Since Nash�s seminal contribution, the bargaining problem has been traditionally
summarized by the set of feasible utility possibilities and a threat point.
The latter is meant to be the outcome in case of disagreement, a ground floor
payoff they receive in the hypothetical non-cooperative game that would follow.
Its influence stops here: How the surplus of cooperation is finally shared
is totally independent of the forces that determine the location of the threat
point. In the last years, several authors have tried to reformulate this approach
by giving more structure to agreements by incorporating information
about how disagreement is actually solved. This is the central issue in Bester
and Warneryd (1998), Esteban and Sakovics (2000), Fearon (1996), Grossman
(1994), Horowitz (1993) and Powell (1996). These models obtain agreements
in the shadow of conflict (war, redistribution by force...) that are influenced by
the relative power of the parties. With the exception of Esteban and Sakovics
(2000), all these papers depict conflict as a costly lottery: Either one party or
the other wins and captures the surplus. Thus, invoking conflict is a gameending
move, an alternative to the bargaining process.
On the contrary, casual observation shows that the main reason behind the
end of conflicts is not the total collapse of one of the parties but agreement on
stopping hostilities: India and Pakistan do not use nuclear weapons, they only
engage in skirmishes; Pepsi and Coca-cola do not engage in worldwide price
wars, but only national; family arguments do not necessarily imply divorce...
That is, conflict is not mainly a �fight to the finish� but a part of the bargaining
process.
To illustrate this point consider the following example: Suppose that two
agents have incomplete information on the strength of their opponent in case
of conflict, and that both parties are strong but believe that they are facing a
weak opponent. Then, the perceived threat-point will be out of the bargaining
set and the result of the negotiation, following the papers above, would be a
conflict fought to the finish. However, notice that if parties can engage in a
conflict of limited scope that does not entail the end of the game, it may convey
information about relative strengths and create a range of possible agreements.
Hence, in this paper, following the pioneering work of Clausewitz (1832)
and more recently Wagner (2000), we propose a taxonomy of conflicts (wars,
strikes or revolutions) into REAL and ABSOLUTE conflicts and explore the
consequences of incorporating them in a bargaining model with one-sided offers and one-sided incomplete information. In economically familiar terms, absolute
conflicts have an ex-post interpretation: they are fought when one party losses
completely the hope of reaching an agreement through ordinary methods. So
it tries to make the opponent defenseless in order to impose its most preferred
outcome without opposition. On the other side, real conflicts (that receive
this name because, as argued in Wagner (2000), few strikes or wars we should
observe if their consequences were always the defeat of one of the parties) have
and ex-ante interpretation: they are fought before normal bargaining because
they can help to improve the position in negotiation by revealing information
about the true relative power of the parties. Therefore, it is the possibility of
ending the conflict in a settlement what differentiates them.
From a formal point of view, revelation of information through conflict introduces
a novelty in the models of bargaining with incomplete information:
In these models, parties have incentives to misrepresent information. This fact
usually leads to very complex models and multiple equilibria. However, the
result of a conflict is not subject to manipulation because its outcome depends
on the true relative strengths of the parties. The only strategic variable is the
decision of invoking it or not, and bluffing the other party becomes a very difficult
task. Following Wagner, conflict �is an experiment that allows parties to
test competing hypothesis about the outcome of an absolute conflict�.
Our paper has two parts: In the first part we develop a bargaining model
that takes into account the issues discussed above. In the second, we test the
implications of the model with real data on wars and strikes. In the model we
propose two impatient and risk-neutral players have to decide how to share a
cake one dollar worth. One of the parties knows the true realization of the relative
strength and therefore the outcome of the absolute conflict. Each period,
this party makes an offer to the other, who can accept or reject. Agreement
makes the game end but disagreement triggers a �battle�. Although it is won
by one of the parties, this real conflict does not entail the end of the game.
However, it has two other effects: possible agreement is delayed one period and
it conveys information because the outcome of the battle is related to the realization
of the relative strengths. Then, each battle makes the uniformed party
to learn about the true disagreement payoffs in case of conflict. We obtain the
following results: Agreement may be immediate if the loss of the cake due to
absolute conflict is sufficiently high and players are impatient enough. Then,
players may prefer to settle as soon as possible in order to avoid such unfavorable
outcome. On the other side, we also show that the creation of surplus is
a necessary and sufficient condition for agreement. That is, once agreement is
possible, the informed party has no incentives to take the chance of improving
its position. Therefore, the number of battles (or the duration of the real
conflict) depends decisively on the gap between the perceived and the real disagreement
payoffs, because if the uniformed party is excessively optimistic it may take several periods to bring the disagreement point inside the bargaining
set.
This result has a clear implication regarding real-life conflicts: Given that
they are a way of learning for the parties, they are more likely to end the
more they last. Then, we pursue a hazard rate approach using duration data.
The hazard rate is the conditional probability that an event that has lasted t
period ended at period t + 1. Our theory would predict that this hazard rate
must be increasing in time. We test this hypothesis first with data on Extrasystemic
wars from 1816 to 1991. This wars are fought between a state and
a non-state entity. They include mainly imperialistic and colonial wars. They
are appropriated for our study because they are clear asymmetric situations
(moreover, these conflicts have not been analyzed in this fashion so far). We
obtain clear evidences that these type of conflicts show increasing hazard rates
supporting our theory. In the second case we deal with U.S. data on strikes
and holdouts. A holdout is an impasse; a period of time after the collective
contract has expired where workers keep working at the same conditions. They
have been pointed out as informational devices by Gu and Kuhn (1998) and we
postulate that they are real conflicts whereas strikes can be think as absolute
conflict. Consistently with our hypothesis, strikes are more likely to occur if a
holdout has not occurred previously and, if it did, they last more the shorter
the holdout. This gives support to our analysis and suggest that we observe
conflict in real world because sometimes they are necessary for obtaining an
agreement. To understand why conflicts occur may be helpful to avoid them


The crystals of the pyrazine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid dihydrate [C 4 H 2 N 2 (COOH) 2 ]·2H 2 O or H 2 (2,6-PZDC)] crystallize in the monoclinic system, space group C2/m. Their structure is composed of planar layers in which the acid and the water molecules interact via a network of hydrogen bonds. The layers are also hydrogen bonded. Hexaaquamagnesium(II) pyrazine-2,6-dicarboxylate [Mg(H 2 O) 6 ] 2+ [C 4 H 2 N 2 (COO) 2 ] 2 m crystallizes in the monoclinic system, space group P2 1 / n . The magnesium(II) cation is surrounded by six water molecules located at the apices of an almost regular octahedron with the mean Mg-O bond distance of 2.068 Å. The 2,6-PZDC anions are planar and are acceptors in a network of hydrogen bonds donated by the coordinated water molecules.


Miscellaneous Ta lks on Heaven Opening came to completion in the late Tang Dynasty,which makes a good account of the stories of the Tang Xuanzong.With the application of literature research and comparison,a study is done on the origin of the story and the literature value.Through the self-preface and the content,it can be concluded that Zheng Qin,the author,lived during the late Tang Dynasty.The study of the origin of the stories proves that the main origin of the stories a re essays and stories prior to it.Through the comparison with the official history,it can be deducted that the historical data value of the book is very low,and should be cautious when quoting it.


For the complexity of street images,a faster and much more effective image segmentation scheme is proposed.In this method the space extreme points of an image are applied as the seeds of watershed segmentation algorithm,the region adjacency list is employed to represent the complicated neighborhood relations of each segmentation region.The experimental results show that this method is consistent with the perceptual characteristics of human eyes,and is of excellent robustness,universality and adaptability.


Ceramic tiles are the main ingredient of a multi-material, multi-layered composite being considered for the modernization of tank armors. The high stiffness, low attenuation, and precise dimensions of these uniform tiles make them remarkable resonators when driven to vibrate. Defects in the tile, during manufacture or after usage, are expected to change the resonance frequencies and resonance images of the tile. The comparison of the resonance frequencies and resonance images of a pristine tile/lay-up to a defective tile/lay-up will thus be a quantitative damage metric. By examining the vibrational behavior of these tiles and the composite lay-up with Finite Element Modeling and analytical plate vibration equations, the development of a new Nondestructive Evaluation technique is possible. This study examines the development of the Air-Coupled Ultrasonic Resonance Imaging technique as applied to a hexagonal ceramic tile and a multi-material, multi-layered composite.


This paper considers different mirror curves with the maximal number of mirrors, resulting in self-avoiding curves. They are enumerated and represented by corresponding chord diagrams. Their connection with knot theory is also considered.


Title: Million Boost, renovation and energy upgrade of an apartment building from the old Swedish residential development. Authors: Eszter Faludi, Victor Tuvesson Tutors: Laura Liuke, Housing Development & Management, Faculty of Engineering, Lund University. Examiner: Erik Johansson, Housing Development & Management, Faculty of Engineering, Lund University. Issue: The many apartments that were built during the 1960s are worn down, unattractive and use a lot of energy. What can be done about the esthetic, technical, economical and environmental aspects? Purpose: The purpose of this project is to show the efficacy of the actions that we have come up with. We will show how the energy use will be reduced by doing specific upgrades. Method: Energy simulations are the main focus of the project. We process two different cases which are compared and analyzed. The computer program performs calculations that tell us the amount of energy the building uses. Results: By adding an extension consisting of glass, more insulation and by changing windows we can present a reduction of the energy use of at least 30 %. Key words: Residential development, Apartment buildings, Energy upgrade, Renovation, Glass construction. (Less)


Electrochemical oxidation of o-[1-(phenylthio)alkyl]phenois in lithium perchlorate–nitroalkane gives corresponding o-quinone methides, which are trapped by unactivated alkenes to form chromanes including euglobal skeletons.


