Concentric dislocations recognized on satellite images may possibly be useful in oil-gas exploration. Regional concentric forms with diameters of 110-450 km are examined here. The Verkhne-Kama, Tatar, Buzuluk, and Saratov features are compared with the composition and structure of the crystalline basement and the distribution of oil and gas fields in the Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian sedimentary rocks. The Tatar concentric dislocation correlates well with the ancient Menzelin massif (2035 million years), which is composed of an undivided granitic complex of Archean-Early Proterozoic age. The Buzuluk negative concentric dislocation can be correlated with the east subsided part of the Zhigulev-Pugachev basement block - the Buzuluk depression. This part of the block is composed largely of biotite-amphibole and pyroxene gneiss of Archean age (2130-1800 million years). The Verkhne-Kama negative concentric dislocation is in a zone of junction of three basement blocks of different type and age, the tops of which subside on approach to the center of the dislocation. The Saratov positive concentric dislocation, just as the Tatar, is associated with the center of a large Archean-Early Proterozoic granitic massif - the Aktar massif. Comparison of the concentric dislocations with the paleo-relief of the Devonian (Kynov) erosion surface shows that the outer margin of the Tatar positive concentric dislocation coincides with the outer margin of the Tatar arch. From the crest of this arch, which is outlined by the -1.56 km structure contour, the top of the Devonian subsides to depths of 2.3-4.2 km. The Buzuluk


In this paper, a modeling algorithm developed by transferring the adaptive fuzzy inference neural network into an on-line real time algorithm, combining the algorithm with conventional system identification method and applying them to separate identification of nonlinear multi-variable systems is introduced and discussed.


A polynomial algorithm that translates a Petri net into an equivalent (bisimilar) statechart is presented. The translation preserves the structure of the Petri net. Key property of the algorithm is that it is structural and does not use any Petri net analysis technique. The algorithm is formally proven correct. Though not every statechart equivalent to a net is constructible by the algorithm, the set of constructible statecharts is fairly large.


Preface Introduction to Intellectual Property Law Historical Perspective on Intellectual Properties in the United States Copyright Protection in the Courts: The Elements of an Infringement Action Copyright Protection in the Courts: Defenses to Copyright Infringement Trademark Protection and Unfair Competition Character as Intellectual Property Character as Copyright or Trademark Property Special Characters, Special Cases Case in Point: Tarzan of the Apes Right of Publicity and Merchandising: Additional Protection for Fictional Characters? Copyright and Characters, Reconciliation and Prediction Selected Bibliography Index


1 Revised: December 2019 Machinist's Mates (Surface). MMs operate and maintain steam turbines and reduction gears used for ship propulsion and auxiliary machinery such as turbo-generators, pumps and oil purifiers. They also maintain auxiliary machinery outside of main machinery spaces, such as electro-hydraulic steering engines and elevators; operate and maintain desalination plants used to make fresh water from sea water; operating and servicing refrigeration plants and air conditioning systems. They may also operate and maintain compressed gas producing plants. YEARS OF SERVICE CAREER MILESTONES AVERAGE TIME TO ADVANCE COMMISSIONING OR OTHER SPECIAL PROGRAMS SEA/SHO RE FLOW TYPICAL CAREER PATH DEVELOPMENT


Chinese Domestic Old Brands is an important part of the commercial economy. Time-honored brands enable consumers to experience acentuy-old tradition and a century-old culture, thus leaving consumers with different brandmemories. However, with the change of consumer demand, the process of brand memoryguiding the consumption tendency of time-honored brands has been frustrated. The Intermet economy has changedpeople's lifestyle and buying habits, and the slow innovation of time-honored brands makes itdifficult to sustain brand dividends. Concerns about old marketing management not only isthe result of market of old weakness sorry, what is more important to the economic environment and consumption concept impact under the old name brand cliff fall back andrestore to its brilliant expectation, therefore, how to guide consumers through the brandmemory consumption tendency of old become crucial. In order to inherit and develop time-honored brands, this paper starts with brand memoryand focuses on how brand memory awakens consumers' buying intention. This paper linksbrand memory with consumers' purchase intention and analyzes the mechanism of the formeron their purchase intention. First of all, on the basis of reading and combing relevant literature, select the research variables and straighten out the research ideas. Secondly, Brand memory is the basis of brand recognition, and it is also the primary factor for consumers to choose brand products. In every shopping activity, consumers need new knowledge and information. Also, they need to refer to previous knowledge, experience and emotional feelings of products or services. In the future consumption activities, consumers will consciously regard brand memory as the standard of product evaluation, which will further affect consumers' purchasing decision-making behavior. Only when consumers have a positive memory of domestic product brands, can domestic product brands have influence power, awareness and reputation. Therefore, based on the background of product harm crisis, reshaping consumers' brand memory to stimulate consumers' trust and purchase intention of buying domestic products has great significance to provide suggestions and ideas for Chinese enterprises' brand strategy aiming at increasing consumers' purchase behavior.


Posterior dislocations of the shoulder comprise between 1 and 4 per cent of the reported cases of shoulder dislocation6 Bilateral posterior dislocation of the shoulder with bilateral fracture is especially rare, and only a few cases have been reported"47 . We are presenting the results of treatment in a patient with such a condition, using an established procedure of McLaughlin2 with a modification attributed to Neer7. McLaughlin's2 technique for old unreduced or recurrent posterior dislocation of the shoulder requires the presence of an anteromedial defect of the humeral head, produced by engagement of the anterior portion of the humeral head with the posterior part of the glenoid rim (a reverse Hill-Sach lesion). He had noted that the shoulders of patients with this compression deformity in the humeral head were unstable and tended to redisloeate with internal rotation, flexion, or adduction. McLaughlin's technique was designed to stabilize the defect by medial transposition of the subscapularis tendon. The subscapularis was divided first, and then it was ' 'reattached to the humerus in the depths of the defect by mattress sutures passed through drill holes in the bone"2. Neer's modification of this technique also placed the subscapularis into the compression defect, but with the lesser tuberosity attached; the defeet was secured with a screw7.


Abstract The extraction of Li from the spent LiFePO4 cathode is enhanced by the selective removal using interactions between HCl and NaClO to dissolve the Li+ ion while Fe and P are retained in the structure. Several parameters, including the effects of dosage and drop acceleration of HCl and NaClO, reaction time, reaction temperature, and solid–liquid ratio on lithium leaching, were tested. The Total yields of lithium can achieve 97% after extraction process that lithium is extracted from the precipitated mother liquor, using an appropriate extraction agent that is a mixture of P507 and TBP and NF. The method also significantly reduced the use of acid and alkali, and the economic benefit of recycling is improved. Changes in composition, morphology, and structure of the material in the dissolution process are characterized by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry, scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, particle size distribution instrument, and moisture analysis.


This study estimates the causal effect of paid parental leave on gender equality. California and New Jersey are the two first states in the United States to implement a statewide program offering six weeks of compensated parental leave, when having a new-born or adopted child. To estimate the effects of these reforms, I use repeated cross-sectional micro-level Census and ACS data from 2001 and 2015. For each state and outcome, I construct a synthetic control out of the remaining states, and compare it to the treated state in a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) approach. The study investigates the impact on share of hours worked and share of wage earned by the mother in the household, as well as on the labour market outcomes; labour force participation, wage level and average hours worked per week. I find a significant increase in share of hours worked in New Jersey and share of wage earned by the mother in California, which indicates a small positive effect on gender equality. A dynamic analysis validates the robustness of the findings for New Jersey. However, the dynamic analysis reveals that the increase in California is not solely driven by the intervention, as I identify a clear positive pre-trend prior to the intervention in labour force participation among mothers. Any conclusions regarding the general effects of paid parental leave on gender equality in California can hence not be drawn. Further, I find that the effect on gender equality in New Jersey is mostly driven by a change on the extensive margin: More married mothers, especially low-income mothers, participate in the labour force as a consequence of paid parental leave. (Less)


Neurology is frequently dismissed as a discipline dealing with hopeless diseases because of a perceived lack of therapies for patients with neurologic disorders. This perception is unfortunate because treatment approaches for a host of neurologic disorders (stroke, epilepsy, movement disorders) are currently evolving in an aggressive manner with remarkable outcomes for many patients. This article reviews the therapeutic strategies for two important peripheral nerve disorders: Guillain-Barr6 syndrome (GBS) and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP). The emphasis of this review is on treatment of these conditions. Complete details regarding clinical and laboratory features and pathogenesis of these disorders can be found elsewhere.78


For a service facility serving more than one class of customers a problem arises as to the order in which customers should be served i.e., the priority rule. A typical example is a manufacturing facility that produces two products to meet a random stream of incoming orders. In this paper the alternating priority rule also known as the "zero switch rule" is introduced and investigated. Two classes of customers are served by a single service facility. Customers of class ii = 1, 2 have priority over customers of class jj = 1, 2; j ≠1 whenever a class i customer is in service. When the service facility is idle, the first arriving customer enters service and acquires the priority right for customers of his class. Within classes the "first-come, first-served" rule is observed. Customers' arrivals are assumed to be Poisson and service times are assumed to be arbitrarily distributed independent random variables. The steady-state densities of queuing times are formulated by the use of a special mathematical procedure. The expectations of queuing times and sizes of queues as well as the first two moments of the busy periods are obtained in terms of the basic parameters of the arrival process and service time distributions. All the results are related to the case where switching from one type of customers to another is not penalized by setup time. The alternating priority rule is compared to the "head-of-the-line" and the "first-come, first-served" rules with respect to expected queuing times and queue sizes. The last part of the paper discusses the possibilities of extending the suggested rule to cases involving more than two classes of customers and nonzero setup times and setup costs.


