The study aims to reveal the effect of simulation-based experiential learning applications on gaining problem-solving skills in the Social Studies curriculum. The research was carried out in an experimental model, and the data were obtained according to the controlled pre-test and post-test approach. Social process simulation, as a type of social simulation, was preferred during the application process.Three new and originally developed social process simulations were used in the context of the simulation-based experiential learning applications for the learning theme of "Power, Management and Society" in the 7 th grade social studies curriculum. According to the time prescribed in the program, the course implementation continued for 4 weeks (12 lessons) in total. The research was carried out in Usak's Karahallı District Cumhuriyet Secondary School. The research study group composed of 42 students; 21 students in the experimental group and 21 students in the control group participated in the research. The "Problem Solving Skills Scale" consisting of 4 dimensions was used as the research data collection tool. Mann Whitney U Test and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test as non-parametric tests were used to analyze the data obtained in the study. According to research results, the post-test results of the experimental group students who were educated in the simulation-based experiential learning model were significantly higher than the control group students who were educated with the methods prescribed in the programme. In conclusion, in this context, it has been reached that simulation-based experiential learning applications enhance students' problem-solving skills. a crucial point in the Social Studies programme. With this study, a practical and concrete application was made on how to increase students' problem-solving skills with the method of social process simulations. The study aims to reveal the effect of simulation-based experiential learning applications on gaining problem-solving skills in the Social Studies curriculum.


Intermediates involved in the replication of double-stranded 4X174 RF DNA have been identified and partially characterized. Analysis of pulse-labeled RF DNA suggests that the synthesis of progeny RF molecules involves, in part, the addition of nucleotides to linear complementary strands on a circular parental strand as template, so as to produce intermediate DNA strands of greater than viral length. Electron microscopy reveals DNA rings with "tails" and "double rings," which could be the intermediate structures. A model is postulated for the replication process. Semiconservative replication of the replicative form (RF)1 of bacteriophage 4X174 DNA is only observed for those RF molecules which are associated with an active "replication site."2' There are one to four replication sites per host cell,2 dependent on the metabolic state of the cell. In cells infected with mul-tiplicities of more than four phage per cell, only the parental RF molecules can participate in the semiconservative production of daughter RF molecules.3 The replicating parental RF molecules are found in the membrane fractions of a cell extract while the replication products, the daughter RF molecules, are not bound to the membrane and are most probably free in the cytoplasm of the cell.4 These processes are observed during the eclipse period of a normal infection cycle and during abortive infection in the presence of 30-40 yg/ml chloramphen-icol (when only daughter RF molecules, but no progeny single-stranded DNA molecules, are formed). In this paper we describe some experiments which give, in a preliminary way, more insight into the process of the semiconservative reproduction of double-stranded 4X DNA molecules.


In Douglas Adam's "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", published in the 1970s, a computer is confronted with the intriguing question: "What is the meaning of life?" After elaborate and tedious number crunching, the computer returns: "The answer to your question is 42". It is obvious, that the monetary valuation of road safety is not an easy task either. In fact, it implies answering an equally difficult and intriguing question – What is the statistical value of a human life? Although various methods and approaches have been put forward to estimate the statistical cost of a road fatality, some scholars argue that valuing fatal injuries and hence human life is virtually impossible. They maintain that people do not nearly have sufficiently accurate preferences to make a sensible trade-off between road safety and money. The (perceptions of) changes in risk levels are so small that making the trade-off is very difficult, if not impossible (Hauer, 1994). However, other road safety costs can be statistically determined and initiatives developed to reduce the burden to both organisations and individuals. Therefore, the topic of this paper is to determine what factors contribute to work-related road incidents and how economic costs to industry organisations could be reduced.


Nonadherence to medication treatment regimens is a major preventable risk behavior in both acute and chronic diseases. Community pharmacists are facilitators in community care for promoting medication adherence and they should implement interdisciplinary medication adherence programs. To do so, pharmacists should be educated in medication adherence, and new pharmaceutical care policies should be implemented. The healthcare system should evolve to better meet the specific needs of patients. Aims: this article describes what has been undertaken in the last decade in medication adherence in terms of education, research, practice and policy in Switzerland. Methods: Medline was searched, with the search limited to Switzerland. The three Swiss pharmacy schools were also contacted to collect information about the medication adherence content of both their courses and research programs. National policies related to medication adherence were also reviewed for relevant content. Results: Education: two pharmacy schools offer courses devoted specifically to medication adherence. The number of hours dedicated to the topic varies between 4 to13. Research: a total of 16 studies met the inclusion criteria. Chronic patients were the focus of 9 studies. Medication adherence was the primary outcome of all studies; 10 studies also measured clinical outcomes. Nine studies evaluated the prevalence of medication


For the 1st stage of labor in primiparae the modal length was 12-24 hours and this group had the lowest infant mortality ratio of 79. Long 1st stages are associated with a higher infant mortality which is increased at 24-48 hours and almost doubled above 48 hours. In all cases reported 15.9% were in labor for 24 hours or more and 2.7% for 48 hours or more. In primiparae labor should not be allowed to go on for 48 hours. Women still undelivered at home or at a General Practitioners Unit after 24 hours should be transferred to a hospital at once. In parous women the 1st stage is 6-12 hours. This group has an infant mortality ratio of 80. The mortality increases after 24 hours although only 4% go over 24 hours. Short labors have a high risk of asphyxia of the infant and trauma. In primiparae the best outcome is with a 2nd stage of 90-120 minutes with a mortality ratio of 50. Premature infants have shorter 2nd stages. As the 2nd stage becomes longer infant mortality rises. More frequent use of forceps or episiotomy might reduce the perinatal mortality in these cases. With multiparae the lowest infant mortality ratio is at 30-60 minutes of the 2nd stage. Of 286 women delivered with membranes unruptured 215 were delivered by Caesarean section. With primiparae the lowest infant mortality ratio 65 was associated with cases where the membranes had been ruptured 3-6 hours. After this the risk rises steadily and is doubled at 24-48 hours and 3 times the minimum after 48 hours. All cases with prolonged rupture of the membranes should be transferred to a hospital. With multiparae the best mortality ratio was 66 with 3 hours or less since rupture of the membranes.


Abstract For impulsive differential equations, we construct topological conjugacies between linear and nonlinear perturbations of non-uniform exponential dichotomies. In the case of linear perturbations, the topological conjugacies are constructed in a more or less explicit manner. In the nonlinear case, we obtain an appropriate version of the Grobman–Hartman Theorem for impulsive equations, with a simple and direct proof that involves no discretization of the dynamics.


Light charged particles in coincidence with evaporation residues from the ${}^{19}\mathrm{F}{+}^{181}{\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{Ta}}}^{200}\mathrm{Pb}$ reaction have been studied at ${E}_{\mathrm{lab}}=121,$ 154, 179, and 195 MeV with the aim of determining, within the context of the statistical model, a possible dependence of the Fermi-gas level density parameter on the temperature/excitation energy of the emitting system. Angular distributions of evaporation residues and of fission fragments, along with fission fragment folding angle distributions, were also measured. A moderate excitation energy dependence of the level density parameter, as given by recent theoretical calculations, is consistent with the measured $\ensuremath{\alpha}$-particle spectral shapes. Although the spectra are reproduced best with a weakly varying level density parameter, a constant level density parameter of a=A/12 ${\mathrm{MeV}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ cannot be excluded.


The recognition of Human rights to water and sanitation are widely understood to provide a basis for effective demand for services from communities, and greater accountability from duty bearers. This paper describes insights drawn from WASH projects in India that have used a human rights based approach. The projects suggest that communities show a broad understanding of the concept of human rights to water and sanitation as essential for a dignified and healthy life. Overall there is a wide appreciation of the components of the rights, the importance of access for all, and the concomitant responsibilities and accountabilities to realise the rights. While duty bearers generally also acknowledge their responsibilities, and there are mechanisms for accountability and participation in the national, district and local government institutions, in reality the accountability mechanisms are fragmented and dysfunctional. The civil society organizations can play a role in strengthening these, but must negotiate this role with care.


This research note introduces a new dataset, called 'Pep-Us,' containing positional and salience estimates of parties and governments in the European Union. The point estimates, which all come with measures of uncertainty, pertain to nine important EU policy domains as well as a European Integration and an ideological scale. The dataset is based on statistics from hand-coded European party manifestos provided by the 'Euromanifestos' project (Wust and Volkens, 2003), and corrects for stochastic error using simulation (Benoit, Mikhaylov and Laver, 2009). The manifestos are scaled using a novel scaling technique for count data that employs principles from psychophysics (Lowe et al., 2010). For most European domestic parties and major European Parliament groups, the estimates range from 1979 to 2004, while for member state governments time-series between 1998 and 2007 are available. The dataset and replication material will be made freely available from a special website by November 2010.


Abstract : This report describes the fourth in a series of experiments to evaluate the effects of the format of software documentation on programmer performance. The current experiment examined performance on a modification task. Thirty-six professional programmers were presented with documentation for each of three modular-sized programs. Nine different documentation formats were prepared for each program. These formats varied along two dimensions: type of symbology and spatial arrangement. The type of symbology included normal English, abbreviated English and program design language (PDL). The spatial arrangement included sequential (vertical flow), branching (flowchart), and hierarchical (tree-like). The participants were required to implement a modification to each program. These modifications required a minimum of three to five lines of additional code which the participants inserted using a text editor. The program output was checked automatically and a message informed the participants whether the output was correct or incorrect. The participants were asked to continue working until the modification was completed successfully. The difficulty of the task was measured by the time required to successfully complete the modification and by the number of errors which appeared in the first submission of the modified program. Unlike the previous experiments in this series, the type of symbology did not have a strong effect on performance time. However, the results reflected the trend that appeared in the previous experiments: the more succinct the symbology, the better the performance.


