The teguments of four cestode species (Triaenophorus nodulosus, Proteocephalus torulosus, P. percae, P. cernuae) and the intestines of their freshwater fish hosts (Esox lucius, Barbatula barbatula, Perca fluviatilis, Gymnocephalus cernuus) inhabited by bacteria have been investigated with scanning electron microscopy. Most of the bacteria have sizes very similar to nanobacteria (that is, 0.25–0.3 μm in diameter). At least 4 microbial morphotypes were identified. These observations indicate that the normal indigenous microflora in cestodes and their fish hosts, associated with the digestive transport surfaces and consist of bacteria and nanobacteria.


Human resource management, one of the core courses of business education has garnered much attention in the recent times. This course prepares students for bright careers in human resource and it is imperative that students in professional programs are able to put into practice on workplace what they have learned in the classroom. The present research explores the assessment and teaching strategies, academic performance, completion rate and perceived satisfaction of the course in the attainment of enhanced learning among the human resource management students. The research finding delivers an impetus to cultivate and embed the current practice of adapting the interactive process in curricula and develop departmental assessment strategies and learner-centred teaching practice to attain enhanced learning in the business program.


Zirconolite and perovskite were found to be major and minor phases respectively in the ceramics of the series (1-x) CaZrTi2O{sub 7} - x EuAlO{sub 3} and (1-x) CaZrTi{sub 2}O{sub 7} - x GdAlO{sub 3} (x = 0.25; 0.5; 0.75) produced by cold pressing and sintering at 1400, 1450 and 1500 deg. C. Zirconolite and cubic fianite-type oxide (in the Eu-bearing ceramics) were extra phases. At x = 0.25 major host phase for Eu and Gd is zirconolite accumulating of up to 90% of total Eu and Gd. With increase x value to 0.5 zirconolite remains major host phase for both Eu and Gd and accommodates almost 70% of total Eu{sub 2}O{sub 3} and about 60% of total Gd{sub 2}O{sub 3}. Perovskite becomes major phase for both Eu{sub 2}O{sub 3} and Gd{sub 2}O{sub 3} at x = 0.75 accumulating of about 66% of total Gd{sub 2}O{sub 3}. As follows from SEM/EDS data Eu and Gd contents in the zirconolite may exceed {approx}1 formula units, therefore, zirconolite ceramics may be effective matrices for actinide fraction of HLW where Am and Cm are dominant because their crystal chemical behavior is similar to behavior of Gd. (authors)


The Labor Contract Law has caused extensive concern and dispute since its promulgation.Apparently,the dispute is caused by the improvement of legal provisions,but in essence it is the result of the change in interest distribution structure.The dispute caused by the implementation of Labor Contract Law has caused each agent to think proundly about his own problems and the state,enterprises and laborers to understand and improve their own problems.The state should reinforce its social security function,enterprises must accelerate the adjustment of industry structure and laborers must improve their skills and qualities.


Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (CL) is considered a neglected disease, mainly linked to low socioeconomic conditions (1, 2). Currently, estimates suggest 900,000 to 1.5 million new cases per year with 95% of the cases in the Americas, Mediterranean and Asia (3). The disease clinical manifestation can range from a single to multiple lesions, being observed in 90% of cases a nodular ulcerative squamous lesion. After inoculation of the metacyclic promastigote of Leishmania into the host skin by the sandfly bite, a papule forms at the site of bite, and later it turns into an ulcerated lesion with delineated borders, a reddish background, and an intense inflammatory infiltration (lymphocytes, phagocytes, and plasma cells) (4–9).. Factors such as the species of Leishmania involved in the infection and the host immune response directly influence the lesion type and clinical outcome in the patient (10, 11). After dermis inoculation the promastigotes cause activation of the complement system and factor C3b deposition on the parasite surface. However it has been demonstrated that Leishmania protease GP63 is able to inactivate C3b (12). These promastigotes are opsonized, by the C3 molecule of the complement system, to be phagocytized by phagocytic immune cells. Among these phagocytic cells are neutrophils, dendritic cells, and macrophages (13–15). Neutrophils are the first cells to arrive at the infection site, being attracted by complement proteins, cytokines (e.g., IL-8), and chemokines (e.g., CXCL1 and CXCL2). These cells can eliminate the parasites through the action of nitric oxide (NO) and other reactive oxygen species (ROS), and also produce high levels of chemokines such as CXCL8 and CXCL9, responsible for the recruitment of more neutrophils and Th1 cells (16–18). In addition, because they are short-lived phagocytic cells, they promote the entry of more promastigotes in macrophages phagocyting dead neutrophils. Thus, neutrophils serve as a "trojan horses", but the macrophages also produce cytokines which will in turn activate other immune cells (19, 20). Resident dendritic cells (DCs) seems to play a key role in the immunopathogenesis of CL (21, 22). Once these cells interact with Leishmania there is an increase in the expression of costimulatory molecules, such as CD40, CD80 and CD86 which are essential for T cell activation (23, 24). Thus, it is hypothesized that resident DCs recruit monocytes, which differentiate into monocyte-derived dendritic cells (moDCs). These cells have an intense phagocytic activity, and evidences suggests that they favor the growth and survival of parasites (25, 26).


Due to the growing interest in health care in everyday life and advances in the internet technology, IoT healthcare devices are widely used at home. However, despite the fact that IoT healthcare devices generate very sensitive health information, security measures are very low because of devices' capacity limitation. During the remote update of the device software over network which is called over-the-air (OTA) programming, OTA update protocols and binary codes can be leaked by security attacks that leads to sensitive information leaks, or the devices are suffered from secondary attacks by malicious use of the leaked sensitive information. In this paper, we analyzed the vulnerabilities of OTA updates of IoT healthcare devices and demonstrated them by simulating the real-world security attacks. In the simulation, OTA update protocols and binary codes are captured by executing the sniffing attacks, the device operation information is obtained through reverse engineering, and demonstrated the disabling of the device by installing a dummy program.


If the fixed point equation Tx = x does not posses a solution, then the natural interest is to find an element x 2 X such that x is in proximity to Tx in some sense. In other words, we would like to get a desirable estimate for the quantity d(x;Tx) . In this paper, we prove best proximity point theorems for generalized rational proximal contraction of the first and second kinds. We also prove a best proximity point theorem for nonself mapping for generalized rational proximal contraction of the first and second kinds without assuming the continuity. Our results unify, generalize various known comparable results from the current literature [6, 7] .


Starting from their freshman year our students are involved in project work within the framework of project-based learning. Software proje cts complementary to the standard curriculum exemplify the applicability of the just learned methods and mathematical algorithms, thus increasing the students' attentive ess and their appreciation for the contents of teaching. In this paper, an interdisciplinary project for sop h more students – the development of computer programs for the simulation and visualizat ion of two-dimensional incompressible fluid flows – is presented. Two different approache s for problem solving could be chosen by the students – the numerical solution of the Navier -Stokes equation within the finite difference method, and the simulation of the flow f ield with a lattice-gas cellular automaton. The projects, in general, and the visual perception of the flow fields derived from their selfmade computer programs, in particular, have led to a deeper appreciation of mathematics, computer programming and fluid dynamics than solely t acher-centered instruction could convey.


This paper presents an optimal control applied to water flow using the first and second order adjoint equations. The gradient of the performance function with respect to control variables is analytically obtained by the first order adjoint equation. It is not necessary to compute the Hessian matrix directly using the second order adjoint equation. Two numerical studies have been performed to show the adaptability of the present method. The performance of the second order adjoint method is compared with that of the weighted gradient method, Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno method and Lanczos method. The precise forms of the adjoint equations and the gradient to use for the minimisation algorithm are derived. The computation by the Lanczos method is shown as superior to those of the other methods discussed in this paper. The message passing interface library is used for the communication of parallel computing.


Ever since daily activities have been carried into digital, cyberspace have become one of the primary grounds for citizen participation activities such political discourse and activism. Wikileaks documents, the effects of social media in the Arab Spring and global and local hacker movements are great instances for digital political participation with high impact such as the creation and diffusion of new conceptions like cyber security and cyber warfare. Internet's role in this new age activism is crucial; especially hacker movements are using Internet as a tool of resistance. Hacking activity as a political activism or hacktivism is simply an activity that making a system unworkable and acquiring and publishing information with the aim of raising public awareness. Using both mainstream and social media as a communication tool, hacker groups such as Anonymous Chaos Computer Club (CCC) and LulzSec aim to ignite activist protests from online to offline. Just like the global hacker groups, hacker groups in Turkey aim the exact same goal. Turkish hacktivists can be divided into two categories as nationalist groups who hacks websites in other countries in order to leave messages and left-wing hackers who defend the freedom of information. As the most powerful example of hactivism in Turkey, Redhack contain similar aspects. In this study, hactivism will be discussed by its ethical aspects and the center of this academic study will be the Redhack case. Following the review of literature, a quantitative research in university students is shared to observe their perspective on Redhack and hactivism. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n9p628


IgA vaccination of skin DIF and BP180 antibodies confirmed BP Oral clarithromycin, mg/kg/day, 3 in with low-potency corticosteroid After 1 month, no months all and pruritus had There were no signs of BP during the follow-up period of 8 by which time


Backround: P‐wave dispersion (P dispersion), defined as the difference between the maximum and the minimum P‐wave duration (P minimum), and maximum P‐wave duration (P maximum) have been used to evaluate the discontinuous propagation of sinus impulse and the prolongation of atrial conduction time respectively. The aim of this study was to investigate whether early assessment of P dispersion predicts paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients with acute anterior wall myocardial infarction (MI).


