With the development of new network structures, how to quickly understand the network intentions expressed by users in natural language is very important. Aiming at the problem of feature sparseness and semantic ambiguity caused by the limited number of words in the network business text, a method dealing with the joint intention classification and slot filling LC-BERT is proposed. The position vector, original word vector, and segmentation vector are used as the input of BERT, and the long-distance dependency is obtained through the multi-head self-attention mechanism, and the global semantic features and word vectors are extracted. The LDA topic model is used to extend the feature representation method of short texts to solve the problem of sparse data and lack of subject information. The experimental results show that the LC-BERT model has better classification and slot filling effects than traditional models, proving this method's feasibility and effectiveness.


A layouting and outputting software system of engineering drawings has been developed based on analyzing standard drawing and the law of outputting drawing from computer plotter.Therefore,some sheets of paper can be saved.Also,it is convenient to manage,preserve and copy plots.


Abstract Examination of the Linear A texts confirms that - the language of Linear A is probably only one (§ 1); - the alternation a-/ja- in a-sa-sa-ra-me/ja-sa-sa-ra-me etc. is likely due to the presence of a prefix i/j- and not to a laryngeal or a graphic variant (§ 2); - the sequence -i-*301- of a-ta-i-*301-wa-ja and variants is probably a verbal root (§§ 3-4); - (j)a-sa-sa-ra-me probably means 'gift, homage' vel. sim. (but not necessarily 'sacred') and not 'offering' (§ 5); - the prefix i/j- probably has the function of an article and i-na- could be its plural form (§ 6). More generally, convincing arguments have already been put forward which strongly suggest that the language of Linear A is probably neither Indo-European nor Semitic (Afro-Asiatic), nor an ergative language such as Hurro-Urartian (§ 7).


The influence of complex plant medicine on the progress of experimental reflux-gastritis has been studied. Its antiinflammatory, antioxidant and regulative effects on secretory function of stomach have been shown.


The continuous increase in total congestive heart failure cases and the economic burden associated with it has led to the overwhelming demand for novel therapies. Quite a few drugs for heart failure have shown some promise in preclinical as well as early-phase clinical trials, but most of them were unsuccessful to show the real benefit in pivotal trials. Ivabradine and sacubitril/ valsartan are the new promising drugs to treat heart failure which has been approved recently by the United States Food and Drug Administration. Moreover, some of the newer agents under research offer the potential for noteworthy progress in addition to these drugs. Furthermore, Gene therapy and Stem cell therapy are the recent advances which are being explored and so far have proven to be useful as evidenced by clinical trials. Apart from synthetic molecules, there are also some natural agents such as L-arginine, Coenzyme Q10 etc. which aids in the management of congestive heart failure. In addition to the pharmacological treatment, non-pharmacological intervention also plays an essential role in management of congestive heart failure. To assess the true effectiveness of these attractive compounds future clinical trials with proper patient selection, optimal clinical endpoints and more appropriate study designs are mandatory.


How can we help students develop an understanding of chemistry that integrates conceptual knowledge with the experimental and computational procedures needed to apply chemistry in authentic contexts? The current work describes ChemVLab+, a set of online chemistry activities that were developed using promising design principles from chemistry education and learning science research: setting instruction in authentic contexts, connecting concepts with science practices, linking multiple representations, and using formative assessment with feedback. A study with more than 1400 high school students found that students using the online activities demonstrated increased learning as evidenced by improved problem solving and inquiry over the course of the activities and by statistically significant improvements from pre- to posttest. Further, exploratory analyses suggest that students may learn most effectively from these materials when the activities are used after initial exposure to the content and when they wo...


0 C and retained its activity over a wide range of pH (4.0 - 8.5). Significant enhancement in the enzyme activity was observed in the presence of metal ions like Manganese and Strontium and an insignificant decrement in the presence of Sodium ions.


Developed as part of the suite of Space Station Biological Research Project (SSBRP) hardware to support research aboard the International Space Station (ISS), the Incubator is a temperature-controlled chamber, for conducting life science research with small animal, plant and microbial specimens. The Incubator is designed for use only on the ISS and is transported to/from the ISS, unpowered and without specimens, in the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) of the Shuttle. The Incubator interfaces with the three SSBRP Host Systems; the Habitat Holding Racks (HHR), the Life Sciences Glovebox (LSG) and the 2.5 m Centrifuge Rotor (CR), providing investigators with the ability to conduct research in microgravity and at variable gravity levels of up to 2-g. The temperature within the Specimen Chamber can be controlled between 4 and 45 C. Cabin air is recirculated within the Specimen Chamber and can be exchanged with the ISS cabin at a rate of approximately equal 50 cc/min. The humidity of the Specimen Chamber is monitored. The Specimen Chamber has a usable volume of approximately equal 19 liters and contains two (2) connectors at 28v dc, (60W) for science equipment; 5 dedicated thermometers for science; ports to support analog and digital signals from experiment unique sensors or other equipment; an Ethernet port; and a video port. It is currently manifested for UF-3 and will be launched integrated within the first SSBRP Habitat Holding Rack.


Lattice code is a type of error correcting codes composed of the image of embedding map of an integral ideal in a certain algebraic number field with a bilinear form. In a mobile communication, transmitted signals are attenuated by phenomenon called fading, and the Rayleigh fading of multi-path radio wave is one of important and essential type of fading. Some lattice codes are applicable in order to mitigate the influence of the fading and to extract the most feasible source information from the received signal. The minimum product distance is one of key indicators of lattice code along with the modulation diversity. In this paper, we show some experimental results on the minimum product distance for some lattices of prime ideal in a composition fields of two real quadratic fields using a free formula manipulation system, PARI/GP.


This paper presents a functional language for the unambiguous description of digital circuits,a method and algorithms to obtain a standard-cell layout,and a comparative evaluation of the developed functional standard-cell placement technique.The presented placement scheme is different from traditional methods because the complete layout grometry is specified and constructed automatically from a functional description.The construction relies on a translation that combines the simplicity of standard-cells with the elegance of functional programming.An evaluation of the method introduced shows that the quality of the resulting placement is close to the results achieved with simulated annealing while the computation time is significantly less.Furthermore,the evaluation suggests to employ the functional placement method in conjunction with low-temperature simulated annealing for running-time reduction and improvedresults.


Recent measurements of the phonon spectra of several Au-rich alloys of face-centered-cubic Fe-Au using inelastic neutron scattering and nuclear-resonant inelastic x-ray scattering are summarized. The Wills-Harrison model, accounting for charge transfer upon alloying, is used to explain the observed negative excess vibrational entropy of mixing, which increases the miscibility gap temperature in the system by an estimated maximum of 550 K and we adjudicate to a charge transfer from the Fe to the Au atoms that results in an increase in the electron density in the free-electron-like states and in stronger sd-hybridization. When Au is the solvent, this softens the Fe–Fe bonds but stiffens the Au–Au and Au–Fe bonds which results in a net stiffening relative to the elemental components.


In this study, an attempt was made to understand the e-procurement theme from the perspective of the duality of technology, understanding it both as a product and as a means for human actions, which, interacting with institutional properties, produces and reproduces the current organizational practices. From the multiple interpretative case studies conducted, it was evidenced that e-procurement is a subjective element, sometimes understood inconsistently by human agents in the different organizational contexts studied (Brazil and the State of Paraiba). Users appropriate the rules, knowledge, and assumptions incorporated into the implemented system to perform tasks, contributing to a reaffirmation of the status quo.


The purpose of this research was to explore developmental patterns in groups with and withoutformal leaders and with different tasks. Six groups operating within a group relations conference participated in the study. In general, the groups were found to be more alike than diferent in tenms of developmentalpatterms across or within sessions. Where differences did occur group duration, rather than task type orthe presence orabsence of designated leaders, seemed to accountfor those diferences.


The Characteristics of palaeokarst reservoir of O1m541 of lower Ordovician in northern Jingbian gas field of Ordos Basin are investigated by the analysis of core,cast thin section,SEM,CLM,porosity and permeability test.It is showed that intergranular pore,dissolved pore,dissolved fracture and moldic pore are the main primary pore types with the porosity between 15.91% and 0.22%,average 3.73%,with the permeability ranging from 79.13×10-3 μm2 to 0.001 3×10-3 μm2,average 1.24×10-3 μm2.The pore structures are divided into 4 types: dissolved pore-intergranular pore-dissolved fracture type,intergranular pore type,micropore-intergranular pore-dissolved fracture type,and compact micro-pore type.The development of reservoir is influenced by microfacies,diagenetic facies and karst palaeogeomorphology,with the sedimentary facies of the basis of its development.Diagenetic facies controls final reservoir space and palaeogeomorphology controls the degree of reservoir development and conservation.The composite parts of the three favorable areas are the key target for oil and gas exploration.


Recently, nanoscale (<100 nm) inorganic materials, especially spherical shaped zinc oxide quantum dots (ZnO-QDs), have received a lot of attention from the broad community because of their potential utilization in various technologies. Due to their large surface to volume (S/V) ratios and extremely high reactivities, they can easily penetrate in various biological identities, such as cells and proteins, and therefore can sense, diagnose and cure different biological systems. The present study describes the facile synthesis of crystalline ZnO-QDs via a solution process. In addition, C2C12 myoblast cancer cells have been treated with different doses of ZnO-QDs at different incubation times (24, 48, 72 and 96 h). The rate of inhibition of cells was observed using an MTT assay, whereas the morphology of the cells was observed by confocal microscopy (CLSM). The MTT and CLSM investigations confirmed that with an increase in the incubation time, the population density of cancer cells was decreased when treated with ZnO-QDs. The dose dependent apoptosis correlated with intracellular production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) from C2C12 cancer cells was also measured in presence of ZnO-QDs. Moreover, the effect/apoptosis of these QDs was also checked in the presence of candidate genes such as caspase 3/7 with GAPDH. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis demonstrates the up-regulation of caspase 3/7 genes in cells subsequently treated with ZnO-QDs at low and high concentrations.


