Background: The recommendations in several countries to stop using the ChAdOx1 vaccine has led to vaccine programs combining different vaccine types, which necessitates new knowledge on vaccine effectiveness (VE). In this study, we aimed to estimate the VE when combining the ChAdOx1 vaccine as the first dose and an mRNA vaccine as the second dose. Methods: This nationwide population-based cohort study estimated VE against SARS-CoV-2 infection, all-cause and COVID-19 related hospitalization and death after receiving the ChAdOx1 vaccine as the first dose followed by an mRNA vaccine as the second dose. VE estimates were obtained using a Cox regression with calendar time as underlying time and adjusted for sex, age, comorbidity, heritage and hospital admission. Information on all individuals was extracted and linked from high-quality national registries. Results: A total of 5,542,079 individuals were included in the analyses (97.6% of the total Danish population). A total of 144,360 were vaccinated with the ChAdOx1 vaccine as the first dose and of these 136,551 individuals received an mRNA vaccine as the second dose. A total of 1,691,464 person-years and 83,034 cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection were included. The VE against SARS-CoV-2 infection when combining the ChAdOx1 and an mRNA vaccine was 88% (95% confidence interval (CI): 83; 92) 14 days after the second dose and onwards. There were no COVID-19 related hospitalizations and deaths among the individuals vaccinated with the combination of the ChAdOx1 and an mRNA vaccine during the study period. Conclusion: In conclusion, this study found a reduction in the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection when combining the ChAdOx1 and an mRNA vaccine, compared with unvaccinated individuals. This is similar to the VE of two doses of an mRNA vaccine. Longer follow-up time is needed to confirm vaccine induced protection against severe events, such as COVID-19 related hospitalization and death.


Rate coefficients for the alkaline hydrolysis of ten 1-substituted 2,4-dinitrobenzenes in a series of aqueous dioxan mixtures were measured at 50·0°. The kinetic solvent isotope effect was examined for all the substrates in 60% v/v aqueous dioxan. These results can be used to investigate the structure of the transition states. More 'polar' and less 'advanced' transition states appear to have k2H2O/k2D2Oca. unity; the corresponding rates decrease with increasing dioxan content. Less 'polar' and more 'advanced' transition states appear to have lower values for k2H2O/k2D2O; the corresponding rates increase with increasing dioxan content. The relation between the transition-state structure and the 1-substituent appears to arise mainly from steric effects. An H– acidity function could not be satisfactorily established in aqueous dioxan mixtures and the reasons for this result are discussed.


MicroRNAs (miRs) recently emerged as prominent regulators of cancer processes. In the current study we aimed at elucidating regulatory pathways and mechanisms through which miR‐494, one of the miR species found to be down‐regulated in cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), participates in cancer homeostasis. miR‐494 was identified as down‐regulated in CCA based on miR arrays. Its expression was verified with quantitative real‐time reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR). To enforce miR expression, we employed both transfection methods, as well as a retroviral construct to stably overexpress miR‐494. Up‐regulation of miR‐494 in cancer cells decreased growth, consistent with a functional role. mRNA arrays of cells treated with miR‐494, followed by pathway analysis, suggested that miR‐494 impacts cell cycle regulation. Cell cycle analyses demonstrated that miR‐494 induces a significant G1/S checkpoint reinforcement. Further analyses demonstrated that miR‐494 down‐regulates multiple molecules involved in this transition checkpoint. Luciferase reporter assays demonstrated a direct interaction between miR‐494 and the 3′‐untranslated region of cyclin‐dependent kinase 6 (CDK6). Last, xenograft experiments demonstrated that miR‐494 induces a significant cancer growth retardation in vivo. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that miR‐494 is down‐regulated in CCA and that its up‐regulation induces cancer cell growth retardation through multiple targets involved in the G1‐S transition. These findings support the paradigm that miRs are salient cellular signaling pathway modulators, and thus represent attractive therapeutic targets. miR‐494 emerges as an important regulator of CCA growth and its further study may lead to the development of novel therapeutics. (HEPATOLOGY 2011)


Delivery of health care services in rural areas of Canada is challenging due to geographic and economic factors, and persistent problems with recruiting and retaining nurses. Registered Nurses in acute care represent the largest cohort of health care workers in rural Canada, and little is known about their professional experiences. The purpose of this study was to understand how rural acute care nurses in British Columbia and Alberta experience professionalism and professional practice. Eight interview transcripts from a national study entitled, The Nature of Nursing Practice in Rural and Remote Canada were analyzed using an interpretive description method. Analysis and interpretation revealed that rural nurses experience professionalism in the community and workplace contexts. Being visible and embracing reality emerged as central themes in rural nurses' experiences of professionalism. Findings from this study contribute a greater understanding of professionalism in rural nursing, and its relationship to job satisfaction, recruitment, and retention.


[Objective] To explore the effect of flaxseed oil on fasting glucose and glucose tolerance in diabetic rats. [Method] The obesity model of SD rats with high fat diet was established; diabetes model was built with intraperitoneal injection of 40 mg / kg streptozotocin to the obesity model rats. Test groups were divided into model control group,flaxseed oil low,medium and high dose groups,8 rats in each group,after gavaged for 30 days,the tolerance of blood glucose and glucose in fasting rats were determined. [Result] The high dose flaxseed oil group can reduce the diabetic rats fasting blood glucose and glucose tolerance. [Conclusion] The flaxseed oil can assist in lowering blood glucose level of diabetic rats.


One of the alternatives to permanent tooth removal is intentional reimplantation. A tooth saved by reimplantation can later serve as a support for various types of dental prostheses. Tooth replantation is indicated if there is an infection in the periapical area unresponsive to conservative treatment or apicoectomy is not possible, etc. The female patient S. presented with missing teeth and significant coronal decay both on the upper and lower jaws. Three months after the teeth had been extracted and reimplanted, the patient underwent another panoramic radiography scan. On the post-op orthopantomogram the dental cement appeared evenly distributed in the root canals and the trabecular bone tissue was rebuilding in the periapical area of the replanted teeth. Later, we installed fixed dental porcelain-fused-to-metal prostheses supported by the replanted teeth. The patient also received removable dentures. A 2-year follow-up showed no signs of pathologic mobility in the replanted teeth, robust trabecular tissue regeneration in the periapical area and stability of dental prostheses supported by the replanted teeth. МНОЖЕСТВЕННАЯ РЕПЛАНТАЦИЯ ЗУБОВ


ABSTRACT Polypyrrole (PPR)–carbon nanotube (CNT) films were prepared by an electrodeposition method, combining PPR electropolymerization and anaphoresis of CNT. PPR polymerization experiments showed advantages of a dopant from the catechol family for the deposition of PPR films at reduced electrode potentials. The method allowed the formation of adherent films on stainless steel substrates. The amphiphilic molecules with steroid-like structures, such as carbenoxolone disodium salt, glycyrrhizic acid, ammonium salt, and sodium taurodeoxycholate, were used for dispersion and charging of CNT. The new dispersing agents showed outstanding dispersion ability. In addition to dispersing properties, electrodeposition experiments revealed film-forming properties of carbenoxolone and ability to form pure carbenoxolone or carbenoxolone–CNT films. The PPR–CNT films formed using carbenoxolone disodium salt, glycyrrhizic acid ammonium salt, and sodium taurodeoxycholate showed diverse microstructural features. The dispersion and deposition mechanisms were discussed.


On this edition, the researchers from the Centre of Historic and Cultural Studies and the Centre of Statistic and Information (CEI) from the Joao Pinheiro Foundation keep following the line of studies about the culture economy. From the database of the Survey of Jobs and Unemployment of the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte, it is analyzed the labor market of the cultural sector of this region from the period of 1996 to 2000, revealing the economic dimension of cultural production, constitutive traces, specificities, and potentialities, whose knowing is fundamental for the design of economic and cultural politics.


There are a number of EPA recognized methods for evaluating Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emissions: EPA methods 18,25,25A,25B, the Volatile Organic Sampling Train (VOST) method, and Modified Method 5. In addition, there are several methods for evaluating specific hydrocarbons such as vinyl chloride (Method 106) and benzene (Method 110). This paper provides a discussion and comparison of Methods 25 and 25A. The test case is a recent Clean Air Engineering project involving VOC testing at a printing plant employing solvent-based inks.


We study the problem of containing spreading processes in arbitrary directed networks by distributing protection resources throughout the nodes of the network. We consider two types of protection resources are available: (i) Preventive resources able to defend nodes against the spreading (such as vaccines in a viral infection process), and (ii) corrective resources able to neutralize the spreading after it has reached a node (such as antidotes). We assume that both preventive and corrective resources have an associated cost and study the problem of finding the cost-optimal distribution of resources throughout the nodes of the network. We analyze these questions in the context of viral spreading processes in directed networks. We study the following two problems: (i) Given a fixed budget, find the optimal allocation of preventive and corrective resources in the network to achieve the highest level of containment, and (ii) when a budget is not specified, find the minimum budget required to control the spreading process. We show that both resource allocation problems can be solved in polynomial time using Geometric Programming (GP) for arbitrary directed graphs of nonidentical nodes and a wide class of cost functions. Furthermore, our approach allows to optimize simultaneously over both preventive and corrective resources, even in the case of cost functions being nodedependent. We illustrate our approach by designing optimal protection strategies to contain an epidemic outbreak that propagates through an air transportation network.


