In a fast and dynamic competitive environment it is not easy to survive and maintain a credit in market. It can be possible when user/customer trust on product quality and its performance. This can be possible when process is well defined because quality of product directly related to the quality of process. To develop a mature and effective process lot of resources is required, every organization want to achieve that at a minimum cost and time. That can be achieved when they effectively utilize the knowledge and experience. At present knowledge management is an area where quality is derived. In this paper we show how knowledge management is used to achieve quality in finished product and proposed a hybrid spiral model which is integration of spiral model and knowledge management. We proposed a hybrid spiral model to improve software quality using knowledge management which is based on knowledge flow during process. Proposed hybrid spiral model has been illustrated with example


We show that teaching of the electromagnetic induction can be enthusiastic to pupils, once we abstract from a classical approach, i.e. trying to indicate the direction of the current generated. One should rather concentrate on the richness of phenomena which can be explained by the Faraday- Lenz- von Neumann law. The experimental set developed in the framework of a wide international collaboration, which comprises Udine and Torun universities offers a wide choice of experiments, on different levels. 1. Scholastic teaching Typical educational paths on electromagnetic induction go thoroughly though step-by-step explanations: "-What happens if we insert the north pole into the solenoid? ‐ And what if we insert the south pole?". This path is correct but induces students to reasoning that physics is a kind of artificial word, with old instruments and specially isolated situations.


To establish a molecular link between obesity and cancer we examined the paracrine role of adipocytes on MCF7 cell cycle regulation. Arrested MCF7 cells were treated with leptin (LEP) and adiponectin (ADIPO). p27 protein levels decreased and increased with LEP and ADIPO, respectively, suggesting adipokine‐mediated MCF7 cell cycle regulation. Addition of LEP overcame the effects of ADIPO on p27 protein levels. Selective JAK2 inhibition had no effect on LEP‐dependent cell cycle entry. Inhibition of AKT enhanced the ADIPO effects on p27 protein and prevented LEP‐dependent amelioration of ADIPO effects on p27 protein. Co‐culture of MCF7 cells with adipocytes from lean rats, which secreted low levels of LEP and high levels of ADIPO, increased p27 and decreased cyclin E protein while inducing cell cycle withdrawal, as measured by FACS analyses, in MCF7 cells. Co‐culture with adipocytes from obese rats, which secreted high LEP and low ADIPO, reduced p27 and cyclin E protein levels and induced MCF7 cell cycle entry. Addition of exogenous ADIPO to obese adipocyte co‐cultures inhibited the effects of these adipocytes on MCF7 cell cycle regulation, indicated by an increase in p27 and decrease in cyclin E protein and MCF7 cell cycle withdrawal. Our data suggest that ADIPO and LEP exert opposite effects on mammary cell cycle regulation and that altering the ratio of these adipokines has dramatic effects on MCF7 cell cycle status.


Biogas production in Iceland is quite underdeveloped. The industry currently seeks to find organic substrates suitable for biogas production. Spent bleaching earth and glycerin, both by-products from the fish oil refining industry, were co-digested with manure in anaerobic conditions in a batch assay method. The bleaching earth was mixed with manure in the ratio 5% and 10% w/w. Glycerin was mixed with manure in the ratio 1.5% and 3% w/w. Biogas volume was measured over a period of 90 days for SBE and 40 days for glycerin. Results show that methane yield in co-digestion with manure for spent bleaching earth was highest at 390ml/gVS and 447ml/gVS for glycerin. Additionally, instruments for experiments in a continuous reactor was constructed. The setup was composed of three bioreactors with 4 liter total volume and 3 liter working volume. The vessels were combined with an automatic gas volume analyzer that measures gas production automatically. The equipment was run for 30 days, and data collected for 10 days. Anaerobic digestion was present at the starting phase, but further running is needed before a full steady baseline.


A group of 40 children aged 7 to 11 years with perceptuo-motor dysfunction from mainstream schools were examined on two eye-hand coordination tasks: one requiring the interception on a television monitor of a moving target of variable speed and trajectory, the other requiring the tracking and recall of a target moving slowly in a circular path. Performance was compared to developmental norms. Results show, that children with perceptuo-motor dysfunction are heterogeneous, and have various ways of carrying out a motor action. Some do not plan a movement, others do not control an ongoing movement like their peers. Yet despite marked abnormalities some children can compensate and be very accurate. Kinaesthetic disability is associated with motor disability. Process-orientated treatment—including kinaesthetic training—improves motor functioning in some domains more than others.


In frequency modulation atomic force microscopy (FM-AFM), the average interaction force is detected as the frequency shift of the oscillating cantilever. Therefore, it is desirable to oscillate a cantilever with a small amplitude in order to achieve a high resolution. However, the oscillation may become unstable or the tip may jump into a static contact unless a cantilever with a high spring constant is used. In this study, we used a silicon cantilever with a spring constant as high as 700 N/m, which is far larger than those for conventional FM-AFM. We demonstrated molecular-resolution FM-AFM on lead phthalocyanine thin films with an oscillation amplitude of 2 nm.


Many studies have addressed the role of cigarette smoking on semen quality, but the exact mechanisms remain inconclusive. To evaluate the detrimental effects of smoking on the spermatogenesis process, we initially screened and investigated 31 differentially expressed


The main idea of the paper, as I see it, is to compare observations with a model, and offer some explanations to observed variability. This is an interesting study, but I think simple correlations are not sufficient for linking two processes, the chains of causes and consequences are too long and each link is essentially non-linear, so I would suggest a more careful rethinking of the process and mechanisms suggested in the paper. Like the volume of LSW is not an easy measure – LSW is not a body proportionally expanding and shrinking in time, so its volume can't be measured by a position of the SBF, and even more it can be much deeper than a type of processes discussed here.


A preliminary numerical study on the radiated emission (RE) of a stationary wireless power transfer (WPT) system for automotive applications is presented. The study investigates the most critical sources for RE which are the high-frequency (HF) components, and in particular the common-mode currents flowing in the cables attached to the power electronic systems and the differential-mode currents in the coils.


The porous alumina film was prepared by a two-step anodization.The complex of Er~(3+)-acetylacetonate was doped in the template of porous alumina by sol-gel method.SEM was used to investigate the micrograph of the porous template. The luminescence of Er~(3+) ions in porous alumina was measured at room temperature. The infrared absorption spectra of Er~(3+)-acetylacetonate complex were used to analyze the structure. The results show that the luminescence peaks become narrow because of the porous template.


This paper analyzes the phase selection theories of sequence current,the current break variable and the compensation voltage.Then,it reveals that the compensation voltage phase selection should be locked in order to prevent the maloperation when the disconnection of voltage transformer occurs.It also points out that sequence current phase selection is not suitable for the interphase short circuit in which the zero sequence component doesn't exist,and that single-phase grounding fault,two-phase grounding fault and two-phase short circuit can't be discriminated properly by means of sequence current phase selection.Thus,an optimized and combined way is put forward in this paper to solve these problems.


ABSTRACT A robust steering-based controller synthesis is presented for an A-double combination vehicle with a steerable dolly. The controller ensures robust stability and performance in the face of uncertainties in the cornering stiffness of the tyres and the moments of inertia of the semitrailers, which are treated as time-varying and time-invariant parameters respectively. A descriptor-type representation of the system is employed since a standard state-space model depends rationally on the moments of inertia. The controller synthesis is formulated as an -type static output feedback, which uses information from only one articulation angle. The driver steering input is also used by including a static feed-forward. The proposed synthesis method is based on linear matrix inequality (LMI) optimisation. The controller is verified based on the simulation results obtained from both (approximate) linear and (high-fidelity) nonlinear vehicle models. The results indicate significant improvement in the high-speed lateral performance of the A-double in the presence of parametric uncertainties.


Objective To explore pattern essence from the aspect of apoptosis by observing apoptosis of gastric mucosa and expression of regulatory gene Bcl-2 mRNA in chronic superficial gastritis rats with different Chinese medical patterns. Methods CSG rat models,CSG rat models with spleen-deficiency pattern and damp-heat pattern were copied respectively. Apoptosis of gastric mucosa and expression of Bcl-2 mRNA were detected. Results Apoptosis indexes of gastric mucosa in model groups,especially in CSG with spleen-deficiency group ,were higher than those in normal control group,While the expression of Bcl-2 mRNA were lower than those in normal control group. Conclusion There is correlation between apoptosis index of gastric mucosa and expression of Bcl-2 mRNA with Chinese medical patterns in CSG rats. Apoptosis index of gastric mucosa in CSG with spleen-deficiency group is the highest,and the expression of Bcl-2 mRNA is the lowest.


The purpose of this research was determining the effect of Project Based Learning model( PjBL) with the task of Creative Mind Map toward student mathematics connecting ability and learning outcomes at VII th grade students of  MTs Negeri Anaraja on subject matter Triangle. The kind of this research is experimental research. The desain of this research is Nonequivalent Control Group Design. The population in this research was the VII th grade students of MTs Negeri Anaraja in academic year 2015/2016. The Sampling technique was the Non-probability Sampling technique that is the Purposive Sampling. So the sample chosen is class VII-2 as the control sample class with discovery learning model and class VII-3 as the experiment sample with PjBL model with the task of creative mind map. The data of student mathematical connection ability were taken by Observation Mathematical Connections Ability Sheet, and students learning outcomes data were analyzed using t-test. Based on the data analysis, it was known that the average percentage of students' mathematical connection ability experimental class was 37% with an average value of 23.785 and the control class was 33.33% with an average value of 23.38421, this suggests was showed that the mathematics connecttion ability of students still low. While the results of t-test analysis showed that there was no significant difference between experimental class learning outcomes with control class learning outcomes. It can be seen from the price  of t test was smaller than the t table , with dk = 37 at the level of error was 5%. So it can be concluded that there is no effect of the PjBL model with the task of Creative Mind Map toward student mathematics connection ability and student learning outcomes at  the VII th grade students of MTs Negeri Anaraja in academic year 2015/2016.


