The invention discloses a portable electronic device, consisting of a wireless communication unit, a storage unit, a data acquisition unit, a display screen, a judging and recording unit and a display control unit, wherein the storage unit is used for storing display data; the data acquisition unit is used for acquiring the display data; the display control unit is used for displaying the acquired display data on the display screen; the judging and recording unit is used for judging whether the display data acquired by the data acquisition unit are completely displayed on the display screen, and recording contents at the beginning and the end of each line of the display data part which are not displayed on the display screen when the display data are not completely displayed on the display screen; and the wireless communication unit is used for searching another portable electronic device when the display data are not completely displayed on the display screen and a first condition is met simultaneously, and transmitting the display data part which is not displayed and the recorded contents at the beginning and the end of each line of the display data part, which is not displayed, to the searched portable electronic device. The invention further provides a display system and a display method.


Background and Aim: Newcastle disease (ND) caused by ND virus (NDV) is a serious impediment to effective poultry production in developing countries such as Nigeria. Despite employing vaccination and other control measures to curtail this disease, its severe forms still persist. This study aimed to confirm the virus strains in the NDV vaccine brands commonly used in Nigeria. Materials and Methods: We employed reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), sequencing, and sequence analysis to characterize NDV strains in four NDV vaccines commonly used in Nigeria. Fragments of 300 bp from NDV fusion genes from the vaccines were amplified. Polymerase chain reaction products were sequenced and analyzed using multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analyses to characterize the vaccine viruses as pathotypes. Results: All the vaccines gave positive results, confirming the presence of NDV. Multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analyses revealed that two of the vaccines had the lentogenic pathotype, while the other two had the mesogenic or velogenic pathotype. Conclusion: This study provides information to facilitate strategies for regular control of the quality of vaccines in Nigeria.


Non-prismatic beamlike elements have long been used in engineering applications to optimize the performance of structures such as wind turbines, aircraft, and civil bridges, just to mention some examples. Unfortunately, engineering methods and formulas commonly used to analytically evaluate stresses and strains in prismatic beams do not hold and provide incorrect results for non-prismatic geometries. Large displacements and non-uniform material properties further complicate the analytical prediction. In order to determine the state of stress and strain in non-prismatic beamlike elements and its dependence on important design factors (such as taper parameters), a suitable mapping of the shape of such elements and a variational approach are used. The resulting field equations are exploited to derive application-oriented stress-strain formulas. Examples and comparisons with results of non-linear 3D-FEM analyses confirm the effectiveness of the modelling approach and of the new formulas proposed in this work.


In the late nineteenth century British expatriate enterprise enjoyed extraordinary success. A few large firms effectively dominated the external trading sector and the modern industrial economy of Eastern India. Based in Calcutta, these firms have been credited with the introduction into India not only of modern industry, but also of modern corporate organization. However, having reached a peak of dominance in the early 1900s, British enterprise seemed to lose its dynamism and became increasingly associated with the old and declining sectors of the Indian industrial and trading economy.


SUMMARY

By placing groups of potted blackcurrant bushes at weekly intervals in a plantation infested with Phytoptus ribis during 1959, 1960 and 1961 it was shown that the maximum rate of mite emergence and infestation coincided with the blossom period and that approximately half of the total infestation took place at this growth stage.

Effective migration continued for 12–14 weeks and during the early part of this period the rates of emergence and infestation were directly affected by temperatures below 50° F. Temperatures above 50° F., particularly towards the end of the migration period increased the rate of desiccation of the old buds and forced mites to emerge.

When lime sulphur was placed, by hand, in all new leaf axils at weekly intervals, on bushes where there were large mite infestations, complete control was achieved, but this was not found where all the old wood or all infested buds were covered with lime sulphur. These investigations indicate that, for commercial control, repeated treatments must be made especially during the blossom period.

Single applications of 1% lime sulphur with a wetting agent were made at various developmental stages on blackcurrants at Long Ashton in 1961 and the percentage reduction of infestations of the blackcurrant gall mite estimated. The most effective were those during the blossom period and particularly where they coincided with the periods of greatest mite emergence and penetration of new axillary buds. Applications were made from the first open flower stage until early June; some control, although progressively decreasing, was given by applications made up to 6 June. More than one spray was necessary for adequate commercial control.

Two commercial wettable sulphur powders, applied at the first open flower stage and again 2 weeks later, were found to be approximately as effective as lime sulphur. A wetting agent was used in all the sprays but at half the concentration with the wettable powders.

Thiodan did not appear to provide a better control of the gall mite than lime sulphur when two applications of each were made with a wetting agent. Three applications gave better results than two and the addition of a wetting agent was of great importance: where none was used an increase of infestation resulted after three applications, whilst a 94.1% reduction was achieved by three applications of 1% lime sulphur with 0.025 dinonyl sodium sulphosuccinate (0.0125% active ingredient). Hand lances using high volumes of liquid were used throughout.


Examining the behaviour of Conservative MPs in 5,306 standing committee divisions between 1979 and 1992, this article determines whether the Commons' 'new role' in policy making, identified by Schwarz in 1980, survived the Thatcher years and Major months. One hundred and forty five Conservative MPs cast 684 dissenting votes in 103 bills, inflicting 56 defeats spread over 29 bills. (A further 11 defeats occurred without Conservative dissent.) The extent and intensity of the dissent is explained, showing why so many dissenting votes did not result in more defeats. Partly this is due to the nature of the dissent (too many isolated rebellions, votes sometimes not cast with the opposition). But mainly it is due to the size of the majorities enjoyed by the Thatcher Government, particularly after 1983, and the Government's ability to control the size of committees. Because of this, in both absolute and relative terms the dissent from 1979 to 1992 is less effective than that identified by Schwarz.


The utility model discloses a tubular dead-end micro filter membrane component, which comprises a pressure container, a micro-filtration filter element, and a liquid inlet and a liquid outlet ports which are arranged on two ends of the pressure container, the pressure container is a tube-shaped structure, a dead plate is arranged in the pressure container, the dead plate comprises an upper dead plate and a lower dead plate, and at least one dead plate divides the pressure container into a filtering zone and a water producing zone, a through hole is arranged on the lower dead plate, and at least one end of the micro-filtration filter element penetrates through the dead plate on one end, and is communicated with the liquid inlet port and the liquid outlet port. The tubular dead-end micro filter membrane component effectively solves the problems of an existing micro filter component which has big occupation area of equipment, big weight, inconvenient installation and transportation, and is difficult to achieve automatic operation. The tubular dead-end micro filter membrane component simultaneously solves the problems of a filter element of a mechanical filter, which has short service span, and needs to be frequently changed, and is suitable for feed liquid whose solid content is bigger than 0.1%.


Enterprises patent strength reflects the technological innovation capability,market competitiveness and development dynamic.The evaluation of enterprises patent comprehensive strength enables companies to grasp the trend of technological development,understand the strengths and weaknesses of technical innovation,and adjust innovation strategy scientifically.This paper regards invention patent as research object and selects representative patent evaluation indexes,to build an indicator system for evaluating enterprises patent quality based on application,authorization,patent maintenance,patent scope and patent citations.At last,the paper uses principal component analysis to evaluate comprehensive patent strength of the companies whose U.S.patent application number ranked in the top 20.


Liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry with an atmospheric pressure chemical ionization interface permits the routine study of mixtures of algal-derived, chlorophyll transformation products isolated from biological and environmental samples. Interpretation of the mass spectra of standards of chlorophyll a and three of its commonly occurring transformation products has allowed the identification of components found in extracts from zooplankton faecal pellets and a marine surface sediment. This highly sensitive technique should prove valuable for pigment analysis in environmental studies.


the development of "red tape"—"that part of my business that you don't know anything about." "Operating on One's Proper Level" is a chapter of particular insight. "The process of administration . . . is the process of moving matters up and down, to and from successive levels of abstraction." "Handlers of artifacts we have in abundance, but we have a desperate and growing need . . . for men . . . who can deal in relationships." If men fvi^tion well on a high level, "their success cannot be due to greater experience in everything in the field below that level." The worst mistake an administrator can make is to dip into the stream of detail below his level. I quote because I want to give the flavor of this book rather than a synopsis of Appleby's argument. He seeks always to show the special problems of making government serve the public interest, the national interest. Recognizing the importance of politics in government, he laments that "we have no adequate system for developing . . . a pool of national politicians." Into the ambit of Appleby's reflections come such real and difficult problems of government and administration as distinguishing a pressure from a popular reaction and dealing with patronage and relations between Congress and the executive departments. I have never seen in print so frank and candid a treatment of patronage, in the terms in which a highminded administrator must deal with it. As a newspaper man, Appleby reports sadly that "administration is, of all fields, the one of which Washington correspondents ordinarily know least." He chides them gently for declaiming against red-tape when they dislike merely the decision of an official, for praising one instance of a process when they damn another without understanding that the process is the same. Appleby demonstrates in this book a profound "sense of relationships" among the basic elements of successful government in a big democracy. He should have a wide audience.


The research analyses the emerging supervisory institutes and touches historic prerequisites for the development of supervisory function of the Russian prosecution service.


The aim of the pilot study was to describe the impact of outdoor cattle husbandry on the communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on the overwintering upland pasture (South Bohemia, Czech Republic). We selected three sites with severe, moderate, and light (control) impact intensity. Roots of plant species with a plant cover area >5% were collected at each site. The ratio of nonmycorrhizal plants species decreased with the decreasing impact of cattle. The highest mycorrhizal colonization was found at the control site on a level of the screened plant community (78.57% of root length) as well as on a species level (97.78% of root length of Plantago major L.). At the severely impacted site, 31.67% and 35.56% of root colonization was found on community and species level (Plantago major L.), respectively. Similar results were found also in the length of extraradical mycelium and arbuscules numbers.


