As experiments are in progress on selective breeding for insecticide tolerance in insect parasites and as various physiologically potent chemicals have been shown to cause mutation in Drosophila melanogaster Meig., tests were made to determine whether p-p′-DDT and γ-hexachlorocyclohexane had any mutagenic action. Wild type males of D. melanogaster that had been exposed to the former insecticide in their larval feeding medium, or, as adults, to the vapor of the latter insecticide, were tested. The Muller-5 method of detecting recessive lethal mutations in the X chromosome was used. No evidence of mutagenic action was found in either insecticidal isomer.


•  Astrocytes encapsulate GABAergic synapses and express GABAA receptors and GABA transporters. They are tightly coupled by gap junctions, and are referred to as the gap junction‐coupled astrocytic network. •  With higher [Cl−]i, GABA application can mediate bidirectional Cl− fluxes in astrocytes, Cl− efflux via GABAA receptors, and Cl− influx along with GABA uptake via GABA transporters. •  We focused on the Cl− dynamics of the astrocytic network under GABAergic synapse transmission. Spillover of GABA predominantly induced Cl− efflux via GABAA receptors, presumably because they are localized more closely to the synaptic cleft. •  GABAA receptor‐mediated currents were propagated via gap junctions within the astrocytic network. These results indicate that Cl− efflux from astrocytes mediated by GABAergic transmission is homeostatically maintained within gap junction‐coupled astrocytic networks. •  Blockage of gap junctional coupling by octanol promoted the collapse of the driving force for neuronal inhibitory transmission during intense activation of GABAergic synapses. Thus, the astrocytic network may play a role in maintaining GABAergic transmission by regulating [Cl−]o.


The invention dryers and relates to its cooling time control method, the dryer and its cooling time control method of the present invention is the cooling operation and detects the temperature to not higher than a predetermined temperature down depending on the size and kind of the contents of internal cooling during the dryer completed by the reliability can be enhanced because it can be flexibly changed in the cooling time.


Heat transfer phenomena are analyzed for test series 100 of the Thermal-Hydraulic Test Facility, part of the Pressurized-Water Reactor Blowdown Heat Transfer Separate-Effects Program. Heater rod surface temperatures are found to be sensitive to relatively small variations in flow. The mechanisms causing departure from nucleate boiling and rewetting are analyzed. Comparisons are made between heater rod surface temperatures calculated from thermocouple responses and surface temperatures produced by the thermal-hydraulic transient simulator RELAP4/MOD5 (update 2). The code's predictions are relatively accurate in the lower region of the test section and considerably high in the upper region. The procedures in the code which produce these results are discussed in detail.


Objective To evaluate the safety of buprenorphine for use in patient-controlled intravenous analgesia(PCIA) or patient-controlled epidural analgesia(PCEA) post radical operation for carcinoma of stomach.Methods Sixty patients,which were ASAⅠ~Ⅱand had scheduled radical operation for carcinoma of stomach at epidural block.Subjects were randomly divided into two groups,Ⅰgroup(n=15),received PCEA,epidural catheter was kept in the T_(8~9) intervertibral space,contained 6μg/ml buprenorphinel plus 0.15% ropivacaine;E group(n=15)received PCIA.Pain was evaluated by visual analogue scale(VAS)and sedation scale by ramsay at 0,6,12,24 and 48h postoperatively.Results Two groups were provided better pain relief at rest(P0.05).But pain relief of group Ⅰ was less than that of group E at get up and cough(P 0.05).Systolic blood pressure(SBP) in both groups decreased postoperative 6h、12h compared with the baseline value.Conclusion Buprenorphine for use in PCIA or PCEA can provide better pain relief post radical operation for carcinoma of stomach and less adverse effects.


We report on the first application of time-resolved reflectance spectroscopy in the orchards for the nondestructive assessment of apple optical properties during growth. A portable dual-wavelength (650 nm, 780 nm) system was developed and used to assess the absorption coefficient and the reduced scattering coefficient of apples during growth.


You may find it trivial to move up and down while walking, but this motion is a masterpiece of 4 cm shaped by 7 million years of marriage between smoothness and bounce. This vertical movement, first noticed by Aristotle and now tracked by satellites, is particularly beneficial for loading our muscles to perform a little work efficiently. A lesson on how optimization is a relative success story, and not perfection, is described here


Data warehouse are used in organisations for efficient information delivery. The quality of a data warehouse is governed by the quality of conceptual, logical and physical data models. Conceptual model forms the base for design of logical/physical models. The conceptual model quality is assessed using quality metrics. The metrics for assessing the quality of conceptual schemas are based on size/structural complexity of schemas. Various statistical techniques show the existence of significant relationship between quality metrics and understanding time of conceptual models. In this paper, the authors analyse the ability of quality metrics in predicting the understandability of conceptual schemas using experimental empirical approach. Various statistical techniques are used for study and analysis. The results of empirical analysis show that few of the metrics are strong indicators for predicting the understandability of conceptual multidimensional models.


Purpose: Nepotism has begun to manifest itself in almost every aspect of social life today. On the other hand, there is a widespread belief among students that some students are granted more privileges and there is no scientific proof of this. This study was conducted in a methodological way with the aim of developing a scale for use in research that will determine the level of perceptions that students are favored by some people and the factors that affect them. Materials and Methods: From the literature, expert opinion and student opinion were used to construct a 38-item draft of Nepotism Perception Scale of Students (NPSS). The validity and the reliability of the draft NPSS were tested with Scope (Content) Score (13 expert opinion), Structure Score (Factor Analysis), Internal Consistency Analysis methods. As a result of the analyzes, the 38 item " Nepotism Perception Scale of Students" was finalized. The universe of your research; The students from the Faculty of Health Sciences in Istanbul (N=1900) and the sample were 385 (ten times the number of items and plus five spare) determined by layered random sampling method. Data were collected using the Student Information Form and the draft NPSS. Before the data were collected, the students were informed by 220 taking care of the volunteer principle, and the written consent was Geliş Tarihi/Received: 24.01.2019 Kabul Tarihi/Accepted: 24.04.2019 1 Ebe, Kadıköy Florence Nightingale Hastanesi, ORCID: 0000-0002-4583-7352 2 Ebe, Amerikan Hastanesi, ORCID: 0000-0002-2548-3024 3 Arş. Gör., İstanbul Üniversitesi-Cerrahpaşa Sağlık Bilimleri Fakültesi Ebelik Bölümü, ORCID: 0000-0002-71564706 4 Prof. Dr., İstanbul Üniversitesi-Cerrahpaşa Sağlık Bilimleri Fakültesi Ebelik Bölümü, ORCID: 0000-0003-04143589 Sorumlu yazar /correspondence: Tuba Büyükkal, Arş. Gör., İstanbul Üniversitesi-Cerrahpaşa Sağlık Bilimleri Fakültesi Ebelik Bölümü, email@example.com *5.Uluslararası 9. Ulusal Ebelik Öğrencileri Kongresi'nde (3-5 Mayıs 2018, Amasya) poster olarak sunulmuştur. ARAŞTIRMA HSP 2019; 6(2): 357-65 358 obtained from the ethics committee and the dean of the faculty where the study was carried out. Results: Scope (Content) Opinions taken from the purpose and the experts showed that all items of the draft scale are acceptable. As a result of the factor analysis of the draft SCA, there was a one-factor structure with 38 items explaining 64.91% of the total variance. The total poverty Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient of 38 items was 0.96, the item-total score correlation was 0.34-0.80 and test retest corelation was 0.81. Conclusion: The developed NPSS validity and reliability is quite high, and it is an adequate measurement tool to determine students' perception of favoritism.


Steel sheet pile seepage prevention wall is a new measure for the construction of concealed works of important dikes along the Yangtze River.The reasonable construction design and conscientious technical control is the essential prerequisite for the smooth construction of steel sheet pile seepage prevention wall.Through the first application practice of steel sheet pile in the Yangtze dike strengthening project,some aspects in the construction arrangement are introduced,such as the layout of construction site,construction procedure and construction design etc.,key parameters and computational formula for the selection of steel sheet pile construction machinery are suggested,and the investigation is made on the key technical control issues,such as the control of inclination degree,the control of closure gap and the control of bending and deflection of special-shaped steel sheet pile etc..


Power dividers are used in microwave applications to split or divide a channel into two or more channels of the same frequency. The split channels can be of equal power or nonequal power. The divided power can then pass-through filtering process to its intended destination. Conventionally, this is done using a T-junction and transmission line when connecting the power divider and the filters as well as directing the frequency. This leads to the degradation of the signal due to the inclusion of 50 Ω ports and cables used in linking the power divider and the filtering elements. To avoid such degradation, the inclusion of the filtering elements and the power divider during the design process is a solution as it eliminates the 50 Ω ports and the connecting cables. The technique used here eliminated the degradation and further reduced the size with good filtering response.


Truth and Beauty is a set of prose poems that emerged from a class on math and literature. Some were written from the student point of view and some from the teacher point of view. The strength of ...


In order to improve the accuracy of short-term traffic flow prediction, a combined model composed of artificial neural network optimized by using Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Exponential Smoothing (ES) has been proposed. By using the metaheuristic optimal search ability of GA, the connection weight and threshold of the feedforward neural network trained by a backpropagation algorithm are optimized to avoid the feedforward neural network falling into local optimum, and the prediction model of Genetic Artificial Neural Network (GANN) is established. An ES prediction model is presented then. In order to take the advantages of the two models, the combined model is composed of a weighted average, while the weight of the combined model is determined according to the prediction mean square error of the single model. The road traffic flow data of Xuancheng, Anhui Province with an observation interval of 5 min are used for experimental verification. Additionally, the feedforward neural network model, GANN model, ES model and combined model are compared and analysed, respectively. The results show that the prediction accuracy of the optimized feedforward neural network is much higher than that before the optimization. The prediction accuracy of the combined model is higher than that of the two single models, which verifies the feasibility and effectiveness of the combined model.


