Solute transport is important to biological activities and contrast agent-based imaging of articular cartilage. Solute partitioning, which characterizes equilibrium concentration distributions within tissues, is typically measured assuming that solute is distributed within the tissue volume. However, solutes also adsorb to cartilage surfaces. Ignoring this adsorption results in measurements of apparent partition coefficients (Ka) significantly greater than actual ones (K). A theoretical model was developed to predict the resulting errors in partition coefficient measurements and to estimate K based on Ka data. These errors increase as explant surface/volume ratio (S/V) increases. A range of solutes including 3 or 4 kDa and 40 kDa dextrans, chondroitin sulfate, insulin and myoglobin conjugated to three different fluorophores (fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC), tetramethylrhodamine isothiocyanate (TRITC) and carboxytetramethylrhodamine (TAMRA)) and fluorophores alone were studied. Experiments showed significant increases in Ka with S/V for FITC and TRITC and their conjugates. For TAMRA, while increased S/V increased Ka of dextrans, it did not affect Ka of chondroitin sulfate, insulin, myoglobin or TAMRA alone. S/V had the most significant effect on Ka for TRITC and its conjugates and smallest effects for TAMRA and its conjugates. Fluorescence microscopy confirmed solute accumulation at cartilage surfaces for all solutes, with strongest adsorption for TAMRA and weakest for FITC. Consistent with theory, under these extreme conditions Ka was less affected by adsorption; otherwise differences between K and Ka were significant. Differences in adsorption and transport properties of solutes labeled with different fluorophores highlighted the importance of molecular-level solute–matrix interactions on solute transport in cartilage.


The surface roughness parameters of the newest national standard are discussed in the paper.The evaluation of multiple roughness parameters is implemented through program.The validity of this program is illuminated by an example.


Abstract : A new code for solving radiation belt diffusion equations has been developed and applied to the 2-D bounce-averaged energy pitch angle quasi-linear diffusion equation. The code uses Monte Carlo methods to solve Ito stochastic differential equations (SDEs) which are mathematically equivalent to radiation belt diffusion equations. We show that our SDE code solves the diffusion equation with off-diagonal diffusion coefficients in contrast to standard finite difference codes which are generally unstable when off-diagonal diffusion coefficients are included. Our results are in excellent agreement with previous results. We have also investigated effects of assuming purely parallel propagating electromagnetic waves when calculating the diffusion coefficients and find that this assumption leads to errors of more than an order of magnitude in flux at some equatorial pitch angles for the specific chorus wave model we use. Further work is needed to investigate the sensitivity of our results to the wave model parameters. Generalization of the method to 3-D is straight-forward, thus making this model a very promising new way to investigate the relative roles of pitch angle, energy, and radial diffusion in radiation belt dynamics.


Abstract 584 Background: CMC-544 is a humanized anti-CD22 antibody conjugated to calicheamicin, a potent cytotoxic agent. CMC-544 targets CD22, which is expressed in the majority of B cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL). The maximum tolerated dose (MTD) for single agent CMC-544 was previously determined to be 1.8 mg/m2administered IV every 28 days, and clinical activity was shown in patients with follicular lymphoma (FL) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Preliminary safety and efficacy data without long-term follow-up on patients with FL and non-refractory DLBCL treated with CMC-544 given in combination with rituximab was previously reported. Objectives: To assess clinical activity of CMC-544 in combination with rituximab in refractory 'aggressive9 NHL and to present long-term follow-up, including progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of pts with relapsed FL and DLBCL. Patients and Methods: Patients were eligible if they had CD20+/CD22+ B cell NHL, which had not responded to or progressed after 1 or 2 therapies of probable clinical benefit, including at least 1 regimen containing rituximab. In patients with FL and DLBCL, subjects could have had no more than 2 prior therapies and could not be refractory to rituximab or a rituximab-containing therapy. Patients in the latter part of the study could have DLBCL, mantle cell lymphoma, transformed FL with no limit on number of prior therapies and must have had no response to, or relapse within 6 months of, the first dose of the previous rituximab-containing therapy (refractory 'aggressive9 lymphoma). After a limited dose-escalation to determine the MTD of CMC-544 in combination with rituximab, an expanded cohort at the MTD was conducted. Patients received 375 mg/m2 of rituximab IV on day 1 followed by CMC-544 on day 2 of each 28-day cycle for up to 8 cycles, provided that there was no disease progression. Results: The MTD of CMC-544 given with rituximab was confirmed as the single agent dose of 1.8 mg/m2. Enrollment is complete at 119 patients, with 110 treated with CMC-544 at the MTD of 1.8 mg/m2. Based on 112 patients, median age was 66 y (range: 20-85), 60% were male; 36% had 1 prior chemo/immunotherapy regimen, 46% had 2, and 13% had ≥3; 71% had stage III/IV disease, 38% elevated LDH, and 17% bulky disease (>7.5 cm). Patients with recurrent DLBCL were generally older, with a median age of 72 y and were thus deemed inappropriate for high-dose therapy. The most common treatment-emergent adverse events (AEs), all grades, were nausea (48%), thrombocytopenia (46%), fatigue (44%), and increased aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (34%). AEs resulting in discontinuation from treatment were most commonly hematologic AEs or elevation of ≥1 liver function test. Median follow-up is approximately 14.5 months, 10.3 months, and 2.5 months for patients with FL, recurrent DLBCL, and refractory 'aggressive9 lymphoma, respectively. The 1-year OS rate was 97% for FL and 77% for patients with recurrent DLBCL. Patients with FL (n=38) had an objective response rate (ORR) of 87%, with a median PFS of 23.6 months. Patients with relapsed DLBCL (n=40) had an ORR of 80%, with a median PFS of 15.1 months while in the rituximab-refractory pt arm (n=25) the response rate was much lower at 20%, with a median PFS of only 2 months. One year PFS was 84% for FL and 53% for recurrent DLBCL. The lower response rates and PFS in the refractory subgroup are consistent with the poor prognosis of patients with refractory 9aggressive9 lymphoma. PFS in DLBCL (either de novo or from transformed follicular) with 1-2 prior therapies based on time-to-tumor progression was also analyzed. DLBCL patients with a prior time to tumor progression of less than 1 year (n=19) had an ORR of 47% (21% CR/CRu), with a median PFS of 4.3 months while DLBCL patients with a prior time to tumor progression of greater than 1 year (n=28) had an ORR of 79% (50% CR/CRu) and a median PFS of 15.1 months. Conclusion: The combination of inotuzumab ozogamicin (CMC-544) plus rituximab has a safety profile similar to that previously reported for CMC-544 alone, with hematologic, gastrointestinal, and hepatic AEs being the main toxicities. The response rates and PFS results indicate promising efficacy in patients with recurrent/refractory FL and DLBCL, These results, particularly in patients with follicular lymphoma and recurrent DLBCL, support continued clinical development of this regimen. Disclosures: Dang:Wyeth Research: Consultancy; Genentech: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Biogen: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau. Smith:Millennium: Research Funding; Genentech: Research Funding; Wyeth Research: Consultancy, Research Funding. Johnson:Wyeth Research: Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees. Kaufman:Millenium: Consultancy; Genzyme: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Merck: Research Funding. Coiffier:Wyeth Research: Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau. Czuczman:Wyeth Research: Research Funding; Genentech: Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees; Biogen: Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees. Foran:Wyeth Research: Research Funding. Hua:Wyeth Research: Employment. Vandendries:Wyeth Research: Employment, Equity Ownership. Fayad:Wyeth Research: Consultancy, Research Funding.


Traditionally, the diagnosis in orthodontics gives a lot of importance to cephalometry and the analysis of the dental casts. The development of new technologies does not intend to discard traditional concepts, in fact, it intends to provide more information allowing a wider approach of our patients and resulting in a more thorough diagnosis. Introduction Adapting to new three-dimensional concepts is not an easy task and is even harder considering that the information is so vast that it can result overwhelming. That is why when evaluating a patient for orthodontic treatment, it is intended to use a systematic method so that we can obtain the most essential information that these methods provide. The method consists of the following: · Coronal, sagittal and axial general visualisation · Teeth and surrounding structures · Airways and paranasal sinuses · Soft tissues · Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) General visualisations To perform a general exploration, it is necessary to know the three anatomical planes: coronal plane, sagittal plane and axial plane. Coronal plane (Figs. 1 & 2) The coronal plane is located in the anterior part of the face, approximately parallel to the buccal surfaces of the anterior teeth. It divides the skull in two; anterior and posterior. Structures can be seen from back to front or front to back. Sagittal plane (Figs. 3 & 4) The sagittal plane divides the skull in two symmetrical parts. Has a transversal orientation allowing examining two segments: right and left. Axial plane (Figs. 5 & 6) The axial plane is parallel to the floor and the occlusal plane. It divides the skull in two equal parts: superior and inferior, allowing the view of structures from top to bottom and bottom to top. The overview of these three anatomical planes should give the specialist a complete exploration of the 3-D anatomy. The result is a deeper knowledge of the anatomy of the patient or, like in some cases, a number of findings that might result in the modification of our treatment plan. Teeth and surrounding bone structures For obvious reasons, one of the main areas to check is the dental zone. Images that allow to check the teeth that are present and the ones in process of eruption, if that is the case, should be generated. As well as the characteristics of the adjacent bone and even take some numeric references. Airways and paranasal sinuses Breathing is the foundation of life. CBCT scans offer a precise visual of the airways and surrounding craniofacial structures that influence them, such as the mandible, palate, paranasal sinuses, facial relations, adenoid Fig. 1: 3-D reconstruction inferior view. Fig. 4: Sagittal plane Fig. 5: 3-D reconstruction anterior view Fig. 6: Axial plane. Fig. 2: Coronal plane Fig. 3: 3-D reconstruction anterior view.


