With the development of remote sensing technology and deep neural network, high-resolution optical remote sensing image bridge target detection based on deep learning has become a research hotspot. Bridge target detection is a great challenge because of its arbitrary direction, diverse scale and complex background. In view of the characteristics of bridge targets in remote sensing image, we propose a bridge target detection algorithm based on rotation and scale invariance. Our method is improved based on the DetectoRS network. Aiming at the difficulties of bridge with different scales and multi-directions, we use Recursive Feature Pyramid (RFP) to extract the scale invariant feature and add orientation-invariant model (OIM) to extract rotation invariant feature. In addition, most of the bridge dataset are labeled with horizontal rectangle, it is difficult for network to extract the rotation invariant feature, and the scale feature of bridge will also be blurred. In this paper, a rotated box regression algorithm based on Boxinst, a weakly supervised learning method, is proposed to transform the annotation. A cloud and negative sample data enhancement strategy is proposed since the background of remote images is complicated and there are a lot of false alarms with similar shapes as bridges. The algorithm we proposed in this paper has greatly improved the accuracy of bridge target detection in remote images with complex scenes, and achieved the second place in the preliminary competition in the bridge detection track of the 2020 Gaofen Challenge on the Automated High-Resolution Earth Observation Image Interpretation, with the map of 84.48%.


The court (justice system) has noble duty and central position in a governanence, beside as a controller body, it is also as an institution which maintain law order in it's actualization in the real form. Meanwhile, this respectable position cannot be main tained properly and tends to deteriote as it shown by it's bad performances. There are three main problems appear, structural problem, legislation and human resources. Therefore the reconstruction of court system should be made by focusing on these problems.


Pakistan and China have uplifted decade's old bondage to economic cooperation on a win-win basis through CPEC. In the Chinese equation this initiative is an economic integration of the 21st century; whereas, the US endeavors to ensure implementation of international order at sea. This paper, employing Mahan's theory of sea power, explains the future maritime scenario in South Asia which will evolve with the US and China as leading players. This paper also answers the question of how IOR littorals will align themselves in the Indian Ocean. In-depth understanding of economic interests of IOR littorals through BRI and gaining of benefits through strategic partnership with the USA will provide the insight of future power re-alignment in South Asia. Paper concludes that in order to secure energy requirements China will make collaborative maritime security arrangements with BRI partners; whereas, India, Japan and South Korea along with USA under QUAD will endeavor to impede the economic progress of China hence, forming a second power block in the Indian Ocean.


The palladium-catalyzed difluoroalkylation of aryl boronic acids with bromodifluoromethylphosphonate, bromodifluoroacetate, and further derivatives has been developed. This method provides a facile and useful access to a series of functionalized difluoromethylated arenes (ArCF2 PO(OEt)2 , ArCF2 CO2 Et, and ArCF2 CONR(1) R(2) ) that have important applications in drug discovery and development. Preliminary mechanistic studies reveal that a single electron transfer (SET) pathway may be involved in the catalytic cycle.


Dissection has been argued by Anatomists to be a useful tool for learning Anatomy. The aim of this study was to investigate what students perceive they learn from dissection. Medical students were invited to take part in three electronic surveys. These included both quantitative questions and free text responses and were delivered at the beginning of the programme, soon after their first experience of dissecting and during the last semester of Anatomy teaching. After nearly 2 years >; 80% of students felt that working in the dissecting room had been a positive experience and the level of stress that students experienced working in the dissecting room had decreased. Students identified the hardest parts of dissection as being the smell and cutting the face and the best parts as learning about the body and seeing pathology and evidence of previous surgery in the cadavers. Students reported that dissection had helped them develop a 3D appreciation of the body and an understanding of the importance of biological variation. When asked what they had learnt about themselves the common themes were that they had learnt to work as part of a team, come to terms with death and had increased their self‐confidence by learning to deal with difficult situations. This study provides data from the students' perspective that dissection is a valuable experience that contributes to both their learning of Anatomy and professional development.


Cancer stem cell niche provides a relatively stable microenvironment for cancer stem cell (CSC)existence,proliferation and differentiation.This microenvironment consists of kinds of cells,stroma and cytokines, etc. Within it , CSC can resist chemoradiotherapy. It has been shown that destruction of the microen vironment can significantly enhance the effect of chemoradiotherapy and improve prognosis of cancer patients.

Key words:
Neoplastic stem cells; Ecosystem


In South Kivu, and particularly in Kabare territory, cassava plays an important role in the diet of the population and is considered a staple crop. This study was undertaken to characterize cassava farms and to evaluate different elements of farmer characteristics influencing the adoption of improved cassava varieties in Kabare territory. To achieve this, data collected from 150 cassava producers were processed and analyzed. Using the Probit model, the factors influencing the adoption of improved cassava varieties were determined. Emphasis has been placed on the characteristic factors of the producer himself. The results obtained show that adoption rate of improved varieties is low overall (34.6%). Only the improved varieties Sawa sawa (25.9%) and Liyayi (7.9%) and Mayombe (0.7%) are adopted in the area. Among the reasons influencing the non-adoption of these varieties, agricultural producers mention roots rot, lack of cassava cuttings and theft of plants. Most adopters of these varieties, however, do not recognize the true tolerance of these varieties to the African mosaic of cassava. Variables such as level of education, length of service in cassava cultivation, age, sex, membership of a peasant organization are those that determine the adoption of these varieties. Only the first 2 variables proved to be more important. Thus, taking these factors into account as well as accompanying measures and appropriate extension techniques would improve the household food supply in the territory of Kabare.


The effects of the n-hexane extract fraction from the seeds of Abroma augusta Linn. (Sterculiaceae) were assessed for its analgesic activity in mice using acetic acid-induced writhing, formalin and hot plate tests as the tested models. The extract at doses of 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg orally administered in all tests showed markedly significant antinociceptive activity when compared to control or standard drug groups.


In the research of robust H_∞ control problem with parameter uncertainty,one of goals with the closed loop system under state or output feedback control is: quadratically stable and guarantee an H_(∞) norm bound constraint on disturbance attenuation for all admissible uncertainties. Finding a suitable positive constant e and making its Riccati equation have a positive definite matrix solution is a rule that can judge the plant is quadratic stable or not.But it is difficult to solve the Riccati equation in generally.This note provide a method of computing the possible range of positive constant e to the given positive definite matrix.Theory of the method and algorithm is given in detail.A numerical example is provided to explain the method.


The Explorative Artificial Bee Colony (EABC) algorithm is a recently introduced swarm intelligence based algorithm that has been successfully tested to optimize only a limited number of multimodal functions. This paper evaluates EABC on a larger number of benchmark functions, including both unimodal and multimodal functions. EABC is an improved variant of the Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm. A major problem with the basic ABC algorithm is that it is more aligned towards exploitations, rather than explorations, which often leads to premature convergence and fitness stagnation. The improved variant — EABC tries to increase the degree of explorations of ABC by introducing more randomness during its perturbation operations. Besides, EABC customizes the degree of exploitations and explorations at the individual solution level, separately for each candidate solution of the bee population. EABC also introduces a crossover operation that assists the explorative perturbation operation of EABC. This paper extends the experimental studies on EABC by evaluating it on as many as 13 complex, high dimensional benchmark functions, including both unimodal and multimodal, separable and non-separable functions. The results are compared with the basic ABC algorithm. The comparison demonstrates that EABC often performs better optimization than the original ABC algorithm, which indicates the effectiveness of its more explorative operations.


The anti-androgen cyproterone acetate (CA) causes regression of the seminal vesicle when administered to the mature male rat, and CA treatment of the pregnant rat permits vaginal development in male offspring. CA, however, does not inhibit androgen controlled sexual behavior in male rats. It was therefore hypothesized that CA might inhibit the uptake and retention of l,2-3H-testosterone in peripheral genital tissues, but not in central neural tissues which mediate mating behavior. To test this hypothesis, castrate males were administered tritiated testosterone following pretreatment with CA or oil and sacrificed 5 or 60 min after testosterone treatment. All tissue samples showed androgen uptake. CA had no influence on uptake measured at 5 min. In pituitary, brain and muscle, radioactivity levels were lower in the 60 min samples than in the 5 min samples. CA had no effect upon retention of testosterone measured at 60 min in these tissues. Radioactivity levels were the same or higher at 60 min in the semina...


A mathematical heat transfer model was built to simulate temperature, shell growth and phase transformations in continuous casting based on the technical conditions of the bloom caster of some steelmaking plant. The simulation result is coincided with the measurement. The effects of the operation parameters including casting speed, bloom size and steel melt superheat on the solidification process were discussed and the means of enhancing the bloom temperature was brought forward. The research results have been applied in the practical manufacture process to compute the best casting speed, to control the flow rate of secondary cooling water and to optimize the spray pattern of secondary cooling zone. The bloom quality and productivity could be improved.


A fast screening method to estimate PV hosting capacity in a low voltage grid with respect to overvoltage and transformer overload is presented in this paper. The method uses the resistance of the direct path from the slack bus to customer and an assumed topology in order to avoid complete knowledge about the grid topology. Using an assumed topology an estimate of the minimum overvoltage hosting capacity is obtained for each penetration level and the transformer overload hosting capacity for any combination of customers having PV. The method is suitable for initial response to demand connection enquiries and showed good correspondence by comparison with power flow simulation using the actual grid topology. The method was implemented on four semi-rural low voltage grids and the results showed that these grids were able to handle PV infeed comparable to maximum winter load due to three-phase connections.