The presence of growth‐promoting substances in the aqueous humor has been suspected for the past decade, but it has been only during the last 2 years that the existence of growth factors such as basic fibroblast growth factor, epidermal growth factor, transforming growth factorp, transferrin, and insulin‐like growth factors in the aqueous humor has been demonstrated. The structures that border the anterior and posterior chambers of the eye syn‐ thesize some of these growth factors and release them into the aqueous humor. A breakdown of the blood‐aqueous‐barrier increases the amounts of growth factors and may also bring platelet‐derived growth factor, nerve growth factor, and interleukin‐6 into the aqueous humor. Growth factors maintain the normal function of ocular tissues in health and have a significant role in the pathogenesis and possible management of several disorders of the eye. The outcome of the pathogenetic process and its modulation are determined by a complex coordination and interactions of the growth factors in the aqueous humor and their eventual effect on the target tissues. We discuss the therapeutic implications of growth factors and their antagonists in the treatment of certain disorders of the anterior segment of the eye, including rubeosis iridis, neovascular glaucoma, primary open‐angle glaucoma, sand wound after filtration Surgery.


The (Er1−xHox)Rh4B4 pseudoternary alloy system has a minimum in the phase boundary between the superconducting and ferromagnetic phases near x=0.3. This minimum has been identified as due to the competing magnetic anisotropies of Er and Ho. It has also been suggested that there could be a Lifschitz point near the minimum. Using the 30‐m SANS camera at the National Center for Small‐Angle Scattering Research at ORNL, we have observed a peak in the SANS pattern for (Er0.8Ho0.2)Rh4B4 at Q=0.065 A−1. This peak appears for temperatures between Tc2, measured upon cooling, and Tm, and corresponds to a modulation of the magnetic moment with a wavelength of about 100 A, demonstrating that the modulated moment phase exists away from the ErRh4B4 end of the phase diagram. The wavelength of the modulation is the same as was previously observed in ErRh4B4. The fact that the wavelength of the modulation remains finite near x=0.3 appears to rule out the possibility of Lifschitz behavior near this point.


The SRC or Super Resolution Channel is the framing imaging subsystem of the HRSC experiment on the ESA Mars Express spacecraft, designed to show high-resolution detail within the broad swath of the HRSC push-broom camera. It has a separate optical system (focal length 980 mm, f/11) and a 1024x1024 CCD detector, achieving a ground pixel size of 2.3 m from an altitude of 250 km [1]. By December 2008, it had obtained about 8500 images.


This study is a contribution to the numerical study of the thermosolutal convection in a three-dimensional porous cavity filled with a binary fluid submitted to cross gradients of temperature and concentration. The NavierStokes equations, mass and energy governing the physical problem are discretized by the finite volume method. The equations of conservation of momentum coupled with the continuity equation are solved using the SIMPLEC algorithm, then the obtained system is solved using the implicit alternating directions method (ADI).The numerical simulations, presented here, correspond to a wide range of thermal Rayleigh number Ra (10<Ra<10) and buoyancy ratio N (1<N<12). The Lewis and prandtl number were fixed respectively at 5 and 0 .71 and the sections dimension ε=D / H=0.4. The temperature distribution, the flow pattern and the average heat and mass transfer are examined. The obtained results show significant changes in terms of heat and mass transfer, by proper choice of the governing parameters.


This article investigates the decisions behind the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. There are many theories and approaches that can be used to interpret wars within the international system. Realism is selected here to provide the analytical framework with which to explain the Iraqi invasion. Although there are many general propositions of realism regarding the international system, three main propositions are focused upon to help explain the Iraqi invasion. The first assumption of realism applied in this article is the notion that states pursue their national interest defined in terms of power; second, external forces, rather than internal factors, determine states' foreign policy; and third, rationality explains states' behavior.


The melting point is defined as the temperature at which a substance changes from a solid to a liquid state at 1013 hPa. To melt a substance, it must be supplied with thermal energy, which increases the vibrational energy of the particles. At the melting point, the energy of the particles is sufficiently high for them to leave the solid lattice sites and change to a more dis ordered state – the substance liquefies. Not all pure sub stances have a melting point at a defined temperature: Amor phous substances (such as glass) liquefy over a melting inter val while other substances (eg, many plastics) change (de compose) chemically even before reaching the liquid state so that that there is no specified melting point.


Abstract Ginger (Zingiber officinale var. rubrum) is a rhizome plant that can benefit health, fitness and be used as a spice. The content contained in ginger can prevent and treat various diseases and act as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent. The cultivation of ginger plants requires adequate nutrients and water for development and growth. Crop water requirements are influenced by crop coefficients which vary according to the plant growth stage. The crop coefficient values are needed for irrigation management and increasing irrigation efficiency. The main objective of the current study was to investigate the crop coefficient value of ginger by lysimeter. Lysimeter is a water balance device with the principle of mass conservation, where the input is rainfall and irrigation while the output is percolation and evapotranspiration. The rainfall during the investigated period was 0–62.82 mm·day−1, humidity 70.7–89.4%, and air temperature 23.7–32.9 °C. The crop coefficient of ginger increased during the vegetative growth period, i.e., 0.997 in the seedling stage, 1.072 in the tiller stage, and 1.138 in the advanced vegetative stage. The crop coefficient of red ginger was determined using a lysimeter quite accurately, with a coefficient of determination value (R2) 0.950 and a significant value of F less than 0.05.


Compulsory Residential Medical Interns (CRMI) is being a part of health-care professionals they have a role and responsibilities for counseling the patients on tuberculosis (TB). The objective of the study is to assess the awareness about National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP) among CRMI and determine the effectiveness of the training program in the improvement of knowledge of CRMI.

It was a pre-test and post-test design conducted among CRMI posted in the Department of Community medicine, Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College and Hospital in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu. A total of 600 CRMIs from 2014 to 2022 were trained in batches. The training program was conducted as per NTEP guidelines released by Central TB division guidelines. At the end of the session, feedback was obtained. Pre- and post-test data were entered and analyzed in Epi_Info software. The paired test was used to test the statistical significance.

It was found 57.8% improvement in the knowledge of the participants about TB after the training program. In the analysis of feedback, the consensus score for all the responses was above 83%. Manual content analysis of the open-ended feedback was done.

Health education dissemination strategies (e.g. campaign to end TB) on TB needs to be continuously done at the community and health facility level by trained CRMI.


Current government guidelines for the appraisal of coastal defence projects in the UK do not require that non-market amenity benefits to be considered. However, a new option in coastal defence, namely multi-purpose reefs, provides an opportunity to integrate coastal defence with significant amenity provision. This paper reports the findings of a choice experiment study that evaluated the amenity benefits of four alternative coastal defence systems currently being considered for Borth in west Wales. The results indicate that traditional coastal defence options such as timber and rock groynes do not generate amenity benefits, while a multipurpose reef would generate significant benefits in terms of improvements in the visual appeal of the beach, safer swimming opportunities and improved surfing conditions. Importantly, these benefits were found to be significant for all members of the local community and not just surfers. Based on our findings, we recommend that guidelines for the appraisal of coastal defence projects should be amended to incorporate non-market amenity benefits. ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS: Choice experiment, amenity benefits, coastal defence, multi-purpose reef INTRODUCTION The protection of coastal land and communities from the onslaught of the sea is a major concern throughout the world. Climate change and the predicted rises in sea levels are likely to further exacerbate these concerns in the future. In England and Wales, it has been estimated that over one million properties (valued at over £130 billion) are at risk from coastal flooding and a further 113,000 properties (£7.7 billion) are at risk from coastal erosion (DEFRA, 2001). In a fifty year forecast, the same report estimates that, if nothing is done to maintain and improve existing coastal defence systems, damages to property from coastal flooding will cost on average over £1.5 billion per annum (ibid.). To maintain existing levels of protection, the UK government would have to invest £210 million per annum (ibid.). The bulk of this expenditure is ultimately met by taxpayers, many of whom may derive little personal benefit from the money spent on their behalf. Good project appraisal is therefore essential to ensure that taxpayers receive value for money from coastal defence projects. In the UK, DEFRA (then MAFF) has produced a series of six guidance documents for the appraisal of flood and coastal defence projects (MAFF, 2001), including a document on the economic appraisal of such projects (MAFF, 2000). Since the publication of these documents, the HM Treasury has revised it's 'Green Book' on 'Policy appraisal in Central Government'(HM TREASURY, 2003), indicating that project appraisal should now adopt


Kidney tumor is typically diagnosed using computed tomography (CT) imaging by investigating geometric features of kidney tumor. For a reliable diagnosis and treatment planning, kidney tumor quantification is necessary. However, manual segmentation by human requires time and expertise. In addition, inter/intra variability of segmentation results can lead to suboptimal decision. In this study, we propose the two-stage segmentation method using 2.5D and 3D convolutional neural network for kidney and kidney tumor delineation. The twostage model was trained with multi-task loss for pixel-wise cross-entropy loss function for segmentation task and mean square error function for regression task. Experimental results confirm that the proposed method effectively segments kidney and kidney tumor.


Abstract : It is dangerous to assume that in today's operating environment a universally accepted definition of what war is, and what war is not, is readily available. While most Soldiers and policy makers claim to know war, "knowing it when they see it" is a precarious and superficial approach. This monograph provides a framework for understanding why a comprehensive definition of war is so difficult for America to maintain, and so necessary in preparing for future conflict. The theories of Carl von Clausewitz are revisited in the context of the definition of war provided by Joint Publication 1 (JP-1), "Doctrine of the Armed Forces of the United States." This monograph demonstrates the inadequacy of the JP-1 definition and the superficiality of applying Clausewitzian theory to a poorly structured definition. By analyzing the reason why Clausewitz is so conspicuously present at the beginning of the U.S. military's capstone doctrinal document, it becomes possible to appreciate the difficulty of incorporating his theory into modern decision making. The monograph utilizes Clausewitzian theory to extract a definition of war that attempts to be at once both comprehensive and comprehensible. The author recommends that the U.S. military incorporate a better structure for defining war. The education of both military and civilian leaders ultimately requires an educational process based on a definition anchored in proven theory instead of unproven rhetoric.