The Fornmtion of the Book of the Twelve: A Study in Text and Canon, by Barry Alan Jones. SBLDS 149. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995. Pp. xiii + 266. $24.95 (paper). The earliest Hebrew and Greek manuscripts attest to both the unity and the diverse arrangement of the twelve minor prophets. This book of the Twelve has been the subject of numerous studies that have sought to explain its unity through either extensive redactional composition or editorial compilation. Yet all previous studies have focused exclusively on the extant form of the Twelve in the MT; they have not incorporated the evidence from the LXX and Qumran manuscripts into their analysis. In this Duke dissertation, Jones argues that the surviving manuscript evidence provides an objective basis for investigating the literary history of the book of the Twelve. Moreover, Jones contends that this approach provides a tangible and reliable portrayal of the textual and interpretative dynamics of the process of canonization. Jones begins his discussion with a description of the available manuscript evidence for the book of the Twelve and the requisite assessment of the history of scholarship on its formation. The book of the Twelve has survived in three manuscript traditions which are distinguished primarily by their arrangement of the individual prophetic books. The Masoretic tradition, attested as early as the Wadi Murabba*at scroll, has preserved the canonical arrangement of the minor prophets. The LXX manuscripts attest to a different textual tradition in which the first six books follow the order Hosea, Amos, Micah, Joel, Obadiah, and Jonah. Jones argues for a single translator of the Twelve and relies on the critical edition published by the Gottingen Septuaginta-Unternehmen to provide the original text of the LXX. The third manuscript tradition of the book of the Twelve has been preserved in 4QXIIa, the oldest of seven scrolls of the minor prophets found at Qumran. Reconstructed from several fragments, this manuscript may conclude with the book of Jonah (only Jonah, Zechariah, and Malachi are extant in this manuscript). In his review of scholarship, Jones critiques previous studies for their excessive reliance on the Masoretic tradition and for the hypothetical or speculative nature of their literary and redaction-critical approaches. Building especially on the work of E. Toy, Jones employs a text-critical approach to provide tangible evidence for reconstructing the literary history of the text. Because the techniques used by copyists to introduce variations into a text were essentially identical to the stylistic techniques of ancient authors, textual criticism "may provide an objective database for evaluating the kind of redactional changes that scholars have suggested for the Book of the Twelve" (p. 47). According to Tov, two kinds of textual evidence are most indicative of literary/editorial activity: quantitative differences (textual pluses and minuses) between textual witnesses indicating editorial purpose, and changes in the sequence of the textual units within the respective textual witnesses. Jones's conclusions about the formation of the book of the Twelve are based on his analysis of these kinds of evidence. …


Two main issues regarding data quality are data contamination (outliers) and data completion (missing data). These two problems have attracted much attention and research but surprisingly, they are seldom considered together. Popular robust methods such as S-estimators of multivariate location and scatter offer protection against outliers but cannot deal with missing data, except for the obviously inefficient approach of deleting all incomplete cases. We generalize the definition of S-estimators of multivariate location and scatter to simultaneously deal with missing data and outliers. We show that the proposed estimators are strongly consistent under elliptical models when data are missing completely at random. We derive an algorithm similar to the Expectation-Maximization algorithm for computing the proposed estimators. This algorithm is initialized by an extension for missing data of the minimum volume ellipsoid. We assess the performance of our proposal by Monte Carlo simulation and give some real data examples. This article has supplementary material online.


This document corrects a technical error that appeared in 42 CFR part 1004 of the final rule published in the Federal Register on December 12, 1995 (60 FR 63634). The final rule was designed to revise and update the procedures governing the imposition and adjudication of program sanctions predicated on recommendations of State Utilization and Quality Control Peer Review Organizations. Specifically, this correction notice sets forth the corrected text for section 1004.110(f) which contained a typographical error in subparagraph (2).


Thispaperpresents an online semi-supervised clustering algorithm basedona self-organizing incremental neuralnetwork(SOINN).Usinglabeled dataanda large amountofunlabeled data, theproposed semi-supervised SOINN (ssSOINN) canautomatically learn thetopology ofinput data distribution without anyprior knowledge suchasthenumber ofnodesora goodnetworkstructure; itcansubsequently divide thestructure intosub-structures astheneedarises. Experimental results weobtained forartificial dataandreal- worlddatashowthatthessSOINNhassuperior performance forseparating datadistributions withhigh-density overlap and thatssSOINNClassifier (S3C)isanefficient classifier. I.INTRODUCTION Numerous incremental learning algorithms based onneural networks, whicharecalled incremental orcompetitive neural networks, havebeenproposed andapplied inmanyapplica- tion domains asclassification models. A salient advantage of incremental neural networks istheir capability ofoperating withinformation ofnewdataincrementally. Thereby, they canimprove their performance bygradually increasing their structural complexity. Well-known examples ofincremen- talorcompetitive neural networks include Kohonen's self- organizing map(SOM)(1)andGrowing CellStructures (GCS)(2). Neural network architecture consisting ofSOM or GCSlayer followed byaRadial Basis Function output layer (3)canrealize supervised learning. Inaddition, theGrowing Neural Gas(GNG)architecture isa modification tothe GCS,inwhich thedimensionality oftopological structures is notpredefined, butisinstead discovered during training. In recent years, further modifications havebeenproposed: Life- long Learning Cell Structures (LLCS) (4)forsupervised clas- sification andSelf-Organizing Incremental Neural Network (SOINN) (5)forunsupervised clustering. Inthese methods, theinsertion ofnodesisstopped automatically. Thereby, these methods avoid thepermanent increase ofnodes. They areintended tobalance stability andplasticity. A mainchallenge inthedesign ofefficient androbust learning algorithms isthat newdatasets arecontinually added toanalready hugedatabase. Theuseofthehugedataset introduces twoissues. Thefirst ishowtolearn newknowl- edge without forgetting previous knowledge. Thisproblem is considered tobeamaindifficulty oftheincremental learning


AIM: To investigate the protective effects of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2(ERK1/2) inhibitor PD98059 on multiple organ dysfunction in endotoxin-induced disseminated-intravascular-coagulation(DIC) rat.METHODS: Sprague-Dawley rats were divided randomly into 3 groups: control group,DIC group and inhibitor group.The endotoxin-induced DIC rat model was established with LPS(6 mg/kg) by intraperitoneal injection.Inbibitor group were injected with LPS(6 mg/kg) and PD98059(10 mg/kg).The blood sample was taken after 5 h to detect APTT,FIB,LDH,ALP,ALT,AST,BUN and Cr by MC-2000 coagulation autoanalyzer and Olympus biochemical autoanalyzer;and then take out the heart,liver,kidney and observe pathology change of the tissue section.RESULTS:Compared with control group: experimental data from DIC group indicated that APTT,LDH,ALP,ALT,AST,BUN and Cr obviously extended or increased(P0.01),while FIB reduced(P0.01).Heart,liver and kidney biopsy showed vascular engorgement.Except for Cr,all the laboratory indexes ameliorated among inhibitor group than DIC group(P0.01),while pathological change was alleviated in heart,liver and kidney.CONCLUSION: This study shows that PD98059 can attenuate multiple organ dysfunction in the pathogenesis in endotoxin-induced DIC rat,and the mechanism involves ERK1/2 inhibition.


The utility model relates to a foot therapeutic insole, which belongs to the technical field of accessories for shoes. The utility model is characterized in that a recess is arranged on the insole part that corresponds to a heel, the middle lower layer of the recess is provided with an exothermic layer that is composed of breathing package and exothermic material, and the exothermic layer which is isolated from air is coated with a medicine film layer. The foot therapeutic shoes can effectively treat pain diseases on heels, and have the function positive health care for foot health.


The contact problem of combined footing resting on elastic half space, or stratified elastic base has been analyzed. Unlike simplified common assumptions and design methods of such foundation, here the analysis was carried over a two rigid footings connected by elastic flexible foundation beam, taking into account different characteristics of individual footing parts (rigid vs. flexible) and continuity conditions at their joints, with emphasis on their mutual interaction related to underlying soil load transfer. The numerical analysis has been performed by combined finite difference and boundary element method on the identical quadrilateral mesh.


Abstract : Force/area and surface potential/area isotherms of nine samples of organic surface active materials collected from various positions in the North Atlantic were studied on distilled water (acidified to pH 2.0), and synthetic sea water substrates. Each of the six samples collected under approximately the same conditions were similar in surface activity and surface potential. Three samples, collected under different sea conditions or in areas where contamination was likely to occur, varied from this average.


Bridging the 'bench to bedside' gap and the widely accepted approach of mulitdisciplinarity are pivotal in advancing research and improving patient treatment and care. The reality of the implementation and measurable outcomes of both ideals generally translates into palpable debate between professional specialities and communities. In the relentless battle to eliminate cancer, much more can – and will – be done.


This paper discusses the nature of education for destination community members and examines how vocational, entrepreneurial, and general community awareness education are occurring in a developing country tourist destination. Evidence suggests that, in addition to the traditional approaches to educating local residents, namely professional and vocational training, entrepreneurial training is becoming more commonplace. Additionally, this paper considers another type of community education programme, which is increasing in some developing countries: building general public awareness of tourism. It is argued that, as entrepreneurial endeavours and public awareness increase, residents will be in a better position to participate in tourism development.


Worldwide tours, internet downloads, international album distribution - the global market for music is expanding with lightning speed and that means big opportunities for everyone in the music business. The main obstacle? Lack of knowledge. The world market is packed with opportunity, but it's also full of cultural, regulatory, administrative, legal, political and logistical pitfalls. A companion volume to author Tad Lathrop's top-selling "This Business of[trademark] Music Marketing and Promotion", "This Business of[trademark] Global Music Marketing" offers everyone in the music business a chance to go global.