The scramble for power in most cases often degenerate into political violence and insecurity in Africa hence, this study examined the quest for political power, political violence and insecurity in Africa: The Odinga-Tsvangirai experience. The paper argues that the quest for political power often degenerate into large scale conflict and insecurity in Africa because such desires and ambitions are driven and motivated by selfish and unpatriotic desires and objectives. Data for the study were drawn from secondary sources while the resource curse theory was adopted as the theoretical framework to guide the study. The descriptive research method was also adopted while the analysis was based on the qualitative method. Findings revealed that political aspiration and actions of most politicians and members of the ruling class in Africa are not backed by genuine patriotic motives hence, such quest for power and inordinate ambition often lead to pre and post-election violence and insecurity. Therefore, to change this perception and chart a new course for Africa, there is need for a comprehensive, constitutional, political and electoral reforms that will review the leadership recruitment process in Africa with a view to setting new standards and guidelines that will strengthen political institutions and the democratic process in Africa.


In this article we describe an approach for semantic-based analysis of discussions within semantic-based groupware system (GWS) in SAKE project. SAKE (semantic agile knowledge-based e-government) is a STREP Project sponsored by the European Union starting March in 2006. The overall objective of SAKE is to specify, develop and deploy a holistic framework and supporting tools for an agile knowledge-based e-government that will be sufficiently flexible to adapt to changing and diverse environments and needs. We give a brief overview of the approach that will be applied for evaluation of discussion, discussions threads and discussion posts. Part of the approach is also an analysis of the discussants regarding positive or negative reactions on their contributions, extended by usage of concepts from argumentation ontology. Main goal is to identify some rating of the users involved in the discussion and support moderators in evaluation of discussion result and/or identify discussants skills useful for another similar case discussion.


The Montreal Protocol requires limitation of the use of devices powered by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which reduce stratospheric ozone levels. Albuterol, a medication commonly used for the treatment of asthma that is delivered by metered-dose inhalers with CFCs as propellants, will be withdrawn from the U.S. market by December 2008. This review article summarizes useful information about albuterol in metered-dose inhalers with non-CFC propellants and discusses associated economic issues.


In conjunction with the opening of the exhibition, Sal Randolph and McKenzie Wark will join Dion and Williams for a panel discussion titled "Spinning Straw into Gold—Art, Value, and the Alchemical Collector." Audio file available from the website.


This study deals with studying the dynamics and control of multiple effect evaporators by implementing two intelligent controllers for the evaporation of caustic soda. A mathematical model for evaporator is derived based on mass and energy balance. A dynamic model is designed using "MATLAB/Simulink" program based on the mathematical model derived. The intelligent controllers in this study are fuzzy and neural networks and compared with PID controller. The results showed that a good improvement for caustic soda system is achieved when the fuzzy logic with seven membership functions and neural predictive controllers are used because these methods have more suitable, lower over shoot, less offset value and less integral absolute error within range.


Purpose:To examine nurses' knowledge, attitude, and practice in positioning healthy newborns for sleep in the hospital setting. Design and Methods:A cross-sectional descriptive design was used to survey a convenience sample of practicing maternal child nurses in 58 Missouri hospitals. A 24-item investigator designed questionnaire was developed with input from SIDS Resources in Missouri. Results:A total of 528 surveys were analyzed. These nurses reported no longer placing infants in the prone position for sleep, but almost 75% of those answering the survey used either the side-lying position or a mixture of side and back positioning, even though 96% of the nurses said they were aware of the AAP Guidelines recommending "back to sleep." Forty-five percent of the nurses thought the infant would be at risk for aspiration if only placed on his/her back. Only 53% of the nurses knew their hospital's policy about newborn positioning; 80% of those who knew about the policy said it included the lateral position as being acceptable practice. Clinical Implications:Nurses are the role models for new parents regarding newborn sleep position, and are in a unique position to influence parents' decisions about how to place their infants for sleep at home. Because nurses continue to worry about aspiration when newborns are placed on their backs, it is clear that more education is needed for hospital nurses about newborn sleep position and hospital policies, as well as AAP Guidelines.


Objective:In order to evaluate function of nitric oxide(NO) in diagnosis and treatment of acute leukemia (AL).Methods:The level of serum NO- 2/NO- 3 was measured by nitric acid reducing enzyme method.Results:Comparison of serum NO- 2/NO- 3 between AL group and normal control group,P001;comparison of serum NO- 2/NO- 3 between acute nonlymphocytic leukemia and acute lymphocytic leukemia,P005.The high level of serum NO- 2/NO- 3 in acute leukemia patients had higher CR rate compared with low level of serum NO- 2/NO- 3.Conclusion:NO involves the changes of AL,the level of serum NO is helpful to evaluate the state of leukemia patients.


A process for producing a three-dimensional structure (26) on a surface of a metallic workpiece (14) made of titanium or a titanium alloy, with the aid of a welding process, wherein between guided one in a welding torch (7) welding wire (9) and the workpiece (14 ), an arc (13) where (for stabilization of the arc 13) is used, a laser beam (27) with a maximum power of 2000 W is ignited, and (with the welding wire 9), the structure (26) is produced, wherein the laser beam (27) is addressed to that location on the surface of the workpiece (14) on which the structure (26) is produced, characterized in that the laser beam (27) prior to ignition of the arc (13) is activated.


A communication destination is fixed and cannot be arbitrarily selected. A control apparatus for controlling a network comprises a path control means for selecting a communication apparatus having an identifier as a destination communication apparatus among a communication apparatus group, based on a connection relationship between the communication apparatus group, which is connected to the network and includes communication apparatuses each having the same identifier, and a source communication apparatus which performs communication using the identifier as a destination address, and setting a process corresponding to a path from the source communication apparatus to the selected destination communication apparatus to a transfer apparatus in the network.


Abstract Recently, ultra-deep desulfurization of liquid hydrocarbon fuels is becoming very important worldwide not only because of the heightened interest for cleaner air and thus increasingly stringent environmental regulations for fuel sulfur content, but also because of the great need for making ultra-low-sulfur fuels used in hydrocarbon fuel process for fuel cell applications. This article is a selective review on chemistry and process concerning the ultra-deep desulfurization of liquid hydrocarbon fuels. The principles and problems for the existing hydrodesulfurization processes and the challenges, concepts, advantages, and disadvantages of various new approaches are discussed, including (1) sulfur compounds in liquid hydrocarbon fuels; (2) Reactivity and mechanistic aspect of various sulfur compounds; (3) Challenges in ultra-deep desulfurization processes; (4) Approaches to ultra-deep desulfurization process.


Abstract This study examines the response of the tropical atmospheric and oceanic circulation to increasing greenhouse gases using a coordinated set of twenty-first-century climate model experiments performed for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). The strength of the atmospheric overturning circulation decreases as the climate warms in all IPCC AR4 models, in a manner consistent with the thermodynamic scaling arguments of Held and Soden. The weakening occurs preferentially in the zonally asymmetric (i.e., Walker) rather than zonal-mean (i.e., Hadley) component of the tropical circulation and is shown to induce substantial changes to the thermal structure and circulation of the tropical oceans. Evidence suggests that the overall circulation weakens by decreasing the frequency of strong updrafts and increasing the frequency of weak updrafts, although the robustness of this behavior across all models cannot be confirmed because of the lack of data. As the cli...


Objective To investigate the diagnostic value of combined with proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy(1 H-MRS) and DWI on the quantitative analysis of normal liver and the patients of hepatic cirrhosis by 3.0 T MR and to investigate the mechanism of hepatic cirrhosis in level of molecular and metabolic.Methods 38 normal volunteers and 30 patients with hepatic cirrhosis(The patients were selected by improved liver function of Child Pugh scoring grading score of 5 or more,based on clinical laboratory tests and imaging data) were selected.All volunteers and the patients of hepatic cirrhosis received 1 H-MRS and DWI by 3.0 T MR,the values of water peak,area under water peak,the values of lipid peak,area under lipid peak,the fat fraction and ADC values(b=500 s/mm2) were measured,and then statistical analysis was taken.Results The values of water peak,area under water peak of hepatic cirrhosis group were lower than normal liver group(P=1.65×10-8,3.78×10-5,P0.05),however,the values of lipid peak,area under lipid peak and fat fraction were no significant difference(P=0.09,0.62,0.12,P0.05) between the normal volunteers group and cirrhosis group.When b=500 s/mm2,there were significant difference in ADC values between normal volunteers group and cirrhosis group.Conclusion As a noninvasive methods,1 H-MRS and DWI can reflect the mechanism of hepatic cirrhosis in level of molecular,and have important value in the diagnosis of hepatic cirrhosis.


The present invention discloses a kind of method that room titanium oxide conductivity ceramics coating is prepared on copper or copper alloy using Supersonic Plasma Spraying in atmospheric environment, titanium oxide is inputted in supersonic plasma spray gun, the titanium oxide of input can be room titanium oxide, can also be the titanium dioxide without room, the gas based on Ar, H 2 For secondary gas, using Ar as protection gas, sprayed on the copper or copper alloy matrix by purification, roughening pretreatment, 10~300 μm are reached to coating layer thickness.The titania coating molecular formula TiO that the present invention is obtained x Middle x value is 1.9~1.9995, and conductance is more than or equal to 10 ‑1 S/cm, coating production is simple, operability, the strong adaptability to workpiece shapes, spraying cost are low, efficiency high, it can be widely applied to the fields such as mine, petrochemical industry, electronic circuit, conductance shielding, pressure-responsive, it is particularly applicable to high ferro copper conductor surfacecti proteon, while wire conductance demand is met, strengthen wearability, the anti-corrosive properties of wire, significantly improve the service life of copper conductor.


According to the deficiency of de-noising algorithm based on the traditional transform domain,this paper proposed an image de-noising algorithm based on Shearlet transform.Firstly,a Shearlet decomposition and reconstruction implementation method was proposed in this paper.And then,the Monte-Carlo method was used to do estimation of the high-frequency coefficients.Finally the shrinkage de-noising would be done according to the threshold function.The experimental results demonstrate that the method can remove noise and remain edges,and obtain better visual effect and higher PSNR.


