Plantation forest of exotic tree species are one form of forests in Ethiopia.1–3 They deliver a wide range of social, economic and environmental benefits.4 The importance of plantation forests is increasing as the demand for forest products is rising and the supply from the natural forests is decreasing. Accordingly, the areas under manmade forests have been increasing from an estimated cal. 190,000 hectare (ha) in 1990 to cal. 972,000 ha in 2011 in the country.1 Of these, about 20% of the plantations are classified as commercial plantations.1 The remaining 80% are non industrial plantations, mainly woodlots and trees on farms. Plantation forests are important to meet wood requirements for local use, such as for construction material and for wood fuel5,6 and thereby helping the rural people improving their livelihood through the contribution to household economy in Ethiopia.7–9 Furthermore, in Ethiopia, plantations of some tree species can also provide important recognized Non–timber Forest products (NTFPs),10 including the natural rubber.


The invention provides a method of preparing lactic acid and lactate ester by catalyzing sugar to convert. The method is characterized in that water, micromolecular alcohol or an aqueous solution of the alcohol is taken as a solvent, a Sn containing compound is taken as a catalyst, and glucose, cane sugar, fructose, xylose, dioxyacetone and glyceraldehyde can be catalyzed to convert in a reaction vessel so as to obtain the lactic acid and lactate ester at high yield. The method has the advantages that the catalyst is low in cost and easy to obtain, reactants have high sugar concentration, reaction time is short, reaction temperature is low, the yield of lactic acid and lactate ester is high, needed equipment is simple, and the method is simple and convenient in operation and environmental-friendly.


The acid dissociation constants, pK a , of twelve biologically active 6-phenyl-4,5-dihydro-3(2H)-pyridazinone derivatives were determined using spectroscopic techniques. Elucidation of the structure-reactivity relationships was attempted from structural considerations based on the acid dissociation constants.


This paper describes a solution to automatically obtaining test scenarios in an automotive project concerning wheel pressure, acceleration and temperature controller emulators. A reliability assessment is performed so as to evidence the presented solution's improvement.


In scienti c writing, in a model design the safety controller room by using microcontroller AT89C51. Microcontroller will control the process of accessing the door with the help of sensors interference detection. Key board is used as a controller of the system. Each input of access codes will be read by the microcontroller, and then the processing based on the programs contained within the system and respond. Microcontroller will display it on the LED status. Key board as a liaison between the users with the system has the function as the controlling system in the activation process and teen viewers or inactivity as well as controller programming system with certain codes. In the current circumstances, the system sounds a buzzer in the event interference with the sensor and the sensor will display the zones that are impaired in LED Status.


We present a deterministic bicriteria single-machine scheduling model for coordinating upstream and internal activities in a simple supply chain. This model may support a manufacturing organization to negotiate speedier deliveries of raw materials with the vendors, if the additional costs are outweighed by the reduction of work-in-process inventories and average manufacturing lead times. In our model, the problem is to schedule n independent jobs on a singlle machine subject to given target start times to minimize total completion time, the internal efficiency performance measure, and maximum promptness, the upstream efficiency performance measure, simultaneously. Ma-ximum promptness is the maximum difference between the target start time and the scheduled start time of any job. The concept of target start times, which are in fact the tentative delivery dates of the raw material, play a key role in our model they are essentially release dates that may be violated at a certain cost. We show that the problem of minimizing a linear function of total completion time and maximum promptness simultaneously is solvable in O(n4) time, if preemption is allowed or if total completion time outweighs maximum promptness. Furthermore, we show that the problem is NP-hard in the strong sense if preemption is not allowed. Finally, we point out that our model may serve as a building block for developing and solving scheduling models that cover the entire supply chain, including downstream activities. These models would include given but negotiable customer due dates and a due date performance measure downstream efficiency. We point out that these models are NP-hard in the strong sense, even if preemption is allowed, and that our results can be used to compute lower bounds in polynomial time.


SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS CAN ACCOMPANY CAPITAL INVESTMENT IN HOUSING AND INFRASTRUCTURE. THESE ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE REALISED WHEN CONTRACTING METHODS FOR HOUSING PROCUREMENT ARE ALIGNED TO COMMUNITY NEEDS. ALLIANCE CONTRACTING, WHERE RISKS ARE SHARED, CAN SUPPORT INNOVATION IN THE PROCUREMENT SYSTEM TO ACHIEVE ADDITIONAL SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS.


Testing is a costly and an important activity in the software industry today. The systems are becoming more complex and the amount of code is constantly increasing. The majority of systems need to ...


Since the beginning of quantum mechanical description there have been two approaches to its interpretation, the ontic and the epistemic approach. Up to today the approaches have remained unconnected, which is one of the main reasons for the lack of a common, complete interpretation of quantum mechanics. A possibility for exceeding this ontic/epistemic opposition can be offered by quantum information theory, which is essentially based on the epistemic approach, however when connected with Husserl's phenomenology also offers a basis for an epistemic-ontic interpretation. In ZeilingerBrukner's quantum information theory, Kant's understanding of the relationship between the phenomenon and the "thing-in-itself" has been used as a model for understanding of the relationship between information and the observed. If it is replaced by Husserl's understanding of the relationship between the two, information and the observed can be understood as causally connected – information represents the direct answer to the question about the observed, while the basis for this information is the observed itself. This kind of approach offers the firm answer how to exceed solipsism and gain the common objectivity of quantum mechanical description, without introducing any further realism or loosing any explanatory power of quantum information theory: furthermore, the relationship between the observer, the observed and the observation can be now more thoroughly understood.


Abstract Experiments are reported in which novel results are found on the magneto-resistance of sodium and rubidium. Measurements have been made both on plate-like specimens which show very strong anisotropy in the magnetic field, and on a cylinder of diameter large comparedwitli the mean free path, ι, of the electrons. The anomalous behaviour appears certainly to depend on the attainment of large values of the ratio ι/r, where r is the orbital radius of a free electron in the magnetic field.


The insecticidal and antifeedant activity of extracts derived from different plants of the Liguidamber orientalis Mill. (Hamamelidaceae), Tanacetum vulgare L. (Compositae), Achillea coarctata Willd. (Compositae), Buxus sempervirens L. (Buxaceae), Diospyros kaki L. (Ebenaceae), Arum italicum Mill. (Araceae), Achilea biebersteinii Willd. (Compositae), Origanum vulgare L. (Labiatae), Hypericum androsaemum L. (Hypericaceae) and Ocimum basilicum L. (Labiatae). are reported. The 70% alcohol extracts of plants were tested for toxicity against the 3–4th instar larvae of the Yponomeuta malinellus Zell. (Lepidoptera.: Yponomeutidae). Antifeedant activity of the extracts was assessed through tests conducted on the larvae of Y. malinellus by the feeding protection bioassay. In tests carried out on the larvae of Y. malinellus, L. orientalis, O. basilicum and A. coarctata extracts showed high toxicity within 48 hour LC50's of 75, 75 and 65% respectively. The toxicity effects of the other extracts were determined as 60, 50, 50, 50, 45, 45 and 40% within the same period, respectively. No mortality was noticed in control groups. Alcohol extract from L. orientalis, T. vulgare and B. sempervirens showed high antifeedant activity (80.90, 46.12) on the larvae of Y. malinellus. In addition to both T. vulgare and L. orientalis extracts caused decrease consumption of food per 1 mg of larvae body weight decrease showed high –8.465, –0.845, mg respectively. The highest consumption (557.6 mg) was observed with alcohol extract from, D. kaki whereas the minimum one was using alcohol extract from L. orientali. The other tested extracts showed similar activity.


The gadget transfer model can be carried out with various positive activities that can support children's development through playing by applying the Pancasila learner dimension. The goal of learning outcomes in PAUD is to provide directions that are appropriate to the age of the child's development in all aspects of development (religious-moral, physical-motor, emotional-social, language, and cognitive values) so that children are ready to follow the next level of education. Through project learning activities, the introduction of the surrounding culture, can divert children's attention from gadgets and switch to games that are indeed appropriate for the child's age level to foster children's character and creativity.


Ultrasonic technologies find many applications in measurement. Transit time techniques find favour in flow measurement and are used in a variety of flowmeters. The performance of these flowmeters is now well understood, and tests of their performance in challenging applications such as wet gas have produced useful results. Gas flow measurement offshore is typically carried out at an export metering point with well allocation according to calculation. Upstream conditions often combine the challenges of very thick-walled pipes in exotic materials with wet gas at relatively low pressures. In the last few years non-invasive (clampon) ultrasonic flowmeters have been installed on individual well flowlines in gas production systems on 2 offshore installations operated by GDF SUEZ E&P Nederland B.V. Reconciliation with facility sales gas metering is used to validate the wellhead measurements. This paper considers the performance of these systems with GDF SUEZ E&P in the Dutch Sector of the North Sea. The paper presents data from the incoming flowlines to a separator and compares these with the gas measurement downstream of the separator. It also considers the operation of clamp-on ultrasonic measurement used for allocation between different gas fields supplying a single installation. Best practice for installation and operation on thick-walled DUPLEX pipes is reviewed and the reconciliation philosophy considered. The conclusion of the paper suggests that it is feasible to deploy a measurement system giving production rates of individual wells using non-intrusive ultrasonic metering and how this system will endure deployment in offshore environments. Recommendations for measurement of wet gas and depleted wells are given and considered in the light of field experience and flow laboratory tests.