Magnetic microparticles were formulated by encapsulating magnetite nanoparticles with cellulose acrylamidemetyl propionate acetate (CAPA) chemically modified with acrylamide (AM) in order to immobilize, through covalent bonds, enzymes. The microparticles were characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy and thermogravimetry. The magnetic CAPA + AM microparticles display a quite regular spherical geometry with smooth surface and a magnetite load corresponding to 11.2% of the total mass. These particles were considered as convenient supports for enzyme immobilization in biodiesel transesterification process.


staple surgical procedure for the degenerative lumA bar spine surgeon is the surgical management of symptomatic lumbar neurogenic claudication with or without spondylolisthesis. The consensus of the spinal community after years of debate is the relative efficacy of fusion when a decompression is performed in the setting the implied instability of a lumbar spondylolisthesis. The New England Journal of Medicine recently revived this debate through the publication of two well-designed studies evaluating this question. The study by Ghogawala et al evaluated 138 patients screened for symptomatic lumbar stenosis and spondylolisthesis. After randomization, 35 patients underwent decompression and 31 patients underwent decompression and fusion. Patients with slips greater than 3 mm were excluded from the study and the majority of patients were enrolled from one institution. The authors found that patients who underwent fusion had an initial higher acute complication rate but the reoperation rate was significantly higher in the nonfusion group. Readers of this article would therefore conclude that a fusion was an appropriate adjunct if a decompression is considered in this setting. These findings are in direct contrast to the prospective randomized study by Forsth et al on patients surgically


Indonesia has established a national action plan on marine plastic debris to tackle the issue of marine plastic debris. Because most of the marine plastic debris in Indonesia is likely due to mismanaged plastic waste, it is important to address the problem of riverine plastic river problem in Indonesia. The objectives of this study are to visually observe the condition of the river in terms of plastic pollution, to quantify plastic litter in the river, and to develop a visual counting model of plastic litter quantification. The visual counting of plastic debris (> 2.5 cm) method based on the European standard method was applied to a river in Indonesia. The main challenge was the high turbidity of the water that obstructed visual observation. The deployment of the fishing net was also not appropriate to collect debris. Most of the plastic debris was stranded on the riverbanks, indicating that the plastic flow was likely elevated due to runoff during the rainy season. Four types of plastic litter polymers were obtained, i.e., polyethylene terephthalate (PET), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS). The highest percentage of macroplastics is LDPE, which usually used as daily packaging (90%).


The dissolution of carbohydrates in Ionic liquids has received attention for many decades and still is to this day. Solutions of xylan and xylose in 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate [C2mim] [OAc] were individually examined at various temperatures (20 °C-70 °C) using NMR spectroscopy, diffusion and the low field spin-lattice and spin-spin relaxation times (T1 and T2) as well as rheology measurements. The ratio of the diffusion coefficients for the anion to the cation remained constant upon the addition of xylan and xylose, showing that the anion and cation were equally affected by the presence of the carbohydrate. The activation energies for translational diffusion motion of both ions in the xylose solutions were similar to these found in published cellobiose. The addition of xylose and xylan individually have affected the mobility of the protons, with a decrease occurring with increasing carbohydrate concentrations. We are looking at the interactions between plant polymers, such as xylan with cellulose, with the aim to form biomimetic materials. A solution of cellulose and xylan in the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate [C2mim] [OAc] was examined using NMR diffusion, low field relaxometry and rheology measurements at various temperatures (20 °C-60 °C). We observed that the dissolving mechanism of xylan in the IL [C2mim] [OAc] is close to that for cellulose. The diffusion coefficient of the anion is preferentially more reduced by cellulose than by xylan. It is generally agreed that the anion is more active in the dissolution of carbohydrates than the cation. The dissolution mechanism of cellulose and xylan in the IL [C2mim] [OAc] can be examined via the mobility of the ions. We proposed that the number of accessible OH groups belonging to the carbohydrates are reduced at certain xylan-cellulose blend compositions, showing that at these concentrations there are significant interactions between the two biopolymers.


This paper examines how membership in a highly concentrated Vietnamese‐American community affects the drug and alcohol use of Vietnamese‐American secondary school students. It suggests that research on adolescent substance abuse has had a tendency to concentrate on the family environment and the peer group. For this ethnic group, however, the present study finds that involvement in the ethnic community has a strong negative effect on drug and alcohol abuse, both directly and indirectly, through lessening the likelihood that adolescents will have substance‐abusing friends. Vietnamese language use is found to be an especially influential aspect of ethnicity. It is suggested that research on adolescent substance abuse should place more emphasis on community‐level explanations, such as the effect of ethnic and other sorts of social groups that surround individuals and families.


With the development of computer technology and artificial intelligence in automatic control field, all kinds of parameters tuning methods of PID controller have emerged in endlessly, which bring much energy for the study of PID controller, but many advanced tuning methods behave not so perfect as to be expected. GA and chaos optimizing was integrated, by use of the chaos serial's property of "ergodicity, randomicity, regularity" to generate original population; adding chaotic fine search to genetic operation greatly improves the local search ability, which avoids local optimization and premature convergence in effect. The results of the simulation demonstrate that the chaos genetic algorithm has ideal and satisfied optimization result and much better than that of common genetic algorithm.


The question regarding the benefit of cryopreservation of all embryos with subsequent replacement in more physiologic cycles is not without controversy. As is the case when new hypotheses are generated, it is hard to filter through the early studies to determine whether there is a publication bias, bias and confounding due to patient selection, or unconscious (or conscious) reporting of only favorable results.


In order to study the micro-table three-dimensional motion measurement errors, this article proposed that realizes the goal of three dimensional position and orientation examination based on the monocular vision. The micro work table abstracts to rectangular platform with a regular shape, the rectangle platform selects vertices and edges as the feature elements. Based on the measurement principle of monocular vision, with the coordinate transformation, it obtains method for solving three-dimensional position and orientation based on the feature element.


Gradient theory converts the molecular theory of inhomogeneous fluid into nonlinear boundary value problems for density and stress distributions in fluid interfaces, contact line regions, nuclei and microdroplets, and other fluid microstructures. The relationship between the basic patterns of fluid phase behavior and the occurrence and stability of fluid microstructures is clearly established by the theory. All the inputs of the theory have molecular expressions which are computable from simple models. On another level, the theory becomes a phenomenological framework in which the equation of state of homogeneous fluid and sets of influence parameters of inhomogeneous fluids are the inputs and the structures, stress tensions and contact angles of menisci are the outputs-outputs that find applications in the science and technology of drops and bubbles.


Lead-based perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) have demonstrated outstanding optical properties and cheap synthesis methods conferring them a tremendous potential in the field of optoelectronic devices. However,two critical problems are still unresolved and hindering their commercial applications: one is the fact of being lead-based and the other is the poor stability. Here, we report alead-free all-inorganic perovskite Cs3Bi2X9(X= Cl, Br, I)NCswith emission wavelength ranging from 400 to 560 nm synthesized by a facile room temperature reaction. The ligand free Cs3Bi2Br9NCs exhibits blue emission with photoluminescence quantum efficiency (PLQE) about 0.2%. The PLQE can be increased to 5 % when extra surfactant (oleic acid) is added during the synthesis processes.We determine that this improvement stems from passivationoffast trapping process (2~20 ps). Notably the trap-states can also be passivated in humid condition and the NCs exhibited high stabilitytowards air exposure exceeding 30 days.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate the physical properties of the composite membrane before and after soaking in simulated body fluid (SBF) and discuss both degradation and maintenance of their properties. Before and after soaking in SBF, some deposits were found on the preexisted apatite crystals, and Ca and P were mainly detected by energy dispersive X-ray analyzer (EDX). Our results suggest that the composite membrane consisting of apatite and the biodegradable PLGA copolymer would have excellent biocompatibility and maintain adequate physical properties for in vivo use.


—To provide safe and efficient services, robots must rely on observations from sensors (lidar, camera, etc.) to have a clear knowledge of the environment. In multi-agent scenarios, robots must further reason about the intrinsic motivation underlying the behavior of other agents in order to make inferences about their future behavior. Occlusions, which often occur in robot operating scenarios, make the decision-making of robots even more challenging. In scenarios without occlusions, dynamic game theory provides a solid theoretical framework for predicting the behavior of agents with different objectives interacting with each other over time. Prior work proposed an inverse dynamic game method to recover the game model that best explains observed behavior. However, an apparent shortcoming is that it does not account for agents that may be occluded. Neglecting these agents may result in risky navigation decisions. To address this problem, we propose a novel inverse dynamic game technique to infer the behavior of occluded, unobserved agents that best explains the observation of visible agents' behavior, and simultaneously to predict the agents' future behavior based on the recovered game model. We demonstrate our method in several simulated scenarios. Results reveal that our method robustly estimates agents' objectives and predicts trajectories for both visible and occluded agents from a short sequence of noise corrupted trajectory observation of only the visible agents.


Sirius is a 4th generation 3 GeV synchrotron light source that has just finalized the first commissioning phase at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) campus in Campinas, Brazil. This paper describes the main Accelerator Physics issues faced during the storage ring commissioning, methods that were used to work them out and the current operation status of the machine.


The issue of norm- versus criterion-referenced evaluation methods is discussed in the context of undergraduate pilot training, and an approach that integrates both methods is described. It is suggested that such an integrated approach would facilitate advanced training management concepts such as proficiency advancement, but would not pose significant user acceptance difficulties.


Work-study program in higher vocational colleges is an effective measure to solve the economic difficulties for poor students.With the continual expanded enrollment of higher vocational colleges,the number of students has increased dramatically;the number of poor students also increases.Therefore,there are many problems for work-study program in higher vocational colleges.Through the analysis of its present condition,this paper explores a new approach to work-study program,which is to conduct work-study program in corresponding posts for solving poor students' economic problem and improving their employment competition.


The Feynman propagator has nonzero values outside of the forward light cone. That does not allow messages to be transmitted faster than the speed of light, but it is shown here that it does allow entanglement and mutual information to be generated at space-like separated points. These effects can be interpreted as being due to the propagation of virtual photons outside of the light cone or as a transfer of pre-existing entanglement from the quantum vacuum. The differences between these two interpretations are discussed.


