Extracts were assayed separately. The total activity present in each fraction was determined by adding up the amounts present in all of the extracts. Spore sample UME-treated spores Untreated spores Description of fraction UME extracts from intact Buffer extract from disrupted UME extracts from spore Buffer extracts from disrupted UME extracts from spore spotes spores fragments spores fragments


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to cull out leadership lessons from one of India's oldest books on statecraft and economics – The Arthashastra by Kautilya – and present an Indian model of leadership which may be used by scholars and practitioners for leadership development in modern global context.Design/methodology/approach – An analysis of Kautilya's teachings is done based on English translation of his original works by two eminent scholars. A model of leadership is derived on the basis of Kautilya's writings.Findings – Kautilya presents a holistic perspective as he synthesizes the Eastern and Western approaches on leadership. His skill‐based and strategic approach gets support and direction from his value‐based, ethical considerations. Also, an in depth study of his writings shows that he was a precursor to a few leadership theories developed in the Western world in modern times.Originality/value – Scholars have studied The Arthashastra as a treatise on economics, politics, diplomacy and statec...


This presentation describes the remit of a 3-year knowledge exchange project which aims to develop, disseminate and ultimately promote uptake of smarter forms of air quality analysis for more effective air quality management. Two "smarter" techniques are introduced then used to characterise modelled and monitored impacts of a large coal-fired power station on a down-wind monitor.


INTRODUCTION: A sedentary lifestyle has a negative impact on functional capacity being closely linked to cardiovascular mortality in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) on hemodialysis (HD). In this population, an exercise training program has been associated several benefits. However, only a few dialysis units have adopted this program. The aim of this study was to describe a five year's experience of intradialytic exercise training, focused on adherence and safety of the procedure. METHODS: The sample included adult patients of both genders who joined an exercise training program during HD sessions between August 2004 and August 2009. The training was done during the first two hours of HD sessions by using a stationary bicycle and consisted of warm-up, aerobic exercise and cool-down. Descriptive analyses of data collected throughout the five years of the program were done. RESULTS: In five years, 34 patients (48.26 ± 11.44 years, 20 women) participated in the exercise training program completing 3077 individual sessions of exercise. The mean time of training was 15.65 ± 13.86 months and the adherence was of 64.87 ± 19.47%. Despite a few episodes of hypotension without significant hemodynamic repercussion we did not observe any major complications during the study. CONCLUSION: A program of exercise training during HD sessions is well accepted by the patients, is safe and not associated with serious complications.


Particle concentration distribution,velocity distribution and abrasion characteristics were studied by using numerical simulation of the solid-liquid two-phase flow in a desulfurization pump.The volume fraction of solid particles along the blade pressure sides is higher than the suction sides and increases when the particle diameter increases.Particles in the volute are mainly distributed near the wall.The volume fraction increases with the increase of particle diameter.The relative-velocity vector direction is basically along the blade surface.This indicates that it′s the sliding wear in the blades.Particles collide with the volute wall with a small angle.The angle increases with the increase of the particle diameter.Solid particles move to the volute outlet along walls while they extrude the walls by the effect of centrifugal force.So serious abrasion appears in the volute.The particles moving track is disorder near the position of volute tongue.The impact wear occurs near the tongue region.Numerical simulation results are consistent with the actual situation.It follows that the calculating method is feasible.


A field experiment was conducted during the summer season of 1996, 1997 and 1998 at Chiplima (Orissa), to standardize the planting density of rice (Oryza sativa L.) varieties of various duration groups. The grain yield of rice under closer spacing was significantly superior to that under wider spacing, mainly owing to higher panicles/m2 with the former. Varieties up to 100 days duration gave best result with 10 cm x 10 cm spacing, while varieties up to 135 days duration gave the best result with 15 cm x 10 cm spacing. Variety 'Lalat' (125 days) recorded the highest grain yield. 'Sankar' (80 days) recorded the lowest grain yield. There was no significant difference between 'Birupa' (135 days) and 'Panjat (100 days) in grain yield.


Abstract In most key industries, distributed real-time systems have found widespread use in order to ensure safety-critical functions. Design of such systems still represents a challenge because of many problems arisen by the combination of real-time, distribution, performance and safety. Fault-tolerant real-time networks have been a major research subject for these last years. OASIS provides a time-triggered multitasking and communication approach for designing safety-critical real-time systems. In order to fulfil the industrial needs, an extension to distributed architectures has been carried out which includes a TDMA-based deterministic and real-time protocol and its optimized version, called A-TDMA, presented here. Copyright © 2007 IFAC


Objective An eukaryotic expression vector of Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) gene in Guangxi Bama mini-pig was constructed to provide references for producing Guangxi Bama mini-pig with ApoE. Method The coding sequence of ApoE gene was amplified from liver of Guangxi Bama mini-pig by RT-PCR, and this sequence was inserted into pEGFP-C1 vector. The recombinant plasmids pEGFP-C1-ApoE were identified by sequence and double digestion, and then the positive plasmids were transfected into PK15 cells. ResultWith the length of 945 bp, the ApoE gene coding sequence of Guangxi Bama mini-pig encoded 317 amino acids and shared 100% homologue to the previously reported cDNA sequence in GenBank(NM_214308). After 48 hours transfection of the recombinant plasmids pEGFP-C1-ApoE into the PK15 cells, the cells had visible expression of fluorescent and cell nucleus. Conclusion The ApoE gene of Guangxi Bama mini-pig can recombine into pEGFP-C1 vector and effectively express the Apolipoprotein E.


In large disasters, dental record plays an important role in forensic identification. However, filing dental charts for corpses is not an easy task for general dentists. Moreover, it is laborious and time-consuming work in cases of large scale disasters. We have been investigating a tooth labeling method on dental cone-beam CT images for the purpose of automatic filing of dental charts. In our method, individual tooth in CT images are detected and classified into seven tooth types using deep convolutional neural network. We employed the fully convolutional network using AlexNet architecture for detecting each tooth and applied our previous method using regular AlexNet for classifying the detected teeth into 7 tooth types. From 52 CT volumes obtained by two imaging systems, five images each were randomly selected as test data, and the remaining 42 cases were used as training data. The result showed the tooth detection accuracy of 77.4% with the average false detection of 5.8 per image. The result indicates the potential utility of the proposed method for automatic recording of dental information.


CONTEXT
Despite the recent declines in rates of teenage pregnancy, relatively little is known about the few programs that have been successful in reducing adolescent pregnancy.

METHODS
Six agencies in New York City each randomly assigned 100 disadvantaged 13-15-year-olds to their usual youth program or to the intervention being tested--the Children's Aid Society-Carrera program, a year-round afterschool program with a comprehensive youth development orientation. Both program and control youth were followed for three years. Multivariate regression analyses assessed the effects of program participation on the odds of current sexual activity, use of a condom along with a hormonal contraceptive, pregnancy and access to good health care.

RESULTS
Seventy-nine percent of participants remained in the program for three full years. Female program participants had significantly lower odds than controls of being sexually active (odds ratio, 0.5) and of having experienced a pregnancy (0.3). They had significantly elevated odds of having used a condom and a hormonal method at last coitus (2.4). However, participation in the program created no significant impact on males' sexual and reproductive behavior outcomes. Nonetheless, program participants of both genders had elevated odds of having received good primary health care (2.0-2.1).

CONCLUSIONS
This program is one of only four whose evaluation has successfully documented declines in teenage pregnancy using a random-assignment design. Better outcomes among males may be achieved if programs reach them even earlier than their teenage years.


The aim of this paper is to examine the Stoic notion of friendship. First, we
 will examine everyday and common understanding of friendship, and afterwards
 we will examine philosophical understanding of ideal friendship that
 influenced Stoics thought. Plato?s and Aristotle?s notion of friendship is
 of great importance to the Stoics. The Stoics, faced with a number of
 challenges, such as the problem of self-sufficiency outlined in Plato?s
 Lysis, developed a normative ideal of friendship. That ideal, as we will
 demonstrate, could also be developed under the influence of everyday
 political friendships.


This paper brings further results on the degrees of dissociation (α) and hydration numbers (nh) of strong electrolytes in aqueous solutions at 25 °C, evaluated for the first time from osmotic coefficients (ϕ). Presented here are also the equations for the non-ideality parameters, ϕ and γ± (the mean molal ionic activity coefficient), in terms of α and nh.


Fast Fourier transform (FFT) is the reduced complexity algorithm to implement highly computational complex discrete Fourier transform (DFT). Cooley-Tookey based decomposition method is the most popular technique for an N point DFT where N is an integral power of 2. There are 2 decomposition techniques, decimation in frequency (DIF) and decimation in time (DIT), which are widely popular. Both the techniques require a core design and either an output reorder section or an input reorder section depending on whether we are using DIF or DIT respectively. An extensive literature is available for the core design part. However we donpsilat find much literature which discussed the design issues of the reorder section. Moreover if the design is targeted for high throughput application and incoming data is continuous in nature it becomes a challenging problem to design the reorder section with minimum complexity. In this paper we formulate the minimum latency required to reorder output (or input) of a DIF (or DIT) FFT architecture of N point, where N is an integer power of 2. We also find out the minimum buffer length required to implement the reorder section. Finally we propose a simple low power reorder architecture using a single random access memory (RAM) suitable for continuous data, pipelined FFT architecture. The proposed architecture is more valuable for high value of N.