This article describes a real‐time visualization system for sound fields. The system includes a two‐dimensional microphone array (8×8), which eliminates the need for mechanically scanning the microphone and enables real‐time processing. Three methods are tested for drawing interpolated images of sound fields from the sparse sampling points. A frequency‐detection circuit is introduced to show the direction of sound propagation stroboscopically. Superposition of visualized sound wave fronts on the video picture of the field helps one to understand the sound fields present.


Category: Trauma; Ankle Introduction/Purpose: The native sagittal plane alignment of the distal tibia has not been well-described and has implications during the fixation of tibia fractures. Cavovarus foot alignment has been previously thought to influence gastrocsoleus tightness and the potential for anterior talar escape in the setting of an osseous injury in this region. However, the relationship between midfoot alignment and sagittal distal tibia morphology is undescribed. Characterization of this osseous anatomy may be helpful to achieve adequate sagittal alignment during the reduction of distal tibia fractures. The purpose of this study was primarily to characterize distal tibia sagittal morphology and ankle radiographic parameters, determine whether symmetry exists from side-to- side, and secondarily to identify any differences based on midfoot alignment. Methods: 112 patients (60 females, mean age 45.8 years) with bilateral lateral weight-bearing ankle radiographs were retrospectively evaluated (224 ankles). Midfoot morphology was classified as normal, planus, or cavus using Meary's angle (MA) (Planus: MA <-4°, Normal: MA -4°≤x≤4°, Cavus: MA>4°). The angle between the proximal diaphyseal (Line 1) and distal tibia (Line 2) axes was measured, and the location of the center of rotation of angulation (CORA) relative to the plafond was recorded (Figure 1). The horizontal distance (via a line parallel to the floor) from the distal tibia axis (Line 2) to the lateral talar process was measured, as well as the anterior distal tibial angle, and the plafond radius of curvature (ROC). Bilateral ankles and midfoot morphologies were compared using a Mann-Whitney U test and ANOVA, respectively. Correlation was assessed using linear regression. Results: The average distal tibia had 2° of apex posterior angulation with the CORA located 8.0 cm proximal to the plafond. There was no difference by laterality in magnitude of the angulation (p=.358) or distance from the plafond to the CORA (p=.901). The angulation increased as foot alignment transitioned from cavus (1.25°), to normal (1.89°), to planus (3.05°) alignment (r=.32; R2=.102; p<.001). The angulation was larger in men (2.8°) than in women (1.4°) (p<.001) and decreased with increasing patient age (r=.279, R2=.078, p<.001). The lateral talar process was on average 5.9 mm anterior to the distal tibia axis (Line 2), more anterior with cavus versus planus alignment (6.7mm vs. 4.8mm) (p<.001). The average anterior distal tibial angle and plafond ROC were 83.6° and 22.9 mm, respectively, with no significant differences by laterality or midfoot morphology (p>.05 for both). Conclusion: The distal tibia has a consistent apex posterior bow that is symmetric from side-to-side, but variable from patient- to-patient. Distal tibia osseous morphology is related to midfoot alignment, sex, and age. Cavus alignment is additionally correlated with anterior translation of the lateral talar process relative to the distal tibia axis. Surgeons treating distal tibia fractures may consider the use of contralateral imaging as a reduction template to help restore patient-specific sagittal alignment. A tibial nail that ends anterior in the distal segment of a distal tibia fracture should prompt the surgeon to carefully evaluate whether sagittal alignment has been restored.


Aquatic biomass; i.e., algae have been successfully incorporated in wastewater treatment as nutrients strippers. Low-maintenance algal communities; i.e., wild species, can be a cheap and effective sequestration strategy. Few studies have investigated the quality of wastewater treatment algae as a potential feedstock for thermochemical conversion in atmospheric gasification. This study is a preliminary investigation of the gasification of wastewater treatment algae as means to produce renewable gaseous fuel streams, and also to condense minerals and micro- nutrients into easily managed char using an auger gasifier. Three temperature conditions were investigated in this study; 760, 860 and 960 °C. Temperatures were found to increase the concentration of CO, and H2 in producer gas from 12.8% and 4.7% (vol.) at 760 °C to 16.9% and 11.4% at 960 °C, respectively. On the other hand, concentration of CO2 in producer gas decreased from 14.0% to 11.6% (vol.) with the increase in temperatures from 760 °C to 960 °C, respectively. Tar yields ranged between 15% and 16.6%, whereas char yields fell between 46% and 51% due to the significantly high ash content of raw algae; >40% dry-basis. The high ash content in char, however, might bolster gasification as a minerals concentration step which would facilitate transportation, and re-use of these minerals. Future studies will further investigate the thermodynamic performance of auger gasification on aquatic biomass. Also, fate of various minerals after this process will be investigated in future research.


Asatsuki is a bulbous Allium species and is cultivated for its edible leaves, which are harvested in late winter and early spring. Asatsuki grows from autumn to spring and dies down after producing dormant bulbs in early summer.Innate dormancy of roots of asatsuki bulbs ended in early July, and that of leaves in early August. However, hot summer temperatures of 25°Cor higher inhibited rooting and sprouting of the bulbs in the field, so that the bulbs rooted from early August onwards and sprouted from late August onwards.Optimum temperatures for root growth after rooting were 21 to 25°C, and those for leaf growth after sprouting were 17 to 25°C.After termination of innate dormancy, root growth activity (which comprises rooting and root elongation after rooting) and leaf growth activity increased gradually; the former reached a maximum in late August and the latter in mid-September. Asatsuki plants grew vigorously in September and early October. During this period the mean air temperatures are close to the optimum temperatures for growth.After reaching their maxima, both growth activities decreased; root growth activity reached a minimum in mid- or late October and leaf growth activity in mid- or late November. Thus, growth was suspended in late autumn. In early or mid-December root growth activity began to increase again and in early January leaf growth activity began to increase again. Root growth activity reached a maximum in February and leaf growth activity in mid-March. In late January some plants initiated storage leaf primordia, but the plants appeared to be in a state of imposed dormancy until early spring.Roots resumed growth in, late March but in mid-April rooting activity was lost and there was no increase in root weight per plant from mid-April onwards. Leaves resumed slow growth in early or mid-March, but vigorous growth of leaves did not occur until after the continuous snow cover had melted off (in early April). Leaf growth activity almost ceased in late May, and growth of tops ceased in late May. All storage leaf primordia were initiated by mid-April and those developed into cloves. The cloves grew rapidly from mid-April to mid-June. Browning of tops and dying of roots progressed rapidly from mid-June onwards, so that tops had almost died down by late June.Leaf and root growth activities varied considerably from month to month (except for the dormant summer months). Growth activities became extremely low during late autumn and early winter, and asatsuki plants hardly grew at any temperatures between 9 and 25°C, showing that the plants were in the state of innate dormancy. Accordingly, it is concluded that asatsuki plants fall into innate dormancy twice a year, both in summer and in late autumn or early winter. However, the late autumn (or early winter) dormancy was not so deep as the summer dormancy. It is assumed that cool temperatures in October induced the late autumn dormancy in asatsuki plants.


Background/Case Studies: Platelet concentrates (PCs) are heavily transfused blood products with high inventory turnover and short shelf life. Shortages due to supply-chain disruption or local high-volume use threaten availability for active bleeding or prophylactic indications. Pathogen-reduced platelet concentrates (PRPCs) have been treated to inactivate pathogens, reducing the risk of transfusion transmitted infections (TTIs). In the United States, PRPCs are licensed for 5 days. Several countries have licensed the PRPCs for up to 7 days, and reports detail no significant increase in adverse events and limited impacts to efficacy. We report observed adverse event rates at a US-based, tertiary academic medical center that extended the expiration dates of PRPCs by 24 h (offlabel) during times of severe shortage and/or unexpected high-volume use. Study Design/Methods: Donation identification numbers (DINs) of all PRPC transfusion events that occurred at our center from March 2020 to March 2023 were cross-referenced with those recorded in variance reports of expiration date extensions for all PCs in inventory. To determine adverse event rates, DINs associated with any transfusion reaction (excluding delayed serologic transfusion reactions) associated with PRPC transfusion during the study period were also extracted. Relative risk was calculated, and anycause transfusion reaction incidences between groups were compared statistically via Fisher's exact test. Total and specific reaction incidences were compared to those previously reported from 2010 to 2018 via the CDC National Healthcare Safety Network's Hemovigilance Module. Results/Findings: Among 31,076 PRPCs transfused, 1881 (6.05%) extended expiration date products were administered. Of these, 17 extended PRPCs were implicated in transfusion reactions (0.904% incidence), compared to 220 (0.754% incidence) in the non-extended group. The relative risk of any-cause transfusion reaction following extended PRPC transfusion was 1.199 (95% confidence interval = 0.7369–1.948) compared to standard-storage PRPC transfusion; no significant difference in any-cause transfusion reaction risk was detected (p > .4921) as a result of transfusion beyond the licensed storage period. Specific reaction rates for the extended PRPC group were comparable to previously reported national rates for PRPCs. No TTIs were observed in either group. Conclusions: Transfusion of 24 h-extended PRPCs did not result in significantly increased reports of anycause transfusion reaction. PRPC expiration extension may provide a useful strategy for increasing PC availability in times of shortage or unexpected highvolume use.


Single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies have shown that 3,5-dichloro-2,6-dimethyl-4-hydroxypyridine exists in the pyridone (oxo) form in the solid, while tetrachloro-4-hydroxypyridine exists as the pyridinol (hydroxy) tautomer.


This article states that psychological health education for college students should focus on three new characters:adaptations to new environment,emphasis at new characters and explorations of new methods at the background of social economic lives undergoing deeply changes in our country.And then the author proposes that how to prevent the psychological problem by ways of providing psychological educational courses,making mental health inquiries standardized,promoting educational activities personalized as well as conducting psychological communications posted on the websites,so that we can build up strong barrier to prevent from psychological diseases among college students.


