This reviews the choice of polarization axes in aperture synthesis arrays for remote sensing of the Earth, in particular when using dual polarization receivers. In this case, it is shown that there is the freedom of adopting rotated polarization axes across the array without signal loss. This is not possible in systems having dual-polarized antennas connected to single-channel receivers, and then, polarization time multiplexing requires the same antenna polarization at any time in all elements of the array if the signal loss is to be avoided. The flexibility allowed by the first type of instrument leads to a simpler antenna design and system architecture, providing a clear advantage over other polarization schemes. The review of the choice of the polarization axes is performed in the frame of the development of an advanced antenna for a future L-band aperture synthesis radiometer, but the analysis is general and applicable to any instrument of this kind. This is a study undertaken by the European Space Agency aiming at a possible future high-resolution follow-on mission to the currently flying Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission.


We study Cauchy problems associated to
partial differential equations with infinite delay where the
history function is modified by an evolution family. Using
sophisticated tools from semigroup theory such as evolution
semigroups, extrapolation spaces, or the critical spectrum, we
prove well-posedness and characterize the asymptotic behavior of
the solution semigroup by an operator-valued characteristic
equation.


we showed in this paper the possibility of producing caustic soda directly from solar powered electrolytic diaphragm cells in comparison with present conventional modes of electrochemical production.,The results showed that this method has superior economic characteristics. The non-asbestos diaphragm cell showed similar trend with the conventional asbestos diaphragm cell performances indicating higher yield of caustic soda per d.c Watt. The asbestos and non-asbestos diaphragms served to hinder the formation of unwanted substances as well as permit reasonable production of the desired products. Quantitative analysis showed that the quantity and concentration of caustic soda produced varied with the current and voltage obtained from the solar panels which were dependent upon the intensity of the sun on any particular day and the length of time the panels were exposed to sunlight.(1)


We thank Rogers et al 1 for their comments on our recent article.2 Although it is possible that there may be some under-reporting of chest X-ray (CXR) requests in The Health Improvement Network primary care data set, it is highly unlikely that the associations that we identified in our paper2 are influenced by this because the practice of under-reporting of CXRs is unlikely to be related to deaths from early cancer. For this reason, if anything, our findings may even …


As a potentially large Ag-Au epithermal deposit, Primorskoye comprises the following three areas: Kholodny, Spiridonych, and Teply. This deposit is located in the Omsukchan district of the Magadan Region, where similar deposits, including Dukat, Lunnoye, Goltsovoye, Arylakh, Tidit, and Perevalnoye, have developed. The deposit can be attributed to the Kalalagian volcano-tectonic depression and is localized in a flat-lying rock mass in the Late Cretaceous ignimbrites and rhyolites having thicknesses of greater than 700 m, which is cut through by numerous dykes of medium and major composition. According to the drilling data, the solid mass of leucocratic granites is located in deposits at a depth of 400–500 m with outcrops in the northeastern part of the ore field. The presence of Bi-containing galena and matildite, the availability of mid and high temperature facies of metasomatites (epidote and actinolite), and the specific physical and chemical conditions during the formation of the epithermal Ag-Au ores indicate the intrusive position above and the role of granitoids as generators of high temperature magmatic fluids, which introduced Bi and heated the rocks enclosing the mineralization. The geochemical features of the ores are well correlated with their mineral compositions. The high concentrations of Mn and Ag, elevated concentration of Au, low concentrations of Cu, Pb, Zn, Sb, As, Bi, and Te, low sum of REE, and negative Eu- and positive Се-anomalies were observed. The high values of the Te/Se, Sr/Ba, Y/Ho, and U/Th indicators in the ores are associated with the deposit location in the zone of granitoid massif effect. Further, the physical and chemical parameters of ore formation in the Teply area are unusual and are characterized by high temperatures, low concentrations of salts, and fluid density, which are indicative of the typical "dry steam" conditions. The obtained results allow the Primorskoye epithermal deposit to be attributed to the intermediate class. The information present in the article is practically valuable for the regional forecast and metallogenic developments as well as for searching and assessing the epithermal Ag-Au deposits.


The article considers the problem of teachers' professional burnout. Changing perceptions as to the phenomenon of professional burnout are generalized according to the historical stage of its study. The main theoretical approaches to the definition of the notion and psycho-physiological burnout structure are found. The factor analysis of teachers' professional burnout and stressor classification of professional character are presented. The stages of teachers' professional burnout and the main manifestation of psycho-physiological burnout phenomenon are determined. The classification of professional burnout symptoms is found. The influence of higher school teachers' psycho-physiological burnout formation on the level of pedagogical activity efficiency and education system functioning in general is analyzed. The level of application topicality and main approaches to the prevention measures of professional burnout are considered. Individual technology of psycho-physiological prevention is described. The programs of group form of professional burnout prevention are presented. The list of personality qualities of a specialist is proposed; their formation and development help to reduce the tendency to professional burnout. The methods of acquiring skills for stress management providing control for personal social and physical "I", the changes of consciousness content, reproduction processes, suggestion and rational thinking are described. The universal methods of resistance to stress factors of professional character are proposed.


The dynamic stability of a surface-piercing plate advancing with high forward speed in horizontal plane is investigated in the scope of linear theory. The hydrodynamic forces on the plate in sway and yaw are presented in terms of frequency and forward speed dependent added mass and damping coefficients. Flow separation from the trailing edge of the plate is considered. A time domain boundary integral method using linear distribution of Rankine sources and dipoles on the plate, free surface and a vortex sheet is used to calculate these hydrodynamic coefficients numerically. Comparison between the current numerical results and previous numerical and experimental results are presented. Using linear dynamic stability analysis the influence of hydrodynamic coefficients on the plate's stability is investigated as a simplified alternative to a semi-displacement vessel.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


The Diabetes Mellitus II type is a chronic pathology typical of the third age. With the course of the illness the person affected by DM can present long term complications that aggravate the clinical picture. Systemic diseases such as the diabetes mellitus can influence very much the diet of the affected patient; and besides that the dehydration joined to the hyperglicemia, the neuropathy and the diabetic angiopathy can cause xerestomy. The saliva, important for the organization of the alimentary bolus, dissolving partly the food, makes possible a better contact with the gustatory papillas helping the taste perception, cleans and reduce the attachment of the plaque on dental surface and mucosas and makes better the attachment of the total prothesis to the mucous surface of the maxillaries. The hyposcialia makes difficult the deglutition and the mastication, reduces the prothesis retention and causes oral lesions of the mucosas given by backing lubrification. The absorption of food and its digestion as regard to a diabetic patient, can be modified by the presence of autonomic neuropathy that, even if not clinically evident, aims to increase the intestinal peristalsis up to phenomenon such as the "diarrea diabeticorum". A lack of metabolic compensation as we can deduce from the measurement of the HbA1c,can easily bring infections, micro and macroangiopathy, polyneuropathies,diabetic retinopathy proliferative and not, AOCAI,IRC, ulcers, phlegmous, osteomyelitis to lower limbs diabetic foot and soon. Some of these complications affect the stomatognathic apparatus with connected more frequency and aggressiveness of parodontopathies, easy gingival bleeding, microangiopathy of gingival tissue and profound paradontium, stomatodinia from neuropathy, disgeusia, xerestomy from hyperglycemia, and soon. All this can cause an untimely increase of dental mobility, evidence of loss of tissue of dental support, alveolar ligament-bone-radicul cement and consequently untimely loss of dental elements.
Considering that the correct working of the masticatory apparatus is the first essential phase of a fit digestion, we can understand the importance of a proper dietetic and pharmacological diet that allows the patient to be compensated. The aim of this thesis, besides explaining the clinical pictures of DM, its long term complications and the consequences on the stomatognathic system, is to check whether or not in diabetic patients the deterioration of the chewing apparatus is bigger than in non diabetic persons. The data gathered from the clinical oral examination of 553 diabetic patients have been checked with those of 112 non diabetic patients; all the persons have been treated at the INRCA –Ancona- or at G.Mazzini Hospital-Teramo- and have been screened during these three years.


In order to find the suitable alkali recovery process for linter and reed pulping discharges, the physicochemical properties of the black liquor solids from linters pulping and black liquor solids from reed pulping were analyzed. The swelling volume index, calorific value, and pyrolysis characteristics of five samples of mixed black liquor solids were tested. The kinetics of the combustion process of the samples were further studied. The results showed that the calorific value and swelling index of the reed black liquor was higher and its inorganic content was lower. During the combustion period, the droplet undergoes four stages; drying, devolatilisation or pyrolysis, char burning, and smelt reaction. With the increase of reed pulping black liquor solids in the sample, the activation energy decreased, while the frequency factors increased. As a result, the combustion performance of the mixed solids was significantly improved.


Mechanical errors seriously affect the transmission performance of mechanical structure, especially for high-precision mechanical structure. With the development of virtual simulation technology, the performance test of mechanical structure in virtual environment is gradually applied. Under the background, this paper takes the movable tooth reducer as the research object and puts forward a virtual performance test method by combing test errors with virtual simulation technology. The tooth profile errors of key components of the reducer are obtained by optical scanning, and the simulation test is carried out. Meanwhile, the accuracy of the simulation test is verified by the implementation of vibration test. The results show that both the simulated vibration acceleration and the experimental test vibration acceleration show a double-peak variation trend, and the frequency difference between the two peaks is less than 5%. Therefore, the simulation test method proposed in this paper can effectively evaluate the performance of mechanical structures.