Aiming at the odor source localization in an obstacle-filled wind-varying indoor environment, a new method based odor source localization algorithm for a single mobile robot is proposed. With the information of the wind and the concentration gradient, Wasps can find odor source in a short time. However, it is very difficult for mobile robots to mimic the behaviors of wasps exactly. So, besides the bionics, BP neural network is adopted for the mobile robot to find the odor source. The control strategies for the plume-tracing mobile robot are proposed which include the intelligent plume-tracing algorithm and the collision avoidance algorithm based on improved potential grid method. The algorithms were integrated to control the robot trace plumes in obstructed indoor environments. Experimental results have demonstrated the capability of this kind of plume-tracing mobile robot.


BACKGROUND
 The emergence of social media highlights the decentralized nature of information, which means people can be prone to uncertainty and be affectively polarized. A wealth of research around online affective polarization has focused on quantifying anxiety at an individual level, while neglecting that on a collective basis. To address this gap, the manner in which the anxiety of topic-based communities on social media polarizes warrants further examination.

 OBJECTIVE
 This study aims to gauge the origin and fluctuation in the collective anxiety of topic-based communities on Weibo, and also investigates its correlations with topic characteristics and users' personal influence.

 METHODS
 In this paper, researchers proposed a computational model based on neural networks to assess the collective anxiety score of Weibo topic-based communities. The empirical study was based on 200 communities with 403,380 personal accounts and 358,260 messages.

 RESULTS
 With demonstrated effectiveness of our computational model (85.00% precision and 87.00% recall), we found correlations between the collective anxiety level and the extent to which a certain topic involves public interest, as well as how community members interpret and elaborate the topics on social network platforms. Furthermore, the ratio of influencers might impact anxiety polarization of topic-based communities by setting tones and leading the trends within their groups. More specifically, how close a certain topic is to public interest and people's conflicting perceptions are responsible for increases of this collective anxiety, while the number of influencers engaged accounts for the decline of its increment.

 CONCLUSIONS
 This paper examines the manner in which the anxiety of topic-based communities on Weibo platform polarizes. We found the collective anxiety to augment due to topic proximities to public interest and members' lack of declarative knowledge on topics, while to decline with an increasing portion of online influencers. These findings indicate that anxiety is induced due to a lack of credibility. Also, the amount of conflicting information shared by different people places them in a state of flux. Therefore, a community with more influencers may be more likely to experience anxiety polarization, bringing forth the issue of layered information and inequality.


The invention discloses an intelligent circuit breaker. The intelligent circuit breaker is characterized in that an electronic current transformer is installed on the line outgoing touch arm of the circuit breaker and used for detecting the primary current of the circuit breaker; the secondary current of the circuit breaker is output at the bottom of the transformer in the form of an aviation plug, each phase of output is divided into a measurement current and a protection current, and accessed to a controller arranged in the circuit breaker, the controller is used for comparing the value of a real-time current with a set current fixed value, starting a trip after the current is greater than the set value, and recording the occurrence date, time and cumulative number. With the adoption of the structure and the method above, the intelligent circuit breaker disclosed by the invention comprehensively realizes the trip times recording function thereof, enhances the use reliability thereof, and realizes the intelligent control thereof.


We study the problem of quantum state exchange between two coupled modes of the electromagnetic field modelled by quantum oscillators. Analysing the structure of propagators of the Schrodinger equation with the most general weak bilinear resonance coupling, we find the conditions of the exchange in both 'narrow' and 'wide' senses.


The present invention relates to an apparatus for forming a delivery path for a composition for treatment and an auxiliary assembly for skin treatment including the same, and provides an apparatus for forming a delivery path for a composition for treatment and an auxiliary assembly for skin treatment including the same, the apparatus comprising: a light source; a light irradiating unit for receiving a light from the light source to irradiate the light on a surface of skin; and a control unit for controlling a pulse waveform of a light irradiated through the light irradiating unit so as to form a plurality of pores, which form a path through which a composition applied on the surface of the skin is transferred inside, on the surface of the skin after irradiating the light.


Abstract : The review provides a unified record of research in progress together with achievements resulting from the basic research program of the Directorate of Chemical Sciences, AFOSR (OAR). There are three main sections in the review. The first section is devoted to research high-lights under the headings of Aerospace Chemistry, Chemical Reactivity and Mechanisms, New Methods and Techniques, Inorganic Chemistry, Polymer Chemistry, and Symposia. The middle section contains geographic and other Program statistics, a list of scientific reports received during the year, and a list of active projects. In the final section a factual summary is provided for each project which was completed during fiscal year 1966. (Author)


The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine's (ACOEM's) Occupational Medicine Practice Guidelines, 2nd ed., states that "opioids appear to be no more effective than safer analgesics for managing most musculoskeletal and eye symptoms; they should be used only if needed for severe pain and only for a short time.1 The Guidelines further indicate that pain medications (referring to opioids) are "typically not useful in the sub-acute and chronic phases,"2 and, when used for the latter, should be taken with care because they are "easy" and as such may represent a path of little resistance, thus preventing both the patient and physician from vesting in a difficult and uncomfortable rehabilitation course.3


Forest defoliators of the Spruce Budworm complex are the most extensively studied moths in the world, yet taxonomic relationships among western populations have been poorly understood. This work distinguishes species groups using a three-dimensional definition-reproductive isolation through intraspecific recognition (pheromone chemistry and correlated behavior), ecological separation (larval hosts), and morphometric analysis of adultswhere traditional study of museum specimens failed."


Background: Anterior Cruciate Ligament rupture is one of the most frequent orthopaedic sport injuries, with a yearly incidence of 30 to 80 in 100,000 according to 21year population-based study. Arthroscopically assisted anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is the gold standard for treating ACL ruptures. The different techniques for ACL reconstruction aim to perform as near a normal anatomic reconstruction as possible. Previous studies showed advantages of anatomic single-bundle reconstruction with remnant-preserving technique which include; enhanced revascularization and ligamentization of the graft, preservation of proprioceptive cells, prevention of synovial fluid bath to the tunnels, enhanced bone tendon healing, and early rehabilitation. Furthermore, accurate tunnel placement is easier with this technique than the standard technique. However, the surgery is technically more demanding, and related to increased impingement and cyclops lesion incidence.


An extensive trial to examine physiological and biochemical changes in perch (Perca fluviatilis) inhabiting coastal waters polluted by bleached kraft mill effluents (BKME) has been carried out. The investigations were performed at four different times of year. Fish from a reference site and from sampling sites 2, 4.5, 8, and 10 km from the discharge point were examined. The results of the investigation show profound effects of BKME on several fundamental biochemical and physiological functions. Typical symptoms in perch from the polluted areas were reduced gonad growth, enlarged liver, and very strong induction of certain cytochrome P-450-dependent enzyme activities in the liver. Elevated levels of ascorbic acid in liver tissue and abnormal carbohydrate metabolism reflect the effluent's ability to cause metabolic disorders. Marked effects on the white blood cell pattern indicate a suppressed immune defence. Alterations in the red blood cell status and in the ion balance suggest that the demand for oxygen ...


This thesis studies the varying degrees in a performer's perception of the difference in the adjustable acoustics of a specific performance hall, namely, what is the difference between the opinions of instrumentalists and vocal musicians? Reverberation times in the Rogers Center auditorium in Andover, MA were taken onstage with the hall's acoustical curtains either hidden or exposed. Performers in the school musical and in a local symphony group were given surveys after doing two rehearsals in the hall, one in each configuration. The results from the reverberation time measurements show a clear difference between reverberation times perceived onstage. Performer surveys, however, show that neither group of performers noticed a strong contrast between different configurations of the curtains. They did, however, respond strongly when acoustics were changed that affected reflective surfaces directly surrounding them. Thesis Supervisor: Carl Rosenberg Title: Lecturer, Department of Architecture I. Background Architectural acousticians must try to define what makes one performance space better than another. The judgment is, however, initially instinctual and subjective, so it is difficult to compare one performance space to another in objective terms. One of the biggest challenges today is the demand for high-quality performance spaces that can service a wide variety of performance genres; people want multi-purpose rooms that will yield a lovely symphonic sound and then allow for a clear, easily-understood speech the next day. Opera or musicals present a unique problem for the acoustics architect. While the instrumental and vocal musicality fall under the common heading of "concert" or "classical" music, the sung or spoken words that are not part of a song but instead advance the plot are vital to the audience comprehension of the story. Thus, it is important that they be heard and understood. Speech comprehension is determined by the reverberation time of the room and its high-frequency absorption (Cowan, 30). One of the simplest ways to provide for varying demands on a performance space is to give it adjustable acoustical properties-surfaces like curtains or walls that can be changed to absorb or reflect more or less sound. Adjustable acoustics offers an inexpensive method of quickly changing the acoustical properties of a space. More reflective surfaces increase the reverberation time of the space, while additional absorptive surfaces do the opposite. Increased reverberation time is often thought of as beneficial to classical (instrumental) performance, while less reverberation time allows speech to be more intelligible.


The application discloses a method and system for video communication in an instant communication process, wherein the method and system are used for video communication between a first user and a second user. The method comprises: receiving a video communication request; determining if a video image of the first user needs fuzzification processing; and if so, the video image of the first user is subjected to fuzzification processing, so that the fuzzified video image of the first user can be showed in a video conversation window of the second user. According to the application, in the guarantee of non-excessive exposure of user privacy, on-line communication can be conveniently and fast realized between users in a video communication way.


