Selected coal basins from Raniganj to South Karanpura (four adjoining basins of the Darnodar Valley coalfields) of Gondwana age have been investigated from the study of coal samples collected from the deepest boreholes of the region to reveal the tectono - sedimentary and geothermal history of the Peninsular Gondwana. Quantitative estimation and modelling of accumulated sediments and their subsequent partial removal, in relation to sinking and upheaval of basin floor as well as validation study of development of the present day slope have been attempted. Maturation study of organic matter has revealed that maximum paleodepth/subsidence of the basin floor was reached in Jharia (3920 m) and minimum in South Kmpura (3040 m) during a span of 55 million years. Assuming 135 million years as soaking time/stabilisation period for the organic matter of Barakar Formation, the palaeotemperature attained is maximum in Jharia (155°C) and minimum in South Karanpura (110°C). The geothermal gradient is maximum in Jharia (5.7°C/100 m) and minimum in South Karanpura (3.1°C 1100 m), but the average geothermal gradient is around 4°C/100 m. The higher geothermal province (Jharia, East Bokaro, Raniganj) of which Jharia is the locus for the entire belt, is different from the lower geothermal region occurring further west (South Karanpura). Calculated rate of accumulation of sediment and subsidence of the basin floor of four basins are in agreement with the palaeodepth, pdaeotemperature and maturation condition of the organics. Sinking, stabilisation and later uplift of the sedimentary pile were followed by fierce erosional activity which was maximum in Raniganj and minimum in South Karanpura. The degree of erosion is in accordance with the present day slope of the drainage system i.e., towards the Darnodar river and its tributaries. The error percentage between the calculated and accepted pre-erosional stratigraphic thickness of the four basins is found to lie between 0.56 (South Karanpura) and 4.74 (Jharia), which is remarkably low and indicates the strength of the analyses.


We present herein an introduction to implementing 2-color cellular automata on quantum annealing systems, such as the D-Wave quantum computer. We show that implementing nearest-neighbor cellular automata is possible. We present an implementation of Wolfram's cellular automata Rule 110, which has previously been shown to be a universal Turing machine, as a QUBO suitable for use on quantum annealing systems. We demonstrate back-propagation of cellular automata rule sets to determine initial cell states for a desired later system state. We show 2-D 2-color cellular automata, such as Conway's Game of Life, can be expressed for quantum annealing systems.


This paper analyzes the strategies of choosing and caching in DSR and presents the improved protocol which uses the parameter of time to limit the choosing of routing and adopt the adaptive automation route shorting.The new strategies not only can use the buffer volume more efficient,but also improve the quality of route.Simulation results by NS2 show that the proposed techniques improve the performance of DSR obviously.


The article analyzes a collection of memoirs of participants in the partisan struggle in the Amur region during the Civil war and intervention.


All of the chapters in this volume represent the cutting edge of thinking about sovereign debt. The contributions stem from the authors' deep expertise in the subject matter. Almost all of the contributions are based on formal academic research conducted in the last two years. Accordingly, this book spreads before the reader the best thinking on sovereign debt by specialists drawn from top universities and key international financial institutions, including central banks, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. All of the contributions in this volume have been especially written for the intended reader - a nonfinance specialist interested in understanding the vital importance of sovereign debt for the world's economic future. The book is divided into seven sections, and each is preceded by a brief essay describing the chapters in that section:I. The Political Economy of Sovereign DebtII. Making Sovereign Debt WorkIII. Sovereign Defaults, Restructurings, and the Resumption of BorrowingIV. Legal and Contractual Dimensions of Restructurings and DefaultsV. Historical PerspectivesVI. Sovereign Debt in Emerging MarketsVII. Sovereign Debt and Financial Crises


While recognising that contemporary poetry will probably never recommend itself again to the common reader, Shetley is nevertheless dismayed by its current failure to engage the interests of intellectuals who have deserted it in favour of the more rigorous demands of literary theory. Using Elizabeth Bishop, James Merrill and John Ashbery as examples, he wishes to promote a poetry which registers a profound distrust of lyrical subjectivity yet which still manages to articulate human realities. This distrust is shared by both Language poets and by current literary theory, but Shetley clearly feels that such radical scepticism can be taken too far; while remaining critical of both new Formalists and the expressionist naivety of most of the poetry produced by creative writing programmes, Shetley does not want to throw out the emotional baby with the conceptual bathwater. His chosen poets offer exemplary instances of how to walk this particular tightrope and, though he is inclined to be too generalised in his treatment of their recurrent tactics and manoeuvres, he is often a persuasive and sensitive reader of their work. However, despite its local successes, I remain unconvinced by his argument. For one thing, his approach to high modernism seems deeply flawed; on page twelve he claims that the New Criticism " confirmed the triumph of modernism " and on page 138 he pushes the claim further by announcing that "it was, rather, the triumph itself". One would surely like to believe that The Wasteland, Ulysses or The Cantos deserve this epithet and one might also want to claim that the New Criticism represented a gross distortion of the modernist heritage, not only in the way in which it read Eliot but also, more famously, in the way it failed to accommodate the challenge represented by such writers as Pound, H. D. and William Carlos Williams, a failure which left it unable to deal with the New American Poetry which took its impetus from these modernists. Shetley wishes to dismiss this movement, seeing it only as an inverted mirror image of New Critical precepts and damned by its obsession with cultural heroism. Yet Allen Ginsberg, Robert Duncan, Jack Spicer and many other writers also display a profound distrust not only of certain kinds of language but also of the kind of cultural elitism implicit in New Critical procedures. Turning to contemporary poetry, we have the chastening examples of Edward Dorn and Tom Clark, both of which write a politically engaged poetry which is radically sceptical of lyrical subjectivity yet which still retains a recognisably human dimension. Shetley's treatment of the Language poets also leaves much to be desired; while recognising that one cannot characterise a movement on the basis of an analysis of a single poem, Shetley nonetheless does precisely this, thereby revealing a startling lack of curiosity about the range of flexibility of their work, even though he is prepared to admit that their critical statements are often more open than those produced by their academic champions.


The present invention relates to a novel method for preparing a (meth)acrylic acid polymer in an aqueous solution, said polymer having a molecular weight lower than 8,000 g/mol, for example using copper carbonate and iron sulphate (or the derivatives thereof).


During the years 1883-1886 different launches here were driven by aërial propellers or revolving sails, and the intention was a simultaneous utilisation of wind and steam power, nearly 80 per cent, of the wind directions being utilised, when sailing in a circular course. It was found that the efficiency of an aërial propeller, when correctly constructed, is a trifle superior (on account of the elasticity of the air) to that of a water propeller; at present, therefore, where the aerial propeller has come into practical use for driving aeroplanes its theory may perhaps attract attention.


Background: Recent studies have highlighted the importance of peritraumatic reactions and cognitive appraisals on the development of PTSD among adults. Cognitive theories predict firstly, intense stress and dissociation during trauma disrupt mental processing, leading to fragmented memory and increased risk of PTSD and secondly, negative cognitive appraisals of the trauma and/or sequelae maintain PTSD. Emerging evidence suggests that subjective stress and cognitive appraisals are also key factors in the development of PTSD in children but little is known about the effects of peritraumatic dissociation within this age group. This prospective study investigated the influence of these factors, as well as pre-trauma risk factors, among 7-14 year olds attending A&E following a frightening event. Method: Children were assessed for symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD within 4 weeks of the event and again at 2-3 months. Children provided a trauma narrative and described their peritraumatic response and cognitive appraisals. Parents provided information on pre-trauma risk factors. Results: At follow-up, a significant minority reported clinical levels of depression and a third reported symptoms sufficient to warrant a diagnosis of PTSD. More negative appraisals, greater subjective stress and dissociation during the trauma were associated with more trauma symptoms at both time points. However, these variables did not predict chronic trauma symptoms after controlling for pre-trauma risk factors. Conclusions: This exploratory study underscores the importance of assessing pre-trauma risk factors in identifying those children most at risk after traumatic events and brings into question claims that peritraumatic dissociation is a causal factor in the development of PTSD.


The invention relates to a headlamp aimer box which includes a housing defining an opening and a tunnel, a window disposed within the opening, and a whiteboard disposed at one end of the tunnel. The box further includes a mirror disposed within the tunnel. The mirror redirects a beam passing through the window from a headlamp toward the whiteboard. A length of the tunnel is such that light patterns directed by facets of the headlamp sufficiently cross a median line associated with the headlamp to form a developed beam on the whiteboard.


This study deals with the facile synthesis of Fe1−xS nanoparticle-containing nitrogen-doped porous carbon membranes (denoted as Fe1−xS/N-PCMs) via vacuum carbonization of hybrid porous poly(ionic liquid) (PIL) membranes, and their successful use as a sulfur host material to mitigate the shuttle effect in lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries. The hybrid porous PIL membranes as the sacrificial template were prepared via ionic crosslinking of a cationic PIL with base-neutralized 1,1′-ferrocenedicarboxylic acid, so that the iron source was molecularly incorporated into the template. The carbonization process was investigated in detail at different temperatures, and the chemical and porous structures of the carbon products were comprehensively analyzed. The Fe1−xS/N-PCMs prepared at 900 °C have a multimodal pore size distribution with a satisfactorily high surface area and well-dispersed iron sulfide nanoparticles to physically and chemically confine the LiPSs. The sulfur/Fe1−xS/N-PCM composites were then tested as electrodes in Li–S batteries, showing much improved capacity, rate performance and cycle stability, in comparison to iron sulfide-free, nitrogen-doped porous carbon membranes.


