Megakaryocytopoiesis, the process by which hematopoietic stem cells develop into mature megakaryocytes (MK), and thrombopoiesis, platelet production/release, are critical for blood homeostasis. We tested the hypothesis that the Rho guanine exchange factor, ARHGEF12 (also known as LARG), is critical for MK differentiation and platelet functions based on the following: 1) ARHGEF12 is part of a recurrent translocation with MLL in acute myeloid leukemia. 2) Both published microarray datasets and deep-sequencing data from our lab on primary human CD34+ cells differentiating into MKs show that ARHGEF12 expression goes up dramatically during MK differentiation. 3) ARHGEF12 is one of the most highly expressed guanine exchange factors in platelets. 4) ARHGEF12 forms a complex with G proteins and stimulates Rho-dependent signals. It is known that platelet activation can be initiated by extracellular stimuli working through G protein-coupled receptors and Rho signaling, suggesting that ARHGEF12 may function in platelet activation. 5) Mice with KO of RhoA (a known ARHGEF12 substrate) in the MK-lineage have macrothrombocytopenia and defective platelet activation.

To test this hypothesis, we used ARHGEF12 shRNA mediated KD and an ARHGEF12 specific pharmacological inhibitor (Y16) in both murine and human primary cells, and characterized a LARG KO mouse model for MK and platelet phenotypes, and found:

ARHGEF12 is differentially upregulated during MK differentiation and is enriched in platelets

Using quantitative RT-PCR and western blot analysis at different timepoints of primary FACSorted Mk progenitors induced to differentiate into mature MK in vitro, ARHGEF12 RNA and protein expression increases during MK differentiation in both the murine and human systems. Also western blot analysis of murine platelet rich plasma shows that ARHGEF12 protein is highly expressed in platelets.

ARHGEF12 is essential for human MK differentiation

To test the function of ARHGEF12 in Mk differentiation, we used lentiviral shRNA to knockdown ARHGEF12 in FACSorted primary human Mk progenitors from mobilized peripheral blood differentiated in vitro to MK. The results show that ARHGEF12 knockdown blocks MK polyploidization (not shown) and maturation (Fig. A). This was confirmed using a published ARHGEF12 inhibitor (Y16) in the differentiation culture of human MK progenitors, in which there was a dose-dependent block in MK differentiation (Fig. B). These data suggested that ARHGEF12 is essential for human MK differentiation.

We researched the function of ARHGEF12 in the murine system using a constitutive ARHGEF12 knockout mouse model. The mice have enlarged platelets (p=0.07) and a decreased platelet count (p=0.01). However, the knockout mice have normal BM cellularity with no change in megakaryocyte number or ploidy, suggesting that ARHGEF12 is dispensable for murine MK differentiation in vivo.

ARHGEF12 is essential for platelet function in both the murine and human systems:

To test whether ARGEF12 functions in platelet activation, we compared WT versus KO platelet activation in vitro. We tested activation in response to ADP, U46619 (Thromboxane), ADP+U46619, and Thrombin. KO plateelts have significantly reduced activation in response to U46619 and thrombin, with no effects on ADP-induced activation. Analogous studies using the ARHGEF12 inhibitor (Y16) on WT platelets revealed supportive evidence. Lastly, we tested ARHGEF12 function in human platelet aggregation using the Y16 compound. Consistent with the murine data, Y16 blocked platelet aggregation in response to both U46619 and Thrombin. Taken together, these data strongly suggest that ARHGEF12 is essential for platelet function and acts downstream of the Thromboxane and Thrombin receptors.

In summary, we found that ARHGEF12 is differentially up-regulated in MK differentiation both in human and in mouse system,. It plays a critical role in human Mk differentiation but is dispensable in murine MK differentiation, and ARHGEF12 is critical for platelet functions in both human and mouse systems, potentially acting downstream of Thromboxane and Thrombin receptors.

![Figure 1][1]

Figure 1

Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

 [1]: pending:yes


Spherical calcite chamber-like objects of almost identical size have been found in a few tests of Nummulites vascus. These Nummulites constitute the dominant benthic foraminifera assembly among the reported foraminiferal assemblage of the Abraq Formation (Late Oligocene) at the Daryanah- Al Abyar Roadcut in Northeast Libya. These structures are identified as brood chambers or cysts formed during reproduction and retained within the mother test, where the embryos were hosted during life. The possibility of a diagenetic origin to these cysts is excluded due to the hollow-nature of these objects which supports a biotic origin rather than diagenesis. Similarly, a symbiotic relationship with microalga is also excluded due to the lack of any cellular microstructure. The existence of calcitic brood chambers in Nummulites is hitherto unknown. Importantly this sample appears to be the first example of a calcified brood pouch fossil or 'cyst' in Nummulites (23– 28 Ma) research.


It is debated whether community driven development programs (CDD), or aid more generally, are effective in reducing local conflict or poverty. This paper contributes to our understanding of how to design CDD programs by studying the world's largest CDD program in Indonesia, which introduced competition for funds among villages. We leverage the design of the program to estimate the causal but unintended impact of competition on conflict. The estimated relationship is U-shaped where moderate levels of competition decrease conflict, and the effect is driven by within-village conflicts. We analyse potential mechanisms and find evidence that one likely channel is the effect of competition on attendance in village meetings, consistent with competition incentivizing participation in local institutions. ∗We thank Sam Bazzi, Larry Chavis, Ben Olken and Luhur Bima for sharing Indonesian data. We thank John Voss for sharing helpful and detailed information about the Kecamantan Development Program. We thank seminar participants at LSE, UCSD, University of Reading, Queen Mary University of London, East Carolina University and Lafayette College and conference participants at the 2016 AAEA meetings, the 2016 AERE meetings and the 2019 EEA congress. We acknowledge funding from ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy and the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment. †University of California, San Diego. E-mail:firstname.lastname@example.com ‡Queen Mary University of London, UK. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com §University of Reading, UK. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com ¶University of California, San Diego. Email: email@example.com


In the time division-long term evolution(TD-LTE) system,the number of antenna port is implied in physical broadcast channel(PBCH) by cyclic redundancy check mask(CRC mask).When the terminal obtains Master Information Block(MIB),it also needs to correctly detect the number of transmit antenna port that PBCH uses.But original blind detection method tries to decode respectively with 1,2,4 etc three kinds of transmitting antennas until decoding correctly.This will increase the decoding complexity,which especially maybe experience three times to decoding correctly.It has a considerable amount of calculation and is not conducive to engineering practice.This paper uses a new method to detect antenna port.The simulation shows that the method is suitable for real-time systems and has high reliability and simple calculation in the low noise.The method has been applied to TD-LTE TTCN extension test instrument development.


This report summarizes the results of the Pre-Front End Engineering Design (pre-FEED) phase of a proposed advanced oxy-combustion power generation plant to repower the existing 200 MWe Unit 4 at Ameren Energy Resources' (AER) Meredosia Power Plant. AER has formed an alliance with Air Liquide Process and Construction, Inc. (ALPC) and Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group (BW Equipment sizing and system configuration; Plant operation and control philosophy; Plant emissions andmore » effluents; CO2 production and recovery characteristics; Project cost estimate and economic evaluation; Integrated project engineering and construction schedule; Project risk and opportunity assessment; Development of Project permitting strategy and requirements During the Phase 2 of the Project, additional design details will be developed and the Phase 1 work products updated to support actual construction and operation of the facility in Phase 3. Additional information will be provided early in Phase 2 to support Ameren-Environmental in finalizing the appropriate permitting strategies and permit applications. Additional performance and reliability enhancements will also be evaluated in Phase 2 to try to improve overall project economics.« less


Copyright information: Taken from "Genes2Networks: connecting lists of gene symbols using mammalian protein interactions databases"http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/8/372BMC Bioinformatics 2007;8():372-372.Published online 4 Oct 2007PMCID:PMC2082048. The interface allows users to input a list of human Entrez Gene symbols, entered in a textbox or through a text file (top left). As genes are added, using the merged consolidated reference network made of different protein-protein interaction network databases, the program outputs a network map that visualize known interactions that "connect" the list of gene symbols from the seed list, and a statistical report that ranks intermediates based on their specificity to interact with the seed list.


This study, entitled The Role of Law Enforcement and the Traditional Institutions In Tackling Antiquities Theft in Tana Toraja. This research is motivated by concern for the protection of archaeological objects in Tana Toraja from the crime of theft. The format of this research is to compare the role of law enforcement and traditional institutions in tackling the theft of archaeological objects in Tana Toraja district. This type of research used is empirical legal research which focuses on social facts that have occurred in the community. The results of this study were: (1) the indigenous Toraja community prefer resolving disputes over thetheft of archaeological objects through litigation rather than through traditional procedures as the criminal sanctions which can be imposed by law enforcement officers on the perpetrators are seen as giving a greater sense of justice (2) Law enforcement authorities often have difficultyresolving disputes over the theft of archaeological objects because thefts are usually carried out in a planned and organised way (3) the role of law enforcement agencies in tackling theft of archaeological objects in Tana Toraja district is in theprosecution of the perpetrators while traditional institutions are more focused on the prevention of
theft of archaeological objects.


Credit assessment is essential in lending activities. On the one hand, errors in credit assessments can lead to financial losses in banking or financial institutions that provide credit due to the higher credit risks. This article examines the performance of clients' loan repayments in the case of YCAB Venture, one of the ultramicro credit providers in Indonesia. Using a sample of 500 clients in Jakarta, Indonesia, and employing a probit model, it is indicated that credit duration and loan cycle are the two most important loan characteristics that can predict the probability of default. Interestingly, the result shows that period of loan, years of operating business, income and family expenses has positive significant determining probability of default. On the other hand, loan size shows negative significant. The results bring several implications in further product development of ultramicro credit providers, particularly in the country.