Introduction: Chronic liver disease (CLD) is a progressive condition characterized by liver tissue destruction, leading to complications such as cirrhosis. Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in patients with CLD and is associated with skeletal and immune system impairments. This brief focuses on the impact of vitamin D deficiency in CLD and the significance of assessing vitamin D status and calcium levels for effective interventions and improved patient outcomes. Aim of the Study: The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the serum vitamin D and calcium with different stages of chronic liver diseases. Methods: This observational cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Gastroenterology at BSMMU in Dhaka, Bangladesh, over a period from April 2019 to March 2020. The study included 60 patients, of them 30 patients had chronic liver disease and a comparison group comprising 30 healthy attendants from the same department. Data were collected without interventions, cleaned, and analyzed using SPSS version 22.0. Ethical clearance of this study was obtained from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of BSMMU, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Results: The study examined the association between serum vitamin D and calcium levels with different stages of chronic liver disease (CLD). Among the CLD patients, a significant proportion (63.4%) had deficient vitamin D levels compared to the healthy individuals (23.3%), and only 3.3% had sufficient levels (p = 0.007). Serum calcium levels were significantly lower in CLD patients (8.05 ± 0.76 mg/dl) compared to healthy individuals (8.81 ± 0.49 mg/dl) (p < 0.001). Furthermore, vitamin D levels were associated with the severity of liver cirrhosis, as higher Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) classes had lower vitamin D levels (p = 0.009). These results indicate a potential link between vitamin D deficiency and advanced stages of chronic liver disease, emphasizing the importance of monitoring vitamin D and ......


The development of knowledge regarding that widely prevalent disorder of children known as rickets has not been in logical sequence, In this respect rickets is similar to other well known diseases. A symptom complex is described and before its causation is clear or even the pathological processes underlying it understood, a perfectly satisfactory remedy is discovered. As has been the case, in other instances so here no one knows to whom the credit for the remedy is due. The student of rickets can point to several different landmarks or milestones in the line of progress. First unquestionably is the monograph of Glisson which appeared in 1650, the first monograph on disease ever published in England. It contains evidence of most careful observation and is further noteworthy in that there is included the mention of scurvy as an infantile disease. Glisson developed his ideas during a number of years but almost certainly he was not the first to recognize rickets. Its presence wits well appreciated by the populace in certain parts of England probably better than by physicians and the name "Rickets" is found in the Bills of Mortality seventeen years before the appearance of Glisson 's monograph. But the monograph was and is a masterpiece that greatly influenced the medical thought of Glisson's day and of a good many days after him. The second is the monograph by Pommer in 1885 which established the pathology of rickets upon a firm foundation. Before that time many of the abnormalities of the newly born child such as chondrodystrophy and osteogenesis imperfecta had been considered rachitic in origin, even by Virchow himself. It followed that the belief was implanted in the minds of many that rickets may be and frequently is a congenital disease. It took many years to eradicate this belief.


Abstract:
 Berger, F. & Brackel, W. v. 2011. A new species of Phaeosporobolus on Lecanora chlarotera. — Herzogia 24: 351–356. The new species Phaeosporobolus chlaroterae is described. It is dwelling on Lecanora chlarotera and characterized by big, thin-walled cells of the stroma and packets of conidia with few cells.


The suggested fault classification and location technique uses single cycle post fault voltage and current signal from the sending end of the underground cable (UC). Then signal disintegration is done using different signal processing method to collect set of statistical features. Thereafter by using feature extraction method (forward feature selection (FFS)) is implemented to collect the optimum features and the redundant features are discarded from the total feature set. The chosen features are fed to artificial neural network (ANN)/extreme learning machine (ELM) for fault classification and location. From the simulation of the test system it is noticed that wavelet packet transform-ELM with FFS based hybrid method provides least fault locality error (0.2%) and highest classification accuracy (99.5%) as associated with other method implemented by other researcher


How will the behaviors of individuals in a social network be influenced by their neighbors, the authorities and the communities in a quantitative way? Such critical and valuable knowledge is unfortunately not readily accessible and we tend to only observe its manifestation in the form of recurrent and time-stamped events occurring at the individuals involved in the social network. It is an important yet challenging problem to infer the underlying network of social inference based on the temporal patterns of those historical events that we can observe. In this paper, we propose a convex optimization approach to discover the hidden network of social influence by modeling the recurrent events at different individuals as multidimensional Hawkes processes, emphasizing the mutual-excitation nature of the dynamics of event occurrence. Furthermore, our estimation procedure, using nuclear and l1 norm regularization simultaneously on the parameters, is able to take into account the prior knowledge of the presence of neighbor interaction, authority influence, and community coordination in the social network. To efficiently solve the resulting optimization problem, we also design an algorithm ADM4 which combines techniques of alternating direction method of multipliers and majorization minimization. We experimented with both synthetic and real world data sets, and showed that the proposed method can discover the hidden network more accurately and produce a better predictive model than several baselines.


The corrosion inhibition of 2 mercapto benzimidazole (MBI) and 1 phenyl 5 mercapto tetrazole (PMTA) for copper in 0.5mol/L HCl solution were investigated by weight loss measurements and electrochemical methods (potentiodynamic polarization and impedance spectroscope). Coupon tests show that the inhibition efficiency of MBI is 91.6% at 10 -3 mol/L level. Potentiodynamic polarization results reveal that the two compounds act as anodic inhibitors. Inhibition of the complex of MBI and PMTA was also studied. There is a synergistic effect for the best protection at the molar ratio of 1:2 between MBI and PMTA.


Summary Hypophysectomy of the rat failed to reduce consistently the concentration of PA in the pancreas when computed on the basis of wet weight. When related to mg of nitrogen per g of pancreas the amount of PA was increased. Treatment with STC restored body weight, increased pancreatic weight and total PA. Except when insulin was added to the hormonal regimen, PA did not reach the level observed in the nonhypophysectomized controls.


Objective: To develop and test the validity and reliability of the Withdrawal Assessment Tool–1 for monitoring opioid and benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms in pediatric patients. Design: Prospective psychometric evaluation. Pediatric critical care nurses assessed eligible at-risk pediatric patients for the presence of 19 withdrawal symptoms and rated the patient's overall withdrawal intensity using a Numeric Rating Scale where zero indicated no withdrawal and 10 indicated worst possible withdrawal. The 19 symptoms were derived from the Opioid and Benzodiazepine Withdrawal Score, the literature and expert opinion. Setting: Two pediatric intensive care units in university-affiliated academic children's hospitals. Patients: Eighty-three pediatric patients, median age 35 mos (interquartile range: 7 mos−10 yrs), recovering from acute respiratory failure who were being weaned from more than 5 days of continuous infusion or round-the-clock opioid and benzodiazepine administration. Interventions: Repeated observations during analgesia and sedative weaning. A total of 1040 withdrawal symptom assessments were completed, with a median (interquartile range) of 11 (6–16) per patient over 6.6 (4.8−11) days. Measurements and Main Results: Generalized linear modeling was used to analyze each symptom in relation to withdrawal intensity ratings, adjusted for site, subject, and age group. Symptoms with high redundancy or low levels of association with withdrawal intensity ratings were dropped, resulting in an 11-item (12-point) scale. Concurrent validity was indicated by high sensitivity (0.872) and specificity (0.880) for Withdrawal Assessment Tool–1 > 3 predicting Numeric Rating Scale > 4. Construct validity was supported by significant differences in drug exposure, length of treatment and weaning from sedation, length of mechanical ventilation and intensive care unit stay for patients with Withdrawal Assessment Tool–1 scores > 3 compared with those with lower scores. Conclusions: The Withdrawal Assessment Tool–1 shows excellent preliminary psychometric performance when used to assess clinically important withdrawal symptoms in the pediatric intensive care unit setting. Further psychometric evaluation in diverse at-risk groups is needed.


The evaporation characteristics of iron-nickel alloys at high temperature in high vacuum were studied in the ranges of composition from 10 to 90 atomic percent of iron and of temperature between 1400°C and 1800°C. The evaporator was the double crucible of BeO for practical use with the similar structure to that of Knudsen Is cell (see Fig. 2). The compositions of samples deposited continuously on each individual glass substrate one by one were determined by chemical microanalysis (using spectrophoto metric method). By plotting the contents of either iron or nickel in deposits against evaporation time and extrapolating them to the origin of time scale, the composition of deposit corresponding to the original composition of alloy could be obtained. Then, basing on these data, so-called x-y curves and values of relative volatilities, representing the fractionation power, were obtained for Fe-Ni systems. Such results are discussed and the behaviour of mass transportation in molten alloy on the progression of evaporation in the crucible is explained with a model.


This study was conducted to evaluate the change of nutritional status and to analyze related factors in hospitalized tuberculosis (TB) patients during their hospitalization. The subjects were 398 men patients (mean age: 47.3 ± 14.4 y) who had hospitalized more than 3 months at TB hospital located in Seoul. The anthropometric and blood biochemical indices were measured, and dietary intakes were assessed. At the time of admission the body weight of subjects was about 76% of the average body weight of Korean men with same age, Body mass index (BMI) of subjects was 18.5 ㎏/㎡, and 53.8% of subjects were under weight status. Average level of blood hemoglobin and hematocrit of subjects was lower than the normal value. After 3 months of hospitalization period, the body weight and body mass index were significantly increased compared to admission by 3.9 ㎏ (7.41%) and 1.4 ㎏/㎡ (7.61%)(p < 0.001), respectively. Blood levels of hemoglobin, hematocrit, albumin, and total protein were also significantly increased after 3 months of hospitalization period compared to admission (p < 0.001). The increment in the body weight and blood indices was significantly higher in below 29 years group than over 60 years group (p < 0.05). The increment in the body weight and body mass index was significantly higher in the under-body weight group compared to the normal-body weight group (p < 0.05). In conclusion the body weight and body mass index of subjects were significantly increased after 3 months of hospitalization period, and the age and body weight of subjects at admission were supposed to influence the degree of change in the nutritional status.


