Abstract Previous studies of the benefits of silicon (Si) supplementation in turfgrass have had inconsistent results. This study assessed the effect of Si supplementation on biomass production and Si accumulation of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) and bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera). Plants were grown in buffered Hoagland's media (pH 6) with four sodium silicate (Na2SiO4) treatments (0, 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 mM Si). The two species responded differently to Si supplementation in terms of biomass. For bentgrass, biomass was enhanced by Si supplementation, but only significantly (p < 0.05) at the highest concentration (4 mM Si). Lower Si concentrations (0.5, 1, and 2 mM Si) significantly increased biomass in tall fescue compared to control, but there was no increase in biomass at 4 mM Si. There was a positive linear relationship between Si concentrations in media and Si concentrations in tissue. At 4 mM Si, the Si concentrations in aboveground tissue of tall fescue and bentgrass averaged 24 and 30.5 g kg−1 dry mass, respectively. Elevated Si concentrations in growth media promoted formation of silica bodies. The highest Si rates (4 mM Si) resulted in the highest silica body areal coverage in leaves of both species. We observed two silica body morphologies (which we termed long and barbed). Our findings indicate that tall fescue is likely to benefit from Si supplementation when soil pore water dissolved Si is below 0.5 mM, but increases in soil pore water dissolved Si above 2 mM are unlikely to increase biomass. In contrast, benefits in bentgrass may only be realized if dissolved Si in pore water is increased to 4 mM.


For reducing the impairment from the turbulence-induced scintillation and improving the receiver sensitivity, a novel coherent optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) system for free space optical (FSO) communication is proposed. Based on the scheme designed, the laser is modulated by phase shift keying and demodulated without the help of local laser. The error probability expression over atmospheric channels is derived. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, and the performance of the novel proposed scheme is much better than that of the traditional coherent OCDMA system in overcoming the phase fluctuation. Therefore, the scheme is more suitable for multi-user access FSO communication in atmospheric turbulence channel.


: With the rapid development of China's social economy, computer monitoring technology and network communication technology can bring earth-shaking changes to the development of all walks of life. With the development of computer monitoring and remote communication technology, remote centralized control of river basin cascade hydropower stations plays an important role in optimizing production, improving management level and comprehensive benefits. Based on real-time data, through the establishment of a centralized control center for hydropower stations, the dam safety automatic monitoring system and the water regulation automatic system can be integrated together to give full play to the social and economic benefits of the project. It has laid a solid foundation for the research and implementation of remote centralized control mode and operation and maintenance assistant decision-making for the construction of multi-basin cascade hydropower stations in China.


Every building that has electrical installations for lighting as well as computer labor and electronic devices must have and be connected to an earthing system. This grounding system is intended so that humans, electrical installations, electrical equipment and computers in the building can avoid the danger of electric short circuits caused by lightning strikes. According to the general electrical installation regulation standard (PUIL) to avoid the danger of lightning strikes in a building, a ground resist ance value of < 1Ω is required. Several factors that affect the value of the grounding system include the number of electrodes planted, the depth of planting the electrodes, the distance between the implanted electrodes, the type of condition. soil and electrode rod size. In measuring the value of grounding resistance in the Faculty of Sports Science, Padang State University using a rod electrode with a diameter of 5/8 inch or 0.0158


The aim of this study is to identify role of 3D echocardiographic assessment of RV volumes and function in infants with critical pulmonary stenosis undergoing balloon pulmonary valvuloplasty pre and post dilatation, the immediate and intermediate term outcome of relieving obstruction on RV volumes

 The study included all infants who were referred for elective or urgent BPV in the congenital and structural heart disease Unit, Cardiology department, Ain Shams University because of critical pulmonary stenosis and are followed for 3-6 months after the procedure since first of December 2020 till end of august 2021.

 sixty infants with critical PS with a median age of 8.5 months were subjected to BPV, immediately after the procedure there was significant reduction in RVSP (P < 0.01), there was significant increase in TAPSE, Annulus and FAC by 2D echocardiography immediately post procedure and at 3-6 month follow up (P < 0.01), while there was significant decrease in PG immediately post procedure and throughout a follow up period of 3-6 month (P < 0.01), The indexed RV wall thickness and indexed RA area showed no significant change between pre and immediately post procedure while there was significant decrease at 3-6 month than pre and immediately post (P < 0.01), The indexed End-Diastolic and End systolic volumes by 3D Echocardiography decreased insignificantly immediately post procedure (P = 0.421) (P = 0.317) respectively while it decreased significantly at 3-6 month follow up (P < 0.05), The right ventricle Ejection fraction, FAC and TAPSE by 3D echocardiography increased significantly immediately post procedure and throughout a follow up period of 3-6 month (P < 0.01), The Basal RV dimension by 3D echocardiography decreased insignificantly immediately post procedure (P = 0.057)while there was significant decrease at 3-6 month than pre and immediately post (P < 0.01), The mid RV dimension and Longitudinal RV dimension by 3D Echocardiography decreased significantly immediately post procedure and at 3-6 month follow up (P < 0.01).

 BPV is safe and effective to relieve critical PS. The balloon promotes advantageous changes in pulmonary annulus RVSP, PG and FAC by two dimensional echo across the RVOT. In addition, the Doppler gradient observations during the follow-up support the expectation that BPV is a 'curative' therapy and Three-dimensional echocardiography is an effective method to assess RV volumes and function

 RV: Right ventricle; CHD: Congenital heart disease; BPV: Balloon pulmonary valvuloplasty; LV: Left ventricle; PS: Pulmonary stenosis; HF: Heart failure; RVSP: Right ventricle systolic pressure; ASD: Atrial septal defect; TAPSE: Tricuspid annular peak systolic excursion; PFO: patent foramen ovale; FAC: Fractional area change; VSD: Ventricular septal defect; PG: Pressure gradient; PDA: patent ductus arterioses; RA: Right atrium; RVES: Right ventricle end systole; RVOT: Right ventricle outflow tract; RVED: Right ventricle end diastole; CMR: Cardiac magnetic resonance


Abstract This paper presents methods for generating new distortion functions utilising distribution functions and composite distribution functions. To ensure the coherency of the corresponding distortion risk measures, the concavity of the proposed distortion functions is established by restricting the parameter space of the generating distribution. Closed-form expressions for risk measures are derived for some cases. Numerical and graphical results are presented to demonstrate the effects of parameter values on the risk measures for exponential, Pareto and log-normal losses. In addition, we apply the proposed distortion functions to derive risk measures for a segregated fund guarantee.


A medium was prepared by adding the nutritious substances of mycoplasma and agar to heart digest of beef.It is used for inoculating the samples to detect mycoplasma.The media formula was determined based on sensitivity and detecting applicability.It can be used to detect the mycoplasma in serum, trypsines,cells and vaccines repectively.The results indicated this detecting method is high sensitivity,good repetition and short time for testing period.It is suitablely to be used for quality control in biological products.


The assessment of creative coding is challenging in the credibility due to aesthetic reason. It also suffers from manual workload for the large number of enrollments in open online courses. We propose an online open up-vote assessment to tangle the above challenges. Our work has three contributions. First, we propose an approach to assessing creative coding by using online up-vote system in a crowd-sourcing way. Second, a scoring model has been established to convert the number of up-votes and views of creative works into the Wilson Score; the lines of creative codes were combined to evaluate the works on a scale from 0 to 10 points. Third, the scoring quality is evaluated by using real data set which is collected with 337 real-world creative codes and 9 sets of independent scores to them by teachers. The results show that the up-vote assessment has very tight tendency to the scores from teacher. Our work indicates that open online up-vote assessment can be trusted as a flexible and reliable way to evaluate creative works.


This study was carried out to evaluate the growth performance, water consumption and retention of dromedary camel fed diets containing varying levels of dried Faidherbia albida ( F. Albida ) leaves. Four male camels weighing an average of 228.51kg were randomly allocated to 4 diets containing 0, 10, 20 and 30% dried F. Albida leaves in a 4 x 4 Latin Square Design. The results obtained showed that there were significant (P<0.05) effect of diets on the camels. The final weight of camels fed diets containing 20 and 30% levels of inclusion of dried F. Albida leaves were at par (255 vs 252kg). However, the total weight gain, average daily weight gain (ADWG) and feed conversion ratio were significantly higher (P<0.05) in camels fed 20% inclusion level of dried F. albida leaves compared with other diets. Water retention per day was significantly higher (P<0.05) in camels fed diets containing dried F. albida leaves compared to the control. In conclusion, dried F. albida leaves can be included in the diets of camels up to 30% without detrimental effect on growth performance and health of camels in the northern guinea savannah of Nigeria


Instruction Basic Component -Class library – Processor, Memory, I/O, Interconnect Elements and their specialisations -Component services Sub-system -Composite Structure Diagram consisting of instances of Basic Components -Generic and Domain-specific Services (implementations) -API Platform -Composite Structure Diagram consisting of instances of Sub-systems -Services = composition of Sub-system services -API = composition of Sub-system APIs Ordered set + Control


This study is concerned with the problem of H
 ∞
-integral sliding mode control (SMC) for one-sided Lipschitz (OSL) non-linear systems. Unmatched norm-bounded uncertainties and disturbances are considered. The design procedure gathers the high robustness qualities of the SMC and the H
 ∞
 measure performance. Initially, the solvability condition for the integral sliding surface is established and new sufficient linear matrix inequality (LMI) condition is derived such that the sliding mode dynamics is robust exponentially stable and has a L
 2
 disturbance attenuation performance. Then, an appropriate SMC law is synthesised to force the states of the system towards the sliding surface in finite time and to maintain a sliding motion on it thereafter. At last, two simulation examples are provided to prove the feasibility of the proposed method.