Be microstructure and optical properties of InAs quantum dots (QDs) grown on a GaAs buffer with a 30 nm thick AlAs insertion layer are investigated and compared with those grown on a plain GaAs buffer by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. The former InAs QDs exhibit larger dot sizes of 20 nm and higher aspect ratios of 0.4, compared to 15 nm and 0.2, respectively, for the latter. Temperature-dependent PL spectra of the larger dots show that the main emission is dominated by band-tail state transitions at low temperatures and ground state transitions at high temperatures. The ground state transition energy in such quantum dots is significantly red-shifted compared to the smaller InAs QDs. Lower thermal activation energy is also observed for the larger QDs with an AlAs layer. All of the phenomena are caused by different In-Ga intermixing behavior occurring during capping, which is discussed in detail.


Given the increasing American tourist rates of international tourism, information on American tourists` motivations and preferences is needed to better manage the Korean international tourism market. However, there has been little empirical research effort to understand the travel motivation of American tourists to Korea. The purpose of this exploratory study was to segment American travelers to Korea using travel motivations and to determine whether there is a significant difference in travel motivation between different segment groups and among groups with different profiles. On the basis of multi-step cluster analysis, four segments were found: family togetherness seekers, active seekers, escape seekers, and passive seekers. It is revealed that there are significant differences in travel motivations between the four segment groups and among segment groups with different socio-demographic and trip characteristics. The article concludes with marketing and management implications as a suggestion by the study findings.


This paper contributes to the exploration of user preferences of device-free interaction with smart appliances and services in the domestic environment. We presented a prototype system for on-surface gesture control to users in a natural environment and surveyed the perceived advantages of a potentially truly ubiquitous input method. Results show a positive attitude of users towards augmenting domestic environments with such a system. By reporting the most influencing user characteristics and our experience in designing the system we want to inform developers of future systems that support multiple input devices to better understand the role of device-free input in domestic spaces.


BLACKWATER fever is' seldom encountered, by Officers in the Royal Army Medical Corps. The writer has had the fortune to have had recently; under his care four cases of this formidable disease." It is tho:;"ght that short case 'notes and a 'sut;nmary of ,some jnt'eresting' features' observed, may justify p\JbliCation. Three of the Jour patients' were officers who had been in Africa in a civilian:capacity for'some years before entering military service in this "war. Two had suff~red fr<;>m blackwater: fever previously. fn none was there.: a really bad malarial history.' , "The clinical manifestations of' the diseas'e were q'uitedifferent in each ca~e;in fact hremoglobinuria was almost the only fa.ctorcommon to all.


Endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR) must be bound to a molecule of phosphatidylcholine (PC) to be fully functional, i.e. to interact with protein C/activated protein C (APC) properly. PC can be replaced with other lipids, such as lysophosphatidylcholine or platelet‐activating factor, by the action of group V secretory phospholipase A2 (sPLA2‐V), an enzyme that is upregulated in a variety of inflammatory conditions. Studies in purified systems have demonstrated that the substitution of PC notably impairs EPCR function in a process called EPCR encryption.


ABDOMINAL PAIN: and psychosis, 414(C) of psychotic origin, 221 wheelchairs as a sign, 59(C) ACCIDENT AND EMERGENCY: Scottish, assault patients attending, 322 ACROMEGALY: and cutis verticis gyrata, 79 ACUTE ABDOMEN: thyrotoxic crisis presenting as, 681 ADOLESCENTS: deliberate self-harm, brief family intervention, 484 ADVANCE DIRECTIVES: from the perspective of the patient and physician (correction), 120 ADVERTISING: are images mirages?, 62(E) which doctor? The patient's view, 302(E) AFRICA: coronary heart disease, 235(C), 413(C) coronary heart disease outlook, 23 gastroenterology research, 578 AGEING: personality and health, 27(M;S32) AGUE: cure for, the contribution of Robert Talbor (1642-81), 285 cure for, 471(C), 589(C) of Essex, 415(C) AIR DISASTERS: of airships, space shuttles and biological products, 163 ALCOHOL: is it really good for you?, 651(E) problems in the older person, 16(M;S32) ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: ancient and its modern survival, 60(C) ALTRUISM: gift relationships, 529(E) AMUNDSEN, ROALD: Lind, Scott and scurvy, 299(C) AMYLOIDOSIS: primary, multiple myeloma with, 502 ANDROCONICUS III PALAEOLOGUS: (13281341 AD), the fatal disease of the Byzantine Emperor, 106 ANEURYSM, FALSE: innominate artery due to air rifle injury, 685 ANGIOGENESIS: and the heart, therapeutic implications, 307 ANGIOGRAPHY: cholesterol emboli syndrome, 543 ANIMAL TESTING, 710(C) ANNE, QUEEN: and diabetes, 415(C) and smallpox, 60(C) ANOMIE: and suicide, 86 ANORECTAL EVERSION: effect on long-term clinical outcome of restorative proctocolectomy, 375 ANTIBIOTIC THERAPY: home intravenous, practical aspects in children, 26(M;S3 1), 34(M;S31) ANTICOAGULANTS: oral control in general practice, validation of current practice and a near patient testing method, 657 ARNICA: C30 double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial for pain and infection after total abdominal hysterectomy, 73 homeopathic, randomized trial, 239(C) ASCITES: with a raised CA 125, 448 ASSAULT: patients attending a Scottish accident and emergency department, 322 ASTHMA: mortality, the worldwide response, 265 ATOPIC DERMATITIS: dietary regimes in childhood, 9(M;S30) pathogenesis and food sensitivity, 2(M;S30) ATOPIC DISEASE: and food allergy, prevention, 21 (M;S30) intestinal involvement, I 5(M;S30) ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER: and encephalitis virus, 709(C) ATTORNEY-AT-THE-GATE: in the year 2005, 293


Most of the companies in our nation, the behavior of managers have a bad impact on the long-term development of the company. It is mainly due to the lack of long-term incentives. Based on principal and agent theory, established a model of optimal dynamic incentive combining the long-term effort and the short-term effort with the future. In this paper, we find when the ability of the manager is greater than the incentive factor, the incentive strategy is more efficient and manager will pay more efforts than before. It provides the theory foundation for manager behavior selecting to ensure the current and long-term performance.


A low cost alternative lithographic technology is desired to meet with the decreasing feature size of semiconductor devices. Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is one of the candidates for alternative lithographic technologies. NIL has advantages such as good resolution, critical dimension (CD) uniformity and smaller line edge roughness (LER). 4 On the other hand, NIL involves some risks. Defectivity is the most critical issue in NIL. The progress in the defect reduction on templates shows great improvement recently. In other words, the defect reduction of the NIIL process is a key to apply NIL to mass production. In this paper, we describe the evaluation results of the defect performance of NIL using an up-to-date tool, Canon FPA-1100 NZ2, and discuss the future potential of NIL in terms of defectivity. The impact of various kinds defects, such as the non-filling defect, plug defect, line collapse, and defects on replica templates are discussed. We found that non-fill defects under the resist pattern cause line collapse. It is important to prevent line collapse. From these analyses based on actual NIL defect data on long-run stability, we will show the way to reduce defects and the possibility of NIL in device high volume mass production. For the past one year, we have been are collaborating with SK Hynix to bring this promising technology into mainstream manufacturing. This work is the result of this collaboration.


The business value of IT is a central tenet of IS research. In this regard organizational IT capabilities are identified as a significant impact factor for performance and competitive advantage. Based on the dynamic capabilities view, this paper aims at extending existent research on IT capabilities and performance by incorporating innovation capability as a substantial driver of long-term performance. However, existing research falls short in investigating these relationships over time. To address these issues, several propositions are developed to link IT capability, innovation capability and long-term performance. This work aims at revealing the interdependencies among IT and innovation capability and to shed light on the temporal effects such as lag effects between investments into IT- and innovation capability and their effect on long-term performance.


During the early summer of 1998, more than 400 California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) in the vicinity of Monterrey Bay died, and others developed neurologic symptoms such as seizures, ataxia, and abnormal scratching. Microscopic lesions in affected animals consisted of laminar vacuolation and neuronal necrosis in the hippocampus. At the same time, a bloom of the diatom Pseudo-nitzschia australis occurred; however, a causal relationship between the algal bloom and sea lion mortality was difficult to establish. In a recent study, investigators used liquid spectroscopy-tandem mass spectroscopy and a receptor-binding assay to detect the neurotoxin domoic acid produced by the diatom in the serum, urine, and feces of affected sea lions and in the stomachs of the anchovies on which they fed. These findings provide strong evidence that domoic acid produced by Pseudo-nitzschia australis was indeed responsible for the mortality observed and that anchovies served to transfer the toxin to the sea lions.


the one pass compression test of Mid-Ti Contained in Q345B was achieved by using the Gleeble-1500 thermal simulation experiment machine. The true stress-strain curve was studied under the deformation temperature was between 1000 to 1150°C and the strain rate was from 0.01 to 0.3 s-1. And then, based on Sellars model, the function relationships between critical strain (εc), strain rate (ε) and deformation temperature (T) of dynamic recrystallization of the Mid-Ti Contained in Q345B were reached: εc=2.588×10-3Z0.12, Z=εexp (439583/8.314T).


This paper describes the development, verification and application of the next-generation Vessel Hydrodynamics Propwash Unsteady (VH-PU) numerical model. The VH-PU model was developed by Coast & Harbor Engineering, Inc. (CHE) and the Ukraine Center for Water and Environmental Projects (UCEWP) within the framework of a federal grant from the United States Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF). The model simulates three-dimensional velocity fields generated by ship propellers in a domain of arbitrary bottom and coastal topography. The model was validated using a high-quality set of laboratory data and it was further verified using two sets of field data. Both laboratory and field verifications show excellent agreement between measured and simulated velocity profiles. The model proved to be an excellent tool for the evaluation of potential impacts from propeller wash (propwash) on several locations, among which are Port Townsend Ferry Terminal, for evaluation of eelgrass impacts of terminal expansion, and the Lockheed Terminal, for evaluation of contaminated sediment capping design criteria. Both are in Puget Sound, WA.


