The present work is aimed at providing an advanced understanding of the flow and loss mechanisms in an interturbine duct subject to the upstream wakes and swirl. This interturbine duct is representative of modern engines; it has an area ratio of 1.275, a mean rise angle of 28 deg, and an axial length-to-annulus height of 3.4. The experimental results, supplemented with computations, were made inside the annulus at a Reynolds number of 150,000. The flow structures within the interturbine duct were found to be dominated by the counter-rotating vortices and boundary-layer separation in both the casing and hub regions. The combination of the casing-directed radial pressure gradient at the casing's first bend and the upstream low-momentum wakes caused a pronounced roll-up of casing boundary layer. It was believed that this casing boundary-layer roll-up separated under the influence of the strong casing adverse pressure gradient. A pair of counter-rotating vortices was also generated at the casing's second bend...


Abstract The Delayed Stress Response Syndrome in Vietnam veterans has been recently described to be a fairly typical symptomatic picture that includes physical symptoms, nightmares and flashbacks, memory lapses, angry outbursts, and an instability of relationships. It seems in part to be derived from repressed feelings of fear, grief and rage. In a veteran treated for 15 months using traditional psychotherapeutic techniques during the first phase of treatment, and hypnotic age regression techniques during the second phase, it was found that the re-experiencing of prior traumatic events, in the context of a trusting therapeutic relationship, led to an integration of the following affective components of the traumatic events: 1) fear and helplessness; 2) betrayal; 3) rage; 4) guilt; and 5) survival of a near-death experience.


Please look at the ASPLOS Call For Papers for format-ting instructions. ESPLOS, the Espresso-Powered Latte Operating System, is an innovative platform that combines an operating system (OS), a domain-specific programming language (PL), and a sophisticated compiler to consistently brew perfect espresso shots and create stunning latte art. This paper introduces ESPLOS and presents simulation results, evaluation data, and user studies, highlighting its significant advancements in coffee machine technology.


In 2001, Lawrence found that articles in computer science that were openly accessible (OA) on the Web were cited substantially more than those that were not. We have since replicated this effect in physics. To further test its cross-disciplinary generality, we used 1,307,038 articles published across 12 years (1992-2003) in 10 disciplines (Biology, Psychology, Sociology, Health, Political Science, Economics, Education, Law, Business, Management). We designed a robot that trawls the Web for full-texts using reference metadata (author, title, journal, etc.) and citation data from the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) database. A preliminary signal-detection analysis of the robot's accuracy yielded a signal detectability d'=2.45 and bias = 0.52. The overall percentage of OA (relative to total OA + NOA) articles varies from 5%-16% (depending on discipline, year and country) and is slowly climbing annually (correlation r=.76, sample size N=12, probability p .90, N=12, p < .0005) and the effect is greater with the more highly cited articles (r = .98, N=6, p < .005). Causality cannot be determined from these data, but our prior finding of a similar pattern in physics, where percent OA is much higher (and even approaches 100% in some subfields), makes it unlikely that the OA citation advantage is merely or mostly a self-selection bias (for making only one's better articles OA). Further research will analyze the effect's timing, causal components and relation to other variables, such as, download counts, journal citation averages, article quality, co-citation measures, hub/authority ranks, growth rate, longevity, and other new impact measures generated by the growing OA database.


In times of declining response rates and over-surveying, improving our understanding of why people participate in surveys is more important than ever. Previous research showed that online panel participants have intrinsic (e.g., topic interest, altruism) and extrinsic (e.g., incentives) participation reasons. Our study expands this research by implementing an experiment using two common forms of survey measurement: ranking and rating. The experiment was fielded in a professional respondents' sample from a German online panel (n = 407) and in an address-based sample (mail and online) of German non-professional respondents (n = 1,137). Besides extrinsic and intrinsic motivations, the experiment included various study design features (i.e., mode, length, data security) and the mood during the time of contact as possible reasons for participation. The results confirm previous findings regarding the motivations of online panelists but also show important differences between professional and non-professional respondents. Specifically, the main participation reasons of professionals are topic interest (intrinsic) and incentives (extrinsic), while non-professionals are primarily motivated by intrinsic reasons (topic interest and purpose of study). This notion is also supported by the Latent Class Analyses, which showed that three of the four classes for professional respondents had a high probability of naming incentives as one of their main reasons for survey participation, whereas none of the four non-professional clusters rated incentives highly. The differences between the two samples highlight that professional panel members have different motivation structures than participants in general population surveys. This may undermine generalizability, but it also provides opportunities for targeted recruitment.