Interactive technique that measures geometric parameters of buried cylinders in a homogeneous medium with unknown velocity of signal propagation is developed. After 3D GPR data processing, the velocity of signal propagation is estimated; radius, length and position of the cylinder are measured. Experimental data obtained by GPR "Defectoscope" are given.


The authors propose circuit techniques to implement integrated continuous-time filters for low voltage and low power applications. A fourth order G m-C filter and a fifth order active-RC Chebyshev filter are used as test vehicles to validate the ideas. Basic building blocks are bulk driven transconductors. G m-C filter and active-RC filter offer bandwidth of 1 MHz and 750 kHz, respectively while exhibiting a good figure of merit thus ensuring that the designs are energy efficient. Both the filters, fabricated on the same chip in 180 nm CMOS technology, operate on 0.5 V power supply. They offer a dynamic range of 45 and 46.6 dB, respectively.


How can we encourage a teacher to perform well in the classroom? Finding an answer to this question is a priority to education policymakers and the center of debates in the international education community. For years, education leaders held teachers responsible for student performance, prioritizing an accountability-driven approach to drive student success. However, this tactic proved unfruitful; it did not lead to improved learning and put teachers under stress, just as poor working conditions and unattractive salaries resulted in escalated teacher attraction and retention issues. Education leaders had to recognize the development of a 'teacher motivation crisis' that risked impairing quality education. Although the debate has crystallized around salary levels, it is beneficial to also consider the role intrinsic motivation plays in this context.


This report describes research conducted between October 1, 2004 and December 31, 2004 on the use of dry regenerable sorbents for removal of carbon dioxide from flue gas. Two supported sorbents were tested in a bench scale fluidized bed reactor system. The sorbents were prepared by impregnation of sodium carbonate on to an inert support at a commercial catalyst manufacturing facility. One sorbent, tested through five cycles of carbon dioxide sorption in an atmosphere of 3% water vapor and 0.8 to 3% carbon dioxide showed consistent reactivity with sodium carbonate utilization of 7 to 14%. A second, similarly prepared material, showed comparable reactivity in one cycle of testing. Batches of 5 other materials were prepared in laboratory scale quantities (primarily by spray drying). These materials generally have significantly greater surface areas than calcined sodium bicarbonate. Small scale testing showed no significant adsorption of mercury on representative carbon dioxide sorbent materials under expected flue gas conditions.


Analyzes the structures of the distributed computing, does a deep research on the integration of CORBA and J2EE. Through introduction and comparison of the methods of integration of CORBA and J2EE, proposes a new integration framework, causes the integration is easy to implement, and the integrated system is easy to maintain.


1,1-Bis(triflyl)alkadienes are easily prepared by mixing bis(triflyl)methane and α,β-unsaturated aldehydes and then used as easy-to-handle building blocks for the preparation of strongly acidic carbon acids. The reaction of these alkadienes with either NaBH4 or organocerium reagents gave the desired carbon acids through a β-selective nucleophilic addition reaction. Similar reactions of a 1,1-bis(trifyl)alkadiene with sterically bulky iPrMgBr resulted in a δ-selective alkylation instead. The present β-alkylation is the realization of the synthesis of β-branched 1,1-bis(triflyl)alkanes with an acidic CH moiety. Furthermore, when submitted to a Mukaiyama aldol reaction, such β-branched carbon acids had a higher catalyst activity than that of the corresponding nonbranched carbon acids.


In many previous studies, nonaqueous synthesis of Pt nanocubes with tunable size has been achieved by the use of metal carbonyls (e.g., Fe(CO)(5), Co(2)(CO)(8), W(CO)(6)). The presence of zero-valent metals in the carbonyls was demonstrated as the key factor to the nanocube formation but the role of CO was entirely ignored. By using CO alone, we have now demonstrated that the favorable growth of Pt nanocubes in the presence of CO is mainly owing to the effect that the Pt (100) surface is stabilized by the co-adsorption of CO and amine.


Feasibility study of low profile multilayer patch antennas using stacked BSTO-YIG thin film heterostructure has been investigated. This stacked heterostructure is comprised of an electrical-field-tunable ferroelectric BSTO with two embedded platinum electrodes, a ferromagnetic YIG thin film on a GGG substrate, and a relatively rigid Si substrate. The heterostructure dielectric parameters were analyzed. The calculated results demonstrate that a BSTO-YIG can be only tuned over a relatively narrow bandwidth.


Multiple myeloma causes about 11 000 deaths each year in the United States. For decades, treatment has been based on alkylating agent chemotherapy and corticosteroids. Results have improved with the use of high-dose alkylator chemotherapy and peripheral stem cell rescue, the toxicity of which is usually tolerated in patients who are healthy other than having myeloma. New drugs with novel mechanisms of action are being developed; these are not curative, but there is already evidence of high response rates; improved survival; and, for some patients, alteration of the nature of this disease into an episodic illness requiring intermittent treatment.


The mechanical behavior of precipitation-strengthened Al-0.18 wt.% Sc alloys containing 30 vol.% Al2O3 dispersoids is studied at 25, 300 and 350°C. The effect of Al3Sc precipitate size is studied by varying aging treatments. Microhardness measurements show that both populations of particles (nanometer-sized Al3Sc precipitates and submicron-sized Al2O3 dispersoids) contribute to strength at ambient temperature. At elevated temperature, a threshold stress is observed, indicative of interactions between matrix dislocations and the particles. The threshold stress is significantly higher than either Al0.18 wt.% Sc alloys without Al2O3 dispersoids or Al-30 vol.% Al2O3 without Al3Sc precipitates. This indicates that strengthening is occurring at both length scales and in a nonlinear manner, as the reinforced alloy exhibits strength higher than the sum of the strengths of Al-Sc and Al-Al2O3 alloys.


Describing love,a discourse form in Jin Yong's novels,whose significance lies in the realization of the narrative function of the novel,narrates not only complete love stories but makes the romantic man-woman love affair an important link in the novel's cause and effect chain,delaying or pushing forward the general narrative development of the gongfu novels.In Jin Yong's novels,the integration of love and gongfu narratives in two different narrative modes forms the tension narration.


Thermodynamic analyses and comparison of ammonia‐, propane‐ and isobutane‐based vapour compression refrigeration cycles are presented in this article using constant area mixing ejector as an expansion device. Optimization of ejector geometric parameter based on the maximum cooling COP and performance improvement for different operating conditions is studied. Results show that the optimum geometric parameter increases with increase in evaporator temperature and decrease in condenser temperature, whereas the COP improvement over basic expansion cycle increases with the increase in condenser temperature and decrease in evaporator temperature. Expressions for optimum ejector geometric parameters have been developed, which offer useful guidelines for optimal design and operation. Study shows that the optimum parameters as well as COP improvement using ejector as expansion device are strongly dependent on the refrigerant properties as well as the operating conditions. The optimum geometric parameter is maximum for ammonia, whereas minimum for isobutane. Using ejector as an expansion device, isobutane yields maximum COP improvement of 21.6% followed by propane (17.9%) and ammonia (11.9%) for studies ranges. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The aim of this study was to observe the one-year clinical outcomes of people with type 1 diabetes (T1D) who switched from Multiple Daile Injection + Blood Glucose Meter to an advanced hybrid closed-loop (AHCL) system (Medtronic MiniMedTM 780G system (MM 780G). Additionally, the effect of changing at month 6 to a calibration free sensor (GuardianTM 4 Sensor (G4S) was evaluated. 18 participants (10 men, age 40.9±7.6 years) completed 1 year of MM 780G use. Time in range (70-180 mg/dL) (TIR) remained stable and ranged from 83.2% in month 9 to 84.8% in month 3. There was no difference between TIR at 3 months before switching vs 3 months after switching to G4S (p=0.614). AHCL system in adults significantly improves glycemic outcomes. This improved glycemic control was maintained over the 12 months. Switching to a calibration free sensor (G4S) did not affect outcomes but required less patient involvement.


Despite remarkable progress achieved, most neural architecture search (NAS) methods focus on searching for one single accurate and robust architecture. To further build models with better generalization capability and performance, model ensemble is usually adopted and performs better than stand-alone models. Inspired by the merits of model ensemble, we propose to search for multiple diverse models simultaneously as an alternative way to find powerful models. Searching for ensembles is non-trivial and has two key challenges: enlarged search space and potentially more complexity for the searched model. In this paper, we propose a one-shot neural ensemble architecture search (NEAS) solution that addresses the two challenges. For the first challenge, we introduce a novel diversity-based metric to guide search space shrinking, considering both the potentiality and diversity of candidate operators. For the second challenge, we enable a new search dimension to learn layer sharing among different models for efficiency purposes. The experiments on ImageNet clearly demonstrate that our solution can improve the supernet's capacity of ranking ensemble architectures, and further lead to better search results. The discovered architectures achieve superior performance compared with state-of-the-arts such as MobileNetV3 and EfficientNet families under aligned settings. Moreover, we evaluate the generalization ability and robustness of our searched architecture on the COCO detection benchmark and achieve a 3.1% improvement on AP compared with MobileNetV3. Codes and models are available here.


Cluster is one of the numerous scholarly concepts that theorize inter-organizational networking within a particular territory. Over the past quarter of a century cross-border quasi-integration of regional industry and innovation systems has proven to be an efficient scheme of cohesion policies, both within and across nations. Outlying border and coastal regions are found to be of particular benefit from crossborder clustering, as it reinforces their innovative activity. The article is set to provide an approach of cluster mapping visualization, differentiating clusters by localization and development features.


Abstract : Reunification ot North and South Korea could impose huge costs on the richer southern half. This paper examines alternative approaches to reducing those costs. The key is to prevent the utter collapse of the northern economy. This might be accomplished after unification through policies to keep northern price levels competitive or by protecting northern producers. Alternatively, unification could be delayed until the northern economy is ready. While the delaying approach would reduce the immediate cost burden, it would not necessarily lead to unification. In the meantime, a strengthened northern economy could pose a heightened security threat to the south.


