School effectiveness is a multifaceted term; one of its meanings refers to the level of goal attainment of a school. When researchers explore the literature that relates to school effectiveness, we noticed that much of this literature is theoretical. This situation has led us to design a Likert type school effectiveness scale to define the qualities of effective schools, by investigating the exploratory factor analysis results of school effectiveness scale. The present questionnaire examines principals' perceptions of six school effectiveness factors: the effectiveness of school climate, school administration effectiveness, the effectiveness of the teacher, the effectiveness of the relationship with the local community, the effectiveness of educational practices, the student's having a sense of belonging to the surrounding environment. This questionnaire is factorable and explains 62.594% of the variance of a more general school effectiveness score. The questionnaire was distributed to 243 school principals, and the collected data was analyzed by computing a one sample t-test to assess participants' scores in relation to the six school effectiveness factors. The results indicated that scores are high 'mostly'.


High resolution Raman scattering measurements have been carried out on pulse and continuous‐wave laser annealed silicon samples with various surface preparations. These included polished and ion‐bombarded wafers, and saw‐cut crystals. The pulse annealing treatments were carried out in ultrahigh vacuum and in air. The residual strain was inferred from the frequency shift of the first‐order Raman active mode of Si, and was detectable in the range 10−2–10−3 in all except the polished samples.


Abstract : Polyimide samples in the form of powders, films and sintered mouldings were prepared from pyromellitic dianhydride and 4,4'-diaminodiphenylether. The effect of environmental variables on the oxidative stability at 400C of the high molecular weight films was studied and it was found that hydrolytic processes could greatly accelerate the degradation. The higher stability of the powders was attributed to the presence of low molecular weight fractions, which inhibited these hydrolytic processes. Support for this postulate was the fact that it was possible to improve the stability of the films by adding low molecular weight materials during the casting process and it was possible to destabilise the powders by prolonged solvent extraction. Comparison of weight loss results on polypyromellitimides is therefore only meaningful when these were determined on high molecular weight films under controlled humidity conditions. (Author)


Adipokines, such as leptin, may affect cancer through its link with inflammation and obesity. We investigated the association between leptin, C‐reactive protein, and risk of cancer death while accounting general and abdominal obesity. From the Third National Health and Examination Survey (NHANES III), we selected 5957 adult men and women with baseline measurements of serum leptin and CRP. Multivariable Cox regression was used to assess leptin and CRP levels (low, moderate, high) in relation to risk of cancer death. Stratification analyses were performed for obesity as defined by body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference. Fine and Gray regression was performed to account for death from cardiovascular disease and other causes as competing events. A total of 385 participants died of cancer during a mean follow‐up of 18 years. After adjusting for BMI and waist circumference, an inverse association with log‐transformed leptin was found for women, with a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.81 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.51–1.30) and 0.40 (95% CI: 0.24–0.68) for moderate and high compared to low levels of leptin, respectively; Ptrend = 0.0007). No association for leptin was observed in men, but higher CRP corresponded to increased risk of dying from cancer (HR: 2.98; 95% CI: 1.57–5.64 for the highest vs. lowest categories of CRP). Similar associations were observed with competing risk analysis also adjusted for BMI and waist circumference. Contrasting associations of serum leptin and CRP with cancer mortality may indicate sex‐specific biological or environmental pathways linking obesity and cancer in men and women which warrant mechanistic investigations.


Based on 20-day control forecasts by the 9-km Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) for selected periods of summer and winter events, this study investigates global distributions of gravity wave momentum fluxes resolved by the highest-resolution-ever global operational numerical weather prediction model. Two supplementary datasets, including 18-km ECMWF IFS experiments and the 30-km ERA5, are included for comparison. In the stratosphere, there is a clear dominance of westward momentum fluxes over the winter extratropics with strong baroclinic instability, while eastward momentum fluxes are found in the summer tropics. However, meridional momentum fluxes, locally as important as the above zonal counterpart, show different behaviors of global distribution characteristics, with northward and southward momentum fluxes alternating with each other especially at lower altitudes. Both events illustrate conclusive evidence that stronger stratospheric fluxes are found in the ECMWF forecast with finer resolution, and that ERA5 datasets have the weakest signals in general, regardless of whether regridding is applied. In the troposphere, probability distributions of vertical motion perturbations are highly asymmetric with more strong positive signals especially over latitudes covering heavy rainfall, likely caused by convective forcing. With the aid of precipitation accumulation, a simple filtering method is proposed in an attempt to eliminate those tropospheric asymmetries by convective forcing, before calculating tropospheric wave-induced fluxes. Furthermore, this research demonstrates promising findings that the proposed filtering method could help in reducing the potential uncertainties with respect to estimating tropospheric wave-induced fluxes. Finally, absolute momentum flux distributions with proposed approaches are presented, for further assessment in the future.


Demographic shifts have transformed the racial and ethnic composition of the U.S. undergraduate population. Data from the American Community Survey are used to analyze Latino undergraduate enrollment as well as factors that contribute to the matriculation of undocumented Latino young adults. The article concludes with an overview of the implications of the growth of the Latino population and the experience of undocumented students on educational practices and policies.


This article analyses the death penalty for apostasy. Islam as moral and religious teaching recognizes the existence of such punishment. This can be traced from a number of verses from the Qur'an and the hadith of the Prophet which explain the concept of the death penalty aimed at certain criminal acts (jarimah) such as apostasy. However, is this the true understanding of the hadith to kill apostates? is still relevant to be applied in the present context, especially when the death penalty has received a very harsh response from human rights activists, both at national and international level? As a response to these questions, the writing analyzes the issue using a descriptive analysis method by making the hadith originating from Ibn Abbas as the research object and by using the theory of sunnah tasyri and ghairu tasyri' by Mahmud Syaltut. The comparison with positive law in Indonesia is also made at the end. In summary, the death penalty for apostasy is no longer relevant in the contemporary context. However, there is an exception when an apostate also commits rebellion (bughat) against the state.


The invention researches the processing technology and the formula of apricot concentrated juice and successfully produces apricot concentrated juice drink which is suitable for industrial production and is convenient to instantly drink; the production method of the apricot concentrated juice comprises the following steps of: raw material checking and choosing, washing, mashing, enzyme killing, enzyme extraction and settling, filtering, concentrating, mixing to be homogeneous, degasing and filling, and sterile cooling, and then the finished product is produced.


Statistical analysis of in situ spectroreflectance data from sample plots of the shortgrass prairie indicates that green biomass, chlorophyll concentration, and leaf water content are directly inter-related to that composite property of the plot called the "functioning green biomass." Correlations between the reflectance and these three measures of the functioning vegetation have been calculated at 91 wavelength intervals of 0.005 micrometers between 0.350 and 0.800 micrometers by using computer analysis. These spectrocorrelation results show the spectral regions of the optimum sensitivity for remotely estimating the green biomass, chlorophyll, and leaf water of a prairie surface and substantiate the direct interrelationship between these parameters. Comparisons between spectrocorrelation curves from two sampling periods in the growing season identifying regions of the spectrum between 0.350 and 0.800 micrometers that are relatively unaffected by increasing amounts of standing dead vegetation and continue to show strong consistent correlations to the amount of functioning green biomass. /Author/


The objective of this study is to propose a solution for process plant upgradation becoming extinct due to obsoleteness of spares. The study will help in reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) based upgradation of control system of process plants in developing countries. Available options for plant upgradation are compact control, modular, and semiautomatic. RAM based upgradation provides solution which is high in reliability and availability (usually all parts are replaced with upgraded and compatible technology) and is easy to maintain throughout the service life of process plant. Case study for stacker and reclaimer of cement plant upgradation is considered to both implement and evaluate the idea. Upgradation methodology is finalized by expert's feedback regarding selection of hardware with respect to availability, market survey to validate the opinion, and economical availability viability of selected hardware. Pre- and postupgradation scenarios are analyzed to validate the implementation of study and conclude the expected outcomes. The process plant upgradation yielded a cost-effective solution to the problem with automation increasing by 17%, plant maintainability increasing by 80%, and downtime of plant decreasing by 17%. Among all available options, modular design Op1 is considered the best choice that can satisfy RAM criteria.


ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to investigate the overall performance of different types of recycled glass media with the optimized coagulation conditions for drinking water treatment. Tests were performed using a laboratory-based filtration unit, with dual filter media configurations and synthetic raw water. The glass media showed comparable performance for both filtration and backwashing and avoided the breakthrough of particles in the effluent. Moreover, the promising performance of the glass media was a slow head loss development which should grant longer filtration runs, less backwashing requirement and thus possible clean water and energy savings. Finally, the optimized combination of filtration media and coagulation operations can lead to the best filtration performance.


Appropriate communication is one of the important aspects of the nursing profession and it is a most challenging task. Among the therapeutic communication techniques, empathy plays a major role that helps nurses to understand and provide care to the client. Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person experiencing from within their frame of reference that is the capacity to place oneself in another's position. The study design adopted was a comparative cross-sectional design. Total Eighty students were enrolled 20 each from the freshmen to Senior undergraduate student nurses participated in the study. Tools used were Demographic data and Jefferson Scale of Empathy. Majority of the student nurses posses above the average level of empathy. High level of Empathy was found high in the sophomore. The average level of empathy was majorly noted among the Freshmen and 1 of the Senior students only. The comparison between the Freshmen to Senior students showed that overall the sophomores (second year) were possessing a high level of empathy. Comparatively, Seniors (Fourth year) students have lower empathy than the Sophomore and the juniors but higher than the Freshman. Whereas, the Freshmen's were found to have lower empathy than the other three group of students. In the present scenario empathy is an essential skill expected of all the nurses. Improving the empathetical attitude and skills is very much necessary.