The important role that VCD(value change dump) files play in the course of IC design and IC test combining was described.In this paper,a very useful intermediate form named LYT(Li-Yang Translation) was proposed,which was based on the detailed and novel analysis on VCD files.The change value information was classified according to the pins.The number of the key words was decreased by hash.A series of measurements such as subtracting and merging are taken to complete the translation.The test results show that the process speed was improved and the translation time was saved.


Expected impact cylinder valve operation torque periodic disturbance, and to provide appropriate reaction torque by the electric motor to counteract the periodic disturbance torque to the cylinder valve is positioned in a desired position.


The rural doctor is doing the job of prevention and treatment of common diseases, health care and health education, etc. As the rural doctor's knowledge and skills are limited, medical acci-dents resulted from medical errors because of delay of diagnosis and irregular operations often happen. At present the percentage of rural doctor being trained is low, the format and content of training are informal and the requirement for training and assessment is not strong enough. For improving the quality of the rural doctor, the strategies and methods of training and assessment are described in this paper.

Key words:
Rural doctors;  Standardization;  Training;  Assessment


Introduction Part one A history of boys' schooling Theorizing masculinities Boys and primary schools a feminist perspective Part two Primary schools and local communities Being a (school) boy Male teachers and primary schools Heterosexuality in the primary classroom Conclusion References Index.


With the launch of 10 National Major ST Projects in civil areas,the corresponding management systems became the concerns of both the managers and researchers. This paper analyzes the typical characteristics of major ST projects,as well as their derivative management requirements,explores the implications and attributes of the management systems,and summarizes that China' s management systems for National Major ST Projects are insufficient in preliminary research,regular evaluation and continual improvement,which deserves paying much more attention to guarantee the successes of these major ST projects.


Ground-penetratingradarGPRsurveyswereacquiredof rocks on the highly fractured summit of Turtle Mountain in Canada. In 1903 a disastrous rock slide occurred at Turtle Mountain and it still poses a geologic hazard. Dips, shapes, and penetration depths of fractures are important parameters inslope-stabilityanalysis.Determinationoffractureorientation at Turtle Mountain has been based mostly on areal geologic mapping and, most recently, on data collected from boreholes.The purpose of GPR surveys was to test, confirm, and extend information about fractures and bedding planes. Data acquisition was complicated by the rough terrain; because slopes are steep and uneven. This also complicated analysis of the data. Measurement of in situ velocity — an important value for migration — was impossible. Instead, data were migrated with different velocities and data results were chosen that were considered to be reasonable.Analysis and interpretation of the data, resulted in confirmation and extension of the a priori information on orientations of fractures and bedding planes at Turtle Mountain. Despite the rough terrain and highly fractured rock mass, GPR surveys provide reliable information about the shapes and density of fractures—informationimportantforslope-stabilityevaluation. The most reliable migration results obtained for velocities were considerably less than the standard velocities recorded for limestone, the dominant lithofacies at Turtle Mountain. We interpret this observation as an indicator of water within the rock. However, thorough investigation of thisconclusionremainsaprojectforfuturework.


Immobilized biological activated carbon fiber technology was used in treatment of restaurant wastewater,when the average mass concentration of COD,oil in the raw water were 961,254 m/L respectively,after be treated by sand filtration,aeration,biological activated carbon fiber column,the removal rate of COD and oil in the wastewater reached 84% and 91% respectively.The results of the test showed that: immobilized biological activated carbon fiber technology has a good effect on restaurant wastewater treatment,the quality of effluent water was stable,and up to the discharge standard.


The Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) is responsible for the conservation and management of historic buildings and archaeological sites in the Emirate. Laboratory analysis has been critical for understanding the composition of historic materials and establishing appropriate conservation treatments across a wide variety of building types, ranging from Iron Age earthen archaeological sites to late-Islamic stone buildings. Analysis was carried out on historic sites in Al Ain, Delma Island and Liwa Oasis using techniques such as micro-x-ray fluorescence (MXRF), scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), polarized light microscopy (PLM), and x-ray diffraction (XRD). Testing was conducted through consultant laboratories and in collaboration with local universities. The initial aim of the analysis was to understand historic earthen materials and to confirm the suitability of locally sourced clays for the production of mud bricks and plasters. Another important goal was to characterize materials used in historic stone buildings in order to develop repair mortars, renders and grouts.


Aiming at the problem of weak indoor signal of the GPS time-service and high cost of the Long-Wave Radio time-service,an implementing strategy of CDMA automatic time-service source based on singlechip processor and DTGS-800 is proposed.The principle and implementation of CDMA time-service and the design method of the hardware and software for the automatic time-service source are described emphatically.The design can provide time-service automatically and time precisely.The scheme features low cost,strong indoor signal,precise timing and high stability.It can be widely used in the equipment that needs precise time-service.


Three-arm poly (e-caprolactone, reactive extruded) (REX-PCL) polymer was continuously produced using a twin-screw extruder with aluminum tri-sec butoxide (ATSB) initiator in residence times of less than five minutes. Monomer conversions in excess of 95% were achieved, and high molecular weight PCL was produced. The number average molecular weight of each arm of REX-PCL ranged from 30,000 to 200,000 g/mol. A screw configuration comprising entirely of conveying elements was most effective in the extrusion polymerization process. The REX-PCL polymer was characterized using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and intrinsic viscosity measurements. POLYM. ENG. SCI. 46:235–240, 2006. © 2006 Society of Plastics Engineers


In order to improve the efficiency and accuracy of kernel principal component analysis, two novel improved methods of KPCA are come up with in this paper. One is the weighted KPCA (WKPCA) algorithm, the other is a face recognition method DKPCA based on discrete cosine transform (DCT) and kernel principal component analysis (KPCA). The former weights the projection matrix to improve the recognition rate, meanwhile, the latter performs DCT transformation on the database, selects low-frequency coefficients to reconstruct the face, extracts eigenvalues by KPCA, and adopts the nearest neighbor method for classification. The research results demonstrate that the two improved methods proposed in this paper can indeed improve the work efficiency and recognition accuracy of kernel principal component analysis.


Simple Summary Glioblastoma is the most prevalent and lethal brain tumor. Temozolomide is usually used for the treatment of glioblastoma. The poor prognosis of the tumor is due to drug resistance and tumor heterogeneity. The mechanism of the resistance to temozolomide is various within the same tumor. The aim of the study was to clarify the mechanism of temozolomide resistance and find methods to overcome temozolomide resistance in glioma. Inhibition of DNA repair (homologous recombination or base excision repair) resensitized resistant cells harboring different resistance mechanism to temozolomide. Additionally, a bifunctional DNA-targeting agent, dianhydrogalactiol, showed anti-tumor effect independent of MGMT and mismatch repair status. Further, inhibition of checkpoint or homologous recombination enhanced dianhydrogalactiol-induced cytotoxicity in temozolomide-resistant glioma cells. Although resistance to temozolomide is clinically important issue, selecting suitable treatments for resistance mechanism can improve the prognosis of glioma. Abstract Resistance to temozolomide and intratumoral heterogeneity contribute to the poor prognosis of glioma. The mechanisms of temozolomide resistance can vary within a heterogeneous tumor. Temozolomide adds a methyl group to DNA. The primary cytotoxic lesion, O6-methylguanine, mispairs with thymine, leading to a futile DNA mismatch repair cycle, formation of double-strand breaks, and eventual cell death when O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) is absent. N7-methylguanine and N3-methyladenine are repaired by base excision repair (BER). The study aim was to elucidate temozolomide resistance mechanisms and identify methods to overcome temozolomide resistance in glioma. Several temozolomide-resistant clones were analyzed. Increased homologous recombination and mismatch repair system deficiencies contributed to temozolomide resistance. Inhibition of homologous recombination resensitized resistant cells with high homologous recombination efficiency. For the mismatch repair-deficient cells, inhibition of BER by PARP inhibitor potentiated temozolomide-induced cytotoxicity. Dianhydrogalactiol is a bifunctional DNA-targeting agent that forms N7-alkylguanine and inter-strand DNA crosslinks. Dianhydrogalactiol reduced the proliferation of cells independent of MGMT and mismatch repair, inducing DNA double-strand breaks and apoptosis in temozolomide-resistant cells. Further, inhibition of chk1 or homologous recombination enhanced dianhydrogalactiol-induced cytotoxicity in the cells. Selecting treatments most appropriate to the types of resistance mechanisms can potentially improve the prognosis of glioma.


ABSTRACT Energy plays significant role in the protection of national prosperity and economic development. The development and construction of coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) were regarded as an important component of the national energy planning, ecological civilization, national energy security, urban and regional sustainable development, and even atmospheric action. The construction of CFPPs is served as an important contribution to optimizing national energy structure and development. However, CFPPs are mainly located in arid or semi-arid or desert regions in China. The vegetation recovery in these regions is rather difficult than other regions once these ecosystems are disturbed or degraded, so these fragile areas face the more severe risks of ecological environment. These regions also serve as important grain-producing bases in Northern China and as important ecological function areas to nearby major cities, such as, Beijing and Tianjin. Furthermore, the development activities of CFPPs may lead to numerous environmental issues, such as water pollution, soil erosion vegetation degradation, and air pollution. The relationships between environmental issues and CFPP development should thus be regulated from a regional or national perspective. In this study, we analyse the spatial characters of coal resources, discuss the ecological conservation goals and ecological conditions of CFPPs, propose solutions to environmental issues involving ecological protection and CFPP construction, and provide important sustainable development strategies.


The article deals with research of designing data safety components for corporations by means of mathematical simulations and modern information technologies. Simulation of threats ranks has been done which is based on definite values of data components. The rules of safety policy for corporative information systems have been presented. The ways of realization of safety policy rules have been proposed on the basis of taken conditions and appropriate class of valuable data protection.