We present a case of palmoplantar pustulosis (PPP) secondary to olfactory cleft inflammation in a 65-year-old man. He had a 10-year history of PPP. Computed tomography showed an abnormal intensity that corresponded to chronic inflammatory sinusitis in the right maxillary and ethomoidal sinuses, and obstruction of the olfactory cleft. After administration of intranasal steroid drops, the olfactory cleft inflammation improved and healthy skin was restored. Discontinuing this treatment resulted in worsening of the skin lesions 3 times over 3 years. Although the chronic inflammatory sinusitis persisted, the olfactory cleft inflammation improved. Therefore, we conclude that PPP might be caused by olfactory cleft inflammation.


Nowadays, digital technologies play significant roles in daily life. In educational context, these technologies help learners to gain more knowledge. However, the learners mainly use mobile devices for non-academic purposes, like play game or open the social media applications rather than use the learning applications. In fact, mobile device is an effective media that can make the learners motivated and more interested in learning English. The further research needs to investigate students' perception on the usage of mobile applications especially in creative writing skill. The participants of the research are 30 senior high school students consisting of 12 males and 18 females. The data is collected by using close-ended questionnaire. This research classified as case study research using randomized sampling. Descriptive data analysis was conducted. The results indicate that mobile applications generally give some advantages in learning English. The perceived benefits of mobile learning comprised opportunities to have ubiquitous learning, have so many exercises, analyze the specific mistakes the learner has made, and also explain the principles behind the correct answer. The learners should maximize the usage of mobile applications positively. The findings have several significant implications for educators, particularly for the use of mobile applications in academic purposes and the strategies to implement mobile learning.


The utility model discloses mechanical stereoscopic storage equipment with entrance-exits capable of being configured as needed. A plurality of rotary rails are arranged on the upper surface of each floor plate, rotary object-bearing platforms are arranged in each floor plate, a plurality of radial carrying advancing rails are arranged on the upper surface of each rotary object-bearing platform, storage positions are located at the positions of the carrying advancing rails of the rotary object-bearing platforms, a carrying advancing rail is arranged on the upper surface of a lifting platform of a lift for stored objects, each carrying advancing rail on each rotary object-bearing platform and the carrying advancing rail of the lifting platform can be matched to form a through linear rail, and a stored object carrier carries the stored objects along the carrying advancing rails. According to the mechanical stereoscopic storage equipment with the entrance-exits capable of being configured as needed, the number and the positions of the entrance-exits can be reasonably arranged according to the terrain and the storing and taking frequency of the stored objects, in and out routes of the stored objects are more reasonable, and the transfer efficiency of the storage equipment is improved. Besides, each entrance-exit is provided with an independent lifting horizontal moving device, each floor operates independently, and the transfer stability of the storage equipment can be effectively improved.


Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) has been proposed to apply in fast-fading environment. In this paper, we investigated the link-level capacity (LLC) and bit-error-rate (BER) performance of MIMO BICM system with soft-output MMSE soft interference cancellation (SIC) detection. We compared two SIC schemes in this paper. The first one is ordering successive SIC, in which the transmitted symbols are detected sequentially with post-detection signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) based ordering and interference cancellation error compensation. In the second scheme, we proposed to perform parallel interference cancellation (PIC) and detect the transmitted symbols simultaneously. We compared the LLC and BER performance of different detection schemes through extensive simulation.


Aiming at the inefficiency of the relay selection of data gathering protocol for multi-hop wireless sensor networks(WSN),an energy efficient relay node fast selection(EERNFS) algorithm was proposed.In EERNFS,time-sharing channel was adopted to maintain time synchronization of WSN and periodically update the information of the neighbor network node.The network nodes could be activated synchronously in any network listening/sleeping cycle according to a certain probability,thus the real-time consistency and the stability of the nodes' connectivity degree in WSN were guaranteed.Based on the geographic priority,the value of the nodes and the distribution estimation of the route-link quality,the relay node was selected through the competition method and the competing between the candidate relay nodes was reduced through gradually multiplying time window method.Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that EERNFS outperforms FFS(forwarder fast selection) and GeRaF in terms of energy efficiency,delay of data delivery,and data delivery rate so that the network lifetime is greatly prolonged.


This paper not only introduces the main function of the Electronic Reading Room and analyzes the problems on its manage ment and service,but also puts forward some measures to optimize it.


Six cows suffering from chronic recurrent genital prolapse in which the prolapse mass was infected, oedematous, lacerated and necrotic. Also the organ became swollen, hardened and friable making replacement more difficult. These types of pathological changes not responding medical management so that it requires surgical manipulation by pervaginum ovario-hysterectomy as salvage measure. To alleviate the suffering and stress, the cows were subjected to ovario-hysterectomy including resection of affected cervico-vaginal prolapsed mass through vaginal approach under mild xylazine sedation and epidural anaesthesia in lateral recumbency. Urination was facilitated by catheterization of urethra. Evaluation of surgical site were recorded for any post operative complications and if any infectious vaginal discharge were observed vaginal douching given with Povidone iodine. The complications like anorexia and weakness were observed in 4 cases. Two cows died after few days of the surgery. Four cases having uneventful recovery.


We introduce and study several measures of complexity of functions from the convex hull of a given base class. These complexity measures take into account the sparsity of the weights of a convex combination as well as certain clustering properties of the base functions involved in it. We prove new upper confidence bounds on the generalization error of ensemble (voting) classification algorithms that utilize the new complexity measures along with the empirical distributions of classification margins, providing a better explanation of generalization performance of large margin classification methods.


The mechanisms involved in the development of hepatic encephalopathy still remain uncertain. The rodent portacaval shunt is a model that reproduces many of the pathological features observed in humans (1), but is a technically demanding exercise. While the traditional technique involves complete occlusion of the IVC, a c-clamp was fashioned to partially clamp the IVC thereby sustaining venous return and cardiac output. The aim of this study is to determine if the c-clamp technique provides greater hemodynamic stability and enhances the success rate of the portacaval shunt procedure. To answer this question, two experimental groups, c-clamp (N = 7) and cross-clamp (N = 7), and a sham group (N = 3) were included. Intraoperative hemodynamic parameters were recorded at specific times during the procedure. The c-clamp group showed greater hemodynamic stability when compared to the cross-clamp group. It was manifested by 1) significantly higher mean arterial blood pressure [63 (range, 8) vs 47 (range, 10) mmHg, p < 0.05], 2) faster capillary refill [4 (range, 2) vs 6 (range, 2) seconds, p < 0.05], 3) higher urinary output [0.18 (range, 0.02) vs 0.14 (range, 0.02) ml, p < 0.05], and 4) lower bowel wet-to-dry ratio [4.168 (range, 0.258) vs 4.731 (range, 0.271), p<0.05]. We conclude partial IVC clamping improves hemodynamic stability during the construction of the rat portacaval shunt model.


Pregnancy associated aplastic anaemia is a severe complication during pregnancy, characterized by anemia, bleeding and infection. It can be caused by exposure to drugs, chemicals, infection, radiation and so on. The symptomatic supportive treatment is the main therapy for the pregnancy with aplastic anemia, but it can combine the immunosuppressive therapy or hematopoietic treatment. After treatment, pregnant patients may be recovered and give birth at full-term. Without indications for cesarean section, the patients could choose vaginal delivery. If the patients have to have cesarean section, platelet transfusion is needed before operation to prevent hemorrhaging.

Key words:
Pregnancy complications, hematologic; Anemia, Aplastic; Diagnosis, differential; Disease management


The results of a series of aerodynamic tube of experiments with scale models of cars. The dependence of the vertical loads on the axles when changing model dimensions, the angle of inclination of the rear of the front and changing of replacement parts.


Bioavailability of anthocyanins from juiced purple carrots was investigated through a human feeding study. Ten healthy adults consumed three doses of purple carrot juice, and bioavailability was assessed by appearance of anthocyanins in plasma for 8 h after the dose. Doses were 50 mL, 150 mL, and 250 mL of purple carrot juice, containing 76.1 µmol (64.5 mg), 228.1 µmol (193.6 mg), and 380.2 µmol (322.7 mg) total anthocyanins, respectively. The peak plasma anthocyanin concentration increased significantly with increasing dose, though this increase was smaller in magnitude than the increase in dose size. Acylated anthocyanins comprised 76% of total anthocyanins in the juice, yet their bioavailability was found to be significantly less than that of nonacylated anthocyanins. Peak plasma concentration of nonacylated anthocyanins was 4‐fold higher than that for acylated anthocyanins. Because the treatments were consumed as juice, it could be discerned that the difference in bioavailability of acylated vs. nonacylated anthocyanins was not related to interaction of the anthocyanins with the plant matrix. Funded by USDA/ARS and USDA/CSREES.


Soil microorganism plays an important role in material cycling and energy transformation in an ecosystem.Due to its sensitivity to environmental changes,soil microorganism is considered to be one of the key indicators to reflect the variation of soil quality.In this paper,field investigations and lab experiments were carried out to study characteristics of microbial biomass carbon(MBC) and microbial biomass nitrogen(MBN) in surface soil(0-20 cm).Three soil types(including latosolic red soil from Shaoguan,red soil from Guangzhou,and latosol from Leizhou) of Guangdong Province and four land use patterns(including grassland,forest,farmland and orchard)were included in this study.Results showed that there were significant differences between MBC and MBN both respond to different land use patterns and different soil types and such differences were more significant for land use patterns.The MBC and MBN were much higher in the forestland and orchard than those in the farmland and grassland.Results further revealed that total organic carbon(TOC) and total nitrogen(TN) were also higher in the orchard than those in the other three land use pattern.However,compared to land use patterns,soil types had much less impacts on the MBC and MBN.Analysis of microbial quotient showed that land use patterns had different impacts on TOC and MBC.A correlation analysis showed that soil MBC,MBN,TN,TOC,and available N were all significant and positive correlated.The significantly and positively correlation between MBC and MBN suggested that The contents of MBC and MBN significantly correlated to those of SOC and TN,this suggested the contents of soil MBC and MBN were the sensitive indicators for characterizing of changes of soil fertility.