The effect of constituent elements of the yield on rice soil nutrients in Tangshan was studied.Field experiment was used in the investigation.The results showed that the yield of rice was decreased significantly by the decreasing nitrogen in Tangshan.Nitrogen treatment reduced panicle number of rice significantly(from 9 to 7).In the meantime,the yield was reduced to 5700 kg hm-2 and the fractional yield was reduced to 40.2%.It was clear that nitrogen was the restrict nutrients of rice.


Objective:To investigate effects of combined therapy of Danhong injection and ozagrel on cerebral infarction.Methods:A total of 120 patients were randomly divided into treatment group and control group by half.Two groups were given intravenous drip of ozagrel 80 mg for 14 days,and the treatment group was also given saline 205 mL and Danhong injection 30 mL,day 1 intravenously besides ozagrel.Effects and neurological deficit score were compared before and after treatment in both two groups.Results:There were statistically significant differences in neurological deficit score between two groups on cerebral infarction compared with ozagrel.Conclusions:Combined therapy of Danhong injection and ozagrel is more effective.


Terje Eidesmo Svein Ellingsrud Ståle E. Johansen Rune Mittet Electromagnetic Geoservices AS Trondheim, Norway An electromagnetic (EM) technique for marine hydrocarbon prospecting, first used commercially in November 2002, has gained wide industry acceptance. The technique identifies resistive reservoirs by measuring the energy received at long source–receiver offset distances (greater than three times the reservoir depth). Statoil researchers first showed the potential of the approach during the late 1990s. Electromagnetic Geoservices AS (emgs), based in Trondheim, Norway, was formed in 2002 to commercialize the technique. In the past few years, many improvements have been made to operating practices, survey equipment, and data-processing techniques. These developments have resulted in the acquisition of a considerable body of highquality data under a wide range of conditions, and the delivery of sophisticated answer products that now include depth-migrated images of resistive subsurface bodies.


The article is devoted to the study of the essence of the legal security of business in the system of economic security. The activity of business units and business as a whole is unthinkable without striving for greater profitability in carrying out its activities, and in a market reality it needs to level threats and risks on the one hand and have a competitive advantage (efficiency) on the other, which ensures economic security. Thus, economic security allows us to develop not only a single subject of legal relations, but also the economy of the country as a whole. For these purposes, the authors have proposed a special model with an emphasis on legal aspects, which is based on the mechanism for determining legal relations, which is the key element of ensuring legal security of business, which allows to qualify all economic actions into economic and legal actions with the help of which it is advisable to ensure threat leveling and risks with a simultaneous increase in the efficiency (profitability) of the work of the subject of the relationship. The model of legal security of business developed and proposed by the authors allows to evaluate the influence of all the numerous factors, both the external environment (government, SRO, suppliers, contractors, consumers, intermediaries, commercial organizations, trade unions, customers, and other counterparties) and the internal environment (specific features of the institutional unit) that influence the activity of the subject of the legal relationship as a whole, as well as on determining the value of resources and services absorbed by it , and the profits received from customers, with an emphasis on changing resources (at the "input" and "output"), terms, responsible persons, the result of which determines the main directions of development ment entity relationship and its performance.


Appearance management includes all of the personal appearance of the attention,decision and action process.Each person will do some form of appearance management every day.By analyzing the clothes behavioral characteristics and body modification approach of modern urban middle-aged women,based on the social gender theory,to explain the social significance of women's appearance management from two aspects.


As the quality-oriented education is gradually deepening,the experimental teaching mode demonstrated by the traditional university physics has manifested the shortcoming and drawback progressively.Combining the actual teaching,an effectual teaching method for the elective course of university physics demonstrating experiment is summaried.A brand-new way for exploring the new teaching mode of physics demonstrating experiment is offered.


We explore whether expertise can modulate the capacity of visual short-term memory, as some seem to argue that training affects capacity of short-term memory [13] while others are not able to find this modulation [12]. We extend on a previous study [3] by demonstrating expertise effects by investigating different groups of healthy adults. In a whole report paradigm [5] we investigate performance on standardized pictures [11], Latin letters, and Japanese hiragana. Expertise was modulated between groups of novice (Danish university students), trained (Danish university students studying Japanese), and expert observers (Japanese university students). For both the picture and the letter condition we find no performance difference in memory capacity, however, in the critical hiragana condition we demonstrate a systematic difference relating expertise differences between the groups. These results are in line with the theoretical interpretation that visual short-term memory is the sum of the reverberating feedback loops to representations in long-term memory.


This technical appendix provides additional details about our methodology for estimating the number of people who are uninsured in 2014 after the implementation of health insurance expansions under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) and for estimating 2014 eligibility for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP). We focused on low-income women aged 18 to 64 years (the eligible age range for cervical cancer screening) or 40 to 64 (the eligible ages for breast cancer screening).


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a risk factor for stroke. This study was undertaken to determine the influence of AF on the mortality of stroke patients and on the causes of death after a stroke event.

METHODS
Patients with first ischemic stroke who were .35 to 74 years old and registered in the FINMONICA stroke register during 1982 through 1992 were analyzed (n = 6912). There were 642 patients with AF (9.3%) (mean age, 67 years) and 6270 patients without AF (90.3%) (mean age, 63 years). The association between AF and stroke mortality was investigated by use of logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards models.

RESULTS
Mortality was higher in the AF group both at 28 days (19.5% versus 14.4%, P < .001) and 1 year after the attack (30.5% versus 21.8%, P < .001). After adjustment for age and sex, the odds ratio for 28-day case fatality (AF versus non-AF) was 1.27 (95% CI, 1.03 to 1.56; P = .003), and that for 1-year mortality was 1.36 (95% CI, 1.14 to 1.63; P < .001). In the proportional hazards model, AF was a significant independent risk factor for 1-year mortality (hazard ratio, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.09 to 1.46; P = .002). Cardiac causes of death were more common in the AF group at the acute stage. In the course of 1 year, there were no differences in the distributions of causes of death.

CONCLUSIONS
Stroke patients with AF are at high risk of death both at the acute phase of stroke and during the subsequent year after the first acute stroke event. Mortality from cardiac diseases prevailed in the AF group during the acute phase of stroke. Careful cardiac evaluation and treatment are essential in patients with AF and stroke.


Objective To explore the feasibility of sperms used as carriers of foreign gene for generating transgenic mice. Methods The sperms were taken from the vas deferens and ductus epididymidis of mature mice, incubated with foreign plasmid DNA covered by liposome and injected into the vagina of super-ovulated female mice. Forty hours later the 2-cell embryos were collected for test. Results The results showed that: (1) The sperms could be transfected by foreign DNA and the ratio of transfection was 53%; (2) The 2-cell embryos could carry foreign DNA from the sperms transfected and the frequency of carrying was 11.5%. Conclusion Sperms from mouse vas deferens and ductus epididymidis can be transfected by foreign DNA covered by liposome and can be used as the vehicle to carry the foreign DNA into early embryo.


In this work, the convective flow of heat generating hydromagnetic fluid through a leaky channel is investigated. Due to channel porosity, the asymmetrical slip conditions are imposed on both walls. The coupled dimensionless partial differential equations are reduced to a system of second-order boundary-value problems based on some flow assumptions and solved by Adomian decomposition method (ADM). Variations in velocity and temperature profiles are presented and discussed in detail. The result of the analysis revealed that increasing Hartmann number decreases the flow velocity while the slip parameters enhance the flow.


Objects in software are mapping of the real word, and can be defined by relations to others. Relation is the difference, association, interaction and constraint among objects, which can be defined by the interface of objects. Every object treats itself as subject, while the other as objects. To design an object, we need a way to decompose it into orthogonal member objects, thus get orthogonal software.


Summary There is emerging evidence of successful application of IOCS and leucocyte depletion filter in removing tumour cells from blood salvaged during various oncological surgeries. Research on the use of IOCS-LDF in MSTS is urgently needed. Introduction Intra-operative cell salvage (IOCS) can reduce allogeneic blood transfusion requirements in non-tumour related spinal surgery. However, IOCS is deemed contraindicated in metastatic spine tumor surgery (MSTS) due to risk of tumour dissemination. Evidence is emerging from different surgical specialties describing the use of IOCS in cancer surgery. We wanted to investigate if IOCS is really contraindicated in MSTS. We hereby present a systematic literature review to answer the following questions: 1. Has IOCS ever been used in MSTS? 2. Is there any evidence to support the use of IOCS in other oncologic surgeries? Methods A systematic review of the English literature was conducted using computer searching of databases: Medline, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials for articles published between 1 January 1986 and 31 Dec 2012. Results Question 1: A comprehensive literature search did not provide any publication describing the use of IOCS in MSTS. The application of IOCS in MSTS has never been described before. Question 2: Our systematic review shows that the use of IOCS has been extensively investigated in patients undergoing surgery for gynaecological, lung, urological, gastrointestinal, and hepatobiliary cancers. The literature review considered 281 abstracts from the initial search. After consideration by consensus, 30 articles were included in the final analysis. We included in our review -prospective, retrospective studies and in vitro studies. The selected articles were then classified according to the surgical specialty: gynaecological, lung, urological, gastrointestinal, and hepatobiliary cancers and type of studies: reinfusion studies, non-reinfusion studies and in vitro studies. 23 Reinfusion studies: Studies where salvaged blood was actually re-infused into patients and analyzed on the basis of clinical outcomes like survival, recurrence, metastasis rates, and transfusion requirements, etc. IOCS has been extensively investigated in several large cohort studies and large case series with considerable follow-up duration across urological, gynaecological, hepatobiliary and gastrointestinal cancers. Patients receiving salvaged blood have been shown to perform as well or better across a variety of clinical outcome measures as mentioned above. 2 in vitro studies and 5 non-reinfusion studies: Studies where salvaged blood was not re-infused into patients but was analyzed for the presence or viability of tumour cells in the processed blood. They consistently demonstrated the utility of LDF in either greatly reducing the number of tumour cells or even completely eradicating tumour cells from blood-tumour admixtures or salvaged blood. This provides the "proof-of-concept" that LDF is able and is effective in removing tumour cells from blood. Discussion/Conclusion There is strong evidence that LDF can safely remove tumour cells from salvaged blood. IOCS in patients undergoing cancer surgery is not associated with any adverse clinical outcomes. The reluctance of spine surgeons to use IOCS in MSTS appears to be unsupported. There is ample evidence supporting the use of IOCS in oncological surgeries. Research is needed to evaluate the application of IOCS in MSTS.