This paper proposes new algorithms for multichannel extensions of nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) with the Itakura-Saito (IS) divergence. We employ Hermitian positive definite matrices for modeling the covariance matrix of a multivariate complex Gaussian distribution. Such matrices are basically estimated for NMF bases, but a source separation task can be performed by introducing variables that relate NMF bases and sources. The new algorithms are derived by using a majorization scheme with properly designed auxiliary functions. The algorithms are in the form of multiplicative updates, and exhibit good convergence behavior. We have succeeded in separating a professionally produced music recording into its vocal and guitar components.


Soliton propagation in slow-light states of nonuniform high-index photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) is studied numerically by a recently developed time-propagating 1+1D equation. It is demonstrated that very slow solitons can be highly stable against even short-period roughness. Soliton trapping by longitudinal inhomogeneities is also found as the soliton velocity decreases due to Raman scattering. Practical limitations and opportunities based on the simulation results are briefly discussed.


AbstractHydrated cementitious fines can be recycled by thermal treatment (<500°C) as an alternative binder with low energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions during production. This pap...


Numbers appear to have limited value for literary study, since our discipline is usually more concerned with exploring differences of interpretation than with describing the objective features of literary works. But it may be time to reexamine the assumption that numbers are useful only for objective description. Machine learning algorithms are actually bad at being objective and rather good at absorbing human perspectives implicit in the evidence used to train them. To dramatize perspectival uses of machine learning, I train models of genre on groups of books categorized by historical actors who range from Edwardian advertisers to contemporary librarians. Comparing the perspectives implicit in their choices casts new light on received histories of genre. Scientific romance and science fiction—whose shifting names have often suggested a fractured history—turn out to be more stable across two centuries than the genre we call fantasy. (TU)


Methods: Stearic acid (lipid) was dissolved in ethanol as an organic solvent. The surfactant was also dissolved in ethanol in the certain concentration, too. Parameters such as addition time, volume ratio, stearic acid and surfactant concentration, temperature, and mixing rate were optimized to obtain the smallest and narrowly distributed particles. Results: The optimum condition for solid lipid nanoparticles preparation was as follows: stearic acid concentration (2% (w/v)), surfactant concentration (1%(w/v)), volume ratio(0.1), Temperature (60oC) , addition time of stearic acid solution to aqueous solution (12 min) and mixing rate (1000rpm). By this method we could obtain nanoparticles with the size of about 220 nm and PDI of about 0.25. Conclusion: By investigation of some effective factors, an optimized set of method variables were determined and validated for the new SLN preparation method.


We propose a novel attention model that can accurately attends to target objects of various scales and shapes in images. The model is trained to gradually suppress irrelevant regions in an input image via a progressive attentive process over multiple layers of a convolutional neural network. The attentive process in each layer determines whether to pass or block features at certain spatial locations for use in the subsequent layers. The proposed progressive attention mechanism works well especially when combined with hard attention. We further employ local contexts to incorporate neighborhood features of each location and estimate a better attention probability map. The experiments on synthetic and real datasets show that the proposed attention networks outperform traditional attention methods in visual attribute prediction tasks.


The article presents two cases of acute dacryocystitis secondary to mononucleosis. Both patients suffered pyogenic bacterial complications of their dacryocystitis: preseptal cellulitis and sinusitis. In young adults with dacrocystitis, underlying mononucleosis should be considered


The technology of gasoline desulfurization by pervaporation is a novel technique in both oil refining and membrane separation fields.Deep desulfurization of FCC gasoline by membrane separation process was conducted in the experimental apparatus.The effects of operation parameters,including feed temperature,permeation pressure and feed flow rate,on the performance of membrane separation were investigated.The hydrocarbon group composition and octane value of the gasoline products with low sulfur content obtained from membrane separation were analyzed by gas chromatography(GC).The experimental results showed that the sulfur mass fraction of FCC gasoline was reduced from 750 μg/g to 70 μg/g after about 20 h of continuous membrane separation and the yield of low sulfur gasoline product(Retained product) was above 70%.The octane number of retained product was a little higher than that of feed,while the octane number of permeated product was a little lower than that of feed,as a whole,there was no difference in octane numbers of feed,retained and permeated products.


