Background: Exhaust noise is known to be a major pollutant in the environment and workplaces due to the development of industry and transportation. Exhaust noise can be reduced to normal levels by mufflers or silencers. A reactive muffler efficiently dampens noise at low frequencies by reflecting sound waves. Therefore, muffler design is of great importance in exhaust noise reduction. Transmission loss (TL) is an essential characteristic of mufflers, demonstrating their acoustical properties. Any acoustical appliance is selected based on its damping performance and reliability. Predicting TL through experimentation is different from theoretical calculations. Methods: In the present study, a double-expansion chamber muffler was designed as a reflective muffler on a laboratory scale by equations. Next, TL was evaluated by an impedance tube applying a 4-microphone technique to determine the acoustical performance of the designed muffler. Results: Findings revealed that the TL of the muffler at 312 Hz frequency obtained 27.5 dB agreement with the required TL of the muffler of 25 dB. In addition, the TL of the muffler against frequency attenuates noise in broadband frequencies. Conclusions: These results indicated that the built muffler provides desired TL for exhaust chambers. Therefore, equations can be used as a precise method for muffler design. Furthermore, multi-expansion chamber mufflers are useful for reducing noise at a wide range of frequencies.


The lacustrine carbonate rock in Member 1 of Shahejie Formation, Dongxin Oilfield, composes mainly of biolithite and ooides limestone as well as a few ancylus fluviatilis limestone, and is developed in a real favorable position for oil and gas migration and accumulation with great resources potential. The geological proven information could be achieved for the exploitation according to the lithologic characters, logging and inner-micro-structure, for which the deposit and diagenesis and the reservoir characters could be identified. The biolithite made up of stratums with biology fragment and fossils have admirable pervasion ability, in which dissolved pore, organism pore and framework pore play important roles in preserving oil and gas. Ooides deposit in shallow and high energy environment, and are mainly fragment ooides, loop ooides and remnant ooides, so the cores are more biogenic debris than calcite crystal, and the reservoir is of excellent quality. The Member 1 of Shahejie Formation has experienced the processes of cementation, dissolution and dolomitization.


Introduction: Initial results for the management of osteochondral defects with both ACI-C and MACI have been encouraging, showing significant clinical improvement. This single-centre study set out to determine any significant difference in outcomes between ACI-C and MACI. Aim: Reporting three year follow up of clinical and arthroscopic assessment of prospective analysis of ACI-C and MACI used in the management of symptomatic, full-thickness chondral and osteochondral defects in the knee. Method: Following assessment arthroscopy and harvesting of chondrocytes for culture, patients were randomised into the ACI-C or MACI arm and underwent their respective procedures one month later. In ACI-C a covered technique is employed using a porcine-derived type I/III collagen membrane sutured in place; MACI requires cultured autologous chondrocytes to be seeded in a bi-layered type I/III collagen membrane which is glued into position. An arthroscopy was performed at 12 and 24 months postprocedure to assess graft coverage and biopsies taken to determine extent of hyaline, mixed and fibro-cartilage proliferation. Results: 102 patients underwent either ACI-C (44) or MACI (58) with an average age of 33.6 (14–52). Mean Cincinnati knee rating scores recorded prior to assessment arthroscopy for ACI-C: 45.2 (10 – 94) and MACI: 45.5 (10 – 90) showed improvement at follow up with 63% of patients in the ACI-C group scoring good or excellent at three years, and 60% in the MACI group. ICRS arthroscopy scores were good or excellent in 91.4% of ACI-C and 76.1% of MACI patients at 24 months. Biopsies of the transplants at 24 months revealed proliferation of hyaline and mixed cartilage (hyaline and fibro-cartilage) in 48.6% of the ACI-C and 30.5% of the MACI patients. Conclusion: Results to date suggest significant clinical and arthroscopic improvement following ACI-C and MACI, with evidence of proliferation of hyaline cartilage at the transplant site. Limited differences are noted between the outcomes of the two techniques.


The following article from Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research, 'Evaluation of the effect of pentoxifylline on white blood cell count in serum and peritoneal fluid in female rats with endometriosis' by Afsaneh Mohammadzadeh, Mahnaz Heidari, Haleh Soltanghoraee, Mahmood Jeddi-Tehrani, Marefat Ghaffari Novin, Mahammad Mahdi A. Akhondi, Hojjat Zeraati and Farzaneh Mohammadzadeh, published online on 5 May 2008 in Wiley Online Library (http:// onlinelibrary.wiley.com), and in Volume 34, Issue 3, 307–313 pp, has been retracted by agreement between the journal Editor in Chief, Shiro Kozuma, the authors, and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd. The retraction has been agreed to due to this article being a duplicate of an article published in Iranian Journal of Reproductive Medicine, 'The effect of pentoxifylline on the growth of endometrial implants and leukocytes in rats' by Afsaneh Mohammadzadeh, Mahnaz Heidari, Haleh Soltan Ghoraiee, Marefat Ghaffari Novin, Mahmood Jeddi-Tehrani, Mahammad Mahdi Akhondi, Hojjat Zeraati and Farzaneh Mohammadzadeh and Pegah Ebadi, Volume 5, Issue 3, 2007, 89–93pp.


This paper discusses the need for changing priorities in plant life management. It contends that in the light of increasingly demanding economic and regulatory environments, improved plant performance will be best improved via the development of rational, consistent and plant-wide approaches to operations and maintenance. procedures based upon the management of economic and safety risk. The realisation of such techno-economic approaches requires two things: closer alignment of maintenance actions with utility policies and objectives, and increased integration within and between key technical areas of the plant life management process. Following a brief review of the major world-wide trends which are affecting plant life management, the fundamental nature of the plant life management process itself is considered. It is suggested that a consistent approach to the management of economic and safety risk can provide a mechanism for continuous improvement of the process. One such approach, TEAMM (Techno-Economic Ageing and Maintenance Management) is described, which enables plant ageing and maintenance actions to be evaluated in terms of risk (economic and/or safety). The tools required for this process are discussed and examples given of its application to ageing plant and the evaluation of life extension.


. Large shallow lakes in the Pacific Drainage Basin of China are unique aquatic natural resources intensively exploited in recent years for integrated lake farming. This paper presents a general description and major components of this culture method and discusses potential concerns and effects of increased fishery production on aquatic environments.


Abstract Introduction: Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is an autosomal-recessive-hemolytic disorder caused by a single point mutation in the β-globin gene that leads to sickling of RBCs under deoxygenated condition. Sickle RBCs (sRBCs) are not only rigid but also express adhesion molecules, which are not normally expressed on RBCs. The sticky and rigid sRBCs are believed to get trapped in blood vessels along with leukocytes to cause vaso-occlusion, which is the predominant pathophysiology underlying acute pain crisis in SCD patients. The process of sickling and vaso-occlusion leads to sRBC hemolysis, which releases hemoglobin, ADP and other RBC contents into the blood giving rise to a pro-inflammatory and pro-coagulant state, characterized by activated leukocytes, platelets, endothelial cells (ECs), tissue factor (TF) and enhanced adhesion of these cells to each other. Leukocyte–endothelium adhesion starts with leukocyte rolling mediated by P-selectin-glycoprotein-ligand (PSGL)-1 on leukocytes binding to P-selectin on endothelium. Rolling is followed by firm arrest, which is mediated by activated β2-integrins (LFA-1 and Mac-1) on the leukocytes binding to inter-cellular-adhesion-molecule (ICAM)-1 on endothelium. Although neutrophils have been shown to play a role in the onset of vaso-occlusion by interacting with sRBCs and platelets in cremaster venules of SCD mice; the cellular, molecular and biophysical mechanisms that enable vaso-occlusion in SCD patients are not known. Materials and Methods: Freshly collected heparinized blood from SCD patients and race matched control subjects was perfused through a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based microfluidic flow chamber with a glass bottom coated with either human micro-vascular endothelial cells or a cocktail of recombinant human P-selection, ICAM-1 and IL-8 at a venular/arteriolar wall shear stress. Fluorochrome conjugated Abs against CD16, CD235a and CD49b were added to the blood to stain neutrophils, sRBCs and platelets, respectively, and cellular interactions were recorded using multi-color Quantitative Dynamic Footprinting (qDF; Sundd et al Nature Methods 2010) or epifluorescence microscopy. Specificity of cellular interactions was tested using function blocking Abs against human Mac-1, LFA-1, P-selectin and PSGL-1. Results: SCD patients had much higher number of circulating neutrophils than control patients. Neutrophils rolled, arrested and then captured free flowing platelets in both SCD and control blood. However, significantly larger number of neutrophils rolled and arrested in SCD blood than control blood. As a result, much higher number of platelets was captured by arrested neutrophils in SCD blood than control blood, which led to the formation of neutrophil-platelet micro-emboli. The micro-emboli formation was mediated by a unique biophysical mechanism, which involved PSGL-1 and Mac-1 on neutrophils binding to P-selectin and GPIbα on platelets, respectively. Conclusion: Vaso-occlusion involves a cascade of adhesive events. First, neutrophils roll and arrest at the site of vaso-occlusion. Second, arrested neutrophils capture free flowing platelets and RBCs to form micro-emboli. Third, eventually these micro-emboli give rise to micro-thrombi, which cause stasis of blood flow. Acknowledgments: This study is supported by 11SDG7340005 from the American Heart Association (P.S.), VMI start-up funds (P.S.) and CBTP-T32 fellowship HL076124 (M.J). Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


In encouraging mobility instructors to evaluate aspects of their procedure, a simple controlled comparison is presented as an example. Two matched groups, each o f six blind 8 and 9 year olds, initially comparable on the Cratty and Sams test of body image, were assigned to either training or control conditions. The individuals in the training group received two periods of extra training in concepts basic to mobility; and the control or compared group received no extra training. Significant improvements were demonstrated, not only in these specific concepts but also on the general body image test when their scores were compared with those of the control group.


to be high (Rich et al. 1970). It is suggested that even temporary patency may help achieve immediate lower limb survival by preventing distal venous congestion, and may prevent chronic venous insufficiency by allowing time for the formation of collateral venous channels. When ligation is necessary, or when thrombosis occurs after repair, vigorous postoperative care by elevation initially, then mobilization with elastic support stockings, is recommended to prevent the undesirable sequelae of chronic venous insufficiency (Gaspar & Treiman, 1960). The place of anticoagulants at any stage in management of large vein injuries is uncertain, and their use in the early postoperative period is likely to be hazardous in the presence of extensively traumatized tissues and after transfusion of large quantities of blood.