Numerous papers analyze ground-level ozone (O3) trends since the 1980s, but few have linked O3 trends with observed changes in nitrogen oxide (NOx) and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions and ambient concentrations. This analysis of emissions and ambient measurements examines this linkage across the United States on multiple spatial scales from continental to urban. O3 concentrations follow the general decreases in both NOx and VOC emissions and ambient concentrations of precursors (nitrogen dioxide, NO2; nonmethane organic compounds, NMOCs). Annual fourth-highest daily peak 8-hr average ozone and annual average or 98th percentile daily maximum hourly NO2 concentrations show a statistically significant (p < 0.05) linear fit whose slope is less than 1:1 and intercept is in the 30 to >50 ppbv range. This empirical relationship is consistent with current understanding of O3 photochemistry. The linear O3–NO2 relationships found from our multispatial scale analysis can be used to extrapolate the rate of change of O3 with projected NOx emission reductions, which suggests that future declines in annual fourth-highest daily average 8-hr maximum O3 concentrations are unlikely to reach 65 ppbv or lower everywhere in the next decade. Measurements do not indicate increased annual reduction rates in (high) O3 concentrations beyond the multidecadal precursor proportionality, since aggressive measures for NOx and VOC reduction are in place and have not produced an accelerated O3 reduction rate beyond that prior to the mid-2000s. Empirically estimated changes in O3 with emissions suggest that O3 is less sensitive to precursor reductions than is found by the CAMx (v. 6.1) photochemical model. Options for increasing the rate of O3 change are limited by photochemical factors, including the increase in NOx sensitivity with time (NMOC/NOx ratio increase), increase in O3 production efficiency at lower NOx concentrations (higher O3/NOy ratio), and the presence of natural NOx and NMOC precursors and background O3. Implications: This analysis demonstrates empirical relations between O3 and precursors based on long term trends in U.S. locations. The results indicate that ground-level O3 concentrations have responded predictably to reductions in VOC and NOx since the 1980s. The analysis reveals linear relations between the highest O3 and NO2 concentrations. Extrapolation of the historic trends to the future with expected continued precursor reductions suggest that achieving the 2014 proposed reduction in the U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standard to a level between 65 and 70 ppbv is unlikely within the next decade. Comparison of measurements with national results from a regulatory photochemical model, CAMx, v. 6.1, suggests that model predictions are more sensitive to emissions changes than the observations would support.


A nondestructive technique for the determination of the atomic ratios of plutonium-238, -240, -241 and americium-241 relative to plutonium-239 using high- resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy was developed. Results are discussed as they apply to various compositions of plutonium-239 material, some of which have been subjected to chemical analysis. Progress to date on an automated plutonium assay system is described. This system utilizes calorimetry and high-resolution gamma- ray spectroscopy. It also features a computer controlled X, Y, Z sample-handling system as well as automated data acquisition and reduction. (auth)


Female infertility due to endocrinolocal diseas costs over one billion Eur per year when accounting for treatments and life impact. In this paper we propose a model based approach to endocrinological treatment verification and design.


The main concern of the reviewer is that the chamber design may lead to biased fluxes. Here we provide a more extensive description of the chamber system and show atmospheric data obtained during the campaign supporting the flux dynamics observed with our chamber. We would like to point out that the main focus of this manuscript are i.) to show the strong imprint of the tides on trace gas fluxes in coastal ecosystems and ii.) to highlight the importance of accurately addressing the perturbations of turbulent


This paper proposes a conceptual framework for mobile learning applications that provides systematic support for mobile learning experience design. It is based on a combination of a game metaphor and several studies of mobile learning contexts. An account of the Ambient Wood project is used to explore the relationship between the framework and mobile learning design requirements in practice


This article starts with the plight of eco-tourism and the author analyses the reason of that: have no scientific concept system on theory, lack of efficient methods for the management of eco-tourists, developer and operator, the industry of eco-tourism, the planning of eco-tourism etc. From these the author concluded that we must be cautious of the irrational dilatation of the eco-tourism.


Various studies have focused on adjuvant treatment alternatives for cancer patients to improve their quality of life with minimum adverse reactions. The current study aims to evaluate the nutritional activity and pharmacological effects of nutrients present in Agaricales mushrooms, using a systematic review of articles indexed in Medline, Database, NCBI, Lilacs, and Cochrane. Studies on the nutritional and pharmaceutical effects of dietary supplementation with Agaricales mushrooms have shown improved prognosis for cancer patients. Data involving extensive review of action mechanisms, in particular beta-glucans, ergosterol, terpenes, lectin, arginine, and proteinglucans, have shown effects on immune system modulation, tumor growth inhibition, and the ability to elicit cellular response, in particular cytokine expression and production. In a significant number of cases these substances can have positive effects on patients' quality of life, if specific parameters are considered, such as immune system stimulation, tumor growth inhibition, and metastasis. Randomized controlled clinical trials are needed to establish criteria for administering the proper doses of Agaricales mushrooms as complementary therapy in cancer patients.


Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia observed in clinical practice. Some drugs have been associated with the onset of AF, but knowledge about the role of drugs in the development of AF is scarce. High-dose corticosteroid therapy has been associated with the development of AF, but this is mainly based on case reports. Therefore, the authors review the available data in the international literature about the cause–effect relationship between corticosteroid therapy and the onset of AF.


The results of a theoretical study on molecular motors driven by laser pulses are presented. The roles of molecular chirality and photon helicity in determination of their unidirectional rotation are clarified. An expression for an instantaneous angular momentum of motors driven by lasers in the density matrix formalism was derived. Assuming randomly oriented molecular motors, the initial distribution-averaged instantaneous angular momentum in the dipole approximation was obtained. Taking into account parity inversion symmetry of molecular motors in the averaged instantaneous angular momentum, it is shown that the directions of the averaged instantaneous angular momentum of (R)- and (S)-chiral molecular motors are opposite, but that the magnitudes are the same. This is independent of polarization of laser fields. That is, the chiral motors driven by a linearly polarized optical field creates a unidirectional motion in a molecular fixed frame. On the other hand, the direction of rotation in the laboratory fixed frame is decided by a circularly polarized laser regardless of its molecular chirality. A simple example of real chiral molecular motors is used to demonstrate the interplay of molecular chirality and photon helicity in determination of their unidirectional rotation. The internal rotation of the CHO group plays the role of the engine of the motor. The time evolution of the rotational wave packets of the molecular motors driven by linearly or circularly polarized laser pulses was numerically evaluated and the dynamical behaviors were analyzed. Effects of temperature on the instantaneous angular momentum of the molecular motors are presented as well.


This paper identifies the factors that determine citizens' acceptance of SMS-based e-government services. It reports on a web-based survey, paper-based questionnaires, and phone-call interviews that collected 159 responses from 25 countries. The results indicate that there are fifteen perceptions toward using SMS-based e-government services that may influence citizens to use or to reject the services: perceived ease of use; perceived efficiency in time and distance; perceived value for money; perceived usefulness; perceived responsiveness; perceived convenience; perceived relevance, quality and reliability of the information; trust in the SMS technology; perceived risk to user privacy; perceived reliability of the mobile network and the SMS-based system; trust in government and perceived quality of public services; perceived risk to money; perceived availability of device and infrastructure; perceived compatibility; and perceived self-efficacy in using SMS. Whether or not a citizen adopts an SMS-based e-government service is influenced by these perceptions. To increase the acceptance of SMS-based e-government services, the systems should address all of these belief factors. An intensive advertising campaign for the services in all mass media channels is critically important to make citizens aware of and to provide detailed knowledge about the services. The advertising campaign should involve people who influence individuals' decision making. These people include friends, family, teachers, experts, public figures, and government officials. This study found that Notification services are the most frequently used followed by Pull SMS, Listen, and Transaction SMS services. Notification services could be an appropriate starting point for governments who want to establish SMS-based e-government services.


This paper collects a sample of 98 financial distressed companies which suffer financial situation abnormality in 2002~2003 and matches them with 98 healthy companies.Factor analysis is firstly used to extract common factors from 14 financial variables such as profitability,financial leverage,liquidity and operating activity.Then the logistic regressions,with the extracted common factors serving as the controllable variables,are employed to test respectively whether the 10 non-financial factors,such as ownership structure,corporate governance,market information and audit opinions,affect the probability of financial distress.The jackknife method is used to test these model′s prediction abilities.The results show that annual abnormal cumulative returns and audit opinions have good explanation and prediction abilities to the pre-warning financial distress and that the other non-financial variables turn out to be insignificant.Prediction model including non-financial factors perform better than the one that only includes financial factors.The paper discusses the results and accordingly educe some implications.


Abstract Background: Colchicine is the first-line treatment for familial Mediterranean fever (FMF), but secondary amyloidosis resulting from persistent inflammation is a concern in patients with colchicine-resistant or colchicine-intolerant FMF. Although tocilizumab (TCZ), which is a recombinant, humanized, anti-human interleukin 6 receptor monoclonal antibody, has been reported to prevent FMF attacks, the long-term safety and efficacy of TCZ on individuals with colchicine-resistant or colchicine-intolerant FMF have not been evaluated. Methods/design: In this investigator-initiated, multicenter, open-label trial, the long-term safety of TCZ will be evaluated in patients participating in a placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind, parallel-group trial on colchicine-resistant or colchicine-intolerant FMF. The study will be conducted in 9 centers in Japan. After the evaluation and examination for 24 weeks in the preceding study, this trial will be started promptly. The trial will be completed by the time the drug is approved for FMF treatment in Japan. The primary endpoint is the incidence of adverse events, and the secondary endpoints include the number of FMF attacks, number of occurrences of accompanying symptoms during attacks, serum C-reactive protein and amyloid A levels, general evaluation by a physician (100 mm visual analog scale [VAS]), general evaluation by a patient (100 mm VAS), and body temperature. Discussion: The study is expected to obtain evidence regarding the long-term safety of TCZ as a potential new therapeutic agent for patients with colchicine-resistant or colchicine-intolerant FMF. Trial registration: This study was registered with the University Hospital Medical Information Network Clinical Trials Registry (https://upload.umin.ac.jp/cgi-open-bin/ctr_e/ctr_view.cgi?recptno=R000037116) as UMIN000032557 on May 30 2018.