Aim. The aim of the study was to extend the knowledge about the impact of applied selected components of "Healthy Lifestyle" teaching module, during the Physical and sport education lessons, to the changes in the exercise regime of high school pupils. Materials and Methods. Experimental selection (ES) consisted of pupils of comprehensive studies (eight-year grammar school) (n = 23 pupils), control selection (CS) of pupils of comprehensive studies (four years grammar school (n = 26 pupils). Participants were pupils (age = 15.5 ± 0.5 years old), multiplicity of each sex was following ES = 17 boys, 6 girls; CS = 16 boys, 33 girls. Pedagogical experiment was realized at High school in city Novaky and lasted from 28.4.2017 to 27.6.2017. To obtain the necessary data we used non-standardised anonymous questionnaire, which consisted of accompanying text, information about the intention, personal data (body height, body weight, sex, age, and health problems), questions about healthy life style and volume of physical activity in pupils regime. Questionnaire was distributed and filled out in the whole research group (ES, CS) before and after the experiment. Obtained data were assessed by Chi-Square test of good correlation at 1 % and 5 % level of statistical significance. Results. Application of an experimental agent in the form of a specific educational program, compiled of selected components showed that a short period of theoretical impetus has proven to be satisfactory, by increasing number of high school pupils with the dominating frequency of physical activity and changes in the amount of movement in their exercise regime. Both in boys and girls, we found statistically significant difference between knowledge about importance of physical activity and its realisation in daily regime (girls input/output; Chi = 20.96/16.96 p ? 0.01; boys input/output Chi = 7.88 p ? 0.05/12.71 p ? 0.01). Conclusion. The study has presented findings from the field of applied selected components in content standard of teaching module "Healthy Lifestyle" during the Physical and Sports education lessons to the changes in exercise regime of high school pupils.


OBJECTIVE To deepen understanding and provide valuable information about drug storage condition through analysis and research on drug storage condition and influencing factors.METHODS Storage conditions of 754 western medicines were inputted into computer for statistical analysis.The effects of temperature,light and sealing property were analyzed independently or combinedly.RESULTS Among the 754 drug preparations,50.13% should be stored at room temperature,62.73% be protected from light,and 35.15% be protected under seal.9.15% have special instructions for storage.17.38% should be stored at specific temperature under seal condition from light.8.49% should be stored at specific temperature under seal condition.5.31% should be from light at specific temperature,and 12.6% have no special requirements.The required temperatures were divided into 24 classes.CONCLUSION The above data represent the current status of drug storage.In order to ensure drug quality,requirements for the storage conditions related to temperature,light and sealing property should be paid close attention to during drug circulation,storage and use.


PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the reliability of a personal telephone service by efficiently changing the telephone calls to the subscribers of the service. SOLUTION: A telecommunication line dealer (A) discriminates whether or not a called telephone set is in a disconnected state and, when the called telephone set is in the disconnected state, (B) takes another calling action by jumping the telephone set. The telecommunication line dealer provides the same call to the same telephone set when it is discriminated that the telephone set is not disconnected. Therefore, the trial of connecting the call to the disconnected telephone set does not become useless. (1) The sending of the call to the disconnected telephone set is not tried by only using the final connecting network, (2) the call is sent to a second different telephone set, and (3) paging transmission is made to the pager of the owner of the disconnected telephone set. COPYRIGHT: (C)1996,JPO


Skewed bridge piers are suspected to be susceptible to seismic torsion during an earthquake because the inplane rotation of skewed bridge deck, due to the collision with the abutments or the adjacent spans, possibly causes the torsional rotations in the piers. An analytical study is carried out in order to investigate the seismic torsion response of skewed bridge piers. A 4 span continuous skewed bridge is analyzed by using the finite element method. Various conditions; skewed angle, pounding gap and the locking of steel bearing after failure, are taken into consideration. The analytical results indicate that the locking of bearing movement can cause sharp peak seismic torsion in skewed bridge pier.


In this second article on crossed products by "actions" of Hecke pairs we study their different C*-completions, namely we show how reduced and full C*-crossed products can be defined. We also establish that our construction coincides with that of Laca, Larsen and Neshveyev whenever they are both definable. As an application of our theory, we prove a Stone-von Neumann theorem for Hecke pairs which encompasses the work of an Huef, Kaliszewski and Raeburn and we lay down the foundations for obtaining a form of Katayama duality with respect to the Echterhoff-Quigg crossed product.


—In the field of modern finance, investors like to use the ACPM model to analyze their portfolios to reduce risks and maximize returns. And the main purpose of our investigation is to choose the six stocks and use the R-studio to analyze the data to see whether the five-factor model can be applied well in China stock market. We start our investigation by collecting data and setting up multiple linear regression models. Then we observe the correlations between the five factors and the excess returns of different stocks and test if all the values of the population parameters and some certain parameters are equal to 0. Finally, we test if multicollinearity existed. We can conclude from the analysis that HML is the most significant factor in all of the portfolios. Besides, the factor CMA has the least significance in portfolios 1 and 2 and the factor SMB is the least significant factor in the rest of the regressions of portfolios. Based on the result, we find that the five-factor model is also applicable in China stock market. So Chinese stock investors can use the five-factor model to help them achieve better investment returns.


A 40-year-old man known to react to zinc oxide plaster was seen with acute eczema of the face, hands and arms, developing 2 days after planting about 100 Cupressus Leylandii shrubs which are popular in the United Kingdom because of their decorative nature and rapid growth and, as in this case, are frequently planted to act as wind-breakers. The adhesive in zinc oxide plaster is colophony, a pine tar distillate which contains mainly abietic acid and other related terpenes. The essential oil from the Cupressus species contains many terpenes including abietic acid, terpineol, a pinene, delta carene, and camphene (1). Terpenes are non-aromatic hydrocarbons some of which have a cyclic structure. They are difficult to separate chemically and frequently occur as impurities in each other. Furthermore, gas chromatographic analysis of the essential oil of Cupressus may give varying results from tree to tree with respect to terpene constituents (1). Our patient gave negative results on patch testing to the ICDRG European battery which included colophony (0017). Other relevant patch tests were as follows: Zinc oxide plaster (as is) +++ Elastoplast (as is) +++ Cupressus leaf ++ Cupressus leaf extract in ether +++ Abietic acid 20 % pet. + Terpineol 2 % in butanol ++ a pinene I % pet. -ve Pine oil 5 % in liquid paraffin -ve Dipentene I % in liquid paraffin -ve Spanish colophony 20 % pet. +++


This policy brief analyses the impact of COVID-19 (coronavirus) on the financial sector and puts forward policy recommendations, focusing on how the international community can support countries most in need, in four areas: i) launching a large-scale, coordinated stimulus package that includes a significant increase in access to concessional financing; ii) strengthening the global financial safety net; iii) initiating a debt moratorium; and iv) in the medium-term, building a more sustainable future. These measures should complement other national and international actions to address the health, social and economic impact of the crisis.


Category: Hindfoot; Diabetes; Midfoot/Forefoot Introduction/Purpose: Chronic dislocations of the hindfoot and midfoot are a treatment challenge due to difficulties in achieving re-alignment without bone or soft tissue compromise. Neuropathy and diabetes are often associated with the chronic foot dislocation, and further complicate treatment. Our prior studies with integrated fixation methods (ring external fixation and internal fixation) for severe tibia pilon fractures and deformed, infected neuroarthopathic ankles has shown that internal fixation around the ankle can be safely combined with external fixation in single stage procedures.In this study, a staged approach is utilized to limit bone resection and minimize risks of soft tissue compromise and neurovascualar injury with severe and rigid defomity corrections. The purpose is to assess the results and complications of this surgical treatment approach. Methods: Medical records, clincal evaluation, and radiographs for 9 patients treated with gradual hexapod realignment and staged arthrodesis of chronic foot dislocations were retrospectively reviewed. There were six female and three male patients with a mean age of 59 (range, 43-71) years. Follow-up ranged from 12 months to 12 years. All had neuropathy; seven were diabetic, one CMT, one idiopathic, and one rheumatoid. Dislocation was present for a minimum of 16 weeks (range, 4 to 36 months). Seven patients had preoperative ulcerations. Seven had peritalar dislocations (subtalar and talonavicular), and two had midfoot dislocations (naviculocuneiform-1, talonavicular-1).Treatment protocol included: Surgical stage 1- soft tissue releases and Taylor spatial frame application; gradual correction of dislocation; Surgical stage 2-open arthrodeses with internal fixation and frame modification or removal. Results: All nine patients achieved a stable plantigrade and functional foot position. All fusions healed except for one talonavicular nonunion. All preoperative ulcerations healed. Six patients with peritalar dislocations had frame modification at the time of arthrodesis (mean frame time was 5.9 months). Three patients had frame removal at time of arthrodesis (mean frame time was 3 months). Average time from hexapod realignment to arthrodesis surgery was 8 (range, 3-16) weeks.Outcome with the Reinker/Carpenter scale was 5 excellent, 2 good, and 2 fair. Two peritalar dislocations developed complications; one talonavicular nonunion, and one deep infection. Other complications included further surgery in two midfoot dislocations, two forefoot wire complications, and one ankle deformity during peritalar correction. Conclusion: Staged integrated realignment/arthrodesis for chronic neuropathic foot dislocations resulted in good clinical outcomes with manageable complications. The Taylor spatial frame miter and butt constructs were successful in reducing hindfoot and midfoot dislocations, respectively. There was reliable fusion and ulcer healing with our staged protocol. This case series furthers our successful clinical results with the combined use of ring external fixation and internal fixation methods for complex foot and ankle pathology.