Objective:To observe the clinical effects based on phlegm and blood stasis when treating patients with angina pectoris in coronary heart disease.Methods:TCM phlegm and blood stasis theory was used in treating 54 patients with angina pectoris in coronary heart disease,and compared with 54 ones only used routine western treatment.Results:The treating group had advantages in improving TCM symptoms,angina conditions and EKG curative effects over the control group.Compared with the control group,the treating group can significantly reduce the serum CRP level.Conclusion:Using TCM phlegm and blood stasis treatment to treat patients with angina pectoris in coronary heart disease can effectively improve clinical symptoms and the quality of life,which may be probably related to its function of suppressing the inflammation reaction during atherosclerosis in CHD patients.The clinical results may be generalized to the clinical treatment and the definite mechanism needs further research.


We demonstrate all-optical 131 0-to-15 50 nm wavelength conversion utilizing nonlinear polarization rotation in a semiconductor optical amplifier in between two standard single mode fibre based transmission links. Error-free operation at I 0 Gbitls is shown.


Although floatation irrigation has numerous advantages for vegetable transplant production, including improved seedling health, lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) transplants grown with floatation (ebb and flow) irrigation can have poor root systems. Floatation fertigation of 'South Bay' transplants with K at 15, 30, 45, or 60 mg·L K applied every 2 to 4 days, increased fresh and dry root weight at 28 days. Higher K (24 mg·kg) in the medium did not affect root weight. Fresh and dry shoot weight, leaf area, relative shoot ratio (RSR), relative growth rate (RGR), leaf weight ratio (LMR), and root weight ratio (RMR) were unaffected by applied K, regardless of the initial K concentration in the medium. Available K in a vermiculite-containing medium may have supplied all the K required. When 60 was compared with 100 mg·L N at various levels of K, the applied K again did not influence dry root weight; however, at 100 mg·L N, root weight was reduced as compared with 60 mg·L N, regardless of the level of applied K. In a field experiment, pretransplant K had no effect on growth. Transplants grown with no added K in a peat + vermiculite mix with at least 24 mg·L water-extractable K produced yields equivalent to transplants supplied with 15, 30, 45, or 60 mg·L K via floatation irrigation. Nutritional practices affect vegetable transplant size, quality, and growth in the field (Dufault and Schultheis, 1994; Garton and Widders, 1990; Jaworski and Webb, 1966; Jaworski et al., 1967; Kratky and Mishima, 1981; Masson et al., 1991a, 1991b; Melton and Dufault, 1991; Weston and Zandstra, 1989). The need of transplants for fertilizer K is not well established. Dufault (1985) reported that K had no effect on growth of celery [Apium graveoleus L. var. duke (Mill.) Pers.] transplants, but the medium contained 40 mg·kg HCl-extractable K and may have supplied all the K required. Melton and Dufault (1991) grew tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) transplants with either 25, 75, or 225 mg·kg K applied three times per week; K did not influence transplant height, stem diameter, leaf number, leaf area, total chlorophyll, fresh shoot weight, or dry shoot and root weight. Again, the transplants may not have responded because the medium contained 103 mg·kg K. Tremblay and Senécal (1988) grew lettuce, broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var. italica Plenck.), pepper (Capsicum annuum L.), and celery transplants in Metromix with varying N and K applied daily and reported that 50 to 350 mg·L K increased celery and broccoli leaf area. Leaf area of lettuce was increased by K with 350 mg·L N, but not with 150 mg·L N. Increasing the K concentration reduced pepper leaf area in a nutrient solution containing 150 mg·L N, but increased it in one containing 350 mg·L N. Neither root growth characteristics nor root : shoot ratio of broccoli, celery, and lettuce were affected by K fertilization. Information is lacking on the growth response of lettuce roots and shoots to frequent K applications, as practiced in the floatation system of irrigation. In this system, nutrients can be supplied with every irrigation by floating flats directly in nutrient solution. We have reported on the effects of P fertilization in a previous paper (Soundy et al., 2001). The present investigation was conducted to determine the K requirement, supplied via floatation irrigation, that would produce lettuce transplants with well-developed root systems that would become established rapidly in the field and grow uniformly. Materials and Methods Greenhouse experiments. 'South Bay' lettuce transplants were grown in a glass greenhouse at the Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, in Speedling styrofoam planter flats (Speedling, Sun City, Fla.), as previously reported (Soundy et al., 2001) (Table 1). Plants in Expt. 1 were irrigated every 2 to 4 d by floating flats until field capacity was reached, in nutrient solution containing K at 0, 15, 30, 45, or 60 mg·L as KCl. Other nutrients were supplied at equivalent rates to all plants in the ebb and flow system and consisted (in mg·L) of 100 N, 30 P, 100 Ca, and halfstrength Hoagland's solution with micronutrients (Hoagland and Arnon, 1950). Expt. 1 was conducted during the summer and had average daily maximum media temperatures of 32 °C and minimum of 23 °C. A randomized complete-block design was used with treatments replicated four times. Plants in Expt. 2 were irrigated once every 2 to 4 d by floating flats, until field capacity was reached, in nutrient solution containing K at 0 or 60 mg·L as KCl. Other nutrients were applied as described for Expt. 1. Media treatments used for the experiment were 1 peat : 2 vermiculite (v/v) and 1 peat : 1 rockwool (v/v) (Table 1). Average daily maximum media temperatures was 25 °C, while the minimum temperature was 14 °C with both light treatments. The factorial experiment was in a splitblock design with light treatment as the main block and K and media as subplots. Each treatment was replicated three times. Plants in Expt. 3 were irrigated every other day by floating flats, until field capacity was reached, in nutrient solution containing K at 0, 15, 30, 45, or 60 mg·L in combination with N at 60 or 100 mg·L. Potassium was supplied from KCl, while N was supplied from NH4NO3. Other nutrients were applied as described for Expt. 1. Expt. 3 was conducted during the winter season, had average daily maximum media temperature of 29 °C, while the minimum was 21 °C. The experiment was a randomized complete-block design with treatments replicated four times. Plant samples (five per plot) for growth measurements were taken at 28 d after sowing (DAS). Measurements are listed in the Tables and are described in Soundy et al. (2001). Leaf petioles for sap testing were collected at 30 DAS in Expt. 2, and 28 DAS in Expts. 1 and 3. The sap was squeezed from collected petiole pieces using a hydraulic sap press onto sampling sheets according to Hochmuth (1992). A CARDY meter (Spectrum Technologies, Plainfield, Ill.) was used to measure K concentrations in the petiole sap. Dry shoot samples from the last sampling dates were ground to pass a 20-mesh screen and dry-ashed for K or acid-digested for total Kjeldahl N according to Wolf (1982). The samples were analyzed with model 61-E Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometry (Thermo Jarrell Ash Corporation, Franklin, Mass.). A 300 Series Rapid Flow Analyzer (ALPKEM Corp., Wilsonville, Ore.) was used to determine N. Received for publication 27 July 2000. Accepted for publication 21 May 2001. Florida Agricultural Experiment Station Journal Series No. N-01914. We thank Speedling, Sun City, Fla., for partial support of this project.The cost of publishing this paper was defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. Under postal regulations, this paper therefore must be hereby marked advertisement solely to indicate this fact. Current address: Dept. of Plant Production and Soil Science, Univ. of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002 South Africa. Current address: Univ. of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, North Florida Research and Education Center, Route 3, Box 4370, Quincy, FL 32351-9500. Current address: Univ. of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Indian River Research and Education Center, 2199 South Rock Road, Ft. Pierce, FL 34945. Table 1. Sowing schedule and initial media test.


Accidents Ling Rong1,a, Wang Zhelun1, b, Tao Xiaojin1, c, Yang Jun1, d, Zhou Jixian1, e, Gao Wei1,f* 1College of Safety Engineering,Ningbo University of Technology, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China a email@example.com b email@example.com c email@example.com d firstname.lastname@example.com f email@example.com f* email@example.com Abstract In order to safety production under public health incidents, enterprises should formulate safety production plans under epidemic conditions, do a good job of online safety training for personnel, focus on closed-loop management of safety production, and report on key processes and constructions involving safety. Local government should innovate safety supervision methods, strengthen prior guidance on key processes and constructions for safe production, and strictly supervise production in key locations, thereby effectively eliminating safety risks in the process of resuming production and resuming production.


Soil organisms provide multiple ecosystem services that are essential for healthy and fertile soils and thus for a sustainable agricultural production.•Farming practices, in particular tillage intensity and crop rotation, impact soil life in arable soils.•Fungivorous soil animals act as bioregulators of phytopathogenic fungi (here: Fusarium) and the toxic metabolic products they produce (mycotoxins).