According to the World Health Organization (WHO), by 2020 depression is expected to rise to the number two contributor to global burden of disease (WHO, 2005). However according to recent reports, depression comprises the most costly brain disorder in Europe, accounting for 33% of the total cost that corresponds to about 1% of the European gross domestic product (GDP) (Sobocki et al., 2006). Despite the fact that our knowledge regarding the pathophysiology and the neurobiological substrate of depression has grown exponentially over the last decades, there is still a significant percentage of patients who respond poorly or do not tolerate current antidepressant pharmacotherapies (Rush, 2007). Most likely, the latter reflects the fact that the term "depression" encompasses a group of disorders, with each being characterized by a unique endophenotype that deserves tailor-made treatment strategies (Hasler et al., 2004; Antonijevic, 2006).


So began a 1980 exam paper set by Donald Horne for a course on Australian political culture. Across barely a dozen questions Horne quotes Cairns, Murray Edelman, Antonio Gramsci, Robert Menzies, Sol Encel, Dennis Altman, Keith Hancock and Denis Kavanagh. In three hours political science undergraduates at the University of New South Wales were invited to consider the theory of hegemony, the distance between description and reality within political institutions, Australia as a home-owning democracy, the influence of middle-class affluence and Australia as a derivative culture.


In this paper an analytical review and the results of experimental studies of plant biomass production and its usage as an environmentally friendly local fuel are presented. Such fuels contain virtually no sulfur, and the carbon dioxide released during burning is the natural carbon cycle. An analytical review of experimental research results of growing and burning herbaceous and woody energy plants is given with evaluation and comparison with the emissions of harmful substances into the air while burning these plants. The experimental research results of burning energy plants, such as willows, chopped by the drum, the disc and the screw choppers are presented, and compared with ashen wood burning. The test is carried out in the laboratory boiler, which is designed for burning wood, wood briquettes, and large chips. On determining harmful substance (CO, SO2, NO, NOx) emissions into the environment it was concluded that burning of energy plants was better and pollution concentration was lower in case of those chopped bio-fuels (e.g. coarse chopped willow stems, chopped by the drum and screw choppers, and the wood) which were mixed with air while burning.


In the present study RISM-SCF method has been used. It is a combination of RISM (reference interaction site model) and ab initio electronic structure theory. RISM is a statistical mechanics theory for molecular liquids developed by David Chandler and co-workes.[1] The theory was then extended to treat electrostatic interaction (XRISM) by Peter Rossky and Fumio Hirata.[2] The main equation of the theory is as follows,


This study indicates that National Public Radio and Pacifica, despite their "alternative" origins, produce news programming that is largely grounded in the same journalistic values and routines as "mainstream" commercial broadcast journalism. A content analysis of NPR's All Things Considered and Pacifica Radio News, however, found several significant differences between these two producers of public radio news in the United States. Pacifica broadcast a higher percentage of stories dealing with governance and stories with an international focus, and presented a higher percentage of officials and activists as sources than did NPR.


Climate change is a progressive phenomenon that, although it can be mitigated, it cannot be stopped. As a consequence, the level of uncertainty is high to propose resilient design strategies to counteract its effects on people's comfort and health. Likewise, a limitation is the collection of information and access to climatic data of each place, so in the present work a cycle of temperature, relative humidity and wind speed measurements was proposed in a case study of social housing in the city of Tunja, Colombia. Thus, the objective of the article is to analyze and validate the reliability of the data collected on site. For this purpose, a descriptive statistical analysis of the information was carried out with tools such as Excel and PSPP version 1.4.1. As a result, it was found that, although the average level of reliability is acceptable, there are data below the minimum value of acceptability. It was concluded that descriptive statistics allows to know the margin of error to which the data are exposed and therefore reduce the uncertainty in the resilient design


tion, never more than 0.5% of company revenue. That some company employees sometimes manipulated the program to minor advantage does not make it a genuine example of industrial reform. In a closing chapter the author attempts to put the story of the CF&I representation plan into a larger historical context by speculating whether the lessons learned from this case have relevance to our own era in which union strength has declined dramatically and most workers do not have any form of workplace representation. Contemporary reformers, the author cautions, must distinguish "legitimate labor reform from management-inspired conservative propaganda" (217). In this book, I think the author fails his own test.


Artificial Intelligence GroupDepartment of Mathematics and Computer ScienceVrije Universiteit AmsterdamDe Boelelaan 1081a, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The NetherlandsEmail: {frances,patveck,firstname.lastname@example.com Multi-agent systems can be successfully modelled and specified asinteracting complex components in a compositional architecture. Compared to thespecification of single agent compositional systems, the specification of multi-agentsystems requires additional design (or modelling) choices. In this paper, designchoices regarding interaction and autonomy of compositional models of intelligentagents are investigated. The choices made have implications for the specificationframework, especially for its mechanisms for information exchange and task control.The influence of the modelling choices is discussed for the modelling frameworkDESIRE, a specific framework for compositional systems in particular for thespecification of intelligent autonomous agents. Alternatives for the choices made inDESIRE are also presented.


Despite the high prevalence of Parkinson's disease (PD) in the elderly, little information is available regarding the epidemiology of the disease in residents in long‐term care facilities. Using a population‐based database with over 470,000 residents (1992–1996) of all Medicare‐ or Medicaid‐certified nursing homes of five states, we identified 24,402 residents with a diagnosis of PD. We examined data collected with the federally mandated Minimum Data Set, and sociodemographic, clinical, and treatment information. The prevalence of PD in nursing homes was 5.2%, with peak age‐specific prevalence between ages 75 and 84 years. Seventy percent of patients had moderate to severe cognitive impairment, and over 80% had moderate to severe functional disability. Less than 10% had verbal and physical signs of grief and anxiety and 80% exhibited poor psychosocial well‐being, yet only 15% were actively treated for depression. Only 44% received antiparkinsonian drugs. Female gender, black race, age, level of cognitive impairment, and level of physical functioning were inversely related to the likelihood of receiving one of these drugs. When antipsychotic drugs were administered (15%), only 1% were atypical agents. Although PD is a relatively common diagnosis among nursing home residents, pharmacologic management of these individuals appears to be less than optimal.


'Ruidu Cuixia' is a new grape cultivar which selected from a cross-combination of 'Jingxiu'×'Xiangfei'.It ripens at the second to third week of August in Beijing.The cluster is medium in size and the average weight is 408 g.The berry is purple and the average weight is 6.7 g(the largest reaches about 9 g.The skin is purple-red,the flesh is crisp and sweet.The average soluble solids content is 16.0%.The yield is up to 30 t·hm-2.


The comprehensive management policy plays a very important role in the sustainable development in the coastal zone.The major problems of the coastal policies and causes in development and protection process were studied.In order to make a national authoritative law in the coastal zone,to optimize the settings of the comprehensive management in the coastal zone and reasonably allocating the duty,and perfect the economic policy in the coastal zone management and coordinating development of three industries.The plan of the double target system of comprehensive management policy of ecological system in the coastal zone was done.Perfecting the scientific and orderly prevention of geologic disaster in the coastal zone,and promoting the effective public participation,and completing the technology policy,the optimization of the development objectives for the coastal development were made.


The history and development of alcohol fuels is traced from their first serious consideration as a prime automotive fuel. The safety and nonpolluting advantages of methanol and ethanol fuels were offset by a low heat content, poor vaporization, and a high relative cost until rising oil prices made it worthwhile to solve performance problems. Alternate Liquid Fuel (ALF), a mixture of alcohol and substandard fuel oils, is low in sulfur, recycles waste products, and can be integrated with available petroleum stocks. Agriculturally derived fuels offer environmentally sound supplies and provide high-quality cattle feed from the by-product. Fuel testing in Sweden and Brazil shows the fuels to be cost-effective. Aggressive gasohol programs in Nebraska and other states are described. The review examines questions of basic economics, state fuel programs, and private stills. Opposition comes from big business, notably the automobile and oil companies, and from government reticence, although some Senate supporters were able to push federal participation in the program. (DCK)


without a full argument. For example, the author states that 'it is not unusual for 80 percent of the water diverted from a river or pumped from groundwater to fail to be absorbed by crops' (p. 3). I would dispute this on two fronts. First, I would contend that it is unusual to see such large losses. The grossly inefficient Karakum Canal scheme, that has contributed to the shrinking Aral Sea, has losses of around 70% and this is considered one of the worst in the world. Secondly, in hydrological terms a failure to be absorbed by plants does not necessarily mean a loss of the water resource. A considerable amount of 'loss' contributes to groundwater (the amount will differ regionally through geological and climatic controls) and stays within the catchment system and may be available for further usage. Chapter 1 goes on to try and define 'runoff agriculture' a notion which again seems weak. Surely all irrigation is runoff agriculture no matter what the scale. To try and confine it to the small scale seems rather strange. There is merit in promoting the use of small scale agricultural techniques, especially in poorer countries, but to try and use well defined terms in this context is annoying. The next three chapters work through different agricultural techniques for soil and water conservation (Chapter 2), runoff harvesting and storage (Chapter 3) and spate, wetland and flood agriculture (Chapter 4). There is much to admire here, particularly in the gathering of different techniques from all around the globe and the excellent referencing from old through to very recently published work. The final three chapters broaden out into a more discursive look at 'runoff agriculture'. Chapter 5 is perhaps the strangest in the book where an attempt is made to summarize the state of indigenous agriculture around the world. This is done through a mixture of strange groupings (e.g. Latin America is lumped together on half a page while the somewhat smaller Madeira has a separate section of its own) and some extremely broad generalizations. The final two chapters go on to discuss the expansion and future of runoff agriculture. This provides a useful conclusion to the book. I am conscious that the overriding sentiment of this review has been negative which is not altogether fair. There are positive aspects: I certainly learnt a lot as I read this book, it makes many good points concerning future sustainable agricultural techniques; and there is an excellent range of literature brought in to back up descriptions. The diagrams are clearly drawn and, although complex, support the text very well. There are seven black and white photographs, spaced throughout the book. The question then arises would I recommend it? This brings me back to the opening paragraph: it is difficult to see who would be interested enough to spend nearly £16 on a book that doesn't seem to be fully aimed at any one (student, researcher or applied user). It is probably a useful addition to a university library especially where courses in third world agriculture are taught.


