Based on the situation that the classic Camshift algorithm could not effective solve the problems such as target was covered and high speed moving in the field of real-time video tracking,this paper proposed a improved moving object tracking algorithm that combinating Camshift algorithm and Kalman filter. Firstly,in order to improve tracking stability of Camshift, adjusted the places and sizes by twice searching and then,in order to ensure real-time tracking,implemented motion prediction in search window by Kalman filter on the base of Camshift algorithms. The experimental results show that the improved algorithm has better real-time and can solve the cover problem more effective.


ABSTRACT This work synthesizes all aspects of Asclepias syriaca L. (Apocynaceae) including the taxonomy, distribution, history of introduction and spread, ecology, biology, uses and benefits, impacts on biodiversity and agriculture, legislation, and management. Asclepias syriaca is a perennial broad-leaved species native to North America. Introduced for ornamental and various other purposes, such as a source of fibre and rubber, it has become established in many regions of Europe and it had increasingly spread in the last decades (>1980s). Its reproductive behavior is characterized by a high production of wind-dispersed seeds and by the propagation of creeping lateral rhizomes, which allows the species to proliferate rapidly. The species persists in a wide range of edaphic and climatic environments. It occurs particularly in anthropogenic and (semi-)natural habitats, such as roadsides, agricultural land, abandoned sites and grasslands, open shrubland, and forests, respectively. Studies have demonstrated negative impacts on the biodiversity and ecosystem processes in invaded regions, namely in open sand grasslands in Hungary. Asclepias syriaca occurs as a competitive weed in crop fields. Since 2017, the species is regulated by the European Union (EU) under the Regulation No. 1143/2014, which states that A. syriaca is subjected to restrictions such as a ban on importing, selling, breeding and that EU member states are required to place effective management measures. Awareness raising activities are important to inform the public, farmers and stakeholders about the risks of this invasive alien plant. Effective direct control options include mechanical control as well as herbicide application.


Population migration is a major event of optimizing the allocation of production factors and a key way to construct regional relations and promote spatial reconstruction. However, there are few papers published on population migration that have a direct impact on the sustainable development of deserts owing to the more sensitive and complex man–earth relationship. Therefore, it is important to study the laws and characteristics of population migration in such regions. The study of Egypt by Zipf's law shows that the spatial distribution of migration population size conforms to the law of power function with fractal characteristics of different types. The migration population is generally in a "Pareto" state in spatial distribution. Decentralization power is the leading driving force of spatial distribution, and scale-free regional distribution shows significant spatial agglomeration and gradient. Limited by research scope and "heavy tail" factors, Zipf's law is not completely applicable. The spatial pattern and flow field characteristics of the migration population are analyzed in this paper by the conversion from "structural fractal" to "spatial fractal" based on scale-free geographic projection, providing the reference for the formulation of population governance policies and spatial planning strategies in Egypt and more desert countries.


First, we must come to act on poverty less from charity and more from justice. Concern for the marginalized is rooted not so much in pity towards the poor but comes from our inner compass of right and wrong. (Rainer, 2009)Poverty is a social issue, affecting a significant portion of the world's population. Although poverty rates have declined in the last several decades, the global poverty rate was 23% in 2005, and the optimistic target of the United Nations' (UN) Millennium Development Goals is 15% by 2015 (UN, 2011). Canada is in the G20 and is one of the world's economic powers, yet 9% of its population lives below the poverty line (Statistics Canada, 2012). According to the United Nations Children's Fund [UNICEF] (2012), Canada's relative child poverty rate is consistently higher than most other wealthy nations, ranking 23rd out of the 35 industrialized nations (UNICEF, 2012). There is a "profound gap between Canadian health promotion word and deed" (Raphael, 2008, p. 30). In 2009, the first full year following the recession of 2008, the richest 20% of Canadians earned on average $117,500 more than the poorest 20%. The author of the 2010 report titled The Rise of Canada's Richest indicates "Wages and work related compensation are the leading measure of income inequality in Canada, accounting for two thirds of the income held by the richest 1%" (Yalnizyan, 2010). The recent recession has pushed Canadian families already living in poverty into dire straits (Campaign 2000, 2011; Pasma, 2010b; Townson, 2009b).Despite these statistics, poverty may not be an issue that regularly captures the attention of counsellors and researchers (Albanese, 2010; Black, Stone, & Hutchinson, 2007; Caldwell, 2009). The magnitude of the effect of poverty on mental health is also difficult for counsellors who live among the economically privileged to fully grasp (Black et al., 2007; Caldwell, 2009). Thus, poverty has emerged as a focus in ongoing discussions within the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association's (CCPA's) Social Justice Chapter, particularly related to the lack of dialogue among counsellors about poverty, the dearth of curriculum related to socioeconomic issues in counselling programs, and the weak attention to poverty and economic privilege in literature related to multicultural counselling and social justice. These discussions enabled us to observe that, to a large degree, our own position of economic privilege shielded us from full consciousness of the depth and breadth of client issues related to poverty.Members of the Social Justice Chapter offered an interactive workshop at the CCPA 2010 annual conference that aimed to raise the consciousness of participants about Canada's poor track record in ensuring basic supports for mental and physical well-being for all and the impact of poverty on mental health. Approximately 35 participants engaged in exercises and activities designed to bring to life the experiences of those living at or below poverty levels. The workshop highlighted the role of counsellors committed to social justice in effecting change locally and nationally, and participants generated ideas for interventions designed to address the needs of clients living in poverty.This article will first describe the issue of poverty in Canada and highlight the implications of poverty for counselling practice. We then provide a summary of the activities and outcomes of the workshop, with a view to raising awareness about poverty as a social determinant of mental health and encouraging counsellors and other healthcare practitioners to more fully comprehend the impact of poverty on their clients and initiate social justice action within their practices.LITERATURE REVIEWPoverty in CanadaWe preface this section by noting that there has been increased debate about poverty in Canada since the 1990s. According to our review, the debate appears fuelled by-if not mired in-the fact that the Canadian government has yet to establish a definition of poverty. …


Abstract In this paper, we study eigenfunctions and fundamental solutions for the three parameter fractional Laplace operator where and the fractional derivatives , , are in the Caputo sense. Applying integral transform methods, we describe a complete family of eigenfunctions and fundamental solutions of the operator in classes of functions admitting a summable fractional derivative. The solutions are expressed using the Mittag–Leffler function. From the family of fundamental solutions obtained, we deduce a family of fundamental solutions of the corresponding fractional Dirac operator, which factorizes the fractional Laplace operator introduced in this paper.


In the original formulation of the MNDO method, the approximation of two-center two-electron integrals over p orbitals is not rotationally invariant, and the coulombtype integrals do not match their one-center counterparts. In recent computer codes the rotational invariance has been restored by dropping the original approximation for two-center exchange integrals over π orbitals, which at the same time disconnected these too from the one-center values. It is shown in this paper that the rotational invariance problem can be overcome in the framework of the original approximation. It is also demonstrated that the mismatch between the one- and two-center two-electron integrals may be the reason for the too short Si-Si bond lengths predicted by MNDO.


Recent curriculum design projects have attempted to engage students in authentic science learning experiences in which students engage in inquiry-based research projects about questions of interest to them. Such a pedagogical and curricular approach seems an ideal space in which to construct what Lee and Fradd referred to as instructional congruence. It is, however, also a space in which the everyday language and literacy practices of young people intersect with the learning of scientific and classroom practices, thus suggesting that project-based pedagogy has the potential for conflict or confusion. In this article, we explore the discursive demands of project-based pedagogy for seventh-grade students from non- mainstream backgrounds as they enact established project curricula. We document competing Discourses in one project-based classroom and illustrate how those Discourses conflict with one another through the various texts and forms of representation used in the classroom and curriculum. Possibilities are offered for reconstructing this classroom practice to build congruent third spaces in which the different Discourses and knowledges of the discipline, classroom, and students' lives are brought together to enhance science learning and scientific literacy. fl 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 469 - 498, 2001 Recent curriculum design projects have attempted to engage students in responsive or authentic science learning experiences in which students engage in inquiry-based research pro- jects about questions of interest to them (Goldman, 1997; Krajcik, Blumenfeld, Marx, Bass, & Fredricks, 1998; Merino & Hammond, 1998; Warren, Rosebery, & Conant, 1989). Typically, the features of what is often called project-based pedagogy include (a) questions that encompass worthwhile and meaningful content anchored in authentic or real-world problems; (b) inve- stigations and artifact creation that allow students to learn apply concepts, represent knowledge, and receive ongoing feedback; (c) collaboration among students, teachers, and others in the community; and (d) use of literacy and technological tools (Cognition and Technology Group, 1992; Krajcik et al., 1998; Mercado, 1993). Project-based pedagogy engages children in textual and experiential inquiry about authentic questions, and so can be considered discourse enabling. That is, project-based pedagogy affords


"Using corrigent compatibility "is one method of TCM herbal compatibility.It is neglected always because its unimportant position in "king drug,ministerial drug,assistant drug,sacrifice drug".The significance of using corrigent compatibility is discussed by philosophy method and the base on abstract is gived in science studying and clinical application.


The utility model provides an anesthetic syringe with a fixing frame, and belongs to the technical field of medical instruments. According to the technical scheme, the anesthetic syringe with the fixing frame comprises a syringe needle and a syringe body and is characterized in that spindles are arranged on two sides of the syringe body, a supporting rod is arranged on each spindle, a sucker is arranged on each supporting rod, and an elastic belt is arranged at the rear end of the syringe body. The anesthetic syringe with the fixing frame is simple in structure, when medical staff conduct anesthetic injection on a patient, using is convenient, inserting of the needle is accurate, the pains of the patient can be relieved, and the working difficulty of the medical staff is lightened.


