Bruhns, Marc Daeron and Antonio A. FreitasEhrenstein, William G. Kerr, Jean-Herve Colle, PierreDuncker, Tahia Fernandez, Emmanuelle Gaudin, Michael Caroline Montaudouin, Marie Anson, Yi Hao, Susanne V.http://www.jimmunol.org/content/190/1/106doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1200907December 2012;J Immunol€2013; 190:106-114; Prepublished online 3MaterialSupplementary7.DC1.htmlhttp://www.jimmunol.org/content/suppl/2012/12/03/jimmunol.120090Referenceshttp://www.jimmunol.org/content/190/1/106.full#ref-list-1This article cites 46 articles, 17 of which you can access for free at: Subscriptionshttp://jimmunol.org/subscriptionsInformation about subscribing to The Journal of Immunology is online at: Permissionshttp://www.aai.org/ji/copyright.htmlSubmit copyright permission requests at: Email Alertshttp://jimmunol.org/cgi/alerts/etocReceive free email-alerts when new articles cite this article. Sign up at:


T editors' page allows us from time to time to wax philosophical. This is my next-to-last opportunity, as coeditor, to reflect on times past and look into the future. A discussion of issues relating to career structure and development seems particularly relevant in today's world, where options in surgery in general, much less academic surgery, seem somewhat limited. Indeed, in the United States, the Cassandras are crying that there is no future in the surgical specialties, with managed care, or the insurance companies, and government regulations driving the agenda. Thus, time is increasingly devoted to patient care, paperwork and administrative restrictions, and the flexibility to practise as a liberal profession is increasingly limited in the entrepreneurial land of opportunity. In Canada, there is similarly little time for thought much less research as economic pressures, support systems and hospital funding are all going through major changes. Research has always been hard to do ,but funding is increasingly difficult, and the marriage between a clinical life and a research mission are difficult to integrate. Time pressures are extraordinary and, indeed, clinical work is simply easier, something for which we are trained and something that is certainly more immediately rewarding, than the long road of administration, teaching or investigation. That being said, reflections of doom and gloom are not very useful unless they lead directly to potential solutions. It has always been my view, to the annoyance of my colleagues and the residents, that all physicians should read a few general medical journals and probably a general scientific journal. The reason for this is the need to know what is going on in the world around us, whether it is a scientific world, the evolution of medical care in other jurisdictions, the directions in which frontiers in clinical medicine are moving or just in general a sense of where other specialties within the medical profession are going. I have, therefore, made a habit of reviewing on a weekly basis the The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Canadian Medical Association Journal, and the first sections in Science. In a recent issue of Science, Daniel Koshland Jr. has written an essay entitled "The seven pillars of life," which caught my eye. I must say the "hook to read" was the image of "the temple of PICERAS" with 7 pillars having interesting drawings on each. Koshland states, "by Pillars, I mean the essential principles — thermodynamic and kinetic — by which a living system operates." Who could PICERAS be? The first of the 7 pillars is program: the plan for biological life represented most evidently by DNA. Next is improvisation, which is the need to change the program as circumstances require. These circumstances should give rise to long-term changes (e.g., climatic circumstances — levels of water and so on). The third is compartmentalization, where components of an organic or biologic system must compartmentalize in order to keep their function separate from each other. The creation of multiple cells was a form of compartmentalization, separate from a single-celled creature, and was folCoeditors Corédacteurs


This paper proposes a novel methodology for solving constrained optimization problems in a distributed way, inspired by population dynamics and adding dynamics to the population masses. The proposed methodology divides the problem into smaller problems, whose feasible regions vary over time achieving an agreement to solve the global problem. The methodology also guarantees attraction to the feasible region and allows to have few changes in the decision-making design, when the network suffers the addition or removal of nodes. Simulation results are presented in order to illustrate several cases.


The effects of solution treatment on electrochemical corrosion of 254 SMo stainless steel in 3.5 g/L Na Cl solution were studied by potentiodynamic scanning(PDS) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS). The microstructure of the steel after heat treatment was observed by OM to explore the relationship between microstructure and corrosion. The results show that with the increase of solid solution temperature, the precipitates dissolve in the grain, the grain becomes larger, and the number of twins increases; the corrosion rate increases firstly and decreases subsequently with the increase of aging temperature. The corrosion rate of the steel heat treatment at 1150 ℃ is fastest. Solution treatment at 1250 ℃can gain good corrosion resistance and homogeneous microstructure.


To explore deep mineral resources effectively,the technology of improving weak signals is an essential technology for seismic waves.Finite-difference method was used for the numerical simulation of wave propagation and response of detector for different sources.By contrast of sources directional character,single shot records and single-channel reflected waves,the results show that phased array sources can change energy direction of seismic field obviously and enhance the reflected weak signals from deep mineral resources.For different delay parameters,the ability of improving weak signals is also different.Suitable delay parameters can be chosen in accordance with needs.On the whole,phased array sources can effectively improve the quality of seismic data from deep mineral resources.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to decompose the concept of country of origin (COO) and test the influence of country of design (COD) and country of manufacture (COM) on consumer evaluations of bi‐national products (products designed in one country and manufactured in another). In addition to global country images, the paper aims to introduce the concept of "fit" or the logical connection between product categories and the COD or COM.Design/methodology/approach – Relationships between constructs (perceived product quality, COD image, COM image and perceived fits) are hypothesized and data are collected via survey on the Tunisian market. Each of the 389 respondents evaluated different combinations (COD/COM) for two product categories (automobiles and television sets). All hypotheses are tested using multiple regression analysis.Findings – The paper finds that the concept of fit between country image (both COD and COM) and product category is an important determinant of product evaluations. For produ...


Via a smart combination of temperature-responsive and acid labile acetal monomers, copolymers are obtained with a la carte lower critical solution temperature behavior. RAFT copolymerization of these monomers using, respectively, a PEG-functionalized or amine-reactive NHS-functionalized chain transfer agent allows designing of micelles and polymer–protein conjugates with transient solubility properties within a physiologically relevant window.


In this document, we describe two onset detection algorithms that have participated to the Mirex 2005 onset detection contest. The proposed algorithms, first classify frames of a spectrogram into onset or non-onset, using a feedforward neural network. From the classification of each frames, it extract the onset times, using a simple peak picking algorithm, based on a moving average.


This paper proposes a discrete choice duopoly in which products are described and differentiated by their specific attributes. These attributes can be discrete characteristics or differences in continuous variables, such as prices or qualities. Consumers follow a probabilistic reasoning which is consistent with random decision rule models such as Tversky's "Elimination By Aspects" framework (1972a,b). This type of behavior is relevant for small everyday life purchases. The demand system provides a general structure of product differentiation in which special cases are given by classical models of horizontal and vertical differentiation. Existence and uniqueness of a price Nash equilibrium in pure strategies are established in the duopoly. When attributes' utilities vary, comparative statics properties of profits can be explained by "attractiveness" and "differentiation" effects. These effects are combined in a new way compared to the deterministic structures or to the logit duopoly. For example, an increase in the low utility index of attributes strengthens product differentiation. jel classification : D11, D43, L13.


Objective: to identify the difference of the numerical values of parameters characterizing the geometric and mechanical (adhesive) properties of inorganic nanosized particles and nanosized particles of biological origin by atomic force microscopy using the mode of the mapping of surface features at nanosized resolution.Material and methods. Exosomes isolated from the blood of Af mice by the method of sequential ultracentrifugation were used as bionanoparticles. Silver nanoparticles were used as inorganic nanoparticles. The nanoparticles were scanned in air with the help of the BioScope Resolve (Bruker) atomic force microscope in the PeakForce QNM in Air mode with the recording of the maps of adhesion forces and imaging of the topography of the studied surfaces.Results. The silver nanoparticles and exosomes had similar but statistically different diameters (45.59 ± 1.04 nm and 41.25 ± 0.91 nm, р < 0.001 t-test). Nevertheless, the silver nanoparticles were characterized by higher values of both height and free surface area in comparison with the corresponding values of the exosome parameters. This leads to a higher value of the spreading ration for exosomes (the average ratio of diameter to height (d/h) was 11.78 for exosomes and 6.67 for nanoparticles (p < 0.001, Mann-Whitney U test) due to greater adhesion properties of the exosome membranes compared to the silver nanoparticles and a lower value of the ratio of the particle volume to its surface area. Averaged over the nanoscale areas of the nanoparticle surface, the adhesion forces of exosomes were higher (3.2 ± 0.57 nN) compared to those of silver nanoparticles (2.2 ± 0.03 nN, p < 0.05, Mann-Whitney U test).Conclusion. The differences in the parameters of the geometric (diameter, height, free surface area) and mechanical properties (adhesion forces) of the silver nanoparticles and exosomes have been revealed, which allows identifying and differentiating of these nanoparticles by the methods of atomic force microscopy during the study of complex biological fluids with possible content of both the types of nanoparticles.


Title:Convergence of the Leray α-Regularization Scheme for Discontinuous Solutions of the Inviscid Burger's Equation. Author: Yekaterina Sergeyevna Pavlova. Faculty Mentors: John Lowengrub, Edriss Titi. In this paper we explore the use of the Leray α-regularization applied to Burger's equation. In the regularization, an additional variable is introduced which is a smoothed version of the original variable and a vector system for the original and smoothed variable is solved simultaneously. We employ a hybrid algorithm combining a centered finite difference scheme for Burger's equation and a spectral method for the regularization. A parameter θ is introduced in order to conserve particular quantities associated with the solution of the regularized problem. For several values of θ, we compare the exact solutions to those of the regularized problem and investigate the dependence of the solutions on the regularization parameter α and on the mesh size. In particular, it is shown that under appropriate conditions and particular values of θ, the numerical Leray α-regularization scheme produces an approximate solution that appears to converge to the unique discontinuous (entropy) solution as the mesh size h → 0 provided that the regularization parameter α and h are related to each other in a precise way. Interestingly, our results suggest that it is only the smoothed variable which converges to the entropy solution. Key Terms: Burgers Equation, α-Regularization, Leray-α, Entropy Condition, Numerical Partial Differential Equations, Finite Difference Schemes.


