Electronic device (1) it is configured to be controlled entirely by the engine (11). The engine unit 11 is provided with a DRAM (24) is used as a cache memory of the working memory and the data storage unit 15 in the CPU (21). Data storage unit 15 has a sleep (sleep) functions to save power. The data storage unit 15, it is determined whether the case that requires a data read / write when the sleep mode, the engine unit 11 is a data read / write processing can be performed in a cache area of the DRAM (24), when it is determined that can be performed by the engine unit 11, the bar, it is the data read / write processing without having to return the data storage unit 15 from its sleep mode is performed only on a cache area of the DRAM (24).


Simple Summary The versatile crosstalk between cancer cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) of the tumour microenvironment (TME) drives colorectal carcinogenesis and heterogeneity. Colorectal cancer (CRC) can be classified by the anatomical sites from which the cancer arises, either from the right or left colon. Although the cancer cell–CAF interaction is being widely studied, its role in the progression of cancer in the right and left colon and cancer heterogeneity are still yet to be elucidated. Further insight into the complex interaction between different cellular components in the cancer niche, their evolutionary process and their influence on cancer progression would propel the discovery of effective targeted CRC therapy. Abstract Cancer is a result of a dynamic evolutionary process. It is composed of cancer cells and the tumour microenvironment (TME). One of the major cellular constituents of TME, cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are known to interact with cancer cells and promote colorectal carcinogenesis. The accumulation of these activated fibroblasts is linked to poor diagnosis in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients and recurrence of the disease. However, the interplay between cancer cells and CAFs is yet to be described, especially in relation to the sidedness of colorectal carcinogenesis. CRC, which is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer globally, can be classified according to the anatomical region from which they originate: left-sided (LCRC) and right-sided CRC (RCR). Both cancers differ in many aspects, including in histology, evolution, and molecular signatures. Despite occurring at lower frequency, RCRC is often associated with worse diagnosis compared to LCRC. The differences in molecular profiles between RCRC and LCRC also influence the mode of treatment that can be used to specifically target these cancer entities. A better understanding of the cancer cell–CAF interplay and its association with RCRC and LRCR progression will provide better insight into potential translational aspects of targeted treatment for CRC.


Abstract A recent study has shown that in marine conditions micro-pitting in mild steel is present very early after first immersion and that macro-pitting usually does not become significant until ...


INTRODUCTION
Tonic carotid body (CB) activity is reduced during exposure to cold and hyperoxia. We tested the hypotheses that cold water diving lowers CB chemosensitivity and augments CO2 retention more than thermoneutral diving.

METHODS
Thirteen subjects (age: 26±4 y; BMI: 26±2 kg/m2) completed two, four-hour head out water immersion protocols in a hyperbaric chamber (1.6 ATA) in cold (15°C) and thermoneutral (25°C) water. CB chemosensitivity was assessed using brief hypercapnic ventilatory response (CBCO2) and hypoxic ventilatory response (CBO2) tests pre-dive, 80 and 160 min into the dives (D80 and D160, respectively), immediately following and 60 min post-dive. Data are reported as an absolute mean (SD) change from pre-dive.

RESULTS
End-tidal CO2 pressure increased during both the thermoneutral water dive (D160: +2(3) mmHg; p=0.02) and cold water dive (D160: +1(2) mmHg; p=0.03). Ventilationincreased during the cold water dive (D80: 4.13(4.38) and D160: 7.75(5.23) L·min-1; both p<0.01) and was greater than the thermoneutral water dive at both time points (both p<0.01). CBCO2 was unchanged during the dive (p=0.24) and was not different between conditions (p=0.23). CBO2 decreased during the thermonutral water dive (D80: -3.45(3.61) and D160: -2.76(4.04) L·min·mmHg-1; p<0.01 and p=0.03, respectively), but not the cold water dive. However, CBO2 was not different between conditions (p=0.17).

CONCLUSION
CB chemosensitivity was not attenuated during the cold stress diving condition and does not appear to contribute to changes in ventilation or CO2 retention.


The fire frequency in the Amazon increased rapidly after the 1990s due to deforestation and forest degradation, and it is expected to increase in response to climate change. We analyzed the fire occurrence and assessed seven fire hazard indices in the municipality of Canaã dos Carajás, in the eastern Amazon, for different land use and land cover (LULC) types. We used data from three weather stations located at different heights to compare the performance of the indices using skill scores and success percentages for each LULC. Overall most hotspots occurred in deforested areas and native forests, which were the main LULC types, while few were observed in rupestrian fields, urban areas, and mining areas. However, forests presented the lowest number of hotspots per unit area, especially inside protected areas, and all hotspots in forest areas were observed after a severe drought in 2015. The performance of the fire indices varied as a function of the LULC class and the weather station considered, which indicates the importance of choosing the most appropriate location of the station according to the purpose of the monitoring. The Keetch-Byram Drought Index showed the best performance for predicting fire occurrence for all LULC classes, and forests and deforested areas individually. Despite its simplicity, the Angstrom index stood out due to its good performance in the prediction of days with more than six hotspots.


Identifying weak points of network systems and protecting them (before attackers or hackers detect and use our data to attack our systems) are regarded as essential security methods, especially on the LAN system which uses ARP protocol with holes enabling hackers to conduct ARP spoof and sniff packets on the LAN systems. Regarding Web sites with membership systems such as e-commerce Web sites and Web sites with e-mail systems such as Hotmail and Gmail, every time users click links, browsers will send away HTTP requests which contain cookies and session ID. If hackers successfully sniff cookies and session ID of any member, they will be able to access the member's system by the right of that member. This type of attacks can be prevented by using static ARP, detecting ARP spoof using IDS, or using anti sniff type programs to scan for the computer which is sniffing the data. Although sniffing data is harmful, it sometimes needs to be conducted for some purposes, e.g. confidential affair job (sniffing terrorists' data) etc. This research aims to study techniques in sniffing data on the LAN system without using ARP spoof. The results are as follows. (1) The victims cannot detect hackers by using IDS. (2) Static ARP cannot prevent sniffing data by this method. (3) The hacker's computer cannot be scanned and found by using anti sniff type programs. MAC address and IP address values are set to coincide with gateway MAC address and gateway IP address respectively. Only two basic programs-Ping and Ethereal are used. Ethereal is used to sniff the data, and Ping command is used to send Packets to deceive the switch port that gateway is connecting with the port that we are connecting. This process is to alternate with stop ping (wait) in order to enable the system to function normally on occasions. This method is tested in sniffing the victim's cookies while the victim is clicking links to open the mailboxes of Gmail and Hotmail. The result shows that the number of the sniffed cookies is approximately 20-35%, comparing with the number of the cookies sent to the Internet by the victim. The number of sniffed cookies also depends on other factors such as periods of stop ping (wait) and brands of switch. We have conducted the experiment with three brands of switch consisting of Cisco, 3COM and SMC. It is found that using Cisco brand provides the potentiality to get the largest amount of cookies. In contrast, using SMC brand provides the potentiality to get the smallest amount of cookies. And when Ping sending is tested, switching with wait for 1, 2, 3, ....., 40 seconds, it is found that when we wait for 1-2 seconds, the user will feel that the network system encounters a problem, and Login and Logout process takes longer time than usual. However, the proportion of the sniffed cookies is high (about 30-35%). When the Wait value is set higher, the chance to get cookies decreases, but the victim will not feel the abnormality (setting the wait value at 7-10 seconds, the sniffed Cookies will be about 20% of all cookies).