On 5th March 2005, John Rex will be eighty, an age at which a lifetime's work may begin to be seen for what it is. As someone who was given his first job by John, and who has learned much from him, it is my great pleasure to accept the editors' invitation to write something to mark this occasion. However, the commission poses a question: what kind of 'something' should I write? There would be no point in duplicating the tributes in his richly-deserved festschrift (Martins 1993). Nor is there space for the kind of detailed critical exploration of his work that an active career of fifty years, and a large bibliography, warrants. Instead, I will attempt something more personal and more pointed: to identify what I think is John Rex's enduring contribution to sociology, and the sociology of ethnicity and 'race' in particular, and to assess its continuing value at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Running through this discussion is the claim that, viewed from where we are today, John Rex appears to be one of a very small number of genuinely influential voices in twentieth-century British sociology, who has made particularly compelling contributions to the development of sociological theory and the emergence of a genuinely sociological account of 'race' and ethnicity. That his contribution in this respect may, at the moment, not be as widely acknowledged as it deserves, and the reasons why that might be so, I will leave others to ponder. South African by origin, John Rex was an undergraduate at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, and spent a brief period in Southern Rhodesia before coming to Britain in 1948, where he began teaching in the Extra-Mural Department at Hull University, in a branch based on Teesside. From there, he took a PhD in Sociology at the University of Leeds, under the supervision of the philosopher Stephen Toulmin, and held successive university appointments in sociology at the Ethnic and Racial Studies Vol. 28 No. 2 March 2005 pp. 201 /211


The crystal structure of the title compound, C14H10ClNO3, is stabilized by inversion-related O—H⋯O and C—H⋯O intermolecular hydrogen bonds and also by C—H⋯π and π–π interactions (centroid-to-centroid distance 3.681 A and plane-to plane separation 3.618 A). The O—H⋯O and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds generate edge-fused R21(6)R44(27)R21(6) ring motifs. The phthalide part of the molecule is planar and is inclined at 76.8 (2)° to the benzene ring of the aminophenyl group.


ConclusionThe sandwich glass ballistic test shows some repetitive phenomena. There is a crater surrounded by a plasticized area with a flexural behavior. In the panel central area there is an energy storage and a following energy discharge; out of the central impact area the energy storage is negligible and there is a draw behavior; there is also a panel stiffening. The question is now how to use these results. New tests on the same panel would not add anything to what known so far. But the same kind of tests on different panels makes it possible to compare the different panel behaviors not only from a global point of view, but also from a local point of view. The measurement of the maximum acceleration and strain peaks, of the area interested by the energy storage and discharge, of the panel stiffening after the impact, can give useful directions for the design to the manufacturers, and for the choice of a most apt sandwich glass to the purchasers (the Italian Railroad).


This study investigated the synchrony of frond dynamics among patches of the intertidal seaweed Mazzaella parksii (=M. cornucopiae; Rhodophyta: Gigartinales) at local spatial scale. At Prasiola Point (Pacific coast of Canada), the mean synchrony of the seasonal changes in frond density among seven permanent, 100-cm2 quadrats was significant (mean Pearson's r=0·73, with 0·65–0·81 as 95% confidence limits) between 1993 and 1995. This indicates that predicting seasonal trends for non-monitored patches at local spatial scale can be done relatively well based on observations on a limited number of quadrats. The identification of the spatial scales at which seaweed populations covary synchronously will permit minimizing sampling effort while retaining the ability to make valid predictions for non-monitored sites.


The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effects of dilution rate on nitrogen distribution in culture solution under the condition of continuous culture in vitro.A single factorial experiment was designed as 3 dilution rate levels(4%/h,6%/h,and 8%/h,respectively) with 3 replicates for each dilution rate,and 5 goats fisted with cannulas were introduced as rumen liquor donors.The results showed as follows: the contents of protozoal protein,bacterial protein,soluble protein,peptide,free amino acid nitrogen and ammonia nitrogen in culture solution showed fluctuated changes with time going on,and the change trends were similar after re-feeding.With the dilution rate increasing,the contents of protozoal protein,bacterial protein,peptide,free amino acid nitrogen and ammonia nitrogen were all decreased.The significant or extremely significant differences were detected in all above indexes(P0.05 or P0.01) except for the soluble protein.However,the nitrogen quantities of above 6 indexes calculated with 24 hours were all increased with the dilution rate increasing,but the percentages of individual nitrogen quantity in the total nitrogen quantity were different from each other.The nitrogen quantity of protozoal protein and the percentage of that in the total nitrogen quantity under the dilution rate of 4%/h,6%/h and 8%/h were 256.32 mg/d and 30%,367.20 mg/d and 31%,385.92 mg/d and 29%,respectively,and the 6%/h group had the highest percentage.The nitrogen quantity of bacterial protein and the percentage of that in the total nitrogen quantity under the dilution rate of 4%/h,6%/h and 8%/h were 218.88 mg/d and 26%,289.44 mg/d and 25%,328.32 mg/d and 24%,respectively,and were decreased with the increase of dilution rate in their percentages.The nitrogen quantity of microbial protein(defined as the sum of protozoal protein and bacterial protein) and the percentage of that in the total nitrogen quantity under the dilution rate of 4%/h,6%/h and 8%/h were 475.20 mg/d and 56%,656.64 mg/d and 56%,714.24 mg/d and 53%,respectively,and the quantity in the 6%/h group was higher and the percentage did not decrease in this group.The nitrogen quantity of soluble protein and the percentage of that in the total nitrogen quantity were increased with the dilution rate increasing,and those under the dilution rate of 4%/h,6%/h and 8%/h were 178.56 mg/d and 21%,263.52 mg/d and 22%,345.60 mg/d and 26%,respectively.Under the different dilution rates,the percentage ranges of nitrogen quantities in free amino acid nitrogen,peptide and ammonia nitrogen in the total nitrogen quantity were 6%,5% to 6% and 10% to 11%,respectively,but the percentages totally had a little change.It is concluded that dilution rate affects the quantity and the percentage distribution of nitrogen under the condition of continuous culture,with 6%/h dilution rate showing comparatively high quantity and percentage in microbial nitrogen.


Good health is an important discussion of the quality of life. Health problem is a major concern in all over the world but especially in developing countries. Non-communicable diseases ( NCDs) contribute the ill health. Diabetes, coronary heart disease, various forms of cancer, gastro intestinal disorder and various diseases of bones and joints are diet related NCDs. Nutritional counselling is one of the effective tools of changing the food habits of people. The data for this study is taken from the out patients services of Department of Endocrinology & Metabolism and Cardiology of Sir Sunder Lal Hospital, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-5. Total 250 samples were included in the study. Age group 40 – 60 years were considered as study samples who attended the Endocrinology and Cardiology departments. Purposive sampling method was used in the study. Questionnaire cum interview method was adopted in the study. Anthropametric measurements were taken by using standard techniques. 24 hours diet recall method was also used in this study. Evaluation of councelling was done on basis of changes in BMI and nutrient intake. Result shows the positive impact of nutritional counselling in BMI and nutrient intake of NCD patients.


The reaction between dialkyl acetylenedicarboxylates and NH heterocyclic compounds in the presence of triethyl phosphite leads to stable phosphorus ylide derivatives in good yields. The X-ray crystallographic data and theoretical study show that there is a resonance between two bonds of C19P1 and C191O191 in phosphorus ylide 4d. This compound crystallizes in the orthorhombic system, space group (Pca21), with unit cell parameters a = 17.3699(3) A, b = 13.5500(2) A, c = 18.4627(3) A, α = 90°, β = 90°, γ = 90°, Z = 8, and V = 4345.4(12) A3. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 22:715–722, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/hc.20739


In this chapter we engage with some recent authors who believe that an alternative to multiculturalism must be sought in order to understand and live with diversity. These authors are not anti-diversity, on the contrary, but they share the view that multiculturalism is no longer a persuasive intellectual or policy approach. For example, the Council of Europe's White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue (2008) included the finding that the majority of practitioners and NGOs across Europe had come to the conclusion that multiculturalism was no longer fit for purpose, and needed to be replaced by a form of interculturalism. Similar views were expressed in the UNESCO World Report, Investing in Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue (2008). More recently still, Ted Cantle (2012: 2) has described interculturalism 'as an opportunity to replace multiculturalism as a conceptual and policy framework', while Maxwell et al (2012: 429) maintain that 'Interculturalism represents a gain over Multiculturalism while pursuing the same set of most uncontroversial political ends…'. These statements therefore invite the question: in what ways – if at all - is interculturalism different, substantively or otherwise, from multiculturalism?


OBJECTIVE
To explore the clinical and genetic characteristics of two children with developmental delay.

METHODS
Two children who had presented at the Children's Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University on August 18, 2021 were enrolled as the study subjects. Clinical and laboratory examination, chromosomal karyotyping and high-throughput sequencing were carried out for both children.

