During the secretory phase of the menstrual cycle, the composition of extracellular matrix (ECM) in endometrium changes to favour implantation. In the present study, we have analysed whether some cases of unexplained infertility and recurrent abortions could be explained by abnormal production or turnover of endometrial ECM. Comparison of mRNA levels of a panel of collagens, matrix metalloproteinases (MMP), tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMP) and cathepsins in the samples revealed higher levels of type I collagen, MMP-2 and cathepsin H and decreased levels of TIMP-3 mRNA in mid-secretory endometrium of patients with unexplained infertility and/or recurrent miscarriages when compared with normal mid-secretory endometrium. Furthermore, changes were also seen in the levels of type I collagen and TIMP-3 mRNA between the proliferative and mid-secretory phases of normal endometrium. The results suggest an altered ECM turnover in the endometrium of patients with fertility disorders prior to implantation.


ABSTRACT Why and how do labour migrant brokers engage with henchmen of bosses, small-time criminals and violent politicians? What significance do labour brokers' political relations have in the fabric of labour circulation? This article argues for migration brokerage to be examined along a broad continuum of brokerage to explore the local fabric of labour circulation in the Indian construction sector. Considering migration brokerage as part of a broader landscape of brokerage firstly allows look at how migration brokers concretely navigate the worlds of labour and politics to pursue their activities and to further their own agendas. It secondly offers insight into how the everyday relations between migrant brokers and henchmen of bosses shape the lives of migrant labourers in the urban construction sector. Based on a detailed ethnography of the relation between a Dalit labour maistri and a Dalit henchman of a boss in a context of violent criminal political economy, this article explores the roles of Dalit politics in shaping the Dalit fabric of labour circulation and labour broker's trajectories in South India. It further looks at the ambivalent production and mobilisation of Dalit identities in the making of an ideal Dalit migrant labourer.


A set of congruences is called a covering set if every integer belongs to at least one of the congruences. Erdos has raised the following question: given any number N, does there exist a covering set of distinct moduli such that the least of such moduli is N. This has been answered in the affirmative for N up to 9. The aim of this paper is to show that there exists a covering set of distinct moduli the least of which is 20. Recently, Krukenberg inde- pendently and by other methods has also obtained results up through N = 18.


This study examines treatment of a boundary between media to simulate an acoustic field using the CIP method. The handling of spatial derivatives of fields is extremely important for CIP acoustic field analysis. We demonstrate a method of handling this boundary and report results of CIP acoustic field analysis using the present treatment.


Because of superior performance and outstanding advantages, electric vehicles become a hot research around the world. In this paper, the technique features of fuel cell and ultra-capacitor are described, and two energy distribution strategies of the hybrid power system based on frequency splitting approach and fuzzy logic control are presented and compared. The paper contains specific information and simulation about the hybrid power system. The objective was achieved by managing electricity with a fuel cell and supporting the system with an ultra-capacitor. In addition, compared to the strategy frequency splitting approach, fuzzy logic control has much more advantages to some extend according to the simulation results. The power and current of fuel cell and ultra-capacitor under fuzzy logic control varied less about 34% than under frequency splitting approach, and the maximum deviation of DC bus voltage under fuzzy logic control was less 44% than under frequency splitting approach.


The purpose of this research is to investigate and get empirical evidence about auditor big four and auditor industry specialist in the earning management limit by the firms audited for IPO firms. The information asymmetry is participate IPO policy disposed action from management is opportunistic characteristic to execute manipulate performance with earning management. Management want to get high accountability about finance performance from audited result good auditor. Auditor want to work with professional for good performance to keep reputation. Audit quality from auditors good reputation will more guarantee about accountability finance performance firms is audited. The Object of this research is Indonesia IPO firms. The method of data collection is purposive sampling method and resulted 37 firms observation. Regression linier is used to analysis data and develop the theory model. The result indicates that auditor big four and auditor industry specialist do not evidence can limit earning management for firms is audited when IPO firms.


This paper investigates the impact of news media sentiment on financial market returns and volatility in the long-term. We hypothesize that the way the media formulate and present news to the public produces different perceptions and, thus, incurs different investor behavior. To analyze such framing effects we distinguish between optimistic and pessimistic news frames. We construct a monthly media sentiment indicator by taking the ratio of the number of newspaper articles that contain predetermined negative words to the number of newspaper articles that contain predetermined positive words in the headline and/or the lead paragraph. Our results indicate that pessimistic news media sentiment is positively related to global market volatility and negatively related to global market returns 12 to 24 months in advance. We show that our media sentiment indicator reflects very well the financial market crises and pricing bubbles over the past 20 years.


The microstructure of a Fe–Mn–Si–Al twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) steel exhibiting remarkable work hardening rate under uniaxial tensile deformation was investigated using transmission electron microscopy to uncover the mechanism(s) controlling the nucleation and growth of the mechanically induced twins. The results show that the stair-rod cross-slip deviation mechanism is necessary for the formation of the twins, while large extrinsic stacking faults homogenously distributed within the grains could act as preferential sources for the activation of the deviation process. The influence of such features on the thickness and strength of the twins and the resulting mechanical behaviour is discussed and compared to similar works recently performed on Fe–Mn–C TWIP steels.


In this paper, a scalable framework based on a hierarchical architecture for residential demand response (DR) is introduced. The architecture, which overlays the physical architecture of the power system, allows to decompose the problem into several parts and solve it in a distributed manner. The computational time required to solve the DR optimization problem by this framework is shown to be only dependent on the number of levels in the hierarchical architecture. Hence, when the demand response computation is carried out entirely in parallel, adding more homes to the optimization does not add to the optimization time, thus making the computation scalable. Moreover, since the architecture overlays on the hierarchy of the physical power system, each node's physical constraints can also be integrated into the optimization problem. Additionally, metrics are introduced to quantify the DR program's success, balancing between the performance, the number of participants in the DR program as well as the stress on the consumer due to the optimization. For DR management, the consumer comfort as well as the demand response target is considered. The generated schedule can be carried out as a direct load control by the demand response aggregator or through a home energy management system. To demonstrate the scalability of the proposed method a one million home demand response program is successfully simulated and typical results are presented.


Anthocyanin and chlorophyll dyes have been blended as the photosensitizer of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC). The results study showed the effect of chemical bond dyes on TiO2 and the efficiency of DSSC. Ratio blend of the anthocyanin and chlorophyll dyes are 1:1. The absorbance of dyes and TiO2 were characterized using UV-Vis Spectrophotometer. The chemical bonds contained in TiO2-dyes were characterized using FT-IR spectrophotometer. The efficiency of DSSC was calculated using I-V meter. The absorption spectra of chlorophyll: anthocyanin blend dye solutions and TiO2 films can increase after the dye adsorption. Absorbance characterization of anthocyanin and chlorophyll dye blend solutions showed three peaks at the wavelength of 412 nm; 535.5 nm; and 656.5 nm. Absorbance characterization of spinach before being blend with anthocyanin dyes solutions showed two peaks at the wavelength of 431 nm and 665.5 nm. The absorption spectra of TiO2 films can increase after the dyes adsorption at the wavelength of 400 nm. FT-IR spectra of TiO2 founded the functional groups C-Br, C=C, and O-H. The functional groups founded in anthocyanin: chlorophyll dye blended on the surface of TiO2 are C-Br, C-O, O-H, C-H, C=C, C=O, and O-H. The result showed that the greatest efficiency of 0.0544% at dye red cabbage-spinach. Adsorption blends of anthocyanin and chlorophyll dyes on the surface of TiO2 can be used as the photosensitizer for DSSC.


I found six species of cestodes, three of which belong to the genus Raillietina; one to the genus Amoebotaenia; one to the genus Choanotaenia; and one to the genus Hymenolepis. Although all of these species have been previously described, I have found some new and interesting morphological peculiarities which either differ from those previously described, or have been overlooked entirely. Therefore, a discussion of these forms is warranted.


This paper reports on a study on compounding in Modern Greek (MG) as Second Language (L2). Twenty eight (28) adult students of MG as a foreign language were asked to form eighty two (82) compounds of different categories (nouns, adjectives, verbal compounds). The students knew only the compound constituents and the meaning of the compounds they had to form. The errors made included wrong choice of compound constituents, omission of the compounding vowel, intonation errors and errors concerning the head of compounds. On the basis of these errors, we describe strategies employed by L2 learners of MG to form compounds unfamiliar to them.


The Tarasov fan-shaped mechanism, simulating the formation of shear ruptures in a brittle rock at stress conditions corresponding to seismogenic depths, is analyzed. For computation of the stress-strain state of a rock near the equilibrium fan-structure the original method is constructed. The fault is modeled as a narrow elongated layer, filled with the domino-blocks, between two elastic half-spaces. Displacements and stresses around the fan are represented in the integral form as a superposition of edge dislocations with an unknown function of distribution of the Burgers vector. To take into account the stresses of lateral thrust, the solution of plane problem of the elasticity is used for a tensile crack, on the surfaces of which the previously unknown normal stresses are distributed. The exact formulation of the problem leads to a system of two nonlinear singular integral equations, which is solved numerically by the method of successive approximations. The obtained solution is used, when setting the i...


The equilibrium and dynamic surface tension (DST) of the novel cationic surfactant, 3-(p-nonylphenoxy)-2-hydroxylpropyl trimethyl ammonium bromide, abbreviated as RTAB, were studied. The effect of sodium halide such as NaCl, NaBr and NaI on the DST behavior of the RTAB solution below its CMC was studied in detail. Due to the preferential adsorption, the effect of hydration and salting out, the ability to reduce the DST values at the same concentration was in the order of NaI>NaBr>NaCl. Attributed to its high surface activity, the equilibrium time of the DST of the surfactant solution was insensitive to the ionic strength.


