As the distance between lay consumers and food producers and processors increases, the mass media become more important in conveying information about food safety to the general public. This study shows how food safety issues have been marginalized by reporters, as coverage tends to cluster around crisis situations. Data were collected from articles indexed in the Readers' Guide to Periodicals for the twelve years, 1986-1997. In addition to the quantitative analyses, coverage within the most popular magazines of two issues—mad cow disease and Alar—are examined. It is argued that food safety issues are not only marginalized, but are removed from consumer arenas into technical arenas. This research is available in Journal of Applied Communications: https://newprairiepress.org/jac/vol84/iss2/2 Journal of Applied Communications, Vol. 84, No. 2, 2000 / 29 The Marginalization of Food Safety Issues: An Interpretative Approach to Mass Media Coverage Toby A. Ten Eyck Toby A. Ten Eyck is an assistant professor, Department of Sociology; and National Food Safety and Toxicology Center; Michigan State University. Current estimates from the Center for Disease Control are that nearly 76 million people are affected by food-borne illnesses each year in the United States, with approximately 5000 of those cases ending in death. In addition, food-borne illnesses have cost United States (U.S.) taxpayers and businesses more than $40 billion in medical bills and lost productivity in recent years (Bruhn & Schutz, 1999). The causes of food-borne illnesses are various, with some arguing that improper handling of food is the cause for most problems (Kaferstein & Sims, 1987). With this many people adversely affected by their food, and knowing that safe food handling may help prevent a majority of food-borne illnesses, it is important to understand the information we are receiving Abstract As the distance between lay consumers and food producers and processors increases, the mass media become more important in conveying information about food safety to the general public. This study shows how food safety issues have been marginalized by reporters, as coverage tends to cluster around crisis situations. Data were collected from articles indexed in the Readers' Guide to Periodicals for the twelve years, 1986-1997. In addition to the quantitative analyses, coverage within the most popular magazines of two issues – mad cow disease and Alar — are examined. It is argued that food safety issues are not only marginalized, but are removed from consumer arenas into technical arenas. 40 / Journal of Applied Communications, Vol. 84, No. 2, 2000 Two other articles appeared in April, and another in May in Discover. Here are the first two paragraphs from that article: Can humans catch a fatal disease by eating infected beef? No one knows for sure, but a few suspicious deaths have shaken the British. Shepherd's pie, a mashed-potato-and-beef conglomeration foisted upon generations of British children, has been struck off the menu in over a thousand schools throughout the United Kingdom. Gone also are hamburgers, beef stew, beef sausages, and even Yorkshire pudding, that drippings-soaked symbol of British culinary aplomb. Why? Fear of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease, is sweeping Britain. The disease, thought to be caused by rogue proteins called prions, eats away at cow brains, eventually killing the cows. This nation of beef eaters is worried that mad cow disease may spread to humans. There does seem to be a fatalistic bent at this point, though the tone does change latter in the article: But can cow prions infect humans? That is, can a prion from a BSE-infected cow brain alter the normal human Prp protein, converting it into an agent of Creutzfeldt-Jakob? The answer is far from clear. The most direct evidence comes from John Collinge, a neurologist at London's Imperial College School of Medicine at St. Mary's, who has run a series of rather complex experiments to try to answer the question. Since he couldn't experiment on humans, Collinge studied mice genetically engineered to carry only the human gene for PrP and not the mouse one. Unlike normal mice, these can be infected with human CJD: when Collinge injected them with cells from the brain of a patient who had died of the disease, the mice soon developed its characteristic symptoms — hunched posture, a wobbly walk, and a tendency to fall. They died within 200 days. Autopsies revealed the sponginess in the brain typical of CJD. ... Finally, Collinge did the acid test: he injected cow prions into the brains of mice that carried only human PrP genes. That experiment is still going on. The mice are now more than 400 days old and still healthy — 1 Eyck: The Marginalization of Food Safety Issues: An Interpretative Appr Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 30 / Journal of Applied Communications, Vol. 84, No. 2, 2000 concerning food safety. Some of the most prominent vehicles for information transfer in our modern era are mass media organizations (Thompson, 1995), yet it is an empirical question as to whether these organizations are in the position to develop effective communication in regard to food safety. The inability of mass media organizations to develop comprehensive campaigns on a topic such as food safety issues is not intrinsic to the issues but stems from current journalistic practices. While part of the development of popular journalism – which refers to such popular newspapers, news magazines, and television network news as The New York Times, Newsweek, and ABC Nightly News, as compared to trade and scholarly journals – stems from business pressures to construct a product that sells (Bagdikian, 1992), another aspect of current journalistic practices is the idea that journalists are an interpretive community. The main goal of this paper is to investigate the degree to which this interpretive community simultaneously covers food safety issues. If it is found that these topics tend to cluster within specific time frames, then an argument can be made that these issues are marginalized in the sense that there is no continuity or connection to some larger agenda. Mass Media as Interpretative Process The interpretive process of journalism encompasses a number of different aspects. Zelizer (1993) has argued that journalists should be considered an interpretive community whose work is based largely on interpretations of watershed events such as Edward R. Murrow's attack of Senator Joseph McCarthy and the Watergate investigation. According to Zelizer's (1993) account, when Murrow attacked McCarthy, he was demoted by his network. Later, when it became clear that Murrow was correct in challenging McCarthy, journalists interpreted his work as courageous and a model for future journalists. The fame and fortune of a few journalists that came with the downfall of the Nixon Administration gave impetus for a new type of investigative reporting, even though at the time of the Watergate investigation some of the journalists were punished for their actions. Zelizer (1993) argues that journalists, in addition to interpreting their own history, are also involved in an interpretive process at the time they and their colleagues are covering Journal of Applied Communications, Vol. 84, No. 2, 2000 / 39 else can one escape from the cycle?" shudders Catherine Mack, a farmer in Somerset. "The thought of it is too horrific to contemplate." If the virus strikes bovines in the U.S., the beef industry could see even loyal customers stampeding for the salad bar. While there is no linkage here between mad cow disease and human infestation in these paragraphs, word usage is telling. Words such as "bloodied," "horrific," and "stampede" are being used to frame this story early, though the next article did not appear in a popular journal until April 1996. On April 1, 1996, both Newsweek and Time published articles on mad cow disease. According to the Time article: For years British government officials have repeated the message: The "mad-cow disease" that has killed thousands of British cattle over the past decade represents no danger to humans. Just last December Prime Minister John Major insisted that there was "no scientific evidence" that the fatal brain infection, called bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), could be transmitted through beef products. The British public was thus doubly stunned last week when a government-appointed scientific commission indicated just the opposite. The commission had discovered a new strain of a deadly disorder called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and suggested that the likely cause for its spread was BSE. The announcement sent a wave of alarm across Europe. By week's end all but two European Union countries had banned British beef, and nations as far away as New Zealand and Singapore had done the same, cutting off trade that earns Britain $780 million a year. The U.S. has not permitted the import of British beef since 1989, when questions about its safety were first raised. The colorful language of the 1990 article is missing, at least in these first two paragraphs, though a "suggestion" is taken as proof of a linkage between mad cow disease and CJD. It is not until the last paragraph that we learn that most people who are susceptible to the disease were probably exposed prior to 1990. There is also no mention of an article appearing in Science on March 29, 1996, which stated that the evidence used by the government-appointed scientific commission was "scant." 2 Journal of Applied Communications, Vol. 84, Iss. 2 [2000], Art. 2 https://newprairiepress.org/jac/vol84/iss2/2 DOI: 10.4148/1051-0834.2150 Journal of Applied Communications, Vol. 84, No. 2, 2000 / 31 stories. One way this has manifested itself is in the use of the same sources within and across stories. Shepherd (1979), for example, found that once a scientist was willing to grant an interview, that same


Background:  Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) is commonly caused by hemorrhagic colitis with Shiga toxin‐producing Escherichia coli O‐157. Central nervous system (CNS) involvements, including seizures, encephalopathy and brain infarction, are serious complications, but there are no useful scores for the prediction of CNS complications.


The far ultraviolet spectrum of the dawn airglow (solar zenith angle = 86°) was observed with a scanning Ebert spectrophotometer aboard an Aerobee 170 rocket launched from White Sands, New Mexico, on January 25, 1971, at 0727 MST. Altitude profiles were obtained between 100 and 244 km for the brightest spectral features, HI λ1216, OI λ1304, and OI λ1356. The OI λ1356 column intensity is used to estimate a λ1356 intensity of ∼10 R at the unilluminated magnetic conjugate point; this procedure is consistent with recent observations. The peak cross section for electron impact excitation of the (2p³3s)5S state of atomic oxygen is derived from a comparison of the λ1356 intensity with that of the N2(0, 0) second positive band measured simultaneously.


Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University ofCalifornia, Los Angeles, CA 90095-15655.1 IntroductionWith the advent of computers, scientists in the 1950s and 1960s began toexplore the possibility of using numerical simulation to generate virtual lab-oratories for exploring specific geophysical processes in a controlled manner.Doug Lilly helped pioneer this emerging science of numerical simulation. Aspointed out by Wyngaard (Chpt 1), Lilly presented a "bold, three phaseplan of attack" in which well-behaved numerical models would be devel-oped; their fidelity would be benchmarked against known solutions; and asconfidence builds they would be used to explore conditions not adequatelyreproducible by experiment. In the subsequent decades this strategy has be-come a staple of theoretical studies of turbulence. In particular, a class ofnumerical simulations Doug helped develop in the early 1960s has come tobe known as large-eddy simulation (LES) and is now widely used in the fieldof atmospheric boundary layer (PBL) turbulence and clouds.We begin in section 5.2 by giving an example of the second element ofDoug's plan of attack, and what we call "benchmarking." This is by nomeans trivial because for turbulent flows, there are no known solutions. Tobetter appreciate this point we consider LES of the cloud-topped boundarylayer which couples turbulence, radiation, and cloud processes. As cloudyboundary layers cannot be created in the laboratory, one must invariablyturn to field data to construct meaningful benchmarks. Historically, fielddata have been collected to explore phenomenology, and thus few datasetsexist to benchmark computations. The second field study of the Dynamics


When seeking to bench mark the performance of European economies, commentators often look to compare them to the economies of Japan and the United States. How Europe's Economies Learn shows how this is seriously misleading, and how any such comparison needs to be complemented with an understanding of the fundamental differences between Europe's economies. The contributors provide an up-to-date description and analysis of the way differences in state systems and institutional contexts, such as labour markets, education and training systems, and financial systems, shape learning processes and innovation performance across the member nations of the European Union. In doing so, it draws important conclusion for how policy strategies should be designed at the national and European levels in order to further promote the goals of the Lisbon process. Contributors to this volume - Christian Bessy, CNRS Research Fellow, Ecole Normale Superieure de Cachan, France, Adne Cappelen, Director of Research, Statistics Norway, Norway, Patrick Cohendet, Professor, Department of International Business, HEC School of Management, Canada, Giovanni Dosi, Professor, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy, Mei Ho, Doctoral Candidate, Eindhoven Centre for Innovation Studies, Eindhoven Technical University, The Netherlands, Mauro Sylos Labini, Doctoral Candidate, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy, Alice Lam, Professor of Organization Studies, School of Management, Royal Holloway University of London, UK, Caroline Lanciano-Morandat, CNRS Research Fellow, Laboratory of Economics and Labour Sociology (LEST), University of Aix-en-Provence, France, Patrick Llerena, Professor, Office for Theoretical and Applied Economics (BETA) University Louis Pasteur, France, Edward Lorenz, Professor, University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, France, Bengt-Ake Lundvall, Professor, Department of Business Studies, Aalborg University, Denmark, Chantale Mailhot, Associate Professor, Department of International Business, HEC School of Management, Canada, Peter Nielsen, Professor, Aalborg University, Denmark, Hiroatsu Nohara, CNRS Research Fellow, Laboratory of Economics and Labour Sociology (LEST), University of Aix-en-Provence, France, Maria Joao Rodrigues, President, European Commission's Advisory Group for Social Sciences and Professor, University Institute, Portugal, Veronique Schaeffer, Assistant Professor, Office for Theoretical and Applied Economics (BETA) University Louis Pasteur, France, Mark Tomlinson, Lecturer, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, UK, Andrew Tylecote, Professor, Management School, University of Sheffield, UK, Antoine Valeyre, CNRS Research Fellow, Centre for Employment Studies (CEE), France, Eric Verdier, CNRS Research Director, Laboratory of Economics and Labour Sociology (LEST) University of Aix-en-Provence, France, Bart Verspagen, Professor, Department of Technology Management, Eindhoven Technical University, The Netherlands, Richard Whitley, Professor of Organizational Sociology and Director of Research, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, UK.


Statistical Properties of the turbulence in the diffusion replicator equation of three species are numerically studied. The maximal Lyapunov exponent and Lyapunov dimension are derived precisely. Further, these characteristics obey some characteristic scaling laws.


Herein, the microstructure and composition of the Ti‐ and Ta‐doped Nb3Al superconductor fabricated by rapid heating, quenching, and transformation (RHQT) process are compared. After rapid heating and quenching (RHQ) process, body‐centered cubic (bcc) phase is formed in all the wires, showing dark stripe and bright contrast morphology in the backscattered electron (BSE) images. After transformation heat‐treatment, all wires consist of A15 phase and show the same morphology as that of the quenched samples. Near‐stoichiometric composition is shown in 3 at% Ti‐ and Ta‐doped Nb3Al samples, but when doping amount is 10 at%, Ti‐doped sample has constant Nb content of 67 at% and Ta‐doped sample has Al + Ta content of 25 at%. Superconducting properties of both 3 at% Ti‐ and Ta‐doped Nb3Al samples are comparable and much superior than that of 10 at% doped samples, including critical temperature (Tc), critical current density (Jc), and irreversible field (Birr). Though 10 at% Ta‐doped Nb3Al has higher Tc than 10 at% Ti‐doped sample, it presents wider ΔTc value and lower Jc performance. When increasing the measurement temperature from 8 to 10 K, the decay ratio of Birr value for Ti‐doped Nb3Al superconductor follows the scaling law; however, the Ta‐doped samples are not the case.


Objective
To assess the dosimetric benefit, prognosis and toxicity of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for stage Ⅲ esophageal squamous cell cancer.

Methods
This was a retrospective analysis of 28 patients, aged between 45 and 83 years, with stage Ⅲ esophageal squamous cell cancer who had received radical IMRT.Of these patients, six received concurrent chemotherapy and eight received targeted therapy.The median radiotherapy dose was 67.1 Gy.Dosimetric parameters for the target volume and critical normal structures were evaluated by dose-volume histogram.The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate overall survival (OS), progress free survival (PFS) and locoregional control (LRC).

Results
The mean conformity index (CI) and homogeneity index (HI) scores of the planning target volume (PTV) were 0.82 and 0.92, respectively, indicating very good coverage of the target volume.Three-year OS, PFS, and LRC were 48.0%, 31.2%, and 62.0%, respectively.Acute toxicities were mild, only two patients developed acute esophagitis (grade ≥3), and three had acute pneumonitis (grade ≥2).

Conclusions
IMRT can provide excellent dose conformity and achieve favorable LRC and survival with only mild toxicities in patients with stage Ⅲ esophageal squamous cancer.

Key words:
Esophageal neoplasms; Radiotherapy; Prognosis


The H ion concentration of the culture medium is now recognized as being an important factor in the growth of all classes of plants. In certain special cases this may even become the limiting factor for growth. However, in experiments with higher plants growing in soils of different pH values a correct interpretation of results is difficult, because it is frequently impossible to isolate the direct effects of the hydrogen ion concentration from other contributing factors. The following experiments with a unicellular green alga, Chlorella sp., growing in mineral nutrient solutions under pure culture conditions, were performed in an effort to obtain a more exact analysis of the effect of the H ion concentration on the rate of growth of a green plant.


A microsimulation model for transportation planning or land use requires disaggregate information on the population of the study area. This kind of data is not often available and has to be synthesized. For Switzerland, the Swiss Public-Use Sample (PUS) seems to be a suitable data source for such a synthetic population. This paper describes the process of preparing the PUS so that it can be used for generating a synthetic population.


In 2004 the report Intellectual capital of the European Union was published (Andriessen and Stam, 2004). This report provided insight in the value of the intellectual capital of the 15 countries of the European Union, in relationship to the goals set by the European Council in March 2000. Since this report, the EU grew from 15 to 27 countries and the Lisbon goals were reformulated in 2005. The aim of this paper is to repeat the measurement of the intellectual capital (IC) of the enlarged European Union (EU) in relationship to the new Lisbon goals.

In order to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy, the EU decided to focus on "delivering stronger, lasting growth and creating more and better jobs" (CEC, 2005d, p.7). In this paper we translate this overall goal in 38 indicators. As the data was not available for all the new member states, we decided to limit our paper to the so-called EU-19.

Based on our measurements we conclude that the EU-19 is still behind Japan and far behind the USA, however the EU is catching up as both Japan and the USA have considerably lower growth figures than the EU-19. From an IC perspective, the EU is geographically divided. The Nordic countries are still the best performing countries. The southern European countries and the new member states stay behind. However, as the new member states invest more in their IC, it might be expected that their positions will improve in the future.

The aim of our paper was to measure the progress of the Lisbon Agenda for growth and jobs. Based on our measurements we conclude that the EU-19 is successful in terms of creating more and better jobs, but not successful in terms of delivering stronger, lasting growth.


Web site operators, Internet users, and online service providers are besieged by a growing array of abuses and threats. Spam leads users to online scams and phishing Web pages, which cyber-criminals implant on innocent sites to fool the unwary into revealing their financial data and passwords. Other criminals use Web sites to spread malware, which can steal personal data or take over users' computers into a botnet, which can be used to send spam or mount cyber-attacks against Web sites and other Internet services. Together, these abuses undermine user trust, hamper e-commerce, and cost the Internet community huge losses in money, service and support costs, and time.
 What should Web site operators and online service providers do to protect themselves and their users? What are Internet companies, organizations, and law enforcement doing (and not doing) to combat these problems? And how can the international Internet community work together on these problems? The panel brings together representatives from the chain of organizations that respond to Internet abuse problems, and promises a lively, compelling, and relevant discussion.


This comparative analysis delves into the emerging challenges within the African Union's (AU) peace and security strategy, focusing on two prominent peacekeeping missions: the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). By evaluating their achievements, obstacles, and approaches, considering African Union dynamics and geopolitical factors, the study assesses variables such as logistical efficiency, funding autonomy, and mission objectives' attainment. The findings offer valuable insights into the effectiveness of AU peacekeeping operations and provide recommendations for future missions. By analyzing UNAMID and AMISOM strategies, identifying commonalities and differences, and addressing challenges related to funding, logistics, and African Union coordination, this analysis contributes to a broader understanding of peacekeeping practices in Africa. It emphasizes the need for effective collaboration, highlights the importance of stability, and offers recommendations to strengthen the African Union's peace and security strategy, ultimately fostering peace and stability in the African Union.