e report an unusual case of sickle cell anemia (SCA) associated with glycogen storage disease (GSD) type 1a. A 4-year-old boy was diagnosed with SCA at the age of 2 months after an episode of chest infection. At the age of one year he developed hand and foot syndrome followed by acute chest syndrome and one episode of aplastic crisis. He required several blood transfusions and exchange transfusion. There was no history of jaundice, abdominal pain, joint pain or seizures. Developmental history revealed a motor delay in which he walked at the age of 2-years, while other aspects of development were normal. Parents were first cousins. He had a brother who died at the age of 9-months due to an unidentified metabolic disease associated with hepatomegaly, hypoglycemia and developmental delay. Another living, younger brother who experienced hypoglycemia and convulsions, and thereafter he was diagnosed with GSD. Both brothers were not sicklers. Upon examination the child looked stunted, pale, not jaundiced with a dull's face, protuberant abdomen and thin upper and lower limbs. His growth parameters were all below the fifth percentile of the growth chart, while vitals were normal. Chest examination was normal, with hyperdynamic precordium. Abdomen was hugely distended with a liver span of 16 cms, but no splenomegaly, ascites or renal masses. Central nervous system examination was normal. Laboratory investigations showed hemoglobin 6.2 g/dl, platelets 306x109/L corrected white blood cells 17 x 109/L predominantly neutrophils and reticulocytes of 15%. Peripheral blood film showed sickle cells, polychromasia, target cells and neutrophilia. Hemoglobin electrophoresis revealed homozygous S/S band. ABG, during chest infection, pH was 7.2; PCO2 10.26; BE 16.37 with O2 saturation of 95%. Urea and electrolytes were normal. Tests for toxoplasmosis, rubella, cytomegalovirus, syphilis, hepatitis B and C, human immunodeficiency virus, repeated bacterial and virology cultures were negative. Asymptomatic hypoglycemia was noticed on several occasions of illnesses where random glucose levels were 2.7, 1.4, 1.8, 0.7, 1.3 mmol. LFT showed a total bilirubin of 19 mcmol/l with the direct portion of 4 mcmol/l, alanine aminotransferase 277u/l; aspartate transaminase 375u/l; GGT 225u/l; total protein, 77g/l; albumin fraction, 38g/l and serum lactic acid 4.3 (↑) (NR 0.4 -2), serum triglycerides 6.61 mmol/l (↑), serum cholesterol 4.34 mmol/l (N) and serum uric acid 475 mcmol/l (↑). Chest x-ray showed cardiomegaly, with residuals of pneumonic changes. Electrocardiogram revealed sinus rhythm at a rate of 150 and left ventricular hypertrophy. Echocardiogram, showed dilated cardiomyopathy involving mainly the left atrium, left ventricle, with no evidence of pericardial effusion. Abdominal ultrasound revealed hyper echoic enlarged liver, possibly due to metabolic disease. No evidence of gall stones. Computerized tomography scan of the abdomen revealed the same findings in addition to bilaterally enlarged kidneys with no evidence of acute or chronic Budd-Chiari syndrome. Liver biopsy showed normal architecture, unremarkable portal tracts; the parenchyma showed swollen hepatocytes full of glycogen as shown by para-aminosalicylic acid (PAS) and nuclear inclusion positive for PAS were also seen. Electron microscopy showed centrally located nucleus of hepatocytes with prominent nucleoli in some. The cytoplasm is largely occupied by glycogen particles, rosettes which are not membrane bound. Glycogen nuclear inclusions are also seen. There are a few other cytoplasmic organelles such as mitochondria, smooth and rough cytoplasmic reticulum. Some hepatocytes exhibit large lipid droplets. The diagnosis was consistent with GSD most likely type 1a. The patient was treated with the usual protocols for sickle cell patients in addition to uncooked corn starch overnight, which will improve his growth, liver size and correct hypoglycemia. Both sickle cell anemia and GSD are autosomal recessive conditions; however the ß-globin gene cluster on chromosome 11 and the GSD type 1-a gene is located on chromosome 17q21; therefore, there is a little chance of linked inheritance. The unusual co-occurrence of sickle and GSDs prompt speculation regarding the effect of one disease on the course of the other and the effect of both diseases on one child. Although, hepatomegaly is found in more than 90% of patients with SCA and sickling crisis can affect the liver in approximately 10% of patients,1 this was not the condition in our case. We have excluded all other diseases which cause such a huge liver especially hepatic sequestration, Budd-Chiari syndrome, other metabolic storage disorders such as Niemann-Pick disease,


The "Ruled Surfaces" chapter of Descriptive Geometry, the subject of this work, belongs to the applicable part of this matter and, although it attracts the interest of the student, it is considered as having a high level of difficulty. The presentation in 3D of the ruled surfaces, axonometric, apply the intuition of onlooker and this is why provides a complete sight of the subject however complicate would be. The successive transformation of that, in 2D images, meaning in orthogonal projections, can easily be done by using the AutoCAD 3D or other programs which makes possible to use 3D animation. This manner of presenting simultaneously the two methods to visualize can provide a certain easiness to discern the main orthogonal projections in a unit space and can lead to obtain the capacity to represent in orthogonal projection on any plane of the objects however complicated they are. The authors also consider that the representation based on the computer of the various types of surfaces, here those called "ruled", as well as the connection between the examples suggested to be solved and the most famous modern buildings could make this subject more attractive.


Topographic effect on remote sensed data in hilly and mountainous areas prevents from quantitative analysis, automated classification, scene segmentation and feature extract ion of satellite images. The feature and rules of topographic effect on digital remote sensing image are analyse~ and the models for topographic effect correction are described in this paper. Mainly the existing models for topographic effect correction are improved and a set of software for topographic effect correction on microcomputer is developed. The satisfactory experiment results of topographic effect correction of TM images are obtained.


Abstract Background and Aims COVID-19 infection is responsible for respiratory infection with variable clinical expression from its asymptomatic form to severe pneumonia associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome and death. Risk factors related to higher mortality are age over 65 years, cardiovascular, pulmonary and kidney disease, hypertension, and diabetes. There is limited scientific literature on COVID-19 infection and previous kidney disease, specifically in patients with glomerular and tubular kidney disease. The aim of this study was to determine general characteristics, analytical parameters and clinical evolution of patients with kidney disease who have undergone kidney biopsy and who presented infection or high suspicion of infection by COVID-19. Identify mortality and associated risk factors. Method we studied patients with high clinical suspicion of infection or confirmed infection by COVID-19 from March 2020 to May 15, 2020 of all patients who underwent percutaneous renal biopsy at the Vall d'Hebron Hospital between January 2013 and December 2019. Results 39 of the 553 patients have been diagnosed with COVID-19 infection since March 2020. The average age was 63±15 years and 48.7% were male. Hypertension was present in 79.5% of patients, chronic kidney disease without renal replacement therapy in 76.9%, and cardiovascular disease in 64.1%. Nasopharyngeal swab was performed in 26 patients; older patients (p=0.01), patients with hypertension (p=0.005), immunosuppression (p=0.01), use of RAS-blocking drugs (p=0.04) and gastrointestinal symptoms (p=0.02) were more likely to be tested for COVID-19. 22 patients required hospitalization and 15.4% died. In the bivariate analysis, mortality was associated with older age (p=0.03), cardiovascular disease (p=0.05), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (p=0.05) and low hemoglobin levels (p=0.006). Adjusted Cox regression showed that low hemoglobin levels (10.12±1.89g/dL) at admission had 1.81 greater risk of mortality [1.04-3.13; p=0.04]. Conclusion Patients with COVID-19 infection and kidney disease confirmed by kidney biopsy presented mortality of 15.4%. Swab test for COVID-19 was more likely to be performed in older, hypertensive, use of RAS-blocking drugs, immunosuppressed patients and those with gastrointestinal symptoms. Low hemoglobin is a risk factor for mortality.


A hybrid-control approach for operation of a pendulum-car mechanical system that improves the unstable control phenomenon within a limited length of car position is presented. The proposed hybrid-control approach combines a fuzzy logic control approach and a linear state-feedback control approach to obtain the desired performance. The experimental system has been designed and its control system implemented into a 16-b personal computer with successful operation from a downward stable position to an upright holding position. >


In driving simulation the driver looks through the windscreen into the virtual world. Besides of the content that is displayed the quality of the display system, i.e. the projector used, plays an important role. It influences the perception of the driver and thereby his behaviour. At BMW Group Research and Technology most recently three new display systems with a wide field of view were installed. Once the requirements were defined detailed tests with various projector types were done. This paper is a summary report of the work done and experience gained over the last years. This summary is independent of specific suppliers and focuses on principle characteristics. Different technologies of projectors as they are relevant for the use in driving simulation are mentioned including their basic properties. Human visual perception and spatial as well as temporal resolution is introduced. The various tests that were done with the projectors and their relevance to the use of driving simulation are addressed as well as experiences and aspects that have to be taken care of are mentioned. Finally the three new display systems for the dynamic driving simulator and the fixed base driving simulators in the Centre of Driving Simulation and Usability at BMW Group Research and Technology are outlined.


Off-grid power generation has been demonstrated in data centers through the deployment of site-specific centralized power plants utiLizing gas turbine or fuel cell-based power generation. Because power is centrally generated, power distribution requires a high voltage power grid within the data center with its ancillary storage and conditioning requirements and equipment. An alternative approach is a completely decentralized distributed power generation system in which fuel cells deployed within individual server racks provide power localized to that rack only. Among other advantages, such an approach also greatly increases the ability to modulate and control power to individual rack units. Because the Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) proposed in this approach are air-cooled and have extremely high air exhaust temperatures, of order 800 °C, the optimal energy efficient design of an overall localized fuel-cell power generation system should also consider the opportunities to recover and re-use the waste heat. This paper reports on the development of a coupled thermal-electrical model of a thermoelectric generator (TEG) based energy recovery system operating between the fuel cell hot exhaust air temperature and a warm water cooling system deployed within the rack for server cooling. The power generation system consisted of a TEG module sandwiched between a hot air heat exchanger and a colder water based heat exchanger. The design of the TEG module for maximum power generation is heavily coupled with thermal and electrical conditions. Distribution of temperature on generator surfaces change the optimum design, hence the optimization of generator system required co-optimization with the design of the heat exchangers. This paper presents the results of electro-thermal co-optimization, which considers the impact of the flow rates and temperatures of exhaust gas and cooling water, parallel and counter-flow arrangements, as well as the TEG packaging design including junctions, fractional area coverage, and substrate thickness.


Rotorcraft perform missions that include Aeromedical transport, search and rescue, law enforcement, and vitally important disaster relief missions, which are needed for this nation's safety and security. Unfortunately, the nation's airspace is becoming increasingly crowded and the Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) system is not readily able to cope with increases of IFR rotorcraft and future tilt rotor aircraft operations, which limits these crucial rotorcraft operations to times when the weather is good or exposes aircrews to additional risk when weather is poor. Simultaneous Non Interfering (SNI) operations will increase airspace capacity and enhance safety by exploiting new navigation technology as well as the capabilities of Vertical Flight (VF) aircraft. SNI will achieve increased capacity by using innovative VF airway routes, new VF terminal instrument procedures, and reduced required separation standards in selected terminal areas. In order for SNI to become a reality, methods for implementing theories need to be developed. This paper takes the concepts of past SNI studies one step further into the applied research and operational implementation phases. The FAA's goal is to incorporate SNI theories into methods, procedures and criteria that will improve the current ATC system. SNI is in its infancy, and the path to total SNI operations will be strewn with many obstacles, twists and changes, but some benefits provided by SNI theory is attainable in the very near future. This paper describes the FAA's proposed short, medium and long-range research, development, and implementation plans for SNI operations in the United States National Airspace System (NAS).


