Intestinal development, response to injury and disease states rely upon balanced stem cell proliferation. Historically, two subtypes of intestinal epithelial stem cells (ISCs)—slow-cycling/label-retaining, and actively-cycling/canonical Wnt-dependent—coordinate to drive proliferation and regulate epithelial renewal during adult tissue homeostasis and injury response. Recent studies focused on Bmi1-expressing cells revealed that differentiated Bmi1+ enteroendocrine cells could dedifferentiate towards a canonical Wnt-dependent stem cell state, calling into question the dogma that a dual stem cell axis regulates epithelial proliferation. Herein, we identify stem cell function in a Bmi1+ cell population in early murine intestinal development prior to the establishment of canonical Wnt-dependent, Lgr5-expressing ISCs. In-depth analyses of developmental Bmi1+ ISCs using lineage-tracing and single cell RNA-sequencing reveal their distinct identity and capacity to differentiate into Lgr5+ ISCs and other differentiated lineages. Further, during in utero development, the Bmi1+ ISCs initially exists in a highly proliferative state then transitions to a slow-cycling state, with the emergence of actively-cycling Lgr5+ ISCs. In adult tissue, Bmi1+ ISCs are a distinct population that re-express developmental gene and protein profiles, and a non-canonical Wnt signaling signature in response to injury and in human colorectal tumors. Further, developmental Bmi1+ ISCs are distinct from Lgr5+ ISCs and the previously identified differentiated Bmi1+ progenitor cells. Re-evaluation of an under-appreciated Bmi1+ ISC population with fundamental importance in intestinal development re-establishes the importance of the dynamic interplay between discrete ISC populations that are regulated by opposing Wnt signaling pathways. This finding opens opportunities and targetable pathways to augment regeneration or inhibit tumorigenesis.


The invention discloses a programming method and device based on the Lua language and belongs to the technical field of computers. The method includes realizing the function of calling a program programming interface API for the Lua language; realizing the function of establishing an memory object for the Lua language; realizing target program codes on the basis of the Lua language with the functions of calling the API and establishing the memory object. According to the method, the function of calling the API and establishing the memory object are provided to the Lua language, the target program codes can be realized on the basis of the Lua language, the byte codes compiled by the Lua language are stored into the target program codes, the decompilation of the byte codes of the Lua language is difficult, the byte codes of the Lua language are difficult to decompile through a decompilation tool, the cracking difficulty is improved, and loss is avoided for users.


The development of computer network provides efficient means of information transmission, which helps the psychology counseling with broadened implementation means. This paper analyzes the features of online interflow, which confirms to the essence of psychology counseling, and the actuality of the professional counseling websites on Internet. Psychology counseling through network, under the current technology conditions, has been practicable and it is to be an important direction of development.


Abstract This Communication describes a convenient procedure for the preparation of pure 3,4-epoxyisoprene (1). Reaction of methacrolein with the ylide prepared by reaction of trimethylsulphonium methanesulphonate with powdered sodium hydroxide suspended in dichloromethane furnishes pure material after simple distillation.


The article examines the anthropogenic dynamics of the urban and suburban zones of Vyshny Volochok (Tver region), the central element of which is the oldest water system in Russia. The current ecological situation in the city and its surroundings is determined by the processes of sylvatization of transformed territories, eutrophication and overgrowth of riverbed and coastal zones of urban canals and rivers.


The pseudo-Ciceronian Epistula ad Octavianum enjoys the unmerited distinction of being preserved not only in most of the manuscripts which contain the AdAtticum letters but also in some of those which contain the second half of the Ad Familiares letters; the former tradition is usually designated Ω, the latter I shall designate X. It was on the Ω tradition that the earliest printed texts were based. In the sixteenth century Cratander (1528) and Turnebus (1565) introduced a number of readings from the X tradition; some of these were incorporated in the vulgate, but the printed editions from that of Lambinus (1565) to that of Purser (1902) still continued to be based mainly on Ω. In 1913, in an article in Eranos, xiii. 136–46, Sjögren set himself to prove that the value of Ω had been overrated in the establishment of the text, and that greater importance should be attached to X than to Ω; and in accordance with this view, in his 1914 Teubner text, Sjögren follows X, as against Ω, about twice as often3 as Purser does. This view of Sjögren's, I believe, will not stand examination, and to disprove it is the purpose of the present article.


Lemierre syndrome results from odontogenic or pharyngeal infection with direct spread through the parapharyngeal space to the internal jugular vein and surrounding soft tissues of the posterior neck compartment. Fusobacterium necrophorum is the most common cause, but other pathogens have been described. In the patient described here, Arcanobacterium haemolyticum was the only pathogen identified.


The design of microwave oscillators using solid-state, negative-resistance devices is considered from the point of view of the general criterion for a steady-state free-running oscillator circuit. The intersection of the circuit admittance locus with the large-signal "device plane" - the conductance and susceptance as a function of frequency and r.f. amptitude - fully defines the operating point. A new technique for the measurement of the device admittance under oscillation conditions and the results of such a measurement for a BARITT diode will be presented. The use of the "device plane" in designing an oscillator for a given frequency and amplitude of oscillation with best stability and noise performance will be discussed.


For many professional doctorates, especially in the business and management domain, the epistemological focus is on work-based learning, in particular, that there be recognition that learning can be acquired in the midst of practice and dedicated to addressing the problem at hand through enquiry-driven processes. Participants in these programmes are active researchers themselves who enact and reflect upon their own personal mental models and learn to master the metacompetencies germane to their ongoing work contexts. The application of work-based learning can be enhanced through a range of modalities that have as their underlying commonality a planned engagement in practice and collective reflection on that practice. After documenting these work-based modalities and noting their differences, ten unifying elements are discussed giving special heed to how they may be realised in professional doctoral education.


Two spatially resolved oximeters, NIRO-300 and OM-200, were compared with regard to the measurement of oxygen saturation values in two forearm muscle groups at rest and during arterial occlusion in nine healthy volunteers. There was a significant correlation between the muscle oxygen saturation values obtained at rest using the two oximeters (n=33, r(2)=0.43, P<0.0001), whereas these values were significantly different during arterial occlusion. Thus, although there was good agreement between muscle oxygen saturation values measured using the two oximeters, the operating range of the tissue oximeters should be recognized and indicated.


Various solar features can be seen on maps of the Sun in the mm and sub-mm wavelength range. The recently installed Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is capable of observing the Sun in that wavelength range with an unprecedented spatial, temporal and spectral resolution. To interpret solar observations with ALMA the first important step is to compare ALMA maps with simultaneous images of the Sun recorded in other spectral ranges. First we identify different structures in the solar atmosphere seen in the optical, IR and EUV parts of the spectrum (quiet Sun (QS), active regions (AR), prominences on the disc, magnetic inversion lines (IL), coronal holes (CH) and coronal bright points (CBPs)) in a full disc solar ALMA image. The second aim is to measure the intensities (brightness temperatures) of those structures and compare them with the corresponding QS level. A full disc solar image at 1.21 mm obtained on December 18, 2015 during a CSV-EOC campaign with ALMA is calibrated and compared with full disc solar images from the same day in H\alpha, in He I 1083 nm core, and with SDO images (AIA at 170 nm, 30.4 nm, 21.1 nm, 19.3 nm, and 17.1 nm and HMI magnetogram). The brightness temperatures of various structures are determined by averaging over corresponding regions of interest in the ALMA image. Positions of the QS, ARs, prominences on the disc, ILs, CHs and CBPs are identified in the ALMA image. At 1.21 mm ARs appear as bright areas (but sunspots are dark), while prominences on the disc and CHs are not discernible from the QS background, although having slightly less intensity than surrounding QS regions. ILs appear as large, elongated dark structures and CBPs correspond to ALMA bright points. These results are in general agreement with sparse earlier measurements at similar wavelengths. The identification of CBPs represents the most important new result.


The South Carolina Capitol, which AEJ conventioners will see, was under construction when General Sherman's troops occupied Columbia in February 1865. Cannon balls were bounced off the walls from across the river before Northern troops entered the city, and the points of impact are clearly marked for inspection.


Eight days prior to admission, a previously healthy 17-month-old female presented to her pediatrician with a 1-day history of high-grade fevers, nonbloody diarrhea, and nonbloody, nonbilious emesis. She was diagnosed with a presumed viral infection. During the following week, the diarrhea and emesis resolved but the fevers persisted despite receiving scheduled antipyretics. Two days prior to admission, the patient presented to an emergency department (ED) where a workup revealed negative influenza and respiratory syncytial virus. She was sent home and followed-up the next day with her pediatrician, who ordered laboratory tests revealing an elevated C-reactive protein (CRP; 5.4 mg/dL), white blood cell count (WBC; 18.4 cells/mm3), and absolute neutrophil count (10.9 cells/mm3). She was referred to the ED due to persistent fevers and abnormal laboratory values. On arrival to our ED, the mother denied any diarrhea or emesis within the past 5 days and denied rash, respiratory symptoms, and constipation throughout the illness. She endorsed fussiness, decreased oral intake, fewer wet diapers, and persistent fevers. The patient did not attend daycare and had no sick contacts. On initial physical examination, she was alert and mildly dehydrated with a nontoxic appearance. Vital signs were as follows: temperature 38.3 °C; heart rate 146 beats/minute; respiratory rate 32 breaths/minute; and oxygen saturation of 99% on room air. All other initial examination findings were benign, including the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and neurological examinations. Pertinent laboratory testing revealed a further increase in WBC (22.7 cells/mm3) with left shift, absolute neutrophil count (12.26 cells/mm3), CRP (8.17 mg/dL), and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (34 mm/h). An initial chest radiograph was unremarkable. The patient was admitted to further evaluate the fever of unknown origin. Over the next 3 days, the patient's clinical presentation and laboratory values remained largely unchanged. Infectious Disease, Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology, and Hematology and Oncology were consulted and created a differential including Kawasaki disease, periodic fever syndrome, systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis, primary immunodeficiency, and malignancy. However, due to the elevated inflammatory markers and lack of localizing symptoms, all thought a post-viral inflammatory response was most likely. Workup revealed negative viral studies (cytomegalovirus, human immunodeficiency virus, parainfluenza, and adenovirus), negative urine and blood cultures, normal immunodeficiency profile, and normal thyroid-stimulating hormone. An echocardiogram was ordered to evaluate for coronary aneurysms associated with Kawasaki disease, which was unremarkable. A complete abdominal ultrasound was performed to assess for a renal or liver focus. The findings were normal; the appendix was not visualized. Due to the persistent fevers and unremarkable workup thus far, a computed tomography (CT) scan of the abdomen and pelvis with contrast was performed, which revealed a 4 × 2.6 × 4 cm right lower quadrant (RLQ) fluid collection with an adjacent smaller abscess at the posteromedial aspect; the appendix was not visualized.