Systems with cylindrical parabolic solar collector housing. # Mirrors cylindrical parabolic solar collector (1) allow to concentrate the sun's heat in its focal axis, where the tube is placed (19). By this tube (19) a fluid that is heated to about 300C. This temperature is ideal for running household ovens (2), fryers or electricity generation microsystems. Said furnace (2) hot air has a intencambiador coil (3) aided by a fan (4) transfers heat of the heat transfer fluid into the furnace (2). Complete installation pump drive (5), an expansion vessel (8), a non-return valve (6) and bypass valves (7). The invention includes alternative circuits including heat storage tanks. High-temperature storage tank (9) for example for use for the oven, and low temperature (14) for example for hot water and underfloor heating (18).


GSTP1 polymorphism is one of the genetic factors contributed to (NPC). The polymorphism alters its function in detoxifying carcinogen and inhibits oxidative stress. Oxidative stress induces EBV lytic reactivation and enhances IgA response. This study was aimed to analyze the association of GSTP1 polymorphism and serum IgA levels in NPC patients. The study was analytic research with a cross-sectional design. The samples were the blood of NPC patients who underwent PCR-RFLP-electrophoresis and ELISA method to identify GSTP1 polymorphism and IgA level. We found 21 (72.4%) patients with Ile/Val genotype, 6 (20.7%) patients with Ile/Ile, and 2 (6.9%) patients with Val/Val. Patients with elevated IgA levels were 21 (72.4%) patients. In this study, there was no significant association of GSTP1 polymorphism and serum IgA level. We found the GSTP1 polymorphism and serum IgA elevation in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients, but there was no significant association between them. Future research with the inclusion of environmental risk data is needed as well as larger samples. The study may help to determine effective prevention, treatment, and monitoring therapy of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.


* A new boxed warning and a new contraindication are being added to the labeling of ferumoxytol (Feraheme). The boxed warning states that there is a risk of anaphylaxis and even death with ferumoxytol infusion.

* The new contraindication to use is a previous allergic reaction to ferumoxytol or any other IV iron-replacement drug.


Introduction. Oxidehydrogenation (ODH) of light alkanes to olefins is considered the most promising way to overcome the thermodynamic constraints of the direct dehydrogenation, specially demanding in the case of ethane. The main difficulty for its practical application is to avoid the further oxidation of the formed olefin, leading to low yields and productivities. One alternative to this problem is the use of CO2 as an oxidant, milder and more selective than molecular oxygen. Previous studies by our groups showed that CeO2 is active for ethane ODH with CO2, and its catalytic performance can be improved by the addition of a 10 wt % CaO [1]. A further improvement was reached by the use of high surface area, nanostructured CeO2 catalysts, pure or doped with CaO, prepared by the freeze-drying (FD) method, which allowed obtain yields of ethylene up to 22% with 91% selectivity [2]. The improvement by Ca doping was attributed to its effect in the network oxygen mobility. However, Ca-doped catalyst deactivated very fast, due to sintering. It is well known that interaction of Ce and Zr modifies the oxygen storage capacity (OSC) of their mixed oxides, but zirconia is thermally much more stable than ceria. This motivated the study of ZrO2-based compositions as catalysts for the title reaction. We present here the study of the preparation and characterization nanostructured zirconia doped with cerium, Zr1-xCexO2 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.3), and their influence of the catalyst composition and synthesis parameters in their catalytic performance in the oxidehydrogenation of ethane with CO2. Experimental. Catalyst precursors were prepared either by sol-gel or by FD of solutions of Zr and/or Ce acetates in acetic acid. The final catalysts were obtained by calcining the precursors in air at 500-700 oC, and characterized by BET, XRD, TPR and SEM. Catalytic tests were done at 500-750 oC in a MicroActivity Pro unit, as described in [3], and reactants and products were analyzed by GC on line. Results and discussion. XRD patterns of ZrO2 calcined at 500 oC show a mix of monoclinic, tetragonal and cubic phases. Addition of Ce stabilized the tetragonal ZrO2 phase and caused the formation of mixed tetragonal phases: Zr0.88Ce0.12O2 for x = 0.1, and Zr0.82Ce0.18O2. No cubic nor monoclinic phases were detected. SEM study showed that regardless the Ce content, all the oxides show nanometric size, below 50 nm. In the conditions used, catalytic activity becomes detectable at 550 oC, the main products being CO and C2H4, reaching C2H4 yields of 10-22 % depending on the catalyst composition and reaction temperature. In all tests CO formation exceeded that of C2H4, which involves, besides ODH, an unselective oxidation reaction (C2H6 + 5 CO2 7 CO + 3 H2O). Pure zirconia was little active but selective, and the progressive incorporation of Ce increased not only activity but also ethane selectivity and CO2 efficiency for the selective ODH. This behaviour will be discussed in terms of the nature of the crystalline phases and active sites in the nanostructured oxides.


In order to solve the problem of large deformation in deep roadway mining, the stress and deformation of surrounding rock after roadway excavation and support are studied by numerical simulation. The results show that the displacement of roof and two sides is large after the roadwayexcavation. After adopting bolt support technology, the displacement of the roof and two sides of the roadway decreases obviously. The displacement decreases with the decrease of bolt spacing, the range of plastic zone decreases greatly, and the overall strength of the surrounding rock of the roadway increases obviously. The research results can provide reference for other deep roadway support.


Rapid cooling of the Fe–C fcc solution leads to the formation of a phase called martensite, which has high mechanical properties. It is well known that under stress a martensite has the ability to plastically deform within a small range, despite the large value of the macroscopic yield strength. This effect is explained in different ways, mainly on the basis of dislocation theory. We study the impact of external stress on ordering of interstitial atoms in Fe–C solid solutions and formation of tetrahedral distortion of martensite lattice. Molecular dynamics with embedded atom (EAM) interatomic potential is used. According to the simulations, interstitial carbon atoms migrate under external stress applied along the tetragonality direction from z‐sublattice, and tetrahedral distortion of lattice changes its orientation to other ones when the stress exceeds some critical value. This result enables us to justify a new look at the nature of the martensite plastic deformation. The influence of temperature and carbon content on the critical stress value is investigated.


Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) remains one of the most common malignancies associated with poor prognosis. DNA methylation has emerged as an important mechanism underlying the radio-resistance of tumors. Prognostic biomarkers based on radiotherapy-related aberrant DNA methylation are limited. Methylation profiles of 388 patients with HNSCC were acquired from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) portal. Genes with differentially methylated CpG sites (DMGs) were screened between patients with a favorable and poor prognosis with or without radiotherapy. A weight gene co-methylation network was constructed using a Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) package. A lasso Cox-PH model was used to identify the optimal panel of genes with the ability to predict survival in these patients. Prognostic performance of the multi-gene methylation signature was assessed in a training set and confirmed in a validation set. A total of 976 DMGs were observed between favorable and poor prognostic samples. Four DMG-enriched co-methylation modules were identified. A four-gene methylation signature was determined by the lasso Cox-PH model that consisted of ZNF10, TMPRSS12, ERGIC2, and RNF215. The risk score based on the four-gene signature was able to divide the training or validation set into two risk groups with significantly different overall survival. Thus, the present study revealed a radiotherapy-related four-gene methylation signature to predict survival outcomes of patients with HNSCC, providing candidate therapeutic targets for novel therapy against HNSCC. However, substantial validation experiments are required.


This submission will reflect on how border control and visa regimes structure access to higher education by differentiating between potential students and funding recipients based on citizenship, and will suggest some implications for critical pedagogy in global politics. I write from the perspective of a former part-time instructor in an interdisciplinary East European studies department in the UK (a post I held in 2011–2012). In the UK system, the fee differential for students who are EU or non-EU citizens produces a stark inequality in access that cuts through East European regions depending on which states have become members of the European Economic Area; this anomaly makes the wider inequality particularly visible.


Prenatal diagnosis is largely dependent on invasive testing procedures. Consequently, it has generally been limited to those considered by national convention or reimbursement regulations to be at sufficiently high risk of a specific disorder to warrant the hazards and costs involved. In the past, women were mainly referred because of advanced maternal age, which implies a high risk of chromosomal abnormality, a family history of a Mendelian disorder, such as cystic fibrosis (CF), or a multifactorial abnormality, such as a neural tube defect (NTD). The introduction of routine screening 30 years ago and its gradual expansion over time has radically changed the pattern of referral for invasive testing. Today, the largest group of women referred are those with high chromosomal abnormality risk on the basis of multiple biochemical and ultrasound marker levels. Systematic testing for genetic disorders, using either biochemical markers or DNA analysis, now identifies a large number of carriers. Hence, screening rather than family history has become the main indication for the prenatal diagnosis of genetic disorders. Routine biochemical and ultrasound marker determination also leads to the detection of large numbers of structural abnormalities. A single marker, maternal serum a-fetoprotein (AFP) can detect a large proportion of NTDs and abdominal wall defects. A parallel development has been the steady improvement in the ability of imaging techniques to obviate the need for invasive prenatal diagnosis. Many centers with sonographic expertise now rely on ultrasound as opposed to amniocentesis for the diagnosis of fetal NTD. Screening has also benefited from improved imaging with the routine use of ultrasound to detect structural abnormalities. In this issue of Seminars in Medical Genetics, a wide range of new developments are presented relating to both an improved ability to make a prenatal diagnosis and more efficient screening methods which are used to select for prenatal diagnosis. As well as technical advances, the issue covers ethical implications of these new approaches. The public health achievement of reducing the birth prevalence of a serious medical condition has to be considered in the context of attempting to inform choice, when the notion of screening is poorly understood even by professionals. The concept of screening is less well understood than diagnostic testing partly arising from the complexity and indeterminacy of screening compared with the certainty of diagnosis. The use of specialist terminology also stands in the way of understanding. Screening differs from diagnosis in so far as the aim is simply to identify a high-risk group rather than be definitive. But a screening test result is usually classified in a dichotomous way as ''positive'' or ''negative,'' and this might be erroneously taken to imply a certainty that is not intended. Typically there is considerable overlap in the distribution of test results between affected and unaffected pregnancies. This is sometimes expressed in terms of false-positive and false-negative results. This time there is a misleading implication of uncertainty. The contributing authors synthesize experience of screening from Europe and Asia as well as North America. In so far as screening is a public health venture with local financial, educational, and technical constraints screening policy will inevitably differ between countries. Nevertheless, the articles here describe the components needed by any screening program and present the policy options.


