Objective:To evaluate the influence of pregnancy outcomes with different dosage of oestradiol valerate in addition to progesterone for luteal supplementation in IVF-ET cycles.Methods:Prospective, randomized study was conducted to choose three hundred and ninety-two cycles of in vitro fertilization with a long GnRH agonist protocol; Since oocyte retrieval injecting luteal supplementation with progesterone in oil, 80~100 mg/d, im., devided into two doses daily; Starting on the day of embryo transfer giving orally 0, 2, 4, 6 mg/d of oestradiol valerate; Finally calculating early pregnancy loss rate, implantation rate per embryo transfer and pregnancy rate (PR) for each group.Results:The lowest early pregnancy loss rate and higest PR were achieved in the group with 6 mg/d of oestradiol valerate, but there were no significant difference between all four groups; Implantation rate increased with the raised dosage of oestradiol valerate, with the higest rate (32.7%) in group of 6 mg vs. lowest rate (23.5%) in group of 0 mg, yet significant difference was only found between these two groups (P0.05).Conclusion:Six milligrams per day of oestradiol valerate starting on the day of oocyte retrieval in addition to progesterone for luteal supplementation might be an effective dosage to improve implantation rate and PR, as well as to reduce early pregnancy loss rate in IVF-ET cycles with a long GnRH agonist protocol.


 new sensitizer named as cis(NCS)2 bis(2,2′bipyridy13,3′dicarboxylate) ruthenium(Ⅱ) has been prepared, spectroscopically characterized, and anchored to high surface area TiO2 nanocrystalline electrodes for measuring efficiency of energy conversion. In addition, cis(NCS)2bis(2,2′bipyridy14,4′ or 5,5′dicarboxylate) ruthenium(Ⅱ) were prepared by literature methods, and their photophysical and photoelectrochemical properties were measured. From these data, steric effect on the properties of Ru polypyridyl complexes and energy conversion efficiencies has been investigated. 


In this study, we investigated the accumulation of betaine and the induction of BADH activity in barley leaves during salt stress. We also studied the accumulation of betaine and levels of BADH activity in etiolated leaves and roots of barley


To observe megasporogenesis,microsporogenesis and development of female and male gametophytes,we studied the fresh flowers of Calotropis gigantea using paraffin wax.The results were as follows:(1)Archesporial cell of C.gigantea microspore differentiated from two areas of subcutaneous tissue.The mature anther wall was composed of epidermis,endothecium(1layer)and middle layer(2layers),glandular tapetum(1layer)and its development model belonged to basic type.The glandular tapetum was a secretory structure.Cytokinesis of microspore mother cells was continuously split twice.Three cells were observed in the mature pollen grain:2small sperm cells and one large vegetative cell.(2)C.gigantea had two carpels in pistil and 1locule in ovary.The ovule was anatropous,marginal placentation,unitegmic and tenuinucellus.The megaspore tetrads were linear and the chalazal megaspore was functional.The mature embryo sacs had seven cells with eight nucleis,and belonged to polygonum type sac.(3)C.gigantea pistil developed later than stamen,and the female and stamen developed synchronized before buds open.It was considered that the barrenness of C.gigantea was not due to male or female sterility,although some proportional abortion exists in the development of pistil and stamen.Maybe it was related to pollination fertilization.


Rate equations are used to show that the modulation response of quantum dot lasers can be limited by entropy change due to carrier relaxation from a wetting layer. The entropy change is due to the difference in the spectral density of quantum states between the two-dimensional wetting layer and the zero-dimensional quantum dot. When limited by this effect, the laser's 3 dB modulation response becomes strongly temperature dependent.


At present, the problem of pedestrian detection has attracted increasing attention from researchers in the field of computer vision. And the Faster R-CNN (faster regions with convolutional neural network) is regarded as one of the most important techniques in this problem. However, the recognition effect of this method is still inadequate in some respects, such as fitting the diversity of pedestrians' clothing or the light intensity, which can lead to false and miss detection for pedestrians in large probability. We try to improve the recognition rate by improving the sample contrast in this paper and propose the modified Faster R-CNN method with automatic color enhancement (ACE). Firstly, we collect considerable quantity of head-and-shoulder image samples as the training dataset. Then, the ACE is performed on the dataset to improve the image contrast. Next, the dataset is input into the Faster R-CNN. Finally, the effectiveness of this method is verified with the actual data collected from the subway station in Beijing.


I discuss a disclosure model in which a manager can bias earnings reports. Informed traders acquire knowledge about the uncertain objectives of the manager and trade based on their superior information with noise traders. In the unique linear equilibrium, the market price corrects the report only for an expected bias. The price efficiency is influenced by the cost of biasing, the number of informed traders and the prior precision of the report. I calculate the liquidity of the market and the utilities of the market participants and I show that the noise traders benefit from more and better informed traders.


The invention discloses a reference voltage generator and a generating method. The reference voltage generator has a bandgap reference circuit and a negative voltage generator. The bandgap reference circuit generates a reference voltage according to at least one base-emitter voltage of at least one bipolar junction transistor. The negative voltage generator generates a negative voltage, wherein at least one base terminal of the at least one bipolar junction transistor is arranged to receive a base voltage derived from the negative voltage. According to the invention, the reference voltage generator and the generating method can be applied to low power and voltage environments.


It is shown that the degree of polarization of light, generated by superposition in a singlephoton interference experiment, may depend on the indistinguishability of the photon-paths. PACS numbers: 42.50.-p (Quantum Optics), 42.50.Ar (Photon statistics and coherence theory), 42.25.Ja (Polarization). ∗Electronic address: email@example.com


During the period from September 16, 1954 through December 15, 1954, the Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) took a number of administrative and budgetary decisions among which were the following: 1) At a meeting on September 16, 1954, the Council decided to postpone until 1955 the Second Meeting of the Inter-American Cultural Council and the Inter-American Meeting of Ministers of Education, the exact date of the meetings to be determined by the Council in consultation with the government of Brazil since the meetings would be held in that country. 2) On October 20, 1954, the Council decided to include the representative of Chile on the Committee on Juridical-Political Matters, thereby increasing the membership of the committee to fourteen. 3) On November 17, 1954, the Council elected Dr. José A. Mora (Uruguay) Chairman, and Dr. José Ramón Rodríguez (Dominican Republic) Vice-Chairman for 1954–1955. 4) Under a resolution adopted by the Council on December 15, 1954, the chairmen or vice-chairmen of special committees were to be included in the membership of the General Committee, and ex-chairmen of the Council who were still members might participate and vote in the discussions of the General Committee. 5) On December 15, 1954, the Council also approved the organization plan of the Inter-American Travel Congresses submitted by the Fifth Inter-American Travel Congress.


Introduction Regional input–output tables share with their national counterparts the problem of becoming outdated simply because of the passage of time. But smaller geographic scale introduces other problems. For example, if the only automobile assembly plant in Michigan closes and its replacement opens (as the only such plant) in Tennessee, a "national" table would still reflect automobile assembly (although perhaps under more modern methods in the new plant) whereas that activity would disappear entirely from a Michigan table and appear as a completely new activity in a Tennessee table. In addition, states or counties or even smaller economic areas may have fewer resources available for the kinds of data collection needed for survey-based input–output tables – although since the economy is smaller (in terms of number of square miles covered, numbers of active plants, etc.) the effort involved in surveying may be less. In addition, when one is concerned with models in which two or more regions are connected (or a single region and the rest of the country) shipments out of and into the regions assume a much more important role – the former providing inputs to production and the latter representing markets for outputs. Consequently, considerable effort has been devoted to estimation of interregional flows of goods in an effort to construct approximations to and estimates of the a rs ij or c rs i . coefficients of the IRIO or MRIO models (Chapter 3). As noted in Chapter 3, some of the earliest attempts at estimating interindustry relationships at a regional level employed national input coefficients along with estimates of regional supply percentages showing, for each supplying sector, the proportion of total regional requirements of that good that could be expected to originate within the region.


A method of wide‐band amplitude distribution analysis is described which employs two commercial oscilloscopes and a phototube. The minimum set‐up can be assembled quickly in the laboratory from standard equipment, and gives a rapid analysis accurate to better than 5 percent. It is free from the severe band‐width restrictions of other methods (N. Knudtzon, Research Laboratory for Electronics, M. I. T. Tech. Rept. No. 115, July 15, 1949), and can often be employed up to 500 mc. Results on two noise sources are included for illustration, and a modification for improving the resolution and increasing the accuracy is presented.


The far‐field electromagnetic radiation produced when a field of supraluminous longitudinal plasma oscillations is incident on a localized inhomogeneity in the thermal plasma density is calculated. The plasma is assumed collisionless and is composed of stationary ions and thermal electrons. The calculation makes use of the thermal equilibrium spectrum of supraluminous waves (with phase velocities greater than the speed of light), which do not Landau damp. The generation and maintenance of this supraluminous spectrum is discussed elsewhere. Upon inserting numerical values for typical laboratory plasmas and also for a typical astrophysical radio source, such as the Crab nebula, it is demonstrated that the phenomenon is completely negligible in the laboratory but can be important in astrophysical systems.