A new typeface, Bell Centennial, proposed for use in Australian telephone directories is compared to the typeface, Bell Gothic, which is used at present. The comparison was made using five alternative typographical layouts and the criteria for evaluation were errors made reading the sample material, reading speed and time taken to search for target telephone numbers. Bell Centennial in medium or light typeface used for the address information is less legible than Bell Gothic medium because of its smaller letter size and the lighter typeface.

Bell Centennial in bold face used for the subscriber's name and initials and for the telephone number may be slightly more legible than Bell Gothic medium but the difference is marginal. However the Bell Gothic samples were read more quickly than the Bell Centennial samples of the same size but in a larger size Bell Centennial was read as quickly as the Bell Gothic samples. There were no differences between typefaces in the times taken to search for target telephone numbers. In general the data suggest that minor variations in typeface design and typographical layout do not have important effects on acquisition of information from printed text.


A well-known result of Stanley's shows that given a graph G with chromatic symmetric function expanded into the basis of elementary symmetric functions as X G = P c λ e λ , the sum of the coefficients c λ for λ with exactly k parts is equal to the number of acyclic orientations of G with exactly k sinks. However, more is known. The sink sequence of an acyclic orientation of G is a tuple ( s 1 , . . . , s k ) such that s 1 is the number of sinks of the orientation, and recursively each s i with i > 1 is the number of sinks remaining after deleting the sinks contributing to s 1 , . . . , s i − 1 . Equivalently, the sink sequence gives the number of vertices at each level of the poset induced by the acyclic orientation. A lesser-known follow-up result of Stanley's determines certain cases in which we can find a sum of e -basis coefficients that gives the number of acyclic orientations of G with a given partial sink sequence. Of interest in its own right, this result also admits as a corollary a simple proof of the e -positivity of X G when the stability number of G is 2. In this paper, we prove a vertex-weighted generalization of this follow-up result. In a later version of this manuscript, we will also conjecture a much stronger version of this theorem and provide supporting numerical and theoretical data.


1 Introduction Filament winding is a popular production technique for composite structures. Cylinder pressure vessel with elliptical dome is an efficient product which can make full use of tensile strength of fiber. To achieve the most efficient use of the reinforcement material the fiber should be placed in the maximum load directions or in geodesic path. This is not always achievable as the fibers must not slip during the winding process due to windability. Windability means fiber bands should cover uniformly on the mandrel without voids or significant overlap toward radial and circumferential directions. Realistic pattern information is very important for an optimal design because it is directly related with the accuracy if finite element analyses.


OBJECTIVES
This study evaluated the patients' perspective of burden of disease among 505 patients with severe, long-standing rheumatoid arthritis receiving adalimumab.

METHODS
Health-related quality-of-life and resource use data were collected during a 144-week open-label study.

RESULTS
Adalimumab maintained pain control and reduced the duration of morning stiffness. Work impairment decreased and work productivity was maintained over the duration of the study. Costs were estimated at approximately 2100 euros over the course of the study, and personal help and transportation costs comprised a large percentage of total costs.

CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that adalimumab could improve many aspects of a patient's burden of disease.


We thank Stokes et al. [1] for their interest in our study evaluating the effects of the addition of the deep serratus anterior plane block to systemic analgesia on postoperative quality of recovery and analgesic outcomes in patients undergoing ambulatory breast cancer surgery [2]. We agree with their suggestion that the deep serratus block may well be a volume-dependent block; however, the rationale for using 20 ml ropivacaine 0.5% for our study was two-fold. First, at the time of inception of our study (in 2015), randomised controlled trials evaluating interfascial plane blocks for breast surgery had successfully demonstrated lower pain scores and opioid requirements when 20 ml of local anaesthetic was used [3]. The two studies to which Stokes et al. refer do indeed demonstrate that larger volumes of local anaesthetic result in greater dermatomal spread, but these were published after the start of our study. It should also be noted that more recently published clinical trials continue to use 20 ml local anaesthetic for serratus fascial plane block with reported improvement in analgesic outcomes [4, 5]. Second, it has been our own anecdotal experience that local anaesthetic volumes in excess of 20 ml injected beneath the serratus muscle may spread to the axillary brachial plexus, with patients reporting numbness and/or weakness, particularly in the distribution of the ulnar nerve. We appreciate the comments from Stokes et al. and undoubtedly agree that further clinical studies are required to optimise regional anaesthesia techniques for patients undergoing breast cancer surgery. V. Patel R. Brull TorontoWestern Hospital, Toronto, ON,Canada Email: firstname.lastname@example.com F. Abdallah University ofOttawa, Ottawa,ON, Canada University of Toronto, Toronto, ON,Canada


Abstract
Stone monuments and buildings located outdoors are exposed to natural weathering processes that change it physicochemical properties. The choice of an appropriate protective that does not affect its characteristics is essential to retard the stone decay. In this study, the interactions between three commercial protectives and the main minerals that compose the dimension stones were investigated. The interactions between samples and protectives were evaluated by static contact angle, interfacial tension and spectrophotometry measurements, while the protectives were characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) analysis. The spectrophotometry results report that rock matrices with higher concentrations of micas and/or calcite tend to improve interactions with the analyzed protectives. Protectives with lower interfacial tension tend to have higher wettability and reduced surface contact angle, promoting better interactions with the mineral substrates. The most suitable protective presented the smaller contact angles with the minerals calcite - 53o, and mica (110) - 45o, against 92o and 90o obtained by water, respectively, before the curing step, suggesting that the aqueous emulsion have better interactions with the surfaces, aiding in the scattering during formation of the hydrophobic coating. The characterization by infrared showed that protectives create organic polymeric films on the surface to be treated, aiding in the preservation of the national cultural heritage.


The key aspects and features of the 'Our Space Smoke Free' environment strategy undertaken by Wuchopperen Health Service, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Health Service, are discussed. The aim is to improve the health status of the community by introducing harm reduction strategies that contribute to creating a safe and healthy work environment for employees and users of the facilities.


gang violence has evolved from a localised, purely neighbourhoodbased security concern into a transnational problem that pervades urban enclaves in every country in the region. The two predominant Central American gangs, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the 18th Street gang (Barrio 18), while originating in the Los Angeles region of the United States, have capitalised on globalisation trends and communications technologies to acquire arms, power and influence across the United States, Mexico, and Central America. (USAID, 2006)


This paper presents the results of an investigation which was about influence of non-ground Coal Bottom Ash (CBA) and Non-Ground Granulated Blast-Furnace Slag (NGBFS) as fine aggregate on rapid chloride permeability of concrete. Series of Rapid Chloride Permeability Test (RCPT) were conducted with concrete specimens containing NGBFS and CBA in varying percentages from 10 to 50% with the step of 10% of fine aggregate by weight. Two basic series concrete specimens were prepared in laboratory. The first series (G) was contained NGBFS, the second series (B) was contained CBA as fine aggregate. Test results indicated that NGBFS or CBA improves the resistance to chloride ion penetration to some extent. 30% and 10% replacement ratios were selected as optimum replacement ratios for G and B series. It was concluded that GBFS was more impressive then CBA for blocking chloride ion movements.


Abstract In view of the developing interest in and impor- of formamidines1 and benzimidazoles,2–3 we wish to review recent developments in syntheses applicable to both of these two classes of compounds starting from the appropriate amine or diamine. Although structurally similar in that both formamidines and benzimidazoles contain the group, the formation of benzimidazoles involves ring closure to give an aromatic product, while formation of formamidines does not. One would thus expect formation of benzimidazoles to be thermodynamically more favorable. In fact, syntheses of formamidines outlined below work well for benzimidazoles, although the inverse is not necessarily true. For example, Phillip's4 widely used synthesis of benzimidazoles from aromatic diamines with refluxing formic acid/HC1 is not applicable to formamidines. In addition to a general review of recent synthetic methods, results obtained in this laboratory will be presented where appropriate.


According to the shortage of previous construction methods in the concrete slope roof,the paper points out the construction methods of adopting the double-side model,introduces the factual craft and the operation points for the installation of the double-side model to construct the slope roof,analyzes the possible problems in the construction and points out the respective prevention measures,so as to direct the practice.