This article outlines some new developments in computer database systems and outlines their potential applications to passenger transport. These new methods, called 'data warehousing' and 'data marts', enable previously separate collections of information, stored on computer, to be combined and integrated, so that their totality of information is much more important than each collection is separately. For example, this approach can bring together the operational systems of bookings, actual passenger travel, and marketing, to learn much about the patterns of passengers which are not visible in these systems separately. Even in a small organisation, it is difficult to understand all its subsystems. In a large system, this task becomes colossal if attempted directly. It is better to start with a small database system, but with the ability to extend it over a period of time; this is the 'data mart' concept. To become reduce risk and increase return on investment, the corporate 'data warehouse' must be a living organism, with a modular structure, made out of smaller evolving data marts. These marts can become a data warehouse if their data are defined and understood in business terms, with common measurement units across the organisation, and if tools are used to maintain the mapping of source data into the marts. For the covering abstract see IRRD E104486.


The selective modification of proteins with a synthetic probe is of central interest for many aspects of protein chemistry. We have recently reported a new approach in which a short cysteine‐containing tag (CysTag) fused to one part of a split intein is first modified with a sulfhydryl‐reactive probe. In a second step, protein trans‐splicing is used to link the labelled CysTag to a target protein that has been expressed in fusion with the complementary split intein fragment. Here, we present the generation and biochemical characterisation of the artificially split Mycobacterium xenopi GyrA intein. We show that this split intein is active without a renaturation step and that it provides a significant improvement for the CysTag protein‐labelling approach in terms of product yields and target protein tolerance. Two proteins with multiple cysteine residues, human growth hormone and a multidomain nonribosomal peptide synthetase, were site‐specifically modified with high yields. Our approach combines the benefits of the plethora of commercially available cysteine‐reactive probes with a straightforward route for their site‐specific incorporation even into complex and cysteine‐rich proteins.


The utility model provides a total heat recovery multi-cycle multipurpose air conditioning unit which comprises a refrigerant loop and a second water circulation loop. The refrigerant loop comprises a compressor, a third heat exchanger, a first heat exchanger, a first one-way valve, a liquid storage tank, a filter, a second one-way valve, a first expansion valve, a second heat exchanger and a gas-liquid separator, wherein the compressor, the third heat exchanger, the first heat exchanger, the first one-way valve, the liquid storage tank, the filter, the second one-way valve, the first expansion valve, the second heat exchanger and the gas-liquid separator are connected in sequence. An outlet of the gas-liquid separator is connected with an inlet of the compressor. The third heat exchanger is a water-cooled heat exchanger. The second water circulation loop comprises the third heat exchanger, a water tank and a second water pump, wherein the third heat exchanger, the water tank and the second water pump are connected in series to form the loop. When the total heat recovery multi-cycle multipurpose air conditioning unit is used for refrigeration in summer, the second water pump is started, so that a more efficient refrigeration effect is achieved, and heat is used for preparing hot water at the same time, namely free hot water is obtained. In winter, automated software is used for switching the sequence of heating and preparation of the hot water, and therefore the total heat recovery multi-cycle multipurpose air conditioning unit achieves multiple functions.


Abstract Background: While asthma and exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) can explain some cases of exertional dyspnea, the differential diagnosis of dyspnea is extensive. Dysfunctional breathing (DB) is a condition that is often overlooked and underdiagnosed. Pharmacologic treatments are available and widely utilized by clinicians for exertional dyspnea, but a better understanding of the non-pharmacologic treatments as well as psychological factors that play a role in DB can provide professional, elite amateurs, and recreational athletes with more therapeutic options. Measurement tools for mental toughness: Given the psychological components involved with these conditions, a tool to measure domains of sports mental toughness in athletes could help medical providers create a more comprehensive athlete profile which can be used in conjunction with standard pharmacologic therapy to provide a more effective treatment plan. Diagnosing DB: While normal breathing mechanics help shape appropriate posture and spinal stabilization, DB has been shown to contribute to pain and motor control deficits resulting in dysfunctional movement patterns, which further contribute to DB. Most respiratory specialists are unaware of how to assess the role of faulty sports technique, especially running gait, in dysfunctional breathing patterns making it difficult to recommend appropriate treatment and offer referrals for relevant therapies. Assessing postural changes: Three key components of proper running gait are reviewed and described in detail including trunk counter-rotation, extension of atlanto-occipital joint in conjunction with a forward tilted trunk, and ankle and hip joint range of motion. Conclusions: When underlying gait abnormalities and mental skills are addressed properly, they can disrupt poor breathing mechanics, facilitating a transition away from DB and toward healthier breathing patterns. KEY POINTS  In summary, the following points should be considered when evaluating athletes who are having difficulty breathing even when compliant with their medications or if there is not an indication of asthma or EIB: Assess dysfunctional breathing (DB) with Nijmegen questionnaire (NQ). If DB is present, measure mental skills using the Sisu Quiz to determine an athlete's mental skills profile. Evaluate postural changes that may impact an athlete's ability to breathe. Using the three tools of the NQ, Sisu Quiz, and Postural assessments creates an athlete profile that is clinically useful to improve breathing technique. DB is often mistaken for other conditions for which medications are prescribed. By identifying DB early and making appropriate changes may negate or reduce the need for pharmacotherapy. Improving DB will improve athletic performance.


The invention discloses a fast motion estimation method realized based on GPU (graphics processing unit) parallel. The method comprises the following steps: firstly, whether a current segment belongs to a background domain is judged through a maximum probability using local full-search; secondly, if the current segment belongs to the background domain, full-pixel precision search is ended, or else a search step length is increased by reducing a search domain resolution, and an optimal motion vector distribution range is captured by executing local full-pixel full-search of low resolution, i.e., coarse positioning; thirdly, after the segment belonging to the motion domain is subjected to coarse positioning, the motion vector distribution range is refined by local full-search, so as to accomplish motion estimation of full-pixel precision, i.e., refining positioning; finally, a search template with high density and high precision is used for refining the motion vector, thereby accomplishing a quarter of pixel precision search and ending the motion estimation of the current segment. A termination judgment technique is adopted in the search process, i.e., if a minimum distortion reference segment reaches a set matching precision, the full-pixel search process of the algorithm is ended, and all search points of each step in the search process will have no change.


The article deals with the experimental investigations of electro catalysis processes. The electric field influence on a catalytic reaction operating character is observed. The graphic dependences which illustrated the kinetics of catalytic process occurs in an electric field are obtained.


Cyclo drives are characterised by very high efficiency compared to conventional gear drives. In this paper has been analysed the influence of design parameters in order to find their impact on the efficiency of cyclo drive. The values of design parameters are changed in admissible domain. The design parameters that have a significant impact on the efficiency are: number of housing rollers, number of output mechanism rollers, pitch radius of housing rollers and pitch radius of output mechanism rollers.


In this paper, the frequency sharing issue between time division duplex-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing/orthogonal frequency division multiple access(TDD-OFDM/OFDMA) based systems beyond third generation(B3G) and fixed Satellite Service(FSS) earth station has been studied. The conventional advanced minimum coupling loss(A-MCL) is adopted to assess the interference from a single base station(BS) of B3G systems. The aggregated interferences from base stations and mobile stations(MS) are evaluated by applying the extended A-MCL and analysed with a cumulative density function(CDF). The minimum distances that enable a single FSS earth station to sharing the frequency with a single BS are between 4 and 53.3 km. In the case of 20 MS per sector, the BS-to-BS distance and the minimum distance between a ES and BS are 6.5 and 2.8 km, respectively.


• Covered stents are used in a plethora of clinical scenarios. However, available sizes of approved covered stents are limited, especially for pediatric patients. • This ex vivo study attempted to find the limits of expansion of small-diameter covered stents used for peripheral vascular intervention. • The authors suggest that the studied stents can probably be dilated safely well beyond their labeled diameters, with some variability among stent models. • Studies such as this one are welcome, as they provide reassurance to vascular interventionalists and help us find solutions for our patients.


[Objective]The aim was to improve the economic benefit of tobacco-growing and increase the income of tobacco farmer. [Method]A field experiment was conducted to study the effectiveness of interplanting tine peas under M-type and wide double ridges in tobacco production.[Result]The yield of tobacco increased by 166.3 kg/hm2 on average,while the yield of tine peas increased by 2 904 kg /hm2,the tobacco farmer increased 11 525. 82 CNY /hm2. It made chemical composition of tobacco more harmonious and the smoking score was higher,and the best time of interplanting was after knocking off foot-leaves. [Conclusion]It was possible to interplant flue-cured tobacco with tine peas.


An experiment to determine the relationship between structural response stability with respect to ambient temperature and relative humidity is presented. The response of a lightly damped structure was studied over a twenty-six hour period. A direct relationship between temperature changes in dynamic response of the structure was found. This study's results are important to any project where testing is done over extended periods of time since structural stability is assumed in merging the various data obtained from various portions of the structure. Recommendations are given for further research in this area.


This paper analyses two business scenarios to evaluate the strategic impact of Future Internet and the Unified Management Framework facilitating autonomic networking in existing and future networks. The methodology is supported by three independently developed research frameworks allowing for the evaluation of the main business and strategic challenges that will arise between multiple business actors. The bottlenecks in the specific scenarios are the application service provider, solvable by a rethinking of the cost sharing model, and the location owners, who might not be organized enough to be a factor.