Washington and Lee University 204 West Washington Street Lexington VA 24450-2116 Main phone: 540.458.8400 WWW Home Page Address http://www.wlu.edu Admissions Phone Number 540.458.8710 Admissions Toll-free Phone Number (None) Admissions Office Mailing Address, City/State/Zip Letcher Avenue, Lexington VA 24450-0303 Admissions Fax number: 540.458.8062 Admissions E-mail Address: email@example.com Is there a separate URL application site on the Internet? Yes If so, please specify:


Beate Fagerli, Knud Jorgensen, Rolv Olsen, Karl Storstein Haug, and Knut Tveitereid, eds., A Learning Missional Church: Reflections from Young Missiologists. Oxford: Regnum Books International, 2012. 218pp. This volume originated in the celebrations of the centenary of Edinburgh 1910 in Norway and paints the picture of a learning missional Church from the reflections and perspectives of young missiologists. The aim of the volume is to provide space for contributions from young missiologists and missiological students on themes related to mission in the 21st century. The missiologists come from Cameroon, China, Ethiopia, India, Norway and South Africa and their ages range from 29 to 49 years, but the volume is overshadowed by Norwegians since all five editors and five out of eleven contributors are from that country. The book comprises four thematic sections. The first deals with the theme of "Missional Church," the second with "Encounter between Religions," the third with "Migrant Perspectives." The fourth addresses "Missional Challenges." Due to the limitations of space, I shall focus on seven of the eleven contributions. In the first section I focus on the contributions of the Norwegian Ragnhild Kristensen and the Indian John Amalraj. The value of the essay by Kristensen is that she starts by defining what is meant by "missional" church. Missional is defined as "the essential nature and vocation of the Church as God's called and sent people" (p. 16). It could also be said that the being-ness (the missional church) and sent-ness (the missionary praxis) of the church are inextricably linked and that such a missional church understands its participation in missio Dei as contextual, addressing faithfully the challenges of ever changing and complex contexts in a comprehensive and holistic way. Being contextual, the missional church gathers for fellowship and worship ("come") and disperses to serve God ("go"). That is the being-ness and the sent-hess of the church (p. 29). Amalraj starts by declaring that "more than two thousand years have passed since the gospel was first preached in the southern part of India" and more than "a century has gone by since the first structured expression of the indigenous missional movement began in India" (p. 68). Consequently Amalraj investigates how far the "Indian" churches, coming from Eastern and Western Churches such as the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant and Evangelical churches, are really "Indian." The identity of the Church's ministry in India is, for the author, a very important factor for the discussion of the emergence of the missional church in India (p. 69). The specific contribution of the missional church in India is two-fold. First, in South India many local churches founded by Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Baptists formed one of the world's first modern ecumenical churches, the Church of South India; a similar event took place in North India when the Church of North India was formed. Second, India is today one of the major missionary sending nations, a reflection of the geographical change in global mission. In the second section we are introduced to one of the major missionary themes of the 21 se century, namely whether the closer geographic proximity between Christians and Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists will result in interfaith relationships and dialogue or result in greater conflict. The essay by Norwegian Ingunn Flokestad Breistein is insightful in this regard. Breistein focuses on "Ground Rules for Missionary Activities" issued in 2009 by the project group on Missionary Activities and Human Rights of the Oslo Coalition of Freedom of Religion or Belief. These Ground Rules are rooted in the ideas of the UN conventions and declarations, the UN Human Rights Committee, the European Court of Human Rights and what other regional human rights courts and commissions say about missionary activities (p. …


e12517Background: Eribulin is a nontaxane microtubule dynamics inhibitor, which has shown a survival benefit in patients (pts) with heavily-pretreated metastatic breast cancer (MBC). No clinical evidence on the efficacy and safety of eribulin has been obtained in pts with MBC who presented taxane resistance. The present Phase II, multicenter, single-arm, open-label study aimed to provide the evidence. Methods: Japanese pts, aged 33-74 years who had metastasis of taxane-resistant and histopathologically confirmed breast cancer, received eribulin mesylate 1.4 mg/m2 as a 2- to 5-min intravenous infusion on days 1 and 8 of each 21-day cycle. The primary endpoint was the clinical benefit rate (CBR) [complete response (CR), partial response (PR), and long-term stable disease (LSD) ≥ 24 weeks]. A woman with MBC who was already under chemotherapy was considered to present well-defined taxane resistance when falling under either of the following cases: 1) breast cancer recurred during taxane treatment or within 1 ...


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the difference in arteriovenous passage time calculated from retinal angiograms using indocyanine green and fluorescein sodium dye in healthy individuals.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Examinations of eight healthy individuals (mean age +/- standard deviation: 27.3 +/- 4.2 years) who had four consecutive ophthalmic visits that were 2 weeks apart were analyzed. Indocyanine green and fluorescein angiography were performed sequentially (with the indocyanine green angiography occurring first) using scanning laser ophthalmoscopy. Arteriovenous passage times were calculated offline using digital angiogram video analysis.

RESULTS
Mean arteriovenous passage times calculated from indocyanine green angiography (1.417 +/- 0.136 seconds) recordings were significantly shorter than fluorescein sodium times (2.539 +/- 0.421 seconds) (P < .0001) and intra-group variability was similar. There were no significant correlations between indocyanine green and fluorescein sodium arteriovenous passage times.

CONCLUSION
Arteriovenous passage times calculated using indocyanine green and fluorescein angiography are not interchangeable.


The primary purpose of this study was to examine individual spacing preferences of singers with changes to ensemble size. The secondary purpose of this study was to evaluate whether singers and auditors perceived changes due to spacing in an auditioned university ensemble and if those perceptions matched. An auditioned university choir (N = 42) sang an excerpt in close (1-inch), moderate (12-inches), and spread (24-inches) spacing while a professional sound engineer recorded the trials. Singers indicated their perceptions of how the spacing changes impacted the choir's sound, their individual tone, their ability to hear the ensemble, and the level of tension they experienced. A randomly selected small group (n = 16) repeated the procedure. Most participants in the large ensemble preferred spread spacing (63.4%). The majority (56.3%) of singers who participated in both groups preferred the same or increased spacing when singing with the smaller ensemble. Auditors (N = 24) listened to matched pairs of the recordings and indicated their overall preference and their preferences in the singer-indicated categories of balance, blend, intonation, and tone. Auditors were generally unable to distinguish between large group recordings. Auditors expressed clearer preferences in the small group recordings, generally selecting the wider spacing option and noting differences in the singer-indicated categories of balance and blend. Results of this study lend credence to Daugherty's (2003) suggestions that singers and auditors generally prefer spread spacing. These singers' preferences did not align with Ternström's (1999) expectations regarding ensemble size


This chapter considers the development and nature of markets and exchanges, including their origin, evolution, expansion, structure, and function of markets and exchanges. It analyses the content and operation of financial markets and instruments, the relationship between capital and stock markets, and other financial markets. It also examines the structural and operational issues of the nature and function of markets and exchanges. This chapter reviews the nature and impact of Financial Technology (FinTech) and Regulatory Technology (RegTech). It refers to the general nature and impact of the global financial crisis and recent Coronavirus crisis, as well the shape and structure of the new international, regional, and national responses.


The objective of this paper is to analyse the effect that the richness of a dataset has on the efficiency of parameters estimated with multinomial and mixed logit models, trying to isolate the effect due to the attribute ranges from that due to the number of attribute levels. Efficiency is inversely related to the value of the attributes associated to the parameters and to the number of observations. Moreover, it depends also on a second order function of the probabilities, such that as the variability of the data and the value of the scale factor increase, the efficiency of the parameters decreases. We found that the variability of the data does not always increase the efficiency of the estimates; rather, in some cases it might not be beneficial to increase data variability or it might even be better to have a smaller range of variation. This is a crucial problem if we need to gather revealed preference data or to design a stated preference experiment.


The purpose of this research is to develop a computer-based assessment for stroke order and a novel algorithm based on Choquet integral with fuzzy measure for scoring stroke order of Chinese Character writing. The learning of stroke order is very important for a fixed stroke writing character system therefore this research based on the theory of "five indexing system of Chinese characters" and combine the features of strokes develops a stroke order assessment system to real-time evaluate learners' stroke order and score their character writings. Except using traditional additive scoring method, a non-additive scoring algorithm based on Choquet integral with λ-measure and L-measure was proposed. A real data set with 121 samples was examined and experiment results show that the performances of this novel scoring model based on Choquet integral with both λ-measure and L-measure outperform the performance of traditional scoring approach.


There are numerous individual, familial, and environmental factors that impact the onset of depressive disorders in youth. This article presents an overview of these factors and describes our own research evaluating a possible model of how disturbances in family functioning could lead to the development of depression in youth. Given that families are often implicated in the development and maintenance of depressive disorders in youth, it has been argued that maximally effective treatments for youth should include families. Thus, a review of empirically evaluated treatments that involve parental/familial participation for youth with depression is presented. These treatments vary widely in number of meetings, format, and content. Finally, it is proposed that the greatest benefit to including a parent or family component is improving the maintenance of treatment effects. To support this hypothesis, data from one of our own investigations is presented.


BACKGROUND
The incidence and severity of infections are increased when Intralipid or Diprivan are administered to patients. Intralipid promotes infection, presumably by inhibiting the reticuloendothelial system, thereby suppressing the host's constitutive immunity, whereas Diprivan supposedly promotes infection by supporting bacterial growth and increasing the inoculating dose. This study considers whether bacterial replication alone in Intralipid and Diprivan adequately explains the increased risk of infection associated with these agents or whether other factors might also be involved.

METHODS
Staphylococcus aureus was cultured in 10% Intralipid or Diprivan at clinically relevant conditions or in Intralipid containing 0.005% (w/v) sodium EDTA, a current additive, to measure growth. To determine whether Intralipid affected infection, New Zealand white rabbits were injected intravenously with S. aureus with or without Intralipid. Twenty-four hours later, bacteria in lung, liver, spleen, and kidney tissues were enumerated.

RESULTS
S. aureus failed to grow in Diprivan or Intralipid containing 0.005% EDTA. Whereas S. aureus did replicate in plain Intralipid, growth was delayed until the bacteria conditioned the media. Once initiated, growth was slow at clinically relevant temperatures. The administration of Intralipid to rabbits significantly increased the recovery of staphylococci from the kidneys, P < 0.001, relative to the other tissues 24 h after an intravenous inoculation with S. aureus, compared with rabbits receiving S. aureus with no Intralipid.

CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that Diprivan, and possibly Intralipid, represent poor media for the growth of S. aureus and may promote infection through mechanisms other than increased inoculum size.