The invention discloses a set-top box and PC-oriented real-time streaming media server, and relates to the fields of network multimedia television technology, video transmission and video encoding process. The server at least comprises a memory unit, a network communication unit, a video decoding unit, an audio decoding unit, a data buffer unit, an audio and video synchronization unit, a live broadcast signaling processing unit, a video encoding unit, an audio encoding unit, a live broadcast data transmission unit and the like. The server can simultaneously output the video of different code formats to different play terminals from one path of real-time input video.


G techniques can efficiently monitor and control the operation of modern logistics, so it is necessary to integrate 3G with modern logistics technology. This paper researches on the integration model, which is utterly important for the construction of distributed spatial logistics information system.


The purpose of the Beam Position Monitor (BPM) system is to measure the beam orbit in the accelerator. The BPM data will be used for correcting closed orbit distortions (COD), and to optimize the operation of the rings. At KEKB the data are also used for analyzing the alignment and strength errors of magnetic components in the rings. The latter purpose requires a BPM system with good stability and high precision. This cannot be easily realized with a " fast " system where the beam positions are measured every turn. Therefore, the system adopted at KEKB is a " slow " system, where measurements are performed for the beam positions averaged over many turns. A similar system has been used at TRISTAN for several years, and its operation has been well proven. An electrostatic pickup unit at KEKB consists of four disk electrodes. A pickup unit will be installed near every quadrupole magnet in the two rings. There will be about 450 BPMs to be installed in each ring; in total there will be 900 pickup units for the entire KEKB. Since a multi-bunch, high-current beam will be stored at KEKB (LER 2.6 A, HER 1.1 A) special attention must be paid to the design of the pickups, transmission lines, switches and front-end electronics. This section outlines the BPM system design for KEKB. The important design considerations of the BPM pickup electrodes are as follows: • Reduce the pickup beam power by using electrodes with a small cross section (diameter 12 mm).


ruptcy even when they have not experienced any reduction in consumption. The obligation to repay in bankruptcy and state-sanctioned procedures for enforcing it are intended to reduce those costs. Suppose debtors who file for bankruptcy are divided into two groups: opportunists and non-opportunists. Non-opportunists who borrow intend to repay their debts and they borrow an amount that they normally could repay. They file for bankruptcy only if they experience a drop in their incomes or some other hardship — they are the people for whom bankruptcy debt relief was intended. Opportunists, in contrast, plan in advance to maximize their gains from bankruptcy. They often have high incomes and borrow as much as possible. They may have substantial assets, but they shelter the assets from the obligation to repay. They file for bankruptcy even though they have not experienced any drop in their incomes. Famous examples of opportunistic bankrupts include the actor Burt Reynolds (who had $10 million in debt discharged while keeping a $2 million house), corporate raider Paul Bilzerian (who kept a 38,000 square foot house in bankruptcy), actress Kim Basinger, rapper MC Hammer, and boxer Mike Tyson. In reality, many debtors are a mixture of both types. For example, optimistic debtors may borrow amounts that they can only repay if they are promoted, when in fact they are in occupations where promotions are rare. Or they may lose their jobs and borrow to support consumption while they search for a new job. If the job search lasts a long time, they may end up in bankruptcy because they accumulate more debt than they can repay.


Exploration for oil and gas in deep water offers unique challenges in well construction, beginning at the seafloor. Large-bore, subsea wellhead designs required to reach directional targets at depths in excess of 30,000 ft RKB (rotary kelly bushing) require competent cement placement to maximize casing support and isolation for drilling operations. Routine challenges associated with the riserless section (also referred to as the tophole section) are low fracture gradients resulting from young, unconsolidated sands and shallow drilling hazards such as shallow water flows (SWF) or hydrate formations. Although not encountered on every location, these specific areas referenced as shallow hazards require planning the wellhead casing and drilling designs specially to help prevent initiation of flow before running and cementing of casing strings. Specialized, low-density cementing systems are used for maintaining satisfactory equivalent circulating density (ECD) for cement returns back to the seabed. These low-density systems can be prepared either by an engineered foaming operation or by the use of specialized additives blended with cement to lower the slurry density. Bottomhole circulating temperature (BHCT) is calculated using a thermal simulator; slurries are designed using special laboratory testing equipment to help accurately define the additives necessary for optimal results. Mechanical aids to place the slurries effectively are used with many different landing strings to run the large-diameter casing. As more offset wells are completed with flow lines connected back to production platforms, the overall effectiveness of drilling the riserless section with minimal disturbance to surrounding seafloor becomes critical. Lack of cement returns may compromise the casing support and excess cement returns cause problems with flow lines and control lines. Calipers used to accurately estimate hole volumes are available for these large hole sizes but are seldom used; therefore, use of tracers and other methods have provided the best approach to accurate determination of cement returns to the seafloor. Many different methods of early detection of cement returns have been used with varying degrees of success.


OBJECTIVE
To compare 4 techniques for pelvic flexure enterotomy closure in horses.

STUDY DESIGN
Ex-vivo study.

SAMPLE POPULATION
Cadaveric ascending colon specimens (n = 48 horses).

METHODS
Pelvic flexure enterotomies of different lengths (5 cm, 10 cm) were performed and closed with 1 of 4 techniques: handsewn 2 layer (HS2); handsewn 1 layer (HS1); skin staples (SKS); or TA90 stapling device (TA90). Time to close each enterotomy, bursting pressure, luminal reduction, and cost were calculated and compared.

RESULTS
HS2 was significantly more time consuming to perform in the 5 cm group whereas in the 10 cm group, only the HS1 and SKS were faster than the other techniques. Luminal reduction was not different between techniques in either group. HS2 resulted in consistently higher bursting pressure compared with SKS and TA90 in the 5 cm group and compared to all other techniques in the 10 cm group.

CONCLUSION
The TA90 technique had the lowest bursting pressure and highest cost. The HS2 technique was strongest.


5550 Background: Pertuzumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody inhibits HER2 receptor heterodimerization by binding to the dimerization domain of the HER2 receptor, and it has shown promising activity in studies of women with platinum resistant ovarian cancer. We report the impact of pertuzumab on patient-reported symptoms evaluated as part of a completed randomized trial of gemcitabine given with pertuzumab versus placebo in this population. Methods: Patients received study treatment (study drug on Day 1 with Gem on Day 1, Day 8, every 3 weeks) until 17 cycles, disease progression, or unmanageable toxicity. Patients completed FOSI questionnaires at baseline and at Day 1 of each 3-week cycle. The FOSI score was derived from 8 items with higher scores indicating better health status (range 0–32). Symptom deterioration was defined as a ≥3 point decrease in FOSI from baseline. Results: A total of 130 patients participated with a median age of 59 years. The majority of women had ECOG PS=0 at baseline. The media...


The end of forgetting. The information posted on the Internet has the potential to exist in perpetuity. As individuals live increasingly in cyberspace, scholars like Jeffrey Rosen and Viktor Mayer-Schonberger point out that the unforgetting and often unforgiving eye of the Internet may create a hyper-vigilant society and suppress free expression. The Internet, some have postulated, could become a modern Panopticon.


The ignorance about air pollution today is an alarming issue that can put our health at risk. Carbon monoxide (CO) is one of the highly polluting and harmful to health gases, and it is found in the smoke from the combustion of cars, stoves, gas stoves and heating appliances. This can accumulate in rooms with poor air circulation. For this reason, the solution to implement a carbon monoxide (CO) measurement system in real time is being presented, giving the user the possibility to be warned of an area with high concentration of CO, through an alarm produced by the mobile application. To make the acquisition of data on the CO concentration, the MQ-7 gas sensor is used, this signal has a digital conversion through the ATMmega328p microcontroller. Then, MQ-7 sensor sends the data to a microcontroller which communicates wirelessly with other microcontroller via the XBee S2 devices using the Zigbee protocol. The microcontroller second sends the information to the Smartphone via Bluetooth in real time. Finally, it can be viewed through an application developed in MIT App Inventor that works in the Android operating system. The measured CO concentration levels are expressed in parts per million (ppm). In addition, there is a traffic light display (green, blue and red), where green means low concentration, blue: medium concentration and red: high concentration. Taking into account the safety of the user, the application was developed to emit an audible alarm if a high concentration is detected, likewise the application continues working in the background. In addition, the tests were conducted in four different locations, where measurements were observed between 6 and 38 ppm.


The logic scaling following Moores law has reached a level where System on Chips
(SoCs) commonly contains millions of standard cells. The sheer amount implies
that even small optimizations on a standard cell can have a significant effect on
the SoC performance. To ensure the performance of standard cells, many of these
are hand-drawn. This is a tedious task that needs to be done every time a new
process technology emerges. Something which requires both many man-hours and
that holds a risk of designing sub-optimal solutions or introducing human error
into the design.
Presented in this thesis is a method for automatizing the complete design
process of standard cell layouts, requiring only a netlist and a few fundamental
design rules for the given technology. The overall procedure was divided into three
parts: placement, routing, and evaluation. The tool is entirely built in Python and
for functionality verification commercial EDA tools from CadenceTM were used.
The generated standard cells have shown to match the area requirements of typical
industry-level standard cells and in some critical complex cells even outperform
them.