The importance of bridge vibrations induced by moving vehicles, which act as oscillators on a bridge as well as time variant forces, has long been recognized. This vibration can amplify the propagation of existing cracks resulting in further damage to the bridge. It has become one of the causes of reduction in long-term serviceability of the bridge, although major bridge failures are not usually caused directly by moving vehicles. It is also a critical factor to bridge structure fatigue and rapid deterioration since, the vehicle-induced vibration is more critical to bridges with medium to small span; it is worthwhile to investigate the possibility of applying Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) on these bridges. A TMD is a passive type control device with variety of merits in that it has permanent service time and only requires easy management and maintenance efforts and no external power supply source. In order to achieve the above objective, a general formulation of the vehicle-induced bridge vibration controlled with a TMD system is developed here in this paper, which takes into account the road surface conditions. Then, a comprehensive investigation is made to investigate the efficiency of the TMD for suppressing vibrations of bridge under moving vehicles. Such a study is helpful in evaluating the control performance before real control devices are designed in practice. These analytical results will also be useful in carrying out further studies for control strategies suppressing the vehicle-induced bridge vibration


Having a particle size of greater than 2 [mu] m, intergrowth was intergrowth of large crystal, or smaller crystals of titanium silicalite, the olefin epoxidation for the presence of hydrogen peroxide, the catalyst in industrially appropriate speed it has been found that to be effective. The synthesized crystals silica source having a low sodium content, production and selectivity of a high level is shown. The crystals have a low attrition rate and are readily separated by filtration from the product stream.


In this thesis focus has been to increase the knowledge and understanding of some of the mechanisms responsible for drug resistance in acute myeloid leukemia, as well as identify possibilities to p ...


We survey existence and classication of totally umbilic surfaces in the model geometries of Thurston and the Berger spheres. We also discuss the regularity of totally umbilic surfaces.


The effects of nano-sized Pt deposits on TiO2 particles on the photocatalytic kinetics and mechanisms for the degradation of ammonia and trichloroacetate (TCA) in water and gaseous CO oxidation were investigated. Although platinization has been a routine method of TiO2 modification, its effects on photocatalytic reaction mechanisms in pollutant degradation need to be fully understood. TiO2 photocatalytic reactions are usually non-selective mainly because of the strong oxidation potential of OH radicals. (1) By using TiO2 deposited with nano-Pt particles, we are able to oxidize NH3 selectively to N2. While the pure TiO2 quantitatively transforms ammonia into nitrite and nitrate, Pt/TiO2 converts NH3 into N2 with reducing the total nitrogen concentration in the suspension. (2) TCA degrades photocatalytically in the presence or absence of dissolved O2, which proposes that two mechanistic pathways (oxic vs. anoxic) are operative. While the anoxic path is not important on naked TiO2, it becomes dominant on platinized TiO2 surface. Therefore, the introduction of dioxygen in aqueous suspension enhances the rate of TCA degradation on naked TiO2 but inhibits it on Pt/TiO2. (3) Platinum deposition on TiO2 greatly enhances the photooxidation rate of CO and the degree of enhancement strongly depends on the kind of TiO2 substrate. Platinized Hombikat TiO2 shows the best activity. The photocatalytic conversion of CO to CO2 is quantitative in the presence Of O2 and no CO2 is generated in the absence of O2.


The worldwide dissemination of multi drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii strains has caused serious concern and high rate of mortality in recent decades that originate from limited effective antibiotics in the treatment of A. baumannii infections. Myxobacteria are Gram-negative bacteria that are important for their complex lifestyle and production of novel structurally secondary metabolites with diverse bioactivities. In this study, a total of 60 myxobacterial strains were purified by culturing and investigation of 130 soil samples. Secondary metabolite extracts of the selected strains were screened for antibacterial activity against multi-drug resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii. The most potent extracts derived from Stigmatella sp. UTMC 4081, Stigmatella sp. UTMC 4072, and Archangium sp. UTMC 4070 which were investigated by recording percentage of growth inhibition, MIC, MBC, and IC50 values. The results showed that the MIC value of extract No. 4072 was 2.5 μg/ml and its MBC value against A. baumannii recorded as 5 μg/ml. Extract No. 4081 was known to be active with MIC of 2.5 μg/ml and MBC of 10 μg/ml. In addition, MIC and MBC values of extract No. 4070 were found to be 10 and 25 μg/ml, respectively. Myxobacterial extracts showed no toxicity against Artemia salina. This study demonstrated the importance of myxobacterial metabolites as promising antimicrobial agents against multi drug resistant A. baumannii Keywords: Myxobacteria; Stigmatella; Antimicrobial activity; Multi-drug resistant bacteria


The present disclosure provides a multi-pump control system (5) comprising a control module (7), a processing module (9),a communication interface (11), and a storage module (13), wherein the control module (5) is configured to
a) run a zero flow configuration cycle by ramping up the speed of at least one pump in addition to a subset j of i pumps of a multi-pump system running at a speed E j until the communication interface receives a signal change indicative of the at least one pump starting to contribute to the total flow, and wherein the processing module (9) is configured to determine an approximated pump characteristic "pˆ¼ E 0 2 and/or power consumption Pˆ¼ E 0 3 , wherein E 0 is the speed of the at least one ramped-up pump in the moment it starts to contribute to the total flow, and/or
b) run a zero flow configuration cycle by ramping down the speed of at least one pump of a subset j of i pumps of a multi-pump system running at a speed E j until the communication interface receives a signal change indicative of the at least one pump stopping to contribute to the total flow, and wherein the processing module (9) is configured to determine an approximated pump characteristic "p ˆ¼ E 0 2 and/or power consumption Pˆ¼ E 0 3 , wherein E 0 is the speed of the at least one ramped-down pump in the moment it stops to contribute to the total flow.


Summary— Three cases of chronic extravasation of urine secondary to ureteric stone are described. All were successfully treated conservatively and resolution was complete. The clinical features are more important than the urographic appearances in managing these cases and surgery may not be necessary.


Respiratory disease is the major cause of childhood mortality and morbidity worldwide. The spectrum of disease ranges from infectious diseases like pneumonia, bronchiolitis, and tuberculosis to non-communicable diseases like asthma and chronic respiratory illnesses. The overwhelming burden of childhood respiratory disease and associated deaths occur in low and middle-income countries, where appropriate resources to prevent, diagnose andmanage such diseases are often unavailable. In the last decade there have been encouraging advances in reducing childhood mortality and achieving the Millennium Development Goal 4 (which aims for a two thirds reduction in under-5 mortality by 2015 from mortality levels in 1990). Nevertheless, 6.5 million children still die each year before their fifth birthday, with approximately 20% of deaths due to pneumonia. Other associated respiratory causes of death such as pertussis, neonatal respiratory diseases and HIV-associated lung disease further contribute to mortality. Recent data suggest that nearly 1 million children acquire tuberculosis annually. Further, even in high income countries, where such infections have been effectively prevented and reduced, childhood respiratory diseases are a major cause for health care utilization and of chronic illness. As childhood mortality declines, so there is an emerging global focus on non-communicable diseases and morbidity. Importantly asthma is the commonest non communicable disease in children and adolescents globally. The International Congress on Pediatric Pulmonology (CIPP) represents themain global meeting devoted solely to child lung health. It is therefore fitting that the abstracts for the 13th International Congress on Pediatric Pulmonology (CIPP XIII) are presented in this edition of Pediatric Pulmonology that has now expanded its focus to include global child lung health issues. These abstracts will be presented at the congress from June 26 to 29, 2014 in Bruges, Belgium. Reflecting the content of this global congress, the abstracts cover diverse areas of child lung health including physiology, neonatology, clinical science and laboratory based studies of childhood respiratory diseases from investigators around the world. The abstracts also reflect the divergent state of child health in high and low or middle income countries with unique challenges in different settings. Child lung health remains an urgent and pressing priority globally. These abstracts and the conference offer the opportunity for considering child lung health in its global context, to further develop collaborations and to become stronger advocates within our own health systems to ensure that such global inequities are voiced and addressed.We havemuchwork to do to advance child lung health globally and much to learn from each other, and CIPP can provide an excellent framework in which to do this.


Based on the case study of the current status of the regional open park management, the strategy for the sustainable development of open park is discussed. With 4 representative open parks in Beijing as the examples, the present situation of management and the existing problems of the operation are analyzed with the methods of strategic matrix and SWOT analysis. Open park is welcomed by community residents and tourists, as an important place bearing the multiple functions of leisure and entertainment for urban communities. At the same time, open park need to be improved in management, financial investment, and human resource allocation, and landscape maintenance, ecological environmental protection, and infrastructure and service facilities, need to be strengthened. The strategies and suggestions to promote the sustainable development of open park are put forward from the aspects of carrying out the people-oriented and people-benefited concept, increasing government investment, improving infrastructure, improving service ability, and optimizing management.