Introduction to the Historia Apollonii sources and analogues the circulation of the Apollonius story in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance the influence of HA problems in the plot genre, reception and popularity text of the Historia Apollonii with facing translation. Appendices: Latin and vernacular versions of HA to 1609 medieval and Renaissance allusions to the story of Apollonius.


The utility model discloses a deepwater cable connection and distribution device which is characterized by comprising a housing and an inner cylinder, wherein the inner cylinder is coaxially arranged in the housing, each of the two axial ends of the inner cylinder is connected with at least one hose pressing joint in a sealed manner, the axial ends of the inner cylinder are connected with the corresponding axial ends of the housing in the sealed manner, and a waterproof sealant accommodating chamber is formed between the inner cylinder and the housing. The inner cylinder includes a cylinder cavity for accommodating overpressure-resistant seepage-preventive insulating silicone oil, each hose pressing joint includes a seal cavity connected with a cable unit, and the cylinder cavity is communicated with the seal cavities. The deepwater cable connection and distribution device can be used in the deepwater environment, has a good sealing effect, can effectively accelerate the cable maintenance, and thus improves the construction efficiency; and can be applied to connection of cable units of different conductor cross sections as well as connection of multi-cable units.


For cold rolling process, the theoretical Bland-Ford-Hill model and Hitchcock model are used for the rolling force and roll flatten radius calculation. Friction coefficient and deformation resistance are calculated with empirical regression models. From rolling force model, the recalculation model for the friction coefficient and deformation resistance can be derived. After rolling, with actual measured data, friction coefficient and deformation resistance can be recalculated, and model parameter can be got by regression method. The practical application verifies that the accuracy of rolling force calculation model is good.


In the molecule of the title compound, C31H27NO2, the dihydropyridine and cyclohexene rings adopt flattened-boat and envelope conformations, respectively. The molecules are linked by intermolecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming a chain structure.


The term "Global software development" refers to the process of creating software program which reduces development cost in any company. GSD helps agencies to leverage the blessings of multi-site improvement with respect to time, value and access to skilful aid. Current research shows that half of the businesses which have attempted international software program development have not realized the anticipated results. Software program projects are increasing number from nations with high prices to reduced offshore countries. They continue to delight in poor overall performance issues because of the inherent complexity and unpredictability of computer program jobs. The main motivation to write survey paper is to identify GSD-related issues and also mitigating solutions. This paper discusses the idea of early caution signs (EWS) to improve mission achievement rates, mainly in the precise onshore-offshore undertaking environment, which is exposed to higher task dangers. EWS provides a way to undertake assessment during initial stages. Several techniques and measures are recommended to control the failure of the project. As a result, understanding the potential difficulties and possible mitigation methods for GSD is critical to a project's success. This structure can be used as a starting point for further study of GSD.


The Social Security Administrative Body (BPJS) for Health is a legal entity established to administer a health insurance program with objective every inhabitant country get chance And equal rights in obtaining health services. However , based on data obtained from BPJS Health, it is recorded that there are 5 districts in Jambi Province that are in arrears in paying BPJS contributions . One of them is Jambi City happen arrears with the most dues of 76,909,256,816. According to the BPJS Health program rules, payment is requested no later than the 10th of each month. Hence the goal _ in study This is find out the determinants of arrears in payment of Health Social Security Administering Body contributions for independent participants in the city of Jambi.This study used a quantitative method with a cross-sectional research design. The sample in this study were 106 respondents using a purposive proportional random sampling technique. Data collection used a questionnaire and data analysis used univariate and bivariate (chi-square). The results of this study indicate that the majority of 61.3% of respondents are in arrears and based on statistical tests in this study indicate that there are factors related to arrears in BPJS contribution payments, namely income (0.000), knowledge (0.013), perception (0.011), and place of payment (0.002). There is a relationship between the variables where contributions are paid, income, knowledge and perceptions with BPJS contribution arrears.


Objective To study the application of cortical electrode,image fusion and intra-operative MRI navigation in surgical resection of epileptic lesions in the functional area.Methods Application of cortical electrode,image fusion and intra-operative MRI navigation in surgical resection of epileptic lesions in 25 patients with refractory epilepsy was retrospectively analyzed.Intracranial cortical electrodes were implanted into epileptic lesions of the patients according to their VEEG during the first operation.Their cortical electrical activity was monitored,cerebral motor area was located by cortical electrical stimulation,a figure of correlation between epileptic lesion and functional area was plotted after operation,images of CT,MRI,MEG or PET were fused,and the epilepsy lesions were precisely removed under microscopic MRI navigation.Results Cortical electrical stimulation was successful in 25 epilepsy patients during the first operation and the cortical motor area around the epileptic lesion was accurately located.The images of MRI,MEG or PET for the patients were fused.Of the 25 patients,20 underwent total resection of epileptic lesion and 5 underwent partial resection of the lesion under microscopic MRI navigation due to the overlapped lesion and functional area.The residual cortex was eradicated by thermal burn.Transient opposite extremity dysfunction was observed in 1 patient after operation.No permanent neurological deficit occurred in all patients after operation.Conclusion Accurate location of intracranial cortical electrodes is of great importance for monitoring epileptic lesions.Fusion of MRI,MEG or PET images and microscopic MRI navigation during operation can provide technical support for the precise resection of epileptic lesions and protection of the functional area.


Point pattern matching schemes for finger print recognition do not guarantee robust matching performance for fingerprint Images of poor quality We present a finger print recognition scheme, where transformation parameters of matched ridge pairs are estimated by Hough transform and the matching hypothesis is verified by a new measure of the matching degree using selective directional information Proposed method may exhibit extremely low FAR(False accept rate) while maintaining low reject rate even for the Images of poor quality because of the robustness to the variation of minutia points


Inlet pressure effects on the critical speed and vibration mode of hydrodynamic lubrication journal bearing-rotor system were investigated theoretically.By means of finite differential methods and appropriate boundary conditions,critical speed and vibration mode of hydrodynamic lubrication journal bearing-rotor system were computed,and numerical results were analyzed and compared.The result show that inlet pressure is very important in the analysis of the critical speed and vibration mode of of hydrodynamic lubrication journal bearing-rotor system.


This study investigated the gait patterns of volunteers affected by hallux valgus and compares the results with volunteers free from this or any other foot related deformity. The reason for this study was to analyze the differences in gait patterns from a strictly biomechanical perspective by studying the various forces acting on a foot during locomotion and to determine the factors which play a major role in the gait of hallux valgus affected people. The study also aims to determine the impact of this deformity on the gait patterns of affected individuals, the chances of injury, potential for adverse impact of this deformity as the person gets older and available remedial solutions. The primary action studied was a normal walk executed by the volunteers at a normal walking speed. The various forces generated by the volunteers were measured using a Kistler's force platform and the data generated was stored using a data acquisition board (DAQ). Further analysis of the graphs obtained was done using the Bioware software. The ground reaction forces, center of pressure, co-efficient of friction were the parameters which were
analyzed and compared for both sets of individuals. The result of the investigation was that gait of hallux valgus individual gets altered, with a change in the center of pressure, ground reaction forces and co-efficient of friction as compared to normal healthy subject. The affected
individuals walk was found to be less balanced and jerky. The people who have this deformity are most prone to ankle and knee injuries with increased risk of falling as the person gets older and the deformity is aggravated. The treatments methods available, their impact and after-effects
are also considered. Only surgery is a long term solution and the diagnosis and treatment of the deformity requires a detailed study into every individual case.


The effects of solution treatment process on the microstructure and properties of Al3Ti/7075 aluminum matrix composite were studied.The results show that the second phase particles MgZn2 exists in the aluminum matrix composite.The maximum microhardness of the aluminum matrix composite after solution trteatment at 480 ℃ for 5 h is 68.72 HV.The secondary phase particle dissolves back more with the increase of solution temperature and holding time,but recrystallization will occur,grains grow up.The microhardness of the composite reaches 83.46 HV after T6 artifical aging.


Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is a common symptom present in several clinical, mental and sleep disorders. However, its subjective metrics have been criticized in the literature due to lack of association with disorder severity, or disagreement with objective measures. Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) is a widely used questionnaire to evaluate EDS, however it may not be sufficient as a sole measure to identify cases of somnolence in the general population. Study objectives: To investigate the association between EDS with socio-demographic, body composition and PSG measures in the general population of São Paulo, Brazil.

 1,042 participants from a population-based epidemiological study underwent full in-lab PSG, questionnaires (ESS, fatigue, quality of life, depression and anxiety scales), bio impedance, socio-demographic and anthropometric measures at baseline and in the follow-up 9 years later. A univariate linear regression analysis including the whole sample (baseline and follow-up) was performed to analyze predictors of EDS and ESS score in the follow-up was the dependent variable. All variables with a p-value <0.15 were included in an exploratory factor analysis (principal component analysis with Varimax rotation) to assess the factorial structure of EDS.

 The results supported a five-factorial structure associated with EDS as follows: Factor 1 - Quality of life (Physical and Psychological domains of WHOQOL), Factor 2 – Fatigue (questions from Chalder Fatigue Scale concerning weakness, tiredness, lack of energy and less strength in the muscles), Factor 3 – PSG – sleep duration (wake after sleep onset, sleep efficiency, total time spent awake), Factor 4 – PSG – sleep structure (arousal index, N1 and N3 duration), Factor 5 – Body composition (body mass index). PSG variables related to sleep disordered breathing and movement disorders were not associated with EDS.

 EDS measured by ESS was associated with domains other than sleep disorders in the general population. ESS metrics was significantly associated with fatigue and sleep duration.

