Individual units of the mammalian auditory nerve fall into three categories, depending on their spontaneous firing rate. Units of high, medium and low spontaneous rates respond to low, medium and high sound levels respectively (Liberman, 1978). Hence, one might suggest that sound level is coded by the recruitment of subgroups of fibers in response to increasing sound levels. Nevertheless, if loudness were to be preserved amongst these fibers, each fiber would be required to encode the psychophysical growth of loudness, regardless of the limited dynamic range per fiber. We propose that in each fiber of the auditory nerve, the loudness of atone can be represented as an information such that the greater the loudness, the greater the information. Within information theory, information is defined as the difference between the stimulus uncertainty and the stimulus equivocation


"I think it's all papier mache. I think all those papers that are coming out are hoaxes." So spoke an astronomer walking through the corridor at the recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society. He was joking, of course -or was he quite? It is hard even for experienced astronomers to truly assimilate the reality of an instrument like the Very Large Array of radio telescopes that stands on the plains of San Augustin in west central New Mexico. Managers of many large astronomical observatories like to give occasional tours to visiting astronomers. It helps give the visitors, who are potential users, a feel for what they can do with the facility before they draw up plans for an observational program. It this case it may have meant even more. So, after the AAS meeting ended in Albuquerque, two busloads of astronomers with one SCIENCE NEWS reporter along set out for the VLA site. The route ran down the Rio Grande valley to the little town of Socorro, where the VLA'S administrative offices are located. Socorro has the windswept appearance of so many far western towns. The houses and the few trees seem to huddle together for company against the wideness and openess of the landscape. The climb from Socorro to the VLA site leads past the village of Magdalena, which looks even lonelier amidst the landscape. The Plains of San Augustin are an ancient lake bed at about 7,000 feet above sea level surrounded on all sides by mountains going as high as 10,000 feet. So flat are the plains and so complete the surrounding that drainage is a problem. When it rains shallow transient lakes appear here and there on the plain and persist for days. The VLA is not a Potemkin interferometer. The 27 antennas that may be deployed at any one time may be white, but papier mache they are not. From the center of the Y-shaped arrangement, they march off, 11.18 miles to the north, 13 miles to the southeast and southwest, like files of futuristic Dutch windmills, gleaming against the dunnish colors of the landscape. Some local residents have deplored the esthetic effect. A more serious complaint from neighboring ranchers is that the VLA'S access roads make things easier for rustlers. The wild west never dies; it just adopts tractor trailers. The location was chosen to be high, remote, lonely and bordered by mountains so as to minimize interference from terrestrial broadcasts and artifacts with the celestial emanations the VLA is made to observe. It does that. It also prompted comparisons by visiting astronomers. Over the bologna sandwiches at lunch came tales of the loneliness and altitude at places from Mauna Kea to Cerro Tololo to Sunspot, N.M., to interior Oregon. Perhaps one reason south central Arizona is a favorite spot for telescopes is that the astronomers can go home to Tucson when their observing is done. Most of the VLA staff choose to live in Socorro. "A modern piece of astronomical equipment consists of a computer with a telescope attached." So runs another corridor comment. In radio astronomy the data never went directly from human retina to human brain for obvious reasons, but even in optical astronomy now the computer does everything but trigger supernovas. The VLA can be described as a complex computer system with 27 radio receivers hung at the foci of 27 reflecting dishes as its nerve endings. Yet one should not neglect these nerve endings. It is at them that the physics and astronomy is done. Waves received from a given astronomical source at different points can be added together to give sum and difference waves. Generally the waves received at different points will vary in phase and in amplitude. Traditional interferometry, as this adding and subtracting of signals received is called, worked mainly with the phase difference. In visible light these differences produce a pattern of alternating light and dark lines called fringes when the addition of signals is visualized. The term is still used even though the work is mostly done with computers. Now more and more information is drawn 0


We report the crystal structure and highly anisotropic magnetic, transport, and thermal properties of an exceptionally good single crystal of U(Ru0.92Rh0.08)2 Si2, prepared using a modified Czochralski method. Our study, that also includes neutron diffraction results, shows all the heavy-fermion signatures of pristine URu2Si2; however, the superconductivity, hidden order, and remnant weak antiferromagnetic orders are absent. Instead, the ground state of the doped system can be classified as a spin liquid that preserves the heavy-fermion character. U(Ru0.92Rh0.08)2 Si2 exhibits a short-range magnetic order distinguished by reflections of a Lorentzian profile at qIII=(½ ½ ½) positions that disappear above ∼15 K. The short-range order seems to be a precursor of a long-range magnetic order that occurs with higher Rh concentration. We indicate that these short-range fluctuations involve, at least partially, inelastic scattering processes.


The vegetable production in Heilongjiang provinceis is very obviously changed with season,it rely heavily outside vegetables in spring and winter.It is a serious problem in front of us that how to break through the bottleneck of greenhouse vegetable production in off-season,change the winter vegetable production status,break the pattern of winter vegetables.The paper based on the current situation of winter vegetable production in Heilongjiang province,analyzed the deficiencies and shortcomings in the presence of vegetable production in winter,and gave some improved proposal and opinion of these problems,proposed development countermeasuresthe of winter vegetable production in Heilongjiang province.


Image of a man and woman standing at a dinner table. The man is holding a duck dish, the woman is smiling at camera.


The Baloch represent around fifteen million people dispersed throughout the world particularly in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Gulf States. But as dependent political society, they are divided among three regions of Iranian Balochistan, Pakistani Balochistan, and the southern parts of Afghanistan such as Nimrooz. Many others live and are politically active in Europe and America, holding dissenting opinions against political establishments in Iran and Pakistan. Reportedly, political conditions and developments in Balochi populated regions of Iran and Pakistan have made many Baloch dissatisfied with their respective governments, in general led them to hold an antagonistic way of thinking against their central governments of Iran and Pakistan.


Gestational Diabetes (GD) has increased over
the last 20 years, affecting up to 15% of pregnant women
worldwide. The complications associated can be reduced with
the appropriate glycemic control during the pregnancy.


The aim of this work is to explain the peculiarity of the Vela SNR shape, especially the X-ray brightness contrast between North-East and South-West of Vela SNR. We try to explain this contrast by the interaction of Vela SNR with the stellar wind bubble of the closest to us Wolf-Rayet star in 2 γ Velorum binary. Using the solution of Weaver et al., (1977) for evolution of interstellar bubbles we build a self- consistent model of Vela SNR expanding into 2 γ Velorum bubble. From a self- consistent model we find out characteristics of 2 γ Velorum wind bubble and Vela SNR. The expected flux in Al26 line is also estimated.


Abstract The integration of Global South actors into the global agricultural economy has attracted research on labour effects. This is because Global South actors are often integrated at the level of production of raw materials with little power and less capture of gain. To better understand the conceptual perspectives and methodologies underpinning existing empirical studies and provide evidence for the labour-related practice, this paper conducts a systematic review of the methodologies and perspectives applied in the Global Agricultural Production Networks literature. Based on an analysis of 87 articles published in English-speaking journals, we show that the assessment of labour regulatory frameworks' impact on labour issues is more focused on private than public or social forms of governance and on vertical than horizontal frameworks. Wageworkers working on smallholder farms and agro-industries and women have received little consideration, in particular, if compared with wageworkers on plantations, as has the topic of occupational health and safety as a specific key labour issue. Overall, the existing body of empirical research can be characterised as being largely qualitative in nature, underexploiting the potential quantitative or mixed methods research designs. Our review generates methodological ideas and conceptual perspectives for future studies to consider.


Although the program of group observations recommended by Dr. Burron may not be feasible in your situation, you may employ some of his suggestions to make outside observations more significant to your student teacher.


Cell damage, as measured by the escape of deoxypentose nucleic acid (DNA) into the intercellular spaces, was studied in cod fillets frozen from one side at different speeds. Three distinct types of damage were revealed by peaks in the DNA/freezing time curves, at freezing times of about 27, 75 and greater than 125 minutes. Microphotographs of the muscle frozen in about 75 minutes showed that at this rate of freezing the changeover from intra- to extra-cellular freezing was occurring. In fillets frozen from both sides it had previously been found that these conditions gave rise to much DNA escape. The other two types of damage are to be discussed later.


ABSTRACT In this paper, a novel vehicle tracking and speed estimation method based on aerial videos is developed. The main objective of this research is to investigate how depth features of a vehicle extracted from aerial videos by a wide residual network could be used to realize accurate tracking for estimating the speed of the vehicle. The salient characteristics of the proposed method are: (1) Traffic analysis and robust vehicle detection are possible by virtue of the use of deep neural networks. (2) Employing the state-of-the-art object detector, namely the You Only Look Once (YOLO) network, a tracking-by-detection method is then designed to detect and track vehicles. (3) The error rate of data association is reduced by associating the tracking process with a vehicle re-identification algorithm whereby the motion features are combined with depth features of the vehicle. (4) Considering the varying Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) altitude and video resolution, a novel exponential mapping model of the vehicle speed from the pixel space to the real world is presented. The accuracy of speed estimation is effectively improved by employing the least squares algorithm to fit the measurement data. Simulation results and comparative studies with the state-of-the-art methods demonstrate superior performance of the proposed approach for vehicle tracking and speed estimation.