A new method for estimating a stochastic model of a random moving image is proposed. Assuming that the spatiotemporal spectrum of a moving image is separable in space and time, a stochastic image model is obtained by combining a noncausal model in two-dimensional space and a causal AR model in time. Model estimation uses the method of minimizing whiteness for the noncausal spatial model and the method of "sequential orthogonalization" for the causal temporal model. the separable spectrum can be readily applied to a drifting moving model. Applying the spatial filter to a drifting moving image, the moving image is decomposed into a set of uncorrelated time series along the drifting time axis; this allows the AR models to be estimated separately. It is confirmed by computer simulation that the correct model can be estimated by this method. On the other hand, in the model estimation for a real, natural moving image, spectral separability is not always valid and, therefore, the output time series of the spatial filter is not rigorously uncorrelated. For such a real moving image, the method devised is an extended AR model which takes into account the spatially correlated data for AR model estimation. For estimating an extended AR model, the method of quasisequential orthogonalization is developed by modifying the sequential orthogonalization. It is successfully applied to processing a real moving image taken from a video recording.


The natural history of open-angle glaucoma has been comprehensively studied, but there is little known of the long-term mortality and visual outcome of patients with chronic open-angle glaucoma under active management.1 In a previous publication we found that 30% of a cohort of newly diagnosed glaucoma patients had died within a period of 10 years and that the survivors had good visual function.2 We reviewed the results of the same patients at 15 years and, in addition, we compared the demographic features of the group who died with those that survived.

In summary, of 436 patients who were referred to a glaucoma case-finding clinic between July 1994 and December 1995, 68 patients were found to have chronic open-angle glaucoma.2 These patients were followed at regular intervals in a specialist-led glaucoma clinic. Over the next 15 years, …


5540^ Background: AURELIA is a phase 3, randomized, open-label trial in patients (pts) with PT-resistant, recurrent OC (NCT00976911). Based on investigator (INV) assessment of radiographic data, CT + BV showed significant improvement vs CT alone in the primary end point of progression-free survival (PFS) (Pujade-Lauraine, JCO in press). Median PFS was 3.4 months for CT vs 6.8 months for CT + BV (stratified hazard ratio [HR], 0.38; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.30–0.49; P<.001). As this was an open-label trial, an independent review committee (IRC) assessment of radiologic data was conducted retrospectively to confirm these results. Methods: Radiologic images were provided to the IRC for 92.2% of randomized pts; 82.5% of pts were IRC-evaluable. Data were reviewed in a blinded manner according to a prespecified charter following modified RECIST v.1.0. PFS analysis was based on the intent-to-treat population. Results: IRC results were consistent with those from the INV, demonstrating a statistically signif...


from pregnancy to 30-months postpartum. When these risk factors were combined, additive rather than interactive risk models were supported. Practical implications of additive risk factors are discussedThe birth of a first child is a joyous event for most couples. However, it is also a time of exceptional demand during which new parents may struggle with fatigue and exhaustion (Petch & Halford, 2008), role overload (Perry-Jenkins, Goldberg, Pierce, & Sayer, 2007), and reduced time for leisure and couple intimacy (Feeney, Hohaus, Noller, & Alexander, 2001). A meta-analysis (Mitnick, Heyman, & Slep, 2009) documented the decline in relationship satisfaction across the transition to parenthood (TtP), but cautioned that the decline across time in longitudinal studies did not differ for parents and nonparents. Two recent studies estimating trajectories of change for parents and nonparents found that in parents, the TtP hastened the declines in relationship satisfaction, though declines occurred in parent and nonparent groups (Doss, Rhoades, Stanley, & Markman, 2009; Lawrence, Rothman, Cobb, Rothman, & Bradbury, 2008). These results underscore a basic assumption in most TtP research - that though the passage of time challenges relationships in general, the high demands of new parenthood catalyze declines in relationship satisfaction depending on a risk gradient (Cowan & Cowan, 1995).Hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in programming for couples during the TtP in the United States (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008) and in other high-income countries (e.g., Norway: BarneLigestillings-og Inkluderingsdepartementet, 2008), yet so far the success of these programs has been limited (e.g., Wood, Moore, Clarkwest, & Killewald, 2014). We previously found that teaching couples skills for constructive communication and problem solving during pregnancy using a Danish adaptation of the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP; Stanley, Blumberg, & Markman, 1999) had no effect on postbirth communication and did not prevent later erosion of relationship satisfaction (Trillingsgaard, Baucom, Heyman, & Elklit, 2012). Similarly, the large, multisite Building Strong Families Project (Wood et al., 2014) concluded that programs for new or expectant low-income parents produced little to no positive effects on relationship quality at 15 months follow-up. In a meta-analysis (Pinquart & Teubert, 2010), couple-focused interventions during the TtP on average had small effects on communication skills (d = .28) and negligible effects on relationship quality (cl = .09). In contrast, results from a meta-analysis by Hawkins, Blanchard, Baldwin, and Fawcett (2008) - that included samples of couples at various stages of their relationship- demonstrated that couple education generally produced moderate effects on both relationship quality (ranged cl = .30 to .36) and communication skills (ranged cl = .43 to .45). The comparably lower effects of couple education offered to new or expectant parents (as compared with couples in general) could be due to underexplored contextual and individual constraints of relationship maintenance during the TtP that interventions have yet to surmount. The vulnerability-stress-adaptation model (VSA model; Karney & Bradbury, 1995) provides a useful framework for hypothesizing what these constraints may be and how they combine to influence relationship satisfaction.The Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation ModelAll couples must adapt to a variety of stressful events and circumstances over the course of their relationships; to understand this developmental course, Karney and Bradbury (1995) proposed the VSA model. This model holds that relationship outcomes are determined by the nature of the stressful events that the couple encounters, the enduring vulnerabilities that each partner brings to the relationship, and the quality of the couple's adaptive processes. …


Deguelin has both antiproliferation and antimetastasis activities. However, high‐dose deguelin elicits many undesired side effects. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the low‐dose deguelin can prevent the metastasis of oral cancer.


Robot soccer is a challenging platform for multi‐agent research, involving topics such as real‐time image processing and control, robot path planning, obstacle avoidance and machine learning. The conventional robot control consists of methods for path generation and path following. When a robot moves away the estimated path, it must return immediately, and while doing so, the obstacle avoidance behavior and the effectiveness of such a path are not guaranteed. So, motion control is a difficult task, especially in real time and high speed control. This paper describes the use of fuzzy logic control for the low level motion of a soccer robot. Firstly, the modelling of the soccer robot is presented. The soccer robot based on MiroSoT Small Size league is a differential‐drive mobile robot with non‐slipping and pure‐rolling. Then, the design of fuzzy controller is describes. Finally, the computer simulations in MATLAB Simulink show that proposed fuzzy logic controller works well.


Remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) has gained attention as a non-intrusive camera-based contactless method for the remote monitoring of vital signs. rPPG is especially appealing for its suitability in telehealth settings as a way to provide healthcare professionals physiological measurements of their patients during video consultations, without the need of specialist equipment. Limited data transmission is a key concern in video conferencing and necessitates the need for video compression to mitigate the communication bottleneck. To ensure that their service is manageable at large scales, video communication providers often use a form of Constant Bitrate (CBR) mode encoding to keep bitrates constrained and consistent regardless of video content. In this paper, we study how video compression using Constant Bitrate mode encoding affects the accuracy of rPPG methods and compare this to video encoded using a Constant Rate Factor mode (CRF), more commonly used for asynchronous video. To this end, we analyse the behaviour of three typically used video codecs (AV1, H.264, and H.265) in both CRF and CBR modes on 129 videos from 3 different databases (UBFC-RPPG, LGI-PPGI-FVD and PURE). Our results show a noticeable difference between CRF and CBR mode encoded videos on rPPG signal quality that is inconsistent between encoders.


Software measurement can play a major role in ensuring the quality and reliability of software products. The measurement activities require appropriate tools to collect relevant metric data. Currently, there are several such tools available for software measurement. The main objective of this paper is to discuss the validation of results when using a combination of multiple measurement tools especially for products built using object-oriented techniques and languages. In this paper, we highlight four tools for collecting metric data, in our case from several Java-based open source projects. Our findings show that the tools provide different results for similar metrics and we discuss the methods used to validate the results reported by the tools. Our research is currently based on the work of Card and Glass, who argue that design complexity measures (data complexity and structural complexity) are indicators/predictors of procedural/cyclomatic complexity (decision counts) and errors (discovered from system tests).


In accordance with the specific condition of the western China, the cultivating national, provincial, and county growth pole concepts are btought forward,the corresponding choosing conditions discussed, and the growth poles in various ranges determined.According to the landform, traffic area location and other factors of the western China,the relevant key line is laid out, the effectiveness of the arrangement estimated, and the extraordinary driving force of the highway communication indicated in this paper.


In this paper, we have studied the nonlinear properties of the time evolution of tearing modes in the electric current sheet at the magnetotail and the interactions with the dawn dush electric field by the perturbation methods. The results are follows: 1. the nonlinear time evolution of the tearing modes can develop magneto-islands finally,2. the widths of islands are relative to the fourth square root of growth rate, and 3. the widths of islands can happen cusp catastrophes in the actions of dawn-dush electric field.


