Identifying specific traits to justify according differential moral status to humans and non-human animals may be more challenging than Chapman & Huffman suggest. The reasons for this also go against their recommendation that we ought to attend to how humans and nonhumans are similar. The problem lies in identifying the moral relevance of biological characteristics. There are, however, other reasons for treating non-human animals as worthy of moral consideration, such as the Precautionary Principle. S. Brian Hood is Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of West Florida. His research interests include animal ethics, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of psychiatry. He has written on the concept of validity in psychometrics, the practical relevance of debates in the philosophy of science for clinical psychologists, and other topics. Website Sophia Giddens is a senior at the University of West Florida. Her interests include philosophy of science, epistemology, and the brain sciences. Website Chapman & Huffman (2018) (C & H) argue that attempts to specify human phenotypic traits to justify ascribing elevated moral status to humans have failed. From personhood to tool use, including the use of plants for their medicinal properties, each trait alleged to be the characteristic that justifies viewing humans as "superior" has proved to be shared by other animals. Conversely, Singer (2009) and others argue that for any putative unique trait (e.g., ability to acquire and use natural languages, levels of cognitive ability, and capacity for empathy) there will be some humans who lack it yet are accorded moral consideration. Thus the problem seems to be two-sided: to identify human uniqueness that would justify elevated moral status, the relevant traits identified would need to satisfy three criteria: 1. only modern humans possess the traits at or above some specified level 2. all modern humans them possess them 3. the traits are conceptually linked to differential moral status warranting elevated moral consideration As C & H point out, efforts to specify traits meeting the first and second criterion has been unsuccessful. Attempts to satisfy the third criterion face serious challenges as well. There is no reason a group judged "superior" with respect to some trait should be entitled to more rights or freedom from harm. Allen (2006) expresses pessimism about specifying such traits, noting a Animal Sentience 2018.XXX: Hood & Giddens on Chapman & Huffman on Human Difference 2 gap between "those properties of animals that are part of the scientific consensus, and those to which ethicists typically appeal in their arguments." C & H suggest that rather than focusing on the differences between humans and nonhumans, we should focus on their similarities. Doing so would inform human dietary choices and teach us about non-human animals. The problem is that candidate characteristics thus far have either been arbitrary, not unique to humans, not shared by all humans, or not relevant to ascriptions of differential moral status. Humans/non-humans similarities run comparable risks, including arbitrariness and anthropocentric bias. C & H are right that differences in themselves are value-free, but according moral significance based on similarity in some trait is not. An alternative approach would be to focus on the capacity of non-human animals to suffer. Operationalizing "suffering" and the phenomenology of pain (apart from its biological underpinnings such as nociception or anterior cingulate cortical activity) scientifically and ethically is a challenge. Until this challenge is met, or we gain a better understanding of animal cognition, the Precautionary Principle (Birch 2017) would recommend treating non-humans with dignity and moral consideration. The cost of incorrectly ascribing moral status seems lower than the cost of incorrectly denying it.


The funerales funeral alabanzas poems de or personas túmulos , ilustres," "inscripciones, are assembled exequias in the y funerales alabanzas de per onas ilustres," are assembled in the third section of the Parnaso, under the auspices of the Melpomene muse (López Pinciano 109).1 The majority of these compositions fall under the category of verses of praise, as the ilustración heading states. There are also a few others which belong to the class of verses of blame, aimed at the enemies of the realm. In dealing with Quevedo's silvas, Carmen Sigler has demonstrated how the author, in his poems of praise or blame, follows the precepts of the epideictic rhetoric.2 Don Francisco, without departing from the conventions of the genre, still manages to exhibit his position apropos the subject about which he writes. He does not stint in his praise of those he genuinely admires. Where, however, his celebration of dignitaries no matter how powerful is more a question of compromise or convenience, he allows a discreet glimpse of their shortcomings. It is my purpose in this work to examine some compositions from this section, to discover the manner in which within the conventions of the genre they reveal the author's thoughts about the dignitaries of whom he writes, and his opinion concerning the political circumstances of the Empire. Throughout his life, Quevedo kept himself involved in the political arena. The vicissitudes of his hazardous existence were always bound by the events of the kingdom. The ups and downs of his fortune ran parallel to his relationship with the statesmen of his day. A strong advocate of the monarchy as the only system of government, his works, both in prose and verse, exalt the image of the sovereign and the servants of the Empire. At the same time, they vilify the enemies of Spain, whether they be rebel subjects, whom he brands traitors, or foreign monarchs, whom he accuses of aggression.3


In this study we present a unified theoretical description of neutral, saturated, phospholipid monolayers at air–water interfaces. This model encompasses the liquid‐condensed (LC) to liquid‐expanded (LE) and liquid‐expanded to surface gas (SG) phase transitions observed in such systems. The model is a lattice model of lipid hydrocarbon chains which allows for the introduction of free volume. The lipid chains can be upright in a ground or excited state or collapsed relative to the substrate. Furthermore, the chains interact via short range potentials due to steric, van der Waals, and dipolar forces. We show that the LC/LE phase transition is to be understood as a chain melting transition and through the growth of lipid domains across the transition. We further show that the LE/SG transition involves the creation of large amounts of free volume into which the lipid chains can collapse.


The aim of this study is to investigate the generated forces and deformations of single crystal Cu with (100), (110) and (111) crystallographic orientations at nanoscale machining operation. A nanoindenter equipped with nanoscratching attachment was used for machining operations and in-situ observation of a nano scale groove. As a machining parameter, the machining velocity was varied to measure the normal and cutting forces. At a fixed machining velocity, different levels of normal and cutting forces were generated due to different crystallographic orientations of the specimens. Moreover, after machining operation percentage of elastic recovery was measured and it was found that both the elastic and plastic deformations were responsible for producing a nano scale groove within the range of machining velocities from 250-1000 nm/s.


The invention discloses a non-isocyan acid water UV polyurethane prepared from natural polyhydroxy saccharides and a preparation method thereof. The formula includes that the non-isocyan acid water UV polyurethane is composed of, by weight, 36 to 42 parts of cyclic carbonate, 0.05 to 0.1 part of polymerization inhibitors, 55 to 70 parts ofbinary primary amine compounds, 3 to 5 parts of oxidants, 12 to 16 parts of chain extenders and 17 to 20 parts of neutralizers; wherein the formula of the cyclic carbonate is composed of, by weight, 40 to 42 parts of polyhydroxy saccharides, 0.3 to 0.6 part of organic tin catalysts, and 5 to 6 parts of organic solvents. The non-isocyan acid water UV polyurethane is a novel environment friendly polyurethane synthesized by using materials of renewable resource saccharides, inexhaustible CO2 and the like, synthesizing raw materials are nontoxic, and toxic substances are not used during the preparation process. The operation is simple, and materials are low in cost and wide in resource; further, CO2 is consumed, so that the greenhouse effect is reduced, and the trend of environmental protection is conformed.


From 1997 to 1998, the samples of fishes and shrimps were collected at 2-monthly intervals from 4 spots in the estuary of Yalu River (Liaoning Province). The total samples contained 66 species of aquatic animals, including 48 species of fishes, 11 species of crustacean and other 7 species. Among the surveys, 5 species, i.e. Synechogobius ommaturus, Cleantiella isopus, Hypomesus transpacificus nipponesis, Paraemon carinoicauda and Tridentiger trigonocephalus, appeared in the highest frequency. The dominant species in number were Cleantiella isopus (31.82%), Mysis sp.(25.44%), Acetes chinensis (21.21%), Synechogobius ommaturus (17.35%) and Hypomesus transpacificus mipponensis (0.5%), respectively. The biomass index and species abundance at each station varied from 3.83 to 33 139.59 and 0.34 to 2 528.24 respectively. The species diversity index within community changed from 0.291 to 2.889, the superiority index from 0.155 to 0.914 and the evenness index from 0.113 to 0.970. The similarity index between communities was the highest between station 2 and station 3 (mean 0.649) and the lowest appeared between station 1 and station 4 (0.245). The distribution of species and quantity of community were closely related to seasonal changes and ecological condition.


The problem of the development of information and pedagogical technologies and the creation of conditions for the organization of training and creative activity of students is relevant today. The prerogative of higher medical educational institutions is the training of a qualified specialist, competent, responsible and capable of effective work in the profession at the level of world standards, ready for continuous professional growth and competitive in the labor market. The latest methods and technologies in the pedagogical field on the one hand provide social and professional mobility and a focused approach to the development of critical thinking and cognitive activity in students, also contribute to the effective organization of their independent work, self-improvement and self-education as a future dentist, help teachers themselves in professional and personal development.With the help of modern computer technologies it is possible to realize the creative educational potential of students, to acquire practical skills in educational and practical centers, as well as to develop the ability to independently find answers to a particular problem on the INTERNET network. The main task of higher education institutions is to teach students to independently acquire knowledge, to be able to organize their own work properly.
The development of surgical dentistry today requires an increased level of knowledge of students of the Faculty of Dentistry. Future physicians need to master a significant amount of general and special sciences.
On the way of integration into the system of European medical universities to increase the level of mastering the subject and improve the pedagogical process, the Department of Surgical Dentistry IFNMU offers to use in the educational process modern technology, the latest computer technology, master practical skills in special training centers.
The organization of the educational and training-practical process at the Department of Surgical Dentistry of IFNMU is determined by material and technical, scientific-methodical and information support. Training of dental surgeons is carried out in combination of classical methods of teaching in high school with the latest teaching technologies, application of modern computer technologies in the educational process, mastering practical skills using phantoms and models, combination of teaching and educational work, research work of students in student research.
With the help of modern computer technologies, educational and practical centers "Dentistry" a large scientific base at the Department of Surgical Dentistry IFNMU successfully manages to realize the creative educational potential of students, master practical skills and develop skills to work independently with scientific literature and find answers to other problems.


Forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV ) is an important Background: cystic fibrosis (CF) prognostic marker and an established endpoint for CF clinical trials. FEV  is also used in observation studies, e.g. to compare different centre's outcomes. We wished to evaluate whether different methods of processing FEV  data can impact on a centre's outcome. This is a single-centre retrospective analysis of routinely collected Methods: data from 2013-2016 which included 208 adults with CF. Year-to-year %FEV change was calculated by subtracting best %FEV  at Year 1 from Year 2 (i.e. negative values indicate %FEV  decline), and compared using Friedman test. Three methods were used to process %FEV  data. First, %FEV  calculated with Knudson equation was extracted directly from spirometer machines. Second, FEV  volume were extracted then converted to %FEV  using clean height data and Knudson equation. Third, FEV  volume were extracted then converted to %FEV  using clean height data and GLI equation. In addition, %FEV  decline calculated using GLI equation was adjusted for baseline %FEV to understand the impact of case-mix adjustment. There was a trend of reduction in %FEV  decline with all three data Results: processing methods but the magnitude of %FEV  decline differed. Median change in %FEV  for 2013-2014, 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 was –2.0, –1.0 and 0.0 respectively using %FEV  in Knudson equation whereas the median change was –1.1, –0.9 and –0.3 respectively using %FEV  in the GLI equation. A statistically significant p-value (0.016) was only obtained when using %FEV in Knudson equation extracted directly from spirometer machines. Although the trend of reduction in %FEV  decline was robust, Conclusions: different data processing methods yielded varying results when %FEV  decline was compared using a standard related group non-parametric statistical test. 1 1


This study evaluates the macrostructure, microstructure, hardness, and tensile strength in dissimilar metal welding applied to bus body construction. The process involved joining hollow stainless steel and galvanized steel at the dimensions of 80 x 40 x 3.2 mm through Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW). The current was varied at 90, 100, and 110 A while ER70S-6 electrodes with diameters of 0.8 and 1.0 mm were used. The results showed that electrode diameter and welding current affect the capping area, penetration depth, and hardness. Moreover, the formation of the widmasatten ferrite phase was increased and the coarse grain boundaries in the weld zone were detected. It was also observed that an increase in the diameter of the electrode and the welding current which indicates an increment in the heat reduced the rate of solidification and cooling. The average tensile strength for all the samples investigated was found to be lower than the value for the base metal. Therefore, further research is recommended to improve the tensile strength.


Forestry practices may directly kill animals as well as destroy and fragment their habitat. Even without habitat destruction, logging and its associated forest management practices (which include road building, re-forestation, and often increased recreational use) create noise, frighten animals, and may lead to changes in species composition as well as evolutionary responses to the myriad of anthropogenic impacts. Thus, forestry practices may create conservation problems. Forestry practices may also create welfare problems that may act on different temporal and spatial scales than the conservation problems. The individuals affected by forestry may have heightened glucocorticoid levels that may lead to a predictable set of deleterious consequences. Individuals may no longer be able to communicate, or they may no longer be attractive to potential mates. Such welfare problems may generate conservation problems if fitness is reduced. Identifying the set of possible impacts is the first step towards improving welfare and aiding wildlife conservation in managed forests.


ABSTRACr.-An index of total vegetation volume was strongly correlated with breeding bird density at 31 sites in four separate studies conducted in southwestern shrub and desert habitats between 1974 and 1987. Vegetation volume was not as strongly correlated with winter bird density in two of these studies. We suggest that these correlations indicate that breeding birds respond strongly to resources associated with vegetation and that such a resource-based response may explain such well-known patterns as the edge effect and the high avian breeding densities in southwest riparian habitats. The technique we describe for measuring total vegetation volume provides a quick and accurate method of estimating this simple aspect of vegetation structure and may be useful in describing plant communities quantitatively. Received 26 Feb. 1990, accepted 29 May 1991. An underlying assumption of theoretical models of avian community


Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is an innovative solid-state joining process in which a non-consumable rotating cylindrical tool with a shoulder and a specially designed pin, harder than the material to be welded is inserted into the butt lines of the base metal plates and subsequently travelled along the joint line. In this work an attempt is made to join Al6061 with pure Copper using H13 as tool material. An experiment has been conducted based on three process parameters shoulder diameter (mm), tool rotational speed(rpm) and travel speed(mm/min). The tensile test has been conducted on UTM the maximum load can be applied on test specimen, the resulting tensile strength was estimated the 140MPa. The tool design is affecting the properties of weld butt joint, the microstructure is changing by varying the tool rotational speed and axial loads.


The intimal layer of the thoracic and abdominal aortic segments of Cebus apella monkey presented an evident inner elastic lamina. The medial layer of the thoracic aorta segment showed a basic lamellar elastic pattern having a medium average of 23.12 lamellae per analyzed cut sections, which appeared disposed circular and oblique relatively to the aortic lumen. The aortic adventitial layer, at this level, was formed mainly by collagen fibers, irregularly disposed between elastic fibers and smooth muscle cells. The aortic abdominal portion, in this monkey, at the suprarenal level presented a medium number of 19.12 elastic lamellae which showed a relatively disorganized and broken up pattern. At the infrarenal level the aortic medium layer showed a medium average of 11.75 elastic lamellae and next to the emission of the internal iliac arteries it was found only a middle average of 8.37 elastic lamellae intermingled with smooth muscle cells and collagen fibers whose concentration seemed to be increased next to the adventitial layer. The external elastic lamina was only present in the more distal aortic segment near to the emission of the internal iliac arteries.


Political campaigns have frequently used the online social network as an important environment to exhibit the candidate ideas, their activities, and their electoral plans if elected. Some users are more politically engaged than others. As an example, we can observe intense political debates, especially during major campaigns on Twitter. In such context, this paper presents a characterization of politically engaged user groups on Twitter during the 2016 US Presidential Campaign. Using a rich dataset with 23 million tweets, 115 thousand user profiles and their contact network collected from January 2016 to November 2016, we identified four politically engaged user groups: advocates for both main candidates, political bots, and regular users. We present a characterization of how Twitter users behave during a political campaign through the language patterns analysis of tweets, which users receive more popularity during the campaign and how tweets from each candidate may have affected their mood variation, as expressed by the messages they share.


Many organisations and individuals are concerned about the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and resulting, perhaps catastrophic climate change. Daily activities such as heating homes and flying on airplanes are imbued with moral and ethical significance because of their suspected role in climate change. In response to these concerns, many individuals purchase carbon offsets to neutralise the effects of their activities. Offsets have technical, behavioural, and ethical problems; in some circumstances they may actually increase rather than decrease greenhouse gases. This does not mean, however, that carbon offsets are without value. The purchase of carbon offsets is a discursive activity that fulfils a rhetorical role. The offset market helps individuals navigate the conflicting moral and ethical demands confronting them. The purchase of carbon offsets resembles the early days of double-entry accounting in that it is more rhetorical than referential. Carbon offsets demonstrate that accounting retains its rhetorical value.


Abstract No theory seems to describe accurately and explain competently the new, unusual, and idiosyncratic Northeast Asian regional order phenomenon. It is because Northeast Asian specialists like the blind men have seen only one of the parts of the 'Elephant' or a part of what is taking place in Northeast Asia. This paper attempts to employ a new, more appropriate, more productive analytical tool to understand and navigate efficiently the Northeast Asian regional order. The main objective of this paper is 'the rise of China and Northeast Asian regional order', what it is and what is taking place in the empirical world when we say that something we call 'the rise of China and Northeast Asian regional order' is taking place.


A review of recent developments in theoretical as well as application studies concerning the use of organic solvents, either as purely nonaqueous solvents, hydro‐organic mixtures, or a combination of an organic solvent with another organic modifier(s), in the sample matrix and/or separation buffer for effecting sample pretreatment and/or improving separation performances in capillary electrophoresis (CE) is presented. In particular, recent advances made in furthering the basic understanding of selectivity changes that occur in capillary zone electrophoresis due the presence of organic solvents in the separation medium, based on in‐depth studies of fundamental processes, such as acid‐base chemistry, ion‐ion and ion‐solvent interactions, were discussed in detail. The utilization of organic solvents for improving the resolution of highly challenging and important separations, i.e., those involving the separation of positional and optical isomers, was also critically reviewed. Furthermore, a comprehensive survey of the use of organic solvents for on‐line sample pretreatment, e.g., minimizing aggregration and maximizing solubilization of hydrophobic analytes, improving concentration detection sensitivity for analytes via the use of sample stacking, was presented and discussed. Moreover, recent applications involving the use of organic solvents for improving the CE separations of a variety of molecular species with significance in various disciplines, including biological, environmental and pharmaceutical areas, were summarized and tabulated.


Vibrio cholerae and Aeromonas spp. are thermotolerant bacteria that can cause nonepidemic diarrheal diseases and opportunistic skin infections. Aeromonas is currently on the Environmental Protection Agency's Contaminant Candidate List (CCL) and although V. cholerae is commonly found in marine and estuarine waters, its occurrence in freshwaters is less well understood. In the summer of 2006, two individuals contracted illnesses caused by V. cholerae (non-O1/non-O139) while swimming near the Gila River in Eastern Arizona. In the current study, a survey of recreational waters in Arizona was conducted to determine the occurrence of non-O1/non-O139 V. cholerae and Aeromonas spp. Water samples from various recreational sources were concentrated by membrane filtration and plated on TCBS agar and mAeromonas selective agar base (Havelaar) for the recovery of V. cholerae and Aeromonas, respectively. Characteristic bacteria colonies were confirmed by either API 20E (V. cholerae) or API 20NE (Aeromonas). In addition, total coliforms, Escherichia coli and heterotrophic plate count bacteria were quantified; water parameters such as temperature, pH, turbidity and conductivity were also recorded. Thus far, approximately 51% of recreational waters have tested positive for V. cholerae and 71% have tested positive for Aeromonas spp. These opportunistic pathogens may therefore represent an unrecognized health threat to recreational bathers in Arizona.