Resume" The scientific study of music blossomed in the second half of the nineteenth century, particularly in Germany and Austria. Researchers such as Hermann von Helmholtz and Carl Stumpf investigated the physiological and psychological bases of music but did not focus on higher-level musical topics. It was not until the early twentieth century that scientific methods were applied to the study of large-scale musical issues, such as musical style or compositional techniques. However, one late nineteenth-century scholar, Richard Wallaschek, addressed musical issues from a scientific perspective. Wallaschek used empirical methods to develop two theories, one of music perception and one of music expression. He used his theory of music perception to characterize musical style, an issue of importance to the new discipline of musicology. He argued that Classical style music requires a process of mental representation that focuses on individual musical elements while Romantic style music requires a mental representation that focuses on the holistic, global structure of music. Wallaschek's theory of music expression helped formulate his criticisms of programme music. He argued that music is an expression of emotion while a programme is an expression of intellectual thought. In Wallaschek's view, emotional and intellectual expression are separate brain processes that cannot be combined; therefore, it is impossible to perceive both music and programme at the same time. Wallaschek's focus on higher-level musical issues made him unique among scholars who used scientific methods to study music in the late nineteenth century.


In order to understand the time scales for complete mixing in a supernova-driven ISM we used the model of Avillez (2000) to follow the mixing and dispersal of inhomogeneities with different length scales. We included tracer fields to follow the inhomogeneities in kpc-scale simulations with different supernova rates. We find that an initially inhomogeneous ISM still shows local variations and a clumpy distribution on time scales of several hundred Myr. This clumpy structure does not disapear over a time of a few tens of Myr, even if the rate of SNe is increased to ten times the Galactic rate. These local variations occur because, even in the presence of numerical diffusion, gas does not mix quickly between hot and cold regions. The lower limit that we are able to place on the mixing time at the kpc scale is already longer than the time for chemistry to reach local equilibrium in the gas. The simulations also show that the time scale to erase inhomogeneities in the ISM is nearly independent of their length scale over the range 25-500 pc, contrary to what is expected from classical mixing length theory.


The effect of strain Mezorhyzobium cicery MS 285 and that of the strain combined with preparation of the quaternary ammonium class retardant -chlormequat chloride on the culture of Triumph chickpea were studied in the field experiment. The positive effect of the strain Mezorhyzobium cicery in complex with synthetic growth inhibitor chlormequat chloride (used in the budding phase of the culture) on the morphometric parameters and crop capacity of Cicer arietinum was established. It was found that both the strain and the retardant against inoculation background of Mezorhyzobium cicery led to a change in the habitus of experimental plants. There was also observed increase of total leaf area in the conditioned plants on account of the additional leaf shooting that enabled more essential donor sphere formation. This enhanced better crop capacity of the plants and positively influenced the yield. At the end of vegetation there was ndicated an increase of nitrogen and potassium contents in the seeds under the effect of both the strain of Mezorhyzobium cicery and the integrated use of the preparations. There was a simultaneous decrease in the amount of sugars in the variants with growth regulators ( the strain of Mezorhyzobium cicery MC 285 ; the strain of Mezorhyzobium cicery MC 285 + chlormequat chloride). The most productive option proved to be in the variant with integrated application of the strain and retardant.


Single Sample Face Recognition (SSFR) is considered one of the most challenging issues in biometrics. This paper suggested a hybrid model to overcome the SSFR problem using two-dimensional face images. Two kinds of features were employed for recognition: the first type was extracted using the robust Multi-block Color Binarized Statistical Image Features (MB-C-BSIF) descriptor, also called hand-crafted features. The other was deep-learning features derived by employing a Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) model on each face image. This is the first study that combines hand-crafted with deep-learning characteristics for the SSFR issue. We explored whether combining both features can improve recognition performance. Comparative experiments using the AR database indicate that performance improvements can be attained by combining both features, and the fusion of VGG-16-19 with MB-C-BSIF methods achieved the highest accuracy among all the combinations.


A large-scale alignment method is used to orient the conjugated polymer poly(2,5-bis(3-dodecyl-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene) (C12-pBTTT). This fast one-step alignment method does not use any alignment layer and does not necessarily require postalignment annealing of the films. It exploits the increased plasticity of the conjugated polymer films for 50 °C ≤ T ≤ 125 °C to obtain high in-plane orientations by mechanical rubbing of the films. As visualized by HR-TEM, the in-plane alignment of C12-pBTTT chains and size of the oriented domains increase with the temperature of the film during rubbing (Tr). The domains have a preferential face-on orientation; i.e., the π-stacking direction is along the film normal and the chain direction parallel to the rubbing direction. Postrubbing annealing at T < 200 °C can further improve in-plane alignment whereas for T ≥ 200 °C, edge-on oriented C12-pBTTT crystals are formed. The anisotropy of hole transport for highly in-plane oriented face-on as well as edge-on oriented f...


The possibilities of gene flow from wild Brassica juncea to transgenic glufosinate-and glyphosate-resistant gene oilseed rapes (B.napus) were studied by hand-pollination.The results demonstrated that the indexes of sexual compatibility of glufosinate-tolerant oilseed×wild B.juncea and glyphosate-tolerant oilseed×wild B.juncea were 0.44 and 0.54 respectively,which were significantly lower than that of self-pollination of wild B.juncea.All F1 contained herbicide-resistant gene and exhibited significant resistance to corresponding herbicide by herbicide selection and PCR test.The results on the fitness of F1 showed that both of those two kinds of F1 had good germination and growth rate,which was not significantly different from that of wild B.juncea.However the seed setting of F1 with glufosinate-resistant gene and glyphosate-resistant gene were only 0.50 and 0.61 per silique,which decreased significantly compared to that of self-pollination of wild B.juncea.The seed setting by backcross were even lower,only 0.35 and 0.33 per silique respectively,when using F1 with glufosinate-resistant gene and glyphosate-resistant gene as maternal plants and wild B.juncea as parental plant.The above results indicated that the possibilities of gene flow from wild B.juncea to two herbicide-resistant transgenic oilseed rapes may be low.


131–132. 2. Yoshiji H, Kuriyama S, Ways DK et al. Protein kinase C lies on the signaling pathway for vascular endothelial growth factor-mediated tumor development and angiogenesis. Cancer Res. 1999; 59; 4413–4418. 3. Herbst RS, Thornton DE, Sinha V et al. Phase I dose escalation and pharmacokinetics study of single-agent protein kinase C beta inhibitor LY316715. Abstract no. 43. In: ASCO 38th Annual Meeting; 2002 May 18–21; Orlando (FL), USA: Proceedings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2002; 82a. 4. Espinosa I, Briones J, Bordes R et al. PKC-beta 2 protein expression predicts for poor response to chemotherapy and survival in patients with low risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Abstract no. 3258. In ASo, ed. Hematology. ASH Annual Meeting November 16 2004, San Diego. Blood 2004. 5. Saez AI, Saez AJ, Artiga MJ et al. Building an outcome predictor model for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Am. J. Pathol. 2004; 164; 613–622. 6. Schaffel R., Biasoli I, Scheliga A et al. The expression of protein kinase C beta II (PKCb) by immunocytochemistry is predictive of the disease free survival (DFS) in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Abstract no. 4561. In: ASo, ed. Hematology. ASH Annual Meeting November 16 2004, San Diego. Blood 2004. 7. Shipp MA, Ross KN, Tamayo P et al. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma outcome prediction by gene-expression profiling and supervised machine learning. Nat. Med. 2002; 8; 68–74.


Recent sociological theories (Beck 2006; Urry 2007; Kendall, Woodward and Skrbis 2009) put forward a cosmopolitan vision, in which increasingly mobile people develop a global consciousness and move freely across borders to use their skills wherever the rewards are highest. This fits well with the ideology of globalization, according to which human capital (education, training and work experience) is the key stratifying factor in labour markets, and inequality will disappear as developing countries become incorporated into the global economy. How do such ideas reflect the experience of migrant workers during the triumphal period of neoliberalism from the late 1970s until the mid2000s and during its crisis since then? I hope to point to some possible answers, first by discussing how the neoliberal global labour market divides up workers according to non-economic criteria, such as gender, race, ethnicity, origins, legal status, and second by examining how such practices have played out in the global economic crisis (GEC).


Understanding how much, if any, of observed climate changes are anthropogenic depends upon understanding the magnitude and spatial patterns of natural climate variability. We have compared simulated surface air temperature (SAT) variability in 16 coupled ocean‐atmosphere‐sea ice climate model simulations to observed temperature variability. The majority of the simulations exhibit excessive air temperature variability over land while simulated temperature variability over oceans is generally too low. The ratio of variability over land to over oceans is too high in all the simulations, relative to observations. We have identified several factors which may contribute to the differences in temperature variability. In particular, many of the models use "bucket" land surface schemes which produce greater temperature variability over land, due to lower levels of soil moisture, than more realistic land surface schemes produce.


Connection rules for envelope functions are formulated in terms of a transfer matrix, the elements of which are calculated using a scattering-matrix approach based on empirical pseudopotentials. We propose a 6\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}6 transfer matrix for the case when a four-band k\ensuremath{\cdot}p model is used, contrary to the conventional 8\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}8 matrix. The transfer-matrix elements are calculated for a GaAs/AlAs interface, in which case the transfer matrix appears to be almost diagonal. The envelope functions are to a good approximation continuous at the GaAs/AlAs interface, whereas the first derivatives appear to be more or less discontinuous at the interfaces. However, we find no evidence for connection rules for the first derivatives of envelope functions involving effective-mass ratios, which is at variance with the rules as commonly used in the literature. For the InAs/GaSb interface the off-diagonal elements of the transfer matrix appear to be nonzero, whereas the diagonal elements are negligibly small.