Abstract Despite the importance of ordering phenomena in typology and the visibility of Baker's analysis (1988, 1996) of noun incorporation in generative syntax, his prediction (1996: 25–30) that in syntactic incorporation the incorporated noun will always precede the verb root has yet to be tested typologically. Here we fill this gap and survey the known cases of object noun incorporation. The predicted order proves to be strongly preferred crosslinguistically and warrants recognition as a strong statistical universal. However, it is strongest in unproductive and fossilized contexts, the opposite of what is expected if the position of the incorporated noun is determined solely by principles of syntactic movement. The universal must therefore be nonsyntactic, perhaps morphological, in nature and appears to involve a preferred position for heads and/or for noun and verb roots within words. The same principle also shapes other noun-verb combinations in addition to noun incorporation.


We show that the synthesis conditions have a dramatic influence on the resistivity behavior of calcium and sodium doped LaMnO 3 . Several samples prepared by lowtemperature techniques exhibit a double-peaked curve of resistance versus temperature. The model of spin-polarized intergranular tunneling provides a good approach to discuss our experimental results. Grain size and crystallinity are proved to be essential parameters, which are strongly influenced by the preparation process (e.g. the precursors nature and the thermal treatment).


The present invention relates to a double compressor system room air conditioner and its control method, it contains first and second two compressors parallely connected in a refrigerating circulating loop which includes oil separator, outdoor heat exchanger, controllable throttle unit, outdoor heat exchanger and gas-liquid separator, the first and second compressors use the same indoor heat exchanger and outdoor heat excahnger; the return air port of first and second compressors are communicated and between them is installed with a one-way valve, and is connected with the outlet of gas liquid separator. The said system possesses the advantages of saving energy, raising energy efficiency ratio, etc.


Despite the recognized importance of publishing in quality research journals, the existing tourism and hospitality literature has no prior studies on manuscript revision. This research note presents the findings of a content analysis of 75 reports of revision summary written for 59 manuscripts that were eventually accepted for publication by 22 tourism and hospitality journals. Findings of a content analysis identified 1528 response items, which were then grouped into six broad categories. The most frequently occurring items were among revision/editorial changes, whereas the least frequently occurring items were in the category of clarifications. This paper would be of interest to young researchers, especially junior academics and doctoral students, seeking to understand how better to revise their manuscripts. The author would like to thank Rosanna Leung for her assistance in data analysis. This research was partly supported by a Hong Kong Polytechnic University Research Grant (G‐YF36).


The paper presents and discusses examples of activities associated with Physics didactics course for future teachers held at University of Wroclaw with use of MS TEAMS environment. Authors describe the course and illustrate it with examples of certain students' activities. In some details, based on case study observations we picture advantages and disadvantages of delivering the course as online educational action.


We describe a pendant drop method that allows one to produce double emulsions in a controllable way. Using a co-flowing drop-maker, we generate a periodic train made of monodisperse droplets that is directed toward the end of a capillary tube where a pendant drop forms. When this drop detaches from the tip of the capillary under the influence of gravity, it may or may not encapsulate one or several droplets depending on experimental conditions. We discuss the advantages of this method when compared with other techniques described in the literature and we present a simple model that predicts well the mean volume of the outer drops and the mean number of encapsulated droplets per drop as a function of the various physical parameters at play in experiments. We illustrate the high potentiality of this simple method by producing well-calibrated emulsion gels of large sizes and we discuss possible applications.


Integrating raw Global Position System (GPS) trajectories with a road network is often referred to as a map-matching problem. However, low-frequency trajectories (e.g., one GPS point for every 1–2 min) have raised many challenges to existing map-matching methods. In this paper, we propose a novel and global spatial–temporal map-matching method called spatial and temporal conditional random field (ST-CRF), which is based on insights relating to: 1) the spatial positioning accuracy of GPS points with the topological information of the underlying road network; 2) the spatial–temporal accessibility of a floating car; 3) the spatial distribution of the middle point between two consecutive GPS points; and 4) the consistency of the driving direction of a GPS trajectory. We construct a conditional random field model and identify the best matching path sequence from all candidate points. A series of experiments conducted for real environments using mass floating car data collected in Beijing and Shanghai shows that the ST-CRF method not only has better performance and robustness than other popular methods (e.g., point-line, ST-matching, and interactive voting-based map-matching methods) in low-frequency map matching but also solves the "label-bias" problem, which has long existed in the map matching of classical hidden Markov-based methods.


W. GRIFFITH Tumors of the dental lamina are rare in animals. One author refers to odontoma occurring in sheep, but the tumors are not described [3]. Another author [l, 21 reported on 268 odontogenic tumors of domestic animals. Of these, 253 were fibromatous epulis of periodontal origin in dogs. Two of the remaining 15 tumors were called ameloblastic odontoma; one was from a horse and one from an ox.


The analysis of the long-term program of coal industry development of Russia for the period up to 2030 is carried out in order to identify which of the measures provided in the program are the essential elements of the mechanism of knowledge economy formation in the Kemerovo region.


Economic growth is one of most important indicator in order to evaluate macroeconomic performance of countries. Thus, increase in gross domestic product, expressed as economic growth, is considered as an indicator of economic prosperity. However, despite the economic growth of countries, it is observed that income distribution equality, which is an important indicator of economic prosperity, is not provided. On the contrary, income distribution inequality is increasing day by day all over the world. In this study, the relationship between economic growth and income distribution inequality has been analyzed by examining the secondary data and literature. As a result of the study, it is concluded that economic growth is not sufficient to reduce the income distribution inequality. In addition, the problem of income distribution inequality is not only the problem of developing countries, but also the problem of developed countries. Therefore, all countries which wishing to solve this problem, should review their economic policies and adopt policies that would cover all segments of society and provide equal opportunities to all member of society. For example, in the provision of basic needs, education, health, social security and entrepreneurship, all member of the society should benefit from public facilities at an adequate level.


Natural gas adsorption storage properties of a super-high specific surface area activated carbon were studied.The re-sults showed that this activated carbon had good cycle performance.The natural gas storage ability only decreased 9 percent after 180 times recycle use.The relationship between natural gas desorption amount and time met the equation: V=149.7Ln(t)-97.2,and the desorption velocity differential equation was dV/dt=149.7/t.The natural gas desorption amount and pressure complied with the e-quation: X = C×Pn。


[Objective] The structure of peach variety in the Kaili region was optimized for much more economic efficiency so that the industrialization of peach production would be realized.[Method] The botanical characteristics,phenology,economic trait of fruit,yield and adaptability of peach from 2007 to 2000,introduced from Zhengzhou in 1998,were observed and the key cultivation technique was studied.[Results] The peach was with the following advantage:early fruiting high and stable yield,sweet and large fruit,good quality and high price in market.The peach fruit was maturated in late ten-day of June with average weight of 227 g/each fruit.The peach fruit was with red and white skin with bright color;crisp fruit meat with sweet taste with the content of sugar of 13% and its quality was superior.The peach had the character of many more pollen,high fruiting rate,tolerance to storage.The maturity of it met the demand of market when the early peach was sold out so that it was with high price.Main requirement to its management was flower/fruit-thinning,artificial pollination,control of shrinking-disease,scab,anthracnose,gum disease and others,the prevention of the peach mulberry white scales,moth and small green leaf cicada,beetle,spider,aphids and others,pruning,fertilization of mainly basal pulsing compound fertilizer.[Conclusion] The peach was worthy to be extended in the Kaili area.


In this paper, an Ultra-low power 10-bit 200kS/s Successive Approximation Register (SAR) Analog-to-Digital converter is presented. A Split-array charge distribution capacitive DAC is proposed. Spectre simulation results of single-ended 10-bit 200kS/s for supply voltage 1. 8V SAR-ADC in a 0. 18μm CMOS technology employing the proposed architecture show that the SAR ADC consumes 1. 502uW and ADC achieves SNDR of 57. 4dB. The ENOB 9. 24 resulting in a figure of merit (FOM) of 160fJ/conversion-step. Refer ences


Abstract Multi-drug resistant P. aeruginosa is being increasing worldwide. Various mechanisms create this cross resistance in this bacterium including, acquisition beta-lactamases and intrinsic mechanisms such as presence of multidrug efflux pumps. Generally, multidrug efflux pumps inhibitor is used as a phenotypic method for detection of active efflux pump systems. In this study 100 P. aeruginosa were collected from burn patients. Cefepime and imipenem resistant strains were isolated by disc diffusion agar and MIC. Carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl hydrazone (CCCP), H+ conductor are used to detect activities of multidrug efflux pumps. The multidrug efflux genes of mexA, mexC and mexX were detected by PCR. Totally, 87% and 79% of isolates were cefepime and imipenem resistant respectively. The only 18% of cefepime and imipenem resistant strains were inhibited by CCCP. 98% and 97% of isolates harbored mexA and mexC genes, while all of them mexX. Thus, cross resistance in P. aeruginosa isolates can be obtained by multidrug efflux pump systems. So, inhibition of multidrug efflux pumps can be very helpful for treatment of infections caused by multi drug resistant P. aeruginosa.


The main aim of this elaboration is to answer the question whether the current legal regulations provide adequate protection for farmers-entrepreneurs from losing their ability to work? In conclusion, the author states that the farmer-entrepreneurs in full range are subjected to compulsory insurance under the law, under the conditions specified in the insurance Act. The scope of protection granted to these entities is reduced only to the granting of benefits associated with the risk of agricultural activity. There is a need to solve this presented problem of protection of farmers-entrepreneurs in ASIF, which has been understated for 20 years.