The objective of this paper is to develop a stochastic inventory system model under the so-called continuous-review policy with a Poisson one-at-a-time demand process, iid customer inter-arrival times {Xi}, backorders allowed, and constant procurement lead time . The distributions of the so-called inventory position process {} and lead time demand process {} are formulated in terms of cumulative demand by time t, {}. Then, for the long-run expected average annual inventory cost expression, the "ensemble" average is estimated, where the cost variations for stock ordering, holding and backorders are considered stationary.


Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), as a very important safety and reliability analysis tool, has been extensively used for examining potential failures in products, processes, designs and services. In traditional FMEA, potential failure modes are determined and can be evaluated by Risk Priority Number (RPN), which is defined as the multiplication of the occurrence (O), severity (S), and detection (D). However, the traditional RPN has been criticized because of several deficiencies due to the uncertainty in FMEA. In this paper, a new risk evaluation method in FMEA based on Dempster-Shafer theory (D-S theory) and prospect theory is proposed to the Multi-criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem. D-S theory is used to express the fuzzy assessment information which may be imprecise and uncertain. Then, the fuzzy group assessment is transformed into a crisp value. Prospect theory is applied on risk evaluation and risk prioritizing. A numerical example is illustrated and shows the efficiency of the proposed method.


As a response to the environmental degradation and it's impact on human health, WHO, in collaboration with local institutions, is currently implementing a comprehensive programme of activities to raise awareness and decrease exposure to the metal lead and other poisonous heavy metals by establishing sustainable structures that will address all aspects of this complex problem. Industrial pollution from heavy metal mining activities is one of the main sources of this pollution. Lead in soil analyses taken by WHO in Mitrovica/ë and Zvecan municipalities have shown in over 90% of samples to be over a limit set by Dutch researchers. (Dutch List, 1999) Kosovo has a population of approximately 2 million people and a very high proportion (approximately 50%) are of school age and pre-school age.


Abstract The synthesis and structure of an open-framework material based on tin(II) oxyphosphate is described: [NH4]+[(Sn3O)2(PO4)3]−; colorless; space group=Pbcn(#60);a=6.7963(2);b=19.6000(4);c=12.5777(4) A;V=1675.44(12) A3; andZ=8. The structure comprises a network of pyramidal SnO3and tetrahedral PO4moieties. There is a single oxygen atom bonding only the Sn atoms in this structure. The charge balancing [NH4]+cations are located at one end of a star-shaped 10-ring channel and the Sn(II) lone-pairs protrude into this channel, preventing any access.


The present invention relates to woven for reinforcing a shirt collar or similar strut portion 1, in the form of a knitted fabric reinforced nonwoven textile laminate 2, comprising a plurality of skein 4,5 which extend along the warp and positioned wale between. The present invention also relates to garments comprising such textile collar strut or similar parts, and a method for obtaining such a collar.


Today, many deal with spatial planning issues using deterministic-rationalistic forms, which are inadequate to understand empirical objects at local scale and in pluralistic forms. This inadequacy to view empirical objects holistically happens because usually spatial systems are viewed only through text at macro scale. Scholars point out that, postmodern planning concepts which delve into local values in spatial planning such as 'local wisdom' are more appropriate here. These concepts take into account pluralism and locality and enrich the spatial planning process. The process itself is a form of a cognition of reality. Moreover, postmodern planning allows viewing empirical objects thoroughly at the local scale, which offers opportunities to understand pluralistic meanings of space. The modern Master Plan of regional planning of Cirebon city in Indonesia is a product of deterministic-rationalistic spatial planning processes. Consequently, Keraton in Cirebon city only acts as a cultural area excluded from empirical object as a local pluralism phenomenon. Keraton Kasepuhan in Cirebon has existed since the 13 century and it has encountered many historical moments related to the spread of Islam in the West Java Island. These had contributed immensely to spatial formations of Cirebon city. However, today they are unrecognized because the deterministicrationalistic model does not allow their understanding. This paper argues that the 'reality' in the local spaces inside Keraton can reveal various pluralism phenomena, which is valuable in the spatial planning policies of Cirebon city. This research divulges particular pluralism phenomena that existed in Keraton Kasepuhan area, which can make a contextual contribution in the improvement of spatial planning policies. The purpose of this study is to find the meaning of the phenomenon of space Keraton Kasepuhan. Rationalist deterministic approach cannot show the meaning of space. However, unravelling the meaning of space can solve substantive problems of spatial planning and the meaning of space can show pluralism in space. Phenomenology of Husserl can help to show the meaning of space. The research employs Husserl's phenomenology approach. The research is conducted by seeing and understanding the behavior and mindset of the people. Furthermore, giving meaning to the community activity and social situation. The results of this study show that the meaning of space in Keraton Kasepuhan is the meaning of spiritual consciousness of space. These spatial phenomena arises from the interpretations of the following (1) The awareness of the Keraton's spatial role as a source of spirituality, (2) "Getok Tular" tradition or word of mouth as a means of transferring knowledge to younger performers, (3) the King's policy in maintaining the esoteric tradition.


WlnnnN, C. E., eNn G. E. D,qvrs. 1967. Laboratory studies on the feeding, bioenergetics and growth of fishes, p. 175-214.In S. D. Gerking [ed.] The biological basis of freshwater fish production. Blackwell Scientifi c Publications, Oxford. Wstrwonrn. W. R. 1968. Effects of diurnal fluctuations of dissolved oxygen on the growth of brook trout. J. Fish. Res. Board Can. 25: 579-5M. WrNsenc. G. G. 1956. Rate of metabolism and food requirements of fishes. Belorussian State Univ., Minsk. 251 p. (Transl. from Russian by Fish. Res. Board Can. Transl. Ser. No. 194, 1967).


This paper presents a method for simulating anisotropic friction for deforming surfaces and solids. Frictional contact is a complex phenomenon that fuels research in mechanical engineering, computational contact mechanics, composite material design and rigid body dynamics, to name just a few. Many real-world materials have anisotropic surface properties. As an example, most textiles exhibit direction-dependent frictional behavior, but despite its tremendous impact on visual appearance, only simple isotropic models have been considered for cloth and solid simulation so far. In this work, we propose a simple, application-oriented but physically sound model that extends existing methods to account for anisotropic friction. The sliding properties of surfaces are encoded in friction tensors, which allows us to model frictional resistance freely along arbitrary directions. We also consider heterogeneous and asymmetric surface roughness and demonstrate the increased simulation quality on a number of two- and three-dimensional examples. Our method is computationally efficient and can easily be integrated into existing systems.


Despite the fact that rural communities across the United States are rapidly diversifying (Fusarelli & Militello, 2012), little research has examined the beliefs and practices of successful rural educational leaders, specifically in high poverty schools and districts where traditionally marginalized students demonstrate improving learning outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine the beliefs and practices of a rural educational leader whose school or district met established study criteria for a high poverty, high performing school, in which traditionally marginalized students demonstrate increasingly productive learning outcomes. Interviews with the leader were conducted, and the data were coded and analyzed using a constant comparative method (Lincoln & Guba, 1985).The following research question guided the study:What impact do the beliefs and practices of a rural school district leader have on the learning outcomes of traditionally marginalized students in the Rocky Mountain West?The findings from this study contribute to the paucity of research on culturally responsive rural superintendent-principals. Identifying the rural leader's beliefs and practices provides support for educational leaders who serve in that uniquely rural dual role, about which very little has been written. It informs leadership preparation programs, graduate students, researchers, and policy makers about the need for nuanced culturally responsive training for rural educational leaders.


This paper analyzes the contribution of the German banking system to the modernization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in industry. The simultaneous greater relative importance of and relatively high wages in German SMEs appear to be paradoxical in terms of dual labor market theory, which claims that lower wages and greater flexibility in the use of labor are important for helping small firms compensate for their constrained access to capital, R&D and skills resources relative to large firms. This paper suggests that the successful modernization of the German small firm sector despite pressure from below from industry-level wage bargaining and strong job protection can be attributed to support from above in terms of an institutional infrastructure helping small firms overcome the organizational deficiencies they face relative to large firms. The decentralized provision of long-term finance and sophisticated financial services for the modernization of SMEs is enabled by a three-tiered federalist form of corporatist organization in the cooperative and savings banks sectors, in which smaller banks at the bottom tier of the organization receive access to refinancing on capital markets and specialized services -- normally only available to large banks -- through the upper tiers of the banking organization.


Inventorying, administering and Cultural Heritage management is a process that involves a multidisciplinary approach, which brings together the textual and graphical data. Not only the geometry, plane or digital model of Cultural Heritage objects represent parameters which must be deducted. All specifications making the object unique architecturally, historical, artistically, scientific and social, are meaningful and must be taken into consideration and inventoried as they are irreplaceable, representing a tremendous source of information and history. Therefore, an efficient management and a sustainable approach to Cultural Heritage is a complex process, comprehensive, sometimes difficult, and can be achieved or achievable using Geographic Information Systems (GIS-Geographical Information System) on one hand, and on the other hand, the use of 3D digital models for these objects is not just a desideratum, but a reality of our time. In this context, the paper aims to realize 3D models of architectural and Cultural Heritage objects based on different technologies starting with close range photogrammetry to terrestrial scanning technology (Laser Scan) with highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of each technology, as well as introducing a proposition of using Open Source and Low-Cost platforms for integrating this huge amount of data in Geographical information Systems efficacious in monitoring and management of Cultural Heritage.