Development of unmanned systems network is currently among one of the most important areas of activity and research with implications in variety of disciplines, such as communications, controls, and multi-vehicle systems. The main motivation for this interest can be traced back to practical applications wherein direct human involvement may not be possible due to environmental hazards or the extraordinary complexity of the tasks. This thesis seeks to develop, design, and analyze techniques and solutions that would ensure and guarantee the fundamental stringent requirements that are envisaged for these dynamical networks. In this thesis, the problem of team cooperation is solved by using synthesis-based approaches. The consensus problem is defined and solved for a team of agents having a general linear dynamical model. Stability of the team is guaranteed by using modified consensus algorithms that are achieved by minimizing a set of individual cost functions. An alternative approach for obtaining an optimal consensus algorithm is obtained by invoking a state decomposition methodology and by transforming the consensus seeking problem into a stabilization problem. In another methodology, the game theory approach is used to formulate the consensus seeking problem in a "more" cooperative framework. For this purpose, a team cost function is defined and a min-max problem is solved to obtain a cooperative optimal solution. It is shown that the results obtained yield lower cost values when compared to those obtained by using the optimal control technique. In game theory and optimal control approaches that are developed based on state decomposition, linear matrix inequalities are used to impose simultaneously the decentralized nature of the problem as well as the consensus constraints on the designed controllers. Moreover, performance and stability properties of the designed cooperative team is analyzed in presence of actuator anomalies corresponding to three types of faults. Steady state behavior of the team members are analyzed under faulty scenarios. Adaptability of the team members to the above unanticipated circumstances is demonstrated and verified. Finally, the assumption of having a fixed and undirected network topology is relaxed to address and solve a more realistic and practical situation. It is shown that the stability and consensus achievement of the network with a switching structure and leader assignment can still be achieved. Moreover, by introducing additional criteria, the desirable performance specifications of the team can still be ensured and guaranteed.


With the gradual maturity of 5G technology in recent years, the application of the Internet of Things has begun to enter our lives more deeply, but there will always be fires in our lives, and the automatic fire alarm is to control the fire in time to avoid greater Loss. The core technology of the automatic fire alarm system is the fire signal sensing technology [1]. The comprehensive processing of multiple sensors enables the alarm to issue alarms more accurately. Within the coverage of the 5G network, once the alarm is triggered, the alarm will be sent to the mobile phone and the 119 center through the 5G network and the fire level can be dealt with in time.


Abstract In the disassembling process context, the supervision and control system assumes very large dimensions, represented by the need to automatically plan the disassembly process of the end-of-life product, including generation of product model, identification of the best sequence of operations, planning the actors (persons and machines) and programming the machines used to perform this task. This paper describes supervision architecture by analysing the supervision and control system of a disassembling process, and proposes two types of supervision architecture. It also describes a structure of decision-making system within global supervisory level.


EGFR-specific mAb cetuximab mediated activation of NK by FcγRIIIa cross-linking is important for anti-tumor immunity.Following cetuximab activation,NK express costimulatory receptor CD137, which can be ligated to improve activity of cetuximab-activated NK,which promote DC maturation and CD8+ T-cell priming, leading to tumor antigen spreading and Th1 cytokine release through NK-DC cross-talk. We show that the clinically available CD137 agonist mAb augments cetuximab-mediated ADCC in FcγRIIIa-V/F donors,but not in poor binding FcγRIIIa-F/F.We show that cetuximab-activated NK induce CD137 expression on DC, which can be further stimulated by CD137 mAb, leading to enhanced DC maturation and cross-presentation capacity.In a prospective phase II trial of neoadjuvant cetuximab in stage III/IV HNC patients, intratumoral activated NK cells also upregulated CD137, which was influenced by FcγRIIIa-V/F polymorphism. Moreover, cetuximab treatment induces CD137 expression on intratumoral activated CTL.We show that FcγRIIIaV/F polymorphism on NK cells greatly influences their induction of CD137 expression, as does the EGFR receptor density on HNC.Thus, careful selection of HNC patients in combination immunotherapy using cetuximab plus CD137 mAb may be necessary, using EGFR level of expression and FcgammaRIIIa genotype, to optimize NK:DC priming of tumor antigen specific CTL.Results suggest a beneficial effect of combination of cetuximab and CD137 mAb in currently designed clinical trials.


Abstract:The nature-based solutions (NBS) approach views nature and natural processes as having a high potential to address societal challenges and sustainable development goals, whilst providing multiple co-benefits. It is an approach that offers a mechanism for mainstreaming climate-related issues into practice and policy. Concurrently, EU member states are struggling to comply with the objectives of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). This paper evaluates the application of NBS in addressing water-quality issues in the EU, using Ireland as a case study through a systematic review of the literature. This study found that there are many anecdotal examples of NBS in Ireland, although they are rarely identified as such in publications and official documents. However, a database was compiled of NBS identified during a systematic review of the literature. Existing research indicates the selected NBS of constructed wetlands (CWs), sustainable drainage systems (Suds) and NBS in the riparian zone can improve water quality, to varying degrees. Limited Irish-based research was available for Suds and NBS in the riparian zone. Reported co-benefits include cost-savings, enhanced biodiversity and ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and recreation. The potential for further implementation of the selected NBS in Ireland is significant.This is an Open Access Article under the terms of the Creative Commons attribution license, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Open Access funding provided by IReL.


Recent advances in flash memory technology have reduced the cost-per-bit of flash storage devices such as solid-state drives (SSDs), thereby enabling the development of large-capacity SSDs for enterprise-scale storage. However, two major concerns arise in designing SSDs. The first concern is the poor performance of random writes in an SSD. Server workloads such as databases generate many random writes; therefore, this problem must be resolved to enable the usage of SSDs in enterprise systems. The second concern is that the size of the internal DRAM of an SSD is proportional to the capacity of the SSD. The peculiarities of flash memory require an address translation layer called flash translation layer (FTL) to be implemented within an SSD. The FTL must maintain the address mapping table in the internal DRAM. Although the previously proposed demand map loading technique can reduce the required DRAM size, the technique aggravates the poor random performance. We propose a novel address reshaping technique called sequentializing in host and randomizing in device (SHRD), which transforms random write requests into sequential write requests in the block device driver by assigning the address space of the reserved log area in the SSD. Unlike previous approaches, SHRD can restore the sequentially written data to the original location without requiring explicit copy operations by utilizing the address mapping scheme of the FTL. We implement SHRD in a real SSD device and demonstrate the improved performance resulting from SHRD for various workloads.


Ideological and political work in military academies should embody its military characteristics and political attributes. Looking at the new era of "four haves" military standard, ideological and political education idea and method for the professional course of the army colleges and universi-ties are discussed firstly, then taking the course of fluid mechanics and the pump as an example, the overall conception of ideological and political work with army characteristic is proposed, fi-nally, combined with author's own teaching practice, some specific steps and examples for this course education practice are listed.


Submicrometer-scale, single crystalline ZnO cones required to function as ultrahigh frequency electroacoustic transducers has been synthesized using LbL chemical route on glass substrate and textured growth along c direction perpendicular to surface substrate after annealing film at 200°C was observed.


Analysis of the retinal vasculature discloses a method for detecting a disease such as Alzheimer's disease. Methods of detecting a disease by analysis of the retinal vasculature, to obtain a plurality of amyloid-beta plaques and drusen image invisible to the too small other imaging modalities, applying the combination of optical retro mode Beam Technology it may include a. The disease may be detected using a non-transitory computer storage medium storing instructions, the instruction to implement a method of detecting a disease by analysis of the retinal vasculature when it is executed. In the above method, over a predetermined period of time, the disease, the inner 腔厚 of, plaque, size, region, and the change in density may be monitored by analyzing the retinal vasculature.


The Fourth Edition is designed to bring home to students the role of the law of sales, whether domestic or international, in resolving the most significant kinds of disputes that arise from commercial transactions today. This casebook provides detailed information on major U.S. commercial statutes and important international conventions that provide uniform law for the international sale of goods. The focus of these materials is on those issues in the law of sales that are most likely to give rise to controversy. Such issues arise when goods delivered by sellers are found by buyers to be unsatisfactory. The principal areas of concern are sellers 'obligations with respect to title and quality and buyers' legal remedies for sellers' failures. For the most part, these controversies become manifest after performance has been completed. Another set of issues concerns the parties' rights and duties when controversies arise in the course of performance, the choices that aggrieve


Ship detection has been a research hotspot in hyperspectral image target detection. Traditional algorithms are limited by their low detection rate. Convolutional neural network, as a common algorithm in deep learning, has an outstanding performance in features extraction and has been widely discussed in target detection, including ship detection. This paper proposed a novel two-channel convolutional neural network model which is composed of spectral and spatial channels. We picked 1D spectrum vectors from hyperspectral images as the input for spectral channel to extract spectral features. The spatial features were extracted using 2D spatial images by spatial channel. Meanwhile, transfer learning is applied to solve the limitation of 2D spatial images. Experimental results on Hyperion data demonstrate that the proposed algorithm upgrades ship detection rate effectively while suppressing false alarm rate.


The knowledge of the concrete behavior is essential when analyzing the aging and leakage phenomena of production facilities. On the industrial level the concrete fracture characterization is currently performed through standard experimental tests that are not sufficiently rich to determine in an optimized manner all the corresponding characteristics. First there is a general lack of mixed mode loading experiments that produce non trivial crack paths. Moreover, even for some well defined material properties (as for example critical shear stress) the corresponding loading tests are not sufficiently developed, as the results are too dependent on aggregate distribution and specimen sizes. It means that we are still not able to locally reproduce some specific me-chanical stresses distribution and repeatedly check it in order to attain necessary accuracy. Therefore an improvement in corresponding measurement technique is still needed.
When studying concrete fracture behavior the main difficulty is related to instable crack propagation. In the past some relevant works in mixed mode fracture were conducted by Nooru-Mohamed. More recently the work was extended employing an up-to-date full-field measurement technique.
In this work, we develop a stable crack path control technique that allows "customized" cracking tests creation for the characterization of various materials. Using this technique well instrumented and discriminating mixed–mode crack propagation tests performed on VERCORS concrete samples are presented. Finally we discuss the relevance of these tests for various pa-rameters identification and some possible extension of stable crack path control technique.