It is only in the last hundred years or so that crop monoculture has become predominant in industrialized agriculture for field and plantation crops. The reasons were for simplicity of planting, harvesting and other operations, which could all be mechanized, and for uniform quality of the crop product. However, monoculture produced severe disadvantages, such as vulnerability to diseases, pests and weeds, and yield instability, which necessitated, for example, the large-scale use of pesticides, fertilizers and growth regulators. To avoid or reduce some of the problems of monoculture, we need to introduce and manage diversity in better ways. At the highest level, species monoculture is difficult to change, at least in the short term. At the variety level, diversification is easy to manage, in the form of variety mixtures within the field. The idea of purposely blending different varieties of wheat is more than 50 years old and was first proposed and tested to reduce the impact of stem and leaf rust. More recently, this concept has also been expanded to look whether blends improved grain yield and/or grain quality. This article reviews the current knowledge about the mechanisms that account for disease reduction and yield increase in a variety of mixtures. It discusses the various determinants in the adoption of a variety of mixtures and the prospects for and challenges in using a variety of mixtures as a functional diversification strategy. Key words: Disease reduction, diversity, sustainable agriculture, wheat variety mixtures, yield stability. INTRODUCTION Wheat variety blends are seed mixtures of two or more pure varieties. Cultivar mixtures refer to mixtures of cultivated varieties growing simultaneously on the same parcel of land with no attempt to breed for phenotypic uniformity (Mundt, 2002). Wolfe (1985) defined cultivar mixtures as mixtures of cultivars that vary for many characters including disease resistance, but have sufficient similarity to be grown together. Compared to the modern monoculture model, blending wheat varieties is a different approach. Each wheat variety has susceptibilities that can cause fluctuations in yield. For example, some varieties are highly disease resistant but may respond poorly to drought or a variety that is fairly cold-hardy may succumb to certain insect pests. In any environment where stresses occur unpredictably, combining pure varieties that have complementary strengths can help stabilize yields (Cowger, 2007). Variety and species mixtures are not only being used extensively in small-scale subsistence agriculture worldwide but also in large-scale systems. Cultivar blends have been used extensively in small grain production in several European countries (Wolfe, 2001). Currently, 6 to 15% of the wheat production area in the states of Washington, Oregon, and Kansas is planted to blends every year (NASS, 2007). Approximately 17% of the 644 000 ha of soft white common winter wheat seeded in Washington in 1999 consisted of mixtures (WASS, 1999). Part of the mixture production is for animal feed; however, cereal cultivar mixtures in Switzerland, Poland and the US are used for bread and beer production. Most interesting is the fact that the highest quality coffee of Colombia is almost all produced in cultivar mixtures to protect the coffee from the coffee rust disease. These mixtures are perennial and have been successful since 1982 on a large scale (Wolfe, 2001). Superiority of cultivar


This paper outlines the aspects of architectural design of an advanced parallel computer system applicable to flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). The proposed architecture is based on an advanced parallel computer network utlising combinations of star multiring-multibus configuration. Incorporating parallel processing network in FMS architecture fulfils the productivity management requirements as well as improving speed, accuracy, reliability, performance of the system and quality of products. Fault Tolerance, flexibility and self-reconfiguribility of the overall system is further improved by incorporating artificial intelligence and expert system in the body of the database management system.


Gender gaps limit rural women's entrepreneurial potentials, preventing them to benefit from development activities. In this study, we assumed that there were gendered differences in rural tourism business. To examine this issue, we studied owners and employees in 57 rural tourism enterprises during the 2014 in seven districts of Vojvodina. The questionnaire with open and closed questions was used to examine main characteristics of managers and employees in rural tourism but also their perception of potentials and obstacles in rural tourism development. Results have shown gender differences in rural tourism regarding staff characteristics, motivation, business problems and knowledge, and innovation. Also, results have indicated the necessity of complementary use of qualitative and quantitative methodology in researching gender-


The purpose of this work was to evaluate and compare the visibility of tumors in digital mammography (DM) and breast tomosynthesis (BT) images. Images of the same women were acquired on both a DM system (Mammomat Novation, Siemens) and a BT prototype system adapted from the same type of DM system. Simulated 3D tumors (average dimension: 8.4 mm x 6.6 mm x 5 mm) were projected and added to each DM image as well as each BT projection image prior to 3D reconstruction. The same beam quality and approximately the same total absorbed dose were used for each breast image acquisition on both systems. Two simulated tumors were added to each of thirty breast scans, yielding sixty cases. A series of 4-alternative forced choice (4-AFC) human observer performance experiments were conducted in order to determine what projected tumor signal intensity in the DM images would be needed to achieve the same detectability as in the reconstructed BT images. Nine observers participated. For the BT experiment, when the tumor signal intensity on the central projection was 0.010 the mean percent of correct responses (PC) was measured to be 81.5%, which converted to a detectability index value (d') of 1.96. For the DM experiments, the same detectability was achieved at a signal intensity determined to be 0.038. Equivalent tumor detection in BT images were thus achieved at around four times less projected signal intensity than in DM images, indicating that the use of BT may lead to earlier detection of breast cancer.


This paper presents a novel VLSI architecture for the squared-error clustering algorithm. The proposed architecture reduces the huge number of processing elements (PEs) required by the other previous architectures. The system uses only local communication between adjacent PEs, and it is modular, regular, and expandable. The VLSI implementation of high speed clustering analysis can be realized with significantly less circuit complexity based on the proposed architecture.


To describe the structure of production and the organization of exchange of obsidian chipped stone during the Middle Postclassic period (AD 1200–1350) in south-central Veracruz, Mexico, I analyzed 65 residential inventories from the center of Sauce and its hinterland. Previous research on obsidian production found a spatial association with Sauce, which could support the political administration of exchange, or alternatively, identify market exchange nearby. I argue that reliance on spatially based models alone for identifying exchange mechanisms is not advisable because of potential equifinality, in which different forms of exchange appear alike. Local obsidian artifacts have additional interpretive complications: they come from a single geological source, there was universal access to them, and they were employed in potentially specialized activities. I used the articulation of production combined with spatial distribution and residential contextual information to distinguish between redistribution and market exchange. Results indicate that market exchange is the main mechanism. The largest concentrations of primary production indicators and the highest quantities of blade segments were found near the Sauce center, which suggest that political elites at Sauce encouraged market exchange, although they did not direct it to the extent that they were controlling significant amounts of obsidian.


We demonstrate error-free 4×10 Gbit/s 1310 nm DWDM simplified-design transmission over 200 km of standard single mode fibre without any dispersion compensation using SOAs. (2 pages)


The present article has as aim effect a conceptual review brings over of the influence or the effects of the conditions of work for the health of the persons. In this respect, there will be realized a contextualization of the terms of conditions of work and labor fatigue identifying his characteristics and conditions that define it, in the light of the principal risks psicosociales. For which it becomes necessary to define the concepts of work and health; what will allow to identify those working conditions that give origin to consequences for the health of the persons, establishing with it possibilities of intervention on the part of professionals of the psychology organizational in order to diminish the levels of fatigue in the organizations.


In today's world, the issue of sustainable economic growth and labor productivity is very acute. Low levels of labor productivity in all sectors of the economy affect the overall effectiveness of the state production and economic system, as labor productivity is a criterion for the efficient use of labor resources and social reproduction. The aim of the article is to scientifically substantiate and structure the system of factors that affect productivity. The research task is to analyze the categorical apparatus, economic essence and significance of labor productivity, to classify factors and conditions of labor productivity increase at industrial enterprises, to show practical application of formulas for calculation of possible dismissal of workers on the basis of measures to increase labor productivity. To do this, the article provides a definition of "productivity" and "productivity", "production per employee". It is proposed to combine many factors that determine the growth of labor productivity into the following groups: increasing the technical level of production, improving the organization of production and labor, increasing production, structural changes in production, the impact of natural conditions. It is emphasized that the identification and use of reserves for productivity growth leads to lower production costs and increase profitability, and thus increases the viability of enterprises.


A numerical simulation of bounded hypergeometric laser beams propagation is conducted. We discussed the possibility of hypergeometric beams generation by means of diffractive optics. A comparative analysis of experimental and numerical results is accomplish.


When ECT is indicated, it is by consensus the most effective treatment in psychiatry. Clinicians, and family who observe patients undergoing ECT, are mostly persuaded by its effectiveness and overall benefits to patient's recovery and quality of life.2 Often, the level of conviction of a clinician or a family member who observed the response and the journey of recovery of a severely ill patient to ECT is non-debatable. This may be contrasted by agony of the stigma of having ECT and the possible side effects of the procedure. Nevertheless, the most vocal argument that faces any individual who surfs the internet looking for information about ECT is the myriad of figurative depiction of ECT as a 'barbaric treatment'. Surprisingly, many psychiatrists have been, knowingly or unknowingly, affected by such portrayals. This can be observed in the structure and content of some ECT guidelines and legal restrictions.3


Owing to the rapid increase in mobile data traffic and connected devices, ultra-dense networks (UDN) are proposed to increase the network capacity. In order to satisfy the diverse requirements of emerging use cases, the concept of network slicing (NS) has been progressively introduced in 5G network. For NS in 5G UDN, there are still many challenges in the efficient end to end (E2E) management of massive slices. In this article, we propose a NS management framework of 5G UDN based on complex network (CN) theory. In this framework, we use multilayer network (MN) model to represent the topology of multi-slices and infrastructure network from a global perspective. With the MN model, the topological information of infrastructure network are considered in the deployment policies of slices. Furthermore, we analyze the potential of CN theory to be applied appropriately in NS management from the aspects of improving the resilience and guaranteeing security.


Diplexers were developed to separate a wide intermediate frequency (IF) range and utilize IF below 4 GHz for wideband submillimeter array (wSMA) receivers. Diplexers were designed using superconducting materials and processed via in-house thin film fabrication. The diplexers were designed to operate around 4 K and can be integrated with other cryogenic components.