In the recent years, the number of cervical conization procedures performed for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes is increasing, accompanied by increased cervical neoplasia among young women. This study aimed to analyze the clinical data of patients who underwent conization in Japan.


Intensive care units (ICUs) deal with complex, severely ill patients and complex processes which makes the system expensive, vulnerable and prone to error. An ongoing evaluation of the provided ICU care is highly desirable to continuously improve quality of care. Quality indicators can inform health care professionals and organizations about how well they adhere to recommended care. However, formerly used indicators often lacked normative standards, benchmarks, sufficient case-mix adjustment and information to initiate actions. In addition, health care professionals often lack the skills, time, capacity or knowledge to interpret feedback and formulate what improvement action is necessary. To further facilitate the translation of the performance feedback into effective actions supplementary intervention components such as action plans that incorporate measurable targets, or evidence-based strategies to change daily practice have shown to be promising. This thesis aims to i) assist ICU professionals in continuously improving quality of care for critically ill patients and ii) to gain knowledge on how the effectiveness of audit and feedback (A&F) could be increased. We conclude that an electronic A&F intervention based on actionable indicators and extended with an action implementation toolbox has an improved effectiveness and supports ICU professionals in continuously improving quality of care. The suggested actions from the toolbox led to the development of more improvement intentions across a wider range of practice determinants. ICUs without toolbox tended to remain longer in earlier processes of the feedback cycle. All ICUs still experienced barriers relating to the feedback and organizational context.


To avoid the membrane dryout and performance degradation of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) under low-humidity conditions, it is necessary to understand the dynamic water transport within working cells. In this study, we have developed a real-time gas sensing system with a single-ended fiber-optic probe based on tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS), to measure the water vapor distribution in narrow channels of fuel cells with high accuracy and high temporal resolution. This sensor was used to evaluate the dry-wet transient phenomena in the anode flow channel of a PEFC during low-humidity and load change operations. The technique showed the water vapor concentration in the anode channel has a large temporary drop when the current density increases and the voltage undershoot occurs. We concluded that the TDLAS-based gas sensing technique enables the detection of instantaneous fluctuations of water concentration in the flow channel observed after step changes of current density.


The paper is devoted to the problem of the exhaustion of international companies' trademarks and other intellectual property objects rights in the foreign trade practices of Russia and other countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). The paper focuses on the problems of trade integration through the intellectual property market, since any free movement of goods should always be correlated with respect for the interests of the trademark rights owners.  The aim of this paper is to explore the process of parallel importing in the aspect of international companies trademarks intellectual property rights in the Russian Federation and EEU countries and the opportunities and challenges it provides for both manufacturers and importers. The problem of importing products labeled with trademarks through parallel import channels to Russia is being considered using the schemes for the importation of counterfeit goods into Russia through EEU countries. The analysis shows that there are the problems with the application of the mechanisms of trademarks customs protection in practice. The main problem is the lack of unified legislation for intellectual property protection in EEU members.


State of the art rapid thermal processing is able to produce a lateral thermal homogeneity which is within the inherent resolution limits of current metrology. For the most commonly used direct or indirect control methods such as multiple thermocouple measurements, rapid thermal oxidation (RTO), or rapid thermal annealing (RTA) of plain semiconductor wafers this limit is {+-}2 C. As homogeneity requirements approach those limits, pattern induced non-uniformities are getting more important. In order to achieve rapid heating and high substrate temperatures in RTP, heater and substrate are not in equilibrium and their emission spectra differ considerably. Under such circumstances laterally varying optical characteristics on the substrate itself imply thermal non-uniformities. The influence of patterns on a silicon wafer surface on the temperature uniformity is studied. Passive patterns showing interference effects were formed out of thermal oxide and Si{sub 3}N{sub 4}. RTO and RTA, as well as embedded thermocouples were used for temperature measurement. The data presented show that major non-uniformities due to interference effects can be reduced by restricting the energy transfer through the patterned side of the wafer. It is shown that independent top and bottom heater bank control and controlled thermal kinetics are suitable methods to reduce themore » pattern related process non-uniformities.« less


The host immune response to parasitic helminths is usually characterized by a Th2 phenotype. As the Jagged/Notch pathway has been implicated in driving Th2 development, it was hypothesized that host macrophages and dendritic cells (DCs) could detect helminth products and mount an appropriate response via this pathway. Schistosoma mansoni soluble egg antigen (SEA) rapidly up-regulated expression of the Notch ligand, Jagged 1, in both mouse and human macrophages, as well as in conventional mouse DCs. Other factors associated with Th cell development, including the Th1-promoting factor IL-12 p40, as well as another potential Th2-promoting factor, interleukin (IL)-33, were not transcriptionally responsive to SEA in these same cell types, thus indicating the selectivity of the response. Inducible gene expression was modified by the presence of the macrophage growth factor colony-stimulating factor (CSF)-1, which inhibited Jagged 1 induction by SEA and lipopolysaccharide (LPS), but enhanced LPS-induced IL-12p40 expression. Despite the observation that SEA upregulated Jagged 1 in both macrophages and DCs, only SEA-pulsed DCs promoted IL-4 production upon T-cell activation, suggesting that Jagged 1 induction alone is insufficient for instructing Th2 development. A recombinant form of the extracellular region of Jagged 1 did, however, enhance IFN-γ production in splenocytes, thus implying that the rapid induction of Jagged 1 in macrophages and DCs can regulate T cell responses. A potential role for SEA-induced Jagged 1 in autocrine responses in macrophages was also investigated through studies with recombinant extracellular Jagged 1, as well as ectopic expression of Jagged 1 in macrophages. A comparison of the responses initiated in macrophages by SEA and the bacterial endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) revealed common activation of extracellular signal regulated kinase-1/2 (ERK-1/2) and p38 phosphorylation. However, only LPS triggered IκB degradation, phosphorylation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and phosphorylation of Tyr701 of signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1). SEA robustly activated signalling in HEK293 cells expressing either Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) or TLR4/MD2, as well as variably in cells expressing TLR3. Jagged 1 upregulation by SEA was not abrogated in TLR4 knockout macrophages, in contrast to the LPS response. Pharmacological inhibition of the ERK-1/2 pathway impaired both SEA- and LPS-inducible Jagged 1 expression in macrophages. In conclusion, the data within this thesis suggests that Jagged 1 is an ERK-dependent target of TLR signalling that has a macrophage-specific function in the response to SEA.


List of Illustrations Preface 1 Introduction: Scotland in the Neolithic 2 Islands in the fastlane: the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition 3 Burning down the house: the destruction of timber structures 4 Planting trees, planting people: long and round barrows In eastern Scotland and beyond 5 Megalithic (big-stone) architecture in Atlantic Scotland 6 The emergence of monument complexes 7 The architecture of monumental landscapes 8 The Early Bronze Age: deconstructing and rebuilding the past 9 Conclusions Bibliography.


THIS PAPER SEEKS to address two things I have sensed from lecturing in a theology department in a secular university. First, most students who choose theology expect to engage with a discipline that deeply affects life. This is so whether or not they profess religious belief. Second, they are disappointed when their course does not live up to that expectation. It would strain the discipline of theology to suppose that it is indifferent to the transformation and redemption of life. So how can theology departments educate people within a secular environment with the sorts of goals suited to redemptive transformation? It is proposed in this paper that because education itself has transformative effects, learning is a spiritual practice. Rather than worrying about 'sacred' versus 'secular' disciplines, and confessing versus non-confessing practitioners, we might consider how best to practice the spirituality of learning with respect to everyone. If teaching in theology departments were to become unashamedly transformative in its concerns, more students might find theology to be the discipline they were hoping for when they chose their degree course.


Certaini other experiments deserve mention, which were carriied out in an infected flea-infested godown. The aninmals exposed in this case were divided inlto tllree gr-oups: four aniimals were allowed to rlun about the floor; four, in cages, were suspended two inches above the grounid; and four, in cages, were hung two feet above the ground. Fleas readily reached the aniimals of the first two groups, but not those of the third group. All the animals in the first two groups died of plague, but none in the third group. Oin several occasions monkeys were placed in separate cages in an infected godown, two at a time. Both aniimals were protected from soil infectioni and were equally exposed to aerial infection if this occurred. Onie animal, however, was protected from fleas, either by a broad strip of sticky paper over which fleas could not hop or by a fine metallic gauze curtain which prevented their passage. Fleas had ready access to the other animal. The animals were left in the godown for forty-eight hours. Eleven animals protected from fleas all escaped infection, while six out of thirteen monkeys exposed to the attack of fleas contracted plague. We are justified in assuming that close and continuous contact with plague-infected animals, if fleas are excluded, does not give rise to an epizobtic among the healtlhy animals; that when fleas are present an epizootic nmay develop which varies in severity and rate of progress according to the season of the year and the number of fleas present; that an epizoitic may be started without contact with infected animals if infected fleas are available; that, in fact, fleas and fleas alone are the transmitting agenits of inifection.


The hydrodynamic stability of a plane, two‐dimensional, incompressible wall jet subjected to small disturbances was examined by a linearized theory. The critical Reynolds number Rδc was determined to be about 57. The eigenvalues and eigenfunctions were numerically calculated for neutral stability (ci = 0) as well as for several cases of amplification of the wave (ci > 0).