Honesty has double connotations: legal connotation(honest of "economic person") and ethics connotation(honest of "ethics-person").Along with the social transform,the connotations of honesty change too.The law of building of those two forms honesty is different.Facing with the absence of honesty,we should focus our minds on the building of honesty of "economic person"


Networks and their associated technologies are fundamentally dependent on industry standards to ensure consistency and continuity among all the various elements. In this paper we discuss the overall environment of the industry standards relevant to standard single-mode fiber and their importance to the performance and evolution of optical communications networks. We devote particular focus to the most recent revisions of the definitive industry standards and explain why network operators are best served by specifying this classification of fibers in order to ensure network capabilities now and in the future.


caust victimization, whether male or female, should not be divorced from our concern about the present and future. How does the study of women in the Holocaust help shape our educational and ethical goals? What does it teach us about ourselves and our world? How does it enrich our ethical responses to history? Although this volume is an important source of facts and information about women in the Holocaust, it does not address these issues.


We investigated the relationship between children's socioeconomic status (SES) and their dietary recall accuracy. We categorized SES by eligibility for school meals as free = low SES, reduced price = middle SES, and full price = high SES. Each of 374 fourth‐grade children (96% Black) was observed eating school breakfast and school lunch, and then interviewed to obtain a 24‐hour dietary recall that included the 2 observed meals. (Data were collected in 17, 17, and 8 elementary schools during the 2004–05, 2005–06, and 2006–07 school years in 1 district.) We ran ANOVA for each of 5 measures: omission rate and intrusion rate (2 measures of reporting error for food items), total inaccuracy (a measure that combined reporting errors for food items and amounts [in servings]), correspondence rate (a measure of reporting accuracy for energy), and inflation ratio (a measure of reporting error for energy). Only for total inaccuracy did SES groups differ significantly (p = 0.0298): The least‐squares means were lower (better) for middle SES at 4.9 servings than low SES at 6.3 servings (p = 0.0487), and for high SES at 5.2 servings than low SES (p = 0.0596), but did not differ significantly for middle SES and high SES (p = 0.7397). A limitation of these analyses is the homogeneity of children by SES as categorized by eligibility for school meals: 88% of children were low SES, 5% were middle SES, and 7% were high SES. Funded by R01HL074358.


I am now much inclined to believe that many of the symbols on the early coins were intended to refer to the Jain religion, which probably is older than the Buddhist. The rhinoceros is especially significant. It occurs on Nos. 48, 58, and 59 of my / . M. Catalogue (p. 132, pi. xix, 5, 6). The animal is the emblem of Sreyam^anatha, the eleventh Tlrthankara, and does not seem to be used as a symbol by either Buddhists or Brahmanical Hindus. The dog on the caitya (Theobald, p. 212, fig. 49, in JASB., part i, vol. lix, 1890) suggests either Zoroastrian or Tibetan influence. I may remark in passing that there was much more of the latter in ancient India than is generally recognized. The reference to Jain symbols on coins leads me to observe that speculations about the origin of primitive Buddhism, by which I mean " Buddhism before Buddha ", cannot be dissociated from consideration of Jainism, which may well be still older. Dr. Spooner boldly affirms (p. 429) that " Chandragupta [Candra-] was a Parsi", and (p. 453) that " Buddha was a Persian". Again, he states that " Buddhism . . . stands for the spiritual acclimatization of a section of the domiciled Iranians" (p. 455). Those propositions need examination which cannot be attempted now. I only utter the caution that the Jain problem is closely associated with the Buddhist one. A great mass of tradition connects the early kings of Magadha, whether Sailunaga, Nanda,. or Maurya, with Jainism. VINCENT A. SMITH.


Pneumomediastinum is a rare complication of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), when air leaks into the mediastinum. An increased pneumomediastinum incidence, of up to 5–13%, was reported during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic [1, 2] and even occurred spontaneously without a history of mechanical ventilation [3], similarly to the previous severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-1 [4]. Almost half of the 30 consecutive COVID-19 patients who had prolonged invasive mechanical ventilation had full-thickness tracheal lesions and pneumomediastinum [5]. Although pronation and high positive end-expiratory pressure levels were presumed to be the putative causes of pneumomediastinum [5], the mechanism of this COVID-19 complication remains unknown. We hypothesise that sonic hedgehog (SHH) and Wnt5a signalling, crucial pathways in tracheal morphogenesis, and repair/regeneration of cartilage lesions in adulthood [6, 7], could play a role in pneumomediastinum-related COVID-19 tracheal lesions. Pneumomediastinum is a rare complication of ARDS but is more common during #COVID19. The fibrous hyaline degeneration of the tracheal rings seen in this autoptic series is an original observation that has not been previously described in COVID-19 patients. https://bit.ly/3vxTQde


Optical micro-structure array, including microlens array and pyramid array, has the function of integral imaging or diffraction beam-splitting. Careful measurement of the 3D profile of the array is a basic approach for insuring its quality. However, due to the limited numerical aperture of microscopy, when the surface is too steep, typically larger than 45 degrees, little light will be reflected or scattered back to the measurement equipment. The signal-to-noise-ratio will drop below the measurable threshold and information will be lost during measurement. In our case, the dihedral of the sample surface is 90 degrees. Intuitively, the reflected rays should be parallel to the incident rays after twice reflection and can be picked up by the detector. Nevertheless, the white-light interference microscope still showed no information on the 45- degree-inclined surface. In this paper, we study the twice-reflection of the dihedral angle of 90 degrees. We put it in the test beam of a spherical interferometer to simulate the situation in microscope. Simulation and real experiments suggest that the twice-reflection beam is of low spatial coherence and may act as the background intensity in white-light interferogram. This result cannot lead to a novel testing approach directly but points out the problem. We will sprout new idea based on it.


While cities are responsible for most of the carbon emissions worldwide, they also hold a significant capacity to be resilient and sustainable. Beijing has repeatedly experienced a gridlock situation due to very unhealthy smog episodes. This paper combines the capacity of different sectors to transform the carbon-intensive development path. The study adapts the multi-level perspective to transform the existing patterns of prosumer activities causing energy consumption and CO2 emission in Beijing. A methodic literature review guided by a wide array of subjective scrutiny is adopted to conceptualize different strands of cross-disciplinary work. This study classifies the capacity of potential stakeholders and their interventions at niche level. The paper concludes that the capacity of niche component is crucial for the grass-root sustainability initiatives. The study further finds that the capacity of niches is interconnected and interdependent to other components suggested by the multilevel framework, and a joint interplay of multilevel capacity components can potentially alleviate the current itineraries of consumption-led CO2 emission and reconfiguring the environmental sustainability. Thus the study is useful for urban stakeholders to transform the energy consumption practices in Beijing.


Journalism educators recognize the need to prioritize teaching data journalism to ensure their students are industry-ready, particularly given the exponential growth in data, data availability, collection and analysis. However, research indicates that falling staff numbers and skill levels, lack of available sessional expertise and insufficient room in existing course curricula are among the problems faced in accommodating data journalism. This article outlines the efforts of Swinburne University of Technology's journalism programme to meet these challenges and the solutions implemented. The programme staff sought expertise through their existing international contacts and within their own university but also reached beyond the silos of their own department and faculty into computer science disciplines. The outcome means students in a programme which promotes its practical nature and industry-experienced staff will be taught by staff with data analytics expertise but limited journalism experience. This has, however, opened up the possibilities for collaboration between the analytics and journalism staff members and a team approach to the teaching of data journalism.


(57) Abstract: The present invention provides methods and compositions for preventing or reducing the incidence of postoperative adhesion formation. The method of the present invention entails the application of the polymerization conditions to a surgical wound site of the fibrin monomer composition. Fibrin monomer composition of the present invention has no exogenous thrombin, no extraneous proteins, enzymes or polymers to the patient polymerize to form a fibrin polymer at the surgical wound site, the polymer imparts hemostasis and it promotes wound healing while functioning as a barrier / sealant. Also, before or during application to the surgical wound site to such sealant compositions, derived from the patient's blood may be added plasma proteins autologous.


Sucrose synthase (SuSy) is one of the key enzymes regulating sucrose metabolism in plants. There are at least five different SuSy genesexist in sugarcane, and their biological functions are not fully understood. In this paper, the phylogenetic analysis of all plantSuSygenes published to-date (109) has been grouped into three classes: SuSyI, SuSyII and SuSyIII. SuSyIwas further divided into monocot and eudicot SuSyI, indicating their independent evolutionary trajectory paralleling monocot and dicot divergence. The leaf total sugar content of high-, medium-and low-sugar sugarcane genotypes varied at the early stage of plant growth. However, there was no strong correlation between early-stage leaf sucrose content and the final stem sugar content and sugar yield of mature crop. The proportion of leaf sucrose and fructose content in most sugarcane genotypes in the early stage of growth was about 30%each, and that of glucose was about 40%. The SuSy enzyme activity and gene expression of sugarcane sucrose synthase gene ScSuSy1and ScSuSy4in those genotypes also showed a remarkable variation during the same growth period. The expression profiles of these genes in high-sugar, medium-and low-sugar genotypes were complex with no clear association between their activity at the early stage of plant growth and final sugar yield of those genotypes. The biological role of ScSuSy1and ScSuSy4gene may change with sugarcane plant development, and may be involved in both the synthesis and decomposition of sucrose.© 2021 Friends Science Publishers


During the manufacturing of an electronic device process to be incorporated into a tire, the electronic device including an electronic member (12) and at least one conductor (14): - is attached the electronic member (12) to a support; - each conductor is fixed (14) to the support such that each conductor (14) and the electronic member (12) are electrically connected via the support; and - separating the carrier (22), each conductor (14), the electronic member (12) and a sacrificial portion (20) of the support electrically connecting each conductor (14) and the electronic member (12).