Museums are located at the intersection of awe and learning: When guests arrive, they are expecting to be amazed, inspired, and educated. This is particularly true in science museums, and researchers have pointed to awe as an epistemic emotion that can promote science learning. We present two studies of awe in a science museum. The first study (n = 293) examined how awe—conceptualized as a multifaceted construct associated with positive feelings of liberation/connection, negative feelings of oppression/isolation, chills, and diminished-self perceptions—differed across museum locations and in relation to prior knowledge. The second study (n = 708) expanded the investigation to also examine the relationship between awe and critical thinking. Across both studies, we found that, relative to baseline spaces, vast, beautiful spaces elicited positive awe-related emotions (amazement, curiosity) and stronger awe correlates (chills, diminished-self perceptions); vast, threatening spaces also elicited stronger amazement, chills, and diminished-self perceptions—but also stronger oppression/isolation. In both studies, pre-visit knowledge was associated with awe experiences during the visit. In Study 2, we also found evidence for relationships between awe and skepticism and aesthetic thought, two aspects of critical thinking: Positive aspects of awe (liberation/connection, curiosity) were associated with more skepticism, and negative aspects of awe (oppression/isolation, disorientation) with less skepticism. In terms of aesthetic thinking, diminished-self perceptions were associated being able describe observed roles and actions, and chills were associated with being able to describe personal opinions. These results support the assertion that awe can be used to encourage engagement and learning in informal science settings.


The French Jesuit missionary Pierre-Martial Cibot stood conspicuous in Sino-European exchange of natural knowledge. However, his exploratory research on Chinese fungi, which is significant to the body of mycological knowledge, remains largely undiscussed and needs to be reappraised in the cross-cultural and historical context. Drawing on Cibot's 1770s writings on Chinese fungi, this article provides a microhistorical treatment of their intricate interactions with late 18th- and 19th-century scientific scholarship. Cibot was arguably the author who wrote the first scientific treatise in China on local fungal species. His Christian faith and European epistemic base occasioned tensions with the acculturation of nature in China, which, together with his concerns with European natural history, agriculture and medicine, led to his critical appropriation of Chinese fungus lore. The writings were not published without change. Cibot's findings about Chinese fungi, mingled with confusion, also circulated unevenly in the European world. Nevertheless, they inspired new scientific studies, engaged with practical concerns, and even aided humanities research. Cibot's efforts highlight the agency of a multitude of border-crossing actors beyond European scientific centres, and invite a broader historical framework for understanding the making of modern mycology as a global enterprise.


Very little is as yet known about the factors in blood serum necessary for the sustained growth of parasitic protozoa. Preceding publications from this laboratory (Sprince and Kupferberg, 1947a,b) have shown that the parasitic protozoan, Trichomon8 vaginali8, could be conveniently used in a suitable basal medium as an assay organism for such factors. A procedure for the ether separation of human serum into an ether-soluble fraction and an ether-insoluble residue both essential for the sustained growth of the organism was presented. Although successful fractionations could be accomplished, the method was not without some inherent shortcomings (Sprince and Kupferberg, 1947b). In attempting to inaugurate a program of routine fractionations, frequently the degree of completeness of the separation was questionable as manifest by residual growth in the ether-insoluble phase per se through several serial transfers; in other cases, fractionation attempts resulted in third layer formation (protein precipitation) and subsequent extracts that could not be made to pass through a bacteria-retaining sterile filter. The earlier observations of Hardy and Gardiner (1910) and McFarlane (1942) suggested to us that minute differences in the alcohol content of the ether employed had a marked effect on the completeness of separation and filterability of the fractions obtained. Extraction experiments with various grades of ether verified this. Thus, use of ethyl ether U.S.P. no. 10 (Merck) containing 3.5 per cent alcohol resulted in fractions with third layer formation (protein precipitation). Absolute ethyl ether (Merck) containing 0.1 per cent or less of alcohol' yielded reasonably filterable active fractions, although frequently the separation was not complete. In view of these peculiar difficulties and the repeated observations that alcohol-ether mixtures must be utilized for the complete extraction of lipids from serum (Hardy and Gardiner, 1910; McFarlane, 1942; Hewitt, 1927; Ilorsfall and Goodner, 1935; Cappo, 1941), it was felt that an improved method of fractionation was in order. In the work now presented such a method is described in detail, and further steps in the isolation of the active materials are outlined.


m people were estimated to be infected with HIV globally. Out of which 22.5m were in sub- Saharan Africa and about 3m in Nigeria. In Plateau state, there was a continuous decline in HIV prevalence rates from 11.3%-3.35% (2001 to 2008) recorded and a sharp rise to 7.7% in 2010. Hepatitis B/C virus infection with a prevalence of 15.1% and 6.0% are endemic in Nigeria which could lead to chronic liver cirrhosis and cancer with high mortality and morbidity rates. This study aimed at determining the prevalence and coinfection rates of HIV, Hepatitis B and C in a rural community setting of Plateau State. After counselling and obtaining consent from 250 participants, screening for HIV, HBsAg and Anti-HCV was done. WHO/CDC national algorithm of serial testing was employed for HIV antibody. Determination of HBsAg and Anti-HCV were done using rapid test kits. Of the 250 screened specimens, 6(2.4%) were positive for HIV, 55(22.0%) for HBsAg and 31(12.4%) for Anti-HCV respectively. Coinfection rates of HIV/HBsAg/Anti-HCV was 1(0.4%),HIV/HBsAg was 2(0.8%) and HBsAg/Anti-HCV was 6(2.4%).For HIV, both sexes were equally affected with prevalence of 1.2% each, while for HBsAg the males showed higher prevalence of 34(13.6%) than the females 21 (8.4%).However, the prevalence of Anti-HCV was higher in the females with 18(7.2%) than in the males 13(5.2%).The highest prevalence rates of HIV/HBsAg/Anti-HCV were observed in the age group of 20- 39(2.0%);10-39(17.6%); 30-59(8.4%). Significant P. values of 0.07, 0.9 (1.0 appx) and 0.02 for HIV, HBsAg and Anti-HCV were observed in this study. From this study, the Langtang South HIV prevalence rate has dropped from 9.7% reported in 2008 to 2.4% which is lower than the National HIV prevalence rate reported for rural settings in North Central Zone of Nigeria. This may be attributed to numerous interventions, policies, actions towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care. However, the high rates of Hepatitis B/C virus may warrant focusing on adequate care and treatment of infected individuals. Key word: Coinfection, HIV, Viral Hepatitis, Mabudi Rural Community, Langtang South, Plateau State


In this letter, a new design of blockwise interleaved ideal low-rank parity-check (BII-LRPC) codes is proposed for a fast cryptographic application. We show that the proposed ideal LRPC codes can be used as a key encapsulation mechanism (KEM) for post-quantum cryptography (PQC). The simulation results show that the KEM constructed from the proposed BII-LRPC codes is faster by 30-70% than the ROLLO-I algorithm, an existing LRPC-based cryptosystem.


Functional dependencies play an important role in relational database design. They are defined in the context of a single relation which at all times must contain tuples with non-null entries. In this paper we examine an extension of the functional dependency interpretation to handle null values, that is, entries in tuples that represent incomplete information in a relational database. A complete axiomatization of inference rules for extended functional dependencies is also presented. Only after having such results is it possible to talk about decompositions and normalization theory in a context of incomplete information. Finally, we show that there are several practical advantages in using nulls and a weaker notion of constraint satisfiability.


The field experiments were conducted to study the effects of various nitrogen levels on plastid pigment,carbon-nitrogen metabolism and quality of flue-cured tobacco.The results showed that as nitrogen level increased the plastid pigment of the three kinds of the activeness of key enzymes enhanced.Among them,the low nitrogen level nitratase activity declined ahead of time,the conversion of nitrogen metabolism to carbon metabolism forward,and the nitrogen metabolism was weaker than carbon metabolism.However at high nitrogen level,it was the opposite;the mid-level of nitrogen was inductive to carbon and nitrogen metabolism.From quality of flue-cured tobacco,as nitrogen level increased,nitrogen compounds rose,while carbohydrate content decreased.In conclusion,the mid-level of nitrogen have proper and proportioned chemical components,and it is conducive to the production of high quality tobacco.


Either aldehydes or analogous substrates (V) and (VII) can be used for the preparation of the title compounds as a class of pharmaceutical active substances.


Mr. Wong Phui Nam takes issue for calling my book, a collection of works written originally in the national language and later translated into English, An Anthology of Contemporary Malaysian Literature. In a recent account, Malaysia recorded one hundred languages spoken within its shores. This is indeed an astounding number of languages. However, we all need a shared language to communicate with each other, and to use in our schools so that we approach knowledge from a common perspective, i.e. a common language. This is the national language. Thus, it is usually agreed that the national literature is one written in the national language. If an Indian writes poems in Punjabi in Britain, would he be included in an anthology of British national literature? Or a descendant of the Javanese in Holland writing in Indonesian – should his work be included in an anthology of Dutch literature? Should not the national literature of Malaysia be written in Malaysia's national language? In 1973, an anthology of poems in English, Seven Poets: Singapore and Malaysia was published. Of course, there was a corpus of poetry written in Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, Kadazan and Iban by then. They were not included. If I remember it right, Mr. Wong did not write a long paper in protest that these non-English poems by Malaysians and Singaporeans were not included. Is English the national language of Malaysia and Singapore, or for Mr. Wong, is it the only language in which our literature should be written? For him it did not matter if the works in these languages were not included, as long as those in English were represented.


Abstract:  A structural damage detection method using uncertain frequency response functions (FRFs) is presented in this article. Structural damage is detected from the changes in FRFs from the original intact state. The measurements are always contaminated by noise, and sufficient data are often difficult to obtain; making it difficult to detect damage with a finite number of data. To surmount this, we introduce hypothesis testing based on the bootstrap method to statistically prevent detection errors due to measurement noise. The proposed method iteratively zooms in on the damaged elements by excluding the elements which were assessed as undamaged from among the damage candidates, step by step. The proposed approach was applied to numerical simulations using a 2D frame structure and its efficiency was confirmed.