These days, movement of industrial archaeology is stressfully being discussed to preserve socially-contributed industrial and civic facilities and evaluate their social value. Since it is still a new field of study, however, engineers' and planners' recognition toward their value haven't reached to the satisfied level. In fact, lots of valuable facilities are being destroyed. Landscape of these facilities can also obtain more value as materials of industrial education.This study deals with Yokohama-Waterway, 44km long and the first-constructed modern waterway, as a case study, to discuss and analyze industrial heritages and perceptible industrial facilities along it. In addition we grasp their locations along Yokohama Waterway and quest the possibility of their positive dealt in landscape planning.


Poem, Wendy Cope short story, Adele Geras article, Fionnuala McHugh play, Berlie Doherty short story, Joan Lingard short story, Farrukh Dhondy extended assignments writing about novels, short stories and plays writing about journalism writing about poetry you as the writer.


Abstract. Dichloromethylenediphosphonate (Cl2MDP) and ethane‐l‐hydrory‐l,l‐diphosphonate (EHDP), two compounds related in structure to inorganic pyrophosphate but which contain P—C—P instead of P—O—P bonds, have been shown to inhibit the osteoporosis induced by the immobilisation of the hind limbs of rats. These effects may be due to the ability of diphosphonates to inhibit bone resorption. A polyphosphate and porcine calcitonin inhibited the osteoporosis only slightly. Diphosphonates may prove useful in the therapy of osteoporosis and other diseases in which bone resorption is increased.


Objective To develop a method for fast and quantitive detection of anthrax spore. Methods Using up-converting phosphor technology based on double-antibody sandwich assay for the detection of B. anthracis spores. The sensitivity and specificity of the method were evaluated. The feasibility of screening environmental samples was evaluated by different "white powder" samples. Results The specificity of the assay was confirmed using closely related bacterial spores of B. cereus, B. thuringiensis, B. subtilis and of other bacteria. The sensitivity is 104 spores and the same results were obtained from "white powder" samples. Conclusion The immuno-chromatography based on up-converting phosphor technology provides a fast, specific and sensitive method for the detection of B. anthacis spore on site. It is potentially suited to identify B. anthracis spores.


The issue of comfort of passenger ships has became in the last years of paramount importance; in this context the noise and vibration control plays a leading role. The concept of comfort on board is subjective and it is impossible to define it with simple formula. On the other hand, a few number of significant parameters is commonly used to characterize the level of comfort on board of ships, and the sound insulation index in one of the most important. As known, it has a paramount importance in defining the contractual comfort on board of ships. The report is related with the problem of setting up the sound insulation index for pax cabins, specifically in relation to the nature and characteristics of the panels between cabins.


During the operation of mobile networked intelligent vehicles, beamforming training is often needed, which will lead to a significant increase in training time and adverse impact on system performance. This paper analyses this problem in detail, and establishes a new beamforming algorithm, that is, to predict the position and state information of the vehicle in the process of movement, and then beamforming based on the results obtained; the predicted vehicle position results have errors, so we need to reduce the position error as much as possible, calculate the optimal beamforming width, and significantly improve the system performance. The simulation results show that the performance of the beamforming algorithm proposed in this paper is significantly improved compared with IEEE 802.11ad, which can meet the requirements of practical application.


Methanol adsorption on ion‐sputtered Pt(111) surface exhibiting high concentration of vacancy islands and on (2 × 1)Pt(110) single crystal were investigated by means of photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) and thermal desorption spectroscopy. The measurements showed that methanol adsorbed at low temperature on sputtered Pt(111) and on (2 × 1)Pt(110) surfaces decomposed upon heating. The PES data of methanol adsorption were compared to the data of CO adsorbed on the same Pt single crystal surfaces. In the case of the sputtered Pt(111) surface, the dehydrogenation of HxCO intermediates is followed by the CO bond breakage. On the (2 × 1)Pt(110) surface, carbon monoxide, as product of methanol decomposition, desorbed molecularly without appearance of any traces of atomic carbon. By comparing both platinum surfaces we conclude that methanol decomposition occurs at higher temperature on sputtered Pt(111) than on (2 × 1)Pt(110). Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Although high‐temperature oxide superconductors have been studied since 1986, the static and dynamic behaviors of magnetic vortices generated by applied magnetic fields and electrical currents remain controversial. These phenomena are important for at least two reasons: (1) vortex motion generates dissipation causing degraded performance in practical superconducting devices; and (2) the high transition temperatures (Tc≊100 K), short coherence length (≤10 A) and strong crystalline anisotropy of high‐Tc oxides are predicted to cause novel structural rearrangements or melting transitions of the ''vortex lattice'' at temperatures T well below the superconducting/normal phase boundary Hc2(T). Recent mechanical oscillator studies of relatively isotropic, low‐Tc superconductors reveal dissipation anomalies and frequency shifts similar to those observed in high‐Tc materials, challenging current theories for the vortex state of superconductors. [Work supported by NSF and Research Corp.]


Monomeric, dimeric and trimeric chromium(III) species in solution were separated by ion exchange and characterized with UV/Vis absorption and Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure Spectroscopy (EXAFS). The kinetics of the oxidation of the separated species by hydrogen peroxide in alkaline solutions were studied by conventional and stopped-flow UV/Vis absorption spectroscopy. Results indicate that the intensity of Cr–Cr scattering in the EXAFS spectra (dCr–Cr
∼ 2.99 A), a measure of the degree of oligomerization, increases as the solution alkalinity is increased. As the oligomerization proceeds, the rate of oxidation by hydrogen peroxide in alkaline solutions decreases in the order: monomer > dimer > trimer > aged/unseparated alkaline chromium(III) solution where higher oligomers dominate. The dominant redox pathway has an inverse order with respect to CNaOH. The data suggest
that the rate-determining step involves the weakening of the bridging bonds in the oligomer and a concomitant release of one hydroxyl group from the chromium(III) moiety upon the attack by hydrogen peroxide.


INHALT: TS 6.1: ENERGY REDUCTION BY DYNAMIC TRAIN CONTROL (GOODMAN,CJ; MELLITT,B; PRIME,HA AND SUJITJORN,S); TS 6.2: AN ALGORITHM FOR ENERGY QUASI-OPTIMAL CONTROL OF TRAINS (GUROV,JR AND NAPLATANOV,ND); TS 6.5: MODELLING, SIMULATION AND CONTROL OF THE TRAFFIC AT THE TERMINUS STATIONS OF URBAN UNDERGROUND RAILWAY LINES (CAMPION,G; VANBREUSEGEM,V AND BASTIN,G); TS 6.6: DEVELOPMENT OF SIMTRACS AND ITS APPLICATION (WATANABE,T; IKEDA,H; OKAWA,Y AND SATOU,A); TS 6.7: CONTROL AND CHECKING FUNCTIONS FOR THE UNDERGROUND TRAINS (DESCOTES-GENON,B AND PICARD D'ESTELAN,B); TS 6.8: AUTOMATION OF CSD GRAVITY YARDS WITH ACCELERATING GRADIENT MARSHALLING TRACKS (VYSLOUZIL,J; KRAPKA,Z AND CHRDLE,P); TS 6.9: MATHEMATICAL MODELLING AND CONTROL OF PASSENGER TRAFFIC (HRUDKA,Z); TS 6.10: UNCERTAINTY FACTOR IN RAILWAY TRAFFIC MODELLING AND CONTROL (BEREZINSKI,M; HOLUBIEC,J; KRAJEWSKI,W AND BASIEWICZ,T); TS 6.11: THE USE OF REPEATED STEP SIMULATION FOR CONTROLLING THE TRANSPORTATION PROCESS (KONARZEWSKA-GUBALA,E AND RYMARCZYK,M). (S. IDS-NR. 330158). (KFV/T)


The strength of plastic greatly varies with temperature; that is, the strength increases as the temperature decreases. Therefore, the lifetime of a plastic gear can be increased by reducing the meshing-teeth temperature of the gear. The meshing-teeth temperature can be reduced by changing the material of the mating gear from plastic to metal considering that a metal gear will have high thermal conductivity. In this study, we investigated the load-carrying characteristics of an unlubricated crossed helical gear consisting of a plastic gear meshed with a metal gear. We performed gear lifetime experiments and meshing-teeth temperature survey experiments. The results showed that the failure mode of the plastic crossed helical gear was caused by the breakage of the tooth and the rim. Then, we confirmed that the stress ratio could be an index for the lifetime evaluation of the plastic crossed helical gear that could fail by tooth breakage. Additionally, by testing gear pairs with several dimensions, we confirmed that the mean flash temperature could be an index for the meshing-teeth temperature evaluation of the plastic crossed helical gear. Furthermore, we proposed a lifetime estimation method for the plastic crossed helical gear that could fail by tooth breakage and verified the validity of the proposed method based on the experimental results.