The telomere G-strand binding protein Pot1 plays multifaceted roles in telomere maintenance and protection. We examined the biochemical activity and genetic mechanisms of Pot1 in Ustilago maydis, a fungal model that recapitulates key features of mammalian telomere regulation. We found that U. maydis Pot1 binds directly to Rad51 and regulates the latter's strand exchange activity. Deleting an N-terminal domain of Pot1 implicated in Rad51-binding caused telomere shortening, suggesting that Pot1-Rad51 interaction facilitates telomere replication. Depleting Pot1 through transcriptional repression triggered growth arrest as well as rampant recombination, leading to multiple telomere aberrations. In addition, telomere repeat RNAs transcribed from both the G- and C-strand were dramatically up-regulated, and this was accompanied by elevated levels of telomere RNA-DNA hybrids. Telomere abnormalities of pot1-deficient cells were suppressed, and cell viability was rescued by the deletion of rad51 or brh2 (the BRCA2 ortholog), indicating that homology-directed repair (HDR) proteins are key mediators of telomere aberrations and cellular toxicity. Together, these observations underscore the complex physical and functional interactions between Pot1 and DNA repair factors, leading to context-dependent and dichotomous effects of HDR proteins on telomere maintenance and protection.


A method of forming a feature of the etching layer is provided. A first mask is formed over the etch layer, the first mask defines a plurality of spaces with widths. Sidewall layer is formed over the first mask. Features are etched into the etch layer through the sidewall layer, the features have a smaller width than the width of the space defined by the first mask. The mask of claim 1 with the side wall layer is removed. The additional mask is formed over the etch layer, the additional mask defines a plurality of spaces with widths. Sidewall layer is formed over the additional mask. Features are etched into the etch layer through the sidewall layer, the width of the features is smaller than the width of the space defined by the first mask. The additional mask and sidewall layer are removed. Etching layer, the features, the mask, the critical dimension, a number of masks


With the responsibility for a manufacturer of length measuring instruments, a laser stabilized by the saturated absorbing molecule 127 12, one of the light sources recommended by the Comite International des Poids et Measure, are made as length standard of Mitutoyo Corporation. It has been confirmed that this laser, when compared with that of the National Research Lab.of Metrology, Japan, meets the internationally required level of accuracy. This laser is used for calibrating both the light source of the interferometer for linear encoder scales and the laser wave length used for measurement in our plants. The results of laser frequency comparison shows that the differences of wave length and of its stability are large even in same type laser and the preheating time is different in individual laser. The efficient usage of laser is given by the comparison for traceability.


Abstract Objective To conduct a systematic review to describe cognitive abilities in bipolar disorder (BD) in comparison to cognitive abilities in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. Methods A literature search was performed with no year or language restrictions. The search yielded 1,461 articles, with 1,261 remaining after removal of duplicates, five of which were suitable for the systematic review: two for the comparison between BD and MCI and three comparing BD and dementia. Results Analyses from our systematic review showed that euthymic individuals with BD present impairments in cognitive domains such as attention and executive functioning, motor skills, conceptual thinking, and visuo-spatial abilities that are equally severe as or more severe than the impairments observed in individuals with MCI. In contrast, studies comparing BD and dementia indicated that Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) both showed greater cognitive deficits than BD during euthymia, whereas BD during a mood episode demonstrated higher cognitive impairments than bvFTD. Conclusion Findings from our systematic review suggest that cognitive impairments in euthymic BD fall into a range between the impairments seen in MCI and those seen in dementia. More studies are needed to analyze these comparisons, while also focusing on comparing different clinical stages of BD with MCI and dementia to analyze the progression of the clinical course and cognitive dysfunction in BD.PROSPERO registration ID: CRD42020150412


Translation, the process of reading genetic information and synthesizing the corresponding proteins, is universal and found throughout the three domains of life. The flow of information in translation involves a series of distinct but highly conserved RNA·protein complexes with the ribosome being the largest ribonucleoprotein complex in the cell. As the molecular instantiation of the genetic code, tRNA plays a central role in the translational machinery where it interacts with several proteins and other RNAs during the course of protein synthesis. We use molecular dynamics (MD) simulations informed by evolutionary analysis to investigate the dynamics of several RNA·protein complexes involved in translation. Many analysis methods and tools were developed during the course of this study. We present the evolutionary analysis environment MultiSeq, dynamical network analysis and visualization, and a protocol for the preparation of RNA·protein MD simulations. For several Class I aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs), the rate determining step in aminoacylation is the dissociation of the charged tRNA from the enzyme. Through molecular modeling, internal pKa calculations, and MD simulations, distinct, mechanistically relevant post-transfer states with the charged tRNA (Glu-tRNAGlu) bound to glutamyl-tRNA synthetase are considered. The behavior of these nonequilibrium states is characterized as a function of time using dynamical network analysis, local energetics, and changes in free energies to estimate transitions that occur during the release of the tRNA. Dynamical network analysis reveals that there are a large number of suboptimal paths through the protein·RNA complex that can be used for communication between the identity elements on the tRNAs and the catalytic site in the aaRS·tRNA complexes. Residues and nucleotides in the majority of pathways bridging communities, local substructures that are highly intraconnected but loosely interconnected, are evolutionarily conserved and are predicted to be important for allosteric signaling. The same monomers are also found in a majority of the suboptimal paths. Modifying these residues or nucleotides has a large effect on the communication pathways in the protein·RNA complex consistent with kinetic data. The highly conserved general base Glu41 is proposed to be a part of a proton relay system for destabilizing the bound charging amino acid following aminoacylation. Addition of elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) to the aaRS·tRNA complex stimulates the dissociation of the tRNA core and acceptor stem. We use MD simulations to investigate the dynamics of the EF-Tu·GTP·aa-tRNACys complex and the roles played by Mg2+ ions and modified nucleosides on the free energy of RNA·protein binding. Combined energetic and evolutionary analyses identify the coevolution of residues in EF-Tu and aa-tRNAs at the binding interface. Highly conserved EF-Tu residues are responsible for both attracting aa-tRNAs as well as providing nearby nonbonded repulsive energies which help fine-tune molecular attraction at the binding interface. The trend in EF-Tu·Cys-tRNACys binding energies observed as the result of mutating the tRNA agrees with experimental observation. We also predict variations in binding free energies upon misacylation of tRNACys with D-cysteine or O-phosphoserine and upon changing the protonation state of L-cysteine. Finally, ongoing work is presented on the role of ribosomal signatures in the first steps of ribosomal assembly. Ribosomal signatures are features that are completely conserved within one domain of life but absent from the other domains. Correlations between rRNA signatures and signatures in the ribosomal proteins (r-proteins) show that the rRNA signatures coevolved with both domain specific r-proteins and


To evaluate the effectiveness of Krestin® (PSK), we conducted a clinical trial of head and neck cancer patients from 1987 to 1991. A total of 44 patients were included in this trial. To control the primary lesion and the metastasis, they received various treatments, i. e. surgery, radiation, or a combination of these treatments with or without chemotherapy. After the completion of these treatments, the patients were divided into two groups. One group (22 patients) received 3g/day of PSK orally.The 1-year disease-free rate of the PSK group was higher (generalized Wilcoxon test p=0.052) than that of the control group. The 2-year survival rate of the PSK group was also higher than that of the control group. The 2-year survival rate of the 15 patients with recurrence, was significantly higher (G. W. p=0.014) in the PSK group than in the control group.We also measured the level of immunosuppressive substance (IS) in the serum of 28 patients. It is thought that the IS level reveals the patients' immunosuppressive condition. The changes of the IS level suggested that PSK helped in the recovery of immunosuppressive function. The administration of PSK appears to be useful in the management of patients with head and neck cancer.


: Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) detectors observe ionization electrons to measure charged particle trajectories and energy. In a LArTPC, the long time ( ∼ ms) between when the ionization is produced and when it is collected means that diffusion can smear the charge by an amount comparable to the spatial resolution of the detector, given by the spacing between charge sensing channels ( ∼ mm). This smearing has an impact on the distribution of energy losses measured by each channel. In particular, the smearing acts to increase the effective "thickness" seen by each channel, and therefore the most-probable-value (MPV) of particle energy loss. We find, for example, that this effect shifts the MPV 𝑑𝐸 / 𝑑𝑥 of a 1 GeV muon by ∼ 4% for a 2 ms drift time and 4 . 7 mm wire spacing, as in the DUNE-FD LArTPC. This has implications for the energy-scale calibration and electron lifetime measurements in a LArTPC, which both use the MPV of the muon energy loss Landau as a "standard candle". The impact of diffusion on these calibrations is assessed.


This article is devoted to a topical and important issue. Information security is one of the most pressing problems of the modern digital economy. To a large extent, this concerns the financial sector, which carries out electronic transactions and is actively looking for more efficient analogues of metal coins, paper banknotes, plastic cards, etc. Thus, the intensive introduction of information technologies entails cybersecurity problems. The emergence and consolidation of the cryptocurrency on the world market causes a tangible need to reinstitutionalize the existing economic relations. The main reason for these problems, most likely, should be called an acute shortage of specialists in the field of modern information technologies and who understand the essence of the ongoing changes associated with the digitalization of the economy.


Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics,treatment approaches for chestnut thorn foreign bodies in eyes.Methods 140 cases with chestnut thorn foreign bodies in eyes were studied retrospectively,according to where the chestnut thorn lied and how long they had been in the eyes.Different surgical methods were used to remove the foreign bodies.For example,extraction of foreign body in deep layer of cornea;extraction of intraocular foreign body through cornea incision and sclerotomy;extraction of anterior chamber foreign body with viscoelastics;extraction of foreign body through phacoemulsification combining with implantation of intraocular lens;extraction of foreign body through iris reoditor.Results All anterior segment foreign bodies were successfully removed.Visual acuity was improved in different degree in 91 cases(65%) and unchanged in 49 cases(35%),none of the case showed the visual acuity decreased.Conclusions Anterior segment intraocular foreign body is likely to induce severe infection;successful management to remove foreign bodies thoroughly from the eyes is the key point for prevention.


