen clearly through facial expression and tone of speech. Apart from facial features or voice features, identification of emotions can also be done through brain waves. This study used an electroencephalogram signal as an input to recognize types of emotions. The electroencephalogram signal was chosen because it can record the true emotions of individuals. The recognition of emotions based on Support Vector Machine (SVM). To improve the performance, this method was combined with Fisher's Linear Discriminant Analysis (FLDA). The experiments showed the SVM performance increased above 30%. As a comparison, this research also implemented Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP). The results showed that the performances of SVM and FLDA-SVM were higher than MLP or FLDA-MLP. It showed that FLDA-SVM was the best method of this research in recognizing emotions.


We construct several approximate inertial
manifolds for a weakly damped nonlinear
Schrodinger equation. For that purpose,
we introduce suitable smooth approximations
for the solution of the equation and
for its time derivatives.


HIV and AIDS in wornen has ernerged differently frorn that in other groups. This is not surprising given the established roles of women and the complexities of gender issues within societal structures. What is surprising is the length of time it took to understand and acknow ledge this and the fact that despite the fact that HIV infection was present and prevalent in women from the start of the epidemic, the study and focus for this group emerged late in the day and only after concerted political effort and attention. Nakajima and Rubin (1991) car ried out a review of HIV related studies in three leading journals over a time period of six years. They identified studies exploring psychosocial ramifications of HIV on a total sampie of just under two and a half thousand individuals, yet only 13 subjects (0.5%) mentioned in all these studies were women. trend