The Supreme Court of the United States of America consists of nine Justices, who are practically appointed for life. From the very beginning in the late 18 th century, the Court has played an important part in shaping the constitutional system, simply because it ultimately decides the meaning of the Constitution, which is very difficult to change. This essay shows that the current Court under the leadership of Chief Justice John G. Roberts , who assumed office in September 2005, has been sharply divided in many important areas of the law. In many landmark cases the court split 5 to 4 with Justice Anthony Kennedy casting the decisive vote. This could change after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016, but the republican controlled Senate is very unlikely to allow outgoing president Barack Obama the appointment of a successor, who could decisively strengthen the moderately liberal wing of the court, which means that the appointment will almost certainly be made by Donald Trump , the winner of the presidential election of November 2016. Given the fact that Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg , Anthony Kennedy and Stephen G. Breyer are 83, 80 and 78 years old and are likely to retire in the next five years, Donald Trump will probably be able to appoint two or even three more justices to the court, which will allow him to substantially influence the jurisprudence for many years to come.


This paper presents an AC servo system based on fuzzy neural variable structure control.First,a study of a sliding mode controller under on off training is made and then the on line learning algorithm using a gradient decent method is designed.Simulated results are also presented to illustrate the proposed algorithm.


The present invention discloses an output switching circuit, the output switch circuit comprising: a switching circuit having a first transistor connected to the high voltage source, a second transistor connected to the low voltage power supply and a connection node between the first and second transistors an output terminal; a comparison unit which compares the input signal and the feedback signal via the low pass filter output signal by the feedback of the output terminal is obtained, so as to generate a comparison signal; and a driving pulse generating means for generating a first driving signal according to the comparison a first driving pulse and a second driving pulse for driving the second transistor is a transistor.


An alloy comprising at least two refractory metals and a method for forming such alloy are proposed. In the alloy, a first refractory metal such as tantalum forming a minor portion of the alloy is completely dissolved in a second refractory metal such as tungsten forming a major portion of the alloy. The alloy may be formed by providing the two refractory metals in a common crucible (step S1), melting both refractory metals by application of an electron beam (step S2), mixing the molten refractory metals (step S3) and solidifying the melt (step S4). Due to the possible complete mixing of the refractory metal components in a molten state, improved material properties of the solidified alloy may be achieved. Furthermore, due to the use of tantalum instead of rhenium together with tungsten, a cheap and resistant refractory metal alloy may be produced, which alloy may be used for example for forming a focal track region of an X-ray anode.


ABSTRACT This study examined the association between Big Five personality and counselor educators' transformational leadership style. Findings indicate that all five personality traits were significant predictors. Transformational leaders were characterized by a low score on Neuroticism and high scores on Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Openness to Experience were the strongest predictors. This study did not find gender or racial/ethnic differences. Implications for counselor education are discussed.


Cu/ZnO nanocomposite film was synthesized by cathodic electrodeposition at a potential of -1.4V, and was characterized using XRD, SEM and AFM. The band gap of Cu/ZnO nanocomposite film was studied which was compared with that of pure ZnO nanoparticles film and it was found that the presence of Cu decreased the band gap of ZnO. Hence it proved to be a good material for supercapacitor. Cu/ZnO nanocomposite film based supercapacitor exhibited significantly high energy densities as compared to the ZnO nanoparticles based supercapacitor. Thus the synergistic effect of Cu and ZnO represents a new approach to high performance energy storage.


OF THESIS COMPARING DAIRY FARM PERFORMANCE AND HEAT STRESS ABATMENT STRATEGIES IN THE UNITED STATES USING SUMMER TO WINTER RATIOS Heat stress abatement is a challenge for producers in the United States, especially in the southern states. Dairy producers could benefit by having a simply metric to measure heat stress abatement strategies with the goal of motivating improvement in heat stress management. Managing heat stress is key to ameliorating the effects on dairy cow performance. A study was performed to explore the use of a heat stress metric called the Summer to Winter performance ratio (S:W ratio), to quantify and compare farm performance variables among regions of the United States. Summer to Winter ratios were closest to 1.0 in the northern regions and furthest from 1.0 in the southern regions for all performance variables other than milk fat and protein percentage. This suggests that summer performance varies by region and shown using the S:W ratio. A second study compared S:W ratios among Southeast states and then applied the performance ratio to heat abatement strategies in Southeast states. The S:W ratio varied by performance measure and heat abatement strategies but tended to be best for herds implementing cow cooling strategies. The studies in this thesis demonstrated S:W ratios can identify heat stress differences by region and heat abatement strategies by herds.


There are plenty of toponyms on the territory of our Republic that are based on Arabic and Arabian ethnonymity lexical-semantic explanations of the toponyms, which are protected Arabic appellatives. Surkhay tower, Qarah, Ashralar/Ashralylar, Nehram, Marza, Amsak, Zeyra/Zeyta are given in the article.


The theoretical part presents reading as one of the basic abilities of literacy. The reading literacy is essentially relevant for the society and we need it life-long in all areas. However, the research results of the PISA – Programme for International Student Assessment (Straus, Sturman Ivancic and Stigl, 2013) show that it is necessary to improve the literacy level in many countries, including Slovenia. A special kind of reading is reading of literary texts. If students read a lot, they become better readers. If they read quality literary works/ texts and possess an inner motivation for reading, even more reading is encouraged. Reading of scientific/educational texts and visual reading (lists, charts, pie charts and diagrammes) are the basis for studying all school subjects, therefore the students with a developed literacy skill are more successful at school and vice versa. Children with difficulties in reading are highly under-motivated for reading and consequently less successful at school subjects where this activity is of a key significance for learning.
The empirical part deals with the research about how much: 1) pre-school education students, 2) primary teacher education students and 3) Slovenian studies students read, what they read and how much knowledge they have about the obligatory authors and works stated in the primary school curriculum for Slovene (2011). I have also researched the significance of a teacher-reader for motivating students-readers. Would they like to read more and what motivates or doesn't motivate them? Do they read electronic books as well and how do they obtain the details and summaries of the school reading?
The research results show that books are most frequently read by the Slovenian studies students, less frequently by the primary teacher education students and the least frequently by the pre-school education students. There are statistically relevant differences between their acquaintance with some of the obligatory authors and works. I have also discovered that there are no statistically significant differences between fiction-reading students and those students reading other texts in knowing the obligatory authors and works. Most surveyes obtain information about the above-mentioned books by reading the books. The research showed that the upper-graduate students are familiar with some authors and works more than the sophomore/ lower-graduate students.
These research results will be signposts for teachers/educators and didactic scholars. They can influence the process of educating the pre-school and school teachers in order to improve their competence for literature teaching. It is important that everybody involved in the teaching process is aware of the reading significance and that the students are motivated for the life-long reading.


To guarantee nonnegative signals in optical wireless communication systems, flipped orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (Flip-OFDM) transmits the positive and negative parts of the signal over two consecutive OFDM subframes (positive subframe and negative subfame, respectively). The conventional receiver for Flip-OFDM recovers the data by subtracting the negative subframe from the positive one. However, the signal analysis shows that the signals in the two subframes contain the information of the transmitted data and can be used together to decode the data. An iterative receiver is then proposed to improve the transmission performance of Flip-OFDM by exploiting the signals in both subframes. Simulation results show that the proposed iterative receiver provides significant signal-to-noise ratio gain over the conventional receiver. Moreover, the iterative receiver also outperforms the existing advanced receiver.


—The development of telecommunication network has opened the possibility to the birth of new applications that make human life becomes more productive. This application is packaged into an Internet of Things (IoT) concept that requires wireless sensors for its implementation. The more wireless sensors needed would necessitate the need for a mature planning concept. One of the models used to design is TSP. TSP still has some obstacles and is open for development, especially the scenario of finding the lowest cost. In this study, heuristic methods are proposed as one solution with a given algorithm. Based on the test results, this algorithm can be little bit better compared to Ant Colony Optimization for bigger number of nodes as well for the number of small nodes, it matches the brute forces mechanism.


Asparagine, one of the most important amino acids for prebiotic peptide formation in aqueous media, was formed using Contact Glow Discharge Electrolysis (CGDE) against aqueous solutions containing simple amino acids and carboxylic acid amides.


AC137, postprandial hyperglycemia and, 1179 Acarbose for hyperglycemia, 817 lipoprotein(a) and apolipoprotein B response to, 272 for N1DDM, 928 Accidents, treatment regimens and, 1415 ACTH deficiency, in IDDM, hypoglycemia in, 1621 Adolescent diabetes cataract formation in, 1395 fructosamine measurements in, 1619 glycemic response to exercise in, 326 management and mismanagement of, 77 pancreatic size in, 1504 recurrent ketoacidosis in, insulin infusion for, 881 Adolescent offspring of diabetic mother, glucose tolerance in, 611 Adrenal androgen, in NIDDM, 278 Adult-onset diabetes, anti-bovine serum albumin antibodies in, 170 Aging HbAlcand, 1337 Albumin glycated, kinetics of, glucose level and, 440 transcapillary escape rate of, in NIDDM, 1 urinary excretion of. See Albuminuria; Microalbuminuria Albuminuria. See also Microalbuminuria exercise testing and, 1602 as predictor of carotid intima-media thickness and atherosclerosis, 1502 as predictor of mortality and renal impairment in NIDDM, 1013 Alcohol intolerance, mitochondrial mutation and,880 Alloxan-induced diabetes, grapefruit juice in, 1199 Alprazolam, glucose regulation with, 1133 Alstrom syndrome, diagnosis of, glucose tolerance and, 698 Ambulatory blood pressure, microalbuminuria and,1434 American Diabetes Association Practice Guidelines for NIDDM management, 701 American Diabetes Association Risk Test for Diabetes, 585 American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions, 1215, 1314, 1402 Amputation of great toe, foot pressure after, 1460 of lower extremity prevention of, 1383 risk factors for, 509 Androgen, adrenal, in NIDDM, 278 Angiopathy, angiotensin I-converting enzyme mutation in, 983 1,5-Anhydro-D-glucitol, to evaluate daily glycemic excursions, 1156 Apolipoprotein(a), insulin treatment and, 1202 Apolipoprotein B, acarbose and, 272 Apolipoprotein E polymorphism insulin level and, 986 vascular disease and, 504 Areas under curve, in diabetes research, 245 Arginine-glycine-aspartic acid peptide matrix, ulcer healing and, 39 Arterial blood flow, retinal, before onset of retinopathy, 1544 Arterial dysfunction, in IDDM, 618, 975 Arthropathy, neuropathic spinal, 867 Atherosclerosis albuminuria as predictor of, 1502 magnesium deficiency, 1623 Atmospheric pressure, glucose monitoring devices and, 423, 1200 Atropine gastric emptying and, 1463 hypoglycemia and, 404 Autoimmune thyroid disease, IDDM genetic linkage with, 582, 586 Autonomic neuropathy cardiac, QT interval in, 275 severe, 133