THE PURPOSE IS TO PROVIDE THE BASIC INFORMATION NECESSARY FOR ESTIMATING DESIGN EQUIVALENT AXLE LOADS (EAL) FOR EACH LANE FOR MULTILANE FACILITIES. LANE DISTRIBUTION DATA WAS ANALYZED BY (1) DEVELOPING PLOTS OF LANE USAGE VERSUS TRAFFIC VOLUME. (2) USING MULTIPLE REGRESSION TECHNIQUES FOR SIMULATING GRAPHIC RELATIONSHIPS, AND (3) COMPUTING THE CORRESPONDING STATISTICAL ERRORS OF THE ABOVE RELATIONSHIPS. LANE DISTRIBUTION DATA IS USED IN ESTABLISHING TRAFFIC OPERATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. THE PRESENT METHOD-IN KENTUCKY- FOR PREDICTING DESIGN EAL'S ASSUMES THAT ALL EAL'S ARE ACCUMULATED IN THE OUTSIDE LANE. SINCE COMMERCIAL VEHICLES PROVIDE THE MAJOR EAL CONTRIBUTION, THE PRIMARY INTEREST FOR FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT DESIGN FOR MULTILANE HIGHWAYS CONCERN THE LATERAL DISTRIBUTION OF COMMERCIAL VEHICLES.


Abstract : The effect of finite chemical reaction rates on the chemical structure of hypersonic wakes is examined. The technique of incipient nonequilibrium coefficients, based on linearized chemical kinetics for a 7-component (O2, N2, O, N, NO, NO+, e-) 10-reaction model of high temperature air, is utilized in the analysis. The far wake is treated as an asymptotic region; the near wake theory considers the viscous mixing of the boundary layer flow with the inviscid and recirculating flows in the base region, and the subsequent development of this viscous core into the wake region downstream. A range of altitudes and flight speeds of practical interest is considered. The results show where non-equilibrium effects are important in the wake and whether they arise primarily from convective or diffusive effects. The species that are the principal contributors to the non-equilibrium effects are also identified. The incipient non-equilibrium results are then related to calculations assuming chemically frozen flow. By the application of chemical kinetics to the frozen results, it can be shown that the appearance of incipient non-equilibrium effect bears an inverse relationship to the validity of the frozen flow assumption for equivalent wake calculations. (Author)


The underground project of containerization integrated system that performs the Metropolitan Public Sanitation Company (EMASEO) is a great tool for the development of the inhabitants of the historical center, because the purpose is to implement underground containers for more effective cleaning in the metropolitan city, generating an improvement in the image of the city, and this is the first project implemented in Ecuador. After the investigation, it was possible to know that the project has shortcomings in communication strategies to educate and sensitize the public on the proper use of underground containerization integrated system given situation due to the change of the collection system already established earlier in Historic Center, not having a communication strategy, the project integrated underground containerization system faces a lack of acceptance and disinformation by the inhabitants of the Historical Center. This project proposes to reverse different issues through a communication campaign that was designed by a theoretical framework that has been taken into account various academic publications and studies on the subject and also by the results of quantitative and qualitative research conducted through surveys and interviews with various residents of the Historic Center and people who know the subject, which were a fundamental part in the investigation. Therefore this research project was guided by designing communication strategies and public relations in order to raise community awareness. This field research and theoretical review were important inputs to this process.


It is often assumed that to maximize the performance of a multithreaded application, the number of threads created should equal the number of cores. While this may be true for systems with four or eight cores, this is not true for systems with larger number of cores. Our experiments with PARSEC programs on a 24-core machine demonstrate this. Therefore, dynamically determining the appropriate number of threads for a multithreaded application is an important unsolved problem. In this paper we develop a simple technique for dynamically determining appropriate number of threads without recompiling the application or using complex compilation techniques or modifying Operating System policies. We first present a scalability study of eight programs from PARSEC conducted on a 24 core Dell PowerEdge R905 server running OpenSolaris.2009.06 for numbers of threads ranging from a few threads to 128 threads. Our study shows that not only does the maximum speedup achieved by these programs vary widely (from 3.6x to 21.9x), the number of threads that produce maximum speedups also vary widely (from 16 to 63 threads). By understanding the overall speedup behavior of these programs we identify the critical Operating System level factors that explain why the speedups vary with the number of threads. As an application of these observations, we develop a framework called "Thread Reinforcer" that dynamically monitors program's execution to search for the number of threads that are likely to yield best speedups. Thread Reinforcer identifies optimal or near optimal number of threads for most of the PARSEC programs studied and as well as for SPEC OMP and PBZIP2 programs.


The purpose of this study is to describe the interest in learning mathematics for fifth grade elementary school students on prime number material assisted by ICT learning media, namely Visual Basic Application (VBA) Excel. The research method uses qualitative descriptive research. The subjects of this study were 5th grade students of Madrasah Ibtidaiyah (MI) II Celak which consisted of 26 students. The instrument was given in the form of a questionnaire for students' interest in learning consisting of 20 statements, with 10 positive statements each and 10 negative statements from five indicators, 1). Feelings of pleasure, 2). Student interests, 3). Student involvement, 4). Diligent in studying and diligent in doing math tasks, 5). Diligent and disciplined in learning and having a study schedule. Based on the results of data analysis, it was found that learning mathematics using VBA media can increase student learning interest. This is shown by the percentage of each indicator of student interest in learning. The highest indicator is the feeling of pleasure and interest of students in learning mathematics, each getting 87.02% and 89.18% which shows that students' interest in learning mathematics is very high.


Ecological Ethics is considered as a newly-risen science which could improve moral thinking of modern and contemporary environmental crisis.It not only has a huge effect on pushing environment protection,but also offers a new angle of analysis of literature text.This article analyzes the text entitled Flush: A Biography by Virginia Woolf from a new angle of Ecological Ethics.It aims at illustrating Woolf's views on the relationship between human and nature,especially human and animals.Furthermore,it also indicates the interdisciplinary in biographical literature.


Improvements in microprocessor performance over time have been expressed through the use of Moore's law, an observation that the number of transistors on a semiconductor device could be expected to double approximately every 18-24 months. Other performance indicators have focused on processing rates, for example, microprocessor clock speed expressed in megahertz or gigahertz. Today, energy efficiency has become a crucial aspect in the design and manufacturing of high performance microprocessor products. Limitations in current silicon manufacturing technology, as well as practical and environmental considerations are behind this change. This paper describes how new transistor designs and materials of construction are resulting in increased energy efficiency, and lower power in today's high performance microprocessors.


The flame lift-off length and combustion characteristics in a DI diesel engine were investigated based on PaSR turbulent combustion model.Then the effects of injection rate,nozzle diameter and injection pressure on the flame lift-off length were investigated.The computational results indicated that the lift-off length was occurred as the start of ignition,and kept a quasi-steady lift-off length until the end of injection.After the end of injection,the balance between fuel supply and consumption was broken,and the flame lift-off length varied.According to the simulate results,injection rate,nozzle diameter and injection pressure had great influence on the lift-off length.Then Musculus's flame lift-off length formula was improved.


Most philosophical decision theorists and philosophers of the social sciences believe that decision theory is and should be in the business of providing folk psychological explanations of choice behaviour, and that it can only do so if we understand the preferences that feature in decision-theoretic models as ascriptions of conative mental states not reducible to choice. The behavioural interpretation of preference, still common in economics, is consequently cast as misguided. This paper argues that even those who strive to provide folk psychological explanations should side with the economists, and adopt a behavioural interpretation of the preferences featuring in decision-theoretic models. Under a mentalistic interpretation of preference, decisiontheoretic models involve controversial enough commitments about the mental causes of choice to not only fail to capture much unreflective decision-making, but also many intentional, reason-based and instrumentally rational choices. And in any case, satisfactory folk psychological explanation only comes from inferring more fundamental conative attitudes from a pattern of decision-theoretic preferences, whether we understand preference mentalistically or behaviourally.


Summary. A seismic refraction experiment along am across the Lesser Antilles island arc in the eastern Caribbean has shown that the crust beneath the arc contains two refractors with average seismic velocities of 6.2 and 6.9 km/s. The upper, 6.2 km/s refractor varies in depth and shows large fluctuations in its seismic velocity. The layer betweeen the refractors has an average thickness of about 10 km, and varies between 2 and 20 km. The total thickness of the crust of the arc is about 30 km beneath Martinique and about 35 km beneath St Vincent. The approximate depths of the Moho beneath the centres of Grenada and Tobago Troughs either side of the arc are 21 and 25 km respectively. Both these troughs, although of different origin, are underlain by crust of modified oceanic type.


Digital computers have revolutionised virtually every form of activity in exploration geophysics from the collection to the interpretation of data. Computer systems collect data, process it (Tanner and Buck (1964, Royer (1968, and analyse and interpret it (Tanner (1967), Hartman et a1 (1965), Naudy (1970)). Their implementation in computer modelling has also been exceedingly fast and widespread.


Identifying different floors in multistory buildings is a very important task for precise indoor localization in industrial and commercial applications. The accuracy from existing studies is rather low, especially in multistory buildings with irregular structures such as hollow areas, which is common in various industrial and commercial sites. As a better solution, this paper proposes a hybrid floor identification (HYFI) algorithm, which exploits wireless access point (AP) distribution and barometric pressure information. It first extracts the distribution probability of APs scanned in different floors from offline training fingerprints and adopts Bayesian classification to accurately identify floor in well-partitioned zones without hollow areas. The floor information obtained from wireless AP distribution is then used to initialize and calibrate barometric pressure-based floor identification to compensate variable environmental effects. Extensive experiments confirm that the HYFI approach significantly outperforms purely wireless fingerprinting-based or purely barometric pressure-based floor identification approaches. In our field tests in multistory facilities with irregular hollow areas, it can identify the floor level with more than 96.1% accuracy.