While wind development activity in the United States has dramatically increased over the last 3 years, it has been mainly driven by policy mandates in the investor owned utility community. Also, while significant wind development has and is now occurring in the Northwest, the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, Texas, and several eastern states, there remain a number of states that have excellent resources that are essentially undeveloped. Additionally, the U.S. federal agencies represent the largest institutional load in the world, and thus are a potential large market for green (wind) energy. Rural America is economically stressed and traditional agricultural incomes are seriously threatened; wind development in these windy regions offers one of the most promising''crops'' of the 21st century. Public power serves these communities, and local development of wind with low-cost financing appears to be competitive with new conventional fossil energy sources.


Oxidative cyclization of acrylonitrile complexed to cobalt, and a subsequent phosphine-exchange reaction, gives the trans-(4) and two cis-isomers (5) and (6) of η5-cyclopentadienyl(dimethylphenylphosphine)dicyanocobaltacyclopentane; the isomerization mechanism has been examined kinetically.


Neutron binary star mergers have long been proposed as sufficiently neutron rich environments that could support the synthesis of rapid neutron capture elements (r-process elements) such as gold. Ho we ver, the literature re v eals that be yond neutral and singly ionized systems, there is an incompleteness of atomic data for the remaining ion stages of importance for mergers. In this work, we report on relativistic atomic structure calculations for Au I –Au III using the GRASP 0 codes. Comparisons to calculations using the Flexible Atomic Code suggest uncertainties on average of 9.2 per cent, 5.7 per cent, and 3.8 per cent for Au I –Au III level energies. Agreement around ∼ 50 per cent is achieved between our computed A -values and those in the literature, where available. Using the GRASP 0 structure of Au I , we calculated electron-impact excitation rate coefficients and use a collisional-radiative model to explore the excitation dynamics and line ratio diagnostics possible in neutron star merger environments. We find that proper accounting of metastable populations is critical for extracting useful information from ultraviolet–visible line ratio diagnostics of Au I . As a test of our data, we applied our electron-impact data to study a gold hollow cathode spectrum in the literature and diagnosed the plasma conditions as T e = 3.1 ± 1.2 eV and n e = 2 . 7 + 1 . 3 − 0 . 9 × 10 13 cm − 3 . neutron star mergers – line: identification – plasmas – scattering – techniques: spectroscopic.


Se evaluaron 12 tratamientos (diuron + hexazinona a 1.09 + 0.14, 1.63 + 0.20, 0.87 + 0.33 y 1.31 + 0.49 kg i.a.·ha -1 , diuron + paraquat a 0.20 + 0.40 y 0.30 + 0.60 kg i.a.·ha -1 , oxifluorfen + glifosato a 0.48 + 0.71 kg i.a.·ha -1 , oxifluorfen + paraquat a 0.48 + 0.40 kg i.a.·ha -1 , paraquat a 0.40 kg i.a.·ha -1 , glifosato a 0.71 kg i.a.·ha -1 , glufosinato de amonio a 0.30 kg i.a.·ha -1 y un testigo sin aplicar). ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to determine the effect of residual and non residual herbicides on weed control in a soursop (Annona muricata L.) plantation established in a square system at Los Idolos, Actopan, Ver. The randomized complete block design with four replications was used. The experimental plots had a 5 x 5 m area, each with one soursop tree in the center. Twelve treatments were evaluated (diuron + hexazinone at 1.09 + 0.14, 1.63 + 0.20, 0.87 + 0.33 and 1.31 + 0.49 kg a.i.·ha-1, diuron + paraquat at 0.20 + 0.40 and 0.30 + 0.60 kg a.i.·ha-1, oxyfluorfen + glyphosate at 0.48 + 0.71 kg a.i.·ha-1, oxyfluorfen + paraquat at 0.48 + 0.40 kg a.i.·ha-1, paraquat at 0.40 kg a.i.·ha-1, glyphosate at 0.71 kg a.i.·ha-1, glufosinate at 0.30 kg a.i.·ha-1 and a weedy check). The dominant weed species was crowfoot grass (Dactyloctenium aegyptium (L.) P. Beauv.), 10 broadleaf weed species were also present. Weed control was evaluated at 15, 30, 60 and 90 days after application (DAA), and dry weed weight was quantified at 90 DAA. It was found that diuron + paraquat at 0.30 + 0.60 kg a.i.·ha-1 was the treatment with the highest control of D. aegyptium. Broadleaf weeds were efficiently controlled with diuron + hexazinone at 1.63 + 0.20, 0.87 + 0.33 and 1.31 + 0.49 kg a.i.·ha-1. Weed biomass production was lower with residual herbicides than with non-residual herbicides.


Purpose: The purpose of this study is to verify the accuracy of vertex refractive power of contact lenses by using telescope type lensmeter by wet cell method. Method: The used wet cell is from method Post Soft Contact Lens Wet Cell. The contact lenses with water content ratio of 38%, 45% and 58% were measured with spherical power of -3.00D, -7.00D and -10.00D respectively. Result: Using wet cell method with manual lensmeter, the spherical power of -3.00D contact lens with water content ratio of 38% was measured as -3.41D. And the contact lens with water content ratio of 45% was measured as -3.41D identically. However, in case of the contact lens with 58% of water content ratio was measured as -2.63D. The -7.00D contact lens was measured as -7.87D when water content ratio was 38%, -7.20D when water content ratio was 45%, and -5.19D when water content ratio was 58%. Finally, the -10.00D contact lenses with water content of 38%, 45% and 58% was measured as –10.17D, -10.60D and –7.33D respectively. Conclusion: The contact lenses with high water content were measured inaccurately reflecting a significantly lower diopter measurement. This tendency was pronounced even more with highly minus powered contact lenses with high water content ratio. The contact lens measurement using manual lensmeter with wet cell method reflected notable difference highly depending on the water content ratio and diopter.


Porous polysulfone membranes prepared by phase inversion can be tailored to suit filtration requirements by the choice of solvent and coagulant. In the current research polysulfone membranes were prepared by inverting a solution in N-methyl pyrrolidinone (NMP) in isopropanol to form uniform sized pores. Phase inversion resulted in the formation of an asymmetric membrane. The membranes have a characteristic "skin" which is supported by a highly porous substructure. Water-wet membranes experience capillary force during water evaporation. Since the modulus of the membranes is lower than the capillary force, the membrane walls shrink and thicken giving rise to a condensed structure. The "skin" regulates permeation through the membranes which is essential for filtration. A change in the pore structure of the skin alters the permeability. The current research investigates the influence of amine plasma treatments on the surface pore structure of polysulfone membranes. The permeation of a rhodamine dye through the plasma treated membranes and through non-plasma treated membranes is used to examine the influence of the plasma treatment. Furthermore, the influence of plasma treatment on the loss of water from the membranes leading to pore collapse is also explored. The study revealed that a plasma ablates the skin, increasing the permeation. An ammonia plasma treatment produced more etching, and hence increased permeation compared to permeation for an aniline plasma-treated membrane. A one-minute aniline plasma treatment only caused a moderate increase in permeation. Plasma treatments introduced significant surface modification by the introduction of new functionalities. However, permeation was not influenced by the surface modification. Water trapped in the pores is essential to maintain the pore structure of the membrane. The surface treatment dictates the pore size and therefore, the convection


With pressure for student academic achievement throughout the educational environment, physical educators are being called upon to support student learning in a variety of academic areas. The National Association for Sport and Physical Education set guidelines which direct the physical education teacher toward motor, health, and fitness development and suggest the integration of other subject areas into physical education <NASPE 2004, p. 6). Classroom teachers, who are faced with increased standardized testing and decreased recess and physical education time, may be interested in activities that increase movement opportunities for children, while reinforcing content instruction. This is an area where physical educators and classroom teachers can collaborate to increase movement and reinforce content.


A density-functional-theory- (DFT-) based method for the description of metal-oxide interfaces is presented. By superposition of the potential energy surface (PES) of an isolated metal atom on the oxide surface, predictions can be made for the optimal adsorption mode of arbitrary metal structures. The scheme is tested first for the adsorption of small Pt clusters on a tetragonal zirconia surface. There good agreement with a DFT-calculated PES for the cluster is achieved. The same cluster configuration is investigated for yttrium-stabilized zirconia, too, for which stronger bonding is predicted. Further, the scheme is applied for a Pt film on the same surface, where a complicated $\sqrt{7}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}\sqrt{7}\mathrm{Pt}$ structure on a $c(2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}2)$ oxide structure is predicted, in excellent agreement with experimental data.


The notion of "lowness" was introduced in computational complexity theory by Schoning [J, Comput. Systems Sci., 27 (1983), pp. 14–28] who studied sets in the class NP. This notion may be interpreted as setting an upper bound on the amount of information that can be encoded by a set. Here ideas from previous studies are incorporated in order to capture the notion of a set being exponentially low.The main result asserts the existence of a sparse set E such that ${\operatorname{DEXT}}(E) = {\operatorname{DEXT}}$, i.e., E is "exponentially low," but E is not in the class P. In contrast, any set with small generalized Kolmogorov complexity that is exponentially low must be in the class P. In addition, we show that for each $k \geqq 2$, any sparse set S that is low with respect to the class $\Sigma _k^E $ of the exponential-time hierarchy (i.e., $\Sigma _k^E {(S) = \Sigma _k^E } $ ) must be in the class $\Sigma _k^P $ of the polynomial-time hierarchy. Similarly, for each $k \geqq 4$, any set with polynomial-siz...


We propose a fragile watermarking scheme in the wavelet transform domain that is sensitive to all kinds of manipulations and has the ability to localize the tampered regions. To achieve high transparency (i.e., low embedding distortion) while providing protection to all coefficients, the embedder involves all the coefficients within a hierarchical neighborhood of each sparsely selected watermarkable coefficient during the watermark embedding process. The way the nonwatermarkable coefficients are involved in the embedding process is content-dependent and nondeterministic, which allows the proposed scheme to put up resistance to the so-called vector quantization attack, Holliman-Memon attack, collage attack, and transplantation attack.