Version 1.0 of the software was released to industry specialists for beta-testing at a briefing workshop at Wallingford in February 200. Whils no active support is offered, HR Wallingford will try to assist suitably trained specialists in getting started with using the programmes.


The invention relates to an implementation system for cloud calculation and cloud service of road traffic information based on a technology of internet of things. The system comprises a vehicular GPS (global positioning system) arranged on a mobile vehicle, a GPS satellite, a GPS base station, a relay station and an information center, wherein the information center comprises a data storage server used for receiving and storing the data of the GPS on the mobile vehicle, a cloud calculation server used for sensing the traffic state, a road traffic information platform server used for providing the cloud service of the traffic information and a GIS (geographic information system) server; and the invention provides an implementation method for cloud calculation and cloud service of the road traffic information based on the technology of the internet of things. According to the invention, the road information acquisition and the road information service are integrated, the traffic detection for existence of any vehicle is realized, the detection and sense of a road traffic system in large scale are realized, and the traffic state is evaluated, guided and controlled based on the data, thereby providing the real-time road condition information and navigation service to a traveler.


The rapid development of dental implantology in recent years made the use of CT preoperative study a common practice. The establishment of sufficient amount of residual alveolar bone for the needs of successful osseointegration of endosteal implants is important part of the preoperative study. It is also important for making a final decisionwhether bone augmentation is really needed when large or complex bone defects are present in the jawbone. After analyzing preoperative Dental CT skenogramms of 292 jaws in our retrospective study, we found that in 48% of the cases there was a sufficient amount of residual bone, and in 52% of the cases there was a need for bone augmentation present.


The general issue highlighted in this article is the importance of some educational values (respect, responsibility, cooperation) in assuring the efficiency of the educational process at university level and preparing these students for their future role of employees. Using a 23 items inventory, on a sample of 158 students, our research goal was to establish the most important educational values on which the students' activity in the educational process at university level is settled up and to identify the differences between the first and third year students regarding these values. The results obtained sustain our hypothesis, supposing that students at university level have developed a high level of different types of educational values promoted in the educational process in which they are involved. But, these educational values were not represented at a highest level growth for the third year of study students opposite to the first year of study students. The conclusion of the study emphasizes the fact that that students have engaged in the educational process some educational values such as: respect for teachers or colleagues' opinion and for differences between individuals, and it is very important for students to have more sustainment in their personal development based on: cooperation, responsibility and assuming the results of group work.


AT A LONDON auction in November I966, the Metropolitan Museum bought a richly decorated head of a shafted weapon which had come from an English private collection (Figures I, 2).1 Though its considerable size-its length is 12 e, inches or 30.6 centimeters -would be adequate for a spearhead, its form, however, clearly indicates that it is meant to be an oversize head of a crossbow bolt far too large for any bow.


Microvascular imaging (MVI), a new ultrasound technology, is used to analyze brain perfusion at the patient's bedside. This study aims to evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic value of MVI in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS).


For over two decades, the Peeler doctrine has kept nonexonerated convicts from recovering for legal malpractice claims. Originally, its scope was narrow. Its primary justification was to keep criminals from profiting from their crimes. But over the years, courts have expanded the doctrine, allowing criminal defense attorneys to use it as a shield when they fail to meet their contractual obligations to clients. Today, application of the doctrine frequently undermines public policy objectives and makes it harder for plaintiffs with legitimate claims to succeed in court.

This Comment is meant to provide attorneys and policymakers the tools they need to roll back the overextension of this doctrine, thus providing convicts a more equitable opportunity to pursue legal malpractice claims. Part II sets _Peeler_ in context by describing the doctrine's evolution, some of its criticisms, and corresponding rules in other states. Part III considers ways to better advance the public policy concerns implicated by _Peeler_.


In this study, polyphenols were extracted from different parts (seed husks, seeds, young and old leaves) of Toona sinensis collected from Taihe District, Anhui province, China, through ultrasound-assisted extraction. During in vitro experiments, seed husks polyphenol extracts exhibited inhibitory effects against α-amylase and α-glucosidase up to 89% and 86.7%, respectively, and these values were slightly lower than the inhibitory rates of acarbose (91% and 90.5% on each enzyme) at the same concentrations. During in vivo experiments, treatment with high-dose seed husks polyphenol extracts (120 mg/kg body weight) significantly reduced the blood glucose levels, increased the glucose tolerance and insulin tolerance of diabetic mice (P < 0.05); In addition, the contents of triglyceride, total cholesterol, non-esterified fatty acid, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and low density lipoprotein cholesterol in serum could be reduced, and the influence on total cholesterol was significantly different (P < 0.01). Moreover, the activity of superoxide dismutase and glutathione could be Obviously improved, the content of malonaldehyde could be reduced in serum, among those the effect on glutathione enzyme was extremely significant (P < 0.01). The results showed that the seed husks polyphenol extracts from T. sinensis had obvious hypoglycemic effect, and the mechanism of hypoglycemic might be related to the improvement of insulin sensitivity by repairing damaged islet cells. Meanwhile, antioxidant enzyme activity was improved, oxidative stress injury was reduced, and lipid metabolism was enhanced.


This paper presents a surveillance system that detects and recognizes people in indoor scenes. To distinguish between different people, color histograms on a perceptually uniform color space are used. The goal here is to associate a sequence showing a person leaving a room with the previously recorded sequence showing that same person entering.


Land movements caused by the Earth's natural systems such as tectonic motion and earthquakes have a huge impact on the geodetic datum. The geodetic reference stations that are being used as fiducial points for realizing and maintaining the geodetic datum may shift positions. In a long term, the geodetic datum may suffer more severe coordinate shifts, ultimately resulting in non-geocentric position. The national geodetic datum of Malaysia, the Geocentric Datum of Malaysia (GDM2000), is realised as a static datum which is aligned to the International Terrestrial Reference Frame 2000 (ITRF2000) at epoch January 2000. However, ITRF is currently in version 2014 and Malaysia has experienced several land movements as a result of tectonic motion (secular) and earthquakes (non-secular). This study aims to provide the components needed to enhance the accuracy and reliability of the geodetic datum of Malaysia, outlined in three objectives. First, to investigate the spatio-temporal domain of land deformation in Malaysia. Second, to develop a land deformation model based on secular and non-secular land deformation of Malaysia. Third, to design an appropriate mechanism for the implementation of a semi-dynamic datum in Malaysia and to validate its accuracy over time. In order to achieve these objectives, three phases of methodology have been conducted. In phase one, time series analysis of selected Malaysia Real-time Kinematic Network (MyRTKnet) stations positions has been carried out using linear least squares regression technique. The second phase involves the development of a deformation model using the interpolation approach for secular model and second degree polynomial method for the post-seismic decay model. The third phase provides a timeline for implementing a semi-dynamic datum that consists of information about the applicable epoch and the respective sub-models. In addition, transformation between the new datum GDM2000 at epoch 2009.3055 and the existing datum GDM2000 is generated using the geographic offset method. Based on the time series analysis, it was found that the secular motion of Malaysia can be classified into two periods of time which are 2008-2011 and 2012-2014 and the deformation models for Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia have to be separated due to different velocity vectors. Results from assessment of the secular deformation model have found that millimetre-level accuracy can be achieved, i.e. below 6 mm in the horizontal position. For the non-secular deformation model, centimetre-level accuracy can be achieved, i.e. below 7 cm in the horizontal position. It is expected that with the positional accuracy results obtained in this study, it demonstrates the feasibility of implementing a semi-dynamic geocentric datum in Malaysia, thus achieving a reliable position over time.


We here propose a new system for hydrogen isotope separation using columns packed with Pd particles. The present system is a modified one to adopt self-gas purge different from hydrogen displacement chromatographic techniques previously reported<1l-(5). The selfdisplacement chromatography uses no carrier gas in a similar way to Hoy's method<6l. Hydrogen isotopes gas mixture is easily transferred by pressure difference without any external pump through twin columns maintained at different temperatures. Each hydrogen isotope is separated at different elution times.


National governments, even in the current phase of "hyper-globalization", have important freedom of initiative in social and economic policy. The great variety of economic and social policies around the world, even among the most open economies, proves that the welfare state has not lost its original function of compensating citizens from the risk of income variability in open economies. The claim that globalization requires rolling back the welfare state is therefore unfounded. National politics should therefore be seen by all relevant actors (policy-makers, citizens, civil society) as crucial for determining the path of their country and deserving of their investment and energy. pressure by globalization is solidarity and welfare. Can social safety nets remain democratically determined at the national level under the pressure of global competition?


Don't have your cardiac arrest at home c Patients who suffer from out of hospital cardiac arrest generally have a low chance of survival. This large study examined whether the outcome of out of hospital arrest is influenced by the patient's location. According to the Swedish cardiac arrest registry, ambulance crews attended and attempted to resuscitate 24 630 out of hospital cardiac arrest patients between 1990 and 1999. Of these, 66% took place at home. Patients who suffered cardiac arrest at home were generally older, more likely to be female, less often had a witnessed event, less often had bystander CPR, were less often in VF, and had a longer time interval between collapsing and trained assistance arriving. Not surprisingly, given these data, patients who arrested elsewhere had a greater chance of arriving at hospital alive (19.4% v 11.3% p<0.0001) and were more likely to be alive at one month (6.2% v 1.7% p<0.0001). Out of hospital cardiac arrest remains a challenge, particularly when in occurs at home.