Railway car control device at the heart of the art technology is a device which plays an important role in the safety. Analyzing the data fields of 20 years were selected for the failure probability of the inverter control device of high PCB of the control device. As a result of an analysis of the cause of failure is possible PCB lifetime prediction of the part and is out exactly to the point where the function is lowered. This study aims to present a reference to the maintenance of the control system of trusted.


The article suggests the data of empirical research showing the peculiarities of dynamics of the complex of subject personality characteristics with the adolescents in the process of development. The research has found significant differences in the structure of subject organization in the adolescents of the different the level of sociо-psychological maturity. The article presents the results of empirical research on the sample group of 289 adolescents. The following diagnostic tools have been used: psychological characteristics of personality, selforganization, subject position and individualism-collectivism. Statistical method – discriminator analysis. The results obtained allow using them for organization and running counseling activities for the psychologists and educators in order to develop social and psychological maturity of adolescents.


Magnetic tunnel junctions have been fabricated by magnetron sputtering and patterned by deep ultraviolet photolithography. The tunnel magnetoresistance was 15%–22% and resistance times area product (R×A) 7–22 Ω μm2 for junctions having 4.75–5.5-A-thick Al layer oxidized naturally. Two types of breakdown were observed: abrupt dielectric breakdown at an effective field of 10 MV/cm determined by the thickness of the tunnel barrier, and a gradual breakdown related to defects in the tunnel barrier. After the breakdown a metallic pinhole is created, the size of which depends on the maximum current applied to the junction. The current flowing through the pinhole creates a strong circular magnetic field that curls the local magnetization in the free layer around the pinhole. The subsequent free-layer reversal is very sensitive to the pinhole location. The electric properties after breakdown can be well described by an Ohmic resistor and a tunnel magnetoresistor connected in parallel.


The Long Fifteenth Century is intended as a companion volume to Douglas Gray's ground-breaking Oxford Book of Late Medieval Verse and Prose and incorporates a bibliography of his published writings. Gray's anthology revolutionized critical appreciation of English and Scottish literature of the 'long fifteenth century' from the death of Chaucer to the Reformation, but the literature of the period as a whole remains much under-read, undervalued, and under-studied. The contributors to this volume, all leading scholars in the field, bring to the fore the power of underrated writers, restore to the period writings often attributed to other centuries, open up new possibilities in neglected genres, offer radical rereadings of some more familiar works, and demonstrate how closely the literature of the period is bound up with political and social conditions. Written in honour of Douglas Gray, to mark his long and distinguished tenure of the J.R.R. Tolkein Professorship of English Literature and Language at Oxford university, the 15 essays in this volume portray the long fifteenth century as a major period of literature in its own right. They provide a comprehensive survey of fifteenth-century literature in print, from the morality play to the ballad, verse forms to prose romances, including Chaucer, Lydgate, Skelton, and Hoccleve, along with essays on the Middle French Poets and Scottish writings of the period.


Much of our modern life is tied to increasingly intricate technology, embodying ever larger numbers of materials to achieve greater and greater performance. Is this approach wise, and is it sustainable over the long term? This presentation will discuss common examples of modern technology, particularly their material basis, and the potential for present material use patterns to be transformed. The basis for the discussion will be the material flow and criticality of metals studies conducted at Yale over the past decade, which have demonstrated the challenges faced in the coming decades if we are to continue to provide the wide variety of materials now employed by product designers. Thomas Graedel is Professor of Industrial Ecology in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University. His research is centered on developing and enhancing industrial ecology, the organizing framework for the study of the interactions of the modern technological society with the environment. His textbook, Industrial Ecology, coauthored with B. R. Allenby, was the first book in the field and is now in its third edition. His current interests include studies of the flows of materials within the industrial ecosystem, and of evaluating the criticality of metals. He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2002 for "outstanding contributions to the theory and practice of industrial ecology."


The diffusion synthetic acceleration (DSA) method is an iterative procedure for obtaining rapidly convergent numerical solutions of discrete ordinates problems. General P/sub L/ acceleration methods for L>1 are first considered to determine if DSA, which is equivalent to P/sub 1/ acceleration, is optimum. After determining that DSA appears to be the optimum P/sub L/ approach, it is then demonstrated that by also using standard techniques of matrix iterative acceleration, modest improvements can be made is DSA performance.


AbstractThe development of substructure as material passes through the roll gap has been examined for a ferritie stainless steel and it is shown that the final structure evolves close to the roll gap exit. Temperature variations as the material was rolled were monitored and the subsequent effect on substructure investigated. The variation of substructure with processing for two ferritic steels is discussed and the effect of this variation on room temperature properties is presented. It is shown that the strength–structure relationship is highly dependent upon retained martensite which degrades the tensile strength.MST/380


The article reveals the main problems of antitrust law caused by the widespread use of digital technologies. The greatest challenge brought by the proliferation of digital technology and data is the emergence of new forms of pricing, which do not fit well with our traditional approach to the market definition or with our traditional assessment of the likely effect of mergers on prices. Digital sellers have the ability not only to recognize previous buyers more effectively but also to collect, store and exploit information about this buyer's past behaviour in order to display products and prices aimed at maximising the seller's profits given the available buyer profile. Individualised pricing enabled by digitalisation raises issues relative to market definition. In a world where digital sales enable customised pricing, the market is much more liable to segmentation. As a result, one must pay close attention to whether the merging parties are or not "especially close competitors" not only in terms of products but also in terms of consumer information. The authors conclude that AI-based algorithms could be used to facilitate tacit collusion between rivals. Coordination between independent parties is easier to achieve and maintain if the parties can agree on a common price, can detect any deviation from this agreement quickly and precisely and can react to such deviations quickly. Establishing this type of infringement would likely require expertise not currently available to most competition authorities. The article identifies several mechanisms through which the emergence of digital conglomerates, and hence the approval of digital conglomerate mergers, can affect competition adversely. The platform's "market power" now depends on its ability to retain users within its own ecology and to use this to restrict the supply of advertising, leading to higher prices for both advertising and the corresponding products. This ability is increased by any acquisition which helps populate this ecology. Traditional measures of concentration can therefore easily understate, or even miss entirely, this type of merger-specific increase in market power.


An infant lying in the straw in Bethlehem didn't outgun anyone. He just lay there, waiting for anyone, good or bad, to come to him, see his helplessness, feel a tug at his or her heart strings, and then gently try to coax a smile or a word out of him. That's still how God meets us.


Words matter. In utilizing language in a medical context, we should strive to communicate succinctly and clearly, conveying both continuity and understanding. This article seeks to put forward the error in continuing to use the term "cerebral palsy," implying a unitary disease phenomenon, when the heterogeneous nature of this entity is self-evident. In an analogous fashion to that which occurred with autism (another neurodevelopmental disability), the transition in nomenclature to "cerebral palsy spectrum disorder" is put forward for the community's consideration.


We present an exact solution of the Bargmann-Michel-Telegdi (BMT) equations for the dynamics of a spin particle in external electromagnetic and gravitational pp-wave fields. We demonstrate that an anomalous magnetic moment gives rise to an additional spin rotation which is modulated both by the electromagnetic and by the gravitational wave periodicities.


Using FITC-labeled yeasts and flow cytometry,the immune adherence rates of Channel Catfish(Ictalurus Punctatus) erythrocytes to non-sensitized yeasts(E-IC) and sensitized yeasts(E-C3bR) have been investigated.The Channel Catfish erythrocytes are in whole blood conditions and in washed conditions,respectively.The washed Channel Catfish erythrocytes are dealt with autologous serum,autologous inactivated serum(58 ℃ 30 min)and 0.68 % physiological saline,respectively.Our experiment indicates that the rates of E-C3bR and E-IC of the washed erythrocytes which are dealt with autologous inactivated serum(58 ℃ 30 min)are significantly higher than those of the washed erythrocytes dealt with autologous serum and 0.68 % physiological saline.Meanwhile,the rates of E-C3bR and E-IC of the washed erythrocytes which are dealt with autologous serum are significantly lower than those of the control group.Further study shows that the rates of E-C3bR and E-IC in whole blood conditions are both nearly as the same as those of the washed erythrocytes dealt with autologous serum.Our results show that the erythrocytes of Channel Catfish could effectively adhere to non-sensitized yeasts and sensitized yeasts,which is regulated by the thermo-stable enhancer and thermo-labile inhibitor in sera.By the way,the rates of E-C3bR and E-IC detected by flow cytometry are in agreement with those detected by the optical microscope on the whole,which suggests that it is feasible to investigate the immune adherence function of erythrocytes with flow cytometry.This study could not only technically boost the study of the immune adherence of erythrocytes,but also provide an insight into the immune defense system in fishes and build a basis for the detection and prevention of fish diseases.