Based on the teaching plan,an experimental platform was constructed in Tongji University with the advantage that a particular type of test site is not necessary.The experimental system includes a self-balance test load system,a data acquisition and process system with high quality,as well as a high-resolution capturing and projection system.Up to now the experimental platform has been used for 4 times.In each time total 8 test programs,such as the concrete beam under bending and the concrete column under compression,were offered.Good comments to the experimental platform were received from the students and experts.


Portions of the lowest singlet and triplet potential energy surfaces for the reaction of oxygen atoms with carbon disulfide O(3P)+CS2(1Σg+)→CS(1Σ+)+SO(3Σ−), →OCS(1Σ+)+S(3P),→CO(1Σ+)+S2(3Σg−) were investigated by 6‐31G* ab initio self‐consistent‐field methods and with the inclusion of electron correlation by Mo/ller–Plesset perturbation theory. Earlier experiments and the present ab initio results indicate that the dominant reaction pathway is the direct stripping mechanism leading to the CS and SO diatomic products. The ab initio results support the experimentally observed branching ratios as a relatively simple mechanism was located for the formation of CS and SO, while more complex paths with higher barriers lead to the OCS and S or CO and S2 products. The most stable structure on either the singlet or triplet surface is singlet dithiiranone, a three‐membered CSS ring with a carbonyl group. As the predominant reaction forms CS(1Σ+)+SO(3Σ−), the triplet cis or trans carbon disulfide S‐oxide molecules are...


Based on summary and optimization of the conventional analyzing methods,new and more accurate methods were put forward for chemical phase analysis of lead in this paper.20% NaCl took the place of 25% NaCl as the extractant of anglesite,greatly reducing the effect of background on the experiment results;and by using 3% HAC-15% NH_4Cl-1.5% NH_2HCl as extractant of lead oxides,making the analysis results more accurate.These methods are of wide application.


Globalized world civilization made new lifestyle and other social changs which is happen in our surrounding society. In the changes and the new styles willy-nilly forces education, world especially Islamic education institutions (school) to give the change to ward the better in order that can equal the society development and able to fulfill society necessary. Most of the Islamic education has not been managed adequately and teachers professionalism is still very slow in generally. If that organization managed by management professional system, afford to understand and respons to the claim along with society aspiration, so the organization will get the bigger opportunity to be eminent choice and first for society.
Focus in this research it is men how to manage the management of MTsN Kedunggalar and society response in Kedunggalar who prefer choose MTsN Kedunggalar as the place of their children education. As for the purpose in this research is for knowing the management of MTsN Kedunggalar Ngawi. This research is field research which is located in MTsN Kedunggalar Ngawi. The approachment in this research uses with participant observation technic and case studying plan. Accumulation of date technic is done by means of isceral interview participant observation of documentation studying. The election of research informant by purposif technic is fused with snow ball sampling. After accumulated data by means of all the technic afferword that is examined by date reduction way, data presentation and conclusion drawing.
The point of this research is planning done by head. Master with PKM of MTsN Kedunggalar at freshmen year of lesson. Organizing is giving as assigment responsibility,and coordinating. Actuating is giving motivation and the act of growing of ruhul jihad to all of their subordinates and controlling as corrective action of all programs in school (madrasah). According to society response in Kedunggalar the headmaster is disciplined, be assertive, be able to give motivation and an inspiration for subordinates, student althought their parent for school progress. MTsN Kedunggalar Ngawi inspires parents' dream and hope, in other that their children have two competitions, namely IPTEK competition and religion spiritual (IMTAQ).


The invention relates to a method for extracting scandium from baiyuneboite tailings, which is characterized by comprising the following steps: 1. mixing tailings and an activating agent in a weight ratio of 1:(0.3-1.3); 2. roasting the mixture of the step 1 at 700-1200 DEG C for 0.5-4 hours; 3. washing the roasted ore with hot water to form a roasted ore and a water washing liquid, wherein the water washing liquid is concentrated to recycle the activating agent, and the recycled activating agent is reclaimed to the step 1; and 4. dissolving the washed roasted ore with inorganic acid to obtain a scandium-containing solution. The invention has the following advantages: after the baiyuneboite tailings are roasted with the activating agent and leached with the inorganic acid, the leaching rate of scandium is higher than 85%; the actual consumption of the activating agent is lower; and the technical design is reasonable: after the scandium is extracted from the scandium-containing leach solution, the residual acid can be reclaimed to the acid leaching procedure without generating wastewater.


According to a United Nations report from November, 2022, the world population reached 8 billion for the first time in human history with 6.74 billion people living in low and middle - income countries (LMICs) and 1.3 billion living in developed countries. 53 of Africa's 54 countries fall under the former category. The population of Africa is estimated to be 1.4 billion with 1.17 billion in sub-Saharan Africa. Presently, 770 million people globally have no access to electricity mostly in Africa and Asia with 3.8 billion depending on solid fuels for cooking and other domestic uses. Data obtained from WHO reported that 568 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are living without access to electricity and clean energy. In developing nations, wood, charcoal, and dung are commonly used as traditional cooking fuels, with wood being the primary source of energy. The emission from these fuels in addition to those from fossil fuels further reduces the quality of air which causes ambient air pollution, a condition with adverse effects on human health. However, there are initiatives that have been adopted to alleviate the problems including the future expectation for global access to clean energy as conveyed in the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (goal number 7); the 2063 African Union Commission Agenda; the Paris Agreement at COP21; and the United Nations Sustainable Energy for All (SE4A). This paper reviews historical trends in energy usage in sub-Saharan Africa, the present conditions and status of development, across policy and technological prongs, in terms of the current energy transition. Furthermore, the paper seeks to highlight opportunities for future sustainable energy development across all sectors and businesses in order to provide energy to the 568 million without access in sub-Saharan Africa, while bearing in mind the environmental implications for the global population at large.


This article contains content
 compiled and findings made as part of a PhD study " Vosloo, C. 2017. A framework for entrepreneurship education and training for South African
Architects. Unpublished PhD (Architecture) thesis. University of Pretoria: Pretoria".


The HLA-B27 allele, present in 9% of the Caucasian population, is strongly associated with several rheumatic diseases, e.g., ankylosing spondylitis, Reiter syndrome, and acute anterior uveitis (1). Various methods have been developed for the identification of the HLA-B27 allele. Initially we used flow cytometry for serological HLA-B27 typing. Our molecular biological assay (2), based on allele-specific PCR (3), relies on specific primer recognition of a sequence in the third exon that is unique to the B27 allele. The forward primer is specific for most B alleles, whereas the sequence of the reverse primer is unique to the B27 alleles and is complementary to all of them except for subtype B2707 because of the AT at its 3′ end. This method unambiguously identified all B27 -positive samples except for the rare B2707 subtype (2). Flow cytometry, in contrast, produced ambiguous results in 3% of samples because of antibody cross-reactivity (2). In the last 5 years, we have analyzed >2000 samples with unequivocal results and negligible complications, but the necessary post-PCR identification steps such as gel electrophoresis and confirmation by allele-specific hybridization analysis make the procedure time-consuming and prone to contamination.

Recently, a new generation of high-speed thermal cyclers has been developed based on real-time PCR analysis. These instruments, for example, the LightCyclerTM (Roche Molecular Biochemicals), fluorometrically monitor real-time formation of PCR products during thermal cycling with SYBR Green I. This double-stranded DNA-selective fluorescent dye provides a convenient, rapid way to detect and quantify any PCR product, regardless of sequence. During each phase of DNA synthesis, the SYBR Green I dye, which is already included in the reaction mixture, binds to the amplified PCR products, which subsequently can be detected by their fluorescence. The specificity and sensitivity of the reaction can be greatly enhanced by combining amplification with identification of the …


Economic and social dynamics, involves to a need of agility and speed in business. This fact explains why most consumer contracts and transportation contracts of people are performed by adhesion, which identifies a cost reduction, treatment's uniformity and a much more dynamic contractual completion. The questions that should be asked are: What is the dimension and importance of the issue? Is there parity between the parties in a contract of adhesion? How was the issue discussed under a consumerist perspective?


Purpose: The goal of this study was to investigate the dosimetric accuracy of the analytical anisotropic algorithm (AAA) for the treatment of lungtumors. This algorithm, recently implemented in Eclipse (Varian Inc., Palo Alto, CA), was also compared to the Pinnacle's (Philips Medical, Cleveland, OH) collapsed cone (CC) algorithm. Methods: Four phantoms were used in this study. Three lung‐, bone‐ and water‐equivalent slab phantoms were designed to validate the accuracy of the calculated doses in simple geometries. Doses were additionally measured in the CIRS (Norfolk, VA) thorax solid water phantom, which includes lung cavities and a cylindrical spine. All four phantoms were CT‐scanned with thermoluminescent dosimeters(TLD) in place. Plans were generated with the AAA algorithm using anterior‐posterior (AP), AP/PA, oblique, and intensity modulated (IMRT) beams with both 6MV and 18MV photons. The dose distributions for all plans, excluding the IMRT, were re‐computed with Pinnacle using monitor units matched to the AAA plans. Dose measurements were performed with TLDs and ion chambers at 6 different positions including three in tissue, one in spinal cord, and two in lung.Results: The AAA algorithm was found to calculate the dose in lung and tissue accurately to within 6% in all four phantoms. Ion chamber measurements showed 2–3% better agreement than the TLDs in the thorax phantom. For 6 MV, the differences between measured and calculated doses were less than 2% for both AAA and Pinnacle for all six points. However, for the 18 MV beam, the dose measured in the spinal cord was 5.9% greater than the calculated dose with both algorithms. Measured and calculated doses agreed to within the 2% for the IMRT plan. Conclusion: The AAA algorithm provides accurate dose calculations in and around heterogeneities, similar to that provided by the CC algorithm implemented in Pinnacle.


This paper analyzes the role and value of back issues,pointing out the problems exist in the management and use of current university library back issues,farther more,it discusses about the ways and means to help students preparing dissertations by using the information from back issues.