Analysis of serum cholesterol levels of 106 male forensic patients showed significant differences in frequency of aggression, with low cholesterol levels predominant among those more frequently violent.


ABSTRACT The specific objectives of the study were to determine the approximate design parameters for filter bed and highlight the possible scope of using mixed iron oxides rich smelter slag for in situ or ex situ treatment. The batch and column study was conducted to assess the As removal capacities from contaminated water. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis of the slag waste product determined the presence of large quantities of iron (Fe). In this study, the maximum removal capacities were found to be approximately 1.78 mg As per g of slag and 100% removal of As(V) was achieved during the first 30 days of three column operations. The changes in redox potential (Eh) values and the changes in effluent pH throughout the column operation period indicated redox reactions occurring in the system. The column experiments were modelled using a semi-analytic solution to the advection–dispersion–adsorption equation incorporated in the commercial software, Pollute V7. From the best-fit of the modelling results to the experimental breakthrough curves, the hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient (D) was found to be 0.0115 and 0.00775 m2/day for column 1 and column 2, respectively, and 0.00862 m2/day for column 3. The values of the distribution coefficient (KD) were 0.18, 0.173 and 0.171 m3/kg or L/g for the three columns and 0.24 L/g from the batch test. The results from the experiments may be used to aid the design of a filter bed or reactive barrier in a scenario where the mixed iron oxides rich smelter waste product is used as a candidate reactive medium. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


This article describes and explains why the state of California has long played a leadership role in adopting innovative and stringent environmental standards. It argues that critical roles have been played by the state's attractive natural environment, the extent of threats to its environmental quality, the material interest of citizens in protecting the natural environmental around where they lived, and the support of business interests who stood to benefit from protecting the state's many environmental amenities. These dynamics are illustrated by several historical examples, which have laid the basis for the state's current environmental policy initiatives. It concludes by generalizing from the experiences of California in order to explore the role of politics and public policies in promoting more sustainable business practices.


This paper discusses the problem of deformation cracks of the building wall, analyzes the causes of deformation cracks and summarizes some protective methods.


The software reliability and security in aerospace engineering are significant due to the particular environments of applying.However,the conventional methods of software reliability testing can not deal with practical problems in the aerospace reliability testing.The context presents a software reliability testing method based on the system state analysis,which is applied to flight-control software.The practice shows that this method brought a realizable path for deploying software reliability testing in aerospace software.


Class III malocclusions are the least common type of malocclusions, yet they are often more complicated to treat and more likely to require orthognathic surgery for optimal correction followed by orthodontics. 1 Treating such cases becomes much more challenging when the patient rejects surgery due to fear, cost, or aesthetic concerns. With adequate knowledge and technical acumen regarding suitability for treating class III cases with non-surgical treatment, this alternative treatment option could be used to achieve faster results with prominent dento-facial manipulations. This case report describes a class III crossbite case treated using an innovative non-surgical treatment method using Carrier Class III Motion Appliance.

Key words: Class III, Non-Surgical alternative.


In the Federal Republic of Germany breath alcohol analysis was legally introduced solely in cases of law infringements. During court cases difficulties can arise if high breath alcohol concentrations (BrAC) were recorded by the police yet no blood alcohol analysis was carried out. To date, in cases of criminal offences, the Federal Supreme Court has only determined a limit value for blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and not for breath alcohol concentration (BrAC). Therefore the possible distribution of BAC values for a given BrAC needs to be determined on an empirical basis. Alternatively, the relative risk of causing an accident (odds ratio) on which the Federal Court bases its decision, can be determined directly from the Grad-Rapid-Study as well as other studies. BrAC values of 0.82 and 0.92 mg/l are discussed.


ABSTRACT Constructing agent data with detailed information on their sociodemographics is substantially important for agent-based modelling. However, to collect data about the whole population is not efficient, since it requires an expensive and time-consuming survey, especially for a large population. The paper uses a novel approach that integrates Bayesian network (BN) and generalized raking (GR) multilevel iterative proportional fitting (IPF). Furthermore, the approach is applied to construct the population for Greater Jakarta, Indonesia, which consists of 30 million inhabitants. The results show that the BN approach can produce data that represent the probability distribution of sample data and that the IPF can match it against aggregate census data.


Relapsed/refractory myeloma has a poor outcome because of multi‐drug resistance, patient low‐performance status and toxicity of conventional chemotherapy. To improve results, standard chemotherapeutics and drugs targeting the microenvironment are applied at the same time. Bortezomib, by inhibiting proteasome function, may enhance chemosensitivity to other drugs and overcome drug‐resistance. Notably, doxorubicin and bortezomib may reciprocally increase their efficacy. Thus, to improve outcome whilst minimizing therapy‐related toxicity, liposomal doxorubicin was added to a bortezomib‐based combination. From January 2004, relapsed/refractory myeloma patients referred to our Institution received bortezomib 1·0 mg/m2 i.v. twice weekly for 2 weeks in a 28‐d cycle for up to six cycles, oral dexamethasone 24 mg with the standard scheduling and thalidomide 100 mg continuously (VTD). From January 2005, liposomal doxorubicin, 50 mg/m2 (30 mg/m2 for patients older than 75 years), was added on day 4 of each cycle [VTD plus Myocet (MyVTD)]. In total, 70 patients were treated: 28 received VTD and 42 MyVTD. Baseline demographic and clinical characteristics were similar between the two groups. Toxicity was manageable although more pronounced with MyVTD. The overall response rate (81% vs. 50%, P = 0·009), time to progression (19 vs. 11 months, P = 0·01) and progression‐free survival (15 vs. 8 months, P = 0·001) were significantly higher with MyVTD regimen, suggesting an improved quality of response.


The paper presents an investigation of the adaptive parameters of multi-antenna schemes for use in future reconfigurable MIMO systems. The study puts a special emphasis on linking the concept of channel diversity, either in the spatial or polarization domain, with the type of polarization being used, both at the transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX), and the level of multipath provided by the channel in the vertical or horizontal direction, with respect to the propagation plane. It has been found that NLOS indoor channels are very sensitive to the type of signal diversity being employed and the type of polarization and the multipath component being used.


An electronically-controlled and hydraulically driven air inlet and exhaustion system with common pipe (tracl) for IC engine is composed of air inlet-exhuastion unit, hydraulic controller and electronic controller, and servces to flexibly regulate the air valve of IC engine in time according to its rotation speed, load, boosting pressure, atmosphere temp and humidity and the characteristics of ICengine for optimal working condition. It is especially suitable for 4-stroke diesel engine.


In the paper, dielectric and metallic lenses are modeled and optimized in order to enhance the gain of a horn antenna in the frequency range from 60 GHz to 100 GHz. Properties of designed lenses are compared and discussed. The structures are modeled in CST Microwave Studio and optimized by Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) in order to get required antenna parameters.


A method for manufacturing a food product comprising the following steps: - providing fruits of coffee immature integers where the fruits Unripe coffee have at least 5% of green and less than 5% of the surface of each fruit coffee covered with blemishes, cuts and / or holes; - rapidly drying the fruits Unripe coffee within 0 to 48 h after harvest such that a residual water content no greater than 20% and coffee berries comprise mycotoxin levels that are below 20 ppb for total aflatoxins, below 5 ppm for total fumonisins, below 5 ppm for total vomitoxins and below 5 ppb ochratoxin; - extract the whole immature fruit dried coffee quickly with an aqueous or nonaqueous solvent; and - formulating the food product comprising fruit extract coffee.


The Raman spectra of L-histidine in basic aqueous solutions show the scattering peaks clearly assignable to the 1-N and 3-N protonated forms of the imidazole ring. From the measurement of the spectra as a function of temperature, it was concluded that the 1-N protonated form is energetically more stable than the 3-N protonated form and ΔH is 1.0±0.3kcal/mol.


Requirement traceability links are an essential part of requirement management software and are a basic prerequisite for software artifact changes. The manual establishment of requirement traceability links is time-consuming. When faced with large projects, requirement managers spend a lot of time in establishing relationships from numerous requirements and codes. However, existing techniques for automatic requirement traceability link recovery are limited by the semantic disparity between natural language and programming language, resulting in many methods being less accurate. In this paper, we propose a fine-grained requirement-code traceability link recovery approach based on query expansion, which analyzes the semantic similarity between requirements and codes from a fine-grained perspective, and uses a query expansion technique to establish valid links that deviate from the query, so as to further improve the accuracy of traceability link recovery. Experiments showed that the approach proposed in this paper outperforms state-of-the-art unsupervised traceability link recovery methods, not only specifying the obvious advantages of fine-grained structure analysis for word embedding-based traceability link recovery, but also improving the accuracy of establishing requirement traceability links. The experimental results demonstrate the superiority of our approach.


The most active subjects in the security related communities are the necessary protection against the data thieves. This gives an importance and the value of exchanged data over the Internet or other media types. In many RSA cryptosystems, we usually select a small value for the public key e. This kind of choice can only speed up the encryption operation but do not forget that by this way, the corresponding decryption operation requires more computational time and therefore it costs more because of the larger decryption exponent d. The alternative way that can be taken to overcome this problem is to implement this operation is based on the Chinese Remainder theorem (CRT). This paper deals with implementation of RSA algorithm using Chinese remainder Theorem. To provide extra layer of encryption we will use Optimal Asymmetric Encryption Padding (OAEP) and Variable Radix Number System.