High-boiling petroleum distillates are quite different from crude coal liquids of similar boiling range and more likel hydrotreated coal liquids in their content of PAH dermal tumorigens, tumorigenicity, and mutagenicity. Refining levels our differences in the composition among the crude oils, and lesser compositional differences are observed for their refined naphthas. Differences (if any) in the toxicity of the vapors of the naphthas are likely to be small and subtle. More complex and comprehensive biological testing would be required to quantitate differences in potential health effects. However, the results suggest that the HFO/HD and VGO distillates of these petroleum crude oils are not substantially more mutagenic or tumorigenic than the undistilled petroleum crude oils, in comparison to crude coal liquids. Thus, there do not appear to be any substantial advantages to preparing and using distillate fractions (at least of these) petroleum crude oils as benchmarks for comparative mutagenicity and tumorigenicity testing. The original data in the literature on unfractionated petroleum crude oils appear suitable for comparison with coal liquids. The concentrations of selected four- to six-ring PAH dermal tumorigens in the high boiling distillate fractions of lighter petroleum crude oils were found to be only ca. 2.5 times more concentratedmore » than in the undistilled crude oils. Further, these PAH in the distillate fractions were at least one to two orders of magnitude lower than in crude coal liquids of comparable boiling range, and more similar to those of hydrotreated coal liquids. 26 refs., 2 figs., 12 tabs.« less


Loop unrolling is a loop transformation where a few loop iterations are grouped as a super iteration for exploring more independent instructions and to decrease the total loop overhead. This paper characterizes loop unrolling by the unrolling factor, the number of iterations in a super iteration and the unrolling direction, the choice of iterations to be grouped to form the super iteration. We use loop unrolling for maximizing instruction-level parallelism in the longest common subsequence problem. To increase the number of independent instructions in the super iteration, we use a linear schedule to group iterations on the same wave front, a hyper plane in the loop iteration space. Then, the loop is unrolled along the wave front which guarantees all iterations in the same super iteration are independent. The selection of the optimal unrolling factor is based on the assumption that if all the pipelines are saturated, the performance should not be bad. Two necessary conditions and a sufficient condition for optimality are presented and used to find the optimal unrolling factor. The total execution time is expressed as a function of algorithm parameters, architecture parameters and the unrolling factor. A benchmark of the technique scores a 1.475 speed-up over traditional methods.


This paper focuses on popular music written and produced by Singaporeans to illustrate the nature of social relationships based on ideological hegemony and resistance. Analysis is based on two groups of music: 'national' songs supported by the government in the 'Sing Singapore' programme; and songs brought together in Not the Singapore song book. Interviews with local lyricists and analysis of video productions provide supplementary information. Music is used by the ruling dlite to perpetuate certain ideologies aimed at political socialization and to inculcate a civil religion that directs favour and fervour towards the nation. Music is also a form of cultural resistance against state policies and some social-cultural norms. Music embodies social commentaries on aspects of Singapore society, such as controversial government policies and the ostentatious lifestyle of many Singaporeans.


This chapter debunks the conventional wisdom that the primary function of the stock market is to be a value-creating institution, raising cash for corporations by pointing to the fact that the separation of ownership and control in the past occurred because of a managerial constraint, not a capital constraint, as well as the fact that, throughout the twentieth century and continuing in the twenty-first century, the U.S. stock markets have been net extractors of money from the corporate sector. The chapter explains the five general functions of the stock market: Control; Cash; Creation; Combination; and Compensation. It then analyzes how a broad adoption of the MSV view changed the relative importance of those functions and eventually brought about the imbalance between value creation and value extraction.


Urban streams globally are characterised by degraded habitat conditions and low aquatic biodiversity, attributed in large part to the effects of stormwater inputs and channel modification and maintenance. Recent work in Hamilton City has highlighted the ability of some threatened fish species to survive in urban streams that retain habitat complexity in vegetated gullies, and the presence of diverse stream invertebrate communities in small streams and seepages that remain disconnected from the stormwater network. Recently completed research to assist the City's gully restoration programme has shown that it is comparatively easy to establish a low diversity indigenous forest canopy on bared sites within 20 years, and by this stage, some early maturing canopy species will be starting to regenerate. Shade and bank stability provided by restored vegetation should assist in mitigating some of the effects of stormwater inputs on stream biota. Furthermore, retention of large pieces of wood in stream channels will help provide refugia for fish from stormflows, and release of juvenile galaxiid fish may provide a method of population restoration. Active introduction and stabilisation of wood may be required until restored riparian vegetation matures sufficiently to provide a long-term supply of wood.


The present investigation was carried out in rabi 2010–11 at farmers' fields of District Ferozepur. The intercropping system involved cultivation of summer squash, chilly, capsicum and squash melon as main crop along with cucumber as intercrop under low tunnel technology. These vegetables were also grown as sole crop under transparent polythene sheet by forming low tunnels. Intercropping of chilly and cucumber was the most beneficial treatment to enhance the yield and economic returns of the farmers under low tunnel technology. The next best treatment was cultivation of chilly alone followed by intercropping of capsicum and cucumber. Transparent polythene sheet having 72 inch of width advanced first picking of squash melon by 10.3 days and increased the yield by 41.8 q/ha as compared to 53 inch wide polythene sheet.


In 1956, Nutman launched the idea of root-hair invagination as a mechanism for the rhizobial infection of leguminous plants. This hypothesis was founded mainly on negative evidence: no enzymic or physical penetration of the root-hair wall by the bacteria had ever been observed. Later investigations (Fiihraeus & Ljunggren, 1959) seemed to show that the enzyme polygalacturonase (PG) actually plays a part in the infection, but this does not necessarily mean that the cell wall becomes penetrated; PG may also take part in an invagination process (Ljunggren & Fiihraeus, 1961). Direct evidence for such a mechanism has so far been lacking. In an electron microscopic study of soybean root-nodules Bergersen & Briggs (1958) observed bacteroids surrounded by membrane systems that were thought to be continuous with the host cell membrane, but no micrograph was presented to illustrate this. The findings were, however, interpreted as giving support to Nutman's hypothesis. We have tried to get more direct proof by studying the sites of infection on the root hairs in the electron microscope. This would seem to be an extremely difficult task because of the well-known scarcity of infected root hairs in most leguminous plants. However, by means of a slight modification of the slide technique for growing clover seedlings (FQhraeus, 1957) it was possible to locate the infection threads accurately enough for successful sectioning, and a number of electron micrographs of infected root hairs have been obtained.


Abstract This study seeks to problematize the paucity of children's literature written in Spanish by U.S. Hispanic authors and its effect on the quality of bilingual education programs. Findings of the study indicate that (1) many of the available books come from Spanish speaking countries or are translations of English works into Spanish; (2) a high degree of imbalance exits among the genres; (3) few books are published for students in late exit or maintenance bilingual programs; (4) evidence of a lack of "author balance" exists with several prominent authors writing many more books than others and few male authors represented; and (5) relatively few of the children's books were written by Mexican-American authors. It is suggested that U.S. Hispanic teachers respond to the challenge by authoring children's books themselves in order to change the trends in children's literature written in Spanish.


The crude methanolic extract of the seeds of Celastrus paniculatus along with its organic soluble fractions were tested for their possible antioxidant and antialzheirmer (AD) activity. The extracts showed prominent DPPH free radical scavenging activity, inhibiting activity of authentic peroxynitrite (ONOO-) and inhibition of total reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. In DPPH radical scavenging assay, the EtOAc fraction showed the highest activity with a IC50 value of 25.92±1.02 μg/ml whereas aqueous fractions had no activity at all within the tested concentration. Scavenging of the authentic ONOO- system, all extract/fractions showed good activity and among them, EtOAc fraction had the highest activity with a IC50 value of 15.79±0.18 μg/ml. EtOAc fraction also showed significant (p<0.001) inhibitory activity against the total ROS generation which was almost similar with that of the positive control Trolox (IC50 16.79±0.19 μg/ml). All extract/fractions exhibited statistically significant (p<0.001) cholinesterases (ChEs) inhibitory effects with IC50 values ranging between 134.7-227.5 μg/ml for AChE and 209.6-562.1 μg/ml for BChE.


Objective To explore the clinical value of laparoscopic operation in the treatment of ectopic pregnancy. Methods The preoperative preparation was finished at 2 h after admission of 62 cases of ectopic pregnancy. Laparoscopic instrument was installed after general anestheasia of patients with ectopic pregnancy. Salpingotomy was performed in 56 cases, and removal of the embryo from the fimbria end of fallopian tube in 6 cases. Results Operation was performed laparoscopically. The average operative time was 52 minutes. Liquefied fat around the incision in the umbilical region was found in 2 cases, but no complications were found in the other cases. The success rate of the operation was 100%. Conclusion Laparoscopic operation can be used for the treatment of ectopic pregnancy if the indications are well selected.


The design of mixed-signal ASICs for space requires a detailed knowledge of the behaviour of the technology to be used in an environment imposing radiation levels and temperatures beyond those found in standard applications. Commercial foundries providing standard CMOS technologies do not usually have or make available data on the behaviour of their devices under those conditions. Instituto de Microelectrónica de Sevilla and Universidad de Sevilla (IMSE-USE) have started a long term collaboration with the Spanish Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA) to extend its experience on mixed-signal design to the field of ASICs for space applications. The assessment of a commercial (austriamicrosystems) 0.35 µm CMOS technology is a first step towards the development of a mixed-signal design methodology, including an RHBD digital library suitable for use in space conditions.