This paper proposes a novel control strategy based on network for power electronics system. The definition of networked control is presented in control through network and control of network. According to the actual situation of power electronics, network selection and communication mechanism are presented. By means of the communication cell, standardized data stream of control loop and characteristics of network- induced delay through communication, some concepts of control through network is described. After the rough estimation of network-induced delay of all kinds of network during the transmission process for data of power electronics, the strategies of networked control for power electronic systems are presented by different MAC and topologies, which embody the essence of control of network.


Genetic algorithms (GAs) are vital members within the family biologically inspired algorithms. It has been proven that the performance of GAs is largely affected by the type of encoding schemes used to encode optimization problems. Binary and real encoding schemes are the most popular ones. However, it is still controversial to decide the superiority of one of them for GAs performance. Therefore, we have recently proposed binary-real coded GA (BRGA) that has the ability to use both encoding schemes at the same time. BRGA relays on a parameterized hybrid scheme to share the computational power and coordinate the cooperation between binary coded GA (BGA) and real coded GA (RGA). In this paper, we aim to evaluate the performance of BRGA systematically by utilizing CEC'2005 benchmark of 25 problems and adopting a robust experimental analysis approach. The quality and time performance of BRGA against the benchmark suite and in comparison with original component algorithms (BGA and RGA) is reported discussed and analyzed. Moreover, the performance of BRGA is compared with other Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) from the literature.


To determine prognostic factors of clinical outcome after surgical clipping in elderly patients 65 years old and over with unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs). Methods A total of 50 patients with UIAs who underwent surgical clipping between January 2006 and December 2016 were included in this study. These patients were divided into two groups according to Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) scores: good outcome group (GOS of 5) and poor outcome group (GOS of 1 to 4). Aneurysmal characteristics and clinical outcomes of patients were retrospectively reviewed for both groups. Results Among 50 patients, 38 showed good outcome while 12 had poor outcome. A multivariate study revealed that wide aneurysms neck (OR: 3.467, p = 0.023), small width (OR: 0.511, p = 0.048), large aspect ratio (OR: 9.050, p = 0.007), diabetes mellitus (OR: 1.048, p = 0.023), and smoke (OR: 1.091, p = 0.05) were significantly associated with poor outcome after surgical clipping. Conclusion Wide neck, small width, large aspect ratio, diabetes mellitus, and smoking were found to be independent prognostic factors associated with poor outcome in elderly patients after surgical clipping of aneurysms. Therefore, these factors in elderly patients should be taken into consideration before make a decision on treatment of unruptured aneurysm surgery.


High blood pressure (BP) is the most common cause of death and disability in the world, and is the largest contributor to heart and kidney disease. Current methods of measuring and monitoring blood pressure require either invasive procedures or intermittent inflation of a cuff to restrict blood flow. Thus a non-invasive method for continuous blood pressure monitoring is needed. Pulse transit time (PTT), has been reported to be highly correlated with blood pressure but data examining the effect of posture and activity on PTT based BP estimation are very limited. In this paper, PTT was computed using the windowed correlation between ECG and PPG signals. Continuous blood pressure was estimated using a previously published linear regression model. In fourteen healthy subjects, BP was estimated using PTT in 5 different positions (recumbent, seated, standing, walking, cycling) for each subject according to a preset protocol. Accuracy was increased when sparsified, preprocessed PPG signals were used. Furthermore, the observed errors of PTT measurement were within 1% of manual PTT measurement. The Root-Mean-Squared Errors (RMSE) in systolic and diastolic blood pressure between the reference standard oscillometric cuff-based device and the estimated BP from PTT were lowest when seated or standing and highest when walking or cycling. The mean difference ±standard deviation (SD) of the difference between the PTT-based estimated systolic BP and the reference standard was 0.07±5.8 mmHg in the seated position; however, this increased to 4.4±20.9 and 10.2±16.0 when walking and cycling respectively. Therefore, PTT-based BP estimation was reasonably accurate while stationary but not during motion and further improvements in estimation are required before its use for the estimation of ambulatory BP.


&NA; The etiology of craniosynostosis remains unknown. The beta group of transforming growth factors (TGF‐&bgr;) and insulin‐like growth factors (IGF‐I and IGF‐II) are known to induce new bone formation and, when added exogenously, cause accelerated closure of calvarial defects. The possible roles of these bone growth factors in premature cranial suture fusion in humans have not been explored. We analyzed a total of 20 cranial suture biopsy samples (10 synostotic and 10 normal) from 10 infants with single‐suture craniosynostosis undergoing cranial vault remodeling. Using isoform‐specific antibodies for TGF‐&bgr;1, ‐&bgr;2, and ‐&bgr;3 and IGF‐I, we demonstrated immunoreactivity of these growth factors in both the craniosynostotic and control suture samples. The results show that these bone growth factors were present in human cranial sutures; the TGF‐&bgr;2 isoform was the most intensely immunoreactive. Most importantly, the TGF‐&bgr; isoforms and IGF‐I showed more intense immunoreactivity in the actively fusing craniosynostotic sutures compared with the control patent sutures. Specifically, the TGF‐&bgr; isoforms and IGF‐I were intensely localized in the osteoblasts synthesizing new bone at the suture margin. It is noteworthy that although the patent sutures were less immunoreactive for TGF‐&bgr; isoforms than fused sutures, there was a distinct pattern of the TGF‐&bgr;3 isoform that was immunolocalized to the margin of the normal patent sutures. This suggests a possible role for TGF‐&bgr;3 in maintaining cranial suture patency. The increased immunoreactivity of both TGF‐&bgr;2 and IGF‐I in the actively fusing sutures compared with the patent control sutures indicates that these growth factors may play a role in the biology underlying premature suture closure. To our knowledge, this is the first study showing the presence of TGF‐&bgr;1, ‐&bgr;2, and ‐&bgr;3 and IGF‐I in prematurely fusing human cranial sutures. In the future, manipulating the local expression of these growth factors at the suture site may enable plastic surgeons to modulate premature suture fusion.


The development of advanced charged particle optical systems has pushed the attainable resolution and the analytical capabilities of electron microscopes to new levels of precision and energy resolution. This process of further advancing the overall performance of electron microscopes is still going on and the current state and future prospects of these developments will be described. In 1936, just a few years after the invention of the transmission electron microscope (TEM), O. Scherzer showed the impossibility to design an objective lens without spherical and chromatic aberration. In the nineties of the last century commercially available TEMs improved with respect to stability and resolution. As a consequence, the spherical aberration of the objective lens became the dominant limitation of the point resolution which, however, does not limit the information limit. Therefore, the interpretability of the images is strongly reduced due to the increased difference between information limit and point resolution. This resulted in an increased delocalization of information within the images obtained with such high resolution TEMs equipped with high brightness sources. From 1992 to 1997 a joint project, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation in Germany, brought together scientists from materials science (K. Urban, Juelich), theoretical charged particle optics (H. Rose, Darmstadt), and experimental electron optics (M. Haider). By means of a Hexapole Cscorrector based on a design idea of H. Rose [1] it was possible to demonstrate an improvement of resolution in a 200kV TEM [2, 3]. It became clear that not only the achieved improvement of resolving power also the vanishing delocalization and, therefore, the enhanced visibility of light elements in a Cs-corrected instrument are important parameters for imaging irregular structures like interfaces, dislocations, stacking faults and etc. As soon as the Cs-correctors became almost a standard component of modern electron microscopes a further improvement of the resolution was requested. The main limitation which is left is the chromatic aberration Cc. The product of Cc*dE is the limiting parameter with dE, the energy width of the primary beam. This parameter can be tackled by a reduction of either dE or Cc. The energy width dE can be decreased by employing a monochromator and the chromatic aberration can only be reduced substantially by a Cc-correction system. Such a corrector has been developed for the TEAM initiative in the US [4]. For this project an advanced Hexapole-corrector for STEM [5] and a so called Achroplanator (a system which compensates the spherical and the chromatic aberration) has been developed and are installed at the NCEM, Berkeley, USA. The resolution achieved in STEM as well as in TEM mode with this corrector is superior of all other systems before [6]. The full compensation of both limiting aberrations could be demonstrated. Furthermore, this Cccorrector development for TEM is a first step for a new class of instruments for which the objective lens can be designed most appropriate for the work one would like to carry out. Besides the medium voltage instruments additional projects are currently ongoing which are extending the energy range down to the 20kV regime or up to 1.2 MeV. The current state of developments will be explained and the future prospects of ongoing projects will be described in the presentation.


The objective of the article is to analyze the impacts, on Professional and Technological Education (EPT), of the current counter-reform process experienced by brazilian education. In this context, we start from the hypothesis that the counter-reform of High School has produced transformations in other fields of educational policy, including EPT, not restricting to the general education curriculum. The concept of counter-reform as elaborated by the political theory of Poulantzas is assumed as a theoretical presupposition. From a methodological way, initially, a group of legal-political mechanisms that relate simultaneously to High School and EPT were delimited. Then, through the Content Analysis technique, official documents that support such mechanisms were investigated, emphasizing the political-pedagogical and curricular principles. The mechanisms analyzed are: a) Common National Curriculum Base (BNCC) for High School, expressed in Resolution CNE/CEB No. 17/2018; b) New Paths Program, announced by the federal government in November 2019; c) National Curriculum Guidelines for EPT (DCNEPT), approved by Resolution CNE/CP No. 01/2021. In conclusion, we defend the thesis that a reform of the Brazilian EPT has been in development, since 2016, a reform of the brazilian EPT. This reform has been constructed in three stages, chronologically comprised between the years 2016-2018, 2018-2021 and 2021 onwards. The emphasis given to the reform of the EPT is intended to characterize it as one of the sectors that make 1 Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Paraná. Paranaguá, Paraná (PR), Brasil. <email@example.com> SciELO Preprints Este documento é um preprint e sua situação atual está disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1590/SciELOPreprints.3150 Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)


Visual-Inertial Odometry (VIO) refers to dead reckoning based navigation integrating visual and inertial data. With the advent of deep learning (DL), a lot of research has been done in this realm yielding competitive performances. DL based VIO approaches usually adopt a sensor fusion strategy which can have varying levels of intricacy. However, sensor data can suffer from corruptions and missing frames and is therefore imperfect. Hence, need arises for a strategy which not only fuses sensor data but also selects the features based on their reliability.