Electrochemical cyclic potentiodynamic polarization (CPP) experiments were performed on several candidate high-performance waste package container materials to evaluate their susceptibility to localized corrosion in aqueous environments relevant to the potential underground high-level nuclear waste repository. This paper presents the results of this study showing the effects of chloride ion (Cl) concentrations, pH, temperature, and electrochemical potential scan rate on the pitting corrosion behavior of these materials.


The present invention provides a novel pharmaceutical composition for treating hyperlipidemia thereof, wherein an effective amount of acipimox (Acipimox) and atorvastatin (for Atorvastatin) calcium, the weight ratio of (10 to 80): 1, preferably a weight ratio of (10 to 30) to 1, more preferably a weight ratio of 30:1. Acipimox and atorvastatin calcium combination of two drugs, its lipid-lowering effect was significantly better than the same dose of unilateral, it showed that the two drugs have a synergistic effect, while no obvious toxic effects.


In this paper,the principles and methods based on secondary development of Pro/Program have been introduced as well as the index of library.and the realization process of parameterized parts library based on Pro/Engineer is discussed detailedly by example of compression spring.Designers can make use of methods and steps in this paper introduced to set up all kinds of the parts library to generate series of parts,to shorten the design cycle,with the promotion of greater value.


Observation of redshifted 21-cm signal from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) is challenging due to contamination from the bright foreground sources that exceed the signal by several orders of magnitude. The removal of this very high foreground relies on accurate calibration to keep the intrinsic property of the foreground with frequency. Commonly employed calibration techniques for these experiments are the sky model-based and the redundant baseline-based calibration approaches. However, the sky model-based and redundant baseline-based calibration methods could suffer from sky-modeling error and array redundancy imperfection issues, respectively. In this work, we introduce the hybrid correlation calibration (CorrCal) scheme, which aims to bridge the gap between redundant and sky-based calibration by relaxing redundancy of the array and including sky information into the calibration formalisms. We demonstrate the slight improvement of power spectra, about −6% deviation at the bin right on the horizon limit of the foreground wedge-like structure, relative to the power spectra before the implementation of CorrCal to the data from the Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization (PAPER) experiment, which was otherwise calibrated using redundant baseline calibration. This small improvement of the foreground power spectra around the wedge limit could be suggestive of reduced spectral structure in the data after CorrCal calibration, which lays the foundation for future improvement of the calibration algorithm and implementation method.


MATERIALE PLASTICE ♦ 54♦ No.2 ♦ 2017 359 The collagen structure from the animal skin is similar to the collagen found in the human's skin. Because of this reason, the collagen obtained from the animal skin can be used in medicine and cosmetics also [1-4]. The collagen protein is composed of a triple helix structure, which generally consists of two identical chains (α1) and one additional chain that differs slightly in its chemical composition (α2). The amino acid composition of collagen is atypical for proteins. It has very high hydroxyproline content. The most common motifs in the amino acid sequence of collagen are glycine-proline-X and glycine-X-hydroxyproline, where X could be any amino acid, except glycine, proline or hydroxyproline. The collagen can be obtained from the offal form the animal skin processing [2,3]. In the form of elongated fibrils, collagen is mostly found in fibrous tissues (skin, tendons, and ligaments). Collagen is also abundant in other tissues, as corneas, cartilage, bones, blood vessels, intervertebral discs, dentin, and muscle tissues (collagen constitutes only 1-2% of muscle tissues) [1-5]. The fibroblast is the most common cell that creates collagen. Gelatin, which is used in food and industry, is hydrolyzed collagen (the hydrolysis reaction is in this case not reversible). As we mentioned before, because of its roles in the body, nowadays collagen has many medical uses and applications. It is used in treating complications of the bones and skin. It is one of the most important biopolymers from mammals' body [2-4]. The collagen should be solubilized and reconstituted in the presence of calcium and silicium salts, in order to obtain stable films. Calcium and silicium [6] ions allows the collagen reconstitution in vitro. Because the collagen, as a natural biopolymer, has a high molar mass and high rigidity [7], the obtained solution will have a high viscosity, behaving as a viscoelastic material, which presents mixed properties of viscosity (as fluids do) and of elasticity (as solids do) [8]. The purpose of this paper is the obtaining the collagen solutions and their rheological characterization, and the preparation of the collagen films. Collagen Films Obtained from Collagen Solutions Characterized by Rheology


Abstract :This study aims to analyze and explain the Influence of Leadership and Competence and Commitment to Job Satisfaction and Work Performance of the Food Service of East Kalimantan Province. The sample selection technique used the Total Sampling Approach with a total sample of 76 people. Data collection techniques using questionnaires. The analysis was carried out using Partial Least Square (PLS) with the SmartPLS application version 3.8.9 and using SPSS Version 25 to test the validity and reliability of the respondents. The results showed that, leadership has a positive and significant effect on job satisfaction, the influence of competence has a positive and insignificant effect on job satisfaction,
word Key : Leadership, Competence, Commitment, Job Satisfaction and Job Performance


After the Qin dynasty, Confucian ethics slowly became rooted in the lives of the general populace. Not only did Confucian ethics become the standard for family, social, and national ethics for the average Chinese, it even influenced the Chinese outlook on life and world view. Zhang Zai's Xi ming and Zhu Zi's Ren shuo are the most explicit explanations of the Confucian outlook on life and world view.1 Modern scholars have found that Confucian ethics interrelate and influence many special characteristics of traditional Chinese society. Since ancient times China has been a family clan society. After the Qin and Han dynasties China was governed under political systems and established on an economy of agriculture. The social, political, and economic systems and the environment were all tightly woven together with Confucian ethics. From either of the three systems or from all of them, one could clearly see the locus of the development of Confucian ethics and the effects of its interrelations. On the other hand,...


The purpose of this study is to explore the private general practice (GP) clinics' service environment, patients' satisfaction and their impact on word of mouth (WoM) for others for future treatment in GP clinics.,Data are collected from 367 respondents using a paper-based survey questionnaire. Partial least square (PLS) is used to evaluate the proposed model and hypotheses relationships.,The findings reveal that ambience and service delivery have a high significant influence on patients' emotional satisfaction (β = 0.27, t = 4.31, p = 0.00) and (β = 0.26, t = 4.81, p = 0.00), respectively, while interior decor has a positive and significant influence on satisfaction (β = 0.13, t = 1.98, p = 0.04). The results indicate that exterior design and cleanliness are not associated with satisfaction. Patients' emotional satisfaction is highly related to WoM (β = 0.55, t = 13.44, p = 0.00). The results also show that emotional satisfaction has a significant mediating effect on the relationship between clinic service environments (ambience, interior decor, service delivery) and WoM (β = 0.15, t = 3.94, p = 0.00), (β = 0.073, t = 3.94, p = 0.04), (β = 0. 0.143, t = 4.13, p = 0.00), respectively.,The study will provide insights regarding Malaysian health consumers' perceptions toward GP clinics' service environment, whether they remain utilitarian or have evolved to entail hedonic appreciations. The contribution to the service environment could be adopted by future health-care studies, particularly those intended to examine GP clinics and other clinic-based institutions.


Objective To explore the treatment progress of malignant plasma cell dyscrasia.Methods Retrospective analysis of our hospital in 2001 September to 2008 April blood during diagnosis according to" standard of diagnosis and treatment of Hematology" diagnosed as malignant plasma cell dyscrasia.The clinical data of 12 cases of hospitalized patients.Chemotherapy or chemotherapy before,after the application of double membrane plasmapheresis therapy for treatment,curative effect.The results show that the plasma levels of IgGIgAIgM and R globulin levels decreased significantly hemoglobin,renal function did not change significantly.Double membrane plasmapheresis therapy but the platelet count decrease.Conclusion Double membrane plasmapheresis therapy can effectively and rapidly remove malignant plasma cell disorders in abnormal secretion of monoclonal immunoglobulins(homologous).Slow the progress of the disease,is a disease based treatment for conditions.


BACKGROUND: Neuron-specific enolase (NSE) is released in the cerebrospinal fluid and bloodstream in response to brain damage. Serum NSE levels can be used as a marker of brain nerve cells either in ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke, associated with lesion volume and functional outcome.

AIM: The aim of the study was to evaluate the correlation between NSE serum level with lesion volume and functional outcome in acute stroke patients.

METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 29 patients with ischemic stroke and 29 hemorrhagic strokes admitted to Haji Adam General Hospital. All the subjects were assessed with the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score, modified Rankin scale (mRS), and assessment of lesion volume.

RESULTS: Subjects consist of 27 male (46.4%) and 31 female (53.4%), with mean age of 61.67 ± 12.26 years. The mean serum NSE levels in stroke patients were 19.79 ± 8.88 ng/ml and lesion volume was 25.09 ± 24.52 ml. There was a significant positive correlation of increase in serum NSE levels with infarct volume (r = 0.863 and p < 0.001) and hemorrhagic volume (r = 0.644 and p < 0.001) and clinical outcome assessed by NIHSS score (r = 0.761 and p < 0.001) and mRS score (r = 0.762 and p < 0.001) in ischemic stroke and NIHSS score (r = 0.525 and p = 0.003), and mRS score (r = 0.468 and p = 0.010) in hemorrhagic stroke.

CONCLUSION: High NSE serum levels in the acute phase were associated with lesion volume and poor outcomes in stroke patients.


Text-to-image(T2I) generation methods aim to synthesize a high-quality image which is semantically consistent with the given text descriptions. Previous (T2I) generative adversarial networks generally first create a low-resolution image with rough shapes and colors, and then refine the initial image into a high-resolution image. Most stacked architecture still remains two main problems. (1) The final images generated by these methods depend heavily on the quality of the initial image. If the initial one is not initialized correctly, the resulted image seems like a simple combination of visual features from several images scales. (2) The cross-modal fusion methods about text and image that previous works widely adopted is limited in the text-image fusion process. In the paper, we propose a novel generation model, which introduce a one-stage backbone directly generate high-quality images without multi generators and a novel semantic layout deep fusion network to sufficiently fuse text features and image features. Experiments on the challenging CUB and COCO-Stuff datasets demonstrates the ability of our model in generating images, regarding both semantic consistency with input text description and visual fidelity.