Describes a method for assessing the load-bearing capacity of masonry walls in existing buildings - with a case study: the viaduct of porta S. Giacomo in Bergamo (Italy). Particular emphasis is given to the application of non-destructive methods, such as sonic and flat-jack tests. -- ICCROM


Dietary urea is rapidly hydrolyzed upon entering the rumen.The rapid hydrolysis of urea results in a lower efficient utilization of it,often exceeding the capacity of ammonia results in ammonia poisoning easily.Urease inhibitor can decrease the hydrolysis speed of urea and increase the efficient utilization of it.Now the effects of urease inhibitors on urea disappear rate and ammonia concentration in rumen,digestion of dietary nutrients and production performance in ruminants are reviewed in this paper.


An analytic formula is derived for the elastic bending modulus of monolayer graphene based on an empirical potential for solid-state carbon atoms. Two physical origins are identified for the non-vanishing bending stiffness of the atomically thin graphene sheet, one due to the bond-angle effect and the other resulting from the bond-order term associated with the dihedral angles. The analytical prediction compares closely with ab initio energy calculations. Pure bending of graphene monolayers into cylindrical tubes is simulated by a molecular mechanics approach, showing slight nonlinearity and anisotropy in the tangent bending modulus as the bending curvature increases. An intrinsic coupling between bending and in-plane strain is noted for graphene monolayers rolled into carbon nanotubes.


Monitoring systems are widespread in various areas. This software helps system administrators monitor the organization's infrastructure, and it can be enhanced using technologies such as the Internet of Things, Blockchain, and Artificial intelligence. These systems monitor sensors, traffic, and applications and alert in case of security incidents, malfunctions, or outages. This research presents an overview of the different fields where centralized monitoring systems could be used and the threats of cybersecurity attacks to them. Utilizing large groups of devices and sensors can lead to the compromise of some of them. Therefore, new methodologies and technologies must be developed to meet the requirements regarding security, reliability, and privacy of personal data. This paper will also briefly explore the different types of physical security systems used in buildings, their integration, and centralized monitoring.


Molecular modelling and crystallographic techniques have been applied to the study of organic molecules used as friction modifiers and metal salt transport reagents. The accuracy of several empirical force fields has been evaluated by calculating low energy conformations of 3-(4-methylbenzoyl) propionic acid and tri acetyl glycerol. These were compared with the crystal structures of related molecules obtained from the Cambridge Structural Database, which contained either the 4-keto-carboxylate moiety or were tri esters of glycerol. Further validation has been carried out by comparing the force field predicted low energy conformations of propionic acid and ethylene glycol with the results of ab intio calculations either obtained from the literature or performed in house. Liquid phase molecular dynamics calculations have been carried out under conditions of constant volume and temperature and of constant temperature and pressure in order to investigate structure activity relationships in films of physisorbed friction modifiers based on fatty esters of glycerol. We are able to make proposals about how the varying efficacy of mono, di and tri esters of glycerol arises from their structure. The crystal structures of novel complexes of model extractants for salts of base metals have been determined and analysed. These complexes fall into one of four classes: Complexes containing salicylaldoxime ligands. Complexes based on hexadentate tris-salicylaldimine ligands. complexes based on bipodal hexadentate salicylaldimine ligands Complexes based on coordination of two tridentate salicyldimine ligands. For classes 3) and 4) we have investigated the possibility of isomerism using the results of our structure determination and structures obtained from the Cambridge Structural Database. We have also investigated the possibility of a combined molecular dynamics/mechanics approach to assess the efficiency of phase transfer for this type of complex.


The method of giving unageing Acid Colloid Resin liquid, 50% by weight of cut-material, to the cut-material, drying, giving 50% of water at necessary time and twisting it by the heavier traveller is tested in this experiment. The result of it is that the yarn is the strongest when, after unageing Acid Colloid Resin liquid of 4-6% (Its adhesion is 2-3%) is giving, this cut-material is kept in a tightly closed container until the liquid permeates equally through the cut-material and the liquid becomes enough aged, and then taking out of the container and drying, it is given water as it is stated above and is twisted.Among the treatment, limted to twisting of Japanese Paper because of its method and effect, this method described above is certainly the best one.


We report the preparation of polybutylene succinate (PBS)/sisal-fiber (SF) composites. The effects of mixing temperature and of steam-explosion pretreatment of SFs on the mechanical properties of the composites were investigated, and the mechanism of action was studied by infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results indicate that as the mixing temperature increases, PBS flows better and can graft onto steam-exploded sisal fiber (SESF), the interfacial bond property between SESF and PBS improves, and the mechanical properties of the composites improve. The mechanical properties of the composites are maximal for a mixing temperature of 200°C. The results also demonstrate that the cellulose content and the specific fiber surface area can be increased by steam-explosion pretreatment, so that the mechanical properties of the composites can be improved. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2011. © 2010 Society of Plastics Engineers


Research on the role of gender on lawmaking in the U.S. Congress focuses primarily on whether female legislators provide more, or more effective, representation to women on policy issues important to the interests of women. This paper moves consideration of how the gender of representatives affects lawmaking by considering how the presence of female lawmakers in Congress affects the behavior of their colleagues, developing and testing predictions about how an increased presence of women in Congress will influence the participation of their male colleagues on legislation bearing on women's interests. Using fixed-effect models, preliminary findings indicate that higher levels of women in the U.S. House spur participation of their male colleagues on social welfare policy issues. This effect, however, does not extend to issues related to a feminist policy agenda.


fewer than 203 pages of efficient and descriptive prose. In detailing her arguments, Cohen relies on the reader's familiarity with several Supreme Court cases and a wide variety of American and European scholars from a range of disciplines. In addition, the book is more about paradigms than about law and sex. For those looking for a quick overview of American legal regulation of sexual privacy, Cohen's book will be both unhelpful and unfriendly. However, for those scholars interested in a theoretically grounded approach to understanding the Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas, as well as any type of legal regulation, then Cohen's excellent book is worth the effort.


Advances in near-infrared (NIR) imaging technology have brought a new technique to chemical imaging analysis. A unique feature of NIR imaging is that it can take full advantage of spatial and molecular structural information about chemical moieties. A series of NIR spectra are measured for every pixel that divides an object into many spatial parts. For example, each pixel point of such an image consists of a full NIR spectrum, and each micro-image is a collection of spectral intensity measured at a fixed wavenumber. Consequently, not only spectral variable but also spatial information becomes available. Namely, it has the outstanding advantage that it can harness both spectral and spatial information characterizing moieties. In the collection of NIR imaging data, the more pixels, the more detailed is the spatial information that can be included in the measured data. Such high dimensional data including two spatial and one spectral (wavenumber) dimensions often bring some difficulties in the interpretation because of the high dimensional data structure. In practice, representative information of the data condensed by statistical or mathematical means such as principal component analysis (PCA) are often used for easy interpretation of NIR imaging data. Using PCA, the data matrix can be decomposed into a product of score and loading matrices. Abstract information of spectral intensity variation referred to as scores in PCA can be conceptually seen as a reflection of concentration of components. For example, scores provide information closely related to the distribution of components in the analysis of NIR image data. Seemingly most of the research on NIR chemical imaging analysis has principally been based on the observation of spectral intensity change with the aid of PCA. It is important to point out that PCA does not reveal the ''true'' underlying physical sources of data but provides only their linear combination fulfilling the orthogonal constraints. Thus, scores and loadings can take both positive and negative values, such that they usually do not have any direct connection to physical meaning, even though these solutions are based on a solid mathematical foundation. In this paper, an alternative analytic technique is presented for the handling of NIR imaging data. The main purpose of this study is to demonstrate the analytic technique based on the observations of a band position shift. Physical transitions of components usually result in the systematic alteration of vibrational spectroscopic features. Vibrational frequency for a diatomic molecule can be described as a function of reduced mass and bonding force constant, which is a measure of the strength or rigidity of a chemical bond in its normal equilibrium position. For example, the degree of molecularlevel interactions such as hydrogen bonding often influences the band position of a vibrational spectrum. The increase in the degree for hydrogen bonding can be observed as a band position shift in the lower wavenumber direction. Thus, a substantial change in molecular structure in turn can be readily detected as a form of band position shift such as a red or blue shift, and it can be a useful way to derive key information closely related to molecular structure of objects. Compared to projection-based analysis such as PCA, a direct observation of specific molecular structure based on band shift provides another kind of information that can not be described by the variation of concentration of the analytes. It can be a useful asset to estimate characteristic features of objects at the molecular level. A practical example is presented here to demonstrate how this analytic techniques works in the analysis of NIR imaging data. NIR spectra were collected for several kinds of cellulose tablets prepared using different grinding times. The physical properties of excipients such as cellulose are important to control the pharmaceutical properties of tablets, as the solubility of chemical components is strongly related to their distribution and molecular structure within tablets. The observation of a band position shift clearly reveals a structural change of cellulose crystalline structure, which is substantially induced by grinding. Thus, the solubility of the tablets, which is associated with crystalline structure, can be controlled in turn by the simple grinding process. The result demonstrates that the detection of specific structure on the surface (or within) tablets becomes possible.