Particle swarm optimization (PSO) has been shown as an effective tool for solving single objective optimization problems. However, premature convergence is the major obstacle for PSO. So far, many PSO variants have been proposed to prevent premature convergence. Nonetheless, even though some strategies have been adopted for avoiding premature convergence, PSO variants could not achieve all great performance. In this paper, we introduce an adaptive general framework to enhance the performance of PSO variants, convergence speed controller with an adaptive diversity control strategy (CSC-ADCS). With the aim to maintain the convergence speed and prevent premature convergence, CSC will conditionally detect the status of Swarm. And ADCS is introduced so that the conditions are adaptive on the basis of the diversity of swarm. Once the CSC framework detects that premature convergence occurs, two rules would help the swarm to get rid of the abnormal status. The experimental results conducted on CEC'2013 benchmark functions show that with the help of adaptive CSC framework, PSO variants with CSC-ADCS will get better results than ones without CSC-ADCS.


EPA will review each registered pesticide at least every 15 years to determine whether it continues to meet the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) standard for registration. There are currently 745 registration review cases.


This position paper presents an overview of key insights in relation to the provisioning of IT services in the digital business context. These insights, as derived from relevant academic and practitioner literature and engagement with patrons and members of the Innovation Value Institute (IVI) global consortium, have informed the development of IVI's IT-CMF Service Provisioning (SRP) Critical Capability (CC). Additionally, changes to the SRP CC improve the alignment of the capability with the ISO 20000 standard and the ITIL framework. They also reflect digital changes such as the virtualization, automation, and orchestration of IT infrastructure, and support the growing prevalence of Agile and DevOps approaches [1].


In this paper a real-time data fusion approach for vehicle localization to adaptive stabilization of uncertain GPS localization system is presented. Our approach is based on the fusion of GPS, 3D gyroscope and speedometer. The global probability density function (PDF) is adopted to be the blending factor instead of general Kalman gain function, which allows our approach to be robust and accurate for most of practical systematic problems for vehicle localization like slow data drift, large infrequent data jumps. Combining with vision sensor for lane shape recognition and tracking, our system provides a very accurate and real-time vehicle localization approach, which has been adopted to superimpose virtual navigation indicators and icons onto real driver's view to direct visual navigation in VICNAS[1] system. Simulation and real road tests verified the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach.


Especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of humans spend most of their waking life using digital screen devices. The present paper explains how adaptive interfaces could improve digital well-being by customizing the output data and digital environments to each user. ©2021 Copyright for this paper by its authors.


The aim of our study was to investigate the physical state and the viral load of HPV‐16 in tonsillar cancer and to correlate these findings with clinical outcome. To distinguish between integrated and episomal forms of HPV, 22 fresh‐frozen tonsillar cancer samples were analysed by a method based on restriction enzyme cleavage, ligation and PCR (rliPCR). HPV‐16 was detected in 11/22 and HPV‐33 in 1/22 of the cancers, hence 12/22 (55%) of the tumours were HPV positive. Only extrachromosomal forms of HPV‐16 were observed. Full‐length episomal HPV was detected exclusively in 7/11 of the cancers, whereas both full‐length and deleted forms of episomal HPV‐16 were found in parallel in 2 other tumours. In 1 tumour only a deleted episomal form of HPV‐16 was present. In the remaining HPV‐16 positive tumour both full‐length episomal as well as an 11 kbp PCR product were detected and if the 11 kbp product contained integrated HPV, or was off‐size linearised episomal could not be determined. In 2 cervical cancer controls, HPV‐16 was integrated and could be chromosome located. HPV‐16 was quantified by real‐time PCR and most tonsillar cancers contained between 10 to a few hundred copies of HPV per β‐actin. The 6 patients with tumour sections with ≥190 HPV‐16 copies/β‐actin remained tumour free (p = 0.026) and had a better survival rate (p = 0.039) when compared to the 5 patients with tumours sections with ≤60 HPV‐16 copies/β‐actin. In conclusion, HPV‐16 is mainly episomal in tonsillar cancer. The viral load showed a wide distribution and the clinical outcome in our study was better when the HPV load was higher. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


: The Sencelles fault constitutes the main extensional structure of the Mallorca Island tentatively linked to the AD 1851 Palma earthquake (VII EMS.) The SE termination of the fault (Sta. Eugenia Segment) is featured by a linear bedrock fault scarp of a maximum of 3.15 m height. The last 840 m of this rocky scarp display a significant horizontal banding, with up to five bands differentially weathered and colonized by lichens. The lichenometric analysis is based on the measurement of 125 specimens of "Aspicilia calcarea" and " Aspicilia radiosa" in tombstones and funerary monuments (with inscribed dates) of the cemeteries of Sta. Eugenia and Sta. María del Camí, to obtain the lichen growth rates (LGR) for the zone. The application of the resulting LGR on the banded fault scarp indicates that the basal ribbon (10-13 cm) responds to ground leveling works developed in the zone during the middle 20 th century (c. 1956-1953). The second fault ribbon (23-47 cm) can be related to the AD 1851 Palma Earthquake, since LGR results here in exposure dates of 1853±18 AD (A.radiosa) and 1855±59AD (A. calcarea). The associated displacements cannot be interpreted as surface faulting, but as secondary or sympathetic ground ruptures (secondary earthquake effects).


Under the background of the No.15 implementation of CBRC and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the development of Urban Investment Company is facing new challenges and tests. As local government debt continues to increase, the risk of local government debt is becoming increasingly


Shallots are one of the commodities with high economic value. This study aims to determine (1) the effect of each dose and genotype of sulfur on the growth and yield of shallots, (2) to determine the interaction of sulfur and genotype on the growth and yield of the tested genotypes and comparison varieties. This research was carried out from August to November 2019 at the screenhouse of the Faculty of Agriculture, Jenderal Soedirman University, Grendeng Village, North Purwokerto District, Banyumas Regency at an altitude of 110 m above sea level. The experimental design used was the RAKL (Completely Randomized Design) with 3 replications. The first factor to be tested was the dose of sulfur (S) which consisted of S1 (30 ppm) and S2 (90 ppm) and the second factor was the genotype (G) which consisted of fifteen genotypes and five comparison varieties. The characteristics observed in this study were: plant height, number of leaves, leaf length, leaf diameter, root weight, plant wet weight, plant dry weight, number of tubers, tuber diameter, tuber wet weight, tuber dry weight. The results showed that (1) increasing the dose of sulfur increased the number of leaves, leaf length, root length, plant dry weight and tuber dry weight, (2) The interaction between genotype and sulfur was found in characters such as leaf length, leaf diameter, root volume, root length. root, plant dry weight, tuber diameter, tuber wet weight and tuber dry weight, (4) Bima Juna varieties, genotypes G3, G11, G15, G16, G17, G22, G23, G24, G79, C4 experienced an increase in tuber dry weight at dose of 90 ppm.


Abstract The presence of inherent defects in three commercial weldable Al-Zn-Mg alloys renders slow-strain-rate testing of smooth tensile specimens unreliable for assessing susceptibility to stress-corrosion failure, unless flawed specimens are recognizable and occur sufficiently infrequently for them to be rejected. The flaws present in the alloys investigated consisted of thin sheets of magnesium oxide parallel to the rolling plane and therefore perpendicular to the direction of maximum susceptibility to stress-corrosion failure. Because the flaws have much less effect on the initiation of stress-corrosion cracks in precracked specimens, the stress-intensity factors determined for such initiation in various environments do provide a reliable assessment of susceptibility.


Roles of low-loss PCB materials are becoming more important along with the expansion of IoT (Internet of Things). Particularly, high speed and wide band data transmissions in 5G and the following generations are core technologies to progress IoT [1], and many PCB materials have been proposed and the evaluations are ongoing. However, the low loss transmission still has to be improved furthermore so that the advanced communications can be utilized without any limitation. BT (Bis-maleimide & Triazine) resin, a kind of thermosetting resin materials has excellent mechanical and electrical properties derived from unique polymer net-working [2]. In this study, new BT resin designed for 5G and the following generations was developed [3]. Generally, PCB materials aiming for low loss transmission need to have low Dk (Dielectric Constant) and low Df (Dissipation Factor). Then the new BT resin was designed to have lower Dk and Df than the conventional BT resins ever had.In this study, compatibility of BT resin varnish was investigated firstly. Because, typically, some components bringing low Dk and low Df to BT resin show poor compatibilities with the main components due to the difference of polarity. Secondly, adhesion to copper foils was studied. To reduce the transmission loss, copper foils laminated on BT composite (BT resin fillers glass clothes) are desired to have low surface profiles. So, it was necessary to keep adhesion even if anchoring effect became smaller. Finally, BT laminates and package substrates were fabricated to assess mechanical behaviors, the electrical reliability and the transition of Df under high temperature or/and high humidity conditions. Especially, the stability of the dielectric properties under harsh conditions is very important to ensure the advanced electrical modules under actual environments.As the conclusion of this study, the novel BT resin has been developed and the excellent performances were successfully demonstrated. The next challenge following this study is ongoing.


Bearings are important components in machinery. Yet, there is still much research that has to be effectuated. This work examines the response of non-damaged bearings, as well as different damaged bearings at different loading cases and speeds. The results will be used to acquire a more detailed knowledge that will help making robust health monitoring algorithms to detect future failures in systems.


Statistical evidences that some transmission channels of «resource curse» operate in Russian economy at regional level are received. Incomes from export of power resources and gratuitous federal transfers play a role in increase of officialdom, in distortion of regional elite behavior, and also influence the level of poverty and inequality in the Russian regions.


The nonlinear effect degrades the system performance. Because nonlinear effects tend to manifest themselves when optical power is very high, they become important in WDM. Four-wave mixing (FWM) is one of the dominating degradation effects in wavelength divisionmultiplexing (WDM) systems with dense channel spacing and low chromatic dispersion on the fiber. Four wave mixing (FWM) is a parametric process in which different frequencies interact and by frequency mixing generate new spectral components. FWM can have important deleterious effects in optical fiber communications, particularly in the context of wavelength division multiplexing where it can cause cross-talk between different wavelength channels, and /or an imbalance of channel powers. The paper presents the design and performance analysis of four-wave mixing effect on the basis of output spectrums, eye diagrams, BER, eye opening and Q-factor for different values of channel spacing. Keywords— Channel spacing, Eye diagram, FWM, nonlinear effects, WDM


The relationship between the education and happiness is premise for realizing well-being education.This paper summarizes main content of the education and happiness research in recent ten years,analyzes the structure of strengthening happiness,and proposes some methods to improve education and happiness research.