Religious counselors in current days seldom come forward in mass media, especially in radio. They prefer to introduce their selves as Islamic preacher. Furthermore, Islamic counselor is rarely as program director and producer in radio. This article offers what is very significant roles and functions of Islamic counselor (IC) on air program and off-air program in order families look for Islamic counseling. This research methods using observation, text analysis on record cassette, and script of fragment, deep interview on  Fattahuddin as Islamic Counselor, and literature studies. Data were analyzed by constructivism paradigm. It was conducted by dialect among subjective reality, symbolic reality, and objective reality through externalization, objectivities, and internalization. The results of research reveal two findings: 1). Fatahuddin is religious guidance and counseling in Daerah Khusus Ibukota (DKI) Jakarta, religious affairs. He had used radio schema to construct family problems in Jakarta Dangdut radio through 6 stages.2). He had framed the concepts of Sakinah Family through format of Dialog Listeners and Broadcasters by using fragments 1 and 2, script of cases and solutions.


This article presents an innovative experience in which a research group on Industrial Electronics of the Technical University of Cartagena promotes the creation of a startup accelerator (Cloud Incubator HUB) in topics related to the Internet of Things. During the first period (2012–2015), its scope was limited to the Region of Murcia, in the southeast of Spain. From the results obtained in this first experience, the action was elevated to a European level and was given the title of Startup Scaleup. The Cloud Incubator HUB, supported by BluSpecs, invited three other European accelerators to become partners in the programme: the Ryan Academy (Dublin), Crosspring (Zoetermeer) and the Open Club Coffee (Vilnius) and became part of the Startup Europe ecosystem. After two years (2015–2016) of cooperation the results obtained are encouraging: 132 Internet of Things mature start-ups from 20 EU countries have participated in the programme. To date, they have obtained investments of over 12M €. On the basis of this experience, the article offers recommendations to other technology incubators and technological entrepreneurship programmes.


Objectives : The feasibility of chemical washing by Aluminum Sulfate(AS) was evaluated to treat harmful heavy metals such as Nickel(Ni) in deep-sea mining tailings. Korea(Rep. of) has acquired exclusive exploration rights for deep-sea mining areas and is developing commercial technologies to utilize actually deep-sea mineral resources. Transporting deep-sea mining tailings generated during development to land and use of hazardous chemicals in the marine environment are limited. As it is urgently required to develop remediation technologies considering these restrictions when treating deep-sea mining tailings at sea areas, the results of this research are presented as basic data for remediation technologies development by evaluating Ni extraction characteristic by elapsed time and concentration of additives.Methods : Manganese nodules samples prepared at 2%(w/v) using deionized water and manganese nodules(20 ~ 63 μm) and additives prepared under various concentration conditions were stirred and mixed under 16 elapsed time conditions. A solid phase and a liquid phase were separated, and harmful heavy metals extracted in the liquid phase were analyzed.Results and Discussion : As the elapsed time and the concentration of additives increased, the Ni removal rate also increased. Under the same EthyleneDiamineTetraacetic Acid(EDTA) concentration condition, the Ni removal rate increased as the AS additives concentration increased. 0.1 M EDTA and 1% AS mixed conditions showed the highest removal rate among all concentration conditions(27.5(±1.30) mg/L at 7 d).Conclusion It has been confirmed that the chemical washing treatment ability of AS compared to EDTA is effective without additional pH adjustment, and through the results of this research, it will be necessary to develop and optimize the actual remediation technologies using AS and process design.


It has been said that pandemics are lived forwards and understood backwards. The 2009 influenza pandemic is no exception. The identification of the new influenza virus strain in the United States of America coincided with many media reports describing a very severe pneumonia affecting young Mexican adults – echoes of 1918! Hard data were sparse and quoted case fatality rates ranged from 0.3% to 2.5% of confirmed cases as late as September 2009. With the benefit of hindsight it is easy to say that the disease caused by the virus was in fact mild for most people and that this action or that action should have been taken. However, in real time with little reliable data on the effects of the virus on individuals and communities and faced with the need to make time-critical decisions, sovereign nations across the world responded differently. It is important to remember that the World Health Organization (WHO) remit is to help governments determine the level of interventions required as part of their response to threats to international health.

Unfortunately, the fact that WHO issued revised pandemic guidance just as the pandemic was starting generated confusion. Under the new guidance,1 pandemic phases 4 to 6 differed significantly from the 2005 guideline document,2 and this made communication difficult.

Individuals have made great play of the change to the wording of one sentence that was part of a 60-page document before phase 6 (the so-called start of the pandemic) was declared. In fact, in several places the WHO 2009 guidance document describes phases 5 to 6 as the pandemic period and clearly states that "during phases 5–6 (pandemic) actions shift from preparedness to response at a global level." From this it can be argued that the pandemic was actually declared on 29 April 2009, five days before the quoted change in definition.

In the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a new national influenza pandemic strategy was published for consultation on 22 March 2011.3 This has taken on board many of the lessons learned during the 2009 pandemic. However, the strategy still recognizes the need for an initially precautionary approach, given the speed with which the virus can spread and the paucity of data that will be available at the start of a pandemic, although it states that proportionality and flexibility should guide the response as information about the virus and its effects become available. The strategy is now better adapted to the needs of the United Kingdom and is proposing a new phased response that is not linked to the WHO phases. This reflects the fact that in the United Kingdom the first cases were detected in late April 2009 and that using the WHO phases, which are global indicators of spread, proved to be unhelpful.

Peter Doshi highlights the lack of a definition of a pandemic.4 There is also no definition of a pandemic wave or severity, both key issues when it comes to describing the progress and impact of a pandemic. I don't believe this reflects a lack of willingness to formulate such definitions, but rather, a lack of international consensus stemming from the absence of key data and the recognition that severity, impact and other descriptors can only be applied with certainty historically.


There exists unmistakable evidence that cancer in experimental animals has a genetic basis. The facts related in numerous studies exclude any simple genetic interpretation. Many genes appear to be involved, determining susceptibility to each of the neoplasms investigated. The genes are cumulative in effect and the inheritance of mammary cancer,', pulmonary adenomas,3 and leukemia4 in mice resembles closely the inheritance of such characters as polydactylism in the guinea pigs and various skeletal defects in the mouse.6 The expression of the character depends on the segregation of multiple genes in conjunction with a threshold of manifestation, Certain stigmata characteristic of this type of inheritance are quite obvious in genetic studies of cancer. The character is generally sensitive to influences of the environment, either intrauterine or acting later in life. Differences in the expressivity of fibrosarcomas in mice,7 of mammary cancer,8 and of leukemiag appear directly related to changes in maternal physiology. One method of detecting the influence on a character of differences in maternal physiology is by the use of reciprocal n-iatings. MacDowell and Kichter'O first observed differences in the incidence of leukemia in reciprocal F1 hybrid mice. Offspring of the cross 9 C58 (high-leukemic) X 3 STOLI (low-leukemic) gave an incidence of leukemia of 61.9 per cent and the reciprocal cross, using low-leukemic mothers ( 9 STOLI X 3 C58) gave a lower incidence, 42.5 per cent. These differences appeared among both males and females, ruling out sex-linkage. Length of life of leukemic and nonleukemic F1 mice was also found to be strikingly lengthened in crosses using the low-leukemic mother. Since all F1 mice in these crosses were genetically uniform, the differences observed represent a case of a nongenetic maternal influence on the expressivity of leukemia. This maternal influence was more striking in reciprocal backcrosses where a still further reduction of genetic factors occurs: the incidence of leukemia in crosses of 9 STOLI X CT F1 was only 19.8 per cent, whereas mice of the cross 9 F1 X 3 STOLI had an incidence of 46.5 per cent. Both leukemic and nonleukemic backcross mice obtained from the cross using low-leukemic mothers lived approximately 100 days longer than mice from the reciprocal cross. It was reported at this time, but no supporting data were given, that the influence of mothers' milk had been eliminated by reciprocal foster-nursing experiments. No reduction in the incidence of leukemia in C.58 mice was obtained nor induction of leukemia in the low-leukemic STOLI strain. observed differences in the incidence of leukemia in reciprocal crosses between their high-leukemic AK strain of mice and two strains in which leukemia is rare, Rf and C3H (See TABLE 1). It is to be noted, however, that in these crosses the differences were confined to the males alone:


Perhaps no concept has captured the mathematical imagination more than the circle ratio π, while no mathematical symbol has evoked more mystery, romanticism and popular appeal than π itself. Why this fascination with math-ematics' most famous number? For the professional mathematician, π has long presented a challenge, being taciturn by nature and yielding up its splendours only grudgingly. When they are teased out, however, the effort expended is often handsomely repaid. Among reasons drawing the amateur to π are: its habit of turning up everywhere, often in unexpected places; the highly publicized search for its decimal digits, with world records tumbling almost annually in today's age of the supercomputer; and its long, colourful history filled with incident, drama, humour, genius and eccentricity. Continued interest in π over four millennia has resulted in the accumulation of a vast π-archive. What, then, do the two books under review here contribute to this collection? Pi : A Source Book, the first source book on π ever to be published, documents , mainly through original writings, the history of π from the dawn of


htmlabstractShared media experiences between geographically distributed users are gaining momentum. Relevant examples are Social TV, synchronous e-learning and multi-player online games. This paper presents a first release of Wersync, an adaptive web-based platform that provides distributed media synchronization and social interaction (via shared navigation control commands and text chat channels) across remote users. By using Wersync, users can create or join on-going sessions for concurrently consuming the same media content with other remote users in a synchronized manner. Additionally, Wersync provides two social presence mechanisms to encourage the participation of external users in on-going sessions and two privacy mechanisms. Wersync has been developed by exclusively relying on standard web-based technologies, which ensures cross-network, cross-platform and cross-device support. The evaluation results and a link to a demo video prove the satisfactory performance of Wersync, and its functionalities, respectively.