Recent progress in the development of molecular genetic methods enables the manipulation of genes in intact mammalian organisms. The power of such techniques to elucidate complex biological systems was initially recognized and exploited by developmental biologists and immunologists . Before the advent of molecular genetics, the only practical way to study mammalian genetic regulation and function was to observe certain traits. The farmers used this technique for more production of milk. The first chimeric mouse was produced in 1970. The first transgenic animals were produced almost 20 years ago by using microinjection of foreign deoxyribonucleic acid into the pronuclei of zygotes. Production of transgenic livestock was demonstrated to be feasible over two decades ago. It became apparent almost immediately that the method used to produce the transgenic livestock had substantial limitations that would impede its use both for research and commercial applications. Substantial improvements have been made in transgenic technology over the past 20 years. Several DNA transfer systems are now available that greatly improve efficiency, thereby reducing the cost associated with transgenic animal production. Methods are now available for targeting foreign DNA to specific sites in the genome, alleviating concerns about harmful mutations and allowing the inactivation of endogenous genes.


Recent research in Norway reveals significant differences between how students and educators in higher education report using social media in the context of university activities. Students seem to use such media at their own initiative and largely outside the academic agenda. This study looks further into students' use of social media by means of a case study of four, student-initiated, Facebook groups created in connection with campus-based courses. The main function of such groups appears to lie in providing an arena for managing practical and social aspects of academic life and for asking for and disseminating information. Occasionally, academic contents are addressed by students asking for clarifications or initiating discussions.


The rehabilitation of endodontically treated teeth with great coronal destruction is still a clinical challenge, especially due to the loss of resistance characteristics associated with pulp removal and the surrounding dental tissues. Endocrown crowns are an effective and safe alternative for aesthetic and rapid rehabilitation of posterior elements treated endodontically as opposed to conventional treatments by intraradicular retainers. The objective of this work was to carry out a Literature Review presenting the endocrown with an alternative rehabilitation to intraradicular retainers in posterior teeth treated endodontically. The manufacture of the endocrown is less complex and more practical when compared to conventional crowns with a filling core The endocrown crowns completely comprise the dental crown and make use of the pulp chamber as a mechanical retention device through integration with its remainder by means of adhesive cementation. , excluding the need for the use of retainers and extensive preparations of conduits, reducing clinical time and increasing the preservation of the remaining tooth. It was concluded that Endocrown appears to be a promising treatment option for posterior teeth treated endodontically with extensive loss of coronal tooth structure. In addition to the ease of making the preparation, the technique does not use intraradicular pins, which favors the prognosis making the treatment faster, constituting a very safe restorative option and with good aesthetic acceptance. Although clinical trials show a high success rate, further studies are needed to assess the long-term effectiveness of endocrown crowns, especially with regard to the materials used in their manufacture.


With the increasing availability of experimental and computational data concerning the properties and distribution of grain boundaries in polycrystalline materials, there is a corresponding need to efficiently and systematically express functions on the grain boundary space. A grain boundary can be described by the rotations applied to two grains on either side of a fixed boundary plane, suggesting that the grain boundary space is related to the space of rotations. This observation is used to construct an orthornormal function basis, allowing effectively arbitrary functions on the grain boundary space to be written as linear combinations of the basis functions. Moreover, a procedure is developed to construct a smaller set of basis functions consistent with the crystallographic point group symmetries, grain exchange symmetry, and the null boundary singularity. Functions with the corresponding symmetries can be efficiently expressed as linear combinations of the symmetrized basis functions. An example is provided that shows the efficacy of the symmetrization procedure.


We extend the concept of returns to scale in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to the weight restriction environments. By adding weight restrictions, the status of returns to scale, i.e. increasing, constant, and decreasing, may need a change. We first define "returns to scale" underweight restrictions and propose a method for identifying the status of returns to scale. Then, we demonstrated that this addition would usually narrow the region of the most productive scale size (MPSS). Finally, for an inefficient decision-making unit (DMU), we will present a simple rule for determining the status of returns to the scale of its projected DMU. Here, we carry out an empirical study to compare the proposed method's results with the BCC model. In addition, we demonstrate the change in the MPSS for both models. We have presented different models of DEA to determine returns to scale. Here, we suggested a model that determines the whole status to scale in decision-making units.Different models of DEA to determine returns to scale are presented. Here, we suggested a model that determines the whole status to scale in decision-making units.