Composite structures have become increasingly popular in civil engineering due to many advantages, such as light weight, excellent corrosion resistance and high productivity. However, they still lack the strength, stiffness, and convenience of constructions of fastener connections in steel structures. The most popular fastener connections in steel structures are slip-critical connections, and the major factors that influence their strength are the slip factors between faying surfaces and the clamping force due to the prevailing torque. This paper therefore examined the effect that changing the following parameters had on the slip factor: (1) replacing glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) cover plates with stainless-steel cover plates; (2) adopting different surface treatments for GFRP-connecting plates and stainless-steel cover plates, respectively; and (3) applying different prevailing torques to the high-strength bolts. The impact on the long-term effects of the creep property in composite elements under the pressure of high-strength bolts was also studied with pre-tension force relaxation tests. It is shown that a high-efficiency fastener connection can be obtained by using stainless-steel cover plates with a grit-blasting surface treatment, with the maximum slip factor reaching 0.45, while the effects of the creep property are negligible.


In this paper, we introduce the notion of JB-semigroup. We prove that every ring determines a JB-semigroup, but the converse need not be true. We also introduce the notions of JB-field and JB-domain, and we prove that every JB-field is a JB-domain and every finite JBdomain is a JB-field. Moreover, we introduce the notion of JB-ideal of JB-semigroup, and we construct quotient JB-semigroup via JB-ideal. Furthermore, we introduce the notion of JB-homomorphism of JBsemigroups, and we provide some of its properties. Mathematics Subject Classification: 06F35, 03G25


Review on E2F3 (E2F transcription factor 3), with data on DNA, on the protein encoded, and where the gene is implicated.


a fundamentally new strategy for delivering care to patients with ophthalmic disorders was introduced at Moorfields Eye Hospital. Briefly, all new patient-episodes were selectively channelled to a dedicated new patient clinic that we chose to call the 'Primary Care Clinic' or PCe. The aim of this clinic is to provide a service, i.e. all services such as optometry, refraction and visual field analysis are available at a patient's first visit. At the end of this visit, the ophthalmologist is usually able to make a definitive diagnosis and the patient may be counselled and discharged, treated and discharged, or referred onwards to a specialist clinic for further treatment. One notable aspect of the PCC is that it has had access to information technology since its inception.


Background Osteosarcoma is a primary malignant bone tumor that occurs in children and adolescents. Increasing numbers of scholars have studied its development and treatment. To fully understand the current status of osteosarcoma research and global trends therein, we performed a bibliometric and visual analysis of osteosarcoma studies published between 1999 and 2019. Methods We searched the Web of Science database for publications on osteosarcoma. The basic characteristics of this sample of publications, such as H indices, annual outputs, languages of publication, and authors, journals, institutions, and countries of origin, were determined. Co-citation, collaboration, and keyword co-occurrence were analyzed using CiteSpace software. Results The sample comprised 16,934 articles. The number of publications increased annually. H indices and total numbers of citations were far higher for articles from the United States than for those from other countries. Among institutions, the largest proportion of articles originated from Shanghai Jiaotong University. R. Gorlick was the author with the highest H index and total number of citations. Oncology Letters published the largest number of articles and Cancer Research was the most frequently cited journal. The five most frequently appearing keywords were "osteosarcoma," "cancer," "expression," "apoptosis," and "metastasis." The analysis generated 10 major clusters of keywords and 23 clusters of co-cited references. Conclusions The findings of this study have guiding significance for researchers seeking cooperating institutions and partners for osteosarcoma research, popular journals and important literature in the field, an understanding of the knowledge base for this research, and up-to-date identification of research hotspots and trends. Keywords: osteosarcoma, bibliometric, citespace, visual analysis, co-citation


In the race against Moores Law, integrated chips (ICs) with multiple dies stacked over one another and connected by ThroughSilicon Vias (TSVs), called 3D TSV-Stacked ICs (SICs) have attracted a fair amount of research [1]–[5]. Due to imperfections in IC manufacturing, each individual chip must be tested. Testing each IC, increases cost, which is highly related to the testing time spent on each IC. Test scheduling approaches, aiming at minimizing testing times, for non-stacked ICs have been discussed in [6]– [8]. Although no work has yet been visible for scheduling tests under power constraints for 3D TSV-SICs. Applying traditional test scheduling methods used for non-stacked chip testing, where the same schedule is applied both at wafer sort and package test, to 3D TSV-SICs, leads to unnecessarily high TAT. This is because in case of 3D TSV-SICs, the package test involves testing of all the chips in the stack together. Therefore, tests scheduled for individual chips during wafer sort using [6], [7] do not perform well during package test. A key challenge in 3D TSV-SIC testing is to reduce TAT by co-optimizing wafer sort and the package test. In our work, we consider a system of chips with cores that are accessed through an on-chip JTAG infrastructure, based on [9], [10] and shown in Fig. 1, and we propose a test scheduling approach to reduce TAT while considering resource conflicts. Fig. 1 illustrates the scan chains that start from a JTAG TAP, proceeds through one or more cores and returns back to the JTAG TAP. It should be noted that, only one scan chain can be accessed at a time. Thus, if tests for more than one core of a chip are to run concurrently, in a session, these cores are connected in series on the JTAG interface, forming a single scan chain. This enforces the concept of sessions as introduced in [6]–[8]. For a single chip, only cores that are in the same scan chain can be tested concurrently. Furthermore, if two cores are to be tested in sequence, in different sessions, they cannot be connected in the same scan chain. On the other hand, a session of tests from a chip can be performed concurrently with a session of tests from another chip by selecting the scan chains in the TAPs of to the two chips. For any core, say Core3 in Fig. 1, the test time (T3) required can be calculated as a function of the length of the scan chain of Core3 (l3) and the number of patterns required (p3):


Summary The author's experience in the surgical treat ment of lumbar disc lesions is reported. The following technical devices have been adopted:


Background : electroplating home industry  use chromium as the base material. Chromium is used in the form of hexavalent chromium, which has toxic effects on health.  Electroplating workers exposed chromium through the air into the lungs through inhalation. Objective: Describe the various factors assosiated  to the pulmonary dysfunction  in a workplace at  workers of electroplating home industry . Methods : This study was an observational study with cross sectional approach  on 31 electroplating workers with total sampling of each industry. Vital Lung Capacity Measurements with a spirometer with SpyroAnalyzer type ST-75. Dust levels of Chromium with High Volume Sampler. Results: Results minimal amount of dust in the air of 0.0731 μg/m3, the maximum value of dust concentration in the air is 1.8433 μg/m3 μg/m3 with a mean of 0.774357. Multivariate analysis showed a variable duration of exposure to chromium is the most influential variable on the incidence of pulmonary dysfunction, (p = 0.010) with 95% CI (2.11 to 228.56), odds ratio (Exp B) = 21.97. Conclusion: The factor shown to be associated with pulmonary dysfunction in workers chromium electroplating is a duration of exposure to chromium more than 4 hours a day. Keywords: Electroplating, pulmonary dysfunction, chromium.


To reveal the transmission dynamics of Echinococcus species in Xiji,Haiyuan counties and Guyuan district(referred as XHG areas),and to provide a scientific basis for integrating of disease control in the areas,PCR method for dog copro-DNA detection and ELISA assay for discovery of the sero-antibodies against Eg/Em-antigens amongst ultrasound negative teenagers(caused by egg-ingestion indicating the environmental Echinococcus egg-contaminations)were carried out.The data were input into SPSS 20.0for management and analysis.Chi-square test was used for the comparisons of the different positive rates between groups.P0.05 was considered as different significantly.The results showed that,amongst the 2175 dog copro-samples,the Eg-DNA positive rates of 9.87%,6.10%and 7.00%,and the Em-DNA positive rates of 6.40%,1.52%and 3.37% occurred in Xiji,Haiyuan counties and Guyuan,respectively.The positive rates of the sero-antibodies against Eg-antigens were 45.46%,36.23% and 42.18%;against Emantigens were 8.38%,7.03% and 20.48%,respectively,amongst 5 706 teenagers in the areas.The results of parasite-DNA detection from dogs,and the sero-antibody positive rates amongst teenagers provided the strong evidences that the transmission dynamics of the two types of Echinococcus species were active there.


This study investigated the attitudes of teachers of different ethnic origins in Malaysia toward an outcome-oriented performance appraisal, the New Performance Appraisal System (NPAS). It also investigated the relationship between teachers' attitudes toward the system and their job satisfaction and professional commitment. Teachers of the major ethnic origins in Malaysia - Malays, Chinese, and Indians - were selected randomly from 6 public high schools in the state of Kedah. The study found that teachers of all ethnic origins reported less favorable attitudes toward the NPAS, and that their cultural dimension had no bearing on attitudes toward the NPAS. Teachers who received appropriate explanation and supervision of their performance, despite low performance-appraisal results, reported high levels of job satisfaction and professional commitment


This technology pathway case investigates the cultivation of algal biomass followed by further lipid extraction and upgrading to hydrocarbon biofuels. Technical barriers and key research needs have been assessed in order for the algal lipid extraction and upgrading pathway to be competitive with petroleum-derived gasoline-, diesel-, and jet-range hydrocarbon blendstocks.


The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) is a large scientific and engineering project in China. It will become by its completion an astronomical survey telescope with largest field of view and most efficient observation in 4-m aperture or above telescopes in the world. The telescope will be able to acquire spectrum from 4000 stars simultaneously. All these performance features have brought about a tremendous challenge for the control system design. This paper presents the network structure for the control system with mass data and multitask circumstances, focusing on the strategy how to conduct subsystem control, environmental monitoring, time service and wireless remote monitoring controlling, etc. A number of IT technologies have been utilized in the network system, such as real time database, GPS time ticking and GSM communication.