Target Audience: Scientists and clinicians interested in highly accelerated MRI Purpose: Long acquisition times make images vulnerable to motion artifacts and limit clinical adoption. Undersampling of k-space is a widely adopted approach for fast imaging. Several reconstruction methods were proposed to recover the undersampled dataset, in which the combination of Partial Parallel Imaging (PPI) and Compressed Sensing (CS) is a promising approach to achieve low noise/artifact level . Instead of using a fixed sampling trajectory, trajectory optimization has been proposed for both PPI and CS for significantly improved reconstruction. However, the expensive computational costs of these existing methods prevent their clinical application. Here we present a clinically applicable scheme which efficiently optimizes the sampling trajectories to achieve better performance for both Parallel Imaging and Compressed Sensing. Methods: We proposed a highly efficient trajectory optimizing scheme, which uses reference data from one scan among a series of scans of a clinical exam. The steps of the algorithm are shown in Fig. 1. There are following four main features: 1) An iterative random optimization scheme (heuristic Simulated Annealing) is used; 2) A GRAPPA-operator is pre-computed based on the reference data, and the k-space extrapolation using GRAPPA-operator is pre-calculated before iterations; 3) A fast pseudo-reconstruction is implemented in each iteration; 4) L Norm of errors in image domain is used as an objective function to balance PPI and CS. Simulated Annealing is a stochastic optimization strategy widely used to search global optimal solutions using a statistical updating criterion. Pre-computation: Before iterations of optimization, a GRAPPA operator is pre-calibrated using reference k-space. Extrapolation using a 1-by-5 GRAPPA-operator can help to accurately expand a sampled k-space line and recover the two adjacent k-space lines. The extrapolation is independent of the entire sampling trajectory. Pseudo-Reconstruction: Instead of implementing the nonlinear reconstruction algorithm repeatedly, any un-acquired k-space lines can be recovered by GRAPPA-operator if there is any sampled line close-by. Given a trajectory, a fast pseudo-reconstruction can be easily generated using the pre-computed GRAPPA-operator left/right extrapolation results. At locations without adjacent acquired line, zero-filling is used. The Pseudo-reconstruction results in up-to 3 times lower reduction factor without true parallel imaging calculated in iterations. Objective Function: We used the magnitude peaks of the errors between pseudo-reconstructed image and reference image as the objective function, which is quantified using Lp Norm (ex. p=∞). Since CS is good at suppressing noise-like artifacts, minimizing Lp Norm of recovery errors can balance performance of both PPI and CS. Results: Here we implemented the trajectory optimization scheme using T1w and T2w brain datasets. The trajectory optimized from T1w data was applied to both T1w and T2w data to demonstrate the applicability of the optimized trajectory for scans with different contrasts. These two datasets (FFE sequence/230×230 mm/256×256 matrix) were acquired on a Philips 3T system (Philips Healthcare, Best, the Netherland) with an 8-channel head coil (Invivo Corporation, Gainesville, FL). The datasets were all fully sampled and retrospectively undersampled for testing. 1-D undersampling trajectory along PE direction (left-right) was optimized on T1w data using the proposed scheme with reduction factor of 5. Fig. 2 shows the change of objective function (energy in stimulated annealing) in optimization iterations and the correlation between objective function values and RMSE of reconstruction using L1-SPIRiT, CS-SENSE and L1-SPIRiT with spatially adaptive regularization . Fig. 3 shows the comparison of the reconstructed images of T1w and T2w datasets using L1-SPIRiT (20 iterations) with spatially adaptive regularization, with the proposed optimization and without (using a conventional point-spread-function based 1D variable density random trajectory instead). Optimizing the 1D random undersampling trajectory takes only 30 seconds with Matlab on a laptop with 2.4GHz Duo CPU without intended acceleration for code.


The penetration of distributed photovoltaic in the distribution network is gradually increasing, and its impact on the safe and stable operation of the power grid is increasing. At present, there are some problems in the distribution network, such as insufficient reactive power compensation and backward voltage regulation. Moreover, the communication capacity in the distribution network is insufficient, and it is difficult to realize the centralized control of the distributed photovoltaic system. There is a serious problem of voltage quality degradation in the 10kV distribution network. In order to solve the above problems, this paper proposes a voltage optimization method based on local coordination control. On the double time scales of hour before the day and 15 minutes within the day, the capacitor reactor bank and distributed power inverter are used for coordination. A few days ago, centralized control was realized through capacitor reactors. In the day, the droop control is applied to adjust the PV inverter to achieve local control and optimize the voltage quality of the distribution network.


The invention relates to an airborne laser radar aerial survey technology. The technology is characterized in that a cloud platform in equal-flight-height safety flight is arranged; and an imaging sensor is loaded at the cloud platform. The imaging sensor consists of a small laser scanning system, a positioning mechanism, a set of four-area-array combined digital camera unit, and a synchronous control circuit connected with the digital camera unit. The four-area-array combined digital camera unit contains four cameras arranged into one line along the flight direction; and the lens centers of all cameras are located at the same straight line. The first camera is arranged horizontally and is inclined to the right with the 0.4-times image field angle; the second camera is arranged horizontally and is inclined to the left with the 0.4-times image field angle; the third camera is arranged longitudinally and is inclined forwardly with the 0.5-times image field angle. According to the invention, a high-precision aerial triangulation net is constructed by using the area-array digital camera, thereby improving the precision of the combined system. A problem of insufficient precision of the aerial triangulation net constructed by one camera can be solved. With the three-camera combined system, the aerial triangulation net construction precision is multiplied.


The session focused on the requirements for calorimetry at the SSC/LHC. Results on new readout techniques, calibration, radiation hard electronics and semiconductor devices, analog and digital front and electronics, and trigger strategies are presented.


THE LATEST BOOK by Fredric Jameson, The Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia, is more than a powerful intervention on the studies of a somewhat ignored literary genre. It is a statement on the function of Utopia in the present; and as such, it acquires great political significance for those of us on the Left who are in search for, to quote the name of this journal, a project for the radical imagination in our dire times.


Abstract : Previous theory and research concerning job effects on personality are briefly reviewed. A new theoretical model is presented which proposes that individuals' life orientations and levels of emotional well-being are influenced by the stimulus complexity of their job experiences. Hypotheses derived from the model are proposed for 116 engineers, scientists, and managers employed by a large petroleum products company. Five characteristics of employees jobs were measured using the Hackman-Oldham Job Diagnostic Survey. Longitudinal data were collected on four personality characteristics are measured by the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey. Results of Analyses show that two personality characteristics (Active Orientation and Freedom from Depression) are influenced by several job characteristics. Implications for job design and career development are discussed briefly. (Author)


In the report the characteristics of the accelerator radio frequency (RF) system with the biperiodic accelerating structure are examined. A structure feeding is carried out from magnetron. The generator insulation from high Q-factor load is provided with the help 3-dB directional coupler. Biperiodic structure specific feature is some resonant modes next with operational mode. These modes can render essential influence on work of the accelerator radio-frequency system. It is discussed definition technique of tolerances on characteristics tuning of RF-units and accelerating structure. Implementation of these tolerances at operational and next to it modes make generator work steady and stable in various regimes. The calculated results well coincide with experimental data received at several working accelerators.


T

his study investigates the impact of bank regulation on financial development in the MENA countries for the period 1995-2014. Restrictions on activity, foreign banks, and capital were used as proxies for bank regulation. Also, bank supervisory power, independence, private monitoring, and moral hazard were used as proxies for bank supervision. Liquid liabilities, private credit, and z-score were chosen as proxies for financial development. They represent, consecutively, size, activity, and stability of the financial sector. A positive and significant impact of bank regulation was observed on all measures of financial development. The most important contribution of the present study is that, it gives evidence of an important supporting role of supervision on bank regulation, to realize its desired impact on financial development. This final result is important for the MENA countries, since data analysis shows that financial sector reform is more concentrated on regulation than supervision. Policy makers in the MENA countries need to focus more, in their financial sector reform, on bank supervision to realize the expected impact of bank regulation on financial development.


The utility model discloses a multi-level four-quadrant elevator driving system which comprises a source midpoint clamping-type four-quadrant frequency converter and a motor used for driving an elevator transmission system. The elevator driving system has two-way power transmission capability, and is good in power grid side wave form, high in power factor, efficient and energy-saving. A control method adapting to the multi-level four-quadrant elevator driving system is simple and can overcome the defect of switch time delay, and the system has parameter self-adaption function and is strong in robustness.


Man's inclination to associate with others for the sheer pleasure of human interaction without thought of practical aims or other purposes remains natural. These increasingly task group socialization and expressions of family relativity. Evident are the developmental change, that occur within the family and population phenomenon. Family and population partisanship and roles have brought in primary, secondary and constitutional social groups. These have gradual culmination to group and individual roles. However, we realize that growth and development of individuals and group involvement and quality of life is embedded with conceptual difficulties of in-balance that affect peace, security partly from mindsets, national interests and aspirations, or unrests and insecurity through failures, wrong apprehension. Educational platforms are structures for elite society. Environmental enlightenment has options geared towards stabilizing institutional framework for security and critical development as enshrined in national interests and aspiration. This paper however, examines the roles of population and family social groups, their education and implication, and mindset that could ameliorate security problems, for enhance development. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v3n5p135


In the day by day life most of us spend a lot of time and effort in order to help our peers. By various actions like: offering some information to a person, working as a team member, being close to a person that is in grief, donating goods or money for charity, we demonstrate solidarity to our peers .


To predict end-to-end available bandwidth accurately,a autonomous system(AS) topology-based available bandwidth prediction algorithm T-aware is proposed.T-aware employs the AS topology information to choose landmarks for ultrametric-constraint nodes and un-ultrametric-constraint nodes respectively,and then predicts the end-to-end available bandwidth accordingly.Experiments with HP scalable sensing service dataset show that the T-aware can predict end-to-end available bandwidth over ten percent precisely than the PathGuru algorithm.


Purpose: This study was conducted to test the effects of flipped learning for undergraduate nursing students. Methods: The study was a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. Participants were 140 nursing students (experimental group=70, control group=70). The flipped learning was provided for 6 times (18 hours). Data were collected between March 7 and May 30, 2016. Data were analyzed using Chi-square, t-test, paired t-test with SPSS/WIN 22.0. Results: The results showed that self-efficacy (t=4.67, p<.001), critical thinking disposition (t=6.55, p<.001), and communication competence (t=3.57, p=.001) were significantly higher than in the experimental group than in the control group. Conclusion: The study findings suggest that the flipped learning has proven to be influential educational program for improving the self-efficacy, critical thinking disposition, and communication competence of nursing students. The flipped learning was an effective teaching program for nursing student, and need to develop other nursing major subjects.