Introduction: Functional homotopy, the high degree of synchrony in spontaneous activity between geometrically corresponding inter-hemispheric regions, is a fundamental characteristic of the brain's intrinsic functional architecture [1, 2]. A key feature of multiple sclerosis (MS) is extensive axonal degeneration within the corpus callosum (CC), the white matter tract connecting the cerebral hemispheres. Decrements in the integrity of the CC may be expected to affect functional interactions between the hemispheres The aim of this study was to determine whether homotopic resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) is altered in patients with MS using a recently developed voxel-wise analysis [2] of resting-state functional MRI (RS-fMRI) data, named voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC). Methods: Six patients with clinically definite relapsing-remitting (RR) MS (females, mean age = 33 years, mean EDSS score = 1.72) and six sex/age matched health volunteers were recruited. The patients had a varied degree of symptoms with mean disease duration of 5.6 years, five patients showed lesions on the CC or mild atrophy. RS-fMRI was performed at 3T using a gradient echo EPI sequence (TR/TE = 2sec / 30msec, flip angle = 75, FOV = 220 x 220 mm and acquisition matrix size = 128x128). 20 slices were collected parallel to a line passing through the anterior-posterior commissure (AC-PC line) with 5 mm slice thickness and 1mm gap and positioned to cover the entire cerebrum. In addition, sagittal MPRAGE scans were also performed to acquire high resolution 3d anatomical images. Data were preprocessed using both FSL and AFNI (scripts containing the processing procedures are available via The 1000 Functional Connectomes Project: http://www.nitrc.org/projects/fcon_1000). Preprocessing steps included spatial smoothing with FWHM=6mm, band pass temporal filtering 0.01-0.1Hz, removal of nuisance signals (motion parameters, the global signal, and signals derived from CSF and white matter), and transformation to MNI152 space (2x2x2mm). VMHC, the Pearson's correlation between the preprocessed time series of each pair of symetrical inter-hemispheric voxels, was computed according to the procedures outlined in [2]. The resultant values were z-transformed (using Fisher's r-to-z transform) and were used for subsequent group-level analysis. We compared VMHC between the patient group and normal control group using a student two sample t-test. Results: As demonstrated in Figure 1a, robust whole brain VMHC (Z>2.3, cluster level p<0.05, corrected) was detected in both groups. Healthy controls exhibited the strongest VMHC within visual, motor and somatosensory cortex, whereas relatively weaker VMHC was observed between homotopic prefrontal and temporoparietal association areas, particularly dorsolateral and ventrolateral regions which are known to demonstrate lateralization of function related to language, attention and cognitive control (Figure 1). These findings are consistent with previously reported results [1, 2]. Figure 1b exhibits multi slices view of whole brain homotopic RSFC pattern of MS patients. The results of direct comparisons of VMHC (P<0.05) are shown in Figure 2. Relative to controls, MS patients exhibited weaker VMHC within many higher-order cognitive regions, including frontal, temporal and occipital lobes (e.g. cingulate gyrus, lingual gyrus, precuneus; shown in blue in Figure 2). As shown in red in Figure 2, relative to healthy controls, MS patients also exhibited increased VMHC in regions associated with sensory processing and motor control, including the parietal lobes (e.g. supramarginal gyus, angula gyrus) and motor cortex. Such increases in VMHC may reflect compensatory increases in interhemispheric coordination in MS. Discussion: Our data provide preliminary evidence of the potential utilty of VMHC analyses for the detection of abnormalities of interhemispheric coordination in MS. We demonstrated that whole Figure 1. Rendered group results of whole brain homotopic RSFC patterns (red colors represent higher strength). a. normal controls, b. MS patients.


The Sanjiang Plain is situated in the northeast part (45o01'00"~48o27'56"N, 130o13'00"~135o05'26") of the Heilongjiang Province in northeastern China and is well-known for its fertile black soil resource and producing large quantity and high quality of beans and rice in recent decades in China. However, intensively agricultural activities may pose P loss risk to waters. Thus, it is important to understand the P buffering capacity and loss potential for the albic black luvisols. The objectives of study were to study the P sorption characteristics in the albic black soil and the relationships between sorption parameters and the soil properties. Surface soil samples were collected at 12 sites and analyzed for soil properties and P content. The results showed that the albic black soil of the Sanjiang Plain were characterized by low pH (5.4~6.8) and Ca content (0.44~0.73%) and high soil organic matter (SOM) content (5.3~11.5%), while contents of Al (5.8~8.7%) and Fe (2.3~4.3%) in the soil were generally similar to those for China soils and worldwide soils. P content in the soil ranged from 547.1 mg kg -1 to 1116.5 mg kg -1 . The maximal P sorption capacity (q max ) and sorptiondesorption equilibrium P concentration (EPC0) for the soil ranged from 682.5 mg kg -1 to 1250.3 mg kg -1 and from 0.037 mg L -1 to 0.077 mg L -1 , respectively. Sorption energy constant k averaged 0.229 (0.086 to 0.721) L mg -1 , being positively correlated to Al content in the soil. EPC0 was positively correlated to inorganic P (Pi) and negatively correlated to SOM. q max was negatively correlated to pH and Pi and apparently positively correlated to SOM. In essence, however, SOM inhibited P sorption in the albic black soil. Noting high q max and low EPC0, the albic black soil of the Sanjiang Plain is supposed to have high P buffering capacity and low P loss potential to waters.


We present novel wavelet-based inpainting algorithms. Applying ideas from anisotropic regularization and diffusion, our models can better handle degraded pixels at edges. We interpret our algorithms within the framework of forward-backward splitting methods in convex analysis and prove that the conditions for ensuring their convergence are fulfilled. Numerical examples illustrate the good performance of our algorithms.


This document defines a YANG data model that can be used to configure and manage devices supporting Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM). The model covers the PIM protocol configuration, operational state, and event notifications data. Stream:


It is of upmost importance that the type of hydrological basin of the region should be established before developing its drainage strategy. Unlike exhoric basin which is characterised by well-defined pattern of streams and rivers ultimately discharging into the sea, Qatar's topography exhibits mix of arheic, and predominantly endorheic basin features i.e., rainwater drains to inland depressions to form temporary water bodies. Keeping drainage basin type in view, Al Khor drainage master is developed which function sustainably with the nature with aim to utilize drainage water to achieve Qatar National Vision 2030 and Qatar Water Strategy goals.


The sample was digested by nitric acid-the high chloric acid admixture,and the arsenic,mercury in the tobacco were determined by hydrogen generation atom fluorescence spectrum method(HG-AFS).The experimental conditions such as amount of acids,reductant, medium,were optimized experimentally.The measurements were carried out with the tobacco leaves sample for 11 times.The relative standard deviations for As and Bi are 1.62%—5.01% and 5.38%—10.13%,the detection limits are 0.079μg·L -1 and 0.381μg·L -1 ,and the detection ranges are 0.0μg·L -1 ? ?0.0μg·L -1 and 0.0μg·L -1 —8.0μg·L -1 with the recoveries of 86.7% and 108.0%,respectively.The results are satisfactory.


Ovarian follicles during the normal process of growth and maturation are accommodated spatially by structural rearrangements within the ovary. When follicular growth is artificially induced by gonadotrophic hormones, several of the processes involved in follicular maturation, such as an increase in ovarian vascularity and the rapid growth and multiplication of follicles, are accelerated or intensified. When ovulation does not take place, cystic follicles are formed. This intense proliferation and growth of the parenchymatous elements of the ovary may be directly related to events occurring in surrounding structures, and in particular in the ground substance (with basement membranes) of the connective tissue. From a study of fibrous elements of the ovary, Duke [1947] proposed that the connective tissue may arise in response to,


The geometrical model of profile error is put forward to describe the tooth surface precision of hypoid gears. The influence of each machine tool setting error on profile error is investigated respectively, and the research of the associativity and compensativity among the machine tool errors are made. The setting errors of machine tool, the optimal modifying parameters and their value are got from the measurement coordinates of hypoid gear real tooth surface, and the adjusted manufacturing shows the geometrical precision of the tooth surface is improved effectively.


In this article, we focus on the latest years of investigation about schools PE for the different educational levels: elementary, middle, high school, and university. Our works, eminently qualitative and focused on the relation between PE as a school subject and the existing social inequalities in Chile, show through focal groups, in-depth interviews, and participating observations, how Chilean PE is weak in its own definition; and, presents a non inclusive methodological content, and assessment dynamics. Making it difficult to build a collaborative and dialogic school practice that would go beyond the motor traditionalism that is currently behind this school subject.


In this note we study the boundary regularity of solutions to nonlocal Dirichlet problems of the form $Lu=0$ in $\Omega$, $u=g$ in $\mathbb R^N\setminus\Omega$, in non-smooth domains $\Omega$. When $g$ is smooth enough, then it is easy to transform this problem into an homogeneous Dirichlet problem with a bounded right hand side, for which the boundary regularity is well understood. Here, we study the case in which $g\in C^{0,\alpha}$, and establish the optimal H\"older regularity of $u$ up to the boundary. Our results extend previous results of Grubb for $C^\infty$ domains $\Omega$.


The present invention provides a backlight and a method of assembling the backlight, the backlight comprising: at least one light source; printed circuit board, the light source is disposed on said printed circuit board, and said printed circuit board is formed with a first an alignment mark; a light guide plate, a second alignment mark is formed; wherein the first alignment mark and second alignment mark relative to the position, the light source is located at the edge of the light guide plate, the light emitted conducting into the light guide plate. The method of assembling the backlight and the backlight, the alignment mark provided on the printed circuit board of the light source and the light guide plate, and the assembly is completed by the positioning mark of the backlight, such that between the light guide plate and a light source capable of precise alignment, whereby reduce the occurrence of light leakage, to achieve the effect of improving the assembly yield.