A 44-year-old female patient with chronic kidney disease (stage 5) undergoing peritoneal dialysis received an IV infusion of vancomycin 500 mg once per 12 hours for infective endocarditis. Vancomycin was discontinued before the third administration for its frequency of administration was found inappropriate. The blood concentration of vancomycin was higher than 50 mg/L at 12 hours after the second dose. The blood concentration of vancomycin dropped to 9.2 mg/L after drug withdrawal and persistent peritoneal dialysis for 24 days. No other obvious adverse reactions related to vancomycin during this period.

Key words:
Renal insufficiency, chronic; Peritoneal dialysis; Vancomycin; Over-frequency administration; Delayed excretion


The aim of this work was to evaluate a fungal DNA extraction procedure with the lowest inputs in terms of time as well as of expensive and toxic chemicals, but able to consistently produce genomic DNA of good quality for PCR purposes. Two types of fungal biological material were tested ‐ mycelium and conidia ‐ combined with two protocols for DNA extraction using Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate (SDS) and Cetyl Trimethyl Ammonium Bromide as extraction buffers and glass beads for mechanical disruption of cell walls. Our results showed that conidia and SDS buffer was the combination that lead to the best DNA quality and yield, with the lowest variation between samples. This study clearly demonstrates that it is possible to obtain high yield and pure DNA from pigmented conidia without the use of strong cell disrupting procedures and of toxic reagents.


ABSTRACT A comparative study of two important Model Order Reduction (MOR) systems based on internal projections and norm is presented. It is about Tangential interpolation and the Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMIs) optimisation based methods. In both techniques, the resulting optimal approximants of reduced order are constructed from state space projections and constrained to verify a certain relative error norm. In this paper, its shown the applicability of these techniques as well for the continuous time as the discrete time multidimensional systems. Since the industry has always been one of the main motivating fields for the development of MOR techniques, the present work offers an expansion to state of the art low order MOR tools and their use to any industrial process to achieve three core features: simplicity of analysis, low computation efforts and an easy and feasible control.


EBM Solutions provides access to evidence-based studies for both the patient and the health provider. Evidence-based guidelines for more than 100 medical illnesses or conditions (each guideline averages 1,700 citations and 70 evidence grades and references) have been developed by an academic consortium of six leading U.S. medical centers: Duke University Medical Center, Emory University's Woodruff Health Sciences Center, Oregon Health & Science University, Mount Sinai New York University Health, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and Washington University School of Medicine. Clinical and consumer versions of each guideline are provided. Updates occur every six months or more frequently as the medical evidence requires.

The user may view both patient and provider screens side by side (dual view) or may select one screen. When signing on, the default guideline is congestive heart failure. Each guideline is organized in the same way: Key Points, EBM Highlights, Decision-Tree, Definition, Significance, Causes, Symptoms & Signs, Screening & Diagnosis, Prevention & Treatment, Complementary/Alternative Medicine, Prognosis, Research Frontiers, References, and About the Author. EBM Highlights includes the figures and tables. Algorithms (decision trees) provide graphical presentations of evaluation and decision management and directly link from the decision tree to the corresponding guideline section. In the References section, "Links to Abstract" takes the user to PubMed. Research Frontiers discusses ongoing research. The guidelines are brief and well written. Language used for the patient view is clear and at the appropriate level. Guideline updates are listed and included at the top of each guideline page. A brief (two screen) noninteractive New User Guided Tour is provided.

The Diets & Weight Loss Guideline (updated 7/11/03) is an excellent example of the value of this service. It critically reviews such popular diet supplements as Metabolife356 and Calorad 2000 as well as compares four popular diets, Dr. Atkins's Diet Revolution, The Zone, Sugar Busters, and The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet and several commercial weight loss services including Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers. Excerpts from the Diets & Weight Loss guideline follow:

Fad diets also lack the physical activity and behavioral therapy components recommended in the Evidence Report for long-term weight control (see Criteria for Healthy Weight-Loss Diets and Characteristics of Popular (Fad) Diets) …

The Atkins' diet, a low-carbohydrate, high-protein, high-fat, ketogenic diet, induces ketosis, a metabolic adaptation to starvation. However, because ketosis can produce mild-to-moderate side effects, ketogenic diets are not recommended for healthy weight loss E (A2). In addition, while the Atkins's diet may promote weight loss and reduce total cholesterol in the short-term, it may promote coronary artery disease over the long-term E (A1).

Most importantly, links to the evidence are indicated by a red capital E, followed by an alphanumeric modifier that indicates the level of evidence. EBM Solutions has adapted the evidence grading of the American College of Chest Physicians. Each treatment or prevention recommendation is followed by a letter grade and a number grade. The letter grade refers to the scientific strength of the study. A letter grage of A indicates the strongest evidence, followed by B and C. The number grade reflects the trade-off between benefits and risks for the recommendation. A grade of 1 suggests that for most patients the benefits clearly outweigh the risks, while a 2 suggests that the trade-off between benefit and harm is not clear for the average patient.

Overall, EBM Solutions is an excellent product that is supported by an academic medical community and strives to provide the best evidence to both patients and health providers.


This article presents a financial tool that takes the person's income and other variables and generates a financial plan for homeownership for people of layer 1 and 2 of Bogota, through information obtained from DANE (National Administrative Department of Statistics) were identified and characterized the population that anger directed the financial plan and what would be the best option to implement, from a financial plan that was designed by housing leasing mode, in order to maintain the user's perception as to amount and payment and achieve continuity in the purchasing process, taking into account this information a web application that allows users to meet their own financial plan according to their current economic conditions was developed.


The invention discloses a thermal-insulating coating which comprises the following components in parts by weight: 40-80 parts of phenolic resin, 120-160 parts of butyrolactone, 200-300 parts of zinc borate, 20-40 parts of aluminum hydroxide, 12-24 parts of phosphate triester, 12-18 parts of antimony trioxide, 4-12 parts of asbestos fiber, 20-30 parts of graphite nodules, 16-18 parts of vanadium trioxide, 10-20 parts of azo-dicarbonamide, 10-20 parts of magnesium silicate, 12-18 parts of acetone, 4-12 parts of benzoyl peroxide, 4-8 parts of isopropyl acrylate, and 8-12 parts of butyl acetate. The thermal-insulating coating provided by the invention is manufactured simply; the adopted production raw materials are non-toxic, so that the coating is good in application effect and environment-friendly; and a coat formed by the coating has a good thermal insulation property.


FIELD: mechanical engineering; materials handling equipment. SUBSTANCE: according to proposed method, self-organizing network is used to provide wireless transmission of information in safety system of load-lifting crane. In process of crane operation, some module of crane safety system receives signal from outer module arranged outside load-lifting crane with subsequent automatic connection of said module by network coordinator (driving module) to wireless network of crane safety system and with subsequent reception of information from said module or transmission of data to said module. Corresponding additional functions of automatic protection, monitoring and control are implemented depending on type of outer connected module. EFFECT: improved safety at load handling. 20 cl, 1 dwg


In this contribution a multi-rate adaptive inferential control law is proposed. The algorithm is based upon the synthesis of an adaptive inferential estimation algorithm and the generalised minimum variance control algorithm. The algorithm it applied to a nonlinear simulation of a binary distillation column. It it demonstrated that the technique can provide enhanced performance when compared to alternate model based control philosophies.


This article focuses on the prevalence of cesarean section among upper class women for aesthetic purposes. In Latin America, the national cesarean section rate has risen to 40%, while in the early 1980s the rate was 75% in Brazil. In a survey conducted in the UK, 31% of women obstetricians would prefer to have cesarean section without any medical indication. This could perhaps be due to the obsession of maintaining a sexually appealing body. Health has then become secondary to the production of a sexually attractive body. The role of the medical profession lacks the definitive evidence on the issues regarding concerns of women and choices in childbirth particularly in some countries. The author suggests that the medical community and society should allow the women the choice between major surgery and childbirth.


General purpose computer software packages are being used more frequently in the hydraulic design of pipeline systems. The areas where the use of such packages are advantageous over earlier methods are addressed. An example illustrates the efficiency and increased confidence in the results for design problems involving system integrity, operations and control. The man-machine interfaces involved in the input and the output process are then addressed, followed by a discussion of reliability and quality assurance issues of importance in any use of engineering application programs.


Background: The steady decrease of kidney function is referred to as chronic kidney disease. The kidney function is measured by Golmerular Filtration Rate (GFR). According to Ayurveda the CKD can be correlated to Mutraghatabecause of similarity of symptoms. In Ayurveda Mutraghata is described under Mutrarogawhich comes under Mutravahastrotas (urinary system). Objective – To access and compare the efficacy of BruhatyadiKwath, furosemide and BruhatyadiKwath along with furosemide on symptoms, eGFR, and Albuminuria in various stages of Chronic Kidney Disease. Methodology – Total 90 patients will be divided in 3 equal groups. Patients in group A will be treated with Bruhatyadikwatha, group B patients will be treated with furosemide and patients in group C will be treated with BruhatyadiKwathaandfurosemide for 90 days. Follow up will be taken after every 30 days. Expected results – Furosemide along with Bruhatayadikwath will show better improvement in e-GFR and Albuminurea as compare to only treated with Bruhatyadikwath and furosemide. Assessment of subjective criteria like Edema, Anorexia, weakness and vomiting will be done on day 0, 30, 60 and 90 whereas assessment of Serum creatinine, Blood Urea, Sr. Sodium, Sr. Potassium, eGFR (Cockcroft formula) and Albuminuria will be done before and after treatment (on 0 and 90 th day). Result: Subjective and objectives outcomes will be assessed by statistical analysis. Conclusion: It will be drawn from the result obtained.