19 A method for analyzing 3H, 36Cl, 22Na, 133Ba and 134Cs from simulated groundwater 20 (SGW) samples was introduced. Gamma emitting radionuclides 22Na, 133Ba and 134Cs 21 were measured by using an HPGe-detector. Beta emitting 3H and 36Cl were separated 22 from gamma emitting 22Na, 133Ba and 134Cs. AgCl precipitation was used for the 23 separation of 36Cl from SGW samples with yields of 98 ± 2%. 3H was separated by 24 distillation with recoveries of 97 ± 3%. This method was used for the determination of 25 activity concentrations of 3H, 36Cl, 22Na, 133Ba and 134Cs in SGW samples collected from 26 an in-situ through diffusion experiment (TDE). 27


Purpose In view of the promising growth of FinTech in the Arab region, specifically in Egypt, this study identifies the significant factors likely to influence consumers' acceptance intention toward e-payment products and services (mobile wallets, virtual-cards, mobile/online banking etc.).Design/methodology/approach Quantitative deductive research was used to investigate the extension of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) on consumers' e-payment acceptance intentions. Questionnaires were electronically administered through convenience sampling. Three hundred and ninety-nine questionnaires were analyzed through multiple regression to test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsPerformance expectance, facilitating condition, effort expectancy and social influence impact consumers' e-payment acceptance intentions. These factors contribute to the growing number of individuals using e-payments to the extent that e-payment eventually becomes a preferred medium for economic transactions. Hedonic motivation, price value and habit are insignificant in encouraging consumers' e-payment acceptance.Practical implications The study benefits to governments, policymakers, banking institutions, businesses involved in online transactions and software developers. They can utilize the findings to develop strategies aimed at increasing e-payment usage and overcoming cultural-resistance to changing traditional financial transaction methods. These methods align with the government's goal of achieving a digital society.Originality/value This study presents information on the current state of e-payment acceptance. Its potential contribution lies in identifying the factors that influence the intention to e-payment among Arab consumers, thereby highlighting important considerations for the adoption of e-payment. Furthermore, this study supports UTAUT over UTAUT2 in the FinTech context. It suggests that individuals exhibit similar behavior and inspiration when using e-payment technology as they do when using technology in an organizational context.


Deposition of amyloid beta (Aβ) is widely believed to play a key role in the initiation and progression of AD. Indeed, the amyloid cascade hypothesis proposed over 20 years ago still continues to stimulate research in the field [2, 3]. However, conceptual changes have emerged recently highlighting that Aβ exists in equilibrium between deposition and clearance [4]. From a therapeutic perspective, complete elimination of Aβ is not a desired outcome given its various physiological roles [5, 6]. Studies have shown that impaired clearance rather than increased production is the driving force behind Aβ accumulation, and therefore in the initiation of AD [7, 8]. Aβ clearing mechanism(s) have therefore become targets of therapy.


Objective: Scientists throughout the world felt importance and urgency of discovering the nature of the virus and measure the destructive capability of SARS-CoV-2 since its, emergence at Wuhan. The impact quantification of health damages caused by COVID-19 helped us in timely mitigation of pandemic and its treatment. Lockdown is being used by many countries as preventive measures from current epidemic. Indian government also imposed lockdowns at nationwide since 25 March 2020. But containment of human population with fear of affecting from pandemic during 100 days of lockdown impact badly on human health, mental health and caused damage on Indian society which could be study under umbrella of lockdown syndrome. This paper is based on the quantification of impact of lockdown syndrome in various segments of society. Methods: Data from 772 people of selective working classes across the India were interviewed during lockdown and studied their responses with the help of experts to quantify the impact. Results: Our results show that impact is long-lasting and dynamic in nature in Indian society. Migrant workers were found suffering more than any other class, unfortunately it is state of great confusion, not the economic loss which impact badly on their emotional loss and they decided to return back to their villages and just after a month time started back towards cities. Housewives, children and aged section of society suffered much due to lockdown. Conclusion: Society needs to learn, practice and prepare to survive with contagious diseases by using modern technologies. Peaceful coexistence is only solution, otherwise we are well aware that most of medicines has side-effects and sometime side effects are life threatening. Lockdown syndrome is side effect of pandemic control program and causes more damage than


This paper proposes an improved inverter by inserting a level shifter for low supply voltage. Before driving the transistor, the signal levels are shifted to beyond the supply voltage levels, thereby raising the gate overdrive voltage and the inverter bandwidth. In 0.18um CMOS process, the proposed inverter is used to design a 4-stage cascading pre-driver and a digitalized low-voltage differential-signaling (LVDS) driver, and the overall driver system occupied an active area of 0.0144mm2. Under single 0.3V of supply voltage, the driver consumes a total current of 1.56mA. At 625Mbps, the output eye diagrams reveal 180ps (0.11UI) of peak jitter and 280mV of differential swing.


A new Devonlan vertebrate Iocality has been discovered in 1976 in the basal part of the Khush-Yellagh Fonnation in the eastern Alborz Mountains of Iran. The fossUs OCCUl' in a band one centimeter thick which is identifiable at other outcrops in the area. A preliminary study of the remains has yielded the followlng faunallist : Placodermata (PhlyctaenUda indet., Groenlandaspididae indet., Coccosteidae indet., Holonema sp., Ptyctodontida indet., Antiarcha indet., Bothl'lolepis cf. kwangtungensis), Elasmobranchil (Ctenacanthidae indet.), AcanthodU (GyracantllUs sp., (/ Onchus Il ouel'athensls, Ischnacanthifonue indet.), Dipnoi (? Dipteridae indet.), « CrossopterygU )) (Onychodus cf. sigmoides, Holoptychiidae indet., Osteolepididae indet.). This fauna Is oIder than the Middle Givetian and probably of Middle or Lower Eifelian age. Owing to its dlversitv, it may prove possible to use It in the future as a l'eference fauna fol' the study of the Devonian vertebrates in Central Asia and the Middle East.


By using the hodograph method the author finds almost all the solutions of the classical shallow water equations. The author also constructs an auto-Backlund transformation (superposition principle) on the set of these hodograph solutions and shows that this transformation is canonical relative to a symplectic form introduced by Manin (1978).


Objective To explore the application value of antegrade non-vascular CEUS by the fistula of nephrostomy in renal diseases causing urinary tract obstruction.Methods Totally 43patients with urinary tract obstruction were collected.All patients received percutaneous puncture nephrostomy with the guide of ultrasound,then SonoVue agents were injected into the renal pelvis via the puncture tube for performing antegrade non-vascular CEUS.The fistula of percutaneous pyelostomy and continuous contrast agent movement within the pelvis,ureteral,bladder were observed.Results Antegrade CEUS revealed 2cases with fistula abnormal position,2with angiorhagia of segmenta renalia,and diagnosed 2cases of complex kidney diseases.The ureters were unobstructed in 15cases,partially obstructed in 20and jammed in 8cases.Conclusion Antegrade non-vascular CEUS with the fistula of nephrostomy can assess whether percutaneous puncture nephrostomy with ultrasound guide success and judge the degree of urinary obstruction,obstructed position,as well as clarify the causes of obstruction in some cases.


Plague insects are one of the main constraints in the production of corn crops. Therefore, they cause damage to the development of the plant and therefore reduce performance. The armyworm Spodoptera fugiperda J. E. Smith and Heliothis zea (Boddie), (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) are the most present in the cultivation of corn. For the control of these and other pests, the most used control are chemical insecticides; the main disadvantages of its use have been the contamination of the environment and the resistance of insect pests, this has caused damage to the environment and resistance. An alternative is the use of entomopathogenic microorganisms, predators or parasitoids. Within these are entomopathogenic fungi such as Metarhizum anisopliae (Metchnikoff) Sorokin, and predators of the family Coccinellidae as Cycloneda sangunea (Linnaeus), being these most used in biological control. Also, some parasitoids such as Telenomus remus (Nixon) (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae). Therefore, the advantages of biological control is to reduce levels of pest infestation to a proportion that do not cause economic damage, reduce the spectrum of action and also do not generate pollution to the environment. The biological control depends to a large extent on the climatic conditions, phenological stage of the crop and the interaction between the pests and the host.


BCMA (B-cell maturation antigen) is an integral membrane protein that belongs to the TNF receptor family with expression restricted to B cell lineage cells. The RNA is near universally detected in multiple myeloma (MM) cells and the protein is expressed on the surface of malignant plasma cells from patients with MM. In contrast, BCMA expression in normal tissues is very limited, making BCMA a promising target for antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) therapy.
 We have developed a BCMA-targeting ADC, employing a fully human anti-BCMA monoclonal antibody (mAb) identified from Sorrento's G-MAB antibody library, which was conjugated using proprietary Concortis linker-Duo 5.2 toxin technology resulting in BCMA-077 ADC. The mAb has a unique binding profile for BCMA and demonstrated strong preferential binding for BCMA-overexpressing cells but showed much less binding to lower BCMA-expressing cells. This property allows for more selective binding of the ADC on high BCMA-expressing cells, which are usually tumor cells while sparing low BCMA-expressing normal cells. In addition, we modified the Duo 5.2 payload decreasing the potency of the unconjugated toxin while retaining activity when conjugated to the mAb. The resulting ADC, BCMA-024, was compared to BCMA-077 using in vitro assays, including binding, internalization and cytotoxicity against tumor cell lines. The two ADCs exhibited strong activity and no difference in cytotoxic potency evident. The toxicity of the payload derivative was evaluated in a rodent model and it was found to be well tolerated not showing toxicity at a dose 10 times higher than the lethal dose of the parental toxin.
 Both ADCs carrying either the parental Duo 5.2 toxin or the derivative toxin payload were evaluated in vivo for anti-tumor activity in three different multiple myeloma xenograft models using different dose regimens. The data showed that both ADCs demonstrated potent BCMA-dependent in vivo anti-tumor activity in all xenograft BCMA-positive tumor models. The PK of the parental anti-BCMA mAb was investigated in non-human primates (NHP) and the parameters indicated a T1/2 of about 10 days. The GLP toxicity studies are ongoing.
 Our BCMA-ADCs have shown favorable anti-tumor activities combined with good safety profiles resulting in an expanded therapeutic window. The data make BCMA-077 and BCMA-024 promising candidates for continued preclinical development. Based on the totality of our preclinical data, we anticipate selecting a BCMA ADC clinical candidate for the treatment of multiple myeloma.