This work addresses the monocular VIO problem with a more representative sensor fusion strategy involving attention mechanism. The proposed framework neither
needs extrinsic sensor calibration nor the knowledge of intrinsic inertial measurement unit (IMU) parameters. The network, being trained in an end-to-end fashion, is
assessed with various types of sensory data corruptions and compared against popular baselines. The work highlights the complementary nature of the employed sensors in such scenarios. The proposed approach has achieved state-of-the-art results showing competitive performance against the baselines, thereby contributing to an advance in the field. We also make use of Bayesian uncertainty in order to obtain information about model's certainty in its predictions. The model is cast into a Bayesian Neural Network (BNN) without making any explicit changes in it and inference is made using a simple tractable approach - Laplace approximation. We show that notion of uncertainty can be exploited for VIO and sensor fusion, particularly that sensor degradation results in more uncertain predictions and the uncertainty correlates well
with pose errors.


The troubled state of the Peloponnesus during the Middle Ages left its mark on no buildings more evidently than on its castles. Each successive owner obtained his title at the cost of some part of the building, and his first thought on gaining possession was either to strengthen the fortress he had just captured, or to dismantle it utterly and leave behind him a useless pile of ruins. Military architecture too, is little influenced by respect for the past and the more important castles must have been frequently modernised, so but little is left of their original structure. The lack of those ornamental details which are the main clue to the age of more elaborate buildings renders a classification of the different types of plan and of masonry of some importance; where mouldings or other details are found their evidence is usually conclusive, but in their absence we must be guided by the form of the plan and by the masonry.


Quantum dynamical calculations of the IR‐multiphoton excitation of two molecular model systems are presented. One is an anharmonic oscillator and the other the rovibrational structure of the lowest three excitation steps in the stretching manifolds of the ozone molecule. Systematic comparisons are made between solutions using either the Floquet approximation or the weak field quasiresonant approximation (WF‐QRA). The WF‐QRA is shown to be adequate for typical transition moments in molecular many level systems and intensities up to the TW cm−2 range in agreement with previous analytical considerations. The implications of these findings for an efficient approach to the computational treatment of IR‐multiphoton excitation and for the mechanism of molecular IR‐multiphoton excitation as a series of stepwise one photon transitions are discussed.


We prove the compactness of the Sobolev embedding for Musielak–Orlicz spaces by way of simple conditions on the Matuszewska index of the underlying space. We provide counterexamples to show the sharpness of our conditions.


Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common causes of chronic liver disease worldwide (Milic and Stimac, 2012). NAFLD affects prevalently children and adults with particular risk factors including genetic susceptibility and inappropriate lifestyle (i.e., over-/mal-nutrition and physical inactivity). In fact, obesity, as well as some traits of metabolic syndrome, such as insulin resistance and dyslipidemia, are co-morbidities often associated to the presence of NAFLD (Vanni et al., 2010). In line with the increased obesity epidemics, epidemiological studies indicate that the estimated global prevalence of NAFLD ranges from 3–10% depending on age, sex, ethnicity, and risk factors. Interestingly, in obese children and adults this prevalence may raise up to 20–80% (Alisi et al., 2009; Vernon et al., 2011).


Lymphoplasmacytic Lymphoma (LPL) is a relatively rare low-grade lymphoma which primarily affects elderly patients. Standard doses of alkylating agents, purine analogues and anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody effect response rates of up to 60%. However, complete response is infrequent and there is no cure. Due to indolent nature of the disease and older patients with comorbidities, evaluation of the role of high dose therapy with transplant has been infrequent in the past. Here we report a retrospective multicentre study of 146 LPL patients (94 male, 52 female), who underwent autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) between 1992 and 2004. The median age was 60 years (54–67) and median time from diagnosis to transplant was 62 months (5–119). Twenty-six patients (18%) were in CR1, 35 (24%) in CR2, 30 (20%) in ≥CR3, 45 (31%) in PR, 10 (7%) primary refractory at transplant. Combination of GCSF with either Cyclophosphamide, ESHAP or AraC were mainly the stem cell mobilisation regimens used, and 18 patients with extensive prior use of purine analogues, required second attempt for harvesting. The conditioning regimens used were BEAM, Cyclophosphamide/TBI or Melphalan/TBI. The source of stem cells was PBSC in 129, BM in 11 and both in 6 patients. All patients except one had successful engraftment. With a median follow-up of 12 months (2–126), 131 (90%) patients are alive and 15 (10%) dead. Thirteen patients died from disease progression and 2 from regimen toxicity. Actuarial non- relapse mortality was 2.4% at 1 and 2 years. The actuarial OS was 90% at 1 year, 79% at 3 years and 69% at 5 years. The probability of relapse was 80% at 1 year, 53% at 3 years and 39% at 5 years. Relapse rate was not statistically significant for patients with chemosensitive disease. In conclusion this study shows that ASCT is safe, and a significant proportion of previously multitreated LPL patients can be salvaged and sustain prolonged DFS.


We report new functionalized carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) featuring a stick-out nanostructure that delivers strong hydrogen bonding with polar groups in polymer chains. To make the stick-out nanostructures with hydroxyl groups, bromoresorcinols were used to react with the double bonds of CNPs by atom transfer radical reaction (ATRR). The resorcinol-bound CNPs (CNP-RCs) were characterized by solid-state proton nuclear magnetic spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. CNP-RCs were extremely well dispersed and stable (>6 months) compared to the original CNPs which precipitated in less than 60 h. High resolution transmission electron microscopy measurements disclosed that the characteristic particle shape and fine nanostructure of the original CNPs were almost unchanged during the ATRR process. We found that the surface of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) microfibers was almost fully covered with the CNP-RC material by employing a double soaking process at 130 °C. The resulting CNP-RC-bound PET microfibers in fabrics exhibited excellent washing and rubbing resistance and outstanding deodorizing properties against ammonia gas. Hence, the present stick-out nanostructured CNP-RCs are expected to be a breakthrough in widening the application of carbon nanoparticles in terms of environmentally friendly processes using water and product-level stability.


In our work, we have proposed a new transformation Biggs's self-scaling Quasi-Newton update which is based on the simple idea of approximation for the inverse Hessian matrix. This transformation has implemented both theoretically and numerically and tested on some well-known test cases. Numerical experiments indicate that this transformation is more effective than the standard BFGS-method.


In gas-condensate reservoirs, a major challenge is to avoid the drop-out of the heavier fractions, which represent the rich part of the gas, responsible for great part of its heat capacity and, consequently, its price. A widely used practice to keep the reservoir fluid above its dew point pressure is the injection of produced lean gas into the reservoir. This technique is known as gas cycling. As the lean gas is injected in the reservoir, the overall fluid composition is changed and so does its dew point and phase envelope. Furthermore, the rate of pressure decline in the reservoir depends on the fraction of the produced gas being injected. We present a coherent thermodynamic analysis of die effects of lean gas injection in two Brazilian gas/condensate reservoirs through the determination of the phase behavior of injected/original gas mixtures. The accuracy of the thermodynamic model employed is verified through the comparison of the model predictions with laboratory data. The results obtained from this analysis are used to determine the maximum amount and optimal composition of lean gas to be injected in a gas/condensate reservoir in order to change its composition and shift the phase envelope to a point where the liquidmore » drop-out can be eliminated or minimized during the isothermal depletion of the reservoir. The results can also be used to optimize the operation of gas pipelines and production equipment and facilities.« less


Bacterial metallo- b -lactamases (MBLs) are involved in resistance to b -lactam antibiotics including cephalosporins. Human SNM1A and SNM1B are MBL superfamily exonucleases that play a key role in the repair of DNA interstrand cross-links, which are induced by anti-tumour chemotherapeutics, and are therefore targets for cancer chemosensitization. We report that cephalosporins are competitive inhibitors of SNM1A and SNM1B exonuclease activity; both the intact b -lactam and their hydrolysed products are active. This discovery provides a lead for the development of potent and selective SNM1A and SNM1B inhibitors.


The growing heterogeneity of networks, devices and consumption conditions asks for flexible and adaptive video coding solutions. The compression power of the HEVC standard and the benefits of the distributed video coding paradigm allow designing novel scalable coding solutions with improved error robustness and low encoding complexity while still achieving competitive compression efficiency. In this context, this paper proposes a novel scalable video coding scheme using a HEVC Intra compliant base layer and a distributed coding approach in the enhancement layers (EL). This design inherits the HEVC compression efficiency while providing low encoding complexity at the enhancement layers. The temporal correlation is exploited at the decoder to create the EL side information (SI) residue, an estimation of the original residue. The EL encoder sends only the data that cannot be inferred at the decoder, thus exploiting the correlation between the original and SI residues; however, this correlation must be characterized with an accurate correlation model to obtain coding efficiency improvements. Therefore, this paper proposes a correlation modeling solution to be used at both encoder and decoder, without requiring a feedback channel. Experiments results confirm that the proposed scalable coding scheme has lower encoding complexity and provides BD-Rate savings up to 3.43% in comparison with the HEVC Intra scalable extension under development.