Complex machine's vibration and noise reduction is a systematic project. Because different parts contribute differently to the total noise, methods are needed to allocate the total noise index to different parts to reduce noise effectively with minimum cost. The indoor unit of air conditioner is made up of a plurality of functional components. Its total noise comes from different parts. But usually the measurement data is incomplete, so the sound pressure contribution from different parts can't be determined. The total noise allocation is extremely difficult. But experienced engineers have certain knowledge about specific product, properly using of such information can give out the noise level of each component in briefly. AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method is proposed to solve the noise index allocation problems. AHP is used to solve two problems: (1) Reasonably determine noise contribution of various components; (2) Determine the general cost for different noise reduction method. Then an optimization method is proposed to allocate the total noise index to different parts. Application examples were given to describe the application procedure and prove its usefulness.


The dielectric properties of microwave-transparent materials are described in brief in this paper,and some developments of dielectric properties of AlN-BN composites are summarized.An analysis is made of the mechanism of polarization and infectors on the dielectric properties of AlN-BN composites.The development on improving the dielectric properties of the AlN-BN composites in the future is pointed out in the end.


Reading and understanding are interdependent cognitive tasks extremely important for the academic and social life of the individual, and can't be ignored by the research. So, the importance of scrutinizing this basic connection originates from its dissociation in a large number of common situations. There are readers – young people or adults – who learn to put syllables together and make a synthesis of the word, laboriously, without being able to read with fluency. The number of readers who don't overcome this initial phase of reading – the decoded - is so high, in Brazil, that it is necessary to discuss the basis of the relationships between reading, understanding, interpreting, and linguistic meaning in order to find out what is going on, since the questions that follow rely exactly on bad results of local and international reading tests obtained by Brazilian students: what is missing to enable students to read in an efficient way? For understanding, is it necessary to know the meaning of all the words used in the text? Understanding and interpreting are identical cognitive activities? Comprehension and meaning are related terms? For most people, the answers to those questions don't require much thinking. Someone is failing: the school, the students, the teachers, the parents. For the cognitive science, however, the issue is not so simple and requires a careful consideration. Thus, this work intends to ponder about the ideas of some scholars who theorize about interpretation, comprehension and meaning. More precisely, in order to analyze such concepts, we will accomplish a review of the work of Marcelo Dascal, in the book Interpretation and understanding (2006), comparing and complementing his ponderings with those of other researchers of the area.


A keeping-track task was used to explore the role of interference in dynamically updating memory. Subjects performed a keeping-track task in which all monitored attributes either shared four response alternatives, or were distributed such that each monitored attribute had its own unique set of four states. The response alternatives were distributed differently on the computer keyboard in these two conditions. Results suggest that the mapping effect seen in Yntema and Meuser's (1960) original experiments is best explained by interference: Accuracy was lowest when all attributes shared the same four states. Spatially distributing the response alternatives benefited accuracy when subjects kept track of multiple attributes with unique response sets, but having to choose from many response keys led to increased response times. These data suggest that keeping-track performance is sensitive to interference from shared attribute sets and to how the response environment is designed.


Abstract China currently has more than 80% provincial administrative regions to the tourism industry as a "pillar industry", the leading role of the tourism industry to other industries is more obvious. According to the World Tourism Organization estimates, directly related to tourism consumption departments have to eat, live, travel, shopping and entertainment and other six categories of departments, departments are indirectly involved in tourism consumption, agriculture, finance, insurance, medical, communications and other printing department. In view of the high investment multiplier effect of tourism industry and the important position in the industrial structure, the domestic scholars have carried out a series of research on the problem of the profitability of listed tourism companies.


Polaritons enable the resonant coupling of excitons and photons to vibrations in the application-relevant super high frequency (SHF, 3-30 GHz) domain. We introduce a novel platform for coherent optomechanics based on the coupling of exciton-polaritons and electrically driven SHF longitudinal acoustic phonons confined within the spacer region of a planar Bragg microcavity. An intrinsic property of the microcavity platform is the back-feeding of phonons via reflections at the sample boundaries, which enables frequency x quality factors products exceeding 10^14 Hz as well as huge modulation amplitudes of the optical transition energies (up to 8 meV). We show that the modulation is dominated by the phonon-induced energy shifts of the excitonic polariton component, thus leading to an oscillatory transition between the regimes of weak and strong light-matter coupling. These results open the way for polariton-based coherent optomechanics in the non-adiabatic, side-band-resolved regime of coherent control.


This paper investigates the possibility of transferring forecasting methods motivated by data compression into the domain of pattern based time series prediction. The investigation is conducted on the example of short term load forecast. Pattern-based time series are characterized by typical, repeating signal subsequences. Statistical data compression relies on pattern matching and the forecast of future patterns' probabilities. Both, statistical compression and time series prediction, require the estimation of real valued entities. Context Mixing (CM), a subclass of statistical compression algorithms, combines multiple predictions and achieves outstanding compression performance. To transfer CM concepts to time series prediction, the CM model structure is examined. A sample of electrical load data is analyzed to identify its typical characteristics. Subsequently a CM forecasting system is derived, taking the data properties into account. A simulation and an evaluation of the prediction error indicate very accurate forecasts. Index Terms – short term load forecast, time series forecast, pattern based time series, context mixing


Environmental DNA barcoding technology is gaining innovative applications when monitoring diverse tropics of marine environment. Since previous studies have shown that most marine eDNA sequences cannot be assigned to any species and in most cases to any phyla, since only 15 percent of the animal species is barcoded and accessible in reference libraries, we propose to test the effectiveness of current DNA barcode reference libraries in identifying amphipod barcodes and/or strengthening the existing library. Over 2500 amphipod individuals were collected for morphological analysis and DNA barcoding from estuarine sediments. We barcoded 22 amphipod species belonging to 17 genera, 13 families in the order Amphipoda. We found that 13 species (59 percent) were missing from the reference barcode libraries and were first time barcoded. More than 80 percent of the species were not reported previously form the sampled area. The minimum and maximum inter-specific pair-wise distance values was found to be respectively 0.16 and 5.51 percent. We show that defining family specific species threshold values would be imperative, rather than expecting a universal barcode gap for amphipod species. The overall mean pair-wise distance, nucleotide diversity and Tajima's statistics were 3.59 percent, 0.27 and 2.62, respectively. Species identification through neighbour joining tree shows that the taxa of same species clustered together indicating the efficacy of COI sequences in amphipod species delineation. There is a strong need to increase the number of amphipod species barcodes in the reference database, because 59 percent of barcoded species were found absent. For better facilitation of environmental monitoring, the sequences were published via public databases. We show that with the advent of next generation sequencing technologies, reference datasets like ours will become important for health evaluation and monitoring of different environments using amphipod barcodes.


Motivated by the fair rate allocation in a multiaccess Gaussian channel, this paper studies the problem of fair rate allocation over a generalized symmetric polymatroid with box constraints. The best-known algorithm for this problem has time complexity $\mathcal{O} (n^{5}\, \ln^{\mathcal{O}(1)\, } n)$. In this paper, we present a divide-and-conquer algorithm for this problem with quadratic running time. It is an implementation of a refined decomposing method for the more general separate concave maximization over a polymatroid with box constraints. A key ingredient of the algorithm is a linear-time algorithm for a generalized knapsack problem.


There is a relationship between pores and inclusions. As hypothesis goes, inclusions have an affinity to gather inside the pores and form clusters. Focus of this paper is how solidified dendritic structure affects the pressure field in the liquid and pore precipitation in austenitic stainless steel. Steel sample is a continuously cast bloom. Temperature profile and width of the mushy zone of the strand is modeled according to a constant temperature at the strands surface. Thermal analysis has been performed with differential thermal analysis (DTA) and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). Dendrite arm spacing (DAS) is measured with light optical microscopy (LOM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). DAS is represented as the weight average of the distance between parallel sets of primary dendrite stems. Pressure field is calculated based on Darcys law. Pore formation is described through segregation of the gas components and pressure field in the liquid.


The photocatalytic UV/TiO2 process has particular importance due to having high rate and efficiency in the removal of organic and inorganic contaminants from industrial wastewater. One of the problem of utilization of a catalyst with physical properties similar to TiO2 (anatase) is the separation of the catalyst from the wastewater effluent. In this study, synthesis of titanium oxide on the surface of alumina (particle size 150 to 200 μm) with the wet impregnation method was accomplished in order to create a catalyst with suitable physical properties to easy separation capability from industrial effluents. Hence, titanium isoprpylate compound was used and after the reaction of alumina on the surface, in order to Synthesis of titanium oxide anatase form, calcinations being done in the temperature of 500 ◦C in an electric furnace. The amount of anatase phase formation was measured by X-ray diffraction technique .Finally the removal of free cyanide in the presence of TiO2 and Al2O3/TiO2 was investigated in optimal conditions with the Change of parameters such as irradiation time of UV, the amount of catalyst and initial concentration of cyanide. Experiments were carried out by using a batch photoreactor and a ۱ طيحم تشادهب دشرا يسانشراك ، ،تشادهب هدکشناد وضع تاقيقحت زکرم يملع تئيه ناگزمره يکشزپ مولع هاگشناد ،سراف جيلخ تملاس ياقترا رد يعامتجا لماوع (لوئسم هدنسيون) ٣٣٣٨٥٨٣ ) ٠٢١ ( email@example.com ۲ يدربراک يميش دشرا سانشراک رتپ ، رهشوب ،هيولسع ،نايواك يميشو 1. M.Sc. of Environmental Health, Faculty of Public Health, Faculty Member of Persian Gulf Research Center for Health Promotion, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences (+98 21) 3338583 (Corresponding Author) email@example.com 2. M.Sc. of Applied Chemistry, Kavian Petrochemical, Asalouye, Boushehr


In this study, the nonlinear interaction of irregular waves with wave breaking and currents around permeable submerged breakwater was investigated with the aid of olaFlow model which is open source CFD software published under the GPL license. The irregular wave performance of olaFlow applied in this study was verified by comparing and evaluating the target frequency spectrum and the generated frequency spectrum for applicability to irregular waves. Based on the applicability of this numerical model to irregular wave fields, in the coexistence fields of irregular waves and currents, the characteristics of wave height, frequency spectrum, breaking waves, averaged velocity and turbulent kinetic energy around porous submerged breakwater with the respect to the beach type and current direction versus wave propagation were carefully investigated. The numerical results revealed that the shape of wave breaking on the crown of the submerged breakwater and the formation of the mean flow velocity around the structure depend greatly on the current directions and the type of the beach. In addition, it was found that the wave height fluctuation due to the current direction with respect to the wave propagation is closely related to the turbulent kinetic energy.


