The roles of cytosolic O-acetylserine-(thiol)-lyase A (OASTLA), chloroplast-localized OASTLB and mitochondrion OASTLC in plant selenate resistance were studied in Arabidopsis. Impairment in OASTLA and OASTLB resulted in reduced biomass, chlorophyll and soluble protein levels compared with selenate treated impaired OASTLC and Wild-Type plants. The general lower total selenium (Se), protein-Se, organic-sulfur and protein-sulfur (S) in oastlA and oastlB levels compared to Wild-Type and oastlC leaves indicate that Se accumulation levels are not the main cause for the stress symptoms in these mutants. Notably, the application of selenate positively induced the S-starvation transcript markers: low-sulfur-induced1 (LSU1), LSU2 and ChaC like protein. Additionally, the activity of S-starvation enzymes markers, the adenosine-5'-phosphosulfate reductase and the OASTLs was increased followed by increased sulfite reductase and sulfite oxidase activities, as well as increased sulfite and sulfide levels. Taken together, the results indicate a futile anabolic S-starvation response that resulted in lower glutathione and increased oxidative stress symptoms in leaves of oastlA and oastlB mutants. Employing in-gel assays of L-cysteine and L-seleno-cysteine desulfhydrase activities revealed that two of the three OASTLs activity bands in each of the oastls single mutants were enhanced in response to selenate, whereas the impaired proteins exhibited a missing activity band in stressed and unstressed plants. The absence of differently migrated activity band in each of the three oastls indicates that these OASTLs are major components in Arabidopsis desulfhydrase activity, degrading not only L-cysteine but also L-Seleno-cysteine.


Background Some chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps patients undergo revision surgery at some point following initial functional endoscopic sinus surgery. This review aimed to identify the predictive factors for recurrence of nasal polyps requiring oral corticosteroids or revision surgery in chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps following functional endoscopic sinus surgery. Method A retrospective analysis of 221 patients who underwent functional endoscopic sinus surgery for chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps in a tertiary rhinology centre, between January 2015 and December 2018, was undertaken. Results Forty-four (21.6 per cent) patients underwent medical polypectomy, 19 (9 per cent) underwent revision surgery and 51 (24.3 per cent) underwent combined polypectomy during the mean follow-up time of 5.3 years. Patients aged less than 55 years of age, with a history of previous functional endoscopic sinus surgery, peripheral blood eosinophil counts of 300 cells/μl or higher, a Lund–Mackay score of more than 17 and concomitant aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease had significantly increased odds for medical polypectomy, revision surgery and combined polypectomy. Conclusion Knowing these predictive factors, clinicians can better identify patients with an increased likelihood of severe polyp recurrence and therefore arrange closer follow-up to optimise therapy.


In this paper, a robust invisible watermarking algorithm for satellite imagery using Curvelet Transform is proposed. Haralick Co-occurrence texture features [1] are used to identify the area for watermarking in the host image. Host image is tiled into smaller non-overlapping blocks. Based on the Haralick texture feature chosen, blocks with high value of chosen texture feature were selected for embedding. Thus, multiple watermarks are embedded in any given image. There are some unstable Curvelet coefficients so a little change of the image will result in a big change of these coefficients. These unstable factors can influence the extracting of watermark. Hence selection of position of embedding in the transformed domain plays a very important role in robustness of the embedding process. This algorithm encourages use of edges and curves for embedding watermarks. The experimental results show that watermark using proposed algorithm is robust against common attacks like Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Tint adjustments, Low pass Filtering, JPEG Compression attack, Gaussian Noise attack and Laplacian Filtering, Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Image Cropping, Geometric Attacks like scaling and Rotation. Use of SURF features [2] too ensures robustness to geometric attacks. The effect of watermarking on the classification accuracy is also studied.


Mental quality and its education receive great attention among Chinese psychologists in 1980s.College students' mental quality along with its education has already become one of hot topics in the pedagogical and psychological research,which accumulates the abundant research achievements.This paper,based on researches in literature on mental quality of college students across the time span of 20 years in China,reviewed the research methods and the relevant research contents such as its concept,structure,state of development,and its educational training.The paper also contemplated the problems existing in the current studies,and then forecasted the prospective tendency of the future study.


Based on the proposed mechanism, the electronic effects of various ligands on the stereoselectivity and reaction rate of the rhodium(I)-catalyzed asymmetric Pauson-Khand-type reaction were examined. We demonstrated that both the reaction rate and the enantioselectivity are significantly dependent on the electron density of the ligands; when ligands bearing deshielded phosphine were utilized, the reaction rate was slower, but the products were obtained with improved enantioselectivity.


It is generally believed that firms in emerging markets rely on shorter-term instruments than firms in advanced economies. In recent years, firms in emerging market economies have substantially increased the amount of debt raised in global bond and syndicated loan markets, triggering concerns about their exposure to rollover risks. However, new evidence examined in this policy brief shows that emerging market firms have been using these markets to borrow long term, possibly diminishing the risks associated with higher debt levels and foreign currency financing. Challenging the conventional wisdom, large firms from emerging markets have issued bonds and syndicated loans at maturities similar to those issued by firms from advanced economies. These findings have implications for understanding the sources of short-termism in emerging markets, the actual risks emerging economies face from rising levels of corporate borrowing, and the policy measures that may help firms that cannot borrow long term.


The main goal of this thesis is to explore how the encounters between public professionals and citizens affect the quality of participatory democracy. Participatory democracy was introduced as a radical alternative to representative democracy, but has often not lived up to its promises. Among the great variety of factors that have been found to matter, questions have arisen about the added value of public encounters: are problems and failures of participation because of or despite public professionals and citizens coming together? Despite a growing body of research on this subject, public encounters have so far not been adequately understood on their own terms. Building on recent contributions to the communicative turn in participatory democracy, this thesis develops a relational, situated, performative approach to analyze the communicative "in-between" of public professionals and citizens. In order to examine their communicative practices, a narrative analysis has been conducted of the stories public professionals and citizens tell about their daily experiences. Through a grounded theory process of analyzing 59 intensive interviews conducted in Glasgow, Amsterdam, and Bologna, the research formulated a theory of communicative capacity.

The research shows that when public professionals and citizens meet, they develop and sustain dominant patterns of communication that limit their ability to solve local problems. Each case was characterized by a distinct communicative pattern, because local actors focused more on the substantive issues at hand rather than on the way they communicated about these. This was difficult to change because three inherent processes of participatory practice were drawing public professionals and citizens into dominant communicative patterns. Therefore, the thesis argues that the quality of participatory democracy depends on the communicative capacity of public professionals and citizens to recognize and break through these dominant patterns by constantly adapting the nature, tone, and conditions of their conversations to the situation at hand. The main contribution of this thesis is that it provides a more grounded and rounded understanding of the nature and importance of the communicative "in-between" (interaction or encounter) of public professionals and citizens for the quality of participatory democracy.


Four novel heteropolyoxonibate-based inorganic–organic hybrids {Cu(en)2}6{GeNb12VIV2O42}·20H2O (1), {Cu(en)2}3K2Na4{GeNb12VIV2O42}·23H2O (2), {Cu(en)2}6{SiNb12VIV2O42}·18H2O (3), and {Cu(en)2}3K2Na4{SiNb12VIV2O42}·19H2O (4) (en = ethanediamine), composed of polyoxoanions [TNb12O40]16– (T = Si and Ge) and [Cu(en)2]2+ building blocks, were successfully synthesized under hydrothermal conditions by reaction of K7HNb6O19·13H2O, Cu(Ac)2·3H2O, Na2VO3, Na2SiO3, or GeO2 and en molecules. Polyoxoanion [TNb12VIV2O42]12– (T = Si and Ge) can be best described as a α-Keggin core [TNb12O40] with two [VO] units capping on its two "opened windows". Compounds 1 and 3 are both composed of the bicapped heteropolyoxonibate core surrounded by a shell consisting of twelve [Cu(en)2]2+ groups, which represent a promising structural model toward core–shell nanostructures. Compounds 2 and 4 are also composed of a bicapped polyoxoanion [TNb12VIV2O42]12– (T = Si, Ge) decorated by three metal–organic fragments [Cu(en)2]2+, forming a t...


The problem of H-∞ control of neutral delay systems with Markovian jumping parameters and polytopic uncertainty was addressed. By using a descriptor model transformation of the system and Moon's inequality for bounding cross terms, a new delay-dependent sufficient condition for the existence of a memoryless H-∞ state feedback controller was derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities.


Alkaline phosphatase activity dissolved in sea and lake water was determined, and alkaline phosphatase was identified as dissolved chemical species of trace metals (zinc) in natural water using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).


We analyze the quantum-state purity of heralded single photons produced from frequency-anticorrelated biphotons. We find that the quantum-state purity in the time-frequency domain depends strongly on the response time uncertainty of the trigger-photon detector that heralds the generation of its paired photon. If the trigger response time is much shorter than the two-photon coherence time, the time-frequency quantum-state purity of heralded single photons approaches unity and the heralded single photon is in a nearly pure state. If the trigger response time is much longer than the two-photon coherence time, the heralded photon is then projected onto a mixed state. Making use of the time-frequency entanglement, heralded single photons with a well-defined temporal wave function or a frequency superposition state can be produced and engineered. This time-frequency entanglement allows for shaping heralded single photons through nonlocal spectral modulation.


