In recent years, in order to increase the coal recovery rate, the large mining height fully mechanized top-coal caving mining has been widely used because it has the advantages of both fully mechanized mining method and large mining height mining method. When this mining technology is used to exploit thick coal seam under upper goaf, the movement characteristics of the overlying strata and the bearing structure formed by the broken rock are complicated, which results in the abnormal pressure during mining, such as severe coal slabs and hydraulic supports being crushed. The key to solve these problems is to study the movement law and the structural evolution characteristics of the overlying strata during large mining height fully mechanized top-coal caving mining, and the movement characteristics of the overlying strata are all determined by the layer-position of the key stratum. UDEC models with different layer-position of the key stratum are established to investigate the influence of the key stratum position on the support working resistance during large mining height top-coal caving mining. Through comprehensive research, the source of support resistance comes from under different geological conditions was analyzed, and the formula for estimating the maximum support working resistance was deduced. In addition, in order to release the severe pressure during large mining height fully mechanized top-coal caving mining, it is recommended to use hydraulic fracturing method to weaken the key stratum in situ.


utilized the self designed experimental platform to carry on test on the border lighting time and center lighting time of the wooden panels which has been dealt by the veneer-type fireproof coating in different fire-retardant degree,analyzed the factors that influence the border lighting time and center lighting time and put forward the appraisal index of the flame retardants of the wooden panel that have been scribbled with the veneer-type fireproof coating,exactly,border lighting time and center lighting time.It is indicated by research result that those two indexes could appraise the quantity,construction craft and flame retardants of the wooden panel that have been scribbled with the veneer-type fireproof coating;border light time could appraise the quantity situation of the paint,center light time could appraise the construction craft of the paint.


The post-fabrication processes on CAD/CAM milled dental Zirconia result in surface roughening, micro-cracking, a decline in surface texture, and loss of strength. Also, the hydrothermal stresses formed due to water, blood, and synovial fluid infiltration into the crack space initiate crack propagation. The present work makes an effort to study the effect of surface morphology due to the post-processing of Yttrium-stabilized tetragonal Zirconia (Y-TZP) after CAD/CAM milling by studying the height, spatial, functional parameters (volume & Stratified surfaces), and 3-D surface roughness parameters in detail. Five groups based on post-processing combinations currently used in clinical conditions were selected for the study. Group 1(G1-S) involved the milling of pre-sintered blocks followed by sintering. Group 2(G2-S+P) consisted of sintering followed by the polishing process. Group 3(G3-S+P+S.B) consisted of sintering, polishing, and sandblasting with Aluminium Oxide (Al2O3) with a particle size of 110µm. Group4 (G4- S+S.B) involved sintering followed by sandblasting. Group5 (G5-S+S.B+P) consisted of sintering, sandblasting, and polishing. The surfaces were evaluated using a 3-D surface profilometer before and after wear. Before wear, the G4 process group responded with the highest surface roughness value, (Average roughness) Sa=1.378±0.409μm, and it was within the limit, which supported osseointegration. Valleys were predominant in almost all the groups, except G4. Also, the peak and core parameters for G3 &G4 were higher and will be of interest for further bone-implant contact (BIC) studies. The groups with sandblasting fabrication processes (G3, G4) exhibited relatively higher 3-D roughness parameters when compared to the groups with fabrication processes (G1, G2, G5). After wear, there was a considerable decline in the material peak. The research revealed that the methods with sandblasting could be suitable for osseointegration, BIC, and in-vivo performance for crown applications. Also, sandblasting followed by polishing (G5) was found to be optimal. Dentists will be able to determine the right clinical adjustments for their chairside CAD/CAM dentistry using 3-D surface roughness morphological analyses. It will also aid researchers in conducting in-depth studies on the issues related to oral cavity.


The solubility enhancement process of hydrophobic drugs plays a key role in the formulation development to achieve the bioavailability and therapeutic action of the drug at the target site. As estimated, among the newly discovered chemical entities nearly 40% drugs are poorly water soluble. To get proper therapeutic level of drug in plasma, a high dose of poorly water soluble drugs is required. The orally administered drugs show its complete pharmacological effect if it is fairly soluble in water in gastric medium and such drugs show good bioavailability. The enhancement of oral bioavailability of such poorly water soluble drugs remains one of the most challenging aspects of drug development. Various methods are used to enhance the solubility of poorly water soluble drugs in aqueous medium. In this present study, surfactant micellization method was used to enhance the solubility of poorly water soluble drugs viz. glibenclamide, clofibrate. A carbohydrate based non-ionic surfactants, which was synthesized in lab, were explored to encapsulate these drugs. It was found that the water solubility of these drugs increased up to many folds. Key Words : poor water soluble drugs, bioavailability, carbohydrate non-ionic surfactant, clofibrate, glibenclamide, micellization


The concurrent composition of Markov chains quickly leads to the notorious problem of state space explosion, also known as the largeness problem, as the number of involved Markov chains increases. In the context of Markovian Process Algebras (MPAs) this problem is of particular interest, since small and compact model descriptions in form of language terms provided by the MPA may possess huge underlying Markov chains. Of course, many long known counter-strategies to tackle the largeness problem of Markov chains in one way or the other, like, e.g., product-form solutions, lumpability, sparse data structures, nearly-complete decomposability, can also be applied to the Markov chains which are generated by MPA models. Recent research mostly focuses on the classification of syntactical properties on the MPA language term level which ensure the applicability of these strategies.

In this work we propose a novel approach to solve MPA models which explicitly exploits the concurrent nature of the given model. The method involves two levels of compositionality. In the first level, the model is decomposed along points of global synchronisation into several sub-models. These sub-models are solved in isolation, and afterwards the individual results are combined to yield a solution of the entire model. The second level of compositionality concerns the individual sub-models. Under certain conditions each sub-model can be described as the parallel evolution of a number of independent absorbing Markov chains. This independence can be exploited to efficiently solve the sub-models.

As a side result of the consideration of the second level of compositionality, we derive a novel result on cumulative measures of absorbing joint Markov chains. Provided that the marginal processes are independent continuous time Markov chains (CTMCs), the mean time to absorption and the expected total time in a transient set of the joint Markov chain are computed from the marginal CTMCs in a compositional way. Operations on the state space of the joint Markov chain are never carried out, hence, the problem of state space explosion is avoided. The computational effort of our method rather depends on convergence properties of the joint CTMC, i.e., the number of steps until absorption of a discrete time Markov chain embedded in the joint CTMC.


A frequently occurring, yet unexplored, phenomenon of the New York Stock Exchange specialist system is that of reassignments of stocks by specialist firms on the floor of the Exchange. These events change the portfolios at the individual specialist level by reassigning one or more stocks from one individual specialist to another, and affect a large number of stocks. For instance, we document 240 such events involving 1,087 stocks over our 3-year sample period. We study the possible factors determining stock reassignments, and show the impact of these specialist firm decisions on the market quality and cost of capital of the reassigned stocks. Our results show that reassigned stocks experience a decline in spreads and significant abnormal returns around the event date. These results indicate that listing firms benefit from these reassignments by specialist firms. Our analysis of the factors that determine the probability of a stock being reassigned indicate a prominent role for the industry and size concentration of the individual specialist portfolios in the decision of specialist firms to reassign stocks. Our findings shed light on a hitherto unstudied segment of the market and provide an economic rationale for why the NYSE does not interfere with stock allocations after the initial allocation of new listings among specialists. Possible policy implications of our findings are provided. * The authors are from Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY (corresponding author: firstname.lastname@example.com); Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana; and Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, respectively. We are very grateful to Robert Fagenson (CEO, Van Der Moolen Specialists) for conversations that formed the basis of this study, as well as for his comments, and to Paul Bennett (NYSE) for providing the data. We thank Rob Battalio, Craig Holden, Vladimir Gatchev, Robert Jennings, Terry Martell, Stewart Mayhew, Charles Schnitzlein, Chester Spatt, Dan Weaver, and the seminar participants at the AFA 2007 meetings (especially, Shane Corwin, the discussant, for his extensive feedback); Syracuse University; and the University of Central Florida, for discussion and comments. The usual disclaimer applies. Cleaning House: Stock Reassignments on the NYSE


Daylight and accelerated ageing tests on a series of clear epoxy resins are described and the results discussed in terms of their tendency to yellow on exposure to light. Some factors important in the yellowing process are described. A series of dyestuffs which disperse easily in epoxy resin to give transparent casts with good light-fastness is reported.


Recently, as the number of smart-phone users has been rapidly increased, enterprise managers have a keen interest in business application of social...


The findings reported in this article would not have been possible without the help and support of many people in Chitral. Fieldwork in Chitral was conducted with the generous support of the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge, an ESRC research studentship, and a grant from the British Academy Society for South Asian Studies. It has also benefited from sustained and insightful criticism from Dr Susan Bayly, and from four anonymous AT reviewers. Pseudonyms are used for places and people throughout the text.

1
I first lived Chitral as a school-leaver in 1995 and made three subsequent visits before conducting a 20-month period of 'formal' anthropological fieldwork in the region between April 2000 and October 2001. This period of fieldwork was followed up by three further shorter stays.

2
The most detailed studies of Pukhtun society are Barth 1959, Ahmed 1983, Lindholm 1982 and Banerjee 2000.

3
There are a number of colonial accounts by British soldier-scholars of Chitral: see, especially, Robertson 1899 and O'Brien 1895. On the region's history, see Parkes 2001.

4
Many Chitral people do, however, understand and speak Urdu; those educated beyond the age of 16 are often also competent in English, and Chitral people who have lived in other regions of the Frontier are often fluent Pashto-speakers.

5
On sectarian conflict in Pakistan, see Nasr 2000.

6
The number of religious seminaries in Pakistan's Frontier Province has increased greatly over the last 20 years; most of these are affiliated to the reformist Deobandi school, and Chitral is a major centre for the recruitment of students for these seminaries (see Malik 1996). On the history and development of Pakistan's madrassah network, see Zaman 2002.