From our experience of more than 200 cases of verified acoustic tumors, the diagnostic problems of acoustic tumor and the choice of the surgical approach were discussed. Hearing loss, tinnitus and dizziness are known as early signs of acoustic tumor. However, as far as tinnitus was concerned, only 57 % of our cases experienced this sympton. Hearing loss of sudden onset is sometimes the earliest presenting symptom of acoustic tumor as MIeyer (1941)12, Hallberg et al (1959)2, Straud et al (1969)17 and Higgs (1973)3 have already pointed out. Six such cases were found in our series. This indicates, in cases of so called sudden deafness, careful examination to rule out acoustic tumor must be carried out. Audiometric study was important in small acoustic tumor, when hearing loss was not so marked. However, sophisticated audiometry did not always demonstrate typical retrocochlear lesion. Hearing loss is said to progress gradually. However, some of our cases showed almost no progression over 6 years. In bilateral acoustic tumor mainly due to von Recklinghausen's disease, even though tumor was large hearing was less impaired compared with unilateral tumor. Small tumors did not show any lateral gaze nystagmus, saccardic pursuit eye movement nor abnormal optokinetic nystagmus response, whereas these signs of the oculomotor dysfunction was demonstrated in large tumors. The authors proposed a system to diagnose early acoustic tumor as is shown in the figure 9. The relationship between the choice of surgical approach and the results of the functional tests such as hearing loss, other cranial nerve involvements, gaze nystagmus, disturbance of induced optokinetic nystagmus and cerebellar symptoms were mentioned, which is shown in the table 1.


This work evaluated methods for goat morulae cryopreservation by using cryoloop: vitrification (V) and super-cooling ultra-rapid vitrification (SCURV). The vitrification method was applied according to the method described by Vajta et al. (1998Mol. Reprod. Dev. 51, 53-58). Both treatments used a vitrification solution [VS: 20% (3.6molL-1), ethylene glycol (EG), 20% (2.4molL-1) dimethylsulfoxide (Me2SO)] 0.5molL-1 sucrose in DPBS with 10% BSA in both methods. In our experiment, we used the Vit-Master™ (MTG, Bruckberg, Germany). The super-cooled LN facilitates heat transmission between LN and the cryosolution interface and this is efficient for bovine semen and blastocyst cryoconservation (Arav et al. 2002Mol. Cell. Endocrinol. 187, 77-81). By surgical flushing 25 super stimulated goats, 127 transferable morulae were harvested; 39 morulae were transferred fresh to synchronized recipients (control) and the others were cryopreserved by V (n=46) or SCURV (n=42), respectively thawed or warmed, and transferred to recipients. Embryos were vitrified using the cryoloop. They were first incubated in 50% VS for 2min and then transferred for 30s into 100% VS. Each embryo was loaded by cryoloop, which was immediately submerged into and stored in liquid nitrogen. Warming was done by placing the narrow end of the cryoloop into DPBS+0.25M sucrose for 5min. Embryos were then transferred into DPBS+0.125M sucrose for 3min and finally to DPBS until transfer. The SCURV morulae were then exposed to 50% and 100% VS at 37°C for 2min and 30s, respectively. Embryos after saturation in VS were transferred by cryoloop and using negative pressure of liquid nitrogen in the chamber for freezing with the VIT-Master. Thawing vitrify embryos was accomplished by placing the vitrified embryos in solutions of sucrose 0.25M and 0.125M with 2- and 3-min exposures accordingly. After thawing, embryos were transferred. Statistical analysis was done using Student's test. The kidding rate following transfer of fresh, frozen-thawed vitrification, and SCURV methods were 22, 16, and 16 kids, respectively. No statistical difference was found for the percentage of does kidding following transfer thawed after vitrification (34.7±4.5%a), and SCURV methods (38.1±5.9%b). The survival rate following transfer of fresh embryos (56.4±4.9c) was higher and in line with previous findings using VS. Differences were statistically significant (ac, bc P<0.05). Importantly, our data suggested that the SCURV method can be used for cryopreservation of goat morulae and has similar success to the vitrification method. While further work on the developmental competence of embryos cryopreserved with the SCURV method is needed, we hypothesise that SCURV, with a faster freeze rate and potentially a lower level of cryoprotectants, may be able to minimize ice crystal formation; SCURV should be further evaluated as a routine mechanism for cryopreserving goat embryos.


Background The clinical features of postoperative delirium are similar to the core features of alpha synuclein-related cognitive disorders, such as Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD) or dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Therefore, we hypothesized that the non-motor symptoms (NMSs) in Parkinson's disease (PD), which precede the cardinal motor features of PD, are likely to be risk factors for developing postoperative delirium. We investigated the association between PD-related NMSs and postoperative delirium in old people undergoing elective spinal surgery. Methods This study was a prospective study. Participants were aged 65 years and older and scheduled to undergo elective spinal surgery. During the enrollment period, 338 individuals were screened, 104 participants were included in the analysis. We assessed eight easily-assessed and representative PD-related NMSs 1 day before the scheduled surgery using tests or questionnaires for each symptom. The presence of delirium was determined by using the short version of the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM). Results Fifteen (14.4%) of the 104 participants (age, 71.7 ± 4.7 years; men, 34.6%) met the CAM criteria for post-operative delirium. Multivariate logistic analysis showed that decreased olfactory function (odds ratio [OR] 0.63, 95% CI 0.44–0.91) and exhibiting rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD, OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.09–1.93) were significantly independent predictors of postoperative delirium. Conclusions Our study shows that hyposmia and RBD are significantly independent risk factors for postoperative delirium in general elderly population. Considering that NMSs may represent burden of alpha synuclein deposit, we postulate that an underlying alpha synucleinopathy may correlates with postoperative delirium. Significance This study gives a novel insight for the risk factor of postoperative delirium.


The objectives of this paper are to contribute to an understanding of the nature of the unemployment problem in Kenya through analysis of trends in agricultural employment in the various sub-sectors of agriculture, and secondly, on the basis of this analysis, to consider policy alternatives aimed at increasing job opportunities in agriculture. The first section describes the major movements of people that have been occurring within agriculture, and emphasises the importance of education investment in explaining movements out of agriculture. Then the differential effects of farm technology on employment in small scale and estate agriculture are compared, and the effects of changing farm structure on employment in the large mixed farming areas examined. Lastly, policy possibilities are discussed. 1. I am grateful to Walter Elkan for helpful comments. This paper draws on previous writings of the author on this theme, including: "Agricultural Employment: A Research Proposal", IDS Staff Paper No. 93, March 1971; "The Agricultural Employment Situation in Selected Areas of Kenya" (with G. Ruigu) paper presented to the Workshop on Strategies for Improving Rural Welfare, IDS Occasional Paper No. June 1971; "The Agricultural Labour Markets for Two Smallholder Areas of Kenya", IDS Staff Paper No. 94, October 1971; "A Framework for Analysing Employment Creation Alternatives in Kenya Agriculture", paper presented to the East African Social Sciences Conference, Makerere University, December 1971; "Agriculture and Unemployment", African Development, February 1972; "Employment in Kenyan Agriculture", A background report for the ILO Employment Mission, March 1972 (also presented at the East African Agricultural Economics Society Conference, Makerere University, June 1972; "Employment Opportunities in Kenyan Agriculture", East Africa Journal, March 1972; "Income and Employment Creating Farm Practices and Technology", ILO Employment Mission, April 1972; "Labour/Land Ratios in Small Scale Agriculture" , paper presented at the East African Agricultural Economics Society Conference, June 1972;*Labour in Small Scale Agriculture: An Analysis of the 1970/71 Farm Enterprise Cost Survey Labour and Wage Data", IDS Working Paper No. 62, September 1972.


In motor protection device,the information such as the data of the equipment and the working state of equipment must be dis-played in real-time.LCD can display more information in one screen,but will increase the cost of the equipment.If using 4 independent LED nixietubes,the hardware of the equipment will be complicated and will occupy more I/O pins.Waste hardware resource.So using 4 bit LED nixietube can reduce the device cost and simplify the hardware design.Accomplish dynamic display by eye storage characteristic.The paper makes a brief introduction to complete dynamic display of 4 bit LED nixietubes using ARM7 SEP3203 microprocessor and Nu-cleus real-time operation system in motor protection device.