As part of this involvement Solar intends to design and commercialize a unique gas turbine system that promises high cycle efficiencies and low exhaust emissions. This engine of approximately 12-MW will be targeted for the dispersed power markets both urban and rural. Goals of 50% thermal efficiency and 8 parts-per-million by volume (ppmv) nitrogen oxide emissions were established. Reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) will continue to be the most important factors in the competitive marketplace. The other major goal adopted was one of reducing the cost of power produced by 10%. This reduction is based on the cost of power (COP) associated with today`s engines that lie in the same horsepower range as that targeted in this study. An advanced cycle based on an approximation of the Ericsson Cycle was adopted after careful studies of a number of different cycles. This advanced intercooled, recuperated engine when fired at 2450{degree}F will be capable of meeting the 50% efficiency goal if the cooling air requirements do not exceed 7% of the total air flow rate. This latter qualification will probably dictate the use of ceramic parts for both the nozzle guide vanes and the turbine blades. Cooling of these parts will probablymore » be required and the 7% cooling flow allowance is thought to be adequate for such materials. Analyses of the cost of power and RAM goals show that the installed cost of this advanced engine can be approximately 50% above today`s costs. This cost is based on $4.00 per million Btu fuel and a COP reduction of 10% while maintaining the same RAM as today`s engines.« less


When designing and analyzing cryptosystems, it is usually assumed that the computational devices used by the honest parties have access to resources that are outside of the malicious parties' control. In such a model, it is known, under standard cryptographic assumptions, that essentially any operation can be performed securely as long as a majority of the parties are honest.
In many practical settings, however, the assumption that computational resources can be protected from an adversary does not hold. This dissertation explores various security problems in settings where honest parties wish to make use of computational resources that are under adversarial control. We focus on resources that are fundamental to cryptography, such as randomness and storage.
We first consider the problem of encrypting with a malicious random number generator. We introduce the notions of security against chosen-randomness attacks (CRA) and security against chosen-ciphertext and randomness attacks (CCRA), which formally capture the security of private-key encryption when used with sources of randomness that are under adversarial control. We study the relationships between these notions and the traditional notions of security for encryption. We also show how to design efficient schemes that are CRA-secure, and how to transform any CPA-secure scheme into a CRA-secure one, and any CRA-secure scheme into a CCRA-secure one.
We then turn to the task of authenticating data stored in unreliable memory. We propose a general framework for designing efficient "proofs of data possession", which are proof systems that enable one to convince a verifier that it stores a particular piece of data. We give a compiler that transforms any sigma-protocol (i.e., a three-round public-coin zero-knowledge proof of knowledge) into a proof of data possession.
Finally, we consider the problem of storing private data in untrusted memory. We show how to design private-key encryption schemes that allow one to search over encrypted content. Our constructions are optimal in terms of search time. We also introduce searchable encryption in the multi-user setting, where search privileges can be delegated to a set of authorized users.


A Monte Carlo simulation of the quality dependence of different TL materials, in the form of discs 3.61 mm in diameter and 0.9 mm thick, in radiotherapy photon beams relative to -rays has been performed. The beam qualities ranged from 50 kV to 25 MV x-rays. The TL materials were: , , LiF and . The effects of the dopants on energy deposition in the TL material have also been determined for the highly sensitive LiF:Mg:Cu:P (TLD-100H) and for :Mn. It was found that there was a significant difference in the quality dependence factor derived from Monte Carlo simulations between LiF and LiF:Mg:Cu:P but not between and :Mn. The quality dependence factors for varied from (1 sd) for 25 MV x-rays to (1 sd) for 50 kV x-rays relative to -rays; Monte Carlo simulations were also performed for in megavoltage electron beams. For , the quality dependence factor varied from (1 sd) for 25 MV x-rays to (1 sd) for 50 kV x-rays. The figure for ranged from (1 sd) for 25 MV x-rays to (1 sd) for 50 kV x-rays. The quality dependence factor for increases by up to 5% with depth and by up to 15% with field size for the kilovoltage x-ray beams. For LiF-TLD, however, there was no significant dependence on the field size or depth of irradiation in the kilovoltage energy range.


The invisible hand continues to influence marketing theory consumer buyer behavior. Utility will continue to be an important element in marketing theory and particularly consumer buyer behavior. Interestingly, consumer behavior is no longer constrained by traditional human behavior. Free markets, unparalleled technological computing power, low costs of capital and access to interpret infinite data sets will continue to fuel consumer buyer behaviors. Global leader's awareness of market evolution will continue to loosen the choke hold via taxation, subsidy, and oppression expanding reach of all goods and services within the global economy.


The network localization problem is closely related to the rigidity of graph. A network can only be localized if the graph of the network is rigid. The rigidity theory for graph states that for a 2D graph to have unique realization, it must be redundantly rigid and tri-connected. Centralized and polynomial algorithms exist to check whether a graph is uniquely realizable. In this paper, we propose a distributed algorithm to find the maximal rigid region in a network. This algorithm does not require the existence of a central node. It starts from local rigid patches and the patches are merged in a distributed manner in the network. In the end, a maximal rigid region can be found. It is proved that the algorithm will converge and all nodes in the network will get a list of maximal rigid regions it belongs to when the algorithm terminates.


The Human Genome Project, initiated in 1990, has progressed rapidly in the development of sequencing and bioinformatic technology. It is anticipated that the 3 billion nucleotide sequence of the human genome will be completed by 2005. In the meantime, new genes and their function are being identified, leading to the new field of functional genomics. The genomic information has stimulated the development of commercial firms focused on diagnostics and on gene therapy. Many diseases, including cancer, genetic disorders and some infectious diseases, are being treated with gene therapy in human trials. The predictive quality of DNA diagnostics is raising concerns about third party coverage for pre-existing conditions.


Abstract Objectives Adolescence is a critical period of physical and psychological development, especially for girls as poor nutrition can affect their well-being as well as the well-being of their children. In Ethiopia, where the population is very young, evidence on the nutrition of adolescent girls and their determinants is scant. We tested the impact of a package of nutrition interventions delivered primarily through schools and implemented by Alive & Thrive (A&T) on the diet of adolescent girls. Methods A cluster-randomized trial design compared 27 primary school clusters in A&T areas to 27 clusters in non-A&T areas in the SNNP and Somali regions. We surveyed adolescent girls (n = 536) aged 10–14 years and enrolled in primary school grades 4–8, following at least one school semester (approximately 4 months) of implementation in March-April 2021. Using linear regression models, we tested for differences between program groups on dietary diversity, meal frequency, and consumption of unhealthy foods. In adjusted models, we controlled for age, household food security and wealth, and region. Results We observed significant impacts on dietary diversity score (1.4 food groups) and minimum dietary diversity (OR: 5.2). Among the food groups, there was significantly higher consumption of 5 groups in A&T areas: pulses, meats, eggs, vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables, and other fruits. There was also a significant impact on meal frequency of 0.9 meals/snacks in the previous 24 hours, with girls in A&T areas consuming 4.0 meals/snacks out of 6 eating times compared to 3.2 in control areas. There was no significant impact on consumption sweets, baked sweets, sweetened beverages, and fried and salty foods among girls, but there was lower consumption of sweets in the previous 24 hours in A&T (14%) versus control areas (23%). Conclusions Integrating nutrition interventions into primary schools in Ethiopia was feasible and achieved a significant impact on girls' dietary diversity and meal frequency. Reinforcing messages about eating better and more often resulted in incremental behavior change related to dietary diversity and meal frequency; however, telling adolescents not to eat junk foods that they crave or enjoy without changing their food environments may be less successful in curbing consumption. Funding Sources Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, through A&T, managed by FHI Solutions.


The synthesis of titanium oxide nanoparticles (TiO2NPs) has been successfully carried out using pulsed laser ablation in deionized water to produce titanium oxide nanoparticles. This synthesis is included in the top-down method which aims to produce high-purity nanoparticles synthesis. Experimentally, an Nd:YAG laser beam (with 1064 nm, 85 mJ and 10 Hz) was focused on the surface of a high-purity (99.9%) titanium plate placed in deionized water. The high energy pulsed laser Nd:YAG laser makes the titanium plate ablate for 30 minutes. This is because the melting of the titanium plate surface causes the formation of small titanium oxide particles. When these particles hit deionized water this synthesis titanium oxide will form a colloid. Furthermore, colloidal titanium oxide nanoparticles have been successfully produced with a bluish-white color. The absorbance of TiO2NPs was shown at 239.75 nm as the appearance of colloidal TiO2NPs and the average diameter at 73.47 nm. Therefore the synthesis of TiO2NPs by pulsed laser ablation method can produce nanoparticles.


Objective To study the therapeutic effect of fibular anatomical plate and absorbable screw joint fixation on distal fibular fracture complicated by inferior tibiofibular ligament damage.Methods Twenty patients with distal fibular fractures and inferior tibiofibular ligament injury were treated by fibular anatomical plate combined with absorbable screw joint fixation.Results Postoperative healing time was 13 to 16 weeks.According to Baird and Jackson improved subjective and objective evaluation and X-rating: 17 cases were excellent and 3 cases were good,with the excellent rate of 100%.Moreover,all the incisions were healed by first intention,no infection and no local adverse reactions were found in the 20 cases.Conclusions Fibular anatomical plate combined with absorbable screw joint fixation is an effective method in the treatment of distal fibular fracture complicated by inferior tibiofibular ligament damage.


The effect of 0-0.7 ㏖% addition of on the dielectric, pyroelectric, and piezoelectric properties were studied in the (Mg3/)-(0.7PMN-0.3PT) ceramics with composition near the morphotropic phase boundary. The dielectric constant and loss of the ceramics samples were measured as a function of temperature at various frequencies (0.1-100 KHz). The pyroelectric coefficient was measured by using the Byer-Roundy method as a function of temperature. Dielectric, pyroelectric, and piezoelectric constant achieved the maximum values of 0.4 ㏖% The transition temperature is continuously shifted to lower temperature with an increase of a small amount of


The origins of the World Intellectual Property Organisation go back to 1883. Ten years previously foreign exhibitors refused to attend the International Exhibition of Inventions in Vienna in 1873 because they were afraid their ideas would be stolen and exploited commercially in other countries. This showed the need for a system to afford international protection for intellectual property, but it took a decade for the foundations of such protection to be inaugurated.