Quantum annealing (QA) is one of the efficient methods to calculate the ground-state energy of a problem Hamiltonian. In the absence of noise, QA can accurately estimate the ground-state energy if the adiabatic condition is satisfied. However, in actual physical implementation, systems suffer from decoherence. On the other hand, much effort has been paid into the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computation research. For practical NISQ computation, many error mitigation (EM) methods have been devised to remove noise effects. In this paper, we propose a QA strategy combined with the EM method called dual-state purification to suppress the effects of decoherence. Our protocol consists of four parts; the conventional dynamics, single-qubit projective measurements, Hamiltonian dynamics corresponding to an inverse map of the first dynamics, and post-processing of measurement results. Importantly, our protocol works without two-qubit gates, and so our protocol is suitable for the devices designed for practical QA. We also provide numerical calculations to show that our protocol leads to a more accurate estimation of the ground energy than the conventional QA under decoherence.


Cerebral cortical neurons form a six‐layered structure in which their position depends on their birth date. This developmental process requires the presence of Reelin, which is secreted by Cajal–Retzius cells in the cortical marginal zone (MZ). However, it is still unclear whether the migration from the ventricular zone (VZ) to beneath the MZ is essential for the neurons to segregate into layers. Previous transplantation studies of ferret cerebral cortical neurons suggested that their ultimate laminar fate is, at least to some extent, determined in the VZ but it is unknown how 'laminar fate' eventually positions cells in a specific layer. To explore the segregation properties of mouse cortical cells that have not yet arrived beneath the MZ, embryonic day (E)16 VZ and intermediate zone (IMZ) cells were dissociated and allowed to reaggregate for 1–4 days in vitro. The results suggested that the migrating neurons in the IMZ at E16 preferentially located near the centre of the aggregates, more than did the proliferative cells from the VZ. The birth‐date labelling followed by the dissociation–reaggregation culture suggested that the segregation properties of the E16 IMZ was characteristic of the E14‐born cells, which were migrating in the IMZ at E16, but they were not general properties of migrating IMZ cells. This birth‐date‐dependent segregation mechanism was also observed in the Reelin signalling‐deficient yotari cells. These findings suggest that cortical neurons acquire a birth‐date‐dependent segregation mechanism before their somas reach the MZ.


The use of veterinary drugs in food producing animals may result in low levels of the drugs or their metabolites being present as residues in food. The ingestion of antibiotic residues has been considered to affect the balance of the human intestinal microflora, although there is a paucity of epidemiological evidence to support this hypothesis. Recently additional concern has been raised about selection of antibiotic resistant bacteria within the gastrointestinal tract caused by the ingestion of antimicrobial residues. To assess the safety of ingested antimicrobial residues to the consumer, national and international committees evaluate data on the chemical, pharmacological, toxicological and antimicrobial properties of the veterinary drugs derived from studies of experimental animals and observations in humans.


D uring evolution, vertebrates have made a major biological commitment to the development of an inducible immune response. This complex system is important for the survival of vertebrate species in a naturally hostile environment. Some scientists have argued that for invertebrates this same selective pressure resulted in a different life strategy: short lifespans and rapid reproduction. These scientists view invertebrates as too unsophisticated physiologically to mount specific adaptive defense mechanisms to meet microbial or toxic threats. However, recent evidence indicates that these so-called primitive animals are unexpectedly complex genetically and that many of the old generalizations concerning their metabolic limitations do not hold true. Biologists are finally starting to appreciate the difficulties in generalizing about invertebrate species, which have tremendous diversity not only in biological form but also in lifestyles. The inducible or adaptive immune response as defined in vertebrates consists of two major facets: the humoral response, which is mediated by circulating antibodies, and the cellmediated immune response (CMI), which is mediated by lymphocytic cells. Both of these responses are characterized by specificity and the


Introduction: Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune condition characterized by elevated anti-tissue transglutaminase immunglobulin A (anti-tTGA) and duodenal villous atrophy triggered by gluten ingestion. The systemic immune inflammation index (SII), is associated with various diseases such as numerous cancer and psoriatic arthritis, is calculated by the formula: platelet x neutrophil/lymphocyte. The significance of the SII in pediatric patients with CD is unclear, although there are few studies. Our study aimed to examine SII, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and mean platelet volume-to-platelet ratio (MPR) values before diagnosis and under a gluten-free diet in children with celiac disease and to investigate the correlation between the anti-tTG and anti-endomysium antibody (EMA) and SII, NLR, PLR before and under diet. Method: In this study, 68 patients who applied to the Pediatric Gastroenterology of Bezmialem Vakıf University Medical Faculty Hospital between March 2020 and February 2022 and were diagnosed with celiac disease were included in our study. The laboratory records of the patients were reviewed retrospectively. Current inflammation parameters (NLR, PLR, MPR, SII), anti-tTGA, EMA, and hemoglobin (Hb) were evaluated comparatively at initial diagnosis and after the 6 months of the gluten-free diet. Results: The mean ± standard deviation values of Hb (11.94±1.33, 12.53±1.3), MPR (0.02±0.01, 0.16±1.04), anti-tTGA (225.18±95.35, 33.67±68.17), EMA (3.38±1.14, 0.71±1.34) were significantly different between newly diagnosed CD patients and after gluten-free diet (p<0.01). The correlation between anti-tTGA and SII, NLR was found significant (p<0.05; p<0.01). The correlation between SII and NLRand PLR was also observed as statistically significant (p<0.01). Conclusion: In conclusion, we confirmed that Celiac antibodies and SII have a significant correlation. Thus, SII may be a follow-up marker for pediatric CD. However, further studies are needed to elucidate SII variation.


List of maps List of contributors Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Conventions followed 1. Introduction R. M. W. Dixon and Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald 2. Carib Desmond C. Derbyshire 3. The Arawak language family Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald 4. Tupi Aryon D. Rodrigues 5. Tupi-Guarani Cheryl Jensen 6. Macro-Je Aryon D. Rodrigues 7. Tucano Janet Barnes 8. Pano Eugene E. Loos 9. Maku Silvana and Valteir Martins 10. Nambiquara Ivan Lowe 11. Arawa R. M. W. Dixon 12. Small language families and isolates in Peru Mary Ruth Wise 13. Other small families and isolates Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald and R. M. W. Dixon 14. Areal diffusion and language contact in the Icana-Vaupes basin, north-west Amazonia Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald 15. The Upper Xingu as an incipient linguistic area Lucy Seki Index of authors Index of languages and language families Subject index.


In this article the author analyses Bulgarian myths, legends and festive rites to illustrate the traditional beliefs and pagan notions about water, which lie at the core of many myths and legends about water sources, elves, dragons and water bulls as well as in Christian legends about gods and saints: Perun, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, St. George, St. Ivan Rilski, St. Naum, and others.


Because stiff tissue deforms less than soft tissue under the same external compression, elastography can provide relative stiffness information of biological tissue. However, elastography suffers from artifact noise which may come from two dominant sources: decorrelation error and amplitude modulation error. In order to reduce artifacts and improve the quality of ultrasonic elastography, this paper proposes a centralized displacement operation based on an adaptive anisotropic diffusion filtering. We have applied the median and the mean of displacement axial gradient to differentiate edges from artifacts and categorize the whole displacement image into two different patterns; followed by the adjustable anisotropic diffusion filtering. The proposed algorithm can reduce artifact noise and, at the same time, maintain the tissue structure. Phantom testing shows that the proposed method can improve the quality of ultrasonic elastography in terms of tissue SNRe and CNRe values.


People in the U.S. are increasingly concerned about major disasters but are not prepared to face those disasters, a national poll released in June finds.


We have investigated the dissipation characteristics in the mixed state of ${\mathrm{YBa}}_{2}$${\mathrm{Cu}}_{3}$${\mathrm{O}}_{7\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\delta}}}$ film, grown epitaxially on the ${\mathrm{SrTiO}}_{3}$(100) substrate, in terms of external transport current as well as magnetic field applied parallel to the c axis of the film. The dissipation fits well the thermally activated flux creep model, R=${\mathit{R}}_{0}$ exp(-U/${\mathit{k}}_{\mathit{B}}$T), where U is a function of electrical current, magnetic field, and temperature. In the range of current density \ensuremath{\sim}20\char21{}4000 A/${\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$, the current dependence of the activation energy U scales with ln(I/${\mathit{I}}_{0}$), as observed recently by Zeldov et al. U shows a power-law dependence on magnetic field as ${\mathit{H}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\beta}}}$ with \ensuremath{\beta}=0.73\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.002. We obtain the resistance prefactor ${\mathit{R}}_{0}$ proportional to the applied magnetic field, provided the Ginzburg-Landau-type magnetic-field suppression of the mean-field transition temperature ${\mathit{T}}_{\mathit{c}0}$ is taken into account. In addition, we present the magnetoresistance at various temperatures below ${\mathit{T}}_{\mathit{c}0}$, in good accordance with the flux-creep model.