Many online businesses expose their technological product and service offerings as web services. To offer the desired functionality, often a number of simple web services need to be combined to create a composite web service. Traditionally, services were implemented as SOAP based services. However, RESTful services are now becoming more popular. Thus, there is a large pool of services available to users for inclusion in a composite service. The BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) has been in use for creation of complex services as per the workflow. At present, the BPEL standard does not support inclusion of RESTful web services in the business process. This prevents inclusion of many useful services in a complex business use case where lots of web services are required in order to achieve desired functionality. In this paper, a method RESO Co has been proposed that enables the conventional BPEL engine to consume SOAP based as well as RESTful services in composition. The presented method thus helps in increasing the number of services available for composition while also preserving the advantage of lightweight nature of RESTful services.


The crime‐detection automatic speaker verification and identification (CASVI) system, using a new spectral and cepstral analysis technique, is described. Robust speaker recognition algorithms, the operation modes, the control windows, the testing methodology, and the testing results of the system are presented. Research of the system has shown it can efficiently work with strongly corrupted utterances, while the corruption of the utterances being compared may be considerably different. For any utterances, permissible frequency distortions are 35 dB in the operating band and the permissible signal‐to‐noise ratio of additive noise is 12 dB. In these conditions, the CASVI system using 12‐s speech utterances demonstrates the possibility to verify and identify persons on the level of 90% of correct acceptance when the false‐alarm rate is 10%. The verification and identification time by the system takes some minutes. The CASVI system does not require high qualification of an expert. The system has a very simple...


Aims: Occlusion dynamics is an elusive phenomenon.This study observed occlusal contacts and their area on the teeth during lateral mandibular movements. The percentage of each occlusal pattern was determined. Materials and methods: 105 subjects (male: 34, female: 71), aged 20-26 years, were included in the study. The criteria for selection were as follow: all subjects (i) were in their twenties; (ii) had normal occlusal alignment, no temporomandibular signs and symptoms; (iii) had full dentition except for third molars; (iv) had no history of orthodontic therapy; and (v) had no restorations involving a cusp. The occlusal contacts were recorded with occlusion foil in different lateral excursions: 1, 2, 3 mm and maximum laterıtrusion from the maximum intercuspation. Data were analyzed with chi-squ-are and Fisher's Exact test.(p <0,05) Most of the working-side contact patterns were classified as posterior group guidance (57,4%). Canine guidance occlusion guide was less often (9,8%). Other unidentified contacts were observed at a mean rate of 20.2%. In the maximum lateral movement position, anterior group guidance was most observed on both sides. On laterotrusion, most subjects had the posterior group guided on the working side but canine occlusion guide was less often. Descriptive studies are required for other unspecified occlusal contacts patterns.


In fine arts appreciation course,teachers use comparative teaching method to guide students to understand the relationship between fine arts works and social history,and analyze styles using specific works,thus building up the platform of vertical and horizontal comparison to enhance students' studying interest,expand their minds,and to help them to establish trans-cultural thinking mode and finally to cultivate their independent appreciation ability.


Abstract The victims' rights movement has helped promote opportunities for victim participation within the criminal justice system. One such opportunity, the creation and delivery of a victim impact statement, has generated significant empirical attention. Most of this research explores the effects of participation on specific outcomes (e.g., sentencing, victim satisfaction). Yet relatively little is known about the implementation of victim participation in the courtroom by criminal justice workers. Using trial transcripts, courtroom observations, and interviews with criminal justice officials and victims, the current study examines the rules that regulate victim participation, revealing how victims are incorporated into the justice process.


Background: The tumor microenvironment (TME) is a critical player in tumor progression, metastasis and therapy outcome. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are a well-recognized core element of the TME, and are generally characterized as M2-like macrophages. TAMs are believed to contribute to tumor progression, but the mechanism behind this remains unclear. We aimed to investigate the clinical value, angiogenic and lymphangiogenic significance of TAMs in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: We assessed CD68, CD163, VEGF-A, and VEGF-C expression in 349 patients with NSCLC by combined immunohistochemistry and digital image analysis. Subsequently, the potential association between M2 TAMs and angiogenetic VEGF-A and/or lymphangiogenetic VEGF-C was evaluated for its prognostic value. Furthermore, the effects of M2 TAMs on angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis were explored in vitro co-culture system. Results: Elevated M2 (CD163+/CD68+) ratio was significantly associated with poor overall survival (p=0.023). Dual high expression of M2 ratio and VEGF-C was correlated with worse overall survival (p=0.033). Furthermore, CD68 and CD163 expression are positively associated with VEGF-A and/or VEGF-C expression. Multivariate analysis revealed that M2 ratio was an independent predictor of poor survival [HR (95% CI) = 1.53 (1.01-2.33), p=0.046]. Combined M2+/VEGF-C+ expression was also an independent predictor of poor survival [HR (95% CI) = 2.01 (1.28-3.16), p=0.003]. Notably, we confirmed that M2 macrophages enhanced the protein and mRNA expression of both VEGF-A and VEGF-C significantly, while M1 macrophages induced only mRNA expression of VEGF-A significantly in A549 cells. Conclusions: This study suggests that TAMs are significantly associated with angiogenesis or lymphangiogenesis in the progression of NSCLC. Furthermore, elevated M2 ratio and combined M2 and VEGF-C high expression are strong indicators of poor prognosis in patients with NSCLC. Citation Format: Ilseon Hwang, Keun Uk Park, Eun Hee Jung, Hun-Mo Ryoo, Kris Ylaya, Joon-Yong Chung, Stephen M. Hewitt. Tumor-associated macrophage, angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis predicts prognosis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 3970.


This introductory chapter provides an overview of the concept of Climate Change Criminology. Climate Change Criminology rests upon the four pillars of crime and harm; global connectedness and ecological justice; causes and consequences; and power and interests. These are separate but inextricably linked domains of analysis, interpretation, and critique. Each area demands novel ways of thinking about the problem, employing methods and approaches that necessarily push the boundaries of contemporary criminological theory and the purview of modern criminal justice institutions. In several important respects, Climate Change Criminology parallels work which focuses on 'social harm' as a constitutive concept. What makes a social harm 'social' is the fact that it does not stem from natural causes; it is intrinsically caused by humans. Analysis and response to this is central to the project of Climate Change Criminology.


Tao is an important classical theory of literature and art in China.Based on the three papers by Liu Xie,Han Yu and Zhang Xuecheng,this paper tries to point out the meaning of tao in Confucianism and the inˉfluence of the changes of Confucianism on the classical theory.


n this chapter, I discuss some of the newer female short story writers to have emerged recently in Britain. Situating their work within the context of contemporary literature culture, I outline the importance of small press publication, Creative Writing courses, literary awards and social media in promoting the short story and nurturing the careers of its authors. I illustrate my arguments by using collections by four writers as case studies. These are Sweet Home by Carys Bray (2012), Diving Belles by Lucy Wood (2012), The Redemption of Galen Pike by Carys Davies (2014) and Light Box by K.J. Orr (2016). Through a close reading of the stories, I identify the distinctive strategies adopted by these writers and their contribution to the ongoig development of the genre within the context of British society.


This paper discusses a kind of method to calculate numerical differentiation by using integral.Convergence result under certain condition is also obtained.Good convergent order connecting some regularised parameter can be got by using this method.


Chronic stress is associated with impairments in learning and memory, as well as changes in dendritic structure and synaptic connections of the hippocampus, a brain region key for spatial and episodic learning and memory. However, the cellular- and circuit- level mechanisms by which stress-induced structural synaptic changes impair learning and memory are not yet clear. Structural changes have historically been studied mostly by ex vivo preparations, due to the necessity to sacrifice the subjects to quantify structural changes. This approach however, is limited in its temporal resolution and lacks the ability to study the dynamic response to stress within the same subjects. This is important because responses to stress and learning and memory are intrinsically dynamic processes and individuals may differ in their baseline dynamics based on a host of uncontrollable factors.
In order to overcome these drawbacks, I employed deep brain 2-photon in vivo time lapse optical imaging to longitudinally study the dorsal hippocampal CA1 region in live mice. I used a transgenic mouse model where a green fluorescent protein targeted to the cytoplasm sparsely labels a subset of excitatory neurons (Thy1-GFPm line). This enabled me to visualize the structure and the spines – protrusions on the dendrites where most of the excitatory synapses of excitatory neurons occur – of CA1 pyramidal neuron's basal dendrites, further allowing me to track structural synaptic changes upon multi-modal stress (MMS). MMS involves exposure of mice to multiple simultaneous stressors.
In this work, I tracked synaptic dynamics over two weeks during baseline and acute and repeated MMS by deep brain 2-photon in vivo time lapse optical imaging of groups of Thy1-GFPm mice. This enabled me to investigate – for the first time in vivo – stress-induced changes in CA1 synaptic dynamics.
With this approach I was able to determine that MMS results in disruption of homeostatic structural plasticity. In addition I found that MMS strongly alters dynamics of immature synapses by decreasing their survival. Conversely, recovery increased the survival of spines born after stress, demonstrating higher survival rates in comparison to internally controlled baseline survival.
In addition, I observed that stress increased the distance between newly formed spines and decreased the distance between lost spines, supporting spatially modulated alterations.
Finally, I investigated the extent to which acute MMS and recovery and repeated MMS impair CA1 dependent learning and recall by using the Morris Water Maze (MWM) spatial learning paradigm and observed an impairment in learning in both stress groups.
Understanding how stress impacts the dynamics of synapses is important to elucidate the basic mechanisms by which stress impairs learning and memory and it will be important for the development of therapeutic interventions both in terms of time scales and targets.