Osteoporosis is a common disease characterised by a systemic impairment of bone mass and microarchitecture that results in fragility fractures. With an ageing population, the medical impact of osteoporosis will increase further. A detailed knowledge of bone biology with molecular insights into the communication between bone-forming osteoblasts and bone-resorbing osteoclasts and the orchestrating signalling network has led to the identification of novel therapeutic targets. Based on this, novel treatment strategies have been developed aimed at inhibiting excessive bone resorption and increasing bone formation. The most promising novel treatments include denosumab, amonoclonal antibody against receptor activator of NF-κB ligand, a key osteoclast cytokine, odanacatib, a specific inhibitor of the osteoclast protease cathepsin K, and antibodies against the sclerostin, an endogenous inhibitor of bone formation. In the past decade, the pathogenesis of osteoporosis has been linked to processes at the tissue, cellular, and molecular levels. Signals that act as "master-switches" have been defined that integrate various endocrine, neuroendocrine, inflammatory, and mechanical stimuli. At the cellular level, communication and coupling between the main bone cell types, the bone-forming osteoblasts and the bone-degrading osteoclasts constitute the smallest functional unit. Several key molecules conduct the coordinated activities of osteoblasts and osteoclasts during bone remodeling. Detailed knowledge of the molecular and cellular players has created a new concept of bone pathophysiology. With some of these new principles finding their way into clinical practice, we will highlight the most relevant advances in the field. Osteoclasts originate from haematopoietic stem cells and are closely related to monocytes and macrophages. Differentiation from osteoclast precursor cells to fully activated multinucleated osteoclasts depends critically on the presence of receptor activator of NF-κB ligand (RANKL), a member of the TNF family, and the permissive role of macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF). Cathepsin K represents a key cystein proteinase of the mature osteoclast that degrades collagen and breaks down bone. Cathepsin K is a critical determinant of resorptive activity by osteoclasts which removes bone of poor quality, where micro-cracks have accumulated and leaves hole-like lacunae. The osteoblast represents a unique bone-forming cell derived from mesenchymal stem cells. The speed and efficacy of precursor cells differentiating into mature osteoblasts that secrete matrix that can be mineralised and their life span determines the rate of bone formation. At the molecular level, activation of the canonical Wnt/β-catenin pathway is the master switch for osteoblastic differentiation. This key bone-anabolic pathway is negatively regulated by Wnt inhibitors such as dickkopf-1 (Dkk-1) and sclerostin which bind and block the Wnt receptor LRP-5.


In an alley bent like a carp's backbone, the sunlight, too, is bent. Time, a hunchback too, has a hard time going far, so between galvanized iron walls sits a sewing shop with a low glass door. At nightfall when earth's tilt coils the sunlight sometimes girls glanced at it from a distance but only saw their white faces printed there, reflected off the dark behind the glass, and no one walking up the alley after turning into a sheet of paper ever wondered what lay inside the glass door. Sometimes to hem the legs of newly bought trousers, someone pulls at the door handle resembling the cover of a fairy tale book, but the old wife's not there just the husband spitting out a bit of thread, who greets briefly with amphibian eyes, and if someone shows the desired length of the trousers with thumb and forefinger, Five Poems by Sin Yongmok


Land application or soil aquifer treatment of wastewater has been considered as a low-cost method for improving its quality for potential reuse. The objective of this work was to evaluate more quantitatively than in the past the fate and removal of viruses as they pass through the soil. A mini-basin (12 feet × 12 feet) was constructed at a site where secondary treated wastewater will be applied to large basins for underground storage. Suction samplers were placed at various depths in the upper 20 feet of the vadose zone directly beneath the mini-basin, and monitoring wells were placed at various distances (10 to 150 feet) from the mini-basin. Two experiments (August and September, 1990) were conducted where bacteriophage MS-2 and PRD-1 were added to the effluent before its application to the basins. High infiltration rate (up to 50 feet/day) and impeding layers at 15 ft resulted in nearly saturated flow conditions and up to 150 ft of horizontal transport of the viruses. The results also indicated that at least 90% removal of MS-2 and 99% removal of PRD-1 could be expected after movement of the sewage through 15 ft of soil and greater removal was observed at a slower infiltration rate (3 feet/day).


This paper focuses on a undque group of-Palestinian women--those who live and attend college in Israel. The paper explores the developmental and social-psychological processes leading to gender and national identity achievement among female Palestinian student activists in the Israeli universities and the dialectical relationship between these two identities. The paper points out that to speak about the experiences of Palestinian women students in Israel, aside from the historical depth of the Palestinian Women's Movement (PWM) and its contribution to gender awareness among Palestinian women activists, simplifies a series of complex issues. The paper presents a brief survey of the four historical phases of the PWM from before 1948 until today, with emphasis on the interaction between the national struggle and the women's struggle within it. It presents and describes a study conducted with Palestinian student activists in Israel and discusses the findings pertaining to the female participants of the study. (Contains a 32-item bibliography.) (BT) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** <), GENDER AND NATIONAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT AMONG PALESTINIAN WOMEN STUDENT ACTIVISTS IN ISRAEL 1 Ibrahim A. Makkawi E-maihrtnagiami@kentedu Kent State University Department of Educational Psychology PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Ibmhini A . MakKow i TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office f Educational Research and Improvement EDU TIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. o Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or poricy. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting Apri113-17, 1998. San Diego, CL.


Good enantioselectivities and excellent regioselectivities are achieved in the Rh-catalyzed asymmetric hydroformylation of 2,5- and 2,3-dihydrofuran using diphosphite ligands; whereby the backbone of the ligand is crucial to suppressing isomerization and obtaining high ee's.


Introduction: To investigate the effect of Adenovirus-mediated antisense ERK2 (Adanti-ERK2) gene therapy upon the kidney allograft and the underlying mechanism. Methods: Male Lewis (LEW, RT11) rats received male Fisher (F344, RT11v1) renal allografts. The recipients were divided into three groups according to the different gene therapy upon the renal allografts: (1) control group (no gene transfected) (2) vector control group (allograft transfected with Ad-LacZ, 5x10 9 ) (3) gene therapy group (allograft transfected with Adanti-ERK2, 5x10 9 ). All recipients were sacrificed for grafts and sera at 24 weeks after transplantation. Morphometric analysis was used to determine the fibrosis of grafts and the glomerulor sclerosis (GS). Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the infiltration of CD4 + T lymphocyte, CD8 + T lymphocyte and ED-1 + monocytes, and the expression of TGF-β1 receptor I (TβRI ) on tubular epithelial cells was also examined. ELISA was used to detect the change of TGF-β1 in serum. Results: The expression of TβRI was 146.4±10.2, 139.4±8.4, 82.6±6.5 (positive cell number/400x) in control group, vector control group and gene therapy group, respectively meanwhile, the TGF-β serum expression was 84.3±0.8ng/ml, 75.6.3±1.2ng/ ml, 43.9±1.0ng/ml,respectively.In control group and vector control group, the infiltration of CD4 + T lymphocyte, CD8 + T lymphocyte, and ED-1 + monocytes in renal interstitium was often, but in gene therapy group, the infiltrates was significantly decreased. The grafts in control group and vector control group showed with graft interstitial fibrosis, however, the fibrosis was ameliorated significantly in gene therapy group. The mean value of GS ratio in the control group and the vector group was 42.0±4.9% and 46.0±5.9% (no difference, P>0.05), respectively, as compared with 30.4±7.0% in gene group (P<0.05). Conclusion: Adenovirus-mediated antisense ERK2 gene therapy down-regulates expression of TβRI and TGFβ, decreases infiltrates, and ameliorates chronic renal allograft fibrosis. Disclosure: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest. rat ranal transplantation was performed (WKAH- Lewis). Recipients were divided into three groups. Group1 and 2 were given DHMEQ (12 or 20 mg/kg, respectively) and Group 3 were given control vehicle (0.5% DMSO) for 7 days, starting from day0 (n = 6 each). Twenty-four-hour urine and serum samples were collected on alternate days following transplantation. The time of rejection was defined as the anuric day. On day 4, recipients in each groups (n = 5) were sacrificed and examined for histology (HE, PAS, and immunohistochemical study) and the transcription and the production of cytokines (RT-PCR and ELISA). Results: Renal allograft survival was significantly prolonged in group 1 and 2 as compared to control group (group1: 13.5 ± 3.4 and group2: 19.4 ± 4.5 vs. group3: 7.2 ± 1.4 days, p< 0.05 and p < 0.01, respectively). Moreover, graft survival in DHMEQ-treated groups was prolonged in a dose-dependent manner. Graft function (serum creatinine on day4, group 1: 0.99 ± 0.14 and group 2: 0.98 ± 0.14 vs. group 3: 2.4 ± 0.32, p< 0.05 and p < 0.01, respectively) and histological structure was well preserved in DHMEQ-treated groups. Cellular infiltration into allografts and the expression of adhesion molecules (CD4, CD8, ED1, MCP-1, and ICAM-1 by immunohistochemistry) were significantly decreased in DHMEQ-treated groups. Furthermore, the transcription and the production of proinflammatory cytokines (IL-2, IL-6, iNOS, MCP-1, and TNF-a) were also significantly inhibited in DHMEQ- treated groups. Conclusion: DHMEQ markedly prolonged renal allograft survival and inhibited cellular infiltration into allografts and the expression of proinflammatory proteins. DHMEQ is a promising specific NF-κB inhibitor and future clinical application is expected.


Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the strategic consequences of manufacturing location decisions, with a focus on understanding the link between collocating manufacturing with other value chain activities, via reshoring or retaining and organizational agility.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses qualitative data from 115 interviews with executives from UK high value manufacturing companies to explore the recent phenomenon of reshoring and the strategic effects of manufacturing location.

Findings
The location of manufacturing is operationally and strategically important for multinational companies. The spatial dispersion of manufacturing is determined by firm-specific and external factors, both of which are subject to constant change. The analysis shows that concentrating on manufacturing in their home countries enables firms to increase organizational agility and stimulate innovation. Better integration with and more extensive collaboration between related value chain activities, such as research and development, sales and marketing, leads to higher flexibility, speed and responsiveness to customer requirements. However, under certain conditions, firms also continue to benefit from the known advantages of offshoring.