The load which acts on the bearings of an automobile transmission is very complex According to the conditions of every set used, the author puts foreward the hypothesis of scathe accumulating to ascertain the bearings' activing load which can be used to estimate the service life of the bearings


2 Abstract: The aim of this experiment was to evaluate the nutritive value of tropical legume shrub species Cratylia argentea, Leucaena leucocephala, Flemingia macrophylla, Cajanus cajan, Dendrolobium triangular, Cassia didymobotrya, Cassia bicapsularis and Acacia farnesiana in Hainan province, China based on their chemical compositions and in vitro Gas Production (GP). The Crude Protein (CP) contents of legume shrubs ranged from 13.43% (D. triangulare) to 18.44% (C. argentea). The Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF) and Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF) contents varied between 20.73% (S. didymobotrya) to 48.61% (D. triangulare) and 21.11% (S. didymobotrya) to 55.27% (D. triangulare), respectively. The Total Tannins (TT) ranged from 0.78% (C. argentea) to 2.67% (A. farnesiana). The Relative Feed Values (RFV) of tropical legume shrubs ranged from 85.9% (D. triangula) to 321% (C. didymobotrya). GP of tropical legume shrubs was determined 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h after incubation and their kinetics were described using the equation y = a+b(1 - exp ). The calculated in vitro Dry Matter Degradability (IVDMD), Organic Matter Digestibility -ct


Effect sizes in macroeconomic are estimated by regressions on data published by statistical agencies. Funnel plots are a representation of the distribution of the resulting regression coefficients. They are normally much wider than predicted by the t‐ratio of the coefficients and often asymmetric. The standard method of meta‐analysts in economics assumes that the asymmetries are because of publication bias causing censoring and adjusts the average accordingly. The paper shows that some funnel asymmetries may be 'natural' so that they occur without censoring. We investigate such asymmetries by simulating funnels by pairs of data generating processes (DGPs) and estimating models (EMs), in which the EM has the problem that it disregards a property of the DGP. The problems are data dependency, structural breaks, non‐normal residuals, non‐linearity, and omitted variables. We show that some of these problems generate funnel asymmetries. When they do, the standard method often fails. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


A large expert system, initially designed for industrial process control has been modified to serve as the ''brain'' for an autonomous mobile robot. The advantages of a product-rule knowledge base for robot plan generation have recently been underscored by R.P. Sobek: Updates in the knowledge base are done explicitly through the addition or modification of rules; production systems can adapt rapidly to new situations and allow the system to deal with unexpected problems; and the addition of knowledge is incremental. Several efforts are underway to design robot planning programs using production rules, but, to our knowledge no robot has been actually controlled by an expert system.


RC Plane Robot and basic aerial robotics are technologies that are widely used, so training kits are needed to learn them. This study aims to: (1) Design and build, (2) Test performance and (3) Determine the feasibility level of training kit basic aerial robotics using RC plane robot. The study used the Research and Development method with the following procedures: (1) Potential and problem, (2) Data collection, (3) Design, (4) Validation, (5) Revision and (6) Trial. The object of the research is the RC Plane Robot training kit and the practicum jobsheet. The research subjects were students of the Electronic Engineering Education Study Program, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta. The results of the research are in the form of hardware and practicum jobsheets. The hardware part consists of a robot plane, a work area (Box) and a remote control. The level of feasibility of training kits by material experts gets a percentage of 91%. By media experts get a percentage of 89.5%. By respondents (students) get a percentage of 86%. Based on these results, the training kit basic aerial robotics using RC plane robot is very feasible to be applied to the Robotics course.


MIGRAINE is a common, chronic, incapacitating neurovascular disorder, characterized by attacks of severe headache, autonomic nervous system dysfunction, and in some patients, an aura involving neurologic symptoms. In one-third of patients the headache is preceded by transient neurological symptoms that are most frequently visual but may involve other senses and speech [migraine with aura (MA)]. Migraine is extremely prevalent [affecting 17% of females and 8% of men], very expensive ($18.5 billion Euros per year in Europe], and disabling [one of the World Health Organization's top 20 most disabling disorders]. It is consequently a public fitness hassle of exceptional effect on each the man or woman and society. Most migraine assaults begin with inside the mind, as advised through (a) the premonitory signs (e.g., issue with speech and reading, expanded emotionality, sensory hypersensitive reaction) that during many sufferers are exceptionally predictive of the attack, even though such signs arise as much as 12 h earlier than the attack, and through (b) the character of a few usual migraine triggers which includes stress, sleep deprivation, oversleeping, hunger, and extended sensory stimulation. Psychophysical and neurophysiological research have supplied clean proof that with inside the duration among assaults migraines display hypersensitive reaction to sensory stimuli and odd processing of sensory information, characterized through expanded amplitudes and decreased habituation of evoked and event-associated potentials. It is usually believed that migraine headache relies upon at the activation and sensitization of the trigeminovascular ache pathway and that cortical spreading depression (CSD) is the neurophysiological correlate of migraine aura. CSD may be precipitated in animals through focal stimulation of the cerebral cortex and includes a slowly propagating (2–6 mm min−1) wave of robust neuronal and glial depolarization; the mechanisms of initiation and propagation of CSD continue to be unclear. The mechanisms of the number one mind dysfunction(s) main to the onset of a migraine attack, to CSD susceptibility, and to episodic activation of the trigeminovascular ache pathway continue to be in large part unknown and the predominant open problem with inside the neurobiology of migraine.


Metastable materials that lie within the miscibility gaps of their equilibrium phase diagrams, as well as the development of lattice-parameter-engineered virtual substrates, offer means to greatly expand the material platforms available for semiconductor lasers to enable higher performance and an increased span of emission wavelengths.


Enzymatic reactions play a major role in controlling and performing most life processes. Thus, understanding how enzymes really work has both fundamental and practical importance. In this respect, it is crucial to understand the origin of the enormous catalytic power of enzymes, and this is currently one of the major challenges of modern biophysics[1, 2]. Although many elements of this puzzle have been elucidated by biochemical and structural studies, the source of the catalytic power of enzymes has not been widely understood, and clearly remains controversial within the scientific community (see e.g. Ref. [3]). At the present stage, all consistent simulation studies appear to indicate that electrostatic effects play a major role in stabilizing the transition states of enzymatic reactions (for reviews of this matter, see for instance Refs. [4, 5]). However, this idea has not been generally accepted, perhaps due to the difficulties of understanding the effect and also due to general difficulties in the clarification of the nature of polar pre-organization effects[6]. Thus, there is a great interest in exotic alternative proposals. For instance, the idea that enzyme catalysis involves special factors such as nuclear quantum mechanical (NQM) effects, and, in particular, nuclear tunneling, has gained popularity in recent years[7–14]. Additionally, it has been suggested that transition state theory (TST) cannot be used in studies of enzyme catalysis, it has actually been demonstrated to provide an excellent tool for such studies[15].

While there is no argument about the fact that NQM effects play a significant role in enzymatic reactions in which the rate limiting steps involves the transfer of either a proton, a hydride or hydrogen, rigorous and systematic theoretical studies have demonstrated that the NQM contributions are similar in solutions and in proteins and thus do not make a significant contribution to catalysis (where catalysis is defined as the difference between the enzymatic and the solution reactions). Additionally, is has been established that TST provides an excellent tool for quantifying enzymatic catalysis[16, 17]. Nevertheless, there are still major misunderstandings remaining in the field with regards to the catalytic tunneling proposal[18]. We would like to point out at the beginning of this paper that assessing the catalytic contributions of NQM effects must, naturally, reproduce all key experimental observations. However, it cannot be based on accepting the interpretation of experimental data as fact. Here, one needs reliable models that can actually simulate any type of experimental observations, and that allow one to dissect the overall catalytic effect in order to identify its constituent contributions. In other words, once a model is able to reproduce what is actually observed experimentally, it can then be used to separate the overall effect into its individual contributions. Since enzymes are very complex systems, the most effective models should probably be based on computational simulation approaches.

In this work, we will consider arguments that support the catalytic NQM idea, and point out the ways in which these arguments are extremely problematic (and sometimes even self-contradictory in some of the most basic cases). Our analysis aims to clarify the misunderstandings of this issue by summarizing the results of our recent studies, as well as by discussing some other relevant works. We clarify that calculations of quantized activation free energies converge much more rapidly than calculations of the temperature dependence of these quantities, and that the calculated activation free energies support our conclusions about the contribution of NQM effects to catalysis. We then proceed to clarify the difference between calculations that evaluate the temperature dependence of isotope effects by consistent microscopic simulations, and studies that reproduce such dependence by using adjustable phenomenological parameters. We point out that, at present, our studies of the temperature dependence of isotope effects are as good as (if not better than) any of the reported consistent calculations, including in the challenging case of lipoxygenase. Furthermore, we will summarize our systematic study of kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) and their temperature dependence in mutants of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR). This study provides a unique example of the reproduction of the observed change in the trend of the temperature dependence of KIEs that is wholly based on microscopic calculations. Ultimately, our aim is to clarify the main misunderstandings in this field with simple non-polemic logical arguments. We believe that addressing the validity of the main arguments and facts in the field is the best way in order to reach a constructive scientific consensus.


In the past about 50 (in Eastern Europe 20-25) years society and police has been through two dramatic changes; political changes and turning into multicultural, diverse society. The responses of society, of politics and the police to these circumstances were quite different, regardless, that the international and EU institutions facing the problems tried to formulate the adequate requirements (Parliamentary Assembly Assemblee parlementaire RESOLUTION 690 (1979) Declaration on the Police; COUNCIL OF EUROPE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS Recommendation Rec(2001)10 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the European Code of police Ethics).  During the process of the political changes the role of police in society was reconsidered; it "was no longer viewed as dangerous, unsavory, diversionary, and politically retrograde, but as key component of social stability and economic development" (Bayley, D.). And now, the most important question is: how is it possible to create an organization that strengthens democracy's values and norms in its structure and function, and is able to answer the new challenges of the diversity?  Diversity means differences in the backgrounds or lifestyles, it relates to gender, age, language, ethnicity, cultural background (multiculturalism), disability, sexual orientation or religious belief. Diversity also means differences in other aspects; in educational level, job, socioeconomic background, personality profile, geographic location, differences in interest and differences in political conviction. That is why every society has its special conditions, which affect the responsibility of the politics and the police.  States have different styles and strategies when it comes to dealing with diverse groups within their borders. Concerning these circumstances the presentation will analyse these strategies, their theoretical background (principle of multiculturalism, inclusion, integration), aims (first of all the sustainable development) bad and good practices, and the possible societal responses (acceptance; prejudice, societal conflicts; hate crime). In case of the analysis of a diverse society security aspects should also be taken into consideration. The police strategy and philosophy must be harmonised with the democratic responses of politics on societal diversity; police need an adequate education in order to meet these requirements.