The thesis sets out to explore how fans understand and respond to celebrity mobilization on social media. In March 2017, a famous Chinese singer Xue ZhiQian reposted a controversial weibo on Chinese social platform Sina Weibo. His involvement in news circulation and his mobilization on civilized behavior set off a huge wave on the Internet and highly triggered public concern about celebrity behavior. To investigate fans' understanding of online celebrity performance, thirteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with Xue's fans. Moreover, this research also sheds some light on fans' participation in social issues with the influence of celebrity's call. The main findings of the research center around the ambivalence of celebrity involvement: The imaginary intimacy and indistinguishable authenticity of celebrity performance, the dispersive attention and ambivalent attitude towards celebrity involvement and inactive respond to celebrity mobilization. Thereby this study unravels the online celebrity activism from the perspective of fans and probes how fans practice their understanding. (Less)


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the adoption of information technology is associated with human resource management and organizational restructuring.Design/methodology/approach – SMEs in Nova Scotia were visited and complete data from 130 firms were obtained.Findings – The rate of IT adoption varies noticeably among SMEs in Nova Scotia, with less than 10 per cent being high adopters. IT adoption was strongly associated with employer size, organizational restructuring and investment in human resource management.Research limitations/implications – The data are cross‐sectional and the generalizability of the results may be limited. While it was found that HRM and IT were strongly related, it was whether they are associated with higher employer performance was not examined.Practical implications – The results suggest that IT may play a role in enhancing the human resource function.Originality/value – There has been little research exploring the link between HRM and IT adoption, p...


Pharynx is a system transporting foods by peristaltic motion(contraction and expansion movement! into the esophagus and functioning as airway passages. In this study, structural changes of pharyngeal dysfunction are analyzed by biomechanical model using CT and FEM(finite clement method). Loading condition was assumed that equal pressure was loaded sequentially to inside of pharyngeal tissue. In order to analyze the pharyngeal muscular dysfunction by biomechanical model. the pharyngeal dysfunctions was classified into 3 cases. Taking into account the clinical complication by neuromuscular symptoms such as pharyngeal dysfunction after stroke. we assumed that a change of material property is caused by muscular tissue stiffness. A deformation of cross sectional area of the pharynx is analyzed increasing the stiffness in each case on the basis of stress-strain relationship. Based on three-dimensional reconstruction of pharyngeal structure using limited factor - techniques and the optimization procedure by means of inverse dynamic approach. the biomechanical model of the human pharynx is implemented. The results may be used as clinical index illustrating the degree of pharyngeal muscular dysfunction. This study may be used as useful diagnostic model in discovering early deglutitory impediment caused by physiological or pathological pharyngeal dysfunction.


Of the encyclopedias relating to language published over the past few years, this fourvolume compendium is undoubtedly the most comprehensive. It is perhaps one of those likely to be taken very authoritatively, considering the large number of experts involved in its production either as authors of articles or as editors of various subject areas. The purpose of the compendium is, according to Bright's introduction, "to give summar i e s of r e s e a r c h , w i t h d e t a i l e d cross-references and bibliographies, to provide convenient access to the broadest possible spectrum of specialites" (x). He adds, "The aim of the IEL, and of the individual articles within it, is not to say everything about any topic, but rather to give readers an appropriate orientation. . . . authors were asked to provide key bibliographical references for their articles, which will enable readers to pursue topics of interest as far as they desire" (x). Generally, the IEL meets these goals, though, as I show below, not without some unfortunate shortcomings.


A novel scheme for all-optical NOT logic which exploits the cross-phase modulation (XPM) effect in an asymmetric SOA-assisted Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (SOA-MZI) has been proposed for the first time. Only two input beams are employed to achieve NOT operation in this new design. The scheme is validated and the system performance is optimized with various parameters through numerical simulations. This compact logic gate is helpful for future all-optical computing and networks.


of these ecosystems. Phenology has proven to be a very suitable tool for this because it comprises "the study of the timing of recurring biological events, the causes of their timing with regard to biotic and abiotic forces, and the interrelation among phases of the same or different species" (Lieth 1974). Due to the spatial coverage as well as financial and time related savings, remote sensing techniques proved to be very suitable for these kinds of analyses. For example until now especially dense


Along with many others of my generation at the Yale School of Medicine and the New Haven Hospital, I owe a great debt to Grover Powers as an inspiring teacher, friend, and benefactor. The invitation to give the Grover Powers lecture at Yale had a special emotional significance, therefore, and it is with a sense of great privilege that I address you this afternoon. I do not consider the primary purpose of this lecture as an occasion to honor Grover Powers. He has received so many honors under such important auspices that anything that I could add today would be relatively minor. The major purpose is to remind ourselves and succeeding classes of students at Yale of the great heritage which Grover Powers has given ushis teachings, counseling, and personal example which have contributed so much to the development of pediatrics in this country and to the emergence of the Yale University School of Medicine as an important influence in medical education and practice. In Osler's felicitous words, "The great possession of any university is its great names-not its wealth, nor the number of its schools but the men who have trodden in its service the thorny road through toil." Grover Powers is one of the great possessions of this school and his contributions continue to have relevance to the problems that we face today. One of the current preoccupations and concerns of members of clinical departments in our medical schools is the balancing of the importance of fundamental research against the responsibilities of the department for teaching and for the care of patients in the teaching hospital. This is not a new problem and I should like to remind you that within a relatively small department Grover Powers developed two major research laboratories: in electrolyte physiology under Daniel C. Darrow and in microbiology and immunology under James D. Trask. His department was noted for its devotion to the teaching of medical students and residents, and also of physicians in this


This paper investigates how the physical characteristics of a golf club head affect its performance, with the aim of developing a superior club head. The physical characteristics investigated were the magnitude of the moment of inertia and the location of the centre of gravity. The performances were classified as the release velocity, the spin rate of the ball and the size of the uniform restitution area. In the numerical analysis, several kinds of club head were modelled with different moments of inertia and different locations of the centre of gravity. For every club head model, the ball was hit at various impact points and the release velocity, spin rate and size of the uniform restitution area were calculated. The results are as follows. The bigger the moment of inertia Izz about the vertical axis or the shallower the depth of the centre of gravity, the less side spin rate caused. Izz has more influence on the side spin rate than the depth of the centre of gravity. The shallower the depth of the centre of gravity, the more back spin rate caused. The size of the uniform restitution area increases in proportion to the increase in Izz, or in proportion to the decrease of the depth of the centre of gravity.


This article studied and developed a method of recovering the adsorbed lubricant in the dregs of clay--dissolvent extraction technology. Through thecomprehensive comparison of the weight of recovered lubricant, the extraction dissolvent and the operation conditions of treatment technology were defined in the experiment. The result showed under the given conditions of naphtha fraction (60 - 901) as extraction dissolvent, the extraction times of 2, the optimum dissolvent dosing ratio of 1:1, the temperature of about 20℃ , the stirring time of 15min and lubricant mass percentage of 5% in the circulation liquid,the lubricant recovery rate was approximately 92% and a stable circulating operation model was made,so this article provided scientific basis for the industrialization application of dissolvent extraction recovering the adsorbed lubricant in the dregs of clay. This technology is advanced and its social and environmental effect is marketable.


Review of "Impacts of future agricultural change on ecosystem service indicators" by Sam Rabin et al. The paper presents and explores simulations with the coupled land use and vegetation model LandSyMM to quantify future land use change and resulting impacts on ecosystem service indicators. There is a lot of interesting and thought-provoking material here, and I am sure this paper will create a lot of interest. However, like many "future scenario" papers, there is a lack of consideration of plausibility or uncertainty. The authors do not help the reader to understand why these projections are better or more reliable than other estimates. The section on runoff and flood risk is not convincing, in part because the separation of responses takes no account of what is already known about impacts of CO2 changes on runoff and in part because no case is made for using mean P95month as a measure of flood risk in a model with no water redistribution instead of relying on a projections using explicit hydrological modelling. The writing style is overblown (particularly in the Introduction) and often obscure (for example in the methods section and in the results section). The messages here could be conveyed in a clearer fashion with some pruning and rewriting, and this would considerably improve the readability of this paper. Shortening the existing text would leave room for a proper discussion section that would allow key issues to be explored. I hope the specific suggestions below can help the authors improve this paper and clarify their arguments, because the reliable estimation of future changes in ecosystem services is important for many purposes and people. Specific Comments The Methods section is long, difficult to follow and at the same time does not give sufficient information to allow these experiments to be repeated. I think this needs rewriting, focusing on the


Etomidate is a potent stereoselective hypnotic drug, the (+)-isomer having considerably greater hypnotic activity than the (-)-isomer (Janssen, Niemegeers, Schellekens & Lenaerts, 1971). We have found that (+)-etomidate (5-50 IgM) produced depolarization of primary afferent terminals and hyperpolarization of motoneurones as recorded from dorsal and ventral roots of the isolated spinal cord of the frog. At similar concentrations (+)etomidate produced depolarization of postsynaptic neurones of the rat isolated superior cervical ganglion. On both these preparations (+)-etomidate was 20 times more potent than (-)-etomidate and the responses produced were slower in onset and of longer duration than those produced by similar applications of GABA. The levels of (+)-etomidate used were within the range found in rat brain following hypnotic doses (Heykants, 1974). Responses of these in vitro preparations to etomidate were specifically antagonized by bicuculline (25 gM) or picrotoxin (50 gM) as were responses to GABA, whereas strychnine (1 gM) antagonized hyperpolarizing responses of frog motoneurones to f8alanine but not responses to (+)-etomidate or GABA. A similar pharmacological specificity was also observed on caudal medulla neurones of the halothane anaesthetized rat in vivo. lontophoretic application of bicuculline methobromide (10-40 nA) antagonized the depression of firing rate produced, by iontophoretic application of GABA (0-20 nA) or (+)etomidate (20-50 nA), but when glycine (0-20 nA) and (+)-etomidate were compared, iontophoretic application of strychnine (0-10 nA) antagonized only responses to glycine. All these results indicate that the depressant effect of etomidate is produced by a GABA-mimetic action and this is unlikely to be the result of endogenous GABA release since (+)-etomidate has been shown not to affect uptake of [3H1-GABA by rat brain slices (Hill & Taberner, 1975). Pentobarbitone and other barbiturates have also been shown to have a GABA-mimetic action (Nicoll, 1975). We have compared these actions of pentobarbitone with those of (+)-etomidate on the in vitro preparations above and it is interesting that their relative molar potencies for GABA-mimetic action correspond closely to their relative hypnotic potencies.