Originality/value
This research sheds light on possible strategic downsides of global value chains, characterized by dispersed activities and intermitted processes. The results provide evidence that retaining manufacturing or bringing back manufacturing operations to a company's home country can increase organizational flexibility, speed, adaptability, innovativeness and responsiveness to customer requirements. As these capabilities are critical for long-term survival, especially in dynamic environments, firms need to review their global factory configurations and determine whether the short-term advantages of foreign locations continue to justify offshoring practices.


error. Using the technique to measure CSF formation rate in the rhesus monkey, we have observed rate changes when none were expected. Most puzzling has been the steady decline of CSF formation rate at 4%/0 each hour during the final five hours of a seven hour perfusion although variables known to affect CSF formation remained stable. In addition, alterations in rate caused by artefacts were observed in experiments in which craniospinal blood volume was changed by sudden changes of either PCO2 or central venous pressure. Mobilisation or sequestration of incompletely equilibrated CSF is believed responsible. In other experiments,


Hashimoto thyroiditis is a common chronic autoimmune disease, in which Th1 cytokines play a predominant role. Belonging to Thl and Th2 cytokines respectively, the increase of interleukin(IL)-12 as well as the decrease of IL-10 are related with this disease. Along with the change of this disease, the expression of the two cytokines are different. Therefore, these cytokines may be monitor of the state of the disease. Regulating the expression of these cytokines to keep the balance of Th1/Th2 cells may provide a new approach to treat Hashimoto thyroiditis.


The Spitzer high resolution spectra of 72 Seyfert galaxies from the 12$\mu$m Galaxy Sample are presented and discussed. The presence of starburst components in these galaxies can be quantified by powerful mid-IR diagnostics tools (i.e. 11.25$\mu$m PAH feature equivalent width and the H$_2$ emission line intensity), as well as the AGN dominance can be measured by specific fine structure line ratios (e.g. [NeV]/[NeII], [NeV]/[SiII], etc.). The two types of Seyfert galaxies do not show any statistical difference in our diagnostic tools. However, the Seyfert 2's showing hidden Broad Line Regions in spectro-polarimetric observations have on average an higher AGN dominance, a weaker star formation component and a warmer [60 - 25] spectral index than those without broad emission lines.


A design of high speed mass data acquisition system is introduced, which is designed to acquire mass real time data from some control systems, and to do off-line analysis by PC. The design is based on S3C2440 ARM9 embedded platform combined with FAT file system and SD card storage technology, and it uses MATLAB to analysie the obtained data with the purpose to adjusting the control system model. The design of Freescale intelligent car system proves that the system works well and is valuable to the modeling and performance analysis of the system.


─ Rank-structured matrices such as -matrix, -matrix and hierarchically semi-separable (HSS) have be applied to solve integral equation problems in some engineering applications. In Method of Moment (MoM), the discretization of electric field integral equation (EFIE) usually leads to a dense matrix. However, by considering the low-rank properties of off-diagonal blocks, the rank-structured theory provides a novel sparse representation for the resulting matrix. In this paper, we propose a direct solver based on one-level rank-structured matrix to analysis the electromagnetic characteristics of large arrays. The memory requirements are compared to those of direct solver and advantages of the proposed method are validated by numerical examples. Index Terms ─ Direct solver, large arrays, rankstructured matrix.


The Belle Epoque, often thought to be a period defined by nationalism, also saw the remarkable global proliferation of transnational affinities – especially those centred on race. Across Europe and its settler territories, notions of pan-racial affinity spread alongside imperial nationalism, in the context of technological advancement that permitted novel imaginative possibilities. Meanwhile, texts of political imagination in Africa and Asia during this period – particularly those of pan-Africanism and pan-Islamism – demonstrate not only an awareness of the significance of racial thinking for Europe but a theorisation of the connections between Europe's racial imagination and its policies in the colonised world. The same advances in the fields of communication and travel that opened the door for new imaginative possibilities in Europe also enabled disparate communities in the colonised world to conceive of themselves, often for the first time, as collectively racialised subjects of a European world order.


Interconnection networks are increasing in importance as node counts increase in high-end machines. To achieve better application performance, newer supercomputers frequently have interconnects with more connections, higher bandwidth, and lower diameter. One example of such an interconnect is a dragonfly topology, which has appeared in multiple recent supercomputers. Adaptive routing and high bandwidth on dragonfly networks leads to the belief that sharing of the network between jobs will not lead to performance degradation. In this paper, we analyze the performance of a production HPC application, MILC, on a dragonfly-based Cray supercomputer. We find that, in fact, the performance of MILC varies by a factor of more than three, and that the performance variation is due to communication delays from network interference. First, we analyze a communication trace of MILC to relate per-rank delays to network activity. Then we use machine learning to develop a predictive model for runtime based on network counters. Our model performs well, with a mean squared prediction error of 0.22.


To observe a waveform of a very fast photoevent, a special phototube is developed. A short photoelectron train produced by the incident light from the photoevent is stretched during its runs through a long drift electrode of the phototube due to the difference of the velocity of each photoelectron which is instantaneously accelerated by a step voltage of the photocathode rapidly raised during the light incidence. In order to discuss the limitation of the stretching operation the performance of the phototube such as spreading of the pulse width, influence of the electron lens, both induction noise and random noise are described. As a consequence the time resolution is estimated to about 10 ps at present.


Objective: According to the fact that university students are role models for the whole society, this study was performed to evaluate reasons of and attitudes toward cigarette smoking among Iranian university students. Methods: This study was performed as a cross-sectional self-reported questionnaire based study among university students of Kerman city of Iran. Our questionnaire was attributed to 1750 university students who were selected randomly. Current smoking was defined as using cigarette within the last 30 days. Participants' demographic data in addition to their reasons for and attitudes toward smoking were obtained. Frequency, distribution and factor analysis of attitude items followed by a varimax rotation was used to evaluate the attitudinal statements. Results: From 1750 university students, who filled our questionnaire, 31% were ever smokers (51% males and 15% females) and 11% were current smokers (21.5% males and 2% females). Avoiding depression and taking pleasure were the reasons mentioned as important reasons the most frequently. Besides, the most frequently attitudinal statements were as follows:" My parents upset knowing my habit" and "Cigarette causes disease". Furthermore, the mean score of encouraging attitudes was significantly higher among males, current smokers and those with a tendency toward cigarette smoking. Conclusion: This study confirmed that addressing attitudes toward smoking while developing preventive strategies against it among university students is an obvious necessity.


A review of the exhibition 'Henri Matisse: the Cut-Outs' which is at Tate Modern, 17 April – 7 September 2014

This exhibition is, according to the Tate Modern's website, 'the most comprehensive exhibition ever devoted to the artist's paper cut-outs made between 1943 and 1954. In a career spanning over half a century, Matisse made a large body of work of which the cut-outs are a brilliant final chapter in his long career.'1

Matisse employed the cut-out technique as a response to being confined to a wheelchair following surgery for cancer, with which he was diagnosed in 1941. As the Henri Matisse website explains, 'Matisse's extraordinary creativity was not be dampened for long. "Une seconde vie", a second life, was what he called the last fourteen years of his life. Following an operation he found renewed and unexpected energies and the beautiful Russian-born assistant, Lydia Delectorskaya, to keep him company. Vast in scale (though not always in size), lush and rigorous in colour, his cut-outs are among the most admired and influential works of Matisse's entire career. They belong with the grandest affirmations of the elan vital in Western art.' This website contains further fascinating detail of the creative process Matisse employed.2

The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, which hosted the exhibition several years ago, explains, 'Henri Matisse developed his final artistic triumph by "cutting into color." The drama, scale, and innovation of Matisse's rare and fragile papiers coupes (paper cutouts) remain without precedent or parallel. His technique involved the freehand cutting of colored papers into beautiful shapes, which he then pinned loosely to the white studio walls, later adjusting, recutting, combining, and recombining them to his satisfaction. The result created an environment that transcended the boundaries of conventional painting, drawing, and sculpture. Later, the shapes were glued to large white paper backgrounds for shipping or display.'3

The work was certainly shaped by the limitations that his illness placed on Matisse's mobility. As he once explained, 'You see as I am obliged to remain often in bed because of the state of my health, I have made a little garden all around me where I can walk… There are leaves, fruits, a bird.' However, this work was not simply a consolation prize for a man dealing with illness. As he explained: 'I have needed all that time to reach the stage where I can say what I want to say… Only what I created after the illness constitutes my real self: free, liberated.'

Cut-outs are now widely used with children as a basic way to teach and learn ideation. Many teachers use the famous image of Icarus and cut him into different pieces. At this point, they are copied onto a piece of paper. Children then cut them out and can assemble their own fantasy shapes with them. They then stick it onto a blue background, name the pictures and write a story to illustrate their picture. Only afterwards does the teacher show them the original Icarus picture by Matisse. Children come up with fabulous ideas like 'surfing dogs', 'school bus' or 'mermaids', as the shapes can be assembled in so many different ways.

One highlight of the exhibition for me was the section based on his 1947 book Jazz, which was prepared while the Second World War was raging. I found it really absorbing, with Matisse's philosophy of life spelled out in French and beautifully illustrated.

All-in-all, I felt that the exhibition drew me in and really involved me in the life of an older, ill man who refused to allow his disability to limit his creativity.


The invention relates to a device for producing three-dimensional models comprising a coater with discharge opening, at least one printhead that is mounted to a pressing axis, wherein the discharge opening of the coater is arranged upwardly in the coating direction and the print head in the opposite orientation to the pressure axis in the coating direction behind is the coater disposed opposite to the coating direction and a method for producing three-dimensional models.


In alloys exhibiting substitutional disorder, the variety of atomic environments manifests itself as a `disorder broadening' in their core level binding energy spectra. Disorder broadening can be measured experimentally, and in principle can be used to deduce information about specific atomic environments within a sample. However, progress in this endeavor is hampered by the lack of a model for this phenomenon which can treat complex systems. In this work we describe such a model. The model is used to elucidate the relationship between charge transfer, atomic environment, and disorder broadening in complex systems, with a focus on the problem of characterizing the interface quality of CuNi multilayers. We also validate the model against the results of ab initio electronic structure calculations. Several counterintuitive aspects of the disorder broadening phenomenon are uncovered, an understanding of which is essential for the correct interpretation of experimental results. For instance, it is shown that systems with inhomogeneous concentration profiles can exhibit disorder broadenings significantly larger than random alloys. Furthermore in some systems a `disorder narrowing' is even possible.