Effective means of improving Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) immunogenicity to protect against pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is needed, especially among people living with HIV. Intravenous (IV) administration of BCG previously showed significant enhancement of immune responses and conferred ~75% protection against TB. Using our SIV/M. tuberculosis (Mtb) coinfection model (to mimic HIV/Mtb coinfection) in Mauritius cynomolgus macaques (MCM), we evaluated the length of time necessary for live BCG to elicit a protective immune responses by varying the timing of anti-BCG drug (isoniazid, rifampicin, and ethambutol: HRE) initiation. MCM were infected with SIVmac239 and randomly assigned into 4 different vaccination groups 16 weeks after SIV infection: intradermal BCG (BCG ID No HRE), BCG IV with HRE started 1 week post BCG (BCG IV 1wk HRE), BCG IV with HRE started 3 weeks post BCG (BCG IV 3wks HRE), and BCG IV without HRE treatment (BCG IV No HRE). The HRE treatment lasted for 8 weeks. Airways samples were collected by bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), whereas lung tissue and lymph node were harvested at necropsy in a subset of BCG ID and BCG IV 3wks vaccinated MCM 20 weeks after BCG but before (Mtb) challenge. The remaining MCM were challenged with Mtb Erdman strain (~15 CFU). CD4 and CD8 T cell levels increased in BAL in all IV vaccinated MCM. CD4 T cells producing IFNg, IL-2, IL-17, and TNF peaked after BCG and were maintained until necropsy. There were increased tissue-resident T cells and cytokine production in lungs of IV vaccinated MCM compared to BCG ID. No signs of BCG dissemination were apparent in any IV vaccinated MCM. We are currently evaluating protection against infection and disease in the SIV+ MCM in each vaccination group.
 Supported by grant NIH (R01 AI155345)


AIM To study the mechanisms of oridonin-induced HeLa cell apoptosis. METHODS Morphological observation, agarose gel electrophoresis, LDH release and caspase inhibitors were used. RESULTS Oridonin had significant apoptotic effect on HeLa cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The marked morphological changes including condensed chromatin, nuclear fragmentation and apoptotic bodies and DNA ladder in agarose gel was observed. The activity of caspase-3 was increased about 2 times of control value after treatment with oridonin. CONCLUSION Oridonin induces HeLa cell apoptosis through caspase pathway.


The Environment, Safety and Health Division of the U.S. Department of Energy, Nevada Operations Office implements the Ecological Monitoring and Compliance Program on the Nevada Test Site (NTS). This program ensures compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations, delineates and describes NTS ecosystems, and provides ecological information for predicting and evaluating potential impacts of proposed projects on those ecosystems. Over the last several decades, has taken an active role in providing information on the tatus of plant species proposed for protection under the Endangered Species Act(ESA). One such species is Clokey's eggvetch (Astragalus oophorus var. clokeyanus), which is a candidate species under the listing guidelines of the ESA. Surveys for this species were conducted on the NTS in 1996, 1997, and 1998. Field surveys focused on potential habitat for this species in the southern Belted range and expanded to other areas with similar habitat. Over 30 survey day s were completed; five survey days in 1996, 25 survey days in 1997, and three survey days in 1998. Clokey's eggvetch was located at several sites in the southern Belted Range. It was found through much of the northern section of Kawich Canyon, one site at the head of Gritty Gulch, and a rather extensive location in Lambs Canyon. It was also located further south at Captain Jack Springs in the Eleana Range, in much of Falcon Canyon and around Echo Peak on Pahute Mesa, and was also found in the Timber and Shoshone Mountains. Overall, the locations of Clokey's eggvetch on the NTS appears to form a distinct bridge between populations of the species located further north in the Belted and Kawich Ranges and the population located in the Spring Mountains. Clokey's eggvetch was commonly found along washes and small draws, and typically in sandy loam soils with a covering of light tuffaceous rock. It occurs primarily above 1830 meters (6000 feet) in association with single-leaf pinyon (Pinus monophylla), Utah juniper (Juniperus osteosperma), and big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. tridentata). Overall, the populations of Clokey's eggvetch on the NTS appear to be vigorous and do not appear threatened. It is estimated that there are approximately 2300 plants on the NTS. It should be considered as a species of concern because of its localized distribution, but it does not appear to warrant protection under the ESA.


The paper describes methods for simulation management of developing global social and economic systems as well as the principles of circular economy in view of the new global world order based on identifying the main goals and strategies to achieve them. On the basis of the UN data, the new global system of humanity and goals of countries are analyzed. The changes in the pre-existing Westphalian world order system are highlighted. It is concluded that a new world order has been established on the planet. Its specific features are determined. A simulation model of the world order management is developed that takes into account the results of the system analysis of natural functions of countries, including Russia's economic development strategy, based on the study of economic, industrial and social indices that have particular quantitative values. Certain economic, technological and erroneous chaotic factors affecting the quantitative characteristic of the balance of powers in the world are examined.


a fairly definite positive correlation between health and parental efficiency. Lowered parental efficiency may manifest itself in inadequate general care and cleanliness of children just as frequently as in the choice of improper and badly cooked diet. In no respect is parental control of greater importance to the child than in the insistence on adequate and regular hours of sleep. As the health of any nation depends on parental efficiency, child welfare departments must continue their struggle against great odds to teach parents of the present generation the importance of health ; must teach them what a condition of health implies, and the means to employ for the maintenance of health, and the active prevention of illness. The parents of the present generation have been themselves so badly brought up that they are very difficult to teach. The best object that we can have in view, however, is the attainment of parental efficiency in the next generation of parents. When all girls have a suitable grounding at school in hygiene, nutrition and mothercraft, including cooking and wise spending, half the work of child welfare centres will not be needed, while the other half of the work will be infinitely more efficacious than it is at present. When health is taught to all children in a practical way all through school life, beginning in the nursery school, child welfare departments will cease to be needed.


Abstract : Functionally graded materials are studied with emphasis on fracture resistance behavior and piezoelectric performance. Several types of metal/ceramic FGM plates are processed and their fracture resistance, Kr as a function of crack length was examined experimentally. The Kr behavior of the FGM plates are explained by two models successfully. Then, a new type of piezoelectric FGM plates are designed by using several models, classical lamination theory, 2D elasticity model and FEM. Based on these models, the optimum microstructure of the FGM layering was identified, leading to larger out-of-plane displacement under the applied electric field, while minimizing the induced stress field, thus, enhancing its fatigue life. The optimum microstructure of the FGM is composed of a number of composite layers(laminae) through the plate thickness such that the top half layering is symmetric with respect to the mid-plane where the electrodes are located at the top, bottom as well as in the mid-plane. Based on the above optimization of the FGM layering, we designed a FGM laminate plate where each lamina consists of continuous piezo fiber composite, and performed rigorous FEM analysis. Finally, concluding remarks and future works are given.


In this work we present a formal comparative over the computational complexity of two edge detectors, in one hand the Canny Edges Detector and on the other an edges detector based on Rough Sets Theory which has been proved as very efficient from the results point of view, so we are now interested in their performances, i.e., we have developed an analysis from the computational point of view. To develop such study we have used ROSA Analyser tool which generates the Labelled Transition System, LTS, corresponding to a process specified in the Markovian Process Algebra ROSA. ROSA Analyser takes as input the syntactical representation of the process and once its syntactical structure has been properly layered represented -internally- by the tool, it applies the Operational Semantics of ROSA, so producing the corresponding LTS, which shows all the possible behaviours of the system we are interested in. A clear advantage, also from the computational point of view, of the encoder using Rough Sets Theory has been found.


Moving-object detection is one of the basic and most active research domains in the field of computer vision. This paper proposes a novel and efficient approach for moving object detection under a static background. Proposed approach first performs pre-processing tasks to remove noise from video frames. Secondly, it finds the difference between the current frame and previous consecutive frame as well as current frame and next consecutive frame separately. The algorithm then selects the maximum pixel intensity value between both the difference frames, which we consider as an improvement over the previous approaches. Next we divide the resultant difference frame into non-overlapping blocks and calculate the intensity sum and mean of each block. Subsequently, it finds the foreground and background pixels of each block using threshold and intensity mean. In the next step morphology operation along with connected component analysis are applied to correctly detect the target objects. The proposed approach is accurate for detecting the moving object with varying object size and numbers. This work has been formulated, implemented and tested on real video data sets and the results are found to be satisfactory as it evident from the performance analysis.


Islah. 2008. The Mastery in Making Reported Speech of the Twelfth Grade Students at Islamic Senior High School 4 Martapura Academic Year 2007/2008. Thesis, English Department. Islamic Education Faculty. Advisors: (I) Drs. H. Syarifuddin Syukur, M.A. (II) Drs. Sa'adillah

Reported speech is one of important components of English grammar. The reported speech is not only used in written but also in spoken English. Thus, the mastery in making the sentence must be mastered by students in learning English.
This research is intended to know about the degree of the mastery in making reported speech of the twelfth grade students at Islamic Senior High School 4 Martapura academic year 2007/2008. The formulation of problem in this research is how is the degree of the mastery in making reported speech of the twelfth grade students at Islamic Senior High School 4 Martapura academic year 2007/2008.
The subject in this research are the twelfth grade students at Islamic Senior High School 4 Martapura, who have studied in class XII, in academic year 2007/2008, whose number are 47 students, that are divided into two classes, XII Natural Science Program Class and XII Social Class. The object in this research is the mastery in making reported speech of the twelfth grade students at Islamic Senior High School 4 Martapura academic year 2007/2008.
The data of this research are collected through written test, interview, observation, and documentary. All collected data are then processed systematically through editing, coding, scoring, tabulating, and data interpretation. After that, all the data are analyzed descriptively and qualitatively and concluded by using inductive method.
The result of this research indicates that the degree of the mastery in making reported speech of the twelfth grade students at Islamic Senior High School 4 Martapura academic year 2007/2008 is generally in poor category. It is known from the mean (the average score) of the students had from two types of test, that is 31, 53, which means poor. There are still most of students can not understand about the patterns of reported speech. Especially, in changing reported speech into direct speech.