Abstract This guidance document is intended to assist the applicant in the preparation and the presentation of an application, as foreseen in Article 7.6 of Regulation (EC) No 1831/2003, for the authorisation of additives used in animal nutrition. It specifically covers the assessment of the safety for the environment. Draft endorsed by the FEEDAP Panel 2 October 2018 Submitted for public consultation 8 October 2018 End of public consultation 19 November 2018 Adoption by the FEEDAP Panel 27 February 2019 Implementation date 1 September 2019


Stem cells that made up of embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells are well known for their ability to self renew and differentiate into matured cells. Adult stem cells isolated from peripheral blood system were used as the study sample. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between size and proliferation potential of stem cells from 3 different culturing terms, i.e., short (7 days), medium (14 days), and long (30 days) terms. Density gradient centrifugation was applied in isolating mononucleated cells (MNCs) from peripheral blood sample. Isolated MNCs were washed with Hank's Balanced
Salt Solution and Phosphate Buffer Saline. The MNCs which cultured in complete media were then subjected to proliferation
analysis every day for a time period of 30 days. RT-PCR analyses and cell size measurements were carried out at day 7, 14,
and 30. Activation of KIT and SLAMF1 marker genes during RT-PCR analyses indicated that the isolated MNCs were stem
cells. Analyses of proliferation rate and cell size showed that short term stem cells have the largest cell size with the lowest proliferation potential. While, medium term stem cells gave rise to a smaller stem cell population with higher proliferation potential compared to short term stem cells. Long term stem cells have smallest cell size with highest proliferation potential. In conclusion, each culturing term cell population had their own sizes and can be isolated based on those sizes.


An electric hand held impulse wrench comprises a housing (10), a motor (12) with a rotor (18) and a stator (17), an pulse unit (13) and an output shaft (14), wherein the output shaft (14) together with pulse unit (13) and the rotor (18) are axially displaceable relative to the housing (10) between a forward rest position and a rear active position, and a spring (23) is employed to exert a bias force onto the pulse unit (13) in the forward direction towards the rest position. A manual application of a forward directed push force on the housing (10) to obtain engagement with a threaded fastener to be tightened the pulse unit (13) including the output shaft (14) and the motor rotor (18) are displaced rearwards in the housing (10), wherein a sensor (28) is arranged to be activated to generate a signal to initiate power supply to the motor (12) via a power control unit (32).; The sensor (28) may be located either at the rear of the housing (10) to cooperate with the rotor (18) or at a forward position to cooperate with the pulse unit (13).


Purpose: Curriculum development in Indonesia has become a polemic with the existence of the Kurikulum Merdeka, which discusses learning outcomes that should be one of the answers to overcome learning objectives that have not been achieved in the previous curriculum. This article seeks to provide an overview of learning outcomes, especially in music subjects in the Kurikulum Merdeka, as a form of independent learning in schools, which is expected to be an understanding that educators can internalize about the importance of learning outcomes in music subjects. Method: The literature study is used in this research by collecting data through online media, articles, and books related to music learning outcomes in the Merdeka Curriculum in schools. Result and Discussion: This research describes the learning outcomes of music as a form of independent learning. The discussion reviewed includes learning outcomes, objectives, and characteristics of music learning in the Merdeka Curriculum. Music teaching in the Merdeka Curriculum is divided into phases A to F, and there are five elements included in music learning, including experiencing, reflecting, thinking and working artistically, creating, and impacting students and others. Music art subjects aim for students to be able to express, be sensitive, develop a sense of musicality, and be aware of their musicality.


In ferronematics, a uniform field, acting on magnetically hard ferroparticles, causes the particles to rotate. This change in orientation, owing to the collective behavior of the system, is transferred to the entire volume of the liquid crystal. This paper shows how a change in concentration in a uniform magnetic field leads to a change in stratification--an effect specific to ferronematics--and gives rise to conditions when a heavy impurity (ferroparticle) rises and is held stable above a layer of liquid with a lower density. Concentration profiles and orientational distributions formed in a twist cell under the simultaneous action of gravitational and segregational effects are studied and curves of equilibrium magnetization are constructed.


Objective To explore the expression level of Treg and transforming growth factor β1(TGF-β1) in the peripheral blood of patients with chronic hepatitis B virus(CHB) infection and its clinical significance.Methods 105 patients with CHB were selected,and they were divided into three groups according to the state of illness.26 healthy people were selected as control group.Treg,TGF-β1 and the level of HBV-DNA in serum were detected by flow cytometry,ELISA and PCR respectively.Results The levels of Treg and TGF-β1 in CHB group were significantly higher than that of control group.The level of Treg was positively correlated with the level of TGF-β1.Conclusion The expression levels of Treg and TGF-β1 both increase in CHB patients,which indicates that Treg and TGF-β1 plays an important role in immunoregulation in CHB patients as well as in preventing specific cell immune response.It may be related to the chronic turn and the occurrence and development of hepatic disease.


Exercise training improves cardiometabolic outcomes in 'mean terms', but little information is available in children about the impact of the frequency/week and the wide inter‐individual variability to exercise training reported in adults.


On August 20, 2013, Narendra Dabholkar was shot by two motorcycles riders while
out for a morning walk in the city of Pune in western India. Dabholkar was
the founder of Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samithi (ANS), ....


The aim of the research is a creation of the prototype of woven structure for personal textile protection against occupational exposition to electromagnetic radiation (EMR). Devices produced by humans might be a source of an artificial EMR that has a harmful influence on the humans health and life. So far, protective personal solutions protect only against electrical component of the electromagnetic field. Our work aims at shielding both components, electrical and magnetical, by creation a structure with a hybrid electroconductive weft with the solenoid - like structure that has a ferromagnetic core. This research work was funded by Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, grant no O N508 004234.


Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an imaging modality adequate for in vivo studies. Therefore, many scientists are interested in the development of MRI probes capable of detecting enzyme activiti...


The present document develops a seismic and volcanic monitoring network with VSAT transmission for the National Geophysical Institute from Ecuador. The main target was to create real time telemetry for those sites that are located in remote places and where the IG has planned to install monitoring equipment. At the beginning, advantages and disadvantages of working with C and Ku band were analyzed. The same procedure was done for the modulation techniques and the satellite access methods. The location for the VSAT nodes was chosen during some meetings that were hold between seismologists and volcanologists; the traffic measurements were done at the IG lab using monitoring equipments, detecting the throughput and data rates for each part...


Hereditary thrombophylic mutations are seen in 10% of the general population and many cases are diagnosed as a result of complications that occur during pregnancy. Of these, Protein S deficiency is a rare hereditary trombophilia with severe thrombogenic features. Pregnancies accompanying protein S deficiency often result in loss of fetus. In this paper, we present the case of a protein S deficiency patient who eventually had a live birth despite the cerebral sinus thrombosis in the 30th week of her pregnancy and discuss the case with references to the relevant literature. Key words: Protein S Deficiency; Hereditary Thrombophilia; Cerebral Sinus Trombosis; Pregnancy.


The present invention provides a method for preparing 3-hydroxybutyric acid and its salts with halophilic bacteria belonging to the genus Halomonas, to decompose the PHB accumulated in fungus body, high 3-hydroxybutyric acid in the culture broth secretion was produced efficiently, and an object thereof is to derive the means for recovering 3-hydroxybutyric acid from the culture. Characterized by culturing the halophilic bacteria belonging to the genus Halomonas under specific conditions, 3-hydroxybutyric acid or a salt thereof.


To the Editor:— The "sweeping new" Army-Navy program, proposed to go into effect this June, deserves some comment at this time. The program includes fifteen months of "premedical" education and three years of concentrated formal medical education followed by a year of internship. The practice of medicine is still both an art and a science. The country doctor, of whom the whole profession is proud, practiced more of the art than the science. But, to practice the art of medicine requires two essentials: culture and maturity. Today is an age of dehydration and compression, but neither culture nor maturity can be compressed. As far as the science is concerned there are many men, not of the production line species, who are still learning after years of faithful application. The scientific method demands background, experience and attention to detail. I am not so far removed from my school days to remember


I discuss the construction of the effective action for QCD suitable for the description of high-energy and small momentum transfer diffractive processes.


The definition and existence of multi-output generalized partially Bent functions are discussed,then the criterion of multi-output generalized partially Bent functions is presented,and the relationship between multi-output p-valued generalized partially Bent functions and multi-output p-valued generalized Bent functions is obtained,which includes the generalized Chrestenson spectrum expression and function expression,meanwhile a method of constructing multi-output p-valued generalized partially Bent functions is provided.


