Abstract 1468 Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (allo-HSCT) is one of the only curative therapies for leukemia patients and others with hematological malignancies. Its use, however, is restricted by several major complications, including graft versus host disease (GVHD) and post-transplant immune deficiency. Previous studies have found that GVHD can cause significantly reduced hematopoiesis and significant loss of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells within the BM niche. Moreover, post-transplant immune deficiency, which is especially devastating to the T cell compartment, occurs independently of GVHD in autologous HSCT as well as following immunodepletion from chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. This profound immune deficiency may be long-lasting and further exacerbated by GVHD that may be targeting hematopoietic reconstitution. Here we demonstrate that in both minor and major-mismatched models of GVHD there is significant depletion in the BM of hematopoietic stem cells (p + CD150 + and CD48 + CD150 - MPP cells in peripheral and mesenteric lymph nodes (p - CD62L + Thy1 + progenitors (p ex vivo on the OP9-DL1 culture system, and sex steroid ablation (SSA). Here we demonstrate that the use of specific combinations of regenerative strategies, utilizing KGF, SSA and preT leads to not only further rejuvenation of the T cell compartment in the thymus, but also significantly enhances B-lymphopoiesis in the BM. This synergistic enhancement may be due to the differential targets of the individual strategies, with KGF impacting directly on thymic epithelial cells, preT therapy offering a steady and immediate supply of T cell precursors to fuel thymopoiesis, and SSA affecting both the microenvironment and hematopoietic progenitors in both the BM and thymus. Importantly, this improved immune reconstitution was not associated with an increase in GVHD. In summary, we present here that there is ineffective hematopoiesis during GVHD contributing to impaired immune reconstitution post-transplant. Excitingly, lymphoid recovery can be enhanced through the synergistic effects of KGF, SSA and preT therapies. These strategies may therefore be effective in improving clinical outcomes in the transplant settings as well as in other lymphopenic states induced by high dose chemotherapy/radiation therapy or HIV, and may also be useful in improving responses to vaccination and augmenting anti-tumor immunotherapy. Disclosures: Boyd: Norwood Immunology: Employment. van den Brink: Cytheris: Research Funding.


The effects of Co-60 /spl gamma/-ray irradiation under DC operation for two types of monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), Pseudomorphic HEMT (PHEMT) and Dual-Gate GaAs MES-FET, were investigated. These two types of MMICs have an excellent radiation hardness exceeding 10/sup 7/ rad(Si). We considered that degradation mechanisms of P-HEMT and MES-FET were the decrease of two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) carrier density and increase of electron traps near the Schottky gate electrode.


Color cour se th at drawing is based on details and Color Constitution one that drawing is based on abstract theory are relative but independent respectively.The teaching of Col or makes a sound color-shaping foundation,and that of Color Constitution makes t he use and design of color more charmful.Therefore,teachers should have the cour ses alternately and make them supplement and complement each other in the teachi ng.


The term 'street children' is often used as an umbrella category for street-connected children and youth. In this post, Graham Pluck discusses research approaches to street children, from those documenting their dire situation to those advocating their resourcefulness. However, if researchers are to effectively tackle street children's problems, facile distinctions should be avoided by acknowledging both their strengths and weaknesses, he writes.


Some corrections: (i) Orr-Stav writes that Hebrew "shares its script with no other living language" (p. 1). In fact, Hebrew shares its script with other Jewish religiolects and varieties such as Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Spanish or Yiddish. While these varieties are endangered, they are not yet extinct. (ii) The sentence on p. 21 stating that "Moses preceded the birth of the Aramaic script by at least four hundred years" has no academic or historic value. The same holds true for the descriptions of script "used by Moses, David, and Solomon" (p. 18). (iii) The evidence for the success of Orr-Stav's method presented on p. 6 and elsewhere is anecdotal at best; no serious academic testing of his method has been conducted.


Pumpability-related engine failures have resulted from an inadequate understanding of the time-dependent rheology of motor oils at low temperatures. The current work elucidates the nature of the wax-oil structure formed at temperatures below the cloud points for a series of mineral oils and formulated lubricants having documented field and bench test performance. Low-temperature field performance of motor oils was differentiated by slow-cool, low-shear rate methods. The solidification of each motor oil was characterized by a viscosity-temperature profile. The activation energies for crystallization and fusion were higher for the problem oils. The creep moduli of wax-oil gels were determined from low-temperature isothermal thermomechanical (TMA) experiments. The engine-pass oils had lower moduli at -65{degrees}C.


Compulsory mathematics for social science students is problematic. We discuss the case of a group of students in Sweden who met a mathematics course inspired on the ideas of critical mathematics ed ...


The present study of the lingual apparatus of the Ardea cinerea consists of two parts; anatomical descriptions of the lingual apparatus, and the functions and interactions of the different parts of the apparatus. Anatomical description covers mechanically functioning elements (i.e. bill, skeletal elements, muscles, epithelial structures of the tongue, and salivary glands). The study indicated that the relative increase in the bill length in proportion to the cranium is considered as an advantageous adaptation to the piscivorous mode of feeding. At the hind half of the anterior region of dorsal surface of the tongue a shallow median sulcus is distinguished macroscopically. Backwards to the sulcus a distinct median deep groove are observed. The dorsal surface of the anterior region of the tongue is relatively smooth without lingual papillae, whereas the posterior part is densely armed or occupied with lingual papillae-like teeth. Poor-developed lingual salivary glands are extending at the posterior part of the tongue. These glands are of abocrine type; their secretions are composed of proteins, in addition to neutral and acidic mucopolysaccharides and supposed that the polysaccharides contain a sulphate group.


ART strengths include its ability to place an arbitrary number of patterns into categories of varying degrees of complexity, its stable encoding, and its online learning abilities. It is extremely well suited to applications of dignostics, such as direct current lifter's fault diagnosis.


Objective:To observe the effect and safety of jiaolong capsule on treating cancer induced abdominal distension.Methods:All 50 patients with abdominopelvic cavity cancer and cancer-induced abdominal distension(Zheng of Hepatogastric YuRe) were divided into two groups randomly,25 in each group.Patients in treatment group took jiaolong capsule half an hour before dining(two pills every time,and three times per day),while the control group using Metoclopramide.The period of treatment in each group was 28 days.Results:There were 1 case cured,9 cases were significantly improved,14 cases were in effect and 1 case were non-effective among 25 cases in treatment group,and the total effective rate was 96%.There were 0 case cured,5 cases were significantly improved,8 cases were in effect and 12 cases were non-effective in control group,the total effective rate was 52%.There was significant difference between two group(P0.01),the syndrome integral of two groups decreased after the treatment and there was statistically significant difference between two groups(P0.05).Conclusion:It has better clinical efficacy by using the method of jiaolong caspule in treating cancer-induced abdominal distension(Zheng of Hepatogastric YuRe),and it has significantly improved role in patients which have the major symptoms such as distention,dry mouth,etc.Jiaolong capsule has no obvious side effect on treating cancer-induced abdominal distension.It is safe,effective.


In this paper, we examine the concept of 'legitimacy' in higher education in the context of the city-state of Singapore. We find that 'legitimacy' enhancing devices like rankings and accreditation are not necessary precursors for market success, reputation building or the provision of a quality education. This result is a direct challenge to the prevailing orthodoxy.


Mental retardation(MR) was defined by the World Health Organisation as an intelligent quotient (IQ)<70 that is accompanied by adaptive limitations in two or more key skills areas, before the age of 18. General intellectual functioning is expressed by IQ. Typically, in chil‐ dren younger than 5 years old who present delays in the attainment of developmental mile‐ stones at the expected age, the term of "developmental delay" is used. Also, developmental delay is used before the age of 5,when IQ testing is reliable and valid and it takes into con‐ sideration learning and adaptive deficits which predict later intellectual disability.


A taken up by cells, thus using a dye such as confocal fluorescence micro endoscope or other dendrimer dye molecules or hyperbranched dye molecules to allow subsequent visualization by light detector, not exclusively but it provides a method especially to visualize the cells in vivo. The A confocal fluorescence micro endoscope, internal quenching but not exclusively in combination with the particular internally quenched probes are used to visualize the cells in vivo, as well as confocal fluorescence micro endoscope the probe, used for visualizing the cells by uptake and de-quenching of the probe by the cell. The cells, such as in the lungs of the subject is activated neutrophils. .BACKGROUND


The student population is one of the most sensitive populations today, whereby it is necessary to consider the relationship between health and physical activity in order to improve students' quality of life. In addition to physical inactivity, health status is adversely affected by constant technological innovations and excessive socializing, consumption of alcohol, tobacco and narcotics. The aim of this study was to determine the differences between the communication approach and attitudes of first- and fourth-year students of the Faculty of Sports and Physical Education on the impact of sports on health and improvement of mental hygiene. Using a 60-item questionnaire, the study included 70 healthy respondents of both genders (Mean ± SD: 20.86±1.76 years). The respondents were divided into two subsamples, i.e. a group of first-year students (IG; n=34; F=15, M=19) and a group of fourth-year students (IVG; n=36; F=18, M=18). All obtained data are presented by descriptive parameters. The reliability of the survey in terms of internal compliance was tested by Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. The manifest space of attitudes was processed by the scaling technique. The Mann-Whitney U Test was used to determine differences in attitudes between first- and fourth-year students. For statistical significance of the differences in results between groups, the p<0.05 level of significance was used. The data were processed in the SPSS statistical package. The results of the study unequivocally confirmed the existence of a positive attitude among the student population about the impact of sports on health and improvement of mental hygiene, as well as that there are no statistically significant differences in most of the variables included in the testing (eight out of ten domains), i.e. that there is no great difference in the attitudes of first- and fourth-year students on the importance of sports for their psychophysical health.