1007 Background: Prospective and retrospective studies of patients (pts) with oligometastatic (OM) disease have supported that metastases (mets) directed treatment (MDT) with SBRT or SR in addition to standard of care systemic therapy (SOC ST) can improve progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) compared with SOC ST alone. However, randomized evidence in oligometastatic breast cancer (OMBC) are lacking. NRG-BR002, a randomized Phase IIR/III trial, sought to determine the efficacy of SOC ST + MDT (SBRT or SR) as first line treatment of OMBC. Methods: OMBC pts with ≤ 4 extracranial mets on standard imaging with controlled primary disease were eligible if on first line SOC ST for ≤ 12 months without progression. Pts were randomized (1:1) to ARM 1 – SOC ST (mainly chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, anti-HER2) or ARM 2 – SOC ST with MDT of all mets. Stratification included mets number (1 vs > 1), ER/PR and Her2 status, and chemotherapy use. Phase IIR targeted sample size was 128 total/116 eligible pts, for 92% power and 1-sided significance level = 0.15 to determine if adding MDT shows a signal for improved PFS (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.55, corresponding to median PFS (mPFS) from 10.5 to 19 months), in order to continue to the full phase III trial for OS. PFS and OS were estimated by Kaplan-Meier and arms compared with log-rank. Results: 125 of the 129 pts randomized were eligible (ARM 1 = 65, ARM 2 = 60). Key characteristics included median age 54, 79% ER+ or PR+/HER2-, 13% HER2+, 8% triple negative. 60% had 1 metastasis and 20% presented synchronously with primary disease. Following randomization, systemic therapy was delivered to 95% in ARM 1 and 93% in ARM 2; ablation: SBRT 93%, SR 2%, and 5% none. The median follow-up was 30 mo. The mPFS (70% CI) in ARM 1 was 23 mo (18, 29) and 19.5 mo (17, 36) in ARM 2; 24 and 36-mo PFS (70% CI) for ARM 1 were 45.7% (38.9, 52.5) and 32.8% (26.0, 39.5) compared with 46.8 (39.2, 54.3) and 38.1 (29.7, 46.6) in ARM 2; HR (70% CI): 0.92 (0.71, 1.17); and 1-sided log-rank p = 0.36. As PFS did not show signal, OS reporting is included: median OS was not reached in either arm; 36-mo OS (95% CI) in ARM 1 71.8% (58.9, 84.7) and ARM 2 68.9% (55.1, 82.6; 2-sided log-rank p = 0.54). Analysis of first failure showed new mets outside index area (Arm 1) /RT field (Arm 2) developed similarly in both arms at 40%. There were fewer new mets inside treated/index area for Arm 2 6.7% vs ARM 1 29.2%, respectively. There were no grade 5 treatment-related adverse events (AEs), 1 grade 4 AE in ARM 1, and 9.7% and 5.3% grade 3 AEs in ARMS 1 and 2, respectively. Circulating tumor cell counts (0 vs ≥1) at baseline were similar in both arms and were not prognostic HR (95% CI): 1.04 (0.54, 2.02). Conclusions: The addition of MDT to SOC ST did not show signal for improved PFS, nor OS difference in patients with OMBC. The trial will not proceed to the Phase III component. Clinical trial information: NCT02364557.


This article overviews the distress situation of the Nepalese ethnic subaltern concerning Trishna Gurung's five selected songs- "Sajha Ko Bela", "Gainey Dajai", "Khani Ho Yahmu", "Rail Lai Ma" and "Maya Man Bhari" and explores how the aesthetic expression and the pathetic predicament of the subaltern come to be a subtle form of resistance. Her songs hold the spirit of remoteness and auratic root and counter the western musical hegemonic propensity and the dominant music culture of Nepal. Articulating subaltern sighs as a major concern of her songs in the auditory and visual representation she presents the repressed aesthetics as a constructive and creative space formation for the resistance.


New socialistic countryside construction is the important foundation of building a harmonious socialist society and the problem of rural land is the core of new socialistic countryside construction. In view of the problems of rural land utilization and management in new socialistic countryside construction,such as lack of coordinated planning of rural construction,excessive pursuit of immediate economic benefits,rural land serious idle phenomenon,low intensive land use rate and so on. Several suggestions were put forward,such as rational planning,coordinated promoting rural land comprehensive integration,insist cultivated land protection system,speeding up promotion of agriculture industrialization,strengthening land intensive and sustainable use,perfecting land policy and laws,which will provide reference for new rural construction.


The dynamic fracture toughness and microstructure of stream-turbine cylinder body steel under different-time aging at 593 ℃ was studied by instrumented impact test and microstructure analysis.The results from dynamic fracture test show that K_(Id)after 438h aging is reduced by about 9.5% than that before aging.Compared with that aging for 438 h,K_(Id)after aging for 2105 h changes little and tends to stabilty.Fracture analysis shows that the with aging time changing trend of shear lip thickness and side-swell value is in conrrespondence with the changing trend of K_(Id).Structure and energy spectrum analysis by SEM shows that a small amount of carbide is precipitated from intracrystalline and intergranular,and some carbide particles agglomerate and grow.The dimention and quantity of carbide change little and the structure keeps stable when aging from 438h aging to 2105 h.


Abstract Background Ceftolozane-tazobactam (C-T) is an antibacterial combination of a novel antipseudomonal cephalosporin and a β-lactamase inhibitor. C-T was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2014 and by the European Medicine Agency in 2015 to treat complicated urinary tract infections, acute pyelonephritis, and complicated intra-abdominal infections in adults. The Program to Assess Ceftolozane-Tazobactam Susceptibility (PACTS) monitors C-T resistance to gram-negative (GN) isolates worldwide. Methods A total of 4121 GN isolates were collected during 2012–2016 from pediatric patients (<18 years old) in 31 US hospitals and tested for C-T susceptibility (S) by CLSI broth microdilution method in a central monitoring laboratory (JMI Laboratories). Other antibiotics tested were amikacin (AMK), cefepime (FEP), ceftazidime (CAZ), colistin (COL), levofloxacin (LVX), meropenem (MER), and piperacillin-tazobactam (TZP). Antibiotic-resistant phenotypes identified using CLSI (2017) clinical breakpoints included: carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), non-CRE extended-spectrum β-lactamase screen positive (ESBL, non-CRE), ceftazidime-nonsusceptible (CAZ-NS), and meropenem-NS (MER-NS). EUCAST (2017) COL clinical breakpoints were used for Enterobacteriaceae (ENT). Results The most common infection type in hospitalized pediatric patients was pneumonia (n = 1,488) followed by urinary tract infection (n = 1,143) and bloodstream infection (n = 767). A total of 2,969 ENT and 1,152 non-enterics were isolated. The 5 most common species were Escherichia coli (EC: 1,311), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PSA: 821 isolates), Klebsiella pneumoniae (KPN: 429), Enterobacter cloacae complex (ECC: 360), and Serratia marcescens (SM: 264). Susceptibilities of C-T and comparators for the main species and resistant phenotypes are shown in the Table. Only 7 isolates were CRE in this study. Conclusion C-T demonstrated good activity against pediatric ENT isolates (96.1%S), EC (99.2%S), and KPN (97.9%S). For ENT, all agents but COL had >90% S. For PSA, C-T demonstrated potent activity (99.5%S) and was the most potent antibiotic tested with activity similar to COL. Disclosures D. Shortridge, Merck: Research Contractor, Research grant; L. R. Duncan, Merck: Research Contractor, Research grant; M. A. Pfaller, Merck: Research Contractor, Research grant; R. K. Flamm, Merck: Research Contractor, Research grant


This paper presents a secure destination-sequenced distance-vector (SDSDV) routing protocol for mobile ad hoc wireless networks. The proposed protocol is based on the regular DSDV protocol. Within SDSDV, each node maintains two one-way hash chains about each node in the network. Two additional fields, which we call AL (alteration) field and AC (accumulation) field, are added to each entry of the update packets to carry the hash values. With proper use of the elements of the hash chains, the sequence number and the metric values on a route can be protected from be-ing arbitrarily tampered. In comparison with the secure efficient ad hoc distance vector (SEAD) protocol previously proposed in the literature provides only a non-decreasing protection on the metrics, SDSDV can provide complete protection.


Ferromagnetic Perpendicularly magnetized epitaxial thin films of tau (Mn,Ni)AI have been successfully grown on AlAs/GaAs heterostructures by molecular beam epitaxy. We have investigated the polar Kerr rotation and magnetization of tau MnAl and (Mn,Ni) Al as a function of Mn and Ni concentration. The largest polar Kerr rotation and remnant magnetization were obtained for Mn0.5Al0.5 thin films with values of 0.16-degrees and 224 emu/cm3, respectively. We observed that the Kerr rotation and magnetization remained constant with Ni additions up to about 12 at. % and subsequently decreased with further Ni additions. We discuss these results and one possible method of enhancing the Kerr rotation.


A method of crop production of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) was attempted in field using Nutriseed Packs with drip irrigation. Nutriseed Pack is a tubular assembly composed of degradable polymer paper encapsulated fertilizer and manure pellet, designed for placing in the root zone soil of seedling at the time of transplanting. Urea/Diammonium phosphate (DAP) as source of N, single superphosphate (SSP)/ DAP as source of P, and muriate of potash (MOP) as source of K were used. The effect of paper wrap and addition of maida flour as a natural gel to fertilizer pellet was tested. The highest values for growth parameters such as plant height, number of main branches per plant and number of lateral branches per main branch were recorded for Nutriseed Pack with 50% NP(SSP)K with Wrap + Gel in all stages. Total fruit yield was highest in Nutriseed Pack with 50%NP(SSP)K with Wrap + Gel (43.1 t ha-1), which was 4.6 t ha-1 (11.9 %) higher than yield obtained in surface broadcast as 100%NP(SSP+DAP)K (38.5 t ha-1).The highest uptake of N(112.4 kg ha-1) and P (13.32 kg ha-1) was recorded for Nutriseed Pack with 50% NP(SSP) K with Wrap + Gel, while the highest K uptake (105.6 kg ha-1) was recorded in surface broadcast at 100%NP (SSP+DAP)K. The promising effect of placement of Nutriseed Pack has been brought out in the present study as an alternative means of crop production in terms of increase in fertilizer use efficiency upto 50% in place of surface application of fertilizers.