This paper investigates lossless coding of wideband speech by adding a lossless enhancement layer to the lossy baselayer produced by a standardised wideband speech coder. Both the ITU-T G.722 and G.722.2 speech coders are examined. Entropy results show that potential compression rates are dependent on the type and bit rate of the baselayer coder as well as the symbol size used by the lossless coder. Higher compression rates were obtained by adding a decorrelation stage prior to lossless encoding. The resulting lossless speech coder operates at a bit rate that is approximately 58% of the bit rate of original digitised wideband speech signal.


A one pot four-component reaction of 9,10-phenanthraquinone, aromatic aldehyde, aniline, and ammonium acetate was designed for the preparation of tetrasubstituted imidazoles (phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole) derivatives in the presence of SBA-Pr-SO3H as a mesoporous solid acid catalyst. Phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole derivatives were produced by the use of this technique in short reaction times and good to high yields. SBA-15 (Santa Barbara Amorphous), as a hexagonal mesoporous silica with 6 nm pore diameter, was synthesized and then its internal surface was modified with (3-mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane following an oxidation process to gain SBA-Pr-SO3H. The latter was then characterized; SEM image showed uniform particles about 700-900 nm and TEM image demonstrated the presence of parallel channels, which resemble the pores configuration of SBA-15. Additionally, the weight reduction in TGA curve in the temperature range of 200-600 °C (about 20% mass loss) established that the anchored propyl sulfonic acid groups onto the SBA-15 pores is about 1.2 mmol/g. This data was also confirmed by back-titration of SBA-Pr-SO3H with standardized NaOH and HCl solutions.


Mixed-member electoral systems became a popular choice for "electoral engineers" in the 1990s. Countries as diverse as Venezuela, Hungary, Lesotho, and Italy adopted the system. The assumption was that introducing singlemember districts (SMDs) in countries that used list proportional representation electoral systems would introduce "constituency" oriented legislators who could be more easily held accountable to voters. This paper explores any changes associated with the adoption of a mixed-member electoral system in Bolivia. It does so through a candidate-level analysis looking at differences in candidate profiles between two elections (1993 and 1997) and between two tiers (list and nominal) in the post-reform election (1997). The paper relies on portion of a dataset (collected by the author) of Bolivian legislative candidate characteristics. The paper hypothesizes that parties should nominate candidates with strong local attachments and/or track records of addressing or delivering public goods (or "pork") to local constituencies. Paper prepared for delivery at the 2014 International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, Chicago, May 21-24. Available for download at: http://works.bepress.com/mcentellas/22/


Despite technical advances, transabdominal ultrasound imaging of the female reproductive organs was limited by attenuation of the sound beam by tissues of the anterior abdominal wall, distended urinary bladder precluding use of high-frequency transducters (≥5 MHz), and the inability to correlate areas of visible pathology with direct palpation. However, each of these limitations can now be overcome by using a specially designed transducer placed directly into the patient's vagina. This is a review of the technical aspects of vaginal sonography and, where applicable, a discussion of the variations in technique due to different transducer designs


Department of Industrial and Management Engineering, POSTECHA gait diagnosis supporting system is necessary to evaluate the characteristics of abnormal gait of a patient in a systematic and efficient manner. The present study developed a gait diagnosis supporting system which compares abnormal gait of a patient with a reference gait data and presents abnormal gait characteristics in an organized form. Three types of diagnosis modules were developed for the spatio-temporal, kinematic and kinetic gait parameters, and a gait data for Korean normal adults was used for the reference data of the system. The system was applied to evaluate the gait pattern of three arthritis patients and the abnormal gait characteristics of them could be easily identified with a systematic and graphical presentation.Keywords: Abnormal Gait, Gait Diagnosis Support System, Korean Reference Gait Data


One image processing application is to reconstruct the original scene from the low quality images. Considering the idea histogram distribution can reflect good vision effect. So many histogram analyzing based methods have been studied recently. However, some methods require users to set some parameters or condition, and cannot get the optimal results automatically. To overcome those short come, this paper presents an Adaptive Histogram Separation and Mapping (AHSM) method for Backlight image enhancement. First, we separate the histogram by binary tree structure with the proposed Adaptive Histogram Separation Unit (AHSU). And then mapping the Low Dynamic Range (LDR) histogram partition into High Dynamic Range (HDR). By doing this, the excessive or scarcity enhancement can be avoid. The experimental results show that the proposed method can gives better enhancement results, also compared with some histogram analyzing based methods and get better results.


This paper describes the concept and implementation of a mobile information system, which is used in a university environment and based on the "mobile tagging" technology, and presents the findings from an evaluation. Dieses Werk bzw. Inhalt steht unter folgender Creative Commons Lizenz: Namensnennung-NichtKommerziell-KeineBearbeitung 3.0 Deutschland http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/de/


User-centered design of products help to identify with the objectives of end-users ensuring the products' effectiveness. When a user-centered bilingual website prototype was developed for Directorate of Extension, Kerala Agricultural University, the information needs of the primary users, viz., farmers, agricultural scientists and agricultural extension officers were identified and the Information Need Indices (INI) were compared. Analysis of the data showed that the differences in information needs were significant for the main contents of 'Schemes and Projects', 'Crop Information', 'Weather', 'Promising agri-enterprises' and 'Links to social network media'. Altogether, it was observed that farmers were more interested in farming related news like market price, weather, crop information and communication whereas the KAU scientists were more interested in the basic information and technologies from KAU. However, the extension officers have realised the prospects of utilising social media for information dissemination better than the scientists. The findings of this study would be helpful in developing any agriculture related extension websites.


A method sequentially obtains observation data with respect to a plurality of samples for a test subject and obtains content of a target component contained in each of the plurality of samples. The method subsequently estimates a plurality of independent components, which are separated from the observation data with respect to each of the samples, and calculates a mixing coefficient corresponding to the target component with respect to each of the samples, based on the estimated plurality of independent components. The method then determines a regression equation of a calibration curve, based on the obtained contents of the target component contained in the plurality of samples and the mixing coefficients of the respective samples.


In order to improve the high-temperature oxidation resistance of the hydrogen-resistant steel, Al coatings were firstly deposited on the hydrogen-resistant steel by arc-ion plating and then the thermal diffusion treatment was used to produce the Al-based composite coatings on the hydrogen-resistant steel. The effect of thermal diffusion parameters on the structure of Al-based composite coatings was studied. The crystal structure, composition and morphology of Al-based composite coatings were analyzed by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results showed that the double inner diffusion layer was formed on Al coatings treated at 700[Formula: see text]C. And the single inner diffusion layer with uniform composition distribution could be formed on Al coatings treated at 950[Formula: see text]C. The Al-based composite coating prepared by thermal diffusion treatment at 950[Formula: see text]C had a dense and thick [Formula: see text]-Al2O3 surface layer, and it exhibited good high-temperature oxidation resistance.


The Symnose semiautomated assessment of outcome of the appearance of the repaired cleft lip and nose was developed to measure asymmetry. Symnose 2 has been further developed to include quantification of the extent of scar color, intensity, and contour and midline dehiscence, underexpressed in the measurement of asymmetry.


Free space laser communication with laser as information carrier is a communication method which does not need any wired channel. For its characteristics of high-speed, low power loss, good flexibility and so on, free space laser communication has large potential in satellite communication, broadband access and martial communication. Its key technique is analyzed. The current situation of Europe and US is introduced and the development trend is indicated.


The delayed accelerated protection is too conservative during single-reclosing,while too rash during three-phase-reclosing in power swing,especially for the distance relaying.By analyzing this problem,a new delayed accelerated protection solution is proposed.In the new solution,considered the synchronization examination of three phase recloser,the lowest phase-to-phase voltage can be detected soon after reclosing.This voltage can be used to prevent the malfunction caused by heavy load current.In the mean time,the malfunction of protection caused by the oscillation of the power system during the broadening time of post-accelerating protection can also be prevented by checking whether the zero-sequence or negative-sequence current is heavier than the maximal unbalanced output current when the circuitry works well.The single-phase reclosing can also be closed by detecting the asymmetric open condition when the power system is oscillating.This scheme is proved to be valid by ATP simulation test and the analysis on dynamic analogue data.


The vocalizations of Hypsiboas ericae (Caramaschi & Cruz, 2000) are described and new information on the external morphology and osteology of the species are presented. H. ericae presents a bony spine in the prepolex and the individuals can present green or brown dorsal color, as other species of the Hypsiboas pulchellus (Dumeril & Bibron, 1841) species group. The vocalizations of H. ericae are similar to the vocalizations of Hypsiboas bischoffi (Boulenger, 1887), Hypsiboas guentheri (Boulenger, 1886), and other species in the H. polytaenius (Cope, 1870 "1869") clade of the H. pulchellus species group, but some osteological aspects are different to those found in the majority of the species of this group.


Abstract In this paper we studied the intensification of the water clarification process on contact clarifiers with quartz sand filtering bed, which was modified with a solution of aluminum sulphate coagulant. The modification of the quartz sand filtering bed was carried out by applying to the surface of grains of quartz sand solution of coagulant aluminum sulphate with different doses. Investigation of the electrokinetic potential of the filtering material (quartz sand) was carried out by the percolation potential method. The influence of electrical properties (size and sign of the charge) of the filtering bed itself and suspended solids in the water on the filtration process was studied. The filter material – quartz sand used in contact clarifiers has a negative electric charge. When the electric charge of the particles decreases, that is, as the ζ-potential decreases, the repulsive forces decrease and it the adhesion of particles becomes possible. This is the process of coagulation of the colloid. The forces of mutual gravity between the colloidal particles begin to predominate over the electric repulsive forces at the ζ-potential of the system less than 0.03 V. Modification of quarts filtering bed with a solution of coagulant aluminum sulphate recommended for the purification of surface water allows: to intensify the process of water clarification, to reduce the consumption of reagents by 25–30%, with the obtaining purified water of the required quality, to reduce the production areas necessary for reagent management of treatment facilities, and to reduce the cost of water treatment by 20–25%.