RESULTS
Both children had a 46,XX karyotype. High-throughput sequencing showed that they have respectively carried a c.489delG (p.Q165Rfs*14) and a c.1157_1158delAT (p.Y386Cfs*22) frameshifting variant of the CTCF gene, both had a de novo origin and were unreported previously.

CONCLUSION
The CTCF gene variants probably underlay the development delay in the two children. Above discovery has enriched the mutational spectrum of the CTCF gene and has important implications for revealing the genotype-phenotype correlation for similar patients.


During the operation, the distribution transformer performance will deteriorate. The maintenance is an essential task in enhancing the safety of distribution transformer. Based on equal deterioration theory, the relationship among distribution transformer failure rate in each period of maintenance was deduced. After analyzing the maintenance costs and the failure costs in detail, the model of optimal life cycle costs for distribution transformer was established. Then the genetic algorithm was used to solve the model for obtaining the optimal maintenance strategy. Finally, the optimization results and the influence factors were analyzed. The results demonstrate the feasibility and validity of the proposed method. DOI:  http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/telkomnika.v11i10.3458


Thin sections were collected onto glass or silicon substrate resulting in drastically reduced formation of artifacts such as wrinkles and precipitates, permitting digitization of large structures such as entire glomeruli. Large-scale stitched datasets offered a coherent "Google earth"-like view from low to high magnification, preserving renal microultra correlation. Cortical cells were well resolved in overview and showed distinct membranes at high-resolution detail. Compared to TEM, image quality in SEM was equal or superior across a wide range of magnification. At very high magnification, image acquisition by SEM was limited by scanning artifacts due to vibration. Such datasets may be utilized for virtual observation of ultrastructure – independent of an EM.


Super Wi-Fi is a Wi-Fi-like service exploiting TV white spaces (WS) via the cognitive radio technology which is expected to achieve larger coverage than today's Wi-Fi thanks to its superior propagation characteristics. Super Wi-Fi is currently being materialized as an international standard, IEEE 802.11af, targetting indoor and outdoor applications. This thesis demonstrates the potential of Super Wi-Fi in indoor environments by measuring its signal propagation characteristics and comparing them with those of Wi-Fi in the same indoor structure. Specifically, this thesis measures the wall and floor attenuation factors and path-loss distribution in 770 MHz and 2.4 GHz, and estimates the downlink capacity of Super Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi according to wide-accepted indoor path loss models. The experimental results reveal that TVWS signals can penetrate up to two floors and provide favorable coverage up to one floor above and below. In addition, TVWS can not only extend the coverage of Wi-Fi but also significantly mitigate shaded regions of Wi-Fi while achieving almost homogeneous data rates in the Wi-Fi's coverage. The observed phenomena imply that Super Wi-Fi may be suitable for indoor applications with requirements of low-to-moderate data rates, extended horizontal and vertical coverage, and fair rate distribution within the service coverage.


Topology optimization of the low phase noise optoelectronic microwave oscillators based on whispering gallery mode disk resonators has been considered. The development of a hybrid integrated circuit on its basis has been suggested.


When Laura Levitt , my friend and colleague at Temple University , asked me to participate in this forum, my first response was a categorical no. Laura and I have talked about our different perspectives about postmodern approaches to Jewish feminism infrequently over the last several years. The conversations always end with us restating our differences , agreeing to disagree. Because my feelings are so strong about this subject, I was reluctant to have this conversation in public. Yet Laura persuaded me to consider participation, in full knowledge that this would be an airing of our differences, and I have taken the risk to do so. My contribution, a letter to Laura, is an effort to bring my love for her into the context of what is, for me, a passionate and acrimonious intellectual debate that has important implications for the future of Jewish feminism.


Background: About 3.11million people were estimated to be living with HIV in Nigeria by 2010.Health-related quality of life assessment is necessary in chronic illnesses. Aim: This study was to assess the impact of pharmacist interventions on health related quality of life of HIV/AIDS patients in a tertiary hospital. Methods: This was a 4 month cross-sectional comparative study with 120 patients who served as their own control. Rand 36-Item Health Survey administered at baseline and after interventions at 2 and 4 months intervals was used to collect data. Pharmacist's interventions included education, counseling, information to patients on regimen, diet and exercise. Results: One hundred and twenty patients, comprising of 71.7% females, were involved in the study. Thirty five percent rated their health to be excellent at baseline. This increased to 83.3% after intervention. The 8.3% who reported they were limited a lot in vigorous activities at baseline reported no form of limitation after. The 3.3% of patients with limitations in moderate activities became 0% after intervention. Those who had difficulty performing their work decreased from 25% to 14.6%. Those (25.0%) who reduced time spent on work decreased to 18.3%. After intervention, those patients (13.3%) who seemed to get sick easier than others reduced to 0% and those who saw their health as excellent increased from 70% to 100%. All the domains were positively affected. Conclusion: The findings revealed that Pharmacists' interventions are effective and necessary in improving health related quality of life of HIV/AIDS patients


Voltage sags may cause malfunction of customer equipment and interruption of customer processes. Voltage sag performance should be quantified to incite informed decisions from utilities, customers, and regulators. This paper describes existing voltage sag performance estimation methods and classifies these as either model- or measurement-based, depending on the data required for implementation. Model-based performance estimation is classified either as mean performance estimation or Monte Carlo approach. The methods of fault positions and critical distances, as well as derivatives of these, fall under the first group, while Monte Carlo techniques applied either to short-circuit calculations or EMTP models fall under the second group. Measurement-based performance estimation includes regression based on site and system characteristics, and conventional state estimation formulation.


The semantic and plot-generating functions of the onomastic paradigm in the works of Dina Rubina "Napoleon wagon train" and "The White Dove of Cordoba" is examined in the article. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the trilogy "Napoleon's Wagon Train" has not previously been subjected to scientific analysis, nor has the artistic techniques of this trilogy been compared with those of other works by Dina Rubina. The novelty of the research is seen in the fact that, based on the material of the latest novels by Rubina, repeated motives of the reification and humanization of a name, giving it the status of an independent being, a character equal to the bearers of this name, are revealed. Attention is paid to the tendencies in the use of the onomastic code and its gravitation towards a certain type of characters, the life story of which is considered by the author in comparison with the characters who lose, hide and deliberately deform their names in an extensive chronotope, covering the period from the era of antiquity, the Renaissance and the Napoleonic wars to the present day. It is proved that the onomastic code, manifested in novels included in different trilogies, appears as a structural component cementing all the later novelistic works of Dina Rubina as the author's supertext, arranged according to uniform semantic laws. The proper name in Rubina's works is a meta-symbol, a sign of personality identification in its uniqueness and in the history of the clan and family.


BIOGEOGRAPHIA — vol. XI - 1985 Principi e metodi delfanalisi biogeografica Considerazioni sui popolamenti di uccelli terrestri delle Isole Mediterraneei' BRUNO MASSA Istituto di Zoologia dell'Um'z2er5z'tz2, via Arc/9z'rafz' 18, 90123 Palermo (I) SUMMARY Comideratlons on the breeding land bird species of tlae Meditemmean Islands. The author first consid- ers some problems of the biogeographical studies about islands (exploration of islands, extinctions due to the human presence, and so on); then he explains the results obtained by the bibliographic analysis and personal explorations in the Mediterranean Islands (Tabs. I and II). The species of steppe are more abundant in the most eastern Islands (Crete and Cyprus), while the lowest values for the species of forest refer to Balearic Islands and to Crete, the less tirnbered islands (Tab. III). The avifaunistic poorness follows a typical insular state along ecological successional stages: after an increase of the number of species in the shrub stages, there is a decrease in the copse and in the old forest (Tab. IV). Then he considers some problems concerning the area-species ratio: the different slope, according to the size of the islands, the influence that physical conditions and isolation can exert on the number of the species. Insularity, meant as impoverishment of species, is sometimes a gradual phenomenon, due to the gradual impoverishment on the peninsulas: e.g.: Crete, that represents the top of the Balckan peninsula, and Sicily that concludes the Italian peninsula (Tab. V). The author considers also other parameters which influence the number of species, as space heterogeneity and the complexity of food chaines (this one is valid only for groups of numerous species: Tabs. VI and VII). Interspecific competition is indirectly examined, supposing that species belonging to the same genus have greater possibilities of overlapping resources. Genera with many species are frequent only in the isles with a high richness of habitat and then of species (Tab. IX). Wideness of niche realised by some species of genus Sylvia is also examined by the parameter habitat (Tab. VIII). Also the average weight of species follows an insular trend (Tab. X), but the most important problem to be examined during an insular study on terrestrial avifauna is the different dispersal power of each species. This has been calculated by the exam of the presence or absence of the species in the 37 examined islands, so that it is possible to obtain a classification of this potential power (Tabs. XI and XII, figs. 1, 2, 3). The species with the lowest dispersal power seem to be present only in the greatest islands. At last, the particular situation of Calabria is considered. It seems to be an island, as for the number of species (in total and along successional ecological stages), but the the number of species along the successional stages shows a continental trend, with a regular increase up to the old forest (Tab. XIII). 1. PREMESSA Le isole mediterranee sono un esempio atipico di isole. Certamente non isolate, in nessun caso eccessivamente distanti dalla terraferma, queste isole si trovano in un bacino circondato da continenti, da cui e possibile una conti- (*) Lavoro realizzato con un finanziamento del Ministero Pubblica Istruzione (60%, 1985, B. Massa). 261


Abstract : The objective of the work to be described is to determine some of the implications of medium distortion on waveform and processor design for active echo-ranging sonar. In particular, the questions of bandwidth and duration of linear FM signals are considered, as well as various combinations of coherent and incoherent processing. Sonar echos are modeled as a multiplicity of discrete arrivals, the arrival time (range), doppler shift and amplitude being chosen at random from specified probability densities. Noise is modeled as white with gaussian amplitude statistics, and reverberation as having gaussian amplitude statistics but the power spectrum of the transmitted signal. With these models, computer simulation is employed to examine the detectability of echos produced by the transmission of linear FM pulses of various bandwidths and durations. The processor consists of a correlator followed by various amounts and shapes of incoherent integration. Monte Carlo techniques are used to generate ROC curves, showing the probability of an echo being detected on a given ping vs the probability of a false detection in the absence of an echo, with input signal-to-noise ratio or signal-to-reverberation ratio as a parameter. The conclusion reached from these results is that best detection performance is obtained by use of a pulse with as much bandwidth as system constraints will permit.