Recent advances in ultra-short pulse visible and uv laser technology make it practical for the first time to consider the production of multiply ionized laboratory plasmas in which ionization is moderated by an external optical field rather than by electron collisions. Such plasmas will be remarkable for the high degree of disequilibrium that can be achieved between the distribution of ionization and the electron energy distribution. In particular it should be possible to produce plasmas in which the electron energy distribution is much cooler (either locally or over a distance comparable to an electron mean free path) than the ionization temperature. This leads naturally to consideration of the use of these plasmas for short wavelength recombination lasers.


Literary and linguistic prosody principles can provide music educators and students with constructive, time honoured, deeply creative songwriting strategies. This article is an opportunity to share a direct and unique classroom experience of teaching prosody within songwriting. Through discussing a personal songwriting and teaching practice grounded in prosody, this article will present recommendations for a specific pedagogy underpinned by prosody for use in the songwriting classroom. Within this article the principles of literary and linguistic prosody will be outlined and discussed alongside songwriting strategies such as writing from a title, matching stressed syllables to stressed beats, metre, song structure and rhyme. The principle of prosody will also be expanded to involve the idea of unity and will be explained in relation to songwriting areas including rhythm, harmony, melody and performance.


This research is performed to test the influence of kurs change, interest rate change, inflation change, GDP change and IHSG change toward stock return.
 Methodology research as the sample used purposive sampling with criteria as (1) IHSK in ISX over period 2004-2008. Data analysis with multi linier regression of ordinary least square and hypotheses test used t-statistic and f-statistic at level of significance 5%.
 During 2004-2008 period show as deviation has not founded this indicate classical assumption that the available data has fulfill the condition to use multi linier regression model. Empirical evidence show kurs change, interest rate change, inflation change, GDP change to have influence toward stock return at level of significance less than 5%, IHSG change have not influence toward stock return at level of significance more than 5%.


The purpose of this note is to extend a second order limit law for one dimensional Cauchy process obtained in Kasahara (Y. Kasahara, Limit theorems for occupation times of Markov processes, Publ. RIMS, Kyoto Univ. 12 (1977), pp. 801–818), using the method of moments and some kind of chaining argument.


Steel reinforcing bars are often coated with rusts formed during service in reinforced concrete (RC) structures. Rust layers growing on steel rebars induce expansive stresses and cause cracking on cover concrete. This study uses steel corrosion rate results measured on reinforced concrete buildings of more than 50 years of age located in marine environments and considers the pressure generated by the volume expansion of corrosion product layers to calculate the service life of the RC structures using a numerical simulation, estimating the time to corrosion cracking of the concrete cover. Akaganeite, goethite, lepidocrocite, hematite, magnetite and maghemite were identified by X-ray diffraction as crystalline phase constituents of the rust layers.


A patient received an overdose of intravascular contrast medium and experienced protracted seizures associated with radiographic evidence of prolonged retention of the contrast agent in the cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, and thalami. This is only the second report and the first survivor of a similar neurologic syndrome occurring in a patient after contrast agent overdose. After the seizures resolved, there was a transient period of parkinsonism probably due to the toxic effect of contrast on the basal ganglia.


A mobile terminal, comprising: a can be assembled or separated from the housing; a printed circuit board (the PCB), disposed in the housing and having a pattern of tamper detection, tamper detection pattern having a plurality of conductive regions and at least one non-conductive region; Conductive zone connection means disposed between the housing and the PCB, and are electrically connected during the assembly of the housing and a portion of the housing disconnected during the separation of the portion of the electrically conductive region and the conductive region; and a conductive region connection detection circuit, coupled to the plurality of electrically conductive regions and electrically detecting the connected state between the plurality of conductive regions. A plurality of conductive regions comprises: a first conductive region; a second plurality of conductive regions disposed separated from each other and connected to the first conductive region via the conductive region connecting element; and at least a portion of the third conductive region, a third conductive regions disposed between the second conductive region.


the 4th week of pregnancy, and the second case happened 10 days after intravitreal injection during the 5th week of pregnancy. Thus, it is recommended that anti-VEGF should be given to a pregnant woman only if clearly needed, andespeciallynot during the first trimester. Finally, it is not known whether anti-VEGF agents are secreted in human milk (Errera et al. 2013). Consequently, it is recommended to stop the lactation if injections are needed. Intravitreal ranibizumab during pregnancy was effective and safe to treat ICNV in this case report.


We propose a reversible model of the migration-driven aggregation-fragmentation process with the symmetric migration rate kernels and the constant aggregation rates I1, I2 and fragmentation rates J1, J2. Based on the mean-field theory, we investigate the evolution behavior of the aggregate size distributions in several cases with different values of index υ. We find that the fragmentation reaction plays a more important role in the kinetic behaviors of the system than the aggregation and migration. When J1=0 and J2 =0, the aggregate size distributions ak(t) and bk(t) obey the conventional scaling law, while when J1>0 and J2>0, they obey the modified scaling law with an exponential scaling function. The total mass of either species remains conserved.


systems. We assume that the system consists of a cylindrically symmetric waveguide with an arbitrarily varying wall radius (including jump discontinuities) and represent the electromagnetic fields as a set of transverse electric and transverse magnetic modes which are defined by the local value of the wall radius. We thus obtain a set of coupled transmission line equations for the voltage and current amplitudes of the various modes. The coupling of among the modes originates in the variations of the wall radius, finite conductivity of the walls and the electron beam. We describe the electron dynamics using the guiding center formulation of the equations of motion with an arbitrary profile of the guiding magnetic field. A significant simplification of these equations is obtained when all the particles traverse the cavity in a time shorter than the cavity fill time. The combined set of equations for the electromagnetic amplitudes and the electron trajectories form the reduced description we are employing in the MAGY code. In this work we present first results obtained with the new MAGY code for a generic Gyrodevices and a Backward Wave Oscillator. Work supported by AFOSR and ONR. * On leave from Rafael, Haifa, Israel.


An electronic component and a method of manufacturing the electronic device will be described. One embodiment includes attaching a first semiconductor chip (10) to a first metallic clip (11). The first semiconductor chip (10) is placed by attaching the first semiconductor chip (10) to the first metallic clip (11) on a system carrier (13).


The APOS/ACE instructional treatment for learning and teaching mathematics was developed during the 1990's by a team of mathematicians and mathematics educators led by Ed Dubinsky. In the present article we design in terms of the APOS/ACE treatment a general plan for teaching the real numbers at an elementary level (high school and college introductory mathematical courses). Our didactic approach is based on multiple representations of real numbers and on flexible transformations among them. Two classroom experiments performed during the last two academic years with students of my institution (T. E. I. of Patras, Greece) are also reported illustrating the effectiveness of our teaching design in practice. Introduction Research focussed on the comprehension of irrational numbers shows that, apart from the earlier incomplete comprehension of rational numbers, they are also other obstacles (cognitive and epistemological) making it even more difficult (Herscovics 1989, Sierpinska 1994, Sirotic & Zazkis 2007a, etc). Fischbein et al. (1995) assumed that possible obstacles for the comprehension of irrational numbers could be the intuitive difficulties that revealed themselves in the history of mathematics, i.e. the existence of incommensurable magnitudes and the fact that the power of continuum of the set R of real numbers is higher than the power of Q, which, although being an everywhere dense set, can not cover all points of a given interval. Their basic conclusion resulting from their experiments with school students and pre-service teachers was that, since school mathematics is generally not concerned with the systematic teaching of the hierarchical structure of the various classes of numbers, most of high school students and many pre-service teachers were not able to define correctly the concepts of rational, irrational and real numbers, neither to identify various examples of numbers. They also found that, contrary to their initial assumption, the concept of irrational numbers does not encounter in general a particular intuitive difficulty in students' mind. Hence they assumed that such difficulties are not primitive ones and they express a relatively high level of mathematical education. However they suggest that for a better understanding of irrational numbers the teacher should turn students' attention on these difficulties rather, than ignore them. Peled & Hershkovitz (1999) performing an experimental research observed that pre-service mathematics teachers being at their second and third


A study was undertaken to evaluate the resistance of various materials and coatings to the adherence of molten borosilicate glass. Candidate materials were ranked on the ability to shed molten glass as the material surface temperature was elevated. Superior performance was achieved with materials that either had a high thermal conductivity or were non-metallic/non-wetting. Metallic materials that formed loosely adhering oxide layers also performed acceptably. Results of the test and application of the candidate material in a radioactive waste glass melter will be presented.


The paper notes synthetical statement of Xiaorya with scientific mothod. The notes not only absorb the results of traditional translation research, but include some opinions of presentday research as well.The paper includes whether xiaoryais false book, when it was completed, who is its author. The relation between erya and xiaorya as well as its effect and value in the history of Chinese linguistics and ci books.


This paper studies monolithic realization of SAW and layer wave devices using semiconductor layer in GaN/Al2O3. We try to fabricate transducer and control means with N+ layer and AlGaN/GaN hetero-structures. Experimental studies clarified that N + layer is effectively used as IDTs and the hetero structure is useful for realizing field effect variable SAW devices monolithically


This study aimed to use fresh azolla and bio-fertilizer in form of bio-organic fertilizer for increasing rice productivity and improving soil properties. Field experiment was conducted in Napa Sub-district, Mueang District, Phetchabun Province for four months. Three treatments of this study composed with T1: using chemical fertilizer (control), T2: using chemical fertilizer and azolla and T3: using bio-organic fertilizer and azolla, respectively. The results found that pH and organic matter (OM) in T1 and T2 were lower than T3. Considering to rice yield, T2 and T3 had lower rice yields than T1, but there were no statistical differences among treatments. In this study we concluded that chemical fertilizer had an affected on soil properties especially pH and OM while, Azolla and bio-organic fertilizer could enhance rice yield, preserved OM in soil and stabilize soil pH level.