The high-speed railway has strict restrictions on the settlement of the roadbed, and the settlement value must not exceed 15mm. In the process of calculating the settlement of high-speed railway subgrade, the impact of soil creep should be considered. In the creep calculation, the calculation parameters should have practical physical meaning. Therefore, based on the UH model considering time effect, the secondary development of ABAQUS software is realized, and the finite element simplified model of the high-speed railway in a section near Qufu East Station is established. The creep settlement of the points on the surface of the natural roadbed under the high-speed railway is concave curve of distribution. With the change of time, the creep growth rate of each point becomes slower and slower, and the creep settling curve shows a tendency of gradual flattening.


For low-power wireless networks, it is important to survive interference to be usable for Industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT) applications. Distributed flooding protocols like Glossy or Chaos have shown that they can meet the expectations of surviving interference and node failures. However, non-distributed, centralized schedulers are favorable for IIoT but are not used yet in these environments. In this paper, we explore the use of centralized schedulers for low-power wireless networks to achieve robustness in data collection applications.


In the networking environment, there occurs a great change of interaction of libraries with users in aspects of open space, lime, and information delivery and sharing.


Attitudes towards science is an important construct of science learning. Therefore, the examination of students' attitudes towards studying science has been a substantive attribute of the work of the science education research community for the past decades and remains one of enduring focus (Osborne, Simon & Collins, 2003; Osborne, Simon & Tytler, 2009). Attitudinal and motivational constructs serve useful purposes in the science education program. Also, effective science instruction has the potential to improve attitudes toward science and heighten the motivation to learn science (Koballa & Glynn, 2007). An important reason for examining attitudinal and motivational constructs in science education is to understand the ways in which they affect student learning in cognitive arena. In fact, these constructs are moderators of a learner's conceptual change and may influence science learning in short term and over long periods of time (Pintrich, Marx, & Boyle, 1993). If the source of students' interest is a positive attitude to education, aroused curiosity, desire to acquire knowledge of something new or desire to be able to do something capably students are willing to undergo different cognitive activities (Zahorec, Ha kova & Bilek, 2014). Zacharia & Barton (2004), contend that across the domain of research covering student's attitudes towards science, four major attitude attributes appear to exist: attitudes are tenacious over time, attitudes are learned, attitudes and behavior are correlates, and attitude is a function of personal beliefs. Attitudes towards science can be described as students' emotional conception of science beliefs, values, and feelings (Newell, Tharp, Moreno, Zientek & Vogt, 2015; Osborne et al., 2003). Attitudes not only influence scientific views and desires for future careers, they can also influence attainment. Children with more positive attitudes towards science show raised attention to classroom instruction and participate more in science activities (Jarvis & Pell, 2005). Also, one important outcome of the attitudes research has been the demonstrated correlation between attitudes toward science and student eXploring the relationship BetWeen metaCognition and attitudes toWards sCienCe of senior seCondary students through a struCtural eQuation modeling analysis


Mathematical formula identification is an important part of mathematical formula recognition and retrieval. It is more difficult for extracting formulas from the document images in PDF files because of the diversity of their acquisition ways. To solve the problem, this paper designs a method of mathematical formula identification in English PDF document images, which includes three steps: judging columns, extracting mathematical formula character blocks, merging mathematical formula character blocks. Through analyzing and concluding characteristics of the document images in PDF files as well as its effects on mathematical formula identification, this paper designs a related parameter adjustment algorithm for avoiding influences on the performance of mathematical formula identification caused by the resolution variation. The experimental result shows that the adaptability of mathematical formula identification algorithm is improved by some applications.


The authors report a compressive cystic lesion of the central lumbar retrodural space, which was related to a bilateral L5 spondylolysis. Correlation is made with the contralateral opacification of the facet joints sometimes observed during contrast injection of these joints. Pathways and possible causes are discussed.


Sukuk is a form of Islamic investment instrument that is developing in Indonesia and various countries in the world. The superiority of Sukuk as a form of relatively safe investment makes sukuk accepted as an investment tool as well as funding for countries with a majority of Muslim and non-Muslim populations. The Indonesian government began to establish rules regarding sukuk since 2008 and continues to develop and innovate in sukuk transactions. Greetings and interest in investing in Indonesian sukuk are very good, both in the domestic and global markets. This can be seen from the oversubscription that occurs in Indonesian sukuk. Great interest in sukuk, especially in Indonesia shows that sukuk can provide good alternatives for investors and the country for funding needs in Indonesia's development.


Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) have been reported to be associated with cholangitis and might possibly be carcinogenic. However, few studies have been conducted to investigate the association of PPIs with cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). Thus, a hospital‐based case‐control study was carried out in China to explore the association between PPIs and CCA.


Aluminium electrolysis technology has developed rapidly,and the core technical and economic indexes also have made considerable ascension,such as the aluminium DC energy consumption.The lifespan of aluminium electrolysis cell has reached 3000 days of age.However,the risk of stoping production that the damaged electrdysis cell to leak accident to melt the cell busbar remains,this risk gives electrolysis bringing production hazard.This paper according to the actual producing gives the criterion of the aluminium cell's damaged to control of cell scientificly and effectively,and it can prevent cell leak accidents for electrolytic series providing the guarantee and smooth production.


IPv4 handovers are too slow for services having time constraints. The Mobile Node software should be tightly integrated, and the access network infrastructure should be designed to allow fast and smooth horizontal and vertical handovers.


Purpose – The aim of the article is to present and analyse the indicators used in measuring and assessing the population's standard of living. Research method – Formal and statistical analysis of the nature of indicators used in research on the standard of living; evaluation of the criteria for their selection. Results – Population's standard of living is a multitier and multi-disciplinary category. It covers phenomena pertaining to such fields as economy, education, culture, health protection, public safety, communication, and ecology. Research on the standard of living should necessarily rely on the indica-tors referring to all these areas; it should also endeavour to aggregate them within a single indicator that could be used in assessing the population's overall standard of living. If such research is to comply withscientific principles, the indicators used therein should have appropriate features, and their selectionmust be based on strictly defined criteria and procedures. The article discusses the characteristics of such indicators and estimates the criteria for their selection and aggregation. Originality /value /implications /recommendation – The article draws on the author's extensive experien-ce in research on the population's standard of living. It attempts at organizing the criteria and methodsof selecting the so-called partial indicators used in the current studies of the different areas of social life considered within the research on the population's standard of living, and at transforming them into a single aggregate indicator.


One of the more interesting events of the international scene in recent years was the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (cscE) whose Final Act was signed in Helsinki on I August 1975. The precise impact that this three-year learning experience will have on the future of all-European co-operation is difficult to analyse. Matters closely related to military security were removed from Basket One and will be negotiated separately in the M(B)FR talks and SALT II. But it is not entirely clear how the cooperation principles of Baskets Two and Three are to be implemented in the near future. Basket Two, with which this article is concerned, is devoted to 'Co-operation in the Field of Economics, of Science and Technology and of the Environment.' Its significance lies in the fact that it was the first attempt to work out in an all-European context both guidelines and concrete recommendations for co-operation in these areas of endeavour. Basket Two's contents appear to correspond to much of the work that the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) has been doing for the past thirty years. Thus an examination of the Commission's work may enable us to determine the extent to which states may be willing to translate into practice their declared foreign policy objectives in those areas of Basket Two where co-operation was agreed upon in the Helsinki document. An assessment of the present degree of political will for the


This brief introduces a practical sliding mode using state depended intermittent control strategy. Robust stabilization of the linear time-invariant system is achieved by rejecting the effect of matched and bounded input disturbances using the proposed state dependent intermittent sliding mode control (SDI-SMC). The system trajectories are driven to a predesigned practical sliding mode band by the proposed control to establish a practical sliding mode. The salient feature of the proposed control strategy is that the control is turned off whenever it is not necessary, which will result in a considerable saving in the control effort and other resources. The proposed SDI-SMC is simulated on the model of an industrial plant emulator and a detailed comparison is done with sliding mode control (SMC), event-triggered sliding mode control (ET-SMC) and adaptive sliding mode control (Adp-SMC).


Whereas the role of patents in cumulative innovation has been well established, little work has examined the impact that copyright policy may have on cumulative innovation in creative content industries. Utilizing U.S. federal court decisions that strengthened the breadth of copyright policy, this paper examines the implications of those decisions on the re-use of original content in the popular music industry, particularly hip-hop music. With a novel, self-collected data-set that tracks re-use through "digital sampling" in hip-hop music, I explore the impact that these federal copyright cases had on the production process of hip-hop music through changes in sampling practices. I find that digital sampling, wherein new musical works are created in part from existing sound recordings, significantly decreased following a 1991 decision that effectively strengthened rights for the original rights holder and restricted downstream re-use. Additionally, this policy change affected the creativity of new works by limiting the diversity of music that is re-used in new products. I also find that this effect on sampling was greatest in magnitude for the most prominent artists.


The $k$-power domination problem is a problem in graph theory, which has applications in many areas. However, it is hard to calculate the exact $k$-power domination number since determining k-power domination number of a generic graph is a NP-complete problem. We determine the exact $k$-power domination number in two graphs which have the same number of vertices and edges: pseudofractal scale-free web and Sierpi\'nski gasket. The $k$-power domination number becomes 1 for $k\ge2$ in the Sierpi\'nski gasket, while the $k$-power domination number increases at an exponential rate with regard to the number of vertices in the pseudofractal scale-free web. The scale-free property may account for the difference in the behavior of two graphs.