CVC lock represents an actual basic theme in hemodialysis vascular access field. Recent know–how about biofilm led lock copyright holder towards warranty both in preventing infections endorsing CVC performance at the same time. Still today, an ideal lock, with antithrombotic and anti–bacterial properties, is not yet available. Today, with its pros and cons, heparin represent most employed lock even though physicians are looking for alternative devices. Among them, binders employment, such as low concentration sodium citrate (3.8 – 4%) could be effective for safety and low costs. High concentration sodium citrate (46.7%), taurolidine and ethanol can be considered as "advanced" locks with their distinctive features and potential further employment. Anyway, infections' prevention protocols adhesion and accurate CVC management represent primary target of daily hemodialysis practice irrespective of lock's choice.


The Kyiv based Center for the Study of Oral History and Culture, the journal Rodovid, and the Cherkasy Ethnographic Museum invite you to take part in an international conference in Cherkasy, Ukraine as well as to conduct fieldwork (if you so wish) in central Ukraine in August 1998. The conference is "Problems in Oral History Research on East European Villages of the 1920's1940's." It will take place August 4-7, 1998 in the Cherkasy Ethnographic Museum. An optional additional activity is to conduct fieldwork in villages under the guidance of local ethnographers of the Center and the Museum. Field trips begin August 8, the duration of the fieldwork is up to the scholar and can continue for as many days as you wish. Both the conference and the fieldwork opportunity are geared to be of interest to ethnographers of all stripes (anthropologists, ethnomusicologists, sociologists) as well as to folklorists and historians. One of the most serious lacunae in Soviet era ethnography is oral history: not only its collection but its interpretation as well. What few oral history projects were undertaken were seriously flawed by the ideological distortions of the time. This was particularly true during the time period in question when Stalinism made any but the blandest research project impossible. From the 1950's to the 1980's little of lasting interest was accomplished in this area, and only in the last few years has competent research been undertaken. Thousands of now elderly victims/participants still live in village Ukraine who can speak to the specifics of this time period. Whatever your area of specialization, if you have an


This chapter discusses short pulse photoexcitation in organic materials, mostly organic molecular crystals, and the resulting time dynamics of excited states as can be observed by detecting photoluminescence and photoconductivity. The chapter will review the electronic detection of a transient photoconductivity after photoexcitation and the relevant experimental limits. It will then discuss the typical photoluminescence dynamics expected in molecular crystals when initially photoexcited singlet excitons can undergo fission into triplet excitons, and the related onset of photoconductivity because of exciton dissociation. Rubrene single crystals will be used to illustrate how exciton dynamics is reflected in different ways in the time-evolution of the photocurrent and the photoluminescence.


Neural interface systems (NISs) are widely used in rehabilitation and upper limb prosthetics. These systems

usually involve robots, such as robotic exoskeletons or electric arms, as terminal devices. We propose a

methodology to assess the feasibility of implementing these kind of neural interfaces by means of an online

kinematic simulation of the robot. It allows the researcher or developer to make tests and improve the design

of the mechatronic devices when they have not been built yet or are not available. Moreover, it may be used

in biofeedback applications for rehabilitation. The simulation makes use of the CAD model of the robot, its

Denavit–Hartenberg parameters, and biosignals recorded from a human being. The proposed methodology

was tested using surface electromyography signals acquired from the upper limb of a 25-year-old healthy

male. Both real-time and prerecorded signals were used. The robot simulated was the commercial robotic arm

KUKA KR6. The tests proved that the online simulation can be effectively implemented and controlled by

means of a biosignal.


The elementary shortest-path problem with time-windows and capacity constraints is a problem used for solving vehicle-routing and crewscheduling applications. It occurs as a sub-problem used to implicitly generate the set of all feasible routes and schedules in the column-generation formulation of the vehicle routing problem with time windows and its variations. In the problem there is a directed graph with a source node and a destination node, and each arc has a cost and a vector of weights specifying its requirements of a resource with a finite capacity. A minimum cost source–destination directed path is sought such that the total consumption of the resource does not exceed the capacity. The problem ins NP-hard in the strong sense. We review integerlinear formulation to the problem and compare them in order to study their computational efficiency.


Abstract Instrumental variables allow for quantification of cause and effect relationships even in the absence of interventions. To achieve this, a number of causal assumptions must be met, the most important of which is the independence assumption, which states that the instrument and any confounding factor must be independent. However, if this independence condition is not met, can we still work with imperfect instrumental variables? Imperfect instruments can manifest themselves by violations of the instrumental inequalities that constrain the set of correlations in the scenario. In this article, we establish a quantitative relationship between such violations of instrumental inequalities and the minimal amount of measurement dependence required to explain them for the case of discrete observed variables. As a result, we provide adapted inequalities that are valid in the presence of a relaxed measurement dependence assumption in the instrumental scenario. This allows for the adaptation of existing and new lower bounds on the average causal effect for instrumental scenarios with binary outcomes. Finally, we discuss our findings in the context of quantum mechanics.


IN THE Report of the Lytton Commission of Inquiry to the Council of the League of Nations the statement appeared that the Commission, in the course of its investigations, had received over five thousand letters from people residing within Manchuria protesting against the Japanese action. Countering this, the Japanese Government declared it had received many times more letters endorsing the action of Japan. Neither of these statements necessarily meant very much: first, because at the time not all the cards had been dealt in the Manchurian New Deal; and second, because at least ninety-five per cent of the people of Manchuria cannot write letters. But though they are largely illiterate, and though they may have been and may still be politically voiceless, they are not inarticulate. To one who knows their language and can gain their confidence they speak their minds freely and shrewdly. It was with the idea of discovering, so far as possible, just what the New Deal has now, after three years, meant for the people of Manchuria and what they think of it, that the writer of this article went to that country in I934 and spent several months among the people. With a background of a considerable residence in various parts of China and a knowledge of the language of the majority of the people, he talked with hundreds of them: officials of the Manchukuo Government, merchants, contractors, soldiers, policemen, farmers and laborers. The present article is an attempt to give as faithful a picture as possible of the results of that investigation. This article is based on two assumptions: first, that within a fairly well-defined portion of northeastern Asia, which until recently was at least nominally, and for long periods of time actually, under the jurisdiction of the Central Government of China, that Government now no longer exercises jurisdiction; and second, that within this


Integrated optical isolators have been a longstanding challenge for photonic integrated circuits (PIC). An ideal integrated optical isolator for PIC should be made by a monolithic process, have a small footprint, exhibit broadband and polarization-diverse operation, and be compatible with multiple materials platforms. Despite significant progress, the optical isolators reported so far do not meet all these requirements. In this article we present monolithically integrated broadband magneto-optical isolators on silicon and silicon nitride (SiN) platforms operating for both TE and TM modes with record high performances, fulfilling all the essential characteristics for PIC applications. In particular, we demonstrate fully-TE broadband isolators by depositing high quality magneto-optical garnet thin films on the sidewalls of Si and SiN waveguides, a critical result for applications in TE-polarized on-chip lasers and amplifiers. This work demonstrates monolithic integration of high performance optical isolators on chip for polarization-diverse silicon photonic systems, enabling new pathways to impart nonreciprocal photonic functionality to a variety of integrated photonic devices.


As the first step of the study of combustion control of solid propellants by electrical discharges, the effects of an arc discharge, which flows along the burning surface, on the burning rate and on the increase of enthalpy of the combustion product were investigated. For spe- cially devised composite propellants, which are composed of Al powder and teflon powder, it was shown that the combustion can be controlled by an arc discharge; the combustion continues when the arc discharge is applied and is in-terrupted when the arc discharge breaks. In the present investigation, it was also shown that an arc discharge coupled with a high frequency electrical discharge has potentiality as an ef-fective ignition method for solid propellants. For the use of this type of combustion control to an ignitor for a solid propellant rocket motor or to a control rocket motor, this method lacks flexibility in the configuration scale and needs a relatively large electric power at present stage.


ABSTRACT Sharenting, the practice whereby parents disclose information about their children on social media, is ubiquitous in our digital society. Even though grandparents take on a considerable role in their grandchildren's lives and use social media, little is known about grandparents' sharenting behavior (i.e., grandsharenting). This study explores grandparents' motives for grandsharenting and privacy management strategies using Communication Privacy Management theory. Based on 17 interviews with grandparents (Facebook users aged between 52 and 83) in Flanders (Belgium), six motives for grandsharenting were identified: informing others about their grandchildren's development; interacting with other grandparents; giving advice; role confirmation; showing pride towards their grandchildren or happiness of being a grandparent and saving memories. Grandparents indicated they cared about their grandchildren's digital identities and applied cost-mitigating strategies to protect grandchildren's privacy. Although cost-mitigating strategies varied by the grandchild's age, respondents said to consider the content they post, to ask permission to their grandchild before sharing information to respect privacy boundaries and to avoid privacy turbulence. As only grandparents with minor grandchildren were interviewed, parental involvement was deemed important. Grandparents intervened when they experienced grandchildren's privacy had been violated. Findings contribute to research on privacy regulation, impression management and intergenerational relations in a digital landscape. IMPACT SUMMARY Prior state of knowledge: Research on sharenting predominantly focuses on the motives for parental sharenting and outlines the privacy risks sharenting contains. Moreover, in line with Communication Privacy Management theory, research lays bare the cost-mitigating strategies parents adopt to protect their child's privacy online. Novel contributions: As grandparents often take on a considerable role in their grandchildren's lives and increasingly use social media, this study contributes to communication and family studies by investigating grandparents' motives for sharenting and by examining how they engage in privacy management. Practical implications: We recommend grandparents to discuss their grandsharenting behavior with their grandchild or the parents of the child before sharing content about the grandchild on social media. Moreover, we encourage grandparents to respect privacy rules in order to avoid intra-familial conflict.