With the guide of the service learning theory,we create a welfare learning platform for college volunteers to help the disabled and poor families,track and measure the long-term self-efficacy,achievement motivation and professional identity status so as to explore the ideological and political education in the new carrier.Through the scale data collection,recording and analysis,this paper demonstrates the efficacy of the project"Love Weekend School",which provides new ideas for the ideological and political education.


5 NETNEWS SEPTEMBER 2001 n W T o this we'd like to add a fourth lesson: You don't know where you are going to be doing it, or where it is actually going to be done, but it really doesn't matter a whole heck of a lot. On the Internet "here" and "there" mean nothing. Physical location is irrelevant, except to the extent it introduces latency into interactions. This runs totally counter to the instinct that tells us that if the buffet is over there and we are over here, we must either physically move toward the food or bring the food from there to here if we don't want to go hungry.


The paper describes the relative effects between soil, agriculture and golbal climatic evolution, including the effects of pedosphere, agricultural production activities on the golbal climatic evolution and the direct and indirect influences of the climatic evolution on agriculture. The positive and negative effects of CO 2 content increase, air temperature increase and hydrologic condition change on the world agriculture and China agriculture are predicted and evaluated.


place at the International Conference on Primary Health Care, held in 1978 in Alma Ata, USSR (Kazakhstan). The conference, sponsored by WHO and UNICEF, was attended by ministers of health from more than 100 countries. Virtually all of the 134 nations represented subscribed to the goal of "Health for All by the Year 2000." Furthermore, they affirmed the WHO broad definition of health as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being." This was articulated in the Alma Ata Declaration, the conference's final document, which is reproduced in full on pages 21-22.


The photochemistry of bichromophoric species containing nitroaromatic and arylamino moieties has been studied in the presence and absence of an external magnetic field. Photolysis products are an unsubstituted arylamine, a nitrosoaromatic species (Product 1), and a nitroaromatic compound (Product 2). On application of the magnetic field, the formation yield for Product 1 decreases and that for Product 2 correspondingly increases, whereas the consumption of the starting material and the release of the unsubstituted arylamine are independent of the magnetic field. Analysis of the magnetic field effects shows that the hyperfine coupling mechanism predominates and that the photoreaction takes place in the triplet manifold of the nitroaromatic moiety. Application of the magnetic field may cause an appreciable change in the relative yield of cage and escape products, i.e., the branching ratio of competitive processes.


Objective: Narrowly speaking, one scientist might claim that the truth as such is determined by human mind and consciousness, by pure subjective and poetic mathematical definitions preferred by an author and as such without any relation to objective reality and independent of the same. In contrast to claims like that, another scientist might want to endorse more Thomas Aquinas balanced formula "Veritas est adaequatio rei et intellectus" or truth is the equation of thing and intellect. Thus far, is there a truth valid for all scientist and can and how can the same be established? Methods: Definitions or mathematical and other (logical et cetera) operations are sometimes a necessary scientific step to shorten a long and arduous scientific way or to minimize the efforts of an author justifiably but also contain the danger of misuse and to accommodate (logical) contradictions. The science needs reliable methods to check such products of human mind and pure human imagination for its logical consistency. Results: Modus inversus is reviewed again and it should be noted that modus inversus among other methods possess the capacity to check definitions, mathematical and other operations or relationships as such for logical consistency very precisely. Conclusions: Modus inversus is generally valid. Keywords: Science, non-science, modus inversus.


Exact circuits produce accurate results but consume more power and area. Approximation is done to reduce the high consumption of area and power at the cost of accuracy. An array-based approximate arithmetic computing model (AAAC) is used for the reduction of error occurring in approximate binary arithmetic circuits. Although the model provides a trade-off between power, area and accuracy, these parameters can be improved further. The proposed model in this paper uses reduced number of truncated bits and a different compressor architecture for this improvement. An approximate $16 \times 16$ booth multiplier and an approximate 16 bit squarer are used as the applications. The proposed model for squarers reduce the power and area by 8.4% and 21.5% respectively and has an accuracy improvement of 3.4% when compared to the existing model. Similarly the proposed model for booth multiplier reduces the power and area by 4.5% and 3% respectively and has an accuracy improvement of 3.2% when compared with the existing one.


The increasing relevance and importance of the subject of landscape ecology to bio geography are introduced. Research into landscape and plant community boundaries, never theless, remains comparatively neglected. In particular, the nature of those boundaries in terms of the patterns of floristic change and related ecosystem properties constitutes a potentially signifi cant new area of research for biogeographers. The term 'ecotone' has traditionally been used to describe boundaries between plant communities and ecosystems at a range of scales. Various definitions are presented and the often confusing terminology surrounding the word 'ecotone' is reviewed. Boundary types range from sharp, clearly defined boundaries (ecotones) between more highly modified plant communities and anthropogenically created land-use types at one extreme, to more gradual and diffuse boundaries (ecoclines) between natural and semi-natural plant communities at the other. It is proposed that the term 'transitional area' is used to describe all types of vegetation boundary when working at the local/community scale. There is little literature of direct significance to the subject of transitional areas. The concept can only be meaningfully discussed in the context of recent developments in the conceptualization of the plant community and these are summarized. The importance of mosaics within plant communities is described and the need to understand and recognize mosaics when studying transitional areas between plant communities is emphasized. The range of research methods available to describe and analyse variations in patterns of floristics and associated environmental variables across transitional areas is then critically reviewed. The potential relevance of remote sensing and geographical information systems, net work analysis and fractals is demonstrated. Ideas on possible adaptations of sampling strategies for the description of floristics and environmental/biotic factors to cater for boundary/transitional area situations are presented and the concept of a rectangular sampling area as an alternative to the more normal linear transect is introduced. The traditional approach to the description of vegetation change across boundaries using transects and similarity coefficients has now been superseded by new developments, notably moving-window analysis, the Mantel test, pattern analysis, semi-variograms, spectral analysis and analysis for spatial autocorrelation, and the scope of these methods is summarized. Finally, the dynamics of plant communities and their boundaries are considered and the implications of research into transitional areas for vegetation management and biological conserv ation are assessed. The importance of this whole subject as a possible new focus for biogeography and spatial ecology is then reiterated.


Awareness of people concerning the side effects of chemical drugs has caused an increasing interest in traditional medicine. This study was carried out to gather and identify medicinal plants, their curative effects and the part of them which is used from the reservation area of Miankaleh. The region under study has an area of 68800 hectares situated 12 kilometers north of the city of Behshahr and northwest of the city of Gorgan. During numerous visits to the area, plants were gathered and, after their identification using specialized references of medicinal plants, the part used and the curative effects of the plants were determined. Results obtained showed that out of a total of 43 families, 125 genera, and 155 species found in the region, 33 families, 52 genera, and 61 species (39% of all the species) belonged to medicinal plants, among which the class Asteraceae with 6 species and the class Chenopodiaceae with 5 species had the most medicinal species. The most used parts of the plants were the leaves with 31%, the whole plants with 19%, and the roots with 15%.


Purpose
This paper aims to describe a qualitative research project that investigated factors leading to the very low use of the Australian Commonwealth Government's indigenous business exemption (IBE), particularly from 2011 to 2015.

Design/methodology/approach
The project involved interviews with 12 selected stakeholders from Indigenous firms, procuring agencies and policy designers, which took place in 2016.

Findings
Analysis of the interviews suggested that poor use of the IBE was primarily attributed to risk aversion inside government and limited communication of the existence of the policy outside government.

Originality/value
A range of other factors and methods of overcoming these problems are also identified; principal amongst these is the need for procuring agencies to engage with Indigenous suppliers in a coordinated and deliberate fashion.


In this month's issue of The Journal of Laryngology & Otology, two articles have been selected from the field of head and neck carcinoma for further discussion. Chu et al have identified the 100 most cited papers in head and neck cancer from 1970 to 2016. Overall 32 of these were randomised trials and 19 basic science papers. The majority of the studies focused on the treatment of head and neck cancer and the relationship between HPV and head and neck cancer, with 45 and 16 papers focusing on these areas, respectively. The most cited article was published by Bonner et al comparing the use of radiotherapy alone with radiotherapy plus cetuximab for the treatment of loco-regionally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Several other articles on the top 100 list also involved cetuximab as part of their studies. It is highly likely that research relating to the basic science, genetics, aetiological factors, and treatment of head and neck cancer will continue to advance our understanding and management of this disease. Adams et al in their retrospective series of 209 patients determined an incidence of second primary lung carcinomas following a diagnosis of laryngeal carcinoma of 1.6 per cent per year (8 per cent at 5 years). In their analysis, supraglottic tumours were associated with an increased risk of second primary lung cancer compared to glottic tumours. This may have implications for surveillance protocols in the follow-up of patients with laryngeal carcinoma.


To find out the association between major plasma lactogenic hormones and milk constituents in mithun, milk samples were collected from 11 mithun cows of 2-6 parity from the day of calving till dry off. Various milk constituents were estimated as per standard method. Serum growth hormone (GH), prolactin, cortisol and thyroid hormones (triiodothyronine, T3 and thyroxine, T4) were estimated by commercially available ELISA kits. A significant positive correlation (P<0.01) was found between total milk yield and lactogenic hormones except for T4, which was negatively (P<0.01) correlated with milk yield. Milk protein content was found to be negatively correlated with cortisol (P<0.01), prolactin (P<0.05) and T4 (P<0.05). Milk fat content was negatively (P<0.01) correlated with lactogenic hormones except T4. Milk solid not fat (SNF) was positively correlated with lactogenic hormones where as milk total solids were negatively (P<0.01) correlated with the lactogenic hormones. In conclusions, this study confirmed the positive effect of lactogenic hormones (GH, prolactin, cortisol) on milk yield and negative effect on milk fat and protein content in mithun.


