The uppermost mantle P wave velocities beneath Turkey and Iran were estimated by applying the conventional travel time-distance relation method to arrival times of well located earthquakes recorded at a few stations. The average uppermost mantle P wave velocity under Turkey is estimated from two stations of the World Wide Standardized Seismograph Network (WWSSN), Istanbul and Tabriz. The data are consistent with a crust of uniform, but poorly determined, thickness and an uppermost mantle P wave velocity of 7.73 ± 0.08 km/s. This velocity is very similar to that for the Aegean Sea and suggests that its structure could be closely related to that beneath Turkey. For Iran, the results calculated from travel times to three WWSSN stations, Meshed, Shiraz and Tabriz, can be explained by a crust dipping toward the south-southeast at about 1° with an uppermost mantle P wave velocity of 8.0 ± 0.1 km/s. If the crustal thickness were 34 km in the north it would reach about 49 km in the south. Based on these uppermost mantle velocities, the temperature at Moho beneath Turkey is probably close to the melting temperature of peridotite but that beneath Iran is probably lower.


ABSTRACT The latest oil spills which have occurred in recent years have shown an increasing demand for detailed assessments of the chemical contamination induced in the water column. Even at low concentrations, hydrocarbons are known to generate impacts, and sanitary questions can be raised. Moreover, non-contaminated and contaminated areas must be distinguished; hence the necessity for developing tools sensitive enough to obtain reliable information on baseline levels. In this context, Cedre has developed different analytical methods which can be partially performed on-site, and which can provide results within a few days, even in the case of pollution far from the laboratory. On the one hand, the SBSE (Stir Bar Sorptive Extraction) technique, performed on-site and coupled with subsequent GC/MS analysis in the laboratory, can be used to quantify PAHs at low levels, around nanogram per liter (ng/L). This paper discusses the possibility of adapting this technique to develop a more operational tool. The lab...


Bruxism is considered to be an unusual repetitive movement syndrome, which is described as involuntary gnashing of teeth. The condition is classified as sleep bruxism (SB) and awake bruxism (AB). The objective of the study was to review the current literature on bruxism and its potential relation to stress and movement disorders. Factors causing bruxism are numerous. It has been found that people suffering from stress are more prone to the condition than healthy subjects. Awake bruxism is frequently observed in subjects with hyperkinetic movement disorders and it can be associated with anxiety, which involves the limbic part of the basal ganglia. However, further studies should be conducted to interpret the link more thoroughly.


. Let D be a Dedekind domain. Roughly speaking, a simultaneous p -ordering is a sequence of elements from D which is equidistributed modulo every power of every prime ideal in D as well as possible. Bhargava in [4] asked which subsets of the Dedekind domains admit simultaneous p -orderings. We give an overview on the progress in this problem. We also explain how it relates to the theory of integer valued polynomials and list some open problems. 11N25,11K38,13F20,11D57.


Accessible online at: www.karger.com/hed In this issue of Heart Drug, Piepoli et al. review data concerning the role of atrial-synchronized biventricular pacing, or cardiac resynchronization therapy, for the treatment of heart failure and pose the question: 'Is it here to stay?' As they point out, results from mechanistic studies of cardiac resynchronization have demonstrated improved cardiac function and enhanced hemodynamics determined either echocardiographically or by invasive techniques. In addition, observational clinical studies have shown improvements in quality of life, functional status, and exercise capacity in heart failure patients treated with resynchronization therapy. Of course, such data alone cannot support the broad application of such a therapy in clinical practice. Thus, a series of randomized controlled trials of resynchronization therapy including more than 4,000 patients have been completed, and the weight of evidence supporting the routine use of cardiac resynchronization for patients with moderate-to-severe chronic systolic heart failure and ventricular dysynchrony is now overwhelming. Results from these trials have consistently demonstrated significant improvements in quality of life, functional status, and exercise capacity in NYHA class III and IV heart failure patients assigned to active resynchronization therapy [1–4]. In these patients, cardiac resynchronization has also been shown to improve cardiac structure and function, while significantly reducing the risk of worsening heart failure [1, 2]. In 2001, the first resynchronization device became commercially available in the United States. The next year, two devices which combine biventricular pacing capability with implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) were approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration. Recently updated ACC/ AHA/NASPE Pacemaker and ICD Guidelines included cardiac resynchronization therapy as a Class IIA recommendation for pacing [5]. Since that time, preliminary results from another large-scale trial have suggested a significant reduction in the combined endpoint of all-cause mortality and all-cause hospitalization with cardiac resynchronization therapy in an advanced heart failure population [6]. Thus, cardiac resynchronization therapy not only makes heart failure patients feel better, it also helps them to live longer. Given these favorable effects on subjective as well as objective outcomes in heart failure patients, cardiac resynchronization therapy is here to stay.


The charge-transfer cross section between a gadolinium atom and its positive ion has been measured with a crossed-beam apparatus that features primary ion production by photoionization with a tunable dye laser. The initial states of the Gd ions were controlled to be in the ground state by tuning the photon energy to be close to the ionization potential energy. The Gd ions in the ground states were collided with the Gd atoms in the ground and some excited states. The cross sections as a function of impact energy (30{endash}1000 eV) were successfully obtained. The cross section at 1000 eV was 3.3{times}10{sup {minus}14} cm{sup 2}. The obtained cross sections were larger than those of other elements obtained experimentally in the past. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}


College students are the pillars of the country's future construction, shouldering the historical mission of building the motherland and rejuvenating the nation, forming a good habit of scientific exercise during school, and laying a good physical condition for social work in the future. When their life is more closely related to sports, they will have higher and more specific requirements for the use of sports. In college students' sports cognition, the main influencing factors are to improve athletes' competitive level. The most direct and effective way is to strengthen training. China's DM technology is the concentrated expression of multidisciplinary knowledge, and the scope of technology is also relatively wide. At this stage, China's DM technology adopts many extremely intuitive expressions to convey the beauty of technology. For example, the tree structure is a special expression of DM technology. This article studies the influencing factors of college students' sports cognition based on data mining (DM) technology. What is more related to China's DM technology is the unique regularization of the influencing factors of college students' sports cognition. To a large extent, this trend is the data standard of China's sports industry. It can be seen that China's DM industry also has the characteristics of diversification. According to the characteristics of China's DM technology, the current advanced expenses are enough to supplement the related technical weaknesses, and further technical strengthening can be carried out on this basis so that China's DM technology will gradually develop towards specialization.


e13039 Background: Immunotherapies targeting the programmed cell death (PD1) / programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) axis are promising new agents for the treatment of cancer including glioma. We ...


The exact solution for steady‐state motion of an undamped harmonic oscillator in a state of resonance equiped with a two‐particle single‐container impact damper is derived analytically. The response of this damper is compared to that of a single‐particle impact damper.


The newspapers increased the circulation, intensified the dependency on the advertisement, and get aware of that the newspapers were the media for advertisement. This trend made the newspapers composition centered on the advertising. Sometimes they intended to let the advertisement merge into the article. The advertising agencies were growing rapidly since later l920s, and there are many ones in the management of these advertising companies to hold posts concurrently in the newspapers, or who were originally in the newspaper world, it was related to that the newspapers still were the major media for the advertisement to these advertising agencies after 1920s, when the new media such as cinema and radio were emerging. As the newspapers` dependency on the advertising income was, intensified, there were also changes of power relationships within the newspaper companies. The relationship to the advertising agencies and the client of advertising were important for the newspaper, as well as the one to the political power, and such trends were criticized as the media control by the commercial capital. On the other hand, the advertisement also was often criticized in the viewpoint of sexual, or nationalistic norm those days. The advertisement developed amid the tensions between the norm, and the profit pursuit, which were frequently two sides of the same coin.


The premise of the Book of Daniel is that Daniel was trained in the language and literature of the Babylonians (1:4) with the intention that he join the ranks of the wise men of the court. It has long been recognized, however, that the basic outline of the chapter follows the course of the chaos combat myths whose varying exemplars are widely attested in the literature of the Ancient Near East. Instead we have seen evidence that the author of Daniel was familiar with and used a number of the exemplars in putting this chapter together. R. Bauckham in his masterful studies on the Book of Revelation notes that John often uses common apocalyptic traditions in highly creative ways and develops the conventions of the literary genre for his own purposes and by means of his own literary genius. Keywords: anzu myth; Babylonians; Book of Revelation; Daniel


Introducing CMC into the Media Mix Developing CMC Competence Staged Development Creating the On-Screen Environment - Ideal Numbers and timing of moderator interventions - Creating Effective On-screen Environments Conclusions References Abstract This paper is about how we attempted to overcome barriers to the use of Computer Mediated Conferencing (CMC) for effective learning in Open University Business School (OUBS) courses and the implications for successful implementation. We begin with a brief overview of potential barriers and the ways in which we attempted to overcome them. We then expand on this in the remainder of the paper. This practitioner perspective is based on an action research study in the OUBS, involving 300 part time management tutors using CMC based on FirstClass TM software as part of their multi-media distance learning courses (Salmon & Giles 1999). The results reported in this paper are intended to be a guide to help practitioners to make the most of the pedagogic opportunities provided by CMC.


This paper explores the usefulness of marshalling feminist poststructuralist frameworks to think about mathematics teacher education. After describing some of the fundamental aspects of feminist poststructuralism, I use this framework to interrogate a specific vignette from mathematics teacher education — the case of Casey. My analysis of this case demonstrates the centrality of notions of identities to the feminist poststructuralist project, and the utility of what such an analysis now renders visible.