To the Editor:

Using 4.7 years of follow-up data on 2311 Western, hypertensive subjects, Verdecchia and colleagues1 reported that 24-hour ambulatory mean blood pressure (BP), not pulse pressure (PP), was an independent predictor of stroke risk. Because the association between BP and stroke risk has been reported to be much steeper in Eastern populations than in Western populations,2 the prognostic impact of 24-hour mean BP and PP on stroke could be different between these populations. Therefore, we investigated the association between 24-hour mean BP and PP and stroke using data …


In order to select elite flue-cured tobacco varieties which adapted to specific ecological conditions in Henan,the stability and adaptation were analyzed with AMMI model.The data of 7 varieties(lines) were obtained from 4 experimental areas of flue-cured tobacco regional trial in Henan province.The results showed that the yield of 7 cultivars were in suitable range.The average price and the rate of grade A cured leaves showed significant variation at different locations.Line Y102 had the highest yield,value,average price and the rate of grade A cured leaves,with good adaptation to specific environment;Y106 had better economic characters and adaptability.The average price and the rate of grade A cured leaves of H8190 were lower than the control NC89,while the yield and stability was better;the economic traits of Youxuan1 was better than control,while 8182 and 8122 were lower than control.There was significant G×E interaction for total score of smoking quality among different varieties(lines).Y102 and Y106 had better smoking quality under different locations.


The purpose of this research is to present a theoretical and numerical approach to analyse the unconventional lobe P–V profiles for a heat engine cycle. The unconventional lobe P–V cycle considered here is defined as a cycle consisting of a pressure and volume relation in terms of an angle expression by continuously varying its shape to form the rounded or curved projections of the elliptical cycle. The study is deduced from a principle analysis of thermodynamic first law by using an ideal gas model. The procedure is discussed in detail in this paper, giving particular attention to the consistent evaluation of Qin and thermal efficiency by determining the adiabatic points first. Multiple adiabatic points have been found for the different lobe configurations. Effects on thermal performances due to different shapes of the lobe cycles are then examined. Finally, investigation into the number of adiabatic points and the critical values to separate different heat transfer regions is also described.


Crossed or transverse testicular ectopy is an unusual pathology of the tes- ticular descent. The unilateral presentation has been described as the descent of both testicles through one inguinal canal. Clinical presentation consists of an inguinal hernia with palpable testicle at the ectopic side and non palpable testicle at the other side. 25 cases have been reported. The diagnosis is made


The wheel velocity sensor is an active, proximity sensor developed to be used with a variety of exciter rings and tone wheels in anti-skid systems, or as a tachometer sensor, a crankshaft position sensor, or in similar applications where the speed of a rotating vane is to be monitored. The sensor provides an output signal with amplitude independent of the rotation rate of the vane, down to "zero speed". The development of the senor is discussed, and the performance characteristics of the sensor and the interface integrated circuit are described.


The reception of the late fourteenth-century romance/lay/ballad Thomas of Erceldoune by romantic enthusiasts, antiquarians, modernist philologists, and twentieth-century medievalists reveals the dangerous indebtedness of a quasi-scientific medieval philology to competing national paradigmatic constructions (German, English, Scottish) on the one hand and the ongoing foundational value of philological work for current medieval textual scholarship on the other. Thus, while debunking the disinterestedness claimed by modernist philology, the essay attests to the enduring success of philological editorial practice regarding this specific late medieval poem.


In this paper,by using fixed point index,some new results for the positive solutions of second-order four-point boundary value problems with the first-order derivative put on the nonlinear term are obtained.


A household behavior model is constructed to explain the mechanism and effect of China's new agricultural subsidies.The Analysis shows that agricultural production are closely related to the production elements allocation of farmers,and production elements allocation depend on the comparative advantage of agriculture.As a matter of policy in effect,price subsidies has the stable output effect,and output effect of investment subsidies is closely related to agricultural factor prices and farmers non-farm business profit margins.In addition,both investment subsidies and income subsidies have positive income effect.The direct payment pattern of China's current agricultural subsidies makes the policy focus fall into income category,so it hardly promotes agricultural production.Rational goal of China's agricultural subsidies should be production-oriented rather than income-oriented and subsidy structure and way should change accordingly.


A compressed-air-storing power generation device 2 is provided with a first heat exchanger 16, a heat storage tank 20, a second heat exchanger 18, a heater 22, a first power distributor 24, and a control device 26. The first heat exchanger 16 performs heat exchange between a heat medium and compressed air from a compressor 6. The heat storage tank 20 stores the heat medium with which heat has been exchanged by the first heat exchanger 16. The second heat exchanger 18 performs heat exchange between compressed air from an accumulator tank 8 and the heat medium in the heat storage tank 20. The heater 22 heats the heat medium using electric power from a power generator 12. The first power distributor 24 distributes the electric power generated by the power generator 12 to an electrical grid 25 and the heater 22. When the internal pressure of the accumulator tank 8 reaches a prescribed pressure and the generated electric power is greater than the power demand, the control device 26 performs a control for supplying some or all of the generated electric power from the first power distributor 24 to the heater 22. Therefore, the power generating efficiency of the compressed-air-storing power generation device 2 is improved, and equipment costs can be reduced.


The Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) injector employs a beamline component called a Wien filter which is typically used to select charged particles of a certain velocity. The Wien filter is also used to rotate the polarization of a beam, setting the spin of particles as they pass through. To ensure the Wien filter is functioning properly, Beam Position Monitors (BPMs) are placed before and after the filter to measure changes in the beam orbit caused by the filter. For the purpose of diagnostics, magnetic dipoles called correctors are placed at various positions upstream of the filter. The field strengths of these dipoles are varied to bend or kick the beam, a↵ecting particle trajectories through the Wien. The focus of this project was to create a simulation of the Wien filter using General Particle Tracer (GPT). The results from these simulations were vetted against machine data to analyze the accuracy of the Wien model. Due to the close agreement between simulation and experiment, the data suggest that the Wien filter model is accurate.


In this paper, deferred statistical cluster points for double sequences are dened and studied by using deferred double natural density of the subset of natural numbers. Forfp(n)g,fq(n)g,fr(m)g andft(m)g satisfying certain conditions, we obtain some results for the set of deferred statistical cluster points (2); (x) in the case of (n) = q(n) p(n), (m) = r(m) t(m). Further, we provide some counterexamples regarding (2); (x). Also, we give some inclusion results for the set of deferred statistical cluster points (2); (x).


Pharmacology Teaching and Research Office,Pharmaceutical Department,Heze Medical College has effectively adjusted the curriculum setup and established a framework of 5-2-3.Based on the new teaching mode,the teaching methods have been improved,Pharmacological experiments renewed and the traditional examination formula reformed.What's more,a new kind of extracurricular activity has been formed,which guides students to write literature summaries.All of these improved teaching,experimental and testing methods are very popular with students,which have brought about satisfactory teaching effects.


Much of our research has been concerned with devising techniques for the representation, conveyance and acquisition of knowledge, as we have sought solutions to problems of"learnability." To develop a general learning theory we have examined the notion of correct information, or behavior, within a knowledge domain - as distinguished from that behavior which is incorrect. We have also investigated the means to represent these knowledge classes perfectly. In most problems we have considered, a knowledge domain is (potentially) infinite, so no realistic learning process would have access to a complete set of behavioral data. The successful solution to a learning problem thus might depend on the representation and conveyance of infinite knowledge (possibly correct and incorrect behavior) by finite means. If a successful solution is to be perfect, selected/observable finite information must convey the behavior of the entire infinite domain, by representing it completely. When we first considered learnability problems we did seek solutions that were perfect, characterizing infinite behaviors from finite information examples. We initially sought correct finite results and then, from a universe of potential behavioral models we sought results that were "elegant" and the "best." In the specific problem we first investigated, correctness, perfection and elegant representation of infinite knowledge all were possible, and were achieved effectively. In that instance we sought finite models for (contextfree) linguistic knowledge, and we discovered them by exploiting the structures existing within the infinite body of language. Congruence classes of linguistic structures corresponded to components of unique finite generative and recognitive models. Structural representatives of each of the classes provided a specific finite set of information samples su~cient for construction of models by effective inductive inference. Furthermore, by imposing constraints on the domain in which the language structures were found, we discovered we could simplify the process of obtaining a recognitive solution. Representatives of "correct" structure classes were all that needed to be considered in the search for an accepting recognitive model. The components of a recognizer that processed "incorrect" behavior could then be determined simply, by default.


Traditional methods for judging cigarette smoke exposure have relied heavily on identifying numbers of cigarettes smoked, or, in nonsmokers, hours of exposure to other people's smoke.'*2 This approach has provided considerable useful information but has been limited by differences in smoking technique, differences in type of cigarette, and differences in ventilation in rooms. Recently it has become possible to determine smoke intake more accurately by measuring cotinine levels in blood, urine, or saliva.)-' Cotinine is a metabolic derivative of nicotine with a half-life of one day and allows one to look confidently at active and passive exposure to smoke. The present study involves measuring serum cotinine levels and relating them to subsequent birthweight in 1,23 1 nonsmoking white pregnant women consecutively enrolled for second trimester MSAFP screening. Information regarding maternal age, height, weight, gravidity, years of maternal and paternal education, infant sex and birthweight were available for all women in the study. Using an improved RIA technique developed by our laboratory: the lower level of detection for cotinine in serum was 0.5 ng/mL. Women whose level was above 10.0 ng/mL, the cut-off between smoking and nonsmoking, were excluded from the study. Two thirds of the serum cotinine values fell below 1 ng/mL, and nearly all of the rest fell between 1.0 and 5.0 ng/mL. To avoid the confounding influence in birthweight from known correlated variables,' a multivariate regression analysis was applied, including maternal weight, height, age, gravidity, education and infant sex. Three groups were defined based on cotinine values: (1) <0.5 ng/mL, (2) 0.5-1.0 ng/mL, and (3) 1.1-9.9 ng/mL. When crude birthweights were analyzed, a difference of 107 grams was noted between groups one and three. When multivariate regression analysis was applied, a 108-gram difference was noted. Both of these birthweight differences were significant at a p value of <0.001. This lowering of birthweight indicates a biologic effect to the fetus when the pregnant woman is exposed to cigarette smoke in the environment.