A new scheme for enhancing availability in distributed database systems This paper presents a new schcme that enhances the availability o f data in the full replicated distributed database systems. This scheme allows to tolerate a new type o f the partition o f the network that the old previous schemes in the same type doesn't allow. In addition, the update is based on a fu ll distributed algorithm, i.e. every update is performed by all workstations, so paralcllism o f computations is higher than schemed using semi-distributed algorithm. This paper also offers a correctness proof o f the sch'


Objectives: The aim of the study is to explore the desired expectation (DE), adequate expectation (AE), zone of tolerance (ZoT), and perceived level (PL) from the patients attending a preorthodontic treatment consultation at Orthodontic Clinic, Dental School, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand. Materials and Methods: A total of 170 patients aged 15 years and older were asked to express their DE and AE before the consultation and to give their PL after the consultation. Two sets of questionnaires were used in this study. The first set was designed to gain data regarding general information and the measured level of expectation. The second set was used to measure the PL of patients after the preorthodontic consultation. Both questionnaires contained four dimensions of the service: Dentist's courtesy, dentist's care and examination, dentist's communication, and convenience of the services. Results: The communication dimension especially information regarding the orthodontic treatment need got rather low PL compared to others. Conclusion: The information regarding the orthodontic treatment need was the main item that patients need to receive in the consultation.


Pernisine is a subtilisin-like protease from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Aeropyrum pernix . Due to its high thermal stability and its activity in the presence of denaturants, pernisine represents a promising enzyme for use in various industrial applications. Another potentially applicable characteristic of this protease is its ability to degrade infectious prion aggregates. Production of pernisine in A . pernix does not provide sufficient yield for its commercial use, and alternative production strategies are hence needed. This review summarizes the biochemical and biophysical characteristics of pernisine and progress that has been made toward production of recombinant pernisine using Escherichia coli and Streptomyces rimosus as expression systems.


Firstly,the background and significance of integrated exploration are discussed.Then the definition and features of integrated exploration are pointed.Guiding theory and basic principle of integrated exploration are explicated and concrete suggestions are given in the end: the integrated mineral rights are premise,the reasonable interests allocation is the key,system and regulation is safeguard,the management of geological data should be centralized.


Skin tears are a common type of clinical skin injury, with the incidence increasing year by year, especially to the elderly, causing poor wound healing, prolonged hospital stays and decreased degree of activity. Prevention and treatment of skin tears have brought tremendous challenges to health care workers, patients and their caregivers. Investigation results are not comparable due to different investigation tools on skin tears of different people from different countries, causing it impossible to make unified standard on management strategies of skin tears. Research progress of investigation tools on skin tears is reviewed in this paper.

Key words:
Skin tears; Investigation tools; Review


The article discusses the main trends and examples of the implementation of warehouse logistics automation technologies. The authors note that the introduction of the "smart warehouse" system, warehouse robotization multiply increase the speed of order processing and inventory turnover.


The Routledge Handbook of English Language Teacher Education provides an accessible, authoritative, comprehensive and up-to-date resource of English language teacher education. With an overview of historical issues, theoretical frameworks and current debates, this handbook provides unique insights into a range of teacher education contexts, focusing on key issues relating to teacher and learner priorities, language and communication, current practices, reflective practice, and research.


Motivated by recent studies by Dorey, Pocklington and Tateo for unitary minimal models perturbed by ϕ1,2, we examine the thermodynamics of one-dimensional quantum systems, whose counterparts in the two-dimensional classical model are the dilute AL models in regime 2. The functional relations for arbitrary values of L are established. Guided by numerical evidence, we obtain a set of coupled integral equations from the established relations, which yields the evaluation of the free energy at arbitrary temperature. In the scaling limit, the integral equations coincide with the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz equations (TBA) proposed by Dorey, Pocklington and Tateo, thereby supporting their results. The new fermionic representations of the Virasoro characters are remarked upon briefly.


Cryptographic protocols such as SSL make possible to provide secure communication over insecure networks. But these protocols are useless if a man-in-the-middle attack is done on the user's computer, and domestic operating systems (like MS Windows) generally offer little protection against this kind of attack. Online banking and e-commerce can be especially affected as they rely on data sent over Internet, normally from PCs with nearly no protection against hostile attacks. Through this paper we will propose a new digital signer device that not only provides a tamper proof storage for the cryptographic keys but also provides its own display and keyboard. This system improves the security provided by smart cards avoiding its dependency on the computer to interface with the user. Even more, in order to pass the data to be signed to the digital signer, we use the computer monitor which is always present on any computer. For that purpose data is represented by color changes. This makes it possible to implement the digital signer as a pocket device similar in size to a smart card.


Tourism to active war-zones appears to be growing in popularity. Internet searches on the topic indicate that two main issues about this trend have captured the public imaginary: (1) debates about its voyeuristic aspects, and, (2) concerns about the dangers it presents for tourists. In this commentary I suggest that these two preoccupations in fact distract us from more disconcerting and complex power dynamics at play in war-zone tourism and propose a reframing of the types of public debates and discussions the topic has provoked.  Borrowing from the work of Debbie Lisle (2000), I suggest that more pertinent and productive questions to contemplate are why this tourism trend is growing in popularity at this point in history and what subjects are made possible through war-zone tourism encounters?  Focussing on the media representations of one U.S. based specialized tour operator called War Zone Tours , I argue that what we ought to be concerned with are the ways in which these touristic practices promote a culture of comfort with militarization and privatization of security services, as well as the demarcation practices between Global North tourists and Global South "locals" that are naturalized and perpetuated through them.


1. Gastroenterologist in the Department of Internal Medicine of the Fundación Clínica Valle del Lili in Cali, Colombia 2. Internist in the Faculty of Health Sciences at ICESI University in Cali, Colombia 3. Gastroenterologist in the Department of Internal Medicine of the Fundación Clínica Valle del Lili in Cali, Colombia 4. Medical Student in the Faculty of Health Sciences at ICESI University in Cali, Colombia 5. Gastroenterologist and hepatologist in the Department of Internal Medicine of the Fundación Clínica Valle del Lili in Cali, Colombia


The effects of rare earth cerium addition on intergranular corrosion and exfoliation corrosion performance of 7249 high strength aluminum alloy were investigated by means of OM,intergranular corrosion and exfoliation corrosion tests. The results show that when the addition of rare earth cerium is 0. 03 mass%,the maximum depth of intergranular corrosion is only 31. 22 μm,reducing to about 70% of that without rare earth. Meanwhile,exfoliation corrosion is improved considerably from EC to EA-grade. So the intergranular corrosion and exfoliation corrosion properties of 7249 aluminum alloy are both enhanced obviously after addition of rare earth cerium.


The future Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to be built at CERN, by the turn of the millenium, provides an ample source of challenging real-time computational problems. We report here some results from a collaboration between CERN EAST (RD-11) group and DECPRL PAM team. We present the implementations of the three foremost LHC algorithms on DECPeRLe-1. Our machine is the only one which presently meets the requirements from CERN (100 kHz event rate), except for another dedicated FPGA-based board built for just one of the algorithm. All other implementations based on single and multiprocessor general purpose computing systems fall short either of computing power, or of I/O resources or both.


In their conclusion, the authors have mooted several policy prescriptions such as the creation of the right industrial climate, proper identification of prospective entrepreneurs, and imparting training and technical guidance. According to them entrepreneurship development programmes should have separate short-term and long-term strategies. The suggestions are indeed worthwhile, although they have nothing remarkably new to offer on the subject. The study serves to confirm that entrepreneurs from Faridabad,


Under what conditions do sets of two former adversary states with deeply rooted historical animosity try to reconcile with each other? When they seek bilateral reconciliation, why are the outcomes significantly different? France and Germany were historic antagonists that fought three catastrophic wars between 1870 and 1945. In the postwar era, however, their antagonism and hostility dramatically evolved into mutual partnership and cooperation. Unlike the Franco-German case, Japan-Republic of Korea relations still remain frigid due to mistrust and enmity, although sixty-three years have passed since Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule. This article argues that in both cases, the motives for reconciliation were mainly derived from realpolitik concerns such as security and economy. Structural conditions also affected the initiation of international reconciliation. Nonetheless, it was the dynamics of political leaders and nongovernmental organizations that played central roles in differentiating the reconciliation processes and outcomes in the two dyadic relationships. Key words: international reconciliation, Japan-ROK relations, Franco-German relations, East Asian politics Introduction Under what conditions do sets of two former adversary states with deeply rooted historical animosity try to reconcile with each other? When they seek bilateral reconciliation, why are the outcomes significantly different? This article addresses these questions by examining two dyadic cases-postwar Japan and the Republic of Korea (hereafter, ROK or South Korea) and Franco-German relations. Although the two sets of dyads share deep-seated historical antagonism, France and Germany reached a far deeper stage of reconciliation than Japan and the ROK during the postwar era. France and Germany were historic antagonists that fought three catastrophic wars-the France-Prussia war and two World Wars-between 1870 and 1945. France's sudden defeat during World War II by the Nazi invasion in June 1940 led to its humiliation and the persistence of harsh Nazi rule for nearly four years.1 In the postwar era, however, the antagonism and hostility between France and Germany dramatically evolved into the establishment of mutual partnership and cooperation. Notable in this evolution are the formation of a security alliance, the engagement in economic and political integration of the European community, the joint writing of a history textbook, and the improvement of mutual perception. The Franco-German reconciliation has thus played a key role in promoting peace and prosperity throughout Western Europe.2 On the other hand, the Japan-ROK relationship progressed in a different direction during the postwar era. The origin of the historical antipathy between Japan and Korea dates back to 1592 when Japan invaded Korea. Yet the most significant root of historical enmity stems from Japan's colonial rule over Korea from 1910 to 1945. During this period, Koreans suffered under Japan's relentless political repression, economic exploitation, attacks against Korean culture, and violations of the human rights of Koreans.3 Unlike the Franco-German case, Japan and South Korea followed a fluctuating path ranging from chronic antagonism to limited cooperation during the postwar era. Although sixty-three years have passed since Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule, it still appears as if Japan-ROK relations remain frigid due to distrust and hostility. This article argues that in both cases, the motives for reconciliation were mainly derived from realpolitik concerns such as security and economy. Structural conditions also affected the initiation of international reconciliation. However, it was the dynamics of political leaders and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that played pivotal roles in differentiating the reconciliation processes and outcomes in the two dyadic relationships. The Franco-German case was marked not only by political leadership that commonly favored reconciliation, but also by the vibrant activities of reconciliation-promoting NGOs during the early postwar period. …