The surface reaction of tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) with nitric acid-oxidized type II PAN-based carbon fibers has been investigated by using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), ion scattering spectroscopy (ISS), and acid/base surface titrations. Initially, nitric acid treatments of varying intensity impart different quantities of oxygenated functional groups onto the fibers, and surface roughening due to formation of pits and crevasses occurs. Subsequent treatment with TEPA at 190 °C introduces significant amounts of surface-bound TEPA via reaction with carboxyl groups on the oxidized carbon fiber surfaces. Angle-resolved XPS (ARXPS) spectra are consistent with a TEPA surface concentration that varies as a function of depth (into crevasses and pits) and remains greatest primarily within the outermost 15 Å. The extent of the TEPA surface reaction is proportional (but not linearly) to the fibers' initial oxygen content. Nonlinearity may be due to several factors including (1) decomposition of a portion of the carbon fibers' carboxyl groups under the TEPA reaction conditions and (2) a nonuniform reaction with the commercial TEPA mixture, which contains several different pentamine molecular structures together with small amounts of tetra- and hexamine impurities. An accurate determination of the TEPA bonding configuration is difficult to achieve; however, the data suggest that at least 70% of the TEPA molecules form two (or more) bonds to the carbon fiber surfaces.


The research focuses a Hybrid Renewable Energy System (HRES) for the electrification of a rural school and a health centre for a rural site in India. The HRES modelled for 100 percent renewable resources serves a load requirement of approximately 3.38–4.28 kWh/d for the school and 6.55–8 kWh/d for the health centre, based on varied seasons. The microsystem model is designed for a 25 year projected lifespan, to balance the required load for energy deprived schools and health centres in rural areas of India. Of an utmost importance is to overcome the issue of intermittent power and reducing unmet load, and improving the autonomy of the system. This analysis can be used as a framework to improve electricity infrastructure in electricity deprived communities of the developing countries; thus improving social well-being of people from an engineering aspect.


Anaplastic lymphoma kinase positive large B‐cell LYMPHOMA (ALK+ LBCL) was recognized as a distinct entity by the 2008 WHO classification of lymphomas. Histologically, the tumor cells exhibit either plasmablastic or immunoblastic morphology, with characteristic granular staining for ALK. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the cytologic findings of ALK+ LBCL. The cytologic material obtained by needle biopsy from three cases of ALK+ LBCL was evaluated. All lesions were nodal and the cytologic material analyzed included air‐dried and alcohol‐fixed slides stained with modified Giemsa and/or HE stains. The following morphologic criteria were assessed: cellularity, cluster characteristics, cell size, cytoplasmic and nuclear characteristics, and background composition. The cytology specimens obtained from the needle biopsies were moderately to highly cellular and composed of a population of large cells with immunoblastic or plasmablastic morphology. Single cells were present in all three cases, but two cases also showed the presence of clusters with acinar and papillary architecture. Multinucleation was noted in all three cases. Amorphous metachromatic background material was noted focally in the modified Giemsa stained slides in all three cases. Immunostains performed on cytology specimens showed cytoplasmic immunoreactivity for ALK, with characteristic granular features. ALK+ LBCL is a rare recently recognized type of lymphoma with unique morphologic and immunophenotypic findings that can mimic epithelial tumors. Recognition of this potential diagnostic pitfall is critical to prevent unnecessary additional work‐up and mistreatment. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Magnetic confinement of thermonuclear plasma ions within a tokamak must be achieved with a finite number of toroidal field(TF) coils. This results in a rippled toroidal field structure, and consequent distortions in fast ion orbits with potentially rapid loss of the affected ions. The ripple loss is an important issue for the design of future tokamak reactors such as ITER because it results in reduced alpha heating as well as potentially severe localized wallreactors.


TOYOTA, T., ABE, K., ABE, Y., SATO, S. and GOTO, Y. C-Peptide and Insulin Antibody in Diabetic Patients Treated with Insulin. Tohoku J. exp. Med., 1978, 125 (4), 383-390 Plasma C-peptide was determined in 46 inpatients with diabetes mellitus in order to evaluate the pancreatic B-cell function under insulin treatment. These patients were classified into three groups on the basis of fasting blood glucose: mild (n=7), moderate (n=13) and severe diabetes group (n=26), of which fasting blood glucose was below 119 mg/100 ml, from 120 to 199 mg/100 ml and above 200 mg/100 ml, respectively. In mild and moderate diabetes groups, the plasma C-peptide during GTT increased with a rise of plasma insulin 5 weeks after the start of insulin treatment. This result suggests that the insulin treatment may improve the pancreatic B-cell function. The insulin antibody was formed in 7 of 45 patients who had no antibody before the insulin treatment. Six of the seven patients having antibody belonged to the severe diabetes group. Any correlation was not demonstrated between increments of C-peptide at 60 min during GTT 5 weeks after the insulin treatment and insulin doses. The determination of plasma C-peptide gave us an information to evaluate the pancreatic B-cell function. However, we failed to obtain a conclusion that the determination of plasma C-peptide was useful as a guideline for the selection of treatment in diabetic patients. insulin; insulin antibody; C-peptide; diabetes mellitus


This work draws on a combination of three theories, dependency (economics theory), the inner plantation as a socio-psychological construct, and plantation pedagogy (education theory) to develop its own educational theory called edutocracy, as a partial explanation of the failure of the West Indian education system in Barbados. It employs document analysis as its primary method of data collection and analysis and culminates in the construction of a model of edutocracy. Edutocracy reveals how the current West Indian debate surrounding educational reform of the Secondary School Entrance Exam in Barbados and neighboring islands will, like most previous reforms, net little meaningful change if legislators and educators continue to negate the impact of the socio-historical context on education in this region, specifically the deleterious colonial ideologies which continue to shape education for the Afro-West Indian/Barbadian with the interests of the Euro-American metropole as paramount.


Some of the symbols in physics can be very non-intuitive, wouldn't it be nice to know from where they came? The goal of this study was two-fold. First, to research the etymology of the names and symbols of physcis to better understand how they were named. Also, to determine how much interest there is on the subject in various levels of physics education, which was accomplished via a survey and multiple interviews.


Computer programming is a domain of knowledge that is generally considered difficult by students, many of whom experience low levels of achievement and become disillusioned. This paper suggests that cognitive load theory needs to be taken into account when designing instructional materials for this domain. The cognitive load that is experienced by a student can be considered to be made up of three types: intrinsic, extraneous, and germane. Computer programming has a high intrinsic load and it is, therefore, necessary to reduce the extraneous load as much as possible by using techniques such as the study of programming examples. Germane cognitive load can then be applied by removing certain parts of the solutions to the examples and then requiring students to complete these part  complete solutions, thereby encouraging schemata creation in long-term memory. A new software tool called CORT (Code Restructuring Tool) has been created which utilizes this part-completion method. (Contains 20 references and 2 figures.) (Author) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the ori inal document. 1 /  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research Md Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION .L j_ CENTER (ERIC) p-Thisdocument has been reproduced as recetved from the person or orgamzation originating it. D Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. • Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or pol icy. .. E~C 8 #1biH· ,,, ' / 2 / PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY


This study addresses the information asymmetry present in Brazilian trade receivable's credit market, analyzing a set of data obtained from a company that developed a tool that allows checking the information of the commercial transactions' invoice on the Departament of Taxation and Finance's (Secretaria da Fazenda) database, the credit document's formalization and receivable's uniqueness control. With the result, the study proposes indicators that can be integrated to the processes financial agents' credit granting, as a way to improve the quality of their loan portfolios, reduce the need for additional guarantees, increase the credit volume available and allow spread reduction. A total of 129,381 electronic invoices were analyzed from 3,459 companies, which carried out operations with 240 financial agents, resulting in 171,249 trade receivables and totaling R$ 633 million. By checking electronic invoices, I obtain 12 different types of events that inform any related act by an agent involved in the commercial transaction, which were combined with the data of value, date of issue, date of discount, payment term and effectiveness of the transaction. The results suggest that it is possible to use the dates of issuance and discount of invoices, value and payment deadline as variables that explain the cancellation of the invoice, which may indicate greater or smaller security to the invoice that serves as collateral for a trade receivable. The analysis also showed that the return of the cancellation event reduces 29% the chances of a credit operation, while the return of science or confirmation events increases those chances by 4%. The study contributes to the reduction of adverse selection, resulting in an improvement in the credit environment, especially for small and medium-sized companies, traditionally left out of the process of granting credit, in a scenario where there is a recent legal change on this subject. Key-words: Information asymmetry, electronic invoices, trade receivables, trade credit, Credit, Competitiveness


In the past, waste policies' priority fell in stable treatment. Since the enactment of the Framework Act on Resource Circulation (FARC) in 2018, waste policies have emphasized more the recycling of resources and efficient recovery of energy. On the basis of Appendix 6 of Article 18 of the FARC, an analysis of the combustible contents of mixed waste is now required due to the difficulty in separating combustible and non-combustible waste. This study identified that the optimum conditions for changing various factors such as sample size, quantity, and analysis temperature by waste type. As a result, the size of the sample is 1 mm or less, and the quantity of the sample is 5 g or more. The target waste confirmed the burning temperature to be 300 ~ 600℃, and the analysis temperature of the combustible and ash contents was set at 600 ± 25℃. In addition, standard test methods for the combustible and ash contents in waste are presented.