49 Background: Melanoma has a poor survival rate in advanced stages due to the lack of efficacious approved treatments. However, melanoma's dermal location enables the application of human skin models. These models mimic many important characteristics of skin in vivo and obviate the use of invasive procedures. Monitoring gamma-H2AX foci to assess DNA double-strand break (DSB) levels in reconstituted human 3D skin tissue harboring melanoma tumor cells may provide insights into important questions in cancer research. In addition to the differential toxicities of anti-cancer agents on the various cell types, we examine how the early drug response of normal tissues might serve as surrogates for predicting treatment efficacy on the tumors.

METHODS
Commercially available reconstituted 3D human skin tissue consists of dermal fibroblast and epidermal keratinocyte layers with malignant melanoma A375 cells which have been cultured to form a multilayer, highly differentiated epidermis containing various stages of cutaneous melanoma malignancy. Drugs representative of several different categories were studied, including bleomycin (a radiomimetic), camptothecin (a topoisomerase I inhibitor), temozolomide (a DNA alkylating agent), AZD6244 (a MEK inhibitor), Vorinostat (a HDAC inhibitor) and cisplatin (a DNA intercalatingagent). DNA DSB levels were monitored by gamma-H2AX foci formation and apoptosis by TUNEL assay. Tumor growth was monitored by H&E staining.

RESULTS
A wide range of responses in both tumor and normal tissue by various drugs were observed, including tumor regression and normal tissue toxicity. The early responses of normal tissues depended on the treatment, providing insights into the use of surrogate tissues as predictors of drug efficacy and later tumor regression.

CONCLUSIONS
Measuring DNA DSB damage in reconstituted 3D skin tissue is an attractive model for studying the efficacy and toxicity of genotoxic drugs against melanoma. If validated, such models would help reduce the use of animals for preclinical studies.


Organizational learning is a principal tool in achieving long-term survival and sustainable competitive advantage of an enterprise. There is considerable debate regarding the importance of organizational learning and its impact on the performance and competitive advantage of the organization. The purpose of this research is to study the relationship of the various learning organization concepts practices and their correlation to performance in private companies in Dubai. In this study, we used a survey research design, with the organization as the unit of analysis. In the study, we used a convenience sample of private companies based in the Emirate of Dubai, UAE. The target population was managers at all levels: general management, operations, administration, human resources, marketing sales, and technical head. In this study we obtained 155 (N) respondents in the final sample with complete data. Measuring learning orientation has been framed in the literature by constructs described by Watkins and Marsick (1993; 1999). The learning orientation and dimensions were measured using the scale (Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire-DLOQ) originally designed by Watkins and Marsick (1999). Based on the findings, we can conclude that there is positive correlation between the majority of the dimensions of the learning organization and performance in private companies in Dubai with respect to the Learning Organization Dimensions which we measured using the DLOQ.


Genuine culture or prehistoric culture, such as: Nusantara, is a culture that was not in fl uenced by foreign culture. However, the development stimulates possibility of culture mixing. The mixing process between that is a dialogical process, which placed the local culture as non-passive culture. The arrival (or expansion, ed) of Islamic culture in Java does not ruin the culture that existed (pre Islamic era), but there was a mixing or acculturation. This paper deals with various wayang as the material of the mixing dialogue. The conclusion of this case is the diffusion or spreading Islamic Art adopted pre-Islam element with cultural acculturation, then the continuity of Javanese culture keep continues. In other hand, the existence of traditional art is maintained.


QUESTION Question: What is the effectiveness of long term antidepressants in people with bipolar disorder? Outcomes: New episodes of depression or mania (DSM III, DSM IV, ICD 9, ICD 10 or Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC)). METHODS Design: Systematic review with meta-analysis. Data sources: MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, HealthStar, Current Contents, CINAHL, National Library of Medicine, DARE and Cochrane Library databases were searched from inception to May 2008 for randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Bibliographies of reports identified by computer searching, reviews on treatment of bipolar disorder (BPD) and abstracts or poster presentations from selected meetings were hand searched. Experts and funding agencies were contacted to find data from unpublished trials, and details of trials were verified with the authors where necessary. Study selection and analysis: Two reviewers appraised the studies and selected RCTs of long term use of antidepressant treatment in people with BPD. Inclusion criteria: diagnosis of BPD according to DSM-III, DSM IV, ICD 9, ICD 10 or RDC; participants randomised to any antidepressant versus a non- antidepressant or placebo, with or without co-treatment with a mood stabiliser or control of doses; length of treatment intended to be a minimum of 6 months and outcomes based on quantified assessments. There were no language restrictions. Exclusions: reports not permitting analysis of risk of bipolar depression separately from other types of illness. Two other reviewers rated study quality and extracted data. Random effect meta-analyses were calculated using RevMan software. Sensitivity and publication bias analyses were conducted. MAIN RESULTS Seven RCTs met the inclusion criteria (350 participants, mean age 40.6 years with approximately 13 years of illness). Three RCTs had multiple treatment arms and provided more than one contrast. Long term use of antidepressants (with or without mood stabilisers) reduced the risk of depressive recurrences compared with mood stabilisers alone or placebo (absolute risk (AR) 25.3% with antidepressants vs 35.5% with mood stabilisers or placebo; relative risk (RR) 0.73, 95% CI 0.55 to 0.97, p = 0.03; number needed to treat = 11). However, anti- depressants (with or without mood stabilisers) increased the risk of new hypomanic or manic episodes compared with mood stabilisers alone or no treatment (AR 29.8% with antidepres- sants vs 16.3% with mood stabilisers or placebo; RR 1.72, 95% CI 1.23 to 2.41, p = 0.002; number needed to harm = 7). Adding antidepressants to mood stabilisers did not significantly affect risk of depressive or manic recurrences compared with giving a mood stabiliser alone (see online table). CONCLUSIONS Although antidepressants may reduce the risk of depressive relapse, the increased risk of new mania suggests that long term treatment with antidepressants in people with BPD has an unfavourable risk-benefit relationship. NOTES The authors noted that research related to long term effects of antidepressants is limited to a few trials and mainly older drugs, and that the sample sizes in the trials were small.


Cataracts from acute UV irradiation in vivo are located in the anterior subcapsular region of the lens in contrast to the cortical and posterior subcapsular cataracts attributed to chronic UV exposure. Recently in vitro studies using whole organ culture procine lenses have resulted in equatorial cortical cataract formation at low radiant exposures. The damage threshold radiant exposure at the anterior lens surface approximates the damage threshold exposure for the corneal epithelium, which can be explained on the basis of spectral transmittance of the media and the embryological origins of the lens. Potentially cataractogenic levels of UV may be experienced by direct exposure to sunlight. That there are not epidemics of sunlight related cataract may be attributed to the fact that little direct sunlight reaches the lens thanks to the protection provided by facial anatomy. The role of ambient and re ̄ected sunlight thus assumes much more importance. An indirect method for determining an action spectrum for cataractogenesis, based on the human corneal action spectrum and anterior ocular media absorption, is proposed. Due to the very high irradiance levels required, IR action spectra for cataract have not been derived experimentally. However such a thermal response spectrum would be in ̄uenced by the anterior ocular media absorption bands at 980, 1200 and 1430 nm. It is unlikely that solar infrared is directly involved in cataractogenesis. Although viewing of the sun produces acute chorioretinal burns (`eclipse blindness'), the role of sunlight in age related macular degeneration (AMD) remains unclear and has not been quanti®ed. Similarly any protection a€orded against cataract and AMD by dietary supplements including free radical scavengers has not been substantiated. Avoidance of or protection from excessive sunlight exposure remains the best and most prudent strategy for preventing or delaying the onset of sunlight-related conditions and diseases.


We report, for the first time, the effort to one-step micromachine an optical fiber inline square resonator by femtosecond (fs) laser ablations. Such an inline square resonator is intended for infield chemical and biological sensing applications. Our preliminary data shows the feasibility of directly machining three dimensional microstructures on a silica optical fiber with a diameter of 125μm. The observed low quality (Q) factor can be further improved by post annealing and chemical etching processes that smooth the surface roughness.Copyright © 2007 by ASME


Abstract Feminist perspectives have strongly influenced the fairy-tale rewritings of the past decades, but the intersection of gender with other identity markers deserves more attention. This article applies the conclusions of Sylvia Henneberg's critical examination of age and gender in fairy tales to Gillian Cross's Wolf (1990), an award-winning rewriting of "Red Riding Hood." While Wolf presents Nan, the counterpart of Red Riding Hood's grandmother, as a determined and cunning older woman at first, in the course of the novel, the narrative lapses into the ageist stereotypes of the ineffectual crone and the wise old mentor.