Non-conventional extraction of bioactive metabolites could provide sustainable alternative techniques to preserve the potency of antioxidants and antiviral compounds extracted from macro-algae. In this paper, we first reviewed the antioxidant and antiviral potential of the active metabolites that exist in the three known macro-algae classes; Phaeophyceae, Rhodophyceae, and Chlorophyceae, and a comparison between their activities is discussed. Secondly, a review of conventional and non-conventional extraction methods is undertaken. The review then focused on identifying the optimal extraction method of sulphated polysaccharide from macro-algae that exhibits both antiviral and antioxidant activity. The review finds that species belonging to the Phaeophyceae and Rhodophceae classes are primarily potent against herpes simplex virus, followed by human immunodeficiency virus and influenza virus. At the same time, species belonging to Chlorophyceae class are recorded by most of the scholars to have antiviral activity against herpes simplex virus 1. Additionally, all three macro-algae classes exhibit antioxidant activity, the potency of which is a factor of the molecular structure of the bioactive metabolite as well as the extraction method applied.


notion of being that is, of its nature, determinable. On the other hand, the concept of being that we have of God is one that cannot be determined in any fashion since God is unlimited and unresticted. Although these two concepts are radically different, they appear to be alike since they both lack determination. Of course, they lack determination in different ways. The indetermined concept proper to creatures can be determined; the indeterminable concept proper to God cannot be determined. But because they are similar in their lack of determination, we confusedly think of these two concepts as one. This confused concept that really is two different concepts is what Henry means by the analogical concept by which we


A form of literary representation little probed by contemporary theory is propagation, the part that one work of art plays in the getting of another. In view of the multiplicity of elements which combine to produce a seemingly new writing, that omission is understandable, especially since recent theory has striven, not unsuccessfully, to weaken the myth of sole authorship, much as Plato, in his mortal conflict with poetry, designs to disarm philosophy's major foe by depicting poets themselves as instruments played by the gods rather than as players original in their craft. All art is for Plato second or third rate, and he justifies its inferiority by means of a theory of representation in which the copy can never be the equal, still less the superior, of its original.' But the fact is that all artists imitate extant models of their art, which some equal and a few surpass. Over the past twenty years, largely owing to the efforts of a small, unrelated group of mainly North American critics, the awareness that Jose Zorrilla's Don Juan Tenorio is not an unworthy descendant of Tirso's El burlador de Sevilla has grown. Despite major differences between the two plays, they have increasingly tended to be seen as not incommensurate. Greater stature for the presumed offspring has not,


BackgroundThis study explored the risk factors associated with running away behavior in Iranian youth girls.MethodThis cross-sectional study recruited Ninety-five runaway youth girls, and 135 control group girls. They responded several self-report measures that assess sociodemographic characteristics, family economic status, strength of family, religious identification, life time substance use, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, self-esteem, coping styles, self-esteem, and depression.ResultsGirls who came from low income families, and moderate income families had significantly higher odds to run away than girls belonged to high income families. Girls who had a history of illicit drugs use had higher odds to run away from home. Moreover, low level of family strength, and low level of religious beliefs significantly predicted running away from home.ConclusionFindings suggest that family economic status, substance use, family relationship, and individual low level of religious beliefs appear to be key factors to understanding running away from home among Iranian adolescent girls.


In large parts of the world, income inequality has been rising in recent decades. Other regions have experienced declining trends in income inequality. This raises the question of which mechanisms underlie contrasting observed trends in income inequality around the globe. To address this research question in a comparative study, we examine a global sample of 73 countries between 1981 and 2010. Yet, we are particularly interested in the heterogeneity of inequality determinants across world regions, and along the income distribution.


Novel thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPVs) based on silicone rubber (PDMS) and polyamide (PA12) have been prepared by dynamic vulcanization process. The effect of dynamic vulcanization and influence of various types of perox- ides as cross-linking agents were studied in detail. All the TPVs were prepared at a ratio of 50/50 wt% of silicone rubber and polyamide. Three structurally different peroxides, namely dicumyl peroxide (DCP), 3,3,5,7,7-pentamethyl 1,2,4-triox- epane (PMTO) and cumyl hydroperoxide (CHP) were taken for investigation. Though DCP was the best option for curing the silicone rubber, at high temperature it suffers from scorch safety. An inhibitor 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidinyloxyl (TEMPO) was added with DCP to stabilize the radicals in order to increase the scorch time. Though CHP (hydroperoxide) had higher half life time than DCP at higher temperature, it has no significant effect on cross-linking of silicone rubber. PMTO showed prolonged scorch safety and better cross-linking efficiency rather than the other two. TPVs of DCP and PMTO were made up to 11 minutes of mixing. Increased values of tensile strength and elongation at break of PMTO cross-linked TPV indi- cate the superiority of PMTO. Scanning electron micrographs correlate with mechanical properties of the TPVs. High stor- age modulus (E!) and lower loss tangent value of the PMTO cross-linked TPV indicate the higher degree of cross-linking which is also well supported by the overall cross-link density value. Thus PMTO was found to be the superior peroxide for cross-linking of silicone rubber at high temperature.


Abstract
Diving into the politics of radical hospitality, the acceptance of alterity, and the erasure of black women's bodies in "The Ga(s)p" (2018), m. NourbeSe Philip demonstrates reciprocal breath as a thread of connection that is central to human existence. Throughout this essay, Philip counters prominent, male-centric theories on receptive bodies through the emphasis on the ubiquity of contingent respiration. Philip contends that this "process of shared breath … and dependency becomes useful as a model of community and connectedness in a more female-centred, embodied symbolic universe" (36). Philip enacts this theory on the page in her book-length poem Zong! (2008).
            Using the court report of Gregson v. Gilbert as a source text, Zong! grapples with the November 1781 massacre of 150 Africans aboard the slave ship Zong on its passage from Ghana to England. Zong! is an erasure poem of 173 pages with movements that Philip describes as "the bones" and "the flesh." The linguistic material of the poem and its arrangement reflect corporeality and respiration; the textual fragments are physically separated on the page—leaving room for breath. The body and breath of Zong! extends beyond the page to performance. In theory and praxis, Philip uses challenging linguistic material and arrangement to inscribe the body on the page; consequently, she causes the reader to interrogate their positionality and their relationship to the body, to language, and to performance.

Keywords:
erasure, erasure poetry, body, performance, breath, respiration, reciprocity, positionality


The possible thermal history of the earth in the absence of convection is studied by comparing numerical calculations of the development of thermal state within several model earths with observed facts. The following conditions are adopted to study thermal evolution: (1) excitonic heat transfer in the earth's mantle, (2) absorption of melting heat in melting process, (3) influence for initial temperature due to formation of an iron core, and (4) longenduring process of differentiation of the upper parts of the mantle. The total heat conductivity in limits from 400 km. to the base of the mantle is of the same order as the core. Such a high heat transfer by conduction is equivalent to the amount of heat transported by mantle convection current having the speed of about 0.1 cm/year for the present time, which exerts a considerable influence on the computed temperature within mantle. The modern features of temperature-depth curves are very similar in cited models in which energy is transmitted by exciton, photon, and phonon. The current temperature on the possible earth models approaches but not exceeds the melting temperature of forsterite at depths between 200 and 400 km.


Considerable efforts are being made during last few decades to study the interactions induced by protons. Being light ion, proton interactions varies material to materials in view of collisions meet likely inelastic arising due to collective states of atom, or due to elastic scattering. During the process electron or nudeon are ©(changed, either in successive steps or as dusters, resulting in both energy and intensity being transferred from relative motion into interna! degrees of freedoms The projectile impinges on the target material with enough energy to overcome the work function of the surface so that collision process takes place Using a variety of detedors and assodated eledronics we recreate the details of these interadiona The hydrogen serves as partide loading on plasma fadng components (PFC) such as tungsten, graphite, beryllium etc, in fusion reador like ITER. The low energy hydrogen isotopes upon bombardment cause the radiation damage and subsequent accumulation of hydrogen in the component. The micro strudural evolution induced by irrteradions of hydrogen with defeds in the plasma-fadng components relates with the materia! degradation end recyding [1], Also hydrogen recyding is a critical issue for such readors, which aim to realize the long pulse and steady state operation [2]. The protons have been used extensively to study the interadions on various PFCs of the tokamak reador. This is why our main aim is to charaderize the protons emission from our PF device in order to carry out implantation on materials of tokamak interest.


—Red-parrot fish (male midas cichlid Cichlasoma citrinellum 3 female redhead cichlid C. synspilum) is one of the most important tropical fish in Taiwan. In high-density culture, poor water quality often induces emaciation, gill filament ulceration, gill opercula malformation, and high mortality. In an effort to solve these problems in a high-density culture environment, two bacteria, Bacillus subtilis and B. megaterium, were added to the recirculating-water systems of the grow-out facilities. The addition of Bacillus held total ammonia nitrogen concentrations to 5.4 mg/L or less and chemical oxygen demands to 40.8 mg/L or less; it also maintained the transparency of the recirculated aquarium water at 30–50 cm. Survival rate and quality of fish were dramatically improved with this microbial water quality management process. This method is easy to perform and can be adapted effectively in the commercial culture of red-parrot fish. Tropical fish culture is an important aquatic industry in Taiwan. Production of the red-parrot fish (Figure 1) was worth more than US$3.2 million dollars (about 0.8 billion Taiwanese dollars) in 1990, or almost 20% of the tropical fish production in Taiwan (Chung 1992). Because of water temperature limitations, the major grow-out facilities are located in southern Taiwan, where red-parrot fish are reared in the outdoor ponds without recirculating-water systems. However, hatcheries are located in northern Taiwan, where red-parrot fish are hatched and grown in greenhouses. It is well documented that tropical fish reared at high densities in greenhouses require effective recirculating-water systems (Chung 1992). The red-parrot fish were initially produced in a cross between male midas cichlids Cichlasoma citrinellum and female redhead cichlids C. synspilum (also known in Taiwan as purple-red fire mouth fish) in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1989 (Konings 1989; Axelrod et al. 1990; Chen 1990a, 1990b, 1990c). The body colors of the fish vary from pinkish red * Corresponding author: firstname.lastname@example.com Received March 30, 1999; accepted June 29, 2000 to blood red, the body shape is somewhat truncated with a thick foreback (the back before dorsal fin), and the mouth is triangular and does not close. In greenhouses, red-parrot fish are cultured at high density in 250–300-L aquaria. Approximately 1,000 young fish at a density of 8.23 g/L or 400 adult fish (average body length 5 12.7 cm) at a density of 135 g/L are cultured in a single aquarium. Because of the heavy daily feeding schedule (7.5% body weight for juveniles and 3.2–5.5% for adults), in grow-out facilities, total ammonia nitrogen concentration is always above 7.3 mg/L, and the chemical oxygen demand is above 80 mg/ L (Chen 1998). Therefore, water is exchanged at 4-d intervals. In cold weather, however, water temperatures may decrease by 5–78C during the water exchange, which can stress fish and may initiate diseases and disturb the reproductive cycle of spawning pairs. Because water quality in the high-density hatcheries or grow-out facilities is poor, fish frequently suffer gill diseases caused by Cytophaga columnaris and Aeromonas hydrophila. Malformation of gill opercula caused by swelling of gill filaments is often observed and is caused by the infections of A. hydrophila and some gram-negative bacteria (Jung 1993). Mortalities can be about 50% for the young and 35% for adults (Chen 1998). Therefore, management of good water quality is important. Species of Bacillus have been extensively used in the water quality management of aquaculture and wastewater treatment, often to remove organic substances and ammonia in aquarium water and wastewater (Boyd 1982; Pritchard and Bourquin 1984; Chen et al. 1991; Chen 1992). We tested the use of two Bacillus species, B. subtilis and B. megaterium, in the water quality management of highdensity culture of red-parrot fish.