This paper tends to explore the connotation of the value of ideological and political education and the definition of the relationship between the subject and the object of ideological and political education.Grounded on a summary of previous research achievement,this paper sums up a new definition of the connotation of the value of ideological and political education and the relationship between the subject and the object of ideological and political education.


In order to estimate the in situ growth budget of Clytia spp. hydromedusae, ammonia excretion rates were measured for a variety of individual weights at 4 temperatures (15, 18, 21 and 25 "C), using 4 food concentrations (7, 15, 25 and 50 copepods 1' ) Excretion rate increased with medusa dry wt and was directly correlated with temperature and food availability. Excretion values ranged between 0.04 and 0.936 pg-at. N-NH4 d ' ind:' Weight-specific excretion was independent of medusa dry weight ( W ) and ranged between 1.9 and 18.1 pg-at. N-NH, mg' d.', according to experimental conditions. The daily nitrogen turnover (only considering ammonia) ranged from 6 % at the lowest temperature and food concentration to 33 % at 21 "C and the highest food concentration. The calculation of the growth budget, which represents the difference between quantity of nitrogen in food ingested and nitrogen lost through ammonia excretion extrapolated to the natural environment, showed high values during the spring, up to 55 pg N d-l ind:', and slightly negative values during the rest of the year.


The differential cross sections for the reactions 9 Be(n, α 0 ) 6 He(g.s.) and 9 Be(n, α 1 ) 6 He * and the α-α particle-correlation spectrum from the 9 Be(n, αα)nn reaction have been measured using 14.1 MeV neutrons. The measured angular distributions of α-particles were in good agreement with those of Perroud and Sellem at 13.99 MeV, and were compared with DWBA calculations. The spectroscopic factors for the cluster transfer reactions on 9 Be have been deduced. The observed correlation spectrum implies that this four-body breakup reaction is dominated by a sequential decay process in the measured α-particle energy region. The second and third excited states in 6 He have been confirmed to be located at around 3.4 MeV and 6.0 MeV, respectively.


Data sampling system compensation based on bending frequency filtering through information obtained by varying sample rate, using saturn 5 launch vehicle simulation


Author Address 1. PhD Student in Educational Psychology, Kerman Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kerman, Iran; 2. Assistant Professor of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Kerman Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kerman, Iran; 3. Assistant Professor of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities Literature, Kerman Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kerman, Iran; 4. Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Humanities Literature, Kerman Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kerman, Iran. Corresponding author's email: email@example.com


This paper will address problems in strategic management process from the perspective of organisational decline. It will review the literature on early warning signals of decline and contribute to an understanding of their role in organisational development. To facilitate more advanced theorising about early warning signals, the paper will draw from cultural-historical activity theory suggesting that early warnings should be conceptualised in terms of organisational disturbances that act as visible evidence of developmental contradictions. By combining activity theory with strategy process research, the paper will open up an avenue for organisational analysis to better understand the nature of weak signs of decline and provide a better basis for their resolution. The conceptualisation will be illustrated by referring to a case example of a firm operating in service production.


In this paper we consider the same system. But the magnetic field is assumed to be weaker so that the diamagnetic splitting is comparable with the fine structure of the unperturbed atom. Relativistic effects conserve the abovementioned symmetry and it seems unlikely that they will lead to essentially new effects. Nevertheless, we will show that the hydrogen atom in magnetic field possesses yet another symmetry. The latter does not lead to any interesting phenomena in the nonrelativistic situation. However, when the relativistic effects are present it gives birth to another type of doublet. Here we analyze the dynamical symmetry origin of these doublets and other peculiar relativistic distortions of the quadratic Zeeman spectra in the atomic hydrogen. We give a physical explanation of the earlier results of @19# where the discrete WentzelKramers-Brillouin-Jeffreys ~WKBJ! method was used to solve the quantum perturbation theory equations of the problem.


Tensile and compressive tests were performed on Mg-Li alloy samples subjected to annealing and aging treatment respectively. The results show that the compressive strength of the alloy is obviously higher than the tensile strength. Meanwhile, it is found that the shear fracture angle of the compressive specimens is smaller than that of the tensile specimens.


Investigating how people react to athletic images becomes a compelling entry point to study the role of sport in the digital marketing domain (Filo, Lock, & Karg, 2015). Pictures taken in the gym have become one of the trendiest theme appearing on social media sites (e.g., the hashtag #gym has been used 112,466,632times). Besides selfies, posts that document gym activities are a popular option for individuals who use athletic images to enrich their online presence. According to the study of middle-class males, the athletic image acquired by disciplined fitness training signals an aspirational self (Baas, 2015). In this regard, many social media users (i.e., the signaler) use athletic images as a self-promotion tool, which in turn enables sport companies to instantly reach a highly relevant audience (e.g., Adidas recently recruited 25 female influencers to promote their sport apparel). As a result, sport marketers are facing the challenge to select appropriate influencers that are perceived trustworthy by their followers. One important factor that impacts the effectiveness of influencer marketing is consumers' mindset, which directly impacts their appraisal of others (Heslin, Latham, & VandeWalle, 2005). Researchers have shown that consumers' mindset significantly impacts their reaction to different framings of adverting appeals (e.g. Park & John, 2012; Yorkston, Nunes, & Matt, 2010). However, little research has investigated how these athletic images are perceived by the observer depending on their mindsets. In the current study, we propose that individuals' implicit mindset will influence the effectiveness of athletic images as a self-promotion tool on social media.


ABSTRACT An overview is given of the Sierra Project, a developmental intervention designed and undertakeneat the University of California, Irvine during 1974-75 to facilitate and study dimensions associated with character development in collece students. The-developmental status of resident freshmen was assessed and their growth and developient over the course of their college experience studied. Moral reasoning, ego development, and sex rcle choices were' . among the factors considered. (MSE)


We investigate the effect of structural fluctuations on charge transfer integrals, overlap integrals, and site energies in a system of two stacked molecular 2,3,6,7,10,11hexakishexyloxytriphenylene (HAT6), which is a model system for conducting devices in organic photocell applications. A density functional based computational study is reported. Accurate potential energy surface calculations are carried out using an improved meta-hybrid density functional to determine the most stable configuration of the two weakly bound HAT6 molecules. The equilibrium parameters in terms of the twist angle and co-facial separation are calculated. Adopting the fragment approach within the Kohn–Sham density functional framework, these parameters are combined to a lateral slide, to mimic structural/ conformational fluctuations and variations in the columnar phase. The charge transfer and spatial overlap integrals, and site energies, which form the matrix element of the Kohn–Sham Hamiltonian are derived. It is found that these quantities are strongly affected by the conformational variations. The spatial overlap between stacked molecules is found to be of considerable importance since charge transfer integrals obtained using the fragment approach differ significantly from those using the dimer approach.


Fabric Reinforced Cementitious Matrix (FRCM) materials are increasingly common for strengthening existing masonry structures. Their popularity is due to their many advantages with respect to resin-based composites, especially when applied to stone supports. The constitutive behaviour of FRCM materials is defined by the combination of their tensile response and the bond behaviour with the masonry support, both depending on complex stress transfer mechanisms between matrix and fabric, especially in the post-cracking stage. This paper presents a numerical study which aims to predict the mechanical behaviour of FRCM systems through simple 2D models of truss elements and non-linear springs to simulate the fabric-to-matrix and composite-to-substrate interaction. The comparisons between results of numerical approach and experimental responses showing that the proposed methodology is an effective and easy tool to predict the mechanical behaviour of FRCM composites.


Lead-free (K0.5Na0.5)NbO3 (KNN) piezoelectric ceramics were studied and synthesized by the seed-induced method. NaNbO3 crystal was used as seed and prepared by molten salt synthesis (MSS). The average particles size of NaNbO3 seed crystal was about 1-3 mm. Then, the NaNbO3 seed was mixed with KNN powder and ball milled for 24 h. The mixed powder was calcined at 700-900 °C and sintered at 1100 °C. The phase structure and morphology of the ceramics were investigated by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope and the electrical properties were studied. The results indicated that all samples showed a pure perovskite phase. The highest density of the ceramic was 93% compared to the theoretical density. The results showed that NaNbO3seed crystal improved piezoelectric properties of KNN ceramics.


Organic free radicals derived from small molecules as oxygen or nitric oxide play important rolls on environmental or biological issues. On the other hand, stable radicals especially nitroxide radicals, based on somewhat larger molecular units are frequently used as spin probes or spin labeling reagents mainly in biological studies and are applied nowadays for organic magnetic material as well. There is a trend in the field of organic magnetic materials to develop multi-functional organic radicals such as organic photochromic, thermochromic, liquid crystalline, or conducting radicals, and organic radical batteries. During the course of our studies toward organic magnetic materials based on nitroxide radicals, we have been interested in developing organic functional radicals with multi-properties and some of recent results toward the development of novel functional radicals with thermochromic, photochromic, or secondary battery properties have been described by illustrating three representatives.