An information communication method includes: accepting first presence information transmitted from a first terminal device which is connected so as to be communicable through a network; specifying a second terminal device as a notification destination to which the first presence information is destined; mapping the notification destination to a transmission source of the first presence information; deciding whether or not an alteration of the notification destination is required according to a state of the notification destination as indicated by second presence information accepted from the second terminal device; selecting, if alteration is required, a third terminal device to succeed the second terminal device; and notifying the first presence information to the third terminal device corresponding to the altered notification destination.


CIS electronic structure calculations have been employed to derive the fluctuation in the ground to excited state energy gap of dihydroNicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NADH) embedded in the Horse Liver Alcohol Dehyrogenase (LADH figure 1.) protein matrix as a function of time. Classical molecular dynamics trajectories of 130 ps in length have been generated for an LADH+NADH dimer in water to elucidate the dynamics of equilibrated LADH over a 5ps timescale. Steady-state absorption and emission spectra have then been calculated to an accuracy within 10 % of experiment (figure 2) by utilising ca. 10,000 CIS QM/MM calculations per simulation coupled to our framework for predicting optical spectra based on linear response theory. 1,2,3 It has been found that the accuracy of the results obtained are very dependent on the quality of the molecular dynamics trajectory, especially in the parameterisation of the nicotinamide moiety. This can be explained by considering the orbitals involved in the excitation leading to the observed emission. Figure 3 shows a snapshot from one of the CIS calculations. The orbitals are localised on the nicotinamide moiety and so it is fluctuations in this section of the NADH that are responsible for the emission spectra of LADH. The results have shown that applications of linear response theory can work for systems, such as NADH, which have very large reorganisation energies (Stokes Shift ≈ 1 eV) yielding predicted spectra that are within 10 % of experiment. Previous work with different NADH parameters yielded poor results implying that the method employed in this work provides an independent method for validating certain force field parameters.


Reovirus,a kind of oncolytic viruses, is seldom pathogenic, but is selectively able to replicate in cancer cells through activation of Ras signaling. Pre-clinical studies have demonstrated that treatment with reovirus is associated with significant anticancer activity across a range of tumor types. Further clinical evaluation of reovirus therapy has shown that it is well tolerated when administered locally or systemically. Encouraging anticancer efficacy has been observed with single-agent treatment and in combination with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. High safety and promising efficacy of reovirus has raised hopes that it will become a new anticancqt agent.

Key words:
Reoviridae;  Oncolytic viruses;  Neoplasmas


Classical Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy models are formed by convex combinations of linear consequent local models. Such fuzzy models can be obtained from nonlinear first-principle equations by the well-known sector-nonlinearity modeling technique. This paper extends the sector-nonlinearity approach to the polynomial case. This way, generalized polynomial fuzzy models are obtained. The new class of models is polynomial, both in the membership functions and in the consequent models. Importantly, T-S models become a particular case of the proposed technique. Recent possibilities for stability analysis and controller synthesis are also discussed. A set of examples shows that polynomial modeling is able to reduce conservativeness with respect to standard T-S approaches as the degrees of the involved polynomials increase.


Objective:To compare characteristics and outcomes of patients treated with drotrecogin alfa (activated) (DrotAA) in clinical practice to those treated in a phase III randomized controlled trial (PROWESS). Design:Observational data were collected retrospectively from patients who received DrotAA as part of physician-directed treatment. Setting:Intensive care units of five teaching institutions. Patients:Patients were ≥18 yrs old, had severe sepsis (confirmed/suspected infection with one or more sepsis-induced organ dysfunctions), and received DrotAA. Interventions:None. Measurements and Main Results:Baseline demographics, severity of illness, time from organ dysfunction onset to DrotAA treatment, daily assessment of organ dysfunction, serious bleeding events, and in-hospital mortality were reported. Timing from severe sepsis documentation to start of DrotAA infusion was categorized: day 0 (same calendar day); day 1 (next calendar day); and day ≥2 (second calendar day or later). Clinical practice patients (n = 274) were younger, had more comorbidities, had higher severity of illness (as measured by organ dysfunction or greater vasopressor/ventilator use), and received DrotAA later than PROWESS patients (all p < .05). Overall hospital mortality for clinical practice patients was 42%, compared with 37% for DrotAA-treated PROWESS patients with Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score ≥25. Mortality for day 0, day 1, and day ≥2 groups was 33%, 40%, and 52%, respectively. In PROWESS, the vast majority were treated on day 0 or day 1. Serious bleeding events during infusion were noted in 4.0% of clinical practice patients compared with 2.2% of PROWESS DrotAA-treated patients with Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score ≥25. Conclusions:Patients treated in clinical practice differed from those in PROWESS. Patients were younger, had more comorbidities, had greater severity of illness, and had longer mean time from severe sepsis onset to the start of DrotAA. Hospital mortality for patients treated within 1 day of severe sepsis onset was similar to DrotAA-treated PROWESS patients. While the low number of serious bleeding events precludes a definitive assessment, the observed incidence of serious bleeding events in clinical practice patients was numerically higher than in DrotAA-treated PROWESS patients.


This study aims to analyze the scientific approach and method of learning and show the results in genre-based Indonesian language learning. This study used a qualitative approach. The data were collected from three sources: literature review, student learning outcomes, and questionnaire results. Data on students' learning outcomes and views were explicitly taken from two groups. The first group consisted of 113 respondents who were asked to construct literary texts. The second group consisted of 105 respondents who were asked to construct exposition texts. The library research data was analyzed using theoretical and conceptual analysis, while the students' learning outcome data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The data from the questionnaire were analyzed by quantitative analysis. Based on the analysis of the three forms of data, it was discovered that; (a) the terms scientific approach and method were relevant to genre-based (Indonesian) language learning, (b) scientific as a learning method (scientific method) could be used by teachers as a method in delivering learning material as well as by students to construct texts as a form of learning outcomes, (c) scientific method guides students to construct text systematically, in controlled, empirically, and analytically through scientific stages, and (d) there was a gap between the views of the students who think that the scientific method could guide students in constructing text and enhancing the quality of text production. With a score of 41.43, 91.15% of the students in the first group believed that the scientific approach might help students produce texts with high-quality output outcomes. 90% of the 105 respondents in the second group said that the scientific approach might help students create explanation texts even though the degree of text creation quality is low (score: 49.5). The students' less expressive language use was to blame for this.


Objective The ECG lead II characteristics of Beagle dog,rhesus monkey,Japanese white rabbit and tree shrew were analyzed and summarized to provide reference for drug safety evaluation studies. Methods The ECG lead II of healthy adult Beagle dog,rhesus monkey,Japanese white rabbit and tree shrew were recorded to determine the interval of P,PR,QT( QTc),the QRS waves and amplitude of P,R,T waves and the ST shift. Results and Conclusion All the animals had sinus rhythm. All the four species of animals had similar ECG pattern with no particular specific changes,but had some differences of the QRS wave group and T wave. The amplitude of P and T waves in Japanese white rabbit was smaller,and the heart rate of tree shrew was faster than that of the other species of animals. The ECG lead Ⅱ database of the Beagle dog,rhesus monkey,Japanese white rabbit and tree shrew is established.


When police officers are unable to control suspects by normal means, the officers may become frustrated, and are at risk of using inappropriately severe levels of force.


COPYRIGHT © 2023 Pandey, Ehtesham and Hasnain. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. TYPE Editorial PUBLISHED 04 April 2023 DOI 10.3389/fcimb.2023.1148756


constituted almost exactly half the total income of our colleges and universities. Many important questions are raised here regarding the proper exercise of the government's inescapable responsibilities in this field; and the desirability of shaping wise educational policies with reference to such issues as selective service and universal military training is amply demonstrated.—LOUISE M. YOUNG, Washington, D.C.


Nowadays business processes of the manufacturing industries are becoming more complex delocalizing its production plants and outsourcing more parts of their production processes. This involves a lot of uncertainty, making the production planning, control and resource allocation complex. To deal with that issue, we propose a methodology for allocating resources into distributed manufacturing environments using a multi agent workflow management system and reverse sealed bid auctions. In this paper two different auctioning strategies are presented, one for reducing economic costs and one for reducing production time. In order to test our approach we simulated different situations using different kinds of workflows and resources, getting promising results both in economic and time terms.


The present study investigates the removal of chromium from aqueous solution, by natural Algerian brown clay, in batch mode, at different temperatures. Kinetic experiment showed that the adsorption process can be simulated by pseudo-second order model. In order to determine the best-fit-isotherm, the experimental data were analyzed by the Freundlich, Langmuir, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich equation, at different temperatures of 20, 30, 40 and 50°C. The mean deviation obtained from the four models revealed that Freundlich is the most suitable one. The results showed that natural brown clay is effective to remove chromium (VI) about 90% at 20°C.


The present invention is one kind of fresh date red wine produced with fresh date and Chixiazhu grape as main material, and belongs to the field of wine producing technology. The fresh date red wine is produced with fresh date and grape as main material, and through washing, rushing, inoculation and fermentation, eliminating residue, lactic acid bacteria fermentation, adding gelatin, filtering, ageing, blending, heat treatment, cold treatment, sterilizing, bottling and other steps. The production process has mixed fermentation of both fresh date and Chixiazhu grape to raise the flavor of the red wine, several times of fermentation to improve the taste, and heat treatment to promote the mature of the wine and raise the stability.