 Hau: Concortis Biotherapeutics: Employment, Equity Ownership. Zhu:Levena Biopharma: Employment, Equity Ownership, Patents & Royalties. Wang:Concortis Biotherapeutics: Employment, Equity Ownership. Lau:Levena Biopharma: Employment, Equity Ownership. Li:Concortis Biotherapeutics: Employment, Equity Ownership. Li:Levena Biopharma: Employment, Equity Ownership. Sun:Levena Biopharma: Employment, Equity Ownership. Kovacs:Levena Biopharma: Employment, Equity Ownership. Khasanov:Levena Biopharma: Employment, Equity Ownership. Deng:Levena Biopharma: Employment, Equity Ownership. Yan:Levena Biopharma: Employment, Equity Ownership. Knight:Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.: Employment, Equity Ownership. Kaufmann:Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.: Employment, Equity Ownership, Patents & Royalties. Ji:Sorrento Therapeutics Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership, Patents & Royalties; Celularity, Inc.: Equity Ownership, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Li:Levena Biopharma: Employment, Equity Ownership, Patents & Royalties; Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.: Employment, Equity Ownership, Patents & Royalties. Zhang:Concortis Biotherapeutics: Employment, Equity Ownership, Patents & Royalties.


The invention relates to a medical orthopaedic slitting device, which comprises a shell, wherein a gear box and a drill group which is arranged on the gear box and is extended out of the front end of the shell are arranged in the shell; a power input shaft is arranged at the rear end of the shell; the drill group comprises a master drill and two slave drills, and the master drill is in power connection with the power input shaft; the master drill and the two slave drills comprise drills and drill rods; gears are arranged on the drill rods of the master drill and the slave drills; three gears are positioned in the gear box and are meshed mutually; the master drill is used for driving the slave drills to rotate by the meshing transmission of the gears; axes of the master drill and the slavedrills are parallel mutually and are positioned on the same plane; the two slave drills are arranged on two sides of the master drill; and the drills of the two slave drills are positioned behind thedrill of the master drill and are overlapped with the drill of the master drill partially in the radial direction. In the medical orthopaedic slitting device, rectangular holes can be machined by drilling at a time, so the operation time is shortened, the injury to bones is reduced, operation risks are reduced to the maximum extent, and the pain of patients is relieved.


This paper presents an implementation of the Generalized Grid Interface (GGI) for OpenFOAM. It is used to couple multiple non-conformal regions into a single contiguous domain at matrix level. The main advantage of the Generalized Grid Interface comes from removing the requirement to adjust the topology of the mesh at the interface between two non-conformal meshes. Instead, a set of weighting factors is evaluated in order to properly balance the flux at the GGI interface. Evaluation of the GGI weighting factors is based on the precise computation of the patch faces intersection on each side of the coupling interface as follows from discretisation. This is complicated due to the different grid resolution of the mesh on each side of the interface. This paper describes the choice and implementation of robust and quick algorithms for computing the GGI weighting factors. Furthermore, for turbomachinery simulations in particular, various derived forms of GGI are used regularly. Cyclic GGI, partial GGI and mixing plane GGI are all variants of the basic GGI interface that are needed for various use cases. Finally, it is very important that the GGI interface can be used for parallel OpenFOAM simulations on clusters of computers; otherwise, this would impose a severe limit on the size of the problems. This paper will show the current state of development of the Generalized Grid Interface for turbomachinery simulations and steps towards its generalisation and parallelisation.


A primer-set for the specific detection of Salmonella spp. was evaluated targeting the invA gene and published by Rahn et al. 1992. invA is located on the pathogenicity island 1 of Salmonella spp. encoding proteins of a type III secretion system (Collazo, C.M and J.E. Galán, 1997). For the indication of possible PCR inhibitors derived from the sample DNA, an internal control was constructed which is co-amplified with the invA target gene. 221 Salmonella strains and 132 non-Salmonella strains were tested for the specificity. The sensitivity was 1.5-15 cfu/ per reaction by the thermal cell digestion and 1-10 copies/ per reaction with purified DNA using Genomic-tip kit (Qiagen).


Controlling the contact angles of the wettability is an important issue especially in industrial applications. Establishing its {\it ab initio} predictions is hence a topic of great interest. For the predictions, it is required to setup a model of the adsorption structure of liquid molecules on a surface. The appropriate setting is expected to depend on whether the surface is of insulating or metallic materials, the latter of which is the target of the present study while all preceding {\it ab initio} studies have worked on the former. Since the feasibility of {\it ab initio} evaluations relies on the approximation of the liquid-gas interface energy evaluated roughly by the crystal ice, it would be a natural choice to take the periodic honeycomb array of the water molecules as the adsorbing model of water on the surface. Although the periodic model have successfully been used for the preceding treatments of insulating surfaces, we found for the case with metallic surfaces that the periodic model gives worse prediction to reproduce experimental values. Rather than that, the models with isolated water multimers are found to give better predictions. The ambiguity of the models about the size of multimers and the coverage is found to be small ($\sim\pm 10^{\circ}$), and is averaged over to give a plausible value based on the Boltzmann weight with the adsorbing energies. The procedure we are providing can generally be applicable to any of wettability on the surfaces of metallic materials.


Education promotes people's success through employment (entrepreneurship) after entering the workplace by promoting people's knowledge and skills. For the poor people, effective poverty alleviation through education can effectively cut off intergenerational transmission of poverty. Among the various poverty alleviation strategies, it is the most effective and practical one. Up to now, China's education poverty alleviation has made great progress, but there are still many practical difficulties, such as uneven distribution of quality education resources, unfair education, insufficient teachers, and poor rural populations. These difficulties are difficult to solve under the traditional education poverty alleviation model. Therefore, we need to innovate ways of poverty alleviation through education to improve the effectiveness of poverty alleviation. In the era of big data, the introduction of modern internet technologies to launch "Internet + education for poverty alleviation" can provide universal education for poor people across the country by providing precision education to help the poor. Therefore, this dissertation conducts research on how to achieve "Internet + education for poverty alleviation" in the era of big data. It points out the actual case of "Internet + education for poverty alleviation" that has been promoted, and points out that China's development of "Internet + education for poverty alleviation" still exists Hardware issues, research on the country's relevant landing policy of "Internet + education for poverty alleviation", and analysis of the realization of the "Internet + education poverty alleviation" realistic approach.


Immune defenses against Mycobacterium tuberculosis are mediated primarily by T cells, and interferon-Ɣ is essential for protective immunity. Patients with defective receptors for interferon-Ɣ or IL-12 have markedly increased susceptibility to severe infections with Mycobacterium bovis BCG and other mycobacteria. In the present study, we investigated the serum levels of INF-Ɣ, IL- 12 and IL-18 in patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis and by analyzing the relationship between plasma INF-Ɣ concentrations and plasma IL-12 and IL-18 concentrations and disease extent. Our observations reveal a significant positive correlation for clinical grade of pulmonary TB and the levels of IFN-Ɣ, IL-12 and IL-18 (i.e. patients with more advanced pulmonary involvement, revealed significantly higher levels for IFN-Ɣ, IL-12 and IL-18).


Electronic generation of terahertz (THz) signals using gallium nitride (GaN) is predicted to exhibit high efficiency. Theory by Ridley et al. [1] shows that electrons in an ultra thin (20-120 nm) epilayer of intrinsic GaN can be ballistically accelerated to negative mass states (under the influence of an applied bias voltage of 2.7 volts) with hot enough injection. If a majority of the electrons can be made to populate these states, negativedifferential-conductivity (NDC) will be observed at the device terminals.


This study documents the existence of a positive-negative asymmetry in analysts' consensus earnings forecast revisions. We find that upward revisions are more informative than downward revisions. After controlling for momentum, extreme downward revisions contain little incremental information compared with moderate downward revisions. The differential richness of information set in good and bad news revisions is more pronounced among bigger, more heavily covered stocks and stocks with higher institutional holding, i.e. stocks typically are more prone to the analyst agency problem. These findings are consistent with the claim that analysts systematically struggle with bad news reporting as conflicts are exacerbated with bad news but are attenuated with good news.


Abstract A rapid method has been developed for the determination of dibutylphosphoric acid (DBP), a degradation product of tributylphosphate (TBP), which is used in a solvent extraction process for recovery of uranium. DBP along with any monobutylphosphoric acid (MBP) and phosphoric acid are extracted from the organic phase into dilute sodium hydroxide. DBP is separated from MBP and phosphoric acid by ion chromatography and is determined on a peak height ratio basis. The method requires only 30 minutes per analysis as compared to the conventional alumina column separation-colorimetric determination procedure which requires 8 h to complete. DBP has been quantified to a lower limit of 1.5 mg/L. Relative standard deviations ranging from 5.7% to 0.4% were obtained for DBP concentrations ranging from 1.5 to 500 mg/L, respectively.


The purpose of this study is to explore the difference in attitudes about using counseling-based services between Chinese and American older adults.Using "Fear of Intimate Scale" to survey currently attitude to social services on 150 Chinese old adults and 145 American old adults,knowing their particular points in their attitudes by comparing the research results,the researchers find that Chinese old adults' attitude towards helping services is less positive than American old adults.There are different factors that influence old adults confidences to helping services in two countries.


This paper presents a new optical system to measure internal cylindrical surfaces combining photogrammetry and fringe projection. The device uses two identical cameras, equipped with spherical and conical lenses, facing each other and aligned with the optical axis. A 360° helical fringe projector is used to project a sequence of phase shifted helical fringe pattern in the inner surface to be measured. The phase patterns are used to identify corresponding points and to reconstruct the surface in a regular cylindrical mesh using an alternative approach. A prototype was built, calibrated and tested. The paper presents the results of an application where two welded joints were measured in a 150 mm (6") diameter pipe. The goal was to inspect for defects in the internal part of the welding seams and to measure the transversal misalignment between the jointed parts.