British Women Writers 1930 – 1960: Between the Waves contributes to the vital recuperative work on mid-twentieth century writing by and for women. Fourteen original essays from leading academics and emerging critical voices shed new light on writers commonly dismissed as middlebrow in their concerns and conservative in their styles and politics. The essays showcase the stylistic, cultural and political vitality of the fiction, non-fiction, drama, poetry and journalism of a selection authors including Vera Brittain, Storm Jameson, Nancy Mitford, Phyllis Shand Allfrey, Rumer Godden, Attia Hosain, Doris Lessing, Kamala Markandaya, Susan Ertz, Marghanita Laski, Elizabeth Bowen, Edith Pargeter, Eileen Bigland, Nancy Spain, Vera Laughton Matthews, Pamela Hansford Johnson, Dorothy Whipple, Elizabeth Taylor, Daphne du Maurier, Barbara Comyns, Shelagh Delaney, Stevie Smith and Penelope Mortimer. The neologism 'interfeminism', coined to partner Kristin Bluemel's 'intermodernism', locates this group chronologically and ideologically between two 'waves' of feminism, whilst forging connections between the political and cultural monoliths which have traditionally overshadowed its members. Drawing attention to the strengths of this 'out-of-category' writing, the volume also highlights how intersecting discourses of gender, class and society in the inter- and post- bellum anticipate the bold reassessments of female subjectivity that characterize second and third wave feminism. Exploration of popular women's magazines of the period, and new archival material, add an innovative dimension to this study of the literature of a volatile and transformative period of British social and cultural history.


This project '' PROVIDING A SEWER SYSTEM FOR THE RUMILOMA COMMUNITY '' will give the inhabitants of the Rumiloma community better living conditions; At present the community of Rumiloma does not have a sanitary sewage system, since all the families of this community still use septic wells, the same ones that are not suitable for the daily living by the production of the bad smell and the environmental impact That cause to the community giving rise to gastrointestinal diseases of the inhabitants of the zone and of the near communities.
The main objective of this project is to provide a sufficient sanitary sewage system suitable for the Rumiloma community, which will allow the evacuation of wastewater from all inhabitants of this community, with environmental quality indices, according to EPMAPS standards for a period of 18 months.
At the moment according to the census of the INEC of the 2010, the inhabitants directly benefited of the project are 6262, with a population growth index of 1.52%.
The approximate total investment of the present project including a sewage treatment plant and the sewage system demands a budget of approximately $ 1'106.801,59.


Physical culture in our country is faced with severe challenges from market economy.Operating mechanism of sports industrialization suited to socialistic market economy must be established.The institutional type must be transferred into enterprise one.


A strong correlation exists between inequality and religion, such that societies marked by high inequality are more religious than those with more egalitarian income distributions. What explains this correlation? Insecurity theory argues that high inequality generates intense insecurities, leading the poor to seek shelter in religion for both psychological and material comfort. This article develops an alternative perspective that reverses the chain of causality. It argues that religious institutions and movements frequently resist both the centralization of state power and socialist efforts to organize the working class. As a result, powerful religious movements constrain state-led efforts to provide social protection, increasing income inequality. Analysis of the historical record and contemporary data from 19 Western democracies reveals strong evidence that past periods of church-state conflict shaped the size and structure of welfare state institutions and, by extension, contemporary patterns of inequality.


Time reversal (TR) is a signal processing technique that may be used to intentionally generate high amplitude focusing of sound. The use of time reversal in room acoustics has been studied previously, but an analysis of the dependence of spatial positioning of the transducers in the room, and its effect on high amplitude focus signals has not previously been explored. Experiments are carried out in two reverberation chambers of differing size with eight compression drivers. Using these drivers, the impulse response is found and reversed in time. The spatial dependence of the transducers position is measured by calculating the time reversed impulse response at various transducer positions and then measuring the peak focal amplitude generated when the time reversed signal is broadcast to those positions. Multiple measurements suggest that the amplitude of the focus signal changes with both room size and proximity to a reflecting surface in the chambers.


The aim of this study was to assess applicability of the Moiré method for initial evaluation of body posture in children and youths. The study was carried out in a group of girls aged 12-14 years, altogether fi fty-eight subjects with fi rstand second-degree scoliosis. Additionally, the projection Moiré method for posture examination was applied. In order to compare the results obtained with the projection Moiré with the Cobb angle values, Spearman correlation was used. The comparative analysis of the two methods evaluating scoliosis revealed that the pictures recorded with the device using the Moiré phenomenon is similar to that received in the X-ray examination. Spearman correlation values show high and mean correlations between the size of deviations of the spinal line from the vertical line obtained in the author's own examinations and the scoliosis degree as seen in the X-rays. The projection Moiré method is effective in evaluating spinal shape in the frontal plane and that method can be employed in screening studies for preliminary detection of faulty posture.


The presence of internal strains in [111] growth axis strained‐layer III–V superlattices leads to the generation of large polarization fields (exceeding 100 kV/cm) because the constituent semiconductors are piezoelectric. These strain‐induced polarization fields produce a substantial reduction of the superlattice band gap and cause a spatial separation of the electrons and holes in the confining layers in such a way as to screen the internal fields. When free carriers are present to screen the strain‐induced piezoelectric fields, the electronic structure (energy band gap, in‐plane effective masses) and the optical response (absorption edge, optical constants) of the strained‐layer superlattice depend on the density of free carriers. In the case where the electrons and holes are photogenerated, the superlattice photoabsorption profile can be modified by variations of the intensity of the optical excitation. The nonlinear optical response of strained‐layer superlattices owing to free‐carrier screening of st...


This paper proposes a shape-from-silhouette-based 3D geometry modeling scheme that is robust to defective sil- houette extraction. The silhouette extraction is a significantly important task because it directly affects the quality of the gen- erated 3D models. Our proposed approach improves the sil- houette extraction and as a result the generated 3D models by the iterative feedback between the 3D modeling using the im- proved silhouette images and the silhouette updating using the rendered 3D images. Namely, the generated 3D models are uti- lized to obtain better foreground/background seeds for graph- cuts-based silhouette extraction and vice versa. In this paper, we propose two modeling approaches aiming at more accurate seeds generation. As a result, 3D modeling featuring much less loss/surplus of voxels has been made possible. Experimental re- sults demonstrated that the loss of voxels can be reduced from 2.1% to 0.90% and the surplus of voxels can be reduced from 9.4% to 1.2% as compared to the initial 3D model. In addition, the error rate is the minimum among the conventional ap- proaches.


Ciliate (phylum Ciliophora) is one of the most species rich groups in the Protozoa and is found in a variety of habitats from oceans to terrestrial regions (Lynn, 2008). In terms of their diversity, Foissner et al. (2008) estimated that the number of ciliate species is more than tens of thousands, and greater than 80% of these remain undescribed. The first record of a ciliate in Korea was a report of Balantidium coli infecting pigs (Huruyama, 1931), and more than 130 ciliate papers have been published since then. During the last 85 plus years, the years 1997, 2012, and 2016 include milestone publications. The Korean Society of Systematic Zoology (1997) reported the first list of the Korean ciliates, and included 94 species. Fifteen years later, the National Institute of Biological Resources (2012) focused on protozoan fauna and published a book of protozoan species lists which included 213 ciliate species. Recently, the Korean Society of Protistologists (2016) published three books describing Korean protozoans with brief morphological descriptions and microphotographs. The books included five chapters of 177 ciliate species (Choi et al., 2016; Jung and Min, 2016; Kim and Choi, 2016; Kim and Lee, 2016; Shin et al., 2016). Although these publications provided summarized data of Korean ciliates with relevant literature, they included two nomenclatural errors, two misspellings, and one misidentification. In addition, nine species were transferred to other genera. Furthermore, the type specimens deposited in the laboratory of Prof. Joong Ki Choi (Inha University, Korea) were transferred to the National Marine Biodiversity Institute of Korea (MABIK) because of his retirement. Here, our aims are to provide the information about the type specimens and to address the aforementioned problems.


Contents - Director's Preface, High Museum of Art - Michael E. Shapiro Director's Preface, The Toledo Museum of Art - Roger M. Berkowitz Guest Curator's Preface - Gary M. Radke Foreword - Pina Ragionieri Michelangelo Buonarroti - His Life and Works Michelangelo and the Casa Buonarroti Catalogue nos. 1-18 Michelangelo and the San Lorenzo Complex in Florence Catalogue nos. 19-30 Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel in Rome Catalogue nos. 31-47


A chain of three state-of-the-art tools is demonstrated to generate efficient code for Multi-Processors System-on-Chips (MPSoCs) from a high-level dataflow language. The experimental platform is based on a 5-core Texas Instruments OMAP4 heterogeneous MPSoC running an image processing application.


The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource Bureau of Integrated Science Services and partners at the US Geological Survey in La Crosse and the University of Wisconsin Department of Wildlife Ecology in Madison are collaborating to conduct a 5-year research project designed to evaluate the population status of Common Loons (Gavia immer) in northern Wisconsin and to recommend management strategies to maintain a healthy population in Wisconsin into the future. Exposure to mercury in fish, habitat loss due to lakeshore development, and increased recreation disturbance on lakes are identified as important threats to the future of the population. The research is funded by a $500,000 STAR grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency received by the Wisconsin DNR in 2002. Salary and supply funds received in this federal grant were distributed through contracts and services to northern Wisconsin residents and businesses.