7
In both academic and popular literature, reform-minded Muslims of many different doctrinal traditions are widely referred to as fundamentalists and Islamists. While it is important not to oversimplify, I will employ the term reformist to describe the wide range of 'bearded ones' (rigisweni) whom Chitrali villagers and townsfolk see as adherents of strict, reform-minded Qur'anic forms of Islam. Such folk are also referred to as 'hardened' (saht), 'preachers' (tablighi) and 'extremists' (imtihai pasand).

8
Women never attended this mahfil type of musical programme. Whilst women and girls did enjoy listening to local Khowar-language music in the privacy of their own homes, they also often told me that they preferred the more 'modern' and lively Hindi film cassettes their male relatives bought in the bazaar for them.

9
On the Jama'at-e Islami, see Nasr 1994.

10
See Kepel 2002.


The respect of train timetables is a central issue in the successful operation of railways. This requirement necessitates the provision of relevant information which is specifically adapted to the train driver's work. This document aims to describe the chosen methodology that was used to develop an interface allowing trains to be driven according to these requirements. This MMI was designed and developed by a multidisciplinary group, In particular with the active participation of train drivers. The MMI developed adds a further valuable aspect to the new European train control system (ETCS).


ABSTRACT Beyond the usual engineering aspects of validation with regard to specification, installation, commissioning, qualification, and calibration, the two important aspects of validation of dry heat processes are thermal validation and endotoxin validation. Sterility is the most important and absolutely essential characteristic of a parenteral product. Sterility means the complete absence of all viable microorganisms. Depyrogenation devices, such as tunnels, are used in the pharmaceutical industry to prepare components for aseptic filling. To qualify such devices, various pharmacopoeias require depyrogenation devices to be periodically challenged with high levels of bacterial endotoxin. Although the pharmacopoeias state the acceptance criteria, little consideration is given to the practical approach. The review highlight the theoretical concept of depyrogenation and the various tests performed for the qualification of Depyrogenation Tunnels.


Vein pancture is one of the most important and basic skill in clinical nursing work.How to create the good condition for rescuing and treating patients and reduce the pain of pationts are key points to the vein puncture.This article reviews the research progress on the skill of vein puncture in the recent years.


Maria Vittoria Brugnoli was born in 1915 in a house at the foot of the Capitol, a site which would have been completely changed later. She witnessed shocking epoch-making events: as a young girl she saw the first cars and the first writing machines and ended her life in the internet era. At first as a young teacher and later as a close aide to the Monuments and Fine Arts Offices, she had to face new mental work requirements, which accounted for a real world in fast progress. Two outstanding scholars influenced her vocational training as an art historian: Pietro Toesca and Giorgio Castelfranco. They settled her 'guiding principles'. Her competence ranged from the protection of the environment to the reorganization of important museum collections, imposing plans of comparison, re-examination and cataloguing of the artistic heritage as a whole. Maria Vittoria Brugnoli was a careful friend, ready to help people she worked with and, as a civil servant, she always respected the choices of the Administration, even when she was asked to leave the direction of the Office, she had been in charge of since 1978. She lived this removal with the privacy and distinction which marked her intellectual honesty


approach, covering the usual progression of topics from national income accounting to the Keynesian theory of income determination to Fiscal and Mon etary policy. The book does incorporate some of the recent developments in macro theory, including a development of the monetarist approach and a treatment of the "natural" rate of unemployment in the inflation chapter. There are interesting dis cussions of economic growth in both the micro and


Profound hearing loss makes it difficult for a person to fully integrate into society. Cochlear implantation is rightfully considered a universal and an effective method of rehabilitation of patients with severe and profound hearing loss. The advantages of binaural hearing are well known; the advantages of bilateral cochlear implantation over monolateral implantation are undeniable, due to the restoration of all binaural hearing effects. At the moment, the relevance of simultaneous cochlear implantation, especially among children, and its benefits compared with sequential implantation are being discussed. It is known that there are special groups of patients among patients with hearing loss; they are either unrehabilitated at all or rehabilitation measures for which are ineffective. Special patient groups include patients with unilateral acquired or congenital deafness, asymmetric and residual hearing loss. Patients in these groups often complain of poor speech intelligibility, especially against a background of noise, inability to localize the source of sound, one-sided or two-sided tinnitus, and, as a result, a deterioration in the quality of life. All abovementioned makes us think about the need to revise the indications for cochlear implantation and study this issue in detail.


All 126 mtDNA D-loop sequences 399 bp in length from 12 Chinese domestic donkey breeds were analyzed,including 26 sequences published before.The results revealed 36 different haplotypes with 37 variable sites.The haplotype diversity and the nucleotide diversity were 0.466 7-0.977 8 and 0.001 2-0.028 5,respectively,indicating high level of genetic diversity in Chinese domestic donkeys.A Neighbor-joining tree constructed using 36 haplotypes of Chinese domestic donkeys,3 sequences from Nubian wild ass,3 sequences from Somali wild ass and 6 sequences belonging to Asian wild ass firstly showed that the maternal origin of Chinese domestic donkeys was from Somali and Nubian wild ass in Africa but not from Asian wild ass.We also discussed transport of donkeys among different regions in China.


The current ultrasound techniques for inducing elevated temperatures in malignant tumors are reviewed. Emphasis is placed on the mechanically scanned and focused systems that are presently under clinical evaluation. Some of the clinical results are reviewed, and the potential and limitations of ultrasound as a clinical tool for hyperthermia induction are evaluated on the basis of clinical experience. In addition, some of the future technical possibilities are discussed.<<ETX>>


Online Social Networks (OSNs) have already attracted more than half a billion users. However, our understanding of which OSN features attract and keep the attention of these users is poor. Studies thus far have relied on surveys or interviews of OSN users or focused on static properties, e. g., the friendship graph, gathered via sampled crawls. In this paper, we study how users actually interact with OSNs by extracting clickstreams from passively monitored network traffic. Our characterization of user interactions within the OSN for four different OSNs (Facebook, LinkedIn, Hi5, and StudiVZ) focuses on feature popularity, session characteristics, and the dynamics within OSN sessions. We find, for example, that users commonly spend more than half an hour interacting with the OSNs while the byte contributions per OSN session are relatively small.


The robust stability problems of linear discrete-time systems with structured perturbations are considered. The necessary and sufficient condition of interval stability is given and the maximal bound of robust stability is presented for systems with a non-negative or non-positive nominal system matrix. Further, it is shown that the given necessary and sufficient condition and the given maximal robust bound are still valid for time-varying perturbations and nonlinear perturbations.


s volume for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Annual Convention, v. 14, p. A60 [June 19–22, 2005, Calgary, Alberta, Canada]. 20 Thermal Maturity Patterns in Upper Ordovician and Devonian Rocks of the Appalachian Basin


A system of binary linear constraints or difference constraints (SDC) consists of a set of variables that are constrained by a set of unary or binary linear inequalities. In such diverse applications as scheduling, interface timing verification, real-time systems, multimedia systems, layout compaction, and constraint satisfaction, SDCs have successfully been used to model systems of both temporal and spatial constraints. Formally, an SDC is modeled by a weighted, directed graph called a constraint graph. The consistency (or feasibility) of an SDC means that there is at least one instantiation (or solution) of its variables that satisfies all its constraints. It is well known that the absence of positive cycles in a constraint graph implies the consistency of the corresponding SDC, so the consistency can be decided in strongly polynomial time. If the system is consistent, a solution can also be found in strongly polynomial time. However, if the system is inconsistent, there is no solution unless the system is repaired (or debugged). The debugging task is equivalent to freeing the corresponding constraint graph from all its positive cycles. All the previous algorithms for this task take time proportional to the number of positive cycles in the graph, which can grow exponentially. We have recently proposed a provably strongly polynomial-time algorithm for this task, i.e., an algorithm whose time complexity is polynomial in the size of the input constraint graph. In this paper, we propose extensions of this algorithm for different debugging scenarios. We theoretically and experimentally justify the efficiency and efficacy of our algorithms.


This paper introduced the systematic construction of a practice teaching platform for computer technology which adhered to the people-oriented,innovative development ideas.In order to cultivate practical and innovative talent,this platform tightly focused on policies and regulations,the academic and administrative staff,development orientation,the theory and practice of teaching,equipment and environment,intelligent network platform,and management pattern reform.This platform not only had its own teaching characteristics,but also expanded its functions and obtained significant application effect.It can provide reference for the construction of the platforms of the same kind in other universities.


Recently, the new video coding standard, High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), was released. A 50% bitrate reduction at the same visual quality relative to the previous standard was achieved. These gains are partly related to tools that increase complexity such as coding decisions taken on smaller image areas or further improvements in motion compensated coding. This paper addresses the complexity issue, i.e. the execution time, and its impact when it is combined with the bitrate and distortion optimization of the video coding. Given a set of encoder configurations that restrict the encoding such that the complexity varies, an analysis including a visualization tool is proposed to help the user to select the best configuration for a specific amount of rate, distortion and complexity. A possible targeted applications are also introduced.