 Associação Fundo Incentivo à Pesquisa (AFIP), Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES – Processo 88887.468428/2019-00).


This study was conducted to study phenotypic distribution of local Iraqi sheep. The phenotypic traits were collected according to the special search form a total of 100 individuals were collected randomly from Iraqi sheep populations in order to study their phenotypic traits. Three populations were studied under this project which are suspected present in Iraq (Awassi, Naimi, Hamdani sheep population). Males Awassi sheep which recorded in phenotypic traits white body color, fine wool type, long pendulous ears and horned, while females Awassi sheep recorded white body color, carpet wool type, long ears pendulous, no horn and high level in litter size. Naimi males showed with white body color, carpet wool type, long pendulous ears, horned, while Naimi females showed with white body color, carpet wool type, short ears, no horn and twins litter size. Hamdani male population recorded brown body color, carpet wool type, long pendulous ears and no horn. Hamdani female population recorded white and brown body color, fine wool, long pendulous ears, no horn and twins litter size.


Monetary policy is analysed from a new systematic perspective by revealing its basic role within the economy of the state as the constantly operating monetary policy and real economy system. Scientifically justified the connection between the monetary policy process and the recent economic changes as well as the macroeconomic criteria illustrating the above mentioned changes is dedicated to the improvement of the establishment and implementation of monetary policy, adjusting to new challenges and conditions of the global economy. The systematic analysis of monetary policy is based on monetary and economic theories, laws and patterns, monetary policy and economy tendencies that are fluctuating within the environment of the modern globalization processes, researching their influence upon the social and economic development of the states. Therefore, the priorities of the scientific research of monetary policy are selected taking into consideration such methodological trends and aspects that support the connection between monetary policy and the phenomena taking place within the economy of the state and with macroeconomic criteria reflecting the above mentioned phenomena. The highlighting of monetary policy priorities, chosen by the central banks of the countries during the years of the global crisis, as well as the perception and identification of the results of implementing monetary policy introduces new tendencies with monetary policy along with the problems associated with the implementation thereof. The article is compounded of three sections. The main priorities of investigation of the monetary policy are presented in the first section. The second section provides the problems of the implementation of monetary policy during the global crisis. The improvement of the contemporary monetary policy requires the assessment of the additional macroeconomic criteria and adjustment to state finance and economy structure. The highlighted problems of monetary policy are related to the peculiarities of the time adjustment in money supply and money demand, since it becomes more and more complicated to adjust the money supply and money demand in respect of time under the existence of the unforeseen changes in the money demand of international nature within international markets. The third section analysis link the methodological issues of investigation of  monetary policy are presented according the main problems occurred on the stake of global crisis. Monetary policy creation methodology that will require a new approach, comprising the methods from neoclassical quantity theory of money, asset value and monetary growth model, having applied which in the analysis of monetary policy as well as having assessed the external factors currently participating the contemporary economy, it is possible to analyse in detail and systematically, then to determine the most important trends in the influence of monetary policy upon the economy. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15544/ssaf.2012.38


A premixed, laminar H2/O2/Ar low-pressure flat flame doped with iron-pentacarbonyl (Fe(CO)5) was used to investigate the formation of nanoparticles. The particles were extracted from the flame using a molecular beam sampling probe, the mass flow rate of condensable material was measured by a quartz crystal microbalance. It was observed that particles are already formed on the cold side of the flame, and vanish quickly once they pass through the flame front. To understand the process and assess the perturbations caused by the sampling probe, simulations of the synthesis flame, the reactor, and the sampling were carried out. The simulations confirmed the experimental findings and the detailed knowledge of the perturbation caused by invasive probing enabled further tuning of the iron oxide formation mechanism. Introduction Flame-assisted synthesis is a convenient way to produce gas borne, nano-sized metal-oxide particles. The process path is very attractive for industrial applications, but scaling from the lab-scale to industrial-scale requires a detailed understanding of the reaction kinetics. A frequently used precursor for the production of ironoxide from laminar, low-pressure flames is ironpentacarbonyl (Fe(CO)5), due to its relatively high vapor pressure. The low-pressure, laminar flat flame enables spatially resolved measurements of flame species and particles using molecular beam sampling. Iron-pentacarbonyl as an additive in flames has been investigated since the 1920's, when it was applied as an anti-knock agent. It was observed that nearly any addition of Fe(CO)5 strongly affects the flame's reaction kinetics. An overview of recent publications on ironcontaining compounds in flames was given by Wlokas et al. [1]. They also proposed a mechanism for ironoxide formation from the gas phase in the post-flame region. In their mechanism, due to lack of experimental evidence, formation of iron clusters was completely neglected. Cluster formation by pyrolysis of Fe(CO)5 was described by Giesen et al. [2] and later, in more detail by Wen et al. [3], Recently, early iron particle formation has been observed by Feroughi et al. [4] in a non-premixed Fe(CO)5 doped CH4/O2 flame. The authors proposed a reaction mechanism, based on the iron-oxide formation by Wlokas et al. [1] and the iron-cluster formation mechanism by Wen et al. [3], to confirm the hypothesis of iron-cluster formation on the fuel rich side of the nonpremixed flame. Very recently, Poliak et al. [5] presented evidence for the formation of particles in the preflame region of a premixed Fe(CO)5 doped CH4/O2 flame. They measured the deposition of particulate * Corresponding author: firstname.lastname@example.com Proceedings of the European Combustion Meeting 2011 material using a particle mass spectrometer combined with a quartz crystal microbalance (PMS-QCM) as proposed by Fomin et al. [6]. Their measurements and the hypothesis of early iron-cluster formation could be qualitatively confirmed by one-dimensional simulations of the doped flame using the mechanism proposed by Feroughi et al. [4]. To spatially resolve the particle concentration in the flame, a molecular-beam sampling technique was applied. This method is widely used for the investigation of flames and spatial profiles of the gas composition or the particle mass can be obtained. Usually, the premixed, laminar, flat flame is is assumed to be onedimensional. However, the method is invasive and the probe causes thermal and aerodynamic perturbations that violate the one-dimensionality of the flame. Although many methods for correcting the data measured in the perturbed flame were proposed, twoor threedimensional simulations of the reacting flow provide the most detailed picture of the sampling effect. For sampling in low-pressure flames the effect was investigated by Gururajan et al. [7], while Deng et al. [8] investigated sampling from atmospheric flames. Deng also demonstrated the suitability of the detailed twoand three-dimensional simulations for quantification of the flow, temperature and species concentration fields in the flame. Complementary to the simulations in 2-D/3-D with reduced reaction kinetics, 1-D simulations with detailed mechanism and reconstructed flow and temperature field were conducted. In the present paper this simulation work-flow [8] was applied in the context of particle sampling for validation of the reaction mechanism and of the hypothesis on early iron-particle formation. In this work we demonstrate the combination of experimental methods and state-of-the-art flow simulation to reconstruct the experimentally inaccessible flow field quantities. The combined PMS-QCM technique was used to close the gap in detection of condensable mater between the burner surface and the area of formation of


In order to explore the hydrodynamic mechanism of torsional wave propulsion,a bio-dorsal fin experimental prototype was designed and used to mimic the dorsal fin′s locomotion.From the experiment it was found that the fin frequency changed at different flow speed.And meanwhile the thrusts acting on the propulsive system in the circulating water channel were measured with a single-component balance.The experiment results show that at the same fin frequencies,the forces produced by torsional wave are bigger than that at the higher flow speed,and that the thrust on the dorsal fin is proportional to the square of fin frequency at the constant flow speed.


In cyber analysis, it is highly desirable to support the analysis of junior analysts by leveraging the experiences of experts. But, there are two major challenges to achieve this goal. First, it is very costly to capture the experience of experts for the complex task of cyber analysis using traditional approaches such as protocol analysis. Second, it is difficult to identify previous experiences of experts that are relevant to the dynamic context of an analyst's cyber analysis task. To address the first challenge, a system has been developed to capture non-intrusively the analytical reasoning processes of analysts. To tackle the second challenge, this paper presents an effective and efficient approach for retrieving relevant experiences based on the dynamically changing context of cyber analysis. We define an experience as a process of analytical reasoning and adopt an Action-Observation-Hypothesis (A-O-H) model to represent the processes in cyber analysis. Based on this model, a tool for capturing and supporting the analytical reasoning processes is shown to be able to support the elusive cognitive process in dynamic cyber situations. The experience retrieval approach of this paper supports the efficient experience retrieval, and dynamically updates the results as the context of analysis evolves. The experience retrieval approach is evaluated, based on the precision and recall with respect to the ground truth. The evaluation results suggest that the proposed approach supports significantly the analytical reasoning of analysts by leveraging the experiences of experts.


A new class of smoothing spline cubic curves is considered in the article.These curves are neither в-spline curves not Bezier curves.The parametric equations of the curves are obtained and some geometric properties ofthis curves are studied.


The distortion theorems of Bloch mappings defined in the unit ball were studied by making use of subordination lemma.The theorems were established from a unified perspective,which enabled us to obtain a lower bound estimate for the radius of the largest univalent ball in the image.The distortion theorems gave the generalizations of the results on the unit ball in Cn.Moreover,these results extended some known results in one complex variable to higher dimensions.


Text-to-Speech (TTS) systems convert text into phonetic pronunciations which are then processed by Acoustic Models. TTS frontends typically include text processing, lexical lookup and Grapheme-to-Phoneme (g2p) conversion stages. This paper describes the design and implementation of the Indic frontend, which provides explicit support for many major Indian languages, along with a unified framework with easy extensibility for other Indian languages. The Indic frontend handles many phenomena common to Indian languages such as schwa deletion, contextual nasalization, and voicing. It also handles multi-script synthesis between various Indian-language scripts and English. We describe experiments comparing the quality of TTS systems built using the Indic frontend to grapheme-based systems. While this frontend was designed keeping TTS in mind, it can also be used as a general g2p system for Automatic Speech Recognition.