The Monash Mini Case Record (MCR), based on Norcinis mini CEX, is an observed interaction between a student and a real patient in an authentic clinical setting. The assessor rates the students competence in history taking or physical examination and clinical reasoning on eight point scales. Professional / ethical behaviour within the encounter is evaluated on a four point scale. The assessor also grades the complexity of the case as low, medium or high. On completion of the student patient interaction, or her performance, and the assessor provides verbal and written feedback. Students complete both formative and summative MCRs across the academic year.


Ten different species of dictyostelid cellular slime molds were found in Norway, namely Dictyostelium mucoroides Brefeld, D. sp. 1, D. sp. 2, D. aureo–stipes Cavender, Raper & Quinlan, D. fasckulatum Traub, Hohl & Cavender, D. sp. 3, D. minutum Raper, Polysphondylium violaceum Brefeld, P. pallidum Olive and Acylo–stelium leptosomum Raper & Quinlan. D. mucoroides included two varieties, D. sp. 1 and D. sp. 2 are probably related to D. septentrionalis Cavender and D. sphaerocephalum (Oud.) Sacc. & March respectively and D. sp. 3 is probably a new species.

Two different spore types, characterized by the presence or absence of ribosomes on the outer mitochondrial membranes, were revealed by transmission electron microscopic studies. This property was related to other properties such as the presence or absence of polar spore granules (PG) and the aggregative responses of the amoebae towards cAMP.


Using decamethylcyclopentasioxane ([Si(CH3)2O]5 as liquid precursor, SiCOH films, which have low dielectric constant (low k), good insulating ability and thermal stability, were prepared by electron cyclotron resonance chemical vapor deposition (ECR_CVD). The FTIR spectra of the films were measured to find the difference of bond structures between SiCOH films and DM5 source. It was verified that the Si—O—Si cyclic structure was retained in SiCOH films,while _CH3 radicals were lost during the deposition. The dielectric con stant decreased from 385 to 285 after the film was annealed in 400℃. With t he analysis of the bond structure of the film as deposited and annealed, we can infer that the increased content of cage structure comprised of Si—O—Si bond w ith bigger bond angle may be the reason for decreased dielectric constant.


This thesis reviews the background of Massive gravity, introducing dRGT gravity as originally presented and in the tetrad formalism. Kaluza-Klein (KK) theories are reviewed, together with dimensional deconstruction. The application of these results to the graviton to recover dRGT gravity is explored. The last sections consist of novel work, or modifications of previous work (4.5.1-3,4.8) extending these techniques to all other types of matter with lower spin than the graviton (Scalar, Spinors, Yang-Mills, and Rarita-Schwinger fields). This thesis is meant to serve as a pedagogical introduction to Massive gravity, shaped by the author's own research interests, as such ∼ 95% of calculations on this thesis have been done from scratch to ensure any reader familiar with the mathematical technology can follow every step. As a consequence of this, some parts can be more computation heavy than you would find in usual research publications.


The cultivated species have ideal soil pH for absorption of nutrients and proper development, it is necessary to know the performance of nitrogen-fixing bacteria and promoting plant growth (PGPBs) at different levels of acidity, in order to increase the results to elevate crop yields with the use of technology inoculation of seeds of gramineous. Thereby, the present study aimed to determine the initial development of wheat seedlings subjected to inoculation with Azospirillum brasilense and Herbaspirillum seropedicae at different levels of acidity irrigating solution in autoclaved sand substrate. Adopted the randomized block design (RBD) in a 3x4 factorial design with three levels of acidity of the solution (pH 4.5, 5.5 and 6.5) and the second factor [without inoculation, seeds inoculated at the time of seeding with A. brasilense (AbV5), H. seropedicae (SmR1) and association of the two strains AbV5+ SmR1. Increased root length was detected at pH 4.5 compared to pH 5.5 and 6.5 regardless or not with A. brasilense and H. seropedicae. Inoculation with A. brasilense promotes greater diameter collect, regardless of the pH and increase in root volume to pH 6.5 alone or associated with H. seropedicae.


This paper revisits Hannah Arendt's (1958) notion of a Space of Appearance [1] and her idealized distinction between oikos (private/domestic) and polis (public/deliberative), in light of pervasive new ecologies of techne that have (almost) invisibly repositioned the locii of individual and collective agency, politics and the experience of citizenship. Since Arendt's time, and with the emergence of digital technologies, it has frequently been asserted that defining values and characteristics of citizenship – civic engagement, connection to public place, indigenous identities, memory - have been eliminated, subsumed or replaced by, for example, abstract, privatized, hyper-capitalized or cyber-mediated forms of immaterial cultural production and consumption. After Bratton's (2012) "delamination of territory, economy and sovereignty one from the other", the paper will draw these delaminated, striated and fragmented strands together to offer an alternative contextual/conceptual framework for a provocative, anticipatory 'bourgeois anarchic' form of 'digital citizenship' in Auckland, New Zealand. [2] Located on the 'edge' of the globe, it is nevertheless currently the largest council in Australasia, with NZ$29 billion of assets, a NZ $3 billion annual budget, and approximately 8,000 employees. Demographic and economic projections suggest that the population will reach 2.5 million by 2040. Whilst modest by global standards, this represents 40% of the total NZ population and the majority of indigenous Maori, Pacific/Polynesian and 'new settler' citizens, 50% of whom are under 25). What is at stake in this Pacific city discourse is not only the long-term equity and sustainability of any political, cultural, environmental or economic agenda, but also the speculative/anticipatory contribution of design. This paper addresses some implications of these for participatory citizenship. More specifically, we present design projects that empirically analyze and proactively explore the practical, trans-disciplinary implications, disruptions and potentials afforded by ICT for distributed, micro-level, decision-making (citizenship). In doing so, we shed light on how citizens might design, use or respond to emerging, intelligent and affective technologies – whether wearable, mobile, socialized or hacked - against the background of a bio-politically ambiguous, neo-liberal and increasingly privatized, res publica . [1] A space of political freedom, agency and equality which comes into being whenever citizens engage collectively through media (in Arendt's 1958 terms of speech, argument and persuasion). [2] In November 2010, Auckland merged the functions of an existing regional council and seven previous city and district councils into one "super-city" governed by a mayor, 20 members of the governing body and 148 members of 21 local boards.