This study was conducted to investigate the effect of starter culture addition on the characteristics of raw milk white cheese (Gibna bayda).The cheese was made from raw warmed (45°C) milk, and the starter culture (2% w/v) was added to the first treatment (T1), while no starter culture was added to the second treatment (T2). After the manufacture, cheese was cut into cubes and kept in the brine solution (2% w/v) for 24 hours, followed by storing without whey at 5°C for 45 days. Microbiological, physicochemical, and sensory characteristics were evaluated at 1, 15, 30, and 45-day intervals. Results showed that total viable bacteria [TVB] (log10 6.73 cfu/gm), Staphylococcus aureus (log10 2.15 cfu/gm), Escherichia coli (log10 1.11 cfu/gm) and yeasts and moulds (log10 6.21 cfu/gm) counts were high in T2 cheese. TVB significantly decreased during the ripening period, while the other microorganisms increased. Fat (25.28%) and total solids (44.27%) were high in T1, while protein (18.44%), moisture (55.77), ash (6.51%), and acidity (0.59%) were high in T2. All physicochemical characteristics except fat were significantly influenced by the ripening period. Taste and body scored best in T1, while the rest of the sensory attributes scored best in T2. All sensory properties were significantly affected by the ripening period except the colour. The study concluded that the use of the starter culture improved the microbiological quality and sensory properties of traditional Sudanese white cheese, which might make this starter culture suitable for this type of cheese.


By using GC/MS, the process of oxidizing reaction of atractylone is studied, and five decomposition products are obtained, which is greatly different from the references-only two decomposition products, and the mechanism of oxidizing reaction of atractylone is investigated. The hypothesized mechanism of reaction is: atractylone is readily to additively react with water and to generate the semiacetalhydroxyl at 1, 4-site. The loop of it is opened and lead to the cleavage of C—O bond because of the existence of water, the carbonyl is thus formed. The carbonyl is then oxidized to generate carboxylic group. As the carbon atom is sp2 hybridization, carboxyl can be attacked by hydroxyl from both sides of hybrid orbital, in this reaction, water is removed, and the remaining atoms are joined to form atractylenolideⅠ and iso-atractylenolideⅠ. While the proton of 7-carbon of atractylenolideⅠ is rather active and liable to be replaced by hydroxyl to form atractylenolideⅢ and atractylenolideⅢ is unstable and dehydrated within molecule to form atractylenolideⅡ. Moreover, atractylenolideⅢ and atractylenolideⅠ are dehydrated between two molecules to generate biatractylolide. By quantitatively analyzing the percentage of pure atractylone and atractylone in herb, the kinetic parameter is obtained, and the equations are: Rate1=k′1[x]1.84, Rate2=k′2[x]1.89, the activation energy of each is 58.05 kJ/mol and 63.17 kJ/mol respectively.


In this paper, we describe the work on accelerating decoding speed while improving the decoding accuracy. Firstly, we propose an architecture which we call Projected Gated Recurrent Unit (PGRU) for automatic speech recognition (ASR) tasks, and show that the PGRU could outperform the standard GRU consistently. Secondly, in order to improve the PGRU's gener-alization, especially for large-scale ASR task, the Output-gate PGRU (OPGRU) is proposed. Finally, time delay neural network (TDNN) and normalization skills are found to be beneficial to the proposed projected-based GRU. The finally proposed unidirectional TDNN-OPGRU acoustic model achieves 3.3% / 4.5% relative reduction in word error rate (WER) compared with bidirectional projected LSTM (BLSTMP) on Eval2000 / RT03 test sets. Meanwhile, TDNN-OPGRU acoustic model speeds up the decoding speed by around 2.6 times compared with BLSTMP.


The present invention relates to a composition which contains, per 100 parts by weight: 99-60 parts of a thermoplastic polymer (D), 1-40 parts of (A) + (B) = (C), (A) is a polyamide having embedded segments and polyether block copolymer, (B) containing in its chain at least a polymer or oligomer ionic functional group, the polymer or oligomer selected from: polyamides, polyamide block having and polyether block copolymers, thermoplastic polyesters or polyesteramides, having polyester blocks and polyether block copolymers, polyethers, polyurethanes. The present invention also relates to a product of (A) + (B) mixture.


We investigated cholinergic modulation effects on synchronized burst activity of neurons in rat dissociated cortical cultures on electrode arrays, using a cholinergic agonist, carbachol (CCh). Application of CCh resulted in a loss of regularity, a less precise synchronization, and a fragmentation of the burst structure. We found that temporal properties of spike trains were well-characterized by a simple Poisson cluster-process model, which provided a precise insight into the temporal structure of spike trains and allowed quantitative fitting of the spectral changes induced by CCh. These results should help to elucidate the complex actions of cholinergic modulation on cortical cells in intact neural networks.


Government Budget Forecasting: Improving the State of the Art, J. Sun and T.D. Lynch FORECAST PRACTICES Federal Revenue Forecasting, R. G. Penner The State of the Art: Revenue Forecasting in U.S. State Government, K. G. Willoughby and H. Guo Forecasting State Revenues in Louisiana: From Dramatic Changes in the Oil and Gas Industry in the 1970s and 1980s to the Aftermath of Catastrophic Hurricanes in the 2000s, J. A. Richardson Budget Forecasting for the State of California, J. D. Vasche, B. Williams, and R. Ingenito Forecasting the Personal Income Tax, Q. XU, R. Megna, H. Kayser, and L. Holland Income Tax Forecasting in Minnesota, T. F. Stinson, P. D. Meagher, and J. L. Peloquin Methods and Issues in Forecasting Casino Tax Revenue, J. Landers Estimating and Forecasting Welfare Caseloads, S. Gurmu and W. J. Smith Forecast Evaluation: A Case Study, J. Sun Using Census Data to Forecast New Local Sales Taxes, J. D. Wong Does Revenue Forecasting Responsibility Matter: The Case of Milwaukee, Wisconsin,C. D. Kammholzand C. S. Maher Evaluating Revenue Forecasting in City Governments: A Survey of Texas Finance Directors,C.G. Reddick Pro Forma Forecasting for Determining Financial Position of Enterprise Operations in Government, A. Khan Preparing Data for Forecasting, D. W. Williams CONSENSUS FORECASTING Consensus Forecasting for Budgeting in Theory and Practice, W. E Klay and J. A. Vonasek Use of Consensus Revenue Forecasting in the U.S. State Governments, Y. Qiao State Revenue Forecasting in the State of Indiana: A Consensus System in a Politically Divided State, J. L. Mikesell Consensus Revenue Estimating in State Government: A Case of What Works in Kansas, J.D. Wong and C.D. Ekstrom UNCERTAINTY AND RISK ASSESSMENT IN BUDGET FORECASTING Forecast Errors: Balancing the Risks and Costs of Being Wrong, Q. Xu, H. Kayser, and L. Holland State Fiscal Management: What Practitioners Can Learn from Risk Management Theory, F. Thompson and B.L. Gates State Tax Portfolios: An Integrated Methodology for Forecasting and Analysis, R. D. Nelson OTHER TOPICS IN BUDGET FORECASTING Forecasting Revenues and Expenditures in the Public Sector: Guidance from a Code of Ethics, R. W. Smith Transparency in Government Revenue Forecasting, C. Garofalo and N. Rangarajan Incorporating Fiscal Architecture into Budget Forecasting, S. Wallace Forecasting Practices in Emerging Countries: The Morocco Experience, A. Zemrani Index


An 85-year-old woman presented with a dural arteriovenous fistula of the superior petrosal sinus manifesting as venous infarction of the cerebellum. Magnetic resonance imaging and angiography revealed right cerebellar swelling, venous engorgement, and an arteriovenous fistula in the superior petrosal sinus. Our initial attempt to obliterate the lesion through a transvenous endovascular approach failed, so we successfully treated the fistula via surgical interruption of the superior petrosal vein through a small suboccipital craniotomy. Careful examination of the pattern of venous drainage is important to determine surgical indications. This case indicates that minimally invasive open surgery can be effective even in an elderly patient.


By Jim Lundy Fresh off a new funding round of over $25 Million, Cloud Identity Management provider Okta looks like it is getting ready to catch the transition of enterprises to Cloud Apps by offering an easy to implement Cloud Identity Service. The more...


This model is described in Cramer and Vos (1985). It is based on an earlier model developed in 1973 at the University of Amsterdam by Cramer and Van der Vlis. In 1985 this mode l was revised and applied for forecasting the car fleet until the year 2010. The model The model describes the number of cars at the end of year t. Four sub fleets are distinguished: distinction is made between old and new cars and between first and second or next car of a household. The groups can also be summed to a (sub)total. The model consists of 2 blocks: 1. The first block describes the car fleet at the end of year t. 2. The second block of the model describes the market process and the block also produc es the number of cars purchased Q and the secondhand car price Po. Q and P o are determined per year. The dynamics of the model lay in the determination of the equilibrium between the number of purchased cars (defined by the number of people, the number o f households, the average income and the distribution of incomes, and various prices) and the supply side of the market (defined by the number of scrapped cars, aging, new bought cars of the year before). The two unknown endogenous variables in the model are Q t : the number of purchased cars (the supply-function) and P o, t : the price of a secondhand car (in the demand-function). The dynamics of the car market is expressed by the adjustments in the demand for the existing number of old cars, via the price of secondhand cars, and through its effects on the demand for new cars. So if the price of a secondhand car decreases, the demand for new cars will also drop. The model describes the developments from year to year. Block 1: the supply side of the car market The first block contains equations for the size of the total car fleet at the end of year t. The total number of cars is computed by the number of cars sold (Q) in that year. For this, age-specific scrapping probabilities (s(a)) are used. Besides that, age-specific


A number of people live adjacent to the PTNP: the Lun Bawang in the north, the Kelabit in the east and south, the Sa'ben in the southeast, and the Penan in the west and south. This paper is a general description of the seven groups of Penan, four settled and three semi-settled found around the Park. Basically the paper looks at Penan historical links to the general area of the PTNP, and their contemporary life style. It takes account of their social structure, livelihood, daily activities and dependence on the forest and its resources in and around the respective areas they occupy. It looks at migration history, contact with outsiders, and relationships with their non-Penan neighbours. Penan interactions with, and perceptions of, their surroundings as well as their views of the Park are also described. An earlier and slightly different version of this paper was prepared for the International Tropical Timber Organization in Kuching as a source of socio-economic data on the people adjacent to the Park.