This paper describes the design and implementation of a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) based PWM controlled isolated single-phase inverter that produces a symmetric AC output voltage of desired magnitude and frequency. Compared with the traditional analog approach, a 16-bit fixed point DSP controls a dc-ac inverter—reducing its size, increasing its efficiency and cutting total harmonic distortion in the presence of highly nonlinear loads. A new multi-loop Maximum Peak Power Tracking (MPPT) control system has been developed, consisting of a Flyback topology dc/dc converter, which is controlled by DSP. The resulting system is highly effective for low output power applications and can be applied to provide DC power supply for micro-inverters either for grid-connected or standalone system. The performance of the proposed PV MPPT control system is compared by implementing the multi loop control algorithm on 16/32-bit DSPs and tested on a 200W MOSFETbased inverter switching at 20 kHz. It is concluded that the proper choice of controller can drive out more output power from PV panel even from a simple control algorithm. Simulation and prototype results describe the performance of the proposed design prototype and in agreement with the predictions of theoretical analysis, 16 bit DSP TMS320LF2401A, 32 bit DSP TMS320F28027 and 32 bit DSP with floating point unit TMS320F28069 are used to compare the performance of the proposed design.


The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) uses auctions to allocate radio spectrum frequencies to wireless service providers. The innovation of the auction design is that it o¤ers many heterogeneous licenses simultaneously in one ascending auction. This paper develops an empirical model and procedure to estimate bidder valuations. Given that the complex nature of the auction does not admit formal modeling in a general setting, I do not explore a particular model of equilibrium bidding. Instead, I propose two revealed preference inequalities which should hold in any reasonable model of these auctions. The …rst inequality requires that a bidder never bids on a license at a bidding price above the expected marginal revenue of the license. The second inequality is that if a bidder bids on license A, but not on license B, the expected marginal surplus from winning license A at the bidding price is greater than that of license B. I employ an estimation strategy that generates a map from the observed bidding behavior to a set of distributions of bidder valuations consistent with these behavioral assumptions. A part of the strategy uses an estimator developed by Pakes, Porter, Ho and Ishii (2006). An advantage of this estimator is that it can accommodate a ‡exible speci…cation of unobserved heterogeneity. It allows bidder-license speci…c values to capture private information. I apply the empirical model to an auction held in 2006. Using the estimated distribution of bidder valuations, I estimate bidder markups in order to gauge the level of competition in this auction. The estimated bidder markups are large: the median for local bidders such as rural telephone companies is 26%, whereas it is 31% for global bidders such as nationwide carriers. This suggests that there were large distortionary e¤ects of informational rents in the auction. I am grateful to my advisor Patrick Bajari for his continuous support and guidance. I also wish to thank Amil Petrin, Kyoo Il Kim, Minjung Park, Tom Holmes and Bob Town, as well as participants of the Applied Micro seminar at the University of Minnesota for their helpful comments. Of course, all remaining errors are my own. Email: email@example.com


In the present paper, the experimental procedure, the details of sound and video recording set-up as well as the system for speech and gesture transciption and coding used in the Polish Cartoon Narration Corpus (PCNC) project are described. The audio-visual data come from a cartoon narration task performed by both children and adults. The recordings are transcribed orthographically and phonemically, and labelled for selected phenomena on a number of levels, including gesture, lexicon, prosody, and dialogue acts.


This paper develops the notion of cinema spectatorship as a travel experience. Drawing on well-known and lesser-known works on spectatorship theory and cinematic space, it argues that part of the pleasure of spectatorship is imagining one is inhabiting a virtual space, distinct from the real space of viewing. Cinematic space is thus fundamentally 'other' but it is a contained otherness that allows the spectator both the thrill of experiencing something distinct from one's norm and the comfort of protection from this difference. The dynamic of contained otherness is most akin to the travel experience of tourism. While these qualities are inherent in the medium of fictional moving images, film form also plays a role in accepting a touristic gaze or questioning it.


The traditional approach to public infrastructure delivery and management has been challenged in the past decades through different forms of private capital participation. Two well established platforms for private capital participation in the context of public infrastructure procurement are the Regulatory Asset Base (RAB) Model and the Project Finance Model (broadly termed as PPP - Public-Private Partnerships). Based on a literature review, this paper assesses the two vehicles in terms of efficiency in delivery and operation of major infrastructure. Overall the basic concern with regard to RAB is that the approach might lead to excessive capital expenditures, thus slowly increasing the base on which the return is being calculated. Conversely, in the case of the PPP, given the complexity of the projects and the long-period of contractual commitment and uncertainty, it is questionable whether competition could lead to efficient outcomes. Put differently, in the case of the PPP, the basic concern is the required returns, and not the base. Available evidence seems to suggest, that the concern relating to the PPP returns is of a much greater magnitude than the perceived capex bias in the case of the RAB model, given that the latter is not easily detectable. Contrarily to a PPP, RAB is also sufficiently flexible to better accommodate changes in the environment in policy over time, without defeating the economic purpose of the model. Lastly, PPPs are known for their superior performance in in terms of on time and on budget infrastructure delivery. It may be possible to import some of the incentives in infrastructure delivery from the PPPs to a RAB model, but it is not clear, whether the same performance could be achieved with simpler performance construction contract approaches.


We show that in time-reversal invariant systems, a pair of periodic orbits related by time-reversal symmetry have the same Maslov index. Previously this result had been implicitly assumed in the semiclassical derivation of the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble spectral form factor.


Abstract In the course of today's socio-political and economic development, along with the advent of the era of big data and the internet, various ideas have emerged and more ideological content and political ideas have continued to emerge. In order to cope with this situation, education reform is constantly innovating, among which the ideological education is particularly important. Various ideological education applications have appeared one after another in the Internet, which allows ideological education to see a new direction of development. The article develops a rigorous computational analysis of the combination of Civic Education and Big Data Internet, applied to the development of a new system. Using decision tree classification algorithm, ID3 algorithm, Bayesian classification algorithm, cohesive hierarchical clustering method for a large number of experimental data processing, the system was completed to build a framework for the combination of big data and Civic Education application. Through data analysis and comparison, it is found that the application of these big data algorithms in the field of Civic Education not only provides more detailed information on Civic Education reform, but also provides objective and comprehensive feedback on the dissemination and learning of Civic Education. In the relevant feedback information, the use of Internet applications for Civic Education reached 100%, Excel was 84%, and all the learning levels of the fixed-point test could reach over 60 points. The above data shows that people have also been able to improve their learning level in Civic Education to a great extent with the Internet technology.


Non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has been associated with multiple metabolic abnormalities. By applying a non‐targeted metabolomics approach, we aimed at investigating whether serum metabolite profile that associates with NAFLD would differ in its association with NAFLD‐related metabolic risk factors.


A prospective study was carried out to determine the clinical and radiological characteristics of thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), whose patients presented neurological or vascular symptoms in the upper extremity from the compression of the brachial plexus or subclavian vessels. Twenty-six patients with cervical disc disease (C-group), 36 patients with TOS (T-group), and 18 patients with cervical disc disease combined with TOS (CT-group) were compared on sex, age, weight, symptoms and radiological findings. The T-group had younger females with lean posture. In the radiographs of the T-group, cervical lateral X-Ps in the neutral position showed the inferior margin of the T1 vertebrae as the lowest level and kyphotic malalignment. The range of motion in the flexion and extension views was maintained and anterior-posterior views revealed the lower position of the clavicle. The total spinal lateral X-P in TOS patients demonstrated faulty posture and anterior deviation of the gravity line at the C5 level. The common evidence between the CT-group and the C-group suggested that the pathogenesis of the secondary TOS is caused by cervical disc diseases.


the solubility in of various precipitator ash samples, as a function of ash composition, ash both ABSTRACT: the solubility of recovery boiler precipitator ash in water is important in the design and operation of ash treatment systems used to control chloride (Cl) and potassium (K) accumulation in the kraft recovery cycle. We determined the solubility of mixtures of alkali salts that constitute precipitator ash and several precipitator ash samples, through laboratory experiments and theoretical simulation using a commercially available thermodynamic program. the solubility of precipitator ash in water at 85°C varies widely, from 400–550 g/l H 2 o, depending on ash composition. the composition of the liquid portion of an ash-water slurry changes significantly with an increase in ash concentration: the Cl concentration increases, the sulfate (So 4 ) concentration decreases, and the K and carbonate (Co 3 ) concentration remain the same. Between 30ºC–100ºC, temperature has little effect on the solubility of precipitator ash and on the composition of the liquid portion of the slurry. Application: Mills can improve control of chloride and potassium build-up in the recovery cycle by understand-ing the water solubility of recovery boiler precipitator ash under various conditions.


This working paper focuses on cooperation between Switzerland and Ukraine to support decentralisation, local government reforms, and a decentralised provision of services at the local level. Decentralisation has become a central priority for the Ukrainian government, which came to power after the fall of the Yanukovych regime in 2014, and is seen as a way not only of democratising the country but most importantly as a way of dealing with the conflict that started in eastern Ukraine the same year. The paper studies the political factors that have blocked the process of reform with a particular focus on the role of the two most eastern oblasts, the centre of the conflict, and the implementation of a decentralised service delivery model by Switzerland in several pilot communities in Ukraine. The paper suggests that Switzerland could pay more attention to the political factors that have obstructed decentralisation and local government reform, leverage better 'the drivers of change', and better address regional factors in order to more effectively promote the reform process at the national level. The paper finds that the model of a decentralised service delivery developed and implemented by Switzerland, involving greater civic participation from local communities and the improvement in the capacities of local governments, has been successful, and has a wider democratisation potential. The model's impact, however, has been limited as it was implemented only in several pilot communities, and Switzerland has not yet developed an approach to successfully scale up the model across the country and apply it to solving a wider number of social, political and economic issues. The findings of the paper are especially pertinent in view of the recent Swiss commitment to becoming more 'political' in development cooperation and to focusing more on the political side of democracy promotion.