The first heterobimetallic Pd-Sc complex featuring a very short Pd→Sc dative bond was synthesized and characterized by multiple NMR spectroscopic methods, X-Ray diffraction studies and electrochemistry. Computational studies elucidated the nature of Pd→Sc bond as a donor-acceptor interaction, which generates a more electron deficient Pd(0) metal center as compare to the mono Pd(0) complex in their reactions with isonitrile and carbon monoxide. Cooperative reactivity was demonstrated in the reaction with MeI.


Objective To investigate the clinical curative effect and mechanism of nerve growth factor(m NGF) combined with immune globulin(IVIG) in treatment of children with Guillain-Barre syndrome(GBS). Methods According to parity digital method,70 cases of GBS patients were randomly divided into control group and observation group,35 cases in each group. The control group only took IVIG treatment,and the observation group based on the treatment of control group took m NGF treatment. Two groups were compared from different aspects,including clinical efficacy,muscle strength grade of upper and lower limbs before and after treatment,recovery time of clinical symptoms,Hughes score before and after treatment,limbs function before and after treatment,the levels of interleukin 12(IL-12) and interleukin 18(IL-18),and incidence of the adverse reaction. Results The total clinical effective rate of the observation group was 94. 29%,and was significantly higher than that of the control group(74. 29%)(P 0. 05);after treatment,muscle strength grades of upper and lower limbs in two groups significantly increased(P 0. 05),and muscle strength grade of upper and lower limbs in observation group was significantly higher than that of control group(P 0. 05); in observation group,recovery time of respiratory muscle paralysis,muscle strength of limbs,muscle tension,tendon reflexes,sensory disturbance and pain in the limbs was significantly less than that of the control group(P 0. 05); after treatment,Hughes score of limbs function in two groups significantly decreased(P 0. 05),and Hughes score of limbs in observation group was significantly lower than that of control group(P 0. 05); after treatment,the serum IL-12 and IL-18 levels significantly decreased(P 0. 05),and serum IL-12 and IL-18 levels of observation group were significantly lower than that of control group(P 0. 05); None adverse reactions occurred in two groups in the course of treatment. Conclusion the curative effect of m NGF combined with IVIG in the treatment of children with GBS is significant,and its mechanism may be related to the decrease of serum cytokines(IL-12,IL-18) level.


The special subject study is a very complicated activity with much misunderstanding in the teaching practice of science majors.Exemplify by practice teaching of "Electromagnetic Field and Electromagnetic Wave Curriculum",this research puts the practice into four stages of clarifying the teaching objective,choosing the research project,working out the research design and evaluating the research achievement.And it further explores the strategies for the teacher's role of opaque guidance during each stage,thereby,offering examples to carry out the practice of special subject study.


Following subcutaneous transplantation of normal renal medulla to renal hypertensive rats there was a long-lasting depression of the blood pressure. There was no further depression after a second transplantation. Transplantation of medulla from the ischemic kidney of renal hypertensive donors, produced a similar depression of the blood pressure, whereas medulla from the untouched kidney had little effect. Subcutaneous implantation of gelatine sponge, sham operation and transplantation of normal renal cortex all produced only short-lasting depressions of the blood pressure. Blood pressure measured in the afternoon was significantly lower than in the morning, both in normal and in renal hypertensive rats. The higher the blood pressure level, the more marked was this absolute difference.


At the May 2018 meeting we recognized three well-respected and long-serving members of the board for their terms of service and bid them farewell: Renee Lonner, licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) member appointed in 2007; Sarita Kohli, licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT) member appointed in 2011; and Samara Ashley, public member, appointed in 2010. Their many years of experience and valuable contributions to the board will be missed. I am very pleased to announce that Jonathan Maddox, LMFT member, was unanimously confirmed by the full Senate on June 4, 2018 and Massimiliano "Max" Disposti, public member, was elected by the board to serve as the board's vice chair.


A biosensor comprises a signal detector and a simulated competition object, wherein the signal detector is provided with a sensing unit for sensing signal change; the surface of the sensing unit is irreversibly connected with a specific identification body of a to-be-detected target object; the simulated competition object comprises nanoparticles and competition molecules fixed on the surfaces of the nanoparticles; the competition molecules and the specific identification body have specific affinity action; and the simulated competition object can form a colloid solution and can be irreversibly captured on the surface of the sensing unit. The invention also provides a biological detection method. According to the biosensor and the biological detection method, which are provided by the invention, convenient electrified simulated competition objection construction on the to-be-detected target object which is uncharged or has low-quantity electricity can be realized, and universal mark-free detection on the to-be-detected target object which is uncharged or has low-quantity electricity is realized through the competitive affinity action.


Nacrtak In central Italy, the increasing demand for fuel chips and the epidemic spread of maritime pine bast scale have favored the development of large-scale industrial logging operations. After years of extensive commercial trials, local operators have developed their own industrial harvesting systems, through a wise mix of Scandinavian and North American methods. The result is original and effective, and allows keeping harvesting cost below 20 gt–1. The study compared terrain chipping with roadside chipping, as applied to the coastal pine stands of Tuscany. Under the conditions of our study, roadside chipping was over four times more productive than terrain chipping, and it allowed reducing harvesting cost by one third (12.3 vs. 18.3 gt–1). Despite the intense use of diesel, total fossil energy inputs accounted for less than 3% of the potential energy in the wood chips. Terrain chipping and roadside chipping yielded 36 and 47 times the energy they used, respectively. The coexistence of the two systems was most interesting. The harvesting systems described in the study perform best in clear-cuts, but they can also work in partial cuts, including thinning operations. They are actually used in thinnings in the same Regional Park of San Rossore, although their productivity is lower than in clear-cuts.


Copies of TRI reporting forms for facilities to use as a reference. Electronic reporting using TRI-MEweb is required for all TRI reporting except trade secret claims.


In this work, a facile approach was developed for producing stable Ag–Fe2O3/Fe superhydrophobic surfaces (SHSs) with dendritic structures. The hierarchical structures were fabricated on iron substrates through etching in a hydrochloric acid aqueous solution and a simple replacement deposition process was carried out without any organic modification, followed by annealing. The contact angle can reach 164 ± 1° and the sliding angle is almost 2 ± 1°. By comparison, the catalytic properties of the hydrophilic sample and SHS were examined. The SHS exhibited excellent catalytic performance. The rate constant of SHS was 3.00 × 10−3 s−1, which was about three times higher than that of the hydrophilic sample without annealing, and the degradation rate was maintained above 90% after ten recycles. The experimental results showed that the as-prepared SHSs exhibited excellent catalytic, self-cleaning, anti-corrosion, and anti-icing properties.


The shoulder joint is the most mobile joint in the body. It performs movements in different directions and can easily be injured due to any repeated movements, participation in sports or any labor work. Shoulder pain is one of the most important complaint due to which teachers apply for retirement before time. The aim of the study was to determine frequency of shoulder pain in school teachers of Lahore, Pakistan.
Methods: It was an observational study in which thousand school teachers were given self-administered Performa. Schools were selected randomly. The data analysis was done by using SPSS 21 version.
Results: The prevalence of shoulder pain came out to be 306 (30.6%). The number of teachers teaching from five years was 577 (57.7%) and the mean age calculated was 30.86.
Conclusion: This study concluded high prevalence of shoulder pain in school teachers.


In this work, we propose and demonstrate a micro-polishing-fiber (MPF)-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor. The structure of the sensor is simple and consists of three layers of regular air holes and two small air holes. The sensitivity seldom depends on the sizes of the air holes, which leads to a sensor with high structure tolerance. A tiny polishing depth ensures the mechanical strength of the polished fiber. There are three decisive factors for mass production and application of the sensor. A thin layer of indium tin oxide (ITO) film is applied to the polished surface to excite plasmonic interactions and facilitate refractive index (RI) detection. The SPR sensor is designed and analyzed by the finite element method (FEM), and optimized in terms of the air holes' diameter, the ITO film thickness, and the core-to-surface interval. In the wide detection range between 1.32 and 1.39, the wavelength sensitivity can reach up to 11,600 nm/RIU. The MPF–SPR sensor exhibits great potential in the fields of optics, biomedicine, and chemistry.


This paper presents a study that examines the use of human resource management (HRM) practices and factors influencing the adoption of HRM practices in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using a multiple-case study method, HRM in SMEs was explored by comparing 12 small and medium-sized and 12 large semiconductor design firms. The findings show that there is considerable homogeneity across the firms in relation to their use of human resources (HR) practices providing support for the insights based on the new institutionalism. The factors leading to the homogeneity HRM are discussed. It is argued that theory-based empirical research on HRM in SMEs within the same industry enable us move towards a systematic understanding and explanation of HRM in SMEs.


Eective recombination coecients are given for C ii transitions between doublet states. The cal- culations are carried out in the temperature range 500 20 000 K and for an electron density of 10 4 cm 3 . The eects of electron collisions on the excited states are included. The necessary bound-bound and bound-free radiative data are obtained from a new R-matrix cal- culation in which photoionization resonances are fully delineated, thereby accurately incorporating the eects of both radiative and dielectronic recombination. The R-matrix calculation includes all bound states with principal quantum number n 15 and total orbital angular momentum L 4. The eect of moving the resonance features to their experimentally determined positions is also investigated and found to be important at low temperatures.