Through the integration of research into the undergraduate electrical and computer engineering curriculum, students are invited to think abstractly and to stimulate their innate creativity. This paper discusses some of the successes and challenges involved in introducing undergraduate students to the joys and frustrations of signal and image processing research. Experiences are described from work supported in part by National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant number MIP-9624849, entitled "A Career Plan for the Integration of Image Processing Education and Research." Research-based projects were included in several required and elective courses taught by the principal investigator, including Computer Aided Measurement and Controls; Communications Engineering; Digital Image Processing; Discrete Real-Time Filtering; Capstone Senior Design; and Independent Study. Some of the projects attempted by the students included a hybrid Discrete Cosine/Wavelet Transform for still image coding; the super-resolution enhancement of image sequence frames and multiple camera images; multispectral image segmentation via vector quantization; the subband decomposition of digital audio; the automated recognition of musical notes captured by a microphone connected to a sound card; the development of a desktop videoconferencing system for distance learning; and the design of a telerobotic rover controlled via the World Wide Web. All design and research-related projects required considerable supervision by the instructor, and obviously some projects were more successful than others. Regardless, the students enjoyed studying problems that were not necessarily well-defined, and in all cases they learned a great deal about the process of research and development. Brief descriptions of the projects are provided, along with comments from student evaluations. The instructor provides a reflection on these experiences, both favorable and unfavorable.


Person images captured by surveillance cameras are often occluded by various obstacles, which lead to defective feature representation and harm person re-identification (Re-ID) performance. To tackle this challenge, we propose to reconstruct the feature representation of occluded parts by fully exploiting the information of its neighborhood in a gallery image set. Specifically, we first introduce a visible part-based feature by body mask for each person image. Then we identify its neighboring samples using the visible features and reconstruct the representation of the full body by an outlier-removable graph neural network with all the neighboring samples as input. Extensive experiments show that the proposed approach obtains significant improvements. In the large-scale Occluded-DukeMTMC benchmark, our approach achieves 64.2% mAP and 67.6% rank-1 accuracy which outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches by large margins, i.e.,20.4% and 12.5%, respectively, indicating the effectiveness of our method on occluded Re-ID problem.


Magnetic resonance imaging has been applied only recently to the study of Arabic speech production. Arabic has a relatively large number of sounds produced with constrictions in the pharynx, a part of the vocal anatomy well-suited to investigation using MRI. We show that static 3D MRI techniques can be useful in distinguishing the pharyngeal sounds of Arabic and that average pixel intensity in MR images can be used to track pharyngeal articulations as a function of time.


Conceptual designs have been made for two types of multipole corrector magnets for use in TRIUMF's proposed KAON Booster ring which operates at 50 Hz. The lack of space in the synchrotron lattice makes it attractive to combine dipole, quadrupole and sextupole correctors in the same yoke structure. A conventional constant current density winding design is compared with an alternative magnet with twelve poles and windings distributed in slots and at the pole faces. The problem of induced voltages in the windings is discussed.<<ETX>>


A sophisticated integrated formula for IOL power prediction is the featured capability in upgrades to Clarity Medical Systems' intraoperative wavefront aberrometer.


This conference edition explores the posthumous fortunes of scientific and medical archives in early modern Britain. If early modern natural philosophers claimed all knowledge as their province, theirs was a paper empire. In a series of essays, this book explores how did these (often) disorderly collections of paper come to be 'the archives of the Scientific Revolution.'

Inspired by calls for the wholesale reform of natural philosophy and schooled in humanist note-taking practices, early naturalists generated correspondence, reading notes, experimental and observational reports, and drafts of treatises intended for circulation in manuscript or further replication in print. In our own day, naturalists' materials, in archives, libraries, and (occasionally) private hands, are now the foundation of a history of science that has taken a material turn towards paper, ink, pen, and filing systems as technologies of communication, information management, and knowledge production. But the posthumous fates of archives, though key to understanding their survival as historical sources and their past uses as scientific sources, have been less often explored.

This work analyses how did (often) disorderly collections of paper come to be 'the archives of the Scientific Revolution'? To what extent did the histories unearthed serve as an index of the cultural position of scientific activity since the early modern period? Exploring the posthumous scientific and medical archive also lets us consider the genealogies of scientific influence, and the creation and management of scientific genius as a posthumous project. Scientific activity, then, as now, is a collective endeavour in which scribes, archives and library keepers, editors, digital humanists and naturalists' surviving friends and family members had a stake.


The article approaches the issue of pedestrian interactions in the public space of Bogotá, which are difficult due to various problems in the city. The theoretical framework of the article are two recurring concepts in the performing arts: the proxemics and the kinetic. The methodology is of qualitative type, and is based on the description of the phenomena and the object of study, to conclude with interpretive or hermeneutic exegesis processes. The results are presented in three sections: public space; body expression and urban interactions. It is concluded that the technique of body expression can contribute to the improvement of urbanites' interactions in the urbs public space.


This is a digest of definitions and results from the minicourse, along with a collection of exercises. Discussion is incomplete to nonexistent, but I hope that the digest will still be useful as a reference. Later I will flesh out these notes into a proper survey paper. A rough plan for the lectures: • Lecture 1: Legendrian contact homology and augmentations (section 1) • Lecture 2: The conormal construction and the combinatorial definition of knot contact homology (section 2) • Lecture 3: The cord algebra and the augmentation polynomial (sections 3 and 4) • Lecture 4: Transverse homology (section 5) and overflow from previous lectures • Lecture 5 (given by Tobias Ekholm): Augmentations and open Gromov– Witten invariants in the resolved conifold (very brief mention in section 4) • Discussion (run by Chris Cornwell): Exercises (section 6) and accumulated questions.


This chapter addresses the role our moral preferences play in our choices. Specifically, what is the relation between economics and moral science? At first sight, there seems to be a sharp contrast between the way human beings make moral choices and the way in which homo oeconomicus makes individual choices. The former is meant to be made from behind the veil of ignorance or with the objectivity of impartial spectator and is subject to contestation, whereas the latter is a person's personal preference and not a matter of contestation. However, there are connections between ethical preferences behind the veil of ignorance and personal preferences. The chapter then shows how our ethical preferences can affect our personal preferences and choices. By this intertwining of ethical and personal choices, it focuses on some of the earliest concerns of economics and tries to rehabilitate economics as a moral science.


geography are clear. Reps's treatment of urban development is too episodic, his focus is too place specific. Detail is not sufficiently subordinated to general themes; fact reigns over interpretation. Despite his effort and achievements, the author's preoccupation with the founding, form, and design of towns has blunted both the interpretive excitement and analytical insight that such a study, differently em phasized, might have had.


The Bolund project is a combined measurement and modeling project related to wind conditions in complex terrain. An isolated steep hill, Bolund, at Roskilde Fjord will be equipped with nine measurement masts with conventional meteorological instruments and remote sensing Lidars at several positions for obtaining detailed information of mean wind, wind shear, turbulence intensities etc. The data will be gathered in a database for validating advanced non-linear flow models using CFD tools. The paper will present details of the measurement campaign, with examples of the obtained data together with CFD results using the Risø/DTU flow solver EllipSys3D. Numerous numerical codes for the calculation of flow and turbulence over complex terrain exist; from the fast-running linearized Jackson-Hunt type models to many sophisticated non-linear models: RANS, DES, LES, etc. Common for all these are that they use the famous Askervein experiment for verification. This experiment took place a quarter of a century ago with limited instruments and data acquisition capabilities. Furthermore, the Askervein hill was nearly Gaussian with not too steep slopes, which is not too challenging for the numerical codes. The ambitious goal of the Bolund experiment is to measure the flow in great detail over a very steep terrain and provide for the community a comprehensive database of mean flow and turbulence statistics to be compared with any atmospheric flow model available. The purpose of the Bolund project is to develop reliable methods for determining local wind conditions in complex terrains based on remote sensing techniques (Lidar) as well as conventional meteorological instruments in combination with advanced flow computations. A detailed measurement campaign will be carried out on a characteristic hill at Roskilde Fjord, Bolund, which has several of the relevant properties that characterizes


Clonal plasma cells (PC) from different types of monoclonal gammopathies (MG) display distinct phenotypes consistent with an increased antigen‐presentation and T‐cell costimulation in MG of undetermined significance that deteriorates in malignant conditions. Expression of other cell surface and soluble molecules (e.g. adhesion/proliferation molecules) involved in the interaction between clonal PC and the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment has also been related to malignant PC, although the exact clinical significance of their expression remains largely unknown. Analysis of cell surface levels of several of these molecules in multiple myeloma (MM) patients shows an association between lower expression on BMPC of the HLA‐I and β2‐microglobulin antigen‐presenting molecules, the CD126 and CD130 IL6 receptor (IL6R) chains, and CD38, and adverse prognostic features of the disease. Likewise, patients showing higher soluble levels of antigen‐presenting molecules (HLA‐I and β2‐microglobulin), IL6R and CD95 tended to be associated with more aggressive disease behavior. In contrast, CD40, CD86, CD56, CD19, and CD45 were not associated with patients' outcome. Interestingly, upon considering the ratio between the soluble and PC membrane expression of each molecule, an increased adverse prognostic impact was observed for both HLA‐I and β2‐microglobulin, but not for the other molecules. Multivariate analysis confirmed the independent prognostic value of cell surface expression of CD126 on BMPC together with serum β2‐microglobulin and LDH. In summary, our results show an abnormal distribution of the cellular and soluble compartments of the HLA‐I, IL6R, and to a lower extent, CD95 molecules, in MM, associated with the clinical characteristics and behavior of the disease. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The authors use the algorithm developed by Lanczos to compute photoabsorption by large spectral arrays in hot plasmas. The basis set upon which the Lanczos algorithm rests is given by the self-consistent {open_quotes}average atom{close_quotes} (AA) wave functions of the plasma ions. The algorithm utilizes the second quantization formalism, which requires the computation of all the relevant Slater integrals and integrals of one-particle operators. The authors apply the method for argon plasma of temperature kT = 8.8 eV and of density 1.6x10{sup {minus}2}g/cc, a condition which is attainable by shock compression. Details of the theory and computational results will be presented.