Objective:To investigate the effect of Xiaoyao San and it's splited prescription on the ability of learning and memory,SOD in blood serum,MDA in brain tissue of Alzheimer's Disease(AD) model mice made by D-gal and discuss the function and mechanism that Xiaoyao San defend AD.Methods:Using inject D-gal to make AD model mice while cured by Quanfang group,Shugan Jianpi group,Shugan Yangxue group,Jianpi Yangxue group of Xiaoyao San for 42 days.In the 41st day,make training of ability of learning and memory,in the 42nd day,test ability of learning and memory,then,collect blood and brain tissue to mensurate SOD in blood serum,MDA in brain tissue.Results: Quanfang group,Shugan Jianpi group,Shugan Yangxue group,Jianpi Yangxue group of Xiaoyao San could improve ability of learning and memory and reduce the latency,but Quanfang group was the most obvious.Quanfang group,Shugan Jianpi group,Shugan Yangxue group,Jianpi Yangxue group of Xiaoyao San could increase SOD in blood serum and reduce MDA in brain tissue,but Quanfang group is the most obvious too.Conclusions:Xiaoyao San can amend the behavioral index of AD model mice and that may be relate to antioxidation.


Summary A wide range of seedling emergence in commercial seed lots of watermelon (10 lots), melon (10 lots) and cucumber (9 lots), all with standard germinations above 98%, was seen in low temperature emergence (LTE), high temperature (HTE) and an 8 cm deep sowing (MSE) in the field and in salt stress conditions (SSE) in trays at 20°C. Final emergence was closely related to both the rate of emergence, measured as mean emergence time (MET; the reciprocal of the rate of emergence), and to the mean germination time (MGT; the reciprocal of the rate of germination) for physiological germination (2 mm radicle) in the laboratory at 25°C. Slower germinating and emerging lots, so-called low vigour lots, had lower levels of emergence in all sowings. Single early counts of physiological germination identified low vigour lots for all three species and are suggested as a quick routine test. The physiological age of the seed lots, determined using accelerated ageing (45°C in 100% relative humidity) and controlled deterioration (45°C and 20 or 24% moisture content), was significantly related to MGT which was higher (i.e. germination was slower) in physiologically older seed. Previous work suggests that cucurbit seeds appear to retain germination capacity over several years although ageing is reflected in a slower rate of germination (high MGT). MGT can also be described as the length of the lag period from the start of imbibition to radicle protrusion. We propose that this period is needed for the repair of the effects of ageing and is therefore longer in aged seeds.


AbstractThe thermal stability of recently predicted quasi-fullerenes С_20, С_42, С_48, and С_60 is studied by the method of molecular dynamics. The routes of their decomposition and the temperature dependences of their lifetimes are determined. The activation energy and frequency factor values that appear in the Arrhenius law are found. New isomers are detected.


[1] Presented are results from a numerical study of the interaction of a mesoscale eddy and the Kuroshio using a high-resolution regional general circulation model (GCM). The distinct evolution of the mesoscale eddies is not new in the literature, but most of the previous studies were conducted with simpler model configurations. To our knowledge the present study is the first to use a high-resolution GCM, proven to replicate a realistic ocean circulation. An anticyclonic eddy was injected to the south of Kuroshio (140°E, 30°N) by means of sequential data assimilation of TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter data of October 1992 for 30 days. The strength of the assimilation was varied to produce five eddies (Rossby number ϵ ∼ 0.012–0.014) comparable in scale to those observed in this region. The two results (ϵ = 0.0131, 0.0141) resemble the observed onset of short-term meandering events in 1993 and 1998. The westward propagating anticyclonic eddy collides with the Kuroshio southeast of Kyushu, propagates downstream, and triggers the short-term Kuroshio meander (occurring between the Kii Peninsula and Izu ridge with duration of half a year). The sequence resembles the scenario hypothesized on the basis of altimeter observations and other in situ measurements during Tokyo Ogasawara Line Experiment. The description of these cases is important, but we focus here on the differentiation between the strong eddy cases (ϵ = 0.0131, 0.0141) and the weak eddy cases (ϵ = 0.0118, 0.0124, 0.0125) classified on the basis of their subsequent evolutions: the strong geddy (meandering case) propagates west as it elongates zonally and barotropic tripolar vortices form, and the weak eddy (nonmeandering case) makes an abrupt southward migration while the eddy core splits as a result of advection by lower layer geostrophic motions. Such distinct evolutions are conjectured a result of a competition of the effects of nonlinearity, dispersion, and barotropicity of which their relative importance varied among the simulated eddies. Because the scale variation of the injected eddies are natural, we expect that even the weak-eddy case exists in nature; in fact, such a case was observed in 1994.


The authors investigated the effect of the calcium channel antagonist diltiazem on gut absorptive capacity after hemorrhage in rats. Carotid and femoral arterial catheters, portal and jugular venous catheters, and nasogastric tubes were placed in 12 anesthetized animals. After recovery from the anesthetic, eight animals (groups 2 and 3) were bled via the femoral catheter to a mean arterial pressure (MAP) of 40 mm Hg. This level of hypotension was maintained by continued bleeding to the maximal bleedout volume (approximately 60% of the animal's circulating blood volume), followed by infusion of lactated Ringer's solution until 40% of the maximal bleedout volume had been returned. The animals were then resuscitated with lactated Ringer's solution. Four rats (group 1) were not hemorrhaged and served as sham controls. During resuscitation the animals in group 2 received an additional 1 mL of saline, whereas those in group 3 were treated with diltiazem 400 μg/kg body weight in 1 mL of saline. MAP was measured ...


The article is devoted to the study of the relationship between the ancient Greeks and the Middle Eastern tribe of the Lydians in the 7–5th centuries BCE. The evidence of ancient authors analyzed in the article helps to understand the evolution of the Greeks' ideas about the Lydians and highlights the changes in the Hellenes' relationship to the Middle Eastern neighbors. The central question of the work is the analysis of the period in which the Hellenes begin to perceive the Lydians as barbarians, and what was associated with this attitude to the people. The article raises the question of what role Greco-Persian wars have played in the relationship between the Greeks and the Lydians.


Cerebral Blood Flow Measurements Using Carotid Artery Image-Derived Input Functions in Positron Emission Tomography Edward Komin Fung 2013 Positron emission tomography (PET) can be used to image the distribution and kinetics of radioactive compounds of interest in the tissues of the body. In order to fully characterize the time-activity curves (TACs) of these tissues using kinetic modeling techniques, the blood radioactivity curve or input function is necessary. Such data are normally acquired by arterial sampling through catheterization with corrections for delay and dispersion to account for the distant sampling site. The internal carotid arteries that supply the brain are often visible in brain PET images when using the High Resolution Research Tomograph (HRRT). To avoid arterial blood sampling, it is desirable to develop a method involving an image-derived input function (IDIF) using such a blood pool visible in the PET images. Our objective was to first devise a method for extracting an IDIF from the carotid arteries in images reconstructed from data collected on the HRRT utilizing anatomical information available from co-registered magnetic resonance (MR) images. We specifically sought to segment the carotid arteries in T1-weighted MR images and then transfer this information to the PET images to extract carotid TACs. Finally, we sought to calculate absolute cerebral blood flow (CBF) values from [ 15 O]water PET images using the IDIF. We have devised a method of delineating the internal carotids in co-registered MR images using the level-set method and applying the segmentations to PET images using a novel centerline approach. Centerlines of the segmented carotids were modeled as cubic splines and re-registered in PET images summed over the early portion of the scan. Using information from the anatomical center of the vessel minimizes partial volume and spillover effects. A scale factor correction was derived for calculation of cerebral blood flow (CBF) using gold standard arterial blood measurements. We have applied the method to human subject data from multiple injections of [ 15 O]water on the HRRT. We demonstrated that re-registration resulted in higher and more consistent recovery measured by the ratio of the area under the curve to the arterial input function. We have also demonstrated the feasibility of both subject-specific and global population-based scale factors when computing CBF with IDIF. Between-subject variability decreased in the case of the global scale factor, whereas within-subject variability was increased in all cases. This dissertation then addressed the issue of reducing within-subject variability introduced by use of the IDIF. The estimation of activity in small PET regions of interest (ROI) is complicated by the partial volume effect (PVE) and noise. This is particularly relevant for applications such as IDIF for brain PET using the internal carotid arteries. We specifically sought to develop a method to introduce anatomical information into PET reconstruction to compensate for both noise and PVE. We relied on the assumption that the carotid region is homogeneous in activity and that enforcing this homogeneity in reconstruction should reduce noise. We have developed a method for incorporating anatomical information about the carotid arteries, in the form of modeled centerlines, into a maximum likelihood expectation-maximization (MLEM) reconstruction algorithm for PET. Carotid centerline and annular regions were defined in PET images and single activity values for each ROI estimated. Areas outside these targeted regions were reconstructed in the typical fashion of a uniform voxel grid. Three variants of the ROIs were tested with both simulated list-mode data and real human subject data from [ 15 O]water PET studies. The variants employed different combinations of pre-defined uniform regions. IDIFs were extracted from the carotids in images generated using the region-based reconstruction methods. These IDIFs were scaled as before using CBF values calculated from arterial blood measurements. Region-based reconstruction methods generally showed lower within-subject variability in CBF estimates when compared with reconstruction using a standard uniform grid of voxels. Finally, we sought to address the issue of characterizing the apparent recovery coefficient of our centerline model. We specifically examined the relationship between recovery coefficient and diameter at different contrast levels relevant to IDIF estimation. A phantom was designed with multiple hollow tubes of different diameters suspended in a background region. The phantom was tested on the HRRT with varied foreground and background radioactivity concentrations to assess different contrast levels. This dissertation demonstrates a novel IDIF method for brain PET CBF studies based on MR-defined carotid artery centerlines. We have also introduced a partial volume correction in the reconstruction to improve within-subject variability for our method compared to application of the method to images reconstructed with our standard EM algorithm. We finally assessed the relationship between measured diameter and the apparent recovery coefficient of centerlines in carotid-like structures.