The single-layered paint-spraying paper based microfluidic devices (sp-μPADs) have been for the first time integrated with the colorimetric assay. The polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) board was applied as the mask instead of the iron mask, reducing the power requirement of the cutting machine. The paint was sprayed into the paper, which blocked the pores of the paper and constructed the hydrophobic barrier on the paper. The paint barrier was highly resistant to the various kind of chemicals and the minimum channel dimensions was 1.4 mm. By using the PMMA masks with different designs, the sp-μPADs with different designs have been fabricated and successfully applied to the single analyte assay of iron or bovine serum albumin (BSA) and the simultaneous assay of copper and nickel. Moreover, the feasibility of the multiplexed assay of eight analytes was also demonstrated. The analytical performances indicated that the fabricated sp-μPADs offered a promising platform in the colorimetric assays of either single or multiple analytes.


The invention is suitable for the image processing field, and provides a portrait deformation method and device. The method comprises steps: a picture containing a portrait is read; face characteristics of the portrait in the picture are detected; the detected face characteristics are subjected to deformation according to preset control points, corresponding deformation fields are obtained, and the number of the preset control points is more than 1; the corresponding deformation fields are applied in the picture, and the picture is converted into a deformed picture. Through the method, the line of the deformed portrait is continuous.


Microwave dielectric ceramics composed of Na1+xSrB5O9+0.5x (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.125) were synthesized via a traditional solid-state reaction approach. The effects of non-stoichiometric Na on the crystal structures, phase compositions, chemical bond characteristics, and microwave dielectric properties of the Na1+xSrB5O9+0.5x ceramics were systematically studied. All Na1+xSrB5O9+0.5x ceramics sintered at optimum temperatures consisted of a NaSrB5O9 solid-solution phase and a SrB2O4 phase. Appropriate excess Na could suppress the generation of the SrB2O4 phase, and the lowest content of the SrB2O4 phase was achieved at x = 0.075. The εr values of the Na1+xSrB5O9+0.5x ceramics were primarily affected by the relative density and molecular polarization. The Q × f values showed a positive correlation with the lattice energy. The τf value was correlated to the SrB2O4 phase content, bond valence, and bond energy. Typically, the Na1.075SrB5O9.0375 ceramic sintered at 825 °C possessed good microwave dielectric properties of εr = 5.61, Q × f = 31, 937 GHz, and τf = −3.09 ppm/°C, which are suitable for high-frequency, low-temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCCs) substrate applications.


This article uses Voydanoff's "differential salience-comparable salience" approach to examine the effects of work and family demands and resources on positive and negative spillovers between work a...


Austenitic stainless steels were produced based on a Fe-23mass%Cr-4mass%Ni alloy with varying nitrogen (0.7–1mass%) and molybdenum contents (0–1mass%), through electro-slag remelting (ESR) under high nitrogen gas pressure. The effects of nitrogen on crevice corrosion behavior in an acidic chloride solution were investigated, and the passive film of the crevice corrosion area after corrosion tests was analyzed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). At the same time, the effects of nitrogen on the passivation behaviors after scratching were also investigated. During crevice corrosion at a noble potential of 0.7V (SCE), the nitrogen in solid solution in the steel dissolves into the solution as NO3 , and its concentration increases with the nitrogen content in the steel. It was also established that the number of corrosion spots, the corrosion loss, and the maximum depth of corrosion all decrease with the increase in the nitrogen content present in the steel and the applied potential. Such results can be attributed to the presence of NO3 dissolved into the aqueous solution. On the other hand, results from scratch tests show that the increase in the amount of added nitrogen decreases the peak value of passivation current as well as the amount of electricity during repassivation, suggesting that nitrogen stimulates the passivation process and suppresses the occurrence of crevice corrosion. XPS analysis shows the presence of nitrogen as nitrides and NH3 in the surface layer of crevice corrosion and the internal layer of passivation films. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.MRA2007273]


In the practice of data management, different user communities often use different forms of data and metadata, support different operations, and implement different policies. For example, forms of data include blocks, tuples, streams, time series, and so forth, while forms of metadata include different vocabularies, schemas, and namespaces. In addition, the forms of data and metadata often change over time. The diverse and emergent nature of these requirements pose to data management systems a challenge which traditional file systems with fixed functionality have become inadequate to address. Extensible file systems can be built via policy-based data management. We describe the practical and theoretical aspects of policy-based data management and provide a wide range of examples of prototypical and production applications of the integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS) in data grids that apply this type of file system.


Synergistic inhibition effect plays a very important role in inhibitor science.In the present paper,the synergistic system is divided into seven parts in order to fully review on the synergistic inhibition effect,and each part is briefly described and examples from the literature are cited.The prospect is also looked forward to the future in this field.


level. Propositions were created from the essences of each participant's dialogue. Core concepts were identified through dwelling with the propositions from all participants. A structure that answered the research question was generated from the core concepts. Heuristic Interpretation 51 Heuristic interpretation (Parse, 1987, 1992, 1995b) for this study on feeling alone while with others intertwined the structure with the.theory and beyond. The structure of this lived experience was connected to the theory of human becoming through interpretation at higher levels of abstraction. Through structural integration the researcher moved the structure of the lived experience to the next level of abstraction. Through conceptual interpretation the researcher connected the structure of the lived experience with the concepts from the principles of the human becoming theory, forming a specific theoretical structure. The processes of structural integration and conceptual interpretation created new possibles for research and practice. Rigor and Credibility Burns (1989) describes five standards to ensure scientific rigor. The five standards are: (a) descriptive vividness; (b) methodological congruence; (c) analytic preciseness; (d) theoretical connectedness; and (e) heuristic relevance. Descriptive vividness requires a clear, context specific description of the research that gives the reader a


Abstract MR image‐guided radiotherapy has the potential to improve patient care, but integration of an MRI scanner with a linear accelerator adds complexity to the commissioning process. This work describes a single institution experience of commissioning an Elekta Unity MR‐linac, including mechanical testing, MRI scanner commissioning, and dosimetric validation. Mechanical testing included multileaf collimator (MLC) positional accuracy, measurement of radiation isocenter diameter, and MR‐to‐MV coincidence. Key MRI tests included magnetic field homogeneity, geometric accuracy, image quality, and the accuracy of navigator‐triggered imaging for motion management. Dosimetric validation consisted of comparison between measured and calculated PDDs and profiles, IMRT measurements, and end‐to‐end testing. Multileaf collimator positional accuracy was within 1.0 mm, the measured radiation isocenter walkout was 0.20 mm, and the coincidence between MR and MV isocenter was 1.06 mm, which is accounted for in the treatment planning system (TPS). For a 350‐mm‐diameter spherical volume, the peak‐to‐peak deviation of the magnetic field homogeneity was 4.44 ppm and the geometric distortion was 0.8 mm. All image quality metrics were within ACR recommendations. Navigator‐triggered images showed a maximum deviation of 0.42, 0.75, and 3.0 mm in the target centroid location compared to the stationary target for a 20 mm motion at 10, 15, and 20 breaths per minute, respectively. TPS‐calculated PDDs and profiles showed excellent agreement with measurement. The gamma passing rate for IMRT plans was 98.4 ± 1.1% (3%/ 2 mm) and end‐to‐end testing of adapted plans showed agreement within 0.4% between ion‐chamber measurement and TPS calculation. All credentialing criteria were satisfied in an independent end‐to‐end test using an IROC MRgRT phantom.


Figure 4. Immunoblot of oocyte membrane proteins probed with an affinity-purified antibody against 15 COOHterminal amino acids ofAQP2. Oocytes were injected with water (Control), wild-type AQP2CRNA(Wild-type), or mutated AQP2CRNA. After 48 hours, the membranefraction of oocytes was separated by SDS-PAGEand transferred to a nylon filter. The filter was incubated with an antibody against AQP2, and further incubated with 125I-protein A, followed by autoradiography.


Parametric roll on ships is an auto-parametric resonance phenomenon whose onset causes a sudden rise in roll oscillations leading to dangerous situations for the ship, the cargo and the crew. In the paper, we have numerically investigated the effect of modifying the heading angle on the roll amplitudes. We followed three strategies. In the first, we allowed the heading angle to decrease with a constant angular acceleration so that the encounter frequency has left the dangerous region of the resonance. However, this option involves changing the course of the ship in the long run, which is of course a shortcoming. In the second strategy, we changed the heading angle up and down around an average value that generates large roll amplitudes, by using different periodic sinusoidal or triangular profiles. The beneficial effect of this action is to keep the course, even if at the cost of a momentary delay. We noticed that both control techniques listed above generally managed to significantly reduce the roll amplitudes if certain thresholds have been exceeded. As a last idea for decreasing the parametric roll amplitudes, we used the combined effect of ship forward speed and heading angle change.


This paper is aimed at investigating the charge simulation technique for field calculation when applied to a positive conductor-to-plane geometry, where the electric field at the conductor surface is controlled via a floating (shield) wire positioned parallel and underneath the conductor. With positively-stressed conductor, the wire picks up a positive potential determined by its location with respect to the stressed conductor and shields the conductor. Subsequently, the onset voltage of corona on the stressed conductor increases by the presence of the floating wire. However, the calculated electric field at the conductor surfaces increases and the corona onset voltage decreases with the presence of the floating wire. This does not conform to the mentioned shielding effect and is considered a pitfall of charge simulation technique. The analysis of such pitfall will be the core of the present paper


The letters that appeared in response to Victor J Stenger's review of Francis Collins' book The Language of God (December 2006 p18) – as well as Stenger's review itself – all miss a key point.