Nowadays, high capacity storage system serves as the basic and key means for multiple applications on mobile embedded system. For high capacity, obviously, microdrive is the best choice. But excessive power consumption is a major barrier to the acceptance of hard disks in mobile embedded system. In this paper, a new hierarchical file system is introduced, which is power-efficient and overcomes capacity-limit.Copyright © 2005 by ASME


The method associated with the conveyor (10) for changing the conveying direction of a plurality of articles conveyed close along the conveyor (40). This conveyor comprises a conveyor belt having a plurality of rollers with respect to the belt running direction (14) which is oriented such that rotation about the axis (26) which are oblique (24). Bearing surface elements forming a set of columns (32) is over the end from the end along the conveyor. These bearing surfaces are or not move, or is adapted to rotate. Each row constitutes a roller control area, each row in this region is, or operates at the bearing surface elements in contact with the belt roller (24), or its bearing no contact with the belt rollers It becomes inoperative at the surface element. When the belt passes through the roller control area of the operating state, the belt roller, forces the rotation to transport articles to one lateral side of the belt. Or continuous roller control area is in operation sequentially, or an article such becomes inoperative pushes to one lateral side of the belt, or extruded from the belt, or, proceed directly to straighten articles such make. .FIELD 1A


A new series of mono and binuclear copper(II) complexes, [CuL1-3] and [Cu2L1-3]+, where, L = precursor complex prepared from condensation of salicylaldehyde, pyridine and various amines namely ethylene, propylene and butylene diamines with copper(II) perchlorate. All the complexes have been synthesized and characterized by FT IR, UV-Vis spectral and electrochemical methods. Cyclic voltammogramms of mono and binuclear copper(II) complexes exhibit one single and two quasi-reversible reduction waves in the cathodic region (0 to 1.5 V) respectively. Electrochemical changes in the presence calf thymus DNA (CTDNA) with these complexes were also studied over this cathodic potential range (0 to 1.5 V). DNA binding properties of the complexes were studied by UV-Visible and fluorescence spectral methods. All the complexes show good binding propensity to CT DNA. The binding constant data suggest a DNA intercalative binding nature of the complexes. DNA cleavages of all these complexes were studied by gel electrophoresis method. All the complexes show efficient hydrolytic cleavage of supercoiled pBR322-DNA.


-The electrical conductance of hydrogen chloride solutions in DMSO at 25°C has been studied. The limiting molar conductance. is 38.7 int mho cma/mol. Conductivity data were interpreted with the Fuoss' theory for associated l-1 type electrolytes. The association constant related to pair formation is 115.7 l/mol. The mechanism of electrical conduction of HCI in DMSO at infinite dilution resembles that of other l-l type electrolytes in the same solvent, in which charges are transported by simple entities in a viscous continuum.


Dynamic Injection MNOS (DIMNOS) memory devices feature high-speed writing, 5-V drain voltage, and MNOS backup one-transistor-type dynamic RAM's. They are written on MNOS, like conventional one-transistor-type dynamic RAM's, when high writing voltage is applied to the MNOS gate. In experiments with DIMNOS, the threshold-voltage shift (\Delta V_{th}) of MNOS in the writing mode does not depend very much on temperature;\Delta V_{th}in the write-inhibited mode depends hardly at all on temperature; and\Delta V_{th}in the write-inhibited mode decreases under the condition that the product of the number of attempts and pulsewidth is constant when he pulsewidth is longer than 10-4s. The proposed model in the write-inhibited mode means that weak avalanche occurs due to field concentration between the control transistor and MNOS memory region. As a result, hot electrons are injected between the ultrathin SiO2and Si3N4films of MNOS. This model is supported by the above mentioned experimental results in the write-inhibited mode.


The first mixed problem for a nonlinear equation is considered in the quarter plane. The Cauchy conditions are set at the bottom of the boundary. The Dirichlet condition is set on the left part of the boundary. The solution is constructed using the method of characteristics in an implicit analytical form as a solution of the integral equation. The solvability of these integral equations, the smoothness of the solutions, and their dependence on the initial data are investigated. The uniqueness is proved and the conditions are established, under which there exists a piecewise smooth and classical solution of the first mixed problem.


The invention is a welding method for manufacturing hollow stationary vanes of a steam turbine. According to the method, the prior welding equipment is used for manufacturing high-quality hollow vanes, the technical requirements for operators are not high, the operators are only required to acquire the qualification of welding procedure, the production cost is low, the method is easy to popularize domestically, and other brands of hollow vanes with various section shapes can be produced. The method is characterized in that welding is performed by the following steps: performing spot welding to a leading edge and an exit edge alternately; performing backing welding to the exit edge and the leading edge alternately; and performing full welding to the exit edge and the leading edge.


The government's statistical system regularly publishes data on the important economic and social issues that concern the American people. We read about the releases almost every day in the morning newspaper, and we hear an explanation of the latest phenomenon on the nightly TV news. But Americans are not a statistically literate people, and they often do not understand the strengths and weaknesses of official statistical series. People have strong views about the public policy issues they face and all too often become impatient with the delay that comes with the need to define and understand them. The United States is a country that likes the "quick fix"-that wants to solve the current problem and hurry on to the next one. We believe that policymakers-and the public itself-should be well informed because we want the facts that inform decisionmakers to form the basis of a rational, deliberate policy choice. To do that, we need to have information that is theoretically sound and consistent with the concepts the public understands. We have learned that we cannot have a democratic system of government without an accurate and objective system of data that reflect the values and the judgments that are acceptable to our population. In Plato's Republic, Socrates pointed out that "measuring and numbering ... give us most welcome help.... They keep our souls from being overruled by what seems greater or less and hand over the control to what has been numbered, measured, or even weighed. And this is the work of the reasoning and best part


The Boeing‐Saab built T‐7A Red Hawk advanced trainer aircraft being built for the United States Air Force represents a systems engineering breakthrough because it was developed through a digital effort. This aircraft will replace the aging T‐38 Talon fleet, providing increased capability and safety for future pilot trainees. Its creation was indubitably the result of persistent systems engineering efforts and a dedication to digital development. This study analyzed how Boeing engineers created their own version of the systems engineering vee process model to advance the design process of the T‐7A physically and digitally. Their "Boeing Diamond" process methodology of top‐down system design utilized a digital engineering process and modern computer techniques. They emphasized the importance of maintainability to expand lifecycle utilization and lower system costs. Based on a literature review of the T‐7A Red Hawk and other aircraft, a comparison was drawn between the Boeing Diamond systems engineering design processes and the vee model to determine which could provide greater benefits. Through analysis, this study demonstrated that the T‐7A processes used encouraged engineers to adapt to the digital world. The study results indicated that the Boeing Diamond process for modeling and digital design supported an efficient approach to the development of the T‐7A Red Hawk and is applicable to other major weapon systems or capital equipment. This research recommends further study of the Boeing Diamond model and incorporation of its elements into traditional systems engineering models and other organizations.


Process control simulation package 'PCS' 'PCS' is a simulation package which will run on the BBC microcomputer. It simulates the behaviour of a simple plant with a three-term controller. Both transient and frequency response plots can be obtained. The effects of varying transport delay, control effort limiting and other practical aspects can be investigated.


Abstract In the past decade, several states have introduced comprehensive sexuality education standards for public schools, but the impact is unknown because mechanisms to monitor adherence and improve quality have been lacking. In this study, we pilot-tested an approach for high school students to assess sexuality education standards mandated by the California Healthy Youth Act. We introduced a 15-minute online survey administered at the conclusion of sexuality education instruction. Results from thirteen Los Angeles high schools indicated that the approach was acceptable, feasible, and valid. It provided actionable data about which standards were being followed and whether the classroom environment was conducive to learning.


Geological structure model is built through different classes active faults that are determined by the method of geologic dynamic zoning. The tectonic stress in rock mass is calculated by the software "ANSYS", and a conclusion is drawn that the tectonic stress zone formed by the fault "Ⅲ-12" controls coal gas burst in the No 10 Mine. Furthermore, it is predicted where coal gas burst can happen in the future.


Dynamic compaction used as a soil improvement method for treatment of filled material in sea in Assalouyeh, Iran. Land reclamation by filling soil performed up to depth 14m and dynamic compaction used for reduction of liquefaction potential and the settlements due to static loadings. The compaction pattern and the other parameters like applied energy, compaction phases and rest periods designed in term of the characteristics of the soil to be treated and filling material deep. Final compaction pattern revised according to the results of the compaction on trial areas. Extensive trial compactions performed to optimize the compaction process with respect to the required energy for achieving specified densification criterion. Dynamic compaction carried out in two and three passes. Using 16 patterns (combination of weight of pounder, falling height and the arrangement of the impact points) the 90 hectares area improved in 12 months. For testing of efficiency of dynamic compaction geotechnical site investigation tests performed before and after compaction. The desired tests were measurement of induced settlement, boring and Standard Penetration test, Plate load test and Field density test. The results of tests showed that the dynamic compaction was useful to increase bearing capacity up to 3 kg/cm 2 for shallow foundations and reduced mostly liquefaction potential.