Socially responsible investing (SRI) reap the benefits of a social consensus and is often presented as a solution to conciliate finance and sustainable development. This article investigates the performance and resilience of both socially responsible and conventional funds listed in the Japan Investment Trust Association (JITA) during two economic shocks (the U.S. election and Brexit) in 2016. To see the immediate reaction in fund performance around different shocks, an event study with market model using ordinary least square (OLS), an event study with market model using exponential generalized autoregressive heteroscedasticity (EGARCH) and an event study with Fama–French multi-factor model was used to avoid common features of return data such as non-normality, heteroscedasticity, and cross-correlation. This study found that the recent U.S. election had a significant positive effect whereas the Brexit referendum event had a significant negative shock on fund returns in Japan around the event window. It is evident from the empirical findings that, compared to conventional funds, socially responsible funds were more resilient to uncertainty around the recent U.S. presidential election whereas conventional funds were more sensitive during the Brexit referendum. The important implications of these findings are the optimal strategies of institutional or individual investors who have direct or indirect exposure to the fund volatility risk in Japan.


This study aimed to evaluate the effect of dapagliflozin on 1 and 3‐month maximal functional capacity in patients with stable heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).


Introduction: To determine whether elevated N‐terminal pro‐BNP (NT pro‐BNP) predicts pulmonary artery systolic pressure increase on exercise stress echocardiography in asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic patients with moderate to severe mitral stenosis. Methods and Results: Forty‐one asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic patients with moderate to severe mitral stenosis and 21 age‐ and sex‐matched healthy subjects. Transthoracic echocardiography was performed in all patients to assess the severity of the valve disease and to measure pulmonary artery pressure before and immediately after treadmill exercise. Blood samples for NT pro‐BNP were also collected before and immediately after treadmill exercise at the time of echocardiographic examination. The plasma concentrations of NT pro‐BNP levels were significantly higher in patients with mitral stenosis than in control subjects before and after exercise (P < 0.001). Patients with atrial fibrillation had significantly higher NT pro‐BNP levels compared to those with sinus rhythm (P < 0.001). Pre‐ and postexercise NT pro‐BNP levels correlated statistically significantly with the left atrial (LA) dimension, right ventricle enddiastolic diameter, exercise duration, heart rate, rest, and exercise pulmonary artery systolic pressure, after exercise mitral valve mean gradient. Area under the receiver‐operating characteristic curve for NT pro‐BNP as an exercise induced augmentation of pulmonary artery pressure was 0.78. Using an optimized cutoff value of 251 pg/mL for NT pro‐BNP, sensitivity was 89.47%. The independent determinants of higher pulmonary artery pressure were LA diameter and pretest NT pro‐BNP levels in multivariante analysis. Conclusion: NT pro‐BNP levels correlate with functional class and echocardiographic findings in patients with mitral stenosis and indicate exercise induced augmentation of peak PAP > 60 mmHg. (Echocardiography 2011;28:8‐14)


Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) are fundamental technology in health care that permits the information of a patient's essential body parameters to be gathered by the sensors. However, the safety and concealment defense of the gathered information is a key uncertain problem. A Hybrid Key Management (HKM) scheme [13] is worked based on Public Key Cryptography (PKC)-authentication scheme. This scheme uses a oneway hash function to construct a Merkle Tree. The PKC method increase the computational complexity and lacking scalability. Additionally, it increases expensive computation, communication costs and delay. To overcome this problem, Robust Security for Protected Health Information by ECC with signature Hash Function in WBAN (RSP) is proposed. The system employs hash-chain based key signature technique to achieve efficient, secure transmission from sensor to user in WBAN. Moreover, Elliptical Curve Cryptography algorithm is used to verifies the authenticate sensor. In addition, it describes the experimental results of the proposed system demonstrate the efficient data communication in a network.


Effects of thermomechanical treatments(TMT) on the microstructures and mechanical properties in Al-2.27%, Li-1.28%, Cu-0.63%, Mg-0.12%, Zr alloy were investigated. The TMT process improved the tensile strength. Growth of δ`, S` and T₁phases was restrained by TMT processes while the density of δ`, S` and T₁phases was increased by TMT processes. The TMT treated specimens tend to fail in inter-subboundary mode. The increases of strength by the T-HA processes were compared to those of the T-AHA processes.


Testing equality of regression coefficients in several regression models is a common problem encountered in many applied fields. This article presents a parametric bootstrap (PB) approach and compares its performance to that of another simulation-based approach, namely, the generalized variable approach. Simulation studies indicate that the PB approach controls the Type I error rates satisfactorily regardless of the number of regression models and sample sizes whereas the generalized variable approach tends to be very liberal as the number of regression models goes up. The proposed PB approach is illustrated using a data set from stability study.


Post-9/11, communication scholars have published a number of articles invested in the relationship between US representations of Afghan women and imperial policy—a genre I dub the Afghan Alibi. I highlight this literature as a catalyst to consider an older image that functioned in much the same way. A critical consideration of National Geographic's 1985 Afghan Girl provides an opportunity to consider the ways in which representations and public policy get fused together to rhetorically coordinate and organize meanings. After considering the significance of the image's cultural location, and the role National Geographic played in US public policy, I take up six visual signifiers—veil, childhood, eyes, anonymity, refugee, and femininity—that mark this image as victim. I conclude by arguing that the 1985 Afghan Girl offered viewers the opportunity to rhetorically constitute public support for President Reagan's initiative to arm Afghanistan.


Background and Purpose— Hypothermia might prove to be therapeutically beneficial in stroke victims; however, even mild hypothermia provokes vigorous shivering. Meperidine and dexmedetomidine each linearly reduce the shivering threshold (triggering core temperature) with minimal sedation. We tested the hypothesis that meperidine and dexmedetomidine synergistically reduce the shivering threshold without producing substantial sedation or respiratory depression. Methods— We studied 10 healthy male volunteers (18 to 40 years) on 4 days: (1) control (no drug); (2) meperidine (target plasma level 0.3 &mgr;g/mL); (3) dexmedetomidine (target plasma level 0.4 ng/mL); and (4) meperidine plus dexmedetomidine (target plasma levels of 0.3 &mgr;g/mL and 0.4 ng/mL, respectively). Lactated Ringer's solution (≈4°C) was infused through a central venous catheter to decrease tympanic membrane temperature by ≈2.5°C/h; mean skin temperature was maintained at 31°C. An increase in oxygen consumption >25% of baseline identified the shivering threshold. Sedation was evaluated by using the Observer's Assessment of Sedation/Alertness scale. Two-way repeated-measures ANOVA was used to identify interactions between drugs. Data are presented as mean±SD;P <0.05 was statistically significant. Results— The shivering thresholds on the study days were as follows: control, 36.7±0.3°C; dexmedetomidine, 36.0±0.5°C (P <0.001 from control); meperidine, 35.5±0.6°C (P <0.001); and meperidine plus dexmedetomidine, 34.7±0.6°C (P <0.001). Although meperidine and dexmedetomidine each reduced the shivering threshold, their interaction was not synergistic but additive (P =0.19). There was trivial sedation with either drug alone or in combination. Respiratory rate and end-tidal Pco2 were well preserved on all days. Conclusions— Dexmedetomidine and meperidine additively reduce the shivering threshold; in the small doses tested, the combination produced only mild sedation and no respiratory toxicity.


During the last few years, we have been exploring the potential of aqueous methylcellulose solutions as materials which can absorb the energy of shocks and mechanical impacts. This paper provides an overview of the key steps of this exploration, which includes the basic mechanical properties of methylcellulose hydrogels, the mechanism by which solutions of methylcellulose are thought to perform the impact-energy mitigation, and some more advanced work in compositing these materials with additives whose role is to improve performance in fields requiring a significant material response and high attenuation of shock energy.


The paper looks on Drosophila melangaster as the experiment material, and studies the effect of lipids on the lifespan and the content of lipofuscin. As a result, lipids can lengthen the average lifespan of Drosophila melangaster obviously, decrease the lipofuscin content of salivary gland cell. It further accounts the mechanism of post poning decrepit.


L-Methionine, L-methionine sulfone, L-methionine-SR-sulfoxide, L-methionine-SR-sulfoximine, DL-ethionine-SR-sulfoximine, DL-prothionine-SR-sulfoximine, DL-buthionine-SR-sulfoximine, α-methyl-DL-methionine-SR-sulfoximine, α-ethyl-DL-methionine-SR-sulfoximine and β-methyl-DL-methionine-SR-sulfoximine were subjected to chemical ionization mass spectral analysis using isobutane as reactant. The resulting fragmentation patterns are discussed in relation to differences in structural and chemical properties. It was found that the sulfoximines exhibit chemical ionization mass spectra that are unique among amino acids.


Abstract The Ordnance Survey is now not only a major map producer but a publisher. Its product range includes material previously only supplied by the commercial map makers. Through the use of new technology even greater market opportunities will come the way of the Survey. It could transform the way we think of maps and the way in which we buy them. If the commercial sector are to prosper then they too will have to start planning for the future.