Such as macular pigment, a method of making a device is provided a Raman image of carotenoids and related chemical substances in biological tissue. The method and apparatus utilizing techniques of resonance Raman spectroscopy, to create an image of the levels of carotenoids and similar substances in tissue. In this technique, light, such as the retina of the eye, is directed onto the tissue region of interest. Small portion of the scattered light is scattered inelastically, and generates a Raman signal of carotenoids in different frequency than the incident light. Raman signal in order to determine the spatial position and intensity of the Raman signal in inelastic scattering light, is collected, filtered, and analyzed. Then, the image of the Raman signal is created on the output device, the image represents the spatial distribution and concentration levels of carotenoids in the tissue.


Acute pancreatitis is an autodigestive disease, in which digestive enzymes produced by the pancreas destroy the gland. Opie and Meakins [29] proposed that it is trypsin that causes the tissue injury. However, it seems more probable that phospholipase A2 might be the enzyme responsible for autodigestion in acute pancreatitis [26]. Accordingly, increased catalytic activities of this enzyme [33] as well as above-normal concentrations of immunoreactive phospholipase A2 [27] have been detected in sera of patients suffering from acute pancreatitis.


The author correlates the available information on the successive phase transitions in crystals A 2 CX 4 and ABCX 4 with structures which contain tetrahedral CX 4 groups arranged in a double-layer pseudohexagonal motif. He shows that a wide class of the structural types β-K 2 SO 4 , KNaSO 4 , Na 2 SO 4 (III), Sr 2 GeS 4 , K 2 MoO 4 , CsLiSO 4 , KLiSO 4 , etc., can be regarded as completely or partially ordered versions of a single prototype α-K 2 SO 4 - the high-temperature modification of potassium sulfate. He considers the possibilities of describing the successive phase transitions (PT) on the basis of previously introduced models of disorder of the T groups in the prototype with tour and 12 orientational states. The first of these is suitable for consideration of the PT in crystals of the type β-K 2 SO 4 , and the second (more unwieldy) is able to explain the PT from the prototype in such structures as Na 2 SO 4 (III), K 2 MoO 4 , etc., and the succession of phases in such crystals as KLiSO 4


LaBBZrBBBBbuffer layer was prepared on the cube textured nickel alloy substrate with the nitrate as the precursor salts. Combine with the analysis of the thermal pyrolysis property of the precursor salts, and the study of epitaxial growth of LZO films on both of the LAO single crystal and the Ni5W alloy substrate, a optimized processing route is achieved, which is two step heating ways at low temperature together with the ramp heat treatment at high temperature. It is concluded that the pyrolysis process plays the most important role in the texture epitaxy. The orienta- tion analyses reveal the formation of a cube texture, with the FWHM of (222) phi scan and the (400) ω scan of 8.5° and 8.1°, respectively. The SEM image shows the dense and homogeneous film without cracks and holes. The discus- sions above indicate that the nitrate route is feasible for the preparation of the LZO buffer layer.


Direct vertebral rotation (DVR) lever arm (21) aligned with respect to each other, and by holding vertebrae achieved segments of (1a-1d) the initial axial alignment, then the instrument and the lever arm (21) by rotating together, to allow the final DVR swirling device for spinal rotation. Vertebral segment vertebrae to be aligned in the target (1a-1d) and allow the swirling with respect to each other, then by rotation of the direct vertebral rotation device, the adjacent vertebrae (1a-1d) to be aligned the method of direct vertebral rotation that allows the swirling collectively to. It has at least two pedicle screws (11), a system for direct vertebral rotation. The system comprises at least two levers that can be attached to the pedicle screws (11), configured clamped fastener the lever to clamp fastening (31) also. .Field


In article it is considered the reasons and social, economic, and also legal consequences of raiding. Features of privatization as the process which has directly affected formation of a modern raiding are analyzed. The author opens the maintenance of such negative consequences of raiding as: decrease in volume of investments, decrease in efficiency of distribution of resources and use of national wealth in economy, negative changes of qualitative structure of a property also allocates factors dangers of raiding defining extent.


Biaxial strained Si0.55Ge0.45 channel pMOSFETs were fabricated using a process compatible with traditional bulk Si CMOS devices. The thermal budget was carefully controlled in the device fabrication process to avoid strain relaxation. Channel materials were formed by pseudomorphic growth of 7nm strained Si0.55Ge0.45 directly on a Si substrate followed by a growth of a 4 nm Si cap. At room temperature, the strained Si0.55Ge0.45/Si p-MOSFETs showed a significant mobility enhancement of ~77% over Si control devices in a low vertical electric field. Moreover, the drain current of the long channel devices was increased by ~47% with a gate overdrive of 2.5V. It was also observed that the enhancement of effective hole mobility degraded as the vertical electric field increased.


Hydraulic bulkhead 10 to be configured to use the differential limiting apparatus includes a plenum (18) including a passage and the boss (26) for hydraulic fluid. A first sealing member 28 is positioned on the outer surface of the boss (26). The outer surface of the boss 26 is a low pressure area about the inner surface of the boss (26). Plenum 18 is fixed relative to the differential limiting device. The automatic device assembly that includes a hydraulic pressure bulkhead 10 of the present invention is described.


42 Abstract— New developments in industry initiate the need to identify newer process/ source for carrying out various tedious applications. Both conventional and non-conventional machining processes are accordingly updating in context with these recent trends. Laser surface hardening (non-conventional machining process), a solid state phase transformation hardening is neither an exception to this. Various researchers have elaborately discussed the importance and implications observed during this process. Cast iron, normally used in various automobile parts is subjected to wear due to sliding contact and hence the selective hardening of mating surface needs to be carried out. Hence, an experimental study of solid-state phase transformations during the laser surface hardening of cast iron is conducted. In this, a fiber laser of power 100 W in continuous-wave (cw) and pulsed mode is used in conjunction with a beam integrator. The process parameters viz; beam power, beam diameter, travel speed and pulse time are varied to study their effects on geometry, dimensions and hardness of heat affected zone.


In a dwarf-pyramid apple orchard, rows of Cox's Orange Pippin adjacent to rows of Janies Grieve had greater initial and final fruit sets than rows between other Cox rows. Flowers on the south sides of trees tended to have a greater set of fruit than those on the north sides.In a sweet-cherry orchard containing a block of five rows of Early Rivers with pollinizer rows on each side, most fruit was set on the two outside rows and least in the centre row. Trees in the outside rows set more fruit on their sides facing the pollinizers than on their far sides. In another sweet-cherry orchard, Frogmore trees set more fruit on their south sides than on the other parts.In a dwarf pyramid orchard of Comice, the trees with one graft of Conference (every tenth tree) set more fruit than trees without a graft. However, the fruit set on Conference dwarf and standard trees (two orchards of each) did not differ with their distance from pollinizers.


In Reply.— The statement by Drs Wright and Olson that "most of our cases [of acute otitis media] were seen by numerous different pediatric residents, among whom there may not be uniform subjective criteria for making the diagnosis" is the crux of the problem. We agree that such a diagnosis may not be based on uniform subjective criteria. This very fact may be reflected in the ultimate outcome—a higher frequency of fever and otitis media in the Kansas City study. However, in our study, in a private practice setting, all the children were examined by the same pediatrician. Meticulous removal of all gross cerumen and the use of brilliant halogen illumination was the rule; an otoscope head with a rubber gasket on the lens cap ensured a perfect airtight seal. Table 3 of our article shows that of 290 patients who had acute otitis media, a myringotomy, and a culture,


Most cases demonstrating extrahepatic venous collateral formation are the result of extensions of the portal venous system. This provides an outlet for venous drainage from the congested liver, usually in cases of portal hypertension. The case presented here, in a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus, antiphospholipid syndrome, and Budd-Chiari syndrome, is a demonstration of extrahepatic venous collateral formation originating from the hepatic veins in the liver. This rare case has features that are easily demonstrated using color and pulsed-wave Doppler sonography.


Cloud computing is one of the vast field which provide the users with software's on lease. Cloud computing not only benefiting the computer science world but also it is beneficial for biomedical stream too. Cloud based e-health services can provide a better environment to the patient where he/she can get all kind of medical care that will be given in the hospital. Therefore it saves a lot time of the users by just sending all kind of necessary real time analyzed data to the doctor via cloud and gets prescribed medicine. In this paper we will study various biomedical services that have been provided on cloud. Also we will make a comparative study of these cloud based biomedical services at the end of the paper.


Vector boundary element method is proposed to calculate the surface-plasmon modes of the metal-clad optical fibers. The variations of the effective index with fiber core radius are presented for surface-plasmon and oscillating guided modes.


The article, part of some general concerns emerged in Narratives (as) students in grades 10 and 11, the Joint Liceo Sinai Commune # 5 in the city of Manizales, where he envisioned as one of their difficulties in such contexts of vulnerability and violence, the situation: PARENTAL / maternal absenteeism, in which many (as), adolescents that ultimately increases the tendency toward Substance abuse (SPA) of such schooled populations. Tracing literature about it, some related to National, Regional and Local level studies that supported and / or addressing this Article were located, which I hope can also serve as a reference in part to address such situation, especially education.


The source of fluoride ions (F––) in sodium monofluorophosphate (MFP) dentifrices and their importance in the fluoridation of enamel relative to MFP anions has been investigated. Commercial


ABSTRACT A new technique of analysing benthic communities to assess environmental quality is compared to three existing methods. When effects of impoundment on downstream communities were studied, Ecological Community Analysis (ECA) gave more information than diversity index, Trent Biotic index and sample cluster analysis. Although ECA is more complex and time consuming than other indices additional biological information, greater "resolving power" and double control analysis give this method greater value in isolating specific factors responsible for environmental perturbation.