The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is classifying the brain injury adjunctive interpretive electroencephalograph assessment aid into class II (special controls). The special controls that will apply to the device are identified in this order and will be part of the codified language for the brain injury adjunctive interpretive electroencephalograph assessment aid's classification. The Agency is classifying the device into class II (special controls) in order to provide a reasonable assurance of safety and effectiveness of the device.


ABSTRACT The approach of this study using survey methods to students, faculty and staff of the Faculty of Economics, University of Slamet Riyadi Surakarta. The population in this study were all students, faculty and staff of the Faculty of Economics, University Slamet Riyadi Surakarta in 2012, convenience sampling technique using random sampling, the samples used by 100 respondents, consisting of as many as 11 people faculty, employees 4 people, and students as many as 85 people. Test data using the instrument validity and reliability. Engineering analysis using normality test and the test independent sample t-test. The results of the analysis can be concluded that: View of the message obtained, message formats, message source is obtained, and message structure obtained is p-value < 0.05 thus Ho is rejected, there is a significant difference consumer perceptions on advertising mobile phone provider in the medium of television to print media seen from the contents of the message, message formats, message source is obtained, and message structure obtained. Based on the analysis it can be concluded that consumers perceive mobile phone provider advertising through television media is better than a cell phone provider advertising through print media. Keywords : Perception of Consumers, Advertising Media Television and Print Media Advertising


We study non-linear transport phenomena in a high-mobility bilayer system with two closely spaced populated electronic subbands in a perpendicular magnetic field. For a moderate direct current excitation, we observe zero-differential-resistance states with a characteristic 1/B periodicity. We investigate, both experimentally and theoretically, the Hall field-induced resistance oscillations which modulate the high-frequency magneto-intersubband oscillations in our system if we increase the current. We also observe and describe the influence of direct current on the magnetoresistance in the presence of microwave irradiation.


A Bartonella sp. was isolated from sheep blood. Bacterial identification was conducted by using electron microscopy and DNA sequencing of the 16S rRNA, citrate synthase, riboflavin synthase, and RNAase P genes. To our knowledge, this is the first report of ovine Bartonella infection.


Abstract Ozonation was evaluated for control of dissolved organic pollutants in biologically treated wastewater effluents. The non-purgeable dissolved organic carbon (NPDOC) concentration was 7 mg/L in the wastewater effluent, and the aqueous ozone dosage applied in the reactor was between 0.5 - 5 mg/L. Due to die presence of the unsettled activated sludge (∼8 mg/L of suspended solids), the concentration of the dissolved organic compounds could be increased by more than 120% due to the decomposition of the microorganisms during the ozonation processes. An 80% reduction in NPDOC concentration was obtained in two hours contact time if the water was filtered before ozonation. A rapid removal of UV254 was observed whether or not the water was filtered before the ozonation. Better oxidation efficiency was obtained when die water samples were adjusted to an acidic condition, and it was observed that the presence of die carbonate/bicarbonate ions inhibited the degradation of die organic compounds. However, the effects from various pH and alkalinity conditions were not pronounced. In addition, ammonia nitrogen was oxidized to nitrate nitrogen during die ozonation processes, causing a large increase in UV absorbance at wavelength lower than 240 nm.


Social networking is a social structure that let the user interact and work collaboratively with other users, in an environment where the facility to browse, search and invite friends and to connect and interact with Web World is available. The social networking services can also effectively be used by the libraries to share information with its clients in the easiest way possible. With social networking tool one can create bookmark collections, share notices and more. This paper is therefore an attempt to examine the present scenario in library services delivery with these new and emerging technologies. In this paper we highlighted conceptual meaning of social networking, changing environment of libraries, some important different type of social networking sites, role of librarians in social networking era, and challenges and recommendations for 21 st century library and librarians.


hydroxybutyric acid level in the biological fluids by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry were evaluated during the study. Results. An increases in levels of reduced glutathione by 50.3% by day 7 (from 3.68±0.57 to 5.53±0.35 µmol/g), hemoglobin (Hb), antioxidant enzymes and glutathione reduction enzymes were found; glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase increased by 17,1% (from 3.68±0.26 to 4.31±0.41 µmol/g Hb) and glutathione reductase increased by 15% (from 174.1±16.3 to 200.2±4.11 µmol/min/g Hb). At the same time, the MDA lipid peroxidation system activation was decreased by 41.9% (from 7.78±1.06 to 4.52±0.28 nmol/g Hb). Conclusion. The obtained data proved high efficacy of a succinate-containing drug in slowing down the progression of post-intoxication delirium through increasing the level of the main cellular antioxidant, the reduced glutathione.


Multi-wall carbon nanotube coatings are used as broadband, low-reflectance absorbers for bolometric applications and for stray light control. They are also used as high emittance blackbody radiators. Irradiation of single wall carbon nanotubes with ultraviolet (UV) laser light has been shown to remove amorphous carbon debris, but there have been few investigations of the interaction of UV light with the more complex physics of multi-wall carbon nanotubes. We present measurements of reflectance and surface morphology before and after exposure of multi-wall carbon nanotube coatings to 248 nm UV laser light. We show that UV exposure reduces the reflectivity at wavelengths below 600 nm and present modeling of the thermal cycling the UV exposure causes at the surface of the carbon nanotubes. This effect can be used to flatten the spectral shape of the reflectivity curve of carbon nanotube absorber coatings used for broadband applications. Finally, we find that the effect of UV exposure depends on the nanotube growth process.Multi-wall carbon nanotube coatings are used as broadband, low-reflectance absorbers for bolometric applications and for stray light control. They are also used as high emittance blackbody radiators. Irradiation of single wall carbon nanotubes with ultraviolet (UV) laser light has been shown to remove amorphous carbon debris, but there have been few investigations of the interaction of UV light with the more complex physics of multi-wall carbon nanotubes. We present measurements of reflectance and surface morphology before and after exposure of multi-wall carbon nanotube coatings to 248 nm UV laser light. We show that UV exposure reduces the reflectivity at wavelengths below 600 nm and present modeling of the thermal cycling the UV exposure causes at the surface of the carbon nanotubes. This effect can be used to flatten the spectral shape of the reflectivity curve of carbon nanotube absorber coatings used for broadband applications. Finally, we find that the effect of UV exposure depends on the nanotube ...


To explore the most suitable planting density for herbaceous cultivation and provide foundation for efficient herbaceous cultivation models,yields of branch and other parts of hybrid mulberry(Guiyou No.62)with different planting densities(45 000,67 500,90 000and 112 500plant·hm-2)were studied.The results showed that reasonable planting density affected the yield of mulberry remarkably.The highest yield was 61 672.50kg·hm-2,which was observed in treatment with a planting density of 112 500plant·hm-2,and significantly different from the other 3treatments.So an appropriate planting density for herbaceous cultivation is 112 500plant·hm-2.Branches per plant,stem diameter and leaf area trended to decrease with the increasing of planting density.Mulberry leaf yield is the most important part of yield components,and take up over 50% of total yield.With the increasing of planting density,proportion of each component has no significant change,and it is leafxylemphloem.


Situation of letters and visits seems not to be optimistic currently.On the problems of grass root level letters and visits,the main problems focused on countryside land and house sites and cadre economic reforms,involving lawsuit and case,business reformation and reorganization,defaults salary and treatment problem.A lot of letters and visits problem solving at the grass-roots level and in the bud,it's should put the grass-roots party organizations in countryside into the functions of kernel play.We must look for new ways to build the grass-roots party organizations,maintain letters and visits and society stability,provide organization guarantee and service for the development of the economic society.


This work is a geometric account of Strand and Westwater's minimum-RMS estimation of the numerical solution of a Fredholm integral equation of the first kind when a stochastic model is assumed [4]. The integral equation is converted by means of quadrature formulas to the linear system $h_\varepsilon = A\eta + \varepsilon $ for $\eta ,\varepsilon $ stochastically independent random vectors with zero mean vectors and known covariance structures. These vectors are unobservable, and it is desired to predict their values when a value of the random vector $h_\varepsilon $ is observed. The four problems—finding the minimum expected mean-square predictor, finding the minimum expected mean-square predictor restricted to a subspace, finding the minimum expected mean-square residual predictor, and finding the most probable predictor under the assumption of Gaussian processes—are considered. The first three are solved geometrically here while a geometric solution of the fourth problem is given in Herr [2]. Relationsh...


Abstract The present study concerns a temporally evolving turbulent natural convection boundary layer (NCBL) adjacent to an isothermally heated vertical wall, with Prandtl number 0.71. Three-dimensional direct numerical simulations (DNS) are carried out to investigate the turbulent flow up to $\textit {Gr}_\delta =1.21\times 10^8$, where $\textit {Gr}_\delta$ is the Grashof number based on the boundary layer thickness $\delta$. In the near-wall region, there exists a constant heat flux layer, similar to previous studies for the spatially developing flows (e.g. George & Capp, Intl J. Heat Mass Transfer, vol. 22, 1979, pp. 813–826). Beyond a wall-normal distance $\delta _i$, the NCBL can be characterised as a plume-like region. We find that this region is well described by a self-similar integral model with profile coefficients (cf. van Reeuwijk & Craske, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 782, 2015, pp. 333–355) which are $\textit {Gr}_\delta$-independent after $\textit {Gr}_\delta =10^7$. In this Grashof number range both the outer plume-like region and the near-wall boundary layer are turbulent, indicating the beginning of the so-called ultimate turbulent regime (Grossmann & Lohse, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 407, 2000, pp. 27–56; Grossmann & Lohse, Phys. Fluids, vol. 23, 2011, 045108). Solutions to the self-similar integral model are analytically obtained by solving ordinary differential equations with profile coefficients empirically obtained from the DNS results. In the present study, we have found the wall heat transfer of the NCBL is directly related to the top-hat scales which characterise the plume-like region. The Nusselt number is found to follow $\textit {Nu}_\delta \propto \textit {Gr}_\delta ^{0.381}$, slightly higher than the empirical $1/3$-power-law correlation reported for spatially developing NCBLs at lower $\textit {Gr}_\delta$, but is shown to be consistent with the ultimate heat transfer regime with a logarithmic correction suggested by Grossmann & Lohse (Phys. Fluids, vol. 23, 2011, 045108). By modelling the near-wall buoyancy force, we show that the wall shear stress would scale with the bulk velocity only at asymptotically large Grashof numbers.