Device-to-device (D2D) underlay communication has attracted substantial research attention recently owing to its potential to enhance the network throughput. However, the caused intra-cell interference is quite a challenging issue in D2D underlaying cellular network. In this paper, we investigate the joint power control and resource allocation problem to improve the system performance in such a scenario. By formulating the total system throughput maximization problem, we propose a Kuhn-Munkres algorithm based iterative scheme with low computational complexity. Numerical results show that our proposed scheme outperforms other schemes and can significantly increase spectrum efficiency of the cellular system.


For the Davey-Stewartson I equation, which is an integrable equation in 1 + 2 dimensions, we have already found its Lax pair in (1+1)-dimensional form by nonlinear constraints. This paper deals with the second nonlinearization of this (1+1)-dimensional system to obtain three (1+0)-dimensional Hamiltonian systems with a constraint of Neumann type. The full set of involutive conserved integrals is obtained and their functional independence is proved. Therefore, the Hamiltonian systems are completely integrable in the Liouville sense. A periodic solution of the Davey-Stewartson I equation is obtained by solving these classical Hamiltonian systems as an example.


Previous evidence showed that Healthcare Professionals (HPs) working with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMD) from Mediterranean countries have higher educational needs than Northern-European ones [1]. Hence, it is necessary to find new strategies to improve their training. Course leaders (CLs) are the responsible of the quality and delivery of the training of rehabilitation HPs, since they oversee designing and directing degree courses that are experienced by students first-hand [2]. To better understand their leadership role, it is helpful to focus on the people with whom the leader interacts daily [3–5]. Therefore, students become an essential source on that matter [2]. However, little attention has been given to the expected features that course leaders should hold, starting from students' perspectives.This study explored students' expected features of a course leader.A qualitative study was carried out based on semi-structured interviews. A panel of recent graduates and students of the Master of Science in 'Healthcare Professionals Rehabilitation Sciences' (University of Verona, Verona, Italy) was recruited using purposive sampling. Data were analysed using the 'Reflexive Thematic Analysis' by Braun&Clarke [6].Ten HPs in training agreed to partake in the study (age 30 ± 9; men N=2; women N=8). Five themes were generated from the analysis: 1) 'A Collaborative Manager', as students perceived the CL as a non-authoritarian manager who involved all the stakeholders in the decision-making process; 2) 'A Diplomatic yet Honest Communicator', as students needed someone capable of communicating with them transparently; 3) 'A Flexible Mediator', as the CL should actively listen to all their stakeholders and mitigate conflicts; 4) 'An Empathic and Available Guide', as students need someone available and ready to help or guide them; 5) 'An Experienced Healthcare Professional', since students felt that the CL should have a clinical background related to the course they lead.The results of this study suggest that students expect CL to have a wide range of qualities and attitudes more related to soft (i.e., adaptation, communication, organisation skills, teamwork) rather than hard skills (i.e., clinical experience). They expect a CL that considers all stakeholders' needs and preferences to guarantee course harmony and satisfaction.[1] M Vliet Vlieland TP, van den Ende CH, Alliot-Launois F,et al.Educational needs of health professionals working in rheumatology in Europe. doi:10.1136/rmdopen-2016[2] Lawrence J, Morón-García S, Senior R.Supporting Course and Programme Leaders in Higher Education. London:: Routledge 2022. doi:10.4324/9781003127413[3] Cahill J, Bowyer J, Rendell C,et al.An exploration of how programme leaders in higher education can be prepared and supported to discharge their roles and responsibilities effectively.Educational Research2015;57:272–86. doi:10.1080/00131881.2015.1056640[4] Crevani L, Lindgren M, Packendorff J. Leadership, not leaders: On the study of leadership as practices and interactions.Scandinavian Journal of Management2010;26:77–86. doi:10.1016/j.scaman.2009.12.003[5] Milburn PC. The role of programme directors as academic leaders.Active Learning in Higher Education2010;11:87–95. doi:10.1177/1469787410365653[6] Braun V, Clarke V. Conceptual and Design Thinking for Thematic Analysis.Qualitative Psychology2021;9:3–26. doi:10.1037/QUP0000196NIL.None Declared.


Nowadays the policies of reform, opening and external exchange have been enforced in China, which greatly boost the development of Chinese tourist industry. Therefore, the developing tourist industry asks for higher requirements of traveling English. Through on-the-spot investigation, this paper makes an analysis on the present English translation of some scenic spots in Wuhan, and brings forward some corresponding suggestions.


were kept, with a record of the total number of patients seen during that week. The small numbers made it impos¬ sible to realistically evaluate the groups of drugs prescribed. Furthermore, no record was made of the cost of these drugs, although this is now a matter of great interest to many people. Of the total 89 prescriptions, 65 were written during 143 office visits a rate of prescriptions per office visit of 45% and 24 were written during 68 telephone calls. Therefore, the overall rate of prescriptions per total patient contact was 42%. Sixty women and 29 men received prescriptions; this sex ra¬ tio differs slightly from Eimerl11 who reported 31:19. In three Canadian studies, the rate of prescriptions written, calculated against office visits, varies from 45% (present study and Sellers6) to 65% (Garson and Bury1). Another calcula¬ tion can also be made: prescription rate per year per patient at risk. Extrapolating the total prescriptions for one week (89) over a year (4628), I computed that the 2145 registered patients would receive prescriptions at a rate of 2.2 per year. This figure can be com¬ pared with other estimations: Eimerl, 2.6; Scott, 2.5; and Brotherston, 4.I.11 The present study and those by Wolfe and Badgely,2 Johnson12 and Parish13 suggest that 20 to 25% of prescriptions written in general practice are for psychotropic or analgesic drugs. This corresponds to 32% of people seen with psychiatric illness in this study. Antibiotics account for 25 to 30% and contraceptive pills 6 to 7% of prescriptions; 9 to 11% of prescriptions written are for anti-inflammatory drugs. Overall, fewer drugs were used in this study than in others, with many more antidepressants. Clinical experience has led me to ask if there may not be a limit to what one person should do in a day if one wishes to maintain the quality of his judgement, instincts, listening ability and physical skills, all of which dete-


In this work, we present and characterise an experimental setup that allows the generation of porous packings from nanosuspensions. By defined positioning and drying of solid-containing droplets, large-scale porous structures can be generated. Examples of such structures are shown and characterised. Operational challenges are presented, and it is discussed how they can be overcome to allow the maximum degree of freedom in packing generation.


Diffuse X-ray scattering data from a crystal of wustite, Fe0.943O, are presented. Satellite reflections corresponding to an incommensurate repeat distance of ∼2.7a in all three cubic directions were observed (the P′ phase). The satellites were diffuse, anisotropically elongated, interconnected by weaker continuous streaks, and negligible in intensity beyond first order. Monte Carlo computer simulations have been carried out which demonstrate that this diffraction behavior is consistent with defect clusters forming a paracrystalline (or highly distorted) lattice. The paracrystalline distribution which best fits the observations is such that the spacing between defects tends to be maintained fairly constant, but relative lateral translations may occur more variably. When these lateral translations are suppressed, additional superlattice peaks appear which are consistent with the P″ phase diffraction patterns. The diffuse satellites are systematically more intense on the low-angle side of a Bragg reflection than on the high-angle side. This behavior may be understood in terms of the well-known atomic size effect and is consistent with a local contraction of the structure around regions of low scattering power (defect clusters) and compensating expansion in other parts of the structure.


2,3-Diphenylnorbornene and cis-stilbene exhibit essentially identical 'nonvertical' triplet excitation behaviour, in agreement with a mechanism requiring torsion about formal single bonds on the ground-state surface.


Biped robot with heterogeneous legs (BRHL) is a new pattern humanoid robot. The conception and research purpose of BRHL was detailed. Based on the idea of segmentation modeling, kinematics equations and dynamics equations were given. For the positive solution of the higher order differential-algebra equations, predictor-corrector numerical integration methods with error feedback control were proposed. In the end, the control method of BRHL was discussed and the simulation was given. The result indicates that the first order P-type open-closed loop iterative learning control can implement gait tracking well.


Close to converged energies and wave functions for the positron binding systems, LiPs and e + Be are computed using the stochastic variational method. Bind- ing energies and annihilation rates from both ab-initio and fixed core calculations are determined and found to be in agreement. The ab-initio binding energy of e + Be was


If we only think about the resistance problem, a building could be considered as a great vertical console. The resistant exigencies of this huge console are as pressing as the building grows up and its fitting to the functional needs are more difficult. This study reviews the different resistant typologies, from the normal porch structure of medium size buildings to the "tube into the tube" and total laminar structures corresponding to the higher buildings which are already built, or are to be built. It also makes an analysis on the manner in which each typology resist, and shows examples of constructed buildings.


The problems with gas cooling tower and related technical transformation in SINOPEC Jingmen Company's 65 kt / a hydrogen sulphide-burning sulphuric acid plant are described.The original gas cooling tower consisted of carbon steel shell lined with lead plate and acid-resistant brick.The gas inlet tube was connected in the form of steel to steel and encountered with corrosion and leakage in operation.A technical transformation was conducted by using a FEP tower to replace the carbon steel one.Gas inlet tube was constructed of FEP with internal lead-evading player and acid-resistant brick liner and had an expansion joint.After transformation,the gas cooling tower ran well and cooling efficiency was significantly improved without any corrosion and leakage.