Exploring the duality and balance research on human resource management (HRM), this study established two different HRM systems or bundles based on distinct guiding principles—the performance-oriented HRM system and the commitment-oriented HRM system. This study investigated whether the performance- and commitment-oriented HRM systems or bundles with different philosophical backgrounds have their own independent and additive effects on organizational outcomes. The relationships between these HRM systems and organizational outcomes were examined with 1735 firm-period samples in the longitudinal setting. The empirical results show that the commitment-oriented HRM systems have independent and additive effects on organizational commitment and human capital. However, the performance-oriented HRM systems have no independent and additive effect on organizational outcomes. Our study also indicates that increasing the performance-oriented HRM practices can be redundant and unnecessary unless firms have sufficiently high levels of the commitment-oriented HRM practices. Given that the definition and measures of commitment-oriented HRM bundles nearly match the characteristics of sustainable HRM, we thus argue that the commitment-oriented HRM systems have more potential to improve not only organizational outcomes and performance, but also human and social sustainability, than the performance-oriented HRM systems.


Shaheen Durrani-Kolarik, Caylie A. Pool, Ashley Gray, Kathryn M. Heyob, Mary J. Cismowski, Gloria Pryhuber, L. James Lee, Zhaogang Yang, Trent E. Tipple, and Lynette K. Rogers Center for Perinatal Research, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio; Center for Cardiovascular Research, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio; Department of Pediatrics, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York; The Center for Affordable Nanoengineering of Polymeric Biomedical Devices, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; and Department of Pediatrics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio


A very simple and economical circuit is presented which functions as a bilateral variable-ratio direct voltage transformer.The circuit, which consists essentially of two thyristors, two diodes, and an inductance, is a modification of the familiar pulse converter. When used for the controlof dc machines, dynamic braking is accomplished automatically by feedback of power to the supply. Furthermore, the armature circuit of the machine may provide sufficient inductance for satisfactory operation. Factors which influence the efficiency and the selection of circuit parameters such as operating frequency, component ratings, and the magnitude of the circuit inductance are investigated. The problem of obtaining safe and economical commutation of the thyristors is to be dealt with in a subsequent paper. Test results from an experimental circuit are presented.


The market basket is defined as an itemset bought together by a customer on a single visit to a store. The market basket analysis is a powerful tool for the implementation of cross-selling strategies. Although some algorithms can find the market basket, they can be inefficient in computational time. The aim of this paper is to present a faster algorithm for the market basket analysis using data-condensed structures. In this innovative approach, the condensed data is obtained by transforming the market basket problem in a maximumweighted clique problem. Firstly, the input data set is transformed into a graph-based structure and then the maximum-weighted clique problem is solved using a meta-heuristic approach in order to find the most frequent itemsets. The computational results show accurate solutions with reduced computational times.


Drought stress is one of the major threats to agriculture and concomitantly to food production. Tomato is one of the most important industrial crops, but its tolerance to water scarcity is very low. Traditional plant breeding has a limited margin to minimize this water requirement. In order to design novel biotechnological approaches to cope with this problem, we have screened a plant cDNA library from the halotolerant crop sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) for genes able to confer drought/osmotic stress tolerance to the yeast model system upon overexpression. We have identified the gene that encodes BvHb2, a class 2 non-symbiotic hemoglobin, which is present as a single copy in the sugar beet genome, expressed mainly in leaves and regulated by light and abiotic stress. We have evaluated its biotechnological potential in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and found that BvHb2 is able to confer drought and osmotic stress tolerance. We also generated transgenic lines of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) overexpressing BvHb2 and found that the resulting plants are more resistant to drought-induce withering. In addition, transgenic lines overexpressing BvHb2 exhibit increased levels of iron content in leaves. Here, we show that class 2 non-symbiotic plant hemoglobins are targets to generate novel biotechnological crops tolerant to abiotic stress. The fact that these proteins are conserved in plants opens the possibility for using Non-GMO approaches, such as classical breeding, molecular breeding, or novel breeding techniques to increase drought tolerance using this protein as a target.


Psychiatric inpatients in special units designed for the treatment/management of violence (secure care) are compared with inpatients in three forensic programs. Although program designers anticipated that secure care and forensic patients would be similar, they were not. Principally, secure care patients were lower functioning in the psychiatric areas and were more likely to have engaged in a physical assault in the last 30 days. Language: en


□ Total calcium (Ca) content in different tissues, developing spikes (S1, S2, S3 and S4 stages), and distribution sites in seeds of five finger millet genotypes, which were differed in total calcium content, were analyzed. Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) revealed stage-dependent quantitative changes in calcium accumulation from low to high during different stages of developing spikes and also in different tissues and grains. Results of scanning electron microscopic (SEM) energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis showed differential distributions of the calcium in seed components viz. seed coat, aleurone layer and endosperm. Highest calcium content was observed in aleurone layer followed by seed coat while lowest calcium was found in endosperm of all genotypes. Major differences were found amongst genotypes with regard to the calcium distribution in seed components. The differential regulation of transport machinery might be responsible for differential calcium ion delivery and spatial distribution in the seed. A clear understanding of differential accumulation, spatial distribution and the variation of calcium within finger millet genotypes/seeds could be exploited for breeding for their bio-fortification and development of calcium rich functional foods.


Abstract The molecular weight distribution and the long-chain branching distribution of low-density polyethylene are predicted as a function of the synthesis conditions from a kinetic model for an autoclave reactor. The model includes initiations, propagation, termination by combination and disproportionation, and chain transfer to monomer, solvent, and polymer. Recursion formulas are developed to calculate the whole distribution density functions. A numerical method for solving the model equations is proposed. Several simulations have been performed to demonstrate the method, and predictions of long-chain branching distributions of an industrial autoclave reactor are compared with laboratory measuements.


This paper presents a custom DC-DC Ćuk converter developed for charging batteries from serially connected thermoelectric generators (TEGs). Present DC-DC converters are designed for a single power source resulting in low output power if the harvested heat energy source has low temperature. This drawback can be eliminated with Buck-Boost DC-DC converters able to adjust the output current accordingly to the variation of the available heat source temperature. In order to increase the efficiency, the proposed Ćuk converter employs two N-Mos switches where the second replaces the diode from the original topology. An isolation transformer is used to revert the output polarity and high resolution nanosecond adjustable timing will be used to prevent the cross conduction of the switches. The converter employs an indirect current control loop by measuring only the output voltage of the thermoelectrical generators, eliminating the need for a current sensor. An a priori built look-up table stores the voltage - internal resistance correspondence of the TEG and is used to compute the actual current the converter is sourcing to the battery pack.


Partial transmit sequences (PTS) is one of the most effective method for reducing the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) in OFDM systems. By carefully investigating the correlation among the candidate signals in PTS, a novel PTS method using optimized (or partially optimized) phase factors, denoted as PTS-OPV, is proposed. Specifically, the phase vectors are applied in weighting the subblocks and two main design principles of the set of optimized phase vectors (OPV) are introduced. Furthermore, an reduced-complexity PTS-OPV is presented. Experimental results show that the proposed approach can reduce the computational complexity dramatically and achieve almost the same PAPR reduction performance when compared to the conventional PTS.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the association between 2 SNPs of ISL1 gene and congenital heart disease (CHD) in Tianjin Han children.

METHODS
Polymerase chain reaction and DNA sequencing were used to detect 2 SNPs at rs41268421 and rs1017 sites of ISL1 gene, including 35 CHD cases and 30 non-CHD controls. Differences of genotype and allele frequencies of rs41268421 and rs1017 sites were compared, and haplotype analysis of the two sites was performed.

RESULTS
Three genotypes (GG, GT and TT) were detected at ISL1 gene SNP rs41268421, and three genotypes (AA, AT and TT) were detected at SNP rs1017. At rs41268421, GT+TT genotypes and T allele frequencies in the CHD group were statistically higher than in the controls. The risk of CHD in children with T allele was significantly increased compared with children with G allele (OR=4.833). At rs1017, AT+TT genotypes and T allele frequencies in the CHD group were statistically higher than controls. The risk of CHD in children with T allele was greater compared with children with A allele (OR=4.491; P<0.05). Four kinds of haplotype were detected in the two SNPs sites and TT type increased the risk of CHD (OR=7.813).

CONCLUSIONS
Haplotype TT may increase the risk of CHD in Tianjin Han children.


volumes on birds and Crustacea being apparently nearly completed, the Molluscs and Radiates having been published several years ago. The work is a compilation from numerous memoirs' and papers, being encyclopaedic in its nature, and the most authoritative, complete general account of the different classes and orders of the animal kingdom to be found. The plates are filled with figures, chiefly anatomical and developmental, from the memoirs and works of the leading authors, and are, in general, excellent copies. The present work on Crustacea is done in Dr. Gerst-ecker's best style. The last part is taken up with the Trilobites, which are treated of with great thoroughness and copiousness of illustration. Though a somewhat expensive work, it is invaluable as a work of reference, and we call attention to it because of its great usefulness to any one living out of reach of extended libraries.


The review presents the functional characteristics of the main types of biosensors: electrochemical, piezoelectric and optical. Shown are the examples of biosensors application for pathogenic biological agents detection. The prospects of biosensors development for laboratory diagnostics of particularly dangerous infectious diseases are discussed.