Equalitarianism,as a type of pursuing ideality by the masses,not only coordinated the order of the governing,but propelled the development of the society.While in practice,it revealed its fantasy and illusion.For its inconformity with the development of the society,it's discarded consequently.Through emphasizing particularly on equalitarianism during the taiping rebellion,the New Democratic Revolution,the Social Democratic Revolution,this article tries to analyses its acting role in the development in modern China.


Iron-chalcogenide superconductors of the FeSe family provide an exciting platform to investigate the high-temperature superconductivity that often emerges from intertwined electronic nematic and spin-density wave orders. Tuning parameters, such as applied pressure and chemical pressure [1,2], can be used to explore the phase diagram and establish the characteristics of the normal state quasiparticles. In this talk, I will present quantum oscillations studies under high applied hydrostatic pressure in FeSe 1-x S x using magnetotransport and tunnel diode oscillator experiments up to 45T [3,4,5]. I will discuss the evolution of the Fermi surface and the quasiparticle effective masses in the vicinity of the nematic end point as well as inside the high-pressure phase where superconductivity is enhanced. I will compare phase diagram of different systems and discuss the role of Cu impurity scattering [6,7]. These studies emphasize the robustness of the high-temperature superconducting phase, the role of the electronic correlations as well as the characteristics of the anomalous normal electronic phases.


We investigate the spin transport and precession in graphene by using the Hanle effect in nonlocal and three-terminal measurement geometries. Identical spin lifetimes, spin diffusion lengths, and spin polarizations are observed in graphene devices for both techniques over a wide range of temperatures. The magnitude of the spin signals is well explained by spin transport models. These observations rules out any signal enhancements or additional scattering mechanisms at the interfaces for both geometries. This validates the applicability of both the measurement methods for graphene based spintronics devices and their reliable extractions of spin parameters.


Reliability of the pantograph is of utmost importance to safe and normal operation of high speed EMU. In this paper,the theory of a kind of reliability evaluation method——GO methodology is applied in RAMS assessment of the pantograph. GO method can directly deal with quantitative calculation of system reliability with no need for probability calculation of complex state combination,easy to be programmed and suitable for engineering application. This paper first introduces the basic principle of GO method,and then makes detailed analysis on the lifting and dropping of type DSA250 pantograph and the establishment of GO chart. Finally,the reliability data is obtained by using GO calculation.Practice has proved that this method has a practical significance to the design improvements,maintenance,repair and troubleshooting of pantograph of high speed EMU.


The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a difference in the performance of Islamic banks in Indonesia and Malaysia on the Maqashid Syariah Index. This study was a quantitative study using the independent samples t-test for comparative analysis. The study targets 8 Indonesian Islamic Commercial Banks and 8 Malaysian Islamic Banks. The data type used is the secondary data in the form of 2021 company financial statements obtained from the official websites of each bank. The research sampling method adopts purposeful sampling. The results showed that Indonesian and Malaysian Islamic banks did not differ in their performance in terms of educational goals, and Indonesian and Malaysian Islamic banks differed significantly and significantly in their performance in achieving justice. There was no significant difference in the performance of Islamic banks in Indonesia and Malaysia.Malaysia is viewed from the public interest. And there is a significant difference between the performance of Islamic banking in Indonesia and Malaysia in terms of the Maqashid Syariah Index (MSI).


A briefing on the current situation and the problem of solid waste in china was given in the paper.The application of radiation technology in many fields,such as sewage sludge,construction waste and macromolecule solid waste,were summarized.The application prospect of radiation in solid waste recycle was discussed.


A blend of the polymer poly2-2-ethylhexyloxy-5-methoxy-1,4-phenylenevinyleneMEH-PPV and the electron-transport molecule tris-8-hydroxyquinoline aluminum Alq3 has been investigated by means of electroluminescence and fluorescence spectroscopy, upon variation of the Alq3 content in the blend.Adecreased interchain emission is observed upon increasing Alq3 content, due to lower packing of the MEH-PPV chains which leads to a reduction in the interchain interaction, excimer formation, and emission probability. A branching of MEH-PPV interchain and intrachain emissive contributions is clearly time resolved and analyzed as a function of the Alq3 content. At high doping concentration, direct emission from Alq3 molecules is observed. © 2010 American Institute of Physics. doi:10.1063/1.3276271 Conjugated polymers have been extensively investigated due to their interesting physical properties as well as for their large potential for electroluminescent applications. Recently, polymer blends represent an alternative approach to new materials with improved performance for use in semiconductor devices. Numerous reports have demonstrated that utilizing the blending techniques, single-layer polymer light-emitting


Our group demonstrated previously that treatment with concanavalin-A (Con-A) can induce the production of TNF-alpha and protect mice against a lethal inoculum of Candida albicans. In


The main pathological hallmark in Parkinson s disease (PD) is the
progressive loss of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra
(SN), affecting movements such as walking, talking and writing. Today,
there is no cure available for PD and existing treatments only provide
symptomatic relief, but the prospect of using stem cell based cell
replacement therapies for patients with PD have provided new optimism. In
order to improve the efficiency of DA neuron production, engraftment and
function, a solid understanding of the molecular mechanisms that govern
DA neurogenesis is crucial. In recent years, morphogens and intrinsic DA
neuron determinants, that enable stem and progenitor cells to establish
proper identity, have been identified. However, the whole story has yet
to be uncovered. In order to improve the efficiency of DA neuron
production, engraftment and function, a solid understanding of the
molecular mechanisms that govern DA neurogenesis and differentiation is
crucial. This thesis examines the expression and function of chemokines
during DA neurogenesis.

In paper I we demonstrate that three alpha-chemokines, CXCL1, -6 and -8,
increase the number of DA neurons in ventral midbrain (VM) precursor and
neurosphere cultures by diverse mechanisms. CXCL6 does so by promoting
the differentiation of Nurr1+ precursors into DA neurons in vitro.
Intriguingly, CXCL8, a ligand expressed only in homo sapiens, enhanced
progenitor cell division, neurogenesis and Tyrosine hydroxylase positive
(TH+) cell number in rodent precursor and neurosphere cultures. CXCL1,
the murine ortholog of CXCL8, was developmentally regulated in the VM and
exhibited similar, but not identical activities to CXCL8.

In paper II we identify two β-chemokines, CCL2 and CCL7, as novel
regulators of DA neurogenesis. CCL2 and CCL7 were found to promote the
development of DA neurons by selectively enhancing the differentiation of
Nurr1+ precursors into TH+ DA neurons. Moreover, both CCL2 and CCL7 were
found to increase neuritogenesis in TH+ neurons in VM precursor and
neurosphere cultures.

In paper III we report that CXCL12/CXCR4 signaling regulates migration of
A9-A10 DA neurons, neuritogenesis and the initial orientation of their
processes. Taken together, our data provides evidence that chemokines are
highly involved in DA neuron development and suggest that they may be
useful to enhance DA cell preparations for cell replacement therapy as
well as for drug discovery in PD.


Since multidrug therapy is common in the intensive care unit (ICU), the risk of drug interactions is high. This study aimed to examine the prevalence of drug interactions and risk factors in patients who were admitted to ICUs. In a cross-sectional study, the medication flow sheet of 101 patients was investigated in terms of the number and the type of drug interactions. The Drug Interaction Facts reference text book (2010 edition) was used to determine the type and the number of drug interactions. In total, 609 potential drug interactions were found. The mean number of drug interactions per patient was 6.1 (SD=5.6). Of all observed drug interactions, 66.9% were classified as harmful and 33.1% beneficial. In terms of the nature of interactions, delayed, moderate, and possible were the most common types. The most frequent harmful interaction was between phenytoin and omeprazole (63 occasions). Critically ill patients are at a higher risk of drug interactions. Although 33.1% of the drug interactions were considered beneficial, medical teams should be aware that even beneficial interactions can have undesirable side-effects in the critically ill.


In recent years organizations are increasingly utilizing workflow management systems technology, based on queuing models, to automate manual business processes. One industry that has seen one of the most rapid implementation and deployment of workflow systems in recent years is the services/call center industry. Despite the great promise, workflow queue monitoring and work distribution continue to pose great challenges to organizations in terms of operational efficiency and performance. The primary reason for the inherent performance problems is whether the queues are configured as static or dynamic queues. In this study, static and dynamic queue configurations, based on M/M/c and M/M/1 queuing models in the call center context are compared across several performance dimensions. An empirical study was used to compare the performance of a static versus a dynamic configuration in a call center context. Results suggest that dynamic queue configurations perform better than static queue configurations. A simulation model using parameter estimates from the real-life case was used to understand the results further. Overall, the superiority of dynamic workflow systems over static workflow systems in the call center context is confirmed in this study.


John Townsend Trowbridge, though one of Whitman's earliest and oldest friends, has not received adequate recognition for his loyal yet discriminating service. Passing reference, it is true, is meted out to him in critical biographies of Whitman or in an occasional article. But even the latest Whitman study accords to Trowbridge only a few pages in which he is associated with the English critic, Edward Carpenter. In consequence the following survey is an attempt to throw added light upon the nature and extent of this relationship.