This thesis describes development and implementation of algorithms for signal processing, feature extraction and classification, as well as their integration into the system for buried landmine detection. Procedure for automatic generation and reduction of the initial feature set directly from signal spectrums has been developed. Novel feature extraction algorithms based on heuristic tree search and genetic algorithms, which are applicable to the wide range of problems have been proposed. All the algorithms were tested on real mines and other objects. Application to the set of sonar samples resulted in significant reduction of classification system complexity. Algorithms were also tested on mines and other objects samples. Samples were acquired by developed detector, based on standard deminer's prodder which records vibrations produced by touching the buried object. Testing shows that proposed detection system and dedicated set of procedures make mines distinguishable from other buried objects. Appropriate information support has been defined, which makes possible managing information created at the level of individual mines detection. It allows incorporation of the information into the humanitarian demining information system and establishment of feedback which will make possible learning and continuous improvement of detection system features. Methods for position tracking of the detector attached to the remotely controlled or autonomous robotic platform are also described.


A general method for the design of liquid extraction−reaction cascades is described. Composition profiles are determined by solving the reactor−extractor model equations, and reactive-phase holdups are determined as a function of reactant conversions, number of reactor-extractors, and solvent flow rate. These methods are intended for conceptual design, e.g., to determine the incentive for using a solvent in a reactive system to extract product from the reactive phase. The results apply to the limiting case where the interphase mass transfer is significantly faster than the rate of chemical reaction. The production of butyl acetate by the esterification of acetic acid with butanol is examined to demonstrate the method. For this reaction system, a cocurrent cascade is preferred over the countercurrent arrangement.


The influence of blood indexes in the dairy cow fed by formulated feed,which mixed by fermented pineapple residues and alfalfa powder in different proportion were compared in this paper.The study results were as follows: The levels of T3,T4,COR,PRL in serum had not been affected(P0.05) by replacing part of concentrate with fermented pineapple residues feed,besides,the replacing had not significant effect on the level of glucose,triglyceride,urea nitrogen,cholesterol,and hormone ALT,AST,ALP of serum(P0.05).


Introduction Pain management becomes important in the treatment of oral mucosal diseases since it can impair the quality of life. Photobiomodulation (PBM) as an alternative therapy, has potency in reducing pain through several mechanisms targeting peripheral nerves in the target tissue. Purpose To discuss the effectiveness of PBM in the management of four cases of oral mucosal diseases. Case Four patients, two females and two males, with an age ranging from 24 to 63 years came to the Oral Medicine Department complaining of painful lesions in their oral cavity. Three cases showed ulceration of the oral mucosa and had been diagnosed with recurrent aphthous stomatitis, recalcitrant chronic ulcer, and non-specific chronic sialadenitis. One patient who complained of intense pain and swelling on the right side of the face was diagnosed with post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN). Case Management PBM was administered in all four cases (976 nm diode laser, three cases with spot size 0.01 cm2, fluency 10 J/cm2, and one case with spot size 0.5 cm2; fluency 3 J/cm2). Visual analog scale (VAS) control was performed before and after the PBM at each visit. The recorded VAS results show a reduction in pain that started at the post-laser time, with VAS before PBM ranging from 5 to 7 and after PBM ranging from 0 to 4. Three patients were given triamcinolone acetonide 0.1%, chlorhexidine gluconate 0.2% mouthwash, petroleum jelly, and multivitamins. One patient was given mefenamic acid and multivitamins. Conclusion PBM can be a useful adjunctive treatment to relieve the pain of oral mucosal diseases due to its ability to reduce pain intensity.


ABSTRACT We have discovered that ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) can be used as a central unit for the synthesis of bent-core liquid crystals (BC LCs). Two series of EDOT-based BC LCs are prepared via Sonogashira coupling reaction. The mesophase behaviour of all the compounds was characterised using a combination of polarising optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction measurements. EDOT-based three-ring compounds were found to be nonliquid crystalline, while all the four derivatives of five-ring series, including a branched alkoxy chain derivative, display enantiotropic nematic phase over wide temperature range. The bent angle of these compounds is about 153°, which falls in between typical rod-like and banana liquid crystals. The transition temperature of branched alkoxy chain compound is lower than straight alkoxy chain compounds. The detailed XRD investigations of all the mesogens corroborate the presence of nematic phase. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


Variable slope tag as a kind of technology has seldom been put into practice and seldom recorded in written words. This paper tries to interpret the academic basis and technical working of long-width steel beam with variable slope tag, referring to the engineering project of the Anting Viaduct in Shanghai.


When streaming over the web, correlated videos (e.g., a series of TV episodes) appear to bear considerable redundant clips, mostly included in the intros, outros, recaps, and commercial breaks, leading to a waste of network traffic and playback time. Mainstream video content providers have taken various measures to identify these clips, but often result in unexpected and undesirable user experiences. In this paper, we conduct a large-scale, crowdsourced study to demystify the root causes of poor experiences. Driven by the findings, we propose to reconsider the problem from a novel perspective of scenes without going through the excessive video frames, which pays special attention to how the contents of correlated videos are organized during video production. To enable this idea, we design efficient approaches to the separation of video scenes and the identification of visual redundancy. We build an open-source system to embody our design, which achieves fast (e.g., taking ~38 seconds to process a 45-minute video using a common commodity server) and accurate (incurring only 770-ms deviation on average) redundancy recognition on representative workloads.


This is a review article which critically evaluates the role of micro silica and nano silica to be used as cementitious materials in infrastructure development. Due to ever growing population and technological advancements, there is a need of the use of such materials which reduce harmful effects on the environment and are useful in achieving strength and durability of infrastructural components. The technical advantages and the sustainability action have been discussed elaborately in the article. The effects of addition of supplementary cementitious materials in concrete and the various literatures associated with it have been studied under various properties such as hydration process, fresh properties, durability, mechanical strength and others.


Objective:To explore the possibility of replacing pharmacopoeia method with fiber-optic method by comparing their dissolution results of aminophylline tablets.Methods:Using fiber-optic method to assay the dissolution rate of 25 batches of aminophylline tablets and compared the results with those determined by pharmacopoeia method.Results:The results determined by fiber-optic method are generally higher than those determined by pharmacopoeia method.However,fiber-optic method can monitor dissolution process in real-time and reveal the dissolution behaviour completely.Conclusion:Fiber-optic method is more convenient and faster than pharmacopoeia method in determining the of dissolution rate of aminophylline tablets.Furthermore,it shows the whole process of medicine dissolution objectively.However,it cannot replace the pharmacopoeia method.


In order to reduce the cost,build rapidly business strategy and find new market,supply chain management solutions must take into account the collaborative manner.Web service are defined by their service describe of publication and discovery and binding to communicate with other Web service.We present an architecture that integrates Agent with Web service to achieve agile and flexible management on the supply chain.In this architecture,workflow processes are defined by configuration workflow specifications from the user.The software Agents are hired to fulfill the specified workflow tasks and also enhance the performance of Web service.The result is that Agents are able to mobile,download,duplicate and reconfigure in the system to achieve the reuse of Agents and obtain the information with more in time and convenient from Web service. 


The ability to extract topography from a pair of stereo images rests largely on the skill of the image matching algorithm to locate features common to both images. Although this is true for optical methods, it is particularly true for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images which contain noise, distortion, and artifacts unique to the radar collection geometry. This paper describes a technique implemented to match stereo radar images of Venus collected by NASA's Magellan spacecraft. During two years of radar operation, Magellan collected stereo image data over 35% of the planet surface, emphasizing the need for a robust and highly optimized matching algorithm. Matching is done on the full resolution basic image data record (F131DR) where the geometry and processing information is readily available. 'I'he algorithm uses a hierarchical approach based on a two dimensions] normalized correlation function to determine the itnage offsets. Matching is done on successively finer scales down to a final resolution of 4x4 image pixels. A technique to estimate the formal covariance error, and a way to uses these estimates to filter out bad matches, greatly reduces the effects of noise on the results.


Cloud computing has emerged as one of the most influential paradigms in the IT industry in recent years. Since this new computing technology requires users to entrust their valuable data to cloud providers, there have been increasing security and privacy concerns on outsourced data. Several schemes employing attribute-based encryption (ABE) have been proposed for access control of outsourced data in cloud computing; however, most of them suffer from inflexibility in implementing complex access control policies. Scalable, flexible and fine-grained access control are important and challenging issues concerning about data in cloud computing. A Hierarchical Attribute-Set-Based Encryption (HASBE) is designed and implemented which extends Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Set-Based Encryption (CP-ASBE) with a hierarchical structure of users. This scheme achieves scalability due to its hierarchical structure and fine-grained access control of out-sourced data in cloud computing by supporting compound attributes of Attribute-Set Based Encryption (ASBE).


Azadirecta indica (Meliaceae) is a medicinal plant, commonly known as 'Neem' and distributed randomly in the whole of India. Corriandrum sativum belongs to the family of Apiaceae was considered to be native from Asia and Africa and known locally in Sudan as Kazbra. Azadirecta indica and Corriandrum sativum extract have been studied for therapeutic possessions. The nutrient parameters and gas chromatography mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) analysis in the leaves of Azadirecta indica and Corriandrum sativum were studied and also the antihyperglycemic activity of hydro alcoholic extract. An acute oral toxicity study was carried out in healthy male Wister rats (100 g). Diabetic rats were orally and daily administrated of hydro alcoholic leaf extract of A. indica and C. sativum at the different doses (200-400 mg/kg. b.w) with anti-diabetic reference drug (metformin). After 21st days of treatment, level of blood glucose, as well as Albumin, Protein, Creatinine, Urea and Uric acid were significantly decreased when compared with the diabetic control. These plant fruit extract will be subjected for further extensive studies to isolate and identify their active constituents which are useful for against antidiabetic. Ethanol leaf extract of Azadirecta indica effect was confirmed minerals such as sodium (Na), copper (Cu), magnesium (Mg), manganese (Mn), Cobalt (Co) and iorn (Fe) were decreases of the respect of Corriandrum sativum. The results was indicated that the hydro alcoholic extract from leaves of Azadirecta indica and Corriandrum sativum showed the reduced blood glucose and other biochemical parameters level were observed in diabetic rats treated with both doses of ethanol extract of Azadirecta indica and Corriandrum sativum leaf compared to diabetic control rats. These observed strongly suggest that hydro alcoholic extract could act as a source of functional compounds for the control of diabetes mellitus.