The social utilitarianism and spiritual utilitarianism in the Song Dynasty caused a complicated and combined mode of court paintings. The figure painting stuck to the tradition of serving politics and ethics with strong life consciousness of social utilitarianism. Since the middle stage of the Northern Song the lyric aesthetic trend had become stronger and the style of literati painting had risen, which made the landscape painting and flower-and-bird painting focus on its lyric aesthetic function. At the same time they displayed the tendency of spiritual utilitarianism turning from the social utilitarianism.


Trend analysis of precipitation and drought will play a significant role in the future development and sustainable management of water resources. It is the main purpose of this paper to analyse meteorological droughts and trends. The variability of the standardized precipitation index (SPI) was investigated at 1, 3, 6, 9, 12 and 24 monthly intervals. The trends of 1, 3, 6, 9, 12 and 24 monthly SPI results were analysed by applying linear regression and the Mann–Kendall and Spearman's rho tests at the 5% significance level. The linear slopes of the trends were calculated with a technique proposed by Sen. Meteorological data from eight meteorological stations in the Aegean region of Turkey were used for the period 1960–2013.


This paper presents the improvements we plan to be introduce into the lab teaching of the subject "Programmable Logic Systems" in the Degree in Electronics and Automatics Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. The work includes the replacement of existing training systems by trainers specifically designed for scheduled practices, the reuse of replaced systems to develop remote labs and the creation of virtual instruments for analyzing the performance of the designs made by students.


The bulk density of compressible materials depends on the compressive load to which they are subjected. This results in bulk density variation within piles of such materials. However, it is difficult to measure bulk density in situ without disturbing the sample or changing the load on it. A laboratory method was developed to simulate the variation of density with depth of material. The method was used with compost, wood shavings, straw and peat and simulated material depths of up to 3.5 meters. The variation of bulk density with depth was shown to follow a power function relationship where the exponent provided an indication of the compressibility of a material. Effective density is proposed as a useful single descriptor of bulk density. Both effective density and material compressibility were shown to be influenced by the size of container used to obtain measurements. A medium sized container (400-mm diameter and 380-mm fill height) provided a good compromise between accuracy and practicality.


JMBE Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Samantha Elliott, welcomes new Editors to the journal and discusses the ongoing initiatives for 2015, including a new section, Editorial Board changes, and plans for a new themed issue.


Measurements are reported on the absorption of ultrasonic radiation in water solutions of Mg SO4. Measurements were made at 3 mc by an electrical detection method, and in the range 12–40 mc by the radiation pressure method. An attempt is made to correlate the data with the low frequency measurements of Leonard, and with the absorption theory presented by Liebermann. In particular, the results at the higher frequencies indicate that there is an additional absorption process not accounted for by the compressional relaxation in the Liebermann theory. The excess absorption varies directly with the square root of the concentration. The effect of temperature variation on the absorption is also reported.


: In the process of reform and development of modern physical education, personalized physical education has received extensive attention. Under the new historical conditions, the traditional "unchanging" physical education curriculum has been eliminated, and the idea of individualized physical education curriculum has also emerged. This is an inevitable requirement of quality education and an educational method of "teaching students according to their aptitude". Physical education teachers are the instructors of personalized physical education. Only on the basis of understanding the concept and characteristics of personalization can they successfully carry out personalized educational activities, truly achieve the teaching objectives of personalized education, and comprehensively improve the physical quality of students.


226 Abstract—This paper present the Sequential Coupled Thermal Structural Analysis to investigate the associated thermal stresses and deformations under simulated operational conditions close to the real situation on different materials. Analysis carried out by reference environmental testing conditions; in different ambient temperatures on different materials i.e. cast iron, structural steel.The finite element analysis software ANSYS Workbench 14.0 used to calculate the linear steady state temperature distribution under the thermal field & structural analysis. Thermal analysis calculates the temperature distributions and related thermal quantities in an exhaust manifold. Structural analysis takes inputs from thermal analysis to calculate deformation, stress and strain. FEM analysis is done by using tetrahedral element of first order and convergence test is performed for structural load. The purpose of this analysis is to ensure the appropriateness of material for the defined design from the view point of serviceability of the exhaust manifold. Selected details and results of the overall investigation are presented and discussed within the framework of this paper.


The purpose of this investigation was to study what students in in the first year of the social science program in high school think about the guidance they had access to during their time at prima ...


The objective of this study is to discover the factors, which are creating examination stress among B.B.A undergraduates of Eastern University. This study was fully focused on Primary data, which was collected through self-designed questionnaire with five-point liker scale. The sample was comprised of 100 B.B.A Undergraduates from various Year of study spread across the Eastern University, Sri Lanka. The collected data has been examined and evaluated through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 20.0. Through this survey, researcher concluded, "there is a high-level examination stress exist among B.B.A students". Female students are having high stress than male students. Among the factors, physical cognition has high contribution to examination stress, and depression is common consequence among most of the undergraduates who has examination stress than others. Keyword— Examination Stress.


Smoking already kills about two million people a year in developed countries, half in middle age (35-69) and half in old age.1, 2 This number is still increasing as the death rate among women increases and populations grow larger and older (fig 1). Already smoking accounts for one sixth of the 11 million adult deaths each year in these populations. There are 1.2 billion people living in developed countries. If one sixth of their deaths continue to be caused by tobacco about 200 million of the adults and children now living in developed countries will eventually be killed by tobacco, and about 100 million of these will die while still in middle age.2

FIG 1
Annual number of deaths attributed to tobacco in developed countries. If current smoking patterns continue, when the children of today reach middle age the annual number of deaths will have increased from 2 million to about 3 million, but in less developed countries the increase will be far larger, from about 1 million to about 7 million in around 2025, leading to a world total of about 10 million deaths a year from tobacco1, 2

In developing countries there has recently been a large increase in the number of young men smoking. People in China, for example, now smoke about 30% of the world's cigarettes. This will have catastrophic effects next century as most other causes of death are likely to continue to decrease and the effects of tobacco to increase. If current smoking patterns persist - that is, if the smoking uptake rate among young adults continues to be substantial and the rate of stopping smoking at older ages continues to be low - by the time the children of today reach middle age smoking will be one of the largest …


Keywords: neurone ; Non-Linear Modelling ; Neural Network Reference LANOS-ARTICLE-1998-004View record in Web of Science Record created on 2004-12-03, modified on 2017-05-12


INTRODUCTION
Positive effects have been reported following a behavioural sleep medicine (BSM) intervention targeting physical activity and eating behaviour in addition to continuous positive airway preassure (CPAP) treatment in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). Long-term follow-up remains to be explored.

AIM
To examine the long-term effects of a tailored BSM intervention addressing physical activity and eating behaviour in addition to CPAP treatment in patients with moderate to severe OSA combined with overweight and physical inactivity. Further, the aim was to identify variables at baseline, associated with treatment success regarding OSA severity.

METHODS
Sixty participants (BMI 34.5 +5.0, AHI 43.7 +21.2) completed the randomised controlled trial with a follow-up at 18 months. The participants were randomised to either control group treated with CPAP or an experimental group treated with CPAP and a BSM intervention targeting physical activity and eating behaviour changes. OSA was categorised as mild (AHI 5-<14.9), moderate (AHI 15-<29.9) or severe (AHI>30).

RESULTS
Being in the experimental group was associated with a larger improvement (B=-9.353 p=0.029) in AHI at the 18-month follow-up compared with being in the control group when adjusting for baseline AHI and BMI. Improvement in OSA category occurred more frequently in the experimental group (n=11;36.7%) participants compared with (n=2;6.7%) the control group. Deterioration in OSA category was found in 1 (3.3%) participant in the experimental group and 3 (10%) in the control group.

CONCLUSION
The importance of a BSM intervention as an adjunct treatment in patients with OSA is emphasised due to its long-term benefits.


A strapdown seeker with limited field-of-view (FOV) can simplify and decrease cost of the guidance system for a munition. However, the inherent defect of the strapdown seeker is that it could not provide the necessary line-of-sight (LOS) angular information for typical guidance application. This paper proposed an optimal look-angle guidance law (OLAGL) which directly utilized seeker angle information and satisfies the constraints of FOV and terminal impact angle. The coefficient determination, effects of switching threshold, and gains for the guidance law are analyzed and detailed. The simulation results compared with typical trajectory shaping guidance for a ground target show that the presented guidance law can satisfy the impact angle constraint under the limitation of FOV and provide a well engineering reference.


This article presents the analysis of the current state of digitalization in the public health field, more precisely in school medicine in Bucharest, the impact and consequences for the daily activity of medical staff on one hand and to the decisions maker on the other hand and also the steps undertaken to optimize the process by digitalizing the medical assistance in public schools in Bucharest. This analysis was the starting point for an active involvement in the digitization of school medicine practices and implicitly their alignment with European standards. The purpose of this article is to highlight a macro-level management perspective in the digital era. Digital evolution is absolutely necessary and natural in adapting the system to current requirements, the need to have access to important health data at all times being for the benefit of all stakeholders. Another important factor that led to the digitalization of the school medicine network was the crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which taught us to adapt and move from lost hours for a medical consultation and paper prescriptions to online consultations. Analyzing the imposed situation, we chose to take a major step towards progress, capitalizing on the time of medical staff and patients and the time at management level to properly adapt and implement medium and long term decisions.