The compounds of 3-aminopyridine-2-carboxylic acid with K(+) (1) and Zn(2+) (2) were found to be AIE-active. The AIE behaviours could be attributed to the restriction of intramolecular rotation (RIR) and vibration (RIV) via hydrogen bonds, resulting in rigidity enhancement of the molecules. An AIE-based fluorescence turn on chemosensor for the Zn(ii) ion has been developed in aqueous media with high selectivity and sensitivity.


Considering the structure parameter and the C_(2v) symmetry crystal field, we have calculated the electronic absorption spectrum of Cr~(4+) in Mg_2SiO_4. The theoretical values obtained are in good agreement with the experimental results. From this, the existence of Cr~(4+)laser ion in Mg_2SiO_4 have been identified further.


Objective To discuss the effect of the nutritional support that is used on the advanced esophageal cancer patients in the preoperative period. The enteral nutrition and parenteral nutrition have their advantages and disadvantages,these are also discussed. Methods 40 patients with advanced esophageal cancer were randomly divided into enteral nutrition group(EN group) and parenteral nutrition group(PN group). Each group has 20 cases and was given different forms of nutritional support.Redults EN and PN have improved the nutritional status of the body. The short-term effect of the EN and PN is similar. But from the aspects of promoting intestinal function and physical rehabilitation and protecting the intestinal mucosal barrier and improving the cell immune function and reducing the damage to liver function and reducing the hospital costs.The EN is better than PN.Conclusions Each type of nutrition has a role in reducing protein catabolism and improving nutritional status. Compared to PN, EN could significantly promote the recovery of intestinal function.The EN also has the characters such as to be safe,effective,cheap, and to be consistent with physiology etc.

Key words:
Esophageal cancer;  Preoperative period;  Enteral nutrition


The enhancement of compound elastic scattering is a function of the probability distribution of the resonance decay widths. It is calculated for four different forms of this distribution and then shown that: in the regime of overlapping levels: the experiment confirms Gaussian statistics.


Abstract. –Fluorescence detected magnetic resonance (FDMR) and fluorimetry have been used to study chlorophyll‐water complexes at T= 4.2 K. By combining these methods, zero‐field splitting (ZFS)‐parameters can be assigned to the triplet state of the various species. It is found that these parameters decrease upon aggregation and/or complexation. These results can be rationalized by using a simple free‐electron model for chlorophyll including excitonic interaction. Evidence is presented favouring a structure recently proposed by Shipman and Katz for a chlorophyll‐dimer involving hydrogen‐bonded water, present in non‐polar solutions at low temperature with spectral properties similar to those of chlorophyll in vivo.


Percutanous nephrolithotomy is the gold standard method for large kidney stones currently. It offers high success and low complication rates. Aim There are only a few reports of fractured guidewires inside the pelvicalyceal system, removed with endourology and open surgery techniques, and this is a tour knowledge the first one presenting a broken guidwire in the gerota fat. A 60-year-old man is hospitalized in our department of urology, Mohammed IV university medical center for the management of a PCNL failure in a private clinic.A CT scan showed the presence of a metal device in the gerota fat, we performed an open nephrolithomy, the evolution was favorable. Some equipment used during nlpc can lead to severe issues (broken guidwire and laser fibers) and and open surgery is the only way to resolve the situation.


Background and Objectives: The hereditary coagulation disorder patients are excessively at risk for hepatitis C virus (HCV) due to multiple blood and coagulation factors transfusions. Hepatitis C treatment was first based on the use of interferon alpha but later combination therapy with peginterferon plus ribavirin increased the sustained virologic response to 50%. The present study aimed to evaluate the response rate to treatment with peginterferon plus ribavirin in hereditary coagulative disorder patients with chronic hepatitis C. Materials and Methods: This study is a descriptive analytical and applied study without control group. Forty HCV positive hereditary coagulative disorder patients referred to our clinic during 2007-2008 were enrolled. Liver biopsy was not performed in any of the studied patients due to its potential risks. Treatment included peginterferon alpha-2a (180 mg/week) plus ribavirin (800-1200 mg/day) for 24-48 weeks. Early virologic response (EVR) was defined as a negative HCV-RNA level at the end of 12 weeks of treatment. Results: In 12.9% of the patients, a positive history of previous treatment for hepatitis C with interferon and ribavirin was found. Virus genotype was 1b in 21.9% of patients, 1a in 37.5% and 3a in 34.4% and a combination of 3a and 1a in 6.3%. The mean pretreatment viral load was 1220183.7 copies/mL and viral load after 3-month treatment was zero (P<0.001). Conclusion: Among EVR enhancing factors (low virus level and young age of the patients), the young age was an important factor leading to full EVR achievement. Lack of severe complications and appropriate drug response excluding the viral genotype is indicative of the advantages of combination therapy of peginterferon plus ribavirin in hereditary coagulative disorder patients with chronic hepatitis C.


Metaplastic carcinoma is a rare form of breast carcinoma. Herein we reported a breast cancer patient with metaplastic carcinoma which mimicked infiltrating ductal carcinoma in the initial pathological diagnosis. She received modified radical mastectomy, adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy to the chest wall and loco-regional lymphatic area. Eight months after radiotherapy, a 3 x 2 cm hard mass over the right upper margin of incision was noted. The pathology revealed metaplastic carcinoma. Sequentially multi-organ metastases to the bones, lung and brain developed. The survival period was only 26 months from the diagnosis of breast cancer. The pathology pictures and literature of metaplastic breast carcinoma were reviewed and discussed.


Operational experience with model-driven steering in the linac of the Stanford Linear Collider (SLC) is discussed. Important issues include two-beam steering, sensitivity of algorithms to fault components, sources of disagreement with the model, and the effects of the finite resolution of beam position monitors. Methods developed to make the steering algorithms more robust in the presence of such complications are also presented.<<ETX>>


Toxoplasmosis is a widespread zoonotic disease caused by one of opportunistic parasite called Toxoplasma gondii .The current study was conducted in Thi-Qar province to investigate the parasite Toxoplasma gondii among heamodialysis patients using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay test and study some of the factors that may affect in the prevalence of infection, such as age, sex and a number of heamodialysis. 100 was collected samples of blood  from heamodialysis patients  from Hussein Teaching Hospital for the period from October 2015 to the end of  March 2016 and prepared a questionnaire form for each person to get their information, as well as the collection of 50 blood samples from healthy persons for the purpose of comparison between them with the current study. The results of the current study showed that the prevalence of toxoplasmosis in Thi--Qar province in renal dialysis patients and a comparison group of 28% and 24% respectively. Recorded results of Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay ELISA test results for a positive antibody IgG in heamodialysis patients and a comparison, 25 % 22% respectively. As for the IgM antibody study did not record any positive result in heamodialysis patients group while in comparison group was 2%. The ratios antibodies IgG & IgM together in heamodialysis patients and comparison group 3%, 0.0% respectively. The highest infection rates for heamodialysis patients was in the age group (40-49 years) was 26.67% and the lowest rates of infection in the age group (>60years) 23.08 %  and reported significant differences P 6times of heamodialysis 25.53% as for those who were exposed to 1-6 was ratios have 16.67%. Keyword s: Toxoplasma gondii, Toxoplasmosis,   Heamodialysis patients, Prevalence, ELISA, risk factors.


The purpose of this study is to evaluate how, and if, Sweden's municipalities contribute to their preschools work for a toxic free environment, and what the schools think of the support they are re ...


Practicing speaking is very important for students to exchange ideas with others. Although having learned English for the years, many EFL students face problems in delivering the ideas orally. To overcome this kind of problem, an expo de facto research was conducted by observing the students' scores in two subjects grammar and speaking. The students were in the first semester of the English education major. The research is to find out the material used in teaching grammar to develop speaking learning. To satisfy the aim of this study, the mixed-method was implemented. The data was analyzed qualitatively and confirmed quantitatively by the applying t-test.  From the analysis could be drawn that Using translation-method, podcast, noticing, and conversation in applying the communicative-grammar method enhances the students' competence in speaking. It is very helpful for the teachers and students to implement it in learning grammar and speaking. It also provides the idea to other researchers to dig some deeper innovation in the same field.


The article describes a creative biography of a civil engineer Vladimir Antonovich Planson, the famous architect of the Far East of Russia. The author gives a list of Planson's designs, especially for Vladivostok.


This paper examines whether the prohibition of selective disclosures to equity research analysts mandated by Regulation FD alters the manner in which information is revealed to the market. We use the aggregate behavior of equity research analysts to construct a sample of all material information events. We find that the same amount of firm-specific information is incorporated into stock prices before and after the adoption of Reg FD. More firm-specific information is communicated using public disclosure channels after Reg FD. We find that firms use earnings guidance as a substitute for selective disclosure. Surprisingly, companies do not increase their use of press releases to communicate information other than earnings guidance. We conclude that the passage of Reg FD has successfully encouraged firms to disclose the same amount of information as before while achieving its objective of "levelling the playing field" for all investors. Acknowledgements. Helpful comments and suggestions have been provided by Warren Bailey, Venkat Eleswarpu, Steve Ross, and seminar participants at Vanderbilt University. Scott Lewis provided excellent research assistance. We would also like to thank the Financial Markets Research Center at Vanderbilt University for providing a Research Grant and the Deans Fund for generous financial support.