Attention is given to the High-Performance Parallel Interface (HIPPI), a new ANSI standard, using a minimal protocol and providing 100-Mbyte/s transfers over distances up to 25 m. Equipment using this standard is offered by a growing number of computer manufacturers. A commercially available HIPPI chipset allows low-cost implementations. A brief technical introduction to the HIPPI is given, followed by examples of planned applications in high-energy physics experiments, including the developments involving CERN: a detector emulator, a RISC, (reduced instruction set computer) processor based VMEconnection, a long-distance fiber-optics connection, and a HIPPI testbox.<<ETX>>


A 10-year-old boy was admitted to the hospital with decreased muscle strength in lower limbs. Physical examination revealed isolated spastic crural paraparesis. MRI of the thoracic spine demonstrated a cystic intramedullary lesion (figure 1). The patient underwent complete microsurgical resection of the lesion. Anatomopathologic report (figure 2) confirmed cysticercosis. Intramedullary cysticercosis is a rare parasitic infection caused by Taenia solium (0.7%–5.8% of all patients with neurocysticercosis).1 This presentation is usually underdiagnosed because, in degeneration phases, it is difficult to visualize the parasite in the MRI, mainly the scolex, and immunologic tests are negative due to intraparenchymal location.2


The relations between language and politics in Covid-19 coverage have become significant issues following the rise of Chinese Covid-19 cases in 2022. The study aims to investigate specific rhetorical appeals and language means that were used by journalists to manipulate public opinion and propagate certain ideology in the American and Russian online news discourse. The study employed a mixture of quantitative and qualitative research techniques. It used computer-assisted content analysis, rhetorical analysis, and van Dijk's sociocognitive approach to CDA to identify and describe biased representations of Russia's Covid-19 vaccine 'Sputnik V' in 307 Internet news text. The content analysis revealed frequent mentions of politicians and political institutions in the American and Russian coverage of 'Sputnik V'. The rhetorical and discourse analyses expose similarities in the use of rhetorical appeals and language means. The study concludes that the coverage of 'Sputnik V' was highly emotionalized and politicized both in American and Russian media. The journalists utilized the ideologically loaded language and rhetorical appeals to disguise their biased opinions and create a distorted image of 'Sputnik V' in the online news coverage. The study also provides implications for the development of ESL and EFL courses to enhance students' reading comprehension skills.


Three-dimensional television (3D-TV) adopts two-view stereoscopic 3D (S3D) images with a special watching mechanism. Perfect stereoscopic visual comfort experience can bring enhanced depth perception. Actually, there are numerous potential sources of adverse effects make visual discomfort. Border effects are the usual scenarios that lead to visual discomfort due to the depth conflict between the border objects and screen border in the 3D perceptual space. In this paper, we focus on how the border effects affect visual discomfort and fatigue. We investigate the visual features of border objects qualify the the visual comfort, including border object disparity, border object thickness, border object blur and border object color contrast. The visual features of border objects are extracted to qualify the visual comfort level induced by border effects. To have a better performance evaluation on visual comfort of border effects, we design our stereoscopic images database VBED (Visual Border Effect Database) focusing on various border objects dependent visual features. Experimental results demonstrate that the combined use of various object dependent visual features can achieve effective border effects prediction.


The analysis of the information of Anania Shirakuni (7th century) about the Georgian and Aluanian calendars shows that in 552 the Armenian Church solved its calendar issues by the official adoption of the ecclesiastical calendar, compiled by Athanas Taronatsi. 9 years later, in 561, the Council of calendar scholars in Alexandria, despite the absence of representatives from Armenia, Georgia (Iberia), Albania and a number of other countries, established separate calendars for them, which were drawn up in the image of the Egyptian calendar, with the same beginning of the year and months and the general system of leap years. But at the beginning of the 7th century the Georgian Church finally broke with the Armenian Church and, as a result of this, in 781 switched to a new (Chalcedonite) ecclesiastical calendar and the use of the calendar created for Georgians by the Council in Alexandria (and known as the Georgian Chronicon). The Aluanian church, which was in canonical unity with the Armenian Church, did not switch to independent ecclesiastical calendar, did not create its own chronology and probably never applied the calendar compiled for the Aluans in Alexandria.
In 666–667 AD, Anania Shirakuni created his monumental work – K'nnikon. The calendar (Tomar) consisting of theoretical and applied parts was represent in this work. The names of the months in the Aluanian and Georgian calendars have parallels in the names of the months of the Armenian calendar, represent borrowings or have semantics in common with them, which, obviously, is explained by the long cultural contacts of the peoples of the South Caucasus.


The current Tree-Scattering models though represent recent consensus are fairly specified for mobile radio frequency networks and do not cover all possible scenarios. Moreover, Tree-scattering models for improving very high frequency (VHF) radio broadcasting networks in residential environment are equally important as it channels are characterized by variety of Trees. Accurate modeling of attenuation of VHF radio wave propagation in residential environment can be very tedious as the channels are rarely characterized by vegetation of the same variety. The main focus of this work is to measure path loss and model specific attenuation coefficient of the coherent scattered field intensity of VHF radio network as it propagates through Mango and Jathropha Trees separately at 98MHz and 103.4MHz respectively.


Abstract : People in the United States have been terrorized on U.S. soil with targeted violence, on various scales and with varying success, for decades.1 Yet, the recent September 2001 attacks and the earlier bombing of Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building vividly demonstrate something disturbing and new: Some contemporary terrorists, both home-grown and foreign, are not deterred by-indeed may even be attempting to produce-human casualties on a massive scale. These events are part of a pattern of increasing lethality that started in the 1990s.2 Even more troubling is that, while conventional explosives may continue to be the predominant terrorist weapon, the magnitude of the September 11 attacks coupled with the spread of anthrax-laced letters have led some to conclude that chemical or biological weapons are now more likely than ever to be used.3 Although, strictly speaking, terrorism4 has never been absent from the set of threats facing American citizens, the magnitude and character of recent events have called into question the readiness of the nation's state and local emergency response and health and medical personnel to respond effectively to the next incident, to correctly identify hazards as they occur, and to mitigate damage to persons and property. In particular, response to the anthrax incidents subsequent to September 11 was less than reassuring. While the mode of attack made initial identification and response difficult, authorities also had a hard time organizing, coordinating, and communicating an appropriate response even after anthrax was identified.5 This issue paper has two purposes: (1) to suggest some nationally representative measures of local responder preparedness for chemical and biological terrorism as a baseline for the current debate; and (2) to illustrate the limitations of our measures and describe why quantifying preparedness for terrorism, by any measure, is elusive.


In a certain sense, WTO rules are those that bind upon all the governments of the member countries including of china. The author argues that these legally force result from not only substantiality rules of WTO, but also procedural rules of WTO. Therefore, we should try to accelerate the legalization of macroscopic action and to formulate a macro-control and relief mechanism in accordance with WTO rules and intention.


This study had as its objective to develop an indicator for the financial literacy of individuals, called Financial Literacy Thermometer. To achieve this obj...


In the present paper we investigate induced scattering of the pump microwave during electron Bernstein wave heating in the regimes with the high poloidal beta. It occurs in the upper hybrid resonance vicinity and leads to the nonlinear excitation of electron Bernstein waves confined within a finite 3D region limited in the radial direction by a potential well at the LFS and in the poloidal and toroidal directions by the dimensions of the spot on the magnetic flux surface illuminated by the pump beam.


We studied the fattening qualities and meat productivity of purebred cornflower breeds and local from different variants of crosses with Odessa type of Askanian meat - wool breed: costs per 1 kg of live weight gain of nutrients (feed units, digestible protein); slaughter qualities, morphological composition of carcasses; meat qualities; the ratio of internal organs.


In the last few years, terahertz (THz) technologies have been extensively explored for applications in chemical and biological sensing, spectroscopy, medicine, and imaging [1, 2]. Integrated THz platforms are highly desirable for chemical and biological detection because they can provide field confinement and enhancement to increase sensitivity [2]. Some such platforms, including one dimensional (1D) parallel-plate waveguides with embedded photonic bandgap structures [3-6] and integrated microstrip resonators [7], have already been experimentally realized. Our research is focused on the development and measurement of integrated THz photonic devices. In particular, we are studying air-core metallic microcavity resonators coupled to rectangular metal waveguides [8] and 1D Bragg gratings embedded in rectangular metal waveguides. Such hollow-core THz microphotonic structures can be ideal for narrow-band sensing applications.


This paper shows a special situation where a portfolio created based on Tobin's separation theorem does not match the Markowitz efficient set. Next a review of Markowitz´s portfolio selection theory is offered, followed by a review of Tobin's separation theorem. Next, these models are used as tools for the individual investor with data on the Colombian stock market of the first half of 2008. Finally, the conclusions are shown. It is important to emphasize that the objective of this paper is not to make predictions upon expected returns, variances and covariances of these returns, nor to suggest an optimal portfolio for an investor with a particular utility function, but to expose a concrete scenario in which Tobin´s theorem leads to a portfolio located outside Markowitz´s efficient set.


The Supreme Court's recent decision in Communications Workers of America v. Beck interpreted section 8(a)(3) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to prohibit the observance of agency shop agreements. By interpreting the statute in this way, the Court avoided the question of whether union security agreements under the NLRA are subject to constitutional scrutiny. The Court's determination that section 8(a)(3) does not allow agency shop agreements was an important decision affecting the enforceability of union security agreements in the vast majority of private sector bargaining agreements. In this Article, Professor Dau-Schmidt criticizes the Court's interpretation of section 8(a)(3) in Beck. The Article examines the Court's NLRA precedents and the legislative history of the NLRA's section 8(a)(3). Several methods of statutory construction and constitutional adjudication are analyzed. Finally, Professor Dau-Schmidt argues that union security agreements under the NLRA are not subject to constitutional scrutiny because there is no state action in their negotiation or observance.


Objective To compare the negative life events of students in different stages of study in Tongxiang city,and to provide basis for the psychological health researches.Methods 1 120 students of different stages of study were tested with ASLEC and data were statistically analyzed.Results There was a great difference among scores of different stages of students in terms of life events occurence,stress quantity,personal relation,pressure of study,being punished and adapting to health(P0.01).As for the scores of life events occurence,stress quantity,and being punished,those of male studnets were higher than female students(P0.05).But as for the scores of pressure of study and personal relation,those of female students were higher(P0.05).Conclusion Studnets of different genders and different stages have different characters.Targeted phycological education should be used to improve the students' mental health level.