This work describes a 2-W peak-envelope linear power amplifier based upon the envelope following (EF) technique. Both drain voltages of a two stage monolithic GaAs IC power amplifier are modulated with respect to the input RF signal using a high efficiency class-S modulator. The class-S modulator is implemented as a silicon IC consisting of a high-speed comparator and driver circuitry to supply currents in excess of 1 A. The RF amplifier IC utilizes two GaAs HEMT devices designed for class A/B operation. An envelope-feedback loop provides equalization of time delay differences between the envelope and RF signal paths as well as amplitude linearization. The resulting transmitter has adequate bandwidth to amplify an IS-136 /spl pi//4 DQPSK signal with required spectral linearity achieving 49% total efficiency at 1-W average output power using a 3.5 volt supply. At 10 dB power back-off, the system efficiency remains above 30%. Targeting low cost portable wireless handsets, the complete amplifier is realized using two integrated circuits with minimal off chip components.


Theoretical and experimental boundary–layer results are presented for two car configurations. Boundary–layer computations reveal many details of flow development, and the agreement between selected measured and computed data is good. Separation patterns, the influence of the ground on the flow and the application of two–dimensional computation methods are studied; friction and pressure drag are estimated. Finally, the separation problem and the possibility of computing such flows are discussed.


With the global financial crisis, banking industry has suffered the most damage and had great impact to the world economic. Some banks went bankruptcy in the global financial crisis; while some banks still grow or remain stable, we could infer that banking industry configuration really matters and the research mainly to disclosure underlying reasons. The research is based on two theory sustainable competitive advantage and CAMEL –related indicators (early warning system) in banking industry. The author adopt Bayesian and failure credit model to infer and predict failure/non-failure and competitive advantage/disadvantage groups, furthermore, trying to find a function or framework to interpret the underlying reasons of results.
 Most prior banking prediction researches are focus on identifying effective indicators and models that can be applied to develop an early warning system for individual bank failure. However, during global financial crisis, there is still a large amount of bankrupted banks, we can easily see that detecting risk is not enough to facing the even more complicated and dynamic competitive surroundings. In strategy point of view, there are some research integrate the financial indicators and strategy theory to interpret sustainable competitive advantage in the industry.
In conclusion, the research mainly find banking industry configurations and successfully to predict the fail and competitive advantage dimension after global financial crisis of banks in U.S. As a matter of fact, also try to advance early warning system and Powell axis based on Bayesian analysis to take global financial crisis as a reference point to see underlying reasons whether banks to grow or fail.
From a long term perspective, to strengthen the managers should take a risk seriously– instead of just complying with rules is might be underlying reasons what drives a business to sustainable growth in dynamic business banking industry.


The legal rights and duties of the indigenous Sami population is principally regulated in the Sami Act (1987). Additionally, the Finnmark Act (2005) regulates the distribution of land and (...)


In order to research the effect of heat treatment on the microstructure and corrosion resistance of stainless/carbon steel bimetal plate, the annealing process at 700°C with different times was carried out for stainless/carbon steel bimetal plate. Because the carbon content of carbon steel was higher than that of stainless steel, the carbon would diffuse from carbon steel to stainless steel in the bimetal plate during the annealing process. The carbon diffusion would cause the thickness of the decarburized layer in carbon steel and the carbon content of stainless steel to increase. The carbon diffusion would be ongoing with the annealing process until the carbon content of stainless steel reached 0.08%. The higher carbon content could help in the formation of more chromium-depleted regions in the stainless steel surface, causing the stainless steel in the bimetal plate to have a poorer surface corrosion resistance than that of stainless steel under the same annealing conditions.


In response to the massively changing requirements in the engineering area, enterprises are forced to cooperate with other firms and build virtual engineering enterprises. This paper focuses on the question of how the companies would like to access the various information in those virtual enterprises. It presents results from European projects in the area of Global Engineering Networking (GEN) where we work our solutions with end-users from the engineering sectors of building construction, mechanics and electronics. Starting from requirements for information management in virtual engineering enterprises, this paper derives an architecture for GEN, explains it in more detail by two scenarios from the electrical engineering sector and finally presents the relation to other approaches.


In this paper we describe a laser ultrasonic system for real-time monitoring of the degree of cure of a graphite-epoxy composite part during manufacturing. The system is integrated with a Resin-Transfer Molding (RTM) machine, and contains (i) a fiberized laser ultrasonic source, and (ii) an embedded ultrasonic sensor based on an intrinsic fiber optic Sagnac interferometer. Bulk ultrasonic waves generated by the laser source are transmitted into the composite structure and are subsequently detected by the embedded ultrasonic sensor. The degree of cure can be obtained from measurements of ultrasonic velocity and attenuation in the composite part. The use of an optical switch in the fiber optic delivery system of the laser ultrasonic source allows ultrasonic generation at several locations of the composite part. In this paper we discuss the design of the laser ultrasonic source and the sensor optimized for cure monitoring applications, and their integration with the RTM mold. The results of ultrasonic measurements during manufacturing of a composite specimen are presented. Our results show that laser ultrasonics offer distinct advantages for manufacturing of modern composite structures including the ability to operate in a high temperature and high pressure environment and provide distributed sensing that can cover critical areas of a component.


Tor (The Onion Router) is an anonymity tool that is widely used worldwide. Tor protect its user privacy against surveillance and censorship using strong encryption and obfuscation techniques which makes it extremely difficult to monitor and identify users' activity on the Tor network. It also implements strong defense to protect the users against traffic features extraction and website fingerprinting. However, the strong anonymity also became the heaven for criminal to avoid network tracing. Therefore, numerous of research has been performed on encrypted traffic analyzing and classification using machine learning techniques. This paper presents survey on existing approaches for classification of Tor and other encrypted traffic. There is preliminary discussion on machine learning approaches and Tor network. Next, there are comparison of the surveyed traffic classification and discussion on their classification properties.


As a tight conglomerate reservoir, the Baikouquan formation reservoir in the Mahu depression is vital heterogeneous. The development model of unconventional oil and gas fields such as shale gas is copied in the early development process. Advanced horizontal wells and volumetric fracturing technologies are adopted, with high development costs and low economic benefits. During the development of tight conglomerate reservoirs, there are typical problems such as underdeveloped natural fractures, complex fracture formation mechanisms during fracturing, and serious interlayer channeling in fractured wells. Practical results show that the adequate characterization of in-situ stress distribution plays a decisive role in the scientific and efficient development of tight conglomerate reservoirs. To accurately characterize the three-dimensional in-situ stress distribution law of conglomerate reservoirs, the paper selects the Mahu 131 demonstration well area. The mechanical parameters of the demonstration area are finely described through a series of core tests, well-drilled logging data, and seismic inversion data. As a result, the spatial distribution of essential parameters of the demonstration area has been established, such as the three-dimensional elastic modulus attribute volume and the three-dimensional Poisson's ratio attribute volume. Further, an advanced finite element simulator and large-scale parallel computing technology establish the test area's high-precision three-dimensional stress field model. Based on enormous fracturing data, microseismic data, and production data, quality control and correction of the three-dimensional stress field model are carried out. The results show that the established geomechanical model accurately reflects the direction, magnitude, and heterogeneity of the in-situ stress in the demonstration area. Through the three-dimensional minimum in-situ stress distribution, the three-dimensional horizontal stress difference distribution, the lithology characteristics of conglomerate, rock mechanical properties, and other factors in the test area, it is believed that the difference in interlayer stress is the main reason for the interlayer channeling of fracturing. According to the established high-precision in-situ stress model and the rational fracturing construction process, it can actively strengthen or weaken the instantaneous and local stress field and pressure field, from near field to far-field, and promote the expansion of hydraulic fractures in the desired manner.


It is common for veterinary nurses to meet clients who have the intention of breeding a litter of pups. These clients may be novice or experienced breeders. In both cases, however, there is often limited input from the veterinary practice into care of the pregnant bitch and care and management of the bitch and pups at the time of whelping (Figure 1). This is unfortunate since management of the parturient bitch can have a significant impact upon the level of neonatal loss.Figure 1: A bitch settled with her pups


This paper first analyzes the motion estimation algorithm in the JM6,which is the reference model of H.264 and then brings forward improved scheme for the motion search of integer pixel,half pixel and one forth pixel.It adopts adaptive threshold stopping algorithm so as to decrease the time of motion search and keep the motion search resolution unchanged.The experiment results have shown that this scheme increases encoding speed with little quality degradation of the reconstructed image.


In this paper a method for disentangling the various noise components in semiconductor radiation detector–amplifier systems is described and experimentally tested. A charge amplification scheme is adopted for the measurements. It is shown how an accurate estimate of the series and parallel white noise, 1/f series noise, and f parallel noise can be quickly obtained through a multiparameter least‐squares interpolation of the equivalent noise charge data of the system.


NI KADEK SRI PUSPARINI. Economic Analysis of Offshore Oil and Gas Production Activities Externality on Marine Capture Activities. Under direction of AKHMAD FAUZI and SAHAT MH SIMANJUNTAK. The offshore oil and gas exploitation activities have significant contribution in fulfilling the world's oil and gas needs. However, the activities have to face several interest-conflicts with other parties such as marine capture activities that exploited different types of resources on the same location. This study shows that there is negative externality from the fishers's perception towards the enforcement of safety zone which is located on the radius of 500 meters from the oil and gas production platform. The field study endorsed their assumption that the safety zone has limited their fishing grounds, therefore reducing their income per trip. The result shows that fishing ground's productivity near the offshore oil and gas production platform area is lower than the productivity in non offshore oil and gas production platform area. On the contrary, the bio-economic analysis shows that the fishing ground productivity near the offshore oil and gas production platform area is higher compared to the productivity in non offshore oil and gas production platform area. The conclusion from both results is that the enforcement of safety zone in offshore oil and gas production platform area affects the marine capture's productivity in the short run. Meanwhile the safety zone can increase and maintain the productivity in the long run because the production platform is functioning as temporary marine protected area for fish and other creatures in the sea. The findings are also utilized as input factors in designing the alternatives of environmental management model that is beneficial for both activities. Keywords; oil & gas production platform, safety zone, fishing ground, externality.