To investigate the flexural behavior of high-strength concrete filled high-strength square steel tubes (HCFHSTs) under low-frequency cyclic loading, a test study was conducted on six HCFHSTs adopting different steel ratio. The objective of these tests was to analyze the failure modes, hysteresis curves, envelope curves, strength degradation, stiffness degradation, energy dissipation, and ductility of HCFHSTs. The results indicated that the HCFHST members had great performance, with highly saturated hysteresis curves, excellent energy dissipation capacity, and good ductility. Additionally, more models with different parameters were analyzed using the numerical analysis software ABAQUS, t o determine the effects of the parameters on the flexural capacity and seismic performance of the HCFHST members with different steel yield strength (460–960 MPa), concrete compressive strength (60–110 MPa), and steel ratio. The ultimate flexural capacity, initial flexural stiffness, and serviceability-level flexural stiffness of the HCFHST members were calculated using the engineering design codes of several countries. The estimated results of the design codes were compared with the values obtained via the tests and numerical simulations to confirm the feasibility of various engineering design codes for calculating the flexural stiffness and ultimate flexural capacity of HCFHST members. This work will serve as a reference for future engineering design and broaden the applicability of engineering design codes. Received: Revised: Accepted: 15 November 2019 11 March 2020 13 March 2020


Heat treatment of alloys of the Al-Mg-Si system essentially affects the age-hardening response and, accordingly, their final mechanical properties. However, the specific Mg/Si ratio in casting alloys makes age-hardening by heat treatment negligible. In order to improve the age-hardening response, the alloys were alloyed with Sc Cr, Zr, and two types of heat treatment were applied: full T6 (solution treatment (ST), quenching and artificial aging (AA)); and T5 with AA from the as-cast state. The microstructure after different heat treatment modes was observed by means of SEM and TEM. It was established that that the main structural components that affect the mechanical properties of alloys after heat treatment are nanoscale precipitates and a coarse Al7Cr and Al3Zr intermetallic phases in the Cr- and Zr-containing alloys. The highest impact in terms of tensile properties was achieved in the Sc-containing alloys after T5 at 325°C. Alloys with 0.2 wt.% Sc exhibit the highest strength after T5 from as-cast state at 325°C (up to 380 MPa) and highest elongation (up to 20 %) after full T6 (ST 520°C and AA 325°C).


The overarching objective of this study was to assess poverty situation in Tanzania using a multitude of approach so as to provide empirical evidence of conceptual and methodological challenges encountered in poverty analysis studies. Specifically, the study strove to: (1) analyse the poverty situation in the study sites, (2) assess income inequality in study sites, and (3) determine the method that could be commonly employed to measure poverty , with a view to improve consistency in poverty statistics. A sample of 568 respondent households was involved in the study. Data was collected through household questionnaire, key informant interview, focus group discussion and researcher's direct observations. Collected data was analysed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft excel computer programmes. Different poverty lines have provided different results regarding the number of households which are poor. Relative poverty line of 40% of the median income gave the lowest value of poverty in the study area, while the ethical poverty line provided the highest rate of poverty. Accordingly, it was found that using selected poverty lines: overall, 29.3% - 98.2% of households are poor. In rural areas, 24.5% - 96.8% of households are poor. In peri-urban areas, it was found that 20% to 100% (depending on the poverty line used) were poor, while in urban areas the poverty rate was found to be between 37.1% to 99%. Using weighted geometric mean of relative and absolute poverty lines (ρ = 0.7) at relative poverty line of 50% of median income and absolute poverty line of US$ 1-a-day (2005PPP): Overall, 53.5% of households are poor, and poverty rates in rural, peri-urban and urban areas are 55%, 53% and 46% respectively. The findings revealed further that the poverty gap ratio and severity ratio are highest in urban areas (0.35 and 0.29 respectively), medium in rural area (0.33 and 0.24 respectively) and minimum in peri-urban area (0.29 and 0.20 respectively). Household income inequality in the study area is high (Gini Coefficient = 0.773), with variations in the strata as follows: rural areas (Gini Coefficient = 0.821); peri-urban areas (Gini Coefficient = 0.574); and urban areas (Gini Coefficient = 0.717). Inter-strata inequality index in the study area (depending on the method used) ranged between 0.158 – 0.172, while inter-regional inequality index ranged between 0.004 and 0.116. Some recommendations have been put forward: Firstly, in the determination of poverty rates (head counts) the appropriate yardstick to be used is weighted geometric mean of relative and absolute poverty lines (ρ = 0.7) at relative poverty line of 50% of median income and absolute poverty line of US$ 1-a-day (2005PPP). Secondly, in the determination of household income inequality, Gini Coefficient should be used. Thirdly, the Hoover coefficient (Robin Hood Index) is a more appropriate metric for regional and inter-strata inequality.


A AISI 1045 steel, 139 CCT diagram of, 156 AISI 4137 steel, 198 AISI 4140 steel, 152f, 153f, 157 chemical composition of, 197 cooling time of, 173t, 175 AISI 5140 steel, 16 AISI 60S2A steel, 139, 140t aqueous polymer quenchants, cooling capacity of, 172 aqueous salt solutions and alkalis solutions of high concentration, quenching in, 127 use of, 145–146 arrays of round nozzles (ARN), 67 austenite isothermal decomposition of, for three classes of steels, 4f lattice parameters of, 5f austenite–martensite transformation, 4 austenite–pearlite transformation, 4 austenitizing temperature versus carbon content in steel, 3f automotive parts, 192 ball studs, 197 coil springs, 192–196 leaf spring samples, 196 torsion bar samples, 196–197 universal joint crosses, 197–198


Within the framework of teenage marriage and motherhood womens exposure to several rigid social customs and beliefs can influence the fate of their pregnancy outcomes and health of their children. These social factors added with womens lower level of education and awareness and limited access to the household resources and health services can have heightened negative impact on their pregnancy outcomes and health of their children. The biological inconsistency of the teenage motherhood may lead to pregnancy wastages. The present paper is a modest attempt to find out the probable socio-economic and demographic determinants of teenage motherhood and consequential pregnancy wastage (still birth and abortion). It also endeavors to explore the possible correlates of survival and health status of the children to the teenage mothers. (excerpt)


In this paper, we propose a simple approach for achieving multiwavelength tunable Brillouin-Erbium fiber lasers utilizing fiber loop mirror technique. The impact of Brillouin gain contributed by the change of single-mode fiber length on the number of channels is explained. A low threshold operation of 3.5, 4 and 8 mW is achieved at 25, 8.8 and 1.9 km respectively. Simultaneous oscillation of 20, 21 and 35 channels with equally channel spacing of 0.088 nm is obtained at the optimum Brillouin pump power and Brillouin pump wavelength for 1.9, 8.8 and 25 km respectively.


The current study aimed to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of medicinal plants with yeast on the fatty acid profile, chemical, physical and microbiological quality of Barki sheep burger during frozen storage at -20 °C for 90 days. Fifteen Barki lambs (13.46 ± 3.47 kg body weight, 4.5 months of age) were randomly divided into three groups (5 lamb/group). T1: control group fed on berseem hay and concentrate feed mixture. T2: fed on control diet + air dried powder of medicinal plants mixture which consisted of (garlic, cumin, ginger and turmeric). T3: fed as group two with (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Results indicated that addition of yeast to medicinal plants significantly decreased (p<0.05) palmitic acid, myristic acid and increased the content of oleic acid and decatrienoic acid with non-significant effect on linoleic acid and α linolenic acid. Burger of medicinal plants with yeast group had the lowest index of atherogenicity (IA) which is healthier for human consumption. Feeding type had a slight significant effect on pH values of fresh sheep burger. No significant differences were found in shear force values of sheep burger. Cooking loss of sheep burger processed from sheep fed on medicinal plants recorded the lowest cooking loss, followed by sheep burger of medicinal plants with yeast. Burger of medicinal plants group showed the lowest TBA value. Feeding types and storage conditions significantly (p<0.05) affected on color parameters (L*, a* and b*). No significant changes in microbiological quality of sheep burger during frozen storage. In conclusion, sheep burger processed from lambs fed on diet supplemented with medicinal plants and yeast improved the composition of fatty acids, delayed the lipid oxidation and decreased the cooking loss without any negative effects on color parameters, shear force and microbial analysis which is subsequently affected on sheep burger quality and human health.


The article analyzes the effectiveness of the development, implementation and operation of information systems, IT infrastructures the system of metallurgical enterprises and government agencies. Identifying existing problems of the life cycle of IT systems. Some aspects of the development of information technology and the prospects for their use. Prospects of virtualization technologies with the existing development pattern element base processors. Developed IT strategy, which is the link between the strategy of development of the enterprise and the IT department. A comparative analysis of international experience in the application of foreign methodologies, ITIL, COBIT, offering tools to build systems that can provide solutions to highly targeted IT issues. Defined the scope of application of these methodologies in the development of information systems of national importance. A model of the efficiency of public services through information technology. We consider methodologies to gather in a single system the various methodologies, guidance, and legal aspects. The methods for evaluating the effectiveness of information systems. The analysis of simulation systems of information technologies in which they are applied.


Canthaxanthin (4,4(prm1)-diketo-(beta)-carotene) is produced as the major carotenoid pigment by orange- and dark-pink-pigmented bacteriochlorophyll-containing Bradyrhizobium strains isolated from stem nodules of Aeschynomene species. These two new pigmentation groups differ from the well-studied strain BTAi1, which accumulates spirilloxanthin as the sole carotenoid.


This research work investigates the effects of compression ratio on engine performances, combustion characteristics and emission of exhaust gases of variable compression ratio engine fuelled with biodiesel. The cottonseed oil methyl ester is blended with standard diesel and used as fuel in the variable compression ratio single cylinder four stroke multi fuel engine at 1,440 rpm of 80% load with different compression ratios i.e., 18:1, 19:1, 20:1, 21:1 and 22:1. The analyses of engine performances, combustion characteristics and emission of exhaust gases were carried out for different proportions of cottonseed oil methyl ester blends (b15%, b30%, b45%, b60%, b75%, b90% and b100%). The investigation reveals that at higher compression ratios, heat release rate, combustion pressure and brake thermal efficiency is higher. The investigation also reveals that the brake power and mechanical efficiency are found to have increased with increase in compression ratios. It is also found that the higher blend proportions with standard diesel reduce the emission of HC and CO2 but increase the emission of NOX. [Received: November 5 2013; Accepted: October 4 2014]


This JAMA Insights in the Women's Health series describes the use of fezolinetant and neurokinin B antagonists as nonhormonal therapies for menopausal vasomotor symptoms.