In state-of-art large vocabulary continuous speech recognition (LVCSR) systems, HMM state-tying is often used to achieve good balance between the model resolution and robustness. In this paradigm, tied HMM states share a single set of parameters and are nondistinguishable. To capture the fine differences among tied HMM states, a probabilistic classification of HMM states (PCHMM) is proposed in this paper for LVCSR. In particular, a distribution from a HMM state to classes is introduced. It is shown that the state-to-class distribution can be estimated together with conventional HMM parameters within the EM (Dempster et al., 1977) framework. Compared with HMM state-tying, probabilistic classification of HMM states makes more efficient use of model parameters. It also makes the acoustic model more robust against the possible mismatch or variation between training and test data. The viability of this approach is verified by the significant reduction of word error rate (WER) on the Switchboard (Godfrey et al., 1992) task.


Objective To investigate the changes of serum transferrin receptor (sTfR) in children with acute leukemia. Met hods The concentrations of sTfR were measured by sandwich ELISA.Results sTfR in ALL (24 cases) before therapy was 24.73±12.38 nmol/L, AML (11 cases) before therapy was 27.09±19.37 nmol/L, and healthy control (20 cases) was 30.49±9.78 nmol/L. There were no significant differences among these three groups (P0.05). sTfR in the complete remission (CR) group after 4 weeks of chemotherapy in ALL (14 cases) was 55.41±22.01 nmol/L, and AML (5 cases) 50.71±20.99 nmol/L. Both were significantly higher than that of the group before therapy and the healthy group (P0.01). After 8 weeks of therapy in ALL (8 cases), sTfR was 33.07±16.11nmol/L , and AML (5cases) was 30.99±12.90 nmol/L,which were close to normal level (P 0.05). In the group with ALL (13 cases) who were in CR for a long time, sTfR was 33.07±16.11 nmol/L. This was no different from that of the healthy group (P0.05). Conclusion sTfR may play an important role in the diagnosis and assessment of the effects of therapy in acute leukemia.


This letter reports a Pb(Zr 0.5 Ti 0.5 )O 3 (PZT) based composition, which provides high dielectric, piezoelectric and electromechanical properties. The composition corresponding to 0.2 PZN – 0.8 PZT + 0.5 wt% MnO 2 provides the radial mode coupling factor (k p ) of 0.58, longitudinal mode piezoelectric constant (d 33 ) of 277 pC/N, dielectric constant (e 33 /e o ) of 946 and mechanical quality factor (Q m ) of 1402. X-ray diffraction, dielectric and polarization-electric field measurements were done to investigate the origin for this high performance. It was found that high soft properties are obtained due to the shifting of PZT composition towards morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) and high hard properties are obtained due to the generation of dipolar defects which pin the polarization. The properties of the composition corresponding to 0.9 PZT – 0.1PMnN (Zr/Ti = 0.51/0.49) modified with 6 mol% Sr were found to be: k p = 0.53, Q m = 800, d 33 = 274, e 33 /e o = 1290 and tanδ = 1.1 %, with a TCF of -8 ppm/oC (-20 to 80°C). High piezoelectric properties with low TCF shows the suitability of this composition for ultrasonic devices used under fluctuating thermal environment.


The Z-source inverter (ZSI) is getting popular for induction motor drives as it provides single-stage power conversion with voltage buck-boost ability. Recent surveys have reported that inverters are prone to failure due to internal faults on power semiconductor devices which significantly degrades the overall systems performance. The analysis and diagnosis of faults are significantly important for ensuring reliable operation of a drive systems. This paper rigorously analyzes effects of internal faults on a ZSI-fed single-phase induction motor drive system using MATLAB/Simulink. This study proposes a fault protection technique using bidirectional converter to facilitate post fault operation of inverter drives. The simulation circuits with the related harmonic spectrum are presented after introducing an open circuit fault and a short circuit fault in a drive system with and without a protection circuit. From systematic analyses it is found that fault occurrence leads to harmonic distortion to a significant level in the proposed drive system and therefore, affects the systems efficiency. The proposed fault protection technique proves to be an effective method to reduce harmonics in the drive system during a fault occurrence. THe FFT spectrum results are tabulated and compared.


J 50 z o i= ~ 40 :E a: ~ 30 90 germination of the various seed lots were found to be related to the differences in the percentage of hard seeds, i.e., the higher the percentage of hard seeds, the lower the rate of germination. These seeds, recovered from the slow germinating lots at the end of the experiment, germin ated rapidly when scarified with sulfuric acid or nicked . with a knife. The results indicate that the least dormant seed requires about 1 year for maximum germination, but that the more dormant the THEDATA INTHIS PAPER attest to the accuracy of a statement by the author to the effect that untreated seed of koa haole (Leucaena glauca (1.) Benth .) may require several years to germinate under natural conditions (Akamine, 1942). The question has been raised as to the actual time required for the seed to germinate; consequently, germination tests were conducted in soil flats in the greenhouse. Each test lot consisted of 1,000 seeds, with emergence of seedlings as the criterion of germination. Weekly germination counts were made and sprouted seedlings were removed from the flats. The soil was kept moist throughout the germination period , and optimum conditions for germination were maintained. Seeds that were held for a period of time prior to germination were stored at room temperature. Results , shown in Figure 1, indicate that I -month-old seed of one lot germinated more than 90 per cent in 1 year, whereas seed of similar age, but of another lot, germinated only appro ximately 20 per cent in nearly 4 years. Germination of the 2-month-old seed of one lot differed from that of another lot, as did the germin ation of the 10-month-old seed, although not to the extent of the other age groups. Delayed germination in koa haole seed is caused by an impervious seedcoat. C hard" seed) (Akamine, 1942). The differences in


The existence of evil in the world poses a serious theological problem for anyone who believes in a single, omnipotent and omniscient god who is completely good. The solution to the problem of the existence of evil can therefore be found in one of two approaches: either God is not completely good, and is therefore responsible for both good and evil, or he is either not omnipotent or not omniscient. Regarding the question of the origin of evil, Jubilees is seemingly characterized by the tendency to attribute evil to an outside force or being, thus defending God's goodness. This chapter demonstrates the study of the ideas and beliefs of Jubilees in general is significant for the study of Jewish thought in the late Second Temple period, as well as for the analysis of the literary development of the book in its entirety.Keywords: evil; God; Jubilees ; theological problem


In the past, the sporadic, unpredictable occurrence of cleft palate made the study of its embryological origins difficult. The discovery by Fraser et al. (1954) that large doses of cortisone injected into pregnant strain A/Jax females would cause cleft palate in 100 per cent. of the offspring, provided a means for studying cleft palate in all stages of its development. Also, the lower incidence (17 per cent.) of this defect in strain C57BL after cortisone treatment supplied an additional tool for detecting differences between normal and abnormal palate development. Thus, a study of the embryology of cortisone-induced cleft palate was undertaken. However, to understand the abnormal it is usually necessary first to understand the normal. Since the literature on normal palate development was incomplete and controversial, this subject was re-examined and the results have been presented previously (Walker & Fraser, 1956).


Prosthetic joint infection (PJI) is an increasing problem and management commonly involves prosthesis removal with serious consequences. Biofilm-forming staphylococci are the most common causative organisms with Staphylococcus aureus being most virulent and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) more than doubling the infection mortality rate. Bacterial adhesion is an essential primary event in biofilm formation and infection establishment. The development of a novel combination vaccine programme to prevent staphylococcal PJI by directing antibody against factors involved in adhesion and biofilm formation, and investigation of S. aureus binding-domains as potential vaccine components for adhesion inhibition is described. Selected target antigens included the S. aureus fibronectin-binding protein (FnBP) and iron-regulated surface determinant (IsdA), which have been shown to be important for infection establishment and predominantly bind to host fibronectin and fibrinogen respectively. Escherichia coli clones harbouring recombinant S. aureus binding-domain DNA sequences were used for expression and purification of antigen domains. In vitro antibody evaluation determined whether immune inhibition of bacteria - ligand binding can significantly impact on attachment to plasma-conditioned biomaterial (in presence of other bacterial ligands). Adhesion of homologous and heterologous (MRSA PJI isolate) S. aureus to plasma-conditioned steel was significantly reduced (approximately 50 percent average reduction, p


The recognition of the value of honey bees as pollinating agents has not always been unanimous. The US State of Utah passed legislation in 1929 to effectively prohibit the movement of honey bees into that State. This legislation was designed to protect alfalfa from the presumed ravages of honey bees which " ... ",ade alfalfa wilt and fail to set seed." (Wh itco mba, 1955). Californian alfalfa growers were more progressive in their thinking. Early trials at about the same time in the latter State indicated increases in alfalfa yields of up to 500 per cent as a resiJlt of managed honey bee pollination (Whitcombe, ibid.). By 1950, Californian alfalfa growers were generally prepared to pay a pollination contract fee of $5.00 per hive to beekeepers Some beekeepers were successful in negotiating share contracts with growers whereby a proportion of the extra yield attributable to beneficial effects of honey bees was paid to the beekeeper (Whitcombe, ibid).


An important predictor of cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in hemodialysis patients is left ventricular hypertrophy. Also, pulmonary hypertension is a risk factor for mortality and cardiovascular events in hemodialysis patients. The aim of this study was to investigate cardiac remodeling and the dynamics of pulmonary arterial pressure during a year-long hemodialysis treatment and to evaluate relationship between pulmonary arterial pressure and blood flow in arteriovenous fistula.

 Hemodialysis patients (n=88; 42 males, 46 females, mean age was 51.7±13.0 years) were studied. Echocardiography and Doppler echocardiography were performed in the beginning of hemodialysis treatment and after a year. Echocardiographic evaluation was carried out on the day after dialysis. Left ventricular mass index (LVMI) was calculated. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was measured by the echocardiographic Simpson method. Arteriovenous fistula flow was determined by Doppler echocardiography. Pulmonary hypertension was diagnosed according to criteria of Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary hypertension of the European Society of Cardiology.