In order to discuss the tube of superheater wall overheating and rupturing in a circulating fluidized bed,a finite-element calculation model was established for temperature field about a tube of platen superheater wall of a 300MW CFB boiler.Bilinear quadrilateral was used in meshing the temperature field of the platen superheater wall and the analysis and computation was carried on,including temperature field distribution of pipe in the different load and the different arrangement of superheater steam flow(U type arrangement and Z type arrangement).The results show: In different load,the highest temperature of tube wall is the center position of rectangular fin,next is the root of rectangular fin,and then middle point of tube wall,the wall temperature inside tube is lowest which approaches the working medium temperature.In the same boundary conditions,Z type arrangement is better than that of U type arrangement in 300MW CFB boiler.Computed result tallies good with the practical engineering.


The romanticized tale of Indigenous peoples' first interactions with cameras is all too familiar a narrative to the Western consciousness, portraying Indigenous peoples as fearful of the technology's ability to "steal souls" (Golub, 2004). Retrospectively, it is important to critically analyze what it truly was that 19th century photographers were "capturing" with their cameras, and how dominant media has used technology and technological imagery to hijack Indigenous realities and control the way that society views Indigenous peoples and cultures. Photography like that of Edward S. Curtis is often used as a reference point for this argument, as his pictures sought to explicitly erase any signs of modernity and reduce Indigenous lives to a simplistic, one-dimensional commodity that could be easily consumed by the colonial gaze. In his portraits, only expressionless faces and stoic poses were allowed, and traditional dress was mandatory – whether or not it came from the subject's own nation or the one over. In an infamous photograph titled "In a Piegan Lodge" (1910), Curtis' original image showed a clock (Figure 1), which he removed before publishing the edited version (Figure 2) (Stanford University, 2016).


Patient engagement is a mechanism used to facilitate person-centred care, however, has not been realized in all patient populations. Often, many marginalized populations still remain underand/or never-engaged. The purpose of this systematic review was to: 1) identify methods or interventions that have been used to engage underand/or neverengaged populations in health services and 2) identify outcomes that are associated with engaging underand/or neverengaged populations in health services. A comprehensive search using the Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE and CINAHL databases was conducted to examine literature between January 2002 and January 2015. Twenty-nine studies met the inclusion criteria. Data was extracted from these studies and findings are synthesized based on discrete themes that map to the research objectives. The majority of studies were quantitative, repeated-measures designs and concentrated in the United States. Hispanic and Latino/a populations were most frequently included in these studies. The main methods of recruitment included: 1) referral from a healthcare provider, 2) patient self-referral after seeing advertisements on mass media or targeted media, 3) directly approached by researcher in-person or telephone, and 4) administrative databases. Interventions occurred primarily at the individual-level, however some system-level interventions were identified. Five main outcomes resulted from the interventions, including: 1) behavioural change, 2) physiological, 3) psychosocial, 4) system and 5) process. Finally, culture-specific components were embedded in the interventions, both as surface and deep structures. This study provides future direction for patient engagement related projects, as it relates to under-and never-engaged population in healthcare.


Many statistical results from safety reports tell that human related errors are the dominant influencing factor on the safe operation of power plants. Fortunately, training operators for the technical and non-technical skills can prevent many types of human errors. In this study, four important non-technical skills in safety critical industries – medical, aviation, and nuclear – were selected to describe behaviors of operation teams in emergency conditions of nuclear power plants (NPPs): communication, leadership, situation awareness, and decision-making skills. Also, preparedness of the non-technical skills was defined, and a quantification method of those skills called NoT-SkiP (Non-Technical Skills Preparedness) was developed to represent 'how well operation teams are prepared to deal with emergency conditions' in the non-technical skills aspect by analyzing monitoring-control patterns and a verbal protocol. Two case studies were conducted to validate the method. The first case was applied to Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA) and Steam Generator Tube Rupture (SGTR) training. Independent variables were scenario, training repetition, and members. Relative values of the NoT-SkiP showed a consistent trend with changing scenarios. However, when training was repeated with the same scenario, NoT-SkiP values of some team were changed. It was supposed that leaders of some teams exerted their knowledge acquired from the previous training and gave up thoroughness of using procedures. When members especially who play a dominant role in teams were changed, values of the NoT-SkiP were significantly changed. Nine teams participated in Interfacing System LOCA (ISLOCA) training; six teams failed to complete the given task, and three teams succeeded. The comparison of NoT-SkiP values of ISLOCA case with Operator Performance Assessment System (OPAS), which mainly check operators' knowledge and the technical skills, developed by OECD Halden Reactor Project (HRP) gave a plausible reason why teams failed as well as intuitive results on 'what to be considered in the non-technical skills aspects of teams' for the next training. The proposed method requires more experiments in order for it to be established on a firm foundation; however, it certainly gives one possible way to supplement existing training strategy in the nuclear industry. ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 42 350 3860; fax: +82 42 350 3810. E-mail address: email@example.com (P.H. Seong). 029-5493/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. ttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2012.09.027 © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


Ten mungbear genotypes were evaluated at five locations to study their stability/adaptability. Based on three parameters overall mean, regression coefficient {bi) and mean deviation from regression (S2di), the genetype MGG 347 could be considered as the most stable amongst all the genotypes and its performance couic be predicted over the environments.


We discussed the treatment guidelines for fetal hydrocephalus , which has many unresolved clinical and ethical problems . Before deliver } ! we should make an accurate diagnosis of the basic disease , decide on the time and method of delivery and give information , counseling and support to the parents . As there is Ilo evidence that early treatment of fetal hydrocephalus brings a good outcolne , it is usually recomlnended delivery after 37 weeks of gestation and the way of delivery is to be decided by obstetrical indication . The 五 rst choice treatment is a tricular − peritoneal shunt ( V − P shunt ) , V − P shunts should be performed on patients whose is over 2 , 000 − 2 , 500 g . For those under 2 , 000 g BW placement of reservoir and intermittent drainage are usually carried out until BW exceeds g patients with formed several days after the repaiL cases transit tricular drainage is recommended before carrying out the V − P shun し The conditions in foreign countries and the


Twitter, as a social network, acquires special importance in academic institutions, for example in Higher Education Institutions (HEI). This tool allows institutions to not only publicize their work and get feedback from the community about it, but also to keep in touch with their aluminum network and foster conversations between the academic community. In this work, a dashboard was created with the last 39 Tweets, related to this HEI, using the Power BI data visualization tool. From this analysis, we can assess users do not use Twitter do to debate ideas and collaborate, instead this platform is used mainly for topics related to academic leisure activities. This dashboard allows us to understand what is being said about this HEI on Twitter and how to improve the use of this communication platform.


Preface Thailand: Country Profile and Current Events Macroeconomic Policy and Performance in Thailand The Differential Impact of the Economic Crisis on Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea Thailand Trade The New International Order in the Asia-Pacific Region: Thailands Responses and Options Decision Making Process and Health Seeking Patterns of Young Women with Unplanned Pregnancies, Bangkok, Thailand Yu Duan Practices: The Significance of Traditional Postpartum Beliefs and Practices on Womens Health in Northern Thailand Child-rearing Practices among Primary Caregivers of HIV-Infected Children Aged 0-5 Years in Chiang Mai, Thailand Creating Scales to Measure Reading Comprehension, and Attitude and Behaviour, for Prathom (Grade) 7 Students Taught ESL Through a Genre-Based Method in Thailand Cooperative Learning versus Communicative Thai Teaching of English as a Second Language for Prathom (Grade) 6 Students Taught in Thailand Index.


In a comment on my paper "Feminism, Ethics, and the Question of Theory" (Walker 1992), Keith Burgess-Jackson argues that I have misdiagnosed the problem with modem moral theory. Burgess-Jackson misunderstands both the illustrative—"theoretical-juridical"—model I constructed there and how my critique and alternative model answer to specifically feminist concerns. Ironically, his own view seems to reproduce the very conception of morality as an individually internalized action-guiding code of principles that my earlier essay argued is the conception central to modern moral theories.


According to the contradiction of universality and particularity,this article expounds the unity and diversity of the team in goal,members,culture and institution. It discusses the staff identification and use of incentives,taking aphorisms and typical cases as the support. It suggests that,"rigid and soft,grace and authority","reuse and promotion,fully inclusive and equitable","antidote against the disease,meets the needs",should be applied to emotion,cause and treatment,making full use of the initiative of everybody.


We compared the potencies of halothane, enflurane, and methoxyflurane in producing unconsciousness in vivo and in inhibiting the release of [3H]norepinephrine and [3H]acetylcholine in vitro. Rats were anesthetized with various concentrations of each anesthetic, and responsiveness was determined by a hemostat tail pinch. Slices of cerebral cortex were equilibrated with similar concentrations of each agent in vitro, and potassium‐evoked release of [3H]norepinephrine and [3H]acetylcholine was determined. For both studies, brain concentrations of the anesthetics were determined by heptane extraction and gas chromatography. Using this method, we found that brain concentrations of all three agents which caused unconsciousness in vivo also reduced depolarization‐evoked release of [3H]norepinephrine by approximately 30% in vitro. The release of [3H]acetylcholine was unaffected b/similar concentrations of these anesthetics. Such selective interference with stimulus‐secretion coupling in central noradrenergic, and possibly other, neurons might contribute to the depressant actions of volatile anesthetics. The differential effects on norepinephrine and acetylcholine release also suggest differences in the mechanisms by which these two transmitters are released.