It has recently been proposed that extracellular signal‐regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) are one of the factors mediating seizure development. We hypothesized that inhibition of ERK1/2 activity could prevent audiogenic seizures by altering GABA and glutamate release mechanisms. Krushinsky–Molodkina rats, genetically prone to audiogenic seizure, were recruited in the experiments. Animals were i.p. injected with an inhibitor of ERK1/2 SL 327 at different doses 60 min before audio stimulation. We demonstrated for the first time that inhibition of ERK1/2 activity by SL 327 injections prevented seizure behavior and this effect was dose‐dependent and correlated with ERK1/2 activity. The obtained data also demonstrated unchanged levels of GABA production, and an increase in the level of vesicular glutamate transporter 2. The study of exocytosis protein expression showed that SL 327 treatment leads to downregulation of vesicle‐associated membrane protein 2 and synapsin I, and accumulation of synaptosomal‐associated protein 25 (SNAP‐25). The obtained data indicate that the inhibition of ERK1/2 blocks seizure behavior presumably by altering the exocytosis machinery, and identifies ERK1/2 as a potential target for the development of new strategies for seizure treatment.


Several genetic manipulation techniques are being actively investigated in a number of fish species. Induced triploidy can be a useful method of generat ing sterile individuals. Homozygous diploid individuals can be generated and used to rapidly generate homozygous inbred lines. Both induced triploidy and induction of homozygous diploids do not appear to be possible in mammals. Gene transfer technology is just beginning to be developed for fish; it may have a number of valuable applications. Gene banking faces some difficulties in fish that are not present in mammals. Fish egg and embryo cryopreservation has not yet been successful, and new methods may need to be developed to reconstitute fish strains from cryopreserved sperm or embryonic cells.


The Salatiga City Youth and Sports Office is a government agency engaged in Youth, Scouting, and Sports. Information systems and information technology (SI / IT) greatly influence the success of an organization in achieving its goals. Currently, the Salatiga City Youth and Sports Office in implementing SI / IT is still not optimal, therefore this research is about the strategic design of information systems using the ward and peppard method. The ward and peppard method consist of SWOT analysis, Value Chain Analysis, PEST Analysis, McFarlan Analysis, and Five Force Model Analysis. The results of this study are recommendations for a portfolio of information systems, namely the Sports Building Lending Information System, the Activity Report Filing Information System, the Athlete Information System, and the Youth Information System. The information system implementation plan will be carried out within the next 4 years.


This quantitative study examined the perceptions of selected university administrators and legislators concerning levels of support for Tennessee public higher education. The purpose of the study was to gain a greater understanding among the various constituents as to the needs and restraints facing higher education funding. The population targeted for this study was comprised of 132 members of the Tennessee General Assembly, the Executive Director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC), the Chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR), the President of the University of Tennessee System, and 36 Chief Administrators at nine state-supported universities. The principal investigator used a web-based survey development company to design, collect, and store survey responses. Analysis of the data revealed that legislators and higher education administrators in the State of Tennessee perceived funding for higher education differently. There were significant differences between the two groups concerning: use of higher education reserves during weak economic times, the explanation for tuition rises, how much costs students should incur for higher education, level importance placed on state appropriations for funding higher education, and how they perceived priority of higher education in the state budget. There was a significant difference between one's political party affiliation and their perception of access to higher education being an issue. A significant difference was also found between one's education level and ranking of higher education in the state budget. Deidre L. Yowell & Donald W. Good Support for Higher Education: Perceptions of Selected University Administrators and Legislators in Tennessee 20 Journal of Academic Administration in Higher Education 21 Spring 2014 (Volume 10 Issue 1) understand the perceptions of legislators with regard to public higher education funding.


There is a growing interest in organizational interventions (OI) aiming to increase employees' well-being. An OI involves changes in the way work is designed, organized, and managed. Studies have shown that an OI's positive results are increased if there is a good fit between context and intervention and between participant and intervention. In this article, we propose that a third fit—the Relational Fit (R-Fit)—also plays an important role in determining an intervention's outcome. The R-Fit consists of factors related to (1) the employees participating in the OI, (2) the intervention facilitator, and (3) the quality of the relation between participants and the intervention facilitator. The concept of the R-Fit is inspired by research in psychotherapy documenting that participant factors, therapist factors, and the quality of the relations explain 40% of the effect of an intervention. We call attention to the importance of systematically evaluating and improving the R-Fit in OIs. This is important to enhance the positive outcomes in OIs and thereby increase both the well-being and productivity of employees. We introduce concrete measures that can be used to study and evaluate the R-Fit. This article is the first to combine knowledge from research in psychotherapy with research on OIs.


Perhaps one of Europe's more remarkable achievements has been the creation of a flourishing bourgeois civilization that has never been free from the most penetrating bourgeois criticism. "Épater le bourgeois" was a great pastime of the last century and the sport still seems to be alive. Ibsen's Pillars of Society, published in 1877, was a radical analysis of the moral pretensions and the moral burden of bourgeois society. The pillars of that society were rotten; the life of the protagonist was a lie violating his own nature and that of his fellowmen. It is as if Ibsen had written a dramatic commentary on the Communist Manifesto without indulging in the comforting hope that a social revolution would create a new man in a newly virtuous society. In the play, salvation came through an improbable act of contrition and self-purgation; at his most revolutionary, Ibsen thought that the feminine slamming of doors sufficed for human improvement.


An asymptotically stabilizing non-linear feedback law is presented for rigid body (spacecraft) attitude regulation. The control law takes the form of a linear combination of non-linear functions of attitude and of angular momentum, each function being positively homogeneous of degree r>0.


Abstract This article reveals the hold that German history and constitutionalism had on Indian federalists in the interwar period. A range of federalists from Indian princely states and British provinces, eager to see India become a federation rather than a unitary state fashioned on the English model, looked to Imperial Germany for constitutional lessons. They saw in German history and constitutionalism a federal solution to the so-called "Indian problem," wherein the rights of the states would be primary over those of individuals or groups. This German-inspired federal tradition, I argue, departed not only from political pluralism and association-based federalism, but also from the nationalist vision of placing individual rights over state rights. This article presents an alternative genealogy of comparative constitutional thought in India, and examines a post-national worldview that sidestepped the nation-states. By bringing a comparative approach to bear on political and constitutional histories, it escapes the national insularity that often characterizes such histories in colonial India, and places them in the comparative and global context of the interwar circulation of federalist ideas. German-inspired federal ideas of the period offer a counterpoint to corralling futuristic visions of India, and its founding, on the twin axes of anticolonial nationalism and popular sovereignty to the exclusion of state-centric ideas articulated by the princely states.


There is a new option for the policy of current interest rate in China. The paper provides a new approach to systematic construction of interest rate in China, the determination of current interest rate, and the effects of the 8th reduction of interest rate. It points out that the year 2002 is a key year for China to launch marketization of interest rate, contain the bouncing back of deflation, and promote economic increase thus we should take good control of comprehensive effects of any policy so as to prevent the danger in losing the important turning of Chinese economy and realize the transformation of Chinese economy from a promising opportunity to a complete switch.


Interest in biological responses to particulate biomaterials has produced a need for well-characterized submicron ultra high molecular weight poly(ethylene) (UHMWPE) debris. A new technique, cryogenic attrition, is described as well as a characterization of an initial ca. 65% submicron preparation of UHMWPE, termed grind S. Production of submicron particles from a common commercial medical grade of primary UHMWPE "grain" produces fractions with different densities, apparently reflecting the presence of crystalline and amorphous phases. Further process optimization and debris characterization is planned with eventual distribution of material as an interlaboratory comparison material for biological response experiments.


The utility model relates to a device capable of ensuring passengers to get on or take off in the case of arrival of a train without stopping, which comprises a main train running on main rails and an auxiliary train running on auxiliary rails when the passengers get on or take off. The main train and the auxiliary train are provided with butting devices capable of ensuring the main train and the auxiliary train to be butted mutually and passenger inlet and outlet devices. The device has the beneficial effects that the station dwell waiting time is shortened; the additionally consumed time that the train reduces speed and starts to accelerate relative to the time that the train runs at a uniform speed is reduced; the effect of saving the total operating time is obvious; and a method is suitable for various passenger trains, such as the common train, a motor train unit and the like. Moreover, the main train has high power and large load and consumes a great amount of energy sources in the process of reducing speed and starting to accelerate; and the auxiliary train has low power and light load and gets on or takes off the main train with the passengers so as to replace the process that the main train reduces the speed and starts to accelerate, thereby obviously reducing the energy consumption.


A method is proposed in this paper for focusing two dimensional (2D) missing SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) raw data. A phase compensation function is presented to match the two dimensional missing raw data in time domain in order to acquire sparser data in two dimensional frequency domain. After phase compensation in time domain, the 2D missing data is able to be reconstructed in 2D frequency domain with greedy method. Afterwards, the reconstructed SAR data is capable of being imaged via traditional SAR imaging algorithms. Real SAR data is utilized to verify the validity of the proposed method.


A carbon tetrachloride sensor is presented that is based on a novel approach that involves quenching of the fluorescence emission from the second excited state (So $IMP S2 transition) of a dye, congo red, and an air purge mechanism. The Stern-Volmer plot for the sensor response towards carbon tetrachloride in air is linear over the investigated concentration range, 0 - 5 mM, with a Ksv value of 84.85 M-1. The detection limit was found to be 47 (mu) M CCl4 in air. It is suggested that the operating fluorescence quenching process is diffusion controlled and collisional in nature. The sensor is fully reversible with an analytical response time < 25 s and recovery time < 2 s. The environmental applications of this sensor that is capable of providing a reference signal, while in-situ, are discussed.