The witchcraft incident in Bima Regency has threatened the safety and security of human life, witchcraft has triggered people to take vigilante actions (Eigenrichting) as a counter reaction by means of destruction, persecution and even murder. This study aims to determine public perceptions related to witchcraft, and also to find out why witchcraft always results in mass vigilante action (Eigenrichting) so that prevention and resolution efforts can be formulated. This study uses empirical or sociological research, data collection is carried out by direct and structured interviews and through literature study, while drawing conclusions using inductive methods. The results showed, first; In the period 2016-2021, there were 53 cases of alleged witchcraft practices in Bima Regency, damaging the social order and disrupting community stability. The community considers witchcraft as a dangerous or evil act, because the motive and purpose of using witchcraft is to torture, and/or kill human souls; Second; The behavior of witchcraft has led to vigilante actions (Eigenrichting) in some people, this is due to the existence of a legal vacuum that has not regulated the act of witchcraft and how to solve it legally. The act of vigilantism (Eigenrichting) appears as a form of reaction that arises from the community due to their rights and comfort being disturbed, which action is manifested in the form of violence as an act of revenge against the perpetrators of witchcraft. The juridical conclusion that the terminology of witchcraft and vigilante acts (Eigenrichting) have not been specifically regulated in the current laws and regulations as prohibited acts and are threatened with punishment. As a suggestion that the terminology and elements of the criminal act of witchcraft in the current Criminal Code Bill need to be expanded further, as well as the system of proving the crime of witchcraft in the Indonesian criminal procedure law needs to obtain further, more complete arrangements.


Upcoming standards are moving towards multi-antenna multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission techniques to harness the benefits of spatial degrees of freedom (DoF) in addition to the conventional time and frequency resources. Even though single user MIMO transmission improves the throughput noticeably, multiplexing different user data streams across the spatial dimension as in multi-user MIMO enhances the overall cell throughput significantly. However, this improved performance depends on the efficient selection of the users to be multiplexed over the spatial DoF. In this work, we compare the performance of different scheduling schemes in terms of achievable sum throughput and the overall complexity involved in the implementation for the real-time system requirements. The performances of the proposed schemes are evaluated on MATLAB for various MIMO configurations. The complexity analysis is carried out by implementing the scheduler algorithms on TI TCI6636K2H evaluation platform. We evaluate the complexity by sharing the load across eight TMS320C66x DSP core subsystem on the (system-on-chip) SoC.


Risk management has outgrown its insurance origins and must become more professional in the present and future harsh economic climate. Britain's Association of Insurance Risk Managers would seem to agree for they are calling for a more professional attitude and better training for the 550 so‐called risk managers in the UK. Their greatest weakness is that, having been recruited from and worked in insurance, they have too limited and sectarian a view of the discipline control and financing of risks.


The evolution of web 2.0 has enabled the emergence of social media where users can post, share and discuss their opinions about products, events, peoples and organizations. This increase of the user generated content (UGC) has allowed the publication of several works during the last decade in the scientific community working on sentiment analysis. Sentiment analysis, also known as opinion mining is the field of extraction and analysis of opinions, feelings and attitudes of users on the web. In this paper, we provide an overview of the field of sentiment analysis by discussing the workflow of mining opinions in different granularity levels and covering common and recent approaches and techniques used to solve tasks related to sentiment analysis process at


Objective To investigate Tanreqing Injection on AECOPD patients therapeutic effect as well as on C reactive protein and pulmonary function.Methods 65 patients with AECOPD were randomly divided into two groups,observation and treatment groups.After admission,the two groups were given oxygen,anti-infection,antispasmodic asthma treatment measures.Observation group was given the above treatment plus Tanreqing injection intravenous infusion once/day.The two groups were observed before treatment and after treatment of 10 d serum high sensitivity C-reactive protein and lung function changes.Results Two groups of patients with treatment of 10d had serum C-reactive protein decreased lung function improved,but in the observation group,C-reactive protein decreased more significantly,lung function improved more significantly than the control group.Conclusion Injection on Tanreqing the AECOPD patients treatment effect was very good,serum high sensitivity C-reactive protein was significantly reduced,and lung function improved significantly.


The next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) pQCD prediction for the $\gamma\gamma^* \to \eta_c$ form factor was evaluated in 2015 using nonrelativistic QCD (NRQCD). A strong discrepancy between the NRQCD prediction and the BaBar measurements was observed. Until now there has been no solution for this puzzle. In this paper, we present a NNLO analysis by applying the Principle of Maximum Conformality (PMC) to set the renormalization scale. By carefully dealing with the light-by-light diagrams at the NNLO level, the resulting high precision PMC prediction agrees with the BaBar measurements within errors, and the conventional renormalization scale uncertainty is eliminated. The PMC is consistent with all of the requirements of the renormalization group, including scheme-independence. The application of the PMC thus provides a rigorous solution for the $\gamma\gamma^* \to \eta_c$ form factor puzzle, emphasizing the importance of correct renormalization scale-setting. The results also support the applicability of NRQCD to hard exclusive processes involving charmonium.


Coronary angiography images usually are blurry,because of a lot of factors.In order to facilitate following processings-segmentation of regions,extraction skeleton line,edge of vessel and so on,it is necessary to enhance angiography image.To solve this problem,give two methods to enhance angiography image,Gabor filters and rotated one-dimensional Gaussian function,it makes coronary artery more highlight in angiography and it's beneficial to further segmentation of the coronary artery.It will be better result to add the angiography image enhanced by rotated one-dimensional Gaussian function to the original image.The experimental results show that this improved algorithm will enhance angiography image very well and it is valuable in clinical diagnosis.


The concept of powering a remote device without wires is known as a wireless power transfer system. Some applications employ batteries while others use storage capacitors instead. In either case, it is necessary to transfer enough power to enable the receiver to do the required work. This paper presents an intelligent algorithm to manage received wireless power to do useful work even though there is insufficient power to do the work directly. The example ultra-low power microcontroller discussed here is the ATTiny85 although the approach is applicable to a whole family of similar micros. The algorithm used makes intelligent decisions whether to sleep or wake according to the amount of received and stored energy. Using an adaptive strategy of this kind the amount of work can be precisely matched to the resources available to achieve maximum utilization. The paper also evaluates the performance of the proposed algorithm compared with more conventional ways of doing the same thing.


Abstract In this paper, we discretize a continuous-time eco-epidemiological model by non-standard finite difference (NSFD) scheme as well as standard Euler forward scheme. Dynamical properties of both the systems are explored and compared with their continuous-time model. We show that the solution of NSFD system remains positive for all positive initial values. Fixed points and their local stability properties are shown to be identical with that of the continuous model, indicating its dynamic consistency. Dynamics of the Euler model, however, depend on the step–size and therefore dynamically inconsistent. Solutions in this latter method may be negative and allows numerical instabilities, leading to chaos. Extensive numerical simulations have been performed to validate the theoretical results.


Abstract We consider the control of mechanical systems based on sliding mode control techniques. Recently developed simplex control methods are shown to converge in a finite time when applied to nonlinear systems under bounded deterministic uncertainty. Applications are considered to the control of mechanical systems in which the control action is provided by monodirectional devices.


In the last fifty years, and especially within the last decade, the way people communicate has changed tremendously. Society has gone from largely paper-based means of communication to new computerized technologies. With the widespread use of the Internet, documents that were once tangible and textual are now virtual and composed of bits and bytes. People are creating documents that will never see a conventional physical form. Novels are being created, diaries are being written, and family histories are being organized and displayed, without ever having a familiar physical form.


This report is an evaluation of the fire safety at Frejaskolan in Gnesta, Sweden. The report was preceded by a field trip to the school and the fire safety at the school was studied.

A number of fire scenarios have been treated, and three were chosen for further analysis. To be able to make any judgements about the fire safety, estimation has been done by comparing the time needed for safe evacuation with the time to critical conditions in the building. This was made by hand calculations and by using software called FDS.

The main conclusion is that none of the three cases can ensure safe evacuation of the occupants in the building, hence a list of measures to be undertaken to minimize the fire risk are given. To improve evacuation safety in the event of fire, evacuation through windows is a possible solution. Any fire equipment such as automatic door closers and evacuation signs should be serviced regularly.


We propose a new method to identify shifts in price expectations in the housing market through the accumulation of excess capacity. Expectations of future price increases (due to anticipated future demand for housing services) cause the current supply to increase, creating a temporary vacancy. We implement this intuition in a structural vector autoregression with sign restrictions and explore the effects of price expectations in the U.S. housing market. We find that price expectation shocks were a prime factor explaining the 1996-2006 boom, particularly in the Sand States. Expectation shocks at the boom's peak reflected implausible growth expectations and reversed during the bust.


Objective:A suppressed conductivity ion chromatography method was established for determination of antioxidant in injections.Method:The AG-11HC anion guard column and the AS11-HC anion analytical column(250 mm×4 mm,5 μm)was employed to separate and determinate the sodium sulfite with the eluent of KOH using the gradient mode.The flow was 1.0 mL·min-1,and the suppressed currentset was 149 mA with conductivity detector.Results:Good linear relationship was established between the peak response and the concentration of 0.5074-507.444 μg·mL-1with the quantitation limit(S/N=10) of 0.16 μg·mL-1,and the detection limit(S/N=3) of 0.05 μg·mL-1.Conclusion:The proposed method shows high selectivity,sensitivity and good results.It can be employed for the quality control and research of antioxidants in injections.


This article proposed the adaptive harmonic detection based on artificial neural network,and which can test the amplitude and phase of all the harmonics. This paper also proposed the quasi-resonant control ratio strategy of active power filter. This strategy can compensate a specific harmonic of power system in real time, can achieve Static error-free control and with a strong ability of anti-grid frequency fluctuations. The results show that the method is feasible and effective.