First evidences come from the demonstration of neurogenesis in non-mammal vertebrates such as birds or lizards (as reviewed in Garcia-Verdugo et al., 2002). Neurogenesis was also confirmed to occur in adult mammals, like mice and rats, and, finally, in primates and humans (for a complete revision see Gil-Perotin et al., 2009). Though the process of neurogenesis in the adult is primarily confined to the subventricular zone (SVZ) and the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the dentate gyrus, glial progenitors exist in other brain regions. These widespread glial progenitors remain quiescent and do not generate mature glial cells, but, in certain situations such as traumatic injury, they may act as true stem cells (Belachew et al., 2003; Rivers et al., 2008).


This paper analyses how the new "creative class" community consisting of multiple professional groups and societies is shaping itself up, using a professional community of Information Technologies (further abbreviated as IT) specialists as a case study. The qualitative research of IT professionals' community demonstrated that the professional community of IT specialists in Latvia is not homogeneous. Differences related to age entail differences related to professional experience, ambition, and motivation. IT professionals in Latvia have a strong professional identity. Keywords—digital economy, IT, professional community


Ag nanoparticles synthesized on porous silicon samples were studied and applied as substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The metallic nanostructures prepared by immersion plating were characterized by UV–Vis reflectance spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. SERS activity of the substrates was tested using Cyanine dye 1,3,3,1′,3′,3′-esamethyl-5,5′-dimethoxyindodicarbocyanine iodide (Cy5-OCH3) as a probe molecule. The Raman spectra obtained for different excitation wavelengths indicate amplifications ascribed to plasmonic resonances with an enhancement factor up to 107. CGIYRLRS peptides were chemisorbed on the Ag nanoparticles with the plasmonic resonance tuned at the excitation energy. Such oligopeptides were used as baits for a specific polyclonal antibody. The overall Raman enhancement allowed to evidence a good selectivity to the target analyte as required by most of the SERS applications on biological assays. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The present paper discusses the problems connected with the philosophical justification of sustainable develop-ment. In this context ecophilosophy is perceived as a new branch of philosophy devoted to the search for theo-retical grounds for sustainable development of the human world in a symbiosis with Nature. When we confront the main ideas of ecophilosophy with those of traditional philosophy the basic motivation of philosophical in-quiry changes considerably. The new philosophy does not try to justify human exploitation of Nature; by endow-ing the biosphere with a value per se, but rather contemplates the possibility of a harmonious coexistence of human beings with all other creatures living in the biosphere. Sustainable development is understood as a search for a proper measure of human activity in the environment. It is a mechanism that should be incorporated into the development of western civilization so that our civilization does not choke on its own power.The potential of ecophilosophy depends on the response to the question: "Is the antagonism between Nature and culture inevita-ble?" This paper tries to demonstrate that it is not.


Excerpt It is not uncommon for pediatricians to work closely with their internist colleagues in managing diseases characteristically of childhood that occur in adults. A recent example is atypical ...


The pentaacetate esters of several, but not all, monosaccharides were recently found to stimulate insulin release from rat pancreatic islets. We have now compared the taste of solutions of either these esters or the corresponding unesterified monosaccharides. The sweet taste of the latter monosaccharides (0.22 M) ranged as follows: D‐glucose ≅D‐galactose ≅D‐mannoheptulose > L‐glucose. None of the esters (1.7 mM) displayed a sweet taste. However, the α‐ and β‐anomer of D‐glucose pentaacetate, the α‐anomer of D‐mannose pentaacetate and the β‐anomer of L‐glucose pentaacetate all displayed a bitter taste, whilst both α‐ and β‐D‐galactose pentaacetate yielded doubtful results. Since such a situation is comparable to that characterizing the islet B‐cell response to these esters, it is proposed that the intracellular interaction between the esters or their hydrolytic products and a protein involved in the recognition of bitter taste in taste buds may participate in their insulinotropic action.


The gut is home to a large number of Treg, with both CD4+ CD25+ Treg and bacterial antigen‐specific Tr1 cells present in normal mouse intestinal lamina propria. It has been shown recently that intestinal mucosal DC are able to induce Foxp3+ Treg through production of TGF‐β plus retinoic acid (RA). However, the factors instructing DC toward this mucosal phenotype are currently unknown. Curcumin has been shown to possess a number of biologic activities including the inhibition of NF‐κB signaling. We asked whether curcumin could modulate DC to be tolerogenic whose function could mimic mucosal DC. We report here that curcumin modulated BM‐derived DC to express ALDH1a and IL‐10. These curcumin‐treated DC induced differentiation of naïve CD4+ T cells into Treg resembling Treg in the intestine, including both CD4+CD25+ Foxp3+ Treg and IL‐10‐producing Tr1 cells. Such Treg induction required IL‐10, TGF‐β and retinoic acid produced by curcumin‐modulated DC. Cell contact as well as IL‐10 and TGF‐β production were involved in the function of such induced Treg. More importantly, these Treg inhibited antigen‐specific T‐cell activation in vitro and inhibited colitis due to antigen‐specific pathogenic T cells in vivo.


Spot prices in energy markets exhibit special features, such as price spikes, mean reversion, stochastic volatility, inverse leverage effect, and dependencies between the commodities. In this paper a multivariate stochastic volatility model is introduced which captures these features. The second-order structure and stationarity of the model are analyzed in detail. A simulation method for Monte Carlo generation of price paths is introduced and a numerical example is presented.


Males and swollen mature females of Achlysiella trilineata and Achlysiella magniglans were discovered for the first time in Australia. These life stages confirmed that both species show well-marked sexual dimorphism in the anterior region of the body, with the males having reduced cephalic frameworks, stylets, and oesophagi. Males of A. magniglans displayed an extreme reduction in the style such that only the cone could be seen, and the rest of the esophagus was barely visible. In both species, the swollen females had postmedian vulvae, and the anterior branch of the ovary was longer than the posterior branch. In A. magniglans, the disparity in length was more pronounced, and the vulva was more posterior. The finding of swollen females confirmed the classification of both species in Achlysiella rather than Radopholus. Vermiform females of both species have large dorsal oesophageal glands and short ovaries. Justifiably, other species of Radopholus with these latter features (R. brevicaudatus, R. capitatus, and R. vacuus) should also be moved to Achlysiella.


Computer logs are generated by application activities, network accesses and system audit, which are important data sources for user pattern mining, computer forensic analysis, intrusion detection analysis and outlier detection. Algorithms for mining association rule are useful methods to find interesting rules implied in large computer log data. But existing algorithms which based on confidence and support are unfit for mining computer log data, many uninteresting rules will be generated and useful rules will be shadowed. To solve this problem, the concept of key attributes of network log data is introduced, and an algorithm with key attributes constraints for mining interesting association rules in network log data is designed. Experimental result shows that the number of uninteresting rules can be reduced effectively and the validity of rules which mined are improved.


Objectives – Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) frequently suffer from cardiovascular dysfunction, which may be enhanced to various extents by different antiparkinsonian drugs.


This paper examines the utility of and need for remotely sensed data in emergency management, and details some of the constraints on its use. The terrorist events of September 11, 2001, are studied as they relate to the use of remote sensing as an integral part of emergency management.


PURPOSE: A method and a camera device for penetrating a band pass filter with a visible ray and a near infrared ray are provided to prevent irradiation of light when photographing a subject. CONSTITUTION: An automatic focusing unit operates an AF(Auto Focus) actuator. The automatic focusing unit photographs a face image and an accurate iris. A hand sharking image correcting unit corrects movement of a comparison image. The hand sharking image correcting unit overlaps the corrected comparison image with a reference image.


Background. Tuberculosis is one of world health problems which still needs attention. Recently, tuberculosis in Indonesia is within the biggest three after India and China. Researches reveal that albumin decreases significantly in tuberculosis patients, and which might be caused by nutrition factors (low intake, anorexia, increasing catabolism), enteropati and acute protein reaction. Low albumin is associated with an increase in IL-6 but little is known about the association between albumin and cytokines in tuberculosis. Considering albumin function of the body is very important, food survey should be done to understand what kind of food that can increase albumin in tuberculosis patients. In this survey, patients were given egg white extra. Objective. The purpose of this research was to assess the effectivity of egg white intake on albumin and IL-6 levels. Methods. A single blind randomized controlled trial was conducted at Margono Soekarjo Hospital of Purwokerto in 2013. Sampling technic used simple random sampling and 75 patients were allocated to intervention (n = 37) and control (n = 38) goups. Both groups received high energy high protein diet, the intervention group received an oral egg white-based on formula calculation Baxter for 14 days. Control group received extra soybean curd and mungbean powder. Albumin and IL-6 levels were checked before and after the study. Data were analyzed using Mann Whitney analysis to assess the differences in albumin and IL-6 levels between two groups. Results. The average of albumin level before study in the intervention group was 2.82 g/dL and that in control group was 2.85 g/ dL. Average albumin after study in the intervention group was 3.47 g/dL and that in control group was 2.81 g/dL. Bivariat analysis showed that there was a significant difference in the increase of albumin between intervention and control groups with p = 0.001 (p < 0.05). The average of IL-6 level before study in the intervention group was 5.07 pg/mL and that in control group was 3.77 pg/mL. Meanwhile, the average of albumin levels after study in the intervention and control groups were 0.006 and 2.57 pg/mL, resspectively. There was a significant difference in the depletion IL-6 between those two groups with p = 0.001 (p < 0.05). Conclusion. Egg white effectively increased albumin but depleted IL-6 in tuberculosis patients.


Introduction The engineering workplace is changing, and one of the changes is in the gender mix of technical professionals. There are more women entering the engineering workforce, and with time, it is expected that women will compose a greater percentage of the total of engineers. However, simply because there are more women graduate engineers doesn't mean that they will remain in engineering for a career. A successful career depends on both technical competence and social skills, and a quality educational experience supplies both of these qualities. This paper examines the social side of a career in engineering for women and suggests techniques for improving social performance. It discusses reasons for attrition among women engineers, how women engineers view themselves, and how to coach women engineering students to have a more accurate self-perception to counter career dissatisfaction.