The winner determination problem (WDP) in combinatorial auctions is the problem of, given a finite set of combinatorial bids B, finding a feasible subset B′ of B with a maximum revenue. WDP is known to be equivalent to the maximum weight set packing problem, and hard to approximate by polynomial time algorithms. This paper proposes three heuristic bid ordering schemes for solving WDP; the first two schemes take into account the number of goods shared by conflicting bids, and the third one is based on a recursive application of such local heuristic functions. We conducted several experiments to evaluate the goodness of the proposed schemes. The result of experiments implies that the first two schemes are particularly effective to improve the performance of the resulting heuristic search procedures. More concretely, they are scalable compared with the conventional linear programming (LP) relaxation based schemes, and could quickly provide an optimum solution under optimization schemes such as the branch-and-bound method. In addition, they exhibit a good anytime performance competitive to the LP-based schemes, although it is sensitive to configurable parameters controlling the strength of contributions of bid conflicts to the resultant bid ordering schemes.


Context. The improvement of large size detectors permitted the development of integral field spectrographs (IFSs) in astronomy. Spectral information for each spatial element of a two-dimensional field of view is obtained thanks to integral field units that spread the spectra on the 2D grid of the sensor.
Aims. Here we aim to solve the inherent issues raised by standard data-reduction algorithms based on direct mapping of the 2D + λ data cube: the spectral cross-talk due to the overlap of neighbouring spectra, the spatial correlations of the noise due to the re-interpolation of the cube on a Cartesian grid, and the artefacts due to the influence of defective pixels.
Methods. The proposed method, Projection, Interpolation, and Convolution (PIC), is based on an "inverse-problems" approach. By accounting for the overlap of neighbouring spectra as well as the spatial extension in a spectrum of a given wavelength, the model inversion reduces the spectral cross-talk while deconvolving the spectral dispersion. Considered as missing data, defective pixels undetected during the calibration are discarded on-the-fly via a robust penalisation of the data fidelity term.
Results. The calibration of the proposed model is presented for the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch instrument (SPHERE). This calibration was applied to extended objects as well as coronagraphic acquisitions dedicated to exoplanet detection or disc imaging. Artefacts due to badly corrected defective pixels or artificial background structures observed in the cube reduced by the SPHERE data reduction pipeline are suppressed while the reconstructed spectra are sharper. This reduces the false detections by the standard exoplanet detection algorithms.
Conclusions. These results show the pertinence of the inverse-problems approach to reduce the raw data produced by IFSs and to compensate for some of their imperfections. Our modelling forms an initial building block necessary to develop methods that can reconstruct and/or detect sources directly from the raw data.


A large number of radioactive and non-radioactive airborne constituents are being measured continually at our coastal air-reference station located in northwestern Washington State. Important correlations have been observed between many of these materials and also with atmospheric parameters. The apparent relationships between changing concentrations and meteorological parameters are being tested using more thorough techniques of investigation, including back trajectory computer analyses. (auth)


Wheat × maize crossing is a fast but rather expensive method for doub-led haploid production in hexaploid winter wheat. There is an ultimateneed for improved efficiency of the method at lower cost. The effect ofhormonal treatment and crossing technique on wheat haploid productionefficiency were studied. The variation in 2,4-D concentration within thestudied range (20–100 mg l


The invention relates to a processing method of Mengding mountain famous black tea. The processing method is characterized by comprising the steps of (1) picking: picking tender and fresh bud leaves in Mengshan tea production area; (2) spreading and dry in the sun; (3) rocking green; (4) withering; (5) slightly fermenting; (6) twisting; (7) deblocking: manually deblocking for once in the twisting process, and manually deblocking for once after twisting; (8) fermenting: putting the twisted leaves into a bamboo dustpan, wherein the thickness is 20cm, and putting into a fermentation chamber; (9) drying: respectively drying by a far-infrared Titian machine and a multifunctional baker in two steps; (10) Titian: enabling the gross fire tea to stand still for a week, and then baking.


Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neuropsychiatric disorders in childhood, affecting about 5% of the general childhood population in the UK. It is important for clinicians to have an up-to-date knowledge of the condition, and use evidence-based evaluation and intervention procedures to support this group of children. Part one of this article focuses on the diagnosis of ADHD as a specific childhood disorder. Information on the historical perspective of the disorder, current definition, diagnostic classification systems, primary clinical features, prevalence, aetiology, comorbidity and prognosis will be reviewed by integrating information from different current research studies. In part two, information related to evidence-based evaluation and intervention procedures provided by a multidisciplinary team will be synthesized by integrating information from different research studies.


The author, designer-architect of the reconstruction of Sandor Palace, reviews the events in their chronological order. He summarizes the interventions and researches, which was the basic situation at the beginning of the reconstruction. The authors discusses most important endeavours and problems of the design work. He presents in detail the efforts made for the most complete and authentic restoration of the original - corresponding to purposeful use - spatial structure of the building. Thus functional arrangement of the building was made taking into account the room structure of the palace, the relating tradition of the state administration function and the requirements of the Cabinet Office. As to the outside, the aim was the restoration of the most authentic early condition or appearance. It was declared that historical restoration gets priority, and this was very favourable for the tabula rasa way of thinking, according to which all provisional structures, walls, roofs have to be demolished, which are not on their places and prevent theoretical restoration of the palace. In this respect this restoration is different from all earlier palace restoration endeavours.


This paper shows why members of an organization often share similar beliefs. I argue that there are two mechanisms. First, when performance depends on making correct decisions, people prefer to work with others who share their beliefs and assumptions, since such others 'will do the right thing'. Second, beliefs will converge over time through shared learning. While such homogeneity reduces agency problems, it does so at a cost. I show that, from an outsider's perspective, firms invest on average too much in homogeneity. The theory further predicts that homogeneity will be strongest in successful and older firms where employees make important decisions. Within a firm, homogeneity will be stronger among more important employees. Homogeneity will also be path-dependent, making managers more selective on early hires. Since shared beliefs are an important aspect of corporate culture (Schein 1985, Kotter and Heskett 1992), I finally show that the model matches some observations on corporate culture, such as the influence of a manager on her firm's culture and the persistence of culture in the face of turnover. A fundamental difference from earlier economic theories of corporate culture is that I show that culture, instead of being created for its own good, can be a side-effect of other purposeful actions. As a consequence, there can be too much culture in firms.


These tutorials discuss the following: methodologies and tools for embedded multisensory systems based on ARM Cortex M processors; AADLv2: an architecture description language for the analysis and generation of embedded systems; cross-layer reliability modeling and optimization for embedded systems under process variations; and mixed-criticality systems.


Aerial view looking northwest over downtown Vancouver into English Bay and mountains further north; Vancouver is located in SW British Columbia; is the nation's most significant port on Pacific Ocean; exports more cargo than any other port in North America. Economic activity includes shipbuilding, metal production, fishing, printing, publishing and wood processing. Vancouver has had an expansion in high-tech industries, most notably video game development and film production. The population of the city of Vancouver is 611,869 while the population of the metropolitan region, known as the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) or Metro Vancouver, is 2,249,725 (2007 estimate). This makes it the largest metropolitan area in western Canada and the third largest in the country. Population density is highest for a major city on the continent after New York City, San Francisco, and Mexico City, and on track to being second by 2021. Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 1/30/2008)


Why is living on campus so prevalent in the United States, and how do the designs of residence halls reflect American educational and societal ideals? Carla Yanni addresses these questions in Living on Campus, a history of purpose-built structures intended to house students on American campuses. Dormitory architecture, she argues, "provides a lens through which to examine the socially constructed nature of the student" (1). Examining the designs of residence halls reveals how Americans planned these spaces to maintain values about "segregation of races, social classes, and genders" held by benefactors, administrators, architects, students, and society at large (10). Additionally, she examines how attitudes about domesticity, community, and student life are revealed in the plans of residence halls.


New anti UVreactive dyes (1-4) were synthesized from its structure was confirmed by 1HNMR and IR spectroscopy and their dyeing behavior and ultraviolet (UV) protection on cotton and wool fabrics were investigated. From the study, we can see that the exhaustion value reached over 85%, the T (UVA) and T (UVB) were 3.3% and 3.4%, respectively. The fabric dyed with anti UVreactive dyes had very good ultraviolet radiation protection. The effects of varying dyeing conditions were investigated. Fabrics dyed with anti-UV dyes were tested for color strength (K/S), rate of fading (∆E) values. The dyed fabrics also showed very good light fastness and good to excellent washing, rubbing, and perspiration fastness. In this paper our work aiming to reduce the undesirable photodegradation effects of UVR on dyed fabrics by applying these new anti UVreactive dyes.


Technology[1] Technology[1]Music [2]Psychology [3]The brain [4]Finland [5] New method reveals how different musical features activate emotional, motor and creative areas of the brain. Finnish researchers have developed a new method that makes it possible to study how the brain processes various aspects of music such as rhythm, tonality and timbre. The study reveals how a variety of networks in the brain, including areas responsible for motor actions, emotions, and creativity, are activated when listening to music. According to the researchers, the new method will increase our understanding of the complex dynamics of brain networks and the way music affects us.


Novel stretchable conducting films were prepared by depositing gold layers onto polymer nano-composites substrates formed by in-situ crosslinking of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) in the presence of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWNT). The MWNT content interferes with the PDMS cure reaction giving variations in thermal degradation, solvent swelling, mechanical and electrical properties. Tensile cycling experiments were carried out on the gold-coated PDMS and nano-composite substrates SEM analysis and electrical measurements demonstrated that the crack widening and increased electrical resistance observed during strain cycling were reversible. The inclusion of 8 % MWNT into PDMS brought more micro-cracking in the gold layer yet reduced the electrical resistance of the gold-coated samples by 172X at 5 % strain, 38X at 10 % strain and 19X at 20 %. Hence, this improvement in conduction is attributed to assisted-conduction through the MWNT loaded substrate. This mechanism results in a more stable and reproducible e...