INTRODUCTION The global trends and challenges in services in today's business world showed that "services companies are under a constant and dynamic change" while "customers are becoming less loyal, more price sensitive and discerning ..." (Sigala & Christou, 2006). It is the common knowledge that customers are the lifeblood of any company's business nowadays. Because of their importance, customers perceive that they have the power to demand high service quality (Macdonald, 1995). This leads all companies to the battle competing for customers. Moreover, customers are now more aware of other service providers as well as the range of financial products available for them in the marketplace. Customer expectations rise accordingly, thus they are "more critical" when choosing the service (Akan, 1995). As a result, service providers must redouble their efforts if they want to be winners in this battle (Edvardsson, Thomasson & Ovretveit, 1994). And financial service providers are not exceptions for that. In that context, service quality (SQ) is a prerequisite for the survival and development of any company (Parasuraman, Berry & Zeithaml, 1988). Many authors backed up this statement since the early of the 1980s until now. Their reasons are as followed. First, it is a critical factor in achieving competitiveness in most service industries (Galloway & Ho, 1996). Only when SQ is paid enough attention to can the company differentiate itself from other rivals in the marketplace and gain a lasting competitive advantage in the long run (Galloway & Blanchard, 1996; Gounaris, Stathakopoulos & Athanassopoulos, 2003). Second, SQ is a key to long-term profitability as it affects the repurchase intentions of both existing and potential customers (Anderson, Fornell & Lehmann, 1994; Caruana & Pitt, 1997; Leverin & Liljander, 2006). Furthermore, if customers stay long with the company, more profit can be gained by reducing customer acquisition costs and lowering costs thanks to serving repeat customers (Heskett, Jones, Loveman, Sasser & Schlesinger, 1994; Mittal & Lassar, 1998; Roig, Garcia, Tena & Monzonis, 2006). And finally, SQ can be used to fan word-of-mouth advertising (Julian & Ramaseshan, 1994). This powerful tool can help the company to recruit new customers with lower cost. It is estimated that attracting new customers is about four times more expensive than retaining the current ones (Wang, Lo & Hui, 2003). The research topic, measuring customer satisfaction based on service quality gap, has been widely discussed by many researchers for years. In the scope of this research, the authors intended to provide insights into the gaps between customer expectations and customer perceptions towards the SQ which the local bank was offering. The researchers also explored the relationship between the age, gender of the respondents and their bank visit frequency. The hypotheses the researchers aimed at testing including (1) There is a gap between customer perception and customer expectation towards the bank's SQ, and (2) There is an association between age/ gender of customers and the frequency of their bank visits. While SERVQUAL framework is the most widely used SQ measuring tool in developed countries (Blanchard & Galloway, 1994), it has not been applied in developing Asian countries as popularly as it has been in developed countries in Europe and in the U.S. The authors put this powerful tool in a real organizational setting in Vietnam, one of the developing Asian countries, with the hope to contribute to the literature to some extent. Furthermore, the research also helped the local bank managers to gain deeper understanding of their business and their customers. This paper began with a brief review of the relevant literature developed earlier, followed by the researchers' hypotheses and the methodology explanation. …


Sport today is a rule-governed practice: constitutive rules, both prescriptive and proscriptive, define required equipment and facilities as well as setting the formal rules of play; auxiliary rules specify and control eligibility; and regulatory rules place restraints on behaviour independent of the sport itself. This article offers a broad-sweep examination of the historical process of rule development in sport including an assessment of the influence over time of gambling, fair-play ideology, economic pressures, technological developments and legal intervention. En route, a seven-stage scheme of constitutive rule development is postulated which it is hoped will set a research agenda for sports historians to test with case studies of particular sports.


Visceral hypersensitivity (VH) is a symptom in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), particularly in women and symptom severity varies over the menstrual cycle. Disrupted serotonin signaling, including reduced SERT expression, occurs in some IBS patients. We studied VH in male and female SERT KO and wild type (WT) rats to determine if SERT deficiency and the estrous cycle were associated with VH.


The present invention provides a charge controller with a protection function and a battery pack with the total required charge time shortened by delaying the timing to switch from constant-current charge to constant-voltage charge to shorten the subsequent period of constant-voltage charge. A charge controller includes a charge control circuit which controls a charging transistor; and a protection circuit that, when the secondary battery is over-discharged, turns off the first control switch element to block discharge current and when the secondary battery is overcharged, turns off the second control switch element to prevent the charge current from flowing. The charge control circuit includes a function of control for applying constant charge current through the charging transistor until the voltage of the secondary battery reaches a predetermined value and switching to control for applying charge current at a constant voltage after the voltage of the secondary battery reaches the predetermined value, and a terminal voltage on the positive electrode side and a terminal voltage on the negative electrode side of the secondary battery are supplied as monitoring voltage to the charge control circuit.


To investigate the effects of stretching and temperature of pre-rigor muscle on sarcomere length and tenderness of beef, hot boned M. Iongissimus dorsi thoracis were stretched or non-stretched, and stored at for 48 hrs ( stretched and non-stretched) or at for 7 hrs followed by for 41 hrs ( stretched and non-stretched). There was no significant difference in muscle pH and drip loss between stretched and non-stretched samples, but they were significantly (p stretched and non-stretched samples. Stretched muscles at showed significantly (p stretched muscle was significantly (p stretched muscle. Panels rated stretched muscle as having a significantly (p for 7 hrs followed by for 41 hrs.


SYNOPSIS. Zoological parks are evolving institutions in respect to the conservation of biological diversity. From past functions in recreation as menageries and in education as living museums, they are coming to discharge these functions, plus other meaningful ones in research and conservation, as internationally oriented conservation centers. Education is the primary function in conservation, but zoos have begun to make significant contributions as genetic refuges and reservoirs, especially for large vertebrate species threatened with extinction. In developing this capacity zoos have fostered investigations into several facets of small population biology. These have extended to simulation modelling to help predict the outcome of various combinations of ecological, genetic, and demographic factors on the viability of populations in captivity and in the wild. Because resources of zoos are limited in respect to their enlarged functions in conservation and research, they are encouraging development of criteria to help prioritize actions for conservation of biodiversity. North American, European, and Australian zoos are meanwhile assisting the development of technical capacities among zoo counterparts, government agencies, and protected areas in both developing and developed countries of the world to further the conservation of biodiversity. Similar involvement by other biological institutions and by biological professional associations can make important contributions to policies of nations and actions of people that determine the prospects for survival of much of the biota.


Abstract The Cumberland Basin is a structural and topographic low within the sedimentary Sydney Basin of southeast Australia. To the west, the Blue Mountains Plateau was uplifted along the north–south Lapstone Structural Complex after around 90 Ma, with uplift largely completed by middle Miocene to Pliocene times. To the north, upwarping of the Hornsby Plateau preceded the major phase of movement along the Lapstone Structural Complex. To the south, the topography of the Cumberland Basin is closely related to the form of the Camden Syncline. This appears to have been active in the late Permian–Middle Triassic. The western limb of the syncline is truncated by the north–south Lapstone Structural Complex. The southern part of the Cumberland Basin must therefore have taken on its modern form prior to the movements that gave rise to its western margin. The eastern side of the Cumberland Basin forms a broad depression open to the sea. This may be a graben-like structure developed along the Lachlan Transverse Zone. The Botany Basin, which may have begun subsiding at least as far back as the Oligocene, lies within this feature, suggesting that this part of the Cumberland Basin may have already been in existence at this stage. Within the broader Cumberland Basin, the Penrith and Botany basins appear to have begun subsiding early in the Cenozoic, accumulating complex and interrupted records of alluvial sediments in the former and eolian, shallow marine and alluvial sediments in the latter. Over this period, the Penrith and Botany basins seem to have acted as the focus of drainage across the Cumberland Basin, explaining the enigmatic pattern of rivers across the region. The Cumberland Basin's margins thus formed in different ways and at different times, with the margin-forming processes perhaps associated with the volcanicity and tectonic movements accompanying the uplift of Australia's Eastern Highlands in the period 80–10 Ma. KEY POINTS The margins of the Cumberland Basin are the products of tectonic movements, but each formed in a different way and at a different time. The form of the Cumberland Basin is the result of uplift along its margins rather than subsidence. The subsiding Penrith and Botany basins have focussed drainage across the Cumberland Basin, explaining the enigmatic pattern of rivers across the region. The Cumberland Basin retains long and significant Cenozoic sedimentary records.


The signal gathering and wireless transmission system is analyzed in the paper, including the composition and working process.The wireless transmission system based on PTR2000 is presented, and the design of hardware and software is completed.Finally, the program flow and a part of program are given.The experiments have proved that the system has high reliability and accuracy, strong anti-interference capability, and it will be widely applied.


In this paper, Atanassov's intuitionistic fuzzy set theory is used to handle the uncertainty of students' knowledgeon domain concepts in an E-learning system. Their knowledge on these domain concepts has been collected from tests that were conducted during their learning phase. Atanassov's intuitionistic fuzzy user model is proposed to deal with vagueness in the user's knowledge description in domain concepts. The user model uses Atanassov's intuitionistic fuzzy sets for knowledge representation and linguistic rules for updating the user model. The scores obtained by each student were collected in this model and the decision about the students' knowledge acquisition for each concept whether completely learned, completely known, partially known or completely unknown were placed into the information table. Finally, it has been found that the proposed scheme is more appropriate than the fuzzy scheme.


In this paper we consider some non-stationary relaxed synchronous and asynchronous multi-splitting methods for solving the linear complementarity problems with their coefficient matrices being H-matrices. The convergence theorems of the methods are given,and the efficiency is shown by numerical tests.


: The purpose of this study is to explore the role of preschool children in designing their school grounds. It will implementthe concepts of an innovative participatory multi-method known as Mosaic Approach. The Mosaic approach uses a variety of methods including observation, child interviewing, children drawing, children photograph and map-making to generate documentation. This leads to a formulation of the 'design concept' which emerged from the documentation, including some surprising design ideas, for example active spaces, personal spaces, scales, colour schemes and materials. This paper summarizes the result obtained from a case study of a group of children under the auspices of the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Malaysia. Results showed that children are capable asa research participants by helping the teachers and landscape architects to understand the environment from their perspectives including what it means, what is important and futures liked and dislike. Their views could provide additional knowledge about their outdoor play and learning experiences and significant implications for planning and designing of their existing or future school grounds. This led to creating a sustainable school grounds design that meets the needs of preschool children in Malaysia.