Wafer level packages continue to see strong growth driven by mobile phones, portable players, digital cameras and tablets. All these devices use small form factor and low profile packages such as a wafer level chip scale package (WLCSP) as it fits the requirements. Conventional flip chip die with solder bump is growing due to the increasing number of new design packages converting from wire bond and new flip chip interconnects such as copper pillar and micro bump are growing as a result of strong demand in 3D stacked ICs. Both WLCSP and flip chip need to be electrically tested in wafer format at some point in the assembly process, either as a Known Good Die (KGD) in 3D ICs or an end product that goes into the PCB of an electronic gadget. Wafer sort or wafer level testing was once considered as a method to save packaging cost as this process sorts out bad die before it is assembled into a package. However, today wafer sort or wafer level testing is an important process for yield enhancement of flip chip packages and a final test requirement for WLCSPs. The challenge of wafer level testing has grown significantly due to the increasing complexity of the die or packages. The current technology started to see limitations in hardware and tools. This paper investigates the challenges facing wafer level testing as well as examining the solutions available to overcome these challenges, identifying the gaps and additional innovation needed to overcome these challenges. INTRODUCTION For many years, wafer level testing or wafer sort was employed for two reasons. Firstly, it is to sort out bad dies to prevent them from being assembled into the final package and this would save the cost of packaging. Secondly, the purpose of wafer level testing is to provide yield feedback to the wafer fab in time to control the wafer fabrication process [1]. These two purposes are still valid today. However, as packaging technology advances, wafer level packages such as flip chip and WLCSP changes the wafer test requirements not only for yield enhancement of the final package, but also full coverage of testing as it takes the final form of the end package. These bumped types of wafers need to be contacting at solder bumps instead of pads during test. It seems relatively easy compared to contacting pads as bumps are larger in size and wider in pitch; however, the real situation is more complex as the challenges of testing these bumped chips are different. Wafer-Level Packaging (WLP) refers to the technology of packaging an integrated circuit at wafer level and it takes many forms. There are WLCSP, flip chip dies built into flip chip or 3D packages and all these dies or packages need wafer level testing. PACKAGES REQUIRE WAFER LEVEL TESTING The traditional functions of a semiconductor device package are to provide environmental protection for the die built in it. However, this need of protection becomes less important with the short expected life of the IC and advancement in material used in building the wafer level package. Wafer Level Chip Scale Packaging (WLCSP), as its name "Chipscale package" implies, is a wafer level packaged die with grid array bumps at pitches of 0.4mm and above. This bumped integrated circuits package goes directly onto printed circuit boards of end electronic products such as mobile phones which are one of the fastest growing package types in the semiconductor industry. Fabrication and testing of WLCSPs are done at the wafer level. As the manufacturing cost drops with increased wafer size and reduced die size, cost competitiveness becomes a main motivation to replace traditional QFN packages in mobile devices with WLCSPs. WLCSP is not new; it started with small size and low I/O a decade ago till today with high pin counts and larger package size as shown in below figure 1. In the extension of WLCSP, fan-out wafer-level technology overcomes interconnect density limitations on PCBs and Figure 1: Large WLCSP with I/O above 100 reduces the need for bump interconnects [2]. One typical example of fan-out technology is embedded wafer level BGA (eWLB) show in below figure 2. Flip chip and wire bond are the two standard processes to connect the die to a substrate. The flip chip device continues to see strong growth with an increasing number of new designs converting from wire bond. The reasons for the conversion can be attributed to the advantages of its thermal and electrical properties, lower cost and ability to support high I/O count with a smaller package relative to the die size; as shown in figure 3 below. The connection area required for flip chip is much smaller than what is required for wire bonding because all the I/Os from the chip are connected through the bottom. [3] Flip chip packaging uses area array solder bump configurations and its typical bump pitch is 150μm. Figure 4 shows examples of final flip chip packages in the form of fcBGA and fcFBGA that are in high volume manufacturing now. As the need for increased I/O signal connections grow; the bump pitch has to decrease. In order to maintain standoff height with decreasing pitch, a solid column type bump has to be employed and this is copper column bump. Flip chip with copper column bump is expected to see greater demand as the need the fine pitch solutions increase. There are two approaches for copper column bumps as shown in figure 5 below: one with a solder cap and the other without. Copper column bump pitch can be as low as 40μm and this makes testing them very difficult. 3D packaging is driven by wireless and consumer products that require package level functional integration in a small footprint, low profile and lower in cost. 3D packages come in many different forms. For some, flip chip dies are used in the package and certainly these dies must be known good die (KGD) to ensure the end package quality. Figure 6 shows an example of a 3D package with flip chip die. Figure 2: Embedded Wafer Level BGA (eWLB) Figure 3: Flip chip connection area compared to wire bond connection area Figure 4: Flip Chip packages Figure 5: Copper column bump. (Top photo shows solder cap version) NEW CHALLENGES IN WAFER LEVEL TESTING The paradigm for wafer level test is changing rapidly. The original intent of final yield enhancement and feedback to the wafer fab for process control for performance wafer sort has expanded. With new package or die types needed to test in wafer level, different challenges have surfaced. Comparing package handling in a test handler where wafers are effectively all the same, it would appear that the handling of wafers would be an easier task. The actual handling, though, is probably more difficult since wafers are extremely fragile and damaging even one wafer is unacceptable due to the large number of valuable dies lost. The handling equipment or prober needs to be extremely precise and intelligent to handle these fragile wafers. Wafer level test handling equipment or probers face significant technical challenges in different markets or wafer types. One of the common issues is the need for high parallelism test. For high parallelism requirements, the prober needs to have accurate alignment capability and very high force test chuck for presenting the wafer to probe card for contacting. There is even a need for full wafer contact of a 300mm wafer with thousands of solder bumps and it becomes a challenge for providing increasing insertion force without damaging the fragile wafer. In wafer handling, different types of wafers need to be processed in the same prober. We see thin wafers at high warpage that need to be tested. These wafers go through back grinding to the required end thickness before wafer testing on the prober. Typically a standard prober can handle up to 350μm thickness. For wafers thinner than 350μm, there is an increased tendency to warp badly and make handling in a prober very difficult. In this case, a special tool or kit will be needed to handle this type of thin wafer. However, any wafer thickness of less than 150μm is still a challenge for the prober to handle. With the new type of wafers such as eWLB gaining popularity, the prober now needs to handle wafers with different surfaces or materials. These eWLB wafers are different from normal silicon wafers as the backside of the wafers are a mold compound and they tend to have a higher warpage level with a similar thickness as silicon wafer as shown in figure 7 The above mentioned challenges need to be overcome with good handling equipment. Probers now need to have capability and/or options as listed below: ∑ High force chuck for high parallelism ∑ Wafer handling arm and chuck to handle thin and warped wafers ∑ Chuck that can handle different material of wafer such as eWLB wafers with molded material at backside of the wafer ∑ Intelligence optical alignment for fine pitch bumps ∑ High speed wafer changing and indexing As the requirements get more stringent, probers will need to continue improving to meet all the new requirements. The overall end user would need a flexible and cost effective prober to handle different requirements and situations. PROBE CONTACT CHALLENGES As the need for increased I/O signal connections grow, the bump pitch has to decrease and maintain a greater standoff height. A solid column type of bump is created either in solid copper column or with an added solder cap. Fine pitch is always a challenge for probe card geometry and precision. A prober that handles fine pitch wafers needs the precision to achieve an accurate probing. Currently, flip chip die with 150μm pitch is in mass production without Figure 6: Example of 3D package Figure 7: eWLB warpage condition issue. Typically this type of bumped wafer uses a vertical probe card with buckling beam type of contact pins. As the pitch of copper column bump scales below 100μm, this type of vertical probe card design cannot scale down to the required pitch. Advanced probe cards with MEMS technology will be need


Surface modification of PAN based carbon fiber (CF) by low temperature plasma was investigated to give high compatibility between CF and matrix in CF/cement composites (CFRC). The surface treatment of CF was carried out with O2, Ar and CF4 plasmas generated by radio frequency (13.56 MHz). The wettability of water on CF surface was remarkably modified to hydrophilic by O2 and Ar plasmas, and to hydrophobic by CF4 plasma. Furthermore, the CF surface was analyzed by ESCA and observed by SEM. It was found that the acidic group on the CF surface was formed by O2 plasma, and the surface fluorination on CF was carried out by CF4 plasma.Then, the CF paper after plasma treatment was used for the preparation of CFRC. CFRC plates (6 mm in thickness) were prepared by the lamination of 12 sheets of CF paper preimpregnated with alumina cement paste, and were cured in water.These CFRC's showed 2.0 g/cm3 in bulk density and 3.6 vol% in CF contents. The flexural strength of these CFRC's prepared from plasma-treated CF, was about 10-12 times higher than that of alumina cement hydrate. The CFRC plates prepared from CF paper pretreated in O2 and Ar plasmas exibited 1.8 times higher in flexural strength (60MPa) and 1.5 times larger in deflection compared with the CFRC without plasma treatment on CF. The flexural strength (74MPa) and deflection of CFRC plates prepared from CF4 plasma-treated CF, were the largest all.Accordingly the low temperature plasma treatment of CF is regarded as an effective modifying method of CF for CFRC.


In this paper, a novel nonlinear excitation control scheme has been proposed based on transient energy function and backstepping design method, which can not only compensate the damping coefficient of generator directly, but also guarantee asymptotical stability of the designed control system. For a SMIB (single-machine-infinite-bus) system, from the view of adding damping and enhancing system stability, an extra damping term is introduced into the motion equation, and then the designed system can be viewed as a series of two dynamic equation sets. Based on backstepping method, a transient energy function is constructed and the corresponding nonlinear excitation control law is deduced. In this control law, only two parameters are chosen, i.e. the expected damping coefficient increment and the expected voltage feedback gain. Executable approximations of the controller are also discussed. Simulation results confirm the validity of the controller and show that it is efficient when system operating condition changes


This study aims to investigate the forming behavior prediction of AISI 1008 materials using Experimental Data and simulation. Forming behavior can be understood using thickness distribution also, by which strain localization and strain distribution in the sheet metal can be studied. In this present work, the difference in the thickness distribution for different drawing ratio i.e. D/d ratio is observed. The experiment has been done using modified limiting dome height test i.e. "LDH" for different case which includes Blank holding force and without blank holding force with different blank size. In LDH test, the mechanical properties are considered in different directions i.e. rolling direction (r0), perpendicular direction (r90) and transverse direction (r45). The strain paths are chosen from Two Different blank size from drawing to stretching condition; total points have been taken for the consideration of LDH test accordingly. Circle grid marking is done on the blank by laser marking and readings is taken in the different direction. Experimental work is compared with the software HYPERFORM for the validation of the work. Experiment's thickness Data are obtained by taking reading at each circle grid. Thickness distribution are compared for better investigation of the formability among both the cases. Keywords— LDH test, circle grid analysiss, thickness distribution, hyperform simulation.


Because much interest in spatial database for cloud computing has been attracted, studies on preserving location data privacy have been actively done. However, since the existing spatial transformation schemes are weak to a proximity attack, they cannot preserve the privacy of users who enjoy location-based services in the cloud computing. Therefore, a transformation scheme is required for providing a safe service to users. We, in this paper, propose a new transformation scheme based on a line symmetric transformation (LST). The proposed scheme performs both LST-based data distribution and error injection transformation for preventing a proximity attack effectively. Finally, we show from our performance analysis that the proposed scheme greatly reduces the success rate of the proximity attack while performing the spatial transformation in an efficient way.


Aims: The purpose of this study was to determine if DNA polymorphisms generated by RAPD‐PCR could be used to characterize Group B streptococci (GBS) for epidemiological purposes.
Methods and Results: 30 unrelated, previously serotyped strains were analysed by RAPD‐PCR using two 10‐mer primers (5' TGCGAGAGTC 3' and 5' AGAGGGCACA 3'). Both primers generated DNA electropherotype patterns which, on analysis, clustered the isolates within their respective serotypes. A blind test of a further 3 field isolates also defined these strains within their subsequently determined serotypes. The detection of DNA polymorphisms between isolates within a serotype confirmed previous reports of the heterogenous nature of individual GBS serotypes.
Conclusions: The RAPD‐PCR is a potentially useful assay for the rapid characterization of neonatal infections associated with group B streptococci. The method appears to be more discriminatory than conventional serological assays.
Significance and Impact of the Study: The RAPD‐PCR assay is faster, more convenient and easier to perform than alternative DNA analytical procedures such as Pulsfield Gel Electrophoresis. We were able to reproduce the same results following re‐testing of all isolates some 12 months later which suggests that the assay may be robust enough for use in routine epidemiological investigations.