Travelling has changed a lot through the ages. The present trends are focused on more than just locomotion. The experience is the key to a happy and comfortable ride. We have emerged in multiple ways to better the car experience. Along with all the latest hi-tech innovation and supreme luxury, the importance of safety, security and user-friendly features has seen a steep rise. People are now more aware of how safety and security are principal for a vehicle. In this project we are aiming to build a solution which can address three major areas namely, Safety, Security and Ease of Access. In each of these areas we want to device a way to make the user experience better and keep it economic as much possible. We are using microcontrollers and sensors to build this system. We are using the Arduino platform. Vehicle support systems are increasing in innovation and technology and are making the user experience better. This project is an attempt to bring about such systems on to a single platform and make it easier for control, administration, and safety.


I have developed a hands-on guided-discovery course for future teachers that includes a semester-long research project about the moon. This project, which is designed to give students the experience of conducting a long-term scientific investigation, requires students to make daily naked-eye observations of the moon and construct graphs of given data (such as moonrise/set times and dates of moon phases) in order to discover and demonstrate a variety of phenomena related to the moon. Once students have discovered, discussed, and visualized their way to an understanding of various concepts relating to the moon, they develop and teach a hands-on guided-discovery lesson on those concepts to their classmates. Finally, they write a teacher's guide that explains the concepts and could show other teachers how to replicate the lesson. Assessment of students' understanding of the moon and their self-reported evaluations of the moon project experience demonstrate that, although it is challenging and at times frustrating, it is a unique and valuable educational experience for the students.


Performance comparison is a key task in computer architecture research. These evaluations might need to consider the scenario where resources are shared concurrently by a wide range of application classes. In many cases, well known benchmarking tools, such as SpecCPU do not provide evaluation metrics under such usage circumstances. Previous attempts to fill the gap with realistic workloads have reiled on random combination of applications, formulating performance comparison as a statistical task to reduce the population size. The computational cost of these approaches is substantial, given the large mix required to achieve statistically meaningful results. In this paper, we present SPECcast, a methodology for the SPEC CPU2017 suite, which can circumvent this issue. The idea relies on exploiting the inner application characteristics to minimize the computational cost without degrading the statistical significance of the results. Using manual source-code annotation, we determine a small portion of each application, denoted Region of Interest (ROI), that accurately resembles the whole program's characteristics. Then, we develop synchronization mechanisms that can concurrently run any combination of applications in the cores of the system. This enables us to run multiprogrammed SPEC workloads ∼95% faster without losing statistical significance. A detailed validation of the proposed methodology will be performed and three different use cases for the methodology will be described: Fast performance evaluation of micro-architectural features (prefetching in this case) in real systems, system comparisons and application characterization using full-system simulation.


Abstract We derived strong ground movement from an inclination of utility poles at three localities (Shikung, Tsanton and Mingchien) along the Chelungpu seismic fault during the Chi‐Chi (Taiwan) Earthquake: (1) Utility poles on the footwall fell westward, but those on the hanging wall inclined in varied directions. (2) The inclined utility poles near the fault line have larger amounts of opening(s), 5–15 cm wide, against an asphalt layer on a roadway. The ground movement near the fault in the Chi‐Chi (Taiwan) Earthquake was bigger than the Kobe Earthquake. (3) The strong ground movement (S ≥ 5 cm) near the fault appeared in a narrow width of less than 100 m on both sides of the fault line, except for Shikung. Damaged housing and buildings are commonly concentrated within the range of the strong ground movement. Therefore, it is significant to clearly know the width of the strong motion strip, for earthquake‐resistant design.


Breast cancer is the most common malignant tumor among females around the world. It represents 1.7 million new cases per year and 25% of all types of cancers.

 Assessment of median overall survival in most aggressive subtypes of metastatic breast cancer (Triple –Ve and HER2+Ve) & to compare survival of metastatic HER2+Ve breast cancer in group received targeted versus that did not receive.

 Multi institutional retrospective study for assessment of median OS in metastatic breast cancer for themost aggressive subtypes (HER2+Ve &Triple-Ve) at Ain Shams University Hospitals and El-Matarya teaching Hospital.

 Seventy-three metastatic breast cancer patients were included (31 Triple-Ve & 42 HER2+Ve) in the period between January 2014 and December 2016 At Ain Shams University Hospitals and El-Matarya teaching Hospital, we found that median OS for Triple negative group is 16 months with (95% CI 8.8- 23.6) , that for HER2+Ve group is 17 months with (95% CI 13.9 – 20.6) & for patients did not receive targeted therapy, median OS is 10 months (95% CI. 4-19.4,P.000).

 From our study,we highlight that metastatic breast cancer patients (HER2+Ve subtype) &received targeted therapy, had the most superior survival outcome. so,targeted therapy must be included in first line treatment.


The major objective of the statistical analysis about industrial accidents is to determine the safety factors so that it is possible to prevent or decrease the number of future accidents by educating those who work in a given industrial field in safety management. So far, however, there exists no quantitative method for evaluating danger related to industrial accidents. Therefore, as a method for developing quantitative evaluation technique, this study presents feature analysis of industrial accidents in manufacturing field using QUEST algorithm. In order to analyze features of industrial accidents, a retrospective analysis was performed on 10,536 subjects (10,313 injured people, 223 deaths). The sample for this work was chosen from data related to manufacturing businesses during a three-year period () in Korea. This study used AnswerTree of SPSS and the analysis results enabled us to determine the most important variables that can affect injured people such as the occurrence type, the company size, and the time of occurrence. Also, it was found that the classification system adopted in the present study using QUEST algorithm is quite reliable.


The speedy preparation of mail into orderly groups suitable for machine sorting became an essential prerequisite for any letter mail mechanization system. The search by the P.O. for a suitable method is traced. The cylindrical segregating drum method is described in detail, together with some interesting variants. Problem areas are discussed and future designs are considered.


Electron momentum density of Ni2TiAl alloy has been studied using Compton scattering technique. The experiment has been performed using 20 Ci 137Cs (661.65 keV) Compton spectrometer at an intermediate resolution of 0.34 a.u. To interpret the experimental data, we have calculated the Compton profiles using Hartree Fock and density functional theories within the frame work of linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) method. The experimental data have been interpreted in term of autocorrelation function B(z) of the one electron wave function. The experimental B(z) function has been compared with the LCAO based theoretical B(z), to analyze the electronic and structural properties of Ni2TiAl.


The problem of a polymer molecule whose two ends reside on opposite sides of a membrane or partition separating two solutions is solved exactly in the limit of no self-excluded volume. The monomers can go from one side of the membrane to the other only by threading serially through one hole in the membrane. The ends can be free, confined to run freely on the membrane surfaces, or be fixed to specific points on the membrane. It is found that the equilibrium thermodynamic phase transition is first order in all cases so that slight changes in pH, ionic strength, or temperature can move the polymer from being completely on one side of the membrane to being completely on the other side. Application to two biological problems are suggested: (1) the breaching of cell walls by the nuclear material of T2 bacteriophages, and (2) the transport of drugs that are affixed to these translocating polymers. The relation of this newly discovered transition to four other phase transitions that occur in isolated macromolecul...


In order to detect quarantine plant viruses, we developed reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) primer pairs for five single-stranded (ss) plant RNA viruses that are not currently reported in Korea but could be potential harmful plant viral pathogens. Three viruses such as Chilli veinal mottle virus (ChiVMV), Colombian datura virus (CDV), and Tobacco etch virus (TEV) belong to the genus Potyvirus while Chrysanthemum stem necrosis virus (CSNV) and Iris yellow spot virus (IYSV) are members of the genus Tospovirus. To design RT-PCR primers, we used reported gene sequences corresponding to the capsid protein and polyprotein for ChiVMV, CDV, and TEV while using nucleocapsid protein regions for CSNV and IYSV. At least two different primer pairs were designed for each virus. Fifteen out of 16 primer pairs were successfully applied in detection of individual quarantine virus with high specificity and efficiency. Taken together, this study provides a rapid and useful protocol for detection of five quarantine viruses.


The translocation o f the purine nucleobases, guanine and hypoxanthine, across the plasma membrane of mammalian cells is the essential first step of the purine salvage pathway. Until recently, it was believed that such purines entered a variety o f cells via facilitated-diffusion systems that were either specific for nucleobases or also accepted nucleosides as permeants [ I , 21. However, this laboratory recentlydemonstrated the presence o f a sodium linked cotransporter for certain nucleobases in LLC-PK, cells, a cell line derived from the late proximal tubule o f the juvenile pig kidney [3]. To investigate h o w widespread this cotransporter is, w e have started t o study the properties of nucleobase transport in other epithelial cell lines, such as OK which is derived from the late proximal tubule o f the opossum kidney [41. In this report, w e describe the characterization of nucleobase transporters in the OK cells with particular emphasis on the permeant specificity of the carrier systems.


In this paper we study an event based control algorithm for trajectory tracking in control affine nonlinear systems. The desired trajectory is modelled as the solution of a reference system with an exogenous input. It is assumed that the desired trajectory and the exogenous input to the reference system are uniformly bounded. Given a continuous-time controller that guarantees global uniform asymptotic tracking of the desired trajectory our algorithm provides an event based controller that not only guarantees semiglobal uniform ultimate boundedness of the tracking error, but also ensures non-accumulation of inter-execution times. In the special case that the derivative of the exogenous input to the reference system is also uniformly bounded, the proposed control algorithm can be used to design an ultimate bound that is arbitrarily small. The main ideas in the paper are illustrated through simulations of trajectory tracking by a nonlinear system.