A polydimethylsiloxane macromonomer was synthesized via anionic ring-opening polymerization of hexamethylcyclotrisiloxane using N-vinylcaprolactam anion as initiator and trimethylsilyl chloride as terminating agent. The polydimethylsiloxane macromonomer was copolymerized with N-vinylcaprolactam in different molar ratios via a free radical mechanism. The new class of graft copolymers thus obtained shows cloud points in water because of an excess of N-vinylcaprolactam units in the polymer chain. These cloud points can be shifted using randomly methylated β-cyclodextrin as complexing agent. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry


The invention relates to anti-clogging environment-friendly thermal mortar packaging equipment which comprises a feeding unit, a mixing unit/a metering unit, and an output unit; the feeding unit comprises a bucket elevator, a screw conveyor, a storage bin, a fluidization device and a feeding controller; the metering unit comprises a metering bin, a metering controller, a pneumatic two-speed charging valve and an algorithm module; the mixing unit comprises a mixing controller, a mixing bin and a buffering bin; the output unit comprises a pneumatic three-way valve, a packaging machine, a bulk vehicle distribution head, a dust remover and an output controller; the storage bin of the feeding unit and the metering bin of the metering unit are connected through the pneumatic two-speed charging valve; the metering bin of the metering unit and the mixing bin of the mixing unit are connected through a discharging valve; the mixing bin of the mixing unit and the pneumatic three-way valve of the output unit are connected through the discharging valve. The equipment provided by the invention has excellent environmental performance, high production efficiency and good product quality.


This paper aims to provide an ethical analysis of informal payments and their impact on the patient's relationship with the healthcare system, with the presentation of three possible situations. These examples are:  (1) the money offered by the patient before the examination and on the doctor's request; (2) the money willingly offered by the patient at the end of the medical services, thus expressing his/her gratitude, and (3) gifts willingly offered by patients to the physicians in order to express their gratitude once ended the medical services. This framework will be subsequently applied in order to identify the ethical effects of informal payments on the patients, physicians and the relationship between them.


What is researched in this paper is the commonly mental character and familiar mental problems of undergraduate during their occupation choices , and some adjustment strategys are given to solve the mental state problems.


For metal crack nondestructive detection, most conventional crack sensors are unable to realize the crack direction detection. In this work, a direction-sensitive microwave sensor is proposed for metal crack detection. The proposed sensor consists of a rectangular patch resonator and two perpendicular coupled feeding ports, which improves the current distribution on patch surface and the sensitivity for crack direction detection. The performances of the proposed sensor are verified by simulation and measurement experiments. The results show that the width sensitivities of two feeding ports are 100 MHz/mm and 63.3 MHz/mm, respectively, and the sensitivity of the sensor for crack direction detection are 6.10 MHz/5 degrees and 1.93 MHz/5 degrees, respectively. Due to the advantages of a simple structure, low profile, large coverage area and high sensitivity, the proposed sensor has a great application potential in nondestructive detection fields.


Device select pieces of mail including at least one die (10) cooperating with a plurality of opposite selector rollers passing through a receiving tray of a stack of mail items, one by one to select said mailpieces and transporting them downstream, this die having a predetermined inclination relative to a horizontal plane defined by the delivery tray.


To research the accuracy of the texts' pre-classification on search engine,the thesaurus intelligent update technology on support vector machine was proposed,and the rich data sources from the Web crawler as the data source of uncommon words was taken,and basic vocabulary library combining with the syntax library was used for processing and analyzing the text corpus grabbing from the Web crawler,meanwhile,enriching temporary thesaurus. SVM was used to distinguish the category of text and to determine the category identification of uncommon words. According to the statistical number of uncommon words in the provisional lexicon,the uncommon words was added to the lexicon,and the goal of expanding the thesaurus was reached. Practice proved that the technology used in the search engine text word and subject classification could reduce the error rate of sentence splitting and improve the accuracy rate of searching subject classification.


For g = 2A, we have gravity. Approximate -10,42 Abstract. We present a proposal for the use of outdoor experiments that refer to everyday situations. We set up scenarios with potential to serve as experiments demonstration classical mechanics concepts, using a cell phone camera to record scenes, and using Tracker software to extract and analyze videos. We rescued Galileo's classic experiment in order to demonstrate inertia, by using a motorcycle with the vertical launch of a basketball, analyzed the oblique launch by throwing a basketball, measured the super-fast movement of a ball of tennis bouncing and we checked the less time trajectory represented by brachistochrone with the use of a mark made in the tire of a bicycle in movement. All selected scenes proved to be adequate as a didactic resource for experimental physics classes. Outdoor activities open the possibility of interlocution between high school subjects with an emphasis on Physics teaching


Although macroeconomics as an independent economic science emerged only in the twentieth century, the first steps in developing the macroeconomic aspect of efficiency were taken several centuries earlier — beginning from the 16th — 17th centuries — at the pre-industrial stage of development of society. Due to the underdevelopment of the production sphere, the search for sources of growth in the efficiency of national economies at that time was mainly carried out from the most general economic positions — as an integral part of solving the main task of the economics of those eras — searching for ways and means of increasing the wealth of nations. At the same time, naturally, among the first were the climatic and foreign economic factors of increasing the efficiency of national economies. For example, factors related to identifying the advantages of various countries in a geographic location and the ability to solve their economic problems by using the most advantageous options for organizing and conducting foreign economic and trade relations. The transition of developed countries to new stages of development — industrial and postindustrial, as well as the selection by John M. Keynes of the new direction of economic research — macroeconomics, historically leads both to a deepening of the meaning of the very category of "macroeconomic efficiency" and to more detailed studies of factors affecting it.


Smartphones are the devices that can do more than just calling now-a-days. With the rise in large numbers of mobile applications, the time people spend interacting with their phones has also increased. The Repetitive strain in fingers due to continuous usage of touch screens causes swelling and severe pain in fingers. To prevent this issue we develop a mobile application to notify the user with the swipe counts made. The user thus, has to control the usage of smartphones. The Counts are compared with a threshold limit to check if it has reached the limit. If the number of swipes is found to reach a limit an alert notification is sent to the user stating that they have made this number of swipes. This provides an hourly notification of the number of swipes made. This mobile application also checks the data of the number of swipes made each day and provides an average of all. This helps the user to get an idea of the number of swipes they make each day and this should try to control their continuous usage of fingers for tapping, texting and swiping. This also helps the user to prevent tendon weakness and severe issues like inability to bend the thumb.


The main purpose of the French Archaeological Mission at Amathous consisted in exploring the town itself and more specifically its acropolis. Indeed, the first and biggest excavation took place in the sanctuary of Aphrodite, on the top of the hill, and in the palace of the local kings, located about 200 m lower. Other important excavations were also conducted in the outer harbor, in the area of the North wall of the town, in the agora and occasionally in the North necropolis. A survey leaded around the city brought new evidence both on the Neolithic and historic occupations of the nearby territory. This paper shows the significant contribution of the Mission of the French School at Athens (EfA) to the knowledge of the history of Amathous, from its foundation in the 11th century BC until its abandonment at the end of the 7th century AD.


In this paper, an H−/L∞ fault detection observer is proposed for discrete-time Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy systems. The main contribution of this paper lies as, first, the finite frequency H− index is used to measure the worst-case fault sensitivity. Second, unlike the common H−/H∞ fault detection observer, this paper uses L∞ norm to measure the worst effect of disturbance on residual instead of H∞ norm. Besides, a residual evaluation is synthesized based on the L∞ norm to achieve an efficient fault detection despite of the disturbance occurrence. Besides, sufficient conditions of the observer design are derived based on piecewise Lyapunov functions. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by numerical simulations.


A Relativistic Finite Difference Time Domain method based computational platform is proposed for computation of electromagnetic scattering due to an accelerating perfectly electrical conductor target under the action of gravity. A linear inverse scattering method is also presented to calculate the acceleration of the target by analyzing the scattered field, which also helps to validate the proposed forward scattering model.


Five plant oils including clove bud, Syzygium aromaticum, rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis, sesame, Sesamun indicum, ginger, Zingiber officinale and black seed, Nigella sativa were extracted and used to evaluate the repellent activity, fumigant and surface contact toxicity against American cockroach, Periplaneta americana (L.). Clove oil showed highly significant repellency, fumigant and surface contact toxicity against the nymphal instars 1st and 4th and adult stages. While sesame oil exhibited only repellency and rosemary surface contact toxicity. Ginger and black seed oils were not affecting agents to the fourth nymph and adults, but showed only surface contact toxicity to the first nymph. The later was more sensitive than the fourth nymph followed by adults in all tested treatment methods. Concentrations were positively and highly significantly correlated with repellency and toxicity. Clove oil had more repellent effect than sesame oil and exhibited 100% repellency against the first and fourth nymphs at concentrations of 4 and 8% after 24h, respectively. Regarding the fumigant toxicity, first nymph was the most sensitive to clove oil by LC50 value (1.06µl/L of air) followed by fourth nymph (3.12µl/L of air) and adults (8.20µl/L of air) after 48h. Concerning surface contact toxicity, clove oil had the highest effect to first nymph followed by black seed, rosemary, sesame and ginger oils. Clove oil was more toxic than rosemary oil to first and fourth nymphs and adults. In conclusion clove oil can be used as botanical insecticide against P. americana applying as repellent, fumigant and surface contact methods, while sesame oil can be used only as repellent agent and rosemary oil as surface contact toxicity. Ginger and black seed oils were generally not affecting oils and exhibited only surface contact toxicity to first nymph.