Motivated by the European Union's (EU's) resolution in 2000 to accelerate the rate of participation of women in the labor force, this two-part study explores the feasibility and the social implications of increasing female participation in EU nations. With wide ranging review of previous studies and the use of new survey data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP), the two studies in this book provide a useful and comprehensive survey of the current gender trends in European labor markets. The primary recommendation conforms to a neo-classical point of view, stressing the importance of increasing labor market flexibility to encourage economic growth. The resolution agreed to at the European Council meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2000 set a target female employment rate of 60 percent of the working age population by the year 2010. The first study focuses on comparing the trends between the groups of countries that are at different stages in relation to the Lisbon target. Examining OECD employment data for 2000, the authors find that the Lisbon target has been achieved by the Nordic countries, the UK and the Netherlands. However, substantial gaps still exist for the Mediterranean countries (Greece, Italy, and Spain) and Belgium, France, and Ireland. The two important trends highlighted are the increasing feminization of the labor force and the concentration of women in part-time work. Decomposing the employment data into age and gender categories, the study finds that for all the EU countries, women between the ages 25 – 49 have accounted for a larger share of employment growth than men during the years 1983 – 2000. Moreover, across all countries women have a higher presence in part-time jobs then men. On an average, about 15 percent of REVIEW OF SOCIAL ECONOMY, VOL. LXV, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2007


Almost all Most About half Some Only a few Not sure Was openly gay 5% 17% 26% 29% 14% 8% Called themselves a 'Democratic socialist' 4% 11% 21% 35% 17% 11% Was a billionaire 13% 34% 26% 15% 4% 7% Had no prior experience in national government 7% 26% 27% 21% 9% 10% Was over 75 years old 6% 26% 25% 24% 11% 8% Was under 40 years old 8% 26% 24% 26% 8% 8% Was a woman 14% 33% 26% 16% 5% 6% Was a Muslim 4% 7% 13% 31% 34% 11% Was a Jew 12% 33% 21% 19% 7% 9%


A 74‐year‐old woman underwent computed tomography‐guided transthoracic needle biopsy of a small lung mass. Immediately after the procedure, she lost consciousness. After resuscitation, her brain computed tomography scan confirmed a cerebral air embolism.


A large pore (metallo)aluminophosphate molecular sieve is disclosed The material has an X-ray diffraction pattern including the lines listed in Table 4 and is synthesized in the presence of 4-dimethylaminopyridine as structure directing agent.


C# has its own characteristic though it is similar to C++ and Java in class definition. We analyze and study class modifiers with program code in view of access-control, inheritance-control and compiler-control.


Principles of fluorescein angiography and its advantages Requirements of a fluorescein angiography clinic Interpretation of a normal fluorescein angiogram What is abnormal fluorescence? -- classification Interpretation of diabetic retinopathy and maculopathy Macular conditions as seen through fluorescein angiography Conditions of the optic nerve head Retinal and choroidal vascular disorders Retinal and choroidal tumours Iris and anterior-segment angiography -- the way ahead.


Abstract The linear viscoelastic regions (L.V.R.) of suspensions of zirconium oxide particles were determined and characterized through the so-called "critical parameters". These are the values of shear-stress and strain at the crossover between the linear and the non-linear viscoelastic responses. From these magnitudes, the cohesive energy between the particles is calculated as a function of volume fraction of solids and at different electrolyte concentrations. The oscillatory measurements were carried out using a constant-stress rheometer at a fixed frequency of 1 Hz and increasing shear-stress. The suspensions cover a volume fraction range between 3% - 25% with electrolyte (sodium chloride) concentrations of 10-1 M, 10−2 M, 10−3 M and 10−5 M. Two different kinds of ZrO2 particles were used: commercially obtained -with no defined geometry- and spheres synthesized by us following the method described by Aiken, Hsu and Matijevic [1].


tag=1 data=The future of Local Government: issues for discussions. by Michael Clarke and John Stewart.

tag=2 data=Clarke, Michael%Stewart, John

tag=3 data=Public Administration.

tag=4 data=64

tag=6 data=Summer 1990

tag=7 data=249-258.

tag=8 data=LOCAL GOVERNMENT

tag=10 data=The Legislative programme of the Conservative Government has challenged many of the assumptions that have long underlain the workings of local government.

tag=11 data=1990/2/9

tag=12 data=284

tag=13 data=CAB


The proposed publication aims to the introduction into scientific circulation, systematization and analysis of the burials of Besinshitobe. To date, about 50 graves have been studied. The analysis of burial materials allows the author to distinguish three main types of burial complexes. The chronological identity of the graves was made on the basis of analogies to the inventory. Their dating is still preliminary. The earliest burial complex is characterized by single burials with accompanying equipment. Five buried had the traces of artificial deformation of the ring type on their skulls. In two burials, an incomplete cremation ritual was performed. The earliest burials of this complex belong to the 4th–5th centuries A.D. The second complex combines burials in large earthen vessels placed in pits. All the burials were children's, one of which was collective. On the basis of analogies, this group can be attributed to the 7th – 8th centuries A.D. The third, medieval burial complex is characterized by single Muslim burial grounds. A common sign for him is the lack of accompanying inventory, orientation of the deceased's head to the north-west and north-north-west. The use of incomplete scorching in the burial ritual is a known case. The ceramic complex obtained from the level I of the tier of the excavations at Besinshitoba allows the author to attribute Muslim burials to the 9th –11th and 13th –15th centuries A.D.


3-Trifluoroacetylpyrroles are easily obtained in excellent yields by oxygen-nitrogen exchange reaction of β-trifluoroacetylvinyl ethers with 2,2-dimethoxyethylamine and subsequent cyclodehydration of the products


The present study investigated the effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on periodontal wound healing of replanted rat tooth. 80 rats (Sprague-Dawley strain) weighting were selected and divided into experimental and control group, each group consisting of 40 rats. Rats were administered 0.4% -aminoproprionitrile for 5 days to achieve gentle tooth extraction. The maxillary first molars were extracted under anesthesia with pentobarbital, washed in sterile distilled water, treated with bacterial collagenase to remove collagen fibers on the root surfaces. After washing in water overnight, the mesial root surface were demineralized by application of citric acid, washed, dried and stored at . Immediately after tooth extraction and bleeding control, the treated molars extracted previously from other rats were replanted. The experimental group was exposed to hyperbaric oxygen at 2.5 atm. for 2 hrs. a day during experimental period. Eight animals of each group were sacrificed 1, 3, 6, 8, 10 days after reimplantation of teeth by intracardiac perfusion with 4% paraformaldehyde. The replanted molars and surrounding tissues were cut, demineralized, dehydrated and embedded in paraffin. Sections were stained with azan, toluidine blue and hematoxylin. Some other sections were stained by means of immunostaining achieved by the avidinbiotin complex method. The results as follows; 1. Experimental group showed fast healing of gingival epithelium. 2. Macrophage and newly formed blood vessels appeared early in the gingival connective tissue of experimental group. 3. Experimental group showed fast, abundant fibroblast proliferation and regularity of collagen fiber. 4. In both group, collagen was distributed along the collagen fiber. The distribution was strong and regular in the experimental group. 5. In the regenerated periodontal ligament of experimental group, fibers showed regular arrangement and invaded root surface fast.


Future graduate students and graduate education must accept the axiom that personal and professional growth does not exist for a specific and limited period of time. Developing a program or plan for identifying and delivering or acquiring new skills becomes the responsibility and opportunity for graduate programs, students, and alumni alike. Perhaps most importantly, this essay has suggested that graduate education adopt the philosophy of "life-long learning." To some, both educators and the educated, such a perspective is to be avoided, as it will require continuous change. To others, change is just another word for opportunity.


CASE
We present a 37-year-old man with uniarticular, multifocal, localized tenosynovial giant cell tumor (TSGCT) of the knee. He was treated with arthroscopic partial synovectomy of each tumor foci alone without the use of any adjuvants. At a 2-year follow-up, he had painless, full function of the knee with no signs of disease recurrence.

CONCLUSION
There have been several reports of multiple joints or multiple compartments in and around a joint involved with TSGCT in the same patient, but this is the first case reported to our knowledge of multiple discrete foci within the same joint.


this is explained by the fact that some doctors choose, and others are obliged, to use hospitals some distance away from their practice premises. In the country, of course, this rarely applies, and nearly every doctor in Zones 6, 7 and 8 used only one hospital. In Zone 6, a number of doctors conducted some confinements at the Lyell McEwin Hospital at Elizabeth, and also some in the northern suburbs. Table 1 shows, as one would expect, that the specialists averaged a higher number of confinements than general practitioners, and that Zone 4 and the country areas averaged more than the other three city zones. There was a great variety in the number of deliveries conducted by doctors and hospitals. In hospitals, the lowest rate was one for a. year (this was told to me before the survey started, and turned out to be correct), and the highest was 1,486 per year. Doctors likewise showed great


In this study, the antiproliferative activity of the organic solvent-soluble and aqueous extracts of Ocimum gratissimum leaf against the prostate cancer cells PC3·AR were evaluated by their inhibitory effects on the Androgen Receptor (AR) and Survivin protein. Two organic solvent-soluble extracts P2 and P3–2, and a water- soluble extract, PS/PT1, were found to reduce AR and Survivin levels in a time-dependent manner. In addition, extract PS/PT1, also exhibited the inhibitory activity in a dose-dependent manner. This is the first time that the inhibitory eff ects of O. gratissimum extracts have been evaluated on the Androgen Receptor (AR) and Survivin protein. The results encouraged the further studies of O. gratissimum as a potential treatment of prostate cancer.