Objective To observe the influence of azelnidipine in clinical efficacy and serum levels of high sensitive C-reactive protein(hs-CRP),superoxide dismutase(SOD) and 6-ketone prostaglandins F1α(6-keto-PGF1α) in patients with hypertension and to clarify the effectiveness of azelnidipine on realeasing blood pressure and suppressing the development of atherosclerosis(AS).Methods 48 patients with hypertension were randomly divided into azelnidipine group(n=24) and amlodipine besylate group(n=24).After two-week drug clearance,the patients in two group receieved azelnidipine(8-16 mg·d-1) or amlodipine besylate(5-10 mg·d-1) for 8 weeks.The blood pressure and the serum levels of hs-CRP,SOD and 6-keto-PGF1α before and after treatment were detected and compared.Results The systotlic blood pressure(SBP) and diastolic blood pressure(DBP) of the patients in two groups were significantly decreased,the effective rates in azelnidipine group and amlodipine besylate group were 87.5 and 91.7%,there was no significant difference between two groups(P0.05).There was no significant difference of blood biochemisal indexes of the patients between two groups before and after treatment(P0.05).There were no significant differences of plasma hs-CRP,SOD,and 6-keto-PGF1α of the patients between two groups before and after treatment(P0.05).Compared with before treatment,the hs-CRP levels of the patients in two groups were significantly decreased(P0.05),the SOD levels were increased(P0.05);the 6-keto-PGF1α level of the patients in azelnidipine group after treatment was increased(P0.05),but there was no change in amlodipine besylate group(P0.05).Conclusion Azelnidipine can significantly decrease the blood pressure.It inhibit the formation and development of atherosclerosis.


Heshangtian tungsten polymetallic deposit is located in south side of western wing of Yaoshan mountain of Northern Guangdong "mountain font" structure in middle Nanling E-W-trending tectonic belt. The vein-type W-Sn ore-bodies are bearing in carbonate rocks of Upper Devonian Tianziling Formation. The main ore-forming elements are tungsten, tin-based, associated silver, copper, lead, zinc, beryllium, etc. The tungsten ore-bodies has good potential, and Tin tungsten reserves of 300,000 tons has been engineering controlled. According to analyze geochemical and geophysical conditions, great prospecting potential for lead, zinc, antimony, silver, gold and other deposits in the periphery of Heshangtian deposit.


The books which are summaries of ophthalmology intended "for the student and the general practitioner of medicine" have contributed much to medical and ophthalmic education over the years, and have been classics in ophthalmology. The American publication under review, for example, is the 24th edition of this highly successful textbook. There is a remarkable condensation of information in the 430 pages, and a knowledge of all of this information would do credit not only to students and general practitioners but to specialists as well. In some ways, a work such as this suffers from the accretion of information from a general survey. Therapies which many would consider obsolete continue to receive prominent mention, whereas minimal stress is placed on some newer techniques and procedures which have become of prime importance. For example, more space is given to a detailed discussion of diphtheritic conjunctivitis, a condition rarely seen in this era,


AbstrAct Purpose: The wide-gap semiconductor materials are very important for application in the fields of optical device technology. ZnS is wide-gap semiconductor that is attractive material due to the polymorphic structural transformation and it is suitable semiconductor for applications in infrared optics, ultraviolet laser devices, electronic image display, high-density optical memory, solar cell etc. The goal is to evaluate mechanical and electrical properties of ZnS dunder pressure. Design/methodology/approach: We report ab-initio calculations of lattice constants, bulk modulus and elastic constants of the B1 (rocksalt), B3 (zincblende) and B4 (wurtzite) structures of ZnS. Ab-initio calculations are based on the density functional theory (DFT) within generalized gradient approximation (GGA) for the exchange-correlation potential. Findings: Phase transition pressures from B4 phase to B3 phase, from B3 phase to B1 phase and from B4 phase to B1 are predicted from intersection of the enthalpy-pressure data for the three phases. These results are consistent with the experimental and other theoretical calculations. Mechanical properties of ZnS under high pressure are also calculated. It is seen that the mechanical properties of ZnS under high pressure are quite different from those ambient condition. The band structure, density of states (DOS) and energy gaps are also given for B3 structure of ZnS.


Abstract : A preliminary recommendation of priority polychlorinated biphenyl ( PCB) congeners for congener-specific analysis is offered for use in the regulatory evaluation of dredged material. Potential toxicity, environmental prevalence, and relative abundance in animal tissues are the criteria used in the selection of specific congeners and their assignment to four priority groups. Potential toxicity is equated to mammalian microsomal mixed-function oxidase (MFO) induction activity and type. MC- (3-methylcholanthrene-) type and mixed-type induction activities are considered potentially most toxic, followed by PB- (phenobarbital-) type induction activity. Weak inducers and non-inducing congeners have the least potential for toxicity. Environmental prevalence, i.e., frequency of occurrence of specific congeners in environmental samples, is determined from the literature. Relative abundances of congeners (percents of total PCB as the sum of all congener concentrations) in tissues are reported or calculated from data in the literature, along with data generated from an experiment conducted at the US Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station. Biphenyls, Phenyl compounds, Chlorine compounds.


Ecological function regionalization is a kind of geographic spatial division,which is classified and categorized by the spatial and geographic characteristics of ecological sensitivity and ecological service function significance.Aiming at the existing main eco-problems,the integrated assessments of eco-environment sensitivity and its spatial distribution in Zhangye City were done by using GIS spatial analysis method based on investigation and previous studies.The importance of ecosystem service functions upon their various spatial and geographic distributions was also analyzed and evaluated.On the basis of above assessment,five eco-regions were divided,and the relevant key tasks,goals and measures of protection and establishment of each ecological region were also recommended.This study could provide scientific basis for regional land use planning,eco-environment protection and construction planning.


This study is part of a larger study that aims to better understand the complex dynamics of information seeking as it occurs in a collaborative learning setting. A total of 34 graduate students who participated in a collaborative research project were asked to complete process surveys throughout the project. The results of this study revealed that students who participated in a collaborative research task initiated the projects in confident ways but became more stressed as the project progressed. Students also perceived that they knew more as they progressed through the project.


Abstract 1. Apo-superoxide dismutase was more labile toward a variety of inactivating stresses than was the holoenzyme. 2. Cu++ restored catalytic activity to the apoenzyme and markedly enhanced its thermal stability but Cu++ plus Zn++ were needed to attain the stability of the native enzyme. 3. Co++ or Hg++ were able to replace Zn++ in increasing the thermal stability of the Cu++-repleted apoenzyme. Indeed, the enzyme containing Hg++ + Cu++ was more stable than the native superoxide dismutase. In contrast no metal was found which could replace Cu++ in restoring activity to the apoenzyme. 4. Arrhenius plots showed that rates of irreversible inactivation were a biphasic function of temperature in the case of apo-superoxide dismutase but were monophasic in the presence of those metals which affected thermal stability. Metal binding apparently changed the pathway of thermal inactivation. 5. Since excess Cu++ could not substitute for Cu++ + Zn++ and since excess Zn++ could not prevent the effect of Cu++ we conclude that the Cu++ site cannot bind Zn++ and the Zn++ site cannot bind Cu++, although it can bind Co++ or Hg++. 6. Native superoxide dismutase retained much of its activity in the presence of 10.0 m urea or 4% sodium dodecyl sulfate and, although high concentrations of guanidinium chloride did inhibit, its effects were reversible by dialysis or dilution. 7. Guanidinium-chloride did however perturb the structure of the holoenzyme in a way which rendered its metals accessible to EDTA such that exposure to EDTA plus guanidinium chloride resulted in progressive inactivation. 8. It appears likely, on the basis of data available at present, that Zn++ plays a structural role in the bovine erythrocyte superoxide dismutase and lends it enhanced stability whereas Cu++ is directly involved in the catalytic cycle.


Among 102 cases with laryngeal carcinomas treated at our clinic from April 1984 to March 1999, 11 were cases of multiple primary carcinomas and there was one case of quadruple carcinomas. Multiple primary carcinomas were often found in the multicentric zone, the oral, pharynx, larynx, upper digestive tracts and the lung areas. Second primary carcinomas were sometimes found in the lung, and the prognosis of the cases with the lung carcinomas was worse than with other carcinomas. Thus, lung CT and bronchoscopy are considered essential in cases of laryngeal carcinomas for the early detection of multiple primary carcinomas. Second primary carcinomas were found to occur at high rates as carcinomas related to smoking, suggesting that smoking is related to the promotor of carcinogenesis as a risk factor. We consider education regarding not only decreased smoking, but also chemoprevention to be important. Long term follow-up and early diagnosis are indispensable.