Washing machine of soaking and rushing is applied extensive in production front of filling liquid,it is always used to wash returned glass bottles.It is composed of complicated mechanism,mechanism of push bottles ahead is importance.Analyze and inquire into plans for push bottles ahead,sum up its design keys,it contributes to washing machine in a series of design and technology transform.


The article is devoted to the analysis of sociological questioning data of mothers in Makhachkala for revealing the socially-hygienic conditions and way of life of children, revealing groups with a different level of health. According to interrogation it is established, that 26,4 % have some vital restrictions connected with deviations of health. It is noted, that sick children have insufficient weight almost in 3 times more often, in 9 times lag physical activity than healthy children.


This paper compares neural networks, specifically Unet, MobileNetV2, VGG16 and YOLOv4-tiny, for image segmentation as part of a study aimed at finding an optimal solution for price tag data analysis. The neural networks considered were trained on an individual dataset collected by the authors. Additionally, this paper covers the automatic image text recognition approach using EasyOCR API. Research revealed that the optimal network for segmentation is YOLOv4-tiny, featuring a cross validation accuracy of 96.92%. EasyOCR accuracy was also calculated and is 95.22%.


ABSTRACT This paper discusses the extent to which the science of urban climatology has informed local climate change strategies in four city case studies – Stuttgart, Tokyo, New York City, and Manchester. The paper draws on historical and contemporary policy documents along with 60 interviews with practitioners, city officials, politicians, and academics in order to understand the use or non-use of urban climatology science in local climate change strategies. It explores the historic successes and failures of urban climate management of the cities and how the impact of global climate change and perception of risk, local competency and capacity, national programmes, and the involvement of cities in networks influences the application, stabilization, and institutionalization of urban climatology into climate change strategies. It concludes by highlighting the high levels of variability present and potential reasons for local policy engagement or non-engagement in the use of urban climatology science.


in cell Here the investigators present the results of a clinical ran-ery domized phase III study in which granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) was applied concomi-once tantly with chemotherapy with the objective of efficacy. GM-CSF was also given after che-start motherapy to accelerate myeloid recovery and mitigate mor-dropped bidity and mortality.


How we determine the quality of online education in the classroom is of primary concern for all institutions and organizations providing continuing education via new technologies. Recent statistics from the National Center for Educational Statistics reveals that enrollment in distance learning courses roughly doubled in two years from 754,000 to 1.6 million. With heightened enrollments come heightened expectations from adult learners that the quality of their online instruction will be (at minimum) equivalent to that which they can obtain in traditional learning environments. Despite the lack of national standards (at present) for delivering online educational courses, there are effective (and peer-reviewed) strategies that online faculty can use to measure and ensure an effective online classroom experience for the learner. This session will explain those strategies, and provide models for other faculty to use in their online classroom experiences.


The credibility of criminal illegal evidence is quite a complicated issue in criminal action which embodies the confliction of duple litigation purposes——punishing crime and guaranteeing human rights. To establish a comprehensive exclusive rule of illegal evidence has become a worldwide tendency with the development of procedual democracy.Based on China's actual conditions,the author presents a conception of legislation that two steps should be adopted to establish an exclusive rule of illegal evidence in China.


Sore throat after tracheal intubation impairs postoperative recovery. We randomly allocated 172 ASA physical status 1–2 participants, scheduled for laparoscopic lower abdominal surgery, to tracheal intubation with larger tubes (n = 88) or smaller tubes (n = 84), with internal diameters 7.5‐mm vs. 6.5‐mm for men and 7.0‐mm vs. 6.0‐mm for women. Primary outcome was the rates of no, mild, moderate or severe sore throat 1 h after surgery, which were 60, 10, 17 and 1 with larger tracheal tubes and 79, 5, 0 and 0 with smaller tubes, p < 0.001. The equivalent rates 24 h after surgery were 64, 16, 8 and 0 vs. 74, 6, 3 and 1, p = 0.037. Intra‐operative ventilatory variables were unaffected by tube diameter, including peak inspiratory pressure, plateau pressure and end‐tidal carbon dioxide partial pressure. In summary, smaller tracheal tubes benefitted patients having laparoscopic operations.


Nevertheless, during the last one and one-half decades, considerable progress has been made in the management of people with epilepsy in India. Investigational facilities such as electroencephalography (EEG), computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans are available in most major cities. Antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), including several of the new ones are widely available. Over 1500 surgeries for medically refractory epilepsy have been performed during the last 10 years, which is several fold more than those undertaken during the previous 50 years. The burden of epilepsy Recent community-based surveys have shown that epidemiological indices of epilepsy in India are comparable to those from developed countries, with a prevalence rate of ~5 per 1000 2,3 and incidence rate of ~50 per 100,000. 4 With around 1000 neurologists and ~5 million people with epilepsy, in India, there would be approximately 1 neurologist to take care of ~5000 persons with epilepsy. While 70% of the Indian population resides in rural areas, nearly all neurologists practice at or close to big cities and towns. A majority of people with epilepsy in India are therefore managed by primary and secondary care physicians with very little knowledge of the present day management of the epilepsies. In general, patients in India pay for medical care from their own resources. Epidemiological studies from rural parts of India have found that the medical treatment gap, which is defined as the proportion of persons with active epilepsy in the population who have never received AED treatment, is around 70%. 4,5


A variable inductor with magnetorheological (MR) fluid has been successfully applied to power electronics applications; however, its thermal characteristics have not been investigated. To evaluate the performance of the variable inductor with respect to temperature, we measured the characteristics of temperature rise and developed a numerical analysis technique. The characteristics of temperature rise were determined experimentally and verified numerically by adopting a multiphysics analysis technique. In order to accurately estimate the temperature distribution in a variable inductor with an MR fluid-gap, the thermal solver should import the heat source from the electromagnetic solver to solve the eddy current problem. To improve accuracy, the B–H curves of the MR fluid under operating temperature were obtained using the magnetic property measurement system. In addition, the Steinmetz equation was applied to evaluate the core loss in a ferrite core. The predicted temperature rise for a variable inductor showed good agreement with the experimental data and the developed numerical technique can be employed to design a variable inductor with a high-frequency pulsed voltage source.


Objective
To study the clinical, electrophysiological, athological and genomic features of hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies (HNPP) and increase the understanding and diagnostic level of this disease.

Methods
Eleven patients with HNPP, met Gouider diagnostic criteria and admitted to our hospital from March 1999 to December 2014, accepted detailed clinical examinations, electromyogram, sural nerve biopsies. Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification was used to detect peripheral myelinprotein 22(PMP22) gene deletion on chromosome 17P11.2.

Results
Eight patients came from two families and it was consistent with automsomal dominant inheritance. Age at onset was on teen-agers. Clinical manifestations were characterized by recurrent mononeruopathies. Symptoms often disappeared spontaneously after a few days or a few months. Nerve conduction studies showed a sensori-motor demyelinating polyneuropathy with conduction abnormalities preferentially localized at common entrapment sites. The nerve biopsy showed the presence of some large thickened myelinated fibers, but the axons were normal. Gene mutation analysis showed that two patients had large fragment tandem deletions containing PMP22.

Conclusions
Although HNPP is concerned with heredity, there are also some sporadic cases to be found. Electrophysiologic examination is an important screen method. The definitive diagnosis is dependent on PMP22 mutation detection.

Key words:
Herediary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsy; Nerve electrophysiology; Gene mutation


The 10at% Yb-YAP crystal has been grown by the Czochralski method. The absorption and emission spectra and fluorescence lifetime of Yb:YAP crystal at room temperature were studied. There is a strong absorption band centered at 959 nm and the absorption cross-section of 1.51 t 10-20 cm2. The emission cross-section at 1040 nm is 0.6 t 10-20 cm2 and the fluorescence lifetime is about 1.2 ms. The effects of O2-annealing on the spectral properties were studied. The spectroscopic properties strongly depended on the axis direction and b axis was the best direction for laser output. The spectrum parameters of Yb:YAP and Yb:YAG crystal were compared.}


The paper analyzes the causes and lessons of the US financial crisis,discusses Chinese companies' current profit model,the procyclical effect of fair value and risk of options and futures in post-financial-crisis era,and offers some suggestions.


Acid dewpoints were calculated from SO 2 -to-SO 3 conversion in gas turbine exhaust. These data can be used as guidelines in setting feedwater temperatures in combined-cycle systems. Accurate settings can prevent corrosion of heat-exchanger (boiler) tubes, thus extending their life time. This study was done using gas turbine engines and a laboratory generator set. The units burned marine diesel or diesel No. 2 fuel with sulfur contents up to 1.3 percent. The exhaust from these systems contained an excess of 20 percent oxygen, and 3-10 percent water vapor. Exhaust temperatures randes from 728 to 893 K (455 to 620 o C)


Tricyclic dihydropyridines like ZM244085 are potential KATP channel openers. In this study 3-cyanophenyl ring of ZM244085 was replaced with imidazolyl ring. So, 9-[1-benzyl-5-(alkylsulfonyl)-1H-2-imidazolyl]perhydro-1,8-acridinediones (5d-f) were synthesized from 2-alkylsulfonyl-1-benzyl-5-formylimidazole (4d-f) and cyclohexane-1,3-dione according to classical Hantzch synthesis as potential potassium channel modulators.