Sorting and assigning phonon branches (e.g., longitudinal acoustic) of phonon modes is important for characterizing the phonon bands of a crystal and the determination of phonon properties such as the Grüneisan parameter and group velocity. To do this, the phonon band indices (including the longitudinal and transverse acoustic) have to be assigned correctly to all phonon modes across a path or paths in the Brillouin zone. As our solution to this challenging problem, we propose a computationally efficient and robust two-stage hybrid method that combines two approaches with their own merits. The first is the perturbative approach in which we connect the modes using degenerate perturbation theory. In the second approach, we use numerical fitting based on least-squares fits to circumvent local connectivity errors at or near exact degenerate modes. The method can be easily generalized to other condensed matter problems involving Hermitian matrix operators such as electronic bands in tight-binding Hamiltonians or in a standard density-functional calculation, and photonic bands in photonic crystals.


THE BUSHBLL PLATTEE OR THE TSIN HOU P'AN No excuse need be offered for further consideration of the ancient bronze in the Victoria and Albert Museum which is known as the Bushell Bowl, for there is a great lack of information on the subject of Chinese bronzes, and anything that is written concerning this particular object is likely to help in supplying the deficiency. Professor Giles has pointed out the misnomer by which a platter (p'ari) has come to be known as a bowl. It is not too late to make the necessary correction as I have done at the head of this article, and it is desirable that future writers should give the correct English name to this p'an. My reason for writing concerning this platter is that during the winter of 1912-13 in Peking, while searching in an old book-store on Liu-li Chang, I came across a rubbing which I found to be one of the Bushell platter. As far as could be remembered by the owner of the store, this rubbing came into his hands through the late Yang Li-shan, a well-known connoisseur of a generation ago and the intimate friend of Dr. Bushell. Mr. Yang was a Metropolitan official, a rare scholar and an authority much in demand by the collectors of Peking. He had the entree into the palaces of the Princes and was also sought by the Imperial Household Department in the classification of art treasures. He was a close friend of Prince I, and it was doubtless through him that Bushell secured this platter. Prince I was a careful collector of bronzes and pictures, and has left behind him a reputation for keenness in detecting frauds. I have seen three pictures which belonged to him and they were of genuine merit. He did not have a large collection of antique bronzes, and they


This paper investigates the distributed continuous-time optimization problem, which consists of a group of agents with variant local cost functions. An adaptive consensus-based algorithm with event triggering communications is introduced, which can drive the participating agents to minimize the global cost function and exclude the Zeno behavior. Compared to the existing results, the proposed event-based algorithm is independent of the parameters of the cost functions, using only the relative information of neighboring agents, and hence is fully distributed. Furthermore, the constraints of the convexity of the cost functions are relaxed.


*Corresponding author: Qian Li Fund Project :Meizhou City Scientific and Technological Project No: 2014B50 Corresponding author:Qian Li Telephone: 13924473770 E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Address:General Surgery Department, the Chinese Medicine Hospital of Meixian District, Meizhou City, Guangdong Province, 514011 Intrahepatic bile duct stone is a common type of cholelithiasis. Liver resection is the main surgical method in clinical treatment of intrahepatic bile duct stone. Its purpose is to remove the lesion, take out the stone completely and restore drainage while maximally reserve healthy liver tissue. Intrahepatic bile duct stones are mostly in strictly periodic distribution along bile duct bundle. Therefore, liver resection scope should be in unit of liver segments, complete excision of lesions of bile duct and corresponding liver. Open liver resection is the conventional method, but it will cause more traumas and is not conducive to postoperative recovery. Laparoscopic liver resection is a minimally invasive surgery developed in recent years. Through the use of video cameras, it can obtain clear vision and achieve precise operation . In the following research, curative effect of laparoscopic liver resection in treating intrahepatic bile duct stone and its influence on serum indexes were analyzed.


tron saint of all students of the subject of liberty, suggested that "on all great subjects much remains to be said," he surely did not mean that about a thing like liberty new vital facts can be gathered and added to the existing store. Since he almost certainly meant that value attaches to a reformulation of the problems of liberty as such, he implied that the qualifications of the person who undertakes such reformulation are of paramount importance. In France, Professor Joseph-Barth61emy possesses unique qualifications for such a task. As a result, his recent book on "The Value of Liberty" has a peculiarly strong claim upon the interest of people in all countries. The author is a professor of constitutional law who has had extensive experience in practical politics. He is a member of the Institute, has served in the Chamber of Deputies, and has represented France in the Assembly of the League of Nations. It is said that the president of the Chamber of Deputies acted without precedent when, at the opening of Parliament in January, he took occasion to pay a personal tribute to M. Joseph-Barthelemy.


Inaccurate initial conditions can produce significant failures in forecasts made with numerical weather prediction models. An iterative algorithm that uses the adjoint forecast model and is aimed at minimizing the forecast error leads to the so–called key analysis errors. Under the assumption that forecast error growth is dominated by the analysis error, key analysis errors should represent that part of the analysis errors mainly responsible for a poor forecast. Thus, the key analysis errors indicate how to improve analyses. In addition, analysis departures should also identify this direction. The purpose of this study is to gain a further understanding of the structure of key analysis errors and to investigate the question of how well key analysis errors are related to analysis errors. Airborne Doppler wind LIDAR measurements over the northern Atlantic collected during the Atlantic THORPEX Regional Campaign (A-Trec) are analysed to test these considerations. These wind observations were taken with the DLR (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt, Oberpfaffenhofen) 2 μm Doppler wind LIDAR. They were passively and actively assimilated in ECMWF T511L60 experiments to form the basis for the computation of analysis departures. Results indicate that analysis departures and key analysis errors optimized for both the northern hemisphere and a predefined forecast domain represent different parts of the analysis error.


Abstract : The ballistic performance of model scale U-3/4%Ti long-rod penetrators with three different nose-shape designs (blunt nose, conical nose, and frustum cone) were evaluated. The target matrix included semi-infinite rolled homogeneous armor (RHA) and two finite RHA targets, one at normal incidence and one at high obliquity, but with the same line-of-sight thickness. The results reflected the same trends as observed for a previous tungsten alloy penetrator study, demonstrating that the nose-shape effects are independent of penetrator material.


Recently, solid-phase microextraction (SPME) was successfully coupled to high-performance liquid chromatography. However, the efficiency of this analytical method, in terms of manpower, still suffers from its manual operation technique. Furthermore, the selectivity obtained for the analysis of very polar compounds is still poor because of a limited selection of commercially available fiber coatings that can withstand the aggressive HPLC conditions (solvents). This paper describes the first approach to developing an automated SPME-HPLC system. A mixture of polar thermally labile analytes, phenylurea pesticides, was selected for microextraction directly from an aqueous sample. A piece of a ordinary capillary GC column with its coating (Omegawax 250) was used for the absorption of analytes from the aqueous sample (in-tube solid-phase microextraction). A needle hosts the capillary when it is pierced through the septum of the vial containing the spiked aqueous sample. The aqueous samples were stored in 2 mL vi...


This paper is concerned with the issue of characterizing the situations in which all the literacy indices, consistent with a set of reasonable axioms, would provide the same ranking of societies. It is shown that a theory, analogous to that developed for the Lorenz order in the study of income inequality, can be obtained in the study of literacy, by extending the standard mathematical theory relating gauge functions to convex functions, and the theory of majorization.


The intended market space of applications using the ZigBee standard is home control, building automation and industrial automation. With these applications in mind the standard is optimized for low data rates, low power consumption, security and reliability. We have fulfilled a performance evaluation and analysis of the beacon-enabled ZigBee network. We also proposed an efficient beacon scheduling algorithm, and have tested the beacon scheduling between routers, found that there is no collision.


The invention discloses a wall body board and a manufacture method thereof. The wall body board comprises a first board body, a second board body and a third board body between the first board body and the second board body; the third board body is made of an inorganic non-inflammable material; the interior of the third board body adopts a bubble or micropore structure; and strengthening ribs are fixed in the third board body. As the third board body is made of the inorganic non-inflammable material, and the interior of the third board body adopts the bubble or micropore structure, the wall body board has a favorable thermal insulation effect besides a fireproof effect; as the strengthening ribs are fixed in the third board body, the tensile strength and the torsional strength of the wall body board are greatly improved; and the first board body and the second board body are made of sulphoaluminate quick-hardening high-strength cement, the functions of reinforcing and protecting a wall body are achieved, so that the shock resistance and the fire resistance of the whole wall body board are enhanced.


The mean length of runs of wave heights and the mean number of waves between the exceedance of a certain level by a group of waves and the next exceedance of the same level by the succeeding group of waves have been investigated for data from the March 1968 North Atlantic storm. These quantities are compared with corresponding results obtained from the numerical simulation of waves in a computer for both wide and narrow band spectra.


In personnel selection, psychometric tests are often used to predict the suitability of job applicants. Of the available predictors, like job sample, interview or references, tests stand out with regard to their predictive validity. According to a large meta-analytic study by Schmidt and Hunter (1998) cognitive tests are among the best predictors available (also see Robertson and Smith (2001)). In many validity studies, supervisor ratings are used as criterion measures. In the field of personnel selection these ratings are known for their unreliability (Murphy, 2008; Saal, Downey, & Lahey, 1980; Scullen, Mount, & Judge, 2003). In this article, validity is approached from a different angle. Instead of using supervisor ratings, dropout in higher education and (un)employment were used as criterion measures. It turns out that both criteria can be predicted using combined scores from a multi-scale personality questionnaire. Implications and suggestions for application and further research are discussed.