Associating genetic markers with a multidimensional phenotype is an important yet challenging problem. In this work, we establish the equivalence between two popular methods: kernel-machine regression (KMR), and kernel distance covariance (KDC). KMR is a semiparametric regression frameworks that models the covariate effects parametrically, while the genetic markers are considered non-parametrically. KDC represents a class of methods that includes distance covariance (DC) and Hilbert-Schmidt Independence Criterion (HSIC), which are nonparametric tests of independence. We show the equivalence between the score test of KMR and the KDC statistic under certain conditions. This result leads to a novel generalization of the KDC test that incorporates the covariates. Our contributions are three-fold: (1) establishing the equivalence between KMR and KDC; (2) showing that the principles of kernel machine regression can be applied to the interpretation of KDC; (3) the development of a broader class of KDC statistics, that the members are the quantities of different kernels. We demonstrate the proposals using simulation studies. Data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) is used to explore the association between the genetic variants on gene \emph{FLJ16124} and phenotypes represented in 3D structural brain MR images adjusting for age and gender. The results suggest that SNPs of \emph{FLJ16124} exhibit strong pairwise interaction effects that are correlated to the changes of brain region volumes.


As a typical old wooden building,Yongding Tulou is a valuable historical and cultural heritage and an important symbol of national civilization,however,according to the high flammability related to other building materials,wood material is so easy to fire that fire protection becomes especially important. This paper studied fire risk of Yongding Tulou inwards the fuel,living with fire,electrical fire,smoking fire,lightning,and so on;proposed specific fire safety problems;finally,upon these issues,raised that promote the water mist system and increase firefighting facilities,fire-retardant,wire pipe wear,fire alarms and other fire prevention technologies,which may give useful reference to protect ancient wooden architecture from fire hazard.


The invention provides a preparation method of a load type Fe2O3 catalyst and a method for synthesizing dimethyl carbonate (DMC) by using the load type Fe2O3 catalyst, relating to a preparation method of a catalyst and a method for synthesizing the dimethyl carbonate by using the catalyst. The invention solves the problems of low yield, poor selectivity, difficulty in separation of the catalyst, incapacity of recycling, high cost, large toxicity, equipment corrosion and need of adding a promoter or cocatalyst in the traditional method for synthesizing the DMC by using a urea alcoholysis process. The catalyst is prepared by the steps of: dipping with a molecular sieve and an iron salt solution, suction-filtering, washing, drying and roasting. Methanol, urea and the load type Fe2O3 catalyst are added in a high-pressure stainless steel agitated reactor for reaction and filtration to synthesize the DMC. The catalyst has the advantages of simple preparation method, no toxicity, easiness in separation, low price, no corrosion to the agitated reactor, capacity of being repeatedly used, and no need of adding a promoter or cocatalyst. By applying the catalyst provided by the invention, the yield of the DMC can reach 36.7 percent, and the selectivity of the DMC can reach 97.4 percent.


By building an alarm chart platform and the visualization matching model, the design frame of warning chart visualization system in low altitude airspace was explored. Aimed at the types of low altitude flight area and mission requirements, the suitable high resolution remote sensing datum were selected as the data source to establish multi-source remote sensing data collection system. After the extraction of low altitude airspace obstacle data information by classification of geographical obstructions and artificial obstacles, the alarm data information database was established, and low altitude airspace alarm chart plotting platform was constructed. Using airborne GPS system to record aircraft attitude information in real time and to indicate information visualization and combining with special low altitude airspace and obstacle chart database, a chart visualization system and early warning of aircraft can be formed. The results show that preliminary construction of low altitude airspace chart visual matching system framework can provide reference and ideas for future low altitude visual matching system design.


A work-in-progress report on the edu-gamification introduced in 2013 at a Polish university to teach Game Studies & Design. The report presents elements of the gamifled system and online environment used to support it, including the use of mobile technology.


This text precedes a translation of the Code of Professional Ethics and Practices of the American Association for Public Opinion Research – the base document for the polling industry, which defines the standards for conducting social and marketing research. The foreword's author shows that the basic idea of the Code is that there is no need to regulate the moral principles for research, instead shifting emphasis towards revealing methodical information. While attempting to interpret the contents of the Code, the author comes to the following conclusions. The transparency and openness of research methodology are a necessary and sufficient condition for ethical behavior on the polling market. Such behavior is achieved by abiding to a certain set of rules: accurately and comprehensively describing procedures and research methods; a regular practice of registering all research circumstances; revealing accumulated material to those parties concerned.


Advanced high speed permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSM) have been the subject of recent research for electrified transportation. Specific power of electric machines must increase in order to make hybrid-electric passenger aircraft feasible. Raising operating frequency improves specific power and requires robust windings. This paper will present electrical loss, dielectric, thermal, and mechanical design considerations of the form-wound air-core armature windings for a high-speed PMSM. The winding manufacturing and qualifying processes will be presented along with bench test results.


Chronically elevated interleukin-6 (IL-6) affects lipid and lipoprotein metabolism. Individuals genetically predisposed to higher IL-6 secretion may be at risk of dyslipidemia, especially during the postprandial phase. We investigated the effect of genetic variants at the IL6 locus on postprandial lipemia in US Whites participating in the Genetics of Lipid Lowering Drugs and Diet Network study. Subjects were given a single fat load composed of 3% of calories as protein, 14% as carbohydrate, and 83% as fat. Blood was drawn at 0 h, 3.5 h, and 6 h to determine plasma triglyceride (TG), TG-rich lipoprotein (TRL) and lipoprotein particle size. Homozygotes (GG) and heterozygotes (CG) of the -174C/G variant displayed higher plasma IL-6 concentrations compared with major allele homozygotes (CC) (P 5 0.029). GG and CG subjects showed higher fasting plasma TG (P 5 0.025), VLDL (P 5 0.04), and large VLDL (P 5 0.02) concentrations than did CC subjects. Moreover, GG and CG subjects experienced greater postprandial response of TG (P 5 0.006) and TRL, including chylomicrons (P 5 0.005), total VLDL (P 5 0.029), and large VLDL (P 5 0.017) than did CC subjects. These results suggest that the functional polymorphism -174C.G at the IL6 locus determines the difference in both fasting and postprandial TG metabolism. This phenomenon could be responsible for the observed association of this genetic variant with cardiovascular disease risk.—Shen, J., D. K. Arnett, P. Pérez-Martínez, L. D. Parnell, C-Q. Lai, J. M. Peacock, J. E. Hixson, M. Y. Tsai, R. J. Straka, P. N. Hopkins, and J. M. Ordovás. The effect of IL6-174C/G polymorphism on postprandial triglyceride metabolism in the GOLDN study. J. Lipid Res. 2008. 49: 1839–1845. Supplementary key words inflammation • fat load • postprandial response • triglyceride-rich lipoproteins • cardiovascular disease Current evidence indicates that inflammation plays an instrumental role in atherosclerosis development (1). A number of markers of inflammation, namely fibrinogen, highly sensitive C-reactive protein, interleukin-6 (IL-6), myeloperoxidase, and soluble CD40 ligand, have been explored as means of predicting cardiovascular disease (CVD) (2). Moreover, chronic inflammation has been shown to associate with alterations of lipid and lipoprotein metabolism (3). A more atherogenic lipid profile, characterized by increased triglyceride (TG), small, dense LDLs, and decreased HDL cholesterol (HDL-C), is common among patients with chronic inflammatory diseases such as HIV and rheumatoid arthritis and metabolic abnormalities with a strong inflammatory basis, including obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome (4–8). Moreover, those patients typically experience an elevated postprandial lipemia (PPL) (4, 9–11), which leads to the production of atherogenic triglyceride-rich lipoprotein (TRL) and activation of thrombotic processes (12, 13). It has been well documented that PPL response varies considerably between individuals and is subject to genetic regulation. Thus, many studies have reported that genetic variants of genes involved in the lipid and lipoprotein metabolic pathway are associated with the extent and magniThis study was supported by contract 53-K06-5-10 from NIH and 58-1950-9001 from the US Department of Agriculture (Agriculture Research Service) and by NIH Heart, Lung and Blood Institute grants U 01 HL72524, Genetic and Environmental Determinants of Triglycerides and HL54776. Manuscript received 24 September 2007 and in revised form 19 February 2008 and in re-revised form 15 April 2008. Published, JLR Papers in Press, April 16, 2008. DOI 10.1194/jlr.P700033-JLR200 Abbreviations: CVD, cardiovascular disease; GOLDN, Genetics of Lipid Lowering Drugs and Diet Network; IL-6, interleukin-6; PPL, postprandial lipemia; SNP, single-nucleotide polymorphism; TG, triglyceride; TRL, TG-rich lipoprotein. To whom correspondence should be addressed. e-mail: email@example.com The online version of this article (available at http://www.jlr.org) contains supplementary data in the form of four tables. This article is available online at http://www.jlr.org Journal of Lipid Research Volume 49, 2008 1839 at P E N N S T A T E U N IV E R S IT Y , on F ebuary 3, 2013 w w w .j.org D ow nladed fom 0.DC1.html http://www.jlr.org/content/suppl/2008/04/18/P700033-JLR20 Supplemental Material can be found at:


Investor protection is important in that it is ultimately connected to the development of the nation's economy as well as the capital market. And disclosure is recognized as a major method for investor protection. This article aims to suggest improvements of disclosure system of asset-backed securities in the primary market. For this, this paper will examine the mechanism that investment information on asset-backed securities are offered to investors in Korean primary market and the U.S., where separate disclosure regulation was adopted for asset-backed securities. And then, it will make suggestions based on the implications from the system of the U.S. In Korea, concerning offering information to investors in asset backed securities, both of the Asset-Backed Securitization Act and the Capital Market and Financial Investment Business Act apply. Since, however, the two laws have different purposes of legislation, an issue of duplication arises. Also, whether liability for the contents of disclosure documents is imposed on an appropriate party and whether meaningful information is provided to investors are questioned. Against these issues, this article suggests that the roles of the each law should be distinguished, matters on issuance and disclosure of asset-backed securities should be unified under the Capital market and Financial Investment Business Act. Also, detailed disclosure items needs to be prescribed by relevant laws and regulations and a transaction participant other than a SPC should bear the duty of disclosure, and detailed disclosure items should be stipulated by law. But improving disclosure alone cannot be the ultimate solution for investor protection in structured finance products. For more thorough protection, the roles of intermediaries and strict supervision by the financial authority are important, and financial educating programs are constantly offered to investors.