This study reviews about the role of indigenous knowledge and integrated vector management for controlling vector borne diseases of public health importance with the aim of providing summarized information to the beneficiaries.  Now a day's vector-borne diseases are the major illnesses of humans and animals. Many of vector-borne pathogens affect humans are of zoonotic origin. Reservoir hosts of these pathogens include wildlife, livestock, and companion animals. An important vector borne diseases with zoonotic potentials includes Leishmania, Dengue, Nipah virus, Rift Valley Fever, African Trypanosomiasis, Chagas disease, Yellow Fever, Japanese Encephalitis, Onchocerciasis etc. These vector-borne diseases pose an increasingly wider threat to global public health, both in terms of the number of people affected and their geographical spread.  For many vector-borne diseases, there are no vaccines, and their drug resistance characteristic is an increasing threat for public health. To achieve progress and stability in animal and human health, vector borne diseases have to be controlled effectively. In olden days, people traditionally practiced various indigenous knowledge to control insect and other vectors transmit diseases between animals and humans. Indigenous knowledge expresses traditional knowledge, rural knowledge as well as ethno science. Studies indicate that veterinary medicine, as practiced today, has its roots in herbal medicine, which has been practiced since ancient times. As many vector control methods are effective against multiple diseases, they can be integrated together to combat multiple diseases at once. Finally we recommend an Integrated Vector Management as the process for developing and implementing strategies of WHO for controlling vectors besides using an indigenous knowledge. Keywords: Indigenous Knowledge, Integrated Vector Management, Vector-borne diseases DOI : 10.7176/JNSR/9-22-03 Publication date: November 30 th 2019


Successful controller development involves three distinct stages, namely, control law design, code debugging and field test. For Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) applications, the first two stages require special strategies. Since the dynamics of an AUV is highly nonlinear, and the environment that an AUV operates in is noisy with external disturbance that cannot be neglected, a robust control law must be considered in the first stage. The control law design is even more difficult when optimal criteria are also involved. In the second stage, since the software architecture on an AUV is very complicated, debugging the controllers alone without all the software routines running together often can not reveal subtle faults in the controller code. Thorough debugging needs at-sea test, which is costly. Therefore, a platform that can help designers debug and evaluate controller performance before any at-sea experiment is highly desirable. Recently, a 6 Degree of Freedom (DOF) AUV simulation toolbox was developed for the Ocean Explorer (OEX) series AUVs developed at Florida Atlantic University. The simulation toolbox is an ideal platform for controller in-lab debugging and evaluation. This paper first presents a novel robust controller design methodology, named the Sliding Mode Fuzzy Controller (SMFC). It combines sliding mode control and fuzzy logic control to create a robust, easy on-line tunable controller structure. A formal proof of the robustness of the proposed nonlinear sliding mode control is also given. A pitch and a heading controller have been designed with the presented structure and the controller code was tested on the simulation software package as well as at sea. The simulated and at-sea test data are compared. The whole controller design procedure described in this paper clearly demonstrates the advantage of using the simulation toolbox to debug and test the controller in-lab. Moreover, the pitch and heading controller have been used in the real system for more than 2 years, and have also been successfully ported to other types of vehicles without any major modification on the controller parameters. The similarity of the controller performances on different vehicles further demonstrates the robustness of the proposed Sliding Mode Fuzzy Controller. The main contribution of this paper is to provide useful insights into the design and implementation of the proposed control architecture, and its application in AUV control.


The retail sector in Indian has seen a drastic transformation and rapid growth since the last decade. till date it is being dominated by small and unorganized entrepreneurs like Kirana shops, standalone stores, boutiques, traditional family business stores etc. However, with the growing global economic powers, new economic policies, FDI relaxations and unique marketing strategies the new kind of retailers like shopping malls tend to hook the consumers even in Tier II and Tier III towns. Organized retail sector is growing at rapid speed, more jobs are being created, town plans are getting modernized, and thus the consumer behavior too. While the transition is happening at global level in various forms, the shopping behavior of consumer is also likely to change with the growing choices and trends. Shopping in malls has become a major leisure activity. In this scenario, the current study aims at understanding the key reason of attractiveness by Indian customers towards malls. Keyword: Customer, retail sector, shopping malls, purchasing behaviour, advertising


Saving The Wooden Town of Trondheim – A Study of an Urban Planning Discourse. This article is based on the PhD thesis "The wooden town of Trondheim – A cultural heritage in decay" (Kittang 2006), and is focusing on the public debate on the urban development of Trondheim from 1965 to the present. The article tries to shed light on why the attitudes to renewal or preservation were subject to such a sharp debate and change in the town planning policy, and the ways in which these attitudes are expressed in today's debate on urban planning and development. The study applies a social constructivist approach and a discourse perspective to the investigation of the formation of these attitudes and this shift in the appreciation of the wooden towns' characteristics and qualities.


Among dog's skin tumors mast-cell tumors are the most frequent and represent major problem in oncology of these animals. All literature data state that the frequency of these tumors is between 12 and 20% of all skin tumors, there is no sex predisposition, location is in the majority of cases limbs, thorax and abdomen, and the breed risk is significant for boxers, retrievers and beagles. Although the clinical diagnose may be challeging, histopathological examination in most cases is not so demanding. Namely, in the majority of cases mast-cell are characteristic enough to allow positive diagnosis. However, the problem emerges in uniform use of grading system. Although, all mast-cell tumors should been considered as malignant, there are important differences in its clinical behaviour. Classically there are three grades of this tumor, low grade (grade I.), intermediate grade (grade II.) and high grade (grade III.) among which the high grade is most malignant. PHD grading systems try to collerate biological behaviour of the tumor and it histopathological features. This procedure is unfortunately very subjective and there is significant differences in the grades ratio in the literature. Because of that, the contiunuous investigation concerning the tumor biological behaviour and its histological caharacteristics is necessar. Recently in our Department we conduct the comprehensive investigations of this tumors in which we tried to collerate and statisticaly evaluate all PHD features and some immunohistochemical tumor markers (CD117, VEGF, CD45, Ki67 and survivin). Besides that, we evaluated the usefullness of NuMap 7.06 software for implementation of neural network for performing nonlinear regression and aproximation. This software is developed on Image Processing and Neural Networks Lab University of Texas at Arlington (www-ee.uta.edu/eeweb/IP/). Basically, these self-learning softwares are used for computer-based calculation of the very different entering data which at the end provide objective finding. Network constants are calculated on the test data, which in this case means various PHD features expressed numerically and final grade for each case. All new cases of mast-cell tumors were evaluated using that software and routine procedure and the results were statisticaly the same. These findings allows very significant improvement of the objectivity of the grading system and give us possibility of the uniform diagnostic procedure which is not depending on the pathologist's experience. Also, statistical analysis of the various PHD characteristics showed marked differences in its importance for the determination of the different tumor grades, which will allow us to reduce and more simplify entering data and whole process.


The primordial Greek sea-god Proteus could alter his shape at will, notwithstanding that his divine substance remained the same. Reinventing himself by adapting to new circumstances, Proteus still stayed unchanged in essence. Unlike the sea-god's protean nature, the substance of international law may well undergo alterations when examined through the telescope of legal culture, or with predispositions of divergent educational backgrounds. For the thoughtful reader, scholarly speculation on such variations will be triggered by reading Is International Law International?. In that book, Professor Anthea Roberts explores a variety of elements in the teaching and practice of international law, viewed through the lenses of scholars and judges from different parts of the world. At the outset, Professor Roberts explains that her inquiry relates not to law per se, in the sense of legal sources such as treaty and custom. Rather, she looks at how various legal communities construct divergent understandings of international law, such as to call into question its universality. The understandings that remain often perpetuate difference and dominance. Thus, Russian or Chinese students would be fed a different version of international law from the one given to those who have studied and practiced in Boston or Paris. Some arbitrators in cross-border investment disputes might be more likely to understand international law as taught in Western European or North American universities. Students from China and Australia alike might study in Britain or the United States, while Russians would remain more insular. Professor Roberts focuses on lawyers as much as law, presenting a comparison of the "who" as much as the "what." For example, the 2003 United States invasion of Iraq receives a comparison of how the legality of that war gets treated in textbooks written by French, American, and British academics. The author looks not only at academics, but also at judges of different national origins sitting on the International Court of Justice, examining inter alia patterns of scholarship and effects of technology. Language and culture also play roles


In the year when we should be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Refugee Convention, we appear instead to be ignoring the lessons of history


The microstructures exhibited by gas atomized powders of two alloys, Al-6Gd-6Ni-1Fe and Al-5Y-10Ni (at. %), have been analyzed using electron microscopy. It was found that the microstructure depends critically on the particle size obtained during atomization. Small particles ( 30μm) are often fully crystalline, consisting of fine interspersed Al and intermetallic grains.


One dimensional hexagonal CePO4 nanomaterials were prepared by ultrasonic method under low temperature using CeO2 as cerium source,and reusable H3PO4,with the absence of template agent. The crystal structure,and morphologies,sizes and luminescence properties of the products were characterized by XRD,TEM and FL. The influence of ultrasonic time and reactant molar ratio of PO3-4/ Ce3+on the morphology and fluorescence properties of the sample were investigated. The results show that all of samples are CePO4 with hexagonal and one dimensional nanowires,whose length range from 50 nm to 200 nm,width range from 5 nm to 40 nm. The lengthdiameter ratio of the nanowires depends on ultrasonic time and molar ratio of PO3-4/ Ce3+. The nanowires cluster with the increase of the ultrasonic time and molar ratio of PO3-4/ Ce3+. One excitation peak of CePO4 among 250-300 nm,and an emission peak of nanowire at 378 nm are observed,which is ascribed to the 5d-4f transition of Ce3+.