This paper presents a study for oil spill detection in three steps. The first one considers the texture as a two dimensions array, and to describe the statistics iteration between pixels the algorithm computes a textural feature related with the Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM). After, the original image and the textural feature images are segmented using Markov Random Field (MRF). Each pixel can be classified in two classes: {oil, not-oil}. To determine the class we optimized the a posteriori energy function by means of simulated annealing. The segmentation result contains different levels of information, in order to improve the oil spill detection; we propose a data fusion stage. The result obtained is binary and shows in detail the oil spill in the analysis zone.


Thank you very much for downloading wonderful adventures of mrsseacole in many lands. Maybe you have knowledge that, people have search numerous times for their chosen readings like this wonderful adventures of mrsseacole in many lands, but end up in harmful downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they cope with some harmful bugs inside their desktop computer.


This chapter tries to do three things. First, it argues that rules of correct reasoning do not always preserve justification: if you begin with a justified attitude, and reason correctly from it, it can nevertheless happen that you'll arrive at an unjustified attitude. Second, it argues that rules of correct reasoning do not even correspond to permissions of "structural rationality": it is not always structurally permissible to base an attitude on other attitudes from which it follows by correct reasoning. Third, from these observations it tries to build a somewhat positive account of correct reasoning as a more sui generis notion irreducible to either justification or structural rationality. This account vindicates an important unity of theoretical and practical reasoning as well as a qualified version of the thesis that deductive logic supplies rules of correct reasoning.


Modern cloud computing platforms (e.g. Linux on Intel CPUs) feature ACPI-based (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) mechanism, which dynamically scales CPU frequencies/voltages to adjust the CPU frequencies based on the workload intensity. With this feature, CPU frequency is reduced when the workload is relatively light in order to save energy, while increased when the workload intensity is relatively high. In business cloud computing environments, software products/services often need to "scale out"' to multiple machines to form a cluster to achieve a pre-defined aggregated performance goal (e.g., SLA-devised throughput). To reduce business operation cost, minimizing the provisioned cluster size is critical. However, as we show in this work, the working of ACPI in today's modern OS may result in more machines being provisioned, hence higher business operation cost, To deal with this problem, we propose a SLA-aware CPU scaling algorithm based on business SLA (Service Level Agreement aware). The proposed design rational and algorithm are a fundamental rethinking of how ACPI mechanisms should be implemented in business cloud computing environments. Contrary to the current forms of ACPI which simply adapt CPU power levels only based on workload intensity, the proposed SLA-aware algorithm is primarily based on current application performance relative to the pre-defined SLA. Specifically, the algorithm targets at achieving the pre-defined SLA as the top-level goal, while saving energy as the second-level goal.


To the Editor Shalhoub and Davies1 commented in their summary of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance on cilostazol, naftidrofyryl oxalate, pentoxifylline and inositol nicotinate for the treatment of intermittent claudication (NICE technology appraisal guidance 223; available at: http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/TA223) that the cost-effectiveness analysis was based on appropriate assumptions; however, this analysis was based on a meta-analysis plagued with uncertainties.2 In this evaluation, Squires et al 2 systematically reviewed all randomised clinical trials for these drugs and obtained pooled estimates for several outcomes, including maximum walking distance (MWD).

As Squires and coworkers2 point out in their report, cost-effectiveness analysis needs to be based on quality-adjusted life years gained with treatment. As no evidence was found that any of these drugs could modify disease-related morbidity or mortality, the …


Photovoltaic array often encounter partial shade during the process of actual operation, thus the output power characteristic curve shows a multi-peak. While the traditional maximum power point tracking(MPPT) algorithm is unable to jump out of local optimum, so it is very difficult to find out the true maximum power point. In this paper, the chaos theory was used for photovoltaic MPPT technology. The chaotic variables were generated by two different chaotic mechanisms as random step to search. The method increased the adequacy of chaos search, and overcame the dilemma that the traditional search easily fell into local optimum. By adopting the variable scale operation to reduce the blindness of chaos searching, the search efficiency can be improved. The simulation analysis for the change of external conditions was made in the Matlab platform. The quickness and the effectiveness of the method are verified by comparing with the traditional method, and the correctness of the simulation is confirmed by the experiments finally.


Dear Editor, The occurrence of localized urticaria and erythema within 2 to 5 min following scratching, or caressing the skin or lesions heavily infiltrated with mast cells is known as Darier's sign. No infant has yet been reported with Erythema Dyschromicum Perstans (EDP) with a positive Darier's sign and treated with tacrolimus successfully. Caucasian originated 2-year-old girl with Fitzpatrick skin type III referred to pediatric immunology and allergy department with the complaints of non-pruritic, brown spots on the front side of the neck and trunk, continuing for 3 months and increased progressively. She had no previous history of contact dermatitis, infection, animal-contact, constant drug use, sun-exposure, travel history, and allergic or rheumatic disease. The initial physical examination revealed symmetrical macular eruption at the neck, axillary areas, anterior and posterior trunk, and anterior and posterior proximal upper-legs, which were non-demarcated, multiple, diffuse, gray-brown lenticular type with a diameter ranging from 0.5 to 1 cm. Some of these lesions were gray-blue or gray-brown colored macules with a slightly erythematous and swollen margin with positive Darier sign (Figure 1A). All laboratory and imaging tests were in normal limits. Skin prick and European standard series patch tests were negative. EDP was diagnosed using the clinical and histopathological criteria. The skin biopsy histopathological findings are presented in Figure 2. The perivascular area stained with CD3 and CD8, except with CD4 in immunohistochemistry. The basal layer and melanocytes in the dermis were positive for S100. The Darier sign was negative 6 months later, with the use of sun cream (Figure 1B). No new lesions were observed in the 9 months follow-up while the hyperpigmented lesions persisted. However, all lesions resolved after 4 weeks of tacrolimus treatment (0.03% ointment once a day for 4 weeks; Figure 3). This is the fourth infant case report in the literature, and the comparison of clinical and laboratory findings with other reported infants are summarized in Table 1. To the best of our knowledge, no Darier sign positivity has been reported in EDP disease yet. On the sixth month of her follow-up, Darier's sign-in hyperpigmented lesions were turned to be negative. The Darier sign's pathophysiology is due to the increase in the number of healthy functional mast cells in the dermis. It is seen in 94% of patients with cutaneous mastocytosis. We may speculate that the cytokines induced by perivascular lymphocytic infiltration may be responsible for the immunopathology of the early occurring "Darier" sign, which might be related to the


Recently, scholars with different ideological persuasion, have been drawn to the complex world of Indian political thought. So far, there have been two types of attempts: There are (a) studies seeking to locate the streams of thought in the context of a constantly changing socio-economic environment. To show the continuity of thought over a broad span of time, authors belonging to this genre generally place the thinkers in a chronological sequence and an effort is constantly made to ascertain, as it were, a deterministic linkage between the ideas and the contemporaneous influences. On the other hand, there are (b) attempts to find out the stark continuity and the growing sophistication of ideas through the ages both in form and content. These studies are not merely descriptions of the prevalent ideas but also interpretations with reference to a theory; what is attempted here is to identify the theoretical underpinning of the ideas which appear crucial in grasping the complex interplay of factors involving the individual thinker, his immediate socio-economic compulsion and other extraneous considerations. Partha Chatterjee's Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World (London, 1986) is probably the most sophisticated endeavour in this direction. Drawing on Gramsci's theory of passive revolution, Chatterjee discovers a unity of thought between Bankim, Gandhi and Nehru despite differences on various counts among these thinkers. V. R. Mehta's Foundations of Indian Political Thought is also interpretative following, however, the first type of studies. The present book constitutes the foundation of his earlier work entitled Ideology, Modernization and Politics in India (New Delhi, 1983) which, in the context of present day India 'seeks to suggest alternative structures so that the unity in diversity in the structural arrangements of society not only becomes more real but also lines of communication between polity, economy and society clearer and more enduring'. In order to unravel the dynamics of 'the evolution of the Indian social and political thought, particularly in the context of the state, through an exposition of the ideas of some representative thinkers', Mehta situates the Indian political thought in a broad canvas stretching between the ancient, medieval and modern times. The book has thirteen chapters which can be divided into three parts each dealing with a particular phase of history; for instance, in the first part (between chapters two and six), the author delves into the ancient political thought highlighting the evolution of the notion of state in the writings of the representative thinkers; between chapters eight and twelve, Mehta concentrates on the modern thinkers, while there is a


Introduction Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) results in excellent initial clinical results for herniated cervical disc and an osteophyte. On the other hand, the development of adjacent segment disease after ACDF is well recognized. However, most patients do not require total discectomy and vertebral fusion because most radiculopathies are caused by focal lesions of the intervertebral foramen. Especially, in patients who have unilateral radiculopathy with physiological alignment, we should avoid removal of healthy discs. Transvertebral anterior cervical foraminotomy (TVACF), nonfusion and nondiscectomy technique, can preserve intervertebral disc and reduce adjacent intervertebral degeneration compared with intervertebral fusion. Therefore, we have reported the advantages and usefulness of TVACF. However, TVACF requires skillfulness, especially for the appropriate drilling direction control for the keyhole. Recently, O-arm imaging and navigation systems were progressed. This navigation systems help to make the correct direction of the keyhole. Material and Methods We have performed TVACF under O-arm imaging and naviation systems. The patient was placed in the supine position. A lateral radiograph was used to identify the skin incision level. A 3.5cm transverse skin incision was made at half a level higher than the affected disc level. We approached the anterior surface of the vertebra from the affected side. After then, O-arm imaging and navigation systems were applied. We determined the appropriate keyhole position under the navigation. The lateral and caudal side trajectory of the tunnel was also decided under the navigation. The tunnel was ~6 mm in diameter. Results Under O-arm imaging and navigation systems, we were able to easily determine the appropriate keyhole position and the lateral and caudal side trajectory of the tunnel. Intraoperative findings and postoperative computed tomography imaging showed the accuracy of keyhole position. Conclusion Successful surgery is possible with using O-arm imaging and navigation systems. This navigation facilitate TVACF. As a result, TVACF is able to be more widely used among spinal surgeons in safe.