A 55-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital because of diverse symptoms of portal hypertension, such as refractory ascites, diarrhea, and general malaise. Blood test revealed liver and renal dysfunction and glucose tolerance. Contrast enhancement computed tomography revealed splenic arteriovenous fistula with dilated splenic artery and vein, causing portal hypertension. The splenic arteriovenous fistula was successfully treated by percutaneous transarterial embolization, resulting in the complete recovery of the patient. Herein, we report a case of arteriovenous fistula which was successfully treated with the aid of interventional radiology.


Over time, the information on WWW has escalated
exponentially, paramounting to embryonic research in the field of
Data Analysis using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and
Machine Learning (ML). As data is increasing day by day there is
huge demand for data analysis to get subjective information and
analyzing government data is very useful and demanding task. So,
in this paper, an application is being developed which will
recommend the user to which party to vote will be benignant for
themselves and for country, depending on the area of interest of
different users. The data is collected from various governmental
websites of multiple areas like women empowerment, education,
employment, child labor etc. which will enhance the authenticity
of the output. The main ground of this research is to lubricate
common people and politicians as well. For common people; is for
deciding their precious vote, to which party to give will be good for
themselves and nation too. For politicians; they will have an idea
about themselves and other politicians that which party is
preferable and which is not preferable in respective areas, so that
the politicians can work accordingly.


In the past, before immunological tests for celiac disease became available, many authors advocated the use of red cell folate (RFA) as a screening test for celiac disease. That is, if the red cell folate were normal, then celiac disease was considered very unlikely. Low red cell folate was found in all 24 cases of celiac disease reported by Hoffbrand et al (J Clin Pathol 1966;19:17–28). Since Patients with celiac disease and tropical sprue absorb the folic acid used in the fortification of grain products much better than folate polyglutamates present in food, I decided to investigate whether serum or red cell folate is still useful for screening malabsorption syndrome.

Methods: Serum folate (SFA) and red cell folate at St. Boniface General Hospital (SBGH) were determined by L. Casei microbilogical assay. During the 30-month period of July 1,1999 – Dec 31, 2001, the search of Laboratory Information System (LIS) at SBGH, revealed 29 patients with strong laboratory evidence of celiac disease (strongly positive gliadin antibody with positive endomysial and or t-transglutaminase antibodies) who also had SFA or RFA results. LIS was searched for the results of complete blood count (CBC), SFA, RFA, serum ferritin (SFer) and serum B12 (SB12).

Results: Five out of 29 patients (17.2%) with laboratory evidence of celiac disease had low SFA. Of these 5 patients with low SFA, 4 also had RFA. Only one of these 4 with low SFA had a low RFA. Eleven of the 29 patients also had RFA and only 2 of these 11 (18%) had low RFA. One of the two with low RFA had a normal SFA; and the other had a low SFA, a low SB12 and a low SFer. Twelve of 29 (41.3%) with celiac disease had low SFer and 6 of 29 (20.6%) had low SB12. Four out of 29 (13.8%) had high mean corpuscular volume (MCV)(> 98 fL). All of the four with high MCV had normal RFA, but had low SB12, indicating that macrocytosis in these 4 cases was due to B12 deficiency. Ten out of 12 with low serum ferritin had low MCV (<80 fL).

Discussion: The mandated fortification of grain products in USA and Canada (0.14 mg of folic acid per 100 g of grain) was estimated to add about 0.1 mg of folic acid to the daily folate intake of the average adult. However, some studies have shown that the actual increase in daily folate intake, through folic acid fortification, is about 0.2 mg (J Nutr 2002;132:2792–8 and Am J Clin Nutr 2003;77:221–5). Patients with celiac disease or tropical sprue can absorb this folic acid much better than the folate polyglutamates present in food. Sheehy et al (Blood 1961;18:623–36) have demonstrated that many patients with tropical sprue who had developed folate deficiency megaloblastic anemia, despite consuming more than 1 mg of food folates daily, responded to as little as 0.025 mg of folic acid daily. It is for this reason than most of our celiac patients had normal serum folate but were either iron deficient or B12 deficient. In the past, B12 deficiency was considered to be uncommon in untreated adults with celiac disease.

Conclusion: As the result of fortification of grain products with folic acid, red cell folate is no longer a useful test as a screening test for malabsorption syndrome. Now, as our data demonstrate, B12 deficiency is more common than folate deficiency in adults with untreated celiac disease. A patient with celiac disease and macrocytic anemia is more likely to be B12 deficient than folate deficient.


The opportunity to improve upland rice production on acid mineral soil is still high. However, the main problem of this soil is high soil acidity that inhibit crop growth, causing low production. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of agricultural waste biochar application on upland rice (Oryza sativa L.) productivity and improvement of acid mineral soil properties. The study was conducted at Agricultural Research Station of Tamanbogo, East Lampung on July-October 2013 (session 1), December 2013-April 2014 (session 2), May-August 2014 (session 3) and October 2014-February 2015 (session 4). The experimental design was split plot design, which the main plots were two types of biochar (cacao shell and rice husk), the sub plots were biochar rates (0; 5 t/ha and 15 t/ha) with five replications. The parameters measured were upland rice growth, yield and soil properties (Bulk density, soil pH and Al3+). The result showed that during the four planting seasons, the addition of cocoa shell biochar resulted better response on upland rice growth and yield compare to rice husk biochar, with crop yield of 2.54-3.97 t/ha dry grain. The dose of 5 and 15 t/ha biochar provided a stable yield and improvement of dry grain around 74.02-179.4% compare to no biochar addition for three consecutive sessions. The cocoa shell biochar applications showed better response on soil acidity (increase soil pH and reduce Al3+ ) and soil bulk density compared to rice husk. In degraded acid mineral soil, upland rice productivity and soil properties improvement can be increased by adding of 15 t/ha cacao shell biochar with a dose of 15 t / ha for getting dry grain more optimal.


This paper draws on the findings of a number of national surveys of primary schools conducted by NZCER since 1989, and in secondary schools since 2003. It includes new analysis from the latest 2006 survey of secondary schools, which questioned principals, trustees, teachers and parents. The paper also looks at other evidence about how boards of trustees are faring, including Education Review Office reports, and it examines the research literature on school governance both here and overseas. The Minister for Education Steve Maharey has indicated there will be a government review of the role of boards of trustees and this paper is intended to contribute to that debate.


An amphiphilic polymer carrying an artificial fluorescent dye, Rhodamine 6G (Rh6G), acts as a good solubilizing agent for a hydrophobic membrane protein, the photosystem (PS) I complex from Spiruli...


are now available one or more opiate antagonists structurally based on the benzomorphan nu-cleus which, in those fields where they have been tried, can relieve pain without producing unusual or bizarre side reactions or physical dependence. The question of tolerance to the analgesic effect of these compounds has not yet been explored.


Study Design: Economic evaluation alongside a prospective, randomized, controlled trial from a 2-year NHS perspective. Objective: To determine the cost-effectiveness of Titanium Cages (TC) compared to Femoral Ring Allografts (FRA) in circumferential lumbar fusion. Summary of background data: A randomised controlled trial has shown the use of TC to be clinically inferior to the established practice of using FRA in circumferential lumbar fusion. Health economic evaluation is urgently needed to justify the continued use of TC, given that this treatment is less effective and, all things being equal, more costly than FRA. Methods: Eighty-three patients were randomly allocated to receive either the TC or FRA as part of a circumferential lumbar fusion between 1998 and 2002. NHS costs related to the surgery and revision surgery needed during the trial period were monitored and adjusted to the base year (2005/6 pounds sterling). The Short Form-6D (SF- 6D) was administered preoperatively and at 6, 12 and 24 months in order to elicit patient utility and subsequently Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs). Return to paid employment was also monitored. Bootstrapped mean differences in discounted costs and benefits were generated in order to explore cost-effectiveness. Results: A significant cost difference of £1,942 (95% CI £849 to £3,145) in favour of FRA was found. Mean QALYs per patient over the 24 month trial period were 0.0522 (SD 0.0326) in the TC group and 0.1914 (SD 0.0398) in the FRA group, producing a significant difference of 0.1392 (95% CI 0.2349 to 0.0436). With regard to employment, incremental productivity costs were estimated at £185,171 in favour of FRA. Conclusion: From an NHS perspective, the trial data show that TC is not cost-effective in circumferential lumbar fusion. The use of FRA was both cheaper and generated greater QALY gains. FRA patients reported a greater return to work rate.


Significance
 China's ride-hailing major Didi was targeted by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) ahead of its initial public offering (IPO) on June 30. It is complying with the ongoing cybersecurity review mandated by Beijing and is battling rumours about plans to delist from the New York Stock Exchange and go private.

 Impacts
 Current investors in Chinese tech stocks need to consider this situation as a new normal, not a departure from trend.
 The VIE structure will likely come under greater regulatory scrutiny, but is unlikely to be dissolved.
 Didi may yet delist in the United States.


We argue that technical efficiency, when R&D stock is considered as a crucial resource, reflects the effectiveness of the underlying firm governance mechanism which transforms competencies into capabilities. We argue that for the case of low-tech R&D active firms (i) their R&D-based productive performance and their decision to export are endogenously related 'due to self-selection', (ii) the examined low-tech R&D active firms are dichotomized in two regimes, exporters and non-exporters, and (iii) the role of innovation patterns is a premise in determining low-tech firms' R&D-based productive performance and export decision-making. We provide empirical evidence on the above hypotheses exploiting information from a unique data set regarding Greek low-tech R&D active manufacturing firms and adopting bootstrap data envelopment analysis techniques as well as an appropriate endogenous switching regressions, of the Mover–Stayer type, econometric model.