Abstract The volatile constituents obtained by hydrodistillation of the aerial parts of Hyptis atrorubens Poit. growing in Martinique (F.W.I.: French West Indies) were analyzed by a combination of GC/FID and GC-MS. Plants from two different locations in Martinique (North and South) were studied. For the north location, two preparation methods were studied: hydrodistillation in 3L or 20 L reactors and steam distillation. Sixty components representing between 87.7% and 93.2% of the essential oil GC/FID chromatogram total area were identified. The most abundant compounds were caryophyllene oxide (from 5.0 to 31.5%), β-caryophyllene (from 4.7 to 32.6%), palmitic acid (from 2.0 to 9.5%), spathulenol (from 1.5 to 8.5%), α-copaene (from 4.5 to 6.9%), 2-tridecanone (from 0.0 to 6.1%) and phytol (from 2.3 to 4.8%). By comparison with the literature describing a first chemotype rich in Germacrene D and a second chemotype rich in limonene and estragole, in our study Germacrene D was only present at 1.1 and 2.1% in the northern oil. Limonene was present in the oil from 0.1 to 0.3%. Furthermore, no estragole was found in this essential oil. Antimicrobial activity of the essential oil from aerial parts of the plant was also investigated. Antibacterial and antifungal activities were observed against A. niger, C. albicans, S. aureus, E. coli, and B. cereus at 0.5%.


In this paper, we consider the problem of applying robust discrete optimization theory (RDO) on the elevator group scheduling system. The RDO modeling and model transformation theory are discussed. The RDO model of the elevator group scheduling is established via the RDO theory. Utilizing the virtual simulation environment of elevator group scheduling, the RDO scheduling algorithm is implemented. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed RDO algorithm. Advantages of this algorithm over other algorithms are also discussed.


The feasibility of observing the C 18 O (3–2) spectral line in cold clouds with the APEX telescope has been tested. As the line at 329.330 GHz lies in the wing of a strong atmospheric H 2 O absorption it can be observed only at high altitude observatories. Using the three lowest rotational levels instead of only two helps to narrow down the physical properties of dark clouds and globules. The centres of two C 18 O maxima in the high latitude low mass star forming region CG 12 were mapped in C 18 O (3–2) and the data were analyzed together with spectral line data from the SEST. The T MB (3–2) / T MB (2–1) ratio in the northern C 18 O maximum, CG 12-N, is 0.8, and in the southern maximum, CG 12-S, ∼ 2. CG 12-N is modelled as a 120 (cid:3)(cid:3) diameter (0.4 pc) cold core with a mass of 27 M (cid:4) . A small size maximum with a narrow, 0.8 km s − 1 , C 18 O (3–2) spectral line with a peak temperature of T MB ∼ 11 K was detected in CG 12-S. This maximum is modelled as a 60 (cid:3)(cid:3) − 80 (cid:3)(cid:3) diameter ( ∼ 0.2 pc) hot (80 K (cid:1) T ex (cid:1) 200 K) ∼ 1.6 M (cid:4) clump. The source lies on the axis of a highly collimated bipolar molecular outflow near its driving source. This is the first detection of such a compact, warm object in a low mass star forming region.


Understanding the normative variation in brain structure across life may provide insights into healthy aging as well as neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). Women are at greater risk of developing AD, but men tend to show faster rates of subcortical atrophy across adulthood. Sex‐dependent differences in male and female brain aging trajectories may change over the adult lifespan, and could play a role in differential risk for neurological illness. The current study maps normative trajectories (nomograms) of subcortical volume across adulthood and quantifies the interaction between age and sex in a large, healthy sample.


Aim: The aim of the study is to determine the relationship between age and pulmonary function test parameters (FEV1 and FVC) in sedentary individuals. Materials and methods: The present observational cross sectional study was performed at Sant Ishar Singh Memorial Public School and in Punjabi University campus, Patiala. For the study 142 subjects were divided in four groups with different age groups which were further divided as males and females within each group. Informed consent from the subjects was taken. International Physical Activity Questionnaire was filled for each subject to check the level of physical activity. Various other instruments used for the study are spirometer, weighing machine, Anthropometric rod and chair. All the subjects were assessed and findings were noted for FVC and FEV1 with spirometer. The Karl Pearson Correlation, ANOVA and The Post Hoc test were the tools for statistical analysis. Result: The results of this study showed there was negative correlation between the increasing age and values of FVC and FEV1. Conclusion: There is significant decline in the lung functions with increasing age. The pulmonary functions were more impaired in females with increasing age as compared to males and sedentary females were more prone to develop cardio respiratory problems than males.


The present invention is acceptable his polymorph, solvate, hydrate, dihydrate, ball into a salt of topiramate, and pharmaceutically-include crystals, anhydrous and amorphous forms, and pharmaceutical compositions and formulations containing them. In particular, the present invention is that a salt, limits of acceptable topiramate pharmaceutically but, topiramate sodium, topiramate lithium, and topiramate potassium, or a polymorph, solvate, hydrate, dihydrate, co-crystal, anhydrous and a storage and amorphous forms. The present invention relates to novel ball of topiramate-comprises a pharmaceutical composition comprising the crystal or complex and him. The present invention also includes a method for treating or preventing a variety of diseases and more, but are not limited to, stroke, epilepsy or more, tremors, brain dysfunction, obesity, neuropathic disorders, withdrawal symptoms, migraine and cluster headache.


diffusion (at the village and popular level) and the development of durable social capital is less substantial. While democratizing civil society appears essential to both political learning and the capacity to act, so too do formal institutions of democracy (functioning constitutions and meaningful elections). The Directory regularly overturned elections and ignored its own constitution. Livesey posits further that the elevation of "moral identity" and "sentiment" as important qualities of the new citizen meant that democratic ideals did not "implicitly exclude women" (197). Yet, the era's leaders explicitly did just that. Moreover, the Directory survived only briefly. Livesey admits that while the Directory promoted the development of commercial republicanism, Napoleon's regime "drained the institutions of their content" and "nearly a century would be required to rescue its institutional form" (235). He concludes optimistically that despite this hiatus, the Directory "bequeathed a lexicon for the defense of markets, small property, and political equality to the society" (125). Despite these limitations, Livesay's thoughtful, well-researched book engages many current debates about the Revolution, political theory, and the processes of democratization and signals important questions for future debate.


Numerous finite elements are proposed based on analytical solutions. However, it is difficult to find the solutions for complicated governing equations. This paper aims to present a novel formulation in the framework of assumed stress quasi-conforming method for the static and free vibration analysis of anisotropic and symmetric laminated plates.,Firstly, an initial stress approximation ruled by 17 parameters, which satisfies the equilibrium equations is derived to improve the performance of the constructed element. Then the stress matrix is treated as the weighted function to weaken the strain-displacement equations. Finally, the Timoshenko's laminated composite beam functions are adopted as boundary string-net functions for strain integration.,Several numerical examples are presented to show the performance of the new element, and the results obtained are compared with other available ones. Numerical results have proved that the new element is free from shear locking and possesses high accuracy for the analysis of anisotropic and symmetric laminated plates.,This paper proposes a new QC element for the static and free vibration analysis of anisotropic and symmetric laminated plates. In contrast with the complicated analytical solutions of the equilibrium equations, an initial stress approximation ruled by 17 parameters is adopted here. The Timoshenkos laminated composite beam functions are introduced as boundary string-net functions for strain integration. Numerical results demonstrate the new element is free from shear locking and possesses high accuracy for the analysis of anisotropic and symmetric laminated plates.


The initiation and growth of small fatigue crack in a gamma titanium aluminides (TiAl) have been investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM) in situ observation in vacuum at 750•Ž and room temperature. The initiation of crack occurs transgranularly at room temperature, but both transgranularly and intergranularly at 750•Ž . Small cracks grow at stress intensity factor lower than the threshold value for long crack growth. The fatigue life at 750•Ž is shorter than that at room temperature. When the stress is modified by Young's modulus, fatigue limit at 750•Ž is the same as that at room temperature. However, fatigue lives at high stresses showed difference between room and elevated temperatures.


BACKGROUND
A sudden increase in the number of novel influenza A virus (pH1N1-2009) infection prompted us to compare the clinical presentation and outcomes of patients infected with pH1N1-2009 and seasonal influenza A virus during the post-pandemic phase.

METHODS
During the period August 13 to September 27, 2010, case records of 106 patients with severe influenza like illness (ILI) and respiratory complications who underwent diagnostic testing by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for confirmation of pH1N1-2009 were retrospectively studied.

RESULTS
Nineteen (17.9%) patients were tested positive for pH1N1-2009 and 78 (73.6%) were tested positive for seasonal influenza A virus. The mean age of patients infected with pH1N1-2009 was 45.2 +/- 15.3 years (range of 22 to 80 years). Common presenting symptoms included fever in 17 (89.4%), cough in 16 (84.2%), myalgia in 15 (78.9%) and breathlessness in 10 (52.6%) patients. The most common comorbidities included bronchial asthma/bronchitis/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in 4 (21%); followed by hypertension in 3 (15.8%) and diabetes in 3 (15.8%) patients. Overall, of the 97 influenza infected patients, 9 (9.3%) needed hospitalisation to the intensive care unit (ICU); one patient with COPD died due to multi-organ failure.

CONCLUSIONS
Both the pandemic and seasonal strains were found to be co-circulating in the community. Patients with severe hypoxia, hypertension, acute respiratory distress syndrome and shock required ICU care.


The problems of concept development and progression within ecology teaching are reviewed and discussed with particular reference to the school science curriculum of England and Wales. It is considered that a serious barrier to the teaching of ecology is the over‐emphasis on sophisticated concepts combined with a failure to allow a knowledge of whole organism biology to progress. An innovative alternative progression model for the teaching of ecological concepts is presented. It is based on a series of filaments, representing concept themes, all of which progress in parallel and yet between which the emphasis shifts laterally. The model facilitates the tracing of pathways of progression and integration as part of curriculum development and it is suggested that this approach could be profitably applied to other scientific disciplines.