Anthropogenic climate change affects small islands, and farming systems in the Caribbean are vulnerable to climate change due to their high dependence on rainfall. Therefore, this work evaluated how temperature and precipitation projections affect water crop needs in Puerto Rico and St. Croix. We used Daymet data to create a baseline climatology (1981–2010) and the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) to create future climatologies (2041–2070 and 2071–2100). A water budget model estimated the water deficit, and the crop risk (CROPRISK) model determined crop suitability for sweet pepper, banana, and plantain. Results indicated an increase in water stress after 2041 for most of the region from June to August, except for western Puerto Rico, where it will occur from January to March. For sweet pepper, banana, and plantain, the most water-stressed season is projected to be January–July. November will be the only month during which all crops are projected to be highly suitable through the end of the 21st century. These findings suggested that Puerto Rico and St. Croix crop water stress may be more sensitive to changes in temperature than precipitation.


Objective Study on the constituents of essential oil in Kacmpferia galanga L.from various habitats.Method The essential oil was extracted by water distillation method and analyzed by GC-MS.Result The constituents of essential oil in Kacmpferia galanga L.from various habitats only have a little difference.High quantity of ethyl p-methoxycinnamate,ethyl cinnamate,δ-3-Carene and borneol were detected,especially the ethyl p-methoxycinnamate,which can be used as a quality control parameter of Kacmpferia galanga L..Conclusion The method is reliable and repeatable for the quality evaluate of Kacmpferia galanga L..


As a mean of accommodating increasing population in major cities around Europe, new agendas for urban densification emerge in response of finding sustainable solutions. Several methods for urban densification are proposed and seen in real life. Roof stacking has been proposed as a way to promote for sustainable urban densification. This paper presents the results of a conducted investigation on roof stacking assembly and construction methods using timber construction. A classification for different roof stacking has been proposed, followed by a comparative analysis between different methods. The comparative analysis identifies the advantages, disadvantages, and best practice of each method. A parametric simulation and multi-objective optimization have been carried out for two different methods to identify the optimum timber construction for roof stacking. The results shed the light on the solutions and recommended timber construction method according to the comparative analysis.


Multilayer self-assembled films, consisting of partially doped polyaniline (PAN) as a polycation and water-soluble poly(4-carboxyphenyl)acetylene (PCPA) as a polyanion, were fabricated through electrostatic attraction. These ultrathin PCPA/PAN films were relatively stable toward aqueous electrolyte solutions and polar organic solvents, and the photoelectric conversion properties of the self-assembled PCPA/PAN films could be measured with traditional three-electrode cells in 0.5 M KCl aqueous solutions. With an increase in the bilayer number, the photocurrent rose, and it reached its maximum at eight bilayers. A further increase led to a current drop due to an increase in the recombination probability and weak visible-light transmission. When neutral PAN films were used, the photocurrent increased consecutively within 15 bilayers, and this indicated that the PAN molecules in the neutral state were stronger electron donors than those in the partially doped state. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 3224–3229, 2004


This paper represents the recognition of group activity in public areas, considering personal actions and interactions between people from the field of computer vision. Modeling the interaction relationships between multiple people is essential for recognizing group activity in the video scene. In artificial intelligence applications, identifying group activities based on human interaction is often a challenging task. This paper proposed a model that formulates a group action context (GAC) descriptor. The descriptor was developed by integrating the focal person action descriptor and interaction joint context descriptor of nearby people in the video frame. The model used an efficient optimization principle based on machine learning to learn the discriminative interaction context relations between multiple persons. The proposed novel group action context descriptor is classified by support vector machine (SVM) to recognize group activity. The proposed technique effectiveness is evaluated for group activity recognition by performing experiments on a publicly available collective activity dataset. The proposed approach infers a group action class when multiple persons are together in the video sequence, especially when the interaction between people is confusing. The overall group action recognition model is interrelated with a baseline model to estimate the performance of interaction context information. The experimental result of the proposed group activity recognition model is comparable and outperforms the previous methods.


The identification of hazardous locations relative to electrical apparatus is just as important where combustible dusts are handled as it is where flammable gases or vapours are used. The background to area classification for dust risk situations, and the differences from the gas/vapour situation is discussed. The development of zonal definitions is covered in relation to moves towards international standardisation. The practical application of the procedure is discussed and illustrated by typical examples.


Introduction The global demand for fuels and chemicals derived from sustainable and abundant sources (i.e., lignocellulosic biomass) has triggered the development of heterogeneous catalysts capable of handling these diverse feedstocks [1]. To attain high catalyst activity and high selectivity to desired products, the heterogeneous catalyst should be stable in aqueous media, have a high surface area and high dispersion of active metals, have a high mesoporosity for facilitating the diffusion of large biomass derivatives/intermediates to the active sites, and contain the desirable phases of active metals [2]. In this study, we used metal-modified IRMOF-3 (M/IRMOF-3), prepared via postsynthetic modification (PSM), as the initial template/carbon precursor to the catalytic material. When subjected to carbonization and carbothermal reduction (CCR) at 1000 °C, metal nanoparticles supported on nanoporous carbon (M/NC3) were synthesized (Figure 1a) [2,3]. Ru, W, V, and Ti were selected due to their reported activity for the conversion of biomass model compounds (e.g., levulinic acid (LA) and benzyl alcohol) [1]. The properties and catalytic performance of the synthesized M/NC3 materials were compared with those of corresponding control materials (M/NC1) with similar metal loadings. These were prepared from the CCR of metal-impregnated (IMP) IRMOF-1 (M/IRMOF-1) under the identical condition as that to prepare M/NC3 materials (Figure 1b) [2].


Background: Preeclampsia (PE) is defined as a pregnancy specific syndrome usually occurs after 20 week gestation, it is determined by increased blood pressure (>140mmHg systolic or >90mmHg diastolic) accompanied by proteinuria (>0.3gm protein in a 24h specimen). Preeclampsia is multifactorial disease with environmental, socioeconomic and seasonal influence. It also has genetic predisposition. Preeclampsia affects approximately 5 to 7% of all pregnancies. And it remains the major cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. Aim of Study: Is detect the possible association between SES of the pregnant woman and PE and to assess whether the rate of PE or its severity is affected by different SES levels. Patients and Methods: Cross sectional study design on pregnant women diagnosed to have preeclampsia at Luxor International Hospital. The purposive sample of 145 case collected through 6 months during the period from 1 st October 2016 until the end of April 2017. Sample size calculated using G power Program version 3.1.3 with Confidence Level (CL) 95%. The study consist of 4 parts. 1 st part: A structure interviewing questionnaire was done for data collection; personal, medical, obestetrical. 2nd part: Clinical examination to diagnose PE. 3 rd part: Laboratory investigation to confirm diagnosis. 4th part: The SES data was designed according to modified Fahmy and El-Sherbini scale 2012 to asses the SES of the participating women which consist of 7 domains. Results: The study resulted in no significant statistical difference between severity of preeclampsia and mother age (p=0.800), obstetric history, previous history of PE (p=0.075) and medical diseases such as essential hypertension (p=0.300) and diabetes mellitus (p=0.316); but there was a significant statistical relationship between severity of PE and bronchial asthma (p=0.008). There is also a significant statistical relationship between severity of PE and level of education (p= 0.024), home sanitation (p=0.014), family possessions (p= 0.0.005), and economic status (p=0.030). but there is no significant statistical relationship between severity of PE and occupation (p=0.111), family domain (p=0.161) and health care domain (p=0.217). Correspondence to: Dr. Alaa El-Deen A. Youssef, The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University Conclusion: There is association between level of education, home sanitation, family possessions, and economic status as an indicators for socioeconomic status and severity of preeclampsia. Recommendation: Health education programs should be organized for pregnant women about the risk factors of preeclampsia; and for staff members about risk factors, early detection and early management of preeclampsia; improving ante-natal care for pregnant mothers in Egypt and improve the health level of poor families to reduce the risks of preeclampsia and to help early diagnosis; so that can decrease maternal and perinatal mortality.


This study evaluates changes in overall and drug-specific overdose mortality among pregnant and postpartum persons before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.