INTRODUCTION
Many children suffer from secondhand smoke exposure (SHSe), which leads to a variety of negative health consequences. However, there is no consensus on how clinicians can best query parents for possible SHSe among children. We employed a data-driven approach to create an efficient screening tool for clinicians to quickly and correctly identify children at risk for SHSe.

METHODS
Survey data from mothers and biospecimens from children were ascertained from the Neurodevelopment and Improving Children's Health following Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure (NICHES) study. Included were mothers and their children whose saliva were assayed for cotinine (n = 351 pairs, mean child age = 5.6 years). Elastic net regression predicting SHSe, as indicated from cotinine concentration, was conducted on available smoking-related questions and cross-validated with 2015-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data to select the most predictive items of SHSe among children (n = 1,670, mean child age = 8.4 years).

RESULTS
Answering positively to at least one of the two final items ("During the past 30 days, did you smoke cigarettes at all?" and "Has anyone, including yourself, smoked tobacco in your home in the past 7 days?") showed AUC = .82, and good specificity (.88) and sensitivity (.74). These results were validated with similar items in the nationally-representative NHANES sample, AUC = .82, specificity = .78, and sensitivity = .77.

CONCLUSIONS
Our data-driven approach identified and validated two items that may be useful as a screening tool for a speedy and accurate assessment of SHSe among children.

IMPLICATIONS
The current study used a rigorous data-driven approach to identify questions that could reliably predict secondhand smoking exposure (SHS) among children.Using saliva cotinine concentration levels as a gold standard for determining SHS exposure, our analysis employing elastic net regression identified two questions that served as good classifier for distinguishing children who might be at risk for SHS exposure. The two items that we validated in the current study can be readily used by clinicians, such as pediatricians, as part of screening procedures to quickly identify whether children might be at risk for secondhand smoking exposure.


The paper treats of the various factors which enter into consideration in the design of a 600-volt contact rail system. The weight of rail to be used depends upon conditions met with in each case, but in general, a heavy rail is preferable from all points of view. The question of quality is rather indeterminate, but in general, it is not advisable to use soft steel until the weight has been brought up to at least 80 lb. (36.28 kg.) per yard; however, consideration should be given to it above this weight. Insulating and supporting is a mechanical problem which must be decided upon local conditions. The method of bonding and jointing to be used depends upon size and section of rail used. With standard rail sections the foot bond is the most satisfactory, and with special sections of rail a copper welded joint will be very satisfactory. Provision must be made to control the expansion and contraction of rail by cutting it into sections and anchoring each of these sections. Various methods of connecting rails are described, together with special devices which will be required. The costs of constructing a single-track mile of contact rail using 50-lb. (22.68 kg.) rail is $3,284.29, while the cost of the same amount of 80-lb. (36.28 kg.) rail is $4,028.55. The average maintenance cost per mile of rail, exclusive of entire renewal, is $80.00 per mile per year.


The Aker moraines are a group of moraines and fluvioglacial ice-front deposits in the areas around the inner part of the Oslofjord. They are topographically separated from older and younger groups of ice-front deposits formed during the deglaciation. Moraines below the highest marine limit, known earlier, have to a large extent been formed from sea-floor deposits pushed together during ice-front re-advances and more or less influenced by wash of the sea. The present investigation has revealed that end moraines also exist above the highest marine limit, formed in supramarine environments. As the cover of ground moraine is generally sparse, these moraines must have been formed by pronounced re-advances. One chain of moraines, which must have been formed by a general and pronounced re-advance, can be followed nearly continuously from the Lier valley to the lowland NE of the City of Oslo, possibly with continuation in local moraines (in ostmarka) to the E of Oslo. In the Lier valley the Aker 'stage' is repres...


The paper records the discovery of gastropods from the vertebrate fauna-bearing beds of Maleri Formation from southwest of Kataram in the Godavari valley. They include genera Physa, Lymnaea and Tricula , which indicate a fresh water environment.


Catheter-tissue contact force(CF) has been reported as one of the success factors of heart ablation surgery. Monitoring and controlling the CF are challenging processes due to the limitation of sensing technologies and robotic surgery systems. In the present study, an image-based and sensor-less CF controller system is proposed that benefits from a neural force feedback estimator. Firstly, a real-time and accurate force feedback element was designed and evaluated to estimate the CF directly from the image of the ablation catheter's deflections during the surgery. This learning-based force estimator successfully could provide CF with a mean absolute error of 0.012 ± 0.01 N and it was implemented in a closed-loop controller as a feedback element. Then, an experimental setup including the ablation catheter manipulator mechanism and a camera was designed to evaluate the performance of the CF controller for static and dynamic input CFs. The evaluation tests showed that the system can maintain the CF with root-mean-squared(RMS) error of 0.01 ± 0.01 N for static test and RMS error of 0.04 ± 0.03 N for a dynamic input force.


We have studied an L-band linac based on a cheap industrial magnetron, which works at CW mode with 75 kW averaged output-power. The designed energy-gain of electrons is 500 keV. Low accelerating gradient was the dominant problem encountered during the structure design. We adopted standing-wave structure with magnetically coupling and nose cones to increase the effective shunt impedance. A 7-cell design has been completed, of which the transverse dynamics and thermodynamics was simulated. Results showed that this accelerating structure could work stably at 59 °C and 100 mA output beam current was achieved. This L-band design provided a cheap and efficient way to generate low-energy electrons for industrial irradiation processing.


The MRI investigation of Russian vowels articulation inventory was realized upon original technology elaborated by the authors for real-time visualization of the speech articulation dynamics. One series of experiments dealt with articulation of the Russian sustained vowels. The data was collected in the course of several experimental sessions with the time gap of one months and one year. In all sessions the highest degree of MRI matching within various productions of a particular vowel by the same speaker was observed. Russian vowels articulation inventory was thus defined and confronted with corresponding data of the Korean one. Articulation of vowels in both languages is estimated to be the best evidence of the language-specific articulation base. The factual identity of the Russian vowels articulation thus could be explicitly stated and appropriate instructions for the language teaching and learning elaborated.


Under the concept of "Industry 4.0", production processes will be pushed to be increasingly interconnected, information based on a real time basis and, necessarily, much more efficient. In this context, capacity optimization goes beyond the traditional aim of capacity maximization, contributing also for organization's profitability and value. Indeed, lean management and continuous improvement approaches suggest capacity optimization instead of maximization. The study of capacity optimization and costing models is an important research topic that deserves contributions from both the practical and theoretical perspectives. This paper presents and discusses a mathematical model for capacity management based on different costing models (ABC and TDABC). A generic model has been developed and it was used to analyze idle capacity and to design strategies towards the maximization of organization's value. The trade-off capacity maximization vs operational efficiency is highlighted and it is shown that capacity optimization might hide operational inefficiency. Abstract The evaluation and calibration of gear testers are considered as a key point to ensure the obtained results in gear metrology. Although ISO TC 60 working group has developed standards in this regard, the fact is that for the time being, there are not specific international standards for gear rolling tests. In this work, a periodical calibration guideline for gear rolling testers, particularly for worm gear transmission, is proposed, allowing the reduction of possible error sources in the measurement process. A series of tasks distributed over time are suggested in this work to maintain the accuracy of the gear rolling test machines. scientific committee of the Manufacturing Engineering Society International Conference 2017. Abstract The evaluation and calibration of gear testers are considered as a key point to ensure the obtained results in gear metrology. Although ISO TC 60 working group has developed standards in this regard, the fact is that for the time being, there are not specific international standards for gear rolling tests. In this work, a periodical calibration guideline for gear rolling testers, particularly for worm gear transmission, is proposed, allowing the reduction of possible error sources in the measurement process. A series of tasks distributed over time are suggested in this work to maintain the accuracy of the gear rolling test machines.


Abstract : Since July 1973 there have been eight U.S. air carrier accidents attributed to encounters with strong low-level wind shears during terminal flight operations. The FAA research and development effort has taken a threefold approach to the wind shear problem: (1) developing and implementing improved forecasting techniques and procedures for predicting and reporting low-level wind shear in the terminal area; (2) placing wind shear detection equipment on the ground and transmitting information to the pilot; and (3) installing equipment aboard the aircraft that would provide the pilot with wind shear information in 'real time'. The results of the latter effort, i.e., airborne wind shear systems and techniques are evaluated as to their relative benefits and costs both to the user and to the FAA. Ground speed is a major input variable to many of the candidate airborne wind shear systems. Eight techniques for providing ground speed are evaluated and cost comparisons are documented. Also evaluated are three self contained wind shear systems that do not rely on ground speed as a reference and a head-up display for displaying wind shear data. (Author)


Observations are reported of pressure oscillations in model current leads cooled with supercritical helium. The oscillations are characterized and regions of the independent parameters in which the oscillations occurred are given. Different behavior depending on the design of each lead is noted. The effects of the thermodynamic state of the helium and the hydraulic diameter of each lead are in agreement with the theoretical predictions for simple tubes.


This paper describes the InfoGuide full-text document retrieval system, which is under development at the Philips Research Laboratories. InfoGuide combines high retrieval quality with high retrieval performance on very large document bases. The high quality is due to the use of the vector space retrieval model, and the high performance originates from the implementation on the parallel POOMA machine. This paper presents implementation aspects as well as evaluation figures, from which it can be concluded that a 200-term query can be matched against the full text of 1,500,000 documents within three seconds.