Simulations of proton-driven plasma wakefield accelerators have demonstrated substantially higher accelerating gradients compared to conventional accelerators and the viability of accelerating electrons to the energy frontier in a single plasma stage. However, due to the strong intrinsic transverse fields varying both radially and in time, the beam quality is still far from suitable for practical application in future colliders. Here we propose an efficient proton-driven accelerating regime in a hollow channel. In this regime, the electron witness bunch is positioned in the region with a strong accelerating field, free from plasma electrons and ions. We show that the witness electron beam carrying the charge of about 10% of 1 TeV proton driver charge can be accelerated to 0.6 TeV with preserved normalized emittance in a single channel of 700 m. This high quality and high charge beam may pave the way for the development of future plasma-based energy frontier colliders.


ski's and Wallerstein's statement that for h < 12 "there is no compromise solution," we come to the conclusion that also under these conditions class compromise is extremely unstable. Intuitively, under high uncertainty about the future, the Keynesian aphorism about long-term conditions and the Marxian expectations become jointly relevant. To sum up: The original idea of finding some relatively simple structural conditions that would explain the failure of Marx's prophecy is very interesting. But the "brake" proposed for irreconcilable class struggle is not enough because, in the case of low future discount rates, the local maxima reported in the article have a very limited range of dominance and, in the case of high future discount rates, maximization over a long time period is unlikely to occur. In light of these remarks, there is a technical modification that increases the stability of the model. One can assume that both classes will maximize over a long nominal time horizon h, but will stop the process in shorter actual time horizons when they reach a certain percentage rho of their long-term target. Under this assumption, both workers and capitalists will not choose r** and s* that maximize W* and C* over a long time horizon, but the ones that will give them rho°7o of these targets in a smaller time interval. Let us call hw and hc these actual time horizons for workers and capitalists respectively. For the original model rho= 100% and hw = hc=h. However, as rho decreases, an additional trade-off mechanism between long-term considerations and militancy arises. The actual time horizon becomes endogenous to the model (function of a,b,r,s, and rho). Since the number of terms in both W* and C* is a function of this endogenous actual time horizon, each actor may be able to get more by increasing this actual time horizon than by increasing his militancy. Table 3 demonstrates the results of incorporating these ideas for h = 50 and rho = 80%. Table 3 demonstrates that the more uncertain workers are about the feature, the more this actual horizon decreases. By comparing the column rnm-r** of Table 3 with the corresponding column in Table 1, we can understand the stabilizing effect of the new assumption. Although the initial assumption was about a 50-year nominal time horizon, the actual time horizon of each class exceeds 30 years only once. Indeed, the additional "brake" operates by increasing the nominal time horizon and consequently "transposing" to more limited actual time horizons equilibria that would otherwise (in the unmodified model) need a nominal time horizon of 50 years to take place. But the stabilizing action of the rho threshold is not limited to this effect. An additional trade-off mechanism between actual time horizons and militancy has been installed. Even for a nominal time horizon h = 30 (actual horizons hw and hc less than 20 years) the stability (of the model increases substantially. In summary, an additional mechanism was introduced that increased the plausibility of compromise solutions between workers and capitalists. This mechanism has a double effect. First, it permits more weight to the compromise conditions through the increases in the nominal time horizon whereas the actual time horizon remains limited. Second, it installs for both classes a trade-off between actual time horizons and militancy that has an autonomous effect on the intensity of class struggle. A comparison of Tables 1 and 3 shows that /•//m-r**, which is the indicator of the stability of the model, has at least been doubled. However, it is incorrect to consider the problem resolved. On the contrary, the original challenge remains, and a more credible model must be advanced to explain the failure of the Marxian prophecy.


This paper focuses on providing an improved and efficient alternative to electromechanical relays (EMRs) in view of the growing demand characteristics for an effective power multiplexing in induction heating applications. A major analytical approach to the design and implementation of bidirectional switches (BDSs) based on different power semiconductor technologies is presented, including thorough static and dynamic characterizations. Emerging gallium nitride high-electron-mobility transistors (GaN HEMTs) and silicon carbide (SiC)-based devices are identified as potential candidates for the mentioned applications.


Objective:To explore curative effects of cupping in treating infantile exogenous cough.Method:All 60 patients were randomly divided into two groups.The treatment group received cupping and the control group routine treatment against cough and inflammation.Curative effects of both groups were compared.Result:There were 25 cases cured in the treatment group,three cases effective and total effective rate was 93.3%,compared with the control group,the difference had statistical meaning(P0.05).Conclusion:Cupping in treating infantile exogenous cough could gain remarkable effects.


Functional organic light emitting diodes (OLED) have gained increasing attention in recent yeaxs due to their promise in the fabrication of full color emitting displays. Electroluminescent (EL) devices based on thin films of evaporated organic molecules, conjugated polymers, or molecularly doped polymers, have been extensively investigated because of their red-green-blue out put color and tunability, light weighf high brightness, mechanical flexibility and ease of fabricationl{. Because the emission spectra of many organic materials is extremely broad, a novel way to accomplish this is to use a single material which has a spontaneous emission spechurn that covers nearly the entire visible spectral range in combination with microcavity effects[2]. Recently, much attention has been paid to uslng microcavity structures to modiff the emission of organic and inorganic LEDs. A microcavity is a Fabry-Perot cavity in which an optically emitting material is placed between two mirrors separated by a few hrurdred nanometers. This alters the optical mode density within the cavity, resulting in a modification of the optical transition probabilities[3 ].


In this paper,we will introduce a new power supply equipment.The system's circuit inlcueds four modules,i.e.,the circuit of solar cells and it's detection circuit,the circuit of storage battery and it's dection circuit,microcontroller,the circuit of charging.The system can make full use of solar energy.The system supply power by commercial power when the solar energy is faint,then the problem of insufficient electricity supply is sloved when it's cloudy and rainy.


This sketch presents how cloth simulation is used at Industrial Light + Magic to create clothing for digital characters in Star Wars: Episode 2 and other films. Many costumes have to match complex physical costumes worn by live actors in other shots. Digital costumes have not only to look the same as their physical counterparts, but also move identically in response to their wearers' movements and environmental influences..


BACKGROUND Dacryocystitis is one of the most frequent diseases of the efferent lacrimal system. It is the infection or inflammation of the lacrimal sac. This is usually because of nasolacrimal duct obstruction. Acute dacryocystitis can cause severe morbidity and rarely mortality in patients. This study wanted to identify the aerobic bacterial aetiology, and demonstrate the antibiogram of bacterial isolates of acute dacryocystitis. METHODS A retrospective record-based study was conducted in Rural Tertiary Healthcare Centre. Clinical Data of 89 patients was collected from medical records of 2014 to 2018 documents. Data of bacterial isolates and their antibiogram were retrieved from records in the Department of Microbiology. RESULTS The most common aerobic Gram-positive bacteria were Staphylococcus aureus (29.8 %) and Coagulase Negative staphylococcus (23.3 %). The most common Gramnegative bacteria were pseudomonas spp. (19.4 %) and klebsiella spp. (12.9 %). CONCLUSIONS The knowledge of bacterial profile in different geographic region, different age group will help to develop and implement treatment protocol. KEY WORDS Acute Dacryocystitis, Bacterial Profile, Antibiogram


This study presented the seismic fragility framework of concrete weir structure subjected to strong seismic ground motions and in particular, concrete aging condition of the weir structure was taken into account in this study. In order to understand the influence of concrete aging on the weir structure, by using probabilistic risk assessment, the analytical seismic fragility of the weir structure was derived for preand post-deterioration of concrete. The performance of concrete weir structure after five years was assumed for the concrete aging or deterioration, and according to after five years' condition, the elastic modulus was simply reduced about one–tenth compared with initial condition of weir structures. A 2D nonlinear finite element analysis was performed considering the deterioration of concrete in weir structures using ABAQUS platform, a commercial structural analysis program. Simplified concrete degradation was resulted in the increase of almost 45% of the probability of failure at Limit State 3, in comparison to initial construction stage, by analyzing the seismic fragility. Keywords—Weir, FEM, concrete, fragility, aging.


This study addressed the influence of clear speech on intelligibility and voice onset time for word-initial stops produced by electrolaryngeal speakers. Eighteen consonant-vowel-consonant English words containing /p/, /t/, /k/, /b/, /d/, and /g/ in word-initial position were spoken by 10 laryngectomees in habitual speech and clear speech conditions. Twelve, naive listeners transcribed a total of 4,320 words across habitual speech and clear speech conditions, of which 720 perceptual ratings (containing word-initial stops) were analyzed. Results indicate that electrolaryngeal speakers produced voiced word-initial stops with 25 milliseconds of longer voice onset time in clear speech compared to habitual speech and voiceless word-initial stops with 29 milliseconds of longer voice onset time in clear speech compared to habitual speech. The intelligibility of word-initial stops improved 3.8% during clear speech, while listeners omitted 2.22% more word-initial stops when electrolaryngeal speakers used habitual s...


It has long been argued that linguistic synesthesia has a universal linear-hierarchical directionality tendency, which is mostly grounded in Indo-European language data. This study explores linguistic synesthesia in Korean to verify the cross-linguistic generalizability of the universality hypothesis of linguistic synesthesia. Based on synesthetic data from the Sejong Corpus and gustatory adjectives, this study found that Korean synesthesia shows language-bound variations with three different types of mappings (i.e., unidirectional, reciprocal, and biased), which are frequency- and rule-based. This finding challenges the cross-linguistic universality of the mapping directionality of linguistic synesthesia. As for the mapping mechanism of linguistic synesthesia, this study supports the embodiment theory in terms of language-specific variation. Additionally, it has been proposed that linguistic synesthesia is a special type of metaphor based on both rules and frequency. Finally, this study suggests that linguistic synesthesia displays universal directionality at a general level and language-bound variation at a specific level.


The effect of soil warming and precipitation control in the context of soil warming on Collembola community was studied in Songnen grassland, China. Treatments included (1) control; (2) soil warming; (3) soil warming with low precipitation; and (4) soil warming with high precipitation. The open top chambers were used to increase the soil temperature, and the low and high precipitation were created by covering 30% of the chamber and artificial addition after rainfall through the three-year long field experiment. Soil samples were taken and collembolans were extracted in the 15th in June, August and October from 2010 to 2012. Abundance of total Collembola and dominant morphospecies Orchesellides sp.1 was significantly increased by soil warming. Total Collembola abundance was not affected by the precipitation. However, the abundance of Mesaphorura sp.1 was significantly increased by warming with low precipitation treatment. Collembola species richness, diversity and evenness were not impacted by any treatment through all the sampling times. These results suggest that more attention should be paid to the Collembola community variation under global warming in the future.