This study advances the main hypothesis that the socio-economic status influences individual decision to participate actively in social and political life and choice of participatory act to be done. One of the secondary hypotheses to be tested during the author's approach is: the choice of forms of participation conventional, protest or unconventional vary by individual socioeconomic status; No. pg. 121


The invention discloses a control method and device of an air conditioning system. The control method comprises the following steps: obtaining power reference value of the air conditioning system, wherein the power reference value is the power of the air conditioning system at the maximum energy efficiency ratio corresponding to fixed refrigerating capacity or fixed heating capacity; obtaining the power measurement value of the air conditioning system; and regulating the operation frequency of a compressor of the air conditioning system according to the power reference value and the power measurement value. The control method and device solve the problems of the prior art that the host and terminal independent control energy efficiency ratio of air conditioners is low and energy consumption is high; the operation frequency of the compressor is regulated according to the difference between the actual power measurement value and the power reference value of the air conditioning system (also by follow up control of the best energy efficiency ratio); and the control method can achieve communication between the host and the terminal of the air conditioning system, high efficiently controls the air conditioning system, and saves the energy.


ABSTRACT The Rensselaer Graywacke near Troy, New York, has been investigated and described by numerous geologists. Previous investigations were concerned primarily with structural and stratigraphic relations, fossils, and qualitative descriptive petrology. Prior to the present investigation, thoughts on source-area direction and mode of emplacement of the Rensselaer were suggested from nonsystematically sampled and qualitatively described rock specimens. The objectives of the present investigation were directed toward detecting any discernible trends in petrographic and geochemical variables; therefore a sampling design in which sampling sites were equally spaced from (in other words, orthogonal to) one another was constructed to obtain optimum geographic control. In addition to eight sampling sites and analyses of 33 samples from a preliminary investigation, 58 localities were visited and 119 samples collected. The following 38 variables were investigated: the proportion of the basic compositional variables (grains, rock fragments, matrix, and cement); the proportion of the types of grains (quartz, K-feldspar, plagioclase, epidote, sphene, opaques, and others); "a" and "b" axes of quartz grains; sorting of "a" and "b" axes; grain sha e; perfection of grain orientation; bulk density; percent concentration of SiO2, Al2O3, total iron, MgO, MnO, CaO, SrO, BaO, TiO2, Na2O, and K2O and the concentration in parts per million of Ni, V, Cu, Be, Y, Zr, La, Sc, and Cr. Concepts and hypotheses based on previous investigations were used to construct models of the distribution of variability in specific variates and these were tested against the patterns derived from the observations collected in the present investigation. If areas containing coarsest grain size may be taken to indicate direction of source area, data of the present investigation suggests the Rensselaer Graywacke received material from four different directions; north, south, southwest, and west. Trend-surface maps indicate that unusual grain elongation (b/a ratios < 0.61) is confined to eastern and northern margins of the Rensselaer and is of regional magnitude; possibly reflecting a shear zone of regional extent. Sixth-order trend surfaces for Na2O, K2O, Cu, MgO, and MnO are very similar in that they each indicate north-northeast axial trends. It is believed that the distribution pattern for the above elements reflects internal structure of the Rensselaer, and therefore, structure of the Graywacke appears to conform with the general structure of the Taconics.


This report is the third in a series of analyses written in support of a plan to revise the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) Preliminary Criticality Safety Evaluation Report (CSER) that is being implemented at the request of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Criticality Safety Group. A report on the chemical disposition of plutonium in Hanford tank wastes was prepared as Phase 1 of this plan (Delegard and Jones 2015). Phase 2 is the provision of a chemistry report to describe the potential impacts on criticality safety of waste processing operations within the WTP (Freer 2014). In accordance with the request from the Environmental and Nuclear Safety Department of the WTP (Miles and Losey 2012), the Phase 2 report assessed the potential for WTP process conditions within and outside the range of normal control parameters to change the ratio of fissile material to neutron-absorbing material in the waste as it is processed with an eye towards potential implications for criticality safety. The Phase 2 study also considered the implications should WTP processes take place within the credible range of chemistry upset conditions. In the present Phase 3 report, the 28 phenomena described in the Phase 2 reportmore » were considered with respect to the disposition of plutonium and various absorber elements. The phenomena identified in the Phase 2 report are evaluated in light of the Phase 1 report and other resources to determine the impacts these phenomena might have to alter the plutonium/absorber dispositions and ratios. The outcomes of the Phase 3 evaluations then can be used to inform subsequent engineering decisions and provide reasonable paths forward to mitigate or overcome real or potential criticality concern in plant operations.« less


One of the characteristics of an effective safety program is the recognition and control of hazards before mishaps or failures occur. Conducting potentially hazardous tests necessitates a thorough hazard analysis in order to protect our personnel from injury and our equipment from damage. The purpose of this hazard analysis is to define and address the potential hazards and controls associated with the Z1 Suit Port Test in Chamber B located in building 32, and to provide the applicable team of personnel with the documented results. It is imperative that each member of the team be familiar with the hazards and controls associated with his/her particular tasks, assignments, and activities while interfacing with facility test systems, equipment, and hardware. The goal of this hazard analysis is to identify all hazards that have the potential to harm personnel and/or damage facility equipment, flight hardware, property, or harm the environment. This analysis may also assess the significance and risk, when applicable, of lost test objectives when substantial monetary value is involved. The hazards, causes, controls, verifications, and risk assessment codes have been documented on the hazard analysis work sheets in appendix A of this document. The preparation and development of this report is in accordance with JPR 1700.1, JSC Safety and Health Handbook.


Speech Synthesis System is a system used to convert text in a language into a sound. The focus of this research is to produce a "humanization" of speech synthesis system pronunciation. The main requirement for Text To Speech system in this research are eSpeak, MBROLA idl database for Indonesia, Human Speech Corpus database which derived from the website that summarizes the words with the most common words used in a country, and three basic types of emotion or intonation that are designed for happy emotions, angry emotions, and sad emotions. The approach method used to develop an emotional filter is to manipulate prosody values (especially pitch and duration values) using predetermined level factors. The test results of Human Speech Corpus perception test for happy emotions are 95%, angry emotion is 96.25% and emotion sad is 98.75%. For the aspect of the clarity test, the audible sound accuracy with the original sentence is 93.3%, and for the clarity level each sentence is 62.8%. For the naturalness aspect to test the accuracy of emotional selection is 75.6% with every happy emotion is 90%, angry emotion is 73.3% and sad emotions of 60%.


Polyurethane Modified Asphalt Mixture (PUAM) has been confirmed to possess good engineering properties and is a potential replacement material for pavement construction. This study aimed to provide guidance for the promotion and application of PUAM in pavement engineering by exploring the construction technology and verifying the practicality. Dry-mix PUAM (DPAM), wet-mix PUAM (WPAM), and SBS-modified asphalt mixture (SBSAM) were prepared. After systematically investigating the construction process of the three mixtures, their pavement performance was comparatively evaluated. Subsequently, the DPAM was utilized to construct the trial pavement, and the completed pavement was tested and evaluated. Furthermore, the costs of the DPAM and SBSAM were analyzed. The results reveal that the construction technology had a significant effect on the mechanical properties of the mixtures. Compared with SBSAM, the optimum mixing temperature and time of the DPAM and WPAM were reduced. The mixing temperature, mixing time, and hitting number were recommended to be 160 °C, 60 s, and 75 times for the DPAM. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy tests confirmed that the PU reacted sufficiently in the binder. The DPAM exhibited good overall pavement performance, and its low-temperature cracking and fatigue resistance were significantly better than that of SBSAM. Meanwhile, all the pavement indexes constructed with DPAM met specifications, and the performance and service condition of the test road after the operation will be paid attention to continuously. Additionally, the cost of DPAM was close to that of SBSAM, and the more straightforward construction process and better pavement performance of DPAM could reduce the construction energy consumption and maintenance frequency, which was meaningful for promoting the scale application of DPAM and the sustainable development of transportation infrastructure.


Until 2021, the strongest guidelines on surgical correction of severe aortic regurgitation (AR) focused on the left ventricular systolic function (LVEF) and the presence of symptoms. However, those situations lead to an outcome penalty, even after surgical correction. Left ventricle end-systolic diameter (LVESD) gained in strength in 2021 European guidelines. Moreover, more inclusive cut-off values are now recommended (class IIb) in patients at low surgical risk, reflecting the will to recommend surgery before developing heart failure and its consequences on post-operative outcome.

 We sought to evaluate the impact of guidelines triggers and their recent changes on postoperative survival of patients with severe AR from a large multicentric international registry.

 Postoperative overall survival of 1899 patients operated for severe and chronic AR (mean age 49±15 years, 85% male) in the international multicenter surgery registry for aortic valve surgery, AVIATOR, was evaluated over a median of 37 months. Twelve patients (0.6%) died postoperatively, and 68 within 10 years. By multivariable Cox analysis, presence of heart failure symptoms (HR 2.60; 95% CI [1.20–5.66]; p=0; 016), and either LVESD >50 mm or >25 mm/m2 (HR 1.64; 95% CI [1.05–2.55]; p=0.029) predicted survival independently over and above age (HR 2.25 per SD, 95% CI [1.67–3.03], p<0.001), female gender and bicuspid phenotype. Therefore, patients operated on when meeting either old or new 2021 class I triggers had worse adjusted survival (respectively 86±2% and 87±2%) than patients operated on without meeting triggers (97±2%, p<0.01). However asymptomatic patients operated on while meeting new 2021 ESC class IIb triggers (ie LVESD >20 mm/m2 or LVEF between 50–55%, 10-year survival 97±3%). Moreover, the sub-group of patients having a dilated LVESD >50 mm or >25 mm/m2 but a preserved LVEF >50% had excellent survival (10-year survival 95±3%).

 In severe AR, patients operated on when meeting any class I trigger have postoperative survival penalty. Asymptomatic patients operated on earlier have better survival. This supports early surgery in AR as encouraged by the recent ESC/EACTS guidelines.

 Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – National budget only. Main funding source(s): Fondation Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique of the Belgian Government


In this paper Capacitively-Loaded Loop (CLL) metamaterial structures are applied to a Bi-Yagi antenna in order to improve its overall performance. Preliminary results show that the new antenna can be designed with an improvement of 13.48 dB on the reflection parameter, 0.37 dB on the gain, followed by a reduction of 11% on its area, when compared to the conventional Bi-Yagi antenna found in the literature.


The accurate representation of terrestrial CO2 uptake (GPP) using Monteith's approach requires the knowledge of APAR (absorbed photosynthetically active radiation) and e (light use efficiency). APAR plays a major role in GPP and explains a high percentage of GPP variance. It can be obtained using both remote sensing and meteorological data as the product of PAR and fAPAR. The characterization of e and its temporal variability is more problematic. It can be modeled as the product of a emax describing photosynthetic activity under optimal conditions and a series of external factors, which depend on meteorological conditions (temperature, precipitation, illumination, …) and can be associated to temperature and water stresses, and to the proportion of diffuse radiation into the global downwelling radiation. The influence of these external factors on GPP is analyzed and quantified in this work. Daily GPP images, at 1-km spatial resolution, derived from a previously validated procedure using SEVIRI-MSG and MODIS images, as well as flux data from eddy covariance towers have been used. Results show the impact of the water stress and the diffuse radiation in the GPP estimates.


A process is provided for the manufacture of salts of poly-alpha-hydroxyacrylic acids, which salts contain monomeric units of the formula R1OH ¦¦ --C-C--- ¦¦ R2COOM wherein R1 and R2 independently represent hydrogen or an alkyl group containing 1 to 3 carbon atoms and wherein M represents a cationic radical resulting from the dissociation of a base. A solid polylactone derived from the corresponding poly-alpha-hydroxyacrylic acid is reacted with the base in the presence of water and the reaction is carried out in a liquid medium containing a diluent so that the polyacetone and the salt produced do not dissolve in the medium.


【Objectives】 To provide basis for evaluating curative effect of Granule taken from lead and the role of it in the protection against injuries to nervous system,with ability of learning and memory and the changes of NOS activity in different brain regions. 【Methods】 60 Wister rats(80~100 g) were divided into 6 groups(n=10 each) randomly.After models of rats exposed to low level lead were established,one group of rats were treated with CaNa2EDTA 10 mg/(kg ·d) for 30 days Three groups were lavaged with high,medium,low dose of Granule taken from lead 5,10,20 g/(kg·d).The last two groups were lavaged with equal distilled.Effects of Granule taken from lead on ability of learning and memory were observed with Y maze and that on nervous biochemistry were evaluated with NOS activity in different brain regions. 【Results】 ①Y maze test indicated that the ability of learning and memory in brains of rats exposed to low level lead was significantly lower than that of normal rats(P0.01).The retain percent of learning and memory of the three groups treated by Granule taken from lead was obviously increased,which was higher than that of positive control group and EDTA group.②NOS activity in cerebral cortical and cerebellums was obviously decreased and that in hippocampus had tendency of descent in brains of rats exposed to low level lead.NOS activity in different brain regions of rats treated by Granule taken from lead was increased in different degree. 【Conclusion】 It indicated that Granule taken from lead can amend the impairment of learning and memory in rats exposed to low level lead.


....................................................................................................................... 6 LIST OF ORIGINAL PUBLICATIONS ........................................................................... 8 ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................. 9 DEFINITIONS IN BIOMATERIALS ............................................................................... 10 TECHNICAL DEFINITIONS .......................................................................................... 11


Abstracts (200-250 words)

Introduction: Infants routinely undergo painful procedures; such as immunization injection and heel lancing. Therefore, recognition and application of pain control strategies by health care workers is necessary. Kangaroo care and breast-feeding as means of mother infant interaction are beneficial.

Objectives & (hypothesis OR questions): The objective of this study was to assess the effect of teaching kangaroo care and breastfeeding to infants' mother on immunization injection pain.

Materials & Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, 180 infants undergoing DPT vaccination divided into three groups, randomly. In breastfeeding group, two minutes before injection, during, and one minute after the injection breast-fed. And in kangaroo care (KC) group, mothers were educated to care infants in Kangaroo method for ten minutes before the injection, during the injection and one minute after the injection. Symptoms assessed by NIPS scale and cry time and latency of cry.

Results: The mean severity of pain in breastfeeding, kangaroo care and control groups were 3/5±1/55, 4/38±1/37, 5/43±0/96, respectively; which were significantly different (p<0/001). The mean cry time for breastfeeding, kangaroo care and control groups were 34/62±14/40s, 49/87±26/57s, 61/17±22/08s, respectively, which were significantly different (p<0/001). The mean latency of cry in three groups shows that there are not significantly different.

Conclusion : Both breastfeeding and kangaroo care showed an analgesic effect on infants but breastfeeding more than kangaroo care. Health care workers are recommended to encourage parents to use pain reduction simple methods during immunization for relieving pain in infant and promoting the quality of health care.


An experimental and theoretical study is presented for n-type Bi-doped PbTe composites with different grain sizes and doping levels. The bulk polycrystalline composites were prepared by spark plasma sintering of the nanocrystals synthesized via micro-emulsion and direct precipitation. This technique is particularly attractive due to its low cost, its reproducibility, and the control of the composition and nanocrystal size that it affords. The thermoelectric properties of the synthesized specimens were experimentally measured and theoretically modeled. Our calculations reveal that the inclusion of electron/grain and phonon/grain interface scattering is crucial for the correct description and interpretation of the measured properties.


The 'Discrete Particle Method' (DPM) is a versatile numerical tool for improving the understanding of particle flows behavior on a meso-scopic level. A crucial point when using the DPM is the CPU-time consumption for detection of particle collisions. An adaptive algorithm for efficient particle-particle and particle-wall collision detection in a two-dimensional case is presented. The physical domain is hierarchically divided and structured as a quadtree. The algorithm ensures an efficient computation of colliding particle flows by splitting and merging the cells between each time step to keep the number of particles within a proposed range. The numerical performance of the adaptive algorithm is studied by simulating a flow particle in a 90° bend. The computational time of the adaptive algorithm is compared with the simulations performed with a uniform fixed cell structure with optimal size. The adaptive algorithm seems to be mostly advantageous in flows where the particles are not uniformly distributed, in complex geometries, and otherwise where information about the optimal cell size is not known a priori.Copyright © 2005 by ASME


[5-3H]Loganin (1) is incorporated into (7), (10), and (12) to label C-3 in each case, so supporting current views of the biosynthetic stages beyond loganin.


. *"'ou ?f being far from salubrious, as to the benefits derived by phthisical patients from sleeping in the open air, raise very serious questions about the ordinary habits of nine-tenths of civilised human beings. It may be very difficult to ensure a full and complete ventilation of the rooms in which we live and work and have our daily being; we cannot consider ourselves alone, <^nd unless all are provided with suitable clothing it clearly would be impossible in cold weather to permit ?t free currents of icy wind which people clad for arctic weather would enjoy. Nay, Ave will go further and admit that such arctic clothing as would be necessary for an open-window life on some days in midw inter would, to a large extent, be incompatible with many avocations. But at night each man is his own master. For seven or eight hours out of the 24 most people can decide whether they will breathe pure air or foul, and judging from the position of the windowsashes as we sometimes see them while walking through the streets in the early morning, even in summer, we should say that the vast majority deliberately choose tbe foul air to the pure. How much ill-health is caused by this deliberate exclusion of fresh air during the hours of sleep it is impossible to say, but without doubt it is a very large amount. The idea that a room


Contents: Preface. P. Mortensen, B. Daniell, Introduction: Researching Women and Literacy: Usable Pasts, Possible Futures. Part I: Women's Literacies Situated Locally: Past, Present, and Future. D. Strickland, Feeling Literate: Gender, Race, and Work in Dorothy West's "The Typewriter". R.E. Lathan, Crusader: Ethel Azalea Johnson's Use of the Written Word as a Weapon of Liberation. K.M. Powell, Virginia Mountain Women Writing to Government Officials: Letters of Request as Social Participation. K. Donehower, Reconsidering Power, Privilege, and the Public/Private Distinction in the Literacy of Rural Women. C. Hogg, Sponsoring Clubs: Cultivating Rural Identities Through Literacy. H. Roskelly, K. Ronald, Literacy on the Margins: Louisa May Alcott's Pragmatic Rhetoric. K.T. Flannery, "Diverse in Sentiment and Form": Feminist Poetry as Radical Literate Practice, 1968-1975. B.K. Smith, Branding Literacy: The Entrepreneurship of Oprah's Book Club. Part II: Women's Literacies in a Globally Interdependent World. S. Watson, M. Young, Professing "Western" Literacy: Globalization and Women's Education at the Western College for Women. K. Walters, Considering the Meanings of Literacy in a Postcolonial Setting: The Case of Tunisia. G.E. Hawisher, C.L. Selfe, with K. Coffield and S. El-Wakil, Women and the Global Ecology of Digital Literacies. I.W. Crawford, The Emotional Effects of Literacy: Vietnamese Women Negotiating the Shift to a Market Economy. M.K. DeShazer, Postapartheid Literacies: South African Women's Poetry of Orality, Franchise, and Reconciliation. G. Gong, Gender and Literacies: The Korean "Comfort Women's" Testimonies. C.L. Hobbs, The Outlook for Global Women's Literacy. Segue. M-Z. Lu, Afterword: Reading Literacy Research Against the Grain of Fast Capitalism.