The influence of dietary components on vascular dysfunction and aging is unclear. This study therefore aims to propose a model to predict the influence of macro and micronutrients on accelerated vascular aging in a Spanish population without previous cardiovascular disease. This cross-sectional study involved a total of 501 individuals aged between 35 and 75 years. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) was measured using a Sphygmo Cor® device. Carotid intima-media thickness (IMTc) was measured using a Sonosite Micromax® ultrasound machine. The Vascular Aging Index (VAI) was estimated according to VAI = (LN (1.09) × 10 cIMT + LN (1.14) × cfPWV) 39.1 + 4.76. Vascular aging was defined considering the presence of a vascular lesion and the p75 by age and sex of VAI following two steps: Step 1: subjects were labelled as early vascular aging (EVA) if they had a peripheral arterial disease or carotid artery lesion. Step 2: they were classified as EVA if the VAI value was >p75 and as normal vascular aging (NVA) if it was ≤p75. To predict the model, we used machine learning algorithms to analyse the association between macro and micronutrients and vascular aging. In this article, we proposed the AdXGRA model, a stacked ensemble learning model for diagnosing vascular aging from macro and micronutrients. The proposed model uses four classifiers, AdaBoost (ADB), extreme gradient boosting (XGB), generalized linear model (GLM), and random forest (RF) at the first level, and then combines their predictions by using a second-level multilayer perceptron (MLP) classifier to achieve better performance. The model obtained an accuracy of 68.75% in prediction, with a sensitivity of 66.67% and a specificity of 68.79%. The seven main variables related to EVA in the proposed model were sodium, waist circumference, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), total protein, calcium, and potassium. These results suggest that total protein, PUFA, and MUFA are the macronutrients, and calcium and potassium are the micronutrients related to EVA.


The crystallization of ZSM3 via faujasite metamorphosis, synthesized from dealuminated metakaolin, was achieved without the addition of any structure directing agent. The XRD, XRF, and SEM/EDXS analyses carried out on the sample indicated successful synthesis of matrix, containing zeolites X, Y and sodium aluminosilicate, in various proportions, which was later transformed completely into ZSM3. The XRD peaks and SEM morphologies attributed to ZSM3 increased in intensity and crystallinity, as reaction and ageing time progressed. Post synthesis effects i.e. exposure to dampness and longer contact time in the presence of residue/unwashed NaOH used for the synthesis earlier, were totally responsible for the metamorphosis. Anatase and quartz were observed to persist in the raw, intermediate and as-synthesized product, pointing to their high level of resistances to treatments. The formation of competitive zeolite phases, was prevented by controlling factors responsible for its nucleation and formation. Keywords: metamorphosis, insitu seeding, kaolin, ZSM3, faujasite, dealumination, aging


In most cases in wireless networks, a user has a two-way communication that consists of two sessions: uplink and downlink sessions, and its overall satisfaction to the communication depends on the quality of service of both sessions. However, in most previous approaches in wireless resource allocation, the satisfactions of a user for its uplink and downlink sessions are modeled separately and treated independently, which fails to accurately model user's overall satisfaction to its communication. Hence, in this paper we model user's overall satisfaction to its communication considering both its uplink and downlink sessions. To this end, we propose a novel concept for a utility function to model user's overall satisfaction to its communication, which is called a user-level utility function, considering user's satisfaction to uplink and downlink sessions jointly. To show the appropriateness of our approach, we apply our user-level utility functions to scheduling problems in TDMA wireless networks and show the performance improvement of our approach over the traditional approach that does not treat uplink and downlink sessions of a user jointly.


Objective To observe the radiosensitization of Docetaxel on colorectal SW480 cells in vitro and try to discuss its possible radiosensitizing mechanism.Methods Proliferation inhibition of Docetaxel on SW480 cells was detected by MTT method.Radiosensitization of Docetaxel was measured by clone formation assay,and survival curve was described.Alterations in cell cycle and apoptosis were tested by flow cytometry(FCM).Results Inhibition of cell proliferation seemed more dependent on the time and the concentration.The value of SF2,D0,Dq in the group of radiation combined with Docetaxel was obviously lower than those in radiation group.The SER of Docetaxel was 1.73.Cell cycle analysis showed that cells blocked in G2/M phase by Docetaxel treatment,which showed more obvious when combined treatment with radiation,and inhibited the S phase ratio.Docetaxel could enhance radiation-induced apoptosis.Conclusion Docetaxel can enhance the radiotherapy of SW480cells by promotion of apoptosis and promotion of cell cycle' redistribution.


(57) Abstract: overvoltage protection circuit protects from saturation and destruction of the sensitive circuit elements. Protection circuit, it includes determining the out-of-range detector 52 whether a predetermined within range of input that may accept as compared to a reference level input signal. If the input is determined not to the range within the control circuit 62, 64, to replace the auxiliary signal in the range for the input signal. While the auxiliary signal is being replaced, it is possible to provide a digital correction to correct the output of the sensing circuitry. To realize the protection scheme, a number of circuit designs can be used.


with the trends of constantly speeding up the economic globalization and in order to open up in a better way, we must realize and probe into the economic globalization and its law scientifically and correctly. It is the premise of persisting in and perfecting the opening up to realize the economic globalization and its law correctly. Only when we respect the law can we persist in and perfect the opening up.


Background:  The present study was conducted to evaluate the usefulness and safety of the non‐powder surgical glove for extraction of the gallbladder in laparoscopic cholecystectomy.


ABSTRACT

Ulfah Fitriah. 8105112245. The Influence of Job Dicipline and Office Environment on Job Satisfaction at CV. KOSTRAD JAYA TEKNIK. Script, Jakarta: Concentration Office Administration, Economics of Education Studies Program, Department of Economics and Administration, Faculty of Economics, State University of Jakarta. 2015.

This study aims to determine whether there is influence between job discipline and job environments on employee satisfaction in employees CV. Kostrad Jaya TEKNIK. This research was conducted for 3 months from September to November 2015. Research method which is used, survey method. The population in this study was 122 employees in CV. KOSTRAD JAYA TEKNIK and researchers took 89 employees as samples by using proportional random technique. Instruments used to obtain data on the variables X (work discipline), it was measured by using a disciplined assessment of employees, X1 (work environment and also measured by
using a questionnaire with Likert scale, and Y (job satisfaction) were measured using a questionnaire with Likert scale. Then, the data is tested by validity and reliability, and analysis through multiple regression techniques and classical assumption test. The hypothesis was tested significant at the 0.05 margin of error using t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results showed no significant influence between work discipline and working environments on job satisfaction of employees with the regression equation Y = 29,627 + 0,670X2. From the analysis of the data, it obtained that Fhitung is 39.264> F = 3.11. This mean the hypothesis stated that there is any significan influence between discipline and work environment on job satisfaction in employees received. Meanwhile, the coefficient of determination of R2 is 45,5% while the remaining 54,5% is influenced by other factors that is not examined. Based on this results suggested for the management company to be able to apply the discipline of good work and improve the working environment in order to improve the job satisfaction of employees.

Keywords: Work Discipline, Work Environment and Job Satisfaction


By proving an estimate of the sublevel sets for $(\omega,m)$-subharmonic functions we obtain a Sobolev type inequality that is then used to characterize the degenerate complex Hessian equations for such functions with bounded $(p,m)$-energy.


The following paper points out that reactive powder concrete has even,dense and stable system,super-high compressive strength and flexuraltensile strength,and well ductility and fracture property,summarizes the present condition of the research into RPC,discusses its strengthening mechanism,and forecasts its development prospect,in order to increase economic benefits and environmental benefits.


In this paper, we present ROSALNet, a low-cost TDM mesh network which is designed to opportunistically exploit TV white spaces (TVWS) to provide broadband Internet connectivity to remote rural areas. Recent research has proposed WiFi-based wireless networks as cost-effective solutions to bridge the last-mile problem. However, WiFi normally operates in the 2.4 GHz band and above, where signal propagation is not as good as in sub-GHz bands such as terrestrial TV bands. Exploiting TV white spaces for broadband connectivity can potentially further bring down the cost of such wireless networks to a more affordable level. ROSALNet is implemented on commodity hardware using the open-source OpenWrt operating system. A single mesh node currently costs US$330, which is significantly cheaper than competing TVWS commercial solutions. ROSALNet can opportunistically use spectrum by looking up a white space database and by performing spectrum sensing. Our experiments with ROSALNet on a university campus demonstrates the superior coverage possible with TVWS compared to 2.4GHz. ROSALNet exploits an existing TDM mesh implementation originally designed to use WiFi bands, called FRACTEL, thereby inheriting its attractive features of low-latency and low jitter. Results from a lab testbed consisting of 4 nodes show that ROSALNet can provide an aggregate throughput of 11Mbps, which is sufficient to support triple play services.


It was shown recently1in experiments on cats and rats that the autonomic nervous system participates to a larger extent in the emotional process than would be anticipated from Cannon's classic studies. According to our investigations emotional excitement and hypothalamic stimulation are characterized by a discharge over both the vagoinsulin and the sympatheticoadrenal system, with predominance of the excitation of the latter. This result was shown particularly clearly in experiments on rats, in which it was found that normal rats reacted to emotional stimuli with hyperglycemia whereas adrenalectomized rats showed hypoglycemia in response to emotional excitement. That these two effects were due to a discharge over the sympatheticoadrenal and the vagoinsulin system respectively was proved by the observation that no changes in blood sugar resulted from emotional stimuli applied to vagotomized-adrenalectomized animals. Subsequent studies of Gellhorn, Feldman and Allen2made it possible to assay insulin in minute quantities


Keen's impressive study commences with the seemingly straightforward question of what actually constituted "literature" in the 1790s. The answer, however, is anything but simple, as the 299 pages, packed with information, prove to their readers: By no means did "literature" only relate to poetic works in a narrow sense – on the contrary, "literature" comprised texts in any subjects and on any topic, ranging from theology to natural philosophy. In the 1790s, which were revolutionary both throu...