The chemical components of palygorskite, montmorillonite, palygorskite clay, montmorillonite clay, basalt, and weathering basalt were contrasted on the base of the research of mineral components. It is concluded that there is a deep genetic relation between the forming of palygorskite clay and basalt in space and time. With the characteristics of the palygorskite clay deposit, the genetic mechanisms were put forward. They are reactions between montmorillonite which come from weathering basalt with rich Mg 2+ solution, or crystallizations from rich Mg 2+ and alkaline solution. The matter forming palygorskite clay mainly come from chemical weathering of basalt and took place large chemical differentiation in weathering of basalt. The physicochemical conditions for the forming of palygorskite clays were alkaline and reduction.


Abstract Environmental risk assessment (RA) is essential prior to the environmental release of GM crops. RA, however, costs at least 7 to 15 million US dollars and requires several years to complete field tests. Therefore, it is strongly suggested that developers of GM crops must consider all criteria for RA at the beginning stage of the development if it aims for commercialization. Previous review papers have pointed out that the "death valley" for the commercialization of GM crops is the screening stage of early GM events since many candidates are given up due to insufficient data on the molecular characterization of a GM event such as inserted gene's copy number, position of inserted site of a chromosome, flanking sequence of recombinant T-DNA, rearrangement of chromosome, and knock out of endogenous gene of host plant. Recently, Rural Development Administration (RDA) in South Korea has launched a Grand National Project named as 「Next Generation of BioGreen 21 Project」 from 2011 to 2020 and research funding for the development of global GM crops has been allocated to accelerate the commercialization of GM crops. In this regard, I strongly suggest that researchers involved in the development of GM crops for commercialization must conduct RA by them-selves at the screening stage of pre-GM event based on the data for molecular characterization.


© Cambridge University Press 2010. The neurology of human sexual responses is poorly understood, not only because it is a highly complex process involving much of the nervous system, but also because in comparison to the extent to which research has been carried out in experimental animals, humans have been relatively little studied. Whereas in animals the central and peripheral nervous system control of penile erection and copulatory behavior have been intensively examined, our knowledge about human function and the brain is based mainly on a synthesis of observations of reported abnormalities resulting from disease [1]. Now, however, functional brain imaging data have begun to complement those data. Homology between primates and rodents has been shown for many aspects of sexual responses but there remains much that is unknown about the more complex human processes, especially the neurological determinants of sexual desire. After defining the various phases of the human sexual cycle, this chapter outlines the roles of the subcortical and cortical regions, spinal connections and peripheral innervation involved in those phases, with reference to the experimental animal literature and mention of the dysfunctions that can result from neurological disease at each level. Findings from recent functional imaging experiments are discussed in the context of the role of the cortical regions in human neurological control of sexual function.


People have characteristic ways of perceiving, thinking about, and responding to the world around them that are relatively stable over time and across situations; this is referred to as their personality. A diagnosis of personality disorder is made when the personality is extreme and maladaptive and causes difficulty or distress to the person themselves or to others. People with personality disorders are often encountered in medical settings, which may be because they have self-harmed, suffered problems from drug or alcohol use, or been injured because of unwise behaviour. Personality disorders also complicate the medical management of medical conditions, for example, by non-adherence to recommended treatment. The effective short-term management of personality disorders in medical settings requires: (a) recognition of the diagnosis; (b) creation of a management plan; and (c) consistent response to the problematic behaviours adhered to by all relevant staff.


Lead frames are one of the most important component parts of discrete and IC devices, which provide electrical interconnection to the board, heat dissipation for the IC devices and mechanical support for the device and the package. With the development of IC to high density?miniaturization?low cost, the count of I/O increased, lead pitch decreased, which demand high strength?high conductivity for lead frame materials. Because of their good electrical and conductivity and cost, copper alloys for lead frames were widely used in IC packages. In this paper, the requirement, research and development are summarized with respect to copper lead frame materials.


It provides a facility to enable the coupling facility environment can be calculated from a plurality of sources to provide different operator message command for processing. These commands are used, for example to perform an action on the coupling facility, and may receive from the console coupled to the coupling facility to be coupled thereto, and logic partitioning or other systems. In response to the execution command, the command returns a response to the initiator.


This paper deals with the manner in which the popular print press, as a major mass-media industry in Spain, is succeeding nowadays in accomplishing the process of disseminating the contextual patterns of common music into the national media. This article deals mainly with press treatment of musical patterns and the socio-educative influence of the musical message upon the entire Spanish population. Thus, the social transmission of the musical knowledge that the print press covers is studied here by evaluating the existing musical content that reflects on the determined string lines, which implement the particularities of musical diffusion to the population. It is the print press that has been studied here instead of other mass-media, because it largely determines the social information received by means of Radio and Television, so becoming an instrument of more importance as compared to what seems to have been the initial impact of the other two. Although its value as mass-media is underestimated in favour of the almighty Television and Abstract — Résumé


Bromate is a disinfection by product (DBP) in drinking water that is formed during the ozonation of a source water containing bromide. Brominated haloacetic acids are DBPs that are anions at near-neutral pHs. The anion character of bromoacetic acid (pKa = 2.7) is similar to bromate, which causes the two species to coelute when NaOH is used as an eluent. Four columns are evaluated as a means of removing the potential false positives generated by bromoacetic acid. The alkyl quaternary amine based PA-100 guard column separates bromate from bromoacetic acid using 100 mM NaOH, but the analysis time is greater than 12 min. The use of 5 mM HNO3 as an eluent (with the PA-100) provides adequate separation of bromate from bromoacetic acid with an analysis time of less than 8 min. The stability of bromate in 5 mM HNO3 was evaluated using a DDI matrix (pH adjusted to 5.5, fortified with bromide) and a drinking water matrix (pH 4−9). The bromate recoveries in these two matrices were 93−105% with less than 4% RSDs. Tri...


In this paper, we propose a trajectory planning method for high-density flights in a complex environment with multiple buildings in the city. Moreover, a simulation study of four-dimensional trajectory planning for aircraft is conducted with different flight densities in an urban environment. In this paper, the Rapidly Exploring Random Tree Star (RRT $^{\ast}$ ) algorithm is improved to adapt to urban air traffic, including node expansion angle constraint, dynamic collision detection, adapting to stratified airspace, and adding virtual obstacles. The urban environment model with multiple obstacles is established, the stratified airspace and flight parameters of the vehicle are set, and simulation experiments are conducted. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms and the necessity of real-time and unified management of high-density flights in urban air traffic. The proposal of maximum aircraft density and airspace layer construction in the stratified airspace of the simulation environment is obtained. Lastly, a four-dimensional trajectory planning method for high-density flights in an urban multi-building environment is provided.


But inevitably, with only a few pages at their disposal, even the most skilled contributors tend to concentrate on outstanding individuals or companies: the Schaubiihne, in the essay on West Germany, for example, takes up ten of the thirty pages. The contributors on France, David Jeffery and Martin Sorrell, make a virtue of necessity: Sorrell devotes twelve pages to Jerome Savary alone and Jeffery concentrates on five main topics: the Avignon festival, Gabriel Cousin, Ariane Mnouchkine, Theatre Ouvert and Armand Gatti. The volume as a whole suffers from a lack of editorial focus. There are imprecisions in Yarrow's introduction and concluding essay on Great Britain: the Theatre du Soleil's brilliant 1789 was first performed in the Cartoucherie in 1971, not 1968, as stated on p. 6, and Brook inveighed against the deadly theatre, not the 'dead theatre' as stated on p. 227. The essay entitled 'Great Britain' makes passing references to the Cardiff Centre for Performance Research and to the Traverse, in Edinburgh, but otherwise deals exclusively with English theatre. Perhaps these and other errors are signs of the strain imposed on the book by trying to pack so much into so small a space. A more interesting book would have emerged if Yarrow had insisted on all his contributors adopting the cross-cultural approach claimed in the sub-title, seeking less to celebrate national achievements than to isolate examples of genuine intercultural work, as Pavis did in his book. The only contributor to address this seriously is Cairns in the essay on Italy. The book's usefulness will be largely confined to students wanting a brief introduction to a particular national theatre, before going on to more detailed studies in other books.


Abstract The essential oil obtained from dried leaves of Ferula latisecta by hydrodistillation, was analyzed by GC-MS. Twenty-eight components, representing 93.0 % of the oil, were characterized. The main components were sec-butyl-(Z)-propenyl disulfide (35.2 %), α-cadinol (10.7 %), junicedrol (10.0 %), sec-butyl-(E)-propenyl disulfide (8.8 %), epi-α-bisabolol (5.1 %), δ-cadinene (3.9 %), germacrene D-4-ol (3.6 %) and di-sec-butyl disulfide (2.1 %). The oil contained 48.0 % total polysulfides.


THE oft-repeated precept that the roentgen ray should not be applied in the presence of complications, is a doctrinal fallacy. During six years of X-ray treatment of uterine myomata I have been impressed that much good is done outside the main pathology—hence this clinical report. Prefacing this discussion, it is well to say that my technique is much the same as that of former years, namely: Nine inch spark gap (125,000 volts); Seven to twelve inch distance (18 to 30 c.m.); Five milliamperes; Five millimeters of aluminum with sole leather as filters; Five to seventeen minutes, time. The cross-fire method is employed, through as many ports of entry, three inches in diameter, as are required to cover the pathology under treatment. The above-outlined technique is not according to the trend of the times, but in my reading I find the question of dose in benign gynaecologic cases is still a debatable one and that the divided dose with the lower voltage is stoutly upheld by my peers. Is it necessary to employ the...


Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is considered as the most prevalent personality disorder in an inpatient setting. The McLean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder (MSI-BPD) was developed to identify individuals with BPD reliably, valid and economically. To examine the discriminatory ability and diagnostic efficiency of the German version of the MSI-BPD in a sample with patients who meet probable BPD and seek a disorder-related inpatient treatment program. Based on a sample (N=298) containing 178 BPD-patients (60%), the area under the curve was AUC=0.70 (CI 95%: 0.647. 84% of individuals with BPD (sensitivity) and 39% of individuals without BPD were identified correctly (specificity). Results suggest that a self-rated screening measure as the MSI-BPD should not be used in a sample with patients who meet probable BPD.


The use of mobile devices has become general, their spread is self-evident. As a Power-source either an accumulator or a battery is used. (The next, we do not differentiate between the rechargeable accumulator and battery, only referring to a battery.) In either case, if the devices do not work, do not work properly, replace them. In either case, if the electronic devices do not work, do not work properly, the batteries are charge, or we replace batteries. In this paper, we examine whether a discharged battery is really empty. If not, what can be more possible to extract from it the total energy. All of these activities as a result of power supply devices and mobile devices become more robust operation.


A method of laying pipeline from a vessel (10) is disclosed. The vessel (10) includes many pipe processing stations (36, 42), arranged across the width of the vessel. In one embodiment, there are two pipe processing areas (38, 40) separated along the length of the vessel. The pipe processing stations (36, 42) may be operable in two modes of operation, for example, a first mode of operation where the vessel produces triple joint pipe strings (from three lengths of pipe section welded together) and a second mode of operation where double joint pipe strings are produced, for example, from two single length pipe sections having a significantly greater length than the single length pipe sections used in the first mode of operation. In one embodiment, a triple joint pipe section is part welded in one pipe processing area (38), then moved along the length of the vessel (10) to a different pipe processing area, where further welding operations are performed on the triple joint. In order for the vessel to operate in two modes of operation, the storage bin facilities (12) for storing single length pipe sections are configured to be able to accommodate different lengths of single length pipe section arranged end to end in a single bin.


The present invention is crosslinked to silicone compositions which can be a elastomer, and the method of using the composition according to the invention in order to form a seal for, and assemble for sealing the powertrain components. Silicone elastomers prepared from the compositions according to the invention, those used in a fluid (e.g., powertrain such that there is a chemically aggressive, i.e. the engine oil, lubricating oil of the gearbox and the axle, a mixture of oil / petrol, even for contaminated surfaces with oils used in the power train, good adhesion properties; coolant, good resistance to aging in the fuel oil or antifreeze, etc.) as well as in good mechanical strength properties, for example, breaking strength is, elongation at break, and Shore hardness: indicates.


Quality of Life depends not only on objective factors such as income level, but also on subjective well-being. So, its adequate definition is elusive. In this study, important issues in the area of food and drug law are investigated. In Korea, lots of new statutes and ordinances have been made to protect health-related quality of life, because of high income level and aging population. As a result, health-related quality of life, a new goal of administrative law, demands complementation and change of administrative law theories. Until recently, there have been about 50 different sorts of the special judicial police in Korea. As foods and medicinal herbs from abroad increase, we become much more exposed to harmful foods and drugs. The special judicial police has been also introduced, for the purpose of powerful enforcement of food and drug law. Manufacture and trade of foods and drugs are beyond the effective control of anyone State, and they are regulated by various types of regulatory regimes. Since import of foods and drugs is increasing from foreign countries, regulatory standards and enforcement need to be made cooperatively to protect the health of Korean population. Global Administrative Law proponents insist that administrative law principles, rules, and mechanisms, particularly those relating to participation, transparency, accountability, and review, must also be applied to the trade of foods and drugs among several countries. Precautionary principle, provisional character of administrative acts, and modification possibility were researched for the purpose of the positive response of administrative law in the new regulatory environment. Special problems about making of Codex Alimentarius (Ex. Kimchi) and International Pharmacopoeia (Ex. medicinal herbs) were also analysed.


Stereoselective construction of steroidal side chain at C-20 having 'natural' configuration using 16-dehydropregnalone acetate (16-DPA) as a starting material has been carried out. Palladium-catalyzed carbon―carbon bond-forming Heck reaction between C-20 vinyl iodide with methyl acrylate and transfer hydrogenation with triethylsilane and Pd/C are the key steps for stereoselective side-chain synthesis.


We study how intra-industry product diversity affects firm performance by analyzing the implications of expanding a firm's product line within its core business. We conjecture that increases in product diversity initially undermine performance because of negative transfer effects but then improve it due to economies of scope. We further theorize that this U-shaped effect of product diversity becomes more pronounced as the firm increases the intensity of its technology investment, yet is likely to be attenuated by the firm's accumulated experience with intra-industry diversification. Data on 156 U.S.-based software firms operating from 1990 to 2001 furnish support for these conjectures. Our study advances emerging research on intra-industry diversification by underscoring some of its contingent performance effects.


Bone marrow derived human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) are a promising cell source for regenerative therapies; however, ex vivo expansion is often required to achieve clinically useful cells numbers. Recent results reveal that when MSCs are cultured in stiff microenvironments, their regenerative capacity can be altered in a manner that is dependent on time (e.g., a mechanical dosing analogous to a chemical one). It is hypothesized that epigenomic modifications are involved in storing these mechanical cues, regulating gene expression, and ultimately leading to a mechanical memory. Using hydrogels containing an allyl sulfide cross‐linker and a radical‐mediated addition‐fragmentation chain transfer process, in situ softened hMSC‐laden hydrogels at different time points are achieved and the effects of short‐term and long‐term mechanical dosing on epigenetic modifications in hMSCs are quantified. Results show that histone acetylation and chromatin organization adapt rapidly after softening and can be reversible or irreversible depending on time of exposure to stiff microenvironments. Furthermore, epigenetic modulators are differentially expressed depending on the culture history. Collectively, these experiments suggest that epigenetic remodeling can be persistent and might be a memory keeper.


ABSTRACT To develop effective vegetation strips for filtering out point source air pollutants, several characteristics of vegetation strips and concentrations of 6 air pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NOX, ozone, benzene) at five sites in Delhi were studied. Four air pollutants were within the prescribed limits; whereas the concentration of PM10 (80.27−710 μg/m3) was 3-4 times while PM2.5 (27.34−327.11 μg/m3) was 2-3 times higher than the standard limits notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India in 2009. Anand Vihar (AV) was the most polluted site whereas the Mandir Marg (MM) the least polluted. Species composition of the vegetation strips and their abundance, canopy type, and size of the leaf determined the efficacy as a filter for air pollutants. The abundance of broadleaved species such as Ficus religiosa, Alstonia scholaris and Polyalthia longifolia showed negative, statistically significant (p < 0.01) relationships with all the air pollutants analysed suggesting an abundance of broadleaved trees are effective in the filtration of air pollutants. The abundance of microphyllous trees such as Prosopis juliflora were the least effective filters. Ficus religiosa was the most effective tree species with respect to filtering air pollutants and particulate matter.


Melanoidin is a colored substance which is generally found in food system. Its formation mechanism has been mostly studied by model systems which consist of reducing sugar and amino acid. The author proposes a few methods to characterize melanoidin in food system. Electrofocusing profile of soy sauce melanoidin was found to be similar to that of the model melanoidin. Fe(‡U) chelating Sepharose 6B column chromatography of soy gave a proof of the presence of polyphenolic-type melanoidin which was adsorbed to the Fe (II) -column with strong affinity. Coffee melanoidin was adsorbed to the Cu (II) -column with stronger affinity than soy sauce melanoidin. Food melanoidins were categorized into 3 groups by microbial degradation using Coriolus versicolor. Model melanoidin, soy sauce and cane, molasses were characterized by reduction of color intensity by more than 50%; cocoa was characterized by adsorption of the melanoidin to the cell surface; coffee was almost stable against the microbial degradation.


Regular energy consumption audits help to identify intentional and unintentional waste of electrical energy. It also helps identify opportunities for energy rationing and practices for rationalization of consumption. Every reduction in energy consumption helps reduce carbon emissions and makes working environments safer and more comfortable. The rationalization of consumption also ensures the health and safety of individuals. Rationalization of consumption and waste of energy can be achieved by meeting guidelines that improve communication between property management and people working in these buildings. This study is designed to answer a number of questions about energy practices in a department of the University of Technology, the Department of Sports. Certainly some of these questions will be difficult to answer, but we tried our best to be as relevant to as many people as possible. Some questions are difficult to answer without the help of specialized bodies (for example, is there roof insulation?). Although it is difficult to answer some of the questions posed, these questions deserve to be asked to determine the imbalance through which waste and consumption of larger amounts of energy. KeywordsEnergy Conservation, Carbon Free Environment, Management.


We still find many illegal mining that is happenedin Kampar regency espectial in Tapung sub-district,most of all mining in Tapung sub-district do not have business permit based on data do not have bisiness permit most in Tapung sub-district. Department of Energy and Mineral Resources together with judicial team controlling illegal mining in Kampar sub-district, the problem in this research is how to controlling olegal mining of minerals rocks (entrenchment C) in Kampar regency and the factor which influence it. Theoretical consept that reaserches use is repressive control theory according to Manullang (2008) with indicator to set of measuring instruments (standard), assessment action and take corrective action. Whereas of factors which influence it researcher uses descriptive qualitative method, then presentation and data can be described by using interview , observation and get the conclusion. The result of research can be conclude that the contloll of illegal mining in Kampar regency especially in Tapung sub-district still not running maximumly, still have limitation in standard setting, assessment and remedial action has not run maximumly, and the factors that influence the control of illegal. Keywords: Control, illegal mining


1. The fluxes of isotopically labelled sodium, potassium and chloride passing in each direction across isolated sheets of rumen epithelium from the sheep have been measured under short‐circuit conditions.


In Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL) in Korea construction of XFEL (X-ray Free electron Lazar) institution is under construction aiming at the completion in 2014 [1] . Energy 10GeV of the linac part of this institution and main frequency are planned in S-band (2856 MHz), and about 178 S-band 3m accelerating structures are due to be used for this linac. The oscillation of an X-ray laser requires very low emittance electron beam. On the other hand, since the accelerating structure which accelerates an electron beam has a feed port of microwave (iris), the electromagnetic field asymmetry of the microwave feeding device called coupler worsens the emittance of an electron beam. MHI manufactured two kinds of S-band accelerating structures with which the electromagnetic field asymmetry of coupler cavity was compensated for PALXFEL linac. We report these accelerating structures.


Nasal obstruction due to septal deviation is one of the common ENT complaints. It can affect hearing and middle ear ventilation by altering the Eustachian Tube (ET) function. Eustachian tube is a communication between middle ear and the nasal cavity first described by Bartolommeus Eustachus in 1563. The role of ET is to ventilate the middle ear to equilibrate air pressure in middle ear. Air enters when ET opens during swallowing and equalizes the pressure between internal and external segments of tympanic membrane. ET dysfunction can occur due to obstruction of ET orifice in patients with Deviated Nasal Septum (DNS) due to nasal inflammation and increased secretion from nasal glands which accumulate and block the tube. This can lead to reduced middle ear ventilation leading to negative middle ear pressure and can impact hearing. This leads to fullness of ears, ear ache and tinnitus.


A Review of Analysing Performance: A Critical Reader, Edited by Patrick Campbell. Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, 1996, 307pp, ISBN: 0–7190–4249–6 (hardback), 0–7190–4250‐X (paperback)


In the new era, China's demand for talents is also increasing. It is of great significance for college students to do a good job in career planning for their future development. This paper discusses the career planning of college students and the training mode of innovative talents.


Objective To explore the therapeutic effects and safety of using collagen enzyme to treat prolapse of lumbar intervertebral disc.Methods Percutaneous puncture was performed 1.5~2.5 cm away from the disc between the spinal projections located according to the results of ultrasonic.Pressor test was made after the successful puncture and anesthesia were performed afterwards.When no lumbar anesthetic symptoms were found,collagen enzyme was infused into intervertebral disc or around it.Results Of the 231 cases,the rates of remarkable improvement and total effects were 92.21% and 99.57% respectively.The follow-up surveys revealed that the rates of remarkable improvement and total effects were 92.65% and 99.58% respectively.There existed no significant difference between the short-term and long-term therapeutic effects (χ 2=0.129,P0.05).Conclusion The treatment of lateral prolapse of lumbar intervertebral disc with the injection of collagen by means of ultrasonic guide and location has proved to be quite safe and to have high therapeutic effects,and therefore,deserves to be widely used.


The concept of the "learning curve" is a term that has become increasingly prevalent in medical literature. Using a unique Female Urology fellowship program running over the last 3 years, we set out to better define the learning process for mid‐urethral slings.


Exercise is one of the most common factors triggering cough, dyspnea, or breathing difficulties in otherwise healthy children. This condition is called Exercise-Induced Bronchoconstriction (EIB), a frequent phenomenon among early adolescent athletes. EIB symptoms include cough, wheeze, chest tightness, and dyspnea during or after physical activity. Physicians often underestimate the number of adolescents suffering from EIB; many athletes remain undiagnosed and untreated. In this article, we argue that the complexity of diagnosing EIB is greater for adolescent athletes than it is for adults due to a reduced capacity of adolescents to feel and understand symptoms. Furthermore, adolescents experience greater difficulty reporting any such symptoms of EIB to medical authorities. Chronic exposure to bronchospasm-inducing factors may be associated with the development of asthma. On the other hand, the beneficial effect of physical effort, especially for children with well-controlled symptoms, permits young people to perform physical exercises, even at the elite level [1].


ation of the RIM model [Wilensky 1970] for use by the President's Commission in Income Maintenance in the United States. RIM embodied a a static model used to project the effects of alternative tax and transfer policies upon families in the United States. The success of RIM in supporting the work of the Commission led to the development first of TRIM in 1971 and then of TRIM2 in 1979 to support continued exploration of tax and transfer policy alternatives focused upon the lower end of the income distribution.


Honeyberry (Lonicera caerulea) is rich in phenolic acids and flavonoids which is beneficial effect on health. The present study was aimed to investigate antioxidative effectiveness of honeyberry extracts with different solvents and temperature. The samples of honeyberry extract were prepared in four different extraction conditions, which were 25℃ water (HW25), 60℃ water (HW60), 25% ethanol (HE25), and 70% ethanol (HE70). ABTS (2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid), radical scavenging activity, reducing power and TPC (total polyphenol contents), TFC (total flavonoid contents) and TAC (total anthocyanin contents) were significantly higher in ethanol extracts than in water extracts of honeyberry. Unlike another results, DPPH (2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) was significantly higher in water extracts than in ethanol extracts of honeyberry. All of TPC (179.63 ㎎ GAE/g), TFC (213.67 RE/g) and TAC (94.01 ㎎/L) were the highest in HE25, and both ABTS radical scavenging activity (54.99%) and reducing power (0.41) were the highest in HE25. However DPPH (2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) was the highest in HW60. In conclusion, 25% ethanol extracts of honeyberry increased in radical scavenging activities (Reducing power and ABTS), TPC, TFC and TAC. Our results suggest that honeyberry 25% ethanol extracts might be exploited for functional foods and nutraceutical applications.


Vladimir P. Lubovich, well known to many generations of University of Colorado students, died of a heart attack on March 30, 1960, while on a shopping trip in Denver.


Urbanism fastens from reform and opening up.With the acceleration of urbanization of China,"Village in Town" has become a common phenomenon,and has already become the prominent city problem.This test aims at analysis on the Problem of the renovation of urban-village and offering the relative resolvent methods.


Although over 100 languages are supported by strong off-the-shelf machine translation systems, only a subset of them possess large annotated corpora for named entity recognition. Motivated by this fact, we leverage machine translation to improve annotation-projection approaches to cross-lingual named entity recognition. We propose a system that improves over prior entity-projection methods by: (a) leveraging machine translation systems twice: first for translating sentences and subsequently for translating entities; (b) matching entities based on orthographic and phonetic similarity; and (c) identifying matches based on distributional statistics derived from the dataset. Our approach improves upon current state-of-the-art methods for cross-lingual named entity recognition on 5 diverse languages by an average of 4.1 points. Further, our method achieves state-of-the-art F_1 scores for Armenian, outperforming even a monolingual model trained on Armenian source data.


The Snowden leaks and other revelations about the bulk foreign surveillance programs led to significant public concern that the United States was conducting illegal surveillance programs. Lost in the scandal over the disclosure of these secret programs is the truth that these programs were presumptively lawful, they were enacted with the approval of the very courts set up to prevent overreaching by the government. In matters of national security, courts are hampered by procedures that limit the adversarial process. The procedures that permitted the intelligence community to seek — and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to approve — these excessive programs must be altered to ensure our national security professionals that are charged with protecting our nation do not infringe on essential civil liberties. The USA FREEDOM Act was a welcome step in the right direction. Unfortunately, the changes brought by the USA FREEDOM Act are not sufficient to prevent another broad misuse of the intelligence authorities. The act established an amicus curiae, a special advocate who can appear before the secret courts and argue against proposed government intelligence programs. This type of special advocate is needed, but there is a much more essential forum for special advocates, before traditional criminal judges in courts where the government is using evidence gathered from intelligence collection programs at trial against defendants.Criminal defendants are extremely limited in their ability to challenge FISA derived evidence and judicial independence suffers from this lack of adversarial process. Defendants facing prosecution with evidence collected from FISA should have their own special advocates — a panel of cleared defense counsel — who can review FISA applications and file motions to suppress evidence on behalf of criminal defendants. Providing these defendants with equal ability to question the appropriateness of a government intelligence search or seizure will help courts remain independent and prevent the intelligence community from obtaining approval for programs that are contrary to our American values.


This paper uses Social Security records to study internal migration in Spain. This is the first paper that uses this data source, which has some advantages with respect to existing data sources: it includes only job-seeking migrants and it allows to identify temporary migration. Within the framework of an extended gravity model, we estimate a Generalized Negative Binomial regression on gross migration flows between provinces. We quantify the effect of local labor market imbalances on workers' mobility and discuss the equilibrating role of internal migration in Spain. Our main results show that the effect of employment opportunities have changed after 1984; migrants seem to be more responsive to economic conditions but, consistently with previous studies for the Spanish labor market, the migration response to wage differentials is wrongly signed. Our analysis also confirms the larger internal mobility of highly qualified workers.


Time-varying parameter identification of bridges subject to moving vehicles using ridge extraction based on empirical wavelet transform Jiantao Lia,b , Jian Guoa,* and Xinqun Zhub a Institute of Bridge Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310000, Zhejiang, China. Email: email@example.com b School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia Abstract When a vehicle moves over the bridge, the vehicle-bridge interaction(VBI) leads to the time-varying modal parameters of the system. The identification of non-stationary characteristics of bridge responses due to moving vehicle load is important and remains a challenging task. A new method based on the improved empirical wavelet transform (EWT) along with ridge detection of signals in time-frequency representation (TFR) is proposed to estimate the instantaneous frequencies (IFs). Numerical studies are conducted using a vehicle-bridge interaction model to investigate the time-varying characteristics of the system. The effects of the measurement noise, road surface roughness and structural damage, on the bridge IFs are investigated. Finally, the dynamic responses of an in-situ cable-stayed bridge subjected to a passing vehicle are analyzed to further explore the time varying characteristics of the VBI system. Numerical and experimental studies demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method on the IF estimation. The identified IFs reveal important time-varying characteristics of the bridge dynamic that is significant to evaluate the actual performance of operational bridge and may be used for the structural health assessment.