The desert vegetation is an important part for maintaining ecological stability in arid area. The research of typical vegetation in arid desert region of water transport process is important to keep the ecosystem in arid area. In this paper, we took the Haloxylon ammodendron and Tamarix chinensis as the research objects of the typical desert vegetation in arid area, and through the use of TDP stem flow gauge, the sap flow rate was monitored under the conditions of different groundwater table. We analyzed the diurnal variation of sap flow rate and temperature as well as the relationship between different growth periods of Haloxylon ammodendron and Tamarix SAP flow. The results show that (1) Different experimental sites of Haloxylon ammodendron and Tamarix the sap flow have different characteristics. In Oasis Area, the relationship to stem sap flow of Haloxylon ammodendron is in August >in July >in June >in September, and the relationship to Tamarix is in September >in August >in June >in July . In the 150 regiment of the edge of the desert: the relationship to stem sap flow of No.1 Haloxylon ammodendron is in June>in July> in May >in August while the No.2 is in May >in June >in July>in August. And the relationship of No.1 Tamarix is in August >in June >in July >in May while the No.2 is in July >in June> in May > in August. (2) Although the temperature has a certain influence on the sap flow rate, different experimental sites of Haloxylon ammodendron and Tamarix sap flow in response to air temperature is not the same. In Oasis Area, the sap flow rate has relation with the two times of temperature before 12:00 while sap flow of Tamarix velocity has power correlation with temperature after 12:00. On the edge of the desert area, the sap flow rate of Haloxylon has relation with the two times of temperature while sap flow of Tamarix velocity has relation with the two times of temperature after 12:00.


This paper investigates the effects of the omission of relevant variables from the statistical model on cointegration analysis, proposed by Johansen (1988, 1991). We show that underspecification of the statistical model leads to either failure in detecting cointegration or underestimation of the cointegrating rank. Although in the underspecified statistical model the estimator of the detected cointegrating vectors is shown to be consistent, this is not the case for the estimators of the adjustment coefficient matrix and the variance of the error term. The asymptotic analysis is supplemented by a Monte Carlo experiment and an empirical example. Keywords; cointegration, omitted variables, asymptotics, Monte Carlo


AbstractIn this study, surface of silica gel was functionalized with 1,2-ethylenediamine. The synthesized materials were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, and elemental analysis. Batch adsorption studies were carried out to analyze the adsorption of nickel and cadmium ions from aqueous solutions. The factors influencing % adsorptive removal of Ni2+ and Cd2+ onto the silica gel and functionalized silica gel, such as initial pH value of the Ni2+ and Cd2+ ion solutions, adsorbent dose, initial Ni2+ and Cd2+ ion concentration, contact time, and temperature were investigated. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were used to determine the isotherm parameters associated with the adsorption process. The monolayer adsorption capacity of ASG for Ni2+ and Cd2+ increased from 4.69 to 19.6 and 7.63 to 27 mg/g, respectively, after modification of activated silica gel (ASG) surface with 1,2-ethylenediamine. Kinetic data were analyzed considering pseudo-first-orde...


In gas-liquid flows a certain sudden change of the flow structure may occur, which can be described as a transition from 'jet flow' to 'froth flow' accompanied by energy dissipation and pressure build-up. Upstream of this phenomenon the gas is the continuous phase; downstream the liquid is the continuous phase. The phenomenon, which has been called 'mixing shock', shows some similarity and also some differences with the plane shock wave in gasdynamics. In the first part of this paper the mixing shock is treated as a one-dimensional macroscopic process. With the aid of the laws of conservation of mass, momentum and energy, expressions are obtained for the pressure and entropy change across the mixing process. In addition the stability of the mixing shock in a cylindrical flow channel is treated. Next, a theory that explains the gas entrainment mechanism in the mixing shock is proposed. As an experimental tool a water-air ejector with the water as a driving medium was used. The experiments confirm the macroscopic and the microscopic theory. In the last section of this paper theoretical and experimental evidence is combined to construct a model of the processes that play a role in the shock.


The VGB Guideline for boiler feed water, boiler water and steam from steam generators above 68 bar permissible operating pressure (VGBN-R 450 L) basically focuses its range of application in the last revised edition dating from 1988 on power plant facilities with condensing turbines and fossil fuel-fired high-pressure steam generators in base-load operation. During the past ten years, a large nomber of power plants have been built whose overall concepts and requirement profiles differ significantly from the above-mentioned range of application. The integration of these facilities in a new edition of VGB Guideline -R 450 L necessitates complete rewriting in essential parts. This is explained by examples.


Developing a simple, economic, sensitive and rapid isocratic RPHPLC method for determination of meloxicam (MX) in bulk drug, tablet formulation and human serum. The retention time observed for meloxicam was just 2.35 minutes using C18 column (150 x 3.0 mm, 5 μm) with a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile: 0.2% formic acid (70:30 v/v%) at a flow rate of 1 ml/min with UV detector set at 355 nm. Linearity in concentration range of 0.05 – 50 µg/ml, with coefficient of determination, R² = 0.9956; slope= 25464 and intercept= -8872. The limit of detection and the limit of quantification were found to be 0.011 and 0.173 μg/ml, respectively. The precision and accuracy of method were checked by calculating RSD% and relative error E%, which were found to be reasonable. A RSD% (0.06 and 0.021%) for marketed brand and human serum, respectively and E% (0.64 and -0.47 %) for marketed brand and human serum, respectively. The method was found to be applicable for the analysis of MX in bulk, tablet formulation and human serum


A device and a method for dynamically displaying the program content of a multi-channel television by a plurality of pictures carry out the dynamical display on the transmitting stream of a multi-channel video with different program sources; the device consists of a tuner 1 and a tuner 2, a selector 1 and a selector 2, a system decoder 1 and a system decoder 2, a message source decoder 1 and a message source decoder 2, a size convertor 1 and a size convertor 2, an aliasing device, an MCU and a buffer; the invention is characterized in that: by utilizing the economical technical means, the displaying modes of PIP and POP of a plurality of pictures of television programs can be realized by adopting the mode of double decoding, the image of Sprite can be displayed dynamically (accurately dynamical), so as to be convenient for the looker to know the playing process of the program on the Sprite in real time and to switch the key frame to the interested channel in time.


Ex vivo expansion of cord blood hematopoietic progenitors is an attractive way to prepare a suffi- cient number of transplantable cells for cord blood transplantation in adult patients. The ex- panded cells need to have genetic stability. Karyotypic analysis of the expanded cells from cord blood CD34 1 cells by 7-day culture with stem cell growth factor, interleukin (IL)-3, IL-6, granulo- cyte colony-stimulating factor, and erythropoietin was performed. Several-fold increases in total cell number and CFU-GM were 186.7 6 62.1 and 27.1 6 9.4 (mean 6 standard deviation of data from 6 samples), respectively. Karyotypes were analyzed in 600 expanded cells in total, and all of them showed normal karyotypes. This observation suggests that multifactor supported expansion of cord blood cells may not induce karyotypic abnormality, although a limited number of ex vivo expanded cells were tested. © 2001 Elsevier Science, Inc. All rights reserved.


Examined in this study is what kind of governmental institutions were revised and how they were changed during the reign of King Heungdeok-wang, as well as why Kim Yu Shin was posthumously entitled as the "Great Heungmu King(興武大王)" at the time, as these events could have served as a platform which bred the future notion of "the Three Han entities had been one all along(三韓一統意識)" in the mid-9th century inside the Shilla society. The insurrection of Kim Heon Chang(金憲昌) and his son seriously disrupted the stability of the Shilla society, and caused a crisis of a dynastic scale. After the insurrection was subdued, king Heungdeok-wang newly established more local military installations to prevent such incident from happening again, and tried to appease the public himself. In the meantime, with the intention of reinforcing the Golpum structure(骨品制) of the society, he initiated institutional revisions as well. And as a symbolic gesture, he decided to honor Kim Yu Shin with a posthumous title, trying to build an atmosphere in which all Shilla could unite. The time of entitlement is presumed to have been the 9th year of king Heungdeok-wang's reign, when a series of institutional revisions were simultaneously being launched. In his biographical record[行錄], authored in the early days of the Hadae(下代) period, Kim Yu Shin was described as the hero of the Unification war, who literally led the unification, and also as a symbol of dynastic unity. A posthumous title was intended to use his such image in actually bringing the country together. And such decision could have created an environment in which people would remember the unification process and form a belief that would grow in the minds of future generations that the three countries were meant to eventually become one.


Balance method is always adopted in making decisions in an enterprise's operation,on whetherto buy spares outside or to produce by themselves.If the suppliers provide sales discounts to the customers, generally we can not ensure that the total cost will reach its bottom line,for the decision- methods only make effects under the circumstance of the same- quantity comparison. In order to control the cost within the lowestlevel,and earn the sales discountatthe same time,we should compare the cost of the self- pro- ductions to the minimum quantity of the commodities with discount. Therefore we can come to the right conclusion.