The article is intended to contribute to a growing debate about how to approach and interact with problematic archives. The article examines three works made by a photographer and two filmmakers, respectively, based on their artistic interactions with their respective archives. Their works were brought to annual workshops in 2019 and 2020 organized by Reframing Africa, co-hosted by the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg. The central objective of Reframing Africa continues to be lobbying for the preservation, restoration and repatriation of films made by African filmmakers on the continent and in the diaspora. But there has also been growing interest among participants in the colonial and other racially inflected archives of the moving/still image. The main title of the article, 'Can the archive restore you?', is intended to echo that of Nigerian filmmaker Ogwe Inyeka's short film No Archive Can Restore You (). The article argues that the engagement by the authors of the three works with deeply problematic visual archives has produced significant insights into their construction and the ways in which they represent 'reality' and 'truth'. Each of the three artistic interventions does suggest how even the bleakest archival materials, however, can be used as the basis for activating the restorative potential of the archive. The works discussed are Mpho Khwezi's A Piece of Paper, Abri de Swardt's Ridder Thirst and Eva Knopf's Majubs Reise.


Elser, Jamie L. M.A., May 2002 Anthropology Frequency and Severity of Rickets and Osteomalacia Relative to Levels of Skin Melanin Director; Randall R Skelton Rickets and osteomalacia are usually caused by insufficient vitamin D, either because of a dietary inadequacy or because of a lack of exposure to the ultraviolet rays of the sun. Studies continue to show that the most important source of vitamin D is exposure to sunlight, not dietary intake though. The amount of skin melanin in the human body determines the amount of ultraviolet radiation that one receives. The more skin melanin that a body produces, the less ultraviolet radiation penetrates the skin. It is in this context that a study of rickets and osteomalacia among varying levels of skin melanin can be informative. This study looks at the frequency and severity of skeletal evidence for rickets and osteomalacia among a sample of human remains with varying degrees and/or levels of skin melanin content during life. Statistical analyses using chi square analysis and contingency tables were used to test the hypothesis that levels of skin melanin influence an individuals' susceptibility to rickets or osteomalacia. The relationship between high levels of skin melanin content and rickets or osteomalacia was not significant, but there was a relationship between lower levels of skin melanin and the disease, suggesting that other factors not included in this study could affect the expression of disease.


The MART-LIME is a large area x-ray experiment planned to be launched on board the Russian satellite Spectrum X-Gamma, as the high energy imager of a complement of broad band co- aligned x-ray telescopes. The energy range covered is 5 - 150 keV with an angular resolution of 8.6 arcminutes. The final detector configuration is now in its testing phase and includes the high pressure window comprising the 6 by 6 degree collimator, and the multiwire proportional counter (MWPC). The response to x-ray sources was investigated during the tests carried out at the Daresbury Laboratory (Warrington, UK) facilities The MWPC was filled up by a xenon-argon-isobutane gas mixture in order to evaluate the efficiency of the detector and in particular its linearity over the whole approximately 2,000 cm2 sensitive area. At the same time the various parts of the apparatus have been simulated by using a Monte Carlo program. Results on the detector response and simulations are presented.


The objective of this research was to study toxic effects of alternative feeds for honeybees Apis mellifera. The average mortality time and the mortality index of cagged honeybees were assessed to evaluate any possible toxic effect of: (a) cassava hay (Manihot esculenta); (b) leucaena hay (Leucaena leococephala); (c) mesquite pod meal (Prosopis juliflora); (d) "bordao-de-velho" pod meal (Pithecellobium cf. saman); (e) babassu bran (Orbygnia martiana) and (f) succedaneous for calfskin from Purina®. The mortality time average varied from 4.46 to 11.74 and the mortality index varied between 4.58 and 12.80. It was obseved that honeybees fed with "bordao-de-velho" pod meal got involved by stichy layer of food and died asphyxiated. Results showed that the flour of Pithecellobium cf. saman should not be used for feeding honeybees, considering the early mortality of workers fed with this meal. The other food studied did not show any toxic effect.


Three women in a Montreal rehabilitation center for alcoholics and drug addicts, try to come to terms with their problems.


Stochasticity is a major contributor to the resolution limit of fine mechanics and optical imaging, which is also an obstacle for achieving cutting edge EUV lithography performance. The root cause of stochasticity comes from the pattern edge random variation within the resist after exposure due to low contrast. High substrate adhesion is also very fatal as it further aggravates the variation at the substrate due to increased interaction, leading to stochastic failures. In this paper, Stochastic Area Thickness (SAT) and Dynamic Stochastic Area Thickness (DSAT) are used to evaluate the stochastic interactions. High optical foot exposure is proposed instead of conventional low substrate reflectivity to reduce SAT. Adhesion control by acid/quencher loading is proposed to minimize the stochastic interaction between resist and substrate.


The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) detection of microwave background anisotropies may contain a component due to gravitational waves generated by inflation. It is shown that the gravitational waves from inflation might be seen using 'beam-inspace' detectors, but not the Laser Interferometer Gravity Wave Observatory (LIGO). The central conclusion, dependent only on weak assumptions regarding the physics of inflation, is a surprising one. The larger the component of the COBE signal due to gravitational waves, the smaller the expected local gravitational wave signal. PACS numbers 98.80.Cq, 04.30.+x, 04.80.+z One of the many interesting possibilities highlighted by the observation of cosmic microwave background anisotropies by the COBE satellite [1] is that the instrument may be directly seeing the influence of extremely long wavelength gravitational waves [2]. In general, the anisotropy seen can arise as a combination of two contributions, the first being gravitational waves and the second being genuine density perturbations in the matter distribution at the time that the microwave background radiation was released. A given cosmological theory predicts the relative significance of these in influencing the microwave background. One of the favoured models for the origin of inhomogeneities is the inflationary paradigm [3], whereby the universe experienced a period of accelerated expansion in the distant past. This is the only means by which adiabatic density perturbations may be generated (rather than simply assumed to be pre-existing), and it is fair to say that detailed analysis [4] of the consequences of the COBE observation appear to favour the perturbations being adiabatic. Inflationary models also generate a stochastic spectrum of gravitational waves modes, both spectra extending typically from wavelengths of order centimeters (though the density perturbations on this sort of scale do not survive long) all the way up to sizes much greater than the present observable universe. The COBE measurement itself does not allow one to distinguish between the two contributions to the anisotropy. However, the scaling of the anisotropies with the angular resolution of observation is different for the two types of contribution. Two or more experiments operating on different angular scales (or a single one with a wide range of angular resolutions) can therefore attempt to resolve the two contributions, and it has been shown [5] that although this is not possible yet, it may become so with improved data in the near future. Reproducing the COBE measurement provides for the first time an accurate normalization of the spectra for given inflationary models [6]. For a specific model, one therefore knows the entire gravitational wave spectrum, and so can address the question of whether or not this stochastic background might be detectable in proposed gravitational wave detectors. It might as well be said straight away that the constraints have tightened to such an extent that the case for the LIGO systems [7] currently under construction seeing this background is already hopeless. The discussion here shall therefore be directed primarily at the proposed 'beam-in-space' experiments [8]. The sensitivity of these in terms of dimensionless gravitational wave amplitude is likely if anything to be less than LIGO, but they probe considerably longer wavelengths where the anticipated signal is larger, and consequently one should be much more optimistic as to their utility in searching for the inflationary background. The key conclusion of this paper is a surprising one — if gravitational waves are identified as a component of the COBE signal, then it becomes harder to detect them in our own solar system. Physically, this arises because gravitational waves can only be significant if the inflationary expansion is far from the de Sitter limit, implying a rapidly decreasing Hubble parameter. This conclusion, though not previously stated in as explicit a manner, is already apparent in studies which have restricted themselves to looking at particular classes of inflationary models such as power-law inflation [9]. Alternative studies made recently have been less clear on this point, for example [10] by assuming that the entire COBE result is due to gravitational waves and then not following through the implication that this will necessitate a rapidly decreasing Hubble parameter. This Letter aims to improve on this in


The present invention relates to an airtight food container which provides improved sealing force and anti-slippage function as compared to conventional airtight containers. The airtight food container of the present invention is produced by means of a double injection molding process, to thereby improve the sealing force thereof, to thereby eliminate the necessity of separate processes and thus reduce production costs, and to thereby achieve a reduced defective rate and reduced fault rate.