Copyright Acknowledgment Introduction Background Methods Creating the Target Images The Psychophysical Experiment The Forced Choice Program: GFC Results Statistical Results Questionnaire Results Combined with the Statistical Findings Discussion Conclusions References


Color centers in diamond are very promising candidates among the possible realizations for practical singlephoton sources because of their long-time stable emission at room temperature. The popular nitrogen-vacancy center shows single-photon emission, but within a large, phonon-broadened spectrum (≈ 100 nm), which strongly limits its applicability for quantum communication. By contrast, Ni-related centers exhibit narrow emission lines at room temperature. We present investigations on single color centers consisting of Ni and Si created by ion implantation into single crystalline IIa diamond. We use systematic variations of ion doses between 108 cm-2 and 1014 cm-2 and energies between 30 keV and 1.8MeV. The Ni-related centers show emission in the near infrared spectral range (≈ 770 nm to 787 nm) with a small line-width (≈ 3 nm FWHM). A measurement of the intensity correlation function proves single-photon emission. Saturation measurements yield a rather high saturation count rate of 77.9kcounts/s. Polarization dependent measurements indicate the presence of two orthogonal dipoles.


The analytic properties of the d-dimensional hypercubic lattice Green function are investigated, where w = u + iv is a complex variable in the (u, v) plane. In particular, the detailed behaviour of G(d, w) in the immediate neighbourhood of the branch-point singularities w = ±d is determined. These results are used to derive an asymptotic expansion in powers of 1/n for the number of random walks on the hypercubic lattice which return to their starting point (not necessarily for the first time) after a walk of 2n steps. Finally, it is shown that this asymptotic expansion enables one to calculate extremely accurate values for the generalized d-dimensional Watson integral where s > −d/2 and s ≠ 1, 2,….


The article that we have presented is an integral part of the master's research entitled "The influence of textbooks on the pedagogical practices of teachers in the early years of elementary school". Starting from the moment that the Didactic Book was permanently inserted in Brazilian education, researches was also initiated to try to identify and understand this material and its use in school practice. Thus, we propose to analyze the relationship that the teacher establishes with the LDP, mainly with regard to his selection. To this end, during Portuguese language classes and semi-structured interviews with teachers from the 4th and 5th grades of Elementary School we made some observations. We realized that the teacher has a relative freedom in the choice of material, since the MEC pre-selects the LDPs that arrive at schools. In other words, the universe of books available to the educational establishment is already reduced and teachers still have to choose three LDPs, so that one of them reaches the institution. Therefore, what happens is that the selection of books is made initially by the federal government. In this sense, the teacher ends up being restricted and limited in the process of choosing the material he will use in his practice.


Higher education students who either do not complete the subjects they enrolled in or interrupt indefinitely their studies without certification, the socalled college dropout problem, still continues to be a major concern for practitioners and researchers. Within the subjects, an early prediction of dropout students has aided teachers to focus their intervention in order to reduce dropout rates. Several machine-learning techniques have been used to classify/predict dropout students, including the tree-based methods which are not the best performers, but in their favour, are easily interpretable. This study presents a procedure to identify dropout-prone students at an early stage in an online statistics module, based on decision tree models. Although the attributes initially considered in the creation of the trees were mainly related to quiz completion, participation in the forum and access to the bulletin board, the final models show that the former is the only attribute with significant discriminatory power. We have evaluated the classification performance by means of a validation set. The performance measure of accuracy shows values above 90%, whereas that of recall and precision slightly under 90%.


With the advancement of network and computer technologies, virtual cyberspace keeps evolving, and Metaverse is the main representative. As an irreplaceable technology that supports Metaverse, the sensing information transmission from the physical world to Metaverse is vital. Inspired by emerging semantic communication, in this paper, we propose a semantic transmission framework for transmitting sensing information from the physical world to Metaverse. Leveraging the in-depth understanding of sensing information, we define the semantic bases, through which the semantic encoding of sensing data is achieved for the first time. Consequently, the amount of sensing data that needs to be transmitted is dramatically reduced. Unlike conventional methods that undergo data degradation and require data recovery, our approach achieves the sensing goal without data recovery while maintaining performance. To further improve Metaverse service quality, we introduce contest theory to create an incentive mechanism that motivates users to upload data more frequently. Experimental results show that the average data amount after semantic encoding is reduced to about 27.87% of that before encoding, while ensuring the sensing performance. Additionally, the proposed contest theoretic based incentive mechanism increases the sum of data uploading frequency by 27.47% compared to the uniform award scheme.


German differs from English in that verbs of ballistic motion (such as werfen (throw)) on their own cannot appear in a syntactic frame which is reserved for a caused possession interpretation (ex. 1 a, b below). In German, this frame involves a dative marked DP with a recipient interpretation (ex 1b). In order for these verbs to appear in such a frame, they must combine with a particle such as zu (to/ toward) (see ex. 2). On the face of it, this is a surprising fact, since, as I will show, the verbs on their own do not select a recipient argument, nor does the particle introduce a recipient, as it is a particle with a purely spatial meaning. The question then is: how is a caused possession interpretation derived from a verb and a particle which on their own do not license caused possession? I will present an analysis in which the recipient reading is compositionally derived from the meaning of the base verb, the meaning of the particle and the meaning of the dative case. The particle zu, like other particles such as zurück (back) and weiter (forth), adds directionality to werfen-type verbs, which on their own do not encode directionality and hence do not select a goal argument. I show that the dative DP is best understood as a free (event-related) dative, and the recipient interpretation is shown to be derived from the combination of the goal reading introduced by zu and the experiencer reading introduced by the dative DP.


Land use change can be predicted by spatial modeling. One of spatial method to predict land use change is CLUES (Conversion of Land Use Changes and its Effect at small regional extent). The objective of the research is to determine factors that influence land use change in Kabupaten Majalengka and to predict its land use in the future. Data applied in this research project was biogeophysic, socio economic and existing land use data of Kabupaten Majalengka. Eight land use classes applied were shrub, forest, pond, dry land agriculture, pasture, settlement, and plantation and rice field. Land use classes were dependent variables; and biogeophysical and socio economical data were independent variables.  Binary logistic regression was applied to determine influenced factors to land use change. Factors that influence of type of land use's occurrence were different for each type of land use. The value of the factors was used as an input in land use modeling using CLUES.  Scenario that used were scenario with land use change rate same as previous change. The simulation was applied for 12 years with the baseline data in the year of 2009. The simulation result shows that the land use types of shrub, forest, and plantation are decrease. The area that increased are land use types of dry land agriculture, settlement and rice field; however land use types of pond and pasture are remain constant.


Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer in women. Thermography, which uses cameras with sensitivities in the thermal infrared, has been shown to provide an interesting modality for detecting breast cancer as it is able to detect small tumors and hence can lead to earlier diagnosis. In this paper, we present an effective approach to breast thermogram analysis that utilises features describing bilateral symmetries from an image, and utilises a classifier ensemble for decision making. Importantly, our classification approach addresses the problem of imbalanced class distribution that is common in medical decision making. We do this by constructing feature subspaces from balanced data subsets and train different classifiers on different subspaces. To combine the individual classifiers, we use a neural network as classifier fuser. We show our approach to work well and to lead to significantly improved performance compared to canonical classifiers and classifier ensembles.


In a typical maximum clique search algorithm when optimality testing is inconclusive a forking takes place. The instance is divided into smaller ones. This is the branching step of the procedure. In order to ensure a balanced work load for the processors for parallel algorithms it is essential that the resulting smaller problems are do not overly vary in difficulty. The so-called splitting partitions of the nodes of the given graph were introduced earlier to meliorate this problem. The paper proposes a splitting partition of the edges for the same purpose. In the lack of available theoretical tools we assess the practical feasibility of constructing suboptimal splitting edge partitions by carrying out numerical experiments. While working with splitting partitions we have realized that they can be utilized as preconditioning tools preliminary to a large scale clique search. The paper will discuss this new found role of the splitting edge partitions as well.