Objective: The present study systematically analyzed the characteristics of ergonomic layout optimization methods by a comprehensive literature survey. Background: Although layout design methods for ergonomic placement of controls and displays on a console have been developed, understanding of their characteristics is lacking. Method: The present study analyzed layout optimization papers published past 20 years from the following four aspects: optimization model, optimization algorithm, design principle, and constraint/assumption. Results: The existing layout optimization methods based on various optimization techniques consider only a partial set of four layout principles(importance, frequency of use, sequence of use, and functional grouping) and two ergonomic criteria(visibility and reach). In addition, the existing methods oversimplify components in various sizes, shapes, and angles by assuming the equality of the components in size and shape. Conclusion: A more effective layout optimization method is needed which considers the layout principles and ergonomic criteria in a comprehensive manner and reflect the diversity of components in size and shape. Application: The identified characteristics on the existing layout optimization methods can be applicable to development of a better ergonomic console layout design method.


Two a strains of Saccharornyces cerevisiae, carrying complementary genetic markers, were arrested for 3 h with a-factor. These were then protoplasted, prior to fusion using polyethylene glycol. The number of viable fusion products was enhanced by a factor of 20 as compared with unarrested controls.


Abstract A Timoshenko beam finite element suitable for vehicle-track vibration analysis is proposed and is applied to a jointed railway track. In several simulation models, the track vibration excited by a train running on the rail is formulated as a dynamic problem where a sequence of concentrated loads moves on the discretely supported Timoshenko beam. The external force is then defined by the concentrated load. The Timoshenko beam subjected to concentrated loads deforms with the slope discontinuity at the loading points. This deformation cannot be represented by the usual finite elements, which causes the fictitious responses of the beam. The present finite element model removes the undesirable response by completely modelling the slope discontinuity. This is achieved by the TIM7 element with the piecewise-linear hat functions. The jointed track model constructed by this finite element is employed to predict the impulsive wheel—track contact force excited by the wheel passage on rail joints. The rail joints with fishplates are of great concern to track deterioration, the settlement of ballast track and the failure of track components. In the present paper the effects of train speed and gap size of the joints on the impact force are assessed from simulation results.


Correlation based stereo matching has achieved outstanding performance, which pursues cost volume between two feature maps. Unfortunately, current methods with a fixed model do not work uniformly well across various datasets, greatly limiting their real-world applicability. To tackle this issue, this paper proposes a new perspective to dynamically calculate correlation for robust stereo matching. A novel Uncertainty Guided Adaptive Correlation (UGAC) module is introduced to robustly adapt the same model for different scenarios. Specifically, a variance-based uncertainty estimation is employed to adaptively adjust the sampling area during warping operation. Additionally, we improve the traditional non-parametric warping with learnable parameters, such that the position-specific weights can be learned. We show that by empowering the recurrent network with the UGAC module, stereo matching can be exploited more robustly and effectively. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our method achieves state-of-the-art performance over the ETH3D, KITTI, and Middlebury datasets when employing the same fixed model over these datasets without any retraining procedure. To target real-time applications, we further design a lightweight model based on UGAC, which also outperforms other methods over KITTI benchmarks with only 0.6 M parameters.


According to the present situation and demand of spacecraft product develop,this paper discusses the implication of digital manufacturing,proposes the general ideas of spacecraft digital manufacturing,and studies the key links,including information flow pass,process control and closed loop,and support conditions,finally proposes advice for the issues of engineering application,such as establishing and implementing the relevant management and standard system,paying attention to information flow pass and closed loop control etc.


A multi-hole controllable orifice valve is provided to allow a movable disk to rotate by installing a roller at two sides of a roller guide groove. A multi-hole controllable orifice valve comprises a fixed disk(30) having a plurality of disk holes, and a movable disk(20) installed at the front of the fixed disk(30). The movable disk (20) rotates with rotation power from a valve stem(12). A roller guide groove(26) having a certain length is formed at the outer surface of the movable disk (20). A roller(27) is inserted into the roller guide groove(26) and has an outer side supported by a disk guide(28). The disk guide(28) is fixed to the fixed disk(30). The roller(27) inserted into the roller guide groove (26) rotates while closely making contact with the movable disk (20) and the disk guide(28).


Robert Simpson died on 21 November 1997, leaving behind him an impressive body of works. At its core are 11 symphonies and 15 string quartets; also three concertos, two string quintets, sonatas, some choral music, even some much admired pieces for brass band. While a thoroughly individual, music-as-process modernism imbues all he wrote, the prevailing image of Simpson is that of the conservative classicist, clinging to the apparent certainties of antiquated forms and diatonic tonality – a view that begins to some extent with the composer himself. He is widely known for his influential writings on Beethoven, Nielsen, and Bruckner among others; writings that, along the way, fiercely and polemically extol the enduring virtues of symphonic composition, manifestly swimming against the tide of contemporary music of the mid-century. Simpson's symphonism was always ideologically opposed to the post-war trends towards total mechanization, as much as to the experiments with extreme irrationality and chance in the 1960s.


Underwater target echo acoustic scattering is an important research basis for active sonar target detection and recognition, the underwater environment is complex and changeable, increases the difficulty of underwater target detection, access to accurate and efficient target echo parameters help to achieve the detection and identification of underwater targets. In order to solve the problem of estimating the echo parameters of underwater targets, a new fast solution method based on compressed sensing is proposed. Compressed sensing algorithms are used to compress and sample the echo signals, construct a data dictionary, and use alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) optimizes the solution framework, decomposes the original global problem into sub-problems, and constrains the relationship between the sub-problems to obtain the solution of the original problem. Through data simulation analysis, the algorithm in this paper can not only effectively avoid large amounts of data the problem, but also reduce the complexity of time and the results are close to Cramer-Rao Bound.


The article discusses what targets were set in implementing a state alcohol monopoly in the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, how it was introduced and deployed and what results were achieved, the Kursk Governoratc being taken as a typical governorate of that time. Special emphasis is placed on the impact the improved vodka sale practice had on consumer welfare and the consumption of strong alcohol drinks.


Along with the rise of people generated content on social sites, sentiment analysis has gained more importance. Aspect Based Sentiment Analysis (ABSA) is a task of identifying the sentiment at aspect level. It has more importance than sentiment analysis from commercial point of view. To the best of our knowledge, there is very few work on ABSA in Urdu language. Recent work on ABSA has limitations. Only predefined aspects are identified in a specific domain. So our focus is on the creation and evaluation of dataset for ABSA in Urdu language which will support multiple aspects. This dataset will provide a baseline evaluation for ABSA systems.


During physical rehabilitation, patients are requested to generate muscular forces related to a perceived maximal force. Unfortunately, limited research is available regarding individuals' ability to accurately perceive and produce relative muscular forces during gross motor movements. Some studies from psychophysics indicate that the perception of increments in muscular force grows exponentially (e.g., Cooper, Grimby,Jones, & Edwards, 1979; Kumar & Simmonds, 1994; Stevens & Mack, 1959), consistent with Stevens' (1957) power law that specifies equal stimulus ratios yield equal response ratios. However, force production in each of those studies followed three trials of maximal voluntary effort, which provided each individual an opportunity to establish a perceptual range. This approach is not applicable for physical rehabilitation purposes when maximal force production by a limb is limited by injury. Likewise, a maximal force production immediately before a submaximal effort might bias perceived force (Hutton, Enoka, & Suzuki, 1984). Thus,Jackson and Dishman (2000) used psychophysical methods to quantify errors made by individuals performing a chest press on a hydraulic dynamometer during submaximal


Digital literacy in health is a current challenge for citizens. Having this skill is a fundamental element of e-health services. However, people frequently do not have the essential skills to find, understand, and appraise online health information and apply their knowledge to make health decisions. For this reason, we have designed a serious game entitled "Conversational Adventure for IC-Health" for training children and adolescents in digital health skills. In particular, the principal elements of the game are described. Also, the narrative structure and the educational contents worked through the conversational game are presented.


second incoherent point source illuminating the samescreen, on axis, but in a different position, will produce another set of self images. Iseasy to show that if its position fits with one of the self images of the first pointsource, then both sets are in consonance. Exactly the same procedure can be applied to athird source, a fourth source, an so on. More over, not only the self images are in con—sonance but all the diffraction patterns associated with the screen. This means thatthere are different position for a point source along the axis that produces exactly thesame diffraction field of these screen.If we multiply the Montgomery ring by a second amplitud screen, then the resultant pat———tern will exhibits the same behavior. We call Montgomery patterns to the diffraction patterns produced in both cases. In this sense, if we choose one of those screens (Montgomery rings x amplitud screen), illuminate it with i


This study aims to determine the effect of customer relationship management programs on customer loyality in PT XYZ. The dimention that measured to the variable X / independent (customer relationship management) are including one to one marketing, marketing continuity, partnering programs and technology. While variable Y / dependent (customer loyalty) measured by r epeat purchase, refers other, across product, dan immunity. This study used a sample of 50 respondents which are the customer of PT XYZ who have used the product of PT.XYZ during period more than 6 months. The sampling method that used is purposive sampling technique. Validity and reliability was conducted to test the instrument . Furthermore the classical assumption test and simple linear regression analysis are used too. These results indicate that the customer relationship management program has a significant positive effect on customer loyalty. Based on the results of R 2 which is 0.887, shows that customer relationship management in this study provide proportion to customer loyalty of 88.7%. Suggested to PT XYZ for the more intense in dealing with customers and doing personal touch to the customers. And for further research recommended to add some other variables such as personal selling because suspected that there is direct influence of direct communication from personal selling which will affect customer loyalty and customer satisfaction.


We evaluated the mathematical equivalence between the two-compartment pharmacokinetic model of the neuromuscular blocking agent atracurium and a hydraulic analogue that includes harmacodynamic principles.