China's aging population will sharply increase the number of retirees who have to be supported by each worker in the next several decades. That demographic problem combined with the inability of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to cover even the pensions of current retirees makes reform of the pay-as-you-go (PAYG) system a top priority. The State Council has issued a number of decrees calling for moving to a multi-pillar system, incorporating both a defined benefit PAYG plan and a defined contribution plan with fully funded individual accounts, but little progress has been made (Wang et al. 2004). Today China has a highly fragmented social security "system" confined primarily to workers in urban SOEs and some collectives. The high payroll tax rates and precarious nature of the system have led to noncompliance and evasion, and workers in the nonstate sector have little incentive to join (Zhao and Xu 2002). To solve China's pension crisis, one must also address the loss-ridden SOEs and the weak condition of the four large state-owned banks. Pension reform cannot be successful without a broad-based change in China's ownership structure. The lack of well-defined property rights to pensions, enterprise assets, and bank capital means that China's financial sector needs radical reform. This article focuses on China's pension crisis from the perspective of property rights theory. The issue of pension reform is essentially a question of property rights: Should pension funds be fully funded and individually owned or should the state socialize assets by taking wealth from the younger working generation and redistributing it to the older retired generation? In the privatized system, individuals will have an incentive to act responsibly and to save and invest for the future. In the PAYG system, there is no saving and investment. Individuals look to the state for their future welfare, retirement becomes politicized, and property plundered. I shall argue that the best way for China to put its pension system on a sound footing is by large-scale privatization. Implicit pension debt must be made explicit and the current hybrid system must be fully privatized along with SOEs and state-owned banks. Trying to "revitalize" SOEs and "recapitalize" state banks will not do the job as long as majority ownership remains in the hands of government officials. Investment decisions will be politicized and capital will not go to its highest valued uses. Corruption will continue and wealth will be squandered as special interests vie for political favors. Although the pace of economic reform will depend to a large extent on political reform, a sound understanding of the importance of private property rights for the future of capital markets in China is an essential first step toward reform. China's Pension Crisis Table 1 summarizes the key data illustrating the problems confronting China's PAYG pension system. The old-age dependency ratio (i.e., the number of people who are age 65 or older relative to those age 15 to 64) will increase from 11 percent in 2005 to 25 percent in 2030 and 39 percent by midcentury. Meanwhile, the system dependency ratio (that is, the number of pensioners supported by each worker paying into the system) will increase from 35 percent in 2005 to 53 percent in 2030 and 69 percent by 2050 (Figure 1). In other words, less than 3 workers will be supporting each retiree in 2005, less than 2 by 2030, and less than 1.5 by midcentury. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] The more immediate problem is that there is a negative cash flow in the pension system that will increase significantly over the next several decades (Figure 2). In 2005 the deficit is expected to be nearly RMB 50 billion (in constant 2000 yuan) or nearly $6 billion ($1 = RMB 8.28). By 2030 the deficit will reach RMB 630 billion ($76 billion), and by 2050 nearly RMB 1.5 trillion ($181 billion). Without reform the accumulated reserves in the current pension system will be--RMB 123 billion in 2005 (in constant 2000 yuan), increasing to --RMB 8. …


Given a marked resnet-18 on which we only have black-box access, we use distillation (Hinton et al., 2015) to train a second network. On this distilled network, we perform the radioactivity test. We show in Table 5 the results of this radioactivity test on distilled networks. We can see that when 2% or more of the original training data is radioactive, the radioactivity propagates through distillation with statistical significance (p < 10−3).


This paper presents a comparison between three addition methods for the implementation of a Serial/Parallel Polynomial Multiplier. Each one of the chosen methods has its own strong points, depending on the number of digits taken into account per cycle. The LUT6 on Virtex-6 FPGA family has a major impact over the performance achieved and a change in the structure of a single addition cell might lead to impressive improvements. The architecture of the multiplier is presented together with the approach for each addition method. Finally, a comparison between the performances achieved in each implementation case is made, showing that the architecture mapped on the 6-LUT FPGA is the best for most of the cases.


The possibility of applying the methods of nonlinear dynamics as tools of anti-recessionary management to improve the technical and economic efficiency, stability of development is considered. A list of relevant effects is resulted. The ways of management and the role of chaos and order in the economic system are discussed.


22 Variation in moonlight affects foraging, hunting and vigilance behaviours in many nocturnal 23 species. Here, we explore the effect of moonlight on the movement and hunting behaviour of 24 African lions. Previous studies found bright moonlight is associated with reduced hunting success; 25 however, those studies were largely undertaken in open habitats where predators are easily seen by 26 prey species on moonlit nights. In this study we explored whether moonlight affected hunting 27 behaviour and success in a largely wooded environment. Measures of short-term lion movements 28 (distance moved, displacement, and path tortuosity) derived from GPS telemetry data were used as 29 indicators of movement behaviour. Field observations of belly distension were used to assess recent 30 food intake. Lions had greater belly distension (indicating feeding success) on dark nights. However, 31 this change in feeding success was not reflected by lion movement patterns – there was no evidence 32 that these changed across moon phases. There was no evidence that lions used more covered 33 habitats on brighter nights to facilitate concealment.


I have read with interest the article written by Dr I. Neil Grant which was published in the April 2007 issue under the title "Listen to thy heart, and write" ( Can Fam Physician 2007;53:702–3).

I noticed that Dr Grant made a mistake, which was also missed by Canadian Family Physician , by


A 13-year-old girl presented with complaints of weight loss and general malaise. She did not have a family history of thyroid disease. Approximately 1 year earlier, she had regarded herself as overweight and reduced her food intake to 300 kcal/ day. After that, she lost weight and had amenorrhea (Fig. 1a). One month before admission, she perceived herself to be thin and exerted herself to take food (1,400 kcal/day). Then, her weight started to increase, but she felt a general malaise. She consulted a doctor with the complaint of general malaise and underwent blood examination, which showed hypercholesterolemia and hypothyroidism. Consequently, she was referred to the present institution for further evaluation. Weight, height and body mass index (BMI) were 29.7 kg, 154.4 cm and 12.5 kg/m, respectively. Body temperature, blood pressure, and pulse rate were 37.0°C, 77/41 mmHg, and 59 beats/min, respectively. She did not have edema or goiter. Blood test indicated hypothyroidism: thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), 27.79 lIU/mL (reference range, 0.350–4.940 lIU/mL); free thyroxine (FT4), 0.51 ng/dL (reference range, 0.70–3.71 ng/dL); free triiodothyronine, (FT3), 1.00 pg/mL (reference range, 1.71–3.71 pg/mL), elevated liver enzymes and increased creatinine (Table S1). Echography showed pericardial effusion and ascites (Fig. 1b,c). The anti-thyroid antibodies (Ab), anti-Thyroglobulin (Tg)Ab and anti-Thyroid peroxidase (TPO)Ab, were negative. Anorexia nervosa (AN) was considered as a cause of thyroid function abnormality, but hyperthyrotropinemia is not compatible with AN, because TSH in AN is usually low. Thus, we clarified her dietary intake history. Soon after initiation of dietary restrictions, she started to take 20 g/day Tororo-Kombu (tangle flakes of Kombu kelp), because she liked the taste and regarded it as a healthy food. In addition to Tororo-Kombu, she also took Japanese kelp and the broth, resulting in a total daily iodine intake of 34 700 lg/day. During admission her intake of Tororo-Kombu was stopped. On day 7 of admission, thyroid function was improved (TSH, 7.46 lIU/mL; FT4, 0.68 ng/dL; FT3, 1.83 pg/mL), and the malaise disappeared. Pericardial effusion and ascites were also improved. Median urinary iodine (MUI) was high (1,570 lg/L) on admission. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines excessive iodine intake as =300 lg/L for school-age children, suggesting that the present patient's iodine intake was excessive. We diagnosed the patient with iodine-induced hypothyroidism. On the 35th day, her thyroid function was further improved (TSH, 1.79 lIU/mL; FT4, 0.71 ng/dL; FT3, 1.72 pg/mL). Iodine, an essential micronutrient for the synthesis of thyroid hormone, is derived only from the diet. Iodine deficiency causes hypothyroidism. Japan is the most iodine-consuming country in the world. Excess iodine also causes hypothyroidism, and over-intake of iodine induces hypothyroidism. The Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare recommends a daily iodine intake of 140 lg and a tolerable upper level of 1,200 lg in girls aged 12–14 years. At first, the present patient was thought to have AN, but we diagnosed her as having iodine-induced hypothyroidism based on the following points: (i) hyperthyrotropinemia; (ii) high MUI; and (iii) the clinical course. First, most AN patients have normal or low TSH, but the present patient had hyperthyrotropinemia. Second, MUI is used to assess iodine nutrition, and the present patient's MUI was high according to the WHO definition, suggesting an excessive iodine intake. And third, when the present patient stopped taking Tororo-Kombu, her thyroid function improved without medication. This clinical course clearly indicates that the hypothyroidism was due to over-intake of iodine. Excessive iodine intake inhibits iodine synthesis via the Wolff–Chaikoff effect. With continued intake of excess iodine, normal thyroid synthesis resumes via the "escape" phenomenon. In some individuals with underlying thyroid disease, however, such as Graves' disease, the escape phenomenon fails to work. The present patient had no predisposing risk factors for thyroid disease, but thyroid disease may appear later, with anti-thyroid antibodies becoming positive. Thus, careful follow up will be needed. Miyai et al. reported that the suppression of thyroid function lasts during over-intake of Kombu even in normal Japanese adults with no predisposing risk factors. Thus, over-intake of iodine might be the main cause of hypothyroidism. There are case reports about iodineinduced hypothyroidism in patients with AN in Japan. Those patients also took too much seaweed. Seaweeds are easy to obtain anywhere in Japan and not expensive, and are also regarded as healthy diet food by anorectic patients. In conclusion, seaweed, such as Kombu, is popular as a health food nowadays. The general public, however, is not Correspondence: Jun Mori, MD PhD, Department of Pediatrics, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, 465 Kajii-cho Kawaramachi-Hirokoji, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-8566, Japan. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com Received 19 October 2018; revised 15 February 2019; accepted 20 March 2019. doi: 10.1111/ped.13846 528 Y Kita et al.