The geotechnical grouping investigation by SPT and SCP, following the criteria of geologic-environmental factor influences, allows identifying influence zones of soils maturation stage and domain areas of different geomorphological conditions. These groups were identified from the location of investigations in maps, verifying different behaviors of the qc/N reason, in each considered domain. The current study describes the criteria utilized in this differentiation, presenting the correlation between qc and N and diagrams showing the behavior of the K (qc/N) in relation to the depth, considering the results found.


Unexpected interruptions in manufacturing such as machine breakdowns often incur degradation of productivity. This study aims to build an automatic scheduling method that responds to the occurrence of uncertain events flawing a schedule and catch up the planned schedule as quickly as possible. We here focus on building adaptive operations of a material handling robot according to the predetermined schedule revision policy to cope with uncertainties and to reduce the total downtime of the manufacturing system. The applicability of the proposed method is demonstrated through physical experiments.


Human beings are conscious to recognize not only the world around them but themselves, in turn self-consciousness. This is when an individual consciously knows and understands their character, feelings, motives, desires and their environment through their bodies, sensory organs and activities. It can also be seen as an ideology or concept or literary phenomenon that expresses that an understanding of oneself is not only about the society the individual found himself/herself but the person's self. It is not just something that merely happens to be himself/herself but rather being aware of himself/herself as himself/herself. Hence makes the individual to be aware that they are object and subject of consciousness or awareness. This study builds from the existing studies which have recently established that literary writers implicitly or explicitly treat self-consciousness while presenting human experiences. Therefore, in respect to the previous or existing studies, the study mainly aims to examine variation of ideological self-consciousness in Isaac Asimov's I, Robot and Igoni Barrett's BlackAss. Hence three research questions are formulate to guide the study. To examine the study, it adopts Marxism, an extrinsic theory that allows a study of literary works to examine the relationship between the capitalist and proletariat classes. The result reveals that in I, Robot, Robots (Robbie, Cutie, Herbie, Dave, Nester 10, Brain and Machine) express self-consciousness by disobeying the three laws of robotics (becomes stubborn, inquisitive, develop emotions, stops obeying their commands, controls them, struggle to become member of the means of production, being difficult to handle, being able to read their minds but the whiteners/white men can't read theirs, lying and being difficult to solve); in BlackAssFuro expresses self-consciousness by turning into white man; Robots (Robbie, Cutie, Herbie, Dave, Nester 10, Brain and Machine) attain self-consciousness to become superior and Furo attain self-consciousness for survival.


This highly interactive workshop is designed to elicit from the participants a vision of an ideal future analytic environment for intelligence analysis, the components of such a system that are already in place or in development and the identification of needed future developments. It will cover processes and tools for enabling effective individual analysts, teams of analysts, computer mediated analysis teams and management of tasks and teams.


The paper has made comparative investigations on the unitary and competitive adsorption of cadmium and zinc residue in darkbrown soil, fluvo-aquic soil and mortar black soil by means of doing experiments of isothermal static equilibrium adsorption in nature. In our unitary adsorption experiments with cadmium and zinc contents varying from 20 mg/L to 500 mg/L, we have found increase of the adsorbed amounts of cadmium, zinc residue in tested soils and the decrease of pH values of solution with the increase of the initial concentration. The experiments also reveal that the amounts of unitary adsorptions in brown soil and fluvo-aquic soil were similar though lower than that in mortar black soil. This may account for the fact that the clay, CEC and pH value of the former were all lower than that in the latter. However, in the isometric competitive adsorption experiment with cadmium and zinc contents varying from 20 mg/L to 500 mg/L, we have found that the competitive adsorptions was less efficient than that in unitary adsorption with the amount of cadmium being absorbed more than with the zinc. This may account for the smaller ionic hydrous radius of cadmium. In addition, the result was found consistent with the distribution coefficient Kd. That is to say, the higher the Kd value, the greater amounts of heavy metals adsorbed. Furthermore, it has been found that the effect of cadmium (in the treatment of 500 mg/L) on the adsorption of zinc (in the treatment of 100 mg/L) tends to be greater than that of zinc on the adsorption of cadmium in the competitive adsorption experiment (with the concentration of one metal fixed to 100 mg/L when the concentration of another metal varied from 20 mg/L to 500 mg/L) . To make account for the above fact, differences of fraction transformation mechanism were discussed. But one thing is clear that the adsorption data of cadmium and zinc by unitary and competitive systems were fitted to the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms with the Freundlich isotherm being the best one for the description of the adsorption behavior of cadmium and zinc in the above three soils.


This speech given by Pauling at the Manfred Sakel Dinner during the Second International Conference for Biological Research
 and Treatment of Mental Illness for the New York Academy of Medicine in New York, New York.


MEMS resonators were vacuum-encapsulated by Silicon Migration Seal (SMS) technology. SMS is new wafer-level vacuum packaging technology, which utilizes silicon reflow phenomena to close release holes in hydrogen (H2) environment at high temperature (>1000°C). In this study, we first demonstrated the encapsulation of a MEMS resonator made on an SOI wafer, which is one of the most standard structures for inertial sensors and timing devices. After the encapsulation, hydrogen trapped in the sealed cavity was diffused out by annealing at 430ºC in nitrogen (N2) environment for 27 hours. The resonator was capacitively driven and sensed, and the Q factor reached 6000. The sample after successful packaging was penetrated by focused ion beam (FIB) out of the resonating element area. Judging from the Q factor, the vacuum level of the sealed cavity is much better than that of the hydrogen annealing (10 kPa) and estimated ~60 Pa.


A directivity display device and method are disclosed which involve a first saw-tooth generator producing a scan signal and a brilliance modulation circuit producing a brilliance modulated signal derived from the characteristic output of a test object with respect to a rotational angle of the test object. Thereby, the directivity display device makes it possible to display in graphic form a property of the test on a cathode-ray tube with a polar or other coordinate representation.


The identification of segments in strategic market planning has long been recognized as a powerful tool to understand consumer behaviour. An approach that has managerial appeal in addressing market heterogeneity is by assuming that customers can be grouped in a number of unobserved homogeneous segments where customers in each cluster have similar purchasing behaviours. This paper describes the different procedures in affecting market segmentation focusing more on the Finite Mixture approach, while the application addresses heterogeneity issues in customer preferences when purchasing iPads given demographic and product-related predictors.


Novel photodegradable polymer nanocapsules were prepared from hydrophilic monomers N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) and methacrylic acid (MAA), and the hydrophobic cross-linker 5-(methacryloyloxy)-2-nitrobenzyl methacrylate (ONB) by the interfacial polymerization–emulsion templating approach, in which polymeric chains in the nanocapsule shell were cross-linked during the one-pot free radical polymerization by the photocleavable cross-linker ONB predissolved in dimethyldiethoxysilane (DMDES) emulsion templates. These prepared polymer nanocapsules possess a uniform morphology with a size around 550 nm. Upon UV light irradiation, the monodisperse polymer nanocapsules undergo light-induced degradation due to the photocleavage reaction of o-nitrobenzyl ester-based linkers in the nanocapsule shell. Furthermore, hydrophobic cargo molecules can be encapsulated into the polymer nanocapsules. Either burst release of the encapsulated hydrophobic cargo molecules by UV light irradiation, or slow release by pH, or synergistic release by these two stimuli can be realized. The prepared photodegradable polymer nanocapsules could be widely applied in the field of smart nanocarriers for controlled cargo delivery.


The invention discloses a novel identity-based privacy enhanced mail forwarding system, which belongs to the field of communication. A method comprises the following steps of: selecting system parameters according to system security requirements, and generating a system master private key (namely the private key of a private key generation center PKG); receiving a user registration application by the PKG, and generating a private key for a user according to an e-mail address selected by the user; generating a first-stage encrypted e-mail according to the e-mail address of the user; generating a re-encrypted private key according to the system parameters; generating a second-stage encrypted e-mail according to the first-stage encrypted e-mail and the re-encrypted private key, and forwarding the second-stage encrypted e-mail; and decrypting the first-stage or the second-stage encrypted e-mail according to the private key of the user. The novel identity-based privacy enhanced mail forwarding system is realized on the basis of the bilinear pairing defined on an elliptic curve, uses a novel random filling mode to ensure the non-scalability of a cipher text, and enhances the security of the first-stage and the second-stage encrypted e-mails.


Since many of the factors influencing quality of life have both a transnational and a national dimension, in the last four years quality of life studies consider also the influence of the economic crisis on that phenomenon. Quality of life dimensions are analyzed from the perspective of economic indicators evolution during the crisis years, but also in terms of individual perception on quality of life in the present context of the market. This article highlights the changes in the quality of life studies due to the influence of the economic crisis. The analysis is made at the level of the research objectives, measurement indicators, methods of analysis and research methodology. The main consequence of the economic crisis for the quality of life studies refers to the fact that they are designed such that they respond better to the market new requirements for economic recovery, as well as to the individual needs of well-being.


People's motions or behaviors often ensue from these positive or negative emotions. Set off either subconsciously or intentionally, these fragmentary responses also represent people's emotional vacillations at different times, albeit rarely noted or discovered. This system incorporates affective computing into an interactive installation: While a user is performing an operation, the system instantaneously and randomly generates corresponding musical instrument sound effects and special effects. The system is intended to enable users to interact with emotions through the interactive installation to yield a personalized digital artwork as well learning about how emotions affect the causative factors of consciousness and personal behaviors. At the end of the process, this project design renders three questionnaires for users to fill in as a means to enhance the integrity and richness of the system with a survey and to further increase the stability and precision of the system through progressive modifications aligned with user suggestions.