The rate of the solvent extraction of iron(III) in 4.0 M perchlorate ionic media with 2-thenoyltrifluoroacetone (TTA) into carbon tetrachloride has been measured under various conditions. The rate was found to be first order with respect to the concentration of iron(III) in the aqueous phase, first-order with respect to TTA in the organic phase, but independent and inversely first-order with respect to the hydrogen-ion concentration. From these results, it was concluded that the rate-determining step in this extraction is the formation of the first complex between the undissociated form, TTA(HA), and Fe3+ in the higher acid concentration range, but that the reaction between the anionic form, TTA(A−), and Fe3+ also becomes a rate-determining step as the acid concentration decreases. It was also found that chloride ions accelerate the extraction; this was interpreted by more rapid reactions between TTA (in the both forms, HA and A−) and an iron(III) chloride complex. From these results, the rate constants f...


Background:In the information technology advance era with constantly expanded knowledge and the requirements of the general public for school education, a lot of different education ideas are introduced in the education reforms, such as school-based characteristic curriculum, teachers' professional development, professional learning community, learning community, and flip education. Teachers, as knowledge disseminators, therefore are encountering the problem of enhancing the competitiveness. Constant learning has become an important part of teachers pursuing excellence and promoting teacher efficacy in the career. They have to constantly absorb new knowledge to conform to modern demands for professionalized teachers.Materials and methods:Aiming at universities in Indonesia, total 500 copies of questionnaires are distributed and 347 effective ones are responded, with the retrieval rate 69%.Results:The research results show significant correlations between 1.knowledge share and creative teaching, 2.creative teaching and teacher efficacy, and 3.knowledge share and teacher efficacy.Conclusions:Aiming at the results, suggestions are proposed in this study, expecting to promote teachers' creative, active, and innovative teaching methods or teaching contents.


Several gas prospects are recognised in formations of Miocene and younger age in Block 22, which is situated to the north of Tobago in water depths of 600 to 4200 ft. The block is covered by a recent 3D seismic survey (fig 1). No wells have yet been drilled on the block. Seismic stacking velocities have been used to create 3D volumes of estimated pore pressure over the prospects, and hence to estimate pore pressure profiles in advance of drilling the first wells. Calibration is provided by wells to the south which have been tied to the 3D survey by 2D lines shot at the same time as the 3D survey and with the same parameters.


Services vary significantly. Some services require high level of customization while others are focusing on standardization as the main objective. Customized services absolutely require service providers' creativity in meeting the customers' expectation. Studies have shown that Emotional Intelligence (EI) can be used to enhance service providers' innovator role. Therefore, this study aims at investigating the moderating effect of service types on the relationship between EI factors (self emotional appraisal, others' emotional appraisal, regulation of emotion, and use of emotion) and employees' innovator role. Analyses of 167 responses revealed that the differential slopes of the moderator-based subgroups for the relationship between self emotional appraisal (SEA) and innovator role were significant. The findings highlight the importance of EI for employees in different service types to enhance their innovator role.


Be a via-on-via and the via, and on-chip high-density packaging is possible, and also illustrates the multi-layer wiring board, the base material for multi-layer wiring board (基材) and a method of manufacturing the same capable of easily multilayer baeseonhwa a flexible FPC. This multilayer wiring board is made of a base material for a plurality of multi-layer wiring board flexible foil (2) on one surface of the resin film 1 having the property of the adhesive, and the adhesive layer 3 is formed on the other surface, a copper foil (2) a resin film (1) and leading from the copper foil (2) side in the through hole (7) of the adhesive layer 3 is copper plated resin film 10, and the copper plated resin film 10, a through hole 7 formed so as to penetrate through the (8b) it is made to include the conductive paste (8) embedded in the screen printing so as to protrude on the side of the adhesive layer 3. Multi-layer wiring board, the base material for multi-layer wiring board, a resin film, a copper foil, an adhesive layer, the through-hole, the conductive paste, the brim, the via on-via, the via on-chip, FPC


Abstract To prepare fine powders of oxides, supercritical fluid drying was applied. As the case of point, Y–Ba–Cu complex oxide was taken up. A suspension of Y–Ba–Cu complex oxide was synthesized by simultaneous hydrolyzation of 2-propanol solution of yttrium triisopropoxide–barium diisopropoxide–copper diisopropoxide. The supercritical fluid drying by carbon dioxide was confirmed to dry the suspensions, expecting no aggregation of particles throughout the drying procedure. First of all, solubilities of 2-propanol, water, and aqueous 2-propanol solution in high pressure carbon dioxide were measured. Judging from the observed solubilities, temperatures, and pressures in drying conditions were determined. The drying rates were measured and the dried powders were characterized by DTA, TGA, and SEM. The results of these experiments suggested that the supercritical fluid drying process is useful for drying of the suspensions of superconducting compound prepared by hydrolyzation of alkoxides.


In this study on the sustainable use of technology at education, our proposal is to discuss the importance that they have for the development of individuals, whether in dis- tance learning, with the use of social networks and technological context in educational communication. The study was made by means of qualitative analysis through participation in professional organizations and educational institutions from public and private areas. Data for this research were obtained through the responses of the individuals surveyed. The category of study developed out exploratory through the internet questionnaire (survey), addressed to teachers, researchers and professionals in the management of these institu-tions, using a sequence of predetermined questions. This study on education and sustaina-ble use of technologies aimed determinedly to propose improvements to the quality of edu-cation, addressing distance learning, social networking and educational communication. The main contributions of this study are to recognize that ICTs contribute a higher quality education resources and tools for bringing education.


This paper examines the consistency of the exact scaling laws for isotropic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence in numerical simulations with large magnetic Prandtl numbers Pm and with Pm = 1. The exact laws are used to elucidate the structure of the magnetic and velocity fields. Despite the linear scaling of certain third-order correlation functions, the situation is not analogous to the case of Kolmogorov turbulence. The magnetic field is adequately described by a model of a stripy (folded) field with direction reversals at the resistive scale. At currently available resolutions, the cascade of kinetic energy is short-circuited by the direct exchange of energy between the forcing-scale motions and the stripy magnetic fields. This non-local interaction is the defining feature of isotropic MHD turbulence.


Abstract Some recent results concerning generation and asymptotic properties of stochastic semigroups are presented. The general results are applied to biological models described by piecewise deterministic Markov processes: birth-death processes, the evolution of the genome, genes expression and physiologically structured models.


The U.S. presidential election in 2012 was between the curren president and democrat BarackObama and the republican Mitt Romney. On November 6, 2012, it was clear that BarackObama was re-elected as ...


The cyclization of cis-3-thiocyanoacrylamide to isothiazol-3-one has been studied over the pH range 0-5.5 and it is shown that two cyclization mechanisms exist. Within the pH range 5.5-3.5, the only important mechanism is one involving a rapid, unimolecular cyclization of the thiocyanoacrylamide anion, while at pH less than 3.00, the process is essentially a slow cyclization of the neutral molecule, followed by rapid proton loss. The large rate difference between the two mechanisms is ascribed to a lowering of ΔF* in the anion cyclization mechanism by a more favourable TΔS* term, and possible reasons for this are discussed.


Present invention, in particular, motorway, public roads, a method and an apparatus for condensed fog on bypass roads and railways dissipation. This method, sonic strong level, and ultrasound to generate an electromagnetic wave, which utilizes the sound field formed by radiating a selected open spaces creating a condensate of fog and mist particles. Waves, move them to act on the particles, creating a clot, create new condensation product thereof is further grown.


At a press conference in Frankfurt last week, Hoechst executives ignored what was on everyone's minds—the rumored merger of Hoechst's life sciences operations with those of Rhone-Poulenc—and instead announced the spin-off of its chemicals operations into an independent company called Celanese A.G. "The planned demerger is the most direct, fastest, and most favorable way to achieve our goal of transforming Hoechst into a leading life sciences company," explained Jurgen Dormann, chairman of the Hoechst board of directors. Pending shareholders' approval, which will be sought at a special Jan. 22, 1999, meeting, the spin-off is expected to be finalized by the end of March of next year. Hoechst shareholders will be issued one share of Celanese stock for every 10 shares of Hoechst held. The new company will have 15,000 employees worldwide and annual sales of about $5.75 billion. That level of sales will put Celanese comfortably in the middle rankings of C&EN's ...


Shanxi, such as Peter Torjesen, a Norwegian who first went to Shanxi in 1920. Torjesen was killed when a Japanese bomb was dropped on his home in the city of Hequ in 1939, but, as seen in the last chapter, his grandson, Finn S. Torjesen, resumed his family's legacy of mission work in the province in the 1990s when he was invited by the Shanxi government to establish Evergreen Family Friendship Service, "a Christian development organization" (239). The story of the Shanxi Protestant church after the missionaries were forced out of China is the topic of the final chapter. The perceptive reader may notice a change in source material. With missionaries no longer present, their ubiquitous reports and letters home are not available to the historian. In this chapter, Kaiser relies on some reports in Chinese, but more on his own experience living in Shanxi and interacting with church and civic leaders for years. It is clear throughout the text, but especially in this final chapter, that the author is intimately familiar with the Shanxi landscape, a product of time in the province. Maps of the province and of Taiyuan, the capital city and focus of much of the discussion, would be helpful for readers not as knowledgeable of the geographic context. As is the case with the other titles in this series, the prose of this book is not overly academic, but the scholarship is solid, if not theoretical. The book is not aimed at specialists, but could be paired with Henrietta Harrison's wonderful history of Catholicism in Shanxi for an overview of the province's Christian history (The Missionary's Curse and Other Tales from a Chinese Catholic Village [University of California Press, 2013]).


polymerizing 1,3-butadiene monomer and butadiene derivatives in the presence of a nonpolar solvent using a transition metal Ziegler-Natta catalyst or a rare earth metal Ziegler-Natta catalyst as a polymerization catalyst to prepare polybutadiene having high 1,4-cis content of at least 92%; and, introducing hydroxyl groups at the ends of polybutadiene using molecular oxygen as a modifier.