Polymer & polymer composite gears find increasing application because of the low material manufacturing cost, light weight & quiet operation compared with metal gears. Generally thermoplastic polymers like acetal polymer & nylon polymer are used for gear applications. But acetal and nylon gears have low load carrying capacity. To improve the performance of gears, geometry modification had been done like tooth width modification & cooling holes on tooth surface. But, for high power applications, these materials show poor performance. Therefore, it is necessary to select the polymer which has good mechanical properties & good thermal stability. Poly-ether-ether-Ketone (PEEK) has high strength & stiffness, low coefficient of thermal expansion which is required for gears. The comparative performance spur gears of 30% glass filled PA66 and 30% glass filled PEEK was investigated in this study. The results shows that 30% glass filled PEEK gears have high wear resistance and high torque transmission capacity as compare with 30% glass filled PA66 gears.


The accurate graphic survey of an archaeological site is fundamental for its analysis and research. Furthermore, if this site is to be covered by a building and will not be accessible or visible, its documentation is essential, not only to continue with the research, but also to disseminate and enhance the discoveries. An example of this is the "Hoya de los Molinos" archaeological site in Caravaca de la Cruz (Region of Murcia, Spain). This is where the first mark of the wheel of a Roman vertical watermill in the Iberian Peninsula has been found. This fact is crucial because remains of Roman vertical-wheeled watermills have been found across the Mediterranean but not in the Iberian Peninsula. Moreover, the fact that this watermill still has all its structural elements makes this archaeological site in Caravaca de la Cruz very interesting. Due to these facts, it is essential to disseminate this discovery, so that it can be recognized and considered as archaeological and cultural heritage. To that end, the researchers have carried out a three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of the most characteristic elements, such as the vertical wheel, the gears that allowed grinding the grain, and the building protecting them. A virtual recreation was carried out, based on the historical and building research, which is displayed in an explanatory video. Furthermore, two reproductions were created: one made to scale of the archaeological site with a 3D printer and another one of the hypothetical structure of the Roman watermill. To achieve this result, historians, archaeologists and engineers have collaborated, thus enabling not only its adequate dissemination, but also its accurate documentation, in an inclusive manner. Thanks to all the work that this paper describes, the Roman watermill found in Caravaca de la Cruz can be known, studied and assessed.Highlights:The first Roman watermill in the Iberian Peninsula has been found with all its structural elements, from the imprints left in the stone by the wheel.Virtual reconstruction of the first vertical wheel watermill discovered in Hispania has been made.An animated video of the hydraulic watermill gears performance has been created for documentation and dissemination.


The results of laser-induced damage to polarizing coatings and 1.06 μm high-reflectance coatings are reported. The correlation between the damage threshold and coating design is investigated. Analysis of the experimental results are presented


Biopolymers are gaining more importance in our dayto-day life, due to the hazardous effect of synthetic plastics in our environment. Curdlan is one of the biopolymers, which has a broad field of applications in the food, pharmaceutical and medical industries. It is a polymer of glucose, produced by the family members of Rhizobiaceae. Curdlan [(1→3)-β-D-glucan] production takes place under the nitrogen starvation period during the cell growth. Fifty Agrobacterium sp. were isolated from root nodules collected from different localities of Coimbatore and Palakkad and screened by Aniline Blue method for the production of curdlan. The species was confirmed as Agro-bacterium fabrum by 16S rRNA sequencing. The accession number given by GenBank is MF521602. Curdlan was produced using different carbon and nitrogen sources. The extraction was done by Sodium hydroxide: Acetic acid precipitation. 0.12 gm of crude curdlan was obtained from 1.2 gm/100 ml of biomass. The product was stored for further research. INTRODUCTION: Exopolysaccharides are the secondary metabolites produced by a vast group of microorganisms. One such group of organisms which produce these types of polysaccharides is the Rhizobiaceae family. The genus Agrobacterium has the nature of producing a special group of polysaccharides (1→3)-β-D-Glucan, termed as curdlan. These nitrogen-fixing root nodule bacteria have the ability to produce these special polysaccharides in the nitrogen starvation conditions. Gelling and emulsifying nature of curdlan has gained application in the industrial


The study of texture and properties of C-Mn-Al high strength and high ductility cold-rolled plate in industrial production shows that the tensile strength of the material is 730MPa,yield strength is 470MPa,extensibility reaches 28%,yield strength rate is 0.63; the main hardeners in the steel are C,Mn,and Al,and their relative maximum contents are separately 0.21%,1.5% and 1.6%,with low raw material cost and excellent adaptability in production.


The mandible, the largest and strongest bone of the face, serves for the reception of the lower teeth. It consists of a curved, horizontal portion, the body, and two perpendicular portions, the rami, which unite with the ends of the body nearly at right angles1.The coronoid process of the mandible is anterior projection process gives attachment of muscles of mastication. This study was done to identify various shapes of coronoid process of dry human mandible in Saurashtra region in reference to gender without considering age. The material for this study comprised of 131 (262 sides) dry human mandibles out of which 79 are male (158 sides) and 52 are female (104 sides) from the osteology bank of Anatomy Department, M P Shah Govt. Medical College, Jamnagar, Gujarat, India. We observe three different variants of coronoid process namely triangular, rounded and hook shaped. We got 64.56% and 32.69% of triangular shaped, 12.66% and 28.85% of hook shaped and 22.78% and 38.46% of rounded shaped in male and female mandibles respectively. This study of shape of coronoid process will be beneficial for the Anthropologists, Forensic scientists and Reconstructive surgeons Key Word:Mandible, Coronoid process, Triangular, Rounded, Hook *Address for Correspondence: Dr.Jignesh Vadgama, Assistant professor, Department of Anatomy, 8th floor, M P Shah Government Medical College, Jamnagar-361008, Gujarat, INDIA. Email:firstname.lastname@example.com Received Date: 10/01/2019 Revised Date: 26/02/2019 Accepted Date: 14/04/2019 DOI: https://doi.org/10.26611/10011013 INTRODUCTION The mandible, the largest and strongest bone of the face, serves for the reception of the lower teeth. It consists of a curved, horizontal portion, the body, and two perpendicular portions, the rami, which unite with the ends of the body nearly at right angles1. The rami bear the coronoid and condylar processes. The coronoid process projects upwards and slightly forwards as a triangular plate of bone. Its posterior border bounds the mandibular notch, and its anterior border continuous into that of the ramus. The coronoid process is derived from a Greek word "korone" meaning "crow's beak"2.The mandible or the submaxilla is a U shaped bone having curve shaped body with 2 rami. Each rami has coronoid and condylar processes. The coronoid process develops as a discrete entity within the mass of temporalis muscle. This process gives attachment to important muscle of mastication – Temporalis muscle attached to apex whole of the medial surface and anterior border and enchroching partially on its lateral surface. Rest of the lateral surface gives attachment to masseter3. Clinically, it is important as it is a membranous bone which can be removed intraorally without any functional deficiency and facial disfigurement for reconstruction of orbital floor deformities, alveolar defects, paranasal sinus augmentation, non-union fractures of mandible, osseous defect reconstruction, and other repairing procedures in craniomaxillofacial surgeries4. There exist variations in Access this article online Quick Response Code: Website:


The aim of this study was determination of drug resistance patterns of avian E.coli isolate from cases of colibacillosis in Kurdestan, Iran. Isolates of E.coli from pericarditis lesions (10 samples from each 20 farms) were isolated from broilers. The isolates were tested for their susceptibility to a panel of 12 antibacterial agents using the (Kirby-bauer) disc diffusion method. The drug susceptibility test showed that all isolates were resistant to tetracycline and erythromycin. More than 70% of the isolates were resistant to flumequine, doxycycline, colistin, sulfadiazinet, enrofloxacin, lincospectin, difloxacin, cousamix and trimethoprim. There were 18 drug resistance groups among 200 E.coli isolates. 79% of isolates belonged to more than one group, whereas the rest (21% of isolates) each isolate was belonged only to one group. The results of this study confirmed that high resistance of isolates to antibacterial agents mostly caused by non-controlled description can be dangerous for poultry industry as well as public health.