This paper presents a modeling system developed to join consumer trips and goods movements at an urban and metropolitan scale. Given that in many cases urban transportation modeling treats passenger and freight transportation separately, this paper proposes a modeling system to simulate goods movements at an urban scale which combines urban personal travel and commodity flows (commodity flows are generated in order to support a given need) considering the interaction between consumers and other decision-makers involved (e.g. producers, carriers, retailers, etc.). The paper presents the results obtained in some Italian cities, where the first prototypical models were specified, calibrated and validated.


For decades, railways, trucking companies, and commercial airlines have utilized oil analysis as a diagnostic tool to prevent engine-component failures. This interesting application was developed into an undergraduate lab experiment to introduce chemistry and environmental science majors in their second to fourth year to metal analysis using flame atomic absorption spectroscopy with a non-aqueous sample matrix. Copper, lead, iron, chromium, and silver were quantified by the method of standard additions or by external calibration curves with matrix matching. Students in both environmental analysis and analytical chemistry courses used their data to assess the health of a vehicle's engine.


Nanotechnological improvements such as nano-fertilizers are important in agriculture due to higher capability of penetration into plants, nutrient use efficiency and reduced off-target wastage of fertilizers. Rice being the second most important cereal crop in the world, is the national staple food in Sri Lanka. Insufficiency of soil Zn in paddy fields led to a reduction in plant growth and yield. Present study was conducted to assess the effect of nano-ZnO-fertilizer and bulk ZnO on growth and yield performances of commonly cultivated traditional (Pachchaperumal, Suwandel) and inbred (Bg94-1) rice varieties in Sri Lanka. Nano-ZnO particles were synthesized by thermal decomposition route and characterized using powder X-ray diffraction and FE-SEM. Sizes of the nano-ZnO particles varied from 50 nm to 500 nm. Pots were arranged in randomized complete block design with twenty replicates per treatment and treated with distilled water, bulk ZnO 60 mg L-1, nano-ZnO 60 mg L-1 (Conc.1), and nano-ZnO 120 mg L-1 (Conc. 2), Growth related characters were measured at 30, 60, and 90 days after sowing (DAS). Yield characters were measured at the harvesting stage. Analysis of variance showed a significant effect of nano-ZnO-fertilizer on yield parameters than growth parameters of three rice varieties. Varietal responses to the applied nano-ZnO-fertilizer vary and higher responses were observed in Bg94-1. Effect of nano-ZnO-fertilizers on Pachchaperumal and Suwandel were almost similar; however, weight of 100-seed of Suwandel treated with nano-ZnO 120 mg L-1 was prominent. Findings of the study revealed, a better yield performance for three rice varieties with foliar application of nano-ZnO-fertilizers.


This paper deals with the experimental and numerical analysis of a blunt cone wind tunnel model which is a scaled down version of a flight model referred to as ELECTRE. The model length is 333 mm, 1/6 of the flight model. The experiments were performed in the T5 and in the HEG, which are both free piston driven shock tunels operating in the reflected mode. Four test conditions, four reservoirenthalpies and four reservoir pressures were selected based on calibration shots used for the HEG; for the T5, six test conditions consisting of two reservoir enthalpies, two reservoir pressure and three nozzle throat diameters. A comparison is included using a non equilibrium Navier Stokes code. The trends observed in the experimental results seems to agree quite well with results of the numerical simulations which were performed with catalytic and noncatalytic conditions. Better knowledge of free stream conditions is however necessary to improve agreement; in particular the inclusion of the non-uniform free stream density is essential to accurately reproduce the experimental data.


Background: The prevalence of depression especially among youths is increasingly high. The present study is aimed to identify some demographic and psychological factors such as self-efficacy and perceived stress that may be related to depression among male adolescents. Methods: Overall, 402 adolescent were selected for participation in the study using multistage sampling method. The participants completed a questionnaire including demographic, depression, self-efficacy, and perceived stress data. A multiple regression analysis and the Pearson correlation test were used for data analysis. SPSS version 17 software was used for performing analyses. Results: The mean age of the adolescents was 15.44 (SD = 0.68) years. The total mean score of depression was 16.02 ± 9.14 and 153 (38.1%) of participants showed depressive symptoms. Results showed that high levels of depression were associated with low level of self-efficacy and high level of perceived stress; also some demographic variables such as fathers' job and academic situation can be related to depression among male adolescents. Conclusions: Self-efficacy and perceived stress can be related to depression but the role of stress and self-efficacy in the etiology and forming of depression in adolescent are discussed. Therefore, more studies for approval of these associations should be considered.


A motor rotor (60) (2), having a rotor plate stack (4). Proposed for cooling fan (8) is arranged stack (4) in the rotor end plate side. The fan having fan blades (21) and the support element (20) for the fan blades (21), wherein the fan blade (21) with a first portion (31) in a first axial direction past the the support element (20) extends outwardly, and with a second outwardly extending portion (33) over the supporting element (20) in a first axial direction (32) opposite to the second axial direction (34).


Duplication cysts are rare malformations that exist in the alimentary tract, and the mucosa of gastric bronchogenic cyst lined by pseudostratified columnar ciliated epithelium (PCCE) is even more rare. We reviewed related literatures to depict this unique abnormality.

 Herein we report an abdominal mass that was found incidentally in a 52-year-old female. The biochemical test of contents revealed a high concentration of tumor markers unusually. A laparoscopic surgery was undertaken to remove the lesion. The cyst was found to originate from the stomach but did not show any anatomic communication with the stomach lumen. Pathologic examination confirmed the mucosa was lined by PCCE.

 The symptoms and radiologic presentations of GDC are nonspecific. It should be distinguished with other abdominal cystic masses. Surgery is advised in respective of malignancy.


A method for determining the force required to extrude materials through a hole in a tablet die by means of a high force hydraulic press is presented. Extrusion forces are given for various simple inorganic electrolytes and common tablet lubricants. Extrusion of organic tablet constituents was impossible with two exceptions. Either no extrusion could be obtained at the maximum force of the press, or implosion occurred. Mixtures of sodium chloride and potassium chloride, and sodium chloride and magnesium stearate were extruded and semiempirical equations expressing behavior were evolved. Resistance to extrusion seems to correlate with the hardness of the materials under test.


Local Fourier transform(LFT) is an important texture feature extracting method.In this paper,the texture discrimination performance of LFT coefficients' moments is studied.The Fisher criterion is used to evaluate the discrimination performance of different texture features.Texture image segmentation experiments enable the conclusions more reliable.It is revealed that the LFT coefficients of texture images usually do not obey normal distribution,their even-order moments exhibit preferable texture discrimination performance,while their odd-order moments exhibit baddish.If LFT coefficients' 2nd,4th and 6th order moments are used as texture features,better texture discrimination performance and segmentation results can be achieved than those of Yu Hui and Haralick.So,it is suggested that the even-order moments of LFT coefficients are selected as texture features.


The theoretical and methodological apparatus of investment activity has been developed. An analysis was made of models of investment (depending on the role of the state) and innovative development, as well as models of economic growth based on innovation. Nonlinear models for the implementation of the innovation process and types of national innovation models have been studied. The main directions of innovative development of agroindustrial production by areas of activity are identified.


The impulse conduction velocity of frog heart ventricle strips was reduced 50% by 9.5 * 10-6M N-[2-(diethylamino)ethyl]-2-methoxycinchoninamide, 1.95 * 10-6M N-[2-(diethylamino)-ethyl]-2-ethoxycinchoninamide, 0.9 * 10-6M N-[2-(diethylamino)ethyl]-2-propoxycinchoninamide, 0.5 (I), 1.1 * 10-6M N-[2-(diethylamino)ethyl]-2-(pentyloxy)cinchoninamide, and 23.5 * 10-6M N-[2-(diethylamino)ethyl]-2-(hexyloxy)cinchoninamide. These results agree with previous results of surface anesthetic activity, I being the most effective. The inhibitory effect of the I homologs decreased as the pH was increased from 6.4 to 8.2, indicating that the cationic form is more effective than the free base.


This poster discusses a strategy for automatic whitelist generation and enforcement using techniques from information flow control and trusted computing. During a measurement phase, a cloud provider uses dynamic taint tracking to generate a whitelist of executed code and associated file hashes generated by an integrity measurement system. Then, at runtime, it can again use dynamic taint tracking to enforce execution only of code from files whose names and integrity measurement hashes exactly match the whitelist, preventing adversaries from exploiting buffer overflows or running their own code on the system. This provides the capability for runtime integrity enforcement or attestation. Our prototype system, built on top of Intel's PIN emulation environment and the libdft taint tracking system, demonstrates high accuracy in tracking the sources of instructions.