Report for the Brazilian government, commissioned by the Brazilian Ministry for Science, Technology and Innovation through the Centre for Strategic Management and Studies.


Parts 1 and 2 of this series described the educational value of experimental three-dimensional (3D) chemical structures determined by X-ray crystallography and retrieved from the crystallographic databases. In part 1, we described the information content of the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) and discussed a representative teaching subset of ca. 500 CSD structures that have been selected for their educational relevance. In part 2, we exemplified the value of the CSD teaching subset by describing four worked examples of their use in a teaching context.Although the CSD teaching subset and its associated learning modules provide a major resource for chemical educators, there are many cases where the full CSD System, now covering more than 500,000 crystal structures, is essential to make an educational point. This is particularly true when introducing students to variance in real experimental observations, for example, where many hundreds of observations are required to generate statistically meaningful t...


Maximum entropy principle of mathematics and information theory is introduced and randomness of structural response is taken into full consideration.Probability density function of a structural maximum displacement is used to judge and predict its failure types.K8 spherical shells with 40m or 50m spans and 1/5 or 1/7 rise-span ratios are examples.Geometric non-linearity and material non-linearity are taken into account at the same time.The structures subjected to earthquake excitation are investigated.The finite element method is used to obtain several samples of structural responses.With maximum entropy principle,the quantitative relationship between the probability density function of the structural maximum displacement and the failure types are established.Then,two levels of earthquake motion are chosen,the difference between the maximum peaks of the probability density functions of the structural maximum displacement under the two levels of earthquake excitation is used to predict the failure types of the structures.


Anthropogenic water surface fluctuations contain major negative impacts on the aquatic fauna and flora. Up to now, these so called "hydropeaking" processes were mainly investigated for large hydropower facilities, with the optional design and description of hydropeaking mitigation measures. For small hydropower plants, however, the risk of hydropeaking due to technical problems as well as accidents is given. Due to the state-of-the-art installation of automatic control of small hydropower plants those hydropeaking waves are artificially prolonged in downstream direction impacting ecologically sensitive habitats. Thus, in this research paper novel approaches for the control of small hydropower dams are presented, which are in contrast to the options for large hydropower facilities, the only solution for a requested improvement.


Discloses a method for processing a stream of a digital broadcast receiver. The method comprising: constructing step flow, is arranged to build a continuous stream of time slots comprises a plurality of blocks; transmitting step, said stream by coding and interleaving, and outputs a transport stream. Here, the stream construction step, when the block extension mode is set to the continuous slot 00 is arranged, the preset period of each time slot of the adjacent slots of the known data is arranged so that zigzag form at a boundary portion adjacent slots fit a long training sequence. Accordingly, in various ways to support digital broadcasting service.


A new method, designated as Spiral Notch Torsion Test (SNTT), is developed recently to measure the intrinsic fracture toughness (K I C ) of structural materials. The SNTT overcomes many of the limitations inherent in traditional techniques and makes it possible to standardize fracture toughness testing. It is uniquely suitable for testing a wide variety of materials used extensively in pressure vessel and piping structural components and weldments, including others such as ceramics, their composites, and concrete. The SNTT system operates by applying pure torsion to uniform cylindrical specimens with a notch line that spirals around the specimen at a 45 deg pitch. The K 1 C values are obtained with the aid of a three-dimensional finite-element computer code, TOR3D-KIC, developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The fundamental mechanism of SNTT approach is also described in the paper.


Dimethyl Ether (DME) has been known as a ultra clean smokeless fuel for diesel engines for over a decade now. A significant challenge is to ensure full lifetime for the diesel engine injection equipment when handling the low boiling point DME as this fuel has very low viscosity and lubricity. Pressurised lubricity evaluators show that boundary lubrication additives increase DME lubricity significantly but recent work indicate that adequate performance in quasi-boundary lubrication is necessary for reducing the wear effectively in real pumps. In this regime where the pump surfaces are only separated by a few molecular layers fuel molecular structure and viscosity seem to be important properties. Earlier work showed that addition of low lubricity alkanes raised the high lubricity of a boundary lubricant to an even higher level. In the present work the long linear alkane n-hexadecane was added to DME in different proportions. The lubricities of the blends do not show any minimum but reflect the lubricity of pure n-hexadecane. It is not conclusive whether DME is a boundary or a quasi-boundary lubricant but clarifying tests are currently in progress.Copyright © 2005 by ASME


Fresnel theory is used to derive the complex electric fields above and below an X-ray– reflecting interface that separates two materials with differing refraction indices. The interference between the incident and reflected waves produces an X-ray standing wave (XSW) above the reflecting interface. The XSW intensity modulation is strongly enhanced by the total external reflection condition, which occurs at incident angles less than the critical angle. At these small milliradian incident angles, the XSW period (λ/2θ) becomes very large, which makes the TR-XSW an ideal probe for studying low-density structures that extend 1 to 1000 nm above the reflecting interface.


The purpose of this paper is to present some perspectives on the transition of the survey industry from a largely paper based system, serving a fairly specific market and need, to one that has the potential to be a major contributor to mainstream society and commerce – recognising that over 80% of all government information has a spatial component. There is also a mainstream or flood tide of a rapidly growing demand for information – with spatial having that key role of linking land and people. This is what Landonline does.


In this paper we provide a distributed scheme for updating the weight links in a weighted graph in order to improve the process of reaching an agreement in multi-agent systems. This concept of reaching an agreement based on local information, known as Consensus, has several quantitative aspects that can characterize the whole network behaviour. Among them, one of the pivotal features, is the consensus time - the time that it takes for the network to reach the agreement. Therefore a distributed adaptive scheme that can improve available consensus protocols in the case of consensus time is suggested.


Internal hernias due to mesenteric defects are a rare cause of bowel obstruction, but once present their complications are associated with a high morbidity and mortality. We present the case of a 24-year-old patient who presented to the emergency department with signs and symptoms of an acute abdomen. Following surgical review, taking into consideration the patient's clinical, biochemical, and radiological findings, the patient was taken for immediate emergency surgical exploration. A laparoscopic approach was initially taken, which revealed dilated and ischemic colon, and therefore an open approach was then adopted. Operative findings included a very mobile caecum and proximal ascending colon which had herniated through a defect in the small bowel mesentery, the sigmoid colon had subsequently become incarcerated by the caecum and small bowel too. Both the ascending and sigmoid colon had become ischemic. A number of surgical strategies were considered, and given the patients age it was decided to preserve as much normal bowel as possible. Thus, a right hemi- and sigmoid colectomy were performed with an ileo-transverse anastomosis and formation of an end colostomy. In this case, radiological diagnosis pointed to a suspicion of an internal hernia, and operative diagnosis highlighted a rare mesenteric defect causing herniation and subsequent ischemia. Relying on the patient's clinical condition and an early decision for surgical intervention resulted in a positive outcome for outpatient. The patient made a good recovery following the bowel preserving surgery.


There are few reports of laughter and/or mirth evoked by electrical stimulation of the brain. In this study, we present a patient with intractable epilepsy in whom mirth and laughter was consistently produced during stimulation of the left inferior frontal gyrus (opercular part) using stereotactically placed depth electrodes. A review of the literature shows when stimulated are located in the age areas or cortical negative motor l mapping, mirth, laughter, language eizures tion of the temporal lobe. This was later supported by results published by Satow et al. (2003) and Sperli et al. (2006). Other reported data (Fried et al., 1998; Krolak-Salmon et al., 2006; Schmitt et al., 2006) showed that laughter with and without mirth can be provoked by stimulation of the frontal cortex; in the pre-supplementary sensorimotor area (pre-SSMA), immediately anterior to face and hand representation in the rostral part of the supplementary sensorimotor area (SSMA), and the superior frontal gyrus. orrespondence: uadalupe Fernandez-Baca Vaca that cortical sites that produce mirth dominant hemisphere close to langu areas.


Abstract : Many circuit simulation programs have been available for the design of integrated circuits. However, these conventional circuit simulation programs calculate all of the node voltages or branch voltages and currents at each iteration and each timepoint. Even with sparse matrix techniques the simulation of modern large-scale integrated circuits is not possible in many situations due to the excessive computation time and high storage requirements. The goal of this research was to investigate new approaches to the simulation of integrated circuits which can alleviate the problems of excessive computation time and high storage requirements. A new ordering scheme for the modified nodal approach was developed, and some new algorithms, for the dc and transient analysis of logic circuits were studied. Different tearing methods and sparsity considerations for the node tearing method were theoretically and experimentally studied. Latency at the subcircuit and the network levels was investigated. Different latency criteria were proposed and studied. The result of this research is a new general purpose circuit simulation program SLATE. (Author)


We can define the health care process as one of the most important factors of nursing care. This is the foundation for starting nursing care. In this final work, history and development of psychiatry are described, but the emphasis is certainly on the process of health care, therapeutic interventions apropos therapeutic communication between the nurse and the patient. Also, various forms of art therapy have been described, that serves in the recovery of psychiatric patients and sociotherapy in which the key is resocialization and role of the family in the treatment of psychiatric patients.