The Nigerian educational system was revolutionized from the liberal state to a more functional education with the introduction of the 6-3-3-4 system in 1977. The new dispensation gave prominence to Vocational and Technical Education whose products would become better, more useful and more productive citizens of the nation. This paper examines the importance of Vocational and Technical Education in National Integration and Cohesion vis-a-vis the various self employment programmes of the present government such as the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP). The paper, therefore stresses that the effective implementation of such programmes could serve as a unifying force amongst the citizenry for a more peaceful and harmonious co-existence. Introduction The modern industrial societies of the United States of America, Western Europe, Russia and Japan, undoubtedly owe their present industrial superiority and civilization to technological know-how which is undisputedly the cradle of human advancement and civilization. It is also important to note that none of these nations acquired their technological know-how and became industrialized overnight. Each nation gradually devised, borrowed and adopted its own technology based on the necessities and requirements of its society. It is perhaps in recognition of the above that Nigeria is attempting to use vocational/technical education and training to empower all unskilled and unemployed Nigerians through various vocational training programmes, such as the ones undertaken by NDE and NAPEP. These are, of course, in addition to the various vocational/technical programmes being run by the existing educational institution. The backdrop is to eradicate the twin-evil of poverty and unemployment which are capable of snow-balling into national disintegration through social crimes and apathy, like armed robbery, communal/tribal clashes, prostitution, arson, assassination, just to mention a few. This is perhaps in ' line with the statement of Uzoh (1999) on social crime control, thus: The best way to control social crimes and social apathy is to offer every Nigerian a share of the national cake to bring the disgruntled, disoriented and dislocated members of our society into the main stream of our national productive life. Abubakar (1983), rightly observes that technology is a manifestation of modern man's effort to control both his material and human environment in order to give himself the kind of life he thought he ought to have. Thus, while education is the key to modernization (Ukeje [1996] in Omenkeukwu [1998]), Vocational/Technical Education is an engine that generates creativity and skillfulness. The more one is creative and skillful, the more he abhors destruction, free from prejudice, mind pollution, superstition and conservatism. It is Vocational and Technical Education that provides the tenets for the acquisition of such creativity and skillfulness. It is rather unfortunate that for a long time our school system has been permeated by fear of vocationalism and uncreativeness (Lawal, 1984) and only succeeded in producing job seekers rather than job-makers (Sadiq, 1998). Our educational system is supposed to depend on the kind of society we hope to build, in terms of quality of men and women. If we are planning for a society in which difference in wealth and income will be much smaller than in the past, and swinging from one social group to another much easier and thus making our people less restive through the acquisition of employment and saleable skills, then we shall evidently have to plan for an educational system in which the ordinary man or woman could feel adequate and tolerant of one another. Thus, Vocational and Technical education becomes relevant in this direction. If we recognize that the underlining conditions of life are bound to be changing very rapidly and that everyone will have to face the prospect of living in a much less static type of community than in the past, we shall necessarily put more stress on the need for fostering national integration and mutual co-existence of the citizens of Nigeria through gainful employment which Vocational and Technical education provides. This will make people more appreciative and happier in any work of life. In a similar vein, Abubakar (1983; 7) states that: Colonial legacy did more harm than good in the development of scientific traditions within our community such that most government were used to the habit of turning to the western nations for scientific advice rather than to the indigenous scientist, thus establishing a negative feed-back system. In recognition of the desire to create job-makers out of Nigerians, thereby curbing poverty and unemployment rates in Nigeria, the present government is pursuing vocational skills development programmes through the NDE and NAPEP. After all, the success-or failure of any economy depends on the functionality of its vocational and technical education system. (Osuala, 1992). This paper therefore, intends to highlight the importance of Vocational and Technical Education in achieving national integration and cohesion through the self-employment programmes of NDE and NAPEP. It will also suggest ways for the effective implementation of such programmes to enhance peaceful and harmonious co-existence amongst the citizens of this great country. Aims And Objectives Of Vocational/Technical Education In Nigeria Vocational/Technical Education is a part of the total educational programmes that is highly utilitarian in content and scope. It is seen as the aspect of education that is concerned with learning to work or education that makes an individual employable in a particular occupational field. Okorie and Ezeji (1998) in Udo and Amobeda (1999), defined vocational education as training or retraining which is given in schools or classes under the public supervision and control.. In relation to this, Osuala (1995) asserts that vocational education provides skills, abilities, economic understanding and develop aptitude, attitudes, work habits and competence that help an individual enter and/or make progress in employment on a useful and productive basis. The aims and objectives of vocational and technical education as contained in section 6, sub section 49 of the National Policy on Education are as follows: To provide the technical, knowledge and vocational skills necessary for agricultural. industrial, commercial and economic development To provide trained manpower in applied science, technology and commerce particularly at sub professional levels. To provide people who can apply scientific knowledge to the improvement and solution of economic and environmental problems for the use and convenience of man. To enable our young men and women to have an intelligent understanding of the increasing complexity of technology. To give training and impact necessary skills leading to the production of craftsrt technicians and other skilled personnel who will be enterprising and self reliant; and To provide an introduction to the professional studies in Engineering and o : technological skills. Importance Of Vocational/Technical Education Vocational/Technical education provides the necessary skills and knowledge which will enable an individual function effectively in specific occupations. This, by and large reduces the level of unemployment and poverty in a given nation both of which are major causes of all antisocial behaviour capable of disintegrating such a nation. Specifically, the importance of vocational and technical education, according to Osuala (1987), includes among others: 1. Preparing the learner for entry into an employment and advancement his chosen career. 2. Meeting the manpower needs of the society 3. Increasing the options available to each learner. 4. Enabling the learner to wisely select a career. Given the importance of vocational and technical education, it becomes necessary to examine its characteristics. Characteristics Of Vocational/Technical Education The characteristics of vocational/technical education which distinguish it from the General Education as identified by Ingram (1996:30) are It is taught and learned in its relations, and applications to the actual work of a specific occupation. It is designed specifically to improve the efficiency of an individual in a specific occupation either as preparation for employment or supplementary to the duties of employed workers. It is more value to one who will pursue or is pursuing a specific occupation than lo someone else. It is timed, such that the learner needs it and applies it to useful and productive work. The skills and knowledge of specific occupations are taught and learned in their practical and proper relation. A careful examination of the characteristics above reveals that recipients of this specialized form of education are made functional and productive in the society either gainfully employed or self employed (thus becoming self reliant). If we are all productively busy and well fed, crime rate and other societal vices will drop and peace, which is a bi-product of national integration and cohesion will reign in the country. Vocational/Technical Education As A Vehicle For National Integration And Cohesion Countries all over the world have realized that to enhance economic arid national development, there is the need to empower its citizenry through gainful employment and eradication of poverty. Nigeria is no exception. The present democratic government is vigorously pursing vocational and technical education towards providing employable skills to its citizens so as to ensure national integration and cohesion. After, all around the world, more people than ever are self employed. It is believed that the more people are self employed, the stronger the economy and the higher the standard of living. This alone produces a more cohesive and well integrated citizenry of


Placement algorithms for analog circuits explore numerous layout configurations in their iterative search. To steer these engines towards layouts that meet the electrical constraints on the design, this work develops a fast feasibility predictor to guide the layout engine. The flow first discerns rough bounds on layout parasitics and prunes the feature space. Next, a Latin hypercube sampling technique is used to sample the reduced search space, and the labeled samples are classified by a linear support vector machine (SVM). If necessary, a denser sample set is used for the SVM, or if the constraints are found to be nonlinear, a multilayer perceptron (MLP) is employed. The resulting machine learning model demonstrated to rapidly evaluate candidate placements in a placer, and is used to build layouts for several analog blocks.


Abortion is even more antisocial, and contraception carried to the extremes which are at present practised is just as antisocial. The number of births steadily decreases each year as the number of motor cars increases, and children fail to appear for fear that the comfort of parents should disappear. Our efforts to improve national health are futile if in another twenty-five years there is a stationary population, as present figures indicate will be the case. For a stationary population means a dying nation, and what is the use of saving individuals if the nation dies?


The present invention colors the addition of moisture and the reaction responsive polymer of colorless polyurethane binder, colored pigments, and various functional materials that can be cured to colorless asphalt binder relates to a packaging and manufacturing emergency repair material of the collar Asphalt bus lane asphalt binder the aggregate is a mixture of about room temperature, moisture-curing color asphalt repair material having an adhesive force, etc. caused by the interface between the high reactivity and an excellent durability, humidity after rapid repairs and maintenance by applying a road repair with a predetermined particle size. The present invention in 80 to 95% by weight of the selected drying aggregate having a predetermined particle size distribution, the periodic re-PU (Polyurethane) binder colorless 90 to 99% by weight of colored pigment 1 and by the addition of 10% by weight of homogeneous dispersion in evenly in the moisture-curing color asphalt binder 5-20 were mixed, but, adding and mixing an adhesive enhancer 0.1 to 3% and a curing time controlling agent 0.1 to 2% by weight in order to impart functionality to the mixture the% by weight aggregate surface prepared by provides a road maintenance room temperature moisture-curable repair material for color asphalt, it characterized in that the coating produced. Accordingly, the present invention is superior due to the moisture-curing, given the high humidity is time to the surface to repair the room temperature emergency repair is possible, and most use points used for color Asphalt adhesion and general by using a moisture-curable polymer exhibit very excellent durability unlike conventional asphalt repair materials used and the effect that can significantly increase the pavement life. Room temperature, the asphalt mixture, asphalt concrete color, moisture curing, polymer, polyurethane, colored pigment


Networks entail vulnerable and sensitive information that pose serious privacy threats. In this paper, we introduce, k-core attack, a new attack model which stems from the k-core decomposition principle. K-core attack undermines the privacy of some state-of-the-art techniques. We propose a novel structural anonymization technique called (k, Δ)-Core Anonymity, which harnesses the k-core attack and structurally anonymizes small and large networks. In addition, although real-world social networks are massive in nature, most existing works focus on the anonymization of networks with less than one hundred thousand nodes. (k, Δ)-Core Anonymity is tailored for massive networks. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first technique that provides empirical studies on structural network anonymization for massive networks. Using three real and two synthetic datasets, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our technique on small and large networks with up to 1.7 million nodes and 17.8 million edges. Our experiments reveal that our approach outperforms a state-of-the-art work in several aspects.