The key task of the article is to consider topical issues of synthesizing different areas in humanitarian knowledge. It is these processes that lead to the evolution of the productive phenomenon of polydisciplinarity. As the central object of consideration, the authors depict the theoretical and methodological concepts of one of the oldest schools in the humanities of Russia – Kazan school of academic literary studies, whose origins date back to the first decades of the 19th century. The set of these factors finds direct continuation at different levels of the education system. All this directly determines the structure of the study. The first section is devoted to general introduction to the problem and substantiation of the research methods necessary for the subsequent analysis. The focus of the RESUMEN: La tarea clave del artículo es considerar temas tópicos de sintetizar diferentes áreas en el conocimiento humanitario. Son estos procesos los que conducen a la evolución del fenómeno productivo de la polidisciplinaridad. Como objeto central de la consideración, los autores describen los conceptos teóricos y metodológicos de una de las escuelas más antiguas de las Humanidades de la escuela de estudios literarios académicos de Rusia – Kazan, cuyos orígenes se remontan a las primeras décadas del siglo XIX siglo. El conjunto de estos factores encuentra la continuación directa en los diferentes niveles del sistema educativo. Todo esto determina directamente la estructura del estudio. La primera sección se dedica a la introducción general del problema y fundamentación de los métodos second section of the article is the main concepts of the leading representatives of the Kazan school of academic literary criticism: from the first scientific and methodological developments of N. Bulich and A. Kamkov in 1850s – 1860s to the pedagogical essays and articles of A. Arkhangelsky and A. Georgievsky in the first two decades of the 20th century. The goal of the third section of the article is to study the genesis and evolution of the principles of polydisciplinary continuous personality-oriented education at the present stage of topical discussions. The fourth and fifth sections of the article are devoted respectively to a brief systematic review of the previous stages of approbation of the research (section four) and the final set of general methodological recommendations and perspectives (final fifth section).


In dairy cattle breeding, in order to maintain the level of productivity of cows of a certain line, intralinear selection is used, which allows consolidating valuable genes of the ancestor of the line in the resulting offspring. At the same time, in order to identify the manifestation of the heterosis effect by the leading breeding characteristics, it is necessary to study the compatibility of lines. The purpose of the conducted research was to study and identify the most effective variant of interlinear crossing and intra-linear selection of animals of the Vis Idial 933122 and Reflection Sovering 198998 lines, which increases the productivity of Holstein black-and-white cattle bred in Agro-Soyuz LLC. Four groups of cows were formed for the research, with a total number of 210 heads. Analysis of the data obtained showed that the highest milk yield for lactation, milk fat yield, milk protein yield and milk content index were characterized by cows obtained as a result of in-line selection of animals from the Vis Idial 933122 line, whose superiority over cows of other experimental groups was, respectively, 132-668 kg; 1.5-26.4 kg; 1.7-22.0 kg and 2.8-49.6 kg. Thus, in order to opt for one of the breeding techniques to increase the dairy productivity of cattle, it is recommended that a comparative assessment of the productive qualities of cows obtained on the basis of in-line selection and line crossing be carried out in each dairy herd.


Objectives To identify recent prescription patterns, as well as the demographic and clinical correlates of antidepressants (ADs) usage in schizophrenic patients. Methods A total of 297 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia enrolled at Seoul National Hospital in 2013. Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (...


The Routledge Dance Studies Reader. Edited and with introductions by Alexandra Carter, xix + 316 pp. London and New York: Routledge, 1998. paper $24.99. ISBN 0–415–16447–8.


Abstract. The steady-state First-order Acidity Balance (FAB) model for calculating critical loads of sulphur (S) and nitrogen (N) is applied to 609 Norwegian soft-water lakes to assess the future nitrate (NO 3 ‾ ) leaching potential under present (1992-96) S and N deposition. The lakes were separated into five groups receiving increasing levels of N deposition ( -2 yr -1 ). Using long-term sustainable N sink rates presently recommended for FAB model applications, N immobilisation, net N uptake in forests, denitrification and in-lake N retention were estimated for each group of lakes. Altogether, the long-term N sinks constituted 9.9 ± 3.2 to 40.5 ± 11.4 meq m -2 yr -1 in the lowest and highest N deposition categories, respectively. At most sites, the current N deposition exceeds the amount of N retained by long-term sustainable N sinks plus the NO 3 ‾ loss via the lake outlets. This excess N, which is currently retained within the catchments may, according to the FAB model, leach as acidifying NO 3 ‾ in the future. If these predictions are fulfilled, NO 3 ‾ leaching at sites in the various N deposition categories will increase dramatically from present (1995) mean levels of 1-20 meq m -2 yr -1 , to mean levels of 7-70 meq m -2 yr -1 at future steady state. To illustrate the significance of such an increase in NO 3 ‾ leaching, the mean Acid Neutralising Capacity (ANC) at sites in the highest N deposition category may decrease from -18 ± 15 μeq L -1 at present, to -40 ± 20 μeq L -1 . Under present S and N deposition levels, the FAB model predicts that 46% of the Norwegian lakes may experience exceedances of critical loads for acidifying deposition. In comparison, the Steady-State Water Chemistry model (SSWC), which considers only the present N leaching level, estimates critical load exceedances in 37% of the lakes under the same deposition level. Thus far, there are great uncertainties regarding both the time scales and the extent of future N leaching, and it is largely unknown whether the FAB model predictions will ever be fulfilled. Hence, long-term monitoring and further studies on N immobilisation processes under varying N deposition levels and ecosystem types seem necessary to make better predictions of future NO 3 ‾ leaching. Keywords: Lakes, hydrochemistry, nitrogen, nitrate, sinks, leaching, acidification, critical loads, FAB model


This study aims to find out the problems and challenges of determining the honorarium of a notary in making a deed and the solution. This research is normative juridical research using statutory, conceptual, and case approaches. Legal materials were collected through literature study and analyzed using qualitative analysis. The results of this study indicate that there are problems in determining the honorarium for making deeds, namely 1) notaries are faced with a choice between following the organizational provisions of the Indonesian Notary Association or participating in market competition; 2) there are several notaries who end up being dragged into bargaining over the cost of making a deed which has actually been stipulated by the notary professional organization because they are more indulging their egos to get a large number of clients without considering the notary's dignity as a public official; and 3) it is necessary to stipulate rules on the minimum honorarium for Notaries, so that an equal honorarium will be formed between one Notary and another.


The prevalence of oral melanin pigmentation was studied in a population of 30 118 adult individuals in Sweden. Among these, 9.9% showed melanin pigmentation in the oral mucosa. The anterior labial gingiva in the mandible was the most frequently pigmented location. The presence of melanin pigmentation was positively correlated to tobacco smoking. Among tobacco smokers 21.5% were pigmented as compared to 3.0% among individuals not using tobacco. The smoking-related oral pigmentation, smokers' melanosis, could thus be calculated at a prevalence of 18.5% among smokers and the total frequency of smokers' melanosis was calculated at 6.8%. The prevalence of pigmentation was found to increase prominently during the first year of smoking but also to decrease to the level found among non-tobacco users about 3 years after cessation of smoking. Snuff dipping did not significantly elevate the prevalence of oral melanin pigmentation.


In order to improve approximating precision and reliability of GPS leveling of imitated model in approxi-mating anormal height curved surface,the paper discussed the combined model of GPS elevation height to normal height,such as the genetic neural network model and neural network combined model.We compared the two combined models with single models.The results indicate that the precision and reliability are better than any single model.


Marine bio-invasions due to the accidental transfer of marine species from one ecosystem to another, represents a trade-related biological emergency and Australia is one such country facing a significant and ongoing biological threat. Protection of Australia's marine environment lies with the national Consultative Committee on Emergency Animal Diseases, the forum of which comprises representation from all lead agencies with legislative responsibilities.


Abstract The total synthesis of (–)-herbaric acid has been achieved through the stereoselective synthesis of 3-substituted isobenzofuranones with a new organocatalytic route. When combined with a catalytic amount of benzoic acid, quinidine thiocarbamate based bifunctional catalysts have demonstrated their efficiency for the diastereoselective halolactonization reaction of acrylate-type benzoic acids bearing a chiral alkoxycarbonyl group on the carbon–carbon double bond. High diastereomeric excesses were obtained thanks to a positive match effect between the (+)-menthyl ester group and the chiral organocatalyst.


This paper describes the development and performance of a 10 W, high efficiency FET amplifier to be used in communication satellites for TWTA replacement. This seven-stage MIC power amplifier provides 50 dB gain with DC to RF conversion efficiency of 33.4% at C-band frequency (3.7 to 4.2 GHz).


We present a set of 8 thumb-to-finger microgestures (TTF µGestures) that can be used as an additional modality to enrich touch interaction in eyes-free situations. TTF µGestures possess characteristics especially suited for people with visual impairment (PVI). They have never been studied specifically for PVI to improve accessibility of touchscreen devices. We studied a set of 33 common TTF µGestures to determine which are feasible and usable without seeing while the index is touching a surface. We found that the constrained position of the hand and the absence of vision prevent participants from being able to efficiently target a specific phalanx. Thus, we propose a set of 8 TTF µGestures (6 taps, 2 swipes) balancing resiliency (i.e., low error-rate) and expressivity (i.e., number of possible inputs): as a dimension combined with the touch modality, it would realistically multiply the touch command space by eight. Within our set of 8 TTF µGestures, we chose a subset of 4 µGestures (2 taps and 2 swipes) and implemented an exploration scenario of an audio-tactile map with a raised-line overlay on a touchscreen and tested it with 7 PVI. Their feedback was positive on the potential benefits of TTF µGestures in enhancing the touch modality and supporting PVI interaction with touchscreen devices.


Since we were born, our whole life is marked by the type and quality of the decisions we make. This determines what our "performance" will be in the achievements and failures obtained. For almost 40 years, with the development of technology, neurosciences have contributed (and continue) several research papers, in which it is shown that "emotion" exceeds "reason" when making a " decision", whether it is simple or complex. The question and objective of this work is: who teaches us to make decisions? Is it something innate or can it be learned? If you can learn, who is awarded for such responsibility? Today we know that, unfortunately, the Latin American education system and parents are not trained, or do not have the need to teach how to handle "emotions", with those children who will grow up in a highly competitive society, so they have to make decisions that affect your present and your future.