. The limited number of learning media used in schools causes a problem in learning activity that can affect learning outcome. Comic combines elements of education and entertainment so that can make learning activities become interesting and fun. Learning using comic is expected to make student understanding difficult material. This research is Development research by using ADDIE model. The results of the validation from the material, learning, and media experts show level of validity of the products is very valid. The results of the practicality test is efficient and the results of the effectiveness test of the use of comic showed a significant increase cognitive and psycho-motor aspect in the high category. The gain value of increasing student understanding by using science education comics is 0.81 with a high category. Thus the science education comics learning media can be used as science learning media at junior high schools.


This paper analyzes the basic principle and the problems of the Canny algorithm,and introduces the color space and its algorithm.According to the RS image's characteristic of coast district,the paper discusses the adaptive Canny edge-detection method based on the color differences.The experiment indicates that the improved algorithm has the higher SNR,and can achieve the ideal examination result of the coast line.


In this paper, tribological behaviours for sintering carbides and DLC/nitride film are discussed. During the wear test, two types of hardened steel are setting to sliding against eight series of carbide specimens in order to compare the wear mode and evaluate the wear performance of sintering carbides, which are made by different process parameters. The experiment result shows that a density ratio of sintering carbide between 86% and 99% does not have obviously different effect on wear resistance. Moreover, molybdenum binder with high diffusibility can improve the wear performance of tungsten carbide, but wear performance of titanium carbide is dependent on the amount of nickel/cobalt binder, separately. On the other hand, SAE52100 substrate absorbs the heat of friction and maintains the coated diamond-like carbon film in an excellent wear performance.


Glasshouse experiments were conducted to determine the phytotoxic effect of triallate [S-(2,3,3-trichloroallyl)-diisopropylthiocarbamate] granules on oat (Avena sativa L. 'Kelsey'). The sphere-of-influence of the granules was found to diminish rapidly with increase in the horizontal distance from the tips of the caryopses. At a distance of 10 mm from the caryopsis tip there was no significant effect on the growth of the oat seedling. The need for the granules to be in close proximity to the developing coleoptile could not be counteracted by increasing the number of granules per caryopsis once the granules were 10 mm or more from the caryopsis. These results give cause to seriously question the generally held belief that triallate disperses through the soil in a volatile phase. Extension of the first leaf and mesocotyl was inhibited much more readily by triallate than coleoptile extension, which was stimulated by a number of treatments. When granules were left on the soil surface of sub-irrigated pots the phytotoxic effect seemed to be mediated through triallate-exposure of the coleoptile tip.


An optimal interpolation scheme for assimilating two-dimensional wave spectra is presented which is based on a decomposition of the spectrum into principal wave systems. Each wave system is represented by three characteristic parameters: significant wave height, mean propagation direction, and mean frequency. The spectrum is thereby reduced to a manageable number of parameters. From the correction of the wind-sea system a correction of the local wind is derived. A 2-month test of the system using wave spectra retrieved from ERS 1 synthetic aperture radar wave mode data in the Atlantic yielded consistent corrections of winds and waves. However, the corrected wind data alone, although valuable in identifying wind errors in critical high wind speed regions, are too sparsely distributed in space and time to be used in isolation and need to be combined with other data in an atmospheric data assimilation scheme. This emphasizes the need for the development of combined wind and wave data assimilation schemes for the optimal use of satellite wind and wave data.


The means and standard deviations of several acoustical quantities are presented from measurements in 602 multiple residence homes. Although not a random sample, the homes included approximately equal numbers of apartment blocks and row housing as well as owners and renters from three different urban areas. The acoustical values included background noise levels and complete transmission loss measures of common walls.


Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa Linn.) occupies a very selective and special position among the ornamental bulbous plants which are valued for the beauty and fragrance of their flowers. As there is much confusion in the naming of genetic material existing in various Indian states as they are exclusively referred to as single genotype and all the local doubles probably from another. The major thrust at present is to maintain their purity besides registration (patents) and commercial release of new varieties. Therefore, an attempt was made to characterize most of the already released tuberose varieties over years so as to develop identification keys that are reliable and relatively easy to perform while implementing DUS testing. The morphological characterization of fifteen varieties clearly brought out the differences. The data presented indicated that these varieties did not differ significantly when one trait i.e. leaf waxiness of vegetative character are taken into consideration. However, distinct differences were noticed in thirteen floral characters and ten in foliage (vegetative character). The study on tuberose varieties has successfully demonstrated that fifteen varieties of tuberose differ significantly in 13/10 characters, which makes the candidate variety eligible to seek protection in future. The present study therefore provides very useful leads for future research efforts in this direction.


Constructing a Regional Innovation Ecosystem (RIE) can be an effective way to utilize innovation resources by breaking the existing regional barriers. Existing research focuses more on exploring the characteristics, evolution, and impact of innovation ecosystems from a theoretical perspective, while few studies combine reality with exploring how to build an effective innovation ecosystem. Given that the concept of an innovation ecosystem is inspired by natural ecosystems, using the method of comparative analysis, this article begins by analyzing the characteristics of tropical rainforests as the most stable and efficient natural ecosystem and deeply explores the essential features of an efficient RIE, including an innovative soft and hard environment, multi-level and differentiated producers, consumers and decomposers of innovative activities, and a virtuous cycle of innovation resources. By comparing Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei's current reality with these characteristics, this article systematically analyzes the advantages of the innovation environment, the further improvement of innovation resource aggregation and innovation chains, as well as the disadvantages of an unbalanced distribution of innovation resources, the leapfrogging transformation of scientific and technological achievements, low innovation levels of market-oriented innovation entities, and loss of innovative factors, such as talents. Based on this analysis, targeted suggestions to construct a RIE in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, including using both market and administrative approaches to allocating innovation factors, stimulating the innovation vitality of market-oriented innovation entities, taking multiple measures to enhance Hebei Province's capacity, building an innovative environment that is livable and business-friendly are proposed.


In this research the phase diagram of (Hf-Ta)binary system has been evaluated through (CALPHAD)[calculation of phase diagrams] method by using the experimental data of phases equilibria and thermodynamic properties. The computer programs in the language of quick basic have been formulated for the calculation of stable phases relations with mole fraction as a function of temperature, the basis of these programs is the approximate representation of free energy-mole fraction curves. The Gibbs free energy of the liquid , body centered cubic and hexagonal closed packed were calculated by the regular solution model. The present results were shown a good agreement between the theoretical and experimental diagrams . The eutectoid point in the theoretical diagram was XTa=0.24 and Tth=1609.4 while the eutectoid point in the experimental diagram was XTa=0.2and Tex=1366


The paper make a detailed introduction to the productive capacity, varieties, quality, equipments and foreign trade of Chinese tungsten_filament industry, and make a prospect for the developmental trend of tungsten_filament industry.


In approaches that were previously used, preparedness planning used tactical modelling of individual fire events and resource deployment. Results from modelling individual fire events were typically gathered to construct a program analysis at the planning unit or at the landscape level. This research deviates from those tactical-based approaches by using strategic modelling to inform planning and budgeting decisions for a preparedness program. In preparedness planning and budgeting, wildland fire officials must consider the dual importance of reducing wildfire risk to highly valued resources (initial attack) and managing for the beneficial effects of wildland fire that can foster resilient fire-adapted ecosystems. This dual purpose requires the employment of a similar set of resources including crews, equipment and planning. Consequently, we address the allocation of a single 'preparedness' budget to the dual purpose of initial attack and beneficial wildland fire (BWF) using return on investment (ROI) as the performance metric.


The vapors of mesogenic solvents that form a lyotropic LC phase with cellulose derivatives exert an active influence on the spatial structure and optical activity of cellulose acetate. For a polymer modified with the vapors of such solvents, the viscosity of its concentrated solutions significantly decreases with decreasing the absolute value of the specific optical rotation, irrespective of its sign.


This study evaluated the effect of an organomineral fertilizer enriched with humic substances on soybean grown under water stress. The experiment was performed in a greenhouse using a Red Latosol (Oxisol) with adequate fertility as substrate, in which soybean plants were cultivated with and without water stress. The experimental design was randomized blocks, in a 2 x 5 factorial scheme (two moisture levels and five fertilizer doses: 0, 1, 2, 4 and 8 mL dm-3), totaling 10 treatments, with four replicates. The organomineral fertilizer was applied in the soil 21 days after plant emergence and the water regimes were established one week thereafter. The fertilizer was not able to attenuate the effects of water stress, reducing soybean grain yield by more than 50% compared with plants cultivated under no stress. Fertilizer doses caused positive response on soybean nutrition and grain yield and, under water stress condition, the most efficient dose was 5.4 mL dm-3. There were lower leaf concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and higher concentrations of sulfur in plants under stress. Humic substances favor the absorption of micronutrients.


The trend of real-time micro-expression recognition systems has increased with recent advancements in human-computer interaction (HCI) in security and healthcare. Several studies in this field contributed towards recognition accuracy, while few studies look into addressing the computation costs. In this paper, two approaches for micro-expression feature extraction are analyzed for real-time automatic micro-expression recognition. Firstly, motion-based approach, which calculates motion of subtle changes from an image sequence and present as features. Then, secondly, a low computational geometric-based feature extraction technique, a very popular method for facial expression recognition in real-time. These approaches were integrated in a developed system together with a facial landmark detection algorithm and a classifier for real-time analysis. Moreover, the recognition performance were evaluated using SMIC, CASME, CAS(ME)2 and SAMM datasets. The results suggest that the optimized Bi-WOOF (leveraging on motion-based features) yields the highest accuracy of 68.5%, while the full-face graph (leveraging on geometric-based features) yields 75.53% on the SAMM dataset. On the other hand, the optimized Bi-WOOF processes sample at 0.36 seconds and full-face graph processes sample at 0.10 seconds with a 640x480 image size. All experiments were performed on an Intel i5-3470 machine.