"Beautiful Geometry." Eli Maor and Eugen Jost. Princeton University Press. January 2014. --- How do art and mathematics cross over? Beautiful Geometry is an attractively designed coffee table book that has 51 short chapters, each consisting of an essay by the mathematical historian Eli Maor on a single topic, together with a colour plate by the artist Eugen Jost.The book achieves its aim to demonstrate that there is visual beauty in mathematics, finds Konrad Swanepoel. It is heartily recommended to mathematics students who want to broaden their horizons and to teachers of mathematics at school level.


We consider dierential inclusions where a positive semidenite function of the solutions satises a class-KL estimate in terms of time and a second positive semidenite function of the initial condition. We show that a smooth converse Lyapunov function, i.e., one whose derivative along solutions can be used to establish the class-KL estimate, exists if and only if the class-KL estimate is robust, i.e., it holds for a larger, perturbed dierential inclusion. It remains an open question whether all class-KL estimates are robust. One sucient condition for robustness is that the original dierential inclusion is locally Lipschitz. Another sucient condition is that the two positive semidenite functions agree and a backward completability condition holds. These special cases unify and generalize many results on converse Lyapunov theorems for dierential equations and dierential inclusions that have appeared in the literature.


Vehacol or Vehicular Anti-Collision is a mechanism for determining collision course between two or more vehicles. The mechanism uses a combination of physical and logical layer techniques to generate self and remote node information that can be exchanged to enable location awareness. Two vehicles (nodes) periodically exchange information about their individual movement in terms of displacement, speed and direction (with reference to a geographic North). In addition to the information exchange through an ad hoc network, vehicles also measure the separating distance through physical measurement. To do so, the vehicles use a unique but simple modulation format and reception technique that avoids the problems caused by multipath fading. Combining the inputs obtained through the measurement of distance and periodic information exchanges, vehicles are able to determine whether or not they are on a collision course with another vehicle. The paper discusses system parameters, protocol and other design issues related to the implementation of the Vehacol system. Simulation results and assumptions are also presented that validate the mechanism from the perspectives of error computation and discovery times.


Introduction: Effective communication is of paramount importance for nursing students, and having positive attitudes towards learning can result in the achievement of effective communication skills. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the impact of a specific communication educational course and an experience of clinical internship on nursing students' attitudes toward effective communication. Methods: A before-after study design was used. We evaluated communication attitude using the Italian version of the Communication skills Attitude Scale (I-CSAS). The scale was submitted before starting a new Communication Skills educational intervention (T0), one month after the end of the intervention (T1), and after the clinical internship (T2). Results: The Positive Attitude Scale (PAS) was 53.9 ± 5.3 at T0, while the Negative Attitude Scale (NAS) was 26.9 ± 5.0. PAS scores increased one month after the educational intervention (T1) (Me = 55.8 ± 5.1, p = 0.058) and after the internship experience (T2) (57.2 ± 4.5, p = 1.243), while the NAS's average scores decreased (24.0 ± 4.5 at T1, p = 0.0002, and 23.5 ± 3.7 at T2, p = 0.1120). Conclusions: Our results suggest that a structured educational intervention can significantly improve student attitudes, and that subsequent clinical training helps to consolidate the levels achieved.


The article presents the data on structures of the nucleotide sequence fragments of the 12S ribosomal RNA gene (12S rRNA) for 19 tetrathyridia specimens of the genus Mesocestoides Vaillant, 1863 from representatives of 10 insectivore and rodent species from different regions of RussiaТs East and Alaska (USA). For the first time, the participation of three shrew species in the life cycle of Mesocestoides has been established. Nucleotide sequence fragments of the 12S rRNA gene have been analyzed phylogenetically. The researched tetrathyridia do not assumingly belong to any of the confirmed species of the genus; however, the identity of five of the 12S rRNA sequence fragments from micromammalian tetrathyridia and two nucleotide sequences of 12S rRNA from carnivorous mammals of Mongolia, placed in GenBank, has been established.


The mathematical model of electromagnetic voltage transformer has been developed. The ferromagnetic properties of the transformer are described by using Jiles-Atherton model in which the influence of magnetization reversal speed on coercive force value was taken into account. This mathematical model allows considering the phase-to-phase interaction during ferroresonance. The influence of switchgear parameters on ferroresonance beginning and behavior was shown.


McMaster University MASTER OF APPLIED SCIENCES (2017) Hamilton, Ontario (Engineering Physics)

TITLE: Comparative study of accident-tolerant fuel for a CANDU lattice AUTHOR: Simon Younan, B.Eng. (McMaster University) SUPERVISOR: Dr. David Novog NUMBER OF PAGES: xiii, 120


Paying attention to the issue of extravagance and frugality in the current era is so significant for planning makers. Now, according to the Islamic culture dominates our society that all its instructions are derived from Quranic verses, it seems essential that this important issue be taken into consideration from the perspective of Quran and Islamic narrations, because its impact on community development is important from different aspects ( political, social, moral, cultural,…). If humans are affected and dominated by extravagance and take them astray from the moderate way, therefore, taking into account the effects and outcomes of extravagance in terms of Quran can be effective for Islamic planners and policy makers in devising the approaches for the future programs and the country's development and promotion and achieving to the appropriate ways. This article aims to delve into the Quranic verses and worthwhile narrations of the Imams to indicate the concept of extravagance and frugality as well as taking into consideration the outcomes of extravagance in order to makes help the progress and promotion of the society as well as increasing the awareness of the


The superconducting transition temperature Tc has earlier been correlated with coherence length and effective mass for a series of heavy fermion (HF) materials at atmospheric pressure. Here, a further physical property, the dc electrical conductivity σ(Tc), is one focal point, another being the pressure dependence of both Tc and σ(Tc) for several HF materials. The relaxation time τ(Tc) is also studied in relation to an Uncertainty Principle limit, involving only the thermal energy kBTc and Planck's constant.


Object recognition methods are applied for taxonomic classification by extracting characteristic information of insect wing images. We analysed wing images of two insect groups (Hemiptera: Triatominae and Ceratopogonidae: Culicoides) and different taxonomic levels (genus, subgenus and species). Instead of using a traditional method such as geometric morphometry, which requires the prior digitization of coordinates that explain the wing geometry, we processed the complete noisy images using lineal methods. Our results show that methods based on supervised training achieve, on average, the same outcome as the traditional method, which indeed suggests that the entire wing structure has relevant taxonomic information.


The properties of conduction electrons in P-doped Si nanocrystals embedded in insulating glass matrices have been studied by electron spin-resonance spectroscopy. For heavily P-doped samples, a broad conduction electron signal is observed at low temperatures. The width of the signal is found to be much broader than that of P-doped bulk Si crystals. The temperature dependence of the signal intensity obeys the Curie law even when the P concentration is very high. This suggests that in P-doped nanocrystals donor levels do not merge into the conduction band even at very high P concentration, and also provides evidence that Si nanocrystals smaller than a certain threshold size do not become metallic, at least when they are prepared under an equilibrium condition.


Firstly, this paper establishes useful forms of the remainder term of Hardy-type inequalities on general domains where the weights are functions of the distance to the boundary. For weakly mean convex domains we use the resulting identities to establish nonexistence of extremizers for and improve known sharp Hardy inequalities. Secondly, we establish geometrically interesting remainders for the Davies-Hardy-Tidblom inequalities for the mean distance function, as well as generalize and improve several Hardy type inequalities in the spirit of Brezis and Marcus and spectral estimates of Davies. Lastly, we apply our results to obtain Sobolev inequalities for non-regular Riemannian metrics on geometric exterior domains.


Background

Air pollution has repeatedly been shown to have a detrimental impact on human health. It remains a serious public health problem in many countries including the UK, where nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations currently do not meet EU targets. The long-term impact can be estimated from small area ecological studies in which health is regressed on air pollution concentrations and other covariates, …


Abstract : Astrocytes play a pivotal role in CNS detoxification pathways, where glutathione (GSH) is involved in the elimination of oxygen and nitrogen reactive species such as nitric oxide. We have previously demonstrated that the specific activity of γ‐glutamyl transpeptidase (γ‐GT), an enzyme of central significance in GSH metabolism, is regulated in vivo in astrocytes by 1,25‐dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25‐D3). The aim of the present work was to investigate, in primary cultures of newborn rat astrocytes, the effects of this hormone on γ‐GT synthesis and on GSH and nitrite levels after lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment. This study demonstrates that both γ‐GT gene expression and specific activity, induced by LPS, are potentiated by 1,25‐D3. In contrast, 1,25‐D3 does not regulate the expression of other enzymes involved in astrocyte detoxification processes, such as superoxide dismutase or GSH peroxidase. In parallel, 1,25‐D3 enhanced intracellular GSH pools and significantly reduced nitrite production induced by LPS. Taken together, these results suggest that γ‐GT, GSH, and 1,25‐D3 play a fundamental role in astrocyte detoxification pathways.


Peeling of tomatoes by radiative heating is a valid alternative to steam or lye, which are expensive and pollutant methods. Suitable energy densities are required in order to realize short time operations, thus involving only a thin layer under the tomato surface. This paper aims to predict the temperature field in rotating tomatoes exposed to the source irradiation. Therefore, a 1D unsteady analytical model is presented, which involves a semi-infinite slab subjected to time dependent heating while convective heat transfer takes place on the exposed surface. In order to account for the tomato rotation, the heat source is described as the positive half-wave of a sinusoidal function. The problem being linear, the solution is derived following the Laplace Transform Method. In addition, an easy-to-handle solution for the problem at hand is presented, which assumes a differentiable function for approximating the source while neglecting convective cooling, the latter contribution turning out to be negligible for the context at hand. A satisfying agreement between the two analytical solutions is found, therefore, an easy procedure for a proper design of the dry heating system can be set up avoiding the use of numerical simulations.