THE EFFECT OF BODY POSITION ON CEREBRAL BLOOD FLOW, COGNITION, CARDIAC OUTPUT, MAP, AND MOTOR FUNCTION IN PATIENTS UNDERGOING SHOULDER SURGERY: LATERAL VERSUS BEACH CHAIR POSITION UNDER GENERAL ANESTHESIA by KELLEY LABONTY August 2014 Advisor: Dr. Steven Cala Major: Physiology Degree: Doctor of Philosophy This study aims to determine if there are alterations in cerebral perfusion in patients undergoing general anesthesia in the sitting position. With the reporting of 15 catastrophic cerebral vascular accidents recently being published during shoulder surgery in the sitting position, an increase of 90 times from previously reported data, there has become a clear need for immediate research in this area. A peri-operative stroke has a 60% incidence of morbidity versus 15-46% for strokes in general. This is a devastating outcome for families, physicians and all involved. Current literature points to the sitting position as being a significant risk factor for decreasing cerebral perfusion. Surgeons utilize this position for ease of surgery and may request deliberate hypotension to decrease bleeding and increase visualization at the surgical site. It is unclear whether deliberate hypotension, inadvertent hypotension, air embolus, spinal cord stretching, or neck vessel stretching are key factors involved. An area of concern is that the blood pressure recorded in the arm of the patient in the sitting position is significantly less than that in the brain, this in addition to the decrease in cardiac output


BACKGROUND. Tuberculosis (especially chemoresistant), coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS), both separately are serious illnesses, and in combination with each other (tuberculosis + COVID-19, COVID-19 + CSS). The analysis of the literature also indicates the difficulty of differential diagnosis between these diseases, as they have common clinical and radiological features. The outcome of treatment depends on timely and early diagnosis of each of these diseases with the prescription of corresponding therapy. We haven't found in the available literature described cases of concomitant tuberculosis, COVID-19 and CSS, which may be interesting in terms of diagnostic vigilance of physicians of different specialties.
OBJECTIVE. To demonstrate the features of the simultaneous course of tuberculosis and COVID-19 in a patient with CSS on the example of a clinical case of self-observation.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. During the last 19 years of her life, the patient suffered from CSS. From the treatment she received only polcortolon, which was insufficient for such a serious disease. Whereas, according to the literature, for the treatment of eosinophilic granulomatous vasculitis not only glucocorticoids should be prescribed, but also immunosuppressants (cyclophosphamide for induction and azathioprine for maintenance therapy), mepolizumab and others. During these years, the patient developed lesions of the cardiovascular system (metabolic cardiomyopathy of ethanol and eosinophilic-granulomatous-vascular origin, myocardial fibrosis with arrhythmia, heart failure of 1st degree), gastrointestinal tract (chronic gastroduodenitis, peptic ulcer of the duodenum, gallstone disease, chronic calculous cholecystitis, chronic pancreatitis), urogenital system (chronic pyelonephritis), skin (autoimmune dermatitis, hemosiderosis), respiratory system (respiratory insufficiency of the 2nd degree, chronic allergic rhinosinusitis). COVID-19 and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis joined on the background of the depleted organism. COVID-19 treatment was effective. However, the treatment of multidrugresistant tuberculosis, which the patient received for 3 months, did not have a positive effect (negative radiological dynamics on the background of continued bacterial excretion). Renal dysfunction (creatinine >140 μmol/l) and peripheral eosinophilia also persisted during this period. According to the FFS lethal risk scale, the patient had two factors, which indicated a very severe flow of the disease and a high risk of death. Acute heart failure was the reason of death.
CONCLUSIONS. CSS (eosinophilic granulomatous vasculitis) is a rare disease that requires timely, quality and proper treatment that will prevent the development of damage of various organs and body systems (especially cardiovascular and respiratory). The presented case demonstrates a very severe course of CSS with damage of many organs and body systems in the absence of proper treatment, which could lead to timely regression of vasculitis symptoms and improve the patient's prognosis. On the background of this syndrome, COVID-19 and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis joined. However, death has occurred as a result of acute heart failure after 3 months, that was inevitable.


Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a principal of mackerel-derived fermented fish oil, increases the proliferation of dermal papilla cells (DPCs) via the upregulation of cell cycle-associated proteins such as cyclin D1 and cdc2 p34, and might promote hair-growth. However, the intracellular mechanisms that underlie the action of DHA in the proliferation of DPCs have not been investigated fully. In this study, we addressed the action mechanisms of DHA to trigger the activation of anagen in DPCs. DHA activated β-catenin signaling by the increased phosphorylation at serine 552 and serine 675 as well as the translocation and accumulation of activated β-catenin into the nucleus. In the other hand, DHA inhibited canonical TGF-β/Smad signaling by the decreased phosphorylation of Smad2/3. Taken together, the results indicate that DHA might stimulate anagen signaling via the activation of Wnt/β-catenin pathway, while the inactivation of canonical TGF-β signaling pathway in DPCs.


This work addresses the task of dependency labeling—assigning labels to an (unlabeled) dependency tree. We employ and extend a feature representation learning approach, optimizing it for both high speed and accuracy. We apply our labeling model on top of state-of-the-art parsers and evaluate its performance on standard benchmarks including the CoNLL-2009 and the English PTB datasets. Our model processes over 1,700 English sentences per second, which is 30 times faster than the sparse-feature method. It improves labeling accuracy over the outputs of top parsers, achieving the best LAS on 5 out of 7 datasets1.


Taking the requirements of national top-quality course construction as criteria,this paper probes the five factors in the construction of top-quality course based on the construction of Western Economics.It puts forward the following points of view: excellent teaching staff is the main content of top-quality course construction;features of what is taught are the core of it;increasingly innovated teaching methods are the soul;the selection and advancement of textbooks is the carrier and the standardized management is what ensures its success.


Image identification and classification is a basic issue in the fields of mainframe visualization and pattern recognition. In today's world, a great deal of unwanted material is distributed via the Internet. The unwanted information contained inside images, i.e., image spam, endangers email-based communication systems. Unlike textural spam, image spam is difficult to be detected by many machine learning (ML) techniques. This paper intends to investigate and evaluate four deep learning (DL) methods that may be useful for image spam identification. Firstly, neural networks, especially deep neural networks, were trained on various image features. Their resilience was measured on an enhanced dataset, which was created specifically to outwit existing image spam detection methods. Next, a convolution neural network (CNN) was designed, and verified through experiments. Experimental results show that our novel approach for image spam identification outshines other current techniques in the field.


In order to control the uniformity of microstructure and mechanical properties of hot rolled coils, as well as strip flatness, a newly developed edge masking device is used on the runout table. Optimum setting conditions have been determined for both the already existing Enco panels and edge heaters and the new edge mask device. The temperature difference at the strip edges is reduced and the material properties become more uniform.


This paper issues the thought to upgrade bill acceptors' software online through a Web browser, and illustrates the architecture and implementation of the Bill Acceptor Online Upgrade System Based on B/S. The system uses the method of embedding ActiveX controls in a Web page to realize serial port access and persistent real-time communication between client and server, and also adopts the technology of ADO database access and multithread programming. The system provides an upgrade method which is convenient in operation, cheap in upgrading, safe and easy in maintenance for bill acceptor and other electronic equipment.


Background: An incorporation of licensed practical nurses (LPNs) in the RN staffing mix was made in a small community hospital. Research shows that RNs at the bedside equates to less adverse patient outcomes such as falls, pressure ulcers and an increase on the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. Objectives: To evaluate the effects of incorporating LPNs in the staffing mix on the number of patient falls, pressure ulcers and HCAHPS survey results. Methods: A Pre and Post study design was used to compare baseline data obtained four months prior to implementing and four months during the implementation of LPNs into the staffing mix on falls, pressure ulcers and HCAHPS results. Results: The relationship between nursing staff skill mix and the frequency of patient falls were significant, X2(1, N=1339) =5.176, p= 0.023. There was no relationship between the nursing staff skill mix and pressure ulcer development. The staff skill mix was independent from patient's opinion in each of the four survey questions. The overall staff to patient mean ratio was slightly higher for the RN and LPN skill mix (M = 6.77, SD =0.217) than for the RN-only staff (M = 6.2, SD =0.255). A Z-test for two sample means revealed a statistically significant difference between the staffing skill mix during the months with the staffing changes (p = 0.001) Conclusions: The findings of this research project support a nursing skill mix that is predominantly RNs for the acute care setting. LICENSED PRACTICAL NURSES IN THE STAFFING MIX 3 Evaluating Patient Outcomes When Adding Licensed Practical Nurses to the Staffing Mix


Lack of sufficient knowledge about the physical and mechanical properties of onion can result in higher waste during harvesting and post-harvesting. The objective of this work was to determine some physical and mechanical properties of onion cultivated in China. These properties include linear dimensions, mass, shape index, pull-out force, compression and shear forces. The mean longitudinal diameter of bulb (BLD), transverse diameter of bulb (BTD), bulb weight (BW), pull-out force of bulb (BPF), depth of the bulb buried in the soil (BSD), bulb shape index (BSI), diameter of cauloid (CD), circumferential distribution of root systems (RCD), longitudinal length of root systems (RLL) and weight of root systems (RW) were 78.1±9.6 mm, 89.6±10.1 mm, 333.0±101.7 g, 43.9±21.6 N, 35.7±8.7 mm, 1.2±0.1, 15.3±3.7 mm, 89.2±19.7 mm, 42.9±10.0 mm and 0.8±0.4 g. In the study of mechanical properties of onions, the maximum compression force (MCF) required for compression deformation 10mm of bulb was 462.2N, and the maximum shear failure force (MSF) required for shearing of cauloid was 113.8 N. The results of the research will be very useful in the design and optimization of harvest and postharvest machines with reduced waste and damage.