More than 80% of the workers in India are employed in the private sector or informal sector. Informal sector workers who are not covered under pension plans may have to consider voluntary pension schemes earnestly to keep them out from any major financial distress in their old ages. Understanding early enrollment trends to dedicated pension and retirement products will help policy makers to take corrective actions wherever necessary. The purpose of this article is to see if there is any disparity in pension saving behavior based on various demographic parameters. The study discovered that demographic factors such as gender, age, annual income, education level, and occupation all have an impact on pension investment. Policy makers can compare this with some established benchmarks that in turn will help them to take some informed decision and can change the policies to encourage the enrollments.


A classification of bamboo fibers is discussed, along with the appropriate use of relevant terminology and standardized notions. The paper presents the results of a study conducted on chemical bamboo-based fibers using microscopy (bright-field and polarized light microscopy), infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and microchemical analysis. The findings show that manufactured fibers derived from bamboo using the viscose processing method are identified as viscose fibers. The term «bamboo fibers» is only applicable to natural plant fibers extracted from bamboo culm


Characterization of proteins of similar structures is important to understanding the biological function of the proteins and the processes with which they are involved. Cytochrome c variants typically have similar sequences, and have similar conformations in solution with almost identical absorption spectra and redox potentials. The authors chose cytochrome c`s from bovine, tuna, rabbit and horse as a model system in studying large biomolecules using MS{sup n} of multiply charged ions generated from electrospray ionization (ESI).


ABSTRACT This essay is concerned with the ways in which the social, political and economic aftermath of the 2007–2008 global financial crisis has shaped small-scale, independent film- and video-making in Spain, specifically by LGBTQ artists. Exploring two autonomous author–producer–agencies – Emociones Produce/WeShoot Agencia Visual/Juanma Carrillo and Volando Vengo-Moviethinking/Rut Suso – it considers their strategies in relation to processes of austerity and attrition, circa 2012 to 2016. The main concern is with alterations in forms of expression in a directly visual sense but also in forms of professional survival; detailed analysis of these aspects is undertaken in order to nuance understandings of the cultural effects of crisis and post-crisis in Spain. The essay covers both niche queer video and the imagery of social and commercial entrepreneurialism. Where Emociones Produce/Carrillo's work is marked by the image of the vulnerable body and a mood of disruption, the varied image work of Volando Vengo-Moviethinking/Suso places commercial and social commitments in a tensive relationship with artistic demands in a bricolage of social-entrepreneurial, creative and pragmatic effects. Attending to crossovers in both case studies between art making, filmmaking and commissioned publicity helps add detail to the map of the processes of crisis and post-crisis in Spain in recent years.


Prognostic tools are an essential component of the clinical management of patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Although tumour stage and grade can provide important information, they fail to consider patient‐ and tumour‐specific biology. In this study, we set out to find a novel molecular marker of RCC by using hepatocyte nuclear factor 4A (HNF4A), a transcription factor implicated in RCC progression and malignancy, as a blueprint. Through transcriptomic analyses, we show that the nuclear factor I A (NFIA)‐driven transcription network is active in primary RCC and that higher levels of NFIA confer a survival benefit. We validate our findings using immunohistochemical staining and analysis of a 363‐patient tissue microarray (TMA), showing for the first time that NFIA can independently predict poor cancer‐specific survival in clear cell RCC (ccRCC) patients (hazard ratio = 0.46, 95% CI = 0.24–0.85, p value = 0.014). Furthermore, we confirm the association of HNF4A with higher grades and stages in ccRCC in our TMA cohort. We present novel data that show HNF4A protein expression does not confer favourable prognosis in papillary RCC, confirming our survival analysis with publicly available HNF4A RNA expression data. Further work is required to elucidate the functional role of NFIA in RCC as well as the testing of these markers on patient material from diverse multi‐centre cohorts, to establish their value for the prognostication of RCC.


— Statement of problem: The formation of a marginal gap between the implant and abutment might lead to increased loss of marginal bone due to penetration of bacteria into the implant-abutment interface. As of yet, there are no endosseous dental implant systems that can provide a complete seal at the implant-abutment interface and so this is still an important clinical issue. The testing of different implant abutment connections which may be a factor affecting microleakage is necessary for the successful outcome of dental implant prosthesis. Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare microbial leakage at the implant-abutment interface in different implant-abutment connection designs. Material and Method: Implants and abutments with conical hex (n1=10) and morse taper (n2=10) implant abutment connection designs were procured for the study. Specimens of each group were contaminated with tryptic soy broth cultivated with E. coli bacteria and incubated for 5 days at 37°C. After incubation a swab was taken from the internal surface of the implant and transferred onto culture plates of blood agar nutrient media and incubated for 48 hours. The growth and viability of the E. coli determined the microleakage. Statistical analysis was done by unpaired t-test. The level of significance was set at p≤0.05. Results: Microleakage was seen in all the specimens. Conical hex IAI exhibited less microleakage. There was significant difference between conical hex and morse taper connection designs. Conclusion: Within the limitation of the current study it can be concluded that conical hex connection design implants showed reduced microleakage than morse taper connection design


Introduction: Medication errors reduce quality of life, immune system function, and cause significant mortality in children with HIV/AIDS. The present study was conducted with the aim of identifying and explaining the factors affecting the management of medication errors in children infected with HIV/AIDS virus in Iran's health system.
Methods: The current study was a descriptive one conducted in 2020-2021. At first, by reviewing the research literature and interviewing experts in the field of treating children with HIV/AIDS virus, the main factors affecting the occurrence of medication errors in children with HIV/AIDS virus were extracted and using them, the research questionnaire was designed. Data were collected from 400 experts in the field of treating children with HIV/AIDS virus and analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and through SPSS version 16 and Lisrel software.
Results: Four factors included organizational factors (p < 0.001), individual factors (p < 0.001), educational factors (p < 0.001) and communication factors (p < 0.001), were identified as effective factors in the management of medication errors in children with HIV/AIDS virus. Factors including Individual, communication, organizational and educational with respective factor loadings of 0.84, 0.81, 0.79 and 0.77 had an effect on the management of medication errors in HIV positive children.
Conclusion: For successful management of medication errors in children infected with HIV/AIDS, it is advisable to prioritize individual and communication factors (i.e., behavior-based disease counseling specialists) while attending to all four of the relevant factors.


Mate preferences is an uncharted area in India with few studies (such as Prakash & Singh, 2014) laying rudimentary foundations about characteristics that individuals prefer in potential partners. The impact of moderator variables such as desire for commitment in relationships & mate value have been predominantly studied in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich & Democratic) cultures alone. This paper aimed to 1) explore underlying dimensions of mate preferences within an Indian sample 2) identify gender differences in mate preferences, 3) identify the impact of desire for commitment on mate preferences and 4) study the moderating effects of mate value and desire for commitment on mate preferences. From responses of 200 Indian participants from Bangalore urban, 5 underlying dimensions (Physical Attractiveness & Compatibility, Dependability & Emotional Warmth, Social Status & Resources, Sociability, Ambitiousness) were identified through exploratory factor analysis. Females were found to prefer Social Status & Resources and Ambitiousness characteristics more than men. While desire for commitment alone had no impact on mate preferences, along with mate value as a moderator it was found to significantly affect preferences. The paper further discusses implications of findings in a larger cultural context and proposes research to untangle the complex moderating effect of mate value on mate preferences.


Obesity develops from an imbalance of energy homeostasis and is associated with the development of metabolic disorders including insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Identification of the underlying molecular mechanisms and effective therapeutic approaches are highly needed. Lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1), a FAD-dependent amine oxidase, is implicated in a wide variety of biological processes including tumorigenesis, stem cell fate decisions, and embryonic development. Recent studies suggested a vital role of LSD1 in regulating adaptive thermogenesis, mitochondrial biogenesis, glucose and lipid metabolism. More recently, LSD1 activity was found to be regulated by nutrients, energy status, and hormonal signals, suggesting that it may act as a novel sensor for nutritional regulation of metabolic health. Here, we firstly discuss the effects of LSD1 on physiological phenotypes, including body weight, fat mass, body temperature and glucose homeostasis. We also summarized recent understanding of the physiological roles and underlying mechanisms of LSD1 in controlling metabolic functions of adipose and other tissues. Hopefully, a better understanding of the roles of LSD1 in metabolic regulation may provide new perspectives for the nutritional prevention and treatment of obesity.


The coupling between the lower and upper atmosphere during severe weather and thunderstorms is investigated from the ionospheric Doppler frequency fluctuations recorded using a three dimensional CW Doppler sounder array. Two events typical of the severe thunderstorms that occurred on May 26, 1973 and March 20, 1974, are chosen for our investigation. The CW Doppler records show a wave-like disturbance with a periodicity of 3 to 5 minutes that persisted for 3 to 4 hours. A possible explanation, based on a theoretical model is presented. There is good agreement between the experimental observations and the model.


The paper contributes by developing computational and reviewing theoretical methods to propagate electromagnetic fields in free space, while taking account of the fact that the sources are typically noisy and statistically characterized. The main focus is to develop propagators for correlation functions, which characterize the average properties of the wave field when compared at two nearby points. The methods used will involve Green function techniques, numerical approaches to wave propagation. The theoretical model involves analysing wave propagation in phase space by manipulating the relationship between the field–field correlation function and the Wigner distribution function in a purely statistical manner.


Most structures, including airframes, are designed using quasi-static criteria. With this approach, composites are superior to metals, as they are stronger and have a smaller mass density. This article addresses a question of the remaining margins of safety when the loads are outside the design envelope, be they in magnitude or in character. The answers are provided first for some simple panels, and then for a selected airliner wing. In each case, the items compared are designed using the same design load. A related problem of dynamic buckling is addressed in detail and it is explained how it may lead to great destructive power of slender structural elements. The difference in performance between metals and composites, in that regard, is addressed. A few numerical examples and simulation results are provided.