The smoggy stratosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, veils its surface from view, except at narrow wavelengths centered at 0.83, 0.94, 1.07, 1.28, 1.58, 2.0, 2.9, and 5.0 micrometers. We derived a spectrum of Titan's surface within these "windows" and detected features characteristic of water ice. Therefore, despite the hundreds of meters of organic liquids and solids hypothesized to exist on Titan's surface, its icy bedrock lies extensively exposed.


There appears to be increasing interest among certain educational institutions to include values as a prominent feature of their practice (Buckley & Erricker, 2004). One recent example is the Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority (VCAA) who released a discussion paper earlier this year, which indicates that values are to play a much greater role in government schools. However, endeavouring to promote values as common standards can be criticised to be problematic in our pluralist society, because not all values are necessarily valuable. This paper reviews the VCAA paper and attempts to respond to Nietzsche's (1998) challenge to question the value of our values, by offering guidance as to how the educative value of values might be determined. Such an examination is expected to identify a potential tension between a particular civic education and that of a more philosophic and universally educative perspective. In order to do this, a differentiation between a value (noun) as 'objective fact' and value (verb) as a 'subjective relation' is made. This paper will adopt an existential perspective by drawing upon consequentialism, intentionality and the works of Kierkegaard and Dewey, to argue that emphasis should be placed on the subjective aspects of educative valuing without fostering an objective/subjective divide.


This analysis is pursued in the framework of an interrelated multidimensional model which includes 5 main components: 1) dimensions of adjustment, 2) range of adjustment, 3) levels of adjustment, 4) typology of aggregate adjustment, and 5) indicators of mobility and variation in the refugee adjustment. Arab internal refugees in Israel, including their characteristics and patterns of adjustment in the host communities as well as in Israeli society, are studied. Social, psychological, and socioeconomic adjustments are separated out and show the importance of the linkage between adjustment patterns at both the communal and the societal levels. The findings indicate that processes of adjustment at the communal and the societal levels are not necessarily conjunctive and symmetric. At the societal level, socioeconomic adjustment occurs relatively more rapidly than social adjustment. At the communal level, inter-marriage with locals lags behind friendship relationships and mutual visits. Psychological adjustment rates in between these 2. Cultural and linguistic compatibility with the host community are crucial positive factors for refugee adjustment. Cultural, linguistic, and national compatibility with the host community may have paradoxically indirect negative effects on the refugee psychological adjustment. High background compatibility generates high expectations among the refugees, which may be easily transferred into alienation, when faced with a different situation than expected; the greater the gap between the expected and the actual, the more the alienation.


The function of UV-B radiation on growth and pigments biosynthesis of three strains of Microcystis aeruginosa (FACHB 469,854 and 905) was studied.The results indicated that the UV-B radiation decreased the reproductive rate of M.aeruginosa and increased intracellular and extracellular polysaccharide biosynthesis.There were different adaptabilities to UV-B among the three strains of M.aeruginosa.


Over the past decade an increasing interest in the development and application of activity scheduling models could be witnessed in the area of travel behaviour research (1). These models are applied to forecast travel demand and to predict the impact of transport demand management measures on traffic flows, based on the assumption that travel is derived from the dispersal of activities across different locations. It is generally accepted in activity-based research that executed activity-travel patterns are the result of complex decision processes, in which activities are inserted, deleted and modified. Scheduling models aim at reproducing these decision processes as realistically as possible. However, the planning time horizon of activities is often neglected in these models or simplified by entering activities in the scheduling process in a fixed order, usually defined by activity type (2, 3). Recent studies have argued that the behavioural realism – and hence the travel demand forecasts – of scheduling models would benefit if the time horizon of activity planning would be taken into account (4, 5, 6, 7). These studies present different empirical analyses and statistical models that examine activity insertion, adjustments and trip-planning time horizons. The effect of various explanatory variables on the planning time horizon and on the time elapsed between planning and execution of pre-planned activities is also analyzed. The findings of these studies confirm that activity scheduling is a complex decision process in which a variety of influencing factors interact and that activity type alone may not suffice to explain the planning time horizon of activities. This paper aims at contributing to this line of research by examining the activity scheduling process and in particular the planning time horizon of activities in detail. The time elapsed between the planning and execution of an activity is examined as well as the sequence of the scheduling decisions made between initial planning and actual execution or deletion of the activity. The effect of various activity, schedule, individual and household characteristics on the activity planning time horizon is estimated and discussed. Similar analyses are presented for the planning time horizon of trips. Furthermore, the planning process of individual activity and trip attributes such as start time, duration and location or transport mode, is also studied to assess which attributes are routinely planned and which are consciously decided on. Analyses about planning and scheduling of activities require specific scheduling process information that is not available from traditional tripand activity-based surveys. Therefore, some specific computer-


Objective To observe the curative effect of pulse-activating injection on chronic cardiac insufficiency in elderly patients.Methods The heart function improvement situation was compared in 210 elderly patients who were treated by pulse-activating injection.Results Among the 110 patients in treatment group,the total effectiveness was 95.5%.There were 100 patients in control group.The total effectiveness was 74.0%.Conclusion Pulse-activating injection is superior to conventional Danshen injection in the treatment of chronic cardiac insufficiency of elderly patients.


TI1e results of the analyses concerning the hadronic systems produced in v/\; nucleon interactions are reviewed. Particular attention is devoted to the questions of factorization, scaling deviations of frag mentation functions, and the behaviour of (pT) of individual hadrons as a function of Q 2 • Tests of QCD ideas concerning these effects are discussed. Also the present status of the production of charmed states in v/\; interactions in bubble chambers is stmnnarized. In this report I will discuss the following topics: TI1e papers reviewed here are from this Conference and from the Bergen "Neutrino 79" Conference.


Background: RTA is a serious concern to many developing countries with its untoward effects on the economy. In many African countries, this is due to recent invasion into transport system by motor cyclists. Objectives: To evaluate head computed tomograms (CT) of RTA patients in Douala in order to account for pathologies. Setting: Polyclinic Bonanjo, Douala, Cameroon is a tertiary care hospital. Methodology: A prospective study of non-contrast head CT of RTA patients from April to November 2009 was done. Results were evaluated with SSPS statistical version. Results: A total of 94 Patients were studied constituting 20.84% of total number of CTs done for whatever reason. Males were more affected than females, 62(65.96%) and 32(34.04%) respectively The highest incidence of 22 cases (23.04%) was found in 50-59 age range with no gender difference. The next in incidence was 30-39 age range but unlike the former, a male to female ratio of 5:1 was observed. Highest percentage of cases (26.59%) had normal brain CT scans. This could be false positive results since CT has a reduced sensitivity in detecting diffuse axonal injury and brain concussion. The commonest observed pathology (19.14%) was brain oedema. Conclusion: RTA in Douala, Cameroon using the percentage of brain computed tomograms as an index is common and needs government's action.


THE PRODUCT AND ITS APPLICATIONS Beta-carotene is an orange-coloured carotenoid pigment, found in most green plants and in many foods. It is chemically synthesised and used widely as a food colouring in such foods as margarine, soups, biscuits, other baked goods, and many convenience foods. Beta-carotene (Provitamin A) is the main source of vitamin A in our diets. Important additional health benefits have been shown in the past 10 years, leading bodies such as the U.S. National Cancer Institute to recommend increasing daily intake of foods containing beta-carotene. Beta-carotene is a natural anti-oxidant, and most effective in quenching single oxygen radicals, which can harmfully effect nucleic acids and cell membrane structures [1]. These types of damage, caused by free radicals are involved in some cancers, ischemic heart disease and atherosclerosis [2,3,4,5]. Free radicals also take part in development of arthritis, cataracts and generally in aging and age-related health problems. After a conference in 1989, 34 papers were presented in a special issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, entitled "Antioxidant vitamins and ƒÀ-carotene in disease prevention" [6]. With the increased awareness of the positive health benefits of beta-carotene, the market for nutritional supplements, tablets and capsules containing beta-carotene in 6-25 mg daily doses, is increasing. The world's largest producer of synthesised beta-carotene is Roche (Western Biotechnology's parent company), followed by BASF. Roche's synthesis has been refined since its introduction in the 1950's and is cost-effective and efficient. Western Biotechnology's approach both to the market and to manufacturing is almost the antithesis of Roche's approach. The market we serve is a "niche" market , catering for customers who seek a "natural" food colouring, or a "natural" nutritional supplement. Our technology is "low tech", utilising solar energy, large, open ponds and simple downstream processing [7]. Our long term objective is to continue to improve the algal biotechnology processes, and reduce costs, so that the technology may be applied to many other products, currently expensive or difficult to synthesise. The raw material for extraction of beta-carotene is the microscopic unicellular green alga, Dunaliella salina which is cultured in shallow, open, highly saline ponds. Our culture "vessels" are ten 5 ha ponds, constructed using earth walls on the bed of Hutt Lagoon; each contains 10-15 million litres of culture. Culture medium consists of high salinity brine taken from the surrounding Hutt Lagoon, with nutrients including nitrate, and phosphate added. The lagoon is dry …


Context  Involving patients in decision making (DM) is being advocated in clinical practice. For it to be operational, some behavioural models have been put forward. Yet, their suitability and implementation in primary care are controversial.