This study investigates how technological and non-technological innovations in International Joint Ventures (IJVs) are influenced by market orientation and learning orientation dimensions. Our conc...


Alymphoplasia mice (aly/aly) have been shown to be deficient for a nuclear factor‐κB‐inducing kinase involved in signal transduction of lymphotoxin β receptor (LT‐βR) and of CD40, resulting in structural defects of secondary lymphoid organs and highly increased susceptibility to viral infections. We analyzed the anti‐viral immune response of bone marrow chimeras (BMC) between aly/aly mice and (C57BL/6 × DBA2)F1 mice (B6D2F1) to evaluate in vivo whether the structural defects of secondary lymphoid organs or intrinsic B or T cell defects led to immunodeficiency in aly/aly mice. Transfer of aly/aly bone marrow into B6D2F1 mice (aly/aly→B6D2F1) led to excellent T but poor B cell reconstitution of recipients. Antiviral cytotoxic T cell (CTL) responses of aly/aly→B6D2F1 BMC were clearly improved compared to aly/aly mice whereas virus‐neutralizing IgG reponses were virtually absent. Therefore, the inefficient CTL response was predominantly caused by the structural defect of secondary lymphoid organs and not by an intrinsic T cell defect. In contrast, B cells of aly/aly origin were unable to undergo isotype switch after viral infections, indicating an intrinsic B cell defect in vivo. Overall, aly/aly mice show the combined immunodeficient phenotype of mice deficient for LT‐βR with B cells functionally deficient for CD40.


The development of direct laryngoscopy has opened up a new era in the treatment of laryngeal disease. Lesions, espe cially in children, .impossible to diagnose and to reach with the mirror, can now be handled with comparative ease. To Killian in Europe and to Jackson in this country we owe a debt of gratitude for placing the method on a rational basis. Im provements in instruments and technic have placed direct laryngoscopy within the reach of every laryngologist. When one becomes expert with the tube, he approaches all laryngeal lesions with greater confidence. It is only a question of time when it will replace the mirror for nearly all operative work in the larynx. There are two methods of direct laryngoscopy: the one in which the head is held back in extension, and the other in which the opposite or flexed position is used. The former method has been used a long time ; the latter, so far as I know, was first suggested by Dr. H. P. Mosher, of Boston, and has greatly simplified the examination of the larynx and the upper end of the esophagus in selected cases. We are all familiar with the extended position as practiced by Killian and Jackson, the latter of whom has given us an instrument which is very useful in both the sitting and prone extended positions. Be fore referring to the comparative merits of extension and flex ion, it may not be out of place to describe briefly the method of extension which has proven most satisfactory to me. A half hour before the examination, the patient is given a hypodermic injection of morphin ( 1 / 4 grain) and atropin


It's been a few days now, requirement of Nitrogen, Oxygen and Argon increases day by day. Especially for a steel industry this three components are very essential for their steel production like decarburization, desulphurization, hydrogen removal, nitrogenation, argon, oxygen removal, metal cutting, welding, and cooling etc. Cryogenic air separation has the best impact to separate the air. Study and analyses of practical plant performance through computer aided programs has better and cost effective. Aspen Hysys by Aspen Technology is one of the major process simulators that are widely used in cryogenic, chemical and thermodynamic process industries today. In this work, the simulation study of cryogenic air separation unit (Rourkela steel plant, Odisha) is performed by using Aspen Hysys. The simulation study is based on both steady state and dynamic (high pressure column and low pressure column). The dynamic air separation unit has been designed based on PI controller. The plant efficiency, specific power consumption, product purity and behaviour of process parameter with respect to time and feed disturbance have been discussed.


Joubert syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by abnormal respiratory pattern and eye movements, hypotonia, ataxia, developmental retardation with neuropathologic abnormalities of cerebellum and brainstem. We aimed to point out the clinical heterogenity and radiologic findings of JS. We presented a case of Joubert syndrome associated with ptosis and hypotonia.©2005, Firat Universitesi, Tip Fakultesi


Abstract : This report highlights the acquisition of plant canopy spectral reflectance, leaf-level gas and fluorescence, and associated soil conditions at discrete locations along two transects located within the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (ERDC-CRREL), near Fairbanks, AK. Ecotones in interior Alaska have unique vegetative cover and heterogeneous terrains that are underlain by sporadic discontinuous permafrost. Permafrost thaw is expected to cause ecological consequences; and because vegetation and local soil microflora are tightly coupled, changes to this system offer a source of significant impacts on surface hydrology and soil strength. The objective of this study was to investigate potential relationships between vegetative vigor and soil biochemistry in permafrost-affected areas for use in the development of standoff sensors for mapping the subsurface composition of permafrost terrains and to help in predicting how and where thawing permafrost will alter vegetation and soil ecology. Our results showed that redox chemistry is an important driver of ecosystem dynamics, and we identified relationships between fluorescence and reducing conditions at these transects. While it is well known that redoxymorphic conditions help drive plant composition in wetlands, it is less apparent how permafrost thaw influences this dynamic.


Recently, the Commission prohibited the hostile takeover by Ryanair of Aer Lingus. The facts of this case differ from previous airline mergers assessed by the European Commission. This was the first time the Commission had to assess a proposed merger of the two main airlines in a single country, with both operating from the same "home" airport — Dublin. It was also the first time the Commission had to assess a merger of two "low-cost" airlines, operating on a "pointto-point" basis. Furthermore, the number of overlapping routes is unprecedented compared with previous airline cases. A comprehensive account of the Commission's findings and assessment in this case is given in a complementary article in this issue (2). In contrast, this commentary focuses on the use of econometric and survey evidence to assess the non-coordinated effects of the merger (3).


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An anodic oxidized film has been deposited in pure water at room temperature. Film thickness increases linearly as a function of total charge during oxidation. High film deposition rate and low surface roughness are obtained by alternately changing the polarity of the applied voltage. The film growth mechanism is discussed and the model of anodic oxidation in pure water is proposed. The HF etching rate and the oxide thickness are reduced by an increase in annealing temperature. Though the electrical characteristics of the anodic oxide film are inferior to those of the film obtained by thermal oxidation, they can be improved by thermal annealing at a temperature of 400°C.


A capacitance technique was used to monitor the film thickness separating two steel balls while subjecting the ball-ball contact to highly stressed, zero entrainment velocity conditions. Tests were performed in a nitrogen atmosphere and utilized 52100 steel balls and a polyalphaolefin lubricant. Capacitance to film thickness accuracy was verified under pure rolling conditions using established EHL theory. Zero entrainment velocity tests were performed at sliding speeds from 6.0 to 10.0 m/s and for sustained amounts of time to 28.8 min. The protective lubricant film separating the specimens at zero entrainment velocity had a film thickness between 0.10 to 0.14 um (4 to 6 uin), which corresponded to a lamda value of 4. The formation of an immobile surface film formed by lubricant entrapment is discussed as an explanation of the load carrying capacity at zero entrainment velocity conditions, relevant to the ball-ball contacts occurring in retainerless ball bearings.


Since completion in the 1930s, the roadway on top of the Hoover Dam has been a primary traffic route across the Colorado River. Increasing traffic and tourism often led to lengthy delays. Traffic volumes increased even more when U.S. 93 became a North American Free Trade Agreement corridor in the 1990s. Security concerns in the wake of the 9/11 attacks caused truck traffic to be banned from using the crossing. All of these factors motivated the design and construction of the Hoover Dam Bypass with its centerpiece river crossing, the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. This article looks at issues relating to the construction of the structure's concrete arches, including the mixture proportion, thermal control, delivery and placement, consolidation, and quality control of the concrete.


We prepared a modified DIOP analogue bearing bis(4-dimethylamino-3,5-dimethylphenyl)phosphino groups. Its rhodium complex was found to be a useful catalysts for asymmetric hydrogenation of dimethyl itaconate and itaconic acid derivatives bearing β-aryl groups


Variability models are often enriched with attributes, such as performance, that encode the influence of features on the respective attribute. In spite of their importance, there are only few attributed variability models available that have attribute values obtained from empirical, real-world observations and that cover interactions between features. But, what does it mean for research and practice when staying in the comfort zone of developing algorithms and tools in a setting where artificial attribute values are used and where interactions are neglected? This is the central question that we want to answer here. To leave the comfort zone, we use a combination of kernel density estimation and a genetic algorithm to rescale a given (real-world) attribute-value profile to a given variability model. To demonstrate the influence and relevance of realistic attribute values and interactions, we present a replication of a widely recognized, third-party study, into which we introduce realistic attribute values and interactions. We found statistically significant differences between the original study and the replication. We infer lessons learned to conduct experiments that involve attributed variability models. We also provide the accompanying tool Thor for generating attribute values including interactions. Our solution is shown to be agnostic about the given input distribution and to scale to large variability models.


This paper discusses a deterministic finite horizon economic production lot size (EPLS) model for deteriorating items under permissible delay in payments. Shortages are allowed and backlogged partially. Three models are developed over a finite planning horizon. The existence and uniqueness of the optimal solutions of the proposed models are examined. Here, production cycle time, the time at which the shortage begins, production stopping time, shortage ending time and total number of production cycles are taken as decision variables. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the model.