This article is part of my master dissertation and its objective is to compare the understanding adolescents have about disease, health and risk with that presented by the official documents about adolescent health care produced by Brazilian and international organizations (Ministry of Health of Brazil; Pan American Health Organization). This work consisted of trying to grasp the adolescents' understanding of the concepts through the use of the Oral History methodology. A basic premise was that what was said could not be taken in the abstract, but was related to the surrounding environment therefore expressing socially constructed ways of being and thinking. I observed that disease was perceived as a "problem" to which there are solutions. Risk was seen as something that exists in the outer social environment, a rather different view from that of the of ficial documents, which understand adolescence itself as being the risk. I hope that with the results of the comparison between these two ways of understanding the world, the proposal concerning adolescents care will come closer to the reality and needs of the adolescents themselves. Key-words: adolescents, health, disease, risk, fear. REFERENCIAS BIBLIOGRAFICAS CANGUILHEM, G. O normal e o patologico. Rio de Janeiro, Forense Universitaria, 1978. p 187. CASTIEL, L. D. O buraco do avestruz: a singularidade do adoecer humano.Campinas, Papirus, 1994. p.26. CASTIEL, L. D. Moleculas, molestias, metaforas: o senso dos humores. Campinas, Papirus, 1996a. p.l9. CECIL, R L. Text book of Medicine, 1(6): 6 Philadelphia, W. B. Saunderws Company, 1992. DELEUZE, G. Conversacoes. Rio de Janeiro, Editora 34, 1996. p. 225. FOUCAULT, M. O nascimento da clinica. Rio de Janeiro, Forense Universitaria, 1994. p.227228. GOMES, R. O corpo na rua e o corpo da rua – A prostituicao infantil feminina em questao. Sao Paulo, Unimarco Editora, 1996. p.166. HERZOG, R. Sujeito-da-doenca ou doenca do sujeito. Rio de Janeiro, 1987. [Dissertacao de Mestrado Departamento de Psicologia da PUC]. LATOUR, B. Jamais fomos modernos. Rio de Janeiro, Editora 34, 1994. VAZ, P. Doenca e poder na atualidade. Rio de Janeiro, ECO/UFRJ, 1995. (mimeo).


The decision admitting blacks into the Mormon priesthood is explained as an adaptation to environmental pressures, the logical outcome of organizational practices, and the resolution of internal contradictions. Adverse publicity from the media, pressures from the black community, and threats of successful litigation reflected environmental hostility; an organizational imperative of growth, the quest for respectability, and the internationalization of Mormonism predisposed the church toward adaptation; and challenges from Mormon intellectuals and activists, pressures from black Mormons, and the leadership of the president reinforced adaptive strategies. Revelation, as a technique of internal control, ensured the consensus of officials and strengthened Mormon hegemony.


The DFT approach was used to investigate the antihypertensive molecule (S)-2-amino-3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)- 2-methyl-propanoic acid at the B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level of theory. The electron-hole analysis of three excited states has been performed, in which the maximum charge transfer length (2.727Å) has been calculated for the first excited state and the minimum for the third excited state (1.626 Å). On the other hand, the electron-hole overlap is found to be almost negligible for the first excited state and it is found to be maximum for the second excited state. The variation of thermodynamic properties with temperature is studied. The correlation graphs are obtained between the thermodynamic quantities (heat capacity, enthalpy, entropy) and temperature with a very high value of R2 (>0.99). The values of dipole moment, mean polarizability, anisotropy of polarizability, first hyperpolarizability and second hyperpolarizability are found to be 3.5250 Debye, 12.6980×10−24esu, 19.8162×10−24esu, 0.9017×10−30esu and -0.0412×10−35esu, respectively. These values are higher than the value of urea.


This article has for purpose, since a comprehension of undergraduation courses, to argue about the importance of the schooling "History of Physical Education and Sport" in Physical Education undergraduation courses. While I discuss the current way of teaching this schooling, I intend to present an alternative to become more effective the contribution to undergraduate.


After a discussion of the literature on the development of societies and of the multiple causality of societies, this paper discusses 12 threats to democracy: autocracy, cultural decline, polarisation, elite paradox, populism, confusion, capitalism, dilemma of benevolence and justice, institutional crowding, sort-termism and depletion, AI and robots.


Objective To evaluate the outcomes of one-stage repair of aortic coarctation (CoA) and associated cardiac anomalies in infants through a midline sternotomy. Methods Between June 2002 and August 2005, 36 patients (27male, 9 female) underwent surgery for CoA. The age was from 18 days to 8 years[mean (14.3±9.5) months], 27 patients (75%) were younger than 1 year and 18 patients (50%) were younger than 3 months. The body weight was from 3.0 to 23 kg [mean(6.6±3.0)kg]. 27 patients were symptomatic infants and 8 patients were asymptomatic of adults. One patient had recoarctation after repair through a left thracotomy one year ago. The associated cardiac anomalies included ventricular septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus, secundum atrial septal defect, hypoplasia of the aortic arch, transposition of great arteries and subaortic stenosis. 36 cases underwent one-stage operation of extended end-to-end anastomosis through a midline sternotomy. Results One patient died postoperatively with a mortality of 2.8 %. The cause of death was heart and lung function failure. 35 cases were followed up from 4 months to 3 years .One late death occurred. 34 cases were in good condition and no recoarctation. Conclusion Outcomes of one-stage repair of CoA and associated cardiac anomalies in infants through a midline sternotomy is excellent. Technique of extended end -to-end anastomosis may potentially reduce the incidence of recoarctation.


Perceptions and use of environmental indicators and state of environment (SOE) reports by local governments and conservation authorities within the Ontario portion of the Great Lakes and St Lawrence basin were examined through a web-based survey and follow-up telephone interviews. Indicator and SOE reporting use are described, as well as information needs and limitations and challenges in using indicators and SOE reports to formulate environmental policy. Information exchange among different levels of governance is also explored. The State of the Great Lakes environmental indicators and SOE reports, developed by the governments of Canada and the United States, were used as a case study.


Calotropis procera is a tropical plant found worldwide and has been used in the traditional medicinal for the treatment of various diseases. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of protein fraction from Calotropis procera latex (LP) in the mechanical hypernociception (increase in the sensitivity of nociception).


A simple and independent optical diagnosis (concentration and orientation of fibers in a polymer composite) is developed. An experimental setup has been designed to record maps of scattered light from a laser beam as it crosses a cloud of fibers. From the consideration of the ellipses which fit the recorded images, the fiber orientation and concentration inside a composite polymer sample are determined. The method of measurement is tested with glass fiber-polycarbonate matrix polymer composites.


We examine the graphs generated by the map $x\mapsto x^2\bmod n$ for various $n$, present some results on the structure of these graphs, and compute some very cool examples.


OBJECTIVE To evaluate the use of respiratory stimulants in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). DATA SOURCES MEDLINE (1966–July 2003) and EMBASE (1980–3rd quarter 2003) were searched using the search terms medroxyprogesterone acetate, acetazolamide, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and chronic obstructive lung disease. DATA SYNTHESIS Trials are reviewed evaluating ventilatory parameters with acetazolamide and/or medroxyprogesterone in patients with COPD. All studies found improvements in ventilatory parameters, but failed to demonstrate improvements in survival or quality of life. CONCLUSIONS Significant improvement in arterial blood gas and ventilatory parameters was reported in COPD patients after acetazolamide and medroxyprogesterone treatment; however, with no improvement in survival or quality of life, the place of these drugs in therapy remains unknown.


The complete genome sequence of Zucchini yellow mosaic virus stain A (ZYMV-A) isolated from a hollyhock (Althaea rosea) was determined by using RT-PCR with a series of primer sets. The virus genome consisted of 9593 nucleotides (nt), excluding the poly(A) tract at 3` terminus of the virus genome, with 5` and 3` untranslated region of 139 and 211 nt, respectively. The deduced polyprotein of ZYMV-A consisted of 3080 amino acid (aa) residues and was 351 kDa in molecular weight. All proteolytic cleavage sites of the polyprotein of ZYMV-A were compared with those of ZYMV strains, which showed the cleavage sites were conserved among ZYMV strains. The HC-Pro contained the KITC and PTK motifs, and the DAG motif was located at CP ORF of ZYMV-A, suggesting that ZYMV-A is aphid-transmissible. Phylogenetic tree analysis based on the complete genome among ZYMV strains or CP ORFs with other potyviruses showed ZYMV strains formed a distinct group. These results clearly confirmed that ZYMV-A was another distinct strain in ZYMV population at molecular level.


Normal‐mode theory is applied to the problem of finding the variation of acoustic intensity with range in shallow water of variable depth. A solution of the wave equation is obtained by neglecting the coupling of normal modes produced by the horizontal variation of depth. Relatively simple formulas for the intensity as a function of range are obtained in the case of isovelocity water by averaging the expression for intensity over source and receiver positions and replacing a Summation over all the allowed modes by an integration at intermediate ranges. At long ranges, only the first mode is effective and a modified cylindrical spreading law is obtained.


The present invention relates to substituted imidazo-pyridinones and imidazo-pyridazinones of the following general formula (I) having beneficial pharmacological properties, in particular an inhibitory effect on the activity of the enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase-IV (DPP-IV), their tautomerism , Its stereoisomer, its mixture and its salt. [Chemical 1] (Wherein R 1 to R 4 are as defined in claim 1).


Ultrasonic segmentation of thyroid nodules is an indispensable part of computer aided system and diagnosis of thyroid diseases. Due to the fact that ultrasound images have the characteristics of asymmetric irradiation, uneven appearance, low signal-to-noise ratio, low contrast and blurred boundary, thyroid nodule segmentation is a challenging task. In order to improve the precision of thyroid nodule segmentation, this paper presents an Ultrasound thyroid nodule segmentation algorithm based on multi-branch and color space volume. In this method, an image pyramid is constructed to compensate for the spatial information loss by convolutional and pooling operations. We use pretrained ResNet block as the Feature Encoder Module, a multi-branch convolutional fusion (MBCF) block is proposed to increase the receptive field and capture high-level spatial and semantic information. To further improve the segmentation performance, the color space volume transformation is used to highlight the contrast between the target area and the background in the data preprocessing part. Experimental results on an Ultrasound thyroid nodule segmentation dataset show that the proposed method performs well over the state-of-the-art methods.