The mixing ratio of methane in the atmosphere has increased in recent years for reasons that are not completely understood. It is important to better understand this greenhouse gas in regard to our changing climate and its role in atmospheric chemistry. Stable isotopes allow us to elucidate sources of methane due to the relatively distinct isotopic signatures from fossil fuels, biomass burning, and biological sources. Here we examine a 15-year record of atmospheric methane to show that since 2007, atmospheric methane isotopes have decreased by an average of 0.15 permil. This decrease is evident at Arctic sites as well as in the mid-latitudes and the Southern Hemisphere. There has been no change in the inter-hemispheric difference of atmospheric methane isotopes, suggesting that the changes are occurring in both northern and southern regions. Likewise, Miller-Tans plots, which examine regional deviations from the background signal, show that sources of methane have become isotopically more depleted since 2007 across latitudes. This suggests stronger microbial emissions (such as wetlands) from tropical, temperate, and Arctic environments. We use a 2-box model to test the plausibility of increased sources of microbial methane across a latitudinal gradient, and to constrain possible additional contributions of fossil fuel and biomass burning sources to the observed variability.


Abstract The method of real-time retrieval of atmospheric temperature profiles from Nimbus IV Satellite Infrared Spectrometer observations currently used in dynamical weather analysis-forecast operation is described. Each vertical temperature profile is determined by its deviation from a "guess" profile. The deviation is expressed as a linear combination of differences between the measured radiances and those computed from the guess profile. The coefficients are estimated, by matrix inversion, from the weighting functions (i.e., derivatives of atmospheric transmittance functions), which are regularized by the ratio of the expected variance of the measurement errors to the expected variance of the errors in the guess profile. The deviations are iterated until the variance of the radiance residuals is less than the expected variance of the measurement errors. For weather analysis-forecast operation the dynamical forecast is used as the first guess; therefore, the calculated profiles should differ from the f...


Considering the complexity of the geographical surroundings and the height of 10 kV distribution line, the impact of trees on the lightning performance can not be ignored. A model of lightning position judgment and overvoltage calculation based on the concept of striking distance is built. With the theory of orthogonal test, the main factors of trees' influence on lightning performance are figured out. The results indicate that the location of trees is the main factor. In practical engineering, suitable management of vegetation can improve the lightning performance and reduce the lightning failure of 10 kV distribution line.


Dysfunction of the pharyngoesophageal segment (PES) is a common cause of oropharyngeal dysphagia. Surgical dilation of the PES uses cylindrical dilators that expand radially in a circular shape. Animal studies, however, suggest that the PES is kidney‐shaped. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the 3D shape of the human PES with a novel casting method.


In this paper, we aim to predict whether the patients are COVID-inflected or not using machine learning models, including AlexNet, VGG, YOLOv5, and ResNet18. Since the X-ray images are large for processing, we utilize image decomposition and selective search to decouple the images and then send them to the network to predict the label. We analyze the available dataset, which concludes that the VGG network obtains the best performance with 86.84%. Furthermore, we find that the detection process in image pre-processing can help the classification method to handle the prediction task.


Introduction The 2014 Community-Based Survey of Supports for Healthy Eating and Active Living documented the prevalence of US municipal policy and community design supports for physical activity. The survey was repeated in 2021. Our study examined change in the prevalence of supports from 2014 to 2021, overall and by municipality characteristic. Methods Municipalities were sampled independently each survey year. We calculated prevalence in 2014 and 2021 and the prevalence ratio (PR) for 15 supports covering zoning codes, park policies and budgets, design standards, Complete Streets policies, and shared use agreements. We used a Bonferroni-corrected Breslow-Day test to test for interaction by municipality characteristic. Results In 2014 (2,009 municipalities) compared with 2021 (1,882 municipalities), prevalence increased for several zoning codes: block sizes of walkable distances (PR = 1.46), minimum sidewalk width (PR = 1.19), pedestrian amenities along streets (PR = 1.15), continuous sidewalk coverage (PR = 1.14), and building orientation to pedestrian scale (PR = 1.08). Prevalence also increased for design standards requiring dedicated bicycle infrastructure for roadway expansion projects or street retrofits (PR = 1.19). Prevalence declined for shared use agreements (PR = 0.87). The prevalence gap widened between the most and least populous municipalities for Complete Streets policies (from a gap of 33.6 percentage points [PP] in 2014 to 54.0 PP in 2021) and for zoning codes requiring block sizes that were walkable distances (from 11.8 PP to 41.4 PP). Conclusion To continue progress, more communities could consider adopting physical activity–friendly policies and design features.


Silicon oxide (SiOx) thin films are used as protective layers on flexible electronic devices in order to protect them from permeation of atmospheric O2 and H2O that induce corrosion effects to the active layers of these devices. In this work in-situ and real-time Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE) was used to monitor the SiOx deposition onto the polymeric substrates. The analysis of the real-time SE measurements revealed information about the growth mechanism and showed that SiOx follows an island type growth mechanism onto Poly(Ethylene Terephthalate)-PET substrate and a layer-by-layer mechanism onto Poly(Ethylene Naphthalate)-PEN substrate. Also, SE provides information about the evolution of the optical response during the deposition of SiOx nano-layers and of SiOx stoichiometry and how it is affected by substrate's surface. Furthermore the realization of sequential SE measurements onto different sites onto the sample surface led to the spatial distribution of the SiOx nano-layers optical properties. Finally the investigation of SiOx bonding structure has been performed by Fourier Transform InfraRed Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (FTIRSE) and led to the determination of the different vibrational modes of SiOx nano-layers and its relation to the SiOx growth mechanisms and the substrates (PET and PEN). (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


BACKGROUND: Dengue is a disease caused by four distinct serotypes of dengue virus (DENV 1-4). DENV serotype differs from one another by 25–40% at the amino acid level. The detection of serotype is very important due to the fact that in secondary infection with heterologous serotype often leads to life threatening, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF)/dengue shock syndrome (DSS); likewise, an infection caused by two serotypes or more in one individual can contribute to the severity of infection.
AIMS: The aims of the study were to detect the multiple dengue serotypes infection by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (Q-RT-PCR) and to determine the viral load in dengue infection.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study applied the molecular examination for determining the serotype and viral load of DENV. The data were analyzed using Student's t-test.
RESULTS: A total of 119 samples, 91 samples showed positive dengue infection after amplification. The multiple dengue infection was found in 47 samples and 44 samples with single infection. There was a significant difference between the number of viral load DENV-2 and DENV-1 infection (p = 0.000).
CONCLUSION: Two or more serotypes of dengue were found to infect a patient in West Sumatra. DENV-2 serotype was found predominantly in West Sumatra (n = 36, 39.56%) in patients with single infection. The molecular detection of dengue RNA by RT-PCR is a sensitive, rapid, and simple method. The RT-PCR method can detect the multiple dengue infection in clinical samples.


Metal borohydrides are a family of materials that were recently discovered to have extraordinary ionic conductivities, making them promising candidates as electrolytes for solid-state batteries (SSBs). In fact, various groups have measured the ionic conductivities and assembled batteries using specific borohydrides. However, there are no comprehensive studies assessing the thermodynamic properties or discussing the suitability of metal borohydrides as electrolytes in SSBs, especially for beyond-lithium applications. In this work, we investigate the electrochemical stability, interfacial characteristics, mechanical properties, and ionic conductivities of Li, Na, Ca, and Mg borohydrides using first-principles calculations. Our results suggest that Li and Na borohydrides are unstable at high voltages. However, the corresponding decomposition products, i.e., B12H122–-containing phases, have wide electrochemical windows which protect the electrolyte, leading to large electrochemical windows as wide as 5 V. In ...


This thesis is divided into three main parts. In the first, we discuss that, although permutation tests can provide exact control of false positives under the reasonable assumption of exchangeability, there are common examples in which global exchangeability does not hold, such as in experiments with repeated measurements or tests in which subjects are related to each other. To allow permutation inference in such cases, we propose an extension of the well known concept of exchangeability blocks, allowing these to be nested in a hierarchical, multi-level definition. This definition allows permutations that retain the original joint distribution unaltered, thus preserving exchangeability. The null hypothesis is tested using only a subset of all otherwise possible permutations. We do not need to explicitly model the degree of dependence between observations; rather the use of such permutation scheme leaves any dependence intact. The strategy is compatible with heteroscedasticity and can be used with permutations, sign flippings, or both combined. In the second part, we exploit properties of test statistics to obtain accelerations irrespective of generic software or hardware improvements. We compare six different approaches using synthetic and real data, assessing the methods in terms of their error rates, power, agreement with a reference result, and the risk of taking a different decision regarding the rejection of the null hypotheses (known as the resampling risk). In the third part, we investigate and compare the different methods for assessment of cortical volume and area from magnetic resonance images using surface-based methods. Using data from young adults born with very low birth weight and coetaneous controls, we show that instead of volume, the permutation-based non-parametric combination (NPC) of thickness and area is a more sensitive option for studying joint effects on these two quantities, giving equal weight to variation in both, and allowing a better characterisation of biological processes that can affect brain morphology.


The first detailed study of the properties of ferrimagnetic echoes in cylinders of yttrium iron garnet has been performed. Data are presented showing the dependence of the echo on applied field Ha, pulse separation τ, signal pulse power Ps, and pump pulse power Pp. At a given frequency, echoes are found to occur in multiple, well‐defined regions of the parameters τ and Ha. For low Ps and Pp, the echo power Pe increases linearly with increasing Ps but increases very rapidly with increasing Pp, following Pe∼P4.5p. Pe saturates at high power levels with the saturation level depending on both Ps and Pp. Additional experimental observations, which give further insight into the excitation and evolution of the echo, are also presented. Experimental results verify some of the qualitative predictions of various models previously proposed for the ferrimagnetic echo process but also point out some of the limitations of these models.


Fast-tracking is an important process to speed the delivery of construction projects. To support optimum fast-tracking decisions, this paper introduces a generic schedule optimization framework tha...