Feminism came into use in English Language as a concept for evaluating the politics of equal rights for women in 1890's. Ogundipe-Leslie (222) notes that the word feminism is derived from the Latin word 'femina', which means all things that are related to 'woman'. Before 1890's however; there had been occasions of feminist protests in some places in Europe, for example, the 18th century document by Mary Astell 'Some Reflections upon Marriage' (1700) and Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) are written documents of feminist protests. What can actually be regarded as feminist literary criticism, however, started in the West in late nineteenth century with the works of writers and critics such as Virginia Woolf who wrote A Room of One's Own (1929), Simon de Beauvoir, Second Sex (1974), Elaine Showalter, A Literature of Their Own. British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing (1977), Eva Figes, Patriarchal Attitudes (1970), Kate Millett, Sexual Politics (1969), Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963), Germaine Greer, The Female Eunuch (1970).
It took a long time for feminist criticism to take root in Africa. It actually started emerging in the 1980s and flourished in the 1990s. A few feminist critics from the West had written about the works of Flora Nwapa and Buchi Emecheta, who are among the first generation of female writers. Such Western feminist critics include: Sabine Jell Bahlsen, The Concept of mammy water in Flora Nwapa's Novels (1995), Brenda F. Berrian, The Reinvention of Woman through Conversation and Humour in Flora Nwapa's One is Enough (1990), Katherine Frank, Women without Men (1987), Kenneth Little, The Sociology of Urban Woman's Image in African Literature (1980). It was however, not until African women critics, most of whom were Nigerians, came into the field of criticism that the women writers received the attention they deserved. Among the prominent feminist critics that changed the face of Nigerian literary criticism in the 20th century by analysing the works of women writers were Chikwenye Okonjo-Ogunyemi author of African Wo/man Palava, (1995), Helen Chukwuma, editor of Feminism in African Literature, (1994), Molara Ogundipe, author of Recreating ourselves, African Women and Critical Transformations, (1994), Catherine Acholonu, author of Motherism: The Afrocentric Alternative to Feminism, (1995), Akachi Ezeigbo, author of Gender Issues in Nigeria: a Feminist Perspective (1996), Mary E. Modupe Kolawole, author of Womanism and African Consciousness (1997), Mabel Evwierhoma, author of Female Empowerment and Dramatic Creativity in Nigeria (2000), Obioma Nnaemeka, author of "Nego-Feminism: Theorizing, Practicing and Pruning Africa's Way" (2004). The challenge of putting women writers on the platform of criticism was taken up by these critics. Some of the women writers whose works have been critiqued by feminist scholars include Flora Nwapa (Efuru, 1966), Buchi Emecheta (The Joys of Motherhood, 1979), Tess Onwueme (The Reign of Wazobia,1988), Zaynab Alkali (The Stillborn, 1984), Ifeoma Okoye (Behind the Cloud, 1982).
This study examines Lola Shoneyin's debut novel, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives, using Akachi Ezeigbo's snail-sense feminism, a recent model of indigenous feminist theory as a viable model for solving women's problems orchestrated by patriarchy. Snail-sense feminism complements other contemporary African feminist variants that deemphasise the controversies that have deterred the progress of improvement in the integrity of the woman. According to Maduka (109), each feminist writer has used literary work to expose, and analyse the significance of the 'quest for female identity in Nigeria/Africa'.


Construction traffic and transport of large-scale underground adits is a large and complex system engineering problem.This paper conducted the large-scale underground adits traffic and transport simulation system(UPCTS),which is based on the product line balance theory.It is a practical and developable system,which can judge of the feasibility and optimization for construction traffic transport of large-scale underground adits quantificationally through simulating excavation and lining in whole process.It was used in diversion tunnel project of JinPing second cascade hydropower station and it has demonstrated the feasibility of construction transport scheme and given out optimization advice for transportation manner and vehicle type.


DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5915/40-3-5488 The successful completion of the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) Project in 2007 continues the pursuit of a systematic approach to catalogue and annotate genetic perturbation and its relation with disease susceptibility. The ENCODE Project is a logical step in augmenting the genomic sequence data produced by the Human Genome Project (HGP) with functional information. The various initiatives to isolate the causative gene associations with common diseases have met with understandable enthusiasm. These are, however, initial steps in better understanding human biology. To fully realize the potential of these powerful approaches, an appraisal of their ramifications will increasingly be in order. This article presents both the promise and challenges of genetic medicine in a broad perspective.


In early work, I argued that Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, often represented, in his political speeches and writings, a form of philosophical pragmatism with special relations to the University of Chicago and its reform tradition. That form of pragmatism, especially evident in the work of such early figures as John Dewey and Jane Addams, and such later figures as Saul Alinsky, Abner Mikva, David Greenstone, Richard Rorty, Danielle Allen, and Cass Sunstein, contributed greatly to the intellectual atmosphere that Obama breathed during his many years in Chicago as a community organizer, senior lecturer in the University of Chicago Law School, and emerging figure in Illinois politics. And that form of pragmatism has, from Dewey to Obama, been keenly concerned to appropriate for its purposes the legacy of Abraham Lincoln. My purpose in this essay is to set out these filiations in ways more accessible to a global audience, and to carry the story forward through the opening moves of the Obama presidency.


Due to the emergence of new trends in the automotive industry, such as autonomous vehicles, there is an increasing emphasis on the driver and passengers' activities as well as on their user experience in such vehicles. One of the main forms of in-vehicle passenger entertainment is infotainment devices that allow them to stream media. Since on-the-go clients do not have a consistent Internet connection quality, streaming live media in such conditions becomes challenging. In this paper, we give an overview of the challenges regarding live media streaming in the no-signal area. We propose a solution for these challenges in the form of extension of the existing architecture of the media subsystem for clients on the move with a smart delay module that provides improvements to Quality of Experience (QoE) and Quality of Service (QoS) for the live media stream while driving.


Since the frequency hopping(FH) communication system has the inherent noise characteristics,a new FH signal source is proposed in combination with high-resolution high-frequency agility advantages of DDS+DPLL and Quartus-Ⅱ_10.1 software of Altera Company for design.Only 30 LUTs and 18 triggers are used in the design.The simulation results show that the designed DPLL clock is up to 120 MHz and its performance is high.


The use of internet and other communication technologies has become predominantly common in the life of normal sighted users. In order to have a fair level of equality in the society, blind people must also be able to use these facilities with equal ease and effectiveness. Recent studies showed that the usage and acceptance rate of online applications among the blind community is not up to the expectations. The aim of this article is to investigate the accessibility issues faced by blind people during online interaction like eGovernment portals. Results showed that a WCAG compliant eGovernment website failed to satisfy the requirements of a sample of blind users. This article is part of on-going research aimed to uncover accessibility problems that could be faced by blinds during online interaction and are not addressed in accessibility standards. It attempts to understand cognition and perception thoughts of a blind user while interacting with a web-based environment. Keywords : Blindness, Web Accessibility, WCAG


Purified lipopolysaccharide of Escherichia coli produced specific antibody when injected intraperitoneally or given to rats orally. Either route of immunization did not prevent ascending pyelonephritis in a diabetic rat model. The use of purified LPS excludes the potential contribution of other virulence factors of E. coli as protective antigens in the prevention of ascending pyelonephritis and confirms that anti-lipopolysaccharide antibody is not protective for ascending pyelonephritis.


Recent times have seen a surge in the number of context-aware systems, given the proliferation of sensors and sensor-based devices, especially with the advent of new paradigms such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and device-to-device (D2D) communication. Complex event processing (CEP) provides a cogent means to obtain higher-level context information from low-level sensor data streams through operator graphs, which dictate the order of event processing steps. However, the reliable execution of these operator graphs in a distributed manner becomes increasingly challenging in dynamic D2D environments, especially when device availability fluctuates, necessitating efficient operator migration strategies. In this paper, we first analyze the existing efforts towards operator migration for their applicability in D2D-based networks. Subsequently, we propose our initial approach for reliable operator migration by exploiting the intermediate states of the CEP operators.


Abstract 2122 Poster Board II-99 Protein C Inhibitor (PCI, SERPINA5, PAI3) is a non-specific, secreted serine protease inhibitor (serpin) which circulates at low levels (5μg/mL or 90nM) in blood plasma (review: Geiger 2007, Suzuki 2008). First described as an inhibitor of activated protein C (APC) an anticoagulant serine protease in human plasma, it has been shown that PCI inactivates a variety of other proteases and has a wide tissue distribution. Some compounds like glycosaminoglycans (e.g. heparin, heparan sulfate) and certain phospholipids can modify PCI activity. Recently it was shown that single-stranded DNA aptamers stimulates the inhibitory activity of PCI towards APC in a glycosaminoglycan-like fashion (Muller 2009). In 2007 Malleier et al. analyzed the interaction of PCI with phosphatidylserine (PS), oxidized PS (OxPS) and oxidized phosphatidylethanolamin (OxPE). PS, OxPS and OxPE bind to PCI and enhance the stimulation of APC-inhibition 130 to 190-fold. In addition, PE supports the internalization of PCI by cells, and internalized PCI promotes phagocytosis of bacteria (Baumgartner et al. 2007). JFC1 (synaptotagmin-like protein 1) was identified by our group as a new intracellular interaction partner of PCI and colocalization of PCI and CSN6, a subunit of the COP9 signalosome could be observed in lymphocytes. Here, we analyzed the interaction of PCI with phosphatidic acid (PA), phosphatidylglycerol (PG), cardiolipin (CL), phosphoinositides and derived second messengers like inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) and diacylglycerol (DAG). To identify lipid-regions which are important for PCI binding we were focusing on differences in fatty acid composition and headgroup phosphorylation. The binding was studied by native PAGE, protein overlay assays (dot blot analysis) or ELISA. The stimulation of PCI activity towards APC was analyzed in functional assays using a low molecular weight substrate (S-2366). IP3 and inositol-1,3,4,5-tetrakisphosphate (IP4) did neither interact with PCI nor stimulate its activity towards APC. PCI bound to saturated, unsaturated and oxidized PA. The oxidized form of 1-palmitoyl-2-arachidonoyl-phosphatidic acid (OxPAPA) exhibited lower binding to PCI, but higher stimulatory activity on APC inhibition, as compared to unoxidized PAPA. Saturated dipalmitoyl-PA did not modulate PCI activity. From all studied lipids 1-palmitoyl-2-arachidonoyl-PG (PAPG) had the strongest stimulatory effect on APC-inhibition similar to 0.1μM low molecular weight heparin. Oxidation of PAPG led to a slight decrease and saturation to a complete loss in stimulatory activity. Also tetra-oleoyl-CL bound to PCI with high affinity and had a similar effect as oxidized PAPG and OxPAPA. All mono- and diphosphorylated phosphoinositides as well as phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-triphosphate (PI3,4,5P3) bound to PCI as judged from binding assays. A mobility shift of PCI antigen on native PAGE was observed when PCI was incubated with phosphatidylinositol-3,5-diphosphate and phosphatidylinositol-4,5-diphosphate (PI4,5P2). Therefore different phospholipids modulate the activity of PCI, but on the other hand PCI may as well effect lipid signaling. As PI4,5P2 plays an important role as substrate for PI3-kinase we will take a closer look at the effect of PCI on the PI3K/PTEN system and on the activation of AKT (PKB) by PDK1. We will also study the influence of PCI on the generation of IP3 and DAG and its possible role in calcium signaling and protein kinase activation. So far we conclude that phosphoinositides and other glycerophospholipids may function as additional intracellular interaction partners of PCI. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Temporomandibular disorder (TMD) is a common musculoskeletal condition. Changes in diagnostic criteria followed the relevant changes in understanding of the etiology of TMD. The Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (DC/TMD) is a suite of validated instruments and guidelines for the most accurate and reliable diagnosis of various TMD-associated pathologies. This text review the leading DC/TMD questionnaire options, in either symptom checklists or psychosocial/functional sections.