Vulnerability is an essential principle in European bioethics, given that it precedes and has priority over other principles. This principle, stated in the Barcelona Declaration, is also specified in the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. This broadens its horizon from a European to a universal level. For these reasons, we need to take time to carefully consider its meaning. For this task, this article offers a summary of the key questions and presents the DNA of vulnerability in eight contexts: cultural, social, institutional, anthropological, emotional, relational, biographical and professional.


Intraosseous mandibular lipoma (IML) is a rare benign tumour and is infrequently associated with unerupted teeth. This report describes an IML associated with an unerupted impacted mandibular wisdom tooth.


Paclitaxel (TAX) amount remaining to be absorbed from the intestine in the in situ closed loop, re-circulating absorption samples were estimated by the 3D view LC-diode array method. The Log ARA versus time graph (r2) of TAX loaded nanoparticles (NP)s explains that there is exponential disappearance of TAX from the intestine, which indicates TAX NPs follows first order absorption kinetic. The calculated Ka and t1/2 of TAX and TAX loaded NPs were 0.9, 1.02, 1.38, and 1.74/min and 46.20, 40.66, 30.09, and 23.88 min, respectively, shows the rapid absorption of TAX NPs from the intestine than the pure drug TAX. The 3D view chromatogram, counter view graph, UV, and IR spectrum of the degradation samples confirms the selectivity and specificity of the developed method. The peak purity curve of all the samples shows that the similarity curve did not intersect the threshold curve and the rectangular ratiograms, in addition, demonstrates the selectivity and specificity nature of the 3D view LC-method. The accuracy of the developed methods was tested by placebo spiking and standard addition method. The LOD and LLOQ of the methods 0.39 µg mL,−1 1.18 µg mL−1 and 2.96 ng mL,−1 8.96 ng mL−1 respectively.


The present invention relates to an actuator, said actuator comprising a cylinder, two end caps, a piston, a guide groove, the hollow shaft, and a torsion bar connected to the outside of the rotary hub, whereby depending on the actuator shaft the linear travel direction, any linear movement of the actuator shaft will result in proportional to the rotation clockwise or counterclockwise to the outside of the hub portion.


In this paper, we introduce a new class of nonlocal multipoint-integral boundary conditions with respect to the sum and difference of the governing functions and analyze a coupled system of nonlinear Caputo fractional differential equations equipped with these conditions. The existence and uniqueness results for the given problem are proved via the tools of the fixed point theory. We also discuss the case of nonlinear Riemann-Liouville integral boundary conditions. The obtained results are well-illustrated with examples.


The most important factor for the professional development of a teacher is his or her ability to carry out the reflection on different levels. This ability can be also developed with the help of web-sites. The tasks of the research for this paper is to analyze modern information and telecommunication means that have been introduced into the work of teachers, and to observe the progressive technologies in teaching that require new approaches to organization of the educational process and its realization in the modern conditions. The authors of the paper underline that the methods of students'' work with educational Internet-resources can be divided into separate stages: studying and understanding of the contents; doing tests in all thematic branches that the teacher has planned; preparation for the work with interactive telecommunication resources that require active and creative participation of the student; doing individual tasks of the teacher; doing practical exercises (an e-seminar, a game, training) in real or delayed time; participation in extracurricular activities.


Fifteen officially graded samples of frosted wheat were collected from each of grades No. 3 Northern to No. 6, for 1930, 1931, 1932 and 1933, and 20 samples from each of these grades in 1934 and 1935. Physical classification of the kernels in each sample showed that the present system of grading is efficiently applied. While this system usually gives grades of frosted wheat, the averages of which fall in the right order with respect to combined milling and baking quality, it fails to give close indication of the baking quality, particularly of individual samples.A statistical examination of the relation between quality characteristics and grading factors showed that milling quality is closely related to the percentages of immature and heavily frosted kernels and also to the weight per measured bushel. Baking quality is not closely related to any of the grading factors now in use. Protein content is the best single index of baking quality, and the relation is improved if the percentages of immature and hea...


Abstract Objectives The relative immaturity of the infant digestive system after birth has the potential to affect the bioaccessibility of dietary lipids, proteins and their digested product. The in vitro digestion of lipids and protein in bovine milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) ingredient and infant formula without and with MFGM ingredient (bovine source), as well as the partitioning of non-digested and products of digestion in bioaccessible fraction of chyme were measured. Conditions that simulate those in the stomach and small intestine of infants were used. Methods MFGM ingredient and whey/casein-based infant formula with and without 6%MFGM ingredient were digested using static, two-phase in vitro digestion model with conditions simulating those in the infant gut. Digestion and bioaccessibility of lipids were monitored by measuring a wide lipid profile using direct infusion-mass spectrometry (DI-MS/MS). Digestion of proteins were determined by denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, with quantitative imaging of all blue stained bands. Results Cholesterol esters, diacylglycerides, triacylglycerides, phosphatidylcholines, and phosphatidylethanolamines in the MFGM ingredients were readily hydrolyzed resulting in marked increases in the amounts of free fatty acids and lyso-phospholipids in the bioaccessible fraction of chyme. In contrast, sphingomyelins, ceramides and GM3 gangliosides were relatively resistant to digestion. Protein in MFGM ingredient and infant formula without and with added MFGM ingredient also were efficiently digested. Conclusions The results suggest proteins, neutral lipids and phospholipids in MFGM are efficiently digested using conditions that simulate those in the prandial lumen of the stomach and small intestine of infants. Also, the profile of lipid and protein digestion is similar for whey/casein-based infant formula without and with MFGM ingredient using conditions that simulate those in the infant gut. Funding Sources Ohio State Agriculture Research and Development Center, the JT Parker Endowment and Reckitt Nutrition Institute.


Image registration is a challenging task in the world of medical imaging. Particularly, accurate edge registration plays a central role in a variety of clinical conditions. The Modality Independent Neighbourhood Descriptor (MIND) demonstrates state of the art alignment, based on the image self-similarity. However, this method appears to be less accurate regarding edge registration. In this work, we propose a new registration method, incorporating gradient intensity and MIND self-similarity metric. Experimental results show the superiority of this method in edge registration tasks, while preserving the original MIND performance for other image features and textures.


This special issue of Religions of South Asia is born out of this expanding area of study and collaboration between contemporary practitioners and established academic methods of study. Most of the articles in this volume were first presented at an international 'Yoga Darśana, Yoga Sādhana' conference hosted in Krakow, Poland in May 2016. The Krakow conference was initiated by Matylda Ciolkosz and Robert Czyzykowski of the Institute for the Study of Religions, Jagiellonian University and was co-sponsored by the Modern Yoga Research network established by Elizabeth de Michelis, with the help of Mark Singleton and Suzanne Newcombe.


A novel model for slowly varying shadowed fading channel based on Markov chain theory is proposed. It not only leads to accurate first-order statistical description of the composite process but also captures the memory effect of the channel. Following a hierarchical approach, the shadowing/fading process is modeled as a nested Markov chain, where the macrostate variation is assumed to be caused by the shadowing process while microstate transitions is initialized by the fading effect with macrostate-dependent transition probabilities. As an illustration of the mathematical formalism, some simulation results are provided and discussed.


Digital technologies have significantly transformed the fields of accounting and finance, revolutionizing traditional practices and shaping new avenues for research and professional development. This research conducts a comprehensive bibliometric analysis to uncover the transformative impact of digital technologies on accounting and finance. Using bibliometric techniques, key trends, influential authors, and notable publications in this domain were identified. The analysis explores the interdisciplinary nature of digital technologies in accounting and finance, highlighting the integration of technologies with subfields such as financial reporting, auditing, and financial management. The findings provide valuable insights into the evolving landscape of accounting and finance in the digital age, assisting practitioners, policymakers, and researchers in understanding and harnessing the potential of digital technologies.


Abstract Background The most challenging aspect of rehabilitation is the high costs of in-patient rehabilitation programs and poor continuity of care while patients are transferred to home. In this regard, numerous home-based rehabilitation programs have been developed. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of home-based rehabilitative programs on postural balance, walking, and quality of life in individuals with chronic hemiparetic stroke. Design A CONSORT-compliant randomized controlled trial. Methods Seventeen community-dwelling people diagnosed with a first stroke participated in this study. They randomly divided the home-based rehabilitative program (HBP) group (n = 9) and control group (n = 8). The HBP group received coordination exercises at home and the control group received clinic-based exercises. This study measured postural balance, walking, and quality of life using four outcome measures: 10-meter walk test, figure of 8 walk test, four-square step test, and 36 item short-form survey. Results After analysis, it was found that the HBP improved postural balance, comfortable speed, and fast speed walking, and straight and curved walking for chronic stroke. Second, clinic-based rehabilitation services improved postural balance, comfortable speed, and fast speed walking abilities in patients with chronic stroke. Conclusion The results of this study suggest that the HBP group received positive benefits with regard to the postural balance and walking abilities of chronic hemiparetic stroke patients compared to the clinical setting exercise program.


Double differential cross sections (DDCS) of the secondary electrons emitted from a vapor jet of bromouracil in collision with 42 MeV bare carbon ions have been measured for different forward and backward emission angles over a wide energy range. The DDCS for bromouracil were compared with that of uracil measure earlier. An unusually large increase in electron emission cross section have been observed for bromouracil.


The production environment confronting manufacturers of products containing circuit boards (PCBs), in many cases typified by a high mix of possible boards, is increasing the demand for a flexible approach to the assembly process.


The three media as modified—Endo medium, neutral red-brilliant green, and the lead acetate Russell double sugar—have proved in our hands the best combination for the isolation and rapid differentiation of the various organisms belonging to the typhoid-dysentery group of bacilli.


On the basis of introducing the situation of water asset in China and pointing out the main problems in water asset management in China at present,giving some advices on our water asset management from the aspect of water asser investment,water asset management,water right and water pricing.