Abstract Much attention has been paid in the literature to matters of script choice vis-à-vis languages. This attention, however, has focused on script choice in a national and political context. By contrast, there has not been any significant attention paid to more local and idiosyncratic instances of script choice operating on an individual and community level. These instances may take place when recourse is made to script as a 'most appropriate technology' on a pragmatic and functional basis. The examples outlined in this article occur in a multilingual diasporic setting. This article will seek to describe and, to an extent, interpret a recently observed religio-literacy practice in which participants make recourse to Roman script in their endeavours to record, memorise and share poetic verses and song lyrics composed in languages traditionally associated with non-Roman scripts. In a related example, the use of Roman script as a pedagogical 'shortcut' to the learning of a classical non-Roman script will complement the discussion on the nature of script choice in a context where 'choice' is problematic. It has been noted that new scripts often render literary traditions inaccessible. This article presents findings where, in certain respects, the opposite is occasionally true with a replacement script providing a means to access literary traditions otherwise out of reach.


The overall design of the double spectrum image system is introduced and puts forward a wavelet fusion method based on fuzzy matrix for the UV and visible double image system.This method adopts fuzzy matrix fusion areas and makes use of wavelet counterchange method to analyze and reconstruct the image.It selects UV image and V image for the fusion and compares this method and other methods in fusion image.It comes to the conclusion that,double spectrum image fusion method based on fuzzy matrix can better meet the requirements of clarity and fusion fringe transition in the image fusion.


The seed protein contents and protein banding pattern were studied in commonly cultivated groundnut cultivars. The groundnut cultivars such as ICGV00351, TMV-7, CO-4,CO-6 and TG-374 were used for quantitative and qualitative analysis of seed proteins. The protein contents varied among the different varieties of groundnut. The maximum protein content was observed in CO-6 followed by CO-4, TMV-7, ICGV00351 and TG-374. There was a slight differences in protein content among the different cultivars. All the five cultivars of groundnut were subjected to SDS-PAGE analysis. The results revealed that the variation in total number of bands and MW-Rf values. The maximum number of MW-Rf value was noticed in TG-374 and ICGV00351, and the minimum MW-Rf value was 11 recorded in CO-6 and TMV-7.


The interactions among different transformer inrush current identification criteria are analyzed.Based on 2-additive fuzzy measures,the method used for calculating the importance and interaction of identification criterions is presented,and based on this the selection principle of optimal criterions combination and the constant weight calculation method are proposed.Considering the characteristic of inrush identification,a new state variable weights function is proposed and the variable weights synthetic identification of transformer inrush current is realized.The results of test data analysis show that by this method the complementarities of the criterions are synthesized completely,and the performance of transformer protection is improved.


This work compares the performances of two fast 3-D transforms and two adaptive Golomb entropy coders applied to a video codec system named FEVC (fast embedded video codec). The compared transforms are Hadamard (4times4times4 and 8times8times8) and H.264/AVC integer DCT (4times4times4). The compared adaptive Golomb entropy coders have different operation modes and adaptation strategies. New 3-D implementation methods for the transforms are presented. After the scan procedure, the encoding of the 3-D coefficients is done, bit-plane-by-bit-plane, by the entropy coders, producing a fully embedded output bitstream. The FEVC (also described here) was developed to be implemented each of a large number of set-top boxes used in a fiber optics network. For that reason, it is focused on reduced complexity and execution time, not on high compression rates. The use of meager computational resources is also required. Even with these constraints, good distortion versus rate results were achieved.


The invention provides a mortar nozzle used for a multi-wire cutting machine. The mortar nozzle comprises an outer pipe, an inner pipe, a fixing support seat, an outer pipe plug and an inner pipe plug, wherein the inner pipe is arranged in the outer pipe; the fixing support seat is used for fixing the outer pipe with the inner pipe; the outer pipe plug is mounted on the end part of the outer pipe; the inner pipe plug is mounted on the end part of the inner pipe; a nozzle seam is formed in the outer pipe along the axial direction of the outer pipe; a plurality of nozzle holes are formed in the inner pipe along the axial direction of the inner pipe; a nozzle interface which is communicated with the inner pipe is arranged on the fixing support seat. Mortar enters the inner pipe from the nozzle interface, leaves the inner pipe by the nozzle holes of the inner pipe to enter the outer pipe, and is finally injected from the nozzle seam of the outer pipe. In such a way, the mortar injected by the mortar nozzle can be uniformly sprinkled on steel wires, and the cutting requirement can be met without consuming much mortar. The mortar nozzle has the advantages that the usage amount of the mortar is reduced, the cutting capability of the steel wires does not decline, and the cost is reduced.


【Objective】The system was developed to realize rapid detection of agricultural products,effective management of test results and convenience query to reduce food safety risks,offer real statistics,enhance consumer confidence,and provide references for relevant equipment and system research.【Method】A kind of food quality and safety on-site monitoring system was designed,which has hardware and software parts,by combining forefront technologies,including embedded technology,configuration fusion,RFID,GPS,wireless communications,J2 EE and Web Service.【Result】The system hardware mainly includes self-made acquisition terminal devices,RFID tracing equipment and information concentrator.The system software includes the terminal device control software and remote monitoring service platform.The acquisition terminal device can obtain the values of temperature,pH,heavy metals and pesticide residues by connecting different sensors,which would be further recorded and read by EPC electronic tags and RFID devices through the concentrator.Finally,the concentrator transmits these data to the remote service platform via wireless networks,for data storage,analysis,query and early warning.【Conclusion】It could provide a set of technologies and solutions to improve the detection efficiency of agricultural products for food inspection and supervision departments,reduce food safety risks and environmental pollution,and promote the rational use of agricultural chemicals.


The main goal of the groundwater resources evaluation is to solve the problem that the right permissive mining yield of groundwater can be made decision under given groundwater quality.The calculated of permisswe mining yield of groundwater should be defined in time before exploration,and from this directed exploration.The data obtained from exploration can corrects,discern,and verify mathematical model of groundwater.Only if the mathematical model has been discerned and verified,can it be used to simulate calculation.


Active methylene compounds and nitro derivatives react with 3-(1-arylsulfonylalkyl)-indoles in the presence of potassium fluoride on basic alumina at room temperature leading to the corresponding adducts in good yields. Under basic conditions, sulfonylindoles suffer elimination of arenesulfinic acid leading to an intermediate vinylogous imine that promptly adds stabilized carbanions. The obtained 3-indolyl derivatives are pivotal intermediates for the synthesis of indole-based alkaloids and amino acids.


The most constructive comment that can be made about Jan's situation is that he is plugged into a system that is apparently supportive and caring; and that could refer him on should he 'tnature out' and decide to take steps towards change. On one hand, it may be that the system has helped to reduce harm that might have occurred had Jan simply remained on the street. On the other hand, it can be argued that it is simply facilitating or enabling a highly unsatisfactory life-style in someone who still injects drugs (including his methadone), who still resorts to petty crime in order to buy heroin and cocaine and who probably spends his entire time in drug-related pursuits, including fluent debate, albeit misinformed at times, with interested professionals and other 'intellectuals' around the local drug-taking community.


Canada's New Substances Notification Regulations

Under the New Substances Program, Health Canada (HC) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) administer the New Substances Notification Regulations (Chemicals and Polymers) and New Substances Notification Regulations (Organisms) (NSNR) of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA) to examine the potential risks to Canadians and their environment before the substances enter the Canadian marketplace. These regulations are an integral part of the Canadian government's national pollution prevention strategy. Under this joint endeavour between HC and ECCC, the New Substances program has completed over 20,000 New Substances Notification risk assessments.

The following poster presentation outlines the NSNR and the substances subject to them. An overview of the regulations is provided including the definition of a new substance, the notification process, risk assessment and potential risk management measures, and how to find additional information and resources.


<italic>Objective:</italic> Transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) is a noninvasive neuromodulation technique with good spatial resolution and deep penetration. This study aims to investigate whether TUS has antidepressant-like effect to depressed rats. <italic>Methods:</italic> Rats were divided into five groups, including two groups (ST-Ctr and ST-Res) for evaluating the short-term impact of restraint stress and three groups (LT-Ctr-ShamTUS, LT-Res-ShamTUS and LT-Res-TUS) for studying the long-term effects of restraint and TUS stimulation. The TUS-treated rats were subjected to 15 min TUS stimulation to the prelimbic cortex every day for 2 weeks after the restraint. Then, depressive symptoms related behavioral outcomes were estimated in ST-Ctr and ST-Res groups (1 week after restraint), as well as in the other three groups (3 weeks after restraint). <italic>Results:</italic> The 48-h-restraint stress could lead to long lasting reduction of exploratory behavior (1 and 3 weeks after restraint) and protracted anhedonia (only observed 3 weeks after restraint). TUS application successfully reversed the core depressive phenotype, anhedonia, indicated by significantly higher sucrose preference index in LT-Res-TUS group <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$({{88.8}}\% \pm {{2.5}}{\%, \text{n}}= {{16)}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> than LT-Res-ShamTUS group <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$({{72.8}}\% \pm {{7.2}}{\%, \text{n}}= {{16)\,(p}}= {{0.046}})$</tex-math></inline-formula>. Furthermore, the brain derived neurotrophic factor expression in left hippocampus was significantly promoted in LT-Res-TUS group <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$({{1.53}}\pm {{0.096}}{,\text{n}}= {{5)}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> compared to LT-Res-ShamTUS group <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$({{0.79}}\pm {{0.054}}{,\text{n}}= {{5)\,(p}}= {{0.009}})$</tex-math></inline-formula>. In addition, the histologic results of hematoxylin and eosin staining showed no TUS-induced brain tissue injury. <italic>Conclusion:</italic> These results demonstrated that low intensity TUS had antidepressant-like effect. <italic>Significance:</italic> TUS has been speculated to have therapeutic effect in depression. This study provide evidence for the antidepressant-like effects of TUS in rats for the first time.