The main goal of this paper is Test Case Prioritization where the process is to order test cases. This ordering of test case will give and increased rate in fault detection. Test Case Prioritization will improve the fault fixing process anmd thus leads a way to early delivery of the software. Due to the functional dependencies between the requirements the cse of executing the test case in any order goes false. In this paper, we present different techniques that provides us information about the various ways of prioritization the test case using the dependencies between them. The dependencies of the test case is main based on the interaction between the requirements or even between the various modules and funcitons of the whole system. This test case ordering based on the functional dependencies is likely to increase the fault detection earlier than other fault detection systems. This is known through the empirical evaluations on six systems that were built towards the industry. We also proposed a new system which is a machine learning techn ique. This is known through the empirical evaluations on six systems that were built towards the industry. We also proposed a new system which is a machine learning technique. Here Case-Based Paradigm is indulged with Analytical Hierarchy Processing which proves itself better than other techniques


Improvisation and intuition in the decision making process is over and done with. Information as a resource component has a direct impact on the decision making process. Management approximates the activities which anticipate the requirement and which are essential for the realization of company's goals. The aim and the purpose of this work are to prove the genuine knowledge that is present in the managerial process of planning, development and achievement of positive results in agribusiness. Two trends appear for the managers in the decision making process: absorption of knowledge by means of which the decision making process will be successful and based on previous realization of the factors in the decision making process and in the establishment of compatible relation with managerial issued decisions and the requirement. The notion of management is presented as a system by means of which the business functioning comprises the activities that appear as an imperative in the process of requirement satisfaction and accomplishments of the goals. Agribusiness is specific. Agribusiness' singularity is initiated by the quick changes that are happening in the sphere of business and the stochastic process that in some occasions is unpredictable and unknown in relation to the offers and the requirements of agro products. Agribusiness is different from other fields of work. The production of agro products is specific for its essential and existential features. The question that paradigmatically arises is: How much impact has the successful managing on the agribusiness success? Managing is set as a priori factor which directly enters into the pores of functioning representing the models that should be used for successful agribusiness. The adoption of management methods, actions and activities has a direct impact on the economic efficacy and economic effectiveness.


Background: Seizure is the most common neurological presentation during the first month of life and can lead to adverse long term outcome. The aim of the study was to describe the spectrum of brain lesions identified by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in term babies presenting with neonatal seizures.
Methods: This retrospective descriptive study was done in a tertiary care hospital. The study subjects included term neonates presenting with neonatal seizures admitted in neonatal intensive care unit over a 5 year period, who underwent MRI brain. Data was collected from the medical records and radiology department.
Results: Out of 189 neonates presenting with seizures, 155 underwent MRI brain. Brain lesions were identified in 122 (79%) babies. The most common etiological diagnosis was hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) which was noted in 43 (28%) neonates. The other findings in the decreasing order were encephalitis in 35 (23%), metabolic disorder in 16 (10%), haemorrhage in 15 (9.7%) vascular in 12 (8%) and cortical dysplasia in 1 (


This essay, in the context of a conference on justice, reviews and reaffirms the main theses of "The Priority of Persons" (2000), and supplements them with the benefit of hindsight in six theses. The wrongness of Roe v. Wade goes wider than was indicated. The secularist scientistic or naturalist dimension of the reigning contemporary ideology is inconsistent with the spiritual reality manifested in every word or gesture of its proponents. The temporal continuity of the existence of human persons and their communities is highly significant for the common good, which is the point and measure of social justice, properly understood. Forms of injustice that are more or less independent of this temporal dimension are nonetheless important. The nation and its lasting are neglected in much of the social-political theory assumed by contemporary legal theory. So too is the family and the "covenant" between its generations, a neglect that opens the door to euthanasia.


A small amount of Ca and Sn is added into AZ31 alloy separately to modify its deformation behavior and optimized rolling texture. Results show that addition of Sn increases the activation of twinning in AZ31. Some unusual double twins, inducing {101¯2}‐{101¯2} and {101¯3}‐{101¯2} double twins, are activated in AZ31–0.5Sn alloy. Refined grains with similar orientation as their parents are produced by continuous static recrystallization, which limits texture modification in AZT310. Ca gives rise to a remarkable grain refinement during hot rolling. Recrystallized grains in AZX310 exhibit a weaker double peak texture with a wide orientation spread. It is found that Al2Ca particles simulate recrystallized nucleation and some of these refined grains exhibit non‐basal orientations. Primary compression twins are favorable nucleation sites for recrystallization and they are more effective in texture modification compared to other double twins.


Consumer information search (CIS), the process by which a consumer browses and inspects a shopping environment for appropriate information to select a product or service from available options, has been a research focus in the context of online business. One of the key questions related to CIS is how to determine how much information to search (i.e., when to stop searching). Extensive literature on behavioral science has revealed that consumers often search either "too little" or "too much," even with the help of existing consumer decision support systems (CDSSs). To address this issue, this article introduces a new method of CDSSs that provides effective estimation of incremental search benefits. The method, called the personalized distribution-based prediction method (PDM), is developed from the perspective of machine learning and utilizes consumer preference information generated by collaborative filtering (CF) algorithms. In contrast to related methods that assume that all consumers follow the same distribution function in terms of product preference, the PDM method is designed to consider the diversified search behaviors of consumers through the incorporation of heterogeneous preference distribution functions. Experiments based on data provided by Netflix illustrate that the proposed method is effective and advantageous over existing applicable techniques. Theoretical analyses are also provided to explain the advantageous performance of PDM. [web URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/deci.12200/full]


[Er14(C2)2(N)2]l24 (triclinic, P1̅, a = 966.3(4) pm. b = 1027.6(2) pm. c = 1663.4(4) pm, α = 101.374(9)°, β = 92.853(14)°, γ = 112.83(2)°, Z = 2) is obtained as red-brown single crystals through a conproportionation reaction of Erl3 and erbium in the presence of carbon and NaN3 in a sealed niobium container. It contains discrete, tetrameric [Er14(C2)2(N)2] clusters that are built from two octahedra and two tetrahedra connected via common edges. The octahedral voids are filled with C2 units and the tetrahedral voids with N atoms. Each discrete [Er14(C2)2(N)2] cluster is surrounded by 32 iodide ligands which connect six clusters via i-a and a-a bridges.


In order to artificially reduce the quinclorac residue in aqueous solution and soil, six potential photosensitizers were screened for their effectiveness in enhancing the photodegradation. The degraded amount of quinclorac in distilled water by sunlight was minor compared to that in the dark, indicating that there was little direct photolysis. The photodegradation ratio of quinclorac in methanol was 40.3%. Whereas, the ratios in the presence of photosensitizers PS-1 (aromatic ketone), PS-3 (polycyclic quinone), and PS-6 (inorganic semiconductor) were 96.6, 72.7, and 95.7%, respectively, showing the most photosensitizing effects. In sand, PS-3 was more effective than any other photosensitizer PS-1 (19.6%), PS-3 (64.1%) and PS-6 (). five photoproducts of quinclorac in methanol were identified by GC-MS and quinclorac added with the photosensitizer PS-1 gave three photoproducts. Photoproducts with an aldehyde group formed in methanol were confirmed by the reduction of sodium 3,5-dinitrosalicylate in the Lindsay's method. E. crus-galli war. oryzicola was not controlled by the quinclorac residues photodegraded at tile concentrations higher than 30 ppm of the photosensitizer PS-3 in a flooded rice paddy soil. These results indicate that the quinclorac residues in aqueous solution and soil can be degraded efficiently by tile photosensitizers PS-1, PS-3, and PS-6.


This paper presents a simple and novel methodology developed to set up and establish a simplex communication system over a power line using load signatures. Traditional concepts such as normalization and matched filtering form the core of these algorithms. The analysis also relies extensively on the voltage and current measurements made over a fixed period of time on a single phase. Furthermore, analyses on the capacity of this kind of system are also presented; taking into consideration various disturbances.


The frequency dependence of ultrasonic attenuation in cast metals has previously been shown to contain information about the volume fraction and size of pores. While direct metallographic examination shows that the actual size distribution can be quite broad, previous investigations have analyzed ultrasonic attenuation data on the assumption that all pores have the same, or nearly the same, size. That restriction can be eliminated by analyzing the data using the concept of maximum entropy. Pore sizes are divided into discrete bins, each containing a fraction fi of all the pores, and the entropy, obtained by summing −fi ln(fi) over all bins, is maximized subject to the constraints of the frequency‐dependent attenuation data. The resulting pore size distributions for cast aluminum samples containing various levels of porosity are often found to be approximately log‐normal. Volume fractions of pores deduced from these distributions are in excellent agreement with determinations using the Archimedes method.


By way of background, the time frame is during the Cambodian incursion, and I am being briefed at the squadron headquarters base camp. The NVA have been conducting road ambushes in the vicinity of Dead Man's Curve on Route 19 between Pleiku and Cambodia. LTC. Ashworth told me to insert the Blues about a mile down a blue line (stream) that runs perpendicular into Route 19 and parallels a hill to the west.


ABSTRACT The 592 research articles in the first 62 volumes of Imago Mundi, from 1935 to 2010, are analysed to discern trends in the scholarly approaches, biases and interests of historians of cartography. Particular attention is paid to map historians' preferred historical periods and topical subjects of study, to their nationalistic tendencies and to the shifting importance of traditional, internal and socio-cultural approaches to map history.


The ongoing worldwide Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) pandemic has a considerable impact on life, economic, social, health, education, and many more sectors. Several companies in Indonesia felt the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which resulted in companies having to concentrate on company management strategies that had a significant reaction in maximizing and ensuring business suitability during the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the most important strategies that must be maximized and considered is employee performance and employee contribution. During the covid-19 pandemic, which significantly affects employees' emotions and results in a lack of contribution or involvement in the company, poor work quality, making mistakes, not focusing on the work given, and if left unchecked in the long term, it will have an impact on the company's capacity to maintain the company's performance in difficult situations like this.There are two goals to be achieved in this article, namely how the strategies of these organizations deal with the pandemic and maintain employee involvement as well as employee performance during the Covid-19 pandemic. This article uses a literature review approach. The results of this article show that performance in various companies tends to decline. Therefore this article tries to explain how the role of the work environment in maintaining employee performance and employee contributions during the covid-19 pandemic.