A graph property is said to be elusive ( evasive) if every algorithm testing this property by asking questions of the form"is there an edge between vertices x and y"requires, in the worst case, to ask about all pairs of vertices. The unsettled Aanderaa-Karp-Rosenberg conjecture is that every monotone graph property is elusive for finite vertex sets. We show that the situation is completely different for infinite vertex sets: the monotone graph properties"every vertex has degree at least n"and"every connected components has size at least n"where n is a natural number, are not elusive for infinite vertex sets, but the monotone graph property"the graph contains a cycle"is elusive for arbitrary vertex sets. On the other hand, we also prove that every algorithm testing some natural monotone graph properties, e.g"every vertex has degree at least n"or"connected"on the vertex set omega should check"lots of edges", more precisely, all the edges of an infinite complete subgraph.


community replaced the holy bellicosity of the late sixteenth century. The pope himself was the axis of this community, the core of cosmic order, the unshakable center of doctrine, the consummate model of virtue. The word of the pope was truth; listening to it led to right thinking and following it ensured salvation. Finally, preachers extolled the virtues of the city of Rome: Catholic Rome had not only been cleansed by active reform, but was being rejuvenated by rhetorical promotion. This is a study worthy of close attention not only for its themes but for the wealth of detail McGinness provides. I believe that he overstates the simplicity of the preceding ars predicandi and perhaps the importance of CounterReformation preaching (especially when compared with the sacraments), but he nonetheless provides an important addition to our picture of the church at its very heart.


This paper describes an analysis of the meridional equivalent neutral wind for geomagnetically quiet conditions as determined from data collected at the Kokubunji ionosonde station (35.7N, 139.5E), Japan over one solar cycle (1981–1991). The wind is derived from the altitude of peak F2 layer electron density using the Field Line Interhemispheric Plasma (FLIP) model. For low and moderate solar activity the wind is poleward in the daytime and equatorward in the nighttime. For high solar activity the wind is weak and almost always poleward throughout the day. In winter the local time of peak poleward velocity occurs in the afternoon for low solar activity but in the night for high solar activity. In summer the peak poleward wind occurs in the morning for all levels of solar activity. The diurnal amplitude decreases with increasing solar activity. It also reaches its maximum around the solstices and its minimum around the equinoxes. The mean wind is larger at solar maximum than solar minimum, except for the year 1984. The daily-mean wind is smallest in summer and largest in winter. Qualitatively, the meridional wind at Asian midlatitudes has characteristics similar to those seen in other sectors (such as Millstone Hill, Boulder, Wallops Island, King George Island, and Saint-Santin), but the details in behavior are different and warrant further investigation.


in this field. They should acquire as much information regarding the experiences of other institutions that have pursued a similar strategy, specifically with international markets. This paper provides a brief case study of the University of Guam's Professional and International Program's (PIP) successes and challenges faced in the management of inbound non-credit seeking international students, mainly from East Asian nations, such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China. This case was selected due to the University of Guam's proximity to the major source markets in Asia, its standing as an accredited US institution located in the Western Pacific, and its recent experience in the field of educational tourism with international markets. Field studies, literature research, and extensive interviews were conducted with key per-sonnel associated with educational tourism at the University of Guam. Data from the University of Guam PIP office was also collected to present the case below. This paper draws on docu-mentary review and historical narratives of the development of educational tourism at the University of Guam. Findings and a discussion including lessons learned for implementation follow.


Operators are increasingly deploying micro-cells to accommodat e growing user densities in urban areas. The physical features of such areas are tall, densely packed buildings. Micro-cells require antenna heights to be well below the rooftop leve l in order to keep inter-cell interference low and as a consequence some regions of t he coverage area are likely to suffer significant shadowing. The alternative is to employ pico-cells such that each base-station serves a single street, or part of a street, t hus reducing the probability that line-of-sight conditions will be lost. This will generally, however , result in unacceptably high hand-off rates.


The article deals with the importance of developing the skills of students studying translation to use various sources of information, including alternative ones, to perform pre-translation analysis of the text, which is one of the main stages of written and oral translation. It also provides an overview of the information technologies that translators use at the stage of direct translation, and discusses the need for students to familiarize themselves with these tech- nologies from the first stages of their professional training.


By exploring how the Irish social partnership was established and evolved, this article highlights the validity of a social concertation model, and takes a critical look at hasty attempts to identify the causes of its breakdown. The article holds that the collapse of Irish social partnership in the current economic crisis does not suggest the irrelevancy of social concertation under globalization, as neoliberals argue, nor does it confirm a predetermined path generated by the absence of supportive institutions or the structural nature of neoliberal social partnership. To the contrary, the social concertation model remains viable as an alternative to the neoliberal free market under globalization, and it can be used even in the absence of strong institutional arrangements. Contesting the accounts of neoliberals and Marxist-inspired structuralists, the article argues that social partnership has achieved a greater success in Ireland than neoliberal Britain, under similar globalization challenges. Against institutionalist accounts, it holds that social partnership was able to survive over two decades even in the absence of supportive corporatist institutions. The article's core argument is that domestic politics, rather than institutional and structural determinism, are needed to form social consensus in building and sustaining social concertation.


The research subject is the improvement of facilities and resources of practical training lessons within the disciplines "Tactical and Special training" and "Personal safety of internal affairs officers" in educational institutions of the Ministry of Internal affairs of Russia when it comes to using modern training weapons. The research object is the educational process in the Ural Juridical Institute under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, and its pedagogical capacity of using laser tag for training internal affairs officers. The research is based on the methods of theoretical consideration, analysis of literary sources, generalization of scientific materials, and pedagogical observation. The main conclusion of the research is the substantiation of the possibility to use training weapons laser tag in education institutions under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for internal affairs officers training. The use of training weapons is a promising means of improvement of tactical training of internal affairs officers which will help students to prepare themselves for law-enforcement activity. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the private technique of using laser tag in the educational process of a departmental specialized educational institution. The technique is aimed at testing the pedagogical potential of using modern training equipment laser tag during the practical training within the "Tactical special training" discipline.


Low level light(LLL) image contains rich information on environment details, but is easily affected by the weather. In the case of smoke, rain, cloud or fog, much target information will lose. Infrared image, which is from the radiation produced by the object itself, can be "active" to obtain the target information in the scene. However, the image contrast and resolution is bad, the ability of the acquisition of target details is very poor, and the imaging mode does not conform to the human visual habit. The fusion of LLL and infrared image can make up for the deficiency of each sensor and give play to the advantages of single sensor. At first, we show the hardware design of fusion circuit. Then, through the recognition probability calculation of the target(one person) and the background image(trees), we find that the trees detection probability of LLL image is higher than that of the infrared image, and the person detection probability of the infrared image is obviously higher than that of LLL image. The detection probability of fusion image for one person and trees is higher than that of single detector. Therefore, image fusion can significantly enlarge recognition probability and improve detection efficiency.


In this study,the 1/3 sub-harmonic resonance of an inextensional beam on elastic foundation is investigated.Based on the nonlinear dynamics model of an inextensional beam on elastic foundation,the frequencyresponse equation of the 1/3sub-harmonic resonance of the beam is obtained via the method of multiple scales.To illustrate the characteristics of 1/3sub-harmonic resonance,by means of the frequency-response curves,the effects of the foundation models,boundary conditions and Winkler parameter on the dynamic response of the beam on elastic foundation are studied.The numerical results show that the boundary condition changed the influence of shear parameter on the 1/3sub-harmonic resonance response of the beam on elastic foundation,in qualitative level.Under normal circumstances,Winkler parameter dominated the 1/3sub-harmonic resonance response of the beam.The increase of Winkler parameter inhibited the amplitude of the non-trivial solution of the frequency-response response equation.When the constraint of beam is hinged-free,it is necessary to pay attention to the effect of the excitation amplitude on the dynamic nature of the beam on elastic foundation.


This study aims to present that the most visible and drastic changes in the life of modern humans are caused by the ability human to be a person that is equal to be tolerant. From a historical point of view, the manifestation of tolerance towards people has always been problematic – for some it is in short supply, and for others it has been in surplus. In the first case, it has caused conflicts and wars to win it, in the second, sanctions and repressions. The tolerance has been and is the subject of many analyzes, philosophical concepts, ethical schemes, and socio-political mechanisms that construct societies. This article is explored John Locke and Immanuel Kant's position on the tolerance described in their scientific papers A Letter Concerning Toleration and Perpetual Peace . In the introduction is said that the tolerance has many dimensions. In its essence, it is always pluralistic, implied consent, freedom, continuity, understanding, equality, etc. It is a segment of achieving interpersonal, group, intergroup, inter-community and international relations. The first subtopic is about tolerance in historical contextual links. The second is about Locke and his Letter – Locke's letter of the tolerance from 1689, which supports the idea of the need for religious tolerance, it is not only a recommendation, but also a condition for a peaceful and just cohabitation of citizens in a society – this is the century, when England sets up its own church, which strives to distinguish both from the Roman Catholic and the Protestant – creating a Protestant church – the Anglican church. Before Locke published a Letter of Tolerance, after his return to England in 1689, after his immigration to the Netherlands, he published two other fundamental works: Two Tracts on Government and An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689). The third sub-topic is about Kant and his concept of the possible perpetual peace – the theory of "perpetual peace" was created by Kant at the end of the 18 th century. According to him, as relations within a state can be regulated wisely in order to maintain internal peace, and relations between people from different countries could be wisely regulated in order to achieve external peace. Kant thinks that moral-practical reason obliges us to exclude wars, otherwise it would mean that we have to give up our mind and be equated with the animals. In the conclusion is noted the great contribution of ideas from the works of Locke and Kant is the basis of the American Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and how much tolerance we need today in a globalized world.