Specific drills are developed for austenitic stainless steel 1Cr18Ni9Ti. The drills are designed by UG software and fabricated by ANCA TGX multiaxis CNC tool grinding machine. Three different coatings, TiN, TiAlN and TiCN, are utilised by PLATIT PL1000 coating system. Drilling performance is evaluated by chip deformation coefficient, thrust force, torque, cutting temperature and cutting tool failure mechanism. Results indicate that a new specific drill with split point surface, 138°point angle and 38°helix angle is suitable for 1Cr18Ni9Ti. Compared to the commercial available standard uncoated drill, the new uncoated drill makes thrust force decrease 40% and torque decrease 35% under the same cutting parameters. TiN -coated drill, TiAlN- coated drill and TiCN -coated drills yield good cutting performance and tool life increases by 138%, 188% and 255%, respectively. A new specific drill with TiCN coating is appropriate in drilling of 1Cr18Ni9Ti with long tool life and high material removal rate.


philosophy for Jewish life in the contemporary world." It is so comprehensive and searching in its treatment that a brief review cannot even suggest its value. Rabbi Kaplan believes that Judaism is threatened with disintegration. Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Reform Judaism, and modern Zionism have all proved unable to stop this trend which has grown apace since Jewish civil disabilities were removed in the days of Napoleon Bonaparte. It is the author's bu rn ing conviction that the Jewish people must preserve their identity and that if this is to be done there must be a thoroughgoing reconstruction of Jewish thought and life. The book sets forth cogently and in detail the specifications for such a plan. But why should a modern Jew like Rabbi Kaplan, who believes that the idea of a chosen people is an anachronism, and that there is no supernatural revelation, be so determined to maintain Jewish identity? He replies in part : "We Jews depend upon Judaism and the fellowship of the Jewish people for that feeling of being needed and welcomed, without which we can neither live a normal healthy life, nor possess the essential ingredients that go into the making of worthy character and personality. We need Judaism to help us ma in ta in our human dignity and achieve our salvation. Almost ten percent of the American people declare themselves anti-Semites, and harbor the criminally insane sentiment of wishing to destroy us. Twice that number are ready to join them upon the flimsiest provocation. In the country as a whole, Jews at best are tolerated, but neither desired nor welcomed. Our best friends will forgive us our being Jews, but can seldom forget it. . . . All of these facts combine to justify us in strengthening our own Jewish civilization, not for the purpose of making our way to where we are unwelcome, or for segregating ourselves from those who are ready to accept us, but to find in one another that acceptance and welcome which for a long time to come we shall not find among our non-Jewish neighbors." This is primarily a book for Jews, but it will give Christians a better understanding of their Jewish neighbors and of the problems which they face, and ought to make them better Christians.


Turkmenistan's foreign policy was largely shaped by the country's strategic vulnerability and its significant natural gas reserves. From the point of view of national security, the country distinguished with the smallest population in the region, distributed throughout the large territory and concentrated in the border districts, an almost depopulated center and long borders had to face unfavorable initial conditions for building statehood. At the same time rich natural gas reserves, second only to Russia's in the entire post-Soviet space, promised the opportunities for organizing wide-scale exports, overcoming the economic crisis and stabilizing the ruling regime. Ashgabat found two main instruments which allowed for ensuring the country's security and creating the external conditions favorable for the ruling regime's consolidation. The first one was the "positive neutrality" concept envisaging the non-participation not only in military alliances but also in any inter-state groupings with collective responsibility for decision-making, the other a military union with Russia with was doctrinally incompatible with neutrality but maintained in practice. The neutral status provided Turkmenistan with a considerable freedom of foreign-policy manoeuvre, allowing for the concentration of effort on organizing the transit and exports of gas. At the same time Turkmenistan's military forces were up to the beginning of 1994 under the joint Russian Turkmen command while the country's borders with Iran and Afghanistan were defended by Russian guards up to the end of 1999. By the late 1990s Turkmenistan's foreign policy had undergone a kind of transformation. The consolidation of the ruling regime and the de facto recognition by the neighbor states and international community of Turkmenistan's specifics as a semi-isolated country with a limited range of foreign policy objectives and low permeability for foreign influence made it possible for Ashgabat to relinquish a military alliance with Russia. Besides, within the first decade of independence national military forces and a ramified repressive apparatus supporting the regime of Niyazov's autocracy were established. The neutral status recognized by the UN in 1995 continued to be the foundation of Turkmenistan's foreign policy. By the late 1990s Ashgabat began to interpret neutrality as self-isolation; foreign contacts of Turkmen leadership were minimized, the country introduced a visa regime with the rest of the CIS. By the late 1990s Ashgabat, exploiting the neutral status and gradually closing the country, had managed to reduce Russian influence considerably while remaining equidistant from Kazakhstan's and Uzbekistan's regional ambitions. Although trade and economic contacts with Turkey and Iran developed, Turkmenistan distanced itself from Ankara's and Tehran's political agendas. At the same time the conditions of the 1990s precluded Ashgabat from diversifying the markets and routes of gas exports. Achieving this objective had to be postponed until the next decade.


Incidence and prevalence of HIV are continuously high in German men, who have sex with men (MSM). Different transmission risk minimizing strategies have been observed. The viral load strategy rates patients unlikely to be sexually infectious if their viral load under effective therapy is stably suppressed during 6 months and no other sexually transmitted infections are present.


In 1994, US state legislators considered 436 bills related to reproductive health issues and approved 19, of which five were later vetoed. In addition, states considered and enacted administrative policy changes on these issues. Most of the bills introduced (304) dealt with abortion. Half of these bills were designed to limit access to abortion, and a third were drafted to protect abortion rights. Two bills of each kind were enacted. Administratively, four more states (for a total of 17) began to fund abortions for indigent women under most circumstances. In 16 of these states, the income ceiling for abortion coverage is higher than the regular Medicaid ceiling. For the first time in recent years, the number of bills introduced which would limit funding access was equal to the number which would increase it. Of the 49 measures which would have imposed counseling and waiting periods on women seeking abortion, only one was enacted, but others which had been on the books were enforced. The parental consent measure which survived veto replaced a harsher law. Legislative action increased the number of states with clinic access protection laws to 11. While coercive welfare reform measures failed in 1994, some states received permission to extend the eligibility requirements for Medicaid family planning services. Debate has also centered around ways to prevent adolescent pregnancy, but very few of the 44 bills introduced offered universal access to voluntary family planning services. The availability of a contraceptive implant has engendered efforts to coerce its use in certain populations, but none of these efforts was translated into law. None of the bills on private insurance coverage of family planning services was enacted, but one bill was approved to ban publicly funded coverage of infertility services. While some of the administrative changes of 1994 were encouraging, conservative support for punitive, coercive measures is growing, and legislators continue to ignore the relevance of family planning services, including abortion, as an integral part of welfare reform.


The development of the core competitiveness of university students is not only an important part of college training,but also is a important affair which has grate practical significance and long-term significance for the country and the nation.In deal with this affair,we should use the scientific development concept as the guiding ideology,meet the demands of multi-level and establish a scientific and standardized training system.Currently,we should integrate the development mechanisms of students effectively,in order to promote the cultivation of core competitiveness of university students.


Abstract : Wind energy technology is a viable source for attaining the emission reduction and renewable energy use goals set forth by the executive office. In accordance with Executive Orders, the Air Force must reduce greenhouse emissions and energy consumption, and expand the use of renewable energy sources within its facilities nation-wide by year 2010. This mandate requires that the Air Force look at alternative electrical production and rely more on such renewable energy resources as wind power. The specific problem addressed by this research is whether on-site wind energy generation can be more economically feasible than the conventional energy consumption at Peterson AFB. The hypothesis of this research is that wind energy will not be economically effective as an energy alternative without the inclusion of quantified environmental benefits. The life cycle cost comparisons derived from generating on-site wind energy proved not to be strictly economically feasible for Peterson AFB when compared to fossil fuel generated electricity. However, with the inclusion of the valuation of environmental benefits, it was determined that wind energy is a worthwhile project if the U.S. Air Force is willing to pay the extra costs for the global socioeconomic benefits.


We study the distributed Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) control problem in discrete-time and finite-horizon, where the controller depends linearly on the history of the outputs and it is required to lie in a given subspace, e.g. to possess a certain sparsity pattern. It is well-known that this problem can be solved with convex programming within the Youla domain if and only if a condition known as Quadratic Invariance (QI) holds. In this paper, we first show that given QI sparsity constraints, one can directly descend the gradient of the cost function within the domain of output-feedback controllers and converge to a global optimum. Note that convergence is guaranteed despite non-convexity of the cost function. Second, we characterize a class of Uniquely Stationary (US) problems, for which first-order methods are guaranteed to converge to a global optimum. We show that the class of US problems is strictly larger than that of strongly QI problems and that it is not included in that of QI problems. We refer to Figure 1 for details. Finally, we propose a tractable test for the US property.


Reading instruction, which used to be the exclusive concern of elementary teachers, has gained increasing acceptance as a necessary subject for secondary schools. One reason for this trend may be the declining levels of literacy among high school students, college entrants, and SAT candidates (Beaton, Hilton, and Schraeder, 1977). The slogan "every teacher a teacher of reading," a rallying cry from many reading specialists, reflects a mounting effort to infuse reading instruction into secondary classes. A number of textbooks on secondary school reading have been published in the last two decades. These texts appear to embody two different instructional approaches, a "skills" approach and a "meanings" approach. Although authors provide rationales for their chosen approaches, none discusses one approach in relation to the other. The basis for selecting a particular approach is thus obscured. The purpose of this article is to compare the two approaches and to assess the strengths and limits of each. I will examine theoretical perspectives and particular instructional procedures associated with each approach. In addition, Olson's (1977) explanation of the locus of meaning will be invoked to sharpen and deepen the distinctions already drawn between both approaches. Finally, I will show that the two approaches need not be rivals, but can be used in concert in actual teaching situations.