For the last 50 years, fluorescein angiography (FA) has played a pivotal role in the evaluation and management of retinal diseases including diabetes. Patterns of hyperfluorescence and hypofluorescence provide insights into the pathophysiologic processes and guide treatment. Despite recent advances in other imaging techniques, including indocyanine green angiography and optical coherence tomography, FA still plays a primary role. FA remains a vital method to assess indications and outcomes of treatment methods including laser photocoagulation, intraocular pharmacologic therapy such as steroid and antivascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) agents, and surgical intervention. The ability to capture a single image of the entire ocular fundus has been limited until recently. Standard FA using film or digital cameras typically capture an image 30 degrees across. A new fluorescein imaging technique that captures fundus images up to 200 degrees in breadth is discussed herein. Optomap fa dynamic ultrawide field angiography is a digital panoramic technique performed with the Optos P200 MA scanning laser ophthalmoscope (Optos plc, Dunfermline, UK). The ability to image the peripheral retina using Optomap fa provides a more comprehensive assessment of the extent of a retinal disease process, and


Somewhat idiosyncratically the Spanish system of industrial relations, after the transition to democracy in the 1970s, began to develop a series of features that, while not quite at the level of organisation of the Nordic countries, did provide a stable framework for negotiations and mediation processes. Collective bargaining coverage has been high in relative terms even if trade union membership has been fairly low (see Table 27.1). Before the fi nancial and economic crisis of 2008, Spain had experienced a long period of economic growth and the development of an intense process of social dialogue backed by state institutions. The extent of social dialogue, while not fully institutionalised, was signifi cantly developed in some areas and there were robust informal relations between the leaderships of the main social partners. Although the implementation of social dialogue was not without its problems and tensions, it helped to expand the coverage of collective bargaining to the extent that during the 2000s it was among the highest in Europe, in terms of number of workers covered (Fernández Rodríguez et al. 2016a).


Corynebacterium bovis, the causative agent of bovine mastitis, has rarely been described as a human pathogen since its description. We report a rare case of line related septicemia due to Corynebacterium bovis.


This paper presents shaking table test observations of a complete spectrum of major column failure modes, i.e., shear, flexure-shear and flexure failures under moderate axial load. A comparison of test results and existing assessment models, including ASEC/SEI 41-06 Update and Zhu et al. probabilistic model, shows that satisfactory strength predictions and successful identification of column failure modes have been achieved in ASCE/SEI 41-06 Update, which also provides reasonable estimates of load-deformation relations and is useful for identifying older concrete buildings that are at high risk of structural collapse in severe seismic events. The 16-percentile backbone curve produced by Zhu et al. probabilistic model roughly coincides with the ASCE/SEI 41-06 Update prediction; thus, the ASCE/SEI 41-06 updated provisions appropriately yield a good match with test data while preserving a moderate degree of conservatism.


The German diaries written by T. A. Seeman, the steward (Germ. Hofmeister) of the (Sweerts-)
Sporcks, in 1730–1747 contain a wealth of meteorological observations. Although it was not the author's main area of interest and the data are not recorded on a daily basis, they represent a new and valuable contribution to the documentation of the climate and its extremes in Bohemia of the pre-instrumental period of
the first half of the 18th century. The diaries also contain a number of records of fl oods, of which the deluge of the late February 1732 reached a Central European scale. These records also enable us to evaluate winters: severe winters with plenty of snow were the winters of 1730/31 and 1731/32. On the other hand, the first
months of 1735 and 1737 were relatively mild, and so was likely the winter of 1746/47.


This study examines violence and its relation to learning outcomes of secondary school students in Cameroon. The study interconnected with educational quality values of accessibility, inclusiveness, favorable learning climate, tolerance, and responsible behavior. The government of Cameroon has attempted to uphold these values through legislation. In spite of this position, violence at school is still observable on a daily basis, not respecting the human rights of children and young learners and hindering them from learning. The study was to understand the effects of violence on their motivation and self-esteem, and its influence on their learning outcomes and the research question focused on the extent of violence in education. A model was operationalized measuring physical violence, psychological violence, structural violence and sexual violence at school and at home, mediated by self-esteem, motivation and health to the learning outcome, quantified by class repetition, grades and reading enjoyment. The study was designed using a quantitative approach with cross-sectional survey for students. Questionnaires were designed from approved scales which had been adopted to the Cameroonian background by two pretests. Data had been collected from a sample population of 924 students in grades four to seven in Cameroon. The data collection was approved by the regional authorities. The collected data was transformed by controlling the social background and reflecting different types of experiences of violence. The collected information was analyzed using descriptive statistics (means, standards deviation), and inferential statistics (ANOVA). The results indicate an acute prevalence of school violence. Students in Cameroon are affected by four ways of violence. About 20 % of students feel physical violence and psychological violence. More than half of the students' experiences structural violence and about 23 % have experiences of sexual violence. As a zero-policy on experienced violence is the wished standard, the huge ratio of violence in the life of students in Cameroon becomes visible. The study shows that these experiences of violence affect the self-esteem and the motivation to learn. However, a significant relation between different forms of violence and school grades was not found in this study. In addition, the study shows the poor school quality, and a very discouraging socioeconomic background of students. In the perspective paradigm, the schools are neither an environment of the protection of students nor open spaces for real-world transmission of values. Violence remains a challenge. This requires coordinated and focused action. The study develops a number of suggestions for school practice to overcome this situation and suggests follow-up studies.


MicroRNAs modulate male fertility by regulating gene expression. In this study, dynamics of sperm miR‐15a, miR‐29b and miR‐34a from high fertility (HF) and low fertility (LF) bulls using RT‐qPCR were evaluated. Bioinformatic tools were employed to ascertain genes of interest of the sperm miRNAs. The expression levels of p53, BCL2, BAX and DNMT1 in bull spermatozoa were determined by immunoblotting. MicroRNA levels of miR‐15a and miR‐29 were higher in LF sires when compared with those present in HF bulls. Expression levels of miR‐34a did not differ between the two groups. We found an inverse correlation between miR‐15a and bull fertility. MiR29‐b was also negatively associated with fertility scores. BCL2 and DNMT1 were higher in HF bulls while BAX was higher in the LF group. Our data showed a positive correlation between BCL2 and bull fertility. In addition, DNMT1 was positively associated with bull fertility. Furthermore, levels of BAX were negatively linked with bull fertility scores. Identification of miRNAs found in the spermatozoa of sires with different in vivo fertility helps understand the alterations in the fertilising capacity from cattle and other mammals. These potential biomarkers can be used in reproductive biotechnology as fertility markers to assess semen quality and predict male fertility.


Several reviews have been written on the various methods for the measurement of aldehydes in the environment [8,11,21]. These methods may be classified into two groups namely direct and indirect methods. Direct methods analyse the aldehydes during collection and therefore show great potential as the risk of sample contamination is greatly reduced. However, the cost and complexity of the instrumentation, as well as the properties of aldehydes make these methods, on the whole, unsuitable. Indirect methods, on the other hand, utilise these properties to improve ease of detection. Indirect methods analyse the aldehydes after they have been collected by some means. A brief summary of these methods that have been developed follows.


Abstract Women in India were placed in oblivion right from the ancient times. The long episode of anguish and misery of the women met with optimism only in the 19th century, when the whole of Bengal was bathed in the spirit of Renaissance, which of course helped the women- folk to come to limelight for the first time. After Independence, some space was made for the women folk in a constitutional way. The 73rd Amendment made a revolutionary gateway open for women by reservation of 1/3 seats in the political platform. Though, in the urban areas women are slowly able to make their position firm both socially and economically, in the rural areas women are still living in a world of ignorance, superstition and obscurity. The forest- fringe people, who mainly formed the backbone of the rural community, thus naturally belonged to the backward category. The JFM regulations were formed in 1988 and one of the greatest strengths of the JFM model was the inclusion of women in the administrative set- up. But unfortunately, women were deprived of their rightful status and they still remained in their secluded den for a long time due to numerous hurdles. The present paper unfolds the problems and disdains of the women- folk in a rural set- up. At the same time, the paper uncovers an empirical study which tells the tale of gender upsurge in a JFM scenario through series of technological experiments, trainings and through courses of sensitization.


Characteristics of low-temperature relaxation of Fe-17Mn-5Si-10Cr-5Ni alloy have been studied by means of XRD, TEM and measurement of recovery stress. Results show that the low-temperature relaxation in the alloy was so serious that the relaxation ratio for recovery stress reached to 57.17% after cooling from room temperature to -60℃. There were moreeand α'martensites in the alloy after low-temperature relaxation, and theseeand α' martensites were mainly produced by recovery stress. With increase of phase transformation driving force by decreasing temperature, the stress-induced eand α' martensitic transformations will occur under the recovery stress in Fe-Mn-Si based alloy, which is the essential causes for low-temperature relaxation. The more serious relaxation is in accordance with the more amount of the stress inducedeandα'martensites.