 Pulmonary hypertension was diagnosed in 47 (53.4%) patients. Left ventricular hypertrophy was revealed in 71 (80.7%) patients. Only 2 (2.3%) patients had LVEF<50%. At the beginning of hemodialysis correlation was detected between systolic pulmonary arterial pressure and LVMI (r=0.52; P<0.001). Systolic pulmonary arterial pressure negatively correlated with left ventricular ejection fraction (r=-0.20; P=0.04). After a year of hemodialysis treatment LVMI decreased from 140.49±42.95 to 123.25±39.27 g/m2 (р=0.006) mainly due to a decrease in left ventricular end-diastolic dimension (from 50.23±6.48 to 45.13±5.24 mm, p=0.04) and systolic pulmonary arterial pressure decreased from 44.83±14.53 to 39.14±10.29 mmHg (р=0.002). Correlation wasn't found between systolic pulmonary arterial pressure and arteriovenous fistula flow (r=0.17; p=0.4).

 Pulmonary hypertension was diagnosed in half of patients at the beginning of hemodialysis treatment. Pulmonary hypertension in hemodialysis patients was associated with left ventricular hypertrophy, systolic left ventricular dysfunction. After a year-long hemodialysis treatment, a regress in left ventricular hypertrophy and a partial decrease in pulmonary arterial pressure were observed. There wasn't correlation between arteriovenous fistula flow and systolic pulmonary arterial pressure.


Cyanate-ester-based thermosetting die attach materials, commonly known as Low Temperature Die Attach (LTDA) are the newest innovation in Hermetic Die Attach Technology due to their improved manufacturability, high decomposition temperature and a moisture gettering effect. Although their dispensability and decomposition temperatures are well documented, little information is available on the effects of prolonged exposure to moisture and thermal conditions. A study was therefore conducted to investigate the behaviour of LTDA under thermal and moisture conditioning.


The invention relates to a high-efficiency DC-DC converter which comprises a first full bridge, a second full bridge and a third full bridge, wherein the first full bridge, the second full bridge and the third full bridge are identical in structure. Bridge arms of the full bridges are all connected with an input power supply in parallel, and the difference between the phase position of the first full bridge, the phase position of the second full bridge and the phase position of the third full bridge is 120 degrees. An on-bridge tube of the advancing bridge arm is driven first, and an under-bridge tube of the advancing bridge arm is driven half a period later than the on-bridge tube. An on-bridge tube of the lagging bridge arm is driven X periods of time later than the on-bridge tube of the advancing bridge arm. Due to the fact that in the five states for energy transmission at each order, at least one phase and at most two phases of the first full bridge, the second full bridge and the third full bridge work, in the whole process, currents are shared by the full bridges which work simultaneously, the current load of each full bridge is reduced, as a result, circuit loss is lowered effectively, the current limiting problem generated during power amplification through a traditional full bridge is solved, and the current resisting requirement of a device is also lowered. Due to the fact that the soft switching state is realized in a part of period, switching tube loss caused by the hard switching state of a switching tube is lowered, and the conversion efficiency of the DC-DC converter is improved.


Although we are indisputably capable of changing our beliefs, everyday experience suggests that such changes are hard to make: we often cling to old and familiar conceptions of reality, disregarding or explaining away contradictory evidence. This report presents a new experimental paradigm for the study of this critically important human attribute. Preliminary qualitative observations indicate that conceptual conservatism can be directly explored in a controlled laboratory setting, that it plays a more critical role in human affairs than has been hitherto supposed, and that it is traceable in part to the cognitive difficulty of replacing one belief with another.


The purpose of this article was to describe and compare coaching models and to address their relevance to the advancement of leadership. Coaching has become a popular strategy for leadership development and change in complex environments. Despite increasing popularity, little evidence describes the necessity and impact of coaching. An integrative literature review from 1996 to 2010, retrieved through seven databases, reference tracking, and consultation with academic networks, led to inclusion of peer-reviewed articles on coaching models. Themes and critical elements in the selected coaching models were analyzed. The search yielded 1,414 titles. Four hundred twenty-seven abstracts were screened using inclusion/exclusion criteria, and 56 papers were retrieved for full-text screening. Ten papers were included: two coaching models from health care settings, seven from business settings, and one from a medical education institution. Critical components of coaching models are: coach–coachee relationship, problem identification and goal setting, problem solving, transformational process, and mechanisms by which the model achieves outcomes. Factors that impact positive coaching outcomes are: coach's role and attributes, selection of coaching candidates and coach attributes, obstacles and facilitators to the coaching process, benefits and drawbacks of external versus internal coaches, and organizational support. The elements of coaching models identified in this review may be used to guide future research on the effectiveness of coaching as a leadership strategy.


Coding Rupture Indicators in Couple Therapy (CRICT): An Observational Coding Scheme AnnaLisa Ward Carr School of Family Life, BYU Master of Science The therapeutic alliance, a construct representing agreement and collaboration on therapy goals, therapy tasks, and the emotional bond between client(s) and therapist, is a robust predictor of therapy outcomes in individual, couple, and family therapy. One way to track the therapeutic alliance is through ruptures and repairs. Ruptures are breaks, tensions, or tears in the therapeutic alliance. Ruptures and repairs influence the therapeutic alliance and consequently therapeutic outcomes. Currently, there is a lack of research addressing ruptures and repairs in couple therapy. The first step in researching alliance ruptures is to have a reliable way to assess alliance ruptures. This study will describe the development of the Coding Rupture Indicators in Couples Therapy (CRICT). The CRICT is an observational coding scheme that measures ruptures in couple therapy. The CRICT was developed through collaboration with researchers in marriage and family therapy, creation of items, adaptation of items from established coding schemes from individual therapy, and input and feedback as the CRICT was used and tested by undergraduates in a coding class. This paper will review foundational research of ruptures and repairs as well as the construction and use of the CRICT coding scheme.


Summary

An operative technique is described along with a method of representation of Induced Polarization values obtained over homogeneous rocks against the electrical power per unit volume.

The results of similar experiments over two-layer ground, are shown according to the same operative technique and method of representation.

With the method of representation suggested in this paper it is possible to distinguish discontinuities and to get information about the thickness of the upper medium.


There are two principal types of PWR nuclear power plant steady state programming, i.e. the one with constant primary loop coolant average temperature, and the other with constant secondary loop steam pressure. In this paper, an ideal steady state programming with both constant coolant average temperature and constant steam pressure is discussed. Based on this ideal programming, two kinds of steady state programming operating in low load range are put forward.


The review considers the problem of connection the polycystic ovarian syndrome and periodontal disorders of the fertile women. The authors marked that this problem is not virtually touched upon in Russian science. In the foreign literature this issue is discussed in connection with studying the micro-biome and oxidative stress. The authors refer to some articles showing that the quantity of pathogenic microorganisms responsible for periodontal disorders and the level of specific antibodies in blood serum are increased in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome, especially in the cases of gum inflammation. Also the article gives the data where the results show the wider spreading of periodontal disorders in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome in comparison with the healthy ones where controls were matched by age and BMI. The authors think that studies on oral microbiocenose disorders and tissue quality of periodontium of the fertile women with polycystic ovarian syndrome are quite important. The further studying of connection of polycystic ovarian syndrome and oral mucous membrane inflammation could reveal definite periodontal pathogens, which can influence systematic inflammation processes in polycystic ovarian syndrome.


In this chapter, the authors seek to analyse the manifestations of state violence in Brazil in the post-transition period following the 1964-1985 authoritarian regime. First, some of the possible causes of violence in the country are briefly discussed, highlighting elements of a structural nature and others related to the legacy of the authoritarian period. In a second section, the so-called May Crimes of 2006, are examined, in which execution, slaughter, and disappearance took place. A third section of the chapter examines the process of social mobilisation that occurred as a response to these crimes, particularly the strategy used by the families of victims to appeal to the Inter-American human rights system to seek justice after frustrated efforts for investigation and justice within the country.


The article is devoted to the Polish prisoners of war who took part in the Civil War at the side of Kolchak in the Fifth Polish Rifle Division. The Division was formed in the spring of 1919 and was a member of the Army of the Entente states in Eastern Russia and in Western Siberia. During the evacuation of foreign troops to the East at the end of 1919, the Division was surrounded by the "Reds" near Krasnoyarsk and capitulated on January 10, 1920. About 11000 people were imprisoned by the Bolsheviks. These prisoners were expecting repatriation to Poland in the South of the Yenisei Province. The Soviet Government had to solve the following problems: formation of loyalty to the Soviet regime to export the revolution to the West; identification and elimination of the opponents of the Bolsheviks. They needed to consider the contradictions within the division that arose prior to the surrender. There were prisoners of the Austro-Hungarian and German armies and the former lieges of the Russian Empire in the division. After the restoration of the independence of Poland the "Austrians" and "Germans" lost their interest in the events in Russia and wanted to return to their homeland. There was also no unity among the "Russians". Some associated their life with independent Poland, and were supporters of neutrality in the Civil War. Others, especially the officers of the former Tsar's army, identified themselves with Russia and hated the Bolsheviks. The fight against ideological enemies was carried out by the Cheka. Under particular control were former officers and intellectuals. The arrested prisoners were charged with voluntary service for Kolchak, recruiting people for the Polish Legion, counter-revolutionary propaganda. The repression continued even after the conclusion of the Riga peace treaty between Poland and Soviet Russia. The prisoners of war were part of labour brigades in the Yenisei Province that were sent for logging and working at industrial enterprises. There were people among the captives who had secondary and higher education and were in demand in the condition of the economic collapse, those were specialists agronomists, doctors and so on. They worked in Soviet institutions and enterprises, regardless even of there noble origin. After signing the Riga peace treaty the repatriation of Poles to their homeland started. About 5572 prisoners of war could go to Poland (the total of 7779 persons together with their family members).