Storage system that receives an external supply voltage from a host, the storage system comprising: a plurality of memory chips, each of the memory chips includes at least a plurality of data storage elements, wherein at least one of the memory chips further includes at least a first voltage generating circuit is operable to generate at least a supply voltage generated in the memory; a memory controller which is operatively coupled to the memory chips and is operably coupled to receive the external supply voltage when the memory system is operatively coupled to the host, wherein the memory controller includes at least a second voltage generating circuit which is operable to at least one of to generate control generated supply voltage; and a power bus which is coupled to each of the memory chips, wherein the power bus at least provides a supply voltage generated in the memory to the memory chips, wherein the power bus further comprises at least provides a supply voltage generated in the control to the memory chips.


Recently, Model Driven Engineering (MDE) approaches have been proposed for supporting the development, maintenance and evolution of software systems. Model driven architecture (MDA) from OMG (Object Management Group), "Software Factories" from Microsoft and the Eclipse Modelling Framework (EMF) from IBM are among the most representative MDE approaches. Nowadays, it is well recognized that model transformations are at the heart of these approaches and represent as a consequence one of the most important operations in MDE. However, despite the multitude of model transformation languages proposals emerging from university and industry, these transformations are often created manually. In this paper we propose in the first part an extended architecture that aims to semi-automate the process of transformation in the context of MDA. This architecture introduces mapping and matching as first class entities in the transformation process, represented by models and metamodels. In the second part, our architecture is enforced by a methodology which details the different steps leading to a semi-automatic transformation process. Finally, a classification of these different steps according to two main criteria is presented: how the steps are achieved (manual/automatic), and who is responsible for their achievement (expert, designer or software).


The non-equilibrium in momentum space of fragmenting sources in central heavy-ion collisions at Fermi energy is reproduced by partly compensating for the fermionic feature in the isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics model. A memory loss ratio is defined to investigate the degree of entrance channel memory loss. The incomplete memory loss and the linear correlation between the memory loss ratio and the normalized radial flow energy are found both from experimental data and calculations. The residual memory indicates that the global equilibrium is not achieved in central collisions. The local equilibrium is achieved only in a very small central region of the fragmenting source. Both the asymmetry distribution of the expansive flow and the deformation of the fragmenting source are the consequences of the residual memory. A method to extract the transversal-to-longitudinal axis ratio of the expanding fragmenting source is suggested.


In this paper, the microstrip structure is analyzed in terms of the mixed potential integral equation (MPIE) by using of the Rao-Wilton-Glisson (RWG) function expansion. The integral equation is solved by the sparse-matrix/canonical grid (SMCG) method with fast Fourier transforms technique (FFT) to accelerate the matrix-vector multiplication. During the iterative process, multifrontal method is employed to precondition the matrix equations for the purpose of enhancing the computational efficiency of the conjugate-gradient (CG) algorithm. The numerical calculations show that the proposed preconditioned SMCG algorithm can converge more than 30 times faster than the conventional one for the analysis of microstrip structures.


Distribution of the Gamow‐Teller strength has been studied both experimentally and theoretically in the f7/2 shell mirror nuclides over a wide energy range. Experimental studies were performed using light ion induced reactions and the He‐jet transport method or the ion‐guide on‐line isotope separation, IGISOL. Several transitions were observed to excited states in the decays of 43Ti and 51Fe and some in the decays of 47Cr, 49Mn, 43Co and 55Ni. Theoretical calculations were made by a shell model code using fn7/2+(P3/2, f5/2, P1/2)1 shell space. The β‐feeding has been predicted for all transitions up to about 4 MeV excitation in each daughter nucleus. The quenching of the Gamow‐Teller strength has been studied by comparing the experimental strength with the calculation. The formation of the giant Gamow‐Teller resonance has been studied theoretically as a function of the mass number.


Partial transmit sequence (PTS) is one of multiple signal representation schemes for peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, which provides good PAPR reduction performance without any signal distortion. However, for conventional PTS (CPTS), large numbers of candidate sequences are required to obtain the satisfactory PAPR reduction performance, which induces large computational complexity. In this paper, a novel PTS with alternate odd-even subblock weighting is proposed. In the proposed scheme, the whole phase weighting process is divided into two stages, i.e., the odd subblock weighting and the even subblock weighting. Moreover, in each stage of phase weighting process, the characteristic of phase weighting sequences is utilized for simplifying the computation of candidate sequences. Simulation results show that compared with CPTS, the proposed PTS scheme can reduce computational complexity clearly with similar PAPR reduction performance. Key–Words: OFDM, PAPR, PTS, phase weighting


Summary Siddique, A. B., F. M. A. Hossain & M. A. Zinnah, 2011. Determination of host specificity of pigeon pox and fowl pox viruses isolated from a field outbreak. Bulg. J. Vet. Med. , 14, No 4, 209 −214. The aim of the study was to find out the host specificity of pigeon pox virus-1 (PPV-1) and fowl pox virus-2 (FPV-2) following cross infection with field strains from Bangladesh. The cross infection was investigated in five groups (n=5) of pigeons and seven groups of chickens (n=5) four weeks of age. Irrespective of route of inoculation each bird received either 0.1 mL of PPV-1 or FPV-2 having a virus concentration of 10 6.2 EID 50 and 10 6.25 EID 50 per 0.1 mL chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) suspension, respectively. A group of uninfected control birds were maintained in both cases. All pigeons infected either orally or intravenously did not respond to infection with FPV-2 and did not manifest any pox lesion. Experimentally infected chickens with PPV-1 by oral, intravenous (i.v.) or wing-web puncture (WWP) routes did not show any pox lesions except for a "take reaction" at the inoculation site. On the other hand, dispersed pox lesions were noticed in chickens exposed to FPV-2 by all three routes. The severity of infection in experimental birds was manifested with a descending magnitude after i.v., oral and WWP inoculation. It could be concluded that the field isolates of PPV-1 and FPV-2 manifested considerable host specificity to pigeons and chickens, respectively.


Cephalic index and head shape are affected by geographical, gender, age and racial factors. This study carried out to determine cephalic index and head shape in male students of age group between 18 to 25 years of Jhalawar district Rajasthan State. This descriptive study was done on 100 of male students of age group between 18 to 25 years of Jhalawar district Rajasthan State.Mean and SD of cephalic index was 74.07±2.316. The head shape of 60% of individuals was dolichocephalic, 39% mesocephalic, 1% brachycephalic. Native individuals showed typical dolichocephalic. In comparing to other studies in world, we can conclude that the role of racial/ethnic factor in cephalic diameters.


During the experimentation of the Portfolio of experiences and Skills covers thirteen universities at license level, the Portfolio was deployed in twenty-five universities at all levels, this before delivering a final evaluation report which should precede a possible generalization of the device. In this particular context, the evaluation combining quantitative and qualitative methods can provide a critical look at what type of social experimentations, particularly on the economic and political dynamics that underlie them.


This chapter describes the preparation, characterization and reasoning of choosing LDH material for further study of research work. This chapter describes detailed information about inorganic semiconductor (i.e. Layered Double Hydroxide). It explains the experimental techniques used for the synthesis of LDH particles and the characterization of synthesized particles. The various results of experimentation are presented along with the scientific explanation of the behavior of various properties of LDH particles.


The bulk and surface valence-band electronic structure of thin-wurtzite GaN has been studied using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. The bulk band dispersion along the {Gamma}{Delta}A, {Gamma}{Sigma}M, and {Gamma}TK directions of the bulk Brillouin zone was measured. Our results indicate the local-density approximation band-structure calculations using partial-core corrections for the Ga 3d states predict the relative dispersion of many of the observed bands with a high degree of accuracy. Furthermore, a nondispersive feature was identified near the valence-band maximum in a region of k space devoid of bulk states. This feature is identified as emission from a surface state on GaN(0001)-(1{times}1). The symmetry of this surface state is even with respect to the mirror planes of the surface and polarization measurements indicate that it is of sp{sub z} character, consistent with a dangling-bond state. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}


An effective clutter rejection scheme is needed to distinguish between clutter and targets in a high-performance automatic target recognition (ATR) system. We present a clutter rejection scheme that consists of an eigenspace transformation and a multilayer perceptron (MLP). We use either principal component analysis (PCA) or the eigenspace separation transform (EST) to perform feature extraction and dimensionality reduction. The transformed data is then fed to an MLP that predicts the identity of the input, which is either a target or clutter. We devise an MLP training algorithm that seeks to maximize the class separation at a given false-alarm rate, which does not necessarily minimize the average deviation of the MLP outputs from their target valves. Experimental results are presented on a huge and realistic dataset of forward-looking infrared imagery.


Coffee and tea are two of the most widely consumed beverages worldwide and have been associated with reduced risk of mortality in some studies. However, it is unknown whether consumption of these beverages is associated with survival to an advanced age.


The specialized care that very-low-birthweight (VLBW) infants ( Clinical Evaluation The clinical evaluation of the VLBW infant differs from that of the term infant in several ways. For instance, the Apgar score generally has a range narrower than 0 to 10. Because of neurologic immaturity, Apgar scores greater than 6 in VLBW infants are unusual. This difference is due primarily to decreased tone and reactivity compared with that of term infants, but skin color also is less uniform and respiratory effort more variable in this group.


A hybrid phase/current-mode phase interpolator (HPC-PI) is presented to improve phase noise performance of ring oscillator based fractional-N PLLs. The proposed HPC-PI alleviates the bandwidth trade-off between VCO phase noise suppression and ΔΣ quantization noise suppression. By combining the phase detection and interpolation functions into XOR phase detector/interpolator (XOR PD-PI) block, accurate quantization error cancellation is achieved without using calibration. Use of a digital MDLL in front of the fractional-N PLL helps in alleviating the bandwidth limitation due to reference frequency and enables bandwidth extension even further. The extended bandwidth helps in suppressing the ring-VCO phase noise and lowering the in-band noise floor. Fabricated in 65 nm CMOS process, the prototype generates fractional frequencies from 4.25 to 4.75 GHz, with in-band phase noise floor of -104 dBc/Hz and 1.5 ps rms integrated jitter. The clock multiplier achieves power efficiency of 2.4 mW/GHz and FoM of -225.8 dB.