Malaria is caused by the eukaryotic protozoan parasite Plasmodium. Transmission occurs when a female Anopheles mosquito injects sporozoites, the infective form of the parasite, via the saliva during a blood meal. We hypothesize that identification of unique mosquito genes and their products will contribute to the understanding of molecules that can potentially be targeted for malaria control. In this study, a comparative proteomic analysis of the reproductive organs of male and female Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes was conducted. One hundred pairs of ovaries and testes were dissected, and tissues were fractionated on 10% SDS‐PAGE gels. Unique bands were excised from the SDS gel and in‐gel tryptic digestion was performed. A comprehensive proteomic analysis of the eluted proteins was conducted using high resolution mass spectrometry, combined with BLAST analysis of the Anopheles genome. A total of 2435 of the proteins generated were unique to the ovaries while 2104 other proteins were shared with salivary glands, midgut and Malpighian tubules. This study demonstrates the application of high‐resolution mass spectrometry data for comprehensive analysis of the Anopheles gambiae reproductive organs and also illustrates the power of mass spectrometry‐derived data to complement other approaches for genome annotation. Supported by NIH 5R25GM063775


The wide variety of uses for nanoparticles (NPs) is due to their unique combination of features in a single assembly. The arc melted copper-cobalt ingot sample were qualitatively studied using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Later, using the fabricated alloy as a target material for Nd:YAG laser ablation, CuCo2O4 NPs were synthesized. The magnetic properties of the synthesized NPs were studied using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). To determine the composition and morphology of the synthesized NPs, X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and dynamic light scattering (DLS) techniques were used. The TEM and DLS showed that particles were spherical in shape with an average size of 32 nm and 28 nm, respectively. The antibacterial activity of the synthesized NPs was studied against S. aureus and E. coli strains as positive and negative controls using a standard approach. CuCo2O4 nanoparticles exhibited non-mutagenic potential against S. typhimurium TA-98 and TA-100 strains. Furthermore, the magnetic hyperthermia study of CuCo2O4 nanofluid was examined using a lab-made apparatus. The specific absorption rates (SAR) of 4.57 and 5.17 W/g were determined for the magnetic field strength of 230 μT and 247 μT, respectively. The study shows antibacterial activity and magnetic hyperthermia potential of the synthesized nanoparticles.


A growing number of cities have joined creative city networks in the last decade. Through such networks, cities are attempting to transform their creative sectors and become more attractive in term ...


In this work, we provided direct evidence for the first time that exposure to a static magnetic field (SMF) of low intensity (2 mT) is immediately followed by a reversible cell membrane depolarization wave (of about 1 min) that causes the rise of intracellular calcium and the decrease of mitochondrial activity of vital granulosa cells. These effects are likely due to the increase in Na+ and Ca2+ cell membrane permeability. Bioelectromagnetics. 35:231–234, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


coil. It has been found that it is more difficult to detect cracks in nonmagnetic conductors than magnetic conductors(9). The authors recently reported an attempt to detect cracks in stainless steel instruments using eddy current testing(10). When the same procedure was performed using a NiTi rod, it was difficult to carry out measurements on NiTi which was nonmagnetic conductor. The purpose of this study is to find a new method for Abstract Since nickel-titanium(NiTi)files have very high flexibility, they have a high ability to follow the root canal, so that displacement of the root canal due to root canal enlargement is reduced. On the other hand, one of the major drawbacks of NiTi files is instrument fracture during root canal formation. Therefore, we are trying to develop a device that can detect cracks before the NiTi file breaks. Because NiTi is a non-magnetic con-ductor, it was difficult to detect a groove in a sample by the same method as that for stainless steel which is a magnetic conductor. Specimens of nickel titanium rod having a diameter of 1.3 mm and a length of 30 mm were inscribed with grooves having a depth of 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 of the diameter at a distance of 5 or 10 mm from the end. Electrodes were placed at 1 mm intervals with respect to the part of the specimen closest to the excitation coil, and the potential difference in the specimen caused by the eddy current was measured. The result was that a groove having a depth of 3/4 of the diameter could be detected by measuring the potential difference. As a clinical application, the possibility of detecting cracks in nickel-titanium files is suggested.


A new attempt is made to compute the nonlinear four wave interactions in the discrete spectral wave model represented by the 6-D Boltzmann integral using fully GaussLegendre quadrature method. An advantage of this method is that the singularities of the integral are naturally avoided. The method can be used to obtain accurate results for the nonlinear energy transfer rate. In this paper, the evaluation of the transfer integral based on the locus parameters arc length (s) and direction (θ) are considered separately using GaussLegendre quadrature method. Results obtained using this method for the deep water nonlinear energy transfer rate corresponding to the input standard JONSWAPwave spectra with angular distributions in the cases 2-6 of Hasselmann and Hasselmann [2] [hereafter referred as HH] are presented. A comparison study of the present 1-D nonlinear results indicate good agreement with the corresponding results of the exact WRT method [9]. AMS Subject Classification: 65D32, 76B15, 76B60, 86A05


This study explored the relationship between depression, stress differential and social support among Catholic Religious. To carry out this study a sample of 186 Catholic Religious from different Congregations (religious institute) as well as different states were examined using the DASS (Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale) and MOSS (Medical Outcome Study Social Support) scales. It was hypothesized that both gender and social support will have significant effect on depression and stress and also that there would be an interaction effect of gender and social support on depression and stress. Results using the analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that gender was not statistically significant on stress and depression, while social support was marginally significant on depression with f(1,178) = 2.771, p<0.05 the mean for male was 11.283 while the mean for female was 12.690. But social support was not significant on stress. An interaction effect also indicated that both gender and social support were statistically not significant on depression and stress. The results have important implications of the effects of social support on psychological wellbeing.


The invention discloses an anti-countercurrent block piece of a drainage pack, which comprises a fixing ring and a flow blocking piece, wherein the fixing ring is annular; the flow blocking piece is arranged at the inner side of the fixing ring which is connected with the flow blocking piece by a connection arm. According to the anti-countercurrent block piece, the fixing ring is used for fixing; the flow blocking piece blocks a drainage channel port in the rear end of an adapter, so that when medicines are injected, the medicines enter a human body from the front end of the adapter of the drainage pack and can not flow into the drainage pack.


In an effort to determine whether heat-shock proteins might serve as useful indicators of environmental stress, the aquatic bacterium, Alcaligenes eutrophus JMP228, was exposed to two chemical stressors: a toxic heavy metal ion, cadmium, and a nonbiodegradable organic herbicide, 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T). Protein synthesis was analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, comparing the protein patterns of chemically stressed cells to those exhibited by nontreated and heat-shocked cells. Heat-shock proteins were produced in response to both chemical stressors and heat. Proteins induced in response to all three experimental stresses include molecules with approximate molecular weights of 58–60 and 106 kDa. Still other stress proteins were only expressed following chemical stress. A 106 kDa protein was only produced following cadmium treatment, whereas proteins of 37, 39, 46, 49, and 77 kDa were only produced in response to 2,4,5-T. The synthesis of some of the unique stress proteins varied in a dose-dependent fashion with the concentration of the individual stressors. The presence of these proteins may be useful indicators of the "health" of an environment. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


With electronic cooling system of I-DEAS, a certain electric vehicles temperature distribution and velocity of flow is numerical simulated in this paper. Besides, there are the mathematic model and process of numerical simulation. After numerical simulation and contrasting different value of Vent's Flux and temperature , the result proves that the choice of air-condition parameters is reasonable.


A multifunctional automatic measurement method for radial clearance of large-scaled precision bearing adopts static measurement, dynamic measurement and three-point measurement and is capable of automatically loading and automatically measuring. The three measurement manners can be implemented on one measuring apparatus at the same time. The measuring apparatus mainly comprises an electrical system (1), a measurement pedestal (2), a sensor support (3), a sensor adjusting nut (4), an inductive sensor (5), an upper cylinder support (6), an upper loading cylinder (7), a measurement shaft centre (9), a measurement main shaft (10), a lower loading cylinder (11), a lower cylinder support (12), a measurement support (13), a synchronous motor (14), a Hall element (15), a belt wheel and cog belt (16), a precise pressure regulating valve (17), and a precise pressure gauge (18). The measuring apparatus can provide reliable detection and analysis data for high-precise measurement of radial clearance of large-scaled precision bearings (8).


Mouth rinses with 7 ml 0.05% NaF containing 51Cr-EDTA (2 μCi) were performed by 11 dental staff members. The water-soluble non-absorbable 51Cr-EDTA was added to enable estimation


The aim of this study is threefold: 1) To identify the throwing velocity during a match; 2) to identify possible differences in throwing velocities between male and female players; 3) to determine shot velocity from different zones of the court during real competition. We analyzed the water polo world championship. In order to evaluate the precise strength production, a radar gun was used. A one-way analysis of variance was applied (ANOVA) to study differences among playing areas. In addition, a t-Test for repeated measures was employed to compare different groups. This study identifies three major zones of goal shot. We identified the highest throwing velocity zones and the zones with highest shot number. In addition, the results show that the penalty shot is the fastest shot.


We present a single rate multicast congestion control scheme(pgmcc) which is TCP-friendly and achieves scalability, stability and fast response to variations in network conditions. pgmcc is suitable for both non-reliable and reliable data transfers; it uses a window-based TCP-like controller based on positive ACKs and run between the sender and a group's representative, the acker. The innovative part of pgmcc is a fast and low-overhead procedure to select (and track changes of) the acker, which permits us to consider the acker as a moving receiver rather than a changing one. As such, the scheme is robust to measurement errors, and supports fast response to changes in the receiver set and/or network conditions. The scheme has been implemented in the PGM protocol, and the paper presents a number of experimental results on its performance.