The Brahmaputra valley of Assam is a part of the vast Indo-Gangetic plain and covers an area of 56,578 km2. Fifty rice-growing soils from different landscape units of the northern Brahmaputra valley zone of Assam were evaluated for their fertility potential classification. The fertility potential classification was carried out by using principal factor analysis. Altogether 27 soil properties including all major physical, chemical and erosion related parameters were used in the analysis. The principal factor analysis synthesized seven factors which explained 81% variability. Based on the calculated component scores the individual soils as well as the landscape units were graded. The soils of Dhullie (No. 32) ranked top from fertility point of view. Among the different landscape units of the studied area the old flood plain soils were found to be the most fertile. It was recommended that the characters which affect adversely on soil fertility should not be considered in evaluating fertility potential. The grading and ranking of the soils appear to be in close agreement with soil chemical analysis.


This paper reports on a laser ablation impurity injector that has been designed for use on the Centre Canadien de Fusion Magnetique Tokamak de Varennes. A method using nuclear activation analysis of ablation-exposed targets has been developed to measure the exact quantities and spatial distribution of the injected particles. Combined with time-of-flight velocity measurements, the injector has been characterized in terms of laser energy fluence, ablated material, film thickness, and background gas pressure. Three distinct populations of ablated material (atoms, molecular clusters, and micron-sized liquid droplets) have been identified and studied.


In this paper we discuss the relationship between cognitive radar and waveform diversity. The cognitive decision-making process selects the most appropriate waveform from the available set of diverse waveforms based on a perception of the current environment and scenario, thus creating a perception-action cycle (PAC). This combination of waveform diversity and cognition does not just improve performance, it is becoming critical for realizing modern radar systems due to increasingly challenging operating environments. Therefore, the robust techniques proposed in this paper can be highly valuable for enabling enhanced PACs in radar systems.


This study uses a large sample of international stocks to examine the sources of the benefits of international portfolio diversification. It finds not only that international diversification outperformed industrial diversification over the past 25 years, but also that the gains from international diversification derive primarily from mitigating market and political risks. Economic risk appears important for investors giving more weight to smaller countries, while financial and inflation risks appear more important to funds limited to large countries. Risks related to the quality of the legal and credit environments seem less important for international diversification.


9534 Background: Risk perceptions (RP) play an important role in decision making in localized BC. Little is known about RP in the context of adjuvant (adj) therapy decisions. We examined the accuracy of estimate of absolute benefit of adj therapy among patients (pts) with localized BC and sought to identify determinants of accurate RP. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in localized (Stage I-III) BC pts within 3 months after surgery at 4 U.S. cancer centers. Pts completed the Decision Quality Instrument, which includes items on BC knowledge, numerical estimates of benefit of adj therapy, and communication with providers. We analyzed pts with Stage I/II and calculated objective estimates of benefit of adj therapy using Adjuvant! Online. Based on published data, an estimate that was +/- 5% of the calculated risk was considered correct. We used multivariable (MV) regression to identify determinants of accuracy including tumor stage, age, adj treatment, education, total knowledge score, and decis...


It could provide a new theoretical viewpoint for the meaning construction and comprehension in words with its remarkable feature of constructing non-traditional novel meaning.Finally it is emphasized that Conceptual Integration Theory opens up a broader prospect for studying meaning construction at all levels.


The present invention relates to distributed active transformers which microelectronic element and a method of manufacturing a transformer, the transformer having a distributed active. Providing a primary and secondary windings of the distributed active transformer. The primary winding comprises between the first and second surfaces of the member along a first set of conductive through hole extending in one direction, a first set of first conductor extending along said first surface and said second surface along the first set of second conductor extends. Said secondary winding comprises a second set of conductive vias extending between the first surface and the second surface in one direction, a second set of first conductors extending along the first surface and along the a second set of second conductors extending second surface. When energized, the primary winding generates a magnetic flux in a direction parallel to the extending direction of the first surface and the second plane. The secondary winding of the flux transfer energy receiving primary winding produced.


Photoredox catalysis as a powerful strategy for the activation of small molecules requires the use of reactants which are suitable to undergo single-electron transfer with the formation of radicals. In this perspective, we highlight the unique ability of organoboronic acid derivatives to form radicals under photoredox catalysis conditions with particular emphasis placed on the methods of activation of B-C bonds. Key to facilitate the activation relies on use of easily oxidizable organoboronate complexes: organotrifluoroborates, alkoxyorganoboronates or nitrogen-containing Lewis base adducts. The low reduction potentials of these compounds allows facile single-electron oxidation to generate non-stabilized alkyl radicals, including primary radicals, under mild conditions. The use of molecular oxygen is also a common way to activate boronic acids in photocatalytic reactions. The role of the oxygen relies on addition of the oxygen anion-radical formed in the photocatalytic cycle to the boron center affording the easily oxidizable boronate adduct. Amongst the variety of activation methods, the protocols avoiding the use of external Lewis base are especially valuable. This has been demonstrated in visible-light-mediated alkenylation of alkylboronic acids using alkenylsulfones as coupling partners. The radical species resulting from alkylboronic acid derivatives could be utilized in the formation of C–X or C–C bonds including enantioselective photoreactions. The application of boronic acids in the visible light-driven installation of side chains at dehydroalanine residues in proteins shows the increasing role of these compounds in future syntheses of complex natural products.


Epistatic interactions between genes are believed to be a critical component in the genetic architecture of complex diseases. Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) may be able to detect such genetic interactions indirectly, via the identification of associated SNP markers. Major obstacles to progress in this area are: the unknown nature of epistatic interactions, little understanding of the capabilities of different filtering methods, and the computational difficulties for exhaustive analysis. A common platform enabling various detection methods is needed to avoid practical issues such as software compatibility and portability, incompatible input and output formats and varying demands on computational resources. We developed a highly optimised GPU system capable of exhaustively analysing all SNP-pairs in typical GWAS data (0.5M SNPs, 5K samples) in a few minutes on a standard desktop computer. A number of programming elements provided by a functional interface can be used to construct user-defined statistical tests to efficiently score every SNP pair. As a proof of principle, we have implemented 8 methods from the literature via our interface. We have applied all of them using a single GPU to exhaustively scan the 7 popular WTCCC case-control GWAS datasets. We present timing results for these methods, both in their original software implementations and using our platform. Significant improvements in timing are observed, up to 10000 times for CPU implementations of the popular FastEpistasis in PLINK and up to 2 orders of magnitude for some GPU implementations in the literature. As an initial discovery we show plots for overlaps of list of selected pairs by 8 algorithms for Type 2 Diabetes, WTCCC data.


This paper presents an efficient method, which finds top-k strongly correlated item pairs from transaction database, without generating any candidate sets. To reduce execution time, the proposed method uses a correlogram matrix based approach to compute support count of all item sets in a single scan over the database. From the correlogram matrix the correlation values of all the item pairs are computed and top-k correlated pairs are extracted very easily. The simplified logic structure makes the implementation of the proposed method more attractive. Experiments were taken with real and synthetic datasets and the performance of the proposed method was compared with its other counterparts.


agriculture. As an increasing number of individuals from other nations seek educational programs from U.S. institutions, questions have arisen concerning the equitable treatment of the admission applications from these individuals. How are records and transcripts from international institutions evaluated and interpreted to determine if an applicant has a reasonable chance of success in an American institution? How may standards for admission be applied to a diverse set of prior educational experiences? Answers to these questions are significant to agricultural education in both a national and an international context. U.S. institutions which accept international students into graduate programs have had difficulties in properly evaluating the academic performance records of these students (Sentz, 1985). Standards for admission are not easily assessed when compared with unfamiliar measures, Further, many international students come from countries in which the English language is not the native language. In an effort to assist in the assessment for acceptance for graduate study, U.S. personnel who oversee the academic programs of these individuals have often functioned on the assumption that a positive relationship exists between measures such as English proficiency and academic success in graduate study in the U.S. As departments of agricultural education increase their activities in international training, information on the reliability and validity of assessment measures would be useful to individuals responsible for evaluating the academic records of potential students from educational systems similar to each other but dissimilar to the U.S. system. These personnel would have increased confidence in determining acceptable standards for admittance into their programs. Personnel from the sending institutions would have like standards on which to base their decisions to send students to U.S. institutions.