Our study was carried out to evaluate four different seeders for sod-seeding by a qualitative and quantitative comparison of their performances on cereal crops in Basilicata. The application of sod-seeding, alias no tillage, it may represent a valid alternative to traditional seeding in areas with high cereal vocation, as a guarantee against production costs, safeguarding the productive and environmentalists aspects in the south of Italy, where there is a great crop specialization and higher environmental risk resulting from intensive farming operations. So, were organized tests with four different seeders: Gaspardo-Directa, Amazone AD 300, Alpego ASI 303 and Laseminasodo. Relating to this study, the most important difference, between these machines we considered, was the coulter body. We analysed the technical and operational characteristics of the seeders, the distribution regularity of the seed and the parameters concerning the harvesting. The results were interesting for all machines, the operational capabilities have been certified on values equal to 1,8 ha/h, satisfactory values regularity of longitudinal and transverse distribution of the seed considering that the value of plants emergency was close to 90%. About yield obtained, some data collected showed a higher value compared with that obtained with the traditional seeding in the same soil conditions. The results of our trials confirmed that with sod-seeding is possible to guarantee sustainability, energy saving, ability to establish the time of execution and therefore more timely intervention, so we can conclude that the qualitative and quantitative standards can be achieved satisfactory provided if there is a better choice of the machine depending on the physical characteristics of the soil, in particular a better choice of coulter body which is the essential element of a successful plants emergency.


Today we have been fighting hard against coronavirus 19 at the risk of our lives. Is it the sign of nature's or Creator's anger? Even in the age of science, we don't know what the cause of it is and how it will end. All we can do is only to scream, cry, and die in distress. Even though we have pursued alchemy, occult, God for over 2000 years, we have no idea of what this is all about, except that we have just discovered only a few chemical ingredients of nature for more comfortable survival and boring semi-immortality. Now the zeitgeist of the Age of Enlightenment, Humanism, has since been replaced by Post-Humanism for over 600 years. Aren't we mapping out each daily routine by touching such digital devices as the tablet, lap-top, desk-top, or smart phone in the morning? By comparing some films, such as A Cure for Wellness, The Terminator, and The Matrix with the visions of Yeats's, we fear that humans are destined to extinction by machinery, the fruits of thought: the very machinery they have created in pursuit of maximum comfort and convenience.


Calcined high-level radioactive defense waste stored at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant for up to twelve years was sampled for retrievability. The calcine was determined to be retrievable as expected. A program to determine physical and chemical characteristics for future retrieval and alternative waste treatment processes has been completed.


In the process of the development of management theory and practice,there are several times of choices of the values that govern people's behavior concerning blood centered,money centered,power centered and competence centered.The former three values stress man's history,which has necessary relation with the scientific feature of management.The competencecentered value emphasizes man's reality and future,which relates to the artistic management and the thinking mode.The paper discusses the necessity of the artistic management and the measures of introducing it into manage in order to reveal the requirement of competencecentered management for thinking mode.


In 1825 Purkinje described the effects of increasing ambient illumination at early dawn, beginning with darkness, on the perception of spectral colors. The blues were seen first When reds became visible, they appeared less bright than the blues. The usually dependable Brockhaus Encyclopedia stated (1972) that the phenomenon was described in 1816 by Mathias Klotz and rediscovered ("erneut entdeckt") by Purkinje. As it turns out, Klotz correctly described the effects of low ambient illumination on the relative brightness but his report on visibility contradicts Purkinje's observations, amply confirmed by subsequent investigators and known, in fact, prior to Purkinje's report.


When walking (at moderate or fast speeds) or running, humans apply a burst hip torque to start leg swing and then again, at the end of the swing phase, to brake and reverse motion of their swing leg prior to heel-strike. The resulting rearward rotation of the swing leg, so called swingleg retraction, is also observed in animal gaits. Why is this retraction a common feature of many walking and running animals? Previous studies have shown that swing leg retraction aids the robustness of walking three ways:


We show a non existence result for solutions of the prescribed mean curvature equation in the product manifold $\mathbb{H}^2 \times \R$, where $\mathbb{H}^2$ is the real hyperbolic plane. More precisely we prove a-priori estimates for graphs with constant mean curvature $h \in (0, 1/2]$ on circular annuli of $\mathbb{H}^2$. For $0 < h < 1/2$ we obtain an estimate from above on any circular annulus and one from below on annuli with a small hole, the size of the hole depending on $h$. For $h = 1/2$ we obtain both estimates for any circular annulus. All the estimates depend only on the thickness of the annulus and the value of the graph on the outer boundary.


This bachelor thesis deals with the technical infrastructure and the development policy of municipalities. The first part explains the infrastructure expression with focus on technical infrastructure of municipalities. Next part of thesis is being devoted to the development conditions of municipalities and to the sources that can be used for financing of investment projects. Third part defines the municipalities' development indicators. Next part of bachelor thesis is dedicated to the description of technical infrastructure in specific municipalities. The thesis' conclusion is summarizing the impacts of technical infrastructure investments on the future development of specific municipalities.


The General Election was held in 2019 with the KPU as the organizer on April 17, 2019. Among the tasks of the KPU was the dissemination of General Elections to remote areas throughout Indonesia. Remote areas are the main concern of the KPU in an effort to increase election participation in 2019, because remote areas are one of the biggest contributors to the Golput number in the 2014 elections. One of the remote areas with very low participation rates is Tegal Rejo Village, Gedang Sari District, Gunung Kidul Regency. This village is located in a hilly area which is one of the disaster prone areas. Tegal Rejo village has not received socialization from the Gunung Kidul Regency KPU and many villagers are still not informed about the 2019 Presidential Election. From the problems that occur, the author finds a solution to the problem by making an "Infographic Design as a Media Supporting the Socialization of KPU to Remote Areas". As for this design contains information on Election 2019, such as the introduction of candidates in the form of profiles of each prospective president and vice president, procedures for voting, time and place of execution until the conditions become a Permanent Voters List (DPT). And the media created will be given to the KPU to be the material for dissemination to remote areas in Indonesia.


Based on the investigation into the wedding customs and culture in Baishui County,Shaanxi Province,this paper studies local wedding culture from the local dialectal lexicon.The paper also reveals its heritage and development from Chinese ancient wedding custom,thus summarizes and getts a clear idea of the contemporary form of Chinese ancient customs and culture.


Isolated rat hepatocytes express two distinct populations of surface Galactosyl receptor activity, measured by the binding of /sup 125/I-asialo-orosomucoid (ASOR), which they designate State 1 and State 2. Freshly isolated cells express only state 1 receptors. Cells equilibrated at 37/sup 0/C also express State 2 receptors, which represent 50-80% of the total surface activity. In the absence of ligand, State 2 receptor activity is reversibly decreased by metabolic energy poisons, low temperature and microtubule drugs, whereas State 1 receptor activity is unaffected. Endocytosis of /sup 125/I-ASOR by State 1 receptors is followed by a slow dissociation of /sup 125/I-ASOR from receptor but the immediate release of acid soluble degradation products. In contrast, State 2 receptors mediate endocytosis which involves a rapid dissociation step but a 20 min lag, prior to the release of degradation products. Both pathways follow first order kinetics and are functional under steady state conditions indicating coordinated receptor recycling. Degradation mediated by both pathways is inhibited by leupeptin and chloroquine. The State 1 and 2 pathways can be further differentiated by the greater sensitivity of the latter to microtubule drugs. These results suggest that there are either structurally different native receptors or that identical receptors are directedmore » into two different functional pathways, for example by interaction with different types of coated pits.« less


By the combination of pareto optimization and particle swarm optimization(PSO) algorithm,a new particle swarm achieve algorithm for multi-objective optimization is proposed,in which the particles are put into an achieve according to the definition of the rank of the particle.In ordering to improve its global convergence,the inertia weight of PSO algorithm has adjusted automatically.The numerical experiment shows that this algorithm can find more and wider Pareto-optimal solutions than the original one.


Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) sensors comprising a zinc oxide guiding layer deposited on a 36/spl deg/-YX lithium tantalate substrate were developed. They were found to have greater mass sensitivity than other LiTaO/sub 3/ based SAW sensors, such as the -SiO/sub 2//LiTaO/sub 3/ configuration. In this paper, the fabrication of the ZnO/LiTaO/sub 3/ sensor is described and micro-characterisation of the deposited films is presented. Sensitivity of these devices to surface mass and dielectric perturbations is then presented, followed by an analysis of temperature stability.


Antibacterial activity of plants with spices ethnografic indicative in Porto Alegre, RS/Brasil. The intensity of bacterial inhibition activity and the intensity of bacterial inactivation activity of hydro-alcoholic extracts (submitted to fraccionated destillation in route- vapor system, with posterior rehydratation) were determined in 32 plants with spices etnographic indicative, in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre/RS,Brazil. Strains of Escherichia coli (ATCC 11229), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), Salmonella Enteritidis (ATCC 11076) and Enterococcus faecalis (ATCC 19433) were utilized as reference bacteria. Stems, leaves, fruits or bulbs were collected preferential in period of budding. Extracts of 12 plants presented selective inhibition capacity and/or inativation capacity on standard bacterial species . Plants with better antibacterial activity were sage (Salvia officinalis Linn.), "porro" garlic (Allium porrum Linn.), "nira" garlic (Allium tuberosum Rottl.) and some kinds of pepper namely "garden" (Capsicum annuum Linn.), "malagueta" (Capsicum frutescens Linn.), "calabresa" (pool of Capsicum sp.) and " young-woman-finger " (Capsicum baccatum Linn.). S. aureus was the most resistent agent, while S. enteritidis was the most sensible tested bacteria.