This report describes the results of groundwater and soil gas sampling conducted at the Distler Brickyard Site, Hardin County, Kentucky, June-August, 2000. The purpose of the sampling activities was to address remaining data gaps regarding the feasibility of monitored natural attenuation (MNA) for remediation of chloroethene/ane contamination. Specifically, data gaps fall into four categories: 1) effect of seasonal recharge on contaminant concentrations, 2) geochemical conditions in the Fine Grained Alluvium (FGA), 3) conditions along the flowpath between Wells GW-11 and MW-3, and 4) the extent of aerobic degradation in the Coarse Grained Alluvium (CGA). A data collection strategy composed of both groundwater sampling and passive soil vapor sampling devices (Gore-Sorbers?) was used. The Gore-Sorber? technology was used to collect data from the FGA, which because of its low hydraulic conductivity and variable saturation makes collection of groundwater samples problematic. Gore-Sorbers were deployed in 15 wells, most of them being in the FGA, and groundwater samples were collected in 17 wells, which were mostly in the CGA. Both sampling methods were utilized in a subset of wells (7) in order to determine the general comparability of results obtained from each method. Results indicate that water levels in both the FGA andmore » CGA were higher in June-August 2000 than in October 1999, likely due to increased infiltration of precipitation through the FGA during the wetter months. Redox conditions in the FGA and downgradient CGA were iron-reducing, less reducing than in October-1999. In general, concentrations of chloroethenes/anes were higher in June-August 2000 than October 1999. Trichloroethene (TCE) was present at concentrations as high as 65 µg/L in the FGA and 19 µg/L in the CGA. This is substantially higher than the maximum concentration in October 1999 of 11 µg/L. The following conclusions were drawn from these data collection activities: 1) two potential contaminant source areas remain at the site, 2) redox conditions are less reducing than October 1999, 3) anaerobic reductive dechlorination (ARD) continues to take place in the FGA, and 4) seasonal fluctuations in recharge affect water levels, redox conditions, contaminant concentrations, and ARD reactions. Possible final remedial response actions include 1) monitored natural attenuation, 2) monitored natural attenuation with physical source removal, or 3) monitored natural attenuation with source removal via enhanced ARD. All of these remedies will require the collection of additional data in three areas: 1) the nature and extent of the GW-3/UDBW-11 source area and the flux rate and fate of contaminants from it, 2) the magnitude and timing of recharge fluctuations, and 3) the local hydraulic gradient and groundwater flow directions. Each remedy may also have specific additional data collection requirements. This document will serve as the basis for the selection of the appropriate remedy by the state and federal regulators.« less


Objective: Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) is considered the standard in the surgical therapy of lower urinary tract symptoms related to benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH). However, there is no consensus on the timing of catheter removal. In this study, we aimed to compare the long-term effects of early and delayed removal of urethral catheters who underwent TURP.
Methods: We prospectively analyzed a total of 91 patients who underwent TURP. Patients were randomized into two groups; the early (postop 1st-2nd days) and delayed (7th day) removal of the urethral catheter. After the surgery in 1, 3, and 6th months, we evaluated all patients regarding treatment success. In addition, international prostate symptom score (IPSS), quality of life (QoL), maximum flow rate, postvoid residual urine volume, and morbidities (hematuria, infection, urethral stricture, irritative symptoms, need for re-operation) were assessed at all visits.
Results: After TURP, there was no statistical difference in urodynamic parameters, complications, IPSS, and QoL in both groups. Only in the 3rd-month, the maximum flow rate was higher in favor of the early group. Despite similar results in both groups, strictures occurred earlier in the early group than delayed group (respectively 1 and 3 months).
Conclusion: These results suggest that there are no differences in efficacy and complications in groups of early or delayed urethral catheter removal after TURP. The results of long-term studies with large series should be awaited to reach a more definite conclusion. We have tried to shed light on a topic without consensus on the time of urethral catheterization after TURP.


The paper discusses the principle of the OFDM mobile communication system. Based on the principle, we deduced the OFDM technique in modulator and established the simple model of modulator and demodulator in OFDM mobile communication. In this paper, the realization of modulator and demodulator has been discussed in detail. The simulation result of OFDM communication system modulator and demodulator has been analyzed. Lastly, the paper presents a brief introduction of the design about the realization in hardware.


hydrogen lines and the presence of the principal arc lines of iron as faint absorption lines point to a normal classification of about A5. It is a singular coincidence that two stars, both of peculiar but very similar spectra, should be characterized by such large velocities. The single spectrogram of Lalande 5761 gives a value of — I44, while four spectrograms of Lalande 28607 give — i7o. The Spectra of Some Individual Stars in the Hercules Cluster.—Two photographs were recently obtained by Mr. Pease of the spectrum of the Hercules cluster (Messier 13), using a small slit spectrograph at the primary focus of the 60-inch reflector. The exposures were 21 and 22 hours respectively, and the slit width was twice as great for the second exposure as for the first. The spectrograph is mounted in the opening of the double slide plate-holder regularly used for direct photography, so that very accurate guiding is possible. As a result the spectra of individual stars appear on the photographs. Of these it has been possible to classify six upon the first photograph and thirteen upon the second, or a total of nineteen separate stars, since the slit was set at two different positions for the two exposures. Using as a unit five divisions of the Harvard scale, the stars are classified as follows :— A0 2 A5 5 ' F0 2 F5 8 G0 2 Perhaps the two most important features of these results are : First, the absence of any stars of very late types of spectrum ; second, the fairly regular succession of the spectra, agreeing with what is generally considered the order of stellar development. It is also clear that conclusions as to the spectral types of the stars in clusters must be based upon photographs showing the individual stars. W. S. Adams. Mount Wilson Solar Observatory.


ABSTRACT The split capital investment trust crisis brought into focus the need for more reliable risk assessment techniques for shares in the sector. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of traditional pricing and risk description measures for split capital investment trusts (e.g. gross redemption yield, cover, hurdle rates) and ways of making these more useful. We then examine the application of traditional option pricing techniques and discuss the problems encountered in this approach. Finally, we propose the use of stochastic modelling to deal more effectively with the complexities involved in both pricing shares and understanding their risks.


The political thought of Eugene Pelletan illustrates the richness of French republican ideology during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Although his writings were generally dismissed as expressions of utopianism, his works had little to do with naive optimism, but rather offered a sophisticated republican doctrine which operated at different levels of discourse simultaneously. Generally Pelletan's political ideas show that the traditional dichotomy between the 'idealism' of 1848 and the 'positivism' of post-1871 republicanism is easily overplayed. His own brand of republicanism comfortably transcended this generational cleavage, thereby drawing out essential elements of continuity in nineteenth century French political thought. In this context our most remarkable finding is the scale of Pelletan's intellectual commitment to Saint-Simonism. This points not only to the complex nature of French republican ideology, but also to the richness of Saint-Simonism, a system of thought whose significance in later nineteenth century French political thought has yet to be fully appreciated.


This essay gives a programmatic account of Paul's engagement with scripture, focusing especially on Paul's most frequently cited source texts: Genesis and Psalms. Paul's engagement with scripture, it is argued, is shaped by three main factors. First, he views himself not primarily as an interpreter of scripture but as a proclaimer of the gospel. Second, Paul's own Pharisaic past makes him acutely aware that most of his fellow Jews read the same texts he does, and yet do not share his faith in Jesus as the crucified and risen Messiah. Third, Paul's scriptural interpretation occurs in the context of letters addressed to communities he has founded. Paul does not engage with scripture to the same extent in all his letters. It would be a mistake to characterize him as, always and in every respect, a 'biblical theologian'. Yet it would be a greater mistake to underestimate the value and significance he attributes to scripture.


In the navigation of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), the positioning accuracy and stability of the navigation system will decrease due to uncertainties such as mobility, inaccuracy of a priori process noise characteristic, and simplification of a dynamic model. In order to solve the above problems, a new, adaptive factor-based H∞ cubature Kalman filter based on a fading factor (AF-H∞CKF) is proposed in this paper. On the one hand, the H∞ game theory provides AF-H∞CKF good robustness in the worst case; on the other hand, the fading factor makes the innovation orthogonal and inflates the predicted error covariance and the Kalman gain, which avoids a decrease in estimation precision in the case of model uncertainty. The simulation and experiment results show that the AF-H∞CKF filter can deal with AUV navigation better than other existing algorithms in the presence of outliers and model uncertainty, which confirms its effectiveness and superiority.


In the teaching reform of food and drinking service and management,Nanjing Touring Vocational College has constructed the curriculum system that leaded by project curriculum,decomposed by themes and boosted by modules,which made knowledge learning be boosted by package with skills training;emphasized that students take the main role,teachers take the assistant role,the learning groups for food and drinking service and management was set up and various teaching activities were deployed by taking learning group as the unit.In order to ensure the effect of teaching reform,the suggestions are:schools should distribute teaching task appropriately,fully take advantage of specialty teachers,set up economic commercial center in campus and create real marketing and production environment.


Through using the recovery technology for exhausting steam of KLAR deaerator,energy conversation technology reformation was made for boiler feed water system.Technical principle of exhausting steam recovery unit of KLAR deaerator was introduced,the technical reformation effect was summarized from aspects of process,consume and maintenance etc.,the benefit of exhausting steam recovered for one deaerator with a capacity of 1 000 t/h is 662/d Yuan RMB,only using for two years can recover the total invest for technical reformation.