The invention provides a coal mine suspension support adjusting tool which comprises a hydraulic cylinder, and the cylinder body end of the hydraulic cylinder and/or the end part of a piston rod are/is connected with a tension element. The coal mine suspension support adjusting tool adopts the hydraulic cylinder as a driving source, and has the advantages of high efficiency and low labor intensity of an operator in an adjusting process of a suspension support. In addition, after the hydraulic cylinder is adopted, the working staff can remotely control the action of the hydraulic cylinder to adjust the suspension support, thus reducing the hidden danger on the working staff in the adjusting process.


Objective To make a further understanding of the anatomy of decompression plane of the renal fasciae, to discuss its use in CT diagnosis of retroperitoneal lesions. Materials and Methods Thirty-seven patients with retroperitoneal lesions were enrolled in this study. All patients underwent CT scanning. Of the total 37 cases, 23 were acute pancreatitis, 14 were renal or perirenal lesions.Results Thickening of renal fasciae of different degree and extent was found on CT scans in all cases. Conclusion Renal decompression plane can be divided into anterior and posterior planes of the anterior renal fasciae, para-bridging-septa plane, and anterior and posterior planes of the posterior renal fasciae. This classification is helpful for the understanding of CT signs of retroperitoneal diseases and for the improvement of the diagnostic accuracy.


Covariance matrices that consist of sparse factors arise in settings where the field sensed by a sensor network is formed by localized sources. It is established that the task of identifying source-informative sensors boils down to estimating the support of the sparse covariance factors. To this end, a novel sparsity-aware matrix decomposition framework is developed that can recover the support of the sparse factors of a matrix. Relying on norm-one regularization a centralized formulation is first derived, when sensors are fully connected. Then, the notion of missing covariance entries is employed to develop a distributed sparsity-aware matrix decomposition scheme. The associated minimization problems are solved using computationally efficient coordinate descent iterations combined with matrix deflation mechanisms. A simple scheme is also developed to set appropriately the sparsity-adjusting coefficients. The distributed framework can provably recover the support of the covariance factors when field sources do not overlap, while each subset of sensors sensing a specific source form a connected communication graph. Different from existing approaches, the novel utilization of covariance sparsity allows distributed informative sensor identification, without requiring data model parameters. Numerical tests corroborate that the novel factorization schemes work well even when the sources overlap.


The ability of understanding important concepts held by educators and learners. This ability is fundamental in achieving one of the outcomes of learning. Their understanding of the concept of ownership is the ability of a person can use in solving a problem that is related to the concept in everyday life. This descriptive study aims to obtain a description of the conceptual understanding of prospective biology educator students through the use of peer and self-assessment in class discussions. The research subjects were 26 prospective Biology educator students of the 2019/2020 academic year who contracted the human body anatomy physiology course. The instruments used consisted of peer and self assessment sheets, lecturer observation sheets and conceptual understanding questions. Data analysis was carried out quantitatively and qualitatively. The results showed that the average peer assessment score was greater than the self assessment, where the peer assessment was in the moderate category (49%) and the self assessmet was in the poor category (34%). There were only 10 students (38.46%) who were in conformity between peer and self assessment with adequate and insufficient categories. The discrepancy was found in 16 students (61.54%) with the category enough, less and very less. The ability to understand the concept of students on each indicator shows different percentage mean. The highest percentage of concept understanding ability indicators is found in the indicators of explaining the concept with its own sentence structure about something that is read or heard clearly / concretely by 64% (Good), while the lowest percentage of indicators of concept comprehension ability is found in the indicators able to connect symbolic forms (pictures, tables, concept maps, diagrams, graphs, mathematical equations, and other formulas) in concepts with other concepts of 51% (Enough).


Donor hypernatremia has been associated with primary graft dysfunction in heart transplantation and is known to be associated with impaired outcome following liver and renal transplantation. However, controversial data exist regarding the impact of sodium deregulation in patient survival after heart transplantation (HTx). This study aims to investigate the impact of donor sodium levels on early morbidity and short- and midterm survival following HTx.

 Between September 2010 and June 2021, a total of n=218 patients underwent HTx in our centre. From those, 214 could be included retrospectively in our study. For each donor, sodium levels were collected and different cut-off levels from 145 to 159 mmol/l were investigated by Kaplan-Meier-analysis. Then, recipients were divided in three groups regarding donor sodium: Normonatremia (133–145 mmol/l, n=73), mild hypernatremia (146–156 mmol/l, n=105) and severe hypernatremia (>156 mmol/l, n=35). Recipient and donor variables were reviewed and compared, including peri- and postoperative characteristics and recipient survival after up to 5 years after transplantation.

 All patients were comparable regarding baseline characteristics and perioperative parameters. Regarding early mortality, 90-day survival was significantly reduced only in patients with severe donor hypernatremia in comparison to normonatremia (see table 1 and fifgure 1, 90% vs. 71%, p=0.02), but not in mild normonatremia (89%, p=0.89). 1-year survival was comparable in all groups (p>0.28).

 Donor hypernatremia was associated with reduced short-term survival, while correlation weakens >1 year after HTx. Future prospective studies are needed to confirm the possible cut-off value of 156 mmol/l for donor-acceptancy.

 Type of funding sources: None.


Abstract This study compared ventilation patterns during incremental load tests to exhaustion. Ten endurance trained individuals and eight recreationally active trained individuals underwent a maximal oxygen uptake (O2max) determination test on both a cycle (CE) and treadmill (TM) ergometer. Cardiorespiratory variables O2,CO2, RER, E, and R), movement frequency (MF) and entrainment (ENT) were collected and calculated relative to fixed percentages of O2max (isometabolic), ranging from 60 to 100%. Minute ventilation ( E) was similar between groups on both ergometers. Concurrently, VT was significantly higher, while R was significantly lower on the CE compared to the TM in both groups (P<0.05). At isometabolic intensities there were no difference in R or ENT between groups or mode of testing while the endurance trained group reached higher VT values on the CE. Although the endurance trained group reached higher cardiorespiratory values compared to the recreationally active trained group, their ventilatory patterns were similar between modes of testing. These results seem to be dependent on the exercise modality and not necessarily the type of training individuals regularly participate in.


It this paper the role of ERP system in the intellectual capital management process is presented. The personnel usefulness function for the m-th employee in the n-th functionality area in the SMEs is strictly described. Based on the research result, the intellectual capital management process in SMEs using the data from ERP system is formulated.


It provides a display apparatus and a UI providing method thereof. The display apparatus includes a display displaying a plurality of screens in the first area of the screen, and a display unit for displaying a plurality of icons categorized into a plurality of groups in a second area of the display screen, the sub user interface to detect user interaction and Once through the user interface, the predetermined user interaction (interaction) is detected in one of the plurality of icons is selected, the group control unit for controlling a display so as to reproduce the content corresponding to the selected icon in one of the plurality of screen according to the set user interaction It includes.


BACKGROUND/AIM
Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced endotoxemia can cause serious organ damage such as acute lung injury and death by triggering the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines and acute-phase reactants. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of β-glucan on inflammatory mediator levels and histopathological changes in LPS-induced endotoxemia.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Forty-seven male Wistar albino rats were randomly allocated into four groups as follows: control group, LPS group (10 mg/kg LPS), LPS + β-glucan group (100 mg/kg β-glucan before LPS administration), and β-glucan group. Twelve hours after LPS administration, lung and serum samples were collected. Concentrations of IL-6, IL-8, C-reactive protein (CRP), and procalcitonin were measured in the serum at hours 0 (basal) and 12. The severity of lung damage was assessed by an appropriate histopathological scoring system.

RESULTS
Serum levels of CRP in the LPS group at 12 h were significantly higher than in the other groups, whereas serum IL-6 levels in the LPS and LPS + β-glucan groups at 12 h were significantly decreased. The mean histopathological damage score of the LPS group was slightly higher than that of the LPS + β-glucan group. Moreover, mortality rate was significantly decreased in the LPS + β-glucan group versus the LPS group.

CONCLUSION
β-glucan reduces endotoxemia-induced mortality and might be protective against endotoxemia-induced lung damage.


Despite numerous research of scientists from many countries around the world on the chemical composition of peanut, the factors, such as improvement and introduction of new technologies to the agriculture, emergence of new varieties and their genotypes, require constant study of the content of nutrients in food raw materials and peanut in particular. Taking into account that there is no data on the qualitative and quantitative mineral and vitamin composition of peanut varieties, which are widespread in Ukraine, its studying is of current importance. The analysis of vitamin and mineral composition of 19 peanut varieties, widespread in Ukraine, is first provided in this paper. It was found that peanut satisfies the daily requirement of such vitamins as E, B1 and B3 more than by half. By mineral substances, the studied peanut varieties are an excellent source of magnesium, phosphorus, manganese and iron, providing from 30 to 50% of daily needs. It is shown that the vitamin and mineral composition of peanut varies depending on the variety. The obtained data give grounds to state the preventive properties of peanut, that makes it a promising food product.


This paper tests empirically the credit-constraints thesis by using cross-country data on secondary and higher-education enrolment rates. Contrary to some previous works in this direction, we find several pieces of evidence that support the importance of such a thesis. First, controlling for the effects of both economic development and educational inequality, we find that school enrolments are negatively correlated with income inequality and positively correlated with financial-market development. Second, these correlations are robust to the specific country-effects, the composition of the sample of countries, and the inclusion of public education expenditures. Finally, public education expenditures are significantly correlated with school enrolment ratios. Distinguishing developed countries from developing ones reveals that the effects of both social and material factors are larger in rich countries than in poor ones. Our estimation results also show that the way public expenditures are allocated across educational levels affects enrolment ratios in higher educational stages. Specifically, countries where expenditure allocations are biased in favour of the advanced stages of education at the expense of the basic levels also experience low enrolment ratios in the higher levels of education.