BACKGROUND The pressure rate quotient (PRQ; mean arterial pressure/heart rate [MAP/HR]) less than one (PRQ or = 1 mm) lasting for > 1 min. Transesophageal echocardiography determination of ischemia was worsening of wall motion > or = 1 grade and lasting > 1 min. PRQ < 1 was compared to ECG and/or TEE as a predictor or indicator of myocardial ischemia. RESULTS Electrocardiography ischemia occurred during 230 intervals in 10 patients, and in only 41 of 230 (18%) was PRQ < 1. Transesophageal echocardiography-defined ischemia occurred during 592 intervals in 9 patients, and in 119 of 592 (20%) PRQ < 1. Compared to ECG and TEE, PRQ < 1 had a low sensitivity (21%) and poor positive predictive value (25%). CONCLUSIONS Pressure rate quotient < 1 is an unreliable indicator and predictor of myocardial ischemia when evaluated by ECG, TEE, and the combination of these modalities in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery.


The idea of feedback mechanisms in endocrine medicine has remained ill conceived especially in the light of modern control theory where energy transfer is understood in a system wise fashion. The idea is based on reductionism i.e. describing function on a discrete molecular level whilst at the macro level the desired accuracy is not achieved. Endocrinology text books have even gone with this wind of discreteness, some have even drastically cut the subject to a bare minimum probably agreeing to the sanctity of its omnipotence. End product inhibition, regulatory enzymes, allosteric configuration changes and other physiological phenomena are examples of biological feedback mechanisms. It is not astonishing that modern control theory with all its mathematical facets has already gained a perceptible entry into the endocrinology literature. Applications of chaos theory in gynaecology and obstetrics were proposed in the early nineteen-eighties. Applications of biomathematics including nonlinear control theory is fast gaining ground and, like molecular biology in last decade can not be ignored anymore. For our understanding of hormone function to progress, endocrinological feedback mechanisms as part of gynaecological and obstetric assessment needs to be understood within complex systems science.


An investigation is carried out to consider a renormalized HVT approach in the context of spower series expansions for the energy eigenvalues of a particle moving nonrelativistically in a central potential well belonging to the class ( ) ( ) R r f D r V − = , 0 > D where f is an appropriate even function of R r x= and the dimensionless quantity ( ) 2 1 2 2 2 R D s μ = h is assumed to be sufficiently small. Previously, the more general class of central potentials of even power series in r is considered and the renormalized recurrence relations from which the expansions of the energy eigenvalues follow, are derived. The spower series of the renormalized expansion are then given for the initial class of potentials up to third order in s (included) for each energy-level l n E . It is shown that the renormalization parameter Κ enters the coefficients of the renormalized expansion through the statedependent quantity ( ) ( ) ( ) 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 R D d K a a n n − + = χ l l , ( ) 2 3 2 + + = l l n an . The question of determining χ is discussed. Our first numerical results are also given and the utility of potentials of the class considered (to which belong the wellknown Gaussian and reduced PoschlTeller potentials) in the study of single–particle states of a Λ in hypernuclei is pointed out.


One stage inventory models have been widely discussed in various literatures on inventory control. Karlin (1958) extended this type of model to the situation where the amount added to stock, when a decision to replenish was made, was a random variable. However, Karlin confined his attention to the case in which the producer might choose among some preassigned production levels, at any one of which a random amount was produced, (the alternative of no proeuction being considered as the oth production level). Kabak and Weinberg (1972) also extended the classical news-boy problem to the case where supply is a continuous random variable. But they did not examine the effect of random variation in supply on the optimum inventory level. In fact, they have determined fixed and proportional penalties, in case of shortage, and unit purchase cost, in case of excess, to ensure no decrease in expected revenue corresponding to the optimum inventory level for the situations where supply is non-stochastic.


The rumen degradation and the intestinal digestion of dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) of different samples of soybean meal (SBM) and full-fat soybean (FFS) were determined using in situ techniques. Rumen effective degradability (ED) was determined in three rumen fistulated wethers on nine SBM samples, obtained by solvent extraction (SBM1 to 8) and by expelling (SBM9), and on five FFS samples, treated by extrusion (FFS1 to 4) and by toasting (FFS5). Intestinal digest- ibility (ID) in the original feed and in the feed residues after rumen incubation for 8 and 24 h was de- termined in three duodenal fistulated wethers for three samples of SBM (6, 8 and 9) and two samples of FFS (2 and 3). No differences (P > 0.05) were observed between the mean values of SBM and FFS for the degradation kinetic parameters and the ED of both DM and CP. On the contrary, differences were found within each feed category. The ED of CP of SBM9 (46.1%) was lower than that of all sol- vent extracted meals, which ranged from 55.8 to 67.0%. The ED of CP for FFS5 (toasted) was equal to the minimum value of the range of the extruded samples (57.3 to 71.3%). The ED of CP was more closely correlated with the variation of the degradation rate (kd )( r = 0.92; P < 0.001) than with the sol- uble (a) or the potentially degradable (b) fractions (r = 0.67 and -0.68, respectively; P < 0.01). On the other hand, the degradation parameters of DM and CP were closely correlated (r = 0.92, 0.92, 0.81 and 0.79 for ED,kd, b and a, respectively; P < 0.001). The effects of rumen pre-incubation time on the ID of CP, only recorded for three samples, were variable and relatively small in magnitude. The mean values of the ID of CP were similar among samples (from 95.9 to 97.6%). The protein value of soy- bean products is mainly determined by the ED of CP, since the increases of by-pass digestible protein, associated with its reduction, largely exceed the reductions in the microbial protein synthesis caused by the decreased feed degradability. soybean meal / full fat soybean / rumen degradability / intestinal digestibility / protein value


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We present the fabrication of polyimide-based H-tree waveguides for a multi-GBit/sec optical clock signal distribution in a Si CMOS process compatible environment. Such a clock distribution system is to replace the existing electronic counterpart associated with high-performance computers. A waveguide propagation loss of 0.21 dB/cm at 850 nm was experimentally confirmed for the l-to-48 waveguide fanout device, l-to-2 splitting loss and bending loss were measured to be 0.25 dB and higher. The planarization requirement of the optical interconnection layer among many electrical interconnection layers makes the employment of tilted grating a choice of desire. Theoretical calculation predicts the 1-to-l free-space to waveguide coupling with an efficiency as high as 95%. Currently, a coupling efficiency of 35% was experimentally confirmed due to the limited index difference between guiding and cladding layers. Further experiments aimed at structuring a larger guiding/cladding layer index differences are under investigation. To effectively couple an optical signal into the waveguide through the tided grating coupler, the accuracy of the wavelength employed is pivotal. This makes the usage of the vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) and VCSEL arrays the best choice when compared with edge-emitting lasers. Modulation bandwidth as high as 6 GBit/sec was demonstrated at 850 nm. Such a wavelength is compatible with Si-based photodetectors. Temperature dependence of the threshold current up to 155 °C was measured which will determine the power dissipation issue of the optoelectronic packaging. Finally, the first fully monolithic Si-MOSFET integrated receiver was made as the optical clock signal detector. To further enhance the bandwidth of such a detector, a resonant cavity structure with Si/Si02 as the bottom mirror was employed. The measured demodulation bandwidth is over 10 GHz. A fully integrated guided-wave optical clock signal distribution system having planarized grating couplers, H-tree Si- CMOS process compatible waveguides, VCSELs and Si-based photo-receivers will be demonstrated in the near future.


In the entire world, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the main cause of death. For the treatment of CVDs, microbial fibrinolytic enzymes are highly regarded as novel therapeutic candidates. This study was purposed to determine the fibrinolytic protease activity produced by fungus source, which is Rhizopus microsporus var. oligosporus FNCC 6010 in fermented sunflower (Helianthus annuus) seed and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) seed. Fermentation was carried out by solid-state fermentation method at an initial pH of 5, incubation temperature of 33±1°C, and incubation time of 24 hours. The fermented seed was extracted to obtain supernatant as the crude enzyme. The proteolytic activity assay was done by the skimmed milk agar (SMA) plate method to obtain the proteolytic index, and the fibrinolytic activity assay was conducted by the fibrin-agarose plate method to get the fibrinolytic index. The results show that crude enzymes from fermented H. annuus and P. vulgaris seeds by R. microsporus have fibrinolytic protease activity with proteolytic index 2.64 ± 0.01 and 2.23 ± 0.04, respectively. The fibrinolytic index is 2.40 ± 0.06 and 1.64 ± 0.06, respectively. Therefore, the crude enzyme has the potential to be further researched as a candidate for thrombolytic agents. The purification, characterization, and in-depth research are needed to develop enzymes into preparations for preventing and treating CVDs.


The problem of oil pollution of soils of foreststeppe and steppe landscapes of the Orenburg region. Based on the determination of hydrocarbons in the soil, the contamination levels and the typical southern black soil, and the degree of disturbance. The obtained data allow us to make recommendations to prevent adverse effects on the soil ecosystem.


Objective To investigate the expression and significance of Abelson-related gene(Arg) in human colorectal cancer.Methods The expression of Arg was examined by immunohistochemistry in colorectal cancer tissues(80 cases),tumor-adjacent normal tissues(30 cases) and colorectal adenomas(30 cases).The correlation of Arg expression with clinicopathologic features of colorectal cancer was analyzed.Results The positive expression rate of Arg in the adenocarcinomas was 70%,which was zero in the tumor-adjacent normal tissues and colorectal adenomas(P0.01).The positive expression of Arg in the adenocarcinomas was closely related to tumor cell differentiation,depth of invasion,lymph node metastasis,TNM stage and CEA level(P0.05).The patients with higher Arg positive expression had shorter survival period(P0.05).Conclusion Arg may play an important role in the carcinogenesis of colorectal cancer and may be taken as a valuable marker in predicting the prognosis.