The aim of this study was to examine the role of emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence on suicidal tendency among high school students in Gachsaran. This study was correlational. The statistical population of this study consisted of all high school students living in Gachsaran. According to Morgan's Table, the statistical sample of this research was 367 high school students. Measurement tools of this study included Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, Spiritual Intelligence Questionnaire and Beck Suicidal Thought Scale. After completing the questionnaires by researcher and using face-to-face interview with interviewees (respondents), they were entered into statistical software SPSS. Then, they were analyzed by using appropriate statistics. According to the findings, there is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence of individuals with suicidal tendency. Also, emotional intelligence and its dimensions were able to predict suicidal tendency among individuals. On the other hand, there is a significant difference between emotional intelligence, spiritual intelligence and spiritual tendency of girls and boys, so that emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence were higher in girls than boys, and suicidal tendency was high among boys.


In this work, the potentialities and limits of the investigation by portable energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) of complex polychrome stratigraphies are discussed. Data are affected by the mutual influence effects of the chemical elements that characterize mineral pigments, by the sequence and the thickness of the paint layers in the stratigraphies and by the size of pigment grains. Sequences of pictorial layers, which produce the typical stratigraphy of cold-painted terracotta and wooden sculptures, have been prepared and then analysed by means of two portable X-ray spectrometers: Innov X Systems Alpha 4000 (Tantalum X-ray tube, 40 kV and 7 µA) and Assing Lithos 3000 (Molybdenum X-ray tube, 25 kV and 300 µA). For each layer of pigment, the XRF spectrum was acquired and the areas of K and L peaks of characterizing elements were calculated. Moreover, the thickness of the layers was determined using XRF data following an algorithm already shown and the values have been compared with those measured on polished cross sections observed by optical microscope in reflected light. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Component-based Software development is a promising way to improve quality, time to market and handle the increasing complexity of software management. However, The component-based development is s ...


This paper describes our methodology of tuning the test process of the Motorola Operations and Maintenance Center product to systematically reduce field defects. The benefits include improved test cases, reduced defects and the availability of up to date field data for feature verification.


An advanced six‐ring morpholino backbone c‐myc antisense (AVI‐4126) was shown to inhibit c‐myc expression and intimal hyperplasia after local catheter delivery in a porcine balloon injury model. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of an AVI‐4126‐eluting phosphorylcholine‐coated (PC) stent on c‐myc expression restenosis and vascular healing after stent implantation in porcine coronary arteries. PC stents were loaded with AVI‐4126 using soak trap. Nine pigs underwent AVI‐4126 PC coronary stent implantation (two stents/animal). Two to six hours postprocedure, three pigs were sacrificed and stented segments were analyzed by Western blot for c‐myc expression. In chronic experiments, six pigs (12 stent sites) were sacrificed at 28 days following intervention and vessels were perfusion‐fixed. High‐performance liquid chromatography analysis of plasma samples showed minimal presence of the antisense. Western blot analysis of the stented vessels demonstrated inhibition of c‐myc expression at 2 and 6 hr after procedure. Quantitative histologic morphometry showed that the neointimal area was significantly reduced (by 40%) in the antisense‐coated group compared with control (2.3 ± 0.7 vs. 3.9 ± 0.8 mm2, respectively; P = 0.0077). Immunostaining and electron microscopy demonstrated complete endothelialization, without fibrin deposition, thrombosis, or necrosis in all implanted stents. In the porcine coronary model, an advanced c‐myc‐eluting PC stent blocked c‐myc expression and significantly inhibited myointimal hyperplasia and allowed complete reendothelialization and healing response. Catheter Cardiovasc Interv 2004;61:518–527. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The article reveals the problems of improving environmental impact assessment and justification of the economic investments of industrial enterprises. The existing tools for environmental impact assessment are analyzed, information on the role and place of environmental impact assessment and investment design in the justification of the planned economic activity is systematized. For this purpose, considerable attention is paid to the analysis and synthesis of existing methodological approaches to this problem. The authors propose to consider environmental impact assessment and justification of environmental investments as a process aimed at making environmentally oriented management decisions on the feasibility and economic feasibility of implementing planned economic activities, the reasonableness of capital investments, taking into account possible adverse environmental, social, economic impacts and developing measures for their reduction and prevention. Based on the study, the authors developed a classification of the causes of environmental pollution, presented in the form of a tree of systems, allowing for a clear decomposition of the causes of pollution of the environment, specifying and refining the targeting of environmental measures necessary to reduce pollution. This research direction is also complemented by the development of a strategy (decision tree) and a mathematical description of the simulation procedure, which allows real-time making an objectively reasonable choice of options for implementing the planned economic activity, taking into account the totality of known information.


The thrust measurement systems(TMS) with high accuracy are required in rockery, according to develop the high precise guided space vehicle. For obtaining high accuracy, the basic concepts and the necessary technology which have been acquired through many experiences of TMS are summarized, and the design methodology for practical use in ADD is presented. In this paper, the parameters against accuracy of TMS are discussed, and the improving methods are suggested. Through this application example, the design methodology of ADD is shown its superiority in TMS.


Background: PCOS related acne is a sign of polycystic ovaries syndromes, which occur as a result of elevation in androgens levels. Justification: There is no published data about the polycystic related acne among Sudanese women with infertility disorders. Objectives: To know prevalence of polycystic related acne among selected group of Sudanese women with infertility disorder. Method: Descriptive, crosssectional study, 94 Sudanese women with infertility disorders were involved, based on clinical examination and observation. Result: 36.2% of participants had polycystic related acne. Discussion: The prevalence of acne among the study group is a good sign for polycystic ovary syndrome which is one of most common causes of female infertility.


The structure and function of water-conducting tissues in Pogonatum inflexum and Physcomitrella patens were studied by light microscope and scanning electronic microscope(SEM) combined with water transportation analyses.The results show that the water-conducting tissues in P.inflexum consist of hydroids which have thick walls with polyphenolic compounds;In P.patens,the water-conducting tissue is simple,which consists of living and long-shaped parenchyma cells;Water transportation rate in P.inflexum is much higher than that in P.patens.The results indicate that P.inflexum represents the moss of endohydric water transpotation,while P.patens is ecothydric moss which water move along the surface of leafy plant.


This technical note implements a firm-level productivity diagnostic using the census of manufacturing firms and a large services survey in Kenya. By using a number of stylized productivity indicators, we aim to identify the ability of Kenyan firms to grow. The information presented in this diagnostic will help to conduct evidence-based policy-making. Specifically, implementing firm-level productivity diagnostics provide the necessary information for (i) improving the targeting of economic policies, (ii) enhancing their effectiveness, (iii) making more accurate predictions of the effects of industry shocks and policy reforms on the economy, and (iv) understanding the behavior of macroeconomic variables by tracking the evolution of variables at the firm-level. This note shows that there is a lot of heterogeneity in firms' attributes and performance, and this can potentially be attributed to the presence of economic distortions that affect the efficient allocation of resources across firms, with the manufacturing sector showing a lackluster performance compared to the services sector. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of locating productivity at the center of the competitiveness agenda as a key instrument for employment creation and poverty reduction.


In this summary we propose to underline the most fundamental and interesting aspects of our research, wich represents also the base for our future work. Precisely we are going to describe some core ideas we have been using as intelectual and cientific compass in our project: the transformation of history from a tool of domination to a instrument of coexistence, making particular reference in the concept of "bridge-narration" forged by the historians Jamil Hillal and Ilan Pappe.


This paper tests for a sulfur Kuznets curve by examining the sulfur emissions per capita-GDP per capita relationship individually, for 25 OECD countries over 1950-2005 using a reduced-form, linear model that allows for multiple endogenously determined breaks. This approach addresses several important econometric and modeling issues, e.g., (i) it is highly flexible and can approximate complicated nonlinear relationships without presuming a priori any particular relationship; (ii) it avoids the nonlinear transformations of potentially nonstationary income. The predominant post-1950 income-sulfur emissions relationship—the case for 24 of the 25 countries studied—was either (i) inverted-Vs, where the emissions-income relationship became negative, or (ii) decoupling, where income no longer affected emissions in a long-run, statistically significant way. Seventeen of the 21 transitional breaks uncovered occurred over 1965-1978; hence, in concert with previous work, we conclude that shared timing among countries is important in income-environment transitions.


A control method for the digitalized precise curve grinding includes such steps as creating the man-machine interface shared by computer and CCD screen, automatic precise regulation to reciprocation of abrasive disc, acquiring and processing the image of workpiece and abrasive disc, and in-line real-time compensation to abrasion of adrasive disc.


Objective. Polycystic ovary syndrome questionnaire (PCOSQ) was developed in USA to ascertain specific health‐related quality of life (HRQL) in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The Swedish version of PCOSQ should be tested prior to its use in research and clinical practice and the aims of the study were as follows: (a) determine the test–retest reliability and (b) confirm the domain structure of the Swedish version of PCOSQ; a 26‐item questionnaire, divided into the five domains: emotions, body hair, weight concerns, infertility concerns and menstrual irregularities. Methods. PCOSQ translation from English to Swedish was followed by a test–retest and a factor analysis of obtained PCOSQ completed twice by 69 women with PCOS. Results. The median age was 30 (21–37) years. The Kappa (κ) statistic for the five domains ranged from 0.29 to 0.69 demonstrating fair to good agreement among items. The Intra‐class Correlation Coefficient (ICC) for the five domains was high to excellent ranging from 0.79 to 0.96. The factor analysis presented six domains and the original domain structure was partly confirmed. Conclusions. The Swedish version of PCOSQ is reliable and can be used to measure HRQL in PCOS. Researchers and clinicians should be aware of the benefits of PCOSQ.