Protected cultivation of high value cash crops such as capsicum and tomato is gaining momentum in recent times. Among various diseases and pests; bacterial wilt, thrips and root knot nematodes are recurrent threats to its production. Biorational pesticides such as agricultural spray oil and azadirachtin are more acceptable than conventional insecticides as they are known to be sufficiently active against pest populations and are relatively safer to beneficial organisms. The experiment was conducted on relative efficacy of agricultural spray oil, azadirachtin and combination of both (1%) for the management of these three different types of biotic stresses on tomato and capsicum under protected cultivation. Results revealed that in all the tested insecticides, the integrated treatments were most effective in comparison to the individual interventions. To investigate common signaling mechanism of response towards these stressors, we carried out RNA expression analysis of an annexin gene. Annexins belong to a family of membrane and calcium (Ca2+) binding proteins which can characteristically bind membrane phospholipids in a reversible, Ca2+-dependent and independent manner. Here we report that the expression of annexin is induced in response to three biotic stress treatments of the crops viz bacterial wilt, thrip infestation and root knot nematode infection. Results show potential evidence that modulation of a single signaling protein can be useful in management of three different and common biotic stressors in tomato and capsicum.


In a rabbit model of five copper overfeeding,we investigated the distribution pattern of trace elements of copper,zinc,chromium,manganese,selenium in blood serum,red cell,and whole blood and in the organs of brain,gallbladder,liver,intestines,heart,kidney,lung,and spleen.Furthermore,feed consumption and weight development were also performed in this study.In Cu-polluted group,considerable and characteristic changes in trace element concentrations were noted.The changes are dissimilar to those of different elements in different organs.


The title compounds have been prepared (i) by cyclization of N-acyl-8-phenyl-l,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoline derivatives, and (ii) by a Pschorr reaction on N-(2-aminobenzoyl)-l,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinolines. In the Pschorr reaction the decomposition of the diazonium salts X>f the amines is shown to result in intramolecular diary 1 coupling, affording the pyridophenanthridones and phenolic products, N-salicyloyltetrahydroquinolines. The structures of the various pyrido-phenanthridines synthesized by the two methods have been corroborated by NMR, IR and UV spectral data. A similar Pschorr reaction on N-(2-aminobenzenesulphonyl)-l,2,3,4-tetrahydro-quinoline affords a tetracyclic sulphone analogue of phenanthridone. Results of. attempts to prepare pyrrolophenarithridine derivatives are presented and rationalized. The NMR spectral data of N-acyltetrahydroqiiinoline derivatives used in the preparation of pyridophenanthridine by the cyclization method (i) show slow inversion of the tetrahydropyridine ring compared to tetrahydroquinoline or its 8-phenyl derivative. On the basis of NMR data structures (VIII) and (IX) have been assigned to N-acetyl- and N-chloroacetyl-8-phenyl-l,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinolines respectively.


In this in vitro study, Capnocytophaga gingivalis was grown on sterile dentine blocks in a 10% CO2 atmosphere at 37 °C. Due to their gliding motility (surface translocation), these microorganisms, isolated from human periodontal lesions, spread relatively rapidly over the dentine surface. In addition, they also invaded the dentinal tubules in a shorter time interval and to a greater depth than do nonmotile microorganisms. Finally, the acid metabolites caused decalcification lesions of the dentine. The possible role of C. gingivalis, currently associated with periodontal disease, in the caries process and its progression rate is discussed.


A method for carrying out a friction value adaptation in a clutch, in particular an automated clutch, a transmission, wherein the coefficient of friction is changed depending on at least one clutch size, wherein the coefficient of friction is changed by a predetermined value, if the slip time is too short, characterized in that the coefficient of friction is increased absolutely by a certain amount and / or relatively by a certain percentage, if the friction value adaptation is not carried out due to a short slip duration in a shift and / or the slip time for the specific shift is too short for a given speed jump.


Background: The use of social media platforms to convey public opinions and attitudes has exponentially increased over the last decade on topics related to health. In all these social media postings related to the pandemic, specific attention has been focused on healthcare professionals, specifically nurses. Objective: This study aimed to explore how the keyword 'nurse' is located in COVID-19 pandemic-related tweets during a selected period of the pandemic in order to assess public perception. Methods: Tweets related to COVID-19 were downloaded from Twitter for the period January 1st, 2020, to November 11th, 2021. Sentiment analysis was used to identify opinions, emotions, and approaches expressed in tweet which included 'nurse', 'COVID-19', and 'pandemic' as either keyword or hashtags. Results: A total of 2,440,696 most used unique words in the downloaded 582,399 tweets were included and the sentiment analysis indicated that 24.4% (n = 595,530) of the tweets demonstrated positive sentiment while 14.1% (n = 343,433) of the tweets demonstrated negative sentiment during COVID-19. Within these results, 17% (n = 416,366) of the tweets included positive basic emotion words of trust and 4.9% (n = 120,654) of joy. In terms of negative basic emotion words, 9.9% (n = 241,758) of the tweets included the word fear, 8.3% (n = 202,179) anticipation, 7.9% (n = 193,145) sadness, 5.7% (n = 139,791) anger, 4.2% (n = 103,936) disgust, and 3.6% (n = 88,338) of the tweets included the word surprised. Conclusions: It is encouraging to note that with the advent of major health crises, public perceptions on social media, appears to portray an image of nurses which reflects the professionalism and values of the profession.


Three dimensions terrain render is a hot topic in the field of computer graphics. The ROAM(Real-time Optimally Adapting Meshes) algorithm of dynamic terrain render based on LOD(Level of Detail)has been widely used in military simulations, GIS systems, VR systems, digital earth, and video games, etc. Recently, the techniques of the three dimensions terrain render mainly include Voxel(Volumetric Pixel)and LOD. In this paper, these two popular techniques are compared, the advantages of the ROAM algorithm based on the latter are discussed, and the idea of the algorithm is analyzed. Finally, an example of the algorithm is presented.


An increase in the proportion of the elderly population is one of the demographic trends currently seen. This research aims to describe and analyze about employment of the elderly population, especially the elderly population who are civil servant teachers who will retire and retire. This reseaarch uses qualitative approach, and descriptive as a reseach design. The location of this research is in Samarinda. Determination of informants using purposive sampling technique. After the data have collected, it will be analyzed to get the conclusion, in testing the validity of the data using triangulation techniques with sources. The result of this research shows that there are some reasons that make the elderly population who are civil servant teachers who will retire and who have retired decide to continue working, fulfilling their daily needs, having dependents on family members, healthy and including filling their time.


T study has a long history. In 1973, Mino Vianello began to explore the feasibility of comparative research on women's participation in decisionmaking in the upper echelons of public life. However, it soon became clear that, at that time, most potential colleagues were interested in studying other aspects of gender issues such as the labour market, the family and civil rights. Yet, a small group of gender scholars designed and carried out research on gender and decision-making in four countries. The results were published in 1990 under the title of Gender Inequality, by Mino Vianello and Renata Siemieńska. By then the issue of women's exclusion from public life had become an integral part of mainstream sociology. So, in 1990, Mino Vianello's proposal for another study drew the eager attention of numerous colleagues, with final participation from scholars in the 27 most industrialized nations of the world. Soon after its inception Gwen Moore agreed to serve as co-coordinator of the study. The basic goals of the research were to understand the experiences of women 'above the glass ceiling' in these countries, especially their pathways to, attitudes towards and behaviour in the top economic and political positions that are held overwhelmingly by men. As a democratically run project, each participant could study her or his specific area of interest on gender and power by including items in a common questionnaire. The sampling criterion adopted was to compare top women in politics and business with men from equivalent levels and similar organizations in each country. The analysis of the data was not done by individual countries. As equal collaborators, authors were the final and exclusive arbiters of the topic and content of their contributions. In 2000 a book was published, Gendering Elites (Vianello and Moore, 2000). In recognition of the path-breaking significance of this study of gender and power, the project was named a finalist for the European Union's 2002 Descartes Prize for excellence in collaborative scientific research.


This text explores the different modalities of the relationship between poetry and natural and mathematical sciences. It also proposes a structuralist scheme for identifying ways in which the poetry of science can cultivate harmony and/or tension with scientific knowledge.


In order to facilitate cross-border railway transport between socialist countries in Eastern Europe, the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance and later the Organisation for Cooperation of Railways were established in 1949 and 1956. Joint planning, standardisation and tariff policy were the main fields of cooperation. The paper focuses on the struggles between Council of Mutual Economic Assistance and Organisation for Cooperation of Railways member countries regarding transit tariffs for cross-border freight shipments. These struggles, dragging on for more than three decades, reveal the economic interests of individual member countries and the limitations of socialist foreign trade (and alleged friendship). This study argues that despite of political declarations and the establishment of socialist international organisations, the East European railways became a major bottleneck in intrabloc trade.


The historical quay walls of the river Scheldt are a major landmark of Antwerp. After almost 150 years of continuing instabilities, the right bank quays are stabilized along their entire length. This durable renovation project, being challenging in its own right from a geotechnical point of view, is further complicated by the requirement to preserve the historical bluestone facing as well as the historical position ('quay line') of the quays. Innovative techniques are devised to restore the Scheldt quays to their old glory in a cost efficient way. The works are currently ongoing in several zones, two of which are discussed as case studies in this paper.