Over the last decade, several western governments have developed and implemented national mental health programmes aimed at improving the mental health of the overall population. The ® eld of mental health poses particular hurdles for such public health initiatives, however, not least because of difficulties in locating measurable targets relating to factors which can be manipulated at population level. The search for causes which have high population attributable risk, low cost malleability and strict causal logic remains the `Holy Grail' of public health initiatives, and especially so in the area of mental health. The UK Government's Health of the Nation strategy 1992 to 1997 is a case in point.The initiative was the ® rst attempt by a UK Ministry of Health to provide a co-ordinated and strategic approach to improving the health of the population overall, and as such it was broadly welcomed. Mental health was chosen as one of ® ve key areas, each having a range of targets and inter-related objectives. Some targets required action at national level, some at local level only and some required a partnership between both national and local agencies. For mental health, the principle target chosen was a reduction in suicide and undetermined injuries. Others included targets to `improve signi® cantly the health and social functioning of mentally ill people' and to `reduce the suicide rate of severely mentally ill people by at least 33% by the year 2000' . Despite the groundbreaking nature of this initiative, the policy has recently been judged a failure by an independent review (Department of Health, 1999). The authors concluded that the policy was handicapped from the outset by ̄ aws of both a conceptual and process nature, and lacked crossdepar tmental commitment and ownership at government level. Critically, the policy did not appear signi® cantly to change investment priorities by local health authorities and was gradually eroded, and then all but displaced, by political and management drives toward reducing the size of hospital waiting lists and toward implementing internal market budgeting procedures. Some of the targetsÐ particularly the prevention of suicide, were viewed as having insuf® cient basis for action and as detracting from more productive initiatives elsewhere. Other targets, such as improving the `health and social functioning of mentally ill people' were deemed vir tually un-measurable.The review panel suggested that future public health initiatives should be seen to be conceived from within the highest levels of government, should secure committed cross-departmental involvement, and draw together both health and local social services in a coherent programme of committed local ownership. With the new Labour Government in 1997 came the new Our Healthier Nation strategy. In principle, this administration had learned some of the lessons of its predecessors. R eject ing the previous government's `scattergun' approach to numerous goals and targets, the new policy set a small number of `attainable' targets in four priority areasÐ one of which was mental health. Government would accept and face up to its responsibilities in addressing social inequalities deemed to underlie inequalities in health, with measures to tackle joblessness, low pay, housing and pollution. Moreover, to emphasize the new crossdepartmental policy of `joined up' government, the strategy docum ent contained the signatures of ministers from ministries as diverse as environment, agriculture, education and social security. Individual responsibility for health would be emphasized but, in the new spir it of `partnership ' , this was a government which promised to deliver its side of the bargain too. What would be the new target for mental health? Many were disappointed to discover a familiar faceÐ a proposed reduction in the rate of suicide and undetermined injuries. Indeed, suicide was to be the only mental health target, to be reduced by one-® fth over ten years. During the `green paper' consultation phase, there was widespread criticism from many sources, with calls for an alternative target, or range of objectives, which could be identi® ed (and the causes tackled) much closer to the level of actual psychiatric morbidity in the population as a whole. In


A STUDY of recent literature sbows that the diversity of opinion regarding the nature of chronic general periodontitis is as great as it has always been since the disease first attracted careful attention. Broderick in his Cartwright Prize Essay upon the subject, endeavours to define what he means by "pyorrhcea." Colyer and Sprawson, in the latest edition of their textbook, use the term "paradontal disease "; the term " para " being given in the Greek Lexicon as beyond or beside " which does not appear as exact a term as the prefix "peri " meaning "around." The major proposition which it is desired to make is that "periodontal disease" or 4' pyorrhcea " is not one disease but that separate varieties can be distinguished and that such recognition greatly facilitates treatment. The pathology of periodontal disease is to-day much in the state in which "chronic rheumatism" was twenty years ago when a variety of pr-ocesses were lumped together which are now recognized as being some infective, some due to deficiency diseases, etc. The term pyorrheea is applied as a matter of convenience to a disease of the supporting structures of the tooth; it does not of necessity mean a flow of pus. Some recent views regarding the initial break in the gingival epithelium require comment. Gottlieb1 considers that the gingival epitheliumn is continuous with the epitbelium of the enamel organ and that the primary change in paradental pyorrhcea is a process of continuous eruption of the tooth, associated with a downgrowth of epithelial tissue separating the periodontal membrane from the tooth. Warwick James and Counsell 2 state that the initial lesion " is associated with a deposit of materia alba and calculus upon the teeth." Broderick 3 considers that " the gingivitis resulting from the irritation of subgingival calculus will lead to a formation of pocket that is in every way dissimilar to that caused by simple irritation, such as stagnating food will bring about.."


Previous works employed pressure-based heat release analysis, spark-discharge current/voltage measurements, and cycle-resolved combustion imaging to identify four periods of stratified-charge spark-assisted compression ignition: spark discharge, early kernel growth (EKG), flame propagation, and compression ignition. While it was found that variability in the EKG, and not the spark discharge, influenced combustion phasing, the influence of the spark discharge on the EKG could not be assessed because the imaging system was incapable of recording both the spark discharge and the flame development from the same cycle. This limitation has been overcome here by recording images of both the spark discharge and combustion chemiluminescence during each engine cycle. Additionally, the spark discharge plasmas were recorded from two nearly-orthogonal views to assure that out-of-plane excursions were measured; such are not available from a single view. The results in this study demonstrate that the spark discharge event was not deterministic of the EKG. Circumstantial evidence is given to suggest that the fuel/air distribution and velocity at the spark plug dominate the EKG period variability, though this could not be confirmed definitively.


This thesis presents a body of initial work on a class of routing problems that resemble classical vehicle routing problems (VRP's), but differ in a few key aspects. A particular subset of this class arises in the regional-level operation of an LTL (Less than TruckLoad) truck line using twin-trailer combinations. Other problems in the class, covered in much less detail, may be useful in planning regional or overall operations of shipping lines, railroads, barge companies, or air freight carriers. Generally, the orientation of the problem model is towards freight carriers who consolidate siipments into large quanta or containers. This practice is currently widespread as it reduces handling costs. The thesis describes a class of regional LTL twin-trailer truck problems, called the "central 2-CFP", contained in a broader class named k-CFP. It presents an aggregate commodity flow formulation of the k-CFP, and analyzes the formulation's LP relaxation via Lagrangean duality. The next topic is a Lagrangean branch and bound method for the central 2-CFP, including computational tests. The thesis closes by suggesting improvements and alternatives to the tested method. Thesis Supervisor: Yosef Sheffi Title: Associate Professor of Civil Engineering


In Sub-Saharan Africa, transfusion safety remains a challenge due to the high endemicity of blood-borne infections. This study aimed to determining the seroprevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), and Treponema pallidum among blood donors in Ouagadougou. This was a retrospective study in blood donor. HIV 1/2 and HCV antibodies and HBsAg were screened and confirmed with two ELISA (Enzyme Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay). While T. pallidum antibodies were also screened and confirmed with two serology tests. Only samples positive for both tests were counted as positive. Prevalence rates were calculated among first-time blood donors. Of 63,779 registered blood donors, 54,113 (84.84%) were first-time donors. Overall seroprevalences of HIV, HBV, HCV and Treponema pallidum were 2.56%, 11.87%, 5.89% and 3.22% respectively. Seroprevalences of HIV-HBV, HBV-HCV, HBV- T. pallidum and HIV-HBV-HCV co-infections were 0.36; 1.21; 0.54 and 0.02 respectively. The study reports that HIV, HBV, HCV and Treponema pallidum seroprevalences remain high among blood donors. These results highlight a potential infectious risk to blood products recipients.