The article concerns the activity of local self-governments in the area of persuasive communication. What it aims at is determining the legitimacy and compliance of the actions taken with the applicable regulations and also at indicating the conditions that should be met by public administration advertising policy. The characteristics of promotional schemes implemented directly by municipalities and communes as well as through external broadcasters, including mass media, was presented. Furthermore, the article presents and discusses the results of empirical research on advertising techniques and tools available to local selfgovernment units, their social outreach and the amount of budgetary expenditure allocated for promotion.


A variable‐density spiral k‐space trajectory is introduced for brain functional magnetic resonance imaging. The proposed spiral trajectory consists of an Archimedean spiral from the k‐space origin to an arbitrary fraction r of the maximum k‐space radius, extending beyond this point with a variable‐density spiral in which the sampling density decreases as the k‐space radius increases. It, therefore, permits a reduction in readout time at the expense of undersampling only the high spatial frequencies, in which the energy in T2*‐weighted brain images is low. The trajectory was implemented in a two‐dimensional spiral‐in/out sequence, and single‐shot high‐resolution (1.72 × 1.72 mm2 in‐plane) functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired from human volunteers. Compared with a two‐shot fully Archimedean spiral sequence with the same spatial coverage and total scan time, the variable‐density sequence yielded greater activation magnitudes with improved temporal efficiency and minor artifacts. Magn Reson Med, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


In this paper 63cases of chest trauma emergency department X-ray analysis,ofwhich 56 cases ofblunt trauma,stabwound in7 cases,blunt trauma with multiple rib fractures and pulmonary contusion common,stabbed to hemopneumothorax as much,with Documents Discussed the pulmonary contusion and traumatic wet lung and pathogenesis of the occurrence.


The roots of Panax ginseng has been widely used in foods and the prescriptions of traditional Chinese medical care, especially in Asia. Alteration of liver microsomal cytochrome P450 activity is one of the primary factors causing herb-drug interaction. However, administration of a daily dose up to 50 mg ginsenoside Rd/kg to male C57BL/6JNarl mice for 7 consecutive days did not affect liver microsomal 7-ethoxyresorufin O-deethylation, pentoxyresorufin O-dealkylation, tolbutamide hydroxylation, nitrosodimethylamine N-demethylation, and nifedipine oxidation activities, which were marker activities of Cyp1a, Cyp2b, Cyp2c, Cyp2e1, and Cyp3a, respectively. Treatment with 50 mg/kg of ethanol extract of P. ginseng did not affect these activities either. These results indicate no evidence for the alteration of P450 activities by either ginsenoside Rd or P. ginseng extract under the treatment regimen in this study.


The GSI linear accelerator UNILAC provides heavy ion beams at Coulomb barrier energies for search and study of super heavy elements. Typical cross-sections of 55 fb require beam doses of 1.4 · 10 19 according to a beam time of 117 days. Several upgrades will reduce the beam time to only 16 days. A second injection branch with a sc 28 GHz-MSECRIS anticipates a factor of 10 in particle intensity. By a new cw RFQ-structure all accelerator tanks are suitable for a duty cycle of at least 50 % instead of 25 % presently. Due to this, thermal power increase of 19 rfamplifiers eased by higher ion charge states of the ECRIS is necessary. Finally the UNILAC timing system controlling 50 Hz pulse-to-pulse operation of up to six beams differing in ion species and energy has to be modified considering beam diagnostics electronics and pulsable magnets. The front end comprising ECRIS, RFQ- and IHstructure is cw suitable and will serve as an injector for a new future sc cw-linac.


............................................................................................................. v DEDICATION ......................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................... vii LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................... xi LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................ xii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS/SYMBOLS ............................................................ xiv Chapter -1.................................................................................................................. 1 Background & Introduction ...................................................................................... 1 1.1 Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI).......................................................................... 1 1.2 Why Testing ICs ......................................................................................................... 1 1.3 Testing ICs .................................................................................................................. 3 1.4 Challenges in testing ICs [11-13 I]: ............................................................................ 4 1.5 Categories of Testing Digital Circuits ........................................................................ 5 1.6 Three Dimensional Integration Circuits 3D (ICs) ....................................................... 5 1.7 Research Objectives .................................................................................................... 8 1.8 Thesis contributions .................................................................................................... 8 1.9 Thesis Overview ......................................................................................................... 9 1.10 References ............................................................................................................... 10 Chapter -2................................................................................................................ 11 Design for Testability ............................................................................................. 11 2.1 DFT ........................................................................................................................... 11 2.2 AD hoc ...................................................................................................................... 11 2.3 Built-in self-test (BIST): ........................................................................................... 12 2.4 Scan Based Test ........................................................................................................ 13 2.5 References ................................................................................................................. 15 Chapter -3................................................................................................................ 16 Secure Scan Chain using Test Port for Tester Authentication ................................ 16


New hybrid methods for solving the multiplayer perceptron optimization problem are proposed which use the computation capabilities of Bellman's dynamic programming (DP) method. To solve the neural network optimization problem, we consider the case of output neurons differently from that of hidden neurons. For the neurons of the output layer we apply the conventional DP and for the hidden neurons we apply a method based on gradient approach. Computer simulation shows that the new hybrid methods outperform the gradient-based optimization methods in converging speed and avoiding the local minimum.


Surface defects have been a key constraint for perovskite photovoltaics. Herein, 1,3-dimethyl-3-imidazolium hexafluorophosphate (DMIMPF 6 ) ionic liquid (IL) is adopted to passivate the perovskite surface and also reduce the energy barrier between the perovskite and hole transport layer. Theoretical simulation and experimental results demonstrate that Pb-cluster and Pb-I antisite defects can be effectively passivated by [DMIM] + bonding with the Pb 2+ on the perovskite surface, leading to significantly suppressed non-radiative recombination. As a result, the solar cell efficiency is increased to 23.25% from 21.09% for the control device, mostly due to improvement of open-circuit voltage. Furthermore, the DMIMPF 6 -treated perovskite device shows better long term environmental stability because the DMIMPF 6 layer can efficiently block moisture permeation due to its hydrophobic nature. This work provides firm support to the understanding of the passivation effect and further promotes the development of surface engineering for enhancing the performance of perovskite photovoltaics.


We havestudied theassembly ofa large heterodimeric protein, bacterial luciferase, bymixing purified subunits expressed separately inbacteria. Theindividual sub- units aand.8 contain much(66%and50%,respectively) ofthe a-helix content ofthenative heterodimer asmeasured by circular dichroism, yettheasubunit lacks observable tertiary structure asmeasured byNMR.These results areconsistent withthea subunit existing inamolten globule orcoilapsed formprior toassembly. Themolecular chaperone GroELbinds reversibly tobothsubunits prior toassembly. Since these observations wereobtained underphysiological conditions, we propose that themolten globule exists asastable formduring folding orassembly inthecell. Either themolten globule form ofthesubunits isanauthentic folding intermediate oritisin rapid equilibrium with one. GroELmayfunction byfacilitating assembly through stabilization ofthese incompletely folded subunits. Heatshockproteins hsp70andhsp60havebeentermed molecular chaperones fortheir likely role inassisting protein folding orrefolding inthecell. Thehsp60 class ofchaperones isthought tofunction atalater stage inthefolding pathway thanhsp70 onthebasis ofkinetic andbinding data(1-4), though themechanism ofaction isstill largely unknown. Bacterial hsp60 (GroEL) withitscofactor GroESandATP canincrease recovery yields ofproteins refolding invitro by suppressing aggregation. Thelist ofproteins assisted inthis fashion includes themonomeric protein rhodanese (5-7) and thehomodimeric proteins ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carbox-


*Corresponding author: Ebru Tarıkçı Kılıç, Department of Anesthesiology, Ümraniye Research Hospital, Health Sciences University, Turkey; E-mail: email@example.com Abstract Proteus syndrome (PS) a complex disorder is rare with multisystem involvement. An extremely rare condition characterized by macrodactyly, vertebral abnormalities, asymmetric limb overgrowth and length discrepancy, hyperostosis, abnormal and asymmetric fat distribution, asymmetric muscle development, connective tissue nevi, and vascular malformations. It is progressive. Asymmetrical limb overgrowth is mostly seen and pathognomic. Patients have an unusual body habitus. The diagnosis may be delayed until late infancy because cutaneous lesions tend to appear over time, childhood, or even adulthood. We report a 16 years old boy who admitted to Intensive Care Unit (ICU) due to the arteriovenous malformation.