Objective To determine the concentration of active metabolite of oxcarbazepine in human plasma and investigate its pharmacokinetics in Chinese healthy volunteers. Methods A single 300 mg dose of oxcarbazepine was performed in Chinese healthy male volunteers. Plasma samples were processed by liquid-liquid extraction and active monohydroxy metabolite (MHD), the active metabolite of oxcarbazepine, in plasma were determined by high performance liquid chromatography. Data were analyzed by a 3P87 program on a Legend computer. Results The method was utilized to determine the plasma concentration of MHD. Plasma concentration curve of MHD in single oral administration of oxcarbazepine conformed to one compartment model of the first order absorption. The major parameters of MHD were: t (max)=(4.10±0.79) h, C (max)=(4.64±0.53) mg·L~(-1), t (1/2 ke)=(15.04±2.32) h, AUC (0-48)=(112.96±14.25) mg·L~(-1)·h. Conclusion The method described in this report was of high sensitivity and selectivity for accurate determination of the plasma concentration of MHD in human. The pharmacokinetic results showed that it exhibited first order kinetic characteristics.


This article aims to present the Fermine tool, developed as a plugin for the Redmine project manager, and show how it can help a company or project to suit the maturity model of national software – MPS.Br level G, in the areas of projects and requirements management. Key words: Fermine tool. MPS.Br.


This demonstration presents several interaction techniques enabled by Peephole Displays, an interface metaphor based on situating information in physical space and providing a movable window on the space. Using a Peephole Display, it is possible to browse a large map using one hand, to draw objects larger than the screen, and to perform drag-and-drop in 3-D. Example applications that exploit these techniques are shown.


In the ALF asphalt deformation "core" trial, differences in properties were observed between specimens cored from the pavement and specimens of plant mix of the same composition compacted using a Gyropac. In an effort to understand the reasons for this, asphalt was sampled during various stages of manufacture of the phase two ALF deformation trial sections, and at various stages of the laboratory conditioning and compaction process. Binder was recovered from the samples by a solvent extraction procedure and its viscosity measured. This allowed the hardening which occurred at each stage of the field and laboratory processes to be calculated. It was found that laboratory mixing produced a similar degree of binder hardening to plant (pugmill) mixing. The overall laboratory mixing and conditioning process hardened the binder more than the comparable field situation. This was because minimal binder hardening occurred during transportation to the ALF site. The RTFO procedure produced similar hardening to plant mixing, and also (because of the minimal hardening of the field mix during transportation) to the total binder hardening during the mixing and laying process. The agreement between duplicate specimens was generally good with the exception of the conditioned, Gyropac specimens compacted at the mixing plant. These recorded values of 1.48 and 1.78 MPa.s, indicating that further investigation may be necessary. The viscosity of binder recovered from specimens cored from the pavement was 0.41 MPa.s less than the viscosity of binder recovered from laboratory compacted specimens. This result is in agreement with testing carried out earlier on phase one specimens and suggests that the observed difference in modulus and creep between the ALF pavement and Gyropac compacted specimens may be attributable, at least in part, to differences in the binder viscosity of the specimens. A more extensive sampling and testing exercise would be required to determine the precision of the reported results. Comparison of bitumen hardening during mix manufacture and placement (short-term hardening) with hardening during field service (long-term hardening) indicated the greatest proportion of bitumen hardening occurs as a result of the long-term process. The AUSTROADS conditioning procedure appears to produce binder hardening equivalent to about one year of service in the field. The study was funded by the Australian Asphalt Pavement Association (AAPA) as part of its continuing program of research undertaken to improve asphalt performance.


To investigate the relationship between the element changes of interface microregion and the formation of implant interface.X plain films,histologic microscope,scan electronic microscope and electronic probe X-ray microregion analysis were used in this study.Results showed that 12 weeks after the implantation,a large amount of new bone formation was observed in the X plain films,histologic microscope and scan electronic microscope.The percentage of Ca and P elements increased slowly and reached the peak in 12 weeks,then changed to be steady and persisted with the time.The percentage of Ti reached the peak in 2 weeks after implantation and decreased with the time.Ca and P is the important elements in the formation of bone—implant interface.Ti6Al4V alloy implants will release some free Ti ion to the tissues,but it can not influence the formation of bone interface.


The numerical solutions of time $ \alpha $-order $ (\alpha \in (0, 1)) $ Caputo fractional Fokker-Planck equations is considered. The constructed method is consist of the transformed $ L1 $ ($ TL1 $) scheme in the temporal direction and the Legendre-Galerkin spectral method in the spatial direction. It has been shown that the $ TL1 $ Legendre-Galerkin spectral method in $ L^2 $-norm is exponential order convergent in space and ($ 2-\alpha $)-th order convergent in time. Several numerical examples are given to verify the obtained theoretical results.


It is hard to believe that we are already in the 2020 election year, 3 years after the Trump administration took office. Since the election in 2016, the outlook for U.S. manufacturing has sharply increased and although still high, has tailed off a bit over the past year. The economy continues to grow and to keep it moving, the Fed has cut interest rates 3 times in 2019 to the current level of 1.75 percent. Although consumer sentiment has also declined a bit over the past few quarters, it has remained high. This has assisted in keeping the economy moving because with consumer sentiment high, individuals increase discretionary spending and make major purchases, such as automobiles and homes (automotive and housing being the top two markets that die casting serves). In addition, the 50-year record low unemployment rate of 3.6% has grown the pool of workers who spend money and spark the economy. So what about our markets and die casting shipments? Automotive sales in 2019 have remained high although slightly less than the previous year. New housing starts were fairly strong in 2019 and slightly higher than the previous year. Overall shipments are forecast to be a few percent less in 2019 compared to 2018. The current outlook for 2020 is presented later in this article. Let's now review some of what has been going on in Washington under the current Administration and some macro-economics and the impact it has had on all of manufacturing and subsequently the die casting industry.


Abstract:This interview with Robert Cancel focuses on folklore studies of Africa since the 1970s. The interview indicates that the study of African oral tradition in the 1970s and early eighties revolved around a type of structuralism that eventually became known as performance theory, which was inspired by theories of cinema coming out of the French New Wave and the American new critics. Yet, African folklore studies remained firmly grounded in the contributions of Continental Folklorists, the Finnish Folklore Fellows, and the motif-tale-type theory as well as Russian formalism.


While an increasing number of studies recognise the importance of e-procurement tools (EPT), purchasing executives seem to face continuous challenges to engage suppliers to adopt such tools. This study aims to explore the barriers to maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) suppliers in adopting EPT, and how to overcome them by developing a multiple case study. Our findings indicate that suppliers' willingness to adopt EPT depends on the maintenance of ties and relations previously established with customers. While access to new customers is perceived as a driver to adopt EPT, its use demands robust investment in data management and technology, otherwise suppliers will increase their operational activities and costs. Moreover, suppliers who have the capability to integrate EPT into an intelligent system have a higher willingness to accept it.


With the great success of crowdsourcing business models in the context of the sharing economy, how crowdsourcing services work has gained wide attention. Based on the value co-creation theory, taki...


Marketing activities of online services are often seen on the achievement of strategies for achieving customer loyalty through customer satisfaction. Taking heed of e-service quality and price constitutes an appropriate marketing strategies to foster the users of online services' satisfaction. Providing service and good benefits with a relatively cheap price to meet the expectations and needs of the customers will affect the level of satisfaction of online services users. The consumer satisfaction maintained by online service providers will create loyal customers. The purpose of this study to test how much the e-service quality and prices influences directly to customer satisfaction and loyalty. In addition, this study examine the relationship of satisfaction and customer loyalty. This research was conducted in Pekanbaru to 200 sample respondents from the users of online flight tickets searching service, Traveloka, from September to October, 2016.Data collection techniques used is a questionnaire with Likert scale using non-probability sampling method. Data were analyzed using SEM analysis techniques, which are used as the instrument in testing hypothesis by using AMOS 21 program.The results of this study indicated that the overall dimensions of e-service quality have positive and significant impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Price is another factor that gives positive and significant impact directly on the customer satisfaction as well as loyalty. Consumer satisfaction can be a moderator variable between e-service quality and price to customer loyalty.


We analyse queueing delay behaviour of real-time applications with different quality of service (QoS) classes under priority-first come first served (P-FCFS) scheduling discipline in an ATM network. The delay distributions of constant bit rate (CBR) traffic with distinct priorities and with several priority classes are derived respectively and numerical results are provided. In conclusion, P-FCFS in conjunction with deterministic bit rate (DBR) transfer capability can be used in managing diverse real-time QoS requirements.


Este trabajo fue recibido el 23 de julio de 2018. Aceptado con modificaciones: 29 de febrero de 2019. Aceptado para ser publicado: 06 de agosto de 2019. ABSTRACT Descriptive cross-sectional study with 417 pregnant women and 388 lactating women, belonging to a Comprehensive Care Program in Bogotá. A modular survey was applied with sociodemographic and health variables analyzed by frequency distributions, central tendency, and dispersion, with bivariate and multivariate analyses used to calculate odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals. 17% were under 18 years of age. Only 66.8% of all of the women had immediate skin-to-skin contact with their child. The risk factors for skin-to-skin contact and early initiation of breastfeeding were type of delivery (cesarean) (OR: 23.15, 95% CI: 12.99, 41.25) and (OR: 2.6, 95% CI: 1.43, 4.73) respectively; In addition, newborn hospitalization for more than 3 days was also a risk factor for the early initiation of breastfeeding (OR: 2.85, 95% CI: 1.42, 5.72). Not having skin-to-skin contact between the mother and her newborn was a risk factor for the early initiation of breastfeeding (OR: 2.43; CI: 1.34; 4.41).