We have demonstrated a new type of buried‐channel acoustic charge transport device in which charge is transported in an (Al,Ga)As/GaAs/(Al,Ga)As heterojunction channel. Traveling‐wave potential wells, associated with a surface acoustic wave (SAW) propagating on the 〈100〉 surface of a GaAs crystal, transport electrons at the SAW velocity by means of a large‐signal acoustoelectric interaction. Heterojunction acoustic charge transport (HACT) delay lines have been fabricated, and the transport of charge demonstrated. Charge packets with up to 16×106 electrons/cm were measured in a delay 1.4 μs long. The HACT device is much simpler, the transport channel is more reliably produced (by molecular beam epitaxy or metalorganic chemical vapor deposition), and the device has potential for higher dynamic range when compared to the previously developed acoustic charge transport technology. This new device type is useful for the implementation of high‐speed monolithic signal processors.


A 39-year-old woman had noticed several red bean-sized erythemas on both legs since 1966, and these erythemas had been gradually spread over the trunk in three years. She appeared in our clinic at first on December, 1969. At her first visit she had had generalized exfoliative dermatitis with severe itching, and hyperkeratotic palms and soles. In addition the skin of trunk, neck and extremities had revealed many solid papules and several nodules. The hairs of scalp, axillae and pubis were so sparse. In clinical examinations, they showed no abnormal findings except for leucocytosis (15,500/mm3) and atypical mononuclear cells (8%) which had PAS positive and diastase non-resistant granules in a wreath like arrangement at peripheral cytoplasm. Histologic specimen of the skin nodule showed parakeratosis, acanthosis, elongation of rete ridges, microabscesses in the upper epidermis and mononuclear cell infiltration in the dermis with a few eosinophiles and lymphocytes. Numerous mitotic figures of infiltrated cells were also found. The inguinal lymphnode showed the same cell infiltration as the skin nodule. She had been treated with injection of methotrexate and corticosteroids in mouth. She died of cachexia and autopsy revealed swelling of generalized lymphnodes, liver and spleen (mononuclear cell infiltration). No paticular finding in the bone marrow. The characteristics of Sezary's cell and the relationship between Sezary's syndrome and mycosis fungoides were discussed.


Objective: To determine the content ursodesoxycholic acid of Compound Capsule of Bear Gall thylic. Methods: TLCS method was used. Results: Owing to improving the method on the base of original Criterion, the determination result is more similar to the true value.


The topic raised in this study was about the green GRDP in the agriculture sector of the food crops subsector in the Hulu Sungai Selatan regency. This research aims to find out the value of green GRDP in the agricultural sector of the food crop subsector in the Hulu Sungai Selatan regency. This research uses the analysis technique of Green GRDP calculation. According to the level of exploration, this type of research data is quantitative research and, according to the level of exploration, is descriptive research. The data used are secondary and are supported by primary data to supplement.The result of this study is the value of green GDRP in the agricultural sector of the reduction of conventional GRDP with depletion and degradation of soil resources. In addition, this study shows the high depletion and degradation value of land resources in the Hulu Sungai Selatan Regency makes the green GRDP value higher than the conventional GRDP value.


We realized stable synchronized femtosecond laser by coupling two 1.3 W mode-locking Ti:sapphire lasers with Kerr media, an ultra-long tolerance of length mismatch as 10/spl mu/m and timing jitter of sub-fs were demonstrated.


Technological developments in fiber-optic communications introduce new technologies with their own set of vulnerabilities. Vulnerability issues at the optical layer are explored to the degree necessary to lay a foundation for the development of security measures to protect the communications infrastructure and communications signal. Several means of infusing security into the development of new optical communication devices and optical fiber technology are presented.


ABSTRACT In this study, a comparative thermodynamic performance analysis of cascade system (CCS) for cooling and heating applications is presented and compared for different refrigerant couples. The CCS consists of the low-temperature cycle (LTC) and high-temperature cycle (HTC). The CO2 was used as working fluid in LTC, whereas the HFE 7000, R134a, R152a, R32, R1234yf, and R365mfc refrigerants were used in HTC. The heating and cooling coefficients of performance (COPht, COPcl) and exergy efficiency of CCS are investigated parametrically according to various factors such as the evaporator, condenser, and reference temperatures. After thermodynamic analyses are completed, the COPcl of CCS is obtained as 1.802, 1.806, 1.826, 1.769, 1.777, and 1.835 for CO2-HFE7000, CO2-R134a, CO2-R152a, CO2-R32, CO2-R1234yf, and CO2-365mfc refrigerant couples, respectively. Furthermore, the heat exchanger has the highest exergy destruction rate, whereas the expansion valves have the lowest of exergy destruction rate.


We investigated experimentally the feasibility of using a tactile display developed by TNO Human Factors as a wayfinding aide for soldiers in the field. Participants walked ten routes on a open field, each route consisting of six waypoints. The participants used the PeTaNa tactile wayfinding aide on all trials. PeTaNa is a wearable system that presents navigation information based on predefined routes, a GPS system, and an electronic compass. A minicomputer calculates the navigation input on the basis of heading and distance to the next waypoint. The navigation messages are presented on a tactile display consisting of eight tactors on a belt around the torso. PeTaNa proved to be a very efficient navigation tool, as after approximately 30 minutes (5 routes) all participants demonstrated very acceptable effective walking speeds (4-4.5 km/h). The differences between the coding alternatives for distance to the next waypoint were surprisingly small.


In this paper we consider cointegrated I(1) processes in the state-space framework. We introduce the state-space error correction model (SSECM) and provide a complete treatment of how to estimate SSECMs by (pseudo-)maximum likelihood methods, including reduced rank regression techniques. In doing so, we follow very closely the Johansen approach for the VAR case; see Johansen (1995). The remaining free parameters will be represented using a novel type of local parametrization. Simulation studies and a real world application clearly reveal the potential of the new approach.


At present, most of the semantic segmentation algorithms for road scenes are aimed at visible images, but the visible images collected in dark and other special conditions will seriously affect the accuracy of semantic segmentation, so to enhance the ability to understand the night road scene, this paper obtains the infrared image of the night road scene, based on the improved DeepLabV3+ network structure, so that the network takes into account both segmentation accuracy and real-time performance. First of all, MobileNetV2 is used as the backbone network to reduce the amount of computation and the number of parameters in the network. Secondly, the channel and spatial attention modules are used in the encoding and decoding stages to obtain rich context information, filter background information, and reduce the loss of detailed information. Finally, the tightly connected atrous spatial pyramid pooling (ASPP) module is introduced, which not only expands the receptive domain but also extracts more abundant multi-scale features. The experimental data show that the average intersection-merge ratio of this algorithm is obviously better than that of the DeepLabV3+ algorithm on infrared data sets, and the average intersection-merge ratio can reach 81.45, showing better accuracy and real-time performance.


The use of children to both promote and deconstruct the institution of Empire is not new. Rudyard Kipling's troubled hero in Kim upholds the basic tenets of Empire while also critiquing their efficacy. Kim's eventual breakdown at the end of the novel demonstrates the consequences of hybridized identities within Empire common in literature of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century. (1) Much has been written about Kim's struggle to find his own identity and his fragmented sense of self. (2) Yet what happens when the novel's hero and heroine are European children who spend much of the narrative appropriating the identity of indigenous peoples and then revert back to their European positions without experiencing an identity crisis? Such is the case in Laurens van der Post's novels A Story Like the Wind (1973) and A Far Off Place (1974). The novels follow the journey of two children of European descent: young Francois Joubert, who has been raised in the bush by his parents at Hunter's Drift, a co-op plantation, and his companion, Luciana "Nonnie" Monckton, a British-Portuguese girl whose father, a colonel in the British army, has purchased the land next to Hunter's Drift. A Story Like the Wind concludes with Francois and Nonnie about to depart on an early morning exploratory trip into the bush with Francois' faithful dog, Hintza. The children are intercepted by Francois' secret Bushman friend, Xhabbo, and Xhabbo's wife, Nuin-Tara, who have come to save the boy from African rebels led by a Chinese "chairman," who is continually and unflatteringly likened to Chairman Mao and has slaughtered the inhabitants of both farms. A Far Off Place follows the children's subsequent journey across the Kalahari Desert to safety under the care of their Bushmen protectors. Although the young protagonists are caught between the British Empire and the very people supplanted by Empire, their adoption of Bushmen culture and ultimate return to a distinctly European way of life seem to be in service of van der Post's efforts to preserve the Bushmen's rights. Francois does not appear to undergo any form of an identity crisis; nor does he seem to experience difficulty slipping between European and Bushman roles. Although Nonnie's identity becomes muddled towards the end of the novel as she takes on the appearance of a Bushman woman, she, too, slides between Bushman and European behaviors rather easily. Reducing the novels to imperial propaganda ignores the complicated critique of imperial pursuits contained within the novel. Rather, through its seemingly simplistic answers to postcolonial southern African politics, A Far Off Place illustrates the vastly problematic landscape of identity politics and post-imperial responsibility in an increasingly global society. Born in Philippolis, South Africa, van der Post traveled the world and, after serving in World War II, was knighted in 1981 for his international political advice. Although he spent the later years of his life in England, van der Post referred to himself a "white Bushman" and even titled an autobiographical collection of interviews he conducted A Walk with a White Bushman. Van der Post's fictional and non-fictional writing is often marked by his defense of the rights of the indigenous Bushmen of Africa against both the British and southern African tribes. Venture to the Interior, for example, offers an ambivalent examination of van der Post's own emotional ties to Africa and a critique of the duties required of members of the British Empire. At times unflinchingly supportive of British pursuits in Africa, the text explores the chasm between the African continent and the British Isles and the rift's effects on the identities of those living between the two, as he, himself, did (xiii). Christopher Booker notes that the significance of van der Post's depiction of the Bushmen "was not that every detail of what he said was factually true. It was that he opened up a spiritual dimension to life in our spiritless modern world like no one else" (n. …