06–162Ansary, Hasan (Shiraz U, Iran; firstname.lastname@example.com) & Esmat Babaii (Teacher Training U, Iran), The generic integrity of newspaper editorials: A systemic functional perspective. RELC Journal (Sage) 36.3 (2005), 271–295. 06–163Barnbrook, Geoff (U Birmingham, UK; email@example.com), Usage notes in Johnson'sDictionary. The International Journal of Lexicography (Oxford University Press) 18.2 (2005), 189–201. 06–164Brumfit, Christopher, Rosamond Mitchell, Brenda Johnston, Peter Ford (U Southampton, UK) & Florence Myles, Language study in higher education and the development of criticality. International Journal of Applied Linguistics (Blackwell) 15.2 (2005), 145–168. 06–165Byrnes, Heidi (Georgetown U, USA), Perspectives. The Modern Language Journal (Blackwell) 89.4 (2005), 582–616. 06–166Camps, Joaquim (U Florida, USA), The emergence of the imperfect in Spanish as a foreign language: The association between imperfective morphology and state verbs. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (Mouton de Gruyter) 43.3 (2005), 163–192. 06–167Cook, Guy (The Open U, UK; firstname.lastname@example.com), Calm seas or troubled waters? Transitions, definitions and disagreements in applied linguistics. International Journal of Applied Linguistics (Blackwell) 15.3 (2005), 282–301. 06–168Els, Theo van (U Nijmegen, the Netherlands; firstname.lastname@example.com), Multilingualism in the European Union. International Journal of Applied Linguistics (Blackwell) 15.3 (2005), 263–281. 06–169Hanks, Patrick (Brandeis U, USA & Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, Germany; firstname.lastname@example.com), Johnson and modern lexicography. The International Journal of Lexicography (Oxford University Press) 18.2 (2005), 243–266. 06–170Herschensohn, Julia, Jeff Stevenson & Jeremy Waltmunson (U Washington, USA), Children's acquisition of L2 Spanish morphosyntax in an immersion setting. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (Mouton de Gruyter) 43.3 (2005), 193–217. 06–171Hjörne, Eva (Göteborg U, Sweden; firstname.lastname@example.com) & Roger Säljö, The pupil welfare team as a discourse community: Accounting for school problems. Linguistics and Education (Elsevier) 15.4 (2004), 321–338. 06–172Hood, Susan & Gail Forey (U of Technology, Sydney, Australia; email@example.com), Introducing a conference paper: Getting interpersonal with your audience. Journal of English for Academic Purposes (Elsevier) 4.4 (2005), 291–306. 06–173Juul, Holger (U Copenhagen, Denmark; email@example.com), Grammatical awareness and the spelling of inflectional morphemes in Danish. International Journal of Applied Linguistics (Blackwell) 15.1 (2005), 87–112. 06–174Juzwik, Mary M. (Michigan State U, USA; email@example.com), What rhetoric can contribute to an ethnopoetics of narrative performance in teaching: The significance of parallelism in one teacher's narrative. Linguistics and Education (Elsevier) 15.4 (2004), 359–386. 06–175Katz, Stacey (U Utah, USA; firstname.lastname@example.com) & Johanna Watzinger-Tharp, Toward an understanding of the role of applied linguists in foreign language departments. The Modern Language Journal (Blackwell) 89.4 (2005), 490–502. 06–176Leung, Constant (King's College, U London, UK), Convivial communication: Recontextualizing communicative competence. International Journal of Applied Linguistics (Blackwell) 15.2 (2005), 119–144. 06–177Lind, Marianne (Bredtvet Resource Centre, Norway), Conversation – more than words: A Norwegian case study of the establishment of a contribution in aphasic interaction. International Journal of Applied Linguistics (Blackwell) 15.2 (2005), 213–239. 06–178Mautner, Gerlinde (Vienna U of Economics and Business Administration, Austria), Time to get wired: Using web-based corpora in critical discourse analysis. Discourse & Society (Sage) 16.6 (2005), 809–828. 06–179Otani, Hiroaki (Hoshi U, Japan; email@example.com), Investigating intercollocations – towards an archaeology of text. The International Journal of Lexicography (Oxford University Press) 18.1 (2005), 1–24. 06–180Pahl, Kate (U Sheffield, UK; email@example.com), Narratives, artifacts and cultural identities: An ethnographic study of communicative practices in homes. Linguistics and Education (Elsevier) 15.4 (2004), 339–358. 06–181Sawyer, R. Keith (U Washington, USA; firstname.lastname@example.com) & Sarah Berson, Study group discourse: How external representations affect collaborative conversation. Linguistics and Education (Elsevier) 15.4 (2004), 387–412. 06–182Solbjørg, Aud (Skulstad U Bergen, Norway; email@example.com), Competing roles: Student teachers using asynchronous forums. International Journal of Applied Linguistics (Blackwell) 15.3 (2005), 346–363. 06–183Thompson, Paul (U Reading, UK), Points of focus and position: Intertextual reference in PhD theses. Journal of English for Academic Purposes (Elsevier) 4.4 (2005), 307–323. 06–184Üstünel, Eda (Mugla U, Turkey; firstname.lastname@example.com) & Paul Seedhouse, Why that, in that language, right now? Code-switching and pedagogical focus. International Journal of Applied Linguistics (Blackwell) 15.3 (2005), 302–325. 06–185Werry, Chris (San Diego State U, USA; email@example.com), Rhetoric and reflexivity in cognitive theories of language. Language and Communication (Elsevier) 25.4 (2005), 377–397. 06–186Yuan, Boping & Yang Zhao (Cambridge U, UK), Resumptive pronouns in English–Chinese and Arabic–Chinese interlanguages. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (Mouton de Gruyter) 43.3 (2005), 219–237.


PURPOSE
In the coming decades, Americans with hearing and cognitive deficits will represent a growing proportion of the population. This article describes the rationale and goals of the second Starkey Research Summit, which was convened to better understand the challenges that an aging demographic represents to the future of hearing health care.

METHOD
A multidisciplinary group of scientists representing audiology, cognitive science, psychology, aging, and hearing science met in the fall of 2011 to explore key issues associated with the convergence of aging, hearing loss, and cognitive deficit.

RESULTS
Four major topic areas were identified for discussion and further exploration: (a) the effects of aging on auditory processing and cognition; (b) the effects of hearing technology on auditory processing and cognition in the elderly; (c) the effects of training on auditory processing and cognition in the elderly; and (d) the effects of aging on hearing help-seeking behavior.

CONCLUSION
A brief overview of each of the four major topic areas, to include the identification of unmet research needs, was prepared and is included in this issue of the American Journal of Audiology.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of self-determined motivation on antisocial behaviors of taekwondo athletes and to investigate how moral disengagement mediate their relationship. The subjects of this study were 239 high school students, college students and general athletes participated in the Taekwondo competition for the selection of the best male and female athletes in the whole country in 2017. Participants completed a series of questionnaires on the self-determined motivation, moral disengagement and antisocial behavior. The major finding were as follows. First, autonomous motivators showed no significant effect on antisocial behaviors and moral disengagement. Second, the players with control motive showed a positive (+) influence on the antisocial behaviors and moral disengagement of the team mates and opponents. Third, in the relationship between controlled motivation and antisocial behaviors of team mates and opponents, moral disengagement were partially mediated with positive indirect effects.


OBJECTIVES
To assess the association between the tumour necrosis factor receptor 2 (TNFR2) 196 M/R single-nucleotide polymorphism and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) severity by taking advantage of the extremes of phenotype that exist in arthritis.

METHODS
From the Leiden Early Arthritis Cohort (1700 patients), we selected patients who initially had the diagnosis of definite or probable RA according to the ACR criteria and developed complete remission (71 patients) or had the worst progression, to destructive disease (72 patients). A group of 135 healthy controls was included. The TNFR2 genotype was determined in these groups.

RESULTS
The extremes of phenotypes did not differ significantly in genotype distribution. No difference in genotype distribution between rheumatoid arthritis patients and healthy controls was observed.

CONCLUSION
Our study demonstrates that even by comparing the extremes of phenotypes no association between the TNFR2 genotype and disease severity can be detected in Caucasian patients with sporadic RA.


Nakhoul, Nazih L., Kathleen S. Hering-Smith, Solange M. Abdulnour-Nakhoul, and L. Lee Hamm. Transport of NH3/NH4 1 in oocytes expressing aquaporin-1. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 281: F255–F263, 2001.—The aim of this study was to determine whether expressing aquaporin (AQP)-1 could affect transport of NH3. Using ion-selective microelectrodes, the experiments were conducted on frog oocytes (cells characterized by low NH3 permeability) expressing AQP1. In H2O-injected oocytes, exposure to NH3/ NH4 1 (20 mM, pH 7.5) caused a sustained cell acidification and no initial increase in pHi (as expected from NH3 influx), and the cell depolarized to near 0 mV. The absence of Na, the presence of Ba21, or raising bath pH (pHB) did not inhibit the magnitude of the pHi decrease or result in an initial increase in pHi when NH3/NH4 1 was added. However, after the cell was acidified (because of NH3/NH4 ), raising pHB to 8.0 caused a slow increase in pHi but had no effect on membrane potential. The changes in pHi with raising pHB did not occur in the absence of NH3/NH4 . In AQP1 oocytes, exposure to NH3/NH4 1 usually resulted in little or no change in pHi, and in the absence of Na there was a small increase in pHi (the cell still depolarized to near 0 mV). However, after exposure to NH3/NH4 , raising pHB to 8.0 caused pHi to increase more than two times faster than in control oocytes. This increase in pHi is likely the result of increased NH3 entry and not the result of NH4 1 transport. These results indicate that 1) the oocyte membrane, although highly permeable to NH4 , has a significant NH3 permeability and 2) NH3 permeability is enhanced by AQP1.


Due to the popularity of short-range communications and the ultra-dense deployment of the Internet of Things (IoT), the occurrence of severe signal collision in crowded nodes is becoming increasingly critical. We propose a scheme called anti-collision voting based on Bluetooth low energy improvement for the ultra-dense edge, in which one topic can be identified and separated from the others to enable intensive voting. The scheme alleviates the exponential growth of advertising collisions and achieves efficient consensus between the devices and humans by localized the message advertising. The previous proposals focused on enhancing the hardware and optimizing the parameters to establish a connection for interaction. Considering the limitation of connective devices, our scheme adopts a novel advertising model in which the nodes can promptly exit the advertising state by actively responding. In addition, the scheme merges active responses into a group to notify the advertising nodes and randomly chooses a channel to reduce redundancy and save energy. The simulations demonstrate that the scheme can reduce the collisions by more than 90% and channel occupancy by half, while doubling the capacity and efficiently supporting intensive voting within edge networks.


Objective:To explore the therapeutic and protective effect and mechanism of antagonists of angiotensin Ⅱ receptor losartan on diabetic nephropathy(DN).Methods:52 patients were divided into the group Ⅰ( n =27) and groupⅡ( n =25) to receive losartan 50mg and 100mg daily, po ,qd for 8 weeks respectively.The alteration of blood pressure, serum kalium,serum uric acid, urine albumin excretion,serum AngⅡ,nitric oxide (NO), endothelin(ET), and transforming growth factor β 1 (TGF β 1) before and after treatment were observed.Rusults:After usage of losartan, the blood pressure, serum uric acid, 24 hours'UAE,ET and TGF β 1 decreased,and the Ang Ⅱ,NO increased.There was no obvious elevation of serum kalium.The effect were more obvious in the 100mg group than that in the 50mg groups.Conclusion:Losartan possesses the therapeutic and protective effect on DN,its mechanism may be associated with AngⅡ,NO,ET and EGF β 1. [


Braided composites have advantages over conventional ply composites, which have limitation of brittle interlaminar. They are the hotspot of advanced material research in recent years. Although 3D braided composites have good performances, people do not know enough about them, whether in depth or in extent. In this paper a method in which optic fiber sensors embedded into 3D composites are used to study 3D braided composites is introduced. The braiding process of optic fiber sensors, optic performances of optic fibers are studied. Several kinds of optic fibers are used. Girder form structures with embedded optic fibers are braided through four-step method and processed through Mold Pressing. Some special measures are taken to prevent damage of the optic fibers. Measurement of some performance parameters of optic fibers shows little changes of those parameters before, after optic fibers being braided into the structures, and after the molding process. A polarimetric type of optic fiber sensors is designed for measuring strain in braided testpieces.