Along with the evolution of time the large number of people used the social media platform to share views. This makes more people can communicate with each other. Alongside these benefits, it has some negative sides also which brings animosity towards some part of individuals. It can also include the hate speech. Hate speech is the speech that might include the abusive or threatening words which affects the community. Such type of speech need to be detected and removed from social media platform before spreading. Analysis of sentiments is the method of deciding whether the sentiments in the text is hatred or not hatred. We analyzed the Twitter dataset using weka software. In this dataset there were total 5000 Tweets and we applied two filters(Tweet to Sparse Feature Vector, Tweet to Lexicon Feature Vector) on it to give model accuracy of machine learning. The experimental result in both cases of Twitter dataset has an highest accuracy of Random forest technique i.e.93%.


Blue swimming crab is a fishery product with high economic value in Indonesia. Betahwalang Village, Demak, is one of the crab fisheries locations in the province of Central Java. High selling prices and processing industry demand encourages fishing activities. One issue brought on by increased fishing activity is the smaller crab size. It will impact the crab fishing industry in Betahwalang. The majority of the fisherman in Betahwalang Village catch crabs using arad nets, simple gill nets


" It is now a year at least since I treated with success by abstinence from drinks (boissons), and by the use of sugar in large doses, a patient under my care. This woman passed from twenty to thirty litres of urine, and took an enormous quantity of food. She had been in many hospitals, but nowhere had she obtained any relief. Put upon the preceding regimen, she passed scarcely two litres of urine in the twentyfour hours, and the urine did not contain more sugar than when she took none of it into her stomach. A note was addressed by me to the Institute, and was immediately accepted. Some months afterwards, this poor patient again took


We have used a sensitive adiabatic microcalorimeter to study cellulose dissolution in its metal complex solvents cadoxen and ferric sodium tartrate (FeTNa). Heats of crystallization of cellulose I and II have thereby been estimated and range from −4.07 kcal/mol to −5.43 kcal/mol. A solvent-dependent heat of reaction factor has been invoked to explain differences in the heats of crystallization obtained by the two solvents. Conversion of cellulose I to cellulose II is an exothermic process with an enthalpy change of about −6.0 cal/g cellulose. The crystallinities of various cellulose samples have been determined using these thermodynamic data and have been found to be generally consistent with values given by more traditional means.


An improved telephone switching arrangement in which all of the telephones (i.e.; audio terminals) are in a normally off hook state. The user desiring to place a call need not take the telephone off hook or change the electrical state of the connection between the telephone switching equipment and the audio terminal. In a preferred embodiment, the called party's telephone number to be dialed is transmitted from a personal computer to the telephone switching equipment.


The moral character, political accomplishment and cultural scientific literacy of university graduates are not only important to the quality of Chinese nation, but also significant to the future of the Communist Party and our country. Therefore, it has become an essential content of ideological and political education in university to enhance the socialist core value education. It will play an irreplaceable role in cultivating the constructors and successors of socialist cause. This paper has implemented the analysis on the necessity of socialist core value education, followed by four discussions, respectively on the campus culture construction, the implementation by different levels and stages, the linkage system construction in education and the innovated creation of website platform, to discuss and research on the integrated approach of socialist core value education.


Objective To investigate the effects of electrochemistry treatment on chronic bacterial prostatitis.Methods 30 patients were treated by electrochemistry treatment.Results Scores of NIH-chornic prostatitis symptom index(NIH-CPSI),symptom scores and WBC counts decreased significantly at the end of the second week.NIH-CPSI scores decreased 20.4((70.26%)),symptom scores 13.17(70.54%) and WBC counts 15.03(54.80%).At the end of the fourth week,Average of NIH-CPSI was below 10,WBC counts also below 10.The overall response rate was 93.33%.No complication was founded in this group.Conclusions Electrochemical treatment is a safe and effective method for chronic bacterial prostatitis.


Sensing of pyrophosphate ion (PPi) has received much attention due to the strong demand for clinical diagnostics. Herein, based on gold nanoclusters (Au NCs), a ratiometric optical detection method for PPi is developed by simultaneously detecting the dual-signals of fluorescence (FL) and second-order scattering (SOS). The PPi is detected by inhibiting the formation of aggregates of Fe3+ with Au NCs. Binding of Fe3+ to Au NCs causes aggregation of Au NCs, which leads to fluorescence quenching and scattering increasing. The presence of PPi can competitively bind Fe3+ to re-disperse the Au NCs and finally recover the fluorescence and reduce the scattering signal. The designed PPi sensor shows a high sensitivity with a linear range of 5-50 μM and a detection limit of 1.2 μM. In addition, the assay has excellent selectivity for PPi, which makes its application in real biological samples extremely valuable.


In diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) drug resistance is in part due to inadequate penetration of blood-brain barrier (BBB) by systemically administered drugs. Convection-enhanced drug delivery (CED) techniques have been established to bypass BBB. Trial design to measure efficacy requires evidence to justify power calculation.

 To apply SIOPe DIPG registry survival prediction tool to pilot cohort of children with DIPG treated with CED of carboplatin and sodium valproate.

 Case note and imaging review of 9 children with typical DIPG on imaging who were treated on compassionate basis with CED intra-tumoural infusions of carboplatin (0.12 mg/ml) and sodium valproate (14.4 mg/ml), after radiotherapy (n=9) and chemotherapy (n=4). Each had Renishaw device placed with 4 micro-catheters located within tumour mass. Up to 8 treatment cycles of CED infusions delivered through 2 pairs of catheters on 2 days to encompass pontine tumour volume. Survival prediction was performed using clinical criteria: age, sex, duration of symptoms, prior chemotherapy; and radiological criteria: absence of distant metastases; disease involving more than 50% of, and confined to, pons, ring enhancement at diagnosis.

 Cases were categorized as intermediate or high-risk using SIOPe risk scoring with predicted median overall survival (OS) of 9.7, and 7.0 months, respectively. Four patients, categorized as high-risk, had median overall survival (OS) of 14.2 months. Five children, categorized as standard-risk, had median OS of 16.0 months.

 Results justify a phase 2 trial of CED carboplatin and sodium valproate powered to detect at least 4-month prolongation of survival.


In a previous work, quasidiscrete quantum Markov processes were considered. In order to describe certain continuum situations, the concept of a regular quantum Markov process is now developed. First, the general theory of such processes will be presented. Then, methods for constructing these processes will be considered. To accomplish this, the classical construction of measures on trajectory spaces to complex measures is generalized. A class of processes that have an associated family of transition amplitude operators is constructed. The paper concludes with various examples that illustrate the theory.


Modern convolution technologies offer possibilities to overcome principle shortcomings of loudspeaker stereophony by exploiting the Wave Field Synthesis (WFS) concept for rendering virtual spatial characteristics of sound events. Based on the Huygens principle loudspeaker arrays are reproducing a synthetic sound field around the listener, whereby the dry audio signal is combined with measured or modelled information about the room and the source's position to enable the accurate reproduction of the source within its acoustical environment. Not surprisingly, basic and practical constraints of WFS systems limit the rendering accurateness and the perceived spatial audio quality to a certain degree, dependent on characteristic features and technical parameters of the sound field synthesis. However, recent developments have shown already that a number of applications could be possible in the near future. An attractive example is the synthesis of WFS and stereophony offering enhanced freedom in sound design as well as improved quality and more flexibility in practical playback situations for multichannel sound mixes.


The gamma-ray cascades which follow thermal neutron capture in chromium have been investigated by means of the measurement of coincidences between gamma rays detected by a three-crystal pair spectrometer and a single NaI crystal. Samples of normal chromium and chromium enriched in ${\mathrm{Cr}}^{50}$ and ${\mathrm{Cr}}^{53}$ were used. The following assignments of gamma rays to individual isotopes have been made. ${\mathrm{Cr}}^{51}$: 8.499, 7.36, 6.34, 6.12, 5.46, and 5.18 Mev; ${\mathrm{Cr}}^{53}$: 7.929, 7.36, 5.61, and 5.26 Mev; ${\mathrm{Cr}}^{54}$: 9.716, 8.881, 7.097, 6.872, 6.644, 6.31, 6.00, and 4.83 Mev. A number of features of the de-excitation of the energy levels populated by these transitions are established.


IMPORTANCE Evaluation of acute gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding using invasive endoscopic procedures comprising the standard of care (SOC)—upper endoscopy and colonoscopy—can expose theendoscopystafftoSARS-CoV-2.Videocapsuleendoscopy(VCE)doesnotgenerateaerosolsand only requires 1 person to manage the procedure. OBJECTIVE To examine the safety of VCE for the initial evaluation of GI bleeding at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic to identify signs of active bleeding while minimizing patient and personnel exposure, saving personal protective equipment, and avoiding invasive or unnecessary procedures. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS A multicenter (UMass Memorial Medical Center and Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center) retrospective cohort study including 146 patients with COVID-19 who received VCE as the first-line diagnostic modality was conducted from March 15 to June 15, 2020, compared with SOC in January 2020 for evaluation of GI bleeding. The association between treatment and outcomes was estimated using multivariable regression adjusting for potential confounders. Propensity score matching was used to verify the results. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary end point was detection of active bleeding or stigmata of recent bleeding. Secondary end points included the number of patients requiring any invasive procedures, number of additional procedures, rates of rebleeding and rehospitalization, transfusion requirements, and mortality. RESULTS Among 146 patients, 92 (63.0%) were men; mean (SD) age was 64.93 (14.13) years in the COVID-19 group and 61.33 (13.39) years in the SOC group. Active bleeding or stigmata of recent bleeding was observed in 44 (59.5%) patients in the COVID-19 group compared with 18 (25.0%)