The GRS measurements of the peak mass loading of the north polar CO2 ice cap on Mars are about 60% lower than those calculated from MGS TES radiation data and those inferred from the MOLA cap thicknesses. However, the GRS data provide the most accurate measurement of the mass loading. We show that the TES and MOLA data can be reconciled with the GRS data if (1) subsurface heat conduction and atmospheric heat transport are included in the TES mass budget calculations, and (2) the density of the polar deposits is ∼600 kg m−3. The latter is much less than that expected for slab ice (∼1600 kg m−3) and suggests that processes unique to the north polar region are responsible for the low cap density.


Objective
To explore the relationship between growth arrest-specific protein 6 (Gas6) and acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

Methods
Patients were included from Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University between January to June 2018. A total of 103 patients with angina pectoris aged 60.20±9.35 were included as angina pectoris group. A total of 102 patients with myocardial infarction aged 58.85±9.80 were included as AMI group. A total of 130 healthy individuals aged 63.14±10.40 were included as healthy control. Spearman analysis was performed to investigate the correlations between Gas6 and risk factors of (coronary heart disease, CHD). Logistic regression was performed to investigate the risk factor of myocardial infarction. ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curve was used to analyze the diagnostic performance of Gas6 to AMI.

Results
The levels of Gas6 in angina pectoris group [13.77 (10.57-17.03) ng/ ml, t=2.444, P=0.025] and AMI group[16.22 (12.70-20.09) ng/ml, t=4.965, P<0.001] was higher than control group [10.92 (8.90-14.92) ng/ml]. The levels of Gas6 in angina pectoris group was lower than AMI group (t=3.854, P<0.001). In the sensitivity analysis excluding hypertension and diabetes, the serum Gas6 level in AMI group (n=37) [15.05 (11.08-16.20) mg/L] was higher than that in control group [10.93 (8.91-14.93)mg/L, t=3.479, P=0.001] and angina group (n=42) [12.85 (9.10-16.20) mg/L, t=2.639, P=0.019]. CRP (C-reactive protein), WBC (white blood cell count), Glu (fasting glucose) and Cr (creatinine) were positively correlated with Gas6, r=0.194, 0.176, 0.180 and 0.120, P value=0.010, 0.012, 0.010 and 0.002, respectively. Logistic regression showed that Gas6 was a independent factor of myocardial infarction [OR and 95%CI were 1.080 (1.012-1.152), P=0.020]. AUC and 95%CI of ROC curve was 0.648 (0.572-0.723).

Conclusion
The levels of Gas6 may be positively associated with myocardial infarction risk.

Key words:
Acute myocardial infarction; Inflammation; Growth arrest-specific protein 6


A study has been made of the attack of amines on platinum complexes containing ethene derivatives. When 2-ammonioethanide compounds (H3NCHRCHR′–Pt) are formed, the direction of attack is determined by electronic rather than steric effects unless the latter are very large. Reactions are not complete, and equilibrium constants show that steric factors tend to prevent the formation of the 2-ammonioethanide compounds. The production of azaplatinacyclobutane ring complexes is enhanced by steric factors. Five-co-ordinate species are formed in some cases. Hydrogen-1 n.m.r. data are reported.


This paper presents the results of an Immediate Serial Recall (ISR) study in which sequences of syllables were heard and repeated by native American English speakers. Stimulus sequences varied in vowel duration, naturalness, and overall stimulus duration. The results show that natural-sounding syllables were easier to recall than unnaturalsounding syllables. Additionally, and perhaps surprisingly, shorter vowels were marginally easier to recall than longer ones. These findings have several implications for speech perception and salience. First, they show that natural-sounding stimuli have an advantage over unnatural-sounding stimuli in this type of speech processing. Second, the results show that there is not a linear relationship between vowel duration and salience: longer vowels are in fact harder, not easier, to recall than shorter vowels. Finally, these results suggest that stimuli in psycholinguistic experiments should be as natural-sounding as possible, as unnatural-sounding stimuli may produce results that are less representative of natural speech processing.


30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Andrew G. Hashimoto, Director/Dean, Cooperative Extension Service/CTAHR, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822. An Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Institution providing programs and services to the people of Hawaii without regard to race, sex, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, disability, marital status, arrest and court record, sexual orientation, or veteran status. CTAHR publications can be found on the Web site  or ordered by calling 808-956-7046 or sending e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.com. New Plants for Hawaii Anthurium Cultivar Release June 2002, NPH-A-5


The method of sampling without replacement suggested by Narain, with total probability of selection proportional to size, is considered in detail. The conditions under which it is of practical value are discussed. Narain's equations for the selection probability function are examined and it is shown that they do not yield the correct solution in every case. A revised set of equations is given which is proved to yield a unique correct solution for every possible case. From this investigation, a fast iterative method of solution is derived. Prooi is offered that there is always a decrease in variance compared with sampling with replacement. A formula derived by Sen (1953) in a slightly different context is used to obtain a positive unbiased estimator of variance. Finally, the case is considered where one unit covers more than half the stratum size.


Abstract In this paper we show how ideas, methods and results from optimal transportation can be used to study various aspects of the stationary measures of Iterated Function Systems equipped with a probability distribution. We recover a classical existence and uniqueness result under a contraction-on-average assumption, prove generalised moment bounds from which tail estimates can be deduced, consider the convergence of the empirical measure of an associated Markov chain, and prove in many cases the Lipschitz continuity of the stationary measure when the system is perturbed, with as a consequence a "linear response formula" at almost every parameter of the perturbation.


The stress model of the hybridTrefftz finite element formulation is applied to the elastoplastic analysis of solids. The stresses and the plastic multipliers in the domain of the element and the displacements on its boundary are approximated. Harmonic and orthogonal hierarchical polynomials are used to approximate the stresses, constrained to solve locally the Beltrami governing differential equation. They are derived from the associated Papkovitch-Neuber elastic displacement solution. The plastic multipliers are approximated by Dirac functions defined at Gauss points. The finite element equations are derived directly from the structural conditions of equilibrium, compatibility and elastoplasticity. The non-linear governing system is solved by the Newton method. The resulting Hessian matrices are symmetric and highly sparse. All the intervening arrays are defined by boundary integral expressions or by direct collocation. Numerical applications are presented to illustrate the performance of the model.


In the slavery society of Greece and Roman,releasing slaves was a general phenomenon.But the modes of it were different according to different conditions.As a typical slavery society,ancient Greece had its own mode besides the classical modes.They were:testament one;buying-out one;charging one,encouraging one and making use of one.The different modes reflected the different results of hopes,different relations between the masters and the slaves,different customs and different social backgrounds.


Construction is a safety critical industry. Safety-related indicators can be used as efficient accident/incident precursors. However, delays between indicator data collection and reporting can undermine any possible advantages. The usefulness of indicator data diminishes within a fairly short period due to the dynamism of the construction process. To date, no research has sought to evaluate the efficacy of realtime collection, processing and delivery of safety-relevant data to appropriate persons within a construction safety context. We argue that it is crucial to monitor predictors of future safety performance levels in real-time. This paper proposes an innovative real-time safety monitoring system for construction health and safety based on a safety indicator framework. The proposed safety monitoring system incorporates project specific indicators as physical hazard indicators, management and perception leading indicators. The system integrates the dynamic nature of the construction site by measuring constructor safety leadership performance through a live on-site data capture mechanism. The system alerts appropriate persons where attention needed based on benchmarked and predicted analysis of safety measures. This enables a step-change in the use and effectiveness of leading indicators in construction safety, with a resultant improvement in workplace safety and health.


In the last decade, computational neuroscience and machine learning communities have witnessed the emergence of several algorithms where an input signal is randomly projected to a higher dimensional space via a nonlinear activation function. These methods are increasingly popular for regression or classification tasks, but this kind of neural network has remained difficult to implement efficiently in hardware. This is partly due to the all-to-all connectivity required between the input and hidden layers in these networks. The concept of using receptive fields (RF) for classification tasks stems from biology, in which sensory neurons often respond to a limited spatial range of the input stimulus. Incorporating this methodology into a classification system often yields an increase in performance. This paper presents an SRAM-based implementation of the RF approach to implement this kind of neural network on hardware. Since SRAM has a much smaller footprint compared to logic gates, this implementation is much more efficient in terms of hardware resources. The system was implemented and verified on an FPGA to demonstrate the efficiencies and flexibility of this approach for MNIST digit recognition task.


Nowadays, the low-cost micro electro mechanical systems (MEMSs)-based inertial measurement units (IMU) and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) are commercially available in vehicle systems and are usually integrated to achieve robust ego-motion estimation due to their excellent complementary properties. In this case, accurate inter-sensor spatial transformation, i.e., extrinsic parameters, is a fundamental prerequisite for the combined application of LiDAR and IMU. However, current LiDAR–IMU calibration methods usually rely on specially-designed artificial targets or facilities, which greatly limits the flexibility and usability of calibration. Fortunately, modern intelligent vehicles are generally equipped with portable global navigation satellite system (GNSS) devices, which are able to provide precise positioning services and could be used to improve the performance of extrinsic calibration. To this end, we innovatively introduce raw GNSS observations to enhance in-vehicle LiDAR–IMU calibration performance without predefined target support. Based on the centralized extended Kalman filter (EKF), the estimator tightly fuses the double-differenced pseudorange and carrier phase observations, IMU data, and extracted plane features to obtain the optimal extrinsic parameters. The results of simulated tests and real-world experiments indicate that the introduction of GNSS can significantly improve the calibration performance. The GNSS-aided LiDAR–IMU calibration results also show better odometry accuracy and mapping consistency than those without GNSS aiding.