We experimentally demonstrate an unrepeatered system with optical phase conjugation (OPC)-based receiver-side back-propagation. Dispersion-shifted fibers employed for transmission simplify the OPC symmetry requirements, leading up to 2.93-dB SNR gains for dual-polarization 16-QAM signals.


A detailed study is made of the birth and development of more than 20active regions based on radio maps obtained by the Siberian Solar Radio Telescope at 5.7 GHz. We found 23 events with fast increasing of total flux from one average level to the other. In some cases such a stepwise increase in the active region flux preceded or was accompanied by the appearance of an intermediate burst source between two main sunspot associated sources. The phenomenon of a stepwise increase in the radio flux signals the evolutionary transition of the active region from one quasi–stationary state to an other.


The present invention discloses a horizontal impinging flow reactor, comprising a reactor housing, feed pipe, a discharge tube, flow tube, the pump and the circulation pipe, said feed pipe and discharge pipe arranged in the reactor shell the body, the horizontal reaction coaxially disposed within the housing symmetrically one pair of guide tube, guide tube for guiding the material are pumped, which is disposed opposite the inlet and spaced a first predetermined distance to form a suction material region, respectively, through which the outlet of the pump inlet circulation duct in communication, characterized in that: said reactor upper housing coaxially disposed symmetrically between a pair of nozzles in a direction perpendicular to the guide tube in the axial direction of the draft tube, the nozzle an outlet disposed opposite and spaced from a second material to form a set distance toward the impact zone, which is an inlet through an outlet circulation duct in communication with the pump. It not only improves the efficiency of mixing of the material, but also enhances the stability and continuity of the reactor, while reducing the back mixing time, simple structure, having a good economic performance.


Oxygen consumption ([Vdot]O2) and heart rate (HR) was measured in eleven healthy men (mean age 34·5 years) during five modes of simulated postal delivery: on level ground by foot, bicycle and push-cart, and on stairs by foot and push-cart. HR was measured telemetrically and samples of expired air were collected with a Kofranyi-Michaelis gas meter. Each delivery mode was performed twice; at the standard pace recommended by the postal authorities and at a free pace. [Vdot]O2 and relative aerobic strain (RAS) were in the same level in on-foot and cart delivery but HR was lower in cart than in on-foot delivery. In bicycle delivery [Vdot]O2, RAS and HR were on the same level as in stairs/on-foot and stairs/with cart delivery but significantly higher than in on-foot and cart delivery on level ground. For all delivery modes the free pace resulted in significantly higher physiological stress and strain than the standard pace. The mean values of the different delivery modes varied from 1·0 to 1·71/min for [Vdot]O2...


The interest in the use of high resistivity gallium arsenide compensated by chromium (GaAs:Cr) for photon detection has been growing steadily due to its numerous advantages over silicon. At the same time, the prospects of this material as a sensor for pixel detectors in nuclear and high energy physics are much less studied. In this paper we report the results of characterization of the Timepix detectors hybridized with GaAs:Cr sensors of various thickness using synchrotron radiation and various charged particles, including alphas and heavy ions. The energy and spatial resolution have been determined. Interesting features of GaAs:Cr specific to the detector response to an extremely dense energy deposit by heavy ions have been observed for the first time. The long-term stability of the detector has been evaluated based on the measurements performed over one year. Possible limitation of GaAs:Cr as a sensor for high flux X-ray imaging is discussed.


Relationships between the structure of a Lie algebra and that of its lattice of ideals is studied for those Lie algebras whose ideal lattice is very close to that of an almost-abelian Lie algebra. It is shown here that if the base field is algebraically closed, finite or the real one, for any n ≥3 the only solvable Lie algebra whose lattice of ideals is isomorphic to that of the (n+l)-dimensional almost-abelian Lie algebra is itself.


VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language) is such an extremely flexible and versatile language, that the language reference documentation is not sufficient to ensure that models written by one hardware designer will be compatible with another's models. What is required is a set of VHDL modeling conventions and standard packages which structure the usage of VHDL modeling approaches. The issues inherent in VHDL in regards to model compatibility are discussed, and a number of solutions to this problem.<<ETX>>


Two types of operation means "SBBR reactor alone (Sreactor)" and "adding zeolite powder into SBBR reactor (Z-Sreactor)" were used to treat municipal wastewater. The test results showed that zeolite added in reactor could improve the activity of the activated sludge. Due to the combination of zeolite adsorption for NH4+-N enhanced simultaneous nitrification andde-nitrification (SND), a higher nitrogen removal was observed in Z-S reactor compared to the S reactor, and the addition of zeolite powder is helpful to inhabit sludge bulking. Inaddition, through long-term parallel shock load test, it was found that the zeolite added in reactor could enhance the ability of activated sludge inresisting the shock load of organics and ammonium.


Box girders are now prominently used in freeway and bridge systems because of its structural efficiency, better stability, serviceability, economy of construction and pleasing aesthetics. Due to its high torsional rigidity box girders are most suited for curved bridges. In the present investigation, a comparative study of straight and curved box girder bridges with trapezoidal cross section has been carried out. The analysis is carried under the dead load, super imposed dead load, live load of IRC Class A tracked vehicle and prestressed load .This paper focus on the parametric study of box girders with different radius of curvature by keeping the span, cross sectional shape and material properties constant. The parametric investigations performed on curved box girders helps to evaluate the effects of change in radius of curvature on the behaviour of the box girders. This study would help the bridge engineers to better understand the behaviour of straight and curved box girder bridges. The results obtained from this study will be a valuable guidance to the bridge designers.


The first direct evidence for highly efficient energy migration from N-related "shallow" defects to "deep" antisite-related complexes in GaP is presented. The efficiency of excitation-transfer processes is studied via the dye-laser-excited excitation spectra of the resonance signals observed in optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR). On the basis of such ODMR excitation spectra, it is proved directly that the green GaP photoluminescence, due to bound-exciton recombination at N-related isoelectronic centers, is reduced by energy-transfer processes to ${\mathrm{P}}_{\mathrm{Ga}}$-related antisite centers. The mechanism responsible for this efficient energy transfer is discussed in terms of phonon-assisted tunneling.


In this convention as well as in educational circles, generally, the term accountability has been heard often. If one is to be accountable, he is, according to Webster, liable to be "called to account/' He must show, in other words, that he has done what should be expected of him. In the word accountability the expectation itself remains unstated. Yet, it is unthinkable that one should be accountable without prior knowledge as to what he is accountable for. Still it is on this very point that the term accountability causes much confusion. There is little agreement as to what a teacher at whatever level is to be accountable for hence the title, "Accountability for What?"


A general arrangement of initial part for multicharged ion linac (MILAC) with two-segment accelerating structure has been developed. The first segment, an interdigital H-type (IH) accelerating structure with radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ) focusing provides ion acceleration from 6 up to 100 keV/u with high capture efficiency of injected ions. The second segment consisting of IH accelerating structure based on a combination of alternating phase and quadrupole radio-frequency focusing (CRFF) delivers radial-phase stability to ion acceleration from 100 up to 975 keV/u. PACS: 29.17.w, 29.27.Bd


Camilleri et al. report that intuitive eating, defined as unconstrained food intake in response to physiological rather than emotional cues, is inversely associated with overweight and obesity (1). This study was conducted in a French cohort as part of the NutriNet-Sant e study, and it suggests that controlling the motives for eating may be a viable public health policy for preventing or reducing obesity. Further work using NutriNet-Sant e data found that eating for pleasure is positively associated with overweight (2).


Abstract A review of electronic structural data is given and an interface Schottky model has been developed. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) and secondary electron emission data have been used to determine the electron affinity of SBT and the band match-up for the SBT/Pt junction. The results of X-ray absorption spectroscopy studies and XPS valence band measurements indicated the electronic states above and below the bandgap of SBT. These experimental data have been compared with the results of tight-binding calculations. Angle dependent XPS measurements indicated that metallic bismuth is diffusing to the surface of SBT which would have significant influence on the electrical properties of the SBT/Pt junction. The hydrogen distribution in SBT, also an inportant issue for the device properties, has been probed using elastic recoil detection.


The aim of this study was to investigate the physical, nutritional values and sensory evaluation of Thai sponge cake added with different levels of dried Sano flowers powder (DSFP) as a source of carotenoids. DSFP was prepared and analyzed for total carotenoids. DSFP contained lutein, zeaxanthin and β-carotene around 29,947.94, 620.03 and 1,555.98 μg in 100 g of dry sample, respectively. The sensory liking scores were determined to be suitable to produce Thai sponge cake. Results showed that, Thai sponge cake recipe consisted of 240 g of duck eggs, 180 g of chicken eggs, 180 g of cake flour, 360 g of granulated sugar. The effects of the addition withdifferent levels of DSFP (20, 40 and 60 %w/w) of Thai sponge cake was studied. An increase of the DSFP decreased of lightness (L*), redness (a*) value, springiness, and chewiness while yellowness (b*) value, hardness, cohesiveness, and gumminess were increased. The sensory evaluation showed that all treatments obtained the overall liking score of 6.14-6.86. The study clearly showed that the levels of 20% w/w DSFP could be a desirable amount to produce the healthy Thai sponge cake with good enough appearance, odour, taste, texture, with an overall liking score of more than 6.00 that is considered as acceptable. The developed Thai sponge cake contained protein, fat, dietary fiber, ash, moisture, and carbohydrates 9.45, 5.23, 2.64, 1.16, 33.94 and 52.42 g in 100 g respectively, and 319.10 μg/100 g β-carotene 319.10 μg/100 g. The developed product supplemented with DSFP would be a guideline toincrease the health and quality of cake products.