A study investigated whether adolescents' schemas about contraceptive use would influence their perceptions that a soap opera couple use birth control during sex. The study also examined the effects of increasing explicitness of characters' conversations about contraceptives on viewers' perceptions of the couple's contraceptive use. Thirty-six white girls and 36 white boys in North Carolina between the ages of 13 and 18 participated in this study. Results indicated that both personal intentions to use birth control and the belief that most couples use birth control made adolescent viewers more likely to agree that the television couple used birth control. Viewers who watched a version in which contraception was not discussed were less likely to believe the couple used contraceptives than were those who watched "generic" or "explicit" discussion versions. Findings suggest the possibilities for using media messages to educate adolescents about health concerns. (Two tables of data are included; 46 references are attached.) (PRA) *********************************************************** ***** ******* Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ***********************************************************************


After having determined the noise generation of a diesel engine this paper presents static and dynamic finite element analyses, correlated with some experimental work, in order to achieve proper structural modifications and provide effective noise reductions. Several methods are presented. Modifications to the engine structure can either be made by using a bedplate or by means of local geometric adaptations which allow for each part of the block to be treated separately. For the covering abstract of the conference see TRIS 451834. (TRRL)


PCR has been commonly used for genomic viral diagnosis for its sensitivity and accuracy. It showed a higher sensitivity when compared to virus isolation in tissue culture and also in antigenemia detection. Definitely, DNA samples are critical factor in PCR validity. Out of 84 serum samples subjected to this study and extracted by Wizard® DNA purification mini kit, 27 samples (32.1%) were positive PCR. While, 15 samples (17.9%) only out of the same population study (84) were positive PCR for HCMV DNA in native serum samples (without DNA extraction). This result was confirmed the importance of DNA extraction from serum samples for detection of HCMV which, subsequently lead to more sensitive diagnostic tool of an ongoing HCMV infection.


Iris recognition is one of the most accurate biometric methods in use today. In present biometric identification systems iris is taking too much attention because of its reliable and secure identification measures. Regular iris recognition systems capture an image from an individual's eye. This iris image is then segmented and normalized for feature extraction process. The performance of any iris recognition systems highly depends on segmentation and normalization. For instance, even an effective feature extraction method would not be able to obtain useful information from an iris image that is not segmented or normalized properly. The proposed method uses circular masking technique for iris normalization and the results obtained are satisfactory compared to regular iris normalization techniques. Here we use CASIA V1 database for the proposed work and is implemented using OpenCV built-in library functions on Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 IDE.


Sitting prominently on my desk, as both the symbol and the object of a task to be completed, Gender and Thought drew the attention of numerous colleagues. The title is luring, particularly because thought, like other human activities, is now being subjected systematically to feminist analysis and critique. However, titles are a curious product of an elaborate literary practice, and they do not always convey a full sense of the book's contents. Having once edited a volume with an expansive title, I appreciate all too well the difficulties in naming a collection of papers. So the fact that Gender and Thought does not deliver what some readers might desire, that it is not a comprehensive feminist inspection of (our understanding about) human thought, should not deter readers. What the volume does provide is the state of the art in gender analyses, along with some provocative reflections on psychology's longstanding ambition to explain gender differences. The contributions to Gender and Thought are not all about "thought," but they are about the various kinds of gender studies that have been conducted within psychology. They represent the range of perspectives taken and methods used by feminist psychologists, and they illustrate the sophistication and complexity that feminist research has achieved. Scholars have had a tendency to catalogue the array of positions and theories in contemporary feminism and then to disavow the validity of such categorizations; I shall not presume to be an exception. Each of the chapters in this book can be placed on a grid of feminist approaches to scientific inquiry, where varieties of feminism (liberal egalitarian, socialist, radical, etc.) are plotted on one axis and scientific epistemologies on the other. The chapters cluster at several points. Most can be located at a place where a critical empirical view is matched with egalitarian feminism, a politics advocating not radical reconstruction of society but the elimination of gender discrimination and the equal treatment of individuals regardless of gender. Several of the chapters occupy a different site on this metatheoretical graph: they are postempirical in that they regard empirical methods either skeptically or negatively, and they entertain, to various degrees, a postmodern feminism that refuses to take "gender" and "differences" as unproblematic constructs and, instead, engage in investigating the construction and consequences of such constructs.


The aim of this study is to find out the quality of the aqueous extract of leea indica leaves in protecting kidney tissues from oxidative stress caused by DEN. Forty adult males were randomly assigned in four equal sets (ten animals per set), the (G1) They were given 1 ml of normal water, a control set was returned, and the  G2 given200 mg/kg of DEN two days , while the G3 given 60 mg/kg of leea indica leaves, while the animals of thegiven G4 200 mg/kg of DEN.  And 60 mg/kg of L.indica extract.  FINDINGS When the albino rat was dosed with leea indica aqueous extract, the kidney damage induced by DEN was significantly decreased.  The extract worked to mitigate kidney damage caused by DEN, which was demonstrated in histological examination by atrophy of the renal glomerulus and shrinkage of the glomerulus.  Urinary tubules break down with hemorrhage. We conclude from the current study that the aqueous extract of the leaves of the bandicoot berries contributed to the reduction of hepatotoxicity induced by diethyl nitrosamine.


Consider a polar code designed for some binary memoryless symmetric channel. We develop a lower bound on the probability of error of this polar code under successive-cancellation decoding. The bound exploits the correlation between the various codeword bits and improves upon existing lower bounds.


An experiment on Ameliorative effect of NP fertilization (0-0, 60-60, 120-60, 180-60, 60-120, 120-120 and 180-120 kg/ha) on ratoon sugarcane under intercrops" was conducted during 1999 at NWFP Agricultural University, Peshawar. Number of shoots per stump of sugarcane was significantly increased by the increasing rate of nitrogen. Similarly, number of water shoots per stump of sugarcane was decreased by the increasing rate of nitrogen. In impact of various intercrops sunflower and soybean reduced shoots per stump of sugarcane up to 34 and 25% respectively. Maximum number of water shoots per stump of sugarcane was recorded in sunflower intercrop followed by soybean intercrop. Grain yield (kg/ha) of sunflower increased with increasing rate of nitrogen, while grain yield (kg/ha) of soybean increased with increasing rate of phosphorus.


Hypertension has complicated pathogenesis.Because of the complexity,in this article the hypertension pathogenesis was divided into several different levels to discuss,which were basic pathogenesis,syndrome pathogenesis,symptom manifestation pathogenesis,disease pathogenesis and micro pathogenesis.The relationship between the above levels and the theoretic and clinical values of each level were analyzed.The significance of syndrome pathogenesis in the study on hypertension pathogenesis was emphasized.


Abstract This paper concerns a passage in a lost work by Diego de Valera in defence of conversos, dedicated to Lope de Barrientos, bishop of Cuenca, and against a friar who preached in that town, where the author was born and lived at that moment (1458). We analyse both the specific circumstances that led to the composition of the text, which are linked with Mosen Diego's biography and the local political situation, and its ideological and literary aspects, especially its relation to the rest of Valera's works.


Cultivation of creative talents,especially the development of students' innovative awareness and skills,were the key project in higher education.Cultivating creative cogitation of university student majored in food science in classroom teaching was discussed and summarized.


Chronic hypernutrition and high fat diet (HFD), rich in saturated fatty acids leads to molecular changes in insulin sensitive tissues and is followed by dyslipidemia. That is why the aim of our study was to investigate the fatty acid (FA) composition of phospholipids (PL), free fatty acids (FFA), triacylglycerol (TAG) and cholesterol esters (CE) of adipocytes in different age rats with HFD-induced insulin resistance (IR) and its changes under N-stearoylethanolamine (NSE) administration. The experimental model was induced on rats in age 10-month-old and 24-month-old by 6-month HFD and confirmed by the oral glucose tolerance test. NSE was administrated as water suspension per os in a dosage 50 mg/kg daily during 2 weeks. Adipocytes were isolated from abdominal fat using Type 1 Collagenase solution. Adipocytes lipid extract was separated on the fractions by thin-layer chromatography. The fatty acid composition of lipid fractions was analyzed by gas-liquid chromatography. Experimental data were processed statistically using Student's t-test. It was demonstrated, that prolonged HFD induces IR and leads to changes in FA profile of adipocytes PL, TAG, CE and composition of FFA in rats from two age groups. The results we obtained shoved that the aging process affects the fatty acid composition of adipocytes. Particularly, there was a significant decrease in the amount of fatty acids in the fractions of phospholipids, triacylglycerols and cholesterol esters together with a decrease in the percentage of unsaturated fatty acids. It was also demonstrated, that HFD significantly alters the fatty acid composition of all investigated adipocytes lipid fractions of younger age group rats, while similar changes were much less manifested in older age group of animals. NSE administration had a positive effect on the normalization of the fatty acid composition of the studied lipid fractions of both age group rat adipocytes. This study demonstrated that prolonged HFD induces obesity, increases the risk of type 2 diabetes development and leads to changes in adipocytes FA profile in rats from two age groups. As far as NSE administration had a positive effect on normalization of FA composition of adipocytes, we can consider NSE as a prospective agent for the treatment of obesity-induced complications and correction of age-related dyslipidemia.


Objective To improve the method of atlas pedicle screw fixation. Methods The anatomic data related to pedicle screw fixation were measured on 48 dry atlas specimens with an electronic caliper.Classification of the atlas was done according to the pedicle morphology. Results The mean thickness of the vertebral artery groove at the entry path was less than 3.5mm (the screw diameter)in 16.7% (8/48)of the specimens,and less than 1.75mm(the screw radius)in 4.2%(2/48). Conclusions For the patients whose atlas posterior arch is not high enough for a pedicle screw,we can drill partly through or overpass the atlas posterior arch to achieve pedicle screw fixation.The entry point should be ascertained by preoperative 3D CT reconstruction and the exploration during the operation.