Fleskens S J H M, Takes R P, Otte‐Höller I, van Doesburg L, Smeets A, Speel E‐J M, Slootweg P J & van der Laak J A W M
(2010) Histopathology 57, 14–26
Simultaneous assessment of DNA ploidy and biomarker expression in paraffin‐embedded tissue sections


This work presents a model of a non-steady forced cooling of steel transfer bars during the rolling process. In order to carry out the cooling, confined water jet arrays that impinge on the bottom surface are used. Keeping the temperature of the transfer bar within certain limits during cooling is essential for obtaining the appropriate steel plasticity properties, so that it may go on to subsequent rolling. During the first stage of the modelization, the cooling process is studied when the transfer bar is at rest. During the second part, movement of the transfer bar is introduced, situation which is closer to reality. In addition, since phase changes can take place while the steel is being cooled, the behaviour of the cooling penetration distance has also been studied.


Review(s) of: Media Tarts: How the Australian Press Frames Female Politicians, by Baird, Julia, Scribe Publications, Melbourne, 2004, ISBN 1 9207 6923 4. 330 pp, A$32.95.


The invention discloses a method for forecasting joint toxicity of environmental combined pollutants. The method for forecasting the joint toxicity of the environmental combined pollutants comprises the steps as follows: a combined pollutant effect concentration calculated by CA (concentration addition) and IA (independent action) is taken as an independent variable, and an experimental effect concentration of the combined pollutants is taken as a dependent variable; and a quantitative relation model between the dependent variable and the independent variable is established by using principal component regression analysis. According to the method, the joint toxicity of mixtures can be assessed and forecasted accurately; action mechanisms or action modes among components of the mixtures are not required to be considered; the independent variable colinearity problem of multiple linear regression models is solved; and the method can be used for assessing and forecasting mixtures with the CA modes as well as mixtures with interaction modes (synergistic or antagonistic effects). The method provides a reliable technological means for risk assessment of the environmental combined pollutants.


The sandwich beam with a 1-5 type piezoelectric material core is a new typepiezoelectric adaptive structure. In this paper, it is analyzed with finite element method andexperimental method. On the basis of constitutive equation of orthotropic material and piezo-equation of piezoelectric material, the control equation for the piezoelectric adaptive sandwichbeam is formulated. The actuating effect of piezoelectric material is converted into an equivalentmechanical load,resulting in a simplified computational process. It is shown in two examples thatthe numerical results based on the present finite element analysis are in good agreement with theexperimental result and other available data.


Safety is the most important property for safety-critical systems,and the system should be verified in their safety properties before used in order to ensure the whole system's safety.In this paper,we provide a new method based on FTA(fault tree analysis) and LTL(labeled transition systems)model checking for verifying safety-critical system's safety properties.However,efficiency and safety should be improved in software designing and developing with better application and automation abilities.


This paper presents LensTree, a novel browsing and navigation tool for large hierarchical information structures. It enhances traditional indented lists by applying focus + context view to its design. LensTree dynamically changes the sizes of nodes to provide a focal area around the mouse pointer while keeping nodes in the peripheral area in smaller sizes as context. This enables it to display a larger hierarchy than traditional indented lists within the same screen area. Therefore scrolling and expanding/collapsing are less often used so that it is more efficient for performing browsing and navigation tasks. An informal user test was conducted and the users showed strong interest to LensTree's visual presentation. It suggested that this technique was worth further exploitation


In this thesis we examine the topology of a readout circuit for biosensing applications. The purpose of the readout circuit is to convert the biosensor's signal to a useful signal that can be measured and provide information. For the current thesis we use the Ion-Sensitive FET as biosensor, which is a FET type transistor and has the property of recognizing the ion concentration of a solution. For this reason, the first part of the thesis is devoted to developing a model for the ISFET, which should be suitable for use in simulation software. This model is based on the physical and chemical reactions that take place in the solution that is in touch with the ISFET.

 The characteristics of a readout circuit should be high resolution, noise rejection and the potential of mass production. For these reasons we chose the Phase Locked Loop (PLL) topology. This circuit satisfies the specifications we set for the readout circuit and the ISFET sensor can be adapted to it. The PLL circuit consists of a Phase Detector, a filter and a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO). Each one of these circuits is presented and analyzed in this thesis.

 For the phase detector, the Gilbert Cell block is used, which has shown promising results in sensing ISFET's signals. Also, we present the topology of a VCO, based on the ring oscillator. Finally, these individual circuits are combined in order to create a robust readout circuit. The study was completed using SPICE based simulation software and the results and simulations are presented in the last chapter.


The invention discloses a double-opening magnetic electric equipment iron core component body which is composed of an iron core and coils. The iron core is composed of a plurality of I-shaped iron core columns and a plurality of U-shaped iron core columns. The coils are wound on the I-shaped iron core columns and the U-shaped iron core columns. Each I-shaped iron core column is formed by combining two back-to-back U-shaped iron cores. Each U-shaped iron core column is formed by stacking a plurality of layers of silicon steel sheets or amorphous alloy sheets. The iron core component body overcomes the defects that the material utilization rate is low and processing cost is high, improves the space utilization rate of electric equipment such as a transformer and an electric reactor, and effectively reduces iron core material consumption and coil material consumption, remarkably improves the no-load performance and the load performance of the transformer and the electric reactor, enables the mechanical strength of the transformer and the electric reactor to be greatly reinforced, enables the sudden short circuit resisting ability of the transformer and the electric reactor to be greatly improved, and greatly improves the operation reliability of the transformer and the electric reactor.


Wikipedia is one of the largest and most successful examples of decentralized peer-production systems currently in existence. Yet, the quality of Wikipedia articles varies widely with articles considered of encyclopedic quality (called featured articles) representing less than 0.1 percent of all articles. In this paper, we examine how article quality varies as a function of the network mechanisms that control the interaction among contributors. More specifically, we compare the network mechanisms underlying the production of the complete set of featured articles, with the network mechanisms of a contrasting sample of comparable non-featured articles in the English-language edition of Wikipedia. Estimates of relational event models suggest that contributors to featured articles display greater deference toward the reputation of their team members. Contributors to featured articles also display a weaker tendency to follow the behavioral norms predicted by the theory of structural balance, and hence a weaker tendency toward polarization.


The relevance of the study is due to the fact that increase of proportion of high technology production in the aggregate product of the world economy, as a consequence of the new industrial evolution mid XX-early XXI century, defines a completely new, in terms of world experience, range of system views on the global economic system. The subject of research of the article is a process of developing of the theory of innovation system, an analysis of impact of the theory of long wave cycles on the innovative development of society. The goal of the article is to analyze the development of the theory of global and national innovative high-tech systems in time, considering the hypothesis of the existence of a rigid connection between long waves and the periods of basic innovation occurrence at various phases of the waves, in order to recognize the possible options for the development of events and to model the appropriate reaction to ensure the uninterrupted functioning of the national innovation system in the context of the new industrial revolution. The objective is to research the patterns of the life cycle of innovations and their diffusion to identify the advantages and disadvantages of a transfer of high technology products for the national innovation system and also to identify the development trends and new factors, which define the essence of modern efficient high-tech system in terms of the new industrial revolution. General scientific methods are used, such as system analysis - to determine the patterns of the life cycle of innovations and their diffusion to identify the advantages and disadvantages of a transfer of high technology products for the national innovation system, factor analysis – toformalizethecause-and-effectrelationshipsoftheinvestigatedfactorsof the development of modern effective high-tech system. The following results were obtained: on the basis of the analysis of the impact of the long waves theory on the innovative development of society is proved the necessity of the fastest access of domestic enterprises to world network markets not only to develop the sales network, but also to search for innovative solutions and creative interactions. These practices are suitable for most countries, which have adopted the experience of world's innovative leaders and now are competitive players of the world market of high technologies. Conclusions: the urgency to create a strong national innovation system in Ukraine, considering the specificity of those elements that are now the basis of functioning of innovative systems.


Given the characteristics of Romanian agriculture dominated mainly by fragmented and atomized structures and low productivity, the need for information and agricultural advisory services is obvious. Today, a large number of farmers are lacking knowledge, experience and skills appropriate for sustainable agricultural development. The objective of this paper is aimed at analyzing the evolution of the Romanian advisory service while identifying the strengths and weaknesses that characterize it. The main conclusion that emerged was, that during the period of integration of Romanian agriculture into The European Union, the development of agricultural advisory service has been full of changes and is best characterized by the word - instability. Although, there were forward-looking main and specific objectives, Romanian advisory service failed to implement most of them. Today, this service is in a process of deep restructuring, without being clear what structures will take its place in the future.


Rice (Oryza sativa) is the most consumed food in the world and represents an important diet element in Cote d'Ivoire. Composition data on rice varieties produced and consumed in Cote d'Ivoire are not available rendering it difficult to evaluate their nutritional importance in consumers. The purpose of the present study was to determine whole grains' biochemical composition of three local pigmented varieties and evaluate the effect of boiling on this composition. The moisture, ashes, carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and polyphenols rates were determined using standard methods on raw and cooked whole grain samples from studied varieties. Results showed that the nutrient characteristics of raw rice are superior to those of cooked rice. The boiling treatment used to cook the rice induced starch and fibre hydrolysis into simple carbohydrates, and reduced rates of all nutrients. This first study focused on Cote d'Ivoire locally produced rice varieties open the road for further investigations that will nourish the food composition tables for the main types of raw and cooked foods consumed in West Africa.