A Monte Carlo simulation is used to obtain the intensity correlation function in the multiple scattering of an incident linearly polarized light in a magneto-optically active medium. The scatterers are finite spheres and each single scattering is calculated by the Mie theory. For the diffusion regime, the results predicted by a simple stochastic theory are verified. On the other hand, in the intermediate regime, the correlation function is described by the one-dimensional model, which explains the origin of the unexpected oscillations of the correlation function.


Objectives: To determine if the use of high frequency linear transducer (HFLT) in addition to conventional curvilinear transducer (CCT) aids assessment of fetal cardiac and non-cardiac anatomy in the first trimester. Methods: Transabdominal CCT (4 - 8 MHz) followed by HFLT (9 MHz) was used to study prospectively the visualization rate of basic and optional anatomical structures according to international guidelines. McNemar and Chi-square test were used to compare correlated and independent proportions respectively. Postnatal outcomes were traced. Results: Comparing with CCT alone, additional use of HFLT did not improve the completion rate of basic anomaly screen (95.0% vs. 97.0%, p = 0.5) in the 101 women studied, but it improved the visualization rate of some optional structures including lens (57.4% vs. 73.3%), three-vessel view (3 VV) (17.8% vs. 48.5%), left ventricular outflow tract (17.8% vs. 51.5%), kidneys (8.9% vs. 47.5%), and umbilical artery (86.1% vs. 93.1%) (all p < 0.05). Favourable fetal position was associated with a better visualisation of four-chamber view and 3VV (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Our findings supported that the use of HFLT in addition to CCT does not improve the completion of basic anomaly screen, nor does it achieve a high visualisation rate of different cardiac views in the first trimester.


Human being interaction is normally done with the help of natural language i.e. words, sentences etc or with the help of sign language. Tactile Sign language bridges the gap even for the person who are hearing impaired and the person who can hear. Using a combination of symbols and hand movements, sign language is an effective method of communication that provides hearing impaired person a way to interact with the world around them. Understanding and learning of sign language is not only for the hearing impaired, it's also for those who interested in being able to communicate with the deaf/dumb people. This project will convert video of daily commonly used full sentence interaction (hand movement) into a text. Recognition of hand movements from persistent frames will be done by using sequence of image processing techniques. Sentence formation is done using NLP engine.


The modification of the celebrated Yee scheme from Maxwell equations to magnetohydrodynamics is often referred to as the constrained transport approach. Constrained transport can be viewed as a sort of predictor-corrector method for updating the magnetic field, where a magnetic field value is first predicted by a method that does not preserve the divergence-free condition on the magnetic field, followed by a correction step that aims to control these divergence errors. This strategy has been successfully used in conjunction with a variety of shock-capturing methods including WENO, central, and wave propagation schemes. In this work we show how to extend the basic CT framework to the discontinuous Galerkin finite element method on both 2D and 3D Cartesian grids. We first review the entropy-stability theory for semi-discrete DG discretizations of ideal MHD, which rigorously establishes the need for a magnetic field that satisfies the following conditions: (1) the divergence of the magnetic field is zero on each element, and (2) the normal components of the magnetic field are continuous across element edges/faces. In order to achieve such a globally divergence-free magnetic field, we introduce a novel CT scheme that is based on two ingredients: (1) we introduce an element-centered magnetic vector potential that is updated via a discontinuous Galerkin scheme on the induction equation; and (2) we define a mapping that takes element-centered magnetic field values and element-centered magnetic vector potential values and creates on each edge /face a representation of the normal component of the magnetic field; this representation is then mapped back to the elements to create a globally divergence-free element-centered representation of the magnetic field. For problems with shock waves, we make use of so-called moment-based limiters to control oscillations in the conserved quantities.


y q According to J. Gibson's theory of visual perception (Gibson's ecological approach), human beings use optic flow invariants to estimate the environment structure and self motion in it [1]. In author's works the correspondence of the optic flow invariants to the instant velocities field invariants (divergence, curl and deformation) was shown as a result [2][3]. This work extends the suggested approach by involving the real time computer evaluation of these invariants in models of driver's visual perception. o z o1 Point of observation x


Background: The modern world demands an effective educational approach to meet its requirements. In this study, the modern taxonomy of significant learning was applied to investigate the impact of personalized learning on achieving learning objectives. Methods: The study utilized an experimental pretest-posttest control group design. Thirty undergraduate educational sciences students from Allameh Tabataba'i University participated in our study. They enrolled in the media education course in the spring semester of 2019-2020, and were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The learning topic was "media message analysis," and lesson objectives were defined based on the taxonomy of significant learning required for modern world. Personalized learning was implemented in an online environment for the experimental group. By choosing authentic assignments, we provided the students with learning paths based on their cognitive styles and gave them a sense of control over their own learning. Students in the control group received an online "one-size-fits-all" education. The engagement questionnaire was used to evaluate integration, human dimension, and categories of significant learning taxonomy; to measure students' ability to control their learning, an online self-regulated learning questionnaire was employed. A researcher-made exam was designed to measure content mastery in fundamental knowledge and application categories. All three measurement tools were applied at baseline and two weeks after the intervention. The independent t-test was used to compare the two groups in each related category. Results: The results revealed that a personalized learning approach could lead to significant improvement in content mastery, cognitive, agentic, and emotional engagement, as well as self-regulated learning in the experimental group (P=0.007, 0.02, 0.048, 0.048, <0.001, respectively). Conclusion: Teachers can help students achieve different categories of significant learning taxonomy through applying personalized learning to their courses. Therefore, implementing a personalized learning environment is recommended for higher education.


Transpolarizing surfaces are characterized for their property of rotating by 90deg the reflected electric field with respect to the incident one. Several transpolarizing surface designs are presented, and their potential applications and limitations, mostly for oblique incidence, are discussed.


Introduction Blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) contrast has been widely used in fMRI study to investigate brain functionality. Since cerebral blood volume (CBV) and flow (CBF), the change of which are the main sources of BOLD contrast (called β here), are abundant in gray matter (GM) rather than white matter (WM) and the neuronal activation is mainly linked to postsysnaptic activity, GM is presumed to be a main source of fMRI contrast. Due to relatively large voxel size typically used in human BOLD studies (≥ 27 mm), the partial or fractional volume (fv) of GM in a voxel is unavoidable. As such, β may not proportionally reflect the strength of neuronal activity, due to the variation of tissue compositions over voxels. In a previous study, we presented that the fractional volume of GM (fv,GM) in the activated voxels was highly correlated to β in individual fMRI analysis [1] (also shown in Fig1). In this study, we propose a method of fMRI group analysis using voxel-wise regression with fv,GM as a covariant.


The scope of Subtask Y4, Sodium/Water Reaction Recovery of Work Package Task Number SG037, Large Sodium/Water Reaction Test and Analysis, is to establish procedures for LMFBR plant cleanup and recovery following sodium/water reaction (SWR) events. Encompassed within the recovery aspects of this scope is the evaluation of steam generator and relief systems material behavior following SWR events. Of particular concern is the potential for stress corrosion cracking (SCC) that may occur in the steam generator and sodium/water reaction pressure relief system (SWRPRS) during or following SWR events. The large leak test programs carried out at Energy Technology Engineering Center provide the opportunities for conducting the necessary materials evaluation work.


Statistics is defined as the science of collecting, analyzing and presenting data.Data mining is a new discipline lying at the interface of statistics, database technology, pattern recognition, machine learning, and other areas. KDD has a spin that comes from database methodology and from computing with large data sets, while statistics has an emphasis that comes from mathematical statistics, from computing with small data sets, and from practical statistical analysis with small data sets. Statistical techniques are driven by the data and are used to discover patterns and build predictive models. And from the users perspective view with a conscious choice when solving a "data mining" problem is attack it with statistical methods or other data mining techniques. However, since statistics provides the intellectual glue underlying the effort, it is important for statisticians to become involved. KDD is statistics and data mining is statistical analysis. "Knowledge Discovery in Databases" is not much different. The main statistical issues in Data mining (DM) and Knowledge Data Discovery (KDD) is to examine whether traditional statistics approach and methods substantially differ from the new trend of KDD and DM.


The feed and unloading blocks of cooling bed for Φ159 mm production line are online device as well as the former control system is with two Danfoss servo motors controlled by master- slave control of two FC302 frequency transformers. The former control system is more complicated and difficult to maintain as well as the order cycle of spare parts is long. As a result,the former control system is replaced by SIEMENS S120 master- slave control. After the reform,the effects are so obvious that the production requirements could be met and the maintenance is convenient. Moreover,the spare parts of field apparatus are unified.


Various spare parts and subassemblies, through their specific consumption, cause high production costs leading therefore to a lower overall profitability. An example is the captive guidance of the KSW-460NE type shearer, the overall duration of normal operation of which does not exceed 2 months. The paper presents the results of the use of laminated composite materials for metal surfaces of abrasive wear of the captive guidance of the KSW-460NE type shearer. Production experiments of the captive guidance have proven the viability of the technological solution for the improvement of their wear resistance made in the presence of fatigue cracks in rocks with non-homogenous content and variable mechanical properties.


Introduction Two hundred years ago, the Founding Fathers of America's world-renowned democracy were wealthy, welleducated white males dedicated to throwing off the yoke of British oppression. In Sierra Leone since 1995, the person most associated with democracy is a petite, articulate, beautiful, in-your-face, dynamo of a woman named Dr. Kadi Sesay. Though Dr. Sesay's job arises from a national emphasis on civic education for the masses, her work bears special scrutiny for its success in concretizing a feminist vision of female power articulated within the context of empowerment for all the country's citizens. For Dr. Sesay, women provide the key to democratization and much of her energy is directed to bringing women into the mainstream of political and civic life. "Any process of democratization that is going to be meaningful has to bring in the women."' As simple as this sounds on one level, a goal such as this will mean fundamental cultural shifts that raise women's visibility and increase their prerogatives. Unquestionably, the task will be daunting, because even though women make up a numerical majority of the population, they have been consigned to the margin of political affairs, a position that most have accepted. Nevertheless, for the head of the National Commission for Democracy, the working women of the country are a special constituency who must be brought into the process of democratization for it to have any relevance.