In this study, the reliability of the Fama–French Three-Factor model (FF3F) and the Carhart Four-Factor model (C4F) is examined thoroughly. In order to determine which of the asset pricing models is the best to explain portfolio returns on the Moroccan share market, these two models are indeed evaluated in the Moroccan market. Additionally, it is worth mentioning that five years of monthly data from the firms that listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange are used in this research, as well over the period of nine years. The results of this inquiry show that these models barely have a partial hold on the Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE), which limits their ability to predict the cross-sections of returns. In accordance with this, the C4F model has somewhat greater explanatory power than the FF3F Model. Moreover, our research adds to the body of knowledge by inserting two learned material asset pricing theories to the proof in the market, which is still evolving, and where distinctive anomalistic traits still exist (the CSE).


CAMSHIFT is an object tracking algorithm based on the color histogram.In the process of object tracking,CAMSHIFT operates on a color back-projection image produced from object histogram model in current frame and finds the location and size of the current frame by adaptively adjusting the size and the location of the searching windows according to the tracking results of the previous frame in the video.On the basis of introducing OpenCV(an Intel open source computer vision library),through CAMSHIFT algorithm,the paper realizes moving object tracking and resolves some problems including distractor and occlusion by other objects.Experimental results show good performances,superiority and feasibility of the algorithm.


because of their special contents of proteins and higher nutritive value, soybean proteins have been investigated for many years. This review attempts to integrate findings of recent studies by DSC. Much are about thermal behavior of 11S soy glycinin and 7S globulin, as well as effects of pH, ionic strength, calcium, ethanol and 2-mercaptoethanol on thermal stability of soybean proteins. The studies of nonfreezing water of soybean protein components and its dispersions at acid pH: thermal and rheological properties are also cited.


The present invention relates to an electronic lock with a solenoid servo mechanism. The present invention provides an electronic locking mechanism. According to the invention, the locking mechanism is provided with a cam which rotates in a cylindrical bore. The insert or subtract the latch in the lock is associated with the rotation of the cam. The lock mechanism is locked, the rotation of the cam is obstructed by the blocking pin, it falls into the latch. In the state the lock is disengaged, the rotation of the cam does not interfere, it is possible to subtract the latch.


Assigning geospatial objects of aerial images with specific categories at the pixel level is a fundamental task in urban scene interpretation. Along with rapid developments in sensor technologies, aerial images can be captured at multiple spatial resolutions (MSR) with information content manifested at different scales. Extracting information from these MSR aerial images represents huge opportunities for enhanced feature representation and characterisation. However, MSR images suffer from two critical issues: 1) increased variation in the sizes of geospatial objects and 2) information and informative feature loss at coarse spatial resolutions. In this paper, we propose a novel scale-aware neural network (SaNet) for semantic labelling of MSR aerial images to address these two issues. SaNet deploys a densely connected feature network (DCFPN) module to capture high-quality multi-scale context, such as to address the scale variation issue and increase the quality of segmentation for both large and small objects simultaneously. A spatial feature recalibration (SFR) module is further incorporated into the network to learn complete semantic features with enhanced spatial relationships, where the effects of information and informative feature loss are addressed. The combination of DCFPN and SFR allows the proposed SaNet to learn scale-aware features from MSR aerial images. Extensive experiments undertaken on ISPRS semantic segmentation datasets demonstrated the outstanding accuracy of the proposed SaNet in cross-resolution segmentation, with an average OA of 83.4% on the Vaihingen dataset and an average F1 score of 80.4% on the Potsdam dataset, outperforming state-of-the-art deep learning approaches, including FPN (80.2% and 76.6%), PSPNet (79.8% and 76.2%) and Deeplabv3+ (80.8% and 76.1%) as well as DDCM-Net (81.7% and 77.6%) and EaNet (81.5% and 78.3%).


: This research study is about young girl whose age was 11 years. She was suffering with repeated pityriasis lichenoides chronica and lichen striatus. She was not found with such association in history. There is uncertainty that whether this relationship is accidental or due to some reasons. However, involvement of some pathway that is common in both disorders was observed. Lichen striatusis is usually found in children and is an un-frequent condition. Next to Blaschko's lines, the abrasions have a straight dispersal. Pityriasis lichenoides is an un-frequent gentle disease of skin. There are two alternatives of this disorder i.e chronic and acute.


Systemic sclerosis or scleroderma (SSc), is an autoimmune disease with an incidence of 20 people per million and per year in USA. No cure for SSc is currently available so, after a debilitating phase, death is frequently the outcome of this disease with a higher risk of mortality among Afro‐Americans and women. Causes of SSc are unknown for now but various factors seem to be involved like genetics or exposure to chemical or virus. One of the features of this disease is extracellular matrix excessive deposition which affect not only skin but also internal organs. Despite heterogeneity of cellular and molecular responses of fibroblasts (Fb), a larger proportion of SSc Fb express higher level of collagen than in normal ones. So, many groups postulated that SSc lesions could result from clonal expansion of a Fb sub‐population with a higher capacity to proliferate and/or a better resistance to apoptosis. Dermal Fb populations from 17 French‐Canadian volunteers (4 healthy and 13 SSc affected) were tested for proliferation and apoptosis parameters. We have found that SSc Fb proliferate with a lower rate than the normal one, excluding proliferation as a clonal selection origin. Nevertheless lesional SSc Fb were less sensitive than normal Fb or non‐lesional SSc Fb to Fas pathway apoptosis allowing to hypothesize that clonal selection could be performed via apoptotic pathway.


ATMEGA32 Microcontroller The microcontroller used is ATMEGA32. This is because we have previous experience on working with ATMEGA series microcontroller. It has a 32KB flash memory for program storage, 2KB RAM, 8 ADC channels, 3 timers with PWM support (used for servo control). These functionalities are sufficient for the blocks we had to create code. Various modules of codes were implemented for the different blocks (Kalman filter, Fuzzy controller, LCD interfacing etc.).


SUMMARY The present paper, result of a heuristic balance, aims the reflection on the management in educational institutions having as transverse axis the importance attached to intellectual capital. In this regard, there are four segments of analysis. First, the managerial functions in educational institutions. Second, the approaches used for management evaluation. Third, the intellectual capital within educational management. And finally, the fourth segment sited the gaze in the importance of training and skills development. These segments of analysis demonstrate the importance of people, and their range of competencies, in educational institutions.


Spreading the word er's View ' to be better care,for piracy than to inflict users with a virus CHIN In his novel Bugs, Theodore Roszak raises issues that most users would rather ignore. He suggests that the only thing that might quench the world's seemingly insatiable thirst for computer power would be an intrinsic vulnerability that spread through all systems and made computing more dangerous than it was worth. Mixing some fanciful allusions to extra-sensory perception with an inspired bit of wordplay, he creates a fictional world in which a child's imperfect understanding of computer jargon leads to an infestation that spreads through computerdom. With the spate of virus stories appearing in the trade and popular presses, Roszak's book makes for even more compelling reading today, going from horrific sciencefiction tofrightening allegory-or worse. The latest virus storyis perhaps the best example of how computer security is being called on to react to the changing nature of our industry. Richard Bran-dow, editor of Montreal's Macmag magazine, deliberately placed a virus program on a computer system that was maintained at the magazine's editorial headquarters. Office procedures prohibit copying any of the system's contents, but Brandow has been involved in computing long enough to know knew that many people would ignore the prohibition. How many would violate it, directly or indirectly, was a matter of curiosity. Between November 1987, when the virus was planted at Macmag, and this past March when the virus was activated, the copying proceeded at a fantastic clip. to Australia and from New York to San Francisco displayed a simple message: "Richard Brandow, publisher ofMacmag, and its entire staff would like to take this opportunity to convey their universal Message of Peace to allMacintosh users around the world." On March 20, the Canadian Software Association gave Brandow an award for his work in fighting computer piracy. The group reported a 13% increase in sales after the results of his "experiment" became public, inferring a cause-and-effect relationship .


In view of the strong subjectivity of traditional salt dome recognition methods and the poor effect of existing deep learning algorithms on salt dome edge recognition, this paper proposes a salt dome recognition algorithm based on reverse attention mechanism, which uses u-net model as the backbone network, adds reverse attention module at the jump connection to extract edge structure information, and finally uses feature splicing to fuse feature information to improve the segmentation performance of network model. Experimental results show that the network achieves good results in salt dome segmentation, and effectively improves the problem of unclear edge segmentation.


readiness to read, to write, to spell, and to engage in certain physical activities. A device such as the profile chart to be described in this paper can be of use to the school in several ways. It can be used to show graphically all objective or subjective data which the school is able to collect about the pupil from standard tests, teacher-made tests, teacher judgments, physical examinations, or parent conferences. If


The motor driven vehicle has already become one of the main means of vehicle.For the large volume of data in the calculation of traffic on multicar number-plate or in the detection of fake car number-plate,it is very difficult to finish the multi-car number-plate or fake car number-plate calculation even only considering vehicles pass the sub roads within one half an hours.In order to solve the drawbacks,the writer proposes the use of image watermarking to realize the traffic calculation on fake or multi-car number-plate.And it will greatly enhance the efficiency of traffic calculation.For the energy distribution of the image almost keeps the same even after photographing and painting,we embed the water mark into DCT coefficients to protect the copyright of license plate.An implement method is given in detail,and the corresponding emulate experiment proofs the feasibility.


BACKGROUND
Nonrandom distribution of hepatitis C virus (HCV) quasispecies (compartmentalization between blood plasma and leukocytes) suggests the presence of HCV leukotropic variants. HCV compartmentalization in the setting of liver transplantation (LT) is poorly understood. To study HCV leukotropic variants, we investigated the evolution of HCV compartmentalization after immunosuppression in liver transplant recipients.

METHODS
Plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) samples were collected from 5 liver transplant recipients before and after LT. We used clone sequencing to analyze the hypervariable region 1 (HVR1)-E2(384-419) region, which plays a key role in HCV entry and the induction of neutralizing responses, and assessed compartmentalization through phylogenetic analyses and Mantel's test.