To overcome limitations of purely spectral speech features we previously introduced Hierarchical Spectro-Temporal (H IST) features. We could show that a combination of H IST and standard features does reduce recognition errors in clean and in noise. The HIST features consist of two hierarchical layers where the corresponding filter functions are learned in a data driven way. In this paper we investigate how different learning methodologies applied to the learning of the filters on the second layer influence the performance. We compare Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF), Non-negative Sparse Coding (NSC), and Weight Coding (WC) on a noisy digit recognition task. NMF and NSC are unsupervised learning algorithms whereas WC also includes class specific information in the learning process. Additionally we investigate how a mismatch between the database used for learning the features and the one employed for training and testing the recognition system influences the performance.


An inverse problem for simultaneous determination of the emissivity and reflectivity of a layer of small thermal conductivity on the base of data obtained by measuring surface temperature and energy flux flowing out the layer through its surface has been considered.


These data are the data for spring body composition and energy content for adult female brown bears from Gates of the Arctic, Lake Clark, Kodiak, and Katmai, Alaska, 2014-2017.


Malaysia is one of the fastest developing nations in Southeast Asia. This is attributed to the leadership of former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, under whose leadership Malaysia experienced its most radical readjustment post-independence in 1957 (Hamayotsu 2002). His vision of Malaysia as a modem Islamic state has been achieved by: implementing reforms that have given the indigenous majority Malays (Bumiputra) political power; a vigorous policy of government investment; and importantly, the integration of Islamic principles into everyday life, a feature of which is the harmonious relationship between the Bumiputra Muslim majority and other ethnic groups. As the country moves towards achieving developed nation status, Malaysia, like all nations, must deal with the forces of globalisation and the challenges it brings. To be successful on the world stage demands an efficient, educated workforce• and, by implication, efficient and educated management.


Based on the characteristic of open type power network,the least operation expense function of reactive compensation mode is constituted by restricted fund.The formula for calculating the optimal restricted reactive power compensation is deduced.In comparison to the equations which based on equal network loss increase ratio law,the resolving difficulty of formula is decreased.The rationality and effect are proved by example.


This paper describes the process of water and air filtering in a deformed soil. Soil is a three-phase medium consisting of water (i = 1), air (i = 2), and a solid deformable porous medium (i = 3). The mathematical model is presented by the equation of the conservation of mass and momentum of the porous medium at saturation with water and air. The equation of motion and the law of deformation of the porous matrix take into account the effect of capillary forces. The problem is formulated, and the modification of the system of equations is carried out. As a result of the modification, the law of conservation of momentum for water and air is written as Darcy''s law, the law of conservation of momentum for a solid matrix is formulated with consideration of Terzaghi''s principle, the generalized Hooke''s law, and the effect of capillary forces. The solution to the problem of motion of air and water in a deformed medium in the form of a traveling wave is investigated. The equations for saturation and porosity are derived. This model can be used to calculate critical values of saturations, wherein on the free surface under the action of capillary forces tension cracks arise. This is the effect of the surface soil degradation during drought.


A bottle cap having an additive storage space is provided to mix the additives with liquor easily by only applying power to a compression unit, and to secure good sealability by forming an outflow preventing unit. The bottle cap(100) having an additive storage space is composed of: a cover(10) having a combining sill(12) formed at the lower side and a compression unit(11) protruded upward; a protruded unit(20) comprising a removing pin(21) projected toward the inner center of the compression unit and a protruded pin(22) formed at the lower side of the removing pin; and an outflow preventing unit(30) formed in the cover. The outflow preventing unit comprises: a preventing film(31) formed at the lower side of the protruded unit; a support film(32) formed at the lower side of the protruded pin; a protective film(33) disposed at the upper side of the support film and separated from the support film in the predetermined distance; and a storing unit(34) formed correspondently to the separated distance between the support film and the protective film.


The textile industry is the traditional competitive industries and leading industry in Shaoxing,accounting for Shaoxing economy "half".Based in the perspective of advanced manufacturing base and through a large number of empirical analysis of the questionnaire,we find that innovative environment,talent pool and other factors are the key factors affecting the transformation and upgrading of Shaoxing textile industry,and make the relevant strategic measures.


Leukotriene B4(LTB4) is a potent lipid mediator involved in host defense and inflammatory responses. It causes chemotaxis, generation of reactive oxygen species, and degranulation. However, only little is known of the molecular mechanisms by which LTB4 induces these biological activities. To analyze the intracellular signaling pathways to mediate lysosomal enzyme release through the cloned LTB4 receptor (BLT1), we transfected BLT1 to rat basophilic leukemia cells (RBL-2H3). LTB4 dose-dependently released β-hexosaminidase, and the release was mostly inhibited when the cells were pretreated with pertussis toxin, indicating that the degranulation is mediated by Gi proteins. LTB4activated phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-K) through Gi, and inhibition of PI3-K by wortmannin or LY290042 inhibited degranulation. Granulocytes from PI3-Kγ-deficient mice showed reduced LTB4-induced degranulation, suggesting that this isozyme of PI3-K is involved in the degranulation. LTB4 also caused calcium release from intracellular stores and calcium influx from the outside milieu through Gi, but only the calcium influx is critical for the lysosomal enzyme release. Calcium influx and PI3-K activation are both downstream events of Gi, since they were inhibited by pertussis toxin. These two events are in essence independent each other, because calcium depletion did not affect PI3-K, and inhibition of PI3-K did not attenuate calcium influx significantly. Thus, our results have clearly shown that LTB4 binds BLT1 and activates Gi-like protein, and both PI3-Kγ activation and a sustained calcium elevation by calcium influx are necessary for enzyme release in these cells.


Brown blotch disease caused by Pseudomonas tolaasii is an important mushroom disease. It can cause serious yield and quality loss. Early detection and monitoring of the pathogen is crucial step for disease control. A real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR by using specificity prime(rPt-1A)(/Pt-1D1) and enrichment method was developed to detect the bacterial pathogens of P. tolaasii. The method was uesd to analyze the bacterial population dynamic change of P. tolaasii on the Pleurotus ostreatus sporocarp surface. Our results showed that the detection range of this was from 10 2 to 10 9 cfu · mL -1 ,and the sensitivity with enrichment step can reach about 100-fold higher than that without enrichment step. We conclude that the real-time quantitative PCR with the enrichment method can be used to detect P. tolaasii at the early stage of infection,and can provide technical support for the mushroom bacterial epidemic surveillance and early prevention of the disease.


CASE PRESENTATION A 32-month-old boy presented with a 3-day history of fever and sore throat. The day before he had been diagnosed with acute pharyngitis. Amoxicillin and clavulanic acid were prescribed. No relevant personal or family history was noted. On physical examination, the patient was irritable, with labial erythema and dryness, oedema and erythema of the hands and feet, bilateral conjunctivitis without secretions, generalized maculopapular exanthema and bilateral cervical lymphadenopathy (no nodes larger than 1 cm). There was redness of the posterior pharynx, but no sign of ulcers, petechiae or exudate. No other abnormalities were found on general examination. A blood test showed mild leukopenia (4900/mm3) with a left shift (51% segmented, 28% bands, 12% lymphocytes), a small increase in the levels of transaminases (alanine transaminase, 106 IU/L; aspartate aminotransferase, 77 IU/L), and an elevation of acute-phase reactants (erythrocyte sedimentation rate, 37 mm/h; C-reactive protein, 199.7 mg/L); there was no evidence of anaemia or thrombocytosis. The rapid antigen detection test (RADT) for group A streptococci was negative. C3 complement levels and antistreptolysin O (ASO) titres were within normal ranges. Urinalysis and chest X-ray also showed no abnormalities. In the following hours, there was a progressive worsening of the patient's condition, with continued irritability and persistent fever. A lumbar puncture was carried out, which showed signs of aseptic meningitis (leukocytes, 193/mm3 [85% lymphocytes, 10% neutrophils]; glucose, 56 mg/dL; proteins, 63 mg/dL). Cerebrospinal fluid culture was negative. A first dose of intravenous gamma-globulin (IVGG; 2 g/kg) was given, along with acetylsalicylic acid (80 mg/kg/day). Over the subsequent days, the patient remained febrile, with progressive dyspnoea, hypotension, oliguria and abdominal distension with hepatomegaly (2 cm below the costal margin). Due to the presence of clinical signs of heart failure and the suspicion of severe hyperpermeability, the patient was transferred to the paediatric intensive care unit. A blood test showed the presence of anaemia (haemoglobin, 7.1 g/dL) with mild thrombocytosis (475 000/mm3), metabolic acidosis (pH 7.27; HCO3, 13 mEq/L, pCO2, 27 mmHg), hypoalbuminaemia (21 g/L) and moderate elevation of urea (85 mg/dL) and creatinine (1.2 mg/dL) levels. The investigation was extended to include serological tests for measles, cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, rubella and toxoplasma and PCR for enterovirus. These tests were negative for acute infection. Blood and urine cultures were also negative. Funduscopic examination did not show any abnormality. Levels of creatine phosphokinase (CK), CK isoenzyme MB (CK-MB), and troponin-T (TnT) were all within normal limits. Abdominal ultrasound revealed acalculous hydrops of the gallbladder, but there were no signs of cholangitis. A chest X-ray showed bilateral interstitial infiltrates with mild cardiomegaly. An echocardiogram revealed moderate mitral valve failure, with normal ejection fraction (64%), without any signs of coronary aneurysm or pericardial effusion. The patient required intensive therapy with vasopressors, diuretics, albumin (three doses), blood transfusions and a second dose of IVGG. There was a clinical improvement, with remission of the fever at 24 h after the second dose of IVGG, and progressive reduction in the anasarca and the hydrops of the gallbladder. At 2 weeks from the onset of symptoms, peeling of the skin on the fingers was observed. A year later, the patient was asymptomatic with regular echocardiograms showing no coronary lesions.