An unusual monstrosity of the male genitalia of Anthomyza neglecta Collin, 1944 (Anthomyzidae) is described (and illustrated) based on a specimen reared from a tuft of sedge (Carex acuta L.) from Přemyšov Nature Reserve near Polanka nad Odrou (Czech Republic) and compared with normal genitalia of specimens from the same locality. The striking modifications of the genitalia of this aberrant specimen include: (1) complete disappearance of the internal genital structures (hypandrium, aedeagal complex) with only (somewhat enlarged) ejacapodeme remaining outside the epandrial capsule under 8th sternum; (2) epandrium asymmetrical, dorsoventrally compressed and anteroventrally closed, with only a small circular opening for the alimentary canal; (3) medandrium greatly deformed (shortened and asymmetrical); (4) gonostyli strongly asymmetrical (particularly right gonostylus extremely malformed and wholly dissimilar to normal form) and (5) abnormally asymmetrical cerci.


Radar systems are becoming more and more digital. This allows for lighter and more affordable systems on the market. This degree project is about performance evaluation of a digital transceiver for radar systems. The evaluated transceiver consist of multiple analog-to-digital converters(ADC), digital-to-analog converters(DAC) and sampling clocks for the converters. The report deals with the difficulties and problematics of measuring the sampling and reconstruction progress of radar signals. The methodologies to measure non-trivial quantities in radio frequency systems are presented along with results and possible improvements for future systems. The results show that the ADCs of the evaluated system have a SNR at a 240 MHz bandwith of -64 dBFS and a channel isolation between the ADCs of 61 dB. The DACs of the evaluated system have a SNR at a 1 Hz bandwith of -163 dBFS and a channel isolation between the DACs of 60 dB. These results conclude that data converters are a matured technology suitable for use as a key component in a modern radar systems. Some problems with the system are pointed out and discussed, and ideas for improvements are proposed.


The 2012 Tax Policy and Economy conference, which convened less than 7weeks before the US presidential election, brought empirical clarity to a number of important economic issues that featured prominently in the national political discussion. At the time of the conference, the US economy was still in "weak recovery" mode following the Great Recession, publicly held US government debt as a fraction of GDP was at a manydecades high, and policy makers, pundits and business leaders were beginning to seriously consider the possibility that our elected officials might lead us over the so-called fiscal cliff. It is precisely at such times, when the economic consequences of fiscal policy are so important, that rigorous empirical economic research on the effects of taxation and government expenditure are vital. For more than a quarter century, the NBER has used the annual TPE conference to facilitate a two-way conversation between academic researchers and the Washington, DC, policy community to evaluate and analyze tax and spending policy. This year's conference featured six papers by leading scholarswho brought their considerable expertise to bear on issues related to education funding, labor supply, taxation, fiscal adjustments, and the overall US fiscal outlook. In keeping with the policy and practices of the NBER, the papers in this volume provide analysis that can inform policy debates but do not offer specific policy recommendations. The first two papers in this volume go directly at the heart of the discussion about the overall fiscal situation facing theUnited States and other developed nations. Jeffrey Liebman's paper, "TheDeterioration of theUS Fiscal Outlook," traces the United States' shift over the past dozen years from running surpluses equal to 2% of GDP to projections of persistent deficits exceeding 5%ofGDP even after recovery from theGreat Recession. He notes that more than half of this decline occurred prior to the recession as a result of an increase in discretionary outlays (primarily defense and


Suspension cultures of calli derived from hypocotyl explant of Morus alba L. var. MR2 have produced embryo like structures. Calli were induced on the semisolid MS medium supplemented with 1.0 mg/l 2, 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2, 4-D) and 0.5 mg/l 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP). They were transferred to MS Iiquid medium with different concentrations (0.1-1.0 mg/l ) of 2, 4-D and further subcultured at weekly intervals into fresh medium. Embryo-like structures were observed at each stage of development. Cells in the suspension culture having enriched cytoplasm with prominent nuclei, divided to form filamentous structures and continuous division of these structures lead to the development of globular and heartshaped structures. Suspension medium containing 0.5 mg/l 2, 4-D was essen-tial to induce high frequencies of embryo like structures while lower (0.1-0.2 mg/l ) and higher (1.0 mg/l ) concentrations caused either root or callus formation respectivelv. . There was no further development of the heartshaped


Testing is a relevant activity for the development life-cycle of Safety Critical Embedded systems. In particular much effort is spent for design of test cases, where natural language description of system requirements must be translated into test scripts, which must automatically executed to check correctness and achievement of target service levels. Semantic and text analysis are used here to support developers for the management of test documents to speedup and improve the testing definition phase. Facilities for both advanced classification, indexing and discovery of test documents are provided.


Speech prosody and rhythm reflect speech flow at its highest level. However, their involvement in multiple prosodic hierarchies subjects them to various linguistic and non-linguistic influences, hence always being difficult to classify them. It is especially true when it comes to Chinese dialects with complicated tone systems. By reviewing theoretical and experimental research on prosody


The intermediate organizations are a kind of special subjects of economic law. They have been participating the creation of our socialist wealth with a special way since they were born. They should be entitled to join in the economic legal relation and be authorized legal right by economic law. But the prevailing laws and statutes are not perfect.. We should consummate the legislation concerning that as to optimize the performance of the intermediate organizations to the best possible vantage.


Ocean harbors a large biodiversity o f marine fauna and flora with about 66,535 species o f mollusks,
among which 15,000 species o f bivalves have been reported to occur. Bivalve mollusks are aquatic mollusks (Phylum: Mollusca; Class: Bivalvia), and comprise major marine fishery resources,
mussels being a prominent member. Taxonomically, mussels belong to the Mytilidae family, the
genus Perna being one of the most important from a commercial point of view.


mesotheliomas, and other tumors including ovarian and pancreatic cancers. The biological function of mesothelin and MPF is not clear. To establish monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against megakaryocyte potentiation factor (MPF) and detect MPF in the blood of patients with mesothelioma, mice were immunized with a purified recombinant human MPF-rabbit-Fc fusion protein and with MPF. Several hybridomas producing MAbs to MPF were established. A double determinant (sandwich) ELISA was constructed used MAbs to two different epitopes and used to determine if MPF is present in the serum of patients with mesothelioma. We established 7 anti-MPF MAbs whose topographical epitopes were classified into 3 non-overlapping groups. All the MAbs reacted with recombinant MPF protein by ELISA. One of the MAbs detected MPF and the mesothelin precursor protein containing MPF in cell lysates on western blotting. A sandwich ELISA using MAbs to two different epitopes was constructed and used to measure the presence of MPF in the media of various mesothelin expressing cancer cell lines and in human serum. The ELISA showed that MPF levels were elevated in 91% (51 in 56) of patients with mesothelioma compared with healthy controls. Furthermore, MPF levels fell to normal levels in 2 patients after surgical removal of peritoneal mesothelioma. Using new mabs to MPF we demonstrated that MPF is secreted by several mesothelioma cell lines and is frequently elevated in the blood of patients with mesothelioma. Measurement of MPF may be useful in following the response of mesothelioma to treatment.


This article presents a method for determining near-Pole ionization depletion regions and troughs from global navigation satellite system (GNSS) vertical total electron content (VTEC) maps. To define the regions, we use Image processing tools, considering the VTEC maps as gray-level images. In this work, watershed segmentation is applied to determine the edges of regions, based on the flow of areas between the lowest ionization zones (< 1%) and the medium ionization regions (> 10%). In order to enhance the contrast between low-ionization regions and those with a higher relative ionization, the histogram of the maps is equalized, which increases the contrast of the VTEC maps, which is the distance between low-ionization regions and those with a higher relative ionization are increased. The use of percentile thresholds makes this method independent of hypotheses about the generation of depletions, their morphology, or the number of depletion regions that can occur on a map. We test the performance by comparing the depletion regions identified in eight events reported in the literature under different conditions of the ionosphere. The events used as reference were measured by satellites, radar, and GNSS. The method that we propose allows for real-time processing of GNSS VTEC maps. The morphology of the detected regions matches the shape that is reported in the literature.


This is the third and final volume of the "Keys to the Trematoda", a series on the systematics and identification of the Class Trematoda. This volume covers five superfamilies within the Order Plagiorchiida and the family Didymozoidae, with keys for their identification at the family, subfamily and generic levels. It also includes a key to all digenean superfamilies, including those treated in detail in volumes one and two. Previous volumes dealt with the Subclass Aspidogastrea and Order Strigeida as well as the Order Echinostomida and the first two plagiorchiidan superfamilies.


The International Scientific Conference Ohrid 2014 through scientific articles should contribute to the 100th anniversary from the World War I, through a debate to offer answers to the questions that were current a century ago and to make the intersection of what and how changes are made in this part of Europe. Therefore the Faculty of Security-Skopje determined to organize an International Scientific Conference from the 3rd of June till 5th of June 2014 in Ohrid by the theme Macedonia and the Balkans 100 years from the World War I – Safety and Euro-Atlantic integrations. Thuscontinuing the orientation with organizing international conferences in the field of security so it can contribute to the development of scientific thought and for the decision makers of the regional, national and local level helps using the knowledge and research results for faster, simpler and timely overcome the practical problems that they are facing.This scientific meeting will be attended by over 100 scientific and educational workers from Albania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and the Republic of Macedonia. The conference will present papers on the following topics:

1. The Balkans and Macedonia in the geostrategic concepts of the European countries and interests:  The Balkans through its historical perspective - is the "candlewick" still existent?  What are the consequences of the military and police conflicts after the World War I and what are their contemporary consequences?
 What is different in the geostrategic position of Macedonia and the Balkans after the World War I?
 Is the resolving of the "Macedonian issue" achieved or is it an open process?
 What are the reasons of the prolonged integrations of Macedonia into the European Union and the Euro-Atlantic structures? What is the position of the Balkan countries in relation to the Euro-Atlantic countries?
 Is the Western Balkan the "appendix" of Europe?
 The Balkans - intersection of cultures and traditions – security implications;
 The cultural and religious differences on the Balkans - security challenges;
 The contemporary position of the Balkans - European or Western;
 Are there any concepts and strategies of the influential subjects in the international relations of the position of the Balkans, i.e. towards the Balkan countries – the Balkans as a strategic interest of the influential countries and subjects?
 The Ohrid Framework Agreement - a model for resolving of ethnical conflicts
 The Balkans and Republic of Macedonia in the Geostrategic concepts of European countries and interests