Key words:
Atlas; Pedicle; Internal fixators


ABSTRACT The hyperperception model was used to derive hypotheses concerning the processes by which people experience romantic jealousy because of their observation of their romantic partners on Facebook. Issues concerning active versus passive observation, personally unknown versus known potential rivals, and relational uncertainty variables were considered. A survey of undergraduates and community members was conducted to test these hypotheses. The data were generally consistent with the hypotheses and the utility of the hyperperception model for understanding the effects of observing romantic partners' interactions on Facebook. Video Abstract Read the transcript Watch the video on Vimeo © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group


Alvaro has more than 10 years' experience in Pharmaceutics spanning Industry and Academia. Passionate about technology and health, he is one of the first researchers investigating the opportunities for 3D printing using fused deposition modeling (FDM) for manufacturing oral dosage forms and medical devices. He is Co-Founder and Development Director at FabRx, a specialist biotech company, focused on developing 3D printing technology for fabrication pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Before moving to FabRx, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at University College London – School of Pharmacy, manufacturing 3D printed medicines for oral drug delivery. His role included leading a formulation development project for Cycle Pharmaceuticals and managing research projects of MSc and PhD students. Prior to this, he obtained a fellowship from the Fundacion Alfonso Martin Escudero to research oral colon-specific delivery of vaccines at University College London – School of Pharmacy. Here he evaluated different approac...


Through summarizing punching drilling pile construction problems for thick sand body used in a Guangzhou bridge girder engineering pile foundation,such as pore water erosion,caved hole,sedimentation on the bottom of piles,analyzes the causes,and proposes corresponding preventive measures and processing methods,and achieves expected construction effect.


Acanthamoeba keratitis is a disease in which amoebae named Acanthamoeba invade the cornea of an eye. To diagnose this disease before it becomes serious, it is important to detect the cyst state of Acanthamoeba in the early stage of infection. In the present study, we explored spectroscopic signitures of the cyst state of Acanthamoeba using multimodal nonlinear optical microscopy with the channels of multiplex coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS), second harmonic generation (SHG), and third harmonic generation (THG). A sharp band at around 1603 cm-1 in the CARS (Im[χ(3)]) spectrum was found at the cyst state of Acanthamoeba, which possibly originates from ergosterol and/or 7-dehydrostigmasterol. It can be used as a maker band of Acanthamoeba for medical treatment. Keyword: Acanthamoeba keratitis, coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering, CARS, second harmonic generation, SHG, microspectroscopy, multiphoton microscopy


Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy of governor vessel moxibustion in treating ankylosing spondylitis. Methods Thirty patients with ankylosing spondylitis of kidney yang deficiency type were selected and treated by governor vessel moxibustion monthly. The fatigue symptom and sign score was counted and the experimental indices were examined before and after 3 months of treatment. Results The fatigue symptom score,the pain score and the ankylosis score decreased obviously,the enthesis score,the finger-to-floor distance score and the 4-shaped leg sign score deceased (P0.05),and erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein decreased in different degrees (P0.05). Conclusion Governor vessel moxibustion has a satisfactory improving effect on fatigue symptoms,major signs and major experimental indices in the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis patients.


Calculation of small angle, near field Fresnel diffraction patterns of a propagating light beam is a common task in the system analysis of various high energy laser systems. The basic mathematical principles which cause spatial domain aliasing and undersampling errors are well understood. However, the work to develop these fundamental principles into concise expressions of intensity errors has not been addressed previously . Based on new intensity error estimates of aliasing and rough estimates of undersampling errors, we attempt to clarify the different nature of these two phenomena by illustrating their different functional dependencies. Further, we argue that in most cases of practical interest, aliasing errors completely dominate undersampling errors.


9530 Background: Although 12 cycles of Adj FOLFOX are recommended for stage III and high risk stage II colon cancer, toxicity may preclude completion of treatment. We used the NCCN Colorectal Cancer Outcomes Database to identify how frequently Adj FOLFOX is discontinued prematurely for toxicity in a non-clinical trial population.

METHODS
Newly diagnosed stage II-III colon cancer pts treated with Adj FOLFOX at 7 NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers between 9/05-12/07 were identified. We assessed completion of the prescribed adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) course, including Adj FOLFOX and 5FU-based adjuvant treatment alone subsequent to discontinuation of oxaliplatin (oxal). Dose limiting toxicity (DLT) of Adj FOLFOX was defined as premature discontinuation of Adj FOLFOX due to toxicity. We evaluated potential predictors of Adj FOLFOX DLT, including older age and history of diabetes in a multivariable logistic model controlling for stage and center. We measured the duration of Adj FOLFOX use in weeks, from first to last dose.

RESULTS
293 pts began Adj FOLFOX. Pts who experienced DLT (40%) had a shorter duration of Adj FOLFOX and were less likely to complete AC, even after oxal was discontinued. The only significant predictor of experiencing a DLT was a history of diabetes.

CONCLUSIONS
Our analysis of patients treated outside of a clinical trial demonstrated a notably high rate of discontinuation of Adj FOLFOX due to DLT, particularly in pts with diabetes. The results underscore the need for systematic assessment of toxicity especially among diabetics. [Table: see text] [Table: see text].


Forest are considered as one of the most important and indispensable resources. The common hazards in forest are forest fire. It causes great harm to the forest and result a very serious economic loss. In order to prevent the natural resources and human safety and property. Early detection in forest fire can be significant impact on the control of forest fire. Many forest fire detection techniques have been proposed by different researchers. There are so many techniques to detect the occurrence of forest fire. A fire detection method for the application of UAV-based forest fire surveillance using IR camera. This approach improves the accuracy and reliability of forest fire detection. This paper presents a literature study on forest fire detection.


Proving that a communication exists between the two compartments of the vagina in patients with a vaginal septum may be difficult clinically, especially in virgins. Conventional contrast vaginography is generally diagnostic but involves exposure to radiation. Hydrosonovaginography, however, is a nonionizing technique that is diagnostic, especially when it is performed transperineally. We present the case of a 28year-old woman in whom this method proved useful to show a fenestrated septate vagina.


Agricultural sustainability in the USA's west-central Great Plains depends on efficient use of water—the primary yield-limiting factor in the region. With perennially water-short status, the efficient capture and storage of precipitation in soil, and the yield responsiveness of crops to water, are emphasized. Our objective was to quantify grain sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] and winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) yield responses to stored soil water and precipitation by using data gleaned from research conducted from 1973 to 2004 near Tribune, KS on Ulysses silt loam (fine-silty, mixed, superactive, mesic Aridic Haplustolls) and Richfield silt loam (fine, smectitic, mesic Aridic Argiustolls) soils. Soil water content was measured gravimetrically to the 183-cm depth at crop emergence. Grain yield was related to available soil water at emergence (ASWe) (increased 221 kg ha 21 cm 21 in sorghum and 98 kg ha 21 cm 21 in wheat). Grain yield was also related to in-season precipitation (ISP) (increased 164 kg ha 21 cm 21 in sorghum and 83 kg ha 21 cm 21 in wheat). From response-surface analyses, 63% (sorghum) and 70% (wheat) of variations in grain yield were explained by variations in ASWe and ISP. In data sorted by tillage, yield response to water supply (WS) was greater with no-till than with conventional tillage in both crops (184 vs. 129 kg ha 21 cm 21 in sorghum; 138 vs. 86 kg ha 21 cm 21 in wheat). This finding supports the concept that less tillage and more residue lead to more efficient use during the growing season of ASWe and ISP. ATER SHORTAGE is the primary factor limiting crop production in the USA's west-central Great Plains, and agricultural sustainability depends on efficient use of water resources. Grain sorghum and winter wheat are the primary dryland crops of the region, and corn (Zea mays L.) is the primary irrigated crop (Kansas Agric. Stat., 2004). Precipitation is limited and sporadic and has provided the impetus for the development and role of irrigation in the region. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 35to50cmacrossthe region (HPRCC,2005),which is only 60 to 85% of the water requirement (evapotranspiration) needed for full production of sorghum and wheat (Doorenbos and Kassam, 1979). Therefore, yields of dryland crops are limited and variable. Irrigation in the region largely depends on groundwater, with the Ogallala formation of the High Plains aquifer being the main source (McGrath and Dugan, 1993). Water-level declines in the Ogallala started to occur soon after the beginning of extensive groundwater irrigation, and declines from predevelopment (about 1950) to 2003 of 15 m or more are widespread in parts of


The characters of journalism theory include not only characters of social science but also characters of humanities.To neglect to research on humanities content of journalism theory is blind research on the core issues of journalism theory.The relations between journalism theory and communication studies and media studies should be sorted out and classified.The fast development of news media in the contemporary era brought opportunities and challenges for the research on essential issues of journalism theory.


This paper describes Indonesian university student's willingness to actively engage in English language learning and their self-reported anxiety levels. The objectives of this study are to describe the willingness of Indonesian students to communicate in English, and to explain the relationship between anxiety and willingness to communicate in English. The participants of this study are 426 students of Bachelor's Degree in Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta (UMS). The instruments used to gather data are questionnaire and interview. Quantitative data is analized using regression analysis (ANAREG) and qualitative data is analyzed using descriptive analysis. The results of the study show that their willingness to communicate in English is very low (scored 14.21 on WTC scale) while their anxiety is at moderate level (scored 39.66 on FLCAS scale). Only half of the students (51%) have low willingness to communicate in English. More than half (68%) of students indicate that their language anxiety influences their willingness to communicate in English, while 12% of them does not show that their anxiety influence their linguistic behavior. This study finds a significant  elationship between language anxiety and willingness to communicate.


Three deceptively simple questions can help you face the pandemic or any other major market disruption, write Daniel Isenberg and Alessandro Di Fiore