Tropical cyclones (TCs) and heatwaves are amongst the most deadly and costly natural hazards. Despite considerable advances in understanding each of them, their occurrences in rapid sequence (e.g. in a week) that introduce disproportionately large impacts to infrastructure and human health have received far less attention. Based on dynamical downscaling simulations, we project that currently rare landfalling TC-heatwave compound events would be five to ten times more frequent in coastal Southeast China, and migrate northward and westward to the intact interior. It is the substantial increase in heatwaves that contributes most to the projected increase in frequency and novel emergence of compound events. There would be higher fraction of severer compound events composed of either intense TCs (in the top 10% historically) or exceptional heatwaves (above the historical 99.9th percentile), with coastal Southeast China even bracing for out-of-ordinary combinations of the two. On top of the unprecedented frequency, intensity and land exposure, future emergence of unseasonal compound events in South and Southeast China would further overwhelm local adaptive capacities.


Time sequence analysis/ prediction method used to support vector machine and Neural Network in fire service field was analyzed.The application scope and limitation of the Neural Network model and support vector model were pointed out.


Kinetic data presented substantiates the postulated 1:1 stoichiometric ratio for the benzocaine-cyclodextrin interaction. Data presented also show that the degree of retardation of benzocaine hydrolysis is considerably greater than that observed for the caffeine-type complexes indicating an interaction involving inclusion formation and other attractive forces.


Novel magnetic materials with ultra-high magnetic moment are presented. The Fe/sub 70/Co/sub 30/ alloy is known to have the highest saturation magnetization of 2.45 T in nature. On the other hand, sputtered Fe/sub 70/Co/sub 30/:Pd and [Fe/sub 70/Co/sub 30//Pd]/sub n/ super-lattice films revealed higher saturation magnetization of 2.49 and 2.57 T at room temperature, respectively, while that of a Fe/sub 70/Co/sub 30/ single-layered film was 2.38 T. These values seemed to be acceptable of a main pole material of the write head in the hard-disk drive with an areal recording density above 160 Gbits/in/sup 2/. In addition, these films can be synthesized using a conventional sputtering apparatus as same as a Fe/sub 70/Co/sub 30/ films. Therefore, these films will promise a feasible way for the increase of an areal recording density without any additional technologies, such as a heat assisted recording, contact recording, or further development of the media.


The research of classical multidimensional knapsack problem always assumes that the weights,the values and the capacities are constant values. However, in the real-life industrial engineering applica-tions, the multidimensional knapsack problem often comes with uncertainty for lacking of the informationabout these parameters. This paper investigates a constrained multidimensional knapsack problem underuncertain environment, in which the relevant parameters are assumed to be uncertain variables. Withinthe framework of uncertainty theory, two types of uncertain programming models with discount con-straints are constructed for the problem with dierent decision criteria, i.e., the expected value criterionand the critical value criterion. Taking full advantage of the operational law for uncertain variables, theproposed models can be transformed into their corresponding deterministic models. After theoreticallyinvestigating the properties of the models, we do some numerical experiments. The numerical resultsillustrate that the proposed models are feasible and ecient for solving the constrained multidimensionalknapsack problem with uncertain parameters.


Chern (dark coniferous) forests grow in a narrow belt in the low-hill terrains of the Altai-Sayan mountain country. The main feature of this area is the presence of specific plant associations, namely the chern forests. Their area is represented by some mountain massifs separated by plains and river valleys. The mentioned massifs are the Salairskiy Ridge, Mountain Shoria, Kuznetsk Alatau, North-Eastern Altai, piedmonts of Altai and Rudniy Altai. Specific soil and climatic conditions (i.e. average yearly above-freezing temperature, annual precipitation of 800-1500 mm, a thick snow cover and specific soil cover) different from those of the adjacent plains and mountains have formed there. The chern forests are stable forest formations though often they temporarily yield the areas to deciduous species as a result of anthropogenic or natural impacts. It is recommended to use all forest resources in an integrated way on the principles of sustainability and continuous use, and to intensify the conservation of species biodiversity, and the tertiary period plants in particular.


The fuzzy reasoning mechanism of a cold extrusion process planning system has been researched.As a result of fuzziness and uncertainty of the cold extrusion process knowledge,the tradition uncertainty reasoning method can't resolve the reasoning problem.The concept of generalized reliability and the generalized reliability-based fuzzy reasoning method have been put forward in the text on the synthetical analysis of the advantage of various uncertainty reasoning method


Over the last decade global natural gas consumption has steadily increased since many industrialized countries are substituting natural gas for coal to generate electricity. There is also significant industrialization and economic growth of the heavily populated Asian countries of India and China. The general consensus is that there are vast quantities of natural gas trapped in hydrate deposits in geological systems, and this has resulted in the emerging importance of hydrates as a potential energy resource and an accompanying proliferation of recent studies on the technical and economic feasibility of gas production from hydrates. There are then the associated environmental concerns. This study reviews the state of knowledge with respect to natural gas hydrates and outlines remaining challenges and knowledge gaps.


In this paper,the periodic solutions of a nonlinear neutral system with feedback control is considered: dx/dt=f(t,x(t),x(t-τ(t)),x′(t-γ(t)),u(t-σ(t)))+p(t)du/dt=-η(t)u(t)+α(t)x(t)+g(t)x(t-δ(t))By using the continuation theory for k-set contractions and some analysis technique,sufficient conditions are obtained which guarantee the existence of the periodic solution of the system.


Abstract The purpose of this paper is to establish the solvability results to direct and inverse problems for time-fractional pseudo-parabolic equations with the self-adjoint operators. We are especially interested in proving existence and uniqueness of the solutions in the abstract setting of Hilbert spaces.


Nesfatin‐1, an 82 amino acid peptide mainly found in the hypothalamus and stomach, is a novel satiety hormone acting through a leptin‐independent mechanism in the hypothalamus. Mechanism by which production of nesfatin‐1 is regulated remains unknown. Here we showed the co‐localization of pS6K, the downstream target of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) in the gastric X/A like cells. Reciprocal relationship of gastric mTOR signaling and nesfatin‐1 was observed during changes in energy status. Both mTOR activity and gastric nesfatin‐1 were down‐regulated by fasting, and returned to near basal level by re‐feeding. In high fat diet induced obese mice, gastric mTOR signaling and nesfatin‐1 were enhanced. Inhibition of the gastric mTOR signaling by rapamycin attenuated the expression of gastric nesfatin‐1 mRNA and protein in both lean and obese mice. Attenuation of mTOR activity by rapamycin or over‐expression of TSC1 or TSC2 reduced the expression of nesfatin in Min‐6 cells, suggesting a direct effect of mTOR signaling. In conclusion, gastric mTOR is a gastric sensor whose activity is linked to the regulation of gastric nesfatin‐1.


The New Political Economy deals with human behaviour and responsiveness when it comes to the political aspects of public affairs. According to the New Political Economy all modern democratic tendencies create the foreground and make it possible for politicians, bureaucracy and political or social allies to implement particular interests, which, in turn leads to certain limits of economical freedom as well as economical stagnation and decline. The New Political Economy stands against the Government direct intervention, interference and intrusion into economic processes. It also stands for the least minimum influence of the Government deliberately using all the wide ranges of market techniques and methods. The New Political Economy additionally deals with both: the theory of political cycles and changes, as well as the public choice theory. The theory of political cycles points to the analogy and correspondence of government election cycles with politics of economy. According to the Public Choice Theory (especially to the constitutional political economy by J. Buchanan) a state keeps and possesses a double function when we consider state economics and assurance, and execution of constitutional rights and maintaining and assuring same time supplying of public goods. The main aim in assuring and protecting constitutional rules is minimising and diminishing the overall losses when it comes to the operativeness and functionality of the state bureaucracy, so in general, the economisation of the public sector. The constitution itself defines: the property rights and their enforcement, public and private limits as well as the rules of supplying public goods.


In recent years, the ISO working group has standardized the measurement methods for a scattering coefficient for surfaces in rooms, ISO 17497-1. The importance of the application of the scattering coefficient in room acoustics, particularly in a computer model to obtain reliable prediction results, has already been reported in international round robin tests. There is a need for guidelines and a reliable database of surface materials for the application of the standard method. In this study, the effect of some measurement parameters on the measurement of random-incidence scattering coefficient in a reverberation room based on ISO 17497-1 was investigated. A 1:5 scale model of the reverberation room, which has a volume of 2.4 m 3 , was employed to measure the random-incidence scattering coefficient of periodic battens. In the present work, three parameters, the turntable diameter (0.64 m and 0.84m), the air gap below the turntable (50 mm and 222 mm) and the absorption coefficient of the test sample (0.09 and 0.31) were considered. The influence of each parameter over the scattering coefficient of the periodic battens was measured and analysed. A lower scattering coefficient of the periodic battens was obtained when a turntable diameter of 0.64 m was applied. A lower scattering coefficient of the periodic battens at the corresponding real-scale frequency bands from 630 Hz to 2.5 kHz was obtained when an air gap of 50 mm was applied. The absorption coefficient of the test sample influenced the measured scattering coefficient at mid and high frequency bands.