This paper reports on the development and implementation of two computer-based planning and information systems in a large land use planning department. Contextual features, including: a legal challenge to prevailing pro-growth politics, related crises in infrastructure finance and departmental productivity and legitimacy, and the historically weak position of the planning agency in relation to its major co- participants in the land development process, are critical for understanding the technical and political aspects of system design and implementation. The analysis focuses on the initial impacts of these information systems on relations between planning agency and service providers, elected officials and land developers; and on management-professional staff relationships within the planning organization. Automated information has enhanced the credibility of the planning department in the eyes of its co- participants, as well as strengthened the capacity of co-participants to do their own planning. Automated information will likely facilitate a shift away from map-based, long-range comprehensive planning done by a generalist planning agency, toward shorter-range sectoral programming done primarily by co-participants. Planning agencies will have to develop an information services strategy that takes into account widespread access to formerly monopolized information resources, or professional staff activities will increasingly be taken over by those on top of the planning organization in alliance with strong actors outside.


This paper analyses the solar array design requirements of small satellite platform,and expounds the design principles. Taking HJ-1A/1B satellites as an example,this paper gives the design approach to and application of solar array for small satellitar platform,in terms of modular design,high efficiency,solar array circuit layout,solar array space environment adaptability,etc.


The present invention discloses an integrated method of a metal oxide of Cu and iron thin film, which is based on a semiconductor material substrate, constituting the Ni-Al / heterostructure semiconductor substrate; framework in turn Cu / Ni-Al / Semiconductor heterostructure substrate layer; Ni-Al / Cu / Ni-Al / heterostructure semiconductor substrate, a metal oxide electrode / Ni-Al / Cu / Ni-Al / heterostructure semiconductor substrate, Pb (ZrXTi1- X) O3 / metal oxide electrode / Ni-Al / Cu / Ni-Al / semiconductor substrate structure, a metal oxide electrode / Pb (ZrXTi1-X) O3 / metal oxide electrode / Ni-Al / Cu / Ni- al / heterostructure semiconductor substrate, Pt / metal oxide electrode / Pb (ZrXTi1-X) O3 / metal oxide electrode / Ni-al / Cu / Ni-al / substrate structure of the semiconductor, at 500-700 deg.] C RTA 1-30min. Thereby overcoming the integration process of Cu and the metal oxide thin film in direct contact with the Cu oxide film, and then the solution in the high-temperature oxidation of Cu during the growth, proliferation, and stress of the reaction and the multilayer film.


This paper describes an extension of the silyl radical based kinetic growth model by atomic hydrogen induced surface hydrogen abstraction processes. It is shown that by including this direct abstraction process several problems of the SiH 3 based model are resolved. The defect density can be predicted with the proper temperature dependence and order of magnitude. The implications for high rate deposition of a-Si:H are discussed


The effect of heat treatment on the stress-magnetization properties of Co base amorphous wire with negative magnetostriction constant was investigated. The sample changes its magnetostriction constant sign from negative to positive value due to heat treatment. The surface domain configuration was observed to reveal the mechanism of this change. Magnetic field annealing induced asymmetric hysteresis curve and this curve shows quite different characteristics from annealing without any applied field. The appearance of asymmetric hysteresis is due to one directional arrangement of magnetization vector.


A new collaborative program sponsored by the DoD Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) has been initiated. The program's goals are to develop and demonstrate a laser based, rapid prototyping system for titanium and its alloys. Titanium (and alloy) near shapes have been formed from economical precursor metal powders such as raw, sieved titanium Kroll fines and titanium fines blended with elemental alloying powders. In preliminary tests, the sequential laser fusion of thin, laminar metal-powder layers to form integral, 100 percent dense structures has been demonstrated. A 14 Kw CO2 CW high-energy laser was used to form titanium bars and a 4-inch diameter (1-inch wall) cylinder. The laser forming operation was performed in a special argon swept atmosphere control chamber that remained below 30 ppm oxygen during operations. Materials characterization tests showed excellent chemistry control, and mechanical properties exceeding American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) specifications for C-2 titanium. Economic projections for titanium parts formed in a dedicated laser forming system using the operational parameters developed show cost advantages over cast and forged structures. The process appears advantageous for hard to cast, forge, or form metals such as titanium, niobium, composites, and others; both in time to delivery and final article cost. The process appears well suited for the laser forming of large, near-shape structures directly from metal powders and elemental alloy mixtures without using molds or dies, by the direct download and postprocessing of electronic part descriptions. Further work is planned.A new collaborative program sponsored by the DoD Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) has been initiated. The program's goals are to develop and demonstrate a laser based, rapid prototyping system for titanium and its alloys. Titanium (and alloy) near shapes have been formed from economical precursor metal powders such as raw, sieved titanium Kroll fines and titanium fines blended with elemental alloying powders. In preliminary tests, the sequential laser fusion of thin, laminar metal-powder layers to form integral, 100 percent dense structures has been demonstrated. A 14 Kw CO2 CW high-energy laser was used to form titanium bars and a 4-inch diameter (1-inch wall) cylinder. The laser forming operation was performed in a special argon swept atmosphere control chamber that remained below 30 ppm oxygen during operations. Materials characterization tests showed excellent chemistry control, and mechanical properties exceeding American Society for Testing Materials (A...


This paper results from research currently being
undertaken as part of the Leverhulme Trust-funded
Flood and flow: place-names and the changing hydrology
of river-systems project (RPG-2016-004).


Abstract:Background: Fluid overload (FO) and acute
kidney injury (AKI) after CABG surgery are due to multiple perioperative
etiologies associated with high failure to rescue rates (FTR) and
associated with poor outcomes  . Diuretics, fluid
restriction, ultrafiltration (UF) and renal replacement therapies are
the treatment modalities implemented as monotherapy or in combination to
address this severe complication. There is limited data on the use of
simplified UF therapy as a fluid management strategy in post-operative
cardiac surgery patients. Methods: A retrospective review of
our post operative isolated CABG patients was done from Jan 1
, 2020 to July 31 , 2021. Those
subjected to a simplified UF protocol incorporating Goal Directed
Therapy (GDT) to treat fluid overload and/or acute kidney injury were
evaluated for 30-day survival and readmission rates. Results: A
total of 254 isolated CABG procedures were performed during this period.
Ultrafiltration was used in 17 (6.7%) patients. The 30-day mortality
for the entire CABG cohort was 5/254 (2.0%) patients and in the UF
group 0/17 (0%). The mean age of UF therapy patients was 65.8 years
(Range 41-89). The mean Society of Thoracic Surgeons STS mortality score
of UF patients was 5.7% (Range 0.6-50.0). The 30-day survival for the
17 patients placed on UF therapy was 100% and their readmission rate
was 2/17 (11.7%). Conclusions: The use of ultrafiltration in
this patient population with relatively high STS scores provided a safe
and effective modality to manage fluid balance but further studies are
needed.


This essay examines the relationship between the locations bankers preferred to locate Federal Reserve banks and the locations selected by the committee charged with organizing the Federal Reserve System. Immediately following the decision locating the 12 Federal Reserve banks, citizens and organizations alleged that the responsible political committee behaved with partisanship and favoritism, criticisms repeated to the present time. I examine the committee's selections using a previously unreported February 1914 document prepared by the committee's secretary. This document records the National bankers' preferred reserve bank location for each county in eachstate. The April 1914 decisions reflect 11 of 12 cities recommended in Elliott's report. I conclude that the evidence suggests the committee selected Federal Reserve bank locations in the public interest rather than favoritism, polities or ignorance.


A sprocket wheel 10 for a chain driven conveyor comprises a sprocket wheel body 1 having rows 2, 3, 4 of teeth 5, 6, 7 distributed uniformly about the circumference of the sprocket wheel body 1. Each tooth 5, 6, 7 are provided with a recess 13 for receiving a wear-resistant insert 20 that serves as a contact surface 21 for each chain link 9. The wear-resistant inserts 20 are removable so that they are replaceable once they are worn.


The hemispheric turn has opened many avenues for scholarship in the fields of American literature and American studies more broadly. Coupled with the simultaneous rise in information accessibility and globalization, hemispheric American studies allows scholars to break down national boundaries that have historically separated cultures and histories. Building on foundational scholarship by Ralph Bauer, Mary Louise Pratt, Caroline Levander, Robert Levine, and Deborah Cohn, Antonio Barrenechea's America Unbound: Encyclopedic Literature and Hemispheric Studies explores new territory by putting into dialogue with one another four literary works that have been considered masterpieces of the American hemisphere. In this staggering undertaking, Barrenechea discusses Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), Carlos Fuentes's Terra Nostra (1975), Jacques Poulin's Volkswagen Blues (1988), and Leslie Marmon Silko's Almanac of the Dead (1991). These novels are examples of "encyclopedic" works because, as Barrenechea argues, they "contain entire worlds, histories, cultures, and epistemologies" (ix). America Unbound highlights how these literary leviathans reflect the type of transcultural work that hemispheric American studies scholars strive to accomplish because the scopes of their narratives span national borders. However, Barrenechea does not limit his study to an intellectual exercise in comparativism. He also devotes considerable time to pedagogical strategies and gives concrete examples of how hemispheric studies can be more easily incorporated into a university curriculum. Barrenechea begins by using Melville's Moby-Dick as a catalyst to define encyclopedic literature as a genre and to consider how novels in this genre reflect the methodology of hemispheric studies. He argues that Moby-Dick can be read as an allegory about conquest that is part and parcel of the US imagination. Barrenechea frames his discussion of conquest in Moby-Dick with his assessment of the controversial "Bolton thesis," the argument put forth in Eugene Herbert Bolton's essay "The Epic of Greater America" (1933) that led to debates about why historians should not center the history of the American hemisphere exclusively on the United States. Asserting that "historians mistake the nation for the hemisphere when they equate America with the United States" (1), Barrenechea