Article history: Received May 12, 2013 Received in revised format 12 August 2013 Accepted 14 August 2013 Available online August 15 2013 Decision Support Systems (DSSs) are computer-based information systems for providing necessary supports for business or organizational decision-making activities. DSSs often serve the management, operations, and planning levels of all organizations and help to make decisions, which may be rapidly changing and not easily achieved in advance. This paper presents an empirical investigation to find important factors influencing DSSs. The proposed study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale consists of 36 questions, distributes it among 213 employees who work for different offices in municipality of Tehran, Iran. Cronbach alpha is calculated as 0.872. In addition, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy and Approx. Chi-Square are 0.782 and 1014.521, respectively. Based on the results of our survey, we have derived three factors including system, analysis and transaction. © 2013 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


This paper offers an institutional explanation for the growth, organizational transformations, and decline of the piquetero social movement in Argentina, developed from a comparative perspective based on Latin America. I analyze which institutional arrangements, political actors, and configurations of power contributed to the success and decline of the piqueteros. Applying the basic principles of the rational choice approach, I find that the success, decline, and transformation of the organizational structures of the piquetero movement were mainly produced by a political cycle of deep political division within the ruling party (the Peronist party). Other socio-economic explanatory factors were the over-regulated Argentine labor market, and the exogenous impact of the Argentine economic crisis through relatively high unemployment rates.


Title Study on Synthesis and Photo-functionalization of Magnetic Semiconductor Lanthanide Nanocrystals [an abstract of dissertation and a summary of dissertation review] Author(s) 川島, 祥 Issue Date 2015-12-25 Doc URL http://hdl.handle.net/2115/60471 Rights(URL) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.1/jp/ Type theses (doctoral abstract and summary of review) Additional Information There are other files related to this item in HUSCAP. Check the above URL. File Information Akira_Kawashima_review.pdf (審査の要旨)


About 257 million persons are infected with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) globally, resulting in 887,000 deaths annually. More than 90% of the deaths and disability as a result of viral hepatitis can be attributed to CHB and chronic hepatitis C infections. The World Health Organization (WHO) approved the strategy to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030, which requires that new CHB be reduced by 90% and mortality attributable to CHB be reduced by 65%. India falls in the intermediate hepatitis B virus (HBV) endemicity group, with a prevalence rate of 2% to 4% in the general population. Transmission is believed to mostly occur horizontally during early childhood by close physical contact, although up to 30% of cases are due to vertical transmission. India harbors 10% to 15% of the global pool of HBV and has 40 million HBV carriers, of whom 15% to 25% develop cirrhosis and complications leading to health care costs and premature death. Of the 26 million infants born each year, 1 million run the lifetime risk for HBV infection. There is population heterogeneity with the point prevalence of HBV in India estimated to be 2.4% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.2%2.7%) and in tribal areas as high as 15.9% (95% CI: 11.4%20.4%). Clusters of HBV infection are noted in regions like Ladakh (12.7%), Arunachal Pradesh (21.2%), and the Nicobarese (23.3%), Shompen (37.8%), and Jarawa (65%) tribes of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Another cause for spread is unsafe injections with reuse of syringes or needles. About 16 billion injections are prescribed annually worldwide, and more than half are unsafe. India contributes to 25% to 30% of the global load, with a frequency of 2.9 injections per person. Causality can be attributed to unsafe injections in 46%, 38%, and 12% of cases in HBV, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and HIV transmission. Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positivity plateaus at 2% to 3%


The isoelectronic impurity,Er-doped silicon,Si-based quantum structure(including quantum well,quantum wire and quantum dot)and porous silicon luminescence are demonstrated.The progress of Si-based heterostructures since90s,including heterostructure materials,characteristics and future applications are re viewed.The emphasis is placed on the new characteristics and functions of Si-based heterostructures,which are introduced by energy band engineering.The preparation and luminescence mechanism of Si-based quantum dot are introduced chiefly.The latest progress and trend of semiconductor quantum dot materials are reviewed also.


Despite the fact that there is critical grammatical information expressed through facial expressions and head gestures, most research in the field of sign language recognition has primarily focused on the manual component of signing. We propose a novel framework for robust tracking and analysis of non-manual behaviours, with an application to sign language recognition. The novelty of our method is threefold. First, we propose a dynamic feature representation. Instead of using only the features available in the current frame (e.g., head pose), we additionally aggregate and encode the feature values in neighbouring frames to better encode the dynamics of expressions and gestures (e.g., head shakes). Second, we use Multiple Instance Learning [12] to handle feature misalignment resulting from drifting of the face tracker and partial occlusions. Third, we utilize a discriminative Hidden Markov Support Vector Machine (HMSVM) [1] to learn finer temporal dependencies between the features of interest. We apply our signerindependent framework to segmented recognition of five classes of grammatical constructions conveyed through facial expressions and head gestures: wh-questions, negation, conditional/when clauses, yes/no questions and topics, and show improvement over previous methods.


Abstract This report presents pilot research of archaeological pottery excavated in the Early-Neolithic settlement of Chavdar located in the Pirdop-Zlatitsa field, Bulgaria (first half of VI mill BC). The object of investigation is a red-slipped ceramic fragment decorated on both sides with white paint. A multi-analytical approach including optical microscopy, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy was undertaken to obtain comprehensive information contributing to the archaeological interpretation. The observations identified the qualitative chemical composition of the ceramic body and the pigment used for the decoration and gave implications on the temperature and the atmospheric conditions at which the vessel has been fired.


Increased advancements in technology and communication as well as the ongoing reduction in trade barriers has further internationalized production. This paper will start with a brief review of the literature outlining some of the key channels by which GVCs can affect relative wages. Since this is ultimately an empirical question, the paper then goes on to explore the World Input Output Database (WIOD) and decomposes it along Wang, Wei and Zhu's (2015) decomposition method providing various interesting and commonly used proxies for production sharing, such as VS, VS1, VS1x and an improved VAX ratio. Besides information on global production sharing, WIOD provides relative wage data per skill type of worker which allows estimating the effects of various GVC proxies on relative wages from a large panel dataset, inhibiting 37 countries and 30 industries across 15 years. So far, preliminary analysis provides some evidence of a factor bias effect where domestic value added that is exported and eventually returns home (VS1x) increases (decreases) the share of high skilled labour compensation if subsequent production happens in a country that is less (more) skill abundant than the home country. Similarly, domestic value added that is exported and consumed in a more (less) skilled abundant country (VAX_B) tends to increase (decrease) the share of high skilled labour compensation. These findings are in line with standard offshoring theories that follow the factor bias. On the other hand, this paper does not find any significant evidence of a sector bias effect, i.e. global production sharing in lower skilled industries does not seem to affect relative wages significantly different than in higher skilled industries. * This working paper draft was prepared for the 2015 ETSG conference in Paris. As it is still a rough draft, this paper should not be cited in any way. †Department of Economics, Sir William Duncan Building, University of Strathclyde, 130 Rottenrow, Glasgow G4 0GE, Scotland, United Kingdom. E-mail: email@example.com


Magnetorheological materials belong to the group of the so called intelligent materials. Their rheological properties can be changed in a large range using an external magnetic field. That is why they find ever growing application in modern technical equipment, among others in controlled dampers, clutches, sensors etc. In the paper, a numerical strength analysis of a magnetorheological material was presented. The influence of the volume fraction of carbonyl iron particles (the share of the carbonyl iron particles varied from 1.5 to 33.0 vol. %.) on the mechanical properties of the material were investigated, in particular on the Young's modulus variation. Experimental tests were carried out for specimens made of pur e PU 70/30 elastomer with iron particles. They included uniaxial compression tests. In the former case, specimens were in a shape of a cylinder with a diameter of 20 mm and a height of 25-30 mm. The results of experimental tests carried out in order to determine the parameters necessary to build the numerical model were included in the paper. In the paper, an algorithm developed for determining the parameters for modelling the structure was presented. A fragm ent of the structure, containing several particles of iron and some quantity of elastomer, corresponding to the assumed volume fractions, was subjected to numerical analysis.


The accurate electrical modelling of integrated circuit (IC) interconnects is important to enable simulation of microwave devices and circuits to be possible. At present the electrical properties, at high frequencies, of IC interconnects are not accurately obtainable by RF on wafer probing. A modified "method of lines" (MoL) electromagnetic field simulator has been devised to extract the required electrical parameters given the physical dimensions and properties of the substrate and conductors. The technique accurately accounts for substrate and conductor losses, multi-stripline structures, and allows the stacking, vertically, of conductors within the substrate.