Abstract An improved variant of the Jaya optimization algorithm, called Jaya2, is proposed to enhance the performance of the original Jaya sacrificing its algorithmic design. The proposed approach arranges the solutions in a ring topology to reduce the likelihood of premature convergence. In addition, the population size reduction is used to automatically adjust the population size during the optimization process. Moreover, the translation dependency problem of the original Jaya is discussed, and an alternative solution update operation is proposed. To test Jaya2, we compare it with nine different optimization methods on the CEC 2020 benchmark functions and the CEC 2011 real-world optimization problems. The results show that Jaya2 is highly competitive on the tested problems where it generally outperforms most approaches. Having an easy-to-implement approach with little parameter tuning is highly desirable since researchers from different disciplines with basic programming skills can use it to solve their optimization problems.


1. Office of Applied Studies. Year-End 1999 Emergency Department Data From the Drug Abuse Warning Network. DHHS Publication No. (SMA) 00-3462. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, August 2000. 2. Quereshi AI, Suri MFK, Gutermann LR, Hopkins LN. Cocaine use and the likelihood of non fatal myocardial infarction and stroke; data from the third national health and nutrition examination survey. Circulation 2001;103:502–6. 3. Minor RL Jr., Scott BD, Brown DD, Winniford MD. Cocaineinduced myocardial infarction in patients with normal coronary arteries. Ann Intern Med 1991;115:797–806. 4. Flores ED, Lange RA, Cigarroa RG, Hillis MD. Effect of cocaine on coronary artery dimensions in atherosclerotic coronary artery disease: enhanced vasoconstriction at sites of significant stenoses. J Am Coll Cardiol 1990;16:74–9. 5. Su J, Li J, Li W, Altura B, Altura B. Cocaine induces apoptosis in primary cultured rat aortic vascular smooth muscle cells: possible relationship to aortic dissection, atherosclerosis, and hypertension. Int J Toxicol 2004;23:233–7. 6. Kolodgie FD, Virmani R, Cornhill JF, Herderick EE, Smialek J. Increase in atherosclerosis and adventitial mast cells in cocaine abusers: an alternative mechanism of cocaine-associated coronary vasospasm and thrombosis. J Am Coll Cardiol 1991;17:1553–60. 7. Kibayashi K, Mastri AR, Hirsch CS. Cocaine induced intracerebral hemorrhage: analysis of predisposing factors and mechanisms causing hemorrhagic strokes. Hum Pathol 1995;26:659–63. 8. Pocock SJ, Shaper AG, Cook DG, Philips AN, Walker M. Social class differences in ischaemic heart disease in British men. Lancet 1987;2:197–201.


This Spanish Instruction sets forth guidelines for dealing with maltreatment of minors and women. It provides that prosecutors are to set an example in curbing the physical harm and maltreatment of children; to take decisive action in protecting minors who are maltreated or abandoned, in conformity with Civil Code provisions on adoption; and to make an annual inventory of all legal actions relating to maltreatment and physical harm of children. It also provides that prosecutors should prosecute with all determination cases involving physical harm to and maltreatment of women, setting an example in curbing such activities. Through their investigations, they should supply proof that may be lacking and they should make an annual inventory of all legal actions in this area. The Instruction also tells prosecutors to put all their force behind ensuring that support obligations to children and former spouses are complied with, and to institute criminal proceedings when necessary.


The diversification and complexity of network environment have both positive and negative effects on college students.Media,especially those newly developed networks,have played an increasingly important role in their growing-up process.It is one of the significant programs in college education to cultivate college students' media quality.Currently,network environment has more negatively affected female college students' image building.Thus, the objective existence determines a urgent need of cultivating media quality in college education so that they can take an initiative to respond to the complex network environment.The quality improvement of the media quality can also help them form a scientific and rational mechanism of information transmission,which will finally propel the building of healthy images of the female college students objectively,authentically,and rationally in network.


Treadmill exercise testing or pharmacologic imaging studies often are used to assess perioperative risk for major cardiac events among patients referred for vascular surgery. In this study, Mayo Clinic investigators studied 149 patients who underwent preoperative supine-bicycle exercise testing with radionuclide angiography. …


Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Ernest William Turner served Canada admirably in two wars and played an instrumental role in unifying veterans' groups in the post-war period. His experience was unique in the Canadian Expeditionary Force; in that, it included senior command in both the combat and administrative aspects of the Canadian war effort.
This thesis, based on new primary research and interpretations, revises the prevalent view of Turner. The thesis recasts five key criticisms of Turner and presents a more balanced and informed assessment of Turner. His appointments were not the result of his political affiliation but because of his courage and capability. Rather than an incompetent field commander, Turner developed from a middling combat general to an effective division commander by late 1916. His transfer to England was the result of the need for a proficient field commander to reform the administration. Turner proved to be an excellent administrator, a strong nationalist, and was crucially responsible for improvements in administration and training in England. Finally, the conflict with Sir Arthur Currie, the commander of the Canadian Corps, rather than being motivated by obstructionist jealousy was the outcome of competing institutional imperatives and Currie's challenging personality.


Roman historians developed a tradition of placing ethno graphic information into their works. The "Other" was an everyday reality of the Roman state. With its expansion more nations came into its orbit and thus to the attention of its writers. Arabs were among many others whom the Romans confronted. The position of the Arabs changed rapidly since the emergence of Islam in the 7th century. From a peripheral nation they became the major superpower in the East. The Roman/Byzantine perception did change due to various factors, such as the emergence of new religion as well as military expansion of the newly founded Arab state. It was in this period when ethnographic tradition under went a major transformation. Ethnography was in decline with snippets of information throughout literary works instead of vast descriptions of the "Other" as known in antiquity. Merging the snippets, however, a more coher ent image may occur. The aim of this paper is to look on the ethnographic information about Arabs in three literary works of the 10th century Byzantium – the Taktika, De administran do imperio and History of Leo the Deacon. Arabs will be analysed under the scope of elements that affected Byzantine perception on them – religion, military, and ethnic stereotypes. With the analysis I intend not only to gain a more coherent picture about the ethnographic perception of the Arabs in Byzantium, but also the differ ence of the perception among its various social classes.


Objectives: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) towards COVID-19 and its associated factors among house officers. Methods: A multicentered crosssectional study on house officers was carried out using an online self-administered questionnaire. Sociodemographic data and data related to KAP towards COVID-19 were collected. Besides, KAP level of the house offices was recorded and factors associated with good KAP were determined. Results: This study included 555 house officers from 10 different hospitals with 128 males and 427 females. Almost half of the house officers had good knowledge and a favorable attitude (46.1% and 51%, respectively) on COVID-19. Still, 82.5% of them were committed to good practice of preventive measures. Besides, percentages of good knowledge and practice among those with chronic diseases or those who knew someone infected with SARS-CoV-2 were higher, but the differences were not statistically significant (P>0.05). In addition, the percentages of females with good practice were higher than those of males, with no statistical difference (P>0.05). Conclusion: House officers showed a good KAP towards COVID-19. Being aware of gaps in KAP can help to effectively contain the current pandemic.


We have determined the Lande factor g * in self-organized InAs quantum dots using resonant-tunnelling experiments. With the magnetic field applied parallel to the growth direction z we find g * ∥ = 0.74 for the specific dot investigated. When the magnetic field is tilted away by from the growth axis, g * gradually increases up to a value g * ⊥ = 0.92 when B ⊥ z. Its angular dependence is found to follow the phenomenological behaviour g * () = √(g * ∥ cos ) 2 + (g * ⊥ sin ) 2 .


Objective To study the relationship between sICAM 1,sVCAM 1,TNF α,TNFR Ⅰ,TNFR Ⅱ and pathogenesis of vasculitis.Method The serum levels of TNF α,TNFR Ⅰ,TNFR Ⅱ,sICAM 1 and sVCAM 1 were detected by ELISA and their levels between patients with vasculitis and controls were compared.Results Compared with the controls,the serum level of TNF α was lower,the levels of TNFR Ⅰ,sICAM 1 and sVCAM 1 were higher in the patients with vasculitis,and there was no difference of TNFR Ⅱ between the two groups.Conclusion The low level of TNF α suggests that this factor may not play a role in these patients,or its role was counteracted by its receptors—sTNFR,whose level was higher in patients with vasculitis.sICAM 1 and sVCAM 1 may play a significant role in the pathogenesis of vasculitis.


Objective:To assess the value of spiral CT in diagnosis of small-bowel obstruction.Methods:Sixty-four(patients) with small-bowel obstruction were examined using unenhanced CT and contrast-enhanced CT scans.The results of CT examination were then compared with the surgical findings in order to evaluate the accuracy of CT in diagnosis of small-bowel obstruction.The oral doses of iodating agent were given to all patients before CT examination.Results:The results of CT and surgical findings were consistent in 55(93%)of 59 cases with mechanical small-bowel obstruction(including neoplasm 17 cases,inflammation 7 cases,external hernia 8 cases,internal hernia 5 cases,adhesion 8 cases,abdominal cocoon 5 cases,gallstone ileus 3 cases,intussusception 3 cases,intestine torsion 2 cases,stool mass 1 case).In 5 case of paralytic(ileus,)the diagnoses for 3 cases(60%) by CT were proved to be correct.As for 8 cases with small bowel strangulation,7(cases)(88%) diagnosed by CT were proved to be correct.Conclusion:From the above findings we are sure that CT examination is valuable in diagnosing the presence of small bowel obstruction and defining its location,cause,extent and ischemia as well.It is a kind of reliable method to be recommended.