The high mobility group box‐1 (HMGB1), originally identified as an architectural nuclear protein, exhibits an inflammatory cytokine‐like activity in the extracellular space. Here we show that treatment with neutralizing anti‐HMGB1 monoclonal antibody (mAb; 200 μg, twice) remarkably ameliorated brain infarction induced by 2‐h occlusion of the middle cerebral artery in rats, even when the mAb was administered after the start of reperfusion. Consistent with the 90% reduction in infarct size, the accompanying neurological deficits in locomotor function were significantly improved. Anti‐HMGB1 mAb inhibited the increased permeability of the blood‐brain barrier, the activation of microglia, the expression of TNF‐α and iNOS, and suppressed the activity of MMP‐9, whereas it had little effect on blood flow. Intracerebroventricular injection of HMGB1 increased the severity of infarction. Immunohistochemi‐cal studyrevealed that HMGB1 immunoreactivityin the cell nuclei decreased or disappeared in the affected areas, suggesting the release of HMGB1 into the extracellular space. These results indicate that HMGB1 plays a critical role in the development of brain infarction through the amplification of plural inflammatory responses in the ischemic region and could be an out‐standingly suitable target for the treatment. Intravenous injection of neutralizing anti‐HMGB1 mAb provides a novel therapeutic strategy for ischemic stroke.— Liu, K., Mori, S., Takahashi, H. K., Tomono, Y., Wake, H., Kanke, T., Sato, Y., Hiraga, N., Adachi, N., Yoshino, T., Nishibori, M. Anti‐high mobility group box 1 monoclonal antibody ameliorates brain infarction induced by transient ischemia in rats. FASEB J. 21, 3904–3916 (2007)


The pressure drop of two prototype cable-in-conduit conductors (CICCs) were measured. The NET conductor is a conventional type CICC, while the CEA conductor has a central flow channel to reduce hydraulic impedance. The pressure drop measurements were conducted with helium at temperatures ranging from 2 K to 4.7 K, and pressure from the saturated vapor pressure to in excess of 3 bar. Computer image analysis was used to estimate the flow cross sectional area and wetted perimeter of the conductors. The data are expressed in terms of a classical friction factor, and compared with previous experimental results.<<ETX>>


The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and necessity of mass control of population makes to create inexpensive rapid diagnostic methods that could replace or complement existing methods based on clinical studies. In response to this challenge, at the end of 2020 MIT scientists proposed a way to detect COVID-19 sick patients using audio recordings of their cough. They build a binary classifier based on a trained deep neural network that provides 99% precision in detecting sick patients on a dataset of 5000 people (the precision of detecting the healthy ones is not reported). In our study, we propose another technology, which uses: (a) a simple transformation of digital audiograms being matrices 'fequency-time'and (b) typical machine learning algorithms from the popular scikit-learn Python library and the platform GMDH Shell. Objects of consideration are: a large unbalanced dataset (282 sick and 1595 healthy) and a small balanced dataset (174 sick and 193 healthy). In total GMDH-based algorithms demonstrated some better results with both datasets. The winners provides the following precisions of detecting sick/healthy patients [%]: (a) 92/95 on the small dataset and 78/95 on the large data set for the algorithm SVM with a Gaussian kernel; (b) 95/97 on the small dataset and 82/96 on the large data set for the algorithm Random Forest based on GMDH. We suppose these results are promising.


Objective:To study the clinical significance of measuring T lymphocytes subsets in children with nephrotic syndrome(NS).Methods:T lymphocyte subsets were measured by flow cytometry. Change in T lymphocyte subset in the blood was measured in 25 children with nephrotic syndrome in active stage and 20 in remission stage.Results:The percentages of CD 3 + cell, CD 4 +cell,CD (16+56) +cell and the ratio of CD 4 +/CD 8 +were significantly lower in NS active stage than those in remission and in control group (both P 0.01).Conclusion:Cellular immunity in NS patients was impaired. T lymphocytes subsets can be used as an index of activity in nephrotic syndrorne.


Tort law is a remarkably dynamic subject. The overall picture is in a state of rapid flux, so that topics which dominated the scene ten or twenty years ago such as recovery for pure economic loss are now scarcely discernible in the background, while other, previously rather marginal, issues such as actions for wrongful conception have taken centre stage. One subject, however, consistently maintains its position in the foreground of the canvas: the liability of public authorities. Attempts to explain this might highlight the practical importance of the topic, the complexity of the issues involved, and the degree of overlap with rapidly changing areas of public law and human rights law. In any case, a subject of such consistent contemporary significance cries out for the in-depth treatment that only a monograph can provide. Works from ten or twenty years ago still contain much of value,' but the pace of change means that the publication of a new book on the topic by Duncan Fairgrieve, State Liability in Tort: A Comparative Law Study,2 is to be welcomed.


U sing t he TM images of J iangsu province in 1980 ,1995 and 2000 , t his paper analyzes t he changes in t he landscape patterns on t he platform of GIS technology and FRA GSTA TS software , and has got a general idea of it in t he past 20 years. The result s showed t hat cropland has decreased and land for const ruction use has increased ; t he indices of TL , N P etc. have increased ; t he de2 creased L P I indicated t hat patch forms tend to complicate ; f ragmentation index has risen f rom 01019 2 to 01020 1 , which shows t hat landscape patterns have become more instable ; t he index of diversit y in landscape patterns is improved ; t he changes of landscape patterns are related to nat ural and human factors. These would provide some scientific bases for sustainable economic develop ment in t he region concerned.


In this note, I review a result obtained in joint work with Michèle Vergne on a duality principle in toric geometry. I will demonstrate the essential points of our work on a concrete example. 1. Toric varieties and quotients The basic data is a real vector space g endowed with a basis [ω1, ω2, . . . , ωn], and an exact sequence 0 −→ a ι −→ g π −→ t −→ 0 of real vector spaces of dimensions r, n and d, such that the three lattices gZ = ⊕i=1Zωi, tZ = π(gZ) , aZ = ker(π|gZ). have maximal rank in the corresponding vector spaces. Clearly, we have n−d = r. This construction gives rise to two sequences of vectors A = [α1, . . . , αn] ⊂ aZ, αi = ι∗(ωi) where ω is the dual basis in g∗, and B = [β1, . . . , βn] ⊂ tZ, βi = π(ωi) One says that A and B are Gale dual to each other in this situation.


At the time of the first male emergence leafcutting bee cells were exposed to temperatures of 4.4?, 15.6?, 18.3?, 21.1? and 23.9?C for one to 16 consecutive days; to a diurnal cycle of 15.6? and 29.5?C for four to 16 consecutive days; and to a series of alternating daily temperatures of 15.6? and 29.5?C to determine the effect of low temperatures on mortality. All temperature treatments resulted in a low or non-significant mortality. Development and emergence of pupae and teneral adults can be arrested for at least nine days when held at or below 18.3?C without increasing mor tality significantly. The alfalfa leafcutting bee, Megachile rotundata (F.), has been managed as an alfalfa pollinator since 1960 (Stephen and Torchio, 1961). The rate of increase in the bee depends on the control that can be exercised over the negative contributions of many biotic and abiotic factors. In leafcutting bee management, overwintered cells are kept under refrig eration at 2? to 4?C and subsequently incubated at 29? to 30?C on a schedule to synchronize their emergence with peak alfalfa bloom (Stephen and Os good, 1965). Cells are usually incubated in trays and once males begin to emerge, the trays are transferred to field domiciles which the subsequent emergent bees will populate. Ambient temperatures in the spring often fluc tuate widely and the extremes are suspected of causing substantial bee mor tality during the emergence period (Stephen and Undurraga, 1977). Brief exposure to 50?C during the emergence period have been shown to cause complete mortality to pupae and teneral adults (Undurraga and Stephen, 1980), but the effect of low temperatures during this period are unknown. This is a study on the effect of low and fluctuating temperatures on devel opment and survival of post-diapausing leafcutting bee pupae. Materials and Methods Bee cells from Winnett, Montana were incubated at 29.5?C and 25-30% RH following the procedures previously reported (Undurraga & Stephen, Received for publication 25 April 1980. This content downloaded from 220.127.116.11 on Wed, 23 Nov 2016 04:28:51 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 678 JOURNAL OF THE KANSAS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY Table 1. Effect of low temperatures on leafcutting bee emergence. Treatments? exposure intervals in?C No. No. bees cells emerged Emerg. Emerg. duration (days) Emerg. delay vs. control (days) 4.4??1 day 4.4??3 days 4.4??6 days 4.4??9 days 15.6??1 day 15.6??3 days 15.6??6 days 15.6??9 days 9. 29.5??control 52 52 55 49 56 53 53 49 54 50 50 51 43 53 49 51 43 51 96.2 96.2 92.7 87.8** 94.6 92.5 96.2 87.8**1 94.4 11 11 11 9 10 10 10 10 11 12 15 13 11 13 14 12 11 16 + 1 + 3 +7 + 8 + 1 + 2 +6 + 8 + 1 + 3 + 7 + 9 + 1 + 3 +6 + 9 Significance: **/> > 0.99. 1980). A total of 47 samples of 26 to 58 cells were accorded various tem perature treatments at the time the first adult males appeared (?21st day of incubation) to simulate field conditions. Cells were exposed to 4.4?, 15.6?, 18.3?, 21.1? and 23.9?C from 1 to 16 days (Tables 1 and 2); daily cycles of 15.6? and 29.5?C (Table 3); and alternating 24-hour periods of 15.6? and 29.5?C. Cells were transferred directly from one temperature regime to another, and equilibration, as determined by an intracell Cu-Co thermocouple, re quired from 5 to 10 minutes. Treated cells were returned to a constant 29.5?C until emergence was completed. Bee emergence was recorded daily. The normal deviate Z was used to compare the differences in survival among the treatments (Snedecor and Cochran, 1967). Results and Discussion There was no difference in survival among any of the constant or alter nating low temperature treatments, except for 4.4?C for 9 days (Table 1) and 15.6?C for 9 and 15 days (Tables 1 and 2). Even in the latter treatments, the mortality was minor compared to that recorded from some field-moni tored populations (30-35%). There was an expected decrease in survival associated with the increase in duration of the cold treatments (Tables 1 and 2). The differences in survival between the two treatments at 15.6? C for 9 days and the controls probably reflect sample variance. Mortality in bees exposed to 18.3?, 21.1? and 23.9?C for 4 to 16 days was not significant (Table 2). However, the time necessary to reach 50% and 90% emergence was altered in each sample (Emergence Delay, Tables 1 4). For example, all three samples treated at 4.4? and 15.6?C for 9 days (Tables 1 and 2) reached 50% and 90% emergence 9 days later than the This content downloaded from 18.104.22.168 on Wed, 23 Nov 2016 04:28:51 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms VOLUME 53, NUMBER 3 679 Table 2. Effect of low temperatures on leafcutting bee emergence (T?C). Treatments? exposure intervals in?C No. No. bees cells emerged Emerg. % Emerg. duration (days) Emerg. delay vs. control (days)