RESULTS
Compartmentalization was frequent in the LT setting. HCV quasispecies were more homogeneous after LT in both the plasma and PBMC compartments, with a significant decrease in quasispecies complexity (P = .003) and genetic distances (P = .004) after transplantation. Our analysis identified 8 PBMC-related amino acid residues in HVR1.

CONCLUSIONS
HCV compartmentalization between plasma and PBMCs and the emergence of leukotropic variants could be potentiated by immunosuppression in liver transplant recipients. The identification of defined leukotropic variants may contribute to the understanding of virus-host interactions after transplantation.


The focus of this article is on a comparison of the national policies for internationalisation in seven Western European countries (Austria, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United Kingdom). In this comparison, it will be shown that the trend suggested in previous research of increasing economical rationales for internationalisation and mainstreaming of higher education have persisted during the past few years. In addition, the approach to internationalization in the seven countries has broadened and is no longer mainly about student and staff mobility. Finally, the article shows that changes in the higher education policy context, including international and global developments, have brought about reforms in the higher education systems of the countries; these developments, however, have no uniform impact on the higher education policy and systems.


Hotels are always looking for ways to cut costs and standby power creates an unnecessary expense for hotels through wasted electricity. As much as 10% of the power in residences is consumed by standby power and older appliances such as televisions are the largest consumers of standby power. The ENERGY STAR program has developed standards for standby power consumption to decrease the energy consumed in standby mode, however older appliances already in many hotels are not ENERGY STAR compliant. Rather than replacing all appliances, hotels must come up with other ways to reduce standby power consumption while considering the needs of customers. It would be easy if hotels could shutoff power to a room when the room is vacant, however multiple hotel rooms are on the same circuit breaker and the cost of a sophisticated energy management system outweighs the cost of standby power.


'An enduring contribution to historical scholarship.' AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW Seventeen papers with maps and diagrams. Subjects include the portrayal of land settlement in Domesday, continental parallels, numismatics, place and personal names, topography, and the greater Domesday tenants in chief.


Purpose - This paper aims to examine the presence of momentum profit in the Indian stock market and seeks to explore the sources of momentum profit employing both risk based and behavioral models. R2, idiosyncratic volatility, and delay measures are employed in order to test behavioral models. Design/methodology/approach - The paper follows Jegadeesh and Timan's methodology in constructing momentum portfolios. Findings - The study finds strong presence of momentum profits in India during 1995-2006. The risk based models such as CAPM and Fama-French fail to account for the phenomenon. Idiosyncratic risk exhibits a positive relation with momentum, lending support to behavioural factors as source of momentum phenomenon. Practical implications - In forming portfolios, selecting the stocks which have been winners in the last three and six months can help investors and fund mangers earn substantial profit. Originality/value - The study employs behavioral variables to explain the momentum phenomenon. In the Indian context it is an unexplored area.


Cardiac resynchronization therapy used for heart failure treatment is ineffective in 30% of patients. In this pilot study, selected parameters of autocorrelation maps were studied as a possible criterion for evaluation of the pacemaker settings. Comparison between one heart failure patient and normal patient group shows that autocorrelation maps from normal ECG present a higher percentage of negative values than autocorrelation maps of a patient with dyssynchrony.


The non-8-enoate anion undergoes losses of the elements of C3H6, C4H8 and C6H12 on collisional activation, The mechanisms of these processes have been elucidated by a combination of product ion and labelling (H-2 and C-13) studies, together with a neutralisation reionisation mass spectrometric study. These studies allow the following conclusions to be made. (i) The loss of C3H6 involves cyclisation of the enolate anion of non-8-enoic acid to yield the cyclopentyl carboxylate anion and propene. (ii) The loss of 'C4H8' is a charge-remote process (one which proceeds remote from the charged centre) which yields the pent-4-enoate anion, butadiene and dihydrogen. This process co-occurs and competes with complex H scrambling. (iii) The major loss of 'C6H12' occurs primarily by a charge-remote process yielding the acrylate anion, hexa-1,5-diene and dihydrogen, but in this case no H scrambling accompanies the process. (iv) It is argued that the major reason why the two charge-remote processes occur in preference to anion-induced losses of but-l-ene and hex-l-ene from the respective 4- and 2-anions is that although these anions are formed, they have alternative and lower energy fragmentation pathways than those involving the losses of but-l-ene and hex-l-ene; viz. the transient 4-anion undergoes facile proton transfer to yield a more stable anion, whereas the 2-(enolate) anion undergoes preferential cyclisation followed by elimination of propene [see (i) above].


In order to study the effect of plant density on yield and yield components of grain corn hybrids, a field experiment was conducted in 2007-2008 in Firouz-Abad of Iran. The experiment was conducted in split plot base on randomized completely block design with three replications. Main plots were four levels of corn cultivars: Hybrid of late maturing 704 (V1), hybrid of mid maturing 604 (V2), hybrid of early maturing 370 (V3) and hybrid of mid maturing 647 (V4). Sub plots were four levels of plant density: 65000 plant ha-1 (D1), 75000 plant ha-1 (D2), 85000 plant ha-1 (D3) and 95000 plant ha-1 (D4). The result showed that, the most grain yield, 1000-grains weight, biologic yield, obtained from hybrid of late maturing 704; and the most harvest index achieved from hybrids of mid maturing 647 and early maturing 370. With density increasing, hybrids reaction were different for each one of factors; so that the highest grain yield of hybrid 704 obtained from 75000 plant ha-1, for hybrids 604 and 647 obtained from 85000 plant ha-1  and for hybrid 370 obtained from 95000 plant ha-1.

 Key words: Corn hybrid, plant density, yield, yield component.


This study develops a multi-dimensional framework to understand the relationship between investors' uncertainty awareness and ownership concentration behavior in countries where the capital markets are emerging, the information asymmetry among shareholders is high and the legal protection of minorities is weak. To test our hypotheses, we have built a dataset of 4,138 firms/year observations from seven Latin American countries. Our empirical analysis first shows that high ownership concentration continues to be a common pattern in Latin American firms and firms- specific uncertainty has a positive and robust effect on ownership concentration. Additionally, firms where the largest shareholder is a strategic blockholder have more concentrated ownership than institutional investors; the largest shareholder tends to transfer its home-country governance systems and the uncertainty of formal institutions and individuals willingness to uncertainty matter for understanding the behavior of ownership concentration.


Computer-aided detection technology is less applied in brain tumor detection terminals, and it is difficult to eliminate the influence of various interference factors on the diagnosis results. In order to promote the application of computer-aided detection technology in brain tumor detection, this study based on convolutional neural network, combined with MRI detection technology to construct a model adapted to brain tumor feature detection. The main function of this research model is to segment and recognize MRI brain tumors and use convolutional layer to perform convolution operation to improve recognition efficiency and rate and combine artificially selected features with machine learning features. In addition, this article uses feature fusion to further improve the diagnostic results. Finally, this article designs experiments to perform performance analysis. The research shows that the model algorithm designed in this article has certain practical effects and can provide theoretical reference for subsequent related research.


R ECENT DEBATE in the United States on misconduct in science has focused on two main points: the definition of misconduct, and the protection of whistle-blowers -those who sound the alarm about misdeeds of colleagues. The National Academy of Sciences argues that an unambiguous definition of misconduct should be based on "fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reporting research" (National Academy of Sciences, 1992: 27). Buzzelli (1993: 584) suggests that the definition used by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health should also include "other serious deviations from accepted research practices" so that it covers such things as misuse of funds, sexual harassment, vandalism or sabotage of experiments, and violation of exclusionary agreements. Schachman (1993) argues against the inclusion of "other serious deviations from accepted research practices" in the definition of misconduct because it may impede scientific research. Marks (1993: 38 1) adds to the list of ethical breaches that are not subsumed by fraud but "are of a piece with it," such as the writing of review articles that promote discoveries made by firms in which the author holds stock. A surprising feature of the debate is that the plight of the accused is not considered to be an issue. Marks (1993) mentions it in passing when he states that the burden of proof is on the original investigator, not on the critic. The Office of Research Integrity (1993) believes that making a "good faith" allegation of scientific misconduct is protected under Federal law. I believe that the debate on misconduct must include the possibility that individuals will make accusations in bad faith. Individuals may make improper accusations by using inappropriate venues for airing their views, without providing for the right of reply of those accused. More seriously, a mischievous accusation is a deliberate, malicious attempt to confound, upset, or threaten the research of competitors in the race for scientific funds and recognition.


In this paper, we evaluate a semi-automatic liver segmentation method based on a level-set approach and a dynamically adapted speed func- tion. The approach also relies on a-priori anatomic information to reduce leak- age at the liver-rib interface. The numerical algorithms have been integrated into a complete system that permits loading DICOM images, segmenting these images, and visualizing the liver surface. Although the normal operation of the system assumes manual contour corrections, such corrections were not allowed for this evaluation. Results show that except for cases with large tumors that ex- tend to the liver surface, the method we propose is comparable to a human rater.


The physics of organic solar cells is still being extensively investigated. While important questions regarding e.g. the mechanisms of exciton dissociation have been rather convincingly addressed highlighting the role of electrostatic (here emphasized) but also delocalization and entropy effects in pulling apart the charge carriers, much less is known on the molecular origin for the losses in the open circuit voltage in organic photovoltaics, although this is the main culprit for the reduced power efficiencies of these devices. Here, we review some of our own work on the energetics of charge transfer (CT) states at organic heterojunctions and discuss some of the challenges ahead of us, which call for multiscale theoretical models that account for, in a quantitative manner, the fate of CT states including the kinetics of charge separation and recombination events.