The usage of onomastic play technique in lyrics of a song «An uyezd town of N» by M. Naumenko is analyzed in the article. The author draws attention to the fact that the combination of various onims in one context is of «collage», illogical and ironical character and demonstrates breaking the myths and stereotypes.


words, such as adverbs and prepositions, which can be used like counters to express a similar relation in different contexts, but are rich in concrete words, expressing the feeling of a total complex situation in which one is involved with others. A good example is the lovely Fuegian word mamihltapinatapai, which means "two-people-looking-atone another each hoping that the other will offer to do something which both parties desire but are unwilling to -do." To have achieved a word to express this only too familiar situation makes us think that primitive man can't be such a fool as he looks. But the point I want to stress is that such words express an essentially relational way of thinking. They start, that is to say, from a sense of rapport or of conflict within a total situation in' which others are involved as well as oneself, and seek to give it precise expression. I would suggest that something like this is the fundamental form of experience from which we all start. The idea that we begin by thinking of ourselves as conscious "subjects" entertaiping ideas, which we then project on to a world bt'yond ourselves, is too sophisticated as an analysis of our primary experience. We start from a sense of interconnexions, and become conscious of ourselves through the ways in which we respond to influences reaching us from the world beyond us. This impact of the world around us reaches us primarily, if not entirely, through our bodies, which are after all just that part of the environment with which our minds have a peculiarly intimate connexion. Just what to make of the physical senses, the brain and the nervous system is a hard nut to crack for logical positivists and phenomenalists, who would reduce the' world to patterns of sense data. How the feelings mediated through the body and nervous system become interpreted by the mind in terms of sensations and ideas is part of the whole problem of the relation of body and mind, to which there exists, in my opinion, as yet no satisfactory solution. Perhaps all that we can do at present is to recognize that somehow this does happen. The mind can take up cues from the physiological and nervous reactions of the body and transmute them into ideas conveying meaning. "Meaning" cannot 'be accounted for in terms of physical and nervous reactions alone, as any competent criticism of behaviourism will show. But unless I were in rapport through my body with a'surrounding world, I should not be able at all to build up my world of perception and ideas containing meaning. The fundamental condition for experience, therefore, is the feeling of response to processes impinging on one. This is what Professor A. N. Whitehead has in mind when he describes each real thing in the world as a "concrescence of prehensions." 56 Dorothy M. Emmet: Communication By "prehension" he means the relation of one thing to another by which both are grasped together, like the monkey on the branch with its prehensile tail. The thing grasped is included in the relation. The experiencing centre is not, however, simply the resultant of its reactions to other things, but a "concrescence"-that is, a growing together of a new being, arising out of its response to what it "prehends." The difficulty of Whitehead's thought is due in part to the fact that he is trying to express this fundamental stage of experience prior to the sharp distinction between subject and object. We have thus a fundamental, if rudimentary, kind of communication at the base of all our experience. Without these feelings of ourselves as arising out of a surrounding nature organically related to our bodies we should not be able to build up a world of meaning, interpreted in terms of conscious perceptions and ideas. It is true that these interpretations are not in the least like the physiological and neural processes which give us our clues. Nor have we any reason to suppose that the visual world of colours and shapes which we consciously see is in the least like the world of actual physical events; in fact, we have very good reasons for supposing that it is not. The world we see is a world in which the stimuli that come through the body are interpreted through various symbols that depend -on the forms of/our thinking, and these are then referred to physical events. But we have no warrant for supposing that the symbols are copies or representations of the things to which they refer. We believe them to be valid as symbols, pardy because they enable us to respond to the world beyond in ways that are not disastrous, and partly because they prove themselves capable of building up a world of meaning shared by other minds and corroborated in communication with them. This brings us to the second sense of communication as the necessary condition of arriving at meaning. It is questionable whether we can attach any meaning to "meaning" apart from communication. "Meaning" depends on our being able to express ourselves in language or other symbols, and on our symbols being understood by -others within some agreed or presupposed context. The ways in which we seek to "verifY" our ideas demand communication with other minds. Jfwe talk about verifying something by observation in a laboratory, we do not mean just reporting the sense impressions of any chance observer. These may be highly misleading. "Verification" depends on comparing results obtained by trained observers. So "Do you see what I see?" is a pertinent question in situations besides those particular ones in which it is generally supposed to be asked. Exact observation presupposes very special skilled techniques acquired through the practice of a highly developed scientific tradition. Such skill has something of the nature of a craft passed on through personal training under practitioners of the tradition, and if the continuity of this tradition were destroyed the techniques of exact observation could not easily be recovered. It may also depend on the use of delicate and precise instruments and so on the inventors and makers of these instruments. So at every point verification by the senses in any exact sense depends on the observer's relation with a considerable number of other people and Dorothy M. Emmet: Communication 57 their work. That they fail to recognize this can be brought forward as a criticism of the logical positivists' conception. Moreover, even in humbler matters than scientific experiment, "seeing is believing" is only a half-truth. Here is a simple illustration. A lady of my acquaintance was driving in a car past a lake near Manchester and saw a pink flamingo on the bank. She funked asking the other occupants of the car to let her go and look again in case they thought she was "seeing things." But later on she mentioned it to a naturalist friend, who said, "Oh, yes, you do occasionally get a few down there at this time of year." That bit of coherence with someone else's knowledge made her feel much ~ore confidence than if she had gone back and had a still stronger personal sense impression of seeing a pink flamingo. Meaning and verification are thus never purely private affairs; they are gradually built up and sustained through communication between minds. We do not start, as some over-sophisticated philosophers think, from oui own thinking and arrive by analogy at the conclusion that there must be other minds, but our response to other minds in meaningful discourse is the condition of our being able to think coherently at all. Plato recognized this when he described thinking as "dialectic"-that is to say, as the sustaining of a dialogue in which each party tries to meet the considerations, arguments and objections brought forward by the other. Even solitary thinking he described, not just as though it were straightforward calculation,! but as a "dialogue of the soul within itself," in which one has, as it were, to take both sides in the dialogue, and raise and try to meet one's own questions. But the most fruitful kind of thinking, he holds, is found when one mind is trying to meet the challenge in the thoughts of another (cp. the Seventh Letter 344b, which is probably authentic, "Mter practising detailed comparisons of names and definitions and visual and other sense-perceptions, after scrutinizing them in benevolent disputation by the use of question and answer without jealousy, at last in a flash understanding of each blazes up "). In any case, even sustained solitary thinking is impossible apart from a world of meanings embodied in language, which is the product of a long tradition of social intercourse. This remains true even when the thinking in question is a radical challenge to traditional meanings. I hope I have said enough to show that the condition of any kind of meaningful experience is rapport with the world of nature and communication with other minds. But I have also urged that communication is not direct apprehension either of the physical world or of other minds as they are in themselves. It is rather a response in which we interpret the impact of the other upon us. We cannot say that the physical world as we perceive it is that world as it is in itself, but nevertheless we can only perceive it at all because of its action upon us through our bodies. So also we can only speak and think coherently because we are responding to the impact of other minds on our own, 1 If thinking were only calculation, we could probably in the end devise sufficiently ingenious machines to do it for us. The Physics Department of the University of Manchester possesses a machine which can solve differential equations. 58 Dorothy M. Emmet: Communication but we know these minds only through our responses to the ways in which they express themselves, and not directly in their own inner nature. Hence the difficulty in getting profound insight into other minds. We only know anything about the inner side of the experience' of oth,ers in so far as they are successful in expressing it, and in so fa


Belonging to the small-scale and private sphere, gardens are usually omitted from urban and regional landscape plans. Yet, we argue that the assemblage of everyday gardens – the garden complex – is an inherent component of the landscape metropolis that holds the potential to become a powerful landscape agency. This potential is enclosed, among others, within three particular qualities: hybridity, scalar paradoxes, and complex dynamics. Practicing these qualities as concepts for landscape design and analysis helps to expand the imaginaries of everyday gardens to more purposefully reflect and negotiate the condition of the landscape metropolis. By means of two case studies – two domestic gardens – we demonstrate that designing with hybridity entails versatility, simultaneity, and multiplicity, thereby engendering a richness of meaning and experiences. This pluralism is also inherent in the scalar paradoxes we observed. Cross-scalar interactions evoke design implications that transcend the confines of the private plot, surpassing individual, human gain, and making individual gardens enter into dialogue with each other and with their surroundings. Lastly, by working with an enlarged set of complex dynamics, the two case studies prove that a garden can be a driver of change and innovation, and thereby a valuable source of resilience.


—Landscape management schemes can have unanticipated effects on native species. While we tend to label habitat alterations as distinctly good or bad for specific species, it is not always clear what constitutes good habitat and what is low quality habitat. In many managed landscapes, there is a cyclical nature to these alterations, with some stages in the management cycle increasing suitability and others degrading it. In Ireland, afforested blanket bogs are managed to create a cycle of mature conifer forest alternating with a clear-felled landscape. These plantation forests have the potential to fragment naturally occurring amphibian habitat and reduce access to suitable breeding sites, though it is not clear how each management stage actually affects amphibian populations. We studied one of Ireland's three amphibians, the European Common Frog (Rana temporaria), to identify if parts of these plantations contained good breeding habitat. We conducted our study in the west of Ireland, comparing breeding habitat availability and use among pools in mature plantation forests, clear-felled areas, unplanted blanket bogs, and roadside drainage ditches. Frog breeding use and reproductive output was highest in drainage ditches and clear-felled sites. Mature plantations had lower pool densities and spawn clump densities than either drainage ditches or clear-felled sites, and no larval development. Pools with high pH, large surface area, and high temperatures had the highest probability of spawn presence. Plantation forestry can be detrimental to Common Frogs, but applying sequential harvest strategies may allow this species to persist within plantations as habitat availability shifts over time.