2. The Balkans, the National Countries and European
Integrations:
 The concept of the national countries and hegemonic concepts and ideologies on the Balkans;
 The reestablishment of the nationalism and nationalistic absoluteness - accelerator of the Balkan conflicts;
VIII
 Is the era of Balkan collisions and conflicts terminated?
 Europeanization of the Balkans and Balkanization of Europe;
 Security issues related to the national borders;
 The consequences of the visa liberalization over the Balkan countries and the member states of EU

3. The Police and the inter-police collaboration on the Balkans
 The legal position of the Police and the other law enforcement organizations on the Balkans;
 Forms of collaboration among the Police and the other law enforcement organizations;
 Structure of the inter-police collaboration;
 Contents of the inter-police collaboration;
 Forms of ad hoc institutionalization of the inter-police collaboration;
 The educational systems and the profile of the police profession in the Balkan countries;
 Forms of bilateral and multilateral collaboration on the Balkans in the area of crime management, human traffic, narcotics and psychotropic substances;
 Institutionalization of the regional collaboration in the management of crises and other security issues.
 Is the formation of joined Balkan police forces possible?
 Is the formation of a Balkan net of criminalists as well as a net of individuals in certain expert fields possible?
 Western Balkan outside the European Union?
 Police and crime - public opinion, public confidence

4. Economic and Commercial exchange on the Balkans:
 Contemporary forms of trade, law regulations and relations among the countries;
  Collaboration among the economic subjects between the legal reliability and the security threats and risks;
 Regional collaboration and regional economic policy

5. Democracy, legal state and human rights; their promotion and forms of protection:
 International standards for protection of the human freedoms and rights and the policy of the Balkan countries;
 Forms of protection of the freedoms and rights - experiences and perspectives;
 Strengthening of the rule of law and the responsibleness of the institutions;
 The role of the international organizations in promotion and implementation of the international benchmarks for protection of the human rights of the people on the Balkans;
 Democracy, stabilization, integration;
 The interstate and inter-institutional collaboration in protection of the human freedoms and rights;

6. Criminal Justice, Criminal Policy and Victimization
 Contemporary forms of computer crime (electronic: frauds, procuring, threats, stealing of personal data and other forms of electronic frauds and crime);
 Forms of crime related to the internet and cyber services and modes for their detection;
 Criminal experiences, achievements, methods, means and modes of suppression of the contemporary forms of criminality
 War and crime;
 War and victims of crime;
 War crimes;
 War v.v. reconciliation;
 International aspects of crime and punishment;
 Risk and criminal justice;
 Modernization of Criminal Justice;
 Contemporary challenges of criminology;
 Reform of the criminal and procedural law;

7. Geopolitics in the 21st century and the appearance of new socio-criminological types of crime
 Extra-institutional approach to new forms and types of crime
The foreign policy of great powers and factors that cause forms of terrorism and organized crime in the 21st century


Beyond Earth, the Potters' Society of Australia's biennial exhibition held at the Manly Art Gallery and Museum in January/February 2005 had a distinct feature of a direct or tenuous connection with aspects of the sea. It was a unique display of work inspired by sea creatures, sea birds, waves and swells, tidal ebbs and flows, froth and foam and ancient artefacts recovered from sandy grave.


This thesis focuses on forecasting and modeling problems based on quantitative news data. The news data in my experiments are produced from Lydia , our news analytical system, which is capable of analyzing spatial, temporal, and linguistic statistics of named entity occurrences in text corpora across different news sources. Specifically, the problems I studied fall into two categories: (1) how could the news data help people to analyze and predict societal variables, especially financial variables like movie gross, stock prices, etc. (2) what is the process by which news data is generated, and how can we predict the distribution of future news generations.
On the one hand, traditional financial analysis lays emphasis on how price data incorporate other relevant financial indicators. Since the 1990s, linguistic sources such as news have been continuously proven to carry extra and meaningful information beyond traditional quantitative financial data, and thus they can be used as predictive indicators in finance. In this thesis, we conduct a comprehensive study on large-scale news data modeling and how they help people on financial analysis in a large sense with analyzing two important financial markets. First, we show how news data help people to build models to analyze and predict financial markets with coarse time granularity, such as movie market. The next, we show how financial markets with finer time granularity such as stock markets could be factored and analyzed with news as well. Our analysis provides concrete evidence in confirming that news data are highly informative and have significant predictive power on financial analysis, which is previously mentioned in some literatures but has never been practically proven by real large-scale analysis.
On the other hand, the thesis will also study news statistical patterns, build models to generate news time series, and try to forecast future news fluctuations. Our statistical analysis shows that log-normal and power-law distributions generally could describe news behaviors in many aspects. Based on the principles we discovered, we proposed two models—Log-Normal (LN) model, and an innovative Layered Hidden Markov Model (LHMM) to describe news. Our careful studies show that LHMM model is overall a favorable model to simulate news data and forecast future news pulses. Most importantly, we study and forecast the future of news entities in a group context. Based on our analysis, we could answer some interesting news forecasting questions. For example, what is the probability that an entity become the most famous one among a group? And what is the likelihood that a trivial entity becomes incredibly important in the next certain time period? Our analysis shows these questions could be solved by fitting power-law tails and we validated the model with several interesting news groups in different domains. Our study provides very useful insights for the analysis of issues in finance, political science, or social science.


The purpose — to study the constitutional features of physical and neuropsychic development of 4–7 year old children of intro- and extravert types with chronic adenoiditis. Material and methods. The study included preschool children with a verified diagnosis of chronic adenoiditis. The control group consisted of conditionally healthy children without chronic diseases. All children were divided into introverts and extraverts. The features of somatometric and somatoscopic indicators of physical development, emotional, characterological and intellectual indicators of neuropsychic development and socialization were studied. Results. For introverted children with chronic adenoiditis, the disease onset occurred at the age of 3–4 years; obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in combination with snoring prevailed; the duration was about a year and a half; frequent acute purulent otitis media with a long monotonous course, the manifestation of excessive vagotonia and pronounced disorders of sound reproduction were observed. In extroverted children, chronic adenoiditis debuted at the age of 4–5 years, in the form of postnasal syndrome with night cough, excessive sympathicotonia and with earlier formation of exudative otitis and hearing loss; the duration of the disease was about six months. Introverts with chronic adenoiditis were three times more likely than healthy children of this type to have body mass deficiency and microsomia, lower indicators of social activity, abstract thinking, attention, fine motor skills and semantic memory. In extroverts with chronic adenoiditis, among the variants of physical development disorders, the frequency of excess body weight and macrosomia doubled, the level of impulsivity increased, discipline, large-motor giftedness, conceptual and visual-imaginative thinking decreased. Conclusion. Clinical and functional differences in the course of chronic adenoiditis in children of intro- and extravert types and the identified features of their physical and neuropsychic development can be the basis for creating differentiated programs for their medical and social support on an outpatient basis. The constitutional approach makes it possible to assess the psychophysiological features of individual qualities that make up the «ground» of the disease, both to make a reasonable choice of an effective combination of health disorders correction and prevention methods, and to ensure the fullest realization of a child's physical and social potential.


As MMC-HVDC system is of a large number of applications, the mechanism of its influence on the SSO characteristics of the adjacent units needs to be studied. This article proposed the coupling loop of the voltage disturbance between HVDC system and the AC bus, and further established the response characteristics equations of MMC-HVDC control system between amplitude and phase perturbation of the AC bus voltage. Then, the damping characteristics based on response characteristic equations above were analyzed to reveal the phenomena and reason of the weak connection between MMC-HVDC and the units' SSO characteristics. Finally, the results are verified by electromagnetic transient simulations. The results show that MMC-HVDC system has weaker damping effect on the units' SSO characteristics.


Motivation: Understanding morphogenesis, i.e. the (genetically guided) transformation of a single, fertilized egg cell into the adult organism's three-dimensional shape, is one of the most fascinating and challenging problems in biology. COMPUCELL3D is a C++ software framework for simulating three-dimensional (3D) morphogenesis and although designed for extensibility from a software perspective, is difficult to extend without programming experience. We aim to make simulation tools accessible to experimental biologists, who typically do not have the necessary programming skills to add and test new models with COMPUCELL3D. BIOLOGO is a domain-specific language for modeling morphogenesis. It enables biologists to setup their model in terms of biological entities and processes, including cell differentiation, adhesion, division, and interactions with intra-cellular and extra-cellular chemical fields. BIOLOGO derives from XML and its code converts transparently to COMPUCELL3D C++ extensions, simplifying introduction of new model components. The current version of BIOLOGO and COMPUCELL3D includes cell differentiation, partial differential equation solvers to model reaction-diffusion of secreted intercellular signals, and the Cellular Potts Model for cell sorting and chemotaxis. Results: We verify BIOLOGO functionality by implementing two previously studied simulations representative of morphogenesis modeling: (1) 3D avian limb bud growth, and (2) in vitro capillary development. We extend COMPUCELL3D accordingly for each simulation using BIOLOGO, then run COMPUCELL3D to test and visualize results. Finally, we validate accuracy by comparing to previous simulations. Availability: BIOLOGO is available online along with a version of COMPUCELL3D at http://www.nd.edu/ ̃lcls/compucell/biologo.htm. Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com Supplementary Information: Supplementary material along with a full description of the BIOLOGO syntax is also located at http://www.nd.edu/ ̃lcls/compucell/biologo.htm.