The diffraction data confirmed the title compound as the main isomer produced in a coupling reaction. The structure and Hirshfeld surface analysis of the formed di-tetrazolyl chelate ligand are reported.


This aitcle attempts to alleviate some dismal 'mpressions that might be inadvertently left after reading Yves Nievergelt's otherwise excellent paper [1]. In particular, the present article shows that in a certain sense, the answers provided by the calculator ar precisely as useful as the unique exact solution, for a very large class of problems, en when the calculator solutions are not at all close to the exact solution. It is further shown that even the exact answer by itself is usually insufficient for a complete understanding of the problem under consideration, and that some sort of sensitivit analysis (such as computing the condition number of the problem) is also required. It is also sho that unexpected behaviour of a computed solution can be extremely useful pedagogically. The behaviour of the calculator is by no means unique. All other computers and software packages exhibit similarly useful quirks. Further, the behaviour is not restricted to the solution of linear equations, holding true also for function evaluation, rootfinding, the solution of differential equations, and many other practical problems. There is a strong connection with the theor of chaotic dynamics here, which may also be of interest.


Optical fiber having a coating system that reduces stress induced micro curvatures by complying with the optical fiber ITU-T G.657.A and / or ITU-T G.657.B and comprising: a fiber glass having a diameter of 125 micrometers a hardened primary coating surrounding said fiberglass, said hardened primary coating comprising between 40% and 80% of a UV radiation curable polyether urethane acrylate composition, and further comprising a photoinitiator, one or more oligomers, and one or more monomer diluents, said hardened primary coating (i) having an in situ module greater than 0.2 MPa and less than 0.65 MPa and (ii) a glass transition temperature of -50 ° C or less, and a hardened secondary coating surrounding said primary coating layer, wherein said secondary coating defines a secondary coating layer, characterized in that the fiber is assisted by r and defining said primary coating a primary coating layer having an outside diameter between 135 and 175 micrometers.


An idealized device model is employed to determine the optimum material parameters for low-high-low (LHL) GaAs IMPATT's. Experimental efficiencies of 15-GHz devices indicate the model is of considerable utility for LHL GaAs IMPATT design.


The paper presents milestones of researches dedicated to determination of physics of low-temperature distributed gas-discharge plasma of the glow discharge with hollow cathode and its application in technological processes of welding and soldering since 1916. It is demonstrated that powerful-current glow discharge is the perspective and competitive energy source in the processes of joining materials in the solid phase, but there are a number of factors significantly limiting its widespread industrial application because of its insufficient stability at medium pressures and low processability. The usage of glow discharge initiated in a hollow cathode as the surface heating source during the pressure welding allows to eliminate indicated problems.


A company is an organization with a legal entity that has an important role in the economic development of a country. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of company size and profitability on company value through the financial performance of property and real estate companies that are listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2019-2021. This current study employed a purposive technique sampling. The data analysis and hypothesis testing in this study used Structural-Partial Least Square Equation Model (PLS-SEM).
The results of the direct influence hypothesis test using the Smart application PLS 3.0 shows that company size has no significant effect on financial performance, profitability has a significant effect on financial performance, company size has no effect significant to firm value, profitability has no effect significant to firm values, financial performance has no effect significant to firm value. The results of the indirect hypothesis test show that firm size through financial performance has a negative but not significant effect on the firm values and profitability through performance financial effect positive but not significant to firm value.


It is now well recognized that a number of dermatoses in certain occupations are due to the effect of light on the skin. A number of diverse chemical agents found in a wide variety of contactants can be the cause of contact photosensitivity and can produce phototoxic and photo-allergic reactions in the skin (Epstein, 1942; Epstein, 1972). These contact photosensitizing agents are listed in Table i and most of them produce phototoxic reactions. However, in some the reaction is considered to be photo-allergic with eczematous lesions, often not limited to the sites of contact with the chemical agent and occurring in the light exposed areas of skin. These photo-allergic reactions are often chronic, frequently lichenified and the histological changes closely resemble those seen in allergic contact dermatitis. In these photo-allergic reactions it is presumed that immunological mechanisms are involved. Usually, avoidance of further contact with the chemical agent results in complete clearance of the eruption, although in a small proportion of patients the photosensitivity persists. Some of these patients will become what has been described as persistent light reactors (Jillson & Baughman, 1963). In this group of persistent light reactors, often middle-aged males, one can include patients with actinic reticuloid, a condition first described by Ive et al. in 1969. Some of these cases have recently been found to have a contact allergic sensitivity to oleoresin extracts from Compositae plants (Frain-Bell & Johnson, 1979). The action spectrum for most of these cases of photocontact dermatitis lies in the long wave range of ultraviolet light (UV-A), i.e. 320-400 nm. However, in some there is not only a lowered erythema threshold around 300 nm, but the action spectrum may extend into the visible region. The longer wavelengths of light can pass through window glass and are produced by fiuorescent lamps that are now almost invariably to be found in offices and factories.


The ovary is the source of oocytes and supplier of sex steroid hormones. Being responsible for female fertility and endocrine homeostasis, the progressive decline in the quantity and quality of stromal cells in the ovary is defined as 'ovarian aging'. Understanding the mechanism of ovarian aging is of the utmost importance for the accurate assessment of ovarian reserve for fertility and timing of menopause [1]. Ovarian aging has a genetic basis, but it is affected by the environmental conditions of oxidative stress caused by mitochondrial dysfunction and chronic inflammation (i.e. due to smoking, radiation, chemicals and infections) [2]. Mitochondria, being the primary source of energy in cellular function, is the central site for reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. They also have a key function in the rate of limiting step of steroidogenesis (steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) protein) and during oogenesis (oocyte maturation and function). Therefore, as a result of mitochondrial dysfunction (decrease in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy number, accumulation of mtDNA mutations, impaired oxidative phosphorylation activity and altered mitochondrial quality control), unbalanced oxidative stress has an important role in ovarian aging [2,3]. The reduced defense of antioxidant protective mechanisms against ROS results in oxidative damage. By the arrest in the cell cycle and apoptosis, it causes the loss of homeostasis and disturbs the maintenance of ovarian sex steroids and reserve, oocyte quality and viability. The link between mitochondria, inflammation and ovarian aging is important for the reproductive function. In this context, anti-M€ ullerian hormone (AMH) is an enigmatic hormone or substance, but nevertheless its measurement is being widely used in clinical practice. Therefore, what is known and unknown about the role of AMH in the physiology of female reproductive system, and especially in ovarian aging, should be discussed. Although the inductive role of AMH in the regression of M€ ullerian derivatives in male reproductive system during the early fetal life is known, the significance of AMH in female reproductive physiology has not yet been fully elucidated. AMH, as a modulator of follicular growth, has a crucial role in the recruitment of follicles from the resting primordial pool and the selection of dominant follicles [4]. It regulates the threshold for follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) sensitivity and is a survival factor for small growing follicles by preventing oocyte degeneration and follicular atresia [5]. From birth onward, AMH levels increase by age, which reflects the increased rate of primordial follicle recruitment observed up to approximately 14 years of age. After the plateau at 25 years of age, AMH levels start to decline until undetectable levels are reached at menopause. Even though the negative correlation is obvious in elderly, no study has been able to define normative and uniform trajectory data for AMH with sporadic or sequential measurements [6,7]. To overcome this inadequacy, the term 'functional ovarian reserve (FOR)' was developed that represents the growing follicle pool or follicle number during follicle recruitment. Serum AMH levels reflect FOR at all ages but only ovarian reserve at older ages. Even this new term has not been able to support the use of AMH in ovarian aging [7]. Moreover, the wide range of age at natural menopause reflects the interand intra-individual variability of AMH due to the differences in follicle depletion rate. Therefore, there are some studies that have not recommend the use of single or 4 time sequential measurements of serum AMH levels with 5 yearsintervals in order to predict the time of menopause [4]. In contrast to these studies, some statistical models which include single or serial measurements of serum AMH level as a variable, have been proposed to predict reliably the time of menopause. However, all of these studies are quite far from being precise. In our opinion, we have high clinic expectations from AMH. There are several reasons that explain the limited use of AMH for determining ovarian reserve including: inadequacy in the prediction of fertility and menopause, lack of a limit value for the determination of the final menstrual period, lack of correlation between serum and tissue concentrations, lack of correlation between primordial follicle density and AMH at younger ages in contrast to older ages, problems in the determination of isoforms by different assays, being influenced by other factors such as oral contraception use, body-mass index (BMI), vitamin D levels, ethnicity and chronic inflammatory diseases [1–3,8]. Especially the determination of different isoforms of AMH by different assays currently limits its clinical use. AMH has two different assay kits: Diagnostic Systems Laboratory and Immunotech and Beckman Coulter: AMH Gen II. There are no international standards defined for the conversion of values between different assays [9]. AMH, synthesized as a prohormone homodimer, is cleaved to AMHN, AMHC, AMHM dimers, which are bound non-covalently to form a stable complex [10]. There is individual variation in the production of different amount of isoforms. Finally, AMH levels also change in the presence of other cytokine and growth factors. While in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) its level is high like other growth factors (vascular endothelial growth factor-VEGF), in endometriosis its level is low unlike local cytokines and prostaglandins causing inflammation. The effect of BMI on AMH is modified by leptin, a cytokine which suppresses the expression of AMH and AMH receptor type II (AMHRII) [8]. All we know is that AMH is a glycoprotein, exclusively produced by the stromal (theca-granulosa) cells


My wife and I met John and Anne Harsanyi in 1965, when John and I became classmates for a year at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. John's thoughtful revisions of the literature in political science on the concept of power were already known to me, and it was a pleasant and altogether unexpected surprise that despite differences in our ages and backgrounds, and my complete inability to follow, except in the most rudimentary way, the striking contributions John was making to game theory, our families hit it off. No doubt the fact that we both had lively 1-year old children helped. The family ties strengthened over the years of our colleagueship on the Berkeley faculty from 1967 onward and as the years rolled on I had opportunities to come to appreciate more fully John's exceptional and distinctive character, in which one could see the workings in equal measure of a powerful analytical engine, a great breadth of interest, and, above all, a quality that I find myself wanting to describe as purity of heart. It seems to me entirely fitting that this utterly straightforward and transparently principled scholar should take as the problem at the center of his life-work the strategic reasoning of his fellow creatures. More capable readers than I can appreciate this work in its full inventiveness but it has always seemed to me the product in some fundamental way of a will to understand emphatically the contours of social behavior that must have puzzled John by its lack of clarity. John was himself a virtuoso at picking and adhering to priorities. Here are a few examples:


In the summer of 1951, the presence in London of an Ellice Islander, Penitala Teo, gave me an opportunity of making a sound recording in a little-known Polynesian language. The briefness of his stay, as well as other factors, did not leave time for more than a cursory analysis of his speech, but there was enough evidence to establish a prima facie case for recognizing aspirated as well as non-aspirated consonants.