The invention discloses a method for detecting a void of coarse aggregate. The technical problem solved by the method is to compare the detection result of the void of the coarse aggregate with the detection result of the void of the coarse aggregate in an asphalt mixture. The method comprises the following steps of: adopting the dry tamping method to detect the void of the coarse aggregate; adding mineral powder and asphalt into the coarse aggregate and mixing the coarse aggregate, the mineral powder and the asphalt; forming a test piece; detecting the relative density of bulk volume, the mass percentage of the coarse aggregate accounting for the total mass and the relative density of synthesis bulk volume of the coarse aggregate accounting for water volume; and calculating the void of the coarse aggregate in the test piece. Compared with the prior art, the mineral powder and the asphalt are added into the coarse aggregate, the detection method is the same as that of the void of the coarse aggregate in the asphalt mixture, and the detection result is comparable, so that the skeleton-compact standard of the coarse aggregate formed by the detection method more scientifically evaluates the skeleton-compact degree of the coarse aggregate in the asphalt mixture.


During the operation of large capacity distribution network, it is necessary to measure the capacitive current to match the corresponding arc suppression coil. In order to solve the problem that the capacitive current cannot be measured in the distribution network system whose neutral point is grounded by arc suppression coil, this paper proposes a method to measure the parameters of the distribution network by injecting four different frequency signals from the neutral. This method can measure the distributed capacitance of distribution network when the arc suppression coil is running online. It can automatically detect the operation state of arc suppression coil in distribution network and select different equivalent models for calculation. Theoretical analysis and experiments show that the method has strong adaptability, simple calculation and high measurement accuracy.


Cantaloupe was seeded into Sunshine Mix® potting mixture in 10 cm pots on 26 Mar in a greenhouse heavily infested with SPWF. Plants were transferred on 22 Apr into spray chambers (25 cm X 30 cm PVC cylinders) in a randomized complete block design with ten treatments and six replicates. Plants were irrigated daily using drip tubes to avoid wetting of foliage. Adults were counted on the second or third expanded leaf from the growing point and SPWF immatures were sampled on the oldest leaf using a 2.1 cm diameter leaf disk cutter 24 hours prior to treatment. Plants were sprayed to runoff (3 seconds/31 ml/plant, ca. 100 gal/acre) using a C02 backpack sprayer with two TX-4 hollow cone spray tips (Spraying Systems Co.) positioned 5 to 10 cm from the plant canopy (one above and one below) at 60 psi. Treatment applications were made on 23 Apr and 1 May. Untreated plants were inter-spaced between treated plants for an added source of SPWF adult re-infestation. SPWF adults were counted on the second or third expanded leaf on treated plants at 24 and 168 hours after the first application and at 24 hours after the second application. Immature SPWF (including eggs and all stages of nymphs) were sampled on one 2.1 cm diameter leaf disk/plarit and numbers were recorded by instar on the oldest or second oldest leaf at 72 and 168 hours after the first application and 48 hours after the second application.


Rural revitalization to promote sustainable rural development is a key strategy promoted by the Communist Party of China. We conducted a comprehensive policy analysis to explore the development of sustainable rural education for promoting rural revitalization in China. Integrity, openness, and endogeneity are critical in the development of sustainable rural education. We investigated the formulation and implementation of sustainable development policies supporting rural education in China through an in-depth analysis of the rural education policy circle (policy design, content, and implementation) and administered a survey among rural education administrators and teachers to elicit their perspectives. Education personnel employed in rural areas within 10 provinces, including school and education administrators, teaching staff and researchers, and teachers (in kindergartens, primary schools, and middle schools) were recruited for the study. A total of 741 questionnaires were sent out and returned (a recovery rate of 100%). Our findings indicated that the policy design was unreasonable, and its focus on rural-based care was inadequate. Moreover, integration and symbiosis of policy content was lacking, and the governance system was also inadequate, leading to poor policy implementation associated with insufficient support of teacher resources. In addition to addressing the above issues, we suggest that the policy should have a rural orientation to enhance integration and symbiosis, with a focus on building and consolidating the ranks of rural teachers.


Combined with the characteristics of soft and hard thresholding de-noising methods, this paper posed an improved threshold quantifying project, added the estimated factor, used genetic algorithms to optimize the estimated factor, the fitness function is the signal to noise ratio. The improved project applied to the test signal added noise, the result show that this project compares with soft and hard thresholding de-noising methods makes the de-noising better in a certain extent, and it enhances the signal to noise ratio of de-noising signal.


The aim of this study was to investigate patients' perceptions and preferences of their participation in nursing care during hospitalisation in Greece. The sample consisted of medical and surgical patients (n = 300). A questionnaire was developed to measure patients' perception of participation, including an open question and the control preference scale. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for quantitative data analysis and content analysis for qualitative data. Participation was described as 'information receiving and responsibility' and 'ability to influence'. One-third of the respondents preferred a collaborative role with the nurses, while 77.2% rationalised patient participation with the themes 'strengthening patient's role', 'improve hospitalisation' and 'collaborative relationship'. The meaning of participation seems to support shared information, patient responsibility and motivation during nursing care. Patients were aware of the positive effects of their involvement in care and were willing to assume, at least to some extent, an active role in their own care. Changes in nursing care organisation, nurses' communication skills and additional educational strategies need to be developed and implemented in clinical practice to optimise patient participation.


This paper studies what happens when we move from a short regression to a long regression in a setting where both regressions are subject to misspecification. In this setup, the least‐squares estimator in the long regression may have larger inconsistency than the least‐squares estimator in the short regression. We provide a simple interpretation for the comparison of the inconsistencies and study under which conditions the additional regressors in the long regression represent a "balanced addition" to the short regression.


To discuss the effect of the movement of water-salt under the mulch drip irrigation condition on the temporal and spatial distribute of cotton root,two treatments irrigated with fresh water and saline water are chose,and cotton roots in different length and depth in different growing stage(the flower bud stage,flower boll stage and catkin stage) are collected,at the same time,the water content,salt content and agriculture of the cotton are monitored.The result of analysis of the relations among the root length density,the ground part,the water and salt content shows that the stress of water and salt plays a leading role on the root development,When the volumetric water content of soil is larger than 20% and the electric conductivity is smaller than 2 000 μs/cm,the root can grow and develop normally,and the root fastens to the concentrate filed with high rate of water and low rate of salt t in this scope.


Compared with the pre-modern government gazette,the newspapers and magazines arose in modern Chinese is a new type of media.These new forms of media were enthusiastically received by the young students on account of their functions in introducing western cultures in lively and manifold ways.The new media soon become the vane of public opinions and a platform for expressing personal thoughts.What's more important,the new media refreshes the students in various aspects,such as spreading new knowledge,wakening their national awareness and patriotism and changing their life style of reading.The new media redirects their views on love and philosophy,and is of great enlightenment in nurturing young students' values in our contemporary media time.


Author(s): Millspaugh, Scott Sims | Advisor(s): Botterill, Steven | Abstract: The goal of this dissertation is to propose a theory for the emergence of Italian literary culture in the Duecento, with particular reference to the lyric production of Giacomo da Lentini and Guittone d'Arezzo, as well as to the Dantean literary history of Purgatorio XXIV and XXVI. `Le origini', the label long preferred by Italian literary criticism to describe the period between 1230 and 1300, presupposes a coherent national narrative framed, on one side, by an irrepressible vernacular spirit that defies political fragmentation and, on the other, by Italy's hard-won unification in the nineteenth century. Though Italian studies has done much to undermine this fiction for all periods of Italian literature, significant gaps in scholarship remain for the Duecento. This is due to complications arising, first of all, from the traditional division of disciplinary labor, but also from the condition of the literary record, which is limited chronologically to the years around 1300 and geographically to Tuscany and Bologna. A third challenge faced by scholars of the Italian thirteenth century is the overwhelming presence of Dante, whose self-consciously ambitious Commedia, along with the De vulgari eloquentia, provides the most complete, if problematically teleological, literary history available from the period. Recent advances in the history of rhetoric - in particular Ronald Witt's The Two Latin Cultures and the Foundation of Renaissance Humanism in Medieval Italy - have opened critical space for a non-teleological Duecento that is, nevertheless, acutely aware of Dante's influence. It is within that space that I intend to formulate a theory for the emergence of Italian literary culture that accounts not only for the writing practices of thirteenth-century Italian lyric poets, but also for the Dantean literary history that structures their reception. This dissertation argues that the three traditional movements of early Italian poetry - the scuola siciliana, the siculo-toscani, and the Dolce stil nuovo - can mapped onto the bifurcation of medieval Latin into the `legal-rhetorical' documentary culture of the communes, which emerged as a result of the Investiture Struggle in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the revival of Carolingian `traditional book culture' that accompanied the `rise of the signori' at the end of the thirteenth century. The lyric poetry of the communal period - that of Giacomo da Lentini and Guittone d'Arezzo - results from the importation of Occitan song into a discursive milieu defined by the ars dictaminis. The effect of the practical rhetorical arts on the Duecento lyric can be seen, on the one hand, in its epistolary orientation, which is most fully manifest in the sonnet, tenzone, and canzoniere; and, on the other, in the pessimistic ambiguity of Guittone's trobar clus, which foregrounds the troubling polysemy of courtly signifiers. Toward the end of the thirteenth century, however, renewed interest in `traditional book culture' attends the collapse of the commune, and Dante's Commedia disparages the association of Italy's early lyric tradition with the `municipal' activities of notaries and dictatores. Instead, Dante's classicizing tendencies, nourished not only by Brunetto Latini's Ciceronian revival, but also by early Paduan humanism, lead him to reject lyric poetry outright, which brings to a close the first stage of development of Italy's vernacular literary culture.