Conflict management remained important for many years, yet it gained special interests of the managers and researchers in the last decade. Several studies have found the antecedents of conflicts and its impacts on many aspects of the organizations e.g. performance, environment and productivity etc. The goal of this study was to find which of the interpersonal conflict resolution approach has significant relationship with morale of the academicians of the universities in Pakistan. To understand the dynamics of this relationship and the impacts of the independent on the dependent variables, data was collected from 231 teachers working in different universities in the five cities of Pakistan. Data analysis was performed through SPSS-15. Convenient sampling method employed for data collection. The study has found positive and significant relationship between interpersonal conflict resolution approaches and level of education with morale of the teachers working in the universities of Pakistan except dominating approach, which is negatively related with morale, moreover, the relationship between gender and morale of teacher was insignificant. However, the results of the study in Pakistan were consistent with previous studies. Key w ords: Interpersonal Conflict, Compromising, Integrative, Obliging, Dominating, Avoiding, Morale, Higher Education Institutions, Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.


Introduction: Cannabis is widely popular recreational drug of choice in the US. The drug is known to alter the subjective experience of time. However, its effects on time estimation at a brain level are still largely unexplored. Our goal was to investigate acute effects of cannabis on an fMRI time estimation task by evaluating brain activation differences between cannabis and placebo conditions. We hypothesized that participants' time estimation accuracy and corresponding BOLD response would be altered during the cannabis condition in a dose-related manner, compared to placebo. Methods: In this placebo-controlled, double-blind randomized trial, a total of N=44 participants had 3 dose visits, at each of which they received either high-dose cannabis (0.5 gm of ~12.5% THC flower), low dose cannabis (0.5 gm of ~5.7% flower) or 0.5 gm placebo, using paced inhalation from a volcano via vaporizer. Drug material was supplied by NIDA/RTI. For the current study we analyzed fMRI data from the first of placebo and high dose fMRI sessions throughout each dosing day in which participants performed a time estimation task. Participants were asked to respond with a mouse click as to which box of two boxes displayed for different intervals was displayed on the screen longer. Both sub-second and supra-second temporal intervals were tested, with a range of easy to hard discriminations. We used the Human Connectome Project processing pipeline to prepare fMRI data for GLM modeling of activation using the FSL FEAT toolbox. This model estimated the unique effect sub-second (short) and supra-second (long) interval discrimination, their average effect, and their difference. From these contrasts, the mean activation amplitudes within 387 brain parcels from the Human Connectome cortical atlas were extracted. Robust statistics in R software estimated a paired t test equivalent using the bootdpci function to assess the difference between placebo and the high dose drug conditions for each contrast. Results: Only premotor cortex survived False Discovery Rate corrections for searching all 387 parcels across the entire brain for the average of short and long temporal estimation conditions. Numerous other brain regions differed between placebo and high doses at p<.05 uncorrected for various task contrasts: Short duration stimuli: Premotor cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, medial temporal cortex, visual area, somatosensory cortex, anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex, paracentral and mid-cingular cortex, inferior frontal cortex. Long duration stimuli: Premotor cortex, visual areas, somatosensory motor cortex, paracentral and mid- cingulate cortex, the tempo-parieto-occipital junction, dorsolateral-prefrontal cortex, posterior opercular cortex, medial temporal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, orbito-frontal cortex. Average of short and long duration stimuli: Premotor cortex, somatosensory and motor cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, visual are, medial temporal cortex, paracentral and midcingulate cortex, anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal cortex, tempo-parieto-occipital junction, premotor cortex, somatosensory motor cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, medial temporal cortex, orbital and polar frontal cortex, hippocampus. Difference of short and long duration stimuli: Anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex, ventral stream visual cortex, dorsal stream visual cortex, early visual cortex. Conclusions: The current study elicited multiple brain activation differences for the initial, acute high-dose cannabis vs. placebo condition, but only premotor cortex region survived as significant following multiple comparison correction for short and long duration stimuli contrast. A post hoc power analysis showed that adding 10 additional subjects to this sample would achieve significance with multiple comparison correction for medium effect sizes at alpha=0.05. Future studies on a larger sample can help identify such significant activation differences, and examining all doses and tasks would elucidate unfolding of effects longitudinally post-dose, and dose-dependence of effects.


BackgroundAt present, there is no effective treatment for premature ovarian failure (POF), and stem cell therapy is considered the most promising treatment. Human umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs) have shown good regenerative ability in a variety of diseases including POI, but the method and dosage of hUC-MSCs to treat POI are not clear. This study aims to explore the treatment options of hUC-MSCs for POF by comparing single injection and multiple injections of hUC-MSCs on the ovarian function repair of POF caused by chemotherapy drugs.MethodsFemale mice were injected intraperitoneally with 30 mg/kg of busulfan and 120 mg/kg of cyclophosphamide to induce POF. In the single hUC-MSCs injection group, 7 days after the mice were injected with cyclophosphamide and busulfan, hUC-MSCs were transplanted into these mice. In the multiple injection group, hUC-MSCs were transplanted 7 days, 14 days and 21 days after the mice were injected with cyclophosphamide and busulfan. We evaluated ovarian morphology, fertility, follicle stimulating hormone and estradiol concentration, and follicle count, evaluated POF model and cell transplantation. In addition, real-time PCR, immunohistochemistry, miRNA chip and mRNA chip are used to evaluate the effect of cell therapy.ResultsCompared with the POF group, the ovarian size and primordial follicle count in the hUC-MSC group were significantly improved, and the fertility was also significantly improved. Immunohistochemistry showed that compared with the POF group, the anti-Mullerian hormone and Ki-67 in the ovary of the hUC-MSC group increased significantly, and ovulation was significantly restored. Real-time PCR showed that the expression of follicle stimulating hormone receptor, inhibin and inhibin in the hUC-MSCs group was significantly restored compared with the POF group. The results of mRNA and miRNA chips also showed that hUC-MSC restored ovarian function at the gene level. long-term treatment effect shows that the multiple transplantation hUC-MSCs group is better than the single transplantation hUC-MSCs group. 60 days after the mice were injected with cyclophosphamide and busulfan, the organ coefficient of multiple transplantation of hUC-MSCs increased compared with the POF group, the number of primary follicles increased, and hormone secretion increased. ConclusionThe results show that multiple trasplantation of hUC-MSCs can promote the recovery of ovarian function in POF mice more than a single transplantation. This study provides a basis for the therapeutic dose and therapeutic effect of hUC-MSCs on POF.


Abstract Religious education has long been part of Zambia's primary and secondary education curriculum. It will be argued that, though its role has changed, it has never been highly educational. This is seen to be a major challenge today in the light of a swiftly expanding urban population who find themselves ever more rootless. To address it, it is contended that religious education needs to assume a better 'learning from' dimension. Failure to do so means continued disservice to the Zambian school population and may lead to the disappearance of religious education from the national curriculum.


The paper shows how the discovery of oil in Oloibiri in 1956 foisted clientelism on Nigeria and in the process, corruption and cronyism became normative. The exploration of oil in the Niger Delta region degraded the environment destroying ecosystem resulting in polluted fish ponds, drinking water sources and other means of livelihood. Additionally, the continuous flaring of gases has resulted in acid rain and other forms of diseases within the region. Using information from journals, library sources and online resources the paper argued using Immanuel Wallerstein's systems theory that multinational corporations (MNCs) operating in the oil industry exploit the resources in the Niger Delta without investing commensurate resources in the region. This has not improved the poverty level as less than 5% of Niger Deltans work in the oil industry. The gender dynamic is even worse as less than 1% of Niger delta women work in the sector and most are holding pink jobs. The resultant effect is that the Nigerian economy continues to strink while development has become stunted. The paper posits that oil represents the 'Dutch disease' for Nigeria and Nigerians and has impelled underdevelopment. It avers that the misplaced priority of the ruling elites who are often drawn into the struggle for oil wealth that leaves them engrossed with what they can grab from the national cake which the oil wealth represents and not how to develop the nation frustrates all development agenda. It concludes that the intractable neglect of infrastructural facilities in Nigeria represents the flip-side of oil politics in Nigeria.Keywords: Politics, Oil, Challenge, Nigeria and Development


Abstract The modified exponentially weighted moving average (MEWMA) control chart has been proposed in the literature in an effort to improve the performance of the classical EWMA chart. In this article, we study in more detail the MEWMA chart using various values of its additional design parameter and we also propose the double MEWMA (DMEWMA) chart for monitoring shifts in the process mean, under the assumption that the underlying process follows a normal distribution. The statistical performance of the two charts has been evaluated on the basis of the average and standard deviation of run-length performing Monte Carlo simulations. A comparison study versus the EWMA and DEWMA charts indicate that the modified schemes have better detection ability for the range of shifts where a classical chart is not optimal designed. Finally, one real example is given to demonstrate the application of the proposed chart.


This article is based on a research undertaken to promote and facilitate linkages between gender, poverty reduction and good governance at the local level. The 569 unions under study were included from Dhaka, Barisal, Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi and Sylhet divisions. The research focused on analysis by combining feminist research techniques such as participant field observation, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and case studies of women's life history. The findings showed that most of the women were under the control of their husbands, and they were mere proxies. Women's voices in governance were not so far heard due to their under-representation and non-participation in institutional structures of decision-making. In governance, women still had limited and insufficient access to resources, public debate and political decision-making processes.


South Australia passed the amendment to the Criminal Consolidation Act in 1969, stating the conditions governing legal abortion. Legality is granted if it is in the interests of the health of the woman to be aborted, or if the child would otherwise be born handicapped. 2 doctor's opinions are required to certify that continuation of pregnancy would cause more harm than termination. Since passage of the bill, legal abortions are somewhat higher than expected while hospitalization of patients with septic or incomplete abortions fell dramatically. Complication rates are declining with a minimum rate of 11%. Risk of complication is at least 4 times higher after the twelfth gestational week. Incidence of hemorrhage is between 7.5% and 21%. 2/3 of these require transfusions. Only a small decline in exnuptial births is reported. The government has increased funds available for family planning clinics and educational services, provided by the Family Life Movement and the Marriage Guidance Council, have been increased. The next step is to initiate courses in human reproduction and sexuality for teachers.