The nonlinear optical susceptibilities of various quantum-well Ga/sub 1-x/Al/sub x/As compounds grown by molecular beam epitaxy were measured by pumping with a Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:YAG laser. The contribution of second-harmonic waves from the bulk nonlinear susceptibility and the electrical dipole sheet in the quantum well was calculated separately. The measured second-harmonic reflectivity decreases as the silicon doping concentration increases and its angular variation follows the Bloembergen and Pershan theory. Both the experimental and theoretical results indicate that the electron gas and dipole sheet in the unbiased single quantum wells have a negligible effect on the second-order nonlinear generation. >


Foreword, Louis Appleby, National Director for Mental Health in England. 1. Introduction, David Duffy, Bolton Salford and Trafford Mental Health NHS Trust and Tony Ryan, Health and Social Care Advisory Service and Manchester University. 2. Assessing Suicide Risk, Jayne Cooper and Navneet Kapur, Centre for Suicide Prevention, University of Manchester. 3. Primary Care, Barry Lewis, Rochdale Primary Care Trust. 4. A&E and Mental Health Liaison, Alison Pearsall, Lancashire Care NHS Trust, Bury, and Tony Ryan. 5. Mental Health In-patient Settings, Nick Bowles, Preferred Futures and University of Bradford. 6. Community Mental Health Services, Nigel Crompton and Peter Walmsley, Mersey Care NHS Trust. 7. Young Men, Mike Smith, Freelance consultant and Health and Social Care Advisory Service. 8. Prisons, Jo Paton and Jo Borrill, Safer Custody Group, HM Prison Service. 9. Black and Minority Ethnic Groups, Hari Sewell, Camden and Islington Mental Health and Social Care Trust. 10. Assisting Self-harm: Some Legal Considerations, David Hewitt, Hempsans Solicitors. 11. 'Shouting at the Spaceman' - A Conversation about Self-harm, Clare Shaw, Service user consultant, and Christine Hogg, University of Salford. 12. Adolescents, Gemma Trainor, Bolton Salford and Trafford Mental Health NHS Trust. 13. The Role of the National Confidential Inquiry in Relation to Suicide Prevention, Jo Robinson and Harriet Bickley, National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness.14. Using Audit, Lester Sireling, Barnett, Enfield & Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust. 15. Carrying out Internal Reviews of Serious Incidents, Suzette Woodward Kathryn Hill and Sally Adams, National Patient Safety Agency. 16. Developing Training Packages, Jenny Droughton, Cheshire and Wirrall Partnership NHS Trust, Linda Gask, Lancashire Care NHS Trust and the University of Manchester, Gill Green, STORM co-ordinator and Clare Dixon, University of Manchester.17. International Perspectives in Suicide Prevention, Education and Training, Richard Ramsay, University of Calgary, Canada. 18. Supporting Staff and Patients after a Suicide, Victoria Pallin, University of Manchester. 19. Samaritans: Working with Everyone, Everywhere, Sarah Nelson and Simon Armson, Samaritans. 20. PAPYRUS: An Example of Voluntary Sector Work. Tony Cox, Anne Parry and Anna Brown, PAPYRUS. 21. Community Whole-System Approaches, Jude Stansfield, National Institute for Mental Health in England and Pippa Sergeant, Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM). 22. Useful Resources, Rowan Purdy, National Institute for Mental Health in England. The Contributors. Indexes.


Abstract Purpose: To investigate a possible relation between penile Doppler ultrasound examination (PDUE) parameters and efficacy of chronic therapy with tadalafil (TAD) combined with a protocol of aerobic physical activity (PA) in patients with late onset hypogonadism (LOH). Methods: The study evaluated 30 patients consecutively enrolled with LOH and erectile dysfunction which present contraindication to hormonal replacement therapy for concomitant prostate disease. These patients were subjected to a combined protocol with phosphodiesterase V selective inhibitors (TAD 5 mg daily) and aerobic PA. Results: After three months, we observed significant improvements in erectile function [IIEF-5, median (IQR) = 13.0 (7.0–18.0) versus 6.0 (5.0–6.75); p < 0.01] and of the main metabolic [homeostatic model assessment index, median (IQR) = 2.5 (1.62–3.37) versus 3.0 (2.0–3.75); p < 0.01; body mass index, median (IQR) = 27.0 (24.0–28.75) versus 27.5 (24.0–29.5)] and vascular parameters [peak systolic velocity, median (IQR) = 29.5 (24.25–31.0) versus 28.0 (23.0–24.25); acceleration time, median (IQR) = 114 (105.25–134.0) versus 115.0 (106.5–134.0)], assessed by PDUE. Conclusion: PA in association with phosphodiesterase V inhibitors could compensate the effects of hypogonadism on erectile function and facilitate the clinical response to these drugs even in the absence of adequate serum concentrations of total testosterone.


Alkyd-polycaprolactone (lactone)-modified polyester (ALMP) was synthesized by introducing 3,5,5-trimethylhexanoic acid and lactone chosen as the component of alkyd and lactone polyol into modified polyester. Two-component polyurethane coatings were prepared by blending tolyrene diisocyanate (TDI)-isocyanurate, pigment, flowing agent, and wetting/ dispersing agent into the synthesized ALMP. After the film was coated with the prepared polyurethane coatings, the various physical properties were measured. They showed drying time of 2∼3 h and pot-life time of 20∼25 h, which could belong to the coatings with long pot-life time. They showed good physical properties such as thermal resistance, flexibility, impact resistance, cross-hatch adhesion, fineness of grind, abrasion resistance, yellowness index, lightness index difference, and the rest of properties were comparable to existing coatings. These advantages are the results of introducing alkyd and lactone polyols.


This study used a structural equation modelling approach to assess the association between employee work-life policies, psychological empowerment, and academic staff job commitment in universities in Cross River State, Nigeria. Three null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study following a descriptive survey research design. Multistage sampling procedure was adopted in the selection of 315 academic staff from two universities in the study area. "Work-Life Policies, Psychological Empowerment and Job Commitment Questionnaire (WPPEJCQ)" was used as the instrument for data collection. The construct validity of the instrument was ascertained through an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The Kaiser-Meyer-Ohlin of .894 and the Bartlett coefficient of 7795.820 were obtained. Several fit indices of Confirmatory Factor Analysis were used to accept the model such as RMSEA=.031, TLI=.969, CFI=.971 and many others. The null hypotheses were all tested using Path analysis. Findings revealed, among others, that there is a significant effect of work-life policies on the affective (β=.774,t=21.636,p<.05), continuance (β=.450,t=8.932,p<.05), and normative (β=490,t=9.967,p<.05) dimensions of academic staff commitment; furthermore, psychological empowerment has a significant effect on the affective (β=.795,t=23.199,p<.05), continuance (β=.501,t=10.261,p<.05) and normative (β = .520, t = 10.795, p< .05) dimensions of staff commitment; and there is a significant composite effect of work-life policies and psychological empowerment on the affective, continuance, and normative commitment levels of academic staff in universities. Based on these findings, conclusions and recommendations were made


A high-performance concrete mix enhanced with a combination of microsilica, superplasticizer, and high dosages of an corrosion-inhibiting, accelerating admixture (calcium nitrite); proved to be advantageous for pouring exposed parking decks during both very hot and very cold conditions in Minneapolis. This was the first major project in the United States to utilize both microsilica and calcium nitrite corrosion inhibitor for improved durability and resistance to road salt induced corrosion. Both the unique mix design and carefully planned construction procedures allowed a concrete that might have otherwise been assumed to be difficult, to be quickly placed and post-tensioned in conditions with air temperatures as low as -5°F (-21°C). The workability and all-weather adaptability of this high-performance concrete mix, along with the successful techniques of the construction team, in a wide variety of temperature conditions; may unshackle concrete from many of its limitations as a construction material in cold regions.


This paper analyzes the issue of persistent high unemployment. It focuses on two channels of persistence. The first is capital accumulation. The paper analyzes investment decisions under imperfect competition, focusing in particular on the effects of demand and cost shocks on investment, capital composition and bankruptcies, and their effect on employment and unemployment. The second is labor supply. The paper analyzes the various channels through which the unemployed may become disenfranchised, leading to higher equilibrium unemployment. In both cases, it briefly reviews and assesses the available empirical evidence. It ends by drawing several implications.


The study analyzed the role of communication media in mitigating climate change effects on agricultural production. The study was conducted in Cross River State, South East Nigeria. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse data generated from the field. The study revealed that climate change information available to farmers includes those from traditional weather forecasts (33.3%) and downscaled weather disaster predictions (30.3%). The study revealed further that the major sources of climate change information were those from members of the community (31.7%); Non-Governmental Agencies (29.2%) and traditional weather forecasters (18.9%). Channels of climate change information dissemination include: Town crier (73.1%), village meeting (61.7%), television (68.9%), radio (62.5%), neighbours (49.4%) and agricultural extension officers (37.5%). The study also shows that there is a strong and positive relationship (+0.7) between climate change information dissemination and farming activities. A test of significance for r shows that T-calculated (3.0996) was greater than the T-tabulated (1.812) implying that there is a significant relationship between climate change information dissemination and farming activities. In other words, climate change information made available to farmers on time could help them adapt and possibly mitigate adverse weather changes.


This paper addresses the brake control design for Heavy-Duty Trucks (HDTs) in automated vehicle short distance following operation. The braking system for an HDT is composed of three subsystems: Jake (engine) brake, transmission retarder and pneumatic (air) brake. Judicious combination of these three subsystems for achieving a desired braking torque is critical for both safety and performance. Based on the two different brake modes, the combination of the engine brake and the air brake and the combination of the transmission retarder and the air brake, two different control designs are proposed such that the total braking torque tracks its target value rapidly and the truck follows its leading truck in speed with a constant gap distance. Numerical simulation shows the effectiveness of the proposed control designs.