Metabolic physiology has remained a mainstay of research for over a century, as metabolism and metabolites are paramount to the biological processes that provide energy to maintain homeostasis. This area of research has become particularly important given the recent global surge of chronic diseases associated with dysregulated metabolism such as obesity, diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and cardiovascular disease. The goal of this Research Topic, "Methods and applications in metabolic physiology," is to highlight innovative methods and emerging technologies to investigate metabolic processes that maintain physiological homeostasis, and how these processes become disturbed during disease pathophysiology at the molecular, cellular, organ, and organism levels. As the prevalence of obesity and related metabolic and cardiovascular complications continues to rise globally, there is an urgent need for accurate and high-resolution methods to study integrated metabolic and cardiovascular physiology in animal models. The article by Reho et al. provides a technical guide for high-throughput and high-resolution comprehensive cardiometabolic phenotyping in mice and rats, with methods spanning measurement of body composition, electrolyte accumulation and flux, energy storage and flux, physical activity, ingestive behavior, ventilatory function, blood pressure, heart rate, autonomic function, and gut microbiota. Importantly, these technologies can be used for diverse purposes including to gain insight into normal physiological functioning, pathophysiology in the context of numerous diseases, and responses to dietary or pharmacological interventions. The article by Rial-Pensado et al. uses some of these metabolic phenotyping approaches to show that environmental temperature modulates the systemic and central actions of thyroid hormones on brown adipose thermogenesis and energy balance in rats in a complex manner. This finding may have implications for experimental design considerations as well as to improve understanding of the physiological role of thyroid hormones in adaptations to environmental temperature. A rapidly growing research area in metabolic physiology relates to the evaluation of bioactive metabolites using omics approaches. In this regard, metabolomics allows for the identification and profiling of small molecule metabolites, providing a window into the molecular signature of cellular and organ level metabolic physiology (Wishart, 2019). This technique has also been used to advance clinical applications such as identifying biomarkers for diagnosis, treatment, and outcome prediction in diseases. Two articles in this Research Topic highlight the use of OPEN ACCESS


Device for separating salts from an aqueous mixture or solution, comprising: - an outer wall having an inlet (21, 23, 25) to said mixture or solution and provided with a first discharge (27) for discharging a slurry of ice and a second discharge (9) for discharging a salt slurry; - parts of refrigerated wall (40, 41, 44, 45) which can be cooled at or near a temperature at which the mixture or solution solidifies, the parts of cooled wall (40, 41, 44, 45) are spaced from the outer wall, the parts cooled wall (40, 41, 44, 45) and the outer wall are cylindrical and coaxial, and wherein parts of cooled wall (40, 41, 44, 45) form annular rings, one or more elements of scratch or scrape (30) for scraping solidified material from said - said device being adapted to the aqueous mixture or solution to flow from entering the space formed between the parts cooled wall and the outer wall and being parts of refrigerated wall (40, 41, 44, 45).


Since 2008, the documentation of Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) patterns has drawn much interest from the academic as well as industrial community. Nowadays, more and more companies start EAM initiatives and the maturity of some early adopters has reached a high level. Therefore, it is now possible to extend the structure of EAM patterns to reflect and include the growing EAM knowledge in practice. For example, knowledge about typical stakeholders and external influence factors can guide the selection of EAM patterns. In addition, metrics and reports/documents are now commonly used for EAM and can also be included. Furthermore, the problem of collecting data needed to describe an enterprise architecture can also be documented by using the pattern format because practice-proven solutions already exist. Based on questioning 13 different companies new EAM patterns have been identified and documented using the extended structure presented in this article.


Author(s): Rahmanian, Holakou | Advisor(s): Warmuth, Manfred K; Vishwanathan, SVN | Abstract: This thesis develops algorithms for learning combinatorial objects. A combinatorial object is a structured concept composed of components. Examples are permutations, Huffman trees, binary search trees and paths in a directed graph. Learning combinatorial objects is a challenging problem: First, the number of combinatorial objects is typically exponential in terms of number of components. Second, the convex hull of these objects is a polytope whose characterization in the original space may have exponentially many facets or a description of the polytope in terms of facets/inequalities may not be even known. Finally, the loss of each object could be a complicated function of its component and may not be simply additive as a function of the components. In this thesis, we explore a wide variety of combinatorial objects and address the challenges above. For each combinatorial object, we go beyond the original space of the problem and introduce auxiliary spaces and representations. The representation of the objects in these auxiliary spaces admits additive losses and polytopes with polynomially many facets. This allows us to extend well-known algorithms like Expanded Hedge and Component Hedge to these combinatorial objects for the first time.


Nursing home care work in Sweden and Canada takes place in different policy contexts. Canadian nursing homes are comparatively big and the work is oriented towards a medical model while Swedish nur ...


Intense beams with large angular momentum have important applications in electron cooling and in producing flat beams suitable for ultrafast x-ray generation, SmithPurcell radiators, and possibly for a future linear collider. To gain a basic understanding of the influence of beam angular momentum in an otherwise space-charge-dominated beam, the behavior of such a beam in free space will be examined here, in particular, beam spreading due to spacecharge force, as well as emittance oscillation. Drift space is an important part of a split photoinjector and plays a significant role in emitance compensationof a high-brightness photoinjector.


This paper will describe the design of a number of coherent light measurement systems which use a combination of active control and passive design principles to compensate for the effects of random system perturbation.


In the previous chapter, we first discussed the linear difference equation model P t +1 = λ P t , which results in exponential growth or decay. After criticizing this model for not being realistic enough, we looked at nonlinear models that could result in quite complicated dynamics. However, there is another way our models in the last chapter were simplistic – they treated all individuals in a population identically. In most populations, there are actually many subgroups whose vital behavior can be quite different. For instance, in humans, the death rate for infants is often higher than for older children. Also, children before the age of puberty contribute nothing to the birth rate. Even among adults, death rates are not constant, but tend to rise with advancing age. In nonhuman populations, the differences can be more extreme. Insects go through a number of distinct life stages, such as egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Death rates may vary greatly across these different stages, and only adults are capable of reproducing. Plants also may have various stages they pass through, such as dormant seed, seedling, nonflowering, and flowering. How can a mathematical model take into account the subgroup structure that we would expect to play a large role in determining the overall growth or decline of such populations?


To the Editor: Gait disorders and psychoactive medications such as benzodiazepines and antidepressants have been independently associated with the occurrence of falls in older adults. It has been suggested that psychoactive medication may directly increase the risk of falls by causing gait instability. Increase in stride-to-stride variability (STV) has been identified as a reflection of gait instability. To the best of the authors' knowledge, no study has examined yet the psychoactive medication-related changes in STV in older adults. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to determine whether the use of psychoactive medication was associated with an increase in STV in community-dwelling older adults. Between July 2008 and April 2009, 179 communitydwelling subjects aged 65 and older (mean age 71.7 5.5; 72.1% female) were recruited in a French health examination center. They all met the following inclusion criteria: 4item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) score of 0, ability to walk without any walking aid, and no major neurological or orthopedic problem. The use of benzodiazepines and antidepressants during the previous 2 days and the number of drugs taken per day was recorded. STV of stride time (coefficient of variation (CoV) 5 [mean/standard deviation] 100) was measured using the SMTEC footswitch system (SMTEC, Sport & Medical Technologies SA, Nyon, Switzerland) and according to European guidelines for spatiotemporal gait analysis in older adults. Lower limb proprioception was assessed using a graduated diapason placed on the lower limb and ranged from 0 (abnormal) to 8 (normal). Near vision was measured at 0.5 m using a Snellen letter test chart graded from 0 (abnormal) to 10 (normal). The examination also included anthropometry measurements (weight in kg and height in cm) and information concerning history of falls during the past year. Subjects were divided into two groups based on the use of psychoactive medication (n 5 89, mean age 72.1 5.4, for those who did use psychoactive medication, and n 5 90, mean age 71.2 5.6 for those who did not). Comparisons between groups were performed using independent sample t-tests or chi-square tests. Uniand multiple linear regression analyses were performed to specify the association between STVof stride time (dependant variable) and the use of psychoactive medication (independent variable) adjusted on the subjects' baseline characteristics. P-values o.05 were considered to be statistically significant. All statistics were performed using the SPSS statistics program (version 17.0, SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL). The CoV of stride time was higher in subjects who did use psychoactive medication than in those who did not (3.2 4.6% vs 1.6 0.7%, P 5.002). Women were more likely not to be taking psychoactive medication (82.0% vs 62.2%, P 5.002). There was no significant difference in the other baseline characteristics. Table 1 shows that only the use of psychoactive medication was significantly associated with the increase in CoV of stride time (b5 1.558, P 5.002 for unadjusted model, b5 1.601, P 5.002 for fully adjusted model). These findings show that the use of psychoactive medication was associated with a greater CoV of stride time, suggesting that it may disturb the higher levels of gait control, leading to gait instability. STV is a measure of temporal stride kinematic variability related to control of the rhythmic stepping mechanism. The fact that psychoactive medication may modify the level of attention involved in a high level of gait control in older adults could explained the greater STV found with psychoactive medication in this study. It has been shown that older adults need more cortical gait control than young adults and specifically an involvement of executive functions to maintain safe gait. Because attention is a dynamic executive function, psychoactive medication may increase STV by reducing attention level. Furthermore, psychoactive medication is usually given to people with anxiodepressive disorders that have been associated with high STV. For instance, one study showed that patients with major depressive disorders had a significant larger swing time variability than a control group. Thus, the use of psychoactive medication could be an indirect marker of psychiatric comorbidities, explaining the increase in STV. In the current study, it was attempted