The objective of this Note is to use global themes and perspectives to aid in reframing the bioprospecting debate. The current state of this debate, its problems, and proposed solutions are reviewed. In looking at the impact of local responses to globalization on bioprospecting themes, I propose that more internationally competitive laws could allow an escape from some of the undesired effects of bioprospecting, while promoting more desired effects. I also suggest, independently, that undesired effects could be avoided and desired effects promoted through methods that seek to recognize the global identity of concerned citizens.


Herein, we report a simplistic approach to prepare vanadium pentoxide nanofibers (V 2 O 5 NFs) using simple hydrothermal method. The as-synthesized material was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) techniques, scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In addition, V 2 O 5 NFs was used as an electrocatalytic performance towards the electro-oxidation of Adenine. Interestingly, V 2 O 5 NFs modified electrode (V 2 O 5 NFs/SPCE) showed an excellent electrocatalytic activity towards Adenine with lower detection limit (0.013 µM), wide linear ranges (0.5 to 512 µM) and the higher sensitivity about 8.5333 µA µM -1 cm -2 . Furthermore, V 2 O 5 NFs/SPCE was also demonstrated good recovery even in real human urine samples. This study opens a new window for the trace level identification of biological molecules in real samples.


Professor J.F.C. Harrison's recently-published book, Learning and Living, 1790–1960, underscores the sometimes neglected fact that strikes, agitation and political action are not the only ways to change a society, even though they are usually the most spectacular. For nearly two centuries multitudes of Englishmen put some of their faith in a number of less direct processes, all of which may be categorized as adult education. The men and women who devoted themselves to this work had different aims and used different methods, but all of them sought to educate grown men, particularly factory workers, and all of them believed their efforts would somehow make England a better place. This movement was not unique; in France, for example, something similar took place. Unfortunately, no one has studied the French movement as Professor Harrison has the English. Enough information on the history of worker education in France is available, however, to make possible a comparison of the movements in the two countries and thus help to confirm or bring into question some accepted propositions concerning differences in their political and religious attitudes and climates of opinion.


In this research, the U.S. investor sentiment effect on cryptocurrency returns and volatility is examined by separating it into irrational and rational parts. According to the data, an unforeseen rise in the rational part of U.S. individual investor attitude influences cryptocurrency returns statistically and positively. In other words, rational sentiment can result in rising cryptocurrency returns. Additionally, a positive significant association exists between cryptocurrency volatility and the rational part of the individual U.S. investor sentiment. The findings confirm the hypothesis that the behavior of rational investors who utilize and study the impact of economic factors on asset prices reduces cryptocurrency volatility.


Purpose – In this study, a new methodology to evaluate the performance of physics simulation engines (PSEs) when used in haptic virtual assembly applications is proposed. This methodology can be used to assess the performance of any physics engine. To prove the feasibility of the proposed methodology, two-third party PSEs – Bullet and PhysXtm – were evaluated. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Eight assembly tests comprising variable geometric and dynamic complexity were conducted. The strengths and weaknesses of each simulation engine for haptic virtual assembly were identified by measuring different parameters such as task completion time, influence of weight perception and force feedback. Findings – The proposed tests have led to the development of a standard methodology by which physics engines can be compared and evaluated. The results have shown that when the assembly comprises complex shapes, Bullet has better performance than PhysX. It was also observed that the...


The high rates of inflation that characterized the Israeli economy during the early fifties brought the flow of financial savings to an almost complete standstill. In an attempt to re-open this channel of funds, the government and private investors started offering financial obligations that were denominated in some constant purchasing power unit.1 The outstanding principal and the remaining interest payments were adjusted periodically in line with a price level index. The most commonly used indices were the consumer price index (C.P.I.) and the price of the U.S. dollar in terms of the Israeli pound. By the mid-fifties, almost all of the long-term capital raised through bonds by the government or financial intermediaries was linked to the dollar, the C.P.I., or some combination of the two. As a result, users of funds were required to repay their loans with similar linkage stipulations. The same was true in the housing mortgage market. Virtually all new mortgages from the mid-fifties were linked to one or both indices.


The convergent stereocontrolled, asymmetric total synthesis of (+)-paraherquamide B is described. Key features of this synthesis include (1) an improved procedure to effect reduction of unprotected oxindoles to indoles; (2) a complex application of the Somei/Kametani coupling reaction; (3) a high-yielding and entirely stereocontrolled intramolecular SN2' cyclization reaction that constructs the core bicyclo[2.2.2] ring system; (4) a mild Pd(II)-mediated cyclization reaction that constructs a complex tetrahydrocarbazole; and (5) the chemoselective reduction of a highly hindered tertiary lactam in the presence of an unhindered secondary lactam, utilizing precoordination of the more reactive secondary lactam to triethylaluminum.


The situation of career identity and job satisfaction among young hospital pharmacists in Guangdong, China was investigated. A mail-based questionnaire was sent to young hospital pharmacists in Guangdong, China. The questionnaire was designed to obtain information regarding demographic characteristics, career identity and job satisfaction. Pharmacists who were under 35 years old were defined as young pharmacists. Data were analyzed using SAS software. Of the 625 questionnaires mailed, 619 questionnaires, returned from 14 hospitals in Guangdong, were completed and suitable for analysis. Regarding career identity, only about 22% of young pharmacists thought pharmacists have high social status. Less than half of respondents felt pride when they were introduced as pharmacist in social activity. Only about 28% of respondents expected to obtain professional achievement. Only about 11% of respondents would not change profession had they got more work pay from other jobs. Regarding job satisfaction, about 90% of respondents were satisfied with their working environment, utilization of skills and promotion. About 76% of young hospital pharmacists were satisfied with their work pay. The authors concluded that, although the young hospital pharmacists in Guangdong province, China were satisfied with their current job on the whole, they showed low career identity.


The report presents the results on destructible biocompatible biopolymers of microbiological origin - polyhydroxyalkaneotam, including synthesis, properties of the obtained polymer products and the results of biomedical research.


A minimum-weight 'exural actuator is designed. The actuator comprises a triangular corrugated core with shape memory alloy (SMA) faces. It is clamped at one end and free at the other. For design and optimization, the temperature history of the face sheets upon heating and subsequent cooling is 7rst obtained as a function of the cooling e8ciency (Biot number) and the operational frequency deduced. Based upon this response, a phenomenological model is employed to represent the martensite evolution. Thereafter, the end de'ection is calculated as a function of temperature. The minimum weight is calculated subject to the provisos that: (i) the end de'ection attains a speci7ed value; (ii) the power consumed is less than the upper limit of the supply; and failure is averted by (iii) face=core yielding and (iv) face=core buckling; (v) the operational frequency of the panel achieves a speci7ed limit. ? 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


Abstract Investigation is made of the one-dimensional compressional vibrations of an ideal fluid o? variable density (in equilibrium under the action of an external force) confined in an infinite tube of bounded but variable cross-section. The non-homogeneity, is so chosen that the wave velocity is everywhere the same. It is assumed that the ordinary acoustic equations are applicable except as modified by the non-homogeneity and that the cross-section is small enough so that transverse motions may be neglected. It is then found that the problem of determining the stationary wave-pattern in such a tube satisfying the boundary condition that the condensation s=δρ/ρ 0 (where ρ 0 is the equilibrium density at any point and δρ the excess density) shall remain analytic, everywhere ≪ 1 and vanish at infinity, is formally equivalent to the problem of solving a one-dimensional Schrodinger wave equation subject to the usual boundary condition. The appropriate density variation and the shape of the tube are related ...


type="graphical" xml:id="gpol12233-abs-0101"> The challenge for democratic design, and for partisan practice itself, is to channel these currents so they augment rather than detract from the political process.