Part 1: General Studies 1. W.J. Argyle European Nationalism and African Tribalism 2. George Bennett Tribalism in Politics 3. Tom J. Mboya The Impact of Modern Institutions on the East African 4. W.H. Whiteley Language Choice and Language Planning in East Africa 5. Eugene Cotran Tribal Factors in the Establishment of the East African Legal Systems 6. J.W. Tyler Education and National Identity Part 2: Regional and Case Studies 1. J.S. La Fontaine Tribalism among the Gisu 2. Michael Twaddle 'Tribalism' in Eastern Uganda 3. M. Stahl The Chagga Kathleen 4. P.H. Gulliver The Conservative Commitment in Northern Tanznaia: The Arusha and Masai 5. Kirsten Alnaes Songs of the Rwenzururu Rebellion: The Konzo Revolt against the Toro in Western Uganda 6. David J. Parkin Tribe as Fact and Fiction in an East African City 7. R.D. Grillo The Tribal Factor in an East African Trade Union 8. H.F. Morris Buganda and Tribalism 9. I.M. Lewis Nationalsim and Particularism in Somalia


Human parotid saliva contains a relatively abundant group of low molecular we ght his.idine-rich-polypeptides, HRP (BAUM et al, Arch Biochem Biophys, in press 1976). Though several laboratories have investigated these molecules, it has not been established whether the HRP are true acinar secretory products of the parotid gland. The present report presents data indicating that the HRP of human parotid saliva are secretory polypeptides produced by paroid glands. Five healthy caucasian subjects (3 male 27, 30, 52 years; 2 female 21, 25 years) participated in this study. Parotid saliva was collected on designated days from 8-10 a.m. by using a modified Carlson-Crittenden cup following gustatory (sour lemon drop) or masticatory (paraffin chewing) stimulation. Five to twelve consecutive aliquots (one ml each) were collected and an-


OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: Peer groups are one of the strongest determinants of alcohol use and misuse. Furthermore, social influence plays a significant role in alcohol use across the lifespan. One of the factors that most consistently predicts successful treatment outcomes for alcohol use disorders is one's ability to change their social network. However, the concept of social influence as defined by suggestibility or susceptibility to social influence has not yet been studied as it relates to drinking behavior and acute subjective response to alcohol. Our objective was to examine the relationship between suggestibility and alcohol consumption and responses, using an intravenous alcohol self-administration (IV-ASA) paradigm in social drinkers. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Healthy, social drinkers (n=20) completed a human laboratory session in which they underwent the IV-ASA paradigm. This consisted of an initial 25-minute priming phase, where participants were prompted to push a button to receive individually standardized IV alcohol infusions, followed by a 125-minute phase during which they could push the button for additional infusions. IV-ASA measures included the peak and average breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) and number of button presses. Subjective responses were assessed using the Drug Effects Questionnaire (DEQ) and Alcohol Urge Questionnaire (AUQ) collected serially during the session. Participants completed the Multidimensional Iowa Suggestibility Scale (MISS) to assess suggestibility. The Alcohol Effects Questionnaire (AEFQ) was used to assess alcohol expectancies and the Timeline Followback questionnaire measured recent drinking history. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: After controlling for drinking history, greater suggestibility significantly predicted greater average BrAC, greater peak BrAC, and a greater number of button presses (p=0.03, p=0.02, p=0.04, respectively) during the early open bar phase. Suggestibility significantly predicted subjective alcohol effects following the priming phase which included "Feel," "Want," "High," and "Intoxicated" and was trending for "Like" (p=0.02, p=0.03, p=0.01, p=0.03, p=0.054, respectively) as well as AUQ (p=0.03). After controlling for drinking history, suggestibility significantly predicted "Feel," "Like," "High," and "Intoxicated" peak scores during the open bar phase (p=0.03, p=0.009, p=0.03, p=0.03, respectively). There was no association between suggestibility and "Want More" alcohol. Suggestibility was positively associated with three positive expectancies (global positive; p=0.04, social expressiveness; p=0.005, relaxation; p=0.03), and one negative expectancy (cognitive and physical impairment; p=0.02). DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: These results indicate that social drinkers that were more suggestible had higher alcohol consumption, greater acute subjective response to alcohol, and more positive alcohol expectancies. As such, susceptibility to social influence may be an important determinant of alcohol consumption, and may provide insight into harmful drinking behavior such as binge drinking. Future analyses should examine the impact of suggestibility on alcohol-related phenotypes across the spectrum of drinking from social to binge and heavy drinking patterns.


In this paper, by employing the quantization of the electromagnetic field in phenomenological approach, we investigate the interaction of two two-level atoms in the presence of invisibility meta-material cloaking. For this purpose, by using negativity measure we show that two aforementioned atoms are entangled via the spontaneous emission and mediation of the meta-material cloaking, but this degree of entanglement is less than when there is no the invisibility cloaking.


The TanDEM-X system is an innovative radar mission, which is comprised of two formation flying satellites, with the primary goal of generating a global Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of unprecedented accuracy. TanDEM-X, being a large single-pass radar interferometer, achieves this accuracy through a flexible baseline selection enabling the acquisition of highly accurate cross-track interferograms that are not impacted by temporal decorrelation or atmospheric disturbances. At least two global coverages (four in the case of difficult terrain) are combining into a homogenous global DEM mosaic consisting of 1° by 1° geocells. This paper provides a quality summary of the currently available part of the TanDEM-X global DEM with respect to the DEM absolute and relative height accuracy as well as to void density per geocell.


On August 17, 1954, the Indonesain Republic, through its Acting Permanent Representative Sudjarwo Tjondronegoro, in a letter to U.N. Secretary General Hammerskjold requested that the problem of West Irian (West New Guinea) be placed on the provisional agenda of the ninth regular session of the United Nations General Assembly, since the problem constituted a threat to the peace of South East Asia. When Sudjarwo was asked in a press conference why the matter had been referred to the Assembly and not to the Security Council, he stated that no special reason had prompted this particular move. On September 24, 1954 in a plenary session, the United Nations Assembly agreed to place the Irian question on its agenda, with a vote of 39 to 12, 9 nations abstaining. Against were Sweden, Turkey, South Africa, Great Britain, Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, China, Denmark, Norway, France and Luxemburg. Venezuela, Canada, the United Stales, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Iceland, Peru and. New Zealand abstained.


A major roadblock that learners of the Japanese language encounter is the complex writing system which uses two different syllabaries (hiragana and katakana) in addition to thousands of characters originally borrowed from China (the kanji.) These characters can be very complex graphically and usually have several pronunciations (named onyomi and kunyomi, the first being derived from Chinese.) Achieving full literacy in Japanese means knowing more than 2,000 kanji–an intimidating prospect. Moreover, learning kanji traditionally takes years of education (from grade school through high school) and relies mostly on rote memorization, through incessant homework and tests. Such a process, and by extension the related learning material, are inadequate for most foreign learners. Our goal is to provide tools to help overcome literacy problems, by means of a twofold approach. The first aspect is automatic transliteration of Japanese text, allowing an easier way to read electronic text. The second aspect is a graphetic kanji dictionary which describes every kanji in terms of its graphical components (using XML and SVG), allowing for many interesting applications.


Purpose: To study the efficacy and safety of PRK and corneal cross linking ( CXL) For treatment of early Keratoconus. Methods: Twenty two eyes of fifteen patients with early p rogressive keratoconus were included . all patient underwent Simultaneous PRK and corneal cross linking ( CXL) The outcomes were evaluated at 12 months in all eyes. Result: ninety five percent of UNCVA postoperatively are equal to preoperatively BCVA or gai ned 1 or more lines 5% only Lost 1 or more lines, 64% of the eyes are within 1.0D. of emmetropia. Non of the eyes had > 2.0 D and 59% of the eyes had Astigmatism by K - Reading within 1.0D. Non of the eyes had > 2.0D. Conclusion: Simultaneous PRK + CXL is a very effective way to stop progression of early KC and it improves patient visual acuity and quality of vision provided that we adhere to the selection criteria of that we recommend . ( Mahmoud M Saleh, Ahmed I Galhoom, Mohamed A El - Malah, Abdelgany Ib Abdel gany . Simultaneous Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) with Corneal Cross Linking (CXL) For Treatment of Early Keratoconus . J Am Sci 2012;8( 12 ): 1 75 - 181 ). (ISSN: 1545 - 1003). http://www.jofamericanscience.org . 26


As worldwide aquaculture has grown, and intensification in fish raising, the animals are subject to bacterial diseases and others. With the aim of evaluating pathogenicity of Plesiomonas shigelloides for "jundia" (Rhamdia quelen), different bacterial concentrations (3 x 108 e 9 x 108 CFU - Colony Former Unit/ml) were inoculated via peritoneum. Eigthy four juvenile "jundia" averaging 24.37 ± 4,28g of weight and 14.42 ± 1,62cm of length were utilized. The inoculated animals were maintained for 21 days, in asbestos water tanks, at similar temperature, pH, alkalinity and hardness conditions. The "jundias" were slaughtered every other day for counting UFC/ml renal tissue. For daily inspections, it was observed that intraperitoneal inoculation of Plesiomonas shigelloides did not cause any change in the catfishes, regardless inoculated concentration. Bacteria counting in "jundias" kidneys was maintained between 105 and 106 UFC/ml until the 21st day, when the experiment was ended.


The clinical picture of HIV-I infection is often complicated by neurological symptoms whose pathogenesis is poorly understood. Several clinical reports, especially from the early period of the AIDS epidemic, emphasised the role that the numerous opportunistic infections seen in the nervous tissue of AIDS patients may have in causing disease and death during AIDS.' At that time, Snider and collaborators' suggested that the dementialike syndrome reported in the late stages of AIDS could be due to the presence of a new aetiological agent with the property of invading and affecting the brain. Soon afterwards it became clear that children with AIDS also suffered from an apparent new form of progressive encephalopathy.2 The isolation and characterisation of a previously unknown retrovirus, later named HIV-1 from the biological fluids of patients with AIDS pointed to this agent as a prime candidate for the aetiology of both AIDS and AIDS-associated encephalopathy. The first published report of a direct link between HIV-I and encephalopathy was the transmission to chimpanzees of the virus from brain tissue of adults and children who had died of AIDS with en~ephalopathy.~ The same year, HIV-I nucleic acid sequences were identified in the brain of AIDS patients by in situ and Southern blot hybridi~ation.~ Shortly thereafter, the virus was isolated from brain tissue and cerebrospinal The most frequent neurological syndrome of AIDS is a dementia syndrome observed during the late stage of the disease. This syndrome is likely to reflect direct involvement of neuronal populations. In fact, a substantial number of neurons die during the course of Interestingly, neurons do not appear to be infected by HIV-I (as reviewed in another section of this article) and therefore, indirect mechanisms of cellular damage must lie