This paper presents the results of an experimental study aimed at evaluating the elementary filtration properties of a fine cement grout injected in a sand. In a first step, the experimental setup ...


National energy demands continue to increase in 2050 in line with economic growth, population growth, energy prices, and government policies. During 2016-2050, the final energy demand growth rate could reach 5.3% per year. For this reason, alternative energy is needed to meet these needs. One of them is by modifying the generator engine that uses fuel oil (gasoline) with gas (LPG and Biogas) by using a 1250 watt generator set with the aim of knowing how effective the performance of the generator engine is after fuel changes are made. The modification of the engine generator is located in the way the fuel enters the combustion chamber, where the modification lies in the rubber boundary between the carburetor and the manifold installed in the main jet. The test time takes 20 minutes. The test uses no-load with 0.1 kg fuel consumption, 160 watts load with 0.1 kg fuel consumption, 350 watts load with 0.2 kg fuel consumption, and 700 watts load consumption with 0.2 kg fuel. For the use of biogas without load, the fuel consumption is 0.03 m3, with a load of 160 watts, the fuel consumption is 0.03 m3, while for larger loads, the engine is unable. From the results of testing on the modified generator set, the highest fuel consumption was obtained with 0.01 kg/minute LPG, and the consumption of fuel with biogas was 0.03 m3/min. From this test, it was concluded that in the material of fuel consumption (LPG), the power generated was 8.571 kW/hour at the cost of Rp. 12.573 and biogas 0.01125 kWh/hour at a cost of Rp. 16.


In the molecule of the title compound, C16H14Cl2N2, the ethano-strapped 2,8-dichloro analogue of Tröger's base, the dihedral angle between the two benzene rings is 87.01 (3)°.


Introduction: Acquisition-weighted (AW) imaging by acquiring a varying number of averages depending on the position in k-space is widely used in CSI for suppression of contamination by the sidebands of the spatial response function (SRF). In addition, it has been shown that the apparent SNR can be increased due to the reduction of negative signal contributions from adjacent voxels [1]. In cases where averaging is required anyway for SNR reasons, AW can be realized without sacrificing spatial resolution or scan time. So far, these advantages have only rarely been used in imaging [2]. For ultra-high resolution imaging, SNR and Gibbs-ringing are crucial, and averaging is often used to obtain sufficient SNR. Here, this technique is used at a field strength of 9.4 T with a highly sensitive receive array to obtain images from the human brain with a voxel size down to 14 nl. Methods: Data was acquired at a 9.4 T scanner on human subjects, using a 16 channel transmit/31 channel receive coil combination [3]. 3D GRE images were acquired with a conventional sequence with 3 averages and an AW technique with the same scan time, with weighting in both PE-directions based on a Hanning function, but modified for the relatively low number of scans [4]. The resolution was kept equal by covering a larger region of k-space in the weighted image, which was verified by an analysis of the width of the SRF. First images with a resolution of 0.2×0.2×0.5 mm were acquired within 13:20 min with both techniques (TE 18.4 ms, TR 26 ms, 16 slices, BW 120 Hz/px, FA 10°). Ultra high resolution phase images (0.13×0.13×0.8 mm) were processed from an AW data set (TE 17.3 ms, TR 27 ms, 22:09 min).


Utilizing an interview, a questionnaire, and observations during labor, delivery, and the postpartum period, a sample of one hundred mothers was identified as at high risk for abnormal parenting practices. These mothers were randomly divided into a "HighRisk Interveneâ€ group (N=50) and a "High-Risk Noninterveneâ€ group (N=50). The "Interveneâ€ group received comprehensive pediatric follow-up by a single physician, a lay health visitor, and/or a public health nurse in the home. The "Non-interveneâ€ group received routine care, although the results of these screening procedures were shared with the physicians and nurses responsible for their ongoing care. Another group of 50 mothers, who delivered during the same time period and who were assessed as low risk in terms of abnormal parenting practices, served as controls. When the children were approximately two years old (mean age 26.8 months), 25 families in each of the three groups were chosen at random for detailed evaluation. Purchase Export


[Abstract] Recently, safety-critical aviation system development programs promoted domestically have been terminated in the middle stage or they have not been put to practical use at the final stage. The program failure may be caused by various factors, but this study focused on imperfect test and evaluation(T&E) procedures. In general, T&E process of a safety-critical system must be distributed throughout the entire life-cycle of the system, have a continuity in phases, and can be implemented in a variety of ways depending on the maturity of the system development and acquisition strategy. This paper aims to present a new strategy by analyzing the domestic and overseas T&E processes to reduce the risk of domestic safety-critical CNS/ATM system development program and increase the success rate of program. First, we discuss the verification and validation techniques for safety-critical systems, analyze the T&E procedures of advanced institutes and the domestic situation, and then compare the domestic and overseas T&E processes to complement the imperfect testing procedure.


Background: Anti-Vaccination and vaccine hesitation is not a novel phenomenon, but in the modern and more connected world, the magnitude of the issue is sky-rocketing and presents a clear danger to public health. Objectives: This paper summarizes factors contributing to the phenomenon based on the recent literature review and proposes a possible behavioral intervention framework based on the ecological model of health behavior. Method: Using the Ecological Behavioral model as a framework for formulating possible behavioral interventions based on currents trends in anti-vaccination and vaccine hesitation. Conclusions: A review of the current vaccine hesitation phenomenon suggests that the vast majority of the parents with anti-vaccination traits exhibit behavior patterns consistent with the ecological model of health behavior. Structured intervention at all levels may contribute to reducing the phenomenon among hesitating parents and declining in the influence power of anti-vaccination "gurus."


Contemplating different analysis levels and different methodologies, the study objectives to investigate the relationships between Organizational Power Configurations - autocracy, missionary, instrument, closed system, and meritocracy and narcissist, obsessive, collectivist, heroic and civic individualist Character Styles, considering character as a manifestation of organizational behavior, when established symbolic relationships between individual and organization, and power as an ability to affect organizational results.
Undertaken in two stages, the first study aims to analyze power configurations, it uses the Scale of Power Configuration applied in two hundred employees of a company, 15% of its population, which composed stratified sample. The second study uses semi-structured and collective interview with 16 employees divided in two groups - bosses and subordinates to identify predominant character styles in the company. To regard the results, individuals perceive their organization as Closed System, with strong interns coalition, and experience behaviors patterns associated to collectivist character style, which have as feature group cohesion and organizational homogeneity.


The offshore platforms shall be designed with deck elevation that maintains sufficient air-gap with maximum predicted wave crest elevations. However, due to compelling reasons of hydrocarbon process and changes to water levels/seabed subsidence may have structures in the close vicinity of the sea level or submerged. Hence the assessment of wave induced forces on the deck structures especially the old platforms become very essential. Review of literature indicates that the previous studies focused mainly on the circular sections and not much information is available on the non-circular sections. The current study focused on measurement of wave induced slam/slap loads in a laboratory wave flume and estimation of force coefficients based on drag based empirical equations. Further, it is of interest to focus on the flow around the open sections (non-circular) using a flow visualization technique (Particle Image Velocimetry) to understand the flow pattern around the elements. The results indicate that the slam and slap coefficients for I sections are smaller than the channel sections and the values of coefficients are few times higher than the circular sections.Copyright © 2011 by ASME


Periventricular leukomalacia(PVL)is the main neuropathologic lesion of brain injury of premature,which closely correlates with the neurobehavioral dysfunction in the long term.The etiology of PVL is complicated,which includes anatomy,physiology,cytology and biology,et al.The pathogenesy of PVL remains unknown,free radical,exitotoxicity,infection and cytokine involved in.PVL lacks specific symptoms and the diagnosis of PVL depends on imageology.By now,PVL is short of specific treatment,and once the diagnosis of PVL is established,early intervention must be performed,which could improve the insults.


T h e m asses o f com pact ob ject (black hole, n eu tron star) b inaries d epend stron g ly on th e param eters describ ing stellar evo lu tion . Such m asses or their functions can be m ea sured using gravitational w aves or through m icrolensing searches. W e analyze an exam  ple o f th e varying com m on en velope efficiency and show th e d ep en d en ce o f d istr ib u tion s o f th e m easured chirp m asses in gravitational w aves m ass ratios through m icrolensing tak  ing into account th e relevant se lec tion effects.


Two days after admission his condition grew worse: consciousness was clouded, the pulse 130, and respirations rapid and shallow. The bubo was larger, and inflammatory oedema extended from the middle of the thigh to the umbilicus. He svas given 300 mg. of streptomycin every three hours, but 24 hours later his condition was still serious. Although his temperature had dropped to 38' C. his pulse became thready, his finger-tips bluish, and he was dyspnoeic. On July 23 there rwas a marked general improvement. The patient felt much better, his pulse rate was 92, he was no longer dyspnoeic, and he was on the way to recovery. Streptomycin was continued until July 27. The bubo was still painful, but the abdominal joedema had subsided. On August 16 fluctuations became evident and a thick purulent discharge was evacuated. The Snal healing of the wound was delayed until Sept. 9, but the patient felt very well until his discharge.


This Especially for High School Teachers article discusses the connection of this year's National Chemistry Week (NCW) to the International Year of Chemistry (IYC). Resources useful for NCW and IYC events are highlighted. The article also announces the planned departure of the two editors of the precollege chemistry section at the end of 2011 and the current search for a new editor.