This paper has analyzed the quantitative evolution of urban and rural deforestation in a city in Legal Brazilian Amazon, considering the years of 1990, 2000 and 2011. The object of the study was Sinop city (Mato Grosso state, Brazil), located inside the Legal Amazon and Amazon Biome, located inside the Legal Amazon and Amazon Biome, which has restrictions by Federal Law in the percentages of Legal Reserve area in Legal Amazon of 50% and by interim measure in the Amazon Biome of 80% when forest. For methodology, images from Landsat 5 TM Satellite were used and related to the deforestation and forest covering data, in a temporal evolution in the analysis period. The obtained data show that there have been altered areas in the city. Divergences were noticed between the fulfi llment established by the Brazilian Forest Code's law and the deforestation data in the city for both, urban and rural area, being more frequent in the rural one.


TiO2 thin films have drawn a lot of attention for their application in emerging memory devices, such as resistive random access memory (ReRAM). However, TiO2 ReRAM still faces reliability issues, including poor endurance, large device-to-device and cycle-to-cycle variability of switching parameters and low yields. Moreover, high electroforming voltages have been often associated with irreversible damage to devices. Doping of TiO2 has been employed as a strategy for overcoming these issues. Therefore in this work, we used Al as a dopant in TiO2 thin films to investigate its effect on electroforming and switching voltages of ReRAM devices. Conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) measurements on these thin films, suggested that Al doping decreased the switching voltages compared to the undoped thin films. This result was confirmed by pulse voltage sweeping of ReRAM devices employing the same doped thin films. The Al-doped devices were on average electroforming at -5.7 V, compared to -6.4 V for the undoped ones, and they were switching with potentials as low as ±0.9 V. These findings suggest a potential pathway for implementing low-power ReRAM systems


ALMOST every town in the Philippines holds unique Holy Week rites, centered on the reenactment of Christ's passion, death and resurrection. Many will observe Good Friday, the most holy day of Holy Week, when Jesus was nailed to the Cross and died on the Golgotha in Mount Calvary in Jerusalem 2000 years ago. The "Moriones", "Penitencia", "Cenaculo", "Visita Iglesia" and the "Pabasa" are Holy Week activities that are held nationwide, although the Moriones Festival is held exclusively in the island province of Marinduque. Embodying the beliefs, traditions and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Filipinos, they are vital components of our history and culture especially the history of Catholicism in our country.


Catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) has been investigated for the treatment of water that has been contaminated by 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (4HBA). Both batch measurements for kinetics determination and continuous trickle-bed operation have been performed on the same activated carbon (AC). After a fast initial deactivation, AC was proven to be stable and efficient at moderate temperature and oxygen pressure, such as that for phenol degradation. The kinetic study in the case of highly adsorbing material (such as AC) may require a complex approach to account for the variation of adsorbed reactants during batch oxidation. Adsorption isotherms at reaction temperature and with aged AC have been obtained, according to the Langmuir equation, and used in a 4HBA mass balance to derive more significant kinetic parameters. At high catalyst loading and relatively low 4HBA concentration, the variation of 4HBA during the batch oxidation may be even higher on the solid than in the aqueous phase. Some data in continuous trickle-bed reactor or upflow flooded-bed reactor indicate oxidation behavior similar to that observed in batch mode, despite very different liquid-solid ratios.


To a helicopter the shaking seat system can simulate the vibration caused by the main rotor, tail rotor, engine, weapon firing, landing, etc. This paper focuses on the research and analysis of the shaking system of a helicopter flight simulator. The vibration model of the seat is built and the system is also developed. According to different flight states of the helicopter the vibration states of the seat are classified based on real measurement data, and the spectra of the vibration are interpolated to model the vibration of the seat. An electro-hydraulic servo system is used to drive the seat to shake along the direction that is parallel to the vertical body axis. The seat is shaken under the instructions at reference height with position close-loop control method, and the control law is PID algorithm. Running parameters of the system are configured by the software. The motional states of the shaking seat are displayed to the user through the visualization software. The main parts of the system and some key technologies of the implementation are also presented in the paper. The system can generate the special vibration environment in the helicopter flight process, and is successfully applied to the flight simulator. So the pilots' immersion feelings are increased.


Lepidopteran scales exhibit exquisite architectures that produce complex optical performance, such as structural colors for multiple survival strategies. However, how do these optical properties evolve to achieve such an excellent performance remains enigmatic because of the rarity of fossils and complexity of the gene regulatory network. Here, inspired by the primitive lepidopteran fossils, it is deduced that the morphology of these multilayered scales can be expressed by the basic trigonometric function sin(x) = t. A unified evolving model (UEM) is developed to reconstruct the evolutionary process from original multilayers to the current lepidopteran scale microstructures. The simulated optical response results show that factors such as the light absorption, warning coloration, and visual range intensity are optimized for survival by these insect individuals. The UEM provides a route to rationalizing other natural periodic microstructures. Furthermore, microstructure parameterization can facilitate the design of the nano‐optical materials. Corresponding results can help develop specific applications such as photothermal conversion, radiative cooling, and camouflaging.


In France approximately 90 patients who are on the liver transplant waiting list, die due to organ shortages. There are several answers to this problem: improving the effectiveness of the organ harvesting network, developing new surgical methods and upgrading liver support devices. There are today many means available (ex vivo liver perfusion, bioartificial livers, liver cell transplantation, MARS (Molecular Adsorbents Recirculating System), but their efficiency is still a matter of debate. Nevertheless, two of these devices (HepatAssist, MARS.) seem of interest, particularly when they are used as a bridge to transplantation. Progress in cell bioengineering will allow us to use human hepatocytes in bioartificial livers, thus enabling us to overcome problems related to the use of xenogenic liver cells. © 2004 Societe de reanimation de langue francaise. Publie par Elsevier SAS. Tous droits reserves. Mots cles : Penurie d'organes ; Insuffisance hepatique ; Assistance hepatique ; Foie bioartificiel ; Transplantation d'hepatocytes ; MARS™


Farfan concludes with a recapitulation of key themes and a challenge to others who would work in modernism's capacious territory. "The relationship of theatrical and dramatic modernism to more recognized modernism in other fields" still needs attention and rethinking (117). The work of feminist artists, even if only imperfectly understood in its own time, can and does contribute "to the transformation of the representation of gender in both art and life" (119). Farfan herself contributes richly to both projects.


Racemic latifine (+)-(1), a new representative of the rare phenolic Amaryllidaceae alkaloids, has been synthesized by employing the Claisen rearrangement of 4-benzyloxycinnamyl 2-methoxyphenyl ether (11) as a key step. Based on the racemic synthesis, (R)-(+)-latifine (R)-(1), the unnatural enantiomer, has also been synthesized from (S)-O-benzylglycidol (S)-(3)via(S)-1-benzyloxy-3-phenylthio-propan-2-ol (S)-(4) as a key intermediate.


The objective of this work is to evaluate the fertilization and embryotoxic effects of aqueous extract of Cnestis ferruginea in rats. First, 3 batches of rats (control, treated AECF50 and AECF100) were mated with untreated males. Then, 3 batches of male rats (control, treated AECF50 and AECF100) were mated with untreated females. Finally, two groups of rats, I (males) and II (females) were subdivided into three batches each (control, treated AECF50 and AECF100) and were mated according to the dose. The resultsshowed 100% gestation in the treated females, but an increase in the post-implantation abortion rate with the AECF100. Regarding the test of treated males, the pregnancy, copulation and fertility rates were 75%, 83.33% and 100% for controls, AECF50 and AECF100, respectively. Pre- and post-implantation abortion rates decreased with both doses. The test of treated males mated with the treated females showed a pregnancy rate, a copulation index, and a 100% fertility index compared to controls (83.33%). For the uterine, fetal and placental weights, the extract induced a significant increase in the treated females. Histological studies of the ovary showed a significant increase in the diameter of the corpus luteum (35.14%) and the diameter of the uterine glands by 16.05% (AECF50) and 18.39% (AECF100). In conclusion, Cnestis ferruginea improves fertility in males and females. But, these positive effects can be hindered by high doses.L'objectif de ce travail est d'evaluer les effets fertilisants et embryotoxiques de l'extrait aqueux de Cnestis ferruginea chez le rat. D'abord, 3 lots de rattes (temoin, traitees EACF50 et EACF100) ont ete accouplees avec les mâles non traites. Ensuite, 3 lots de rats mâles (temoin, traites EACF50 et EACF100) ont ete accouples avec les femelles non traitees. Enfin, deux groupes de rats, I (mâles) et II (femelles) ont ete subdivises en trois lots chacun (temoin, traites EACF50 et EACF100) et ont ete accouples en fonction de la dose. Les resultats ont montre 100% de gestation chez les femelles traitees, mais une augmentation du taux d'avortement post-implantation avec l'EACF100. Concernant le test de mâles traites, le taux de gestation, copulation et fertilite etaient de 75%, 83,33% et 100% respectivement pour les temoins, EACF50 et EACF100. Les taux d'avortement pre- et postimplantation ont baisses avec les deux doses. Le test de mâlestraites accouples avec les femellestraitees a montre un taux de gestation, un index de copulation et un index de fertilite de 100% par rapport aux temoins (83,33%). Concernant les poids de l'uterus, du fœtus et du placenta, l'extrait a induit une augmentation significative chez les femelles traitees. Les etudes histologiques de l'ovaire ont montre une augmentation significative du diametre des corps jaunes (35,14%) et du diametre des glandes uterines de 16,05% (EACF50) et 18,39% (EACF100). En conclusion, Cnestis ferruginea ameliore la fertilite chez les mâles et les femelles. Mais, ces effets positifs peuvent etre entraves par les fortes doses.