Abstract : The gas model and the thermodynamic equations were thoroughly checked and rederived. The equations of motion governing the flow past any object were derived with respect to an orthogonal curvilinear coordinate system, suitable for a large group of bodies of rather general shape. Boundary conditions (shock relations) were obtained for chemically frozen and for equilibrium flow. As for the solution of the system of governing equations, Dorodnitsyn's method of integral relations (direct method) was studied in general. Specializing the general method, all the necessary equations for the first approximation were derived. (Author)


In February 1913, headlines exploded in newspapers across the country: "Indian Girl in Suffragists Parade"; "Dawn Mist, Indian Girl, to Ride as Suffragists;" "Indian Maidens to Ride in Parade." Editors pounced on the story as it came across their desks on the wires. It had everything—the controversial issue of suffrage, an exotic Indian princess, a western railroad magnate, and a patriotic procession. In fact, there was no such person as Dawn Mist, only a character created by the public relations department of the Great Northern Railway. Why then had she so convincingly captured the nation's imagination? The answer lies in white Americans' fascination with Indians, which suffused the way they thought about suffrage.


1,000 cases per million people in the developed countries.1 The prognosis of CLI patients is poor. The 1-year mortality and major amputation rate are reported to be 25% and 30%, respectively.1 Currently, revascularization of the ischemic limb with surgical bypass techniques or endovascular approaches is believed to be the best option for limb salvage.2,3 A total of 25– hronic critical limb ischemia (CLI) is defined as the endstage of lower limb ischemia due to atherosclerotic peripheral arterial disease (PAD) or vasculitis including thromboangiitis obliterans (Buerger's disease). The clinical manifestations consist of rest pain and/or skin ulceration or gangrene. The annual incidence of CLI is estimated to be 500– C


77Background: Aggressive cancer care at the end of life (EOL) can impact quality of life and have major economic burden. The purpose of this study was to portray the aggressiveness of EOL cancer care, and its relation to race, gender and social factors in Eastern North Carolina with high rural and minority population. Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of 401 stage 4 solid tumor patients who died between 2011 and 2014. Aggressiveness of care was calculated by a composite score adopted from Earle et al. Scores range from 0 to 7 with higher scores indicating more aggressive EOL care. 1 point was given to each indicator of aggressiveness in the last 30 days of life: ED visits ≥2,hospital admissions ≥2,any ICU admission,hospitalized days ≥14,new chemotherapy, hospice care ≤ 3 days, and any chemotherapy in the last 14 days. Results: Among the 401 patients, 217 (54%) were white and 178 (44%) were black. The mean composite score of aggressiveness (CSA) for whites was 1.18 and for blacks it was 1.87. (p<0....


This article will explore the industrial character of the Korean broadcasting industry from the perspective of its creative workforce. This study focuses on the independent television production sector, which epitomizes current changes in the Korean cultural industry in terms of greater global integration, increasing commercialization, and digitalization. Qualitative research results illustrate that the "digitalized flexible production regime" of independent production companies exacerbates working conditions and job insecurity. Under this regime, workers see themselves as "creators" and "freelancers" for only a limited period. Findings suggest that an antagonistic relation exists between "the workers' passion for more creative and liberal work" and "the survival of the industry" within Korean broadcasting.


The invention discloses euphausia superba transglutaminase and application thereof. An amino acid sequence of the euphausia superba transglutaminase is shown in SEQ ID NO.2. The euphausia superba transglutaminase can be applied to further development of protein foods; the euphausia superba transglutaminase is used for bonding euphausia superba meat, the bonded euphausia superba meat is compact in quality, can be made into euphausia superba foods such as massive euphausia superba cakes and euphausia superba meatballs in the future, and development and utilization of the euphausia superba foods can be promoted.


. The main task of the research was to study the influence of different norms of mineral nutrition on such indicators as yield, marketability and quality of potato varieties of different ripening periods, taking into account the changing environmental conditions of North-West Russia and the Republic of Karelia in particular. The introduction of various norms of mineral fertilizers significantly increased the yield of potato tubers on average by varieties by 26-35%. The results of evaluating the effectiveness of different norms of mineral fertilizers when growing various varieties of potatoes (the average return of 1 kg of fertilizers per crop) showed that the best payback of mineral fertilizers in the NPK 1 rate was noted when they were applied under an early ripe potato variety 'Udacha' (an average of 34 kg). It has been established that an important role among biotic factors is played by the variety itself, the level of its genetic potential and responsiveness to the conditions of cultivation. Weather conditions and the use of fertilizers affect not only the yield of potatoes, but also their quality indicators. The use of different norms of mineral fertilizers, as a factor in controlling the production process of potatoes to be expected had a significant effect in all studied varieties on an increase in the average weight of tubers (in the Udacha variety by 66.7%, Red Scarlett -38.7%, Aurora - 24%), as well as on the quality of potato tubers, in terms of increasing the nitrogen content in them (by 8.8-15.4%), potassium (by 23.2-37.8%) and reducing starch content by 5 , 2-12.3%.


An attempt was made to study the general and specific combining ability in sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) through L X T analysis with ten lines and four testers. Eight characters viz., days to 50 per cent flowering, plant height, number of branches per plant, number of capsules per plant, capsule length, number of seeds per capsule, 1000 seed weight and seed yield per plant were studied. Based on the general combining ability effects of parents IVTS-14-07 [L6] was found to be a good general combiner for days to 50 per cent flowering and number of capsules per plant, IVTS-215-06 [L10] was found to be good general combiner for plant height, number of branches per plant and 1000 seed weight. IVTS-24-06 [L9] was found to be good general combiner for number of seeds per capsule and seed yield per plant. The cross combination IVTS -17-07 X TMV 4 [L5 X T2] showed negative ,significant sca for days to 50 per cent flowering. AVTS-3-06 X TMV 3 [L4 X T1] exhibited positive and significant sca for number of capsules per plant and seed yield per plant and hence recommended for yield improvement.


With the rapid development of deep convolutional neural networks, the results of image semantic segmentation are remarkable, and the segmentation effect is greatly improved. The pooling layer of the convolutional neural network will reduce the resolution of the feature map, which makes the convolutional neural network lose a lot of spatial information while extracting semantic features. How to integrate semantic features with semantic information and spatial information will become an important factor to improve the performance of semantic segmentation. Firstly, this paper improves the global attention upsampling module and uses the improved global attention upsampling module to form a multiscale global attention up-mining module in a new connection way. The upsampling module of multiscale attention establishes the relationship between high-level features and lower-level features at a longer distance. Compared with PANet, the method proposed in this paper deepens the close relationship between semantic information and spatial information. Experiments show that the segmentation effect of the feature fusion method based on cascade is better than that of the feature fusion method based on weight. The segmentation effect of the two fusion methods is improved by 8.3% and 5.7% compared with the PANet on the PASCAL VOC 2012 dataset and by 4.5% and 3.6% on the Cityscapes dataset, respectively. The research results of this paper make the high-level semantic information and shallow feature information cooperate to improve the segmentation effect.


A salted anchovy food with delicious taste and particular nutrients is prepared from fresh anchovy through salting for 45-72 hr, pressing for 5-10 days to remove oil and saline, immersing in saturated edible salt solution while natural fermenting for 4-10 months, scalding it in hot water at 40-80 deg.C, removing skin and bone, and centrifugal drying.


The 4-dimensional model with topological mass generation that has recently been presented by Dvali, Jackiw, and Pi [G. Dvali, R. Jackiw, and S.-Y. Pi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 081602 (2006)] is generalized to any even number of dimensions. As in the 4-dimensional model, the 2n-dimensional model describes a mass-generation phenomenon due to the presence of the chiral anomaly. In addition to this model, new 2n-dimensional models with topological mass generation are proposed, in which a Stueckelberg-type mass term plays a crucial role in the mass generation. The mass generation of a pseudoscalar field such as the {eta}{sup '} meson is discussed within this framework.


Objective To investigate whether LPS increase the liver injury and involved mechanism in mice with obstructive jaundice.Methods 42 of C57BL/10J(WT)male mice were randomly divided into NS group(n=21)and LPS1 group(n=21),and LPS2 group as C57BL/10ScnJ(TLR4-/-)male mice(n=21).All mice were subjected to common bile duct ligation(CBDL),then the LPS1 and LPS2 groups were injected with LPS(8 ng/μL,10 ng/g body weight)via common bile duct after CBDL operation;the NS group was injected with equal amount of saline.The blood samples and liver tissues were collected at 6,12,24 h(n=7)after treatment and prepared for further analysis.The concentrations of serum ALT 、TBIL、DBIL were measured by automatic biochemistry analyzer;the levels of serum TNF-α and IL-6 were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay;the expressions of TLR-4 mRNA in the liver tissue were detected by RT-PCR;histological analysis showed the injury of the liver tissue and the distribution of NF-κB were detected by immunohistochemical staining.Results Liver tissue injury was more severe in the LPS1 group compared with the NS and LPS2 groups.mRNA level of TLR-4 in liver tissues was increased 6 hours after CBDL and LPS injection in LPS1 group,and peaked at 24 hours;No detection of TLR4 mRNA in LPS2 group;TNF-α and IL-6 secretions were significantly increased (P0.01)in LPS1 group;NF-κB was obviously expressed in the nucleus of hepatic cells in the LPS1 group at 24 hours after surgery,and slightly expressed in the NS group and LPS2 group.Conclusion LPS increased the liver injury after mice were subjected to CBDL.The activation of NF-κB and release of TNF-α and IL-6 were correlated with the higher expression of TLR4 in the liver and might be involved in this process.


Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a genetically pre‐determined, chronic, relapsing, inflammation of the intestinal epithelium. It is characterised by intestinal barrier dysfunction caused mainly by an alteration or redistribution of tight junction proteins that contributes towards increased permeability. Barrier disruption is also associated with enhanced activity of pro‐inflammatory cytokines such as TNF‐α, IFN‐γ and IL‐13. Although disease initiation in IBD remains elusive, inflammation results from an exaggerated immune response in genetically predisposed individuals, as well as altered responses to the luminal microbiota. In vivo studies suggest that pro‐inflammatory cytokines, such as TNF‐α and IFN‐γ, disrupt the intestinal barrier through effects on the tight junctions (TJ) and induction of apoptosis. This results in increased intestinal epithelial permeability that contributes to the pathogenesis of IBD. However, whether the effect of pro‐inflammatory cytokines on the TJs involves a loss or redistribution of TJ proteins is unknown. Here human colonic enteroids were used to investigate the effects of TNF‐α, IFN‐γ and a combination of TNF‐α and IFN‐γ on the expression and distribution of tight junction proteins, as they form the main paracellular barrier that determines intestinal epithelial permeability. Enteroids were grown from crypts isolated from transverse colonic biopsies from healthy patients, suspended in Matrigel© and overlaid with stem cell media. After 11d or 14d of growth, enteroids were exposed to TNF‐α (1, 10 or 100ng/mL), IFN‐γ (0.1, 1 or 10ng/mL) or a combination of TNF‐α/IFN‐γ (1/0.1, 10/1 or 100/10ng/mL), for either 24h or 72h. Quantification and localization of TJ proteins were determined by immunoblotting and immunofluorescent microscopy. Statistical significance was determined by a paired Student's t‐test. The lower concentrations of TNF‐α (1ng/mL and 10ng/mL), IFN‐γ (0.1ng/mL and 1ng/mL) and combination of TNF‐α/IFN‐γ (1/0.1 and 10/1ng/mL) had no effect on the TJs. In contrast, 24 h exposure to either 100 ng/mL TNF‐α, 10ng/mL IFN‐γ or 100 ng/ml TNF‐α plus 10ng/mL IFN‐γ caused a redistribution of the barrier forming TJ proteins, occludin and ZO‐1 and the pore‐forming tight junction protein, claudin‐2 from the junctions into the cytoplasm and the basolateral membrane of the epithelial cells, but did not affect total protein levels, whereas after 72h exposure to the same, there was a significant reduction in occludin and ZO‐1 (P<0.05) and a parallel increase in claudin‐2 (P<0.05). This was associated with a loss of occludin and ZO‐1 from the TJs, cytoplasm and the basolateral membrane of the epithelial cells. These data reflect a time‐dependent action of pro‐inflammatory cytokines on TJs of the human colonic epithelium, which involves an initial disruption of the barrier forming TJ proteins followed by an increase in the pore‐forming TJ protein. This action may result in increased epithelial colonic permeability in diseases such as IBD.


The financial health of bank is measured mainly by the contribution of Performing assets and Non performing Asset attributed in banks based on current and previous years poor credit appraisal mechanism . The rising NPAs in banks has significant impact on banks performance the lesser the NPA more sound is the banks financial position. NPA reflects the quality of the loans advances made by banks. Now a day NPA becomes major problem in all banks. Public sector banks figure are in the debate not only because they are in dominant position in banking industries. But also since they have much larger NPAs compared with the private sector bank .Since the impact of NPA is on Profitability of Bank recovery of NPA is a crucial task and needs efforts & skill to design & implement effective polities. . The banks and financial institutions have to take initiative to reduce NPAs in a time bound strategic approach.The research focuses on the recovery measures& policies implemented by Bank of Maharashtra to lessen the degree of loss suffered due to NPA. For the recovery of NPA bank uses tools like Lok Adalat, DRT, & SARFEASI ACT 2002. Bank prefers one time settlement scheme for non performing borrowers.


Preliminary surveys at Public Health Center Watubangga for the last 3 months, namely in October-December 2020, consists of 7 working areas, 4 villages and 3 urban villages. The number of pregnant women was 157, and those experiencing essential hypertension were 15 pregnant women. This study was to determine the effect of foot soaking in warm water on blood pressure in pregnant women with essential hypertension at the Watubangga Public Health Center. This study was a quasi-experimental study design one group Pre and Post test. The study population was all normal deliveries of 138 people. The sampling technique used was total sampling with a total sample of 15 respondents of pregnant women who experienced essential hypertension. The results of statistical tests with Wilcoxon show that there is an effect of warm foot soaking on blood pressure in pregnant women with essential hypertension at the Puskesmas Watubangga with a p-value in systole (0.001), while diastole has a p-value (0.001). The conclusion is that there is Soaking feet with warm water affecting blood pressure in pregnant women with essential hypertension at the Watubangga Health Center. It is hoped that This program can be applied to clinical midwifery practice, especially for pregnant women who have hypertension and can be a reference for further research.


An experimental overview of the (p,π) reaction on nuclei is given, emphasizing systematic behaviour in the data in general. Specific features in the data which point to nuclear structure dependence as well as in influence from the reaction dynamics are also discussed.


The application of screen-printed thin-film thermoelectric (TE) devices is still in its infancy, mainly due to low TE performance of screen-printed films, especially the poor electrical transport properties. Herein, we design and prepare a high-performance screen-printed Bi2Te3 film through introducing excessive Te-based nanosolder (Te-NS) to simultaneously realize the conduction channel construction and defect control. On one hand, the promoted carrier migration makes the electrical conductivity dramatically rise about 7 times, with a maximum power factor of 4.65 μW cm -1 K -2. Meanwhile, the defect formation mechanism in screen-printed Bi2Te3 film after the introduction of Te-NS is also in-depth studied, and the bipolar conduction is reduced by more generation of TeBi•, and/or more suppression of BiTe', resulting in postponed temperature of maximum Seebeck coefficient. Hence, the large engineering power factor is achieved with excellent temperature linearity, indicating a possibility of screen-printed film application in a large temperature region. Then, a TE device with single leg has been fabricated to further demonstrate the generation validity. The open-circuit voltage of 11.34 mV and the maximum output power of 27.1 μW at temperature gradient of 105 K have been achieved over a wide temperature range from 303 to 478 K. This study provides a theoretical and practical basis for the performance improvement of screen-printed TE films and devices.


RESPECT THE INVENTION COMPOSITION ANIONIC DETERGENT LIQUID PHASE ONE, ADJUVANTED AND CONTAINING ENZYMES OR SEVERAL THIS INCLUDES COMPOSITION. A.ENVIRON 8 20 BY WEIGHT OF ONE OR MORE COMPOUNDS CLEANING AGENTS aNIONIC SURFACTANTS; B.ENVIRON 5 TO 25 WEIGHT OF A SALT ADJUVANTED DETERGENCY SOLUBLE PHOSPHATE; C.A QUANTITY EFFECTIVE ENZYME OR A MIXTURE OF ENZYMES SELECTED BETWEEN THE pROTEASE AND ALPHA-aMYLASES ALKALINE; D.UN STABILIZATION SYSTEM CONTAINING ENZYMES, BASED ON THE WEIGHT OF dETERGENT COMPOSITION , I ABOUT 12 25 propylene Glycol-II AND ABOUT 1 TO 5 COMPOUND OF CHOOSING BETWEEN BORE BORIC ACID, BORIC OXIDE AND aLKALI METAL bORATES; AND E.ENVIRON 25 TO 75 BY WEIGHT OF WATER.


America's response to COVID-19 is evolving as quickly as the pandemic itself, with attitudes and actions diverging along the way. This commentary explores historical examples of population-wide responses to other large-scale, traumatic events.


[Objective] To investigate the incubation period of human rabies and its influential factors in Hunan province,so as to understand the natural history of rabies.[Methods] Totally 1 059 rabies individual cases from 2004 to 2007 were collected,and further entered into database with EpiData3.1 software.Non-parameter test based on Mann-whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test were later carried out for incubation period with SPSS 13.0 software.[Results] Among the 1 059 cases,the incubation period ranged from 7 to 2 760 days,with its medium day at 56 d.It found that the incubation period had a statistic correlation with the following 13 factors as age,occupation,exposure degree,exposure sites,wound treatment,wound washing,wound disinfecting,wound suture,post-exposure human rabies vaccine injection,pre-exposure immunization,animal kinds,animal source,the causes of the biting,where both Mann-whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test showed they were significant(P﹤0.05).[Conclusion] Incubation period of human rabies is affected by many factors,main factors are exposure degree,exposure sites,wound treatment.


Defect recovery at low tempetatures in N-ion implanted AlxGa1-xAs (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) ternary compounds were studied. AlGaAs epitaxial layers were implanted at 51 K or 77 K with 150 KeV N-ions to fluences ranging from 4 × 1013 to 5 × 1015 at/cm2. Implanted crystals were analyzed in situ using the RBS/channeling technique. Successive measurements were performed during warming up of samples to room temperature. For low Al content, a large recovery stage between 200 K and 300 K was observed. For x > 0.5, a continuous damage recovery at the implantation temperatures due to the analyzing beam bombardment was observed. It leads to the substantial reduction of the principal recovery stage. For AlAs(x = 1) negligible defect recovery in the whole temperature range was noticed.


2‐Methoxyestradiol (2‐ME), an endogenous metabolite of 17β‐estradiol, is present in human blood and urine. Here we show for the first time that 2‐ME significantly inhibited the growth of normal prostate epithelial cells and androgen‐dependent LNCaP and androgen‐independent DU145 prostate cancer cells. This growth inhibition was accompanied by a twofold increase in the G2/M population, with a concomitant decrease in the G1 population, as shown by cell‐cycle analysis. 2‐ME treatment affected the cell‐cycle progression of prostate cancer cells specifically by blocking cells in the G2 phase. Immunoblot analysis of the key cell‐cycle regulatory proteins in the G2/M phase showed a 14‐fold increase in the expression of p21 and an eightfold increase in the expression of p34 cell division cycle 2 (cdc2). We also found an accumulation of phosphorylated cdc2 after 2‐ME treatment. Furthermore, Wee 1 kinase was detectable after 2‐ME treatment. 2‐ME treatment also led to an increase in the activity of caspase‐3, followed by apoptosis, as shown by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase–mediated deoxyuridine 5‐triphosphate–biotin nick end‐labeling and fluorescein isothiocyanate–poly(ADP‐ribose) polymerase assay. Estrogen receptor levels did not change after treatment with 2‐ME. Examination of the signaling pathways that mediate 2‐ME–induced apoptosis showed reduction in the level of p53 expression and its DNA‐binding activity. Given the fact that p53 mutations are common in patients with metastatic prostate cancer, our finding that 2‐ME–mediated growth inhibition of human prostate cancer cells occurred in a p53‐independent manner has considerable clinical significance. These findings, combined with the limited toxicity of 2‐ME, may have significant implications for alternative treatment of advanced prostate cancer. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Abstract Four practical, problem‐solving tasks set in a science context were administered to thirty‐six 15‐year‐old pupils drawn from three sections of the ability range. The tasks were employed in a one‐to‐one testing situation and involved the pupils in planning, performing, interpreting data and identifying limitations in the approach they used. Assessment methods included direct observation, questioning and written records. Self‐reliance, observation and reporting skills were found to be unrelated to ability. Implications are drawn for those responsible for the assessment of the National Science Curriculum.