This article describes systems of computer mathematics for educational purposes with intelligent properties oriented to support practical activities of users students and teachers. The article is presented general theoretical and methodological bases, functional requirements to systems of computer mathematics for educational purposes, models of systems of computer mathematics for educational purposes as systems of support of learning processes


The use of prebiotics and probiotics to improve symptoms associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has varied from study to study, indicating the complex and heterogeneous nature of the disorder and the behaviors and gastrointestinal symptoms associated with ASD. There is a wide variety in the severity of symptoms and developmental impediments across the population. Gut microbiome studies have also shown unique but varied microbial signatures in ASD. While there have been successes in pre-clinical and clinical trials with prebiotic and probiotic components, the limited population sizes have promising yet inconclusive results. This study addresses this issue by 1) enrolling an ASD cohort of 296 children and adults and comparing their deep DNA metagenomic sequencing of gut microbiomes to that of an age-matched neurotypical cohort and 2) individually formulating a precision synbiotic (probiotic and prebiotic) tailored towards each individual's needs and conducting pre/post evaluations of ASD and GI symptoms and longitudinal whole genome microbiome sequencing. At baseline, there was significantly lower microbiome diversity in the ASD group relative to controls. Microbes, pathways, and gene families significantly differed between the two populations. The ASD microbiome had higher abundances of pathogens, such as Shigella, Klebsiella, Mycobacterium, and Clostridium, but lower abundances of beneficial microbes, including Faecalibacterium. With a 3-month synbiotic supplementation, the microbiome diversity of the 170 ASD participants completing the study increased and became closer to the neurotypical controls. Significant shifts in microbial and pathway abundances were also measured at the second ASD timepoint. In addition to changes in the gut microbiome, there was a significant reduction in gastrointestinal discomfort. There were also improvements in some ASD-related symptoms; however, we cannot exclude that these were potentially due to the open-label nature of the study. Changes in the gut microbiome composition and functional capacity, along with a reduction in gastrointestinal symptoms and potential changes in behavior, highlight the importance of metagenomics, longitudinal studies, and the potential for therapeutic microbial supplementation in ASD.


Waterborne diseases are usually caused by infectious microorganisms. However, an intermittent but widespread source of water‐based diseases are the exotoxins produced by several marine and freshwater algae species. Marine algal toxins come from dinoflagellates and cyanobacteria (blue‐green algae). The main di‐noflagellate genera involved are Gonyaulax, Protogonyaulax, Gymnodinium, and Gambierdiscus. Known toxic marine cyanobacteria include Lyngbya, Schizothrix, and Oscillatoria. Toxic signs of these marine toxins are varied but involve mainly neuro‐ and dermatoxicity. A few freshwater algal toxins are produced by dinoflagellates and haptophytes but the majority are formed by "water bloom"; species of cyanobacteria. Toxic blooms of these cyanobacteria can be found in several types of water bodies. The main toxic genera are Microcystis, Anabaena, Aphanizomenon, and Oscillatoria. Toxins produced are neurotoxic alkaloids and hepatotoxic peptides. Human poisonings from algal toxins can be from ingestion of con...


Abstract Background Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) has been shown to have high efficacy to early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and is expected as an alternative to radiofrequency ablation (RFA). However, how liver function is impaired by SBRT, an important factor in the therapy for HCC, is uncertain. In this study, we compared the impact of SBRT on liver function and that of RFA. Methods We retrospectively analyzed 140 patients with single small (≤3 cm) hepatocellular carcinoma treated with SBRT or RFA between January 2014 and January 2019 in Kurashiki Central Hospital. A median age was 75 years, and 101 patients were male. Liver function was assessed by the albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) score before treatment (pre-ALBI) and 3 months after treatment (post-ALBI). Patients in the SBRT group were matched at a 1:1 ratio with patients treated with RFA by using propensity score method, and post-ALBI scores were compared between the two groups. Results Among the 140 patients, 42 and 98 patients were treated with SBRT and RFA, respectively. Before matching, patients in SBRT group were significantly older than patients in RFA group (78 vs. 72.5 years, p =.038), while patients' sex, etiology of liver diseases, tumor size, tumor location and baseline liver function (both ALBI score and Child-Turcotte-Pugh score) were similar between the two groups. In SBRT group, median pre-ALBI and post-ALBI scores were -2.40 and -2.30, respectively, and the difference was not significant (p =.336). After propensity score matching, all the baseline characteristics were well balanced, and post-ALBI scores were not significant different between SBRT and RFA groups (-2.27 vs. -2.30, p =.828). Conclusions In our study, the impact of SBRT on liver function was comparable to that of RFA. Our findings help to promote SBRT as an expecting alternative treatment for early-stage HCC. Legal entity responsible for the study The authors. Funding Has not received any funding. Disclosure All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


In this paper, filtered back-projection algorithm is optimally implemented using low-cost Spartan 3A-DSP 3400 chip. The optimization enables parallel implementation. The combination of the pixel parallelism and projection parallelism is presented to significantly reduce the total reconstruction time to produce the image. The applied data is presented in fixed point format to achieve efficient implementation with maximum speed. The selection of data bus-width is optimized with very little error and good visual quality required for medical images. Before implementation, the computer tomography ( CT ) reconstruction simulator is developed to provide a testing reference for the hardware implementation. Using the combination of the pixel parallelism and projection parallelism, the presented hardware design achieves image reconstruction of a 512-by-512 pixel image from 1024 projections in 134. 8ms using 50 MHz clock cycles. It achieves the reduction of the required number of clock cycles to form an image from projections by 60 % comparing to the state of the art of the reconstruction time using field programmable gate array ( FPGA ) design.


THE MUTUALISTIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CECROPIA PLANTS AND AZTECA ANTS is well studied (Janzen 1969, Schupp 1986, Duarte & Bergallo 1992). Cecropia plants produce Müllerian bodies from trichilia, pads located at the bases of leaf petioles (Rickson 1971). These bodies are rich in glycogen (Rickson 1971) and serve as the primary food source for Azteca ants (Janzen 1969). In return, the Azteca ants remove vines (Janzen 1969, Schupp 1986) and reduce damage from herbivorous insects (Schupp 1986, Duarte & Bergallo 1992). Species other than Azteca ants have been observed feeding on Müllerian bodies (Janzen 1973), including 15 species of birds (Skutch 1945, Isler & Isler 1987, Stiles & Skutch 1989). These authors, however, did not quantify their findings, and the extent of Müllerian body feeding by birds is obscure. Cecropia gabrielis (C. monostachya in Berg & Rosselli 1993; D. Neill, pers. comm.) produces Müllerian bodies like other Cecropia species although it is not inhabited by ants (Berg & Rosselli 1993; Naoki, pers. obs.). In western Ecuador, instead of Azteca ants, a few species of passerine birds have been observed feeding on Müllerian bodies (Naoki, pers. obs.). We decided to make further observations to (1) report the first quantitative observation of Müllerian body feeding by birds and (2) present hypotheses to explain the production of Müllerian bodies by C. gabrielis in the absence of Azteca ants. We quantified the foraging behavior of birds on C. gabrielis trees between 19 and 21 August 1998, for a total of 24 hours, in the vicinity of Mindo, Pichincha province, Ecuador (08029S, 788469W). The


Abstract Remote Sensing technique with multi-sensor satellite images is found to be a useful tool in delineation of the palaeochannel network in arid to semi-arid regions in India. Principal Component Analysis method with fused images (optical and microwave data) shows a wide N-S trending Sutlej Palaeochannels (SPC) and narrow NE-SW trending palaeochannels in central Punjab. High-resolution Electrical Resistivity Tomography (HERT) survey and litholog data analysis provide good groundwater prospect zone of the palaeochannel. Interpretation of 2D resistivity tomograms with Wenner-Schlumberger method exhibit a thick zone of low resistivity layer (saturated coarse-grained sand) at a depth of 40 m. Integrated geo-tectonic study provides clue that the river migration of Sutlej River from N-S to E-W direction was due to a major tectonic upliftment in the Himalaya. Geochronological data analysis indicates that the avulsed channel of SPC was the main course of old Ghaggar River, linked to the 'Lost Saraswati River' in northwest India.


Abstract The Federal Reserve cut interest rates on March 3, 2020, in response to COVID-19. On March 5 and 6, I surveyed over 500 consumers about their concerns about COVID-19, awareness of the Fed's announcement, and macroeconomic expectations. Most consumers were concerned about effects of COVID-19 on the economy, their health, and their personal finances. About 38% were aware that the Fed had cut interest rates. Greater concern is associated with higher inflation expectations and more pessimistic unemployment expectations. I informed respondents about the Fed's announcement, which led some consumers to become more optimistic about unemployment and revise inflation expectations downward.


The goal of this study is to propose a new reduced phenomenological model that describes the mean-field dynamics arising from neuron–glial interaction, taking into account short-term synaptic plasticity and recurrent connections in the presence of astrocytic modulation of the synaptic connection. Using computer simulation and numerical methods of nonlinear dynamics, it is shown that the proposed model reproduces a rich set of patterns of population activity, including spiking, bursting and chaotic temporal patterns. These patterns can coexist for specific regions in the parameter space of the model. The main focus of this study was on bifurcation mechanisms that lead to the occurrence of the described types of mean-field dynamics. The proposed phenomenological model can be used to reproduce various patterns of population activity of neurons in a wide range of studies of dynamic memory and information processing. One of the possible applications of such research is the development of new effective methods for the treatment of neurological diseases associated with neuron–glial interactions.


This manuscript summarized advances in bootstrap methods for long-range dependent time series data. The stationary linear long-memory process is briefly described, which is a target process for bootstrap methodologies on time-domain and frequency-domain in this review. We illustrate time-domain bootstrap under long-range dependence, moving or non-overlapping block bootstraps, and the autoregressive-sieve bootstrap. In particular, block bootstrap methodologies need an adjustment factor for the distribution estimation of the sample mean in contrast to applications to weak dependent time processes. However, the autoregressive-sieve bootstrap does not need any other modification for application to long-memory. The frequency domain bootstrap for Whittle estimation is provided using parametric spectral density estimates because there is no current nonparametric spectral density estimation method using a kernel function for the linear long-range dependent time process.