In this paper, the dispersions and electromagnetic wave transmission of higher-order modes in a kind of ultra-thin spoof surface plasmonic structures, the conformal surface plasmon (CSP) structure, have been explored at microwave frequency. The transmission spectrum shows a multi-passband characteristic. To eliminate the radiation loss associated with the higher-order modes, a ground plane is introduced to the CSP structure, and it is found that the dispersion curves and transmission spectrum exhibit the similar feature as that of the CSP structure without ground, but with much less radiation loss. The multiband transmission characteristic of the CSP structure has also been applied to design bandpass filter (BPF). It is found that by combining CSP structures with different groove depth the passband of the BPF could be tuned. The designed BPFs have been validated with both the full-wave simulations and the measurements on fabricated prototype at microwave frequency.


Seventy-eight subjects, identified as possessing voice quality aberrations for six months, constituted four experimental groups: breathiness, harshness, hoarseness, and nasality. A control group in...


With potato starch and oil absorption rate as raw material and evaluation index,the optimum techniques to improve oil absorption rate were determined with dual enzymatic stepwise handled starch.The result showed that the oil adsorption reached 86.17% when withα-amylase treatment.Moreover,glucoamylase treatment enhanced oil absorption.The pH,temperature,time of mixing and the enzyme adding quantity affected oil adsorption capacity.The results of the response surface showed that oil adsorption capacity of microporous starch reached 107.51%and the relative error was 0.60%compared with the predicted values 108.16%,when glucoamylase adding quantitys at 1%,pH 5.5,temperature at 50 ℃,enzymatic hydrolysis for 12 h.The difference was not significant compared with predict value,indicated that the model fitting degree was good.It is suggested that optimized microporous starch peeparation technology is accurate and reliable,improved 21.34% of oil absorption rate when compared to the starch treated byα-amylase.


vitro propagation of Plumbago zeylanica was investigated to develop reliable protocols for direct and indirect shoot regeneration. Axillary shoot multiplication, callus induction and shoot regeneration from callus culture was obtained on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with different concentrations and combinations of plant growth regulators. A maximum number of shoots (38 ± 1.3 per explant) was obtained from nodal explants when cultured on MS liquid medium supplemented with 1.0 mg·L -1 BAP, 0.5 mg·L -1 IBA and 2.0 mg·L -1 adenine sulfate. The highest percentage of callus induction was obtained when stem explants cultured on MS medium supplemented with 2.0 mg·L -1 BAP and 1.5 mg·L -1 IAA. The greatest percentage of shoot induction (100%) with a mean of 34.2 shoots obtained from callus was cultured on MS medium supplemented with 0.75 mg·L -1 BAP, 1.0 mg·L -1 IAA, NAA and adenine sulfate each. Regenerated shoots were rooted best on half-strength MS medium containing 0.5 mg·L -1 NAA and 3% (w/v) sucrose. The regenerated plantlets were acclimatized in the culture room and successfully transferred in soil.


Ethyl carbamate (EC) is a potent teratogen in rodents and is present at low concentration in fermented foods and alcohol beverages. It has been well hypothesized that some metabolic products are responsible for the teratogenic effects of the compound. In the present study, the effects of phenobarbital (PB) on EC-induced embryotoxicity were investigated in SD rats. Six groups were constructed: EC 300 (EC 300 mg/kg/day), EC 600 (EC 600 mg/kg/day), EC 600+PB (EC 600 mg/kg/day and PB 80 mg/kg/day), PB (PB 80 mg/kg/day), DR (dietary restriction, 8 g/day/rat) and a control group. Rats of the EC 600+PB group were pretreated with phenobarbital intraperitoneally for three days to induce cytochrome P450 enzymes, followed by oral administration of EC for two consecutive days. The incidence of fetal deaths in the EC 600+PB group was higher than that of the EC 600 group(42.7 vs. 14.3%). The incidence of fetal realformations in the EC 600+PB group was higher than that of the EC 600 group (external; 7.0 vs. 4.1%, visceral; 31.4 vs. 11.3%, skeletal; 11.1 vs. 6.5%). There was no embryotoxicity in the control, EC 300, PB and DR groups. These results show that the pretreatment with phenobarbital augments EC-induced embryotoxicity in rats, indicating an evidence that metabolic activation by cytochrome P450 may be the major pathway of EC to its embryotoxic forms.


The present paper deals with the study of wood-rotting fungi which usually grow parasitically on some tree species and cause them serious damage from Rajaji National Park, Uttarakhand. The data is based on collections made from August 2009 to July 2011.The paper includes 25 species of wood-rotting fungi under 12 genera.


Population Dynamics: Application of Hybrid Discrete-Continuous Models in Cell Population Dynamics (P Kurbatova, N Eymard, A Tosenberger, V Volpert and N Bessonov) Spatially Explicit Dispersal Modelling for the Conservation of Jaguars in Colombia (A M Bernal, E Payan and J Cordovez) Sensitivity Matrix of an Ecological Network with Periodic Dynamics (F Cordova-Lepe, L Garay-Narvaez, R Ramos-Jiliberto and G Robledo) Computational Biology: Data Mining and Optimization applied to Raman Spectroscopy for Oncology Applications (M B Fenn, V Pappu, P Xanthopoulos and P M Pardalos) Exploring Triplet Entropy in HIV Sequences (L dos Santos, J L Rybarczyk Filho, G J L Gerhardt and I T S Sartor) PROTPRED-GROMACS: Evolutionary Algorithm with GROMACS for Protein Structure Prediction (R A Faccioli, I N da Silva, A C B Delbem, G T P Brancini and A Caliri) Optimal Control Techniques in Mathematical Modelling of Biological Phenomena: Transmission Dynamics of HIV/AIDS with Optimal control in the presence of Carefree susceptibles and treatment (K O Okosun, O D Makinde and G J Abiodun) Two different Approaches for Gene Expression Model Control (N A Barbosa, H Diaz and A Ramirez) Bioremediation of NaturalWater resources via Optimal Control Techniques (P Gajardo, H Ramirez, V Riquelme and A Rapaport) Theoretical Epidemiology: Change in Host Behavior and its Impact on the Transmission Dynamics of Dengue (F Sanchez, D Murillo and C Castillo-Chavez) Robust Control Approaches for Epidemiological Diseases (H Puebla, S Martinez-Delgadillo, P K Roy and E Hernandez-Martinez) Stability of Disease Free State in SIS Models. Almost Periodic Rates and Pulse Vaccination (G Robledo, M Pinto and F Cordova-Lepe) Modelling of Physiological Disorders: Sensitive Dependence on the Threshold for TAF Signaling in Solid Tumors (D I Wallace and P Winsor) Mathematical Modelling in Ecology: What can the Black Robin tell us about Population Bottlenecks? (C E M Pearce) Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases: Curing by Infecting: Two-strain Competition during the Acute Phase of Chagas Disease (S P Vega, G J Sibona and C A Condat) Mathematical Modelling of the Interaction between Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection and Cellular Immune Response (H M Yang) Biological Physics and Biophysics: Fractal Plasma: Debye-Hckel Screening on a Fractal (A Y Grosberg) Evolution Biology: Interbreeding Conditions for Explaining Neanderthal DNA in Living Humans: The Nonneutral Case (A G M Neves) Genetic Redundancy and the Origin of Chromosomes (J F Fontanari) Educational Tutorial Chapter on the Mathematical Modelling of Biological Phenomena: If Life is Analog, Why be Discrete? Middle-out Modelling in Mathematical Biology (J R Jungck) and other papers.


Statistical relational learning allows algorithms to simultaneously reason about complex structure and uncertainty with a given domain. One common challenge when analyzing these domains is the presence of latent structure within the data. We present a novel algorithm that automatically groups together different objects in a domain in order to uncover latent structure, including a hierarchy or even heterarchy. We empirically evaluate our algorithm on two large real-world tasks where the goal is to predict whether a patient will have an adverse reaction to a medication. We found that the proposed approach produced a more accurate model than the baseline approach. Furthermore, we found interesting latent structure that was deemed to be relevant and interesting by a medical collaborator.


Traditional villages in Bali has its authorities to rule the village, including how to manage the village forest. While the aim of the management of the village forest has been mainly for ceremonial requirements, it has contributed to the preservation of several rare plants in Bali. The present study aimed at mapping rare plant species distribution in the village forest of Penglipuran Village, Bangli, Bali and how the management of the village forest affects the distribution of rare plants in the village forest. The study revealed that there were 21 families with 34 species of plants in the village forest, with 17 of the species that are categorized as rare plants distributed in narrow, medium and wide in the forest area in clump distribution pattern. It was also revealed that some of the rare plants were preserved because of their roles in the traditional and religious ceremony. Keywords—Mapping, Rare Plants, Village Forest, Penglipuran Village


Methylated SBA–15 molecular sieve[CH3–(SBA–15) ] was prepared by post-synthesis method using methyltrimethoxysilane as coupling agent. The prepared product was characterized by element analysis,powder X-ray diffraction,Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy,low-temperature nitrogen adsorption-desorption technique and thermogravimetric-differential thermal analysis. The results show that methyl is successfully grafted to the molecular sieve SBA–15. The synthesized CH3–(SBA–15) molecular sieve has a good mesoporous structure and possesses good thermal stability.


This paper deals with some proposals to Conventional Genetic Algorithms to improve the performance (number of iterations needed to achieve convergence, time of execution). The advantages and disadvantages of each proposal have been noted. The disadvantage of a proposal is eliminated in the next proposal to the maximum extent. Thus, we f inally landed up in a propos al with least time of execution and also less number of iterations for convergence. All the proposals made are tested by implementing on test function sine(x) and basic hand calculations. Later it has been implemented on Economic Load Dispatch w ith Pmin and Pmax constraints. The results of all the above have been highly satisfactory and a few are reported


A simulation study is made on several strategies used in the game of roulette. The Law of Large numbers is vindicated but several interesting results occur in spite of the Law.