Thin films of Co-doped In 2 O 3 diluted magnetic semiconductor have been grown on c-plane sapphire single crystals using pulsed laser deposition technique. Different characterizations such as x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and magneto-transport have been carried out to study the effect of growth temperature on structural, electrical, and magneto-transport properties of these films. Crystalinity of the films increases with the growth temperature. The films grown at high temperature have preferred orientation along (222) direction, while films grown at low temperature behave more like to nanocrystaline. It is observed that electrical properties of the films strongly depend on growth temperature. The resistivity and magnetoresistance of the films decreases with increase in growth temperature. On the other hand, mobility of the films increases with increase in growth temperature. This could be due to improvement in crystalinity of the films.


FIELD: medicine, biochemistry. SUBSTANCE: invention proposes a pharmaceutical composition that can be used for inhibition of activity of 3-methyl-3-methylglutaryl-CoA-reductase in mammals. Composition has an effective amount of hesperidin or hesperetin as an active component in combination with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. Invention proposes also the food or drink composition designated for inhibition of activity of 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-CoA-reductase and containing effective amount of hesperidin and hesperetin. Composition decreases blood level cholesterol effectively. EFFECT: enhanced effectiveness of composition. 9 cl, 3 tbl, 5 ex


Cloud providers host multiple virtual machines (VMs) configured based on specific versions of operating systems and libraries. The diversity of algorithms and parameters related to TCP constitutes a heterogeneous communication scenario. Legacy congestion control algorithms compromise the performance of VM-hosted applications. Due to total control in the data center, providers can apply the virtualization of congestion control (VCC) to generate optimized algorithms. From the tenant's perspective, virtualization is a transparently performed. Although promising, the application of VCC requires a deep analysis of the impact on the final applications. Thus, the present work dissects the execution of Hadoop MapReduce atop VCC-based scenarios. The experimental analysis discusses the execution time of Hadoop MapReduce and the behavior of intermediate switches queues, highlighting some VCC limitations.


The invention relates to a radio signal complex envelope and carrier phase information combination BVR (beyond visual range) target direct positioning method, and the method comprises the steps: firstly building a mathematic model of an arrival signal complex envelope and carrier phase relative to target position parameters based on a signal BVR transmission model; secondly obtaining a multi-station array signal model; thirdly converting data received by a multi-station array antenna into frequency domain data through employing a base 2-FFT algorithm; fourthly building a mathematic optimization model combining an estimation target position parameter and the height of an ionized layer based on the prior observation of the height of the ionized layer and the maximum likelihood estimation rule; and finally designing a Newton-type iterative algorithm for BVR target positioning according to the matrix eigenvalue perturbation theory. The method can effectively improve the precision of the target positioning, can further improve the estimation precision of the height of the ionized layer on the basis of the prior observation of the height of the ionized layer, is higher in rate of convergence, does not need high-dimensional search, is reliable in performance, and is high in operation efficiency.


The discovery of 2002 fetal remains in the 3 temple crematorium in Bangkok last November had shocked and dismayed Thai society (1) . Some felt that this is only a tip of an iceberg, for there are tens of thousands of temples in Thailand. The pictures and news reverberated around the world (2-4) . However, that initial shock and indignation was short lived, now 6 months later it is almost forgotten. It generated a lot of intense discussion from news and social media, concerned organizations, women's movements and government ministries that were seen to be responsible. The discussions touched mainly on morality issues as well as health and social well being of women including women's rights issue. The government immediate response was a well publicized raids on several legitimate and illegitimate clinics in Bangkok and up country (5,6) . This 'knee jerk' reaction served only to temporary close down further access to safe abortion driving up the market price of abortion. Since then the main focus of the government has been on the discussion of prevention of teenage pregnancy, even though teenage pregnancy represents less than 20 percent of the problem.


Significance Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is the most lethal bacterial urgent public health threat, with recurrence of infection observed in 25% of patients. A challenge in treating CDI is the production of spores. CDI depends on spore germination for the initial infection and for recurrence. The current clinically used antibiotics do not inhibit spore germination. We report on the discovery of an antibiotic from the oxadiazole class that kills C. difficile vegetative cells and inhibits spore germination. The oxadiazole binds SleC, which degrades the spore cortex peptidoglycan in spore germination, and CspC, which senses germinants and cogerminants. Inhibition of the former takes place with high affinity.


Information content is an important criterion for many image processing algorithms such as band selection and image fusion. Usually, information content is quantified by using information entropy (i.e., Shannon entropy); however, this is not a suitable measure because information entropy is independent of the spatial distribution of image pixels. Thus, improved information entropies and variants of information entropy have been developed. Among all the entropic measures, the discrimination ratio-based variant of information entropy (hereinafter DVIE) has recently been demonstrated to be the most effective. On the other hand, DVIE is the most inefficient measure in terms of computation time, which severely restricts its applications. To solve this problem, we present a three-strategy approach to efficiently compute the DVIE of an image. The first strategy is to use a simplified equation for DVIE. The second strategy is to selectively compute the two computationally intensive components of DVIE—intra-distance and extra-distance—based on the computational complexity. Only one distance was computed, and the other distance was derived based on the lookup table of average distances. The third strategy was to efficiently construct the lookup table based on geometric symmetry. We performed both validation and evaluation experiments to demonstrate that the proposed approach was not only valid for accurately computing DVIE, but it was also highly efficient. Our proposed approach saved more than 99% of the time taken for the original approach, without compromising the accuracy; therefore, DVIE was made applicable for processing images.


CDC (Communicable Disease Center) light-traps were compared with human-bait collections as an alternative method for sampling malaria vectors in two villages of western Kenya. The numbers of Anopheles funestus Giles and Anopheles gambiae sensu lato Giles in CDC light-trap collections were significantly correlated to the numbers caught in human-bait collections, but in Anopheles arabiensis Patton the two collections were not significantly correlated. Most of the female vectors collected in the traps were unfed. Parity of A. arabiensis collected in CDC light-traps (44.3%) was significantly lower than the rate obtained from females caught on human-bait (54.5%). Although CDC light-traps provide a cheap and convenient method for collecting vectors, further studies should nevertheless be undertaken to determine the influence of species-specific variation in the sizes and age-structure of collections because such variations can affect the epidemiological interpretation of the data.


The Thaumetopoeid silkmoth Anaphe reticulata is highly abundant in equatorial and southern Africa and a potential commercial source of silk. In this paper, we report detailed structural characteristics of the silk fibroins. Comparison of the 13C solution NMR spectra of Anaphe silk fibroin and several model peptides with Ala and Gly residues indicates that (AAG)n1 and (AG)n2 are the main sequences. In addition this analysis also indicates that the sequence contains (A)m (where m > 2) such as (AAAG)n3, (AAGAG)n4, and (AAAGAG)n5. GG sequences were absent at a level that could be detected by our NMR method. The 13C CP/MAS NMR study shows that the fiber structure is heterogeneous, but predominantly β-sheet structure and the length of (AG)n2 is too short to form the Silk I structure detected in Bombyx mori silk fibroin. X-ray diffraction analyses gave information on the higher order structure and hydrogen-bonding character of Anaphe silk fiber.


Background: The medical literature suggests that patients and physicians are deficient in their ability to use a self-injectable epinephrine device (EpiPen®) for management of anaphylaxis. This study aims to determine whether a computer module is an effective tool for the instruction of a technical skill to medical trainees. Methods:  We conducted a two group comparison study of 35 Post-Graduate Year 1 and 2 Family Medicine residents. Participants were instructed on use of the EpiPen® using either a written module or a computer module. Participants were evaluated on use of the EpiPen® using standardized objective outcome measures by a blinded assessor. Assessments took place prior to and following instruction, using the assigned learning modality.    Results: There were 34 participants who completed the study. Both groups demonstrated significant improvement in demonstrating use of the EpiPen® following training (p <0.001 for both). A significant post-training difference favouring the computer module learners over the written module learners was observed (p = 0.035). However, only 53% and 18% of candidates (computer module and written module, respectively) were able to correctly perform all of the checklist steps. Conclusion: While our findings suggest computer modules represent an effective modality for teaching use of the EpiPen® to medical trainees, the low number of candidates who were able to perform all the checklist items regardless of modality needs to be addressed.


This study uses "quick immersions" in Middle East politics to investigate the role that a short, yet immersive fieldwork stay can play in generating social scientific and pedagogic insights. Using three "quick immersions" in Middle East politics, this article argues that although having an extended amount of time in the field is ideal, especially when committed to obtaining "an ethnographic sensibility," a quick immersion is better than no immersion. A quick immersion is not a substitute for an extended field stay. Its primary advantage is making fieldwork possible when time, finances, logistics, and other contextual, professional, or personal constraints prohibit a longer stay. A quick immersion is an adaptation to the constraints that might lead scholars to forego fieldwork otherwise. This study aims to dispel disparaging notions that short fieldwork trips equate with mere academic tourism, by considering the outcomes of three short immersive fieldwork trips to the Middle East: six months in UAE (2013), two months in Qatar (2013), and one month in Lebanon (2017). Although the immersion in UAE was three times longer than the immersion in Qatar, and six times longer than the immersion in Lebanon, the insights yielded from all three case studies were equally meaningful for understanding Middle East politics in ways not possible without fieldwork.


Green stain is an uncommon condition associated with deposition of bilirubin in dental hard tissues. Prolonged hyperbilirubinemia has long been recognized as a frequent clinical manifestation of infection in the newborn, although the green staining of teeth caused by cholestasis associated with sepsis has not yet been reported. The purpose of this report is to present a case of green teeth of the primary dentition in a 3-year-old Brazilian girl. In addition, previously reported cases and their associated medical histories are analyzed.