Noninfectious uveitis refers to a category of inflammatory diseases involving the uvea, with the exception of infectious factors or masquerade syndrome. The diagnosis and follow-up of noninfectious uveitis that involving retina or choroid require fundus imaging techniques. Fundus autofluorescence is a noninvasive imaging technique. Compared with fundus colorized photography, fundus fluorescein angiography and indocyanine green angiography, fundus autofluorescence indicates the functional status of retinal pigment epithelium and photoreceptor cells in a better way, thus playing a role in the pathophysiological mechanisms investigating, early diagnosis, disease progression monitoring and prognosis estimating of noninfectious uveitis, such as Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease, Behcet disease, multifocal choroiditis, punctate inner choroidopathy, birdshot chorioretinopathy, multiple evanescent white dot syndrome, acute zonal occult outer retinopathy, acute posterior multifocal placoid pigment epitheliopathy and serpiginous choroiditis.

Key words:
Uveitis/diagnosis; Fluorescence; Review


This paper introduced what public participation is and its content,the colony,objective and,meaning and thereunder of laws,then analyzed the problems currently existing in manner,time and the influence on decision-making of public participation.It studied the public participation model from the angle of items proceeding,and brought forward the model of an eight-step work course,five-location information exchange,four-time information opening,three-item supervision.It is hoped that this model will help promite the work of public participation.


In this paper the energy performance comparison of active high-frequency power factor correctors for three control methods (borderline control, peak current control and average current control) is made. In MATLAB/Simulink environment models corresponding to each method of control were developed. Functional circuit diagrams, throttle current charts and load voltage charts of each corrector are given. Power factor correctors energy performance under the nominal load condition, under reduced and increased load resistance was researched.


This study aimed to develop a method for the purification of a xylanase called SMXL1 produced by Stenocarpella maydis and its biochemical characterization. The enzyme was purified using a Rotofor preparative chamber and one chromatographic step in an ion exchange column coupled to equipment FPLC. Posteriorly the protein was characterized, and its effect on the birchwood xylan degradation was determine by HPLC. The purified enzyme showed a molecular weight of 55 kDa calculated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The purification process obtained a yield of 6.5  0.3 %. The activity was stable at a pH range of 4 to 10 and temperatures of 45 to 60 °C. The optimum values of temperature and pH were 55 °C and 4, respectively. The Michaelis constant (Km) value was 2.61 mg/mL and the Vmax was 3.02 µmol/mL/min using birchwood xylan as substrate and the Michaelis-Menten equation. The enzyme is inhibited by the cations Mn2+ and by Fe3+ and degrades the birchwood xylan being the principal products the xylobiose and the xylose. This work is the first report of the purification and biochemical characterization of a xylanase called SMXL1 produced by S. maydis.


High dv/dt rate at switching of IGBTs become source of EMI noise. For this problem, various methods that makes low dv/dt rate by using soft switching circuit are proposing. In this paper, a novel snubber circuit with passive energy recovery for soft switching inverter is proposed. This novel circuit uses a capacitor which makes zero voltage switching to both upper and lower IGBTs, and a transformer which regenerates the snubber energy. And this paper describes the EMI noise from the novel soft switching circuit. From results of experiment and analysis, we clarified that radiational noise is not reduced by making low dv/dt rate of only IGBT. Radiational noise generates from resonant current flowing through the soft switching circuit and IGBT. This resonant current don't flow trough the conventional hard switching circuit. So, we indicate the reducing methods of radiational noise that the reducing the resonant current by using saturation type reactor and RC snubber with snubber diodes. The effect of the methods has been verified by experimental and simulational results.


The dynamics of the creation of objects of the nature reserve fund for the years 1990-2020 are considered. The modern structure of the lands of the natural reserve fund of the Poltava region by object categories has been determined, which includes 393 units of territories and objects with a total area of 142789.7562 hectares, which is 4.96% of the total area of the region. On the territory of the region there are 8 out of 11 categories of NRF objects. The largest number of objects of the NRF region are nature reserves (179) and occupy an area of 55.8% of NRF of the region.According to the specified data, the distribution of the spatial location of the territories and objects of the NRF was carried out before and after the implementation of the administrative and territorial reform. The territories of the region's districts were evaluated according to the percentage of protected areas, the insularity index, and the general indicator of the density of the NRF objects in the region's territory. According to thepercentage of preservation before the reform, the lowest indicators, i.e. less than 1%, were noted in Hrebinki and Myrhorod districts, seven districts have a degree of preservation in the range of 1–2%, and the highest indicators at the European level (15%) in Pyryatinsky and Dykan districts. After the reform, all four districts of the region have a percentage of protected areas in the range of 4-9%.The categories of NRF lands on the territory of the region are unevenly distributed and the differences achieve dozens of times. It is necessary to continue researching natural territories and identifying valuable ones for further inheritance in terri-torial communities of the region. The obtained results of the spatial distribution of NRF lands can be used to make management decisions by territorial communities by creating new or combining existing categories of NRF


White pollution is a form of environmental pollution which has taken unprecedented dimensions in many cities of Europe over the last two decades. It is estimated that by 2020, European Union citizens will reduce the consumption of plastic shopping bags by 80% in ways that will be identified and implemented by each member state. Starting from these two main dimensions, necessity and opportunity, we have conducted a survey on the eco-responsible behavior of consumers in Bucharest. The main aims of the survey were to understand the buyers' behavior and profile and to find out what might lead buyers in Bucharest to increase their eco-responsibility towards the urban environment. For these purposes we used questionnaires, direct observation and interviews for data collection and the Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and SPSS for data analysis and subsequent correlations. The sample was representative for Bucharest, and the results are useful for revising urban environmental policies. Through this survey we have identified means of increasing the buyers' eco-responsibility and decreasing white pollution in Bucharest and in many other Romanian cities.


Few data are available on the impact of clinical randomized trials on clinical practice. Since 2000, several trials regarding the effect of perioperative chemotherapy (CT) on survival of nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have been published or reported. Four adjuvant CT trials1–4 were positive, and one5 failed to confirm a statistically significant role for adjuvant CT. Further, one trial was presented as positive at the 2004 ASCO meeting and became negative in 2006.6 For neoadjuvant CT, a large trial7 showed an increase survival of the preoperative CT arm with a survival difference of 8.6% at 4 years. To assess the impact of those trials on practice in France, two telephone surveys were conducted: the first after the results of the first trials in April 2004 and the second in December 2005 after the results of the other studies. A sample of 153 and 152 physicians, respectively, involved in lung cancer treatment were selected from an independent polling organization. Questionnaires describing clinical scenarios were telephoned to those physicians. They were asked their treatment option for two clinical cases of resectable stage IB and IIB NSCLC. Case 1 was a 50-year-old patient with a resectable adenocarcinoma classified T2N0M0 (IB). Case 2 was a 50-year-old patient with resectable small-cell carcinoma classified T2N1M0 (IIB). If perioperative CT was proposed, oncologists were questioned about which CT regimen they would have prescribed to treat this patient. No statistical difference was observed between the two samples of practitioners questioned for the two surveys. In 2004, one third of practitioners would have treated a patient with stage IB disease with perioperative CT before (9%) or after (27%) surgery. In 2005, suggested adjuvant CT increased from 27% to 58% (p 0.0001), whereas neoadjuvant CT remained stable (p 0.52). In 2004, most of the practitioners treated stage IIB NSCLC with CT before (47%) or after (44%) surgery. In 2005, adjuvant CT increased from 44% to 76% (p 0.0001), whereas proportion of neoadjuvant CT remained stable (p 0.64). The two regimens of CT prescribed were more often cisplatin-vinorelbine for adjuvant CT and cisplatingemcitabine for neoadjuvant CT. In a sample of 153 physicians (one third of French oncologists), we found evidence for rapid increase of prescription of adjuvant CT, especially for patients with stage IIB disease. Similarly, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the prescription of adjuvant CT nearly doubled (30% vs 56%) after the presentation of positive trials at ASCO 2004.8 However, some limitations of our surveys are possible: 1) we reported the attitudes stated by practitioners on the telephone, which may be different from what would be observed in routine practice; and 2) factors other than physician knowledge, including patient's age, comorbidities, and preference, are involved in a physician's final decision. Additional studies, including medical chart reviews, are still needed to evaluate the impact of evidence-based medicine on clinical practice.


Casiopeina IIgly is a mixed chelate coordination compound with copper (II) core that has shown important antineoplastic activity, even in some resistant cellular lines to Cisplatin. In this work, preclini- cal studies as blood to plasma ratio, plasma protein binding, short-term stability in blood and pharmacokinetics of this coordination complex are reported. The results indicate that Casiopeina IIgly is stable in blood at least for 6 hours at 37 °C. Also, this compound exhibits an important accumulation in whole blood rather than plasma fluid, a high plasma protein binding (>90%) as well as short half-life (47 min).