Objective: Using the isolated heart model to establish Aconite bioassay method,Optimizing the experimental conditions. Methods: Comparing the aconite' s role of the heart with the different experimental conditions,Screening test indicators,Optimizing the experimental conditions,So as to establish the aconite bioassay detection system. Results: Inspection system conditions: Using Langendorff isolated heart perfusion device,K-H liquid perfusion,the use of constant temperature and pressure,a constant amount of administration,heart rate decision index. Conclusion: The optimization of the experimental system establishes to comply with the requirements of aconite bioassay. Law may become a complement of the existing the aconite quality control methods.


Pure iron (99.99%) was processed by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) with a die having an internal channel of 90°. The subsequent extrusion passes were performed by route A up to 4 passes. The microstructure of ultrafine-grained (UFG) iron was investigated using electron back scatter diffraction (EBSD) and transmission el. microscopy (TEM). Tensile creep tests were conducted on the as-pressed samples at temperature of 773 K and under applied load 60 MPa. For comparison purposes, the creep test under the same loading conditions was performed also on the unpressed material. The effect of number ECAP passes on creep behaviour of pure Fe was investigated. Results showed that the creep resistance of pure Fe after ECAP is improved in comparison with those for the unpressed as-received state.


Filled road embankment along riverbank or widen riverbank as road embankment is often used in the project of highway construction. The road embankment built along riverbank has what influences to the stability of riverbank, and has what characteristics on the stability, deformation and destroy mode to the road embankment. These are the main questions to be solved for the construction of river levee highway extent. Based on the results of local reconnaissance, in-situ test and laboratory experiment, a new finite element model is built to carry out the analogy calculation and the analysis of the stability of the riverbank and the road embankment under different water level and whether the road embankment is built. The calculation results indicate that: 1) the build of road embankment is propitious to enhance the stability of the riverbank. The safety factors are increased about 26%. 2) the embankment built along riverbank is easy to generate differential settlements and large settlement. The total settlement may increase 35% for the widen project of road embankment. 3) the road embankment may occur shear destroy on the slope from the river bank behind the road embankment. The seepage has little influence to the stability and cannot change the failure mode of the embankment. Numerical simulation can forecast the stability and the failure modes of the road embankment before the project built. Numerical simulation with the new mode is useful to the design of building road embankment along riverbank or widening the riverbank as road embankment.


A procedure is described for crystal growth of orthorhombic TlInS 2 . The lattice parameters of the grown crystals are a = 6.88 Å, b = 14.04 Å, and c = 4.02 Å (sp. gr. P 222 1 , Z = 4, ρ x = 6.59 g/cm 3 ). The dielectric permittivity of the crystals is measured from 170 to 300 K. The spectral dependence of the 300-K photocurrent through the crystals indicates that orthorhombic TlInS 2 is a wide-gap semiconductor. Its band gap, E g = 2.52 ± 0.01 eV, slightly exceeds that of monoclinic TlInS 2 .


In earthquake-prone areas, pile-anchor structures are widely employed for slope reinforcement due to their reliable performance. Current research has primarily focused on static and quasi-static analyses of slopes reinforced by using pile-anchor structures, with limited investigation into their dynamic response. In this work, the finite element method (FEM) is used to study the dynamic behavior of a pile-anchor slope system, and the extended finite element method (XFEM) is used to simulate the progressive failure processes of piles. Three different reinforcement schemes, which include no support, pile support, and pile-anchor support, are considered to examine the performance of the pile-anchor structure. The simulation results suggest that the pile-anchor structure displays a reduction of 39.6% and 40.6% in the maximum shear force and bending moment of the piles, respectively, compared to the pile structure. The XFEM is utilized to model the progressive failure process of the piles subjected to seismic loading. We find that crack initiation in the pile body near the slip surface, for both the pile supported and the pile-anchor supported conditions, occurs when the peak ground acceleration arrives. Crack growth in the piles completes in a very short period, with two distinct increments of crack area observed. The first increment occurs when the peak ground acceleration arrives and is significantly larger than the second increment. Consequently, for the seismic design of piles, it is necessary to strengthen the pile body around slip surfaces. The novelty of this paper is that we realize the simulation of crack initiation and propagation in piles subjected to seismic loading.


We investigated the cytological characteristics and hormone responses of semi-dwarf rice mutant B1-24 by comparing to the wild type Huiyangzhenzhuzao(Hyz).Compared with Hyz,the height of B1-24 seedlings grown in light was 14.62% shorter and the length of the first leaves was 11.18% shorter;while the mesocotyl length of B1-24 was 41.89% longer.In addition,the lengths of coleoptile and mesocotyl cells of etiolated B1-24 seedlings were 45.95% and 118.28% of that of Hyz,respectively.Treated with 600 μg/mL GA3 or 7 μg/mL IAA,the cell length of B1-24 was significantly increased to the same level of Hyz.While 50 μg/mL PAC could severely shorten all of them.Our results suggested that the semi-dwarf phenotypes of B1-24 may be related to the synthesis of,or response to phytohormone(s).


Abstract : A significant problem that confronts R and D management organizations like ONR and DoD is the classification of information for storage and retrieval. The initial objective of the study described was a study of classification theory so that criteria could be established for evaluation of the effectiveness of existing systems. This study and subsequent evaluation of (classification) systems was directed toward formulation of design criteria for a universal flexible classification system that could better satisfy the needs of R and D management organizations. An automatic classification penetrating technique that was developed to meet these criteria is presented. The description includes both managerial and technological aspects of the proposed systems' operation. How the technique whose algorithm has been computerized, could be tested through performance of a series of experiments is also presented. The experimental process discussed is the basis for work related to this project. The final subject addressed is how the proposed classification technique could be used as part of an integrated R and D management information system. (Author)


The recent success using immunotherapy to cure cancer has considerably renewed the interest for research in tumor immunology. Compared to conventional cancer treatments with radiation therapy and chemotherapy, immunotherapy is far less damaging to the body and has less detrimental side effects. In addition, promoting patients' own defenses and enhancing tumor immunity is more likely to prevent cancer relapse. Among the current operational immunotherapeutic methods used, one can mention the adoptive cell transfer with engineered T cells transformed in vitro to express chimeric antigen receptors. This type of active treatment is very effective and now increasingly used against blood cancers or leukemia. The development immune stimulating immunotherapy is a more recent type of treatment. It has led to remarkable clinical effects as illustrated by the famous complete cure of metastatic melanoma of former president of United States of America Jimmy Carter. This approach uses humanized antibodies that block the checkpoint inhibitors CTLA-4 and PD1, of two important immune pathways. The blockade of these inhibitory receptors enhances antitumor T cell response by preventing or abrogating suppressive signals. Despite undeniable successes, the clinical application of immunotherapy remains challenging and very expensive. As such, there is a need for improving current strategies as well as for developing novel ones. While this endeavor heavily and almost exclusive relies on murine models, a wider comparative approach using less conventional animal models may be helpful. Indeed, studies over many years have revealed that cancerous diseases are widely found not only in vertebrates but also in invertebrates (reviewed in Aktipis et al. 2015; Robert, 2010). Given the renewed attention for tumor immunology, it seems appropriate and timely to inform and educate the mainstream biomedical community about tumorigenesis and tumor immunity across the whole animal kingdom. This would provide a broader view of unappreciated attractive animal models and comparative approaches alternative to mice. Thus, in this special thematic issue of our journal Immunological Investigations, we present alternative ways either using human cell lines or non-murine animals to gathering further insights into host-tumor interactions. In a first paper, Young Zen (2019) explores the generation of splicing variants of a serine protease homolog known to be important for tumor invasion in an invertebrate arthropod (the Crayfish, Procambarus clarkii). This is followed by two papers (Li et al., 2019; Owen and Siddle, 2019) concerning the interesting case of the Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD) that plague the Tasmanian Devil, a mammalian species of Tasmania. This is a fatal monophyletic clonally transmissible cancer type that spreads between devils by biting during fights for mating. Xinying Li et al. (2019) have investigated whether murine macrophage cell lines can phagocytize Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD1) cancer cells in vitro and if so whether TNF tumor


(57) Abstract: has ellipsoidal particles, preferably in the range of molecular weight of about 250,000 to 300,000 daltons, oxyhydroxide ferric for the treatment of iron deficiency - dextran composition.


Jair Bolsonaro's victory in Brazil's presidential election could be a disaster for the Amazon, but his opponents can unite, say Mary Menton and Felipe Milanez


We built a terabyte-scale web data collection, NW1000G-04, which was used in the NTCIR5 WEB task. This report describes the process of building the collection and some statistics of it in detail.


ObjectiveTo explore the sonographic features of multiple endocrine neoplasia 2A(MEN2A).MethodsThe sonographic findings of MEN2A in 57 cases the 117th Hospital of People′s Liberation Army with Ret-C634Y mutation were summarized retrospectively.These patients involved 12 families.All patients were proved by pathology.ResultsThyroid nodules were found in all 57 cases,which presented with various quantity(single or multiple),echogenecity(hypoechoic or mixed)and location(unilateral or bilateral).Eighteen patients had single or multiple adrenal nodules with unilateral or bilateral distribution.On pathology,the diagnoses were:unilateral or bilateral medullary thyroid carcinoma in 51 cases(89.5%),medullary carcinoma of thyroid and papillary carcinoma of thyroid in 4 cases(7.0%),thyroid C cell hyperplasia in 2 cases(3.5%),lymph node metastasis in 4 cases(7.1%),unilateral or bilateral pheochromocytomas in 18 cases(31.6%).ConclusionsMEN2A has some specific features on sonography.Ultrasound may be useful in the early diagnosis of this disease.