A classical approach to the MBS modeling is to use absolute coordinates, i.e. a set of (possibly redundant) coordinates that describe the absolute position and orientation of the individual bodies w.r.t. to an inertial frame (IFR). A well-known problem for the time integration of the equations of motion (EOM) is the lack of a singularity-free parameterization of spatial motions, which is usually tackled by using unit quaternions. Lie group integration methods were proposed as alternative approach to the singularity-free time integration. Lie group integration methods, operating directly on the configuration space Lie group, are incompatible with standard formulations of the EOM, and cannot be implemented in existing MBS simulation codes without a major restructuring. A framework for interfacing Lie group integrators to standard EOM formulations is presented in this paper. It allows describing MBS in terms of various absolute coordinates and at the same using Lie group integration schemes. The direct product group SO(3)xR3; and the semidirect product group SE(3) are use for representing rigid body motions. The key element of this method is the local-global transitions (LGT) transition map, which facilitates the update of (global) absolute coordinates in terms of the (local) coordinates on the Lie group. This LGT map is specific to the absolute coordinates, the local coordinates on the Lie group, and the Lie group used to represent rigid body configurations. This embedding of Lie group integration methods allows for interfacing with standard vector space integration methods.


Using synthetic preservatives to control fungal disease has become important due to emergence of drug resistance and some side effects of the drugs' remainder including carcinogenicity and teratogenicity. Lavandula, Salvia officinalis L., Sumac, Glycyrrhiza glabra, and Althaea officinalis are some medicinal plants with proved therapeutic effects as anti-microbial, anti-viral, and anti-parasitic agents. The aim of the current study is to evaluate the effect of these plants on clinical species of Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus, andAspergillus flavus. Plant extracts were prepared by maceration method. The extracts at concentrations of 500, 200, 100, 50, 25, and 12.5 mg ml-1 were prepared in dimethylsulfoxide. The effect of anti-fungal extracts was separately assessed using Broth macrodilutitheon. Finally, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum fungicidal concentrations (MFC) of extracts were determined. This study showed that Lavandula, S. officinalis L., Sumac, G. glabra, and A. officinalis extracts have anti-fungal effects. The antifungal effect ofSumac, G. glabra, and Lavandula officinalis was significantly different from that observed byS. officinalis L. extract. Moreover, it was observed that A. flavus and A. fumigatus were the most sensitive and resistant fungal species to the antifungal effects of the extracts, respectively (p≤0.05). Further evaluation is necessary to elucidate the extent and mechanism of these changes.

 Key words: Aspergillus, Lavandula, Salvia officinalis L., Sumac, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Althaea officinalis.


Up to 2000 delegates from across the UK gathered at the beginning of June for the start of the 17th National Pensioners' Parliament in Blackpool. This year, the traditional march to the Winter Gardens was led by a Scottish Piper and amid bright sunshine the impressive banner-filled march brought the local traffic to a standstill. Individual notes of the following sessions: Achieving Age EqualityUnderstanding LINksDignity in CarePensioners and the General ElectionPensioners and the EconomyDefending local servicesBuilding the NPCWorking with the MediaTransport Campaign Photos by George Henderson Other snippets re Pensioners ParliamentsNorthern Ireland Pensioners Parliament (20 march 2009) The Pensioners' Manifesto calls for: A basic state pension set above the official poverty level (estimated at £165 a week in 2009), which is linked to the higher of earnings or prices, and paid alongside other existing concessions, to provide some financial security for all. Free long-term and social care funded from general taxation and provided to the highest standards in order to maintain dignity and without the need for means-testing, rationing or a postcode lottery.Good quality local services funded through national income tax rather than council tax.Free UK-wide travel on all forms of public transport to encourage independence and greater mobility, as well as helping the environment and reducing demand on care services.An end to discrimination where it adversely affects the opportunities, goods and services available to older people.A winter fuel allowance of £500 per pensioner household to help maintain a warm and comfortable home.


This contribution summarizes the results of pilot determination
of distribution coefficients for various trace elements between
the phlogopite, clinopyroxene and surrounding matrix of
calc-alkaline lamprophyres. Partition coefficients were
determined using the method of laser ablation in conjunction
with inductively coupled plasma-mass spektrometry (LA-ICP-MS).


OBJECTIVE
To assess the effect of middle turbinate (MT) and ethmoidal internal wall(EIW) moved externally after microsurgery.

METHODS
Twenty-four cases (45 sides) were followed-up endoscopically for (16.3 +/- 9.3) months. Thirteen cases (24 sides) were observed by CT scans. Three cadaver heads were measured for anatomical analysis.

RESULTS
Forty-one (91%) of 45 sides obtained better olfactory function after operation. Twenty-two (91%) of 24 sides were found to have better CT changes in sinus ventilation as compared with preoperative CT scans. The gap between the MT and EIW to the orbital wall was (12.0 +/- 1.0) mm, while that between the ethmoidal bulla and processus uncinatus was only (2.3 +/- 0.6) mm as revealed in the autopsy.

CONCLUSION
MT and EIW moderately moved suitably to externally had no bad effect on sinus ventilation, and it improved olfaction.


We prove stability of the kink solution of the Cahn-Hilliard equation @ t u = @ 2 x (?@ 2 x u? u=2 + u 3 =2); x 2 I R. The proof is based on an inductive Renormalization Group method and we obtain detailed asymptotics of the solution as t ! 1.


(63) Continuation of application No. 1 1/597.225, filed as application No. PCT/US2005/019749 on Jun. 2, 2005, now abandoned, which is a continuation-in-part of application No. 11/048,627, filed on Jan. 31, 2005, now abandoned, which is a continuation-in-part of application No. 10/738,642, filed on Dec. 16, 2003, now abandoned, and a continuation-in-part of application No. 10/859,751, filed on Jun. 2, 2004, now abandoned, which is a continuation-in-part of application No. PCT/US03/16887, filed on May 26, 2003, which is a continuation-in-part of application No. 10/430,351, filed on May 5, 2003, now abandoned, which is a continuation of application No. 10/332,086, filed on Dec. 17, 2002, now abandoned, which is a continuation-in-part of application No. 10/212.322, filed on Aug. 5, 2002, now abandoned.


Abstract : This thesis compares the concepts of Ada Programming Support Environments (APSE) and Computer Integrated Manufacturing Systems (CIMS) to see if they are similar enough to apply APSE concepts for solving CIMS problems. After establishing a discussion baseline for each of the concepts, the objectives, design guidelines and pictorial representations of an APSE and a CIMS are first compared. Then the two concepts are compared at the database, interfaces and toolset level. The major differences between an APSE and a CIMS are also identified. Finally, after establishing that similarities do exist between APSE and CIMS concepts, recommendations are made for applying APSE concepts for CIMS solutions that will contribute to achieving Air Force as well as U.S. manufacturing goals. (Author)


Tremendous landslides and collapses caused by intense earthquake usually induce numerous debris flows in rainy season.This study explores to make a quick assessment of frequency,magnitude,and danger of debris flow by a case study of the Yingxiu-Chediguan section of G213 highway hit by the Wenchuan earthquake.Key factors influencing the formation,magnitude,and frequency of debris flow are chosen and numerically determined through interpretation of remote sensing images and related DEM maps.The values are divided into five grades and normalized between 0 and 1.The weight for each factor is calculated by hierarchy analysis.Finally,the universal model is used to assess debris flows in 21 gullies.Comparison with the real occurrences indicates the assessment results are in good agreement.The assessment system can be further applied to debris flows in other regions of highintensity earthquake.


A muscle-pedicle graft receives its blood supply through a softtissue pedicle, so that grafting over a fairly short distance ought to be compatible with the survival of some of its cells. The graft may be compact or cancellous, and the pedicle usually consists of a muscle and tendon or subcutaneous tissue and skin, depending on the donor site. In a previous paper (1) the reported clinical and experimental studies on muscle-pedicle bone grafts were reviewed. Only a few experimental studies have been published (2,3,4 and 7), and the results have differed. Our results are among the positive ones, and the present study marks a further step forward in the series. This time, the transplantation was performed in a way which eliminated the osteogenetic activity of the recipient site in order to assess the role of the graft itself in the healing process. The method was as follows: The experimental animals were white rabbits weighing 2.5-3.5 kg. The rabbits were mature, but in some of them the epiphyseal cartilage could be discerned. The operation was carried out under Nembutal anaesthesia. A graft, 10 X 5 X 5 mm, was removed from the greater trochanter on both sides. The pedicle consisted of half the gluteus medius and minimus which were dissected to a length of 1 cm. From the iliac crest a somewhat larger piece of bone was removed, freed entirely and denuded of muscle tissue. The pedicle grafts and the pieces of bane were tied together with a silk Aided by a grant from the Danish Science Foundation.