Matching markets have been the subject of intensive mechanism design efforts over the past 15 years with school choice being a frequent application, which has led Boston and other large cities employ centralized matching procedures to allocate students to public schools. One common recommendation of market designers is to build a school assignment mechanism in two steps. First, given the school system's public policy goals, choose a priority structure that gives certain students higher priorities at certain schools than other students. For example, to encourage a student to attend her neighborhood school, the Boston Public Schools (BPS) until recently gave higher priority for seats at a school to students that live close to that school. Second, given the priority structure chosen, solicit student preferences over the schools and run a version of the Gale-Shapley algorithm to generate the school assignment. There is much to recommend this advice. First, the outcome of the Gale-Shapley algorithm is incentive compatible, so the students have no motive to try and manipulate the assignment system. Second, the outcome is stable, which reflects a notion of fairness that requires that an agent with a high priority for a good be allocated that good before a lower priority agent is provided the good. However, it is far from obvious that encoding policy goals into the priority structure and then running the Gale-Shapley algorithm is the most effective method of implementing goals such as encouraging neighborhood schools. In addition, it is not clear what the trade-offs are between goals such as student welfare and encouraging neighborhood schools. I argue in this paper that matching problems in general, and school choice problems in particular, can be posed as computationally tractable constrained optimization problems. The constrained optimization approach has the advantage of allowing the market designer to explicitly describe the policy goals in the objective function and encode required properties such as stability and incentive compatibility in the constraints. Using my approach I can compute the global optimum for various desiderata (e.g., the student welfare maximizing school assignment) or assess trade-offs between the goals (e.g., encouraging neighborhood schools and school diversity). The optimization approach also allows me to easily assess the benefits of weakening the constraints of the problem by, for example, adding capacity to a popular school. Treating a school choice problem as a constrained optimization problem is not a novel theoretical idea. However, I combine this idea with the more recent approach of modeling large school choice problems as a match between a continuum of seats at a finite set of schools and a continuum of each of a finite set of student types. Since each student has a negligible effect on the aggregate outcome, I can write the incentive compatibility conditions in a computationally tractable form. Although the resulting optimization problem


Uncertainty about the 2014 outlook for the whole world is very high, making it even more difficult to predict what will happen in the Brazilian economy. At a recent seminar, "Brazilian Economic Outlook for 2014," Brazilian Institute of Economics (IBRE) researchers as well as other seminar participants presented a range of possible economic scenarios from deeply pessimistic to quite rosy. Fernando Dantas reports.


Objective To investigate the value and complementarity of CT,3D CT and routine X ray film in localizing and qualitative diagnosis of maxillary facial and temporal diseases.Method The examination results of CT,3D CT and routine X ray film in 25 patients with maxillary facial and temporal diseases were comparatively analyzed,afterwards,the results were proven by surgery and pathology.Results CT could display the trauma fracture very well,especially for the fracturess in maxillary sinus,superior lateral wall,orbit and ptery goid procrss of sphenoid bone.Meanwhile,it could also show the changes of soft tissue in the fracture parts.Besides showing the soft tissue changes in tumor,it could also present the range and degree of tumor infiltration,metastasis and destruction of bone.3D CT could display the steric and fracture type,especially for special type of fracture.Moreover,it could objectively display the destruction of bones in tumor,but the results for displaying the soft tissue changes were not so good.X ray could only display the existence of partial affection and could hardly display the range of affection.Conclusions In displaying maxillary facial and temporal diseases,CT could get best results and have highest accurate rate in localizing and qualitative diagnosis.It may be the leading choice for examination.


Laboratory measurement of relative permeability including steady state and unsteady state methods are expensive and time consuming. Due to these shortcomings, several models for predicting and obtaining two phase relative permeabilites have been developed in literature. This study involves the comparison of different oil and gas relative permeability models with three experimental datasets from laboratory tests conducted on Iranian carbonate rocks. The comparison method includes a statistical approach for determining the best model performance applied to the model predictions. It found that Koederitz model gives closest fit to relative permeability ratio obtained from experimental data sets and it is followed by Wylie and Mohamad Ibrahim.


The coal miners' union in Enugu has made a fit subject for a micro-study superbly done by David R. Smock. His years of field work span the years of 1962 to 1966, during which time he also studied British unions. It would seem likely that the Nigerian Coal Miners Union, as compared to a western or British union, would be far less rigid in structure and centralized in authority since 99 percent of the miners are various Ibo people whose social and political systems are traditionally not so organized. However, contrary to expectations, the Nigerian union was found by Smock to be more centralized than western examples. Its control by a very few persons does not follow either the participatory democracy characteristic of Ibo society or the voluntary organization of workers who originate from different villages and subgroups; nor does it follow western patterns. Smock explains this contradiction by revealing several primary factors: the enormous differences in education and political sophistication between the leadership and the often illiterate mass; the lack of communication within the union, due to the variety of Ibo dialects; the use of English as the official language, and also for publications, which results in an uninformed majority of miners; and the lack of democratic procedures within operations of the leadership, which Smock attributes to a lack of familiarity with western representative democracy. Here, the reviewer would like to point out that traditional Ibo government involves widespread participation and that the knowledge of democracy in the UK and the USA has been no guarantee of its observance. Smock does not accept the thesis, as Hortense Powdermaker did in her study on the union leadership in the Copperbelt, that strong centralized authority is part of a transfer from traditional chiefly roles. The period of Smock's study involves a time of rapid politicalization of black Africa. He chooses to understand the union as conditioned by the methods of political parties, with their campaigns for control, the accompanying emphasis on victory or defeat, and the ensuing factional fights. This framework explains the existent duality in the union of autocratic leadership and constant leadership disputes. However, Smock rightly downgrades the importance of unions in Nigeria and elsewhere in black Africa as major political forces during this period. The greater part of the study is dedicated to a detailed examination of the history and operations of the Nigerian union. The conclusions Smock offers can contribute to a better understanding of other African organizations and political structures. They can also help illuminate studies within a larger matrix, such as geographical basis for division within the union; lack of the occupational solidarity which exists in British unions, due to the greater opportunity of upward mobility of the Nigerian union; or the strong motivation


The massive Israeli–Egyptian tank battle in the Sinai on 14 October 1973 constituted a turning point on the southern front during the Yom Kippur War. The crushing Israeli victory set the stage for another turning point on this front, the Israeli counter-crossing of the Suez Canal. Yet, the battle of 14 October has received rather scant attention from military historians. This article, therefore, attempts to fill a gap in the literature about the Yom Kippur War by describing and analysing the battle itself, as well as by highlighting its broader impact on the course of hostilities in the Sinai.


Based on a typical engineering case whose standard floors using submerged BDF hollow slabs,the key points of quality control and constructing are summarized comprehensively for the pillar-bracing submerged-BDF-hollow-tube floors,so that similar projects could refer to.


Gerbera is a flower of choice which is grown widely all across the world. Though quality accounts utmost importance beside quantity therefore feeding the plants with balanced combination and concentration of both major and micronutrients is a must. The present experiment entitled "Impact of nutrient management on yield and yield attributing traits of Gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii L.) growing under protection" was executed under polyhouse condition. This experiment was conducted following Randomised Block Design with three replications & twelve treatments including a control. Result of the investigation envisaged that the nutrient combination NPK 20:20:20 @15g/10 ltr + Multiplex General Liquid @0.2% (T12) performed best for the parameters like plant height (31.87 cm), leaf area (204.53 cm2), flower stalk length (46.50 cm), diameter of flowering head (10.84 cm), vase life of cut flowers (6.70 days) and chlorophyll content of leaves (73.02). However, the plants treated with NPK 20:20:20 @15g/10 ltr + Power Bio-20 @0.2% (T11) exhibited significant increase in parameters like number of leaves per plant (37.67), number of suckers per plant (3.20), flower stalk diameter (5.70 mm) and flower neck diameter (3.45mm). On the other hand, the nutrient combination NPK 20:20:20 @15g/10 ltr + ZnSO4 @0.2% + MnSO4 @0.2% (T6) resulted in maximum plant spread (54.53 cm) and number of flowers per plant (3.63).


In this paper we address the question of the existence of a model for the string 2-group as a strict Lie-2-group using the free loop group $LSpin$ (or more generally $LG$ for compact simple simply-connected Lie groups $G$). Baez-Crans-Stevenson-Schreiber constructed a model for the string 2-group using a based loop group. This has the deficiency that it does not admit an action of the circle group $S^1$, which is of crucial importance, for instance in the construction of a (hypothetical) $S^1$-equivariant index of (higher) differential operators. The present paper shows that there are in fact obstructions for constructing a strict model for the string 2-group using $LG$. We show that a certain infinite-dimensional manifold of smooth paths admits no Lie group structure, and that there are no nontrivial Lie crossed modules analogous to the BCSS model using the universal central extension of the free loop group. Afterwards, we construct the next best thing, namely a coherent model for the string 2-group using the free loop group, with explicit formulas for all structure. This is in particular important for the expected representation theory of the string group that we discuss briefly in the end.


Rice blast disease caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae is the most devastating disease of rice causing considerable yield losses. Development of resistant varieties is the most effective and environment friendly strategy to combat losses. RNR 15048 (Telangana sona) (IET23746) is a popular local variety possessing a desirable, short-slender grain type with low glycemic index, good cooking quality and having Pi2 gene for blast. However, it is moderately susceptible to bacterial blight disease and having no durable resistance to blast disease with weak culm. In this context, improvement of RNR 15048 for blast, bacterial leaf blight is important to reduce yield losses. Present study was carried out to screen and identify blast resistant breeding lines in Rice at Regional Agricultural Research station, Polasa, Jagtial, PJTSAU during Rabi, 2022-2023. 18 F3 breeding lines were screened in uniform blast nursery along with parents RNR 15048, MTU 1010 NILs, ISM NILs. TN1 and NLR 34449 were used as the susceptible and resistant checks, respectively for screening blast resistance. Screening was done by following 0-9 Standard Evaluation Scale (SES) for leaf blast. Among the studied 18 F3 breeding lines 12 lines were found resistant with score of 3 and 6 lines were found moderately resistant to screening reaction with score of 5. TN1 showed highly susceptible reaction with score of 9 and NLR 34449 showed highly resistant reaction with score of 1.