Intervention Participants were allocated to child training (CT) (n = 27 children), parent training (PT) (n = 26 children and 43 parents), combined child and parent training (CT + PT) (n = 22 children and 36 parents), or a wait list control (n = 22 children and 40 parents). The programmes were weekly 2 hour sessions that lasted about 6 months. The CT programme included videotaped vignettes and fantasy play that addressed interpersonal difficulties. The PT programme included videotaped programmes on parenting and interpersonal skills. Wait list control group families waited 9 months and then were allocated to 1 of the 3 programmes.


Thanks to Tarek Sayed Ahmed for bringing an important error in [1] to my attention. In the abstract of [1], the fourth displayed equation claims wrongly that "∃ has a winning strategy inH (At(A)) implies A ∈ Ra(CAù)". Unfortunately, this turns out to be false. This line should be replaced by the weaker claim: "∃ has a winning strategy in H (At(A)) implies there is C ∈ RCAù such that At(RaC ) ∼= At(A)." This weaker claim is already proved in [1, theorem 39]. Two lines down, in the final displayed equation of the abstract, the line "RaRCAã ⊆ K ⊆ ScRaCA5" should be replaced by "ScRaRCAã ⊆ K ⊆ ScRaCA5." Whether RaRCAù is elementary or not is open. These changes in the abstract require slight changes to theorem 39 and definition 40 and a more substantial change to theorem 45. Theorem 39 should be slightly strengthened as follows. "Let ã ≥ 5, let α be a countable relation algebra atom structure. If ∃ has a winning strategy in H (α) then there is C ∈ RCAã such that Ra(C ) is atomic and AtRa(C ) ∼= α. The proof already shows that C ∈ RCAù and we may extend the result to ordinals ã > ù by redefining Uα to be {f ∈ nodes(Na) : {i < ã : f(i) 6= g(i)} is finite}. In [1, definition 40], the final line "Let A be the complex algebra over α (so the domain consists of arbitrary sets of atoms)." should be replaced by "Let A be the term algebra of α—the countable subalgebra of the complex algebra ofα, generated by α." Theorem 45 is wrong. The correct statement should be "Let ã ≥ ù and let K be any class of relation algebras such that ScRaCAã ⊆ K ⊆ ScRaCA5. Then K is not closed under elementary subalgebras hence K is not an elementary class." The proof of this revised theorem can be simplified and completed without the use of the hypernetwork game H . Here, however, we aim to minimise the size of this errata. Accordingly, the corrected proof to theorem 45 is: "Let A be the rainbow algebra of definition 40 and let A A be the countable elementary extension given by lemma 44. Since ∃ has a winning strategy in H (A), by theorem 39 there is C ∈ RCAã such that AtRa(C ) ∼= At(A). Let C ′ ⊇ C be the McNeille completion of C , this is a complete cylindric algebra and AtRa(C ) = AtRa(C ). Then A ⊆c Cm(At(A )) = Ra(C ), by lemma 15, soA ∈ ScRCAã . But A 6∈ K , by lemma 41."


Fault diagnosis is of critical significance to intelligent manufacturing, and data-driven methods have been successfully explored in fault diagnosis. However, in actual industry scenarios, the collected signals are not only contaminated by strong background noise caused by equipment aging, human interference, and environmental disturbances but also exhibit complicated nonstationary characteristics. Therefore, a bidirectional shrinkage gated recurrent unit network with a multiscale attention mechanism (BiSGRU-MAM) is proposed for multisensor fault diagnosis in this article. In particular, the bidirectional shrinkage gated recurrent unit (GRU) that combines GRU and soft thresholding denoising strategy is designed to adaptively filter out the noise-related feature information. Besides, a multiscale feature learning strategy that consists of multiscale dilated convolution and multiscale attention mechanism is established to learn discriminative multiscale features from nonstationary mechanical signals. The proposed BiSGRU-MAM is evaluated through extensive experiments on multisensor datasets. Compared with some data-driven fault classification methods, the BiSGRU-MAM achieves significantly better diagnostic accuracies with 99.85%, 99.79%, 99.84%, and 99.78% in the four subdatasets, respectively. In addition, under noisy and complex working conditions, the experimental results validated that the BiSGRU-MAM has excellent antinoise performance and multiscale feature learning ability.


This article is the study of the professional competence of employees required in the wind energy industry in Taiwan. This will combine a number of research methods, including literature review, Delphi method, IPA analysis to explore the professional capacity of wind power generation projects and connotation of the wind energy industry needs. This paper analyzes the results used as indicators to construct the wind power industry professional, and will be used as the design of the wind power industry practitioners professional competence course. The importance of part of the questionnaire using Likert five-point evaluation index scale [11], divided into very unimportant, unimportant, important, very important, very important to the five levels. The performance of part of the questionnaire, divided into strongly disagree, disagree, agree, agree very much, very much agree with five levels. In this study, the questionnaire survey sent to a written questionnaire of 30 valid questionnaires were collected 27, the effective response rate of 90%. The 39 professional competence items, five items on the C quadrant (the importance of less than 4.0), the remaining 34 (87%) are on the C quadrant (the importance of greater than 4.0). Which is located five professional capacity (13%) in the C quadrant items are green beliefs, it means that domestic subject to government to actively promote the concept of green sustainable.


Aiming at the functional hierarchy of the complex electronic equipments,a new model was presented based on the multi-signal model and dependency matrix,which could design the model of fault diagnosis efficiently.Through a machine test,high fault detection rate and fault isolation rate can be obtained by this method.The method is proved to be simple and efficient and suitable for the fault diagnosis of complex electronic equipments.


6541 Background: Oral anticancer drug (OACD) prescriptions require coordination between clinicians, payers, specialty pharmacies, and financial assistance (FA) groups, which may delay patient receipt of the drug. Factors associated with delay in receipt of OACDs are unknown. Methods: We prospectively collected data on all new OACD prescriptions (RXs) from the medical oncology practice at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center from 1/1/2018 to 12/1/2018. We collected patient demographic, insurance and clinical information; date of prescription; date of drug delivery; and staff interactions with payers and FA groups. Federal Drug Association (FDA) labels and Micromedex were reviewed for initial drug approval dates, approved indications and average wholesale price. We used multivariable linear and logistic regression to determine factors associated with number of days from prescription to receipt of OACD. Results: During the study period 510 OACD RXs were evaluated. Of these, 84 (16%) were never filled. The most common OACDs were capecitabine (90, 18%), abiraterone (45, 9%), palbociclib (35, 7%) and osimertinib (28, 6%). Of 426 filled RXs, the median time from prescription to receipt was 8 days (IQR 5-13), with 193 RXs (46%) received in ≤7 days, 145 (34%) in 8-14 days and 65 (15%) in 14-28 days, and 23 (5%) at > 28 days. Linear regression showed time to receipt of OACD (log transformed) was associated with having commercial primary insurance (p = 0.02), pursing FA (p = < 0.001), RX of a drug approved by the FDA < 2 years earlier (p = 0.008), drugs without an approved indication for the primary tumor (p = 0.03) and estimated drug cost (p = 0.002). The other included covariates, patient age and prior authorization, were not associated with time to receipt. Logistic regression comparing receipt at ≤14 versus > 14 days found association with FA (OR 3.17; 95%CI 1.78-5.65), FDA approval within 2 years (OR 3.52; 95%CI 1.31-9.45) and off-label use (OR 2.30; 95%CI 1.18-4.50). Conclusions: Over 20% of new OACDs were received 14 days or longer from the date of RX. Financial and insurance related factors; and more expensive and recently approved drugs were associated with longer delays in receipt of therapy. Policy changes to improve the timeliness of OACD access are needed.


The breakwaters protecting Port of Haina in the Dominican Republic have been repeatedly damaged by hurricane storm waves. Attempt to repair the destroyed portions have been largely unsuccessful. A discrete spectrum model developed by Dr. D. T. Resio was used to estimate waves from recorded hurricanes and was followed by extensive mathematical and physical model tests. The preferred solution involves reorientation of the breakwater head, placement of 80 and 26 metric ton concrete cubes on the head and exposed sections, and rehabilitation of the breakwaters by reuse of displaced five-, ten-, and fifteen-ton concrete blocks.


Purpose To determine if switching from one brand of the α1-adrenoceptor antagonist naftopidil (Avishot™) to another brand (Flivas™) under the same conditions causes the same changes in lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and quality of life (QOL) as the perceived placebo effect, and if ambient temperature as a nonspecific factor is related to those changes in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients. Patients and methods A retrospective study was carried out on 217 BPH patients who had received Avishot™ for more than 6 months and then were switched to Flivas™ at the same dose and timing. The two drugs contain the same principal ingredient and display the same pharmacokinetic properties. The International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), QOL score, and average monthly ambient temperature at the patients' residence area from the Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System in Japan were used for the evaluation. Results A significant change in urinary storage symptoms (P = 0.006), and especially in nighttime frequency (P< 0.001), was observed by switching drugs, suggesting the perceived placebo effect. There was significant improvement of daytime frequency (P< 0.05), nighttime frequency (P< 0.001), storage symptoms (P< 0.001), and total IPSS (P< 0.05) when the magnitude of ambient temperature change from before and 3 months after switching drugs was higher than 10°C, while no significant improvement was noted in any of the parameters examined when the same was lower than 10°C. Conclusion The present study showed the nonspecific effect of magnitude of ambient temperature change was involved in the perceived placebo effect on LUTS, especially on storage symptoms, by switching drugs. The nonspecific effect on LUTS with BPH needs to be considered when evaluating subjective treatment efficacy of drugs for LUTS with BPH in routine clinical practice. The present study supports the lifestyle advice "avoid exposing the lower body to cold temperature" or "keep warm when it is cold" for LUTS with BPH.