The mesoscale vorticity method (MVM) is used in conjunction with the ground‐based velocity track display (GBVTD) to derive the inner‐core vertical velocity from Doppler radar observations of tropical cyclone (TC) Danny (1997). MVM derives the vertical velocity from vorticity variations in space and in time based on the mesoscale vorticity equation. The use of MVM and GBVTD allows us to derive good correlations among the eye‐wall maximum wind, bow‐shaped updraught and echo east of the eye‐wall in Danny. Furthermore, we demonstrate the dynamically consistent radial flow can be derived from the vertical velocity obtained from MVM using the wind decomposition technique that solves the Poisson equations over a limited‐area domain. With the wind decomposition, we combine the rotational wind which is obtained from Doppler radar wind observations and the divergent wind which is inferred dynamically from the rotational wind to form the balanced horizontal wind in TC inner cores, where rotational wind dominates the divergent wind. In this study, we show a realistic horizontal and vertical structure of the vertical velocity and the induced radial flow in Danny's inner core. In the horizontal, the main eye‐wall updraught draws in significant surrounding air, converging at the strongest echo where the maximum updraught is located. In the vertical, the main updraught tilts vertically outwards, corresponding very well with the outward‐tilting eye‐wall. The maximum updraught is located at the inner edge of the eye‐wall clouds, while downward motions are found at the outer edge. This study demonstrates that the mesoscale vorticity method can use high‐temporal‐resolution data observed by Doppler radars to derive realistic vertical velocity and the radial flow of TCs. The vorticity temporal variations crucial to the accuracy of the vorticity method have to be derived from a high‐temporal‐frequency observing system such as state‐of‐the‐art Doppler radars. Copyright © 2006 Royal Meteorological Society


This study examined the relationship between leadership behavior and sex‐role socialization. Data were gathered from 208 non‐administrative supervisors and managers at a midwestern university. Psychological femininity is related to the consideration component of leadership behavior and psychological masculinity is related to the initiating structure dimension of leadership.


Chemokines are critical for the inflammatory process in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The chemokine receptor-5 (CCR5) mediates chemotaxis by CC chemokines and is expressed by lymphocytes with Th1 phenotype and monocyte/macrophages. A 32bp deletion in the CCR5 (CCR5-delta 32 allele) abolishes receptor expression in homozygotes, while CCR5-delta 32 carriers express less receptor level than wild type homozygotes. This polymorphism is related to resistance to HIV-1 infection and progression to AIDS. It is hypothesized that CCR5-delta 32 allele may modulate the inflammatory response involved in rheumatoid arthritis and therefore may affect disease severity, susceptibility or both. In the present study 70 rheumatoid arthritis patients and 40 healthy individuals were genotyped. The frequency of CCR5-delta 32 allele was significantly higher in healthy individuals compared to rheumatoid arthritis patients (45% Vs 17%) respectively (p .value 0.033). Homozygous delta 32 mutation was not detected in patients or controls No significant difference was found between CCR5-delta 32 carriers and wild type homozygotes regarding clinical or laboratory findings except for the tender joint count and rheumatoid factor positivity which was higher in wild type homozygotes ( p .value 0.046 and 0.007 respectively). Our data suggest that CCR5dlta 32 carriers may partially protected against rheumatoid arthritis, and suggest CCR5 receptor as a candidate for targeted therapy in rheumatoid arthritis.


Aim: To determine how clinical agencies and universities can best prepare student nurses to develop the capability to contribute to healthcare reform. Method: A list of desirable reform capabilities (graduate attributes) was developed and validated. A case study approach was used and interviews conducted with personnel at six clinical agencies in Victoria and South Australia to assess the extent to which student nurses achieved or were likely to achieve these capabilities and to identify strategies that would assist their development. Background: As a significant component of the healthcare workforce, nurses are positioned to play a critical role in healthcare reform. A major challenge facing the profession is how best to prepare nurses and equip them with the skills and attributes necessary to contribute to the reform agenda. Results: Nine reform capabilities were identified. Some were more likely to be achieved than others during undergraduate preparation. Strategies were identified to assist the development of each capability though a number of challenges were also identified by participants. These related to: university-agency relationships, the clinical learning environment, student-graduate transition, curriculum and organisational culture.


Change • November/December 2013 Cathy Sandeen (email@example.com) is vice president for education attainment and innovation at the American Council on Education (ACE). She is responsible for the organization's national strategy to improve postsecondary attainment in the US. She currently oversees a large research project on massive open online courses (MOOCs). By Cathy Sandeen INTEGRATING MOOCS INTO TRADITIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION THE EMERGING "MOOC 3.0" ERA


Map showing biological resources (birds, oysters, fishes, grasses, etc.) in the Corpus Christi region of the Texas Barrier Islands coastline area. Scale 1:100,000.


Modern reconstruction of folklore is an issue to face in our country's development in modernization.This paper analyzed the changing process of folklore The legend of the White Snake based on the film directed by Chen xiaodong.It focused on how the director reconstructed the folklore The legend of the White Snake by modern Chinese on developing the plots,describing the characters,and the use of language.


A simple technique for the quantitative deformation analysis of reflecting surfaces is presented. A plate with a special printed pattern consisting of crossed line gratings and an electronic camera are the only required equipment. The pattern is reflected by the specular surface and imaged by the camera. The mechanical deformation causes a slight dis- tortion of the pattern image that is evaluated using the Fourier-transform method. The technique was tested on a glass mirror with side lengths of 105 and 132 mm, which was deformed by a central load. The sensitivity for out-of-plane displacements is 100 nm. © 2001 Society of Photo-Optical


WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES FOR chemistry in probing the molecular basis of life processes? That question was addressed at a day-and-a-half workshop held recently at the American Chemical Society headquarters in Washington, D.C. The workshop was sponsored by ACS and the National Science Foundation and hosted by ACS President Charles P. Casey and NSF Chemistry Division Director Arthur B. Ellis. During the first morning and early afternoon of the workshop, speakers outlined their views of how chemistry is approaching biological systems and the opportunities for breakthroughs in understanding life processes. In the late afternoon and into the second day of the workshop, attendees worked to define a manageable set of grand challenges and to begin crafting a workshop report. My career as a chemist and as an observer of the chemical sciences extends back far enough that I remember well when most enzymes were essentially catalytic black boxes characterized by Michaelis/Menten constants. The ability of ...


The effect of size on electronic states in a strained pyramidal InAs-GaAs quantum dot system was studied. A comparison was made between two InAs quantum pyramids of different sizes embedded inside a cubic GaAs susbtrate material. Strain relaxation was carried out via the Metropolis Monte Carlo method and the calculated local strain tensors were then included to solve the energy values and the wave functions of the electronic states inside the two simulation cube. The 3D finite difference scheme was employed to solve the time independent Schrodinger equation based on the decoupled electron-hole model. Calculated energy values of the four lowest electronic states showed that the transitions between the electron and hole states widen as the size of the dot becomes smaller especially between the ground states. The confinement of electrons and holes become weaker as the size of the dot reduces.


The study aimed to find out whether stream of study (Music / Non-Music) influences tertiary students' extents of psychological well-being and experience of negative emotions (viz. depression, anxiety and stress). Two random samples were selected. One sample consisted of 145 (103 undergraduate; 42 postgraduate) students of music. Another sample comprised 87 (59 undergraduate; 28 post-graduate) students who have never studied music. Females and males were represented in the samples. Age range of the participants was 18 – 25 years. They belonged to middle socio-economic status families as assessed by standardized tool . They were residents of Kolkata. Tools administered for data collection included a General Information Schedule and three standardized tests viz. Psychological Well – Being Scales , Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale [11] and Socio – Economic Status Index . Descriptive statistics were computed. Analysis of Variance was conducted. Results showed that stream of study (Music / NonMusic) had significant influence on participating tertiary students' extents of autonomy, depression, anxiety and stress. Participating students of music tended to be superior in autonomy but on the average suffered more from depression, anxiety and stress as compared with their peers from other disciplines. Institutions must provide counseling and guidance services customized to satisfy the needs of students of music.


PURPOSE: To prevent looseness of a tape at the time other than that of using a tape cassette by using parts without a movable part. CONSTITUTION: In one enforcement example, a tape reel flange 20 is provided with plural pawls 72 on its outer peripheral edge part, and a cassette bottom part 10 is provided with plural vertical tilted ribs 26 and a horizontal tilted rib 28 placnig on its center. The pawls 72 of the flange 20 are moved over the angled ribs 28, and though the tape reels 12, 14 are rotated in the certain direction, aren't rotated in the counter direction. In another enforcement example, a reel hub is provide with a beveled ring having the pawl. The cassette bottom part is provided with an answering ratchet ring having the tilted pawl. Even in this example, through the rotation in the one direction is possible, the rotation in the counter direction is impossible.