Objective The aims of this study were to determine how to choose the appropriate surgical approach based on the anatomical character of the thalamic gliomas and to investigate the corresponding surgical skill and assistive technology.Methods The records of 98 adult patients with thalamic tumor between 2004.1 and 2012.6 in our hospital were retrospectively reviewed.Of the 98 patients,53 had a low-grade tumor,and 45 had a high-grade tumor.Two groups of gliomas were analyzed separately:(1) unilateral thalamic gliomas (81 lesions); (2) thalamopeduncular gliomas (17 lesions).All the patients underwent tumor resection.Results Total resection of the tumor was achieved in 62 cases (63%),subtotal resection in 26 (27%) cases and most resection in 10 (10%) cases.Postoperative improvement was achieved in 61 cases (62%),unchange in 29 (30%) cases,aggravation in 6 (6%)cases,and death in 2 (2%) cases.Conclusions Total or subtotal remove and good results can be gained in the majority of the patients with unilateral thalamic gliomas based on the correct surgical approach,skill and assistive technology.

Key words:
Thalamic glioma;  Surgical techniques ;  Adult


Counter is one of the most commonly used basic components in digital system.Measurement,calculation,timing control and other functions will be achieved by dividing or counting pulses using a counter.The functions of a kind of medium-scale integrated circuit,4-bit binary addition counter 74LS161 is introduced in this paper.A kind of traffic lights circuits controlled by it is designed and discussed.The conclusion that simply-constructed,stable,credible and economical practical circuits can be got by using counter is indicated.


Given its subject matter, Simon Knowles's description of the pregnancy loss roadshow (p 1705) seemed an obvious choice for Christmas. Its visual references — to photographs, hand and foot prints, and identity bracelets — suggested that it might also provide the basis for this year's cover.

 ![][1]

I saw Meg Campbell's etchings at an exhibition called "Reclaiming the Madonna: Artists as Mothers." They came out of a joint residency at the Princess Anne Maternity Hospital, Southampton, with poet Fiona Sampson.

In the catalogue, Ms Campbell moved from a description of a caesarean section to her …

 [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif


This paper proposes a DSP optimization solution of rain detection and removal algorithm. We propose rain detection and removal algorithms considering camera motion, and also presents optimization results in algorithm level and DSP level. At algorithm level, this paper utilizes a block level binary pattern analysis, and reduces the operation time by using the fast motion estimation algorithm. Also, the algorithm is optimized at DSP level through inter memory optimization, EDMA, and software pipelining for real-time operation. Experiment results show that the proposed algorithm is superior to the other algorithms in terms of visual quality as well as processing speed.


Marine fishery is an important part of Shandong island fishery.Due to scattered layout and chaotic development patterns,the efficiency of island fishery is low.How to reconstruct island fishery,innovate development patterns,integrate spacial structures and industrial structures is important to island fishery sustainable development.The implementation of blue economic zone in Shandong peninsula should be optimized from the aspects of enhancing comprehensive benefits, completing infrastructures and reconstruct developing sequence.


The quality of the flowering plants of four chrysanthemum cultivars was studied in 12 growth cycles starting on the second day of each month throughout the year, from January to December. No supplementary light was used. The plants which attained the highest quality were those potted between February and September and flowering between April and November, respectively, when real insolation amounted to 200-250 hours per month. In the autumn-winter season when the amount of insolation fell by half, the quality of flowering plants declined dramatically. Hence, planting dates between October and January were judged unfit for the start of controlled cultivation of pot cultivars of chrysanthemums.


From the early days of commercial television to the present time, only a limited variety of vertical-scanning circuits have been introduced. The trend has been to use dual triode circuits, often in intricate and critical arrangements that required high-precision components. As a result, vertical circuits have been relatively difficult to maintain, and the over-all costs of these circuits have been high. These conditions still persist, although to a much lesser extent, in the modified multivibrator type of vertical circuit that is most widely used today. This paper describes a self-oscillating vertical circuit that is simpler and more reliable than the present multivibrator type and that has substantially improved performance characteristics. The increased simplicity and reliability will greatly ease the maintenance problem and substantially reduce circuit costs.


This paper presents the use of circuit in plastic (CiP) as a new technology to develop a polycarbonate substrate microstrip patch antenna (PSMPA) for a fifth-generation (5G) system. The proposed compact PSMPA operates at a resonant frequency of 28 GHz and uses silver as a conductor instead of copper. The polycarbonate substrate has a thickness of 3 mm and a dielectric constant of 2.9. The inset feed technique is used as a feeding scheme to match the patch and the 50 Ω microstrip line. The proposed PSMPA structure has been simulated using Computer Simulation Technology (CST) Microwave Studio and its performance has been evaluated and compared with similar existing designs in the literature. The proposed PSMPA shows a return loss ( ) of -23.011 dB, bandwidth (BW) of 1.173 GHz, voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) of 1.3560, gain (G) of 5.684dBi, and radiation efficiency (


A good bicycle policy should go beyond the construction of segregated bicycle facilities. Segregation is not the best solution in all cases. Discussions about the desirability of segregated facilities are based on the incompatibility of fast riding motor and bicycle traffic. This incompatibility can be solved either by segregation, or by decreasing intensity and motor traffic speed. Many discussions on this issue follow from badly designed segregated facilities. This paper discusses the desirability of segregation and integration at different combinations of intensity and motor traffic speed, and characteristics of the situation. For the covering abstract see IRRD 860086.


In the context of ever increasing information dependence of all spheres of activity of the company reliability and dependability of information and communication technologies (ICT), quality of information, which is used by members of the information society, saving secrets is of paramount importance. Users must trust all information services they use. Otherwise, the consequences for society and each individual can be simply disastrous. Thus, one of the main problems of the development of the information society is to ensure the information security of the individual, society and state. In order to successfully resist the flow of threats and challenges, each member of the information society must have a certain minimum knowledge, culture and appropriate information to be prepared for an active struggle for the purity of the various types of ICT cyber-hawks, cybercriminals, cyber-terrorists and just cyber-bullies. At the same time, as shown by statistics and sociological research, while rapidly increasing the level of the use of global information and communication networks the level of information literacy of users and their information culture is extremely low. Only about 10 percent of people are more or less aware of the dangers they face while working on the Internet, or they (unwillingly) is subjected to its correspondents. Thus, today the key issue of the Information Society becomes the formation of information culture of users and, above all, raising their awareness in this area. Analysis of approaches and expertise to solve this problem (especially overseas) is the subject of this article. The conceptual and substantive plans for the material of the article is based on a UN General Assembly resolution that approved in December 2002 the principles of formation of global culture of cybersecurity


We report a rare case of a 73-year-old man who was presented with an 8-year history of progressive pruritic skin discoloration. Homogeneous dark brown to black hyperpigmentation involving the face, neck, axillae extensor surfaces of the extremities, back, abdomen, and the gluteal regions were noted. No popular or rippled skin lesions were observed. The skin biopsy revealed amyloid deposits in papillary dermis. Detailed clinical and laboratory examinations showed no evidence of any systemic amyloidosis. The patient was diagnosed with primary diffuse macular cutaneous amyloidosis, which is an unusual skin disorder. In this report, besides discussing the present case, the pathogenesis and clinical and histopathological features of macular cutaneous amyloidosis are reviewed as well.


Objective of this work is to analyze the level and the quality of communication be-tween Municipal office in Jesenice and their residents to make a sequential proposal of eventual changes over the project and the communication mix for the further period. The theoretic part of this work sums up data and communication needs concentrated on the legislative part of communication between the municipal office and the resident. Furthermore it summarises the strategic part of communication and the communication mix at public administration and it's forms and goals. The practical section of this work is concerned with the history and origin of munici-pality, conspicuous target groups, used communication tools searching the satisfaction of residents with their quality and use.


of THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy in Mycology and Plant Pathology Submitted by Sanwar Mal Yadav Supervisor Dr. Vineeta Singh DEPARTMENT OF MYCOLOGY AND PLANT PATHOLOGY INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES BANARAS HINDU UNIVERSITY VARANASI-221005 INDIA ID. No.PM-1046 2014 Enrolment No.330118 Copyright@Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, 2014. All rights reserved. UNDERTAKING FROM THE CANDIDATE I, Sanwar Mal Yadav, a Ph.D. scholar (ID No. PM-1046) registered and pursued my research work under the supervision of Dr. Vineeta Singh for full term and hereby submitting the thesis entitled "Characterization of Alternaria solani and molecular mapping of QTLs for early blight resistance in tomato" for the award of Ph.D. degree.


Empowerment of communities around the forest area conservation village of Bangkat Monteh done to improve the preservation of the community achieve independence. This study aimed to conservation village development planning models. The research method used descriptive qualita determination of research subjects using snowball sampling. The results showed that the implementation of development planning model of conservation village, in the village of Bangkat Monteh conducted through nine phases: build unde institutional level of the village, preparing facilitators, training Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), the implementation of the pre, capacity building society, the development of productive economic activities,


The Dadong faunal sample consists of a variety of species characteristic of southern China. A Middle Pleistocene age is verified by Useries and ESR dates ranging between 130-250 ka for the archaeological layers (Shen et al. 1997, Rink et al., in press). The sample is predominated by large-bodied animals that would not ordinarily inhabit caves, such as Stegodon orientalis, Rhinoceros sinensis, and the giant tapir Megatapirus augustus, and a diversity of bovids and cervids. The most commonly identified species in the sample is Rhinoceros sinensis, which comprises 24% of the total elements identifiable to taxon, followed by Stegodon at 13%.


Hybrid composites are fabricated by adding two reinforcements into matrix materials so that the expected excellent properties can be achieved through the combined advantages of short fibres, and different size particles (micron or nano), which provide a high degree of design freedom. In this paper, hybrid preforms were produced with the different size reinforcement of the Al2O3 particles and short fibres. The Al-Si alloy-based hybrid composites reinforced by 5 vol. % Al2O3 particles and 8 vol. % Al2O3 fibres were fabricated by preform-squeezing casting route. The structure and performance of composite materials were studied with Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The results show that the reinforcements, both particles and fibres, distribute homogeneously in the matrix materials, and the properties of composites are found to improve in comparison with the matrix Al-Si alloy.


Source Citation Goldberg AC, Sapre A, Liu J, Capece R, Mitchel YB. Efficacy and safety of ezetimibe coadministered with simvastatin in patients with primary hypercholesterolemia: a randomized, doub...