INTRODUCTION: Multiple medical specialties have previously reported on gender bias in letters of recommendation (LORs). We aimed to determine if linguistic differences exist in LORs for male and female applicants to a maternal fetal medicine (MFM) fellowship at an academic institution. METHODS: This was an institutional review board (IRB)-approved retrospective single-site cohort study conducted from 2019-2021. Data collected included applicant's age, race, self-reported gender, geographic region of residency, Step 1 and 2 scores, scholarly and volunteer activities, and number of LORs. The Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software, a validated text analysis program, was used to characterize LORs' linguistic content. Multivariable analysis was used to compare letter characteristics to applicant demographics. RESULTS: A total of 212 applications were reviewed, including 808 LORs. Women comprised 76.9% of applicants and men 23.1%. Most applicants identified as non-Hispanic White (52.8%). Men were more likely to be international medical graduates (20% vs. 6%, P=<.01), and women reported more volunteer activities (7.1 ± 5.1 vs. 5.5 ± 4.3, P=.04). There were no significant differences in Step scores, number of research projects, or number of LORs. Multivariable analysis controlling for applicant race, Step 1 score, and gender of the letter writer revealed that letters written for males contained significantly more references to the word category cognitive processes (7.4 ± 0.2 vs. 7.1 ± 0.1, P=.046), specifically in reference to the subcategories of certainty and differentiation. CONCLUSION: We identified linguistic differences in LORs written for MFM applicants, suggesting potential bias in the style of writing for male and female physicians applying to this field.


We show that centrality dependence of charged particle pseudorapidity density at midrapidity in $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions at the RHIC is well described as proportional to the number of participating constituent quarks. In this approach there is no need for an additional contribution from hard processes usually considered in the models based on the number of the nucleon participants.


The method includes shaping a package made of a plate capable of forming a display and two U-shaped parts positioned in this tray to surround a batch of products. This process consists, in a first time: - transferring the batch (2) from the station (11) to a preparation station (13) of pre-packaging, - applying, to two opposite side faces of said package (2 ) the U-shaped parts which come from a magazine (14), and - shaping said blanks (3) on said package (2) and form a kind of pre-packaging (6), then, in a second stage, - transferring the prepackage (6) to a line (12) for grouping said packaging prepackage (6) and a cutout (7) which constitutes the Plateau (22), and - shaping the package in the shape of a box on said line (12) packaging. The plant for carrying out the method comprises: - a station (11) for preparing the batch (2) of products to be packaged, - a station (13) of pre-packaging with a magazine (14) of U-shaped parts, - a line (12) with a packaging station (20) arranged to effect the combination of pre-packaging (6) with the blank (7) constituting the plate (22).


International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors currently perform periodic inspections at uranium enrichment plants to verify UF6 cylinder enrichment declarations. Measurements are performed with handheld high-resolution sensors on a sampling of cylinders taken to be representative of the facility's operations. As additional enrichment plans come online to support the expansion of nuclear power, reducing person-days of inspection will take on greater importance. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is developing a concept to automate the verification of enrichment plant cylinders to enable 100% product-cylinder verification and potentially, mass-balance calculations on the facility as a whole (by also measuring feed and tails cylinders). The Automated Cylinder Enrichment Verification System (ACEVS) would be located at key measurement points and will positively identify each cylinder, measure its mass and enrichment, store the data along with operator inputs in a secure database, and maintain continuity of knowledge on measured cylinders until IAEA inspector arrival. Given the potential for reduced inspector presence, the operational and manpower-reduction benefits of the portal concept are clear. However, it is necessary to assess whether the cylinder portal concept can meet, or potentially improve upon, today's U-235 enrichment assay performance. PNNL's ACEVS concept utilizes sensors that could be operated in anmore » unattended mode: moderated He-3 neutron detectors and large NaI(Tl) scintillators for gamma-ray spectroscopy. The medium-resolution NaI(Tl) scintillators are a sacrifice in energy resolution but do provide high collection efficiency for signatures above 1 MeV. The He-3/NaI sensor combination allows the exploitation of additional, more-penetrating signatures than those currently utilized: Neutrons produced from F-19(μ,n) reactions (spawned primarily from U-234 alpha emission) and high-energy gamma rays (extending up to 10 MeV) induced by neutrons interacting in the steel cylinder. These signatures are indirect measures of U-235 that require a relatively stable U-234/U-235 ratio in the product material in order to be useful. The hypothesis of this work is that the U-234/U-235 ratio is sufficiently constant, for the specific facility where the automated system is installed, to rely on neutron and high-energy gamma-ray signatures for indirect measurement of U-235. Further, these highly penetrating signatures can be combined with a modified form of NaI-based 185-keV enrichment measurements to meet target uncertainties for the verification of product cylinders, with the additional benefits of full-volume assay of the cylinder and 100% product-cylinder verification (as opposed to today's sampling-based approach). This paper focuses on the enrichment measurement aspects of the ACEVS concept: neutron and high-energy gamma-ray signatures, the radiation sensors designed to collect those signatures, and proof-of-principle cylinder measurements and analysis. Preliminary analysis indicates that an automated cylinder verification approach has the potential to meet target uncertainty values for 30B products cylinders (5%), assuming ore-based enrichment feed and a facility-specific calibration. Also described is the additional work needed to more definitively assess the concept's viability, particularly through a better understanding of the U-234/U-235 ratio variability in modern enrichment plants.« less


Objective To determine the allele and genotype frequencies of two single nucleotide polymor-phisms (SNPs) 677C/T,1298A/C in the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase(MTHFR) gene in Chinese Southern Han individuals, and to assess whether there are differences in alleles frequencies among rheumatoid arthritis(RA) patients and normal controls. Methods 187 subjects(101 normal controls and 86 RA patients) were analyzed. The slide frequencies were carried out with polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment langth polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). The two MTHFR SNPs Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, linkage disequilibrium were analyzed with population genetics methods. Results The allele distribution of SNPs was in good unity with Hardy-Weinberg eqilibrium. The genotype frequencies of 677CC, CT, TT were 36.0%, 51.2%, 12.8%, respectively, in RA group, and 42.6%, 44.6% ,12.9%, respectively, in controls. The genotype frequencies of 1298AA,AC、CC were 60.5%、32.6%、 7.0%, respectively, in RA group, and 49.5% ,46.5% ,4.0% ,respectively, in controls. The frequencies of rarely allele 677T were 38. 4% and 35.1% in RA and controls. The 1298C were 23.3% and 27.2% in RA and controls. Allele frequencies were similar between RA group and controls, and there is no linkage between two SNPs and RA. The relationship between 677C/T and 1298A/C was strong linkage disequilibrium. Conclusions The research pro-vided Chinese southern Han population genetics data on MTHFR gene. The relationship between 677C/T and 1298A/C was strong linkage disequilibrium.

Key words:
Rheumatoid arthritis; Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase;  Single nucleotide polymorphisms


In this paper we describe a system, which incorporates the optical flow to navigate in unknown environments. With the ability to identify and track moving objects it will be able to compute their trajectory and future positions to avoid collisions with them. The system incorporates an algorithm, which eliminates the optical flow induced by the motion of the camera (egomotion). Real-world and synthetic data is used in all stages of the development of the system, simulation is used as a primary design aid.


Content analysis of course syllabi can answer a variety of questions about the structure of courses and the campus culture of teaching and learning. The authors report a review of the full population of undergraduate syllabi at one institution during one academic term (n = 1153), including rubric design and training procedures for reviewers. The authors discuss the rich data generated by a comprehensive analysis of syllabus content, including student learning outcomes, descriptions of assignments and projects, and descriptions of activities and strategies instructors use to promote student learning. The review generated inventories of courses that addressed learning outcomes and associated assignments. Librarians and the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Assessment will use these inventories to approach departments and faculty with shared interests (e.g. information literacy, high-impact pedagogical practices, twenty-first century skills) and initiate collaborations to develop library workshops, resource materials and new or improved assignments to promote these learning outcomes. The review findings document changes in the campus culture of teaching and learning and inform efforts for continuous improvement.


[Objective]To investigate the clinical effect of comprehensive treatment on neonatal dacryocystitis.[Methods]104 cases of children with neonatal dacryocystitis diagnosed in our hospital from October 2008 to July 2009,a total of 124 eyes.Used the compression massage of the lacrimal sac,lacrimal irrigation,the comprehensive lacrimal treatment,observed the effects and complications.[Results]30 eyes were unobstructed by squeezing and massage the lacrimal sac,23 eyes were cured by the lacrimal pressure washing,66 eyes were cured by probing of lacrimal passage,the overall cure rate was 96.0%;of 71 eyes,61 ones got treated successfully by probing for the first time,and 8 eyes for the second time.2 eyes got treated successfully by the three-round exploration.In this group,children does not show choking,suffocation,and canalicular tear,etc.Only 1 eye in1 patient had false passage when probing,but got cured after the lacrimal passage rebuiding.Another patient bled a little after needle injection,and stop bleeding in a few minutes.[Conclusion]The combination therapy is safe and effective for neonatal dacryocystitis,more suitable for clinical application.


In Malaysia, a child is expected to be able to read by the age 7 before they entered formal schooling system. This shows that an effective teaching and learning method should be taken in coaching basic reading skills conducted in preschool. Some method has been implemented incorporate multimedia approach in teaching reading. While this is a good achievement, an e-learning environment will not be successful without a meaningful instruction. A principled method should be identified in developing an interactive educational multimedia tool in assisting students to read. In this paper, the phonetic approach is proposed in teaching reading skills presented with the power effect of multimedia and efficient instructional design. We first observe printed media sold nationwide that apply phonetic approach. We then borrow the basic ideas from the observed materials and classify lists of content equivalence. If applied phonetics are understood and used effectively, an immediate impact could be achieved in using multimedia assisted learning in classroom environment.


Hybrid polymer compounds (1–х)CsH5(PO4)2-хButvar (х=0– 0.3), synthesized with different solvents (ethanol and isopropanol) were first synthesized and investigated. Fundamental possibility of creating new highly conductive thin polymer electrolytes based on CsH5(PO4)2 was shown. An optimal synthesis method was determined. The crystal structure of CsH5(PO4)2 (P21/c) remains unchanged in the polymer system. The thickness of the electrolyte is no more than 50-100 μm. Proton conductivity increases by 2 orders of magnitude and depends on the composition. The highest conductivity was 10-1 S/cm at 135 °C. Changes in conductivity are caused by dispersion of the salt, as well as by the presence of insignificant amounts of residual water under the synthesis conditions.