Aims. We aim to reproduce the structure of the corona above a solar active region as seen in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) using a three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (3D MHD) model.
Methods. The 3D MHD data-driven model solves the induction equation and the mass, momentum, and energy balance. To drive the system, we feed the observed evolution of the magnetic field in the photosphere of the active region AR 12139 into the bottom boundary. This creates a hot corona above the cool photosphere in a self-consistent way. We synthesize the coronal EUV emission from the densities and temperatures in the model and compare this to the actual coronal observations.
Results. We are able to reproduce the overall appearance and key features of the corona in this active region on a qualitative level. The model shows long loops, fan loops, compact loops, and diffuse emission forming at the same locations and at similar times as in the observation. Furthermore, the low-intensity contrast of the model loops in EUV matches the observations.
Conclusions. In our model the energy input into the corona is similar as in the scenarios of fieldline-braiding or flux-tube tectonics, that is, energy is transported to the corona through the driving of the vertical magnetic field by horizontal photospheric motions. The success of our model shows the central role that this process plays for the structure, dynamics, and heating of the corona.


In Cameroon, agrofood waste biomass such as peels of Musa paradisiaca and Musa acuminate is being valorized using various traditional processing methods to produce a traditional functional food salt, potash, locally called nikkih. Nikkih has been reported to have varying physicochemical and functional properties, which negatively affect the quality and stability of food prepared using it. This work aims at evaluating the effect of traditional process methods on the physicochemical and functional properties of nikkih produced from these peels in view of the optimization of the process. The peels were preprocessed using two methods: boiling at 90oC before drying and direct drying of raw samples. All samples were dried and combusted to ash at varying temperatures of 250oC, 300o C, and 350oC and times of 30 min, 60 min, and 90 min. The ash obtained was dissolved in varied volumes of water, filtered to obtain the nikkih. Yellow achu soup was prepared through the dry gum method using water and read palm oil, with nikkih as emulsifier. The physicochemical and functional properties of nikkih on yellow achu soup were evaluated using standard methods. The ash yield ranged from 10.62 ± 0.12% to 7.10 ± 0.05%, with the raw samples combusted at 3000C and 2500C having the highest and lowest values respectively. The pH of nikkih ranged from 10.95 ± 0 to 12.01 ± 0.056 while potash content ranged from 32.45 ± 0.905% to 72.29 ± 1.31%, with the highest and lowest values obtained from the raw sample combusted at 2500C and the boiled samples combusted at 3500C respectively. Alkaline content ranged from 61.7 ± 0.141% to 52.8 ± 0.141%, with boiled M. acuminate combusted at 3500C having the highest value and the lowest from raw M. paradisiaca combusted at 2500C. The foaming capacity and foam stability ranged from 6.9 ± 0.01% to 16.07 ± 2.51% and from 3.20 ± 0.07% to 11.205 ± 2.39% for M. acuminate and M. paradisiaca respectively. The emulsification index ranged from 85.62 ± 0.09% to 86.67 ± 1.141% after 24 hrs and from 26.0 ± 0.94% to 27.02 ± 2.390% after 48 hrs, with the highest value from the raw M. acuminate combusted at 350oC and the lowest from that combusted at 3000C. The potash source, pretreatment method, combustion conditions, and dilution factors all had an effect on the physicochemical and functional properties of nikkih.


In order to solve the steering stability problem of a special four-wheel independent electric vehicle, a dynamic model of the vehicle was established to analyze the cause of vehicle instability. A steering stability controller was designed, which included the upper yaw moment controller and the lower driving force distribution controller. Based on the sliding mode control algorithm, the yaw moment controller determines the yaw moment required while the vehicle is moving by controlling the yaw rate and sideslip angle. Based on the safety distribution method, the driving force distribution controller selects the sum of tire utilization rate as the optimization function to realize the optimal distribution of yaw moment. Software of MATLAB/Simulink and CarSim were used to build a co-simulation platform, and the designed steering stability controller was analyzed and verified. The simulation results show that the steering stability controller is helpful to improve the steering ability and handling stability of the vehicle in the extreme working conditions.


This paper presents the design issues in the implementation of Application Specific Integrated Transducer Interface Module-Control Architecture (AS ITIM–CA). The architecture is capable of generating Electronic Data Sheet for transducers including system details. Controller and other functional modules are configured in adaptation to system specifications. Features of the architecture are illustrated through an application to a class of DC-DC converter systems. It suits to industrial environment because of its self descriptive nature and universal configurability. The architecture is synthesized and realized using FPGA. Advantages of this architecture are demonstrated in comparison with other existing control architectures. Key words— Atlys Spartan 6 FPGA, DC-DC converter, Hardware Implementation, Smart transducer, Synthesis Report. Sensor Controller Actuator Signal Conditioning Block Signal Conditioning Block


Apatite fission tracks are measured for the estimation of the ancient temperatures in the Tertiary in the Xihu depression of the East China Sea basin. The investigation concluded that the annealing temperatures of the apatite fission tracks are in the range of 70~125 ℃, which are corresponding to the depths of 2?000~3?900 m in the Xihu depression and its ancient subsurface temperature gradient of 2.8 ℃ in one hundred meters. Dark shales are believed as major oil source rocks in Xihu depression, which got to the oil generating threshold at about 2?800 m corresponding to 90 ℃. As the apatite fission tracks are in single peak distrbution, the authors believe that the subsurface temperature evolution was resulted from one thermal event which was controlled by tectonic activity in the Xihu depression. Therefore, estimation of ancient temperatures with apatite fission tracks is believable, and can be applied to other depressions in the East China Sea basin.


Aim: The aim of this study was to ascertain the knowledge for Vaginal Birth after Cesarian Section (VBAC) in people who are working in hospital. Material And Methods: This descriptive study was done in Mustafa Kemal University, Medical Faculty Hospital and a total of 100 surveys were randomized distrubuted. The surveys were prepared by using the patient aknowledgement form of American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Results: Eighty seven surveys were returned and evaluated. ' Is VBAC possible ?' question was responded by 63 (72.4%) health care providers as 'yes' and 24(27.6%) as 'no'. There were no difference between occupation groups for this question (p=0.3).'What should be the uterine incision scar in previous section to achieve VBAC?' was asked to persons that said 'yes' for former question. Twenty one ( 33.3%) of them responded as 'I don't know' , 30 (47.6%) as 'transvers' and 12 (19%) as 'vertical'. Same group also responded of minimum previous cesarian section number for VBAC 25 (39.7%) as 'I don't know', 13 (20.6%) people as 1, 13 (20.6%) as 2, 11 (17.5%) people as 3 and 1 (1.6%) person as 4. 'What is the risk of VBAC?' was asked and responded as 'I don't know' from 29 (%46) people, as 'uterine rupture' from 30(%47,6) people and 'no risk' from 4 (%6,3) people. Conclusion: In conclusion even though VBAC is considered as an option in most of health care providers they have not sufficient knowledge about conditon and risks of VBAC. Informing of this group may help to decrease cesarian rate in the population.


This research study examines the process of downsizing and is impact on the socio-economic condition of affected employee. It was conducted in September 2008 in different areas of NWFP namely district Bannu, Tank, Lakki Marwat and D.I. Khan. A sample of 40 people was taken for this purpose. The average score of the respondent on the instruction of downsizing in the organization show s that mostly affected employees did not like the downsizing process. In particular they responded that downsizing is threat for their individual as well as social and economic life. Similarly the response average for health facilities and spouse education shows that they were satisfied with the health facilities and most of the respondent indicates that because of downsizing their spouse education was affected the final finding indicates that employees were highly affected in term of health facilities. Spouse education, New job finding, social, economic conditions and living standard.


The InterCommission Committee on Theory (ICCT) was formally approved and established after the IUGG XXI Assembly in Sapporo, 2003, to succeed the former IAG Section IV on General Theory and Methodology and, more importantly, to interact actively and directly with other IAG entities. As a result of this restructuring, and recognizing that geodetic observing systems have advanced to such an extent that geodetic measurements (i) are now of unprecedented accuracy and quality, can readily cover a region of any scale up to tens of thousands of kilometres, yield non-conventional data types, and can be provided continuously; and (ii) consequently, demand advanced mathematical modelling in order to obtain the maximum benefit of such technological advance, the ICCT (1) strongly encourages frontier mathematical and physical research, directly motivated by geodetic need/ practice, as a contribution to science/engineering in general and the foundations of geodesy in particular;


The single-factor randomized block experiment was adopted and found out that different density of paclobutrazol and ethephon had different influence on the flowering rate of 'Tainung No.1'Mango.The results showed that 300,450,600mg/L paclobutrazol and 200,250,300 mg/L ethephon,all of them would improve secondary flowing rate.Paclobutrazol in a certain range of concentration(300~600mg/L) increased with the dose to enhance efficacy.250mg/L ethephon had a higher rate than 200mg/L ethephon.However,300mg/L ethephon had a lower rate than 250mg/L ethephon because of a serious gum.What's more,the length of florescence had decreased in varying degrees after treated with paclobutrazol and ethephon.


The present invention is asymmetric and phosphorus-containing Heputajin derivative (where symmetric equation The present invention also provides a method of manufacturing the same, and, in particular plastics, textiles, as a flame retardant for wood products, paper, cardboard articles, plaster, insulating materials and building materials composites, or in the manufacture of polymer foams their use. .BACKGROUND


Groundwater is heavily exploited for a variety of uses. Depending on their structure, the wells from which water is extracted can act as an entry point/gateway for a variety of microbiological contaminants, which can cause numerous adverse health effects. This study aimed to identify the microorganisms present in the groundwater in the Western Amazonian city of Porto Velho, using a methodology that can be deployed in other city centers. We collected 74 water samples from both dug and drilled wells in March, August and November 2018. Total coliforms were detected in 96% of dug wells and 74% of drilled wells. Thermotolerant coliforms were found in 90% of dug wells and 61% of drilled wells. Biochemical identification indicated 15 genera of bacteria. The genera Escherichia, Enterobacter, Cronobacter and Citrobacter had the highest prevalence. The genera Pseudomonas and Enterococcus were also detected. Thermotolerant coliforms showed higher values when the water flow was higher. Our results indicate high fecal contamination and higher susceptibility to contaminants in shallow wells compared to deep wells. These findings reflect the precariousness of WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) services and the importance of effective actions to combat groundwater degradation, improve the quality of the environment, and protect public health.