There are some basic regulations that are required for all food processing facilities to follow. These regulations are current Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP's) and/or Sanitation Standard Operation Procedures (SSOP's). GMP's are regulations established to ensure that every aspect of a new product (including formulation, processing, packaging, labeling, and distribution) meets standards to deliver the safest and best quality product to the consumer. GMP's are defined by the Code of Federal Regulations (21 CFR 110), entitle Current Good Manufacturing Practice in Manufacturing, Packing, or Holding Human Food, and are fundamental to food safety. The topics of focus in 21 CFR 110 include personnel, plant and grounds, sanitary operations, sanitary facilities and controls, equipment and utensils, processes and controls, warehousing and distribution, and natural or unavoidable defects. GMP's are a regulatory requirement for all foods except for egg, poultry, and meat products. Sanitation regulations for meat and poultry require that the food produced is wholesome and produced under sanitary conditions which are included in specific SSOP's. The USDA developed SSOP's as a regulatory basis for written procedures for sanitation activities. Producers of jams, jellies, and preserves must be sure that their products meet established standards of identity. The standards of identity and regulations for jams, jellies, preserves, fruit butters, and related products can be found in 21 CFR 150.


This article explores U.S.-China trade relations and economic distrust. Generally speaking, the U.S.-China trade relationship has tilted in favor of China since the 1980s. There is long-term distrust between the United States and China on intellectual property rights, renminbi exchange rates, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), rare earth metals, and state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Given this economic distrust, the United States and China have engaged in limited cooperation and coordination on issues where their national interests are identical or partially identical, but are likely to compete with each other more than ever before on other matters. Areas of cooperation include clean energy, climate change, and China's huge holdings of U.S. treasury bonds; areas of competition include intellectual property rights, intellectual property theft, currency exchange rates, and investment access to one another's markets.


Byron,in his earlier stage of works,set his view from the perspective of national liberation and independence,and described Napoelon as "the tyrant of the world" and "the vulture of Gallia" in a contempt tone,for he exemplified Washington,the Saint,as the frame of reference.But in the middle and later stages of his works,viewed from the whole,he took the "time of Post-Napoelon" as a mirror,and regarded Napoelon as "a great but not the worst person".Therefore,Napoelon,the image of love and hatred,admiration and despise,expectation and disappointment,regret and curses,has been completely set up.Thus,Byron′s heroic outlook and political aspiration have been fully expressed with these images.


OBJECTIVE To prepare the stealth matrine liposomes with higher entrapment efficiency.METHODS Stealth matrine liposomes were prepared by thin-film dispersion,pH gradient and ammonium sulfate gradient methods.The effects of different preparation methods on drug loading and the different influencing factors in preparation of the stealth matrine liposomes were also studied.RESULTS The entrapment efficiency was 52.4% by ammonium sulfate gradient method.The incubation temperature was 50 ℃,the incubation time was 1.5 h,the ultrasound time was 10 min,the dialyzing time was 3 d,HSPC∶CHOL was 2︰1,the ratio of drug to lipid was between 0.04 and 0.067,the concentration of ammonium sulfate was between 0.2 mol·L-1 and 0.3 mol·L-1.CONCLUSION The ammonium sulfate gradient method can be used to prepare the stealth matrine liposomes.Incubation temperature,incubation time,dialyzing time,the ratio of drug to lipid and the concentration of ammonium sulfate are main factors influencing entrapment efficiency.


Intended for the high voltage gain, high efficiency and stable long-term operation of DC/DC converters for high-power charging system, a topology for four-phase interleaved DC/DC converters for high-power charging is proposed. Compared with traditional boost converter topology, the proposed topology Improve system efficiency greatly under the premise of ensuring the boost ratio. Experimental results show that the maximum efficiency of the converter reaches 95.37%. Compared with traditional boost converters, the proposed converter offers obvious advantages in efficiency under the conditions that the output voltage and load are variable.


Influenced by COVID-19, online learning has become one of the most important forms of education in the world. In the era of intelligent education, knowledge tracing (KT) can provide excellent technical support for individualized teaching. For online learning, we come up with a new knowledge tracing method that integrates mathematical exercise representation and association of exercise (ERAKT). In the aspect of exercise representation, we represent the multi-dimensional features of the exercises, such as formula, text and associated concept, by using ontology replacement method, language model and embedding technology, so we can obtain the unified internal representation of exercise. Besides, we utilize the bidirectional long short memory neural network to acquire the association between exercises, so as to predict his performance in future exercise. Extensive experiments on a real dataset clearly proved the effectiveness of ERAKT method, they also verified that adding multi-dimensional features and exercise association can indeed improve the accuracy of prediction. [For the full proceedings, see ED615472.]


Bacterial cellulose (BC) shows good potentiality as active packaging material. However, bacterial cellulose itself has no antimicrobial activity to prevent microbial contamination. To achieve antimicrobial activity, e-poly lysine (e-PL) was incorporated into BC by immersing BC in e-PL solution. Investigations into the effects of e-PL concentrations and contact times on incorporation of e-PL into cellulose membranes showed that the lowest e-PL concentration and the shortest time for production of an effective antimicrobial cellulose membrane (e-PL/BC) were 400 mg/l and 2 hours, respectively. The antimicrobial cellulose membrane was characterized by FTIR, XRD and AFM. It was found that e-PL is incorporated into the BC network, and the antimicrobial cellulose membrane is not a simple mixture of BC and e-PL. In this study e-PL/BC membranes are demonstrated to have potential applicability as antimicrobial packaging films.


INTRODUCTION The transition to energy efficient LED light sources causes certain problems with the accuracy of measurements of their luminous flux. These problems are associated with two components: reproducing the luminous flux for LED sources and transferring the unit to the working measuring instruments. The first component is related to the fact that the reproduction of the luminous flux of reference lamps in most measurement standards in the world is carried out using integrating sphere photometers. As a rule, they are spheres with a diameter of 1.5 meters or more (Figure 1).


This paper presents a general purpose of modeling and simulating multibody dynamics in Maple and Maplesim. The method is exemplified by modeling 2DOF Robot arm in Maple using Newton-Euler formulation algorithm. Drag-and-drop Physical modeling tool in Maplesim is used to simulate the dynamics of the same robotic system. Results from both Maple and Maplesim model are compared. The paper shows in tutorial form how Maple and Maplesim are very excellent environment for modeling and simulating multibody systems.


The first direct, model-independent measurement is presented of the modulus of the Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa (CKM) matrix elements |Vtb |, |Vtd |, and |Vts |, in final states enriched in single top quark t-channel events. The analysis uses protonproton collision data from the LHC, collected during 2016 by the CMS experiment, at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1. Processes directly sensitive to these matrix elements are considered at both the production and decay vertices of the top quark. In the standard model hypothesis of CKM unitarity, a lower limit of |Vtb | > 0.970 is measured at the 95% confidence level. Several theories beyond the standard model are considered, and by releasing all constraints among the involved parameters, the values |Vtb | = 0.988± 0.024, and |Vtd |2 + |Vts |2 = 0.06± 0.06, where the uncertainties include both statistical and systematic components, are measured. Submitted to Physics Letters B c © 2020 CERN for the benefit of the CMS Collaboration. CC-BY-4.0 license ∗See Appendix A for the list of collaboration members ar X iv :2 00 4. 12 18 1v 1 [ he pex ] 2 5 A pr 2 02 0


The design and development of an all-digital sonobuoy receiver capable of receiving multiple RF channels, processing the signals, and distributing the information for acoustic signal processing in a suitable format are discussed. The multichannel digital sonobuoy receiver consists of an analog RF/IF conversion stage, analog-to-digital (A/D) converter, polyphase filter section, frequency demodulators, and digital audio filters, plus the overall receiver controller. The dynamic range of a digital receiver is limited primarily by the speed, resolution, and linearity of the A/D converter. The architecture and design of the receiver are flexible enough to be useful in other applications where a large number of channels have to be monitored simultaneously, such as surveillance receivers.<<ETX>>


Present-day demands on combustion equipment are increasing the need for improved understanding and prediction of turbulent combustion. Large eddy simulation (LES), in which the large-scale flow is resolved on the grid, leaving only the small-scale flow to be modeled, provides a natural framework for combustion simulations, as the transient nature of the flow is resolved. In most situations, however, the flame is thinner than the LES grid, and subgrid modeling is required to also handle the turbulence-chemistry interactions. Here, we examine the predictive capabilities of the flamelet LES models, such as the Flamelet Progress Variable LES (LES-FPV) models, and the finite rate chemistry LES models, such as the LES-Thickened Flame Model (LES-TFM), the partially stirred reactor model (LES-PaSR) and the Eddy Dissipation Concept (LES-EDC) model. These different combustion LES models are used here to study the reacting flow in an axisymmetric dump combustor at a Reynolds number of 55,800, the Damköhler number of 167 and a Karlowitz number of 0.15, placing the flame in the corrugated flame regime. The computational results are compared to experimental data of velocity and temperature to examine predictive capabilities of the different models.


A review of: Jan Karmali, Hugh O'Shaughnessy and Andrew Pollak, Nicaragua Dictatorship and Revolution, London: Latin America Bureau, 1979. Pp. 50. $1.50. Latin America Bureau, Violence and Fraud in El Salvador: A Report on Current Political Events in El Salvador, London: Latin America Bureau, 1977. Pp. 37, $3. Roger Plant, Guatemala Unnatural Disaster, London: Latin America Bureau, 1978. Pp. 121. $3. J. Ann Zammit, The Belize Issue, London: Latin America Bureau, 1979. Pp. 77. $3.


Abstract Coastally trapped wind reversals (CTWRs) occur periodically in the lowest several hundred meters of the marine boundary layer west of California and disrupt the northerly flow that typically occurs during summer. South winds and coastal fog or low stratus accompany the CTWR, which propagates northward along the coast. A CTWR was observed off the California coast during late June 2006 that originated in the California Bight and propagated northward to Cape Mendocino during the subsequent 2-day period. This CTWR event was explored by the University of Wyoming King Air research aircraft to document the primary characteristics of the wind reversal. Numerical simulations of the CTWR event using the Weather Research and Forecast modeling system were conducted to compare with observations and to provide a broader picture of the CTWR structure and evolution. An analysis of the forcing mechanisms responsible for the June 2006 CTWR event is presented. It is demonstrated that the mature CTWR for this case i...


Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) based an all fiber-optic sensor has been proposed in this paper. It can be used for ubiquitous sensing of various refractive indices of different analytes present in the affinity layer. This novel sensor is composed of a designed nanostructured metamaterial of metal-graphene combinational 3D-layers. To enhance its performance, an engineered analyte-sensing layer consisting of nano-cuboidal periodic structures of graphene (Cgr) and gold (Au) on top of planer silver (Ag) have undergone a multi-step optimization process for maximum light intensity absorption. Applying finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) and analytical model methods, the sub-wavelength optimized thickness layers with the respective permutation have been calculated as Cgr = 1.03 nm, Au = 5 nm, and Ag = 24 nm respectively. Performance parameters in the form of sensitivity, detection accuracy, and quality factor have been obtained as 152°RIU−1, 0.191 Degree−1, and 29.13 RIU−1 respectively. Furthermore, the reflected intensity dip in the SPR spectrum is found to be 93.75% more steeper than its corresponding plane-layered counterpart. Additionally, Cgr nano-cuboids increase the analyte adsorption property of the sensor.


The MCSCF and MRCI methods have been used to study the electronic spectra of SCnH radicals for n = 2−4. Vertical excitation energies and oscillator strengths have been computed for a number of states. The lowest-lying excited doublet states are due to an excitation from the highest inner-valence π orbital to the HOMO, which is of π type. The corresponding vertical excitation energies are compared to the experimental results. We encountered very intense transitions to high-lying 2Π terms [42Π ← X2Π (n = 2), (6,7)2Π ← X2Π (n = 3), and (7,8,9)2Π ← X2Π (n = 4)], as well as moderately intense transitions to lower-lying terms [12Π ← X2Π, 12Σ+ ← X2Π (n = 2), (2,3,4)2Π ← X2Π (n = 3), and 12Π ← X2Π (n = 4)]. These intense transitions are frequent in cumulenic carbon chains but have not been registered so far in the present systems. The X2Π−14Π vertical energy gaps are (in electronvolts) 4.94 (n = 2), 2.87 (n = 3), and 3.71 (n = 4); the adiabatic electronic energy gaps should be about 1.95, 0.42, and 0.93 eV smalle...


The combination of cold plasma and ionic liquids is very promising for many applications in chemical syntheses and nano material fabrication. Using NMR and FTIR analyses, we confirmed for the first time that imidazolium ionic liquids remain stable under the influence of a glow discharge plasma. Reduction of HAuCl 4 and PdCl 2 using an argon glow discharge was performed at room temperature for the formation of metal nano particles in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate. TEM and XRD showed that the Au particles were hexagonal with average sizes of 32.7 nm, while the Pd particles were spherical with average size of 5.0 nm.


Contact TCAD For further information and inquiries: email@example.com The advent of 3D NAND flash memory marks the most profound breakthrough in the memory industry over the last decade. It overcomes the lithography and few-electron limitations of 2D NAND flash architecture and enables continued density scaling by vertically stacking bit cells to tens or even hundreds of layers. The resulting arrays of tall cylindrical columns form NAND strings and scale up the bit density at decreasing cost with improved reliability and performance. The number of stacking layers has recently surpassed 100 and is expected to exceed 200 in the next few years.


Magnetic hysteresis loops have been measured for YBa2Cu3O6+x, GdBa2Cu3O6+x and Tl2Ba2Ca2Cu3O10-y films at different temperatures with a vibrating sample magnetometer. Based on Bean model, magnetic critical current density Jcm has been derived approximately. The field and temperature dependence of Jcm for all samples can be written as: Jcm = Jc0(T) × f(B,T), where f(B,T) = 1 - Aln(B/B0(T)), which is similar to the transport critical density strongly affected by flux creep: Jct = Jc0(B,T)(1 - (kBT/U0)ln(BΩd/Ec)). The extraordinary similarity suggests that Jcm is determined not only by flux pinning but also by flux creep. In the first formula, f(B,T) may be correlated with the effect of flux creep on Jcm, and Jc0(T) is determined by flux pinning. Jc0(T) is independent of magnetic field and is proportional to (Tc - T). Similar results have also been found for other samples. It may be the common characteristic of high-Tc superconductors. Magnetic relaxation of YBa2Cu3O6+x and GdBa2Cu3O6+x films has been measured at LN2 temperature. Using the equation of Hagen et al., effective activation energy U0 has been deduced, which is about 0.3 eV, one order bigger than the value obtained by A = kBT/U0. U0 is almost independent of the field in the field range selected.


tubes. In the ovary pathology group (45 tubes) we found 30 (66.6%) Fallopian tubes with moderate changes and 15 (33.3%) with severe changes. The uterine pathology group (49 tubes) included 24 (48.9%) Fallopian tubes with moderate abnormalities and 25 (51 %) with severe abnormalities. In the control group (107 tubes) we found 31 mild (28.9%), 54 moderate (50.5%) and 22 severe (20.5%) stage changes in the Fallopian tubes.


Background : Although patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) frequently exhibit various extraintestinal manifestations, pancreatic disorder is not generally considered as an extraintestinal complication of IBD. We investigated pancreatic dysfunction and imaging abnormalities in patients with IBD. We estimated serum and urinary pancreatic enzyme levels for evaluation of pancreatic function in 42 patients with IBD, including 29 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and 13 patients with Crohn's disease (CD). In addition, some of the patients were examined by ultrasonography, abdominal computed tomography, and endoscopic retrograde pancreatography (ERP) for evaluation of pancreatic imaging. Elevation of serum or urinary pancreatic enzyme concentrations was observed in 23.8 % of patients, and abnormal pancreatic imaging, in 26.7 %. In 4 patients, the pancreatic enzyme concentrations decreased or normalized during remission of IBD. In one patient initial ERP showed irregularity of the main pancreatic duct, and follow-up ERP indicated normal appearances of the duct after remission of IBD. Our observations suggest that pancreatic dysfunction and imaging abnormalities develop in patients with IBD ; moreover, these may relate to the activity of disease and resolve when colonic inflammation is brought into remission.


Wayne 'Lockjaw' Schwartz (rhymes with 'sports'!), thought to be the first Jewish batsman to have hit .300 in two different millennia, grew up in the largely Jewish suburb of Brookcove Hills Heights, the son of Tillie Schwartz, a schoolteacher, and Len Schwartz, a salesman. His grandfather, Yussel, was a rabbi back in Lithuania. Wayne attended Hebrew school and was bar mitzvahed at Congregation B'nai Beth Tikva Shalom. Wayne acknowledges that he rarely goes to services anymore, but 'I still care about the traditions--you know, family, the candles. And two years ago I signed autographs at a Hadassah function. CRUNCH.'


Abstract Robots are now starting to be developed and used as receptionists in health applications. In this regard, it is important that robots' behavioural skills are developed and researched so that people have appropriate and comfortable interactions. Smiling and use of first name are two more important social communication skills used during human interactions. While smiling and use of first name are often employed by robots in human interactions, the effect of these behaviours on perceptions of receptionist robots has not yet been experimentally investigated. This study explored the effects of robot smiling and robot use of the participant's first name on perceptions of robot friendliness, mind, and personality, as well as attitudes and smiling behaviour. Forty participants interacted with a medical receptionist robot four times, in a two by two repeated measures design. Both smiling and use of first name had significant positive effects on participants' perceptions of robot personality. Robot smiling also showed significant effects on participants' overall attitudes towards robots, ratings of robot friendliness, and perceptions of the robot's mind, and increased the frequency of participants' own smiling. There were no significant interaction effects. Robot smiling in particular can enhance user perceptions of robots and increase reciprocal smiling.


PURPOSE: A plasma water treatment apparatus is provided to effectively sterilize microorganisms and decompose organic materials by maximizing the activity of active gas in a target. CONSTITUTION: A plasma water treatment apparatus(100) includes a receiving chamber part(110), a dielectric pipe(120), a core electrode(130), a photocatalytic porous network(150), a gas supplying part(140), a gas-liquid reactor(160), and a drainage bath(170). The dielectric pipe crosses over a target in the receiving chamber part. The core electrode is arranged in the dielectric pipe to be spaced apart from the target. Gas, supplied into the dielectric pipe by the gas supplying part, is exposed to plasma reaction generated by the core electrode. Gas containing active species, generated by the plasma reaction, is supplied into the gas-liquid reactor to primarily treat the target. The primarily treated target is supplied to the target inlet of the receiving chamber part. The drainage bath re-circulates non-reacted gas active species to the gas inlet. The target is secondarily treated by UV rays.


Many interesting combinatorial problems were found to be NP-complete. Since there is little hope to solve them fast in the worst case, researchers look for algorithms which are fast just "on average". This matter is sensitive to the choice of a particular NP-complete problem and a probability distribution of its instances. Some of these tasks were easy and some not. But one needs a way to distinguish the "difficult on average" problems. Such negative results could not only save "positive" efforts but may also be used in areas (like cryptography) where hardness of some problems is a frequent assumption. A concept of "NP-complete random problems" proposed below may serve this purpose.


A need for an efficient life care management of building portfolio is becoming increasingly due to increase in aging building infrastructure globally. Appropriate structural engineering practices along with facility management can assist in optimising the remaining life cycle costs for existing public building portfolio. A more precise decision to either demolish, refurbish, do nothing or rebuilt option for any typical building under investigation is needed. In order to achieve this, the status of health of the building needs to be assessed considering several aspects including economic and supply-demand considerations. An investment decision for a refurbishment project competing with other capital works and/or refurbishment projects can be supported by emerging methodology residual service life assessment. This paper discusses challenges in refurbishment projects of public buildings and with a view towards development of residual service life assessment methodology