Master, International Bachelor Communication and Media: Explore the world of media and its political, economic, and cultural impact. Pursue opportunities for international exchange.


nervous system exerts an influence over anterior pituitary activity. Once this functional relationship had been established, attention was focused on the mechanism of this control. The possibility of direct nervous control by secretomotor nerves to the adenohypophyseal gland cells was ruled out by detailed histological studies (Rasmussen 1938, Green 1951, Wingstrand 1951), and attention was turned to a previously described anatomical link between the hypothalamus and adenohypophysis the hypophyseal portal vessels which were first described by Popa & Fielding (1930, 1933). There is


Consumption of foods enriched with herbs and herbal medicine products are highly popular. Their current popularity renders the assessment of their safety an urgent necessity, they must figure prominently in nutritional surveys as possible factors in cancer and some other diseases, as they may contain highly toxic chemicals and heavy metals in addition to natural organic toxins, made the present study aims to investigate the side effects of fennel seeds Foeniculum vulgare, in male rats, on the weights , histological changes and some of the physiological parameters of the liver. For this purpose, 60 Spargue-Dawley albino adult male rats were daily treated oraly with fennel seed powder mixed with rat diet in three different doses (50, 100, 200)gm/kg bodyweight(bw) in three different periods of time (10, 20, 30) days. Adult male rats were divided into 12 groups each of five rats, as following : (Group 1, 2, 3) normal control rats that were fed with chow pellet only for (10, 20, 30) days subsequently, (Group 4, 5, 6) experimental treated groups that respectively received fennel pellet in three doses of (50, 100, 200) gm/kg for 10 days, (Group 7, 8, 9) experimental treated groups that respectively received fennel pellet in three doses of (50, 100, 200) gm/kg for 20 days, (Group 10, 11, 12) experimental treated groups that respectively received fennel pellet in three doses of (50, 100, 200) gm/kg for 30 days. The end of each experiment was followed by weighing the animals, blood sample of each animal was collected by heart puncture then directly centrifuged and the serum was kept at -80 o C for biochemical analysis and some histological standards, the animals were dissected, then the liver was excised and fixed in neutral buffered 10% formalin for histological preparation. Increased doses of fennel consumption and treatment duration statistically caused:  Highly significant (p<0.01) decrement in liver weights of fennel treated groups ( 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) in comparison to control groups. Study of Biochemical and Histological effects of fennel seeds (Foeniculum vulgare)on Liver in Male Rats.......................... Noori Mohammed Luaibi , Ayser Abdullah Shafiq 22 96 2016 2  Highly significant increment (p<0.01) in Glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase(GOT) and Glutamate pyruvate transaminase(GPT) serum levels in treated groups (5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12), while Alkaline phosphatase(ALP) serum levels showed significant increment (p<0.05) in fennel treated groups (10, 11, 12) compared to the control groups.  liver sections showed sinusoidal dilatation with mild degenerative, inflammatory cells infiltration, congestion in blood vessels and necrosis. Fennel, liver, doses, necrosis. Introduction : Medicinal herbs are good alternative to chemical drugs as they have low side effect compared to chemical drugs , one of the important oldest spice plants is fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill) which is used in the pharmaceutical, food, cosmetic and healthcare industries (Abe and Ohtani, 2013). Fennel has been used in traditional medicine for a wide range of disorders related to digestive, endocrine, reproductive, and respiratory systems (Badgujar et al., 2014). The dried, aromatic fruits are vastly used in culinary preparations for flavoring bread and pastry, in candies, and in alcoholic liqueurs, also used in cosmetic and medicinal preparations (Farrell, 1985). The oil yield (2.5 5%) varies according to origin and variety and the highest concentration of fennel oil is found in seeds ranging between 2 7%, fennel volatile oil is a mixture of different chemicals and the main ingredients are: transanethole (40 70%), fenchone (1 20%) and estragole (2 9%), other compounds (α-pinene, chavicole, dipentene, α-limenene etc.) are present in concentration usually less than 1% (Bernath et al., 1996; Cosge et al., 2008) . Fennel fruits consist 10 to 12 % of oil that is stored in the cotyledons of seeds Oil obtained from the fennel fruit has 4%palmitic acid, 22% oleic acid, 14% linoleic acid and6% petrocylic acid.The aromatic property of fennel is because of the essence that has value of 4 to 6% its essence and combine ingredients vary according to the location of plant growth (Ahmadi et al., 2007). F. vulgare known as a culinary herb also useful for pharmaceutical industry for its high content in 1,8-cineole, linalool, fenchone and estragol ( Özcan and Chalchat, 2010). Healthy importance of fennel comes from its numerous chemical compounds, such as volatile compounds, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, amino acids , and fatty acids, hence it has been used for abundant types of disorders (Badgujar et al.,2014). Fennel shows antispasmodic activities (Ostad et al., 2001). And as curative in infantile colic (Alexandrovich et al., Study of Biochemical and Histological effects of fennel seeds (Foeniculum vulgare)on Liver in Male Rats.......................... Noori Mohammed Luaibi , Ayser Abdullah Shafiq 22 96 2016 3 2003). Different techniques carried out the antifungal and antioxidative potentials of fennel(Singh et al.,2005). Also can be used to reduce the potential of lung cancer, asthma and prevent thrombosis and atherosclerosis (Vardavas et al., 2006). As it improves the milk supply of a breast feeding mother so it has been used as a galactagogue that occurs due to the presence of phytoestrogens present in fennel which promote growth of breast tissue (Agarwal et al., 2008). In a study on experimental rats by Koppula and Kumar, (2013)improved that fennel has an anti-stress, memory enhancing and antioxidant effects due to phytoestrogens a chemical compound in fennel. Fennel exhibit antibacterial activity due to compounds such as, linoleic acid, undecanal, 1, 3-benzenediol, oleic acid and 2,4-undecadienal, also it 5-hydroxy-furanocoumarin that plays an important role in antibacterial activity of this plant( Parejo et al.,2004). A study demonstrated that fennel has an anti-fungal activity due to anethole that had the strongest antifungal activity among chemical compositions of the plant extract( Naeini et al., 2011) Due to the anetholes antiplatelet activity, clot destabilising effect and vaso-relaxant action ,it has been reported that anethole is a safe antithrombotic agent (Tognolini et al., 2007) Of the pharmacological effects of fennel plant, anti-inflammatory activity can be noted, results in a research has shown that the fennel methanol extract had anti-inflammatory activity dependent on the central and peripheral mechanisms (Choi and Hwang, 2004). Phyto constituents of F. vulgare demonstrated notable insecticidal activities against Sitophilus oryzae, Callosobruchus chinensis, and Lasioderma serricorne. This activity was examined using direct contact application and fumigation methods. The biologically active components are phenylpropenes (E)anethole and estragole, and the monoterpene (+)-fenchone were characterized from Foeniculum fruit. By using a filter paper diffusion test, estragole caused 91% mortality to S. oryzae within 1 day after treatment whereas fenchone and(E)-anethole gave over 90% mortality at 2 and 4 day after treatment, respectively ( Kim and Ahn, 2001). Aims of the study : The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of fennel seeds ( Foeniculum vulgare ) in male rats on : Function of liver GOT, GPT, ALP  Weight and histological changes in Liver. Materials and Methods Laboratory Animals Study of Biochemical and Histological effects of fennel seeds (Foeniculum vulgare)on Liver in Male Rats.......................... Noori Mohammed Luaibi , Ayser Abdullah Shafiq 22 96 2016 4 Male Spargue-Dawley albino rats (Rattus norvegicus) were used in the present study as a mammalian model. Mature males (2-3 months) were purchased from National Center for Drug Control and Research (NCDCR) ,Ministry of Health and housed in the animal house of the College of Science/ Al-Mustansiriyah University. They were kept in standard plastic cages with a metal network cover under climate controlled conditions of the animal house with temperature 25±2oC and 12:12 light and dark cycle. Rats were provided with water and food ad libitum. The daily consumption of diet for each rat of the control and treated groups was 18-20 gram, within the US Constitution for medical herbs(PDR For Herbal Medicines, 2000) . The plant Fennel seeds were purchased from the local markets in the Ishrin Street of Al-Baya'a/ Baghdad. They were obtained as a fennel herb for culinary use, then they were prepared to be used for the experiment. Fennel pellet preparation Fennel seeds about( 2100 kg) were powdered in a seed grinder, (15,900kg) of pellet which contained ( 20% soya, 10%protein of fish powder, 20% American protein, 40%corn, 10%(wheat flour and additives such as fish oil and antioxidants) was powderd as well by the grinder, then the components were mixed and kneaded by addition of tap water and distributed into three groups as followed: 1. group of 50 grams fennel powder + 950 gram pellet powder. 2. group of 100 grams fennel powder +900 gram pellet powder 3. group of 200 grams fennel powder+800 gram pellet powder . Small cylinder blocks were made from this dough similar to the normal rodent pellet. These blocks were separated gently and dried under the sun temperature for 48 hours. The resulted pellet represented the fennel pellet. Animals Groups In this experimental study, after an adaptation period of one week, sixty male rats were randomly divided into twelve groups of five rats each, described as following : Group 1, 2, and 3 : (control) did not receive any dose they were fed with rat chow pellet only for 10, 20,and 30 days subsequently. Group 4, 5, and 6 : (the experimental groups) that respectively received 1820 g fennel pellet in three doses of ( 50, 100, and 200)g/kg every 24 hours for 10 days. Study of Biochemical and Histological effects of fennel seeds (Foeniculum vulgare)on Liver in Male Rats.......................... Noori Mohammed Luaibi , Ayser Abdullah


A CMOS circuit for the readout of microbolometer arrays is presented. It provides a pulsed bias for the microbolometers, signal amplification and multiplexing to a common output. The chip can be used with linear and small two-dimensional arrays of microbolometers realising a hybrid infrared sensor.


Hiring tbe faculty best suited to meet the changing demands of the 1990s is one of the most important tasks facing-the administrative and faculty leadership at community colleges. In an effort to fill a significant number of faculty positions at Montgomery College (MC), a new college in Texas, the college has purposefully defined the challenges it faces, the-types of students expected to be served, and the kind of faculty needed to effectively serve these students. The students that MC expects to serve can be viewed along a spectrum of preparation. Underprepared students typically make up around half of a community college's student population, and these students require flexibility in instructional methods to ensure that all students acquire college-level skills. MC also expects considerable numbers of college-ready students who will need advanced data management, problem-solving, and communication skills to compete in the modern work force, as well as well-prepared students.and adult learners, requiring a curriculum that allows them to excel and achieve at very high levels. Qualifications that faculty will need to serve these students include strong preparation reflecting continuous updating, ability to communicate expected outcomes to students and encourage student evaluation of instruction, commitment to student retention, awareness of alternative methods of instruction and current technology, and being comfortable with non-traditional educational settings. (BCY) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ***********************************************************************


An intensity measure of the affective dimension of future time perspective is suggested. Unlike most existing measures, it is based not on frequency counts of content but on an algebraic judgmental model.