Introduction: We are mapping unconformities in the exposed polar layered deposits (PLD) of Planum Boreum in order to detail gaps in the stratigraphic record due to non-deposition and/or erosion. Unconformities are typically identified by angular truncations of older beds at the contact with younger stratigraphy. Parallel unconformities, also termed disconformities, also exist, but are more difficult to discern through remote sensing techniques. In this study, disconformities are inferred where they connect two or more angular truncations. Detailed identification of layer truncations is possible by using an MRO Context (CTX) image mosaic (6.23 m/pixel) that covers ~65% coverage of the current study area (Fig, 1). Mapping began within the troughs of Gemina Lingula (termed Gemini Scopuli, ~330°E) and is progressing east around the polar plateau. Currently, we have delineated and described the unconformities as far east as western Borealis Scopuli. Stratigraphy: The troughs within the study area expose four previously-defined stratigraphic units [1], described below from oldest to youngest. The Planum Boreum 1 (PB1, mostly equivalent to the informal "lower layered deposits") unit formed during the Middle to Late Amazonian and consists of variably thick, horizontally extensive layers with moderate ice content. The Planum Boreum 2 (PB2) unit formed during the Late Amazonian and consists of meters to tens of meters thick layers and discontinuous lenses of low-albedo, sand-sized material. The PB2 unit is not everywhere present within the troughs of the current study area. The Planum Boreum 3 (PB3, ~"upper layered deposits) unit formed in the Late Amazonian (<5 Ma; [1]) and consists of horizontally extensive, decameter-thick layers interpreted to contain a higher ratio of ice to dust than the PB1 unit [1]. The Planum Boreum 4 unit is the decimeters thick, high-albedo residual ice cap. Preliminary Results: Thus far, we have identified 98 unconformities and have categorized them based on relative stratigraphic position (Fig. 2). Thirty-five of the unconformities are located within the PB1 unit, and another 19 unconformities are located within the PB3 units. The remaining 44 demarcate the contact between the PB1 and PB3 units (hereafter referred to as the "Olympia Hiatus unconformity" [2]) and are sometimes accompanied by the PB2 unit. Previous unconformity mapping using MOC data revealed only 36 unconformities [3] within the current study area. The unconformities within PB1 increase in frequency near the margin of the plateau where troughs generally have more relief, thus exposing a larger section of the PLD. These unconformities typically have angular truncations, with variable lengths and are often only traceable for short distances (0.7 29.8 km, mean = 10.2 km, σ = 8.4 km). The unconformities within PB3 have variable lengths (2.0 km – 33.5 km, mean = 11.9 km, σ = 7.2 km) and sometimes are manifested as complex stacked unconformities.


We analyze soliton solutions in the two-family Calogero model. There are two types of solutions, a one-soliton-antisoliton solution and a wave solution. It is shown that there is no finite number of solitons at finite distances in the limit when the period of wave solutions tends to infinity.


Natural feature tracking is a popular research topic in computer vision and has been used in Augmented Reality (AR) applications. Current natural feature trackers have two major limitations in AR applications. Firstly, the natural features may be lost during the tracking process such that the annotations that are linked to these natural features will also be lost. Secondly, if the virtual objects have to be augmented on regions where there are no distinct natural features that can be tracked, the current natural feature cannot be used directly. This paper proposes a method for points tracking or transferring based on the Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi (KLT) feature tracker and the projective reconstruction technique. The points to be tracked include the lost natural features, and any points that are specified by the users. The proposed method is useful for AR applications, including scene annotation, registration, etc. Some indoor and outdoor experiments have been conducted to validate the performance of the proposed method.


Aims and method In November 1997 a questionnaire was sent to a large random sample of members, fellows, affiliates and inceptors living in the UK or the Republic of Ireland. Results One thousand four hundred and seventy-six completed questionnaires were available for analysis, a response rate of 63%. The College was complemented for raising standards of education and training in psychiatry and criticised for not trying hard enough, or failing, to influence the policies of the Department of Health. A high proportion of respondents highly valued the British Journal of Psychiatry and Psychiatric Bulletin but few made use of the library. A high percentage of Irish, Welsh and Scottish members, and of members of the five smaller faculties, participated in and expressed their appreciation of the activities of the College. Implications Whatever its other failings the College is not dominated by general psychiatrists and their interests, or by London-based psychiatrists. It is surprisingly successful at involving Scottish, Welsh and Irish psychiatrists, and members of the smaller faculties, in its activities. To some extent, however, the faculties are thriving at the expense of the English divisions.


The gap between what conventional wisdom had to say about Asian economic prospects on the dawn of the Asian Crisis and what actually transpired is enormous. After the fact, analysis has focused on the build-up of short-term, unhedged foreign currency debt, which left the region vulnerable to a crisis of confidence that only awaited a trigger, such as an economic slowdown or weakening of exports, or indeed contagion from other economies, to be set in motion. Once underway, various factors that contribute to market volatility, such as herd behaviour of investors, are adduced to explain the actual course of the crisis, including the overshooting in financial markets. The macroeconomic event of the decade is generally seen and discussed as reflecting idiosyncrasies of Asian business culture, as a crisis of confidence, as a failure of institutional controls or as some combination of the above - factors that do not even appear as arguments in generally accepted "core" macroeconomic models. Metaphors for the crisis have been drawn from the weather ("storms"), nuclear physics ("meltdown"), biology ("flu", "contagion", "virulence"), and mass psychology ("panic" and "herd behaviour"), all of which are described by non-linear dynamical systems. The paper compares various statements about the Asian Crisis to descriptions of behaviour of non-linear dynamical systems. Preliminary conclusions about the utility of this line of research are drawn.


e15519Background: To date, there is no universally accepted method to accurately delineate the gross tumor volume (GTV) of primary esophageal cancer in patients undergoing radiotherapy (RT). This prospective study aims to determine the impact of PET/CT on RT planning and outcomes in patients with localized esophageal cancer. Methods: 57 eligible patients with localized esophageal cancer were recruited between June 2003 and May 2008. All underwent PET/CT scanning in the RT treatment position and received treatment planned using the PET/CT dataset. Of these, 13 (23%) had metastatic disease detected on PET and 3 patients had no radical RT, while another 3 patients had missing planning PET/CT data (excluded from planning component analysis). GTV was defined separately on PET/CT (GTV-PET) and CT (GTV-CT) data sets. A corresponding planning target volume (PTV) was generated for each patient. Volumetric and spatial analysis quantified the proportion of FDG-avid disease not included in CT-based volumes. Clinical ...


Please cite this paper as: Morens and Taubenberger. (2010) Historical thoughts on influenza viral ecosystems, or behold a pale horse, dead dogs, failing fowl, and sick swine. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses 4(6), 327–337.


Parents play a vital role in mediating children's media use, especially at a young age. We examined the link between the media use of younger children and the media use, attitude toward media, and parenting styles of parents. One thousand and twenty parents of children between 4 and 6 years of age completed a questionnaire on their media use, positive and negative attitudes on media, parenting styles, and the media use of their children. Multigroup structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. The results showed that there was a significant positive relation between the parent's media time and the child's daytime and nighttime media use. Additionally, the parent's positive attitude toward media use was positively related to the child's daytime media use, but not the child's nighttime media use, while the parent's negative attitude toward media was not associated with the child's daytime and nighttime media use. Further, among the seven parenting styles, material rewards and autonomy were positively associated with the child's daytime media use. Discipline was negatively related to the child's nighttime media use, whereas material rewards were positively associated with the child's nighttime media use. Collectively, the parent's positive attitude toward media use was the strongest predictor of the child's daytime media use, and material rewards were the strongest predictor of the child's nighttime media use. These results can be of significant use to inform policymakers, researchers, and parents regarding the development of parental guidelines on children's media use.


Different contents of Sasobit were blended into the base asphalt Pen 60/80.The 15 ℃,25 ℃ and 30 ℃ penetration,softening point,60 ℃,120 ℃ and 135 ℃ viscosity,constituents of the Sasobit modified asphalt were tested by using some conventional asphalt test methods,such as penetration test,viscosity test and constituent test.Rolling thin film oven test(RTFOT) and pressure aging vessel(PAV) test were used to simulate the short-term aging and long-term aging of the asphalt,the durability of Sasobit modified asphalt was analyzed.The molecular weight distributions and micro-properties of functional groups of the Sasobit modified asphalt were measured by using gel permeation chromatography(GPC) and infrared spectroscopy(IR).The influences of Sasobit on macroscopical properties,functional groups and molecular weight of asphalt were analyzed.The relations between micro-properties and macroscopical properties of the Sasobit modified asphalt were also qualitatively established.Results show that the chemical reactions exist in Sasobit,—OH,C—H of the base asphalt,which lead to emergence of the new C—O of aromatic series and eutectic structure between long-chain alkyl of Sasobit and asphalt wax.It makes the crystalloid structure,colloidal structure and constituent proportion change so that properties of the asphalt will be changed,thus,the high-temperature properties of the asphalt increase,but the low-temperature properties reduce.The changes in asphalt properties were consistent with the property changes of asphalt mixture after adding Sasobit.


Thirteen azomethines were tested against several pathogenic fungi. The fungistatic activity of the aldehyde constituent was more pronounced than the other components of the azomethines. The azomethine (3,4‐methylenedioxybenzylidene‐4‐carboxyaniline) and the component aldehyde, iperonal, were found to have high in vitro fungistatic potency while exhibiting low toxicity in mice.


Since Zipf, research on rank-size distribution of settlements has generally dealt with the upper tail of the distribution. Previously Turkish rank-size distribution was examined only for the upper part by DA¶kmeci and others. Parr had pointed on the similarity between the log-normal distribution and the rank size distribution at the upper tail. Within this paper the whole dataset of Turkish settlements (over 36.000 units) is employed for the period 1980-2000, thus, an analysis with no threshold population is undertaken. The results reveal a lognormal distribution. Furthermore the rank-size distribution from 1927 until present is also examined using a threshold of 1.000 population. With every successive census, the convex distribution of 1927 gradually evolves into a linear distribution reaching the slope of unity at the 1990Â's. For recent censuses there is a point of refraction at population size 2.000 which is the threshold population for municipal incorporation and it seems that the unnatural refraction is a sign of fraud in census caused by localities over-enumerating with the aim of municipal incorporation. Another focus is on proper delimitation of boundaries of settlements in order to eliminate the possible distortion caused by administrative boundaries irrelevant to the unity of settlements. Methods applying international standards of urban area delimitation to the Turkish context, urban-rural differentiation and proper selection of threshold figures are discussed. Also definitions of administrative units (provinces, districts) and settlement units (cities, towns, villages) are given for the Turkish legal system compared with other countries.


The significant healthcare discrepancy in China twenty years ago was astonishing. This abysmal situation was addressed by both the government through several Five-Year Plans and the NGOs like the Chinese Rural Kids Care. Eventually, these two measures did assist in this war toward adequate Chinese healthcare for the rural people.