How the news media report who's responsible for political decisions is fundamental to an informed citizenry. Our study develops a new way of examining political responsibility coverage by drawing on the concept of informational opportunities in order to explore how television news could enhance audience understanding. We examine how television news reported who was responsible for making policies across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland during the coronavirus pandemic. Drawing on a content analysis study of five UK television news bulletins (N = 181), we found that reporting did not regularly attribute political responsibility to all four governments of the UK at the start of the pandemic. Once the nations began to adopt different lockdown measures the clarity of reporting legislative decisions improved, but there were still missed opportunities to clarify which government was responsible for specific policies. By way of conclusion, we argue that scholars examining how the media report political responsibility need to find creative ways of theorising and empirically studying informational opportunities in order to enhance public understanding.


sexological thinking. And she too is keen to resist the elision of empire, in part to illustrate that heteronormality is the effect of imperial formations, in part to re-orient the direction of current academic practices. Here she is unequivocal: "I argue that the ongoing dominance of the category of sexuality in mainstream queer approaches, to the neglect of race and empire, is an inheritance of this deliberate separation of sexuality from the racial-imperial conditions of its production" (92). If Patil's (anti)imperial sociology of sex and gender is aimed at challenging the presumptive whiteness of contemporary critical methodologies, it is also intended as a thoroughgoing critique of the northern hemispheric presumptions of those practices. From the start of the book, she takes up the centrality of global south perspectives to any truly disruptive approach – which raises interesting questions about the role of a vertical-axis view in the context of a horizontal, "webbed connectivities" study. The two are not mutually exclusive, of course, but the book doesn't address the interesting collisions and convergences that result from acknowledging both the significance of cross-hatched spaces and the enduring machinery of north-south grids and metropole-colony configurations. That said, she saves her real firepower for the last chapter, "The Reordering of Empire and the American Invention of Gender," which brings us effectively back to Lugones' coloniality-of-gender paradigm. Here Patil offers a bracing account of how crucial US settler colonial contexts are for understanding how sociological thinkers and the discipline as a whole took up gender, and how gender, with its implicit bias toward anglophone usages and meanings, became enshrined in – and as – a global, universal category. The implication is that gender, as a category of analysis, is itself a carrier of the coloniality of power. This is also not a new claim, though some of the most celebrated gender theorists in the west (Joan Scott, Judith Butler) have recognized it belatedly in terms of their own scholarly production. That is to say, they proceeded for decades to deploy their conceptual frameworks without taking the imperial sociology Patil has materialized into consideration. Given the global impact of their work, Patil is right to call out this hemispheric bias and to make visible the continuous influence of such thinking from the pre-Enlightenment period down to the present, and to remind us what the dangers are of disappearing empire and its highly racial and racializing histories in our practices. While it is sobering to acknowledge such reminders are needed, this book makes clear what the stakes are if we do not continue to foreground the ideological and material work of imperialism, past and present.


A method (200) for use with a media player includes playing an item of content for a user on the media player (202), wherein the media player includes one or more sensors configured to allow the user to interact with the media player, receiving information from at least one of the one or more sensors during the playing of at least a portion of the item of content (204), analyzing the received information (206), and forming at least an indication of the user's level of attention to the portion of the item of content based on the analysis of the received information (208). A storage medium storing a computer program executable by a processor based system (500) causes the processor based system to execute similar steps. A system for use in playing media includes a media player portion and a processing portion.


For copyright protection, a memory device stores a reference information to determine whether the digital signal including the electronic watermark information is compressed. The amount of electronic watermark information extraction means extracts from the digital signal to be protected. Means for detecting the amount extracted is compared with a reference level to determine whether the signal has been compressed, if not compressed, the signal is allowed to copy; if compressed signal is prohibited from being duplicated.


Since the first descriptions of schizophrenia, language disturbances have been referred to as formal thought disorder (Boer et. al, 2020). Within this context in this study we analyzed sentential negation in the speech of the patients with schizophrenia to find out whether psychopathology and thought disorders of the patients affect the language use. 50 patients with schizophrenia and 50 healthy subjects were included into the study. The results showed negative and affirmative sentences used by the patients were significantly different from the control group. We hypothesized that psychopathology of the patients with schizophrenia plays a central role in language use. At the end of the study patients were concluded to reflect their negative thoughts in thier speech and use more negative sentences.


1. A method of cladding the base material with a multilayer decorative film during thermoforming, preferably a vacuum forming process, characterized in that said process comprises the steps of (i) providing a decorative multilayer film comprising a hard coating layer (A), adhesive layer (D) , a layer of carrier film and optionally a decorative layer between these layers (a) and (D), wherein the adhesive layer (D) comprises at least one latent reactive adhesive, (ii) applying an adhesive layer (D) of said decorative film on the surface st basic substance, (iii) welding said base material with said decorative film by heating at 70 ° C or bolshe.2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the base material is a three dimensional podlozhku.3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the heating at 70 ° C or more in step (iii) is carried out within from 5 seconds to 5 minutes, preferably from 5 to 120 seconds, more preferably from 10 to 90 sekund.4 . A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the multilayer film comprises a hard coat layer (A), the carrier film layer (B), optionally a decorative layer (C) and adhesive layer (D) .5. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the method is a vacuum forming process, requiring no holes for air and vacuum holes within the structure of the mold by vacuum formovanii.6. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the process is a vacuum forming process, following the further processing using compressed vozduha.7. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the adhesive layer (D) of decorative multi-layer film comprises a


The third, fourth and fifth virial coefficients of hard hypersphere binary mixtures with dimensionality d = 4, 5 have been calculated for size ratios R ≥ 0.1, R = ≡ σ22/σ11, where σ ii is the diameter of component i. The composition independent partial virial coefficients have been evaluated by Monte Carlo integration of the corresponding Mayer modified star diagrams. The results are compared with the predictions of Santos, S., Yuste, S. B., and Lopez de Haro, M., 1999, Molec. Phys., 96, 1 of the equation of state of a multicomponent mixture of hard hyperspheres, and the good agreement gives strong support to the validity of that recipe.


Introduction: Children's anxiety toward dental care in the clinic creates significant problems for the patient and the dental professionals. One of the techniques to overcome the anxiety of the patient is by using video game distraction. This study purpose to determined the effectiveness of video game distraction on reducing the level of anxiety in children between 7-10 years during infiltration anesthesia. Method: A pre-test post-test quasi-experimental study was conducted involving 32 purposive sampling subjects; divided into two groups (16 with video game distraction and 16 as a control). Facial Image Scale (FIS) was used to assess anxiety. Result: Independent t-test showed that there were significant differences between the two groups (p<0,05) with a decrease in the level of anxiety in the group with video game distraction by 47,40% while there was an increase of 72,40% in the control group. Conclusion: Video game distraction could be effective in reducing anxiety in children aged 7-10 years under infiltration anesthesia with a reduction rate of 47,40%.


The effects of different foods on growth of snail Radix swinhoei were examined at experimental station from July to August in 2006. The results showed that, for survival rates, snail consumed Vallisneria spiralis at the lowest rate, periphyton and Hydrilla verticillata at lower rate and compound foods at the highest rate. The specific growth rates of snail grazing two submersed plants were significant lower than that of grazing periphyton and compound foods. At the same time, snail size also affected its growth. The snail shell length increased slowly, only 0.01mm/d for V. spiralis and 0.02mm/d for H. verticillata, and increased significantly (0.05mm/d) for both periphyton and compound foods. The results suggestted that snail gazing submersed plants may very well be due to little abundance of periphyton in our experiment.


This paper presents a new contrast enhancement algorithm based on fuzzy logic. The fuzzy contrast distribution (FCD) is introduced in this work. The algorithm computes FCD of the input image using fuzzy membership function and fuzzy rules. An adaptive parameter gamma is defined using FCD. The algorithm uses gamma correction with adaptive gamma to obtain the contrast-enhanced images. The performance of the proposed algorithm is compared with conventional as well as state-of-art contrast enhancement algorithms. The assessment of the experimental results is performed quantitatively and visually. The assessment of results shows that the proposed algorithm outperforms most of the existing contrast enhancement algorithms. The proposed algorithm yields good contrast, natural-looking images.


The article is devoted to the issue of higher education monitoring which is quite relevant nowadays. The results of external and internal monitoring in the quality of higher education at HSEEU "Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy" in 2015 calendar year have been analyzed. It has been demonstrated that internal monitoring in the form of self-analysis and self-evaluation is the demand of time and objective requirement of innovation development. It has been concluded that internal monitoring enables to track the dynamics of processual and resultative aspects of education quality, promotes the enhancement of management quality, increases the responsibility of all subjects (students, academic staff, administrative authorities, assisting personnel), preconditions the introduction of necessary corrections into the learning and teaching processes, and serves as a strong impulse for the development of culture of university autonomy.


This paper is inspired by the work of Nancy and Richard Ruggles promoting national economic accounting in academic and non-academic areas. They were concerned with both compilation and use of national accounts as well as developmental issues. Now that the subject has matured with the 1993 SNA standards, the compilation, development and understanding of the accounts require special training and experience, but national economic accounting has become a multidisciplinary matter that cannot easily fit into one academic department. Hence we advocate a Certified Economic Accountant (CEA) degree or diploma program to gain enhanced recognition and greater understanding for national economic accountants and their work. The paper includes an annotated list of 50 references, covering the period 1942-2002, that might form a syllabus, and a section outlining the mechanics and problems of organizing such a program. Copyright 2004 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.


In her recent article, "Credit Where Credit is Due: The History of the Chumash Oceangoing Plank Canoes," Jeanne Arnold questions our 2005 paper in which we suggested that a prehistoric contact event with Polynesians resulted in conveyance of the sewn-plank boat construction technique and a particular style of compound bone fishhook to the Chumash and Gabrielino of southern California. We agree with many of Arnold's views about the cascading effects of sewn-plank boat construction on Native societies of southern California, but question her dismissal of certain aspects of the empirical record, particularly the linguistics, in portraying this invention as strictly autochthonous. Here we recast aspects of the linguistic evidence that Arnold overlooks, provide evidence from oral history which she says is lacking, and discuss chronological issues that are much less straightforward than she suggests. We also mention implications of recent findings from South America. Finally, we submit that we have not discredited the Chumash or any other Native society in developing this hypothesis.