Computer aided engineering analysis is commonly used to evaluate and improve the performance and reliability of the products in today's manufacturing industry. Computer aided engineering analysis software use finite elements method in their solutions. The most significant problem in practicing these analyses is to form the mesh structure properly. The aim of this study is to research the effects of using surface and three-dimensional solid models in structural stress analysis. In this context, the maximum deformation in a square beam subjected to bending was calculated analytically and numerically. The solid model and surface model were created via CATIA. These models were analyzed under the same conditions in the static analysis module via ANSYS workbench. A difference of 1.32 % was detected between the numerical solution and the numerical displacement value of the surface model, and a difference of 11.84 % was detected between the numerical solution and the displacement value of the solid model. The difference between the von mises stress values of both models is approximately 30 %. In the parametric assessment conducted regarding the change in the mesh size, it was discovered that the results were affected by the mesh size significantly, and the mesh size and stress increased by 1550 % with the singularity problem in the solid model. In systems subjected to bending, using a shell mesh with 6 degrees of freedom is more advantageous in terms of solution time, operational capacity, stability and accuracy of the result.


The nature of new neutral-current interactions can be revealed at the low-energy precision frontier, where studies of parity-violation in electron scattering will complement the energy-frontier studies at the LHC. Measurements of the parity-violating observable APV - the cross-section asymmetry in the scattering of longitudinally polarized electrons from an unpolarized target - are sensitive to possible contact interactions from new physics at multi-TeV mass scales. The 12 GeV upgrade at JLab and a new, high-intensity beam at Mainz offer opportunities for significant improvements in measurements of electron-electron and electron-quark parity-violating interactions.


Organizing staff and information is extremely important when migrating from one online acquisitions system to another. Decisions have to be made about choosing and organizing the information to be transferred from the old system to the new one. Just as important as the organization of information is the organization of staff resources and time. Administrative williigness to depend on people who have knowledge and skill, at whatever level, is essential to going through this process smoothly. Effective system-to-system migration depends upon using the specialized knowledge and organizational skills of all acquisitions staff. When the people who share their knowledge and develop the necessary procedures are also the people who must perform the migration and use the newly-created records, great efficiency and accuracy can be achieved. The process may not be pain-free, but it will be relatively smooth since all participants have an investment in the structure and "cleanness" of the new system.


The problem of developing a software service with a plug-in architecture for assessing the readability of text has been considered. The problem of text readability assessment has been analyzed. Approaches to the development of a software service for text readability assessment have been considered. The structure of the service for text readability assessment has been proposed. The structure of the service has been implemented using the Python programming language and the library Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK). The results of testing the service for text readability assessment have been presented.


A supplementary sensor being explored in the field of GPS-denied navigation is Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) with its resulting images. In contrast to passive, camera-based methods, SAR provides illumination of a scene, direct measurement of range, and can operate day and night or through incliment weather. The research presented in this paper investigates the feasibility of using range and range-rate measurements from a SAR system to perform GPS-denied navigation. In support of this research, a 6DOF aircraft navigation and radar simulation is developed and presented. The core sensor used to propagate the navigation states is an inertial measurement unit, corrupted by bias and noise. An indirect extended Kalman filter (EKF) is developed and the covariance of estimation errors is validated via Monte Carlo analysis.


Abstract Given a finite degree field extension E ∣ F of nonfinite fields we show homologically BGl ( E ) can be viewed as the total space of fibration with fibre BGl ( F ). Associated with this fibration is a spectral sequence relating the homology of stable linear groups over field extensions.


Visual demonstration is probably the most frequently used instructional aid in motor skill learning. Ususlly the learner's task is to emulate an appropriate model and, to do so, he relies on effective visual selection through combined use of NO major classes of eye movement, rapid/saccadic or siow/pursuit ( 3 ) . In the absence of verbal instructions to attend to a particular aspect of a demonstration, the oculomotor system will selfdirect to the most informative features of the display ( 1 ) . Teachers verbally direct their students to attend to what they believe to be the critical features of the modelled movement. Such directives can alter eye-movement behaviour, disrupt information processing, and thus the accurate producrion of limb movements. Puckett and Steinman ( 2 ) assert that a saccadic eye-movement strategy is more efficient even when observing relatively slow motion. Also, the accuracy of highly practised subjects attempting to comply with instructions to use a pursuit eye-movement strategy is low ( 4 ) . The present study was based on these findings. The eye movements of 26 men and women aged between 18 and 20 yr. were recorded whilst they observed videotaped demonstrations of arm-movement sequences using a Gulf and Western Eye-Trac 106. Fifteen subjects used predominantly pursuit movements (80% f 9 % ) during the time they observed the sequences, 8 subjects used mainly saccadic movements (74% -t4.5%), and 3 subjects, a mixed mode (54% pursuit (range 50 to 58) and 46% saccadic (range 42 to 50) ) . In a second part of the study I C was predicted that a verbal directive which altered the predominant (preferred?) eye-movement behaviour used during observation of the demonstrations would reduce accuracy of movement sequencing, with the change from a saccadic to a pursuit mode exerting the most detrimental influence. Sixteen subjects were tested in a 2 (eye-movement strategy) X 3 (verbal directions) experimental design in which they were required to produce three blocks of five demonstration sequences each consisting of five movements. The results were as predicted. In the two instruction-free conditions the accuraq of sequencing, measured by number of correct movements u p to the first error, was 90% ((-C 5 % ) and 95 % ( 2 4 % ) for 'trackers' and 'saccaders', respectively. Performance deteriorated significantly to 36% (& 43 %) in the condition which required a change from saccadic to pursuit mode and to 71% ( 2 1 8 % ) in the pursuitto saccadic-mode condition. It was concluded that verbal directions which accompany a visual demonstration during motor-skill learning should take account of individual difference~ in the way the eyes are used to acquire required information and avoid directives which alter preferred strategies.


In order to promote the killing of bacteria or viruses tissue is known to be responsible for periodontal disease have been described adjustment heat source that can be applied to the teeth and gums.


To explore the influence of self-perceived burden, fatigue and negative emotions on the coronary atherosclerotic cardiopathy patients by the individualized health management. 98 cases with coronary atherosclerotic cardiopathy were enrolled. 49 cases were classified into the routine management group (accepting the routine guidance) (group A). 49 cases were classified into the personalized health management group (accepting the nursing intervention under the guidance of individualized health management) (group B). The self-perceived burden, fatigue and negative emotions of patients were compared between two groups. Before intervention, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in the economic burden, emotions, body burden, fatigue rating scores of each factor, anxiety self-assessment scores, depression self-rating scores (P>0.05). The economic burden, emotional burden, physical burden, fatigue rating scores, anxiety self-rating scores, depression self-rating scores of the two groups were decreased compared to those before the intervention, and the decrease was more significant in group B (P<0.05). Individualized health management can significantly reduce the burden of patients with coronary atherosclerotic cardiopathy, which can effectively control blood pressure of coronary atherosclerotic cardiopathy patients. Patients' sodium/water balance also increases than before, and patients' satisfaction to the nurse service is high. Individualized health management can significantly reduce self-perceived burden of coronary atherosclerotic cardiopathy patients, the patients' level of fatigue and improve patients' negative moods, suggesting that it is worthy clinical application and promotion.


Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), Native Grasses, and Small Mammals in the Great Basin: A Test of the Apparent Competition Hypothesis Facilitated by a Novel Method of Decanting Seeds from a Flotation Solution Jacob E. Lucero Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, BYU Master of Science The effect of shared enemies between invasive and native species has been argued to facilitate biological invasions (i.e., the apparent competition hypothesis or ACH). This study investigated a previously untested possibility: whether granivorous small mammals facilitate cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) invasion by driving food-mediated apparent competition between cheatgrass and native grasses. Specifically, we tested three predictions that must be true if such apparent competition occurs. First, cheatgrass invasion augments total seeds available to granivorous small mammals. Second, density of granivorous small mammals increases in response to increased seed availability (simulated with experimental additions of cheatgrass seeds). Third, granivorous small mammals prefer seeds from native grasses over cheatgrass seeds. We tested these predictions in the Great Basin Desert of Utah, USA. Cheatgrass invasion augmented total yearly seed production. Granivorous small mammals preferred native seeds over cheatgrass seeds. However, neither abundance, richness, nor diversity of granivorous small mammals increased in response to experimental additions of cheatgrass seed. We therefore conclude that granivorous small mammals did not drive food-mediated apparent competition during the study period. The lack of support for the ACH in this study may suggest that the role of small mammal-driven apparent competition is either unimportant in the Great Basin, or that the appropriate indirect interactions between small mammals, cheatgrass, and native grasses have yet to be evaluated. Testing the third prediction required the separation of seeds from the soil matrix. We employed a chemical flotation methodology to recover target seeds from soil, and developed a novel method of decanting target material from the flotation solution. We compared the utility of the novel method to that of a traditional decantation method. Specifically, we compared effectiveness (the proportion of seeds recovered from a known sample), rapidity (the time required to decant that sample), efficiency (the number of seeds decanted per second), and recovery bias (the effect of relative density on seed recovery) between methods. Our proposed method was more effective, more rapid, more efficient, and less biased than the traditional method. Therefore, any future work relying on flotation to analyze seed banks should clearly describe how samples are decanted and should consider the proposed method as a potential means of enhancing the efficiency of chemical flotation.


Rate-modulating pacemakers sense one of several biological quantities to determine the appropriate heart rate. The authors investigate the use of the temperature of blood in the right ventricle of the heart, which is metabolically based and not voluntarily controllable, as the determining parameter. Using telemetered blood temperature recordings, a novel algorithm to control pacing rate was evaluated. The evaluation was based on the algorithm's ability to respond to the variations in temperature which occurred during exercise, as compared to the normal heart rate response and the response time of the algorithm. The algorithm was sufficiently sensitive to provide appropriate pacing rate increases for 25 exercising patients and provided a rapid response time of 16 s from the time of exercise onset.<<ETX>>