We propose and demonstrate a simple method to generate an all-fiber high-order transverse-mode switchable laser using a few-mode Bragg fiber grating (FM-FBG). The switchable output of the LP02 mode, LP11 mode, and LP01 modes is precisely realized by adjusting the operating wavelength in the cavity, which breaks through the limitation of only two low-order modes in most reports about all-fiber transverse-mode switchable lasers. The slope efficiencies for the three modes are 2.5%, 5.9%, and 9.3%, respectively. The central wavelengths of the lasers are 1530.2 nm, 1531.3 nm, and 1532.1 nm, respectively, and the corresponding side mode suppression ratios are -61 dB, -67 dB, and -65 dB, which ensures the purity of the modes. This work has huge potential applications in sensing, mode division multiplexing, optical communication, laser processing, and surface plasmon excitation.


A 16bit 125Msps pipelined analog-to-digital converter (ADC) critical front-end stage supporting variable input common-mode voltage in 0.18um CMOS process is designed in this paper. The difference between the common-mode voltage of the input signal and the one of the reference causes the summing node of the residue amplifier to deviate from the appropriate voltage. To make the ADC support wide input common-mode voltage from 0.6V to 1.3V, the common-mode refreshing technique is proposed. The summing node is floating when the method is employed. To make the amplifier not disturbed and recover quickly, the dynamic biasing technique is applied to turn off the amplifier when the system is in the sampling phase. Offset calibration is employed in the sub-ADC to reduce comparator's offset. The designed ADC achieves 90.7 dBc spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR), 79.5 dBFS signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio (SNDR) under 70MHz input signal with 0.8V input common-mode voltage. The ability of supporting wide input common-mode voltage is proven by simulation.


3 INTRODUCTION 4 PROBLEM STATEMENT 4 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 4 THE USE OF CLIL IN DUTCH TTO SCHOOLS 4 THE SIX KEY COMPETENCIES OF CLIL 5 A RUBRIC STYLED FEEDBACK TOOL 6 PARTS OF A RUBRIC: CRITERIA 7 PARTS OF A RUBRIC: DESCRIPTORS 8 VALIDATION 8 RESEARCH QUESTION 9 SUB QUESTIONS 9 HYPOTHESES 9 VARIABLES 10 PERSONAL RELEVANCE 10 PRACTICAL RELEVANCE 10 METHODS & MATERIALS 11 RESPONDENTS (THE EXPERT GROUP OF TTO TEACHERS) 11 INSTRUMENTS 11 QUANTITATIVE INSTRUMENTS: TOWARDS ANSWERING SUB-QUESTION 1 11 QUALITATIVE INSTRUMENT: TOWARDS ANSWERING SUB QUESTION 2 12 SETUP OF THE RESEARCH 13 ANSWERING THE SUB QUESTIONS 13 VALIDATION OF LITERATURE CRITERIA (SUB-QUESTION 1) 14 IDENTIFYING IMPORTANT DESIGN PRINCIPLES FOR DESCRIPTORS ( SUB-QUESTION 2) 17 RESULTS 18 VALIDATION OF LITERATURE CRITERIA (SUB-QUESTION 1) 18 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF RESULTS (SUBQUESTION 1) 19 IDENTIFYING IMPORTANT DESIGN PRINCIPLES FOR DESCRIPTORS (SUB-QUESTION 2) 19 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF RESULTS (SUBQUESTION 2) 20 CONCLUSIONS 21 VALIDATION OF LITERATURE CRITERIA (SUB QUESTION 1) 21 IDENTIFYING IMPORTANT DESIGN PRINCIPLES FOR DESCRIPTORS (SUB QUESTION 2) 21 DISCUSSION 22 RECOMMENDATIONS 23 PRACTICAL RECOMMENDATIONS 23 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 23 REFLECTIONS 24 LITERATURE LIST 25 APPENDIX 1 (PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS: VALIDATING LITERATURE CRITERIA) 28 APPENDIX 2 (FINAL RUBRIC WITH VALIDATED CRITERIA) 32 APPENDIX 3 (TABLES OF COMPARISON: SHOWING LITERATURE CRITERIA AND CRITERIA CREATED BY OUR EXPERT GROUP OF TTO TEACHERS) 35 APPENDIX 4 (EXAMPLE OF DESCRIPTORS DESIGNED BY THE RESEARCH TEAM) 40


B-11 magic angle spinning solid state NMR spectra of polycrystalline lithium diborate are presented. Second order quadrupolar broadened resonances corresponding to three- (B3) and four-coordinated (B4) boron nuclei overlap for a magnetic field of 7.05 T but are resolved for 14.1 T Cross peaks linking the B3 and B4 resonances are observed in two-dimensional homonuclear spin diffusion spectra. There is a need to develop analytical methods for the characterisation of medium range structure in borate glasses. In this respect, such solid state NMR methods have potential or identifying the presence of specific superstructural units.


The evolutionary origin of reproductive isolation is still a source of considerable debate, although the consensus is that it develops by a gradual accumulation of genetic differences between populations, mostly in allopatry (Dobzhansky 1937; Muller 1942; Mayr 1963; Rice and Hostert 1993; Wu and Davies 1993; Templeton 1996). Quantitative studies of sexual isolation usually go no further than the calculation of the frequencies of homoand heterospecific matings; direct observations of courtship are rarely made (Spieth and Ringo 1983; Verrell and Arnold 1989). Consequently, relatively little is known about the role played by sexual behavior in maintaining reproductive barriers between species. Sexual isolation occurs when individuals tend to avoid mating with those of another strain, race, or species (Gilbert and Starmer 1985). Isolation estimates can be effected by mating propensity, or sexual vigor: the likelihood that a male or female will mate regardless of partner type. Moreover, mating propensity is likely to obscure estimates of asymmetry in sexual isolation unless controlled by experimental design or statistical analysis. Asymmetry is present when females from population A mate more frequently with males from population B than females from population B do with males from population A. Another source of error in both isolation and asymmetry estimates is the effect of social interactions. The most commonly used designs of mating experiments, in which individuals are given simultaneous choice of mates, do not control for intrasexual interactions and therefore can produce biased results (discussed in Arnold et al. 1996). We conducted a laboratory experiment with two species of European newts, the smooth newt, Triturus vulgaris, and Montandon's newt, T. montandoni, in which single males were paired with single females in a variety of crosses. This permitted a comparison of mating probabilities for four possible crosses. Our main goal was to determine the duration of courtships and identify the behavioral causes of sexual isolation. We also sought to demonstrate asymmetries at different stages of behavioral isolation between these two species. Although mating behavior of Triturus newts has been carefully described (Halliday 1977; Arntzen and Sparreboom 1989), surprisingly little information is available concerning the basis of sexual isolation between species. The genetic distance between T. vulgaris and T. montandoni is the lowest among species of the genus Triturus (DNei = 0.16; Rafin'ski and Arntzen 1987), and they readily hybridize in montane areas wherever they coexist (Hofmann 1908; Rafin'ski, unpubl. data). Old World newt species, including T. vulgaris and T. montandoni, possess elaborate and complex mating behavior that involves a prolonged male display followed by spermatophore transfer. Display consists of three distinct tail-movements produced by the male: whip, fan, and wiggle (detailed descriptions in Halliday 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977; Pecio and Rafin'ski 1985; Arntzen and Sparreboom 1989; Michalak 1996). Despite large differences in morphology of secondary sexual characters between the two species, there is only a slight difference in male courtship behavior, primarily in relative frequencies and duration of tail movements. In most cases the male initiates the courtship. The duration of display varies considerably and depends mainly on the reaction of the female. During spermatophore transfer, the female follows the male, walks over the spermatophore, and if her cloaca comes into contact with it, the spermatophore is then taken up into her cloaca. Cooperation on the female's part is an essential prerequisite both for spermatophore deposition and successful transfer. The onset of display, spermatophore deposition and transfer constitute distinctive events in the courtship of newts. Thus the composite courtship of newts provided us with an opportunity to analyze sexual isolation separately for the different mating phases.


Polish waste management systems currently are under development and modernization in order to adjust to European Union standards. Mechanical biological waste treatment systems installed in so-called regional municipal solid waste treatment plants are being developed. This type of plant needs to be operated in order to obtain required levels of recycling and waste recovery and to limit the amount of biodegradable waste directed to landfills. A key element of all these type of devices are sorting plants. This paper presents the results of sorting tests of unsorted municipal solid waste from Koblenz city. Tests were performed in the Research and Test Facility located at TITECH GmbH in Mulheim-Karlich in Germany. The tests made it possible to determine efficiency of the process of automatic separation of plastics and papers using a Titech autosort separator equipped with near infra-red sensor (NIR 1). Test results show differences in the morphological composition of unsorted municipal solid waste from Poland and Germany, and their potential in respect to content of recovered materials.


The di- and tri-organotin derivatives of fenbufen (4-(4-biphenyl)-4-oxobutyric acid), [{(n-C 4 H 9 ) 2 Sn(OCOCH 2 CH 2 COC 6 H 4 C 6 H 5 -4)} 2 O]2 (1) and R 3 SnOCOCH 2 CH 2 COC 6 H 4 C 6 H 5 -4 (R=C 6 H 5 , 2; c-C 6 H 11 , 3; C 6 H 5 C(CH 3 ) 2 CH 2 , 4), have been prepared and characterized by means of elemental analysis, IR and NMR ( 1 H, 13 C and 119 Sn) spectroscopies. The crystal structure of 1, bis[4-(4-biphenyl)-4-oxobutyrato]tetra-n-butyldistannoxane, has been determined and it is a centrosymmetric dimer with two distinct types of carboxylate moieties and tin atoms with distorted trigonal bipyramidal geometries. The in vitro antitumour activity of 1 and 2 against two human tumour cell lines was found to be higher than that for cis-platin used clinically.