SummaryIn this clinical trial of a new dosage schedule for tinidazole, i.e. 2 g. given in a single administration, 43 patients were treated. Nine patients did not return for follow-up. Of the 34 who returned, a cure was noted in 30 patients. Two of the 4 failures, however, were considered to have been re-infected by their sexual partners. The number of patients cured, therefore, was 30 of 32 or 94 %. The drug was well tolerated and the single 2 g. dose appears to be a useful new dosage regime.


Introduction: Endoscopic lung volume reduction (ELVR) using endobronchial valve (EBV) implants is an established therapeutic measure aiming at improving the impaired quality of life of patients with severe COPD. However, patients with FEV1 Method: 22 patients (mean age 58,1±6.8 y, 55% male) with FEV1 Results: Most patients had heterogeneous emphysema. Collateral ventilation assessed by Chartis was high grade in 33% and low in 66% of patients. 67 valves were implanted during 25 procedures. 8 times valves were implanted in the lower lobes, the remaining interventions were carried out in the upper lobes and lingula. Lobar exclusion was achieved in 77% of cases. Except for 3 pneumothoraces (12%) requiring temporary drainage therapy there were no other complications. FEV1 improved by +11±27%, +10±32%, +23±44% and +7±44% at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months post implantation, respectively. Similarly, distance during 6-min walk test improved by +29±20%, +17±19%, +21±33% and +11±28%. Conclusion: This outcome demonstrates that COPD patients with FEV1


The translation of legal terms is the basis of the translation of legal texts. The quality of the translation directly affects the quality of the translated legal texts. Currently,there are quite a few mistranslated legal terms. To avoid errors in translation,the translator should be fully aware of the basic characteristics of legal terminology,acquire certain basic methods and skills to avoid mistranslation of the legal terminology,follow the basic rules in translation,and improve the quality of the translation of legal terms.


The invention relates to a method for producing heterocyclic fluoroalkenyl sulfones and fluoroalkenyl sulfoxides. According to said method, the corresponding fluoroalkenylthio ethers are reacted with a salt of peroxomonosulphuric acid, H2SO5, optionally in the presence of a reaction auxiliary agent and optionally in the presence of a diluent.


Extracellular fluid volume (ECV) is an important determinant of arterial blood pressure and is dependent on the renal regulation of extracellular sodium and fluid balance. Although the importance of sodium and fluid balance was described more than 40 years ago by Guyton and associates (Guyton et al. 1972), the underlying mechanisms are still incompletely understood (Menzies et al. 2014). To maintain fluid and electrolyte homoeostasis, an elevated blood pressure should increase the renal perfusion pressure, evoke corresponding changes in renal sodium excretion (i.e. pressure natriuretic response), which would normalize ECV and hence blood pressure. It is suggested that high blood pressure, caused by an imbalance in ECV volume, can only be maintained if the effectiveness of the pressure natriuresis mechanism(s) is impaired. There are basically two different ways by which the sodium excretion can be modulated, that is by changing glomerular filtration or tubular reabsorption. First, an increase in glomerular filtration rate can promote natriuresis. Secondly, a decrease in fluid and electrolyte reabsorption from the tubular system may also facilitate the pressure natriuretic response. Much attention has been focused on the role of purinergic signalling in mediating or modulating these responses. This was recently discussed during a symposium in Uppsala (June 12–14, 2014) entitled 'Renal purinergic signalling in health and disease'. In particular, this meeting dealt with how purinergic substances controlled renal function also in hypertension and in acute renal failure. The purinergic receptors are divided into two main classes; P1 for adenosine receptors and P2 for nucleotide receptors, for example ATP. Recently, a new group of receptors have been identified activated by the nucleobase adenine and called P0 receptors with effects on renal function (Thimm et al. 2015). Chronic dietary supplementation with adenine has been used as a model of chronic renal failure (Nguy et al. 2013). Thimm and colleagues review current knowledge about this new class of purinergic receptors, which might become of interest for future drug targets (Thimm et al. 2015). To control glomerular filtration rate, the tubuloglomerular feedback mechanism is important. This is a negative-feedback mechanism that senses the sodium chloride delivery to the macula densa cells in the medullary thick ascending limb (TAL). If the electrolyte load is increased, a paracrine signal that involves ATP and adenosine is transmitted to the afferent arteriole that contracts, thereby reducing hydrostatic pressure and glomerular filtration rate. Several studies have demonstrated that both nitric oxide (NO) and superoxide may modulate the TGF response, together with changes in glomerular filtration (Patzak & Persson 2007, Carlstrom & Persson 2009, Persson et al. 2013). A recent study also suggested that imbalance between these reactive anions can contribute to resetting of TGF and development of hypertension in a model with reduced renal mass (Carlstrom et al. 2013). In a novel study, using isolated perfused juxtaglomerular apparatus, it was demonstrated that the balance between NO and O 2 specifically in the macula densa cells determines the TGF response (Song et al. 2014). Under normal physiological conditions, NO mainly regulates TGF sensitivity, while in angiotensin II-induced hypertension, the TGF response is mainly controlled by O 2 generation in the macula densa. Moreover, accumulating evidence demonstrates also that the interaction between adenosine and angiotensin II on the afferent arteriole influences NO bioavailability and hence sensitivity of the TGF (Persson et al. 2013). In a study by Gao et al. (X. Gao et al. 2015), it was suggested that the shift in TGF sensitivity can be carried out by receptor-dependent or receptor-independent stimulation by adenosine on the afferent renal arteriole (Gao et al. 2015). The authors demonstrate that the synergistic interaction between angiotensin II and adenosine in preglomerular vascular smooth muscle cells normally involves A1 receptor signalling, whereas this can be compensated by receptorindependent action(s) leading to phosphorylation of p38 MAPK and myosin light chain that sensitize the contractile machinery. This in vitro study warrants future studies that investigate the in vivo significance in modulating renal hemodynamics and filtration properties. Welch and colleagues have demonstrated that reabsorption of sodium in the proximal tubule is facilitated by adenosine A1 receptors, and underlying mechanisms are discussed in a brief review (Welch 2014). It has been documented from two different laboratories that slow-pressor infusion with angiotensin II to induce hypertension did not increase blood pressure in adenosine A1 knockout mice as observed in wild-type controls (Gao et al. 2011, Lee et al. 2012). Carlstrom & Persson et al. proposed that this mainly


Native warm-season grasses have the potential to provide summer grazing because of their adaptation and persistence. Little nutritive value information is available, however, on the effects of maturity and soil amendments for native North American warm-season grasses during establishment. Multifl ower false rhodesgrass (Chloris plurifl ora E. Fourn.), pink pappusgrass (Pappophorum bicolor E. Fourn.), and plains bristlegrass [Setaria vulpiseta (Lam.) Roem. & Schult.] were harvested monthly during the fi rst 2 yr after establishment on a Windthorst sandy loam soil and fertilized with 0 or 67 kg N and P ha −1 yr −1 . Spring application of fertilizer resulted in early season herbage N concentrations 58 to 79% greater (p ≤ 0.10) than unfertilized herbage and maintained N concentrations (p ≤ 0.10) above the 11.2 g kg −1 considered minimum for cattle maintenance through September for most entries. Multifl ower false rhodesgrass had the least (p ≤ 0.10) fi ber and greatest N and in vitro organic matter disappearance (IVOMD). During Year 1 and early in Year 2, IVOMD was sometimes greater (p ≤ 0.10) when goat rumen liquid was used compared to steer liquid. This relationship was nullifi ed or even reversed as plants matured in Year 2, indicating that donor species of rumen liquid should be considered when interpreting IVOMD results for native warm-season grasses.


ABSTRACT Invasive alien plants (IAPs) pose a threat to ecosystem integrity and generally provide more disservices than services. Acacia mearnsii (black wattle) was introduced to South Africa for its provisioning and economic potential. Since then, it has colonized large areas and it is a high priority taxon by the Working for Water (WfW) programme. This study establishes the nature of the spread of A. mearnsii in grasslands in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, with the aim of providing feedback to the WfW programme on IAP expansion and focal areas of concern. Land cover change detection analysis using historical aerial photographs showed that A. mearnsii has spread more extensively into disturbed (abandoned cultivation and overgrazed) grasslands compared to undisturbed natural grasslands from the initial plantings prior to 1958. Using the point-centred quarter method to determine density, and an allometric equation to determine above-ground biomass, a growth model for A. mearnsii was prepared. The incremental annual increase in the standing biomass of A. mearnsii using the model, validated against MODIS Net Primary Productivity data, was estimated to be ~10.5 ton DM ha−1 yr−1. The spread rate of wattle maybe up to 10% and several alternative control strategies need to be considered.


We have developed a real space spin-parallel theory of superconductivity based on the minimum principle in energy. This theory has successfully provided coherent explanations to a number of complicated problems in conventional and non-conventional superconductors. In this paper, we report the study the optimal doping problem in the new oxypnictide high-temperature superconductors using aforementioned theory. In FeAs family, it is shown that there are three optimum (or quasi-optimum) doped phases at doping levels x1=1/3, 1/6 and 1/8, where the vortex lattice forms square or triangular stable configurations. While in Fe2As2 family, the optimal dopings occur at x2=2/5 and 1/2 with square and triangular superconducting vortex line lattices, respectively.


A direct competition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method for detection of phosmet residue in Chinese traditional and herbal drugs was developed.The six spiked chinese herbal drugs(honeysuckle,medlar,folium isatidis,ginseng,radix isatidis,rhizome corydalis) were extracted and detected by ELISA method.The recoveries were in range of 58 %-121 %.The detection limit for the method was 0.005 mg/kg,for medlar and ginseng were 0.25 mg/kg,for the other four herbs were 1 mg/kg.The correlation coefficient(R2) between the ELISA and GC was 0.990 4.