Predictions for processes preparatory to earthquakes based on an inclusion model of faulting are reviewed. The inclusion material is assumed to have properties representative of the response of brittle rock in compression; specifically, the inelastic response is strain softening, inhibited by hydrostatic compression and exhibits volume increase (dilation) due to shear. Strain softening of the inclusion material leads to a dynamic runaway of inclusion shear strain which is interpreted as the occurrence of an earthquake. For both dry and fluid-saturated rock masses, the model predicts that runaway instability is preceded by a period during which the rate of inclusion strain accelerates relative to the far-field strain rate. However, in a fluid-infiltrated rock mass, the coupling of the deformation with pore fluid diffusion causes a much more pronounced period of accelerating inclusion strain and delays the onset of instability beyond its occurrence in a dry rock mass. This transient stabilization arises from two mechanisms: the time dependent elastic response of the fluid-infiltrated material surrounding the inclusion and the dilatant hardening of the inelastic response of the inclusion material. The results for stabilization by dilatant hardening are shown to be consistent with recent laboratory experiments. The analysis is based on generalizations of Eshelby's results for inclusions to nonlinearly deforming inclusions and to a spherical inclusion embedded in a linear fluid-infiltrated elastic solid. , k, k


The study of self-assembly structure of water/surfactant/supercritical CO2(ScCO2) is very central to the design and application of the ScCO2-based reverse micelle microemulsion process.The dissipative particle dynamics(DPD) mescscopic simulation was performed to study the system of dichain surfactant(di-HCF4)+water+ScCO2.The aggregation morphology under various concentrations of surfactant and the dynamic self-assembly process were observed.The effect of temperature and pressure on the structure of self-assembly was investigated.According to the simulation result,increasing temperature is beneficial to the reversed microemulsion formation,whereas increasing pressure can damage the reverse micelle structure.


Abstract Aims: To describe rates of middle ear disease in children attending a nurse-led mobile community ear clinic over a 2-year period in Wellington, New Zealand. Methods: Analysis of records of ear examination carried out over a 2-year period to identify rates of middle ear disease in children aged 0 to 18 years. All data were collected at the time of consultation. Otitis media with effusion (OME) being a common middle ear disease in children was investigated in more detail. Results: 2,273 children were seen in the ear clinic between July 2004 and June 2006. Nearly one in three children (28%) was diagnosed as having OME at their first ear clinic visit. Males of Pacific Island ethnicity, aged between 0 to 4 years had the highest rates (48.3%) of OME. Conclusions: Chronic middle ear disease continues to be a significant problem for children in New Zealand, particularly in the Hutt Valley (Wellington) region. This study showed that the childhood rate of ear disease continues to be unacceptably high. Chronic middle ear disease is a serious health risk for children, and could reach epidemic proportions if more resources are not allocated to the management of this disease in New Zealand. Repeated episodes of otitis media can result in hearing loss, language delay, difficulties in literacy, lowered school achievement, and other areas of learning at school. Effective prevention, detection, and intervention continue to be a significant public health challenge for this ever increasing disease, especially in children of Pacific Island origin. It is important that all children are seen as early as possible to ensure timely and appropriate care to minimize the impact of impaired hearing on early childhood development. Greater public health resources are required to minimize the impact of this disease, especially in Pacific Island children.


The main purpose of this paper is to provide conceptual framework for the usage of mobile videos and the factors influencing it. Mobile video has completely changed the meaning and value of the traditional television transmission. Despite the importance of behavioural intentions, the theoretical and conceptual basis for understanding the behavioural intentions construct is still relatively immature in the China media industry Thus, to come up with the conceptual framework it is obvious to investigate previous studies on the existing relationship between the constructs identified. Critical review of the literature on the concept of mobile video usage confirmed that system, service and information quality play a crucial role on the adoption and usage of mobile videos. It is pointed out that the research on the continuous use behavior and willingness of mobile video website users has been paid more and more attention by experts and scholars.


Significance The protein kinase MEKK1 activates stress-signaling pathways in response to various cellular stressors, including chemotherapies that disrupt dynamics of the tubulin cytoskeleton. We show that MEKK1 contains a previously uncharacterized domain that can preferentially bind to the curved tubulin heterodimer—which is found in soluble tubulin and at sites of microtubule assembly and disassembly. Mutations that interfere with MEKK1−tubulin binding disrupt microtubule networks in migrating cells and are enriched in patient-derived tumor sequences. These results suggest that MEKK1−tubulin binding may be relevant to cancer progression, and the efficacy of microtubule-disrupting chemotherapies that require the activity of MEKK1. The MEKK1 protein is a pivotal kinase activator of responses to cellular stress. Activation of MEKK1 can trigger various responses, including mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases, NF-κB signaling, or cell migration. Notably, MEKK1 activity is triggered by microtubule-targeting chemotherapies, among other stressors. Here we show that MEKK1 contains a previously unidentified tumor overexpressed gene (TOG) domain. The MEKK1 TOG domain binds to tubulin heterodimers—a canonical function of TOG domains—but is unusual in that it appears alone rather than as part of a multi-TOG array, and has structural features distinct from previously characterized TOG domains. MEKK1 TOG demonstrates a clear preference for binding curved tubulin heterodimers, which exist in soluble tubulin and at sites of microtubule polymerization and depolymerization. Mutations disrupting tubulin binding decrease microtubule density at the leading edge of polarized cells, suggesting that tubulin binding may play a role in MEKK1 activity at the cellular periphery. We also show that MEKK1 mutations at the tubulin-binding interface of the TOG domain recur in patient-derived tumor sequences, suggesting selective enrichment of tumor cells with disrupted MEKK1–microtubule association. Together, these findings provide a direct link between the MEKK1 protein and tubulin, which is likely to be relevant to cancer cell migration and response to microtubule-modulating therapies.


158 Background: Terminally ill cancer patients (pts) are often hospitalized in the last 3 months of life, and a large number of them die in hospital. They require specific care provided by a team of health professionals with expertise in palliative (PC) and end-of-life care (EoLC). The aim of this analysis is to investigate the attitudes of nurses (Ns) and health care assistants (HCAs) towards terminally ill patients in a Cancer Center (CC). Methods: From July to November 2017 we applied the Frommelt Attitudes Toward Care of the Dying FORM-B Scale (FATCOD) to Ns and HCAs working in a CC, situated in a metropolitan area in Italy. FATCOD is a validated tool in its Italian version, composed of 30 questions investigating 6 specific areas: Fear (Fe), Communication (Co), Relationship (Rs), Care of the family (CoF), Family as Caring (FaC), Active Care (Ac). Each question has 5 answer options: strongly disagree, disagree, don't know, agree, strongly agree, with scores from 1, negative, to 5, positive attitude. The total score ranges from 30 to 150. Results: We administered 116 questionnaires, 102 (87.9%) were completed. 81 Ns were involved (79.4%, 31/50 males/females) and 21 HCAs (20.6%, 4/17 males/females). The median age of Ns was 39 years (range 20-50) and 43 for the HCAs (range 30-50). The median duration of employment was 10 years for both groups (range 0-20). The median score achieved by both groups was 110.3 (range 78-140). Ns obtained a score of 112.1 (range 98.7-125.5), HCAs of 103.4 (range 89.4-117.7). Our analysis shows a positive attitude in both groups across 3 areas ( FaC, CoF, AC) and a negative one in others (Fe, Co, Rs), with a statistically significant concordance between the 2 groups (p=0.0037). Conclusions: Data shows NS and HCAs negative attitude in 3 important areas, with scores below the average results reported in literature. Based on our results, we proposed some intervention strategies. We organized periodic meetings with our psychologists. Our Institution introduced the PERCS ( Program to Enhance Relational and Communication Skills) and specific programs in medical and nursing schools of our university, favoring the earliest approach to PC and EoLC. We also provided seminars in PC to Ns and HCAs working in the CC.


This paper investigates whether the net benefits from owning a vehicle, proxied by annual miles driven, explain the price declines observed over a vehicle's life. We first model the household decision on how much to drive each of its vehicles. Then we empirically establish that variation in household annual miles across brands explains observed price declines. Furthermore, the effect of vehicle age on annual miles decisions (and consequently on market value) depends on household characteristics and the composition of the vehicle stock owned. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


—With an increase in the number of high speed applications, researchers have been concentrating on permanent magnet bearings due to their suitability. This paper presents a mathematical model of a permanent magnet bearing made of ring magnets with radial polarizations. Coulombian model and vector approach are used to estimate the force, moment and stiffness. A MATLAB code is developed for evaluating the envisaged parameters for three degrees (translational) of freedom of the rotor. Comparison of force and stiffness results of the presented model with that reported in the literature and also with the results of 3D finite element analysis shows good agreement. Then, it is extended to analyse stacked ring magnets with alternate radial polarizations. Finally, the cross coupled stiffness values in addition to the principal stiffness values are presented for the elementary structure and also for stacked structure with three ring permanent magnets with alternate radial polarizations.


Culture supernates of 16 strains of EPEC belonging to 6 different serogroups, when assayed on Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells up to 96-120 h, induced distinct morphological changes. The supernate activities were heat-labile, unrelated to heat-labile enterotoxin (LT), verotoxin (VT), or hemolysin, did not show necrosis in rabbit skin and caused no fluid secretion in the rabbit ileal loop assay (RILA). Simultaneous production of CLDT and heat-stable enterotoxin (ST) were detected in four EPEC strains.