Plant protection is very important area in the field of agriculture, regarding it is on the beginning of the food chain. Therefore, plant protection has special treatment in developed countries, which reflects detailed legislation of the field. From around 4.000 EU laws on agriculture, around 500 are on plant protection, consolidated in 34 texts. In Serbia, plant protection legislation is in the process of harmonization with international legal standards. The Law on seed, and the Law on propagation material of fruits, vine grape, and hop were brought in 2005, making new rules: new categories, certification, registration, labeling… The Law on fertilizers is in the parliament procedure, making new rules: liberalization of import of fertilizers, registration of subjects in the field… The Law on plant health is in the process of public review, bringing the new national system of plant health: new lists of harmful organisms, plant passport, licensing…


As the demand of bandwidth is escalating along with intolerance for errors and latency, datacommunication engineers are looking for new ways to utilize the available bandwidth to the maximum and improve the quality of transmission. Some probable solutions could be Modulation, Multiplexing, and employment of efficient Error Correction techniques. Forward error correction (FEC), has been used for years to enable efficient, high-quality data communication over noisy channels, such as those found in satellite and digital cellular-communications applications. To achieve an excellent quality of service, the third generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE) employs multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems along with special error-correcting codes. This paper discusses MIMO in Wireless Communication by using Spatial Multiplexing for the calculation of the Bit Error Rate (BER) for various modulation techniques for AWGN channel. KeywordsMIMO, BERvs SNR, BPSK, QPSK, QAM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Date of Submission: 19-07-2018 Date of acceptance: 02-08-2018 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


According to the theory of meta\|synthesis methodology from qualitative analysis to quantitative analysis, we created the new evaluating model for information system projects, that is DHGF (the Meta\|synthesis of improved Delphi, analytic Hierarchy process, Grey interconnect degree and Fuzzy comprehensive evaluating). We proposed the steps of evaluation and discussed the accuracy of DHGF.


The article considers the interaction between modality and affective evaluation on the basis of hagiography of the ХIV-ХV centuries in the framework of medieval concept of the moral meaning of the beautiful.


OBJECTIVE To examine variations in timing of lower-limb amputation (LLA) across race/ethnicity and sex among older adults with a diabetic foot ulcer (DFU). It was hypothesized Black/African Americans were more likely to have LLA post-DFU earlier compared with non-Hispanic/Whites, and more men would receive LLA earlier post-DFU compared with women. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This was a retrospective cohort analysis of enrolled Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries with a diagnosis of DFU during the study period (2012–2017), allowing up to 5 years post-DFU. Final analytic sample contained 643,287 individuals; the subsample consisted of 68,633 individuals with LLA only. The primary outcome was mutually exclusive groups based on timing of LLA. Multinomial logistic regression was applied to assess likelihood of membership into a group post-DFU based on characteristics such as sex and race/ethnicity. RESULTS Black/African American beneficiaries had 1.98 (95% CI 1.93–2.03) times the odds of receiving an LLA within 1 year of DFU diagnosis compared with non-Hispanic/White beneficiaries relative to no amputation. Female beneficiaries had increased odds (odds ratio [OR] 1.07, 95% CI 1.02–1.11] between 1 and 3 years and OR 1.08 [95% CI 1.03–1.12] in ≥3 years) of a delayed LLA compared with men among those that underwent LLA. CONCLUSIONS Notably, these results present novel evidence on timing of LLA between racial groups and sex for Medicare FFS beneficiaries post-DFU. Results may be generalizable to individuals with Medicare FFS and DFU. Clinically more targeted, evidence-based decision making informs care decisions with opportunities to address inequities related to the social determinants of health that may lead to LLA.


Due to the problem that the existing topic detection algorithms can not satisfy accuracy,real time and topic hierarchical clustering at the same time, this article builds a hierarchy topic detection algorithm based on improved single pass clustering algorithm. In addition, using public opinion evaluation indexes to analyze topic temperature,the method proposed in this paper can detect hot topics accurately and timely while showing the hierarchical structure of the topic .


This work aims at analysing the differences affecting men and women in charge of the shopping, taking into account that socio-demographic and socio-laboral circunstances, the roles and the subjective appreciation of consumption (satisfaction and happiness) affect both sexes in different ways. The results show that domestic consumption is not the same for men and women, but it is more shared than other domestics chores. This non-equal distribution of responsibilities regarding domestic consumption is grounded on traditional family stereotypes. By comparing two lineal regression analyses, one for men and the other for women, we prove that the circumstances pushing women to do the shopping are more numerous that those pushing men to do so.  Key words:


Coronary heart disease is the most frequent cause of death in Western, industralized countries. Coronary risk factors are prevalent in such countries and sometimes combine to constitute the so-called syndrome X-hypertension, central obesity, serum lipid and clotting disturbances, and insulin resistance. β-Blockers, unlike calcium antagonists, have proved highly effective in secondary prevention of myocardial infarction. If present at the time of the myocardial infarction, β-blockers (unlike calcium antagonists and diuretics) probably decrease mortality 1 month later


The formation of tribofilms depends on temperature, shear stress, availability of the related chemical components, and characteristics of the near surface region, e.g., roughness and surface chemistry. The purpose of a tribofilm is to separate two sliding surfaces, thus preventing or limiting wear. This research article aims for the first time at a systematic approach to elucidate on a fundamental level the interplay between tribofilm formation in particular thickness and wear behavior in the boundary and mixed lubrication regime. For this, load, temperature and sliding frequency as most relevant parameters are taken into consideration. For that purpose, a piston ring and cylinder liner configuration in an oscillating tribometer was chosen as a model system, with the top dead centre conditions in internal combustion engines of passenger cars as the testing regime. The amount of wear produced during the tribotests is continuously monitored by means of the Radio-Isotope Concentration (RIC) method. The tribofilm is investigated via Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The results clearly indicate that the impact of load on the wear rate can be seen in an Archard-like dependency, but changes of temperature and sliding velocity in the boundary to mixed lubrication regime imply a non-linear ratio between wear and tribofilm formation.


Time series prediction typically consists of a data reconstruction phase where the time series is broken into overlapping windows. The size of the window could vary for different types of problems for optimal performance. Dynamic time series prediction refers to "on the fly'' robust prediction given partial information where prediction can be made regardless of the window size. Multi-task learning features learning from related tasks through shared representation knowledge which has shown to be useful for dynamic time series prediction. This features uncertainty that can be addressed through synergy of Bayesian inference and multi-task learning. In this paper, we present a Bayesian approach to multi-task learning for dynamic time series prediction. The method provides uncertainty quantification given posterior distribution of weights and biases in a cascaded multitask network architecture. The results show that the proposed method is able to provide competing prediction performance to the literature, featuring uncertainty quantification in prediction.


Arctic charr and European whitefish are considered to be strong competitors in lakes, with the latter usually being the superior species. However, high niche plasticity and lake morphometry may suggestively facilitate resource partitioning and coexistence between charr and whitefish. Here, we explore the trophic niche utilization (diet and habitat use) of charr and whitefish co-occurring with brown trout in the deep and oligotrophic Lake Fyresvatnet, southern Norway (59°05'N, 8°10'E). Using CPUE, stomach contents and stable isotope analyses, a distinct resource partitioning was revealed between brown trout and the other two species. Brown trout typically occupied the littoral zone, feeding on benthic invertebrates, surface insects and small-sized whitefish. In contrast, charr and whitefish were predominantly zooplanktivorous, but diverged somewhat in habitat utilization as charr shifted seasonally between the profundal and the littoral zone, whereas whitefish were found in the upper water layers (littoral and pelagic habitats). Accordingly, the stable isotope values of carbon (δ13C) reflected a pelagic orientated prey resource use for both charr and whitefish, whereas brown trout had elevated carbon and nitrogen (δ15N) signatures that reflected their benthivore and piscivore diet, respectively. The findings suggest that charr may not rely upon the profundal zone as a feeding habitat but as a refuge area, and may coexist with whitefish if a third competitive and predatory species like brown trout co-occur in the lake. The study indicates that a general high habitat plasticity of Arctic charr may be essential in the presently observed coexistence with a competitively superior fish species like whitefish, and that a third fish species like brown trout may facilitate this particular fish community structure.


Arabic education is a necessity for people who are Muslim. Islam is spreadthroughout the world including the Southeast Asian region. Southeast Asia, whichincludes the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singaporeand others who have a majority Muslim population. Islam entered the regionpeacefully, making it easier for development and its spread. The development andspread of Islam along with learning Arabic, because Arabic is the language of theMuslim holy book. However, the provision of education and learning in Arabicvaries from country to country even though it is still in one region of SoutheastAsia. The concepts of Arabic language education applied are strongly influencedby the state of government in these countries.


This study develops distributed neuro-adaptive control protocols for synchronisation of leader–follower multi-agent systems (MASs) with non-linear dynamics in non-strict-feedback form. The communication graph is assumed to be directed, and the agents are considered heterogeneous. The leader's dynamics are also assumed non-linear, and the state derivative of the leader is unknown to its immediate followers. The well-known command filtered backstepping approach, presented for single-agent systems in the literature, is extended to the synchronisation of MASs with non-strict-feedback non-linear dynamics. This obviates the requirement of computing the n th-order derivatives of the local neighbourhood synchronisation error at the step n of the design. The number of adaptive tuning laws and consequently the complexity of the neuro-adaptive design is reduced by estimating only a positive scalar related to unknown non-linear dynamics of each agent. An auxiliary system is then introduced into the control design to compensate for the discrepancy between designed and saturated control signals. The proposed distributed control protocol guarantees that all signals in the closed-loop system are cooperatively semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded, and the consensus error for all agents converge to a small neighbourhood of the origin. Finally, a simulation example demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.