Most of us are one or two crises away from needing help. One cancer diagnosis, one car accident, one layoff, one divorce can throw our lives into chaos. At the height of COVID-19, many people were forced to turn to community organizations for help for the very first time.


We present a high-dielectric polymer with a lateral fluorine group, and its dielectric constant exhibits larger than 20 at 1 kHz. This well-soluble polymer can solely stabilize blue phase liquid crystals (BPLCs) while reducing the operating voltage by 30% and increasing the Kerr constant by nearly 70.6%. The influence of the polymer's dielectric property on the operating voltage is investigated based on the potential distribution. The theoretical result predicts that the operation voltage can be further reduced by 50% when the dielectric constant of the chiral dopant is the same as the high-dielectric polymer. The potential application of high-dielectric materials for the improvement of BPLC devices is foreseeable.We present a high-dielectric polymer with a lateral fluorine group, and its dielectric constant exhibits larger than 20 at 1 kHz. This well-soluble polymer can solely stabilize blue phase liquid crystals (BPLCs) while reducing the operating voltage by 30% and increasing the Kerr constant by nearly 70.6%. The influence of the polymer's dielectric property on the operating voltage is investigated based on the potential distribution. The theoretical result predicts that the operation voltage can be further reduced by 50% when the dielectric constant of the chiral dopant is the same as the high-dielectric polymer. The potential application of high-dielectric materials for the improvement of BPLC devices is foreseeable.


In order to reduce gasoline evaporative emission during refueling,the problems of gasoline evaporation pollution during vehicle filling were analyzed.The method of on-board refueling vapor recovery was presented by comparison of the control device'costs and structures.The types,characteristics and principles of ORVR system(on-board refueling vapor recovery system) were briefly described.Taking the dynamic seal ORVR system as an example,its design was roughly analyzed.The emission trends of gasoline evaporative pollutants before and after using ORVR system were predicted,and the results show the measurements that popularizing ORVR system and improving the fuel evaporative emission control system of in-use vehicle,can decrease automobile evaporation pollutants during refueling,which is feasible to save energy resources and control pollution.


One nodal thermal analysis of nano and micro cubic satellites pointing to the Earth on sun-synchronous and circular orbits is carried out. The altitudes of the orbits are from 300 to 1,000 km. The local time of descending node is from 6 to 12. The combinations of the solar absorptivity and the infrared emissivity on the surface of the satellite in which the satellite satisfies the allowable temperature range, from 0 to 40 deg. C., are clarified for each of the above orbits. As the parameter of heat capacity of the satellite over one surface area of the satellite increases, the choice of combinations of the solar absorptivity and the infrared emissivity increases. The number of combinations in the case of the orbits without the shadow region is much larger than that with the shadow region. The number of combinations in the orbits without the shadow region increases with higher altitude and larger projected area with respect to the sun. The number of combinations in the orbits with the shadow region increases with higher altitude, larger projected area and smaller angle of the shadow region.


This report discusses the effects of omitting constraint modes corresponding to applied loads in systems modeled with component mode synthesis. A method of correcting for the omitted constraint modes is also developed. A free component mode synthesis method is applied to a continuous model of an axial rod-spring system, and the effect of omitted constraint modes on the static, steady-state harmonic, and transient response is studied. The effect of omitted constraint modes on the transient response of an asymmetric beam is presented using the free and fixed component mode synthesis methods implemented in MSC/NASTRAN. A simple pinned truss finite element model is also studied.


The aim of this study is to determine the effect of the polyphenol structure (Procyanidin B2, (+)Catechin and chlorogenic acid), pectin (high (HM), low methoxyl (LM)), the acidifying medium (citric acid and malic), pH (3 and 4) and the presence of ions (KCl) on the formation of pectin-polyphenol complex in a model solution system that simulates a functional beverage matrix; and the impact of the formation of this complex in the biological effect of the beverage. The evaluation of the formation of pectin-polyphenol complex was performed by determining the% inhibition of DPPH radical and free polyphenols profile by HPLC in model solutions. The evaluation of the biological effect was performed by postprandial testing in mice Balb/c which were induced hyperglycemia with maltose. The results were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a 95% confidence. It was determined that the physicochemical parameters such as pH, the presence of ions and type of acidifying if they have a significant effect on the formation of pectin-polyphenol complex, and that the impact of these parameters depend on both the functional groups of the polyphenol as pectin that are in solution. Biological tests show that it is possible to determine the impact of pectin-polyphenol complex functional properties of a food, this allows us to lay the groundwork for the development of new functional foods where it is relevant to interactions with other nutraceuticals components of a food matrix.


Profiles of rotational and vibrational temperatures are obtained in the shock layer of a blunt body in arc jet flow of nitrogen using analyses of spectral emission measurements. Several techniques are used to determine the rotational and vibrational temperatures of N2 and N2 and relative vibrational population distributions. These techniques include correlations of ratios of intensity integrals; fits of the measurements to calculated vibrational basis sets; and minimization of the deviation between calculated and measured spectra. The results indicate that the temperature of N2 is about 1000-1500 K greater than that of N2. The temperature profiles should be useful in validating gas models used for high enthalpy nonequilibrium nitrogen flows. Analyses of basis set fits yield vibrational populations that deviate from Boltzmann distribution at vibrational quantum numbers greater than about six to eight.


This is a short clinical mini-review paper discussing a measure of cognitive importance, working memory. Working Memory (WM) refers to the capacity to store and manipulate information for a very short period of time. It is a cognitive workplace for processing simple or complex information and mental tasks. Working memory capacity is measured by complex span tasks that requires simultaneous short-term storage of information while processing additional information. WM has been shown to have influence on IQ testing. Here we discuss the clinical implications of WM on understanding, and reaching diagnostic evaluation of nonverbal IQ in adults. This short review suggest that clinicians (particularly in non-English speaking populationsuch as Arabic countries) should consider WM before diagnosing a patient with mental retardation, or IQ deterioration, for instance, based on nonverbal IQ only. The clinical implications are also discussed.


Elasticsearch has become an attractive open-source search and analytics engine for use cases such as log analytics, click stream analytics and real-time application monitoring. As a service, Elasticsearch is made available by Amazon Web services, Searchly.com, Bonsai and many other websites as a hosted engine. This hosted Elasticsearch service is known as Elastic Cloud. The aim of AWS (Amazon Web Services) is to provide Elasticsearch as a service to users. These web services can implement Serviceoriented Architecture. In the following chapter Potential Reach is aggregated using the server. Potential Reach is a metric that indicates the reach of an online activity like tweet or comment. This number helps media marketers track the success of the brand or company.


Purpose: The bony mallet finger injury is generally managed by conservative treatments. But operative treatments are needed especially when the fractures involve above 30% of articular surface, or when distal phalanx is accompanied by subluxation in the volar side. This is the reason why they often result in chronic instability, articular subluxation and cosmetic dissatisfaction. In this report, We describe new method using the hook plate as an operative treatment of mallet finger deformity. Methods: Among 13 patients with mallet finger deformity who came from February 2006 to February 2008, six patients were included in surgical indication. Under local anesthesia, H or Y type incision was made at the DIP joint area. After the DIP joint extension, the hook plate was put on the fracture line, and one self tapping screw was used for fixation. 2 hole plate which was one of the holes in 1.5 mm diameter was cut in almost half and bended by approximately 100. Results: In all six cases which were applied the hook plate, complications such as loss of reduction or nail deformity were not seen. In only one patient, hook pate was removed due to inflammatory reaction after the surgery. In 2 weeks after the operation, active motion of DIP joint was performed. The result was satisfactory not only cosmetically but also functionally. In 6 weeks after the operation, the range of motion of DIP joint was average 64. Conclusion: The purpose of the operative treatment for mallet finger deformity using the hook plate is to provide anatomical reduction with rigid fixation and to prevent contracture at the DIP joint. While other operations takes 6 weeks, the operation using the hook plate took only two weeks to enable active motion. Complication rate was low and the method is rather simple. Thus, the operation using the hook plate is recommended as a good alternative method for the mallet finger deformity treatment.


AIM To develop a simplified bioartificial liver (BAL) device prototype, suitable to use freshly and preserved liver Microorgans (LMOs) as biological component. METHODS The system consists of 140 capillary fibers through which goat blood is pumped. The evolution of hematocrit, plasma and extra-fiber fluid osmolality was evaluated without any biological component, to characterize the prototype. LMOs were cut and cold stored 48 h in BG35 and ViaSpan® solutions. Fresh LMOs were used as controls. After preservation, LMOs were loaded into the BAL and an ammonia overload was added. To assess LMOs viability and functionality, samples were taken to determine lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release and ammonia detoxification capacity. RESULTS The concentrations of ammonia and glucose, and the fluids osmolalities were matched after the first hour of perfusion, showing a proper exchange between blood and the biological compartment in the minibioreactor. After 120 min of perfusion, LMOs cold preserved in BG35 and ViaSpan® were able to detoxify 52.9% ± 6.5% and 53.6% ± 6.0%, respectively, of the initial ammonia overload. No significant differences were found with Controls (49.3% ± 8.8%, P < 0.05). LDH release was 6.0% ± 2.3% for control LMOs, and 6.2% ± 1.7% and 14.3% ± 1.1% for BG35 and ViaSpan® cold preserved LMOs, respectively (n = 6, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION This prototype relied on a simple design and excellent performance. It's a practical tool to evaluate the detoxification ability of LMOs subjected to different preservation protocols.