How many people, even those interested in the Earth sciences, have heard of perovskite? Yet minerals with the perovskite structure are the most abundant minerals on the Earth with a corresponding importance for our understanding of the origin, development and functioning of our planet. Furthermore, they play important roles in modern technology, including the storage of nuclear waste, in solar cells and as superconductors.


This paper presents two methods for joint inversion of aquifer test data, magnetic resonance sounding (MRS) data, and transient electromagnetic data acquired from a multilayer hydrogeological system. The link between the MRS model and the groundwater model is created by tying hydraulic conductivities (k) derived from MRS parameters to those of the groundwater model. Method 1 applies k estimated from MRS directly in the groundwater model, during the inversion. Method 2 on the other hand uses the petrophysical relation as a regularization constraint that only enforces k estimated for the groundwater model to be equal to MRS derived k to the extent that data can be fitted. Both methodologies can jointly calibrate parameters pertaining to the individual models as well as a parameter pertaining to the petrophysical relation. This allows the petrophysical relation to adapt to the local conditions during the inversion. The methods are tested using a synthetic data set as well as a field data set. In combination, the two case studies show that the joint methods can constrain the inversion to achieve estimates of k, decay times, and water contents for a leaky confined aquifer system. We show that the geophysical data can assist in determining otherwise insensitive k, and vice versa. Based on our experiments and results, we mainly advocate the future application of method 2 since this seems to produce the most reliable results, has a faster inversion runtime, and is applicable also for linking k of 3‐D groundwater flow models to multiple MRS soundings.


Given the changes that occurred in different areas of society, it is known that to meet the demands related to the access and use of information, it is necessary to train the most creative, innovative and competent professionals of information. The university is a propitious place to the development of these professionals. The reflection established in this research occurs around the following issues: the theoretical framework of learning by competence, meaningful learning and creativity can contribute to the development of a pedagogical model that promotes information literacy in the teaching-learning in higher education, specifically in librarianship course? To enter on the theme proposed by this research, there are three assumptions that lead to cogitate about: the interrelation of the concepts of learning ability, meaningful learning and creativity can provide the support to develop a pedagogical conceptual model that promotes competence in information at the process of teaching-learning in the librarianship courses in the nacional context. Such modeling allows better exploration and understanding of standards and indicators involved in the development of information literacy and can be considered as a subsidy to the preparation and implementation of discipline and/or cross content, aiming to improve the theoretical and experimental approaches in information literacy at the Brazilian context. Thus, it was established as a general purpose to establish the interrelationship between the concepts of learning ability, meaningful learning and creativity in order to provide subsidies for the development of information literacy as a discipline and/or cross-content of librarianship courses. And specific purposes a) to analyze the key concepts of learning theories for competence, meaningful learning and creativity that can be applied to information literacy; b) to describe the interrelationships of learning ability theories, meaningful learning and creativity with the standards and indicators of information literacy; c) to demonstrate competence discourse in information at the official documents produced by the Ministry of Education (MEC), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Brazilian Association of Librarians, Information Scientist and Institutions (FEBAB); d) to delineate a pedagogical model for the development of information literacy and enabling their integration as a discipline and/or as a cross-content disciplines established in librarianship courses. I was sought an alignment between the theoretical framework of – meaningful learning by Philippe Perrenoud and AntoniZabala learning by competence and other theorists of cognitive psychology, that are directly related to theoretical models of creativity, namely: by Amabile componential model of creativity, by Csikszentmihalyi systemic model of creativity and by Sternberg investment in creativity. These references provided contributions to the interrelationships made to the theoretical background of information literacy for development in higher education. The research is inside the qualitative field and social representations, having proposed to analyze documents of representative institutions in the area of Information Science and Education. It was employed as a methodological tool, a list of documents with three themes to guide the data collection and ir was used the technique of the Collective Subject Discourse (CSD) to analyze the documents. As a result of this analysis, it was showed that the essence of the philosophy of information literacy in the documents issued by the Ministry of Education (MEC), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Brazilian Federation of Library Associations, Scientists Information and Institutions (FEBAB), besides providing the creation of Pedagogical Conceptual Modeling of Development of Competency in Information (MPDCoInfo). Considering the theoretical and conceptual framework added to the results of the methodological procedures is considered that is it is considered that further reflection is necessary on the process of teaching and learning in a construction of information competence and creativity. Moreover, it was observed that the interactivity between teacher-student learning is relevant in the university environment so there is a chain of innovative pedagogical actions. The MPDCoInfo offers subsidies, especially for teachers of librarianship courses that may use them combining the various types of educacion supports to promote the development of information literacy and the creative potential taking into account cultural factors, the experience of the student and use of devices that allow you to build a personal and contextual interpretation of the object of study. The results also suggest that the promotion of competence allied to meaningful learning, to learning by competence and to creativity involves changing aspects in philosophy in order to internalize the policies and guidelines proposed to the curriculum of undergraduate courses in universities, making a cut especially for librarianship courses and its professional formation, promoting the interrelationships necessary and desirable in contemporary interdisciplinarity.


The submental musculature is important in numerous head and neck surgeries including rhytidectomy, the submental artery flap, and anterior digastric muscle transfer. Variations can lead to complications during surgery and may necessitate appropriate contingency plans when encountered. Further, variations of the anterior digastric musculature are common; however, few attempts have been made to categorize commonly occurring anterior digastric variations. This report documents the prevalence of a variation of the anterior digastric musculature previously thought to occur as an entirely unique variation. The variation appears as sheet‐like bilateral anterior digastric musculature variations converging at the mylohyoid raphe to form an 'arrowhead.' The results of this study demonstrate that the variation is not completely unusual. Surgeons should be aware of the potential for an arrowhead variation of the anterior digastric musculature to contribute to difficulty in regional surgeries. Understanding the anatomy and prevalence of arrowhead anterior digastric variations is of particular importance because current screening methods have not been demonstrated to identify such sheet‐like variations of the submental musculature.


Many practitioners today are faced with the task of advising clients on matters that may affect the number of project bidders. An appropriate question may be, does a restriction of bidder participation negatively impact project costs through limiting competition, and to what degree? Intuition and anecdotal evidence suggest that with an increase in the number of bidders vying for a project, the more competitive the low bid offer will be. There is little published evidence and analysis on bid competition impacting cost-effectiveness, although there are numerous reports replete with arguments, assumptions, anecdotal evidence, and bias. This paper critically evaluates public projects, bid under a condition of free, open, and unfettered competition. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the impact of reduced competition on project bid prices. By selecting a single building type, designed by a single firm, with prebid estimates prepared from the same estimating database, over a limited time period, the investigation attempts to control model variance. The study found that reducing the number of bidders will result in increased project bid prices.


In this paper, we demonstrate greatly improved R/sub S/ in an E-HEMT structure using non-alloyed ohmic contact and Pt-based buried gate approaches. First, the non-alloyed ohmic contact technique was used to produce very low contact resistance and to provide sharply defined ohmic edges. Second, in the fabrication of our E-HEMT's, we first intentionally fabricated depletion-mode HEMTs (D-HEMTs). Subsequently, by annealing the sample at 250/spl deg/C, these D-HEMTs were changed to E-HEMTs as a result of the Pt-InAlAs reaction taking place under the gate electrode, while the channel region between source and gate remained undepleted. This allowed a small R/sub S/ to be maintained An excellent transconductance (g/sub m/) of 1170 mS/mm was achieved for an E-HEMT with a 0.5-/spl mu/m-gate.


The Functional Reach Test was developed in 1990 by Duncan et al for assessing balance of the elderly. Reaching for objects, however, does not usually conpined to a single direction. The purpose of this study was to test the reliability of three additional functional reach positions by changing the shoulder horizontal abduction-adduction angle. Twenty-three elderly persons were selected to participate. The four positions of functional reach were defined as follows: Position I: shoulder flexion 90°, abduction 90°; Position II: shoulder flexion 90°, horizontal abduction 45°; Position III: shoulder flexion 90°, horizontal abduction 0°; Position IV: shoulder flexion 90°, horizontal adduction 45°. Each subject performed three trials in each position. The measurements were taken by two physical therapists using the protocol of Duncan et al. All subjects were retested one week later to determine test-retest reliability. Repeated measurement analysis of variance and paired t-tests with Bonferroni adjustment were used to analyze the distance differences among the four positions on both sides. It was found that as the angle of shoulder abduction decreased, the reaching distance increased significantly. Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) was used to determine intra-rater, inter-rater and test-retest reliability for the three trials. Intra-rater, inter-rater and test-retest reliability coefficients of the right and left sides ranged from 0.84 to 0.97, 0.62 to 0.88 and 0.50 to 0.88 respectively. The Modified Functional Reach Test showed high inter-rater, intra-rater and test-retest reliabilities for all four positions except for the test-retest reliabilities of Position I on both sides. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that body height was the only variable significantly related to the reach distance of the four positions except for the left arm in Position I. It is strongly suggested that physical therapists use the Modified Functional Test as a tool to assess the balance ability of the elderly to screen for potential problems that may lead to fall.


Saliency detection is among the fundamental issues in simulating human visual mechanism. In this paper, we propose a new framework called Amplitude Spectrum Substitution (ASS) to summarize typical frequency-based saliency models. We then present a saliency detection model by applying the ASS method to a multi-scale structure, where substituted amplitude spectrums of all scales are trained from plenty of natural images. We further provide a novel measurement of global saliency called Salient Feature Number (SFN) to find out the optimal saliency map in the proper scale. Experimental results clearly demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms fifteen state-of-the-art competing models in predicting human fixations.