Background: Neoplasia of the urinary bladder is common in dogs, accounting approximately 0.5 to 1.0 percent of all neoplasms. Most of the neoplasia of the urinary bladder is epithelial in origin and only 10% of urinary bladder neoplasms in dogs are from mesenchymal origin, of which the most frequent types are leiomyoma / leiomyosarcoma, and hemangioma / hemangiosarcoma. Virtual autopsy refers to the postmortem use of radiology, ultrasound and cross-sectional imaging prior to conventional necropsy. This paper reports the detection of a rare extra-luminal urinary bladder mass diagnosed as leiomyoma with a virtual autopsy techniques.Case: A 16-year-old male Schnauzer had previous history of seizure and no complains related to the urinary system. The animal was treated symptomatically to the neurological signs and responded to medical treatment. Nine weeks later from the first visit to the hospital the dog was found dead at home. Then postmortem ultrasound and computed tomography of the abdomen were performed. Postmortem ultrasound revealed a homogenously hypoechoic, rounded and slightly irregularly marginated mass located externally but adjacent to the left cranial wall of the urinary bladder and appears to extend from its serosal margins. Postmortem computed tomography was performed after postmortem ultrasound. A pedunculated homogenous soft tissue attenuating mass was located at the left lateral aspect of the urinary bladder and extended cranially. It had a stalk that connected to the left lateral wall of the urinary bladder. A partial necropsy of the abdomen was done just to examine the mass. A round extraluminal, pedunculated mass was observed at the left lateral aspect of the urinary bladder wall. It was pale pink on the outside and white inside, with a soft to firm consistency. The lumen and mucosal surface of the urinary bladder was smooth and regular. The histology of the mass revealed a densely cellular neoplastic proliferation, expansive, composed of spindle-shaped cells with moderate to large eosinophilic cytoplasm, sometimes wavy and with indistinct edges. The nuclei were large, oval to flattened, with dense chromatin and inconspicuous nucleoli. Anisocytosis and anisokariosis were discrete and no mitotic figures were observed. The arrangement consisted of dense, irregular and multidirectional bundles and the stroma was scarce. The mass was histologically confirmed as leiomyoma.Discussion: In this case, we performed postmortem ultrasound and computed tomography as part of a virtual necropsy study and in both modalities the urinary bladder mass was able to be identified, followed by a partial necropsy to further investigate the nature of the mass and to collect a sample to obtain the histological diagnosis. A few of the disadvantages of the postmortem ultrasound and computed tomography specially in this case were the lack of color Doppler investigation on ultrasound and the lack of evaluation of the patter of contrast enhancement on computed tomography. These techniques could have added important information related to the vascularity characteristics of the mass in a live patient. This is the first case report in veterinary medicine that describes an extra-luminal pedunculated urinary bladder leiomyoma in a canine patient, and it is emphasized the approach by postmortem ultrasound, postmortem computed tomography and conventional necropsy findings to reach the definitive diagnosis.


There is a potential market for Australian vegetables in distant markets if they arrive in good condition and with adequate shelf life at a competitive price. Sea freight is slower than air freight but has cost advantages and offers good temperature control. In addition, sea freight containers which provide a modified atmosphere (MA) or controlled atmosphere (CA) can potentially increase product storage life compared to air alone. However, as loads often contain two or more types of vegetables, the storage atmosphere used may need to suit multiple products. We examined how quality attributes of broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce deteriorated during storage in different atmospheres with a view to shipping these products from Australia to the United Arab Emirates, a journey of approximately 23 days. Products were stored in 11% O 2 + 10% CO 2 , 2% O 2 + 2% CO 2 , humidified air or commercial packaging in air. Quality attributes were evaluated after 3, 4, 5 or 6 weeks storage at 0.3°C and again following 2 days simulated shelf life at 20°C. It was estimated that broccoli could be stored for a maximum of 3 weeks in crushed ice, 4 weeks in humidified air or 5 weeks under a controlled or modified atmosphere and still retain good outturn quality and adequate shelf life. Cauliflower storage life was increased from 4 weeks to 5 weeks by storage in 2% O 2 + 2% CO 2 . Lettuce did not benefit from CA and had the most variable quality of the vegetables tested. It was concluded that there are only marginal benefits of using CA or MA to ship broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce from Australia to Dubai. Air storage at 0.3°C should provide good outturn condition and adequate shelf life so long as products are handled correctly and water loss is minimised.


CAN (Controller Area Network) is one of popular field bus and a new kind of network based on micro control unit. The paper introduces the CAN node based on the industrial instruments controlling system and node design of hardware and software. The paper design different CAN nodes which can communicate each other in several modes. The node can be applied in control network which is composed of many special sites or industrial workshops. The system can be monitored through personal computer which connected the CAN bus through special CAN device.


A DNA-unwindingprotein hasbeenpuri- fiedto homogeneityfrom E. coli.Thisproteinhas a molecular weightofabout22,000, as judgedbyitselectro- phoreticmobilityon polyacrylamide gelscontaining sodiumdodecylsulfate, and itappears to be presentin about800copies per log-phase cell. Itbindstightly and cooperatively to single-stranded DNA, and much less tightly, ifatall, toRNA or double-stranded DNA. LiketheT4gene-32 protein characterized previously, the E.coliDNA-unwindingprotein depresses themelting tem- peratureofdouble-stranded DNAs,withregions richin A-T base-pairs beingpreferentially melted.The E.coli proteinstrongly stimulates invitroDNA synthesis by E. coliDNA polymerase IIon appropriate templates; how- ever, no stimulation isfoundwithpurified polymerases I or IIIofE.coli, or withT4DNA polymerase. Incontrast, gene-32 protein stimulates onlytheT4DNA polymerase in a parallel assay.


Several reports have suggested that the systemic and secretory immune systems may not be affected in an identical fashion by the aging process. The purpose of the present study is to describe in hamsters the effect of aging on the levels of IgA in saliva and serum, and to explore certain aspects of the IgA-immune response to a soluble antigen. The antigen used for subcutaneous injection was glucosyltransferase (GTF), a defined soluble antigen of the oral pathogen, Streptococcus mutans. Young (twoto three-month old) and aged (approximately two years old) National Institute of Health white hamsters, raised at Forsyth Dental Center, were used. This colony did not naturally harbor S. mutans in its oral flora. IgA concentrations were measured by radial immunodiffusion, and IgA and IgG antibody activity to GTF was measured by a radioisotopic functional inhibition assay and by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), using GTF bound to polystyrene microtiter plates. Hamsters were injected in the salivary gland region with 30 p g of GTF in complete Freund's adjuvant. Serum and saliva were sampled prior to immunization, 11. 16, 22, and 28 days after primary immunization, and 8 days after a secondary injection with an equivalent GTF dose. Salivary volume and mean salivary IgA concentration were slightly higher in the old animals prior to the experiment. Whereas both of these parameters showed appreciable variation, the mean secretion rate of IgA in the aged hamsters was at least 30% higher than in younger animals, and was significantly different (p < 0.02) in one of the two experiments. Serum IgA levels were at least tenfold, and serum IgG levels were approximately twofold higher in aged hamsters. Salivary IgA-antibody responses of aged hamsters were generally lower than those of young hamsters after both primary and secondary immunization. The amount of antibody activity per milligram of immunoglobulin was significantly lower in aged hamsters on all occasions tested during the primary response to injected glucosyltransferase. All hamsters responded to injection of GTF in complete Freund's adjuvant with serum IgG antibody and serum GTF-inhibitory activity (response among all isotypes). Aged hamster serum responses were generally more variable than serum responses of young hamsters. Secondary serum IgG-antibody responses were more elevated in the young animals. The peak primary and peak secondary GTF-inhibitory responses were, with one exception, greater in the younger animals. The demonstration of elevated IgA levels in the serum of aged hamsters agrees with observations in other rodent systems. In addition, the levels of secretory IgA were also somewhat higher in two-year-old compared with twoto three-month old hamsters. These elevated IgA levels may represent the result of accumulated antigenic exposures in the older animals. The capacity to demon-


The adoption of gender in gender poetics naturally brought into forestage feminist gender theory,or else the terminology there involved will be sterilized.Gender poetics approaches gender aesthetics inherent in literary works from the perspective of gender which is not merely biological sex,or sex-involved identity in social activities,but a terminology in the conceptual system of gender poetics integrating three gender implications in the context of Chinese.To avoid complicating or oversimplifying the concept of gender,gender poetics stresses the need that,by interacting with the conceptual system of gender poetics,a new implication of gender associated with cultural poetics in the realm of aesthetics should be brought in existence.


The original article to which this Erratum refers was published in Journal of Pediatric Pulmonology, 41(9) 2006, 829–838. DOI: 10.1002/ppul.20450.


Annual percentage rates of chmge for Nofihestem regional sawtimber and pulpwood stum-page prices were estimakd for the period 196 l to 2002. In addition, we exafllined if there have been any chmges in the annual percenbge rate of change during the same period. The results showed that the real (nominal) annwl percentage rates of change for hardwood sahmber and sofiwood pulpwood stumpage prices were 4.6 percent (8.5%) and 0.7 percent (4.6%), respectively. Annual real hardwood pulpwood stumpage prices increaed at 0.6 percent while annual nominal hardwood pulpwod shrmpage prices increased at a faster rate during 196 I to 198 1 than duriilg 1982 to 2002; namely, 7.3 vs, 1.6 percent, respectively. Annual nominal sohood sawirnber stumpage prices increased at 5.2 percent while annual real softwood sawtimber stumpage prices increased at a slower rate during 196 1 to 198 1 than during 1982 to 2002; namely, 0.6 vs. 2.2 percent, respectively. This research indicaks that an avellage landowner holding an average mix ofhardwood savvtihr could reasonably achieve a4.6 percent annual increase in the revenue from a future sale of that sawlimber due to real price appreciation alone. The same landowner may achieve @eater or lesser gains depending on species composition, smc-ture, age, and density of the stand combined with prudent forest managemerlt choices. While the annual percenbge rates of change described here may not reflect the slumpage markets of a specific sub-state region or individual property, they may provide a foresw consultant with additional infomation to help compare potential returns from forest management to other uses of a landowner's capital such as mutual h&, stocks, and bonds.