This article developed an estimator for finite population mean under probability-proportional-to-size sampling in the presence of extreme values. Theoretical properties such as bias, variance, and consistency are derived. Monte Carlo simulations were performed to assess the consistency and efficiency of the proposed estimator. It is found that the proposed estimator is more efficient than the competing estimators for all values of c between 0 and 1. The gain in precision of the proposed estimator is much higher than that of its competitors for small values of c. Empirical applications of the proposed estimator are illustrated using three real data sets, and the results revealed that the proposed estimator performed better than the conventional and Sarndal (1972) estimators.


We present a novel immersive upper extremity exercise testbed for activities of daily living (ADLs). The system comprises a seven degrees-of-freedom robotic arm and an off-the-shelf projective 3D display. The manipulator and the display device correspond to the motor function and cognitive function, respectively. ADL tasks that involve upper extremity exercises are important for improving real-life functional performance. ADL tasks usually involve manipulation and/or reaching for an object between desk level and head level. Of the various movements possible, our participants performed point-to-point reaching movements, which are related to ADL tasks, using the proposed system, and we compared 2D and 3D display devices. Three groups, i.e., able-bodied, spinal cord injury, and chronic stroke groups, participated in the reaching tasks. The 3D display was more effective for performing point-to-point reaching movements.


Introduction: Synchronous interaction between the joints of the lower extremity is essential for proper gait. Since the relationship between knee and hindfoot alignment is unclear, this study was completed to investigate and elucidate the relationship between knee deformity and corresponding hindfoot alignment. It was hypothesized that a varus knee deformity will be associated with a valgus hindfoot alignment while a valgus knee deformity will be associated with a varus hindfoot alignment.


In this study, emulsion polymerizations for synthesizing acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive(PSA) were carried out using 2-ethylhexyl acrylate(2-EHA), n-butyl acrylate(n-BA), methyl metacrylate(MMA) as fundamental monomers and acrylic acid(AAc) as a functional monomer in the presence of anionic SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate). To obtain the optimized synthetic condition in the polymerization, we analyzed the polymerization variables such as the effect of surfactant concentration and hydrophilic lipophilic values(HLB). At the same time, the final adhesive properties were also analyzed by the function of the initiator concentration and buffer concentration. In the results, the most stable emulsion was obtained at the surfactant concentrations between 3 and 5 wt%. It was also determined the effect of HLB value of nonionic surfactant and the initiator concentrations on the gel content. Stable emulsion is obtained using the surfactant having HLB value of 12.3. The rate of emulsion polymerization was increased at the initiator concentration greater than 1 wt%, but the stability of the emulsion was decreased. Finally, the effect of the buffer concentrations on the pH and the conversion of the acrylic emulsion product were experimentally measured. At the sodium bicarbonate concentration above 0.4 wt%, the buffer infulence was apparent. The buffer effect was fully acceptable at the concentrations between 0.6 and 0.8 wt% regardless of the monomer composition.


We report an experiment comparing sequential and simultaneous contributions to a public good in a quasi-linear two-person setting (Varian, Journal of Public Economics, 1994). Our findings support the theoretical argument that sequential contributions result in lower overall provision than simultaneous contributions. However, the distribution of contributions is not as predicted: late contributors are sometimes willing to punish early low contributors by contributing less than their best response. This induces early contributors to contribute more than they otherwise would. A consequence of this is that we fail to observe a predicted first mover advantage.


Gerhard Steinke, born in 1927, already worked as a sound engineer at the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, 1 beginning in 1947, prior to studying electroacoustics at the TU (Technical University), Dresden (1949–1953). From 1953 to 1990, he worked in various positions for the RFZ 2 of the German post office, in Berlin Adlershof. From 1956 until its close in the mid-1970s, Steinke managed the newly established research lab for inter-disciplinary problems in musical acoustics, 3 in which, if nothing else, the Subharchord, an electronic musical instrument, was developed. Steinke was a member of various international committees in the area of audiotechnology.


The purpose, design and operation of the signal distributor are described in this paper. The signal distributor is the unit in the experimental electronic switching system which is used to distribute action signals. A semiconductor gate selector, driving a large group of memory flip-flops is used to generate the necessary action signals from a high-speed binary address. Factors governing the design are outlined and some alternate solutions compared.


Weathering changes the properties of coal and its utilization through oxidative and moisture loss processes. Using an EPR-spin probe method, it has been shown that the regions in Illinois No. 6 coal accessible to spin probes upon 0-alkylation increase if the coal is first exposed to sunlight in air rather than to air in the absence of sunlight. Analysis reveals that an increase in oxidation products and microporosity has occurred. One plausible cause for the increase is the formation and reaction of singlet oxygen. A study of Pocahontas No. 3, Lewiston-Stockton and Wyodak-Anderson coal in which the oxygen content varies from 2% to 17% shows that the accessibility of spin probes in toluene swelled oxidized coal depends also on the percent oxygen present and time of exposure to sunlight.


A recent paper [7] describes a variable precision interval arithmetic algorithm for the computation of the zeros of an analytic function inside a given rectangle and to a user-specified accuracy. The algorithm is based on the argument principle in the set of complex numbers C and carries much potential for parallelization at various levels of granularity. Here we explain how to modify the sequential algorithm to take advantage of parallelism at four levels ranging from coarse to medium grain. The algorithm is tested in a distributed environment consisting of eight SPARe workstations. The underlying software environment is also discussed.


Research aims: This study aims to investigate the impact of the thin capitalization rule on tax avoidance in Indonesia.Design/Methodology/Approach: The analysis used event study regression to overcome the problem of committed variable bias. Research findings: The examination found that, over the entire period, the thin capitalization rule could reduce tax avoidance. However, this study also uncovered that even though tax avoidance was reduced, the company did not pay the tax in the current year but postponed it to the following years. In addition, this study revealed that the thin capitalization rule could only reduce tax avoidance for a sub-sample of non-manufacturing companies. As for manufacturing companies, the thin capitalization rule had no impact on tax avoidance.Theoretical contribution/Originality: This research is the first to examine the impact of the thin capitalization rule on tax avoidance using a suitable method, i.e., event study regression with a staggered setup.Practitioner/Policy implication: This study can show that the thin capitalization rule works well for non-manufacturing companies. However, for manufacturing companies, the Indonesian tax authorities need to consider other ways to reduce their tax avoidance, for example, by creating or updating other specific anti-tax avoidance rules, such as transfer pricing or treaty shopping.


In a centralized reputation system,there is an independent third party that calculates agents' reputation based on the feedback and transaction information,and then provides the reputation information for all agents.However,in a distributed system no independent third party exists.Transaction results and feedback information are stored in each agent.Thus,reputation information acquisition and aggregation become more complex.The main problems in previous studies are insufficiency of reputation information acquisition and inaccurate aggregation of reputation information from different sources. This paper proposes a computational model of reputation ina distributed reputation mechanism based on Multi-Agent System(MAS) theory.In distributed MAS,a trustor can get direct or indirect reputation information about a trustee by(1) relying on its direct transaction experience with the trustee;(2) finding witnesses who trade with the trustee through the trustor's social network;and(3) asking the trustee to refer its trading partners to the trustor as introducers.A model acquiring reputation information from these three sources is proposed.An incentive mechanism is included in the model,which is designed to encourage the trustee to honestly provide introducers' information in order to ensure the quantity and quality of acquired reputation information. Based on acquired information,a reputation information aggregation model is established to calculate the trustee's reputation.Because the reliability of reputation information varies with different sources,we propose a model to calculate the reliability of a trusty witness's evaluation based on the user similarity,and the reliability of an unknown introducer's evaluation.We further use the reliability test to weight corresponding reputation information.In addition,we introduce the default reputation for each role in each group in MAS,which is domain dependent knowledge and is applied for the first transaction of new entrants. By conducting experimental simulations,wecompare and analyze the effectiveness of our model and previous reputation models in different scenarios.The results provide evidence for strong validity and robustness of our model.It not only ensures a trustor to acquire much enough reputation information,but also effectively weakens the influence of lies and the bad intention of witnesses or introducers.The research conclusions contribute to current literatures on the sources of reputation information and improve the accuracy of evaluation outcomes in the distributed reputation mechanism.


With application processes being distributed across a large number of nodes, coordination is a crucial but inherently difficult task in cloud environments. Coordination middleware systems like Chubby and ZooKeeper approach this problem by providing mechanisms for basic coordination tasks (e. g., leader election) and means to implement common data structures used for coordination (e. g., distributed queues). However, as such complex abstractions still need to be implemented as part of the distributed application, reusability is limited and the performance overhead may be significant.
 In this paper, we address these problems by proposing an extendable coordination service that allows complex abstractions to be implemented on the server side. To enhance the functionality of our coordination service, programmers are able to dynamically register high-level extensions that comprise a sequence of low-level operations offered by the standard coordination service API. Our evaluation results show that extension-based implementations of common data structures and services offer significantly better performance and scalability than their state-of-the-art counterparts.


Popper's hermeneutics is unique: it is both different from traditional hermeneutics and postivism.It has initiatesd a new kind of hermeneutics by grasping the relation between world.-3 and world.-2 in background of "three worlds".


Preferential sequestering of surface modified metal/semiconductor nanocrystals within microphase separated block copolymer domains holds the promise for engineering large-scale polymer based photonic materials. In my talk I want to review block copolymers as a material platform for photonic crystal engineering as well as the prospects of metallodielectric photonic materials based on metal nanocrystal/block copolymer composites. The effect of metal nanocrystal additives on the optical properties of the composite is found to be determined by: (1) changes in the optical properties of individual nanocrystals due to the spatial confinement of the free electrons by the crystal boundary and (2) by collective effects resulting from the particle size-dependent morphology of the nanocrystals within the polymer domains. The particle core size, the polymer domain spacing as well as the particle surface chemistry are shown to determine three distinct morphological types in particle/block copolymer composites. A detailed comparison between morphological studies and theoretical predictions will be presented that aim to better understand and control morphologies of structured cluster matter in order to tailor optical and mechanical properties of new photonic materials.