Abstract The original (i.e. first order) discontinuous deformation analysis (DDA) formulation has two main shortcomings. First, a linear function is used to represent the displacement field in the blocks. This formulation implies that the state of stress (and strain) within each block is constant. Second, the material within each block is assumed as linear elastic. These two major limitations can often render the original DDA analysis method unrealistic and significantly inaccurate. In the modified DDA approach introduced in this study, these two limitations have been addressed. The authors have used the finite element method (FEM) to discretise each block in the DDA formulation using an automatic mesh generation algorithm to determine the distributions of stress and strain within each block to a desired accuracy. In addition, the Mohr–Coulomb elastic–plastic yield criterion is incorporated within the modified DDA analysis method using a time marching algorithm to account for the possibility of material failure. This allows the plastic behaviour (i.e. yielding) of the material within each block be included in the analysis, which is a significant improvement over the original DDA method. The numerical implementation of the Mohr–Coulomb criterion involves trials using initial elastic stress increment and comparisons with the yield criterion within each element. The proposed DDA formulation including the Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion (termed here as the MC-DDA method) is validated against selected analytical solutions, numerical solutions from FLAC verification problems and field measurements.


The extraction of nickel and cadmium in waste nickel-cadmium battery with hydrophobic ionic liquid PF6-phenanthroline was studied.The effects of the oscillation duration、temperature、the balance aqueous phase acidity and the extractant quantity on the extraction of nickel and cadmium were examined,respectively.The result showed that nickel and cadmium ions in waste nickel-cadmium battery could be extracted nicely in extraction system of 4.0 mL of 4g/L phenanthroline-3.0 mL of PF6,in an aqueous phase of pH 5.91,at a,temperature of 80℃ for 20 min of oscillation duration.The effect of back-extraction of used PF6 under different oscillation duration and acidic media was also researched,and it was found that the nickel and cadmium ions could be well back extracted in 1.0 mol/L hydrochloric acid medium when oscillation duration was one hour.


Pre-engineeredbuildings (PEB) is the concept of ste el structures introduce in early 1960's the structu re here uses entire I sections and the beauty here in this conce pt is no welding process will be carried out in sit e entire structure will be Designed and manufactured in shop and this will be brought to sit and assembles, the entire sectional properties will depends just upon the moments at that specific locations so there won't be any excess steel used in the thus i t is economical. Here I am designing such a PEB building by selecting a rea l time project consisting a 69m wide and 173m lengt h textile building by IS 800-2007 Design code using STAAD Pro and explaining its each and every parameters and design and de tailing procedures .


Twelve coriander (Coriandrum sativum) accessions comprising of released varieties, advancedbreeding material, regional and exotic collections were evaluated at Ajmer (Rajasthan) foreffect of water stress on seed quality parameters including total oil, essential oil, test weightand seed size. All the recorded parameters showed significant genotypic variation as well assignificant interaction of genotype with environment. Mid-term water stress did not haveadverse effect on the studied quality parameters while terminal water stress resulted inreduction in quality parameters in most of the accessions.


The opening of the 16 th Party Congress has brought private enterprises favorable circumstances to develop themselves. The managers of private enterprises must have the sense of "talents being supreme", break the family managing mode and adjust the employing system. On the basis of the statement above, this essay will briefly explore the criteria of employing and the questions of selecting and keeping talents.


The use of data and information is becoming increasingly important for the businesses sector to increase productivity, sustainability, and traceability. Businesses involved with the supply chain face challenges due to the lack of trust in data sharing. The integration of Blockchain technology in supply chain management will have a high potential to increase efficiency, transparency, and trust throughout the supply chain process. This paper aims to present the evolution of Blockchain technology towards optimizing trust in agribusiness supply chain management to address the trust inefficiency issues. We consider the environment of agribusiness supply chain networks and issues concerning constructing Blockchain-based trust networks among participants in the process of data sharing throughout the supply chain information flow. Accordingly, we also deliberate the research challenges that arise during the designing and the directions of the Blockchain solution to optimize the trust in agribusiness supply chain management.


In addressing the growing demand for advanced technical knowledge in the industry, our university has begun to offer a new online graduate program in Quality Engineering & Management (QEM). Acceptance into this program is open to students globally; however, at the initial stages most of the students were graduates of our off-campus programs at partner (including military) sites. In this paper, the findings of a survey conducted, whose audience include the first cohort of students, is presented. The aim was to gain insights on students' perceptions and attitudes towards the program. Prior to this research, which focused on the assessment of the program, studies were conducted that analyzed individual courses. Summaries of these prior works are also presented. An attempt is made to present a comprehensive assessment of the program. In particular, the objective is to determine the reasons (motivations) why students enrolled in the program, their perceptions of online learning and their overall satisfaction with the program. The results indicate overall satisfaction with room for improvement.


. This paper concerns the problem of empirical investigation and mathematical modelling of a novel controllable damper using Vacuum Packed Particles. Vacuum Packed Particles tend to be placed among the group of so-called 'smart structures'. The macroscopic mechanical features of such structures can be controlled by the partial vacuum parameter. The authors consider an application of Bouc-Wen model in order to represent the dynamic behaviour of the investigated device. The verification of the model response with experimental data is discussed. The Bouc-Wen model parameters identification is described.


Silicone-hydrogel toric custom Made-to-Order (MTO) lenses have recently become available in the U.S. The purpose of these case studies is to assess the practical patient care and practice management aspects of utilizing this new modality. The specific question is: • Could the initial diagnostic lenses sent from the laboratory provide acceptable fit and vision so they can be dispensed as diagnostic trials?


One of the major pathophysiological features in Parkinson's disease, from now on referred to as PD, is the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, which in turn results in dysfunction of the cortico-striato-cortical circuits (Bartels & Leenders, 2009). In PD the components of the cortico-striato-cortical circuits are not in an optimal interaction, leading to insufficient engagement of for example the frontal and prefrontal lobes. Motor symptoms of tremor, bradykinesia, and rigidity are the clinical hallmark of PD (Wolters & Bosboom, 2007), however, non-motor symptoms are often present (Dubois & Pillon, 1995, 1997). In particular cognitive impairments in the domain of executive functioning have frequently been observed, both in late and also in very early stages of PD (Muslimovic et al., 2005). The term 'executive functioning' is used as a blanket term referring to a set of abilities that allow individuals to achieve goal-oriented behavior. These aspects of behavior can be regarded as top-down processes, in contrast to bottom-up processes that only represent stimulus-driven processing. Strauss et al. (2006) defined executive functioning as a collection of processes that are responsible for guiding, directing, and managing cognitive, emotional and behavioral functions, particularly during active, novel problem solving. As PD progresses, more severe cognitive impairments or dementia can occur (Aarsland et al., 2003). The dementia in PD exhibits normal or only slightly decreased performance in gnosis and praxis functions, and is typically characterized by a progressive dysexecutive syndrome with disturbed memory functions and attention (Dubois & Pillon, 1997). In addition, it has repeatedly been shown that language functions in PD patients with dementia are affected. Demented PD patients show reduced verbal fluency, poor confrontation naming abilities, decreased word list generation, and difficulties in wordfinding (Dubois & Pillon, 1997; Pahwa et al., 1998). However, prior to dementia, PD patients also evidence subtle language impairments. The question whether the language system itself is impaired, as for example in aphasia, or whether language performance is disrupted because of non-linguistic executive function disorders in PD is still unanswered. We assume that, intact executive functioning is a prerequisite for normal language functioning. Therefore, language processing deficits in PD will always be associated with executive function deficits. Under this view, the language faculty is not considered to be totally modular in nature, but thought to depend on other cognitive functions, since, for example, comprehending a sentence demands that a listener flexibly guides his/her attention to relevant linguistic information, maintains information in working memory during the


Alternaria cichorii was recorded for the first time in Brazil causing leaf spots on endive (Cichorium endivia) in 2003 based on material collected at Catalao, state of Goias, in 2001. In 2005, A. cichorii was found causing severe leaf-spotting in an escarole (C. endivia) planta- tion in Vicosa, state of Minas Gerais and shortly after- wards also in Vicosa, but at a different location, in the weed hosts common sowthistle (Sonchus oleraceus) and spiny sowthistle (Sonchus asper). A description of A. cichorii based on specimens collected in Vicosa is provided herein. The natural occurrence of A. cichorii on weed hosts in Vicosa indicates that it has already become naturalized in Brazil surviving on non-culti- vated composites, complicating disease management. Pathogenicity tests, complementary to those already published, were performed to better elucidate the range of potential alternative hosts in the Asteraceae of this fungus. This involved inoculation of one isolate of A. cichorii obtained from cichory and one obtained from common sowthistle on selected species and culti- vars of 10 tribes in the Asteraceae, but concentrated in the Lactuceae. All species included in the test were shown to be susceptible to at least one of the isolates. A high incidence of leaf spot or blight resulted from inoculation of most individuals. All plants of six test species were killed after inoculation with one of the isolates of A. cichorii. Several of the test species have not been previously recorded as hosts for A. cichorii. Surprisingly, the known host-range for this fungus is restricted to only few members of the Asteraceae (Acr- optilon repens, C. endivia, C. intybus, Carthamus tincto- rius and Lactuca sativa). Our results indicate that A. cichorii has a wide host range within the Asteraceae and that other cultivated or non-cultivated members of this family may serve as inoculum reservoirs for this fungus in the absence of cichory, endive or escarole. An attempt to verify if contaminated seeds might be the original source for such geographically distant occurrences of A. cichorii in Brazil was made. Analysis of 24 samples of cichory and endive seeds obtained from dealers in five different Brazilian states showed that 25% of these samples carried A. cichorii with an incidence varying from 0.6% to 13.75%. Such a result highlights the vulnerable situation in Brazil for avoid- ing introduction of exotic seed-carried vegetable patho- gens. It is known that a very significant proportion of vegetable seeds marketed in Brazil are imported and seed inspection for pathogens is not performed regu- larly for such material imported for commerce. It is probable that contaminated cichory, endive and esca- role seeds served as a vehicle for introduction of this fungus in Brazil and that the fungus has then become naturalized in many vegetable growing areas and is now surviving on other Asteraceae in the absence of cultivated hosts.