A series of six patients had foreign bodies (sheared or broken intravenous lines) lying free in the circulation. "Nonsurgical" transvenous removal was accomplished successfully using a wire snare. Sites of foreign body embolism and subsequent removal included the superior vena cava, the right atrium, the right ventricle, and the pulmonary artery.


Decathlon is a recognised sporting goods buy observed for its wide selection of high-quality and reasonably priced sports and outdoors gear. Decathlon, which has a global presence, offers a wide range of athletic gear, clothes, and equipment for a variety of activities such as cycling, running, swimming, hiking, and more. Their dedication to creativity and design guarantees that their goods appeal to both novice and experienced athletes. The in-house brands of Decathlon, include Quechua, Kalenji, and Domyos, are well-known for their durability and performance. Furthermore, the companys emphasis on durability and affordability make it an attractive option for anyone looking for eco-friendly and cost-effective solutions in the realm of athletic activities and outdoor leisure. This paper focuses on consumer satisfaction based on factors such has product quality, functionality, durability and performance in Shivamogga city. The focus of the study is to know impact of factors such as pricing, availability and customer service.
KEYWORDS: Consumer service, Decathlon, price, and quality are some of the keywords.


This paper investigates the effect of FDI on independent innovation in Chinese domestic firms, using the micro-level data in Chinese firms from 1998 to 2003. We pay particular attention to the impact of domestic access to finance. The empirical results show: Firstly, firms with foreign capital participation (Firm-level FDI) or those with good access to domestic bank loans innovate more than others do; Secondly, we also find that FDI at the industry level is positively associated with independent innovation in Chinese domestic firms only if firms engage in own R&D or they have good access to domestic finance.


The title structure, [Ni(C14H8N2O4)(H2O)4]·4H2O, contains a mononuclear NiII complex formed by a chelating bidentate Schiff base and by four Ni-bonded water molecules. The NiII atom is in a distorted octahedral coordination by two N atoms in a cis disposition [Ni—N = 2.0753 (16) and 2.1048 (16) Å] and by four water O atoms [Ni—O = 2.0500 (15)–2.0822 (15) Å]. The crystal structure is completed by four further non-coordinating water molecules and all constituents are linked in a three-dimensional manner by an extensive system of 16 O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds.


The present invention discloses a toner containing herbal ingredients, which is prepared from the following raw material components are mixed in weight percent: 0.3 to polyhydric alcohol humectants 12.0%; 0.01 to 1% NaCl; 2.0 ~ emollient 10.0%; sodium hyaluronate 0.01 to 0.5%; a stabilizer, 0.01 to 10%; 0.01 to 0.2% preservatives; petal pretreated by 0.1 to 1%; deionized water balance. The present invention also discloses a method for preparing the preparation of toner comprising herbal ingredients. Preparation process of the invention is streamlined, a reasonable starting material, effectively the petal of natural aroma and nutrients gradually release the toner in water, so that toner contained lobe natural aroma and all the nutrients, preparing a high nutrient content, maintenance of skin synthetic flavors and no effective and efficient surfactants safe nutritional toner.


The evaluating method of uncertainty for particle size analysis by photon correlation spectroscopy was introduced. The complication of principle and data analysis and the varity of sample bring a lot of trouble to evaluate the uncertainty of measurement. This paper describe the effect from system and randomization of uncertainty for particle size determined by PCS, this evaluating method of uncertainty not only can be used to determine the other Nanometer Particles, but also can be used as references during evaluating the reliability and agreement of nanometer determination.


Recursive partitioning methods from machine learning are being widely applied in many scientific fields such as, e.g., genetics and bioinformatics. The present work is concerned with the two main problems that arise in recursive partitioning, instability and biased variable selection, from a statistical point of view. With respect to the first issue, instability, the entire scope of methods from standard classification trees over robustified classification trees and ensemble methods such as TWIX, bagging and random forests is covered in this work. While ensemble methods prove to be much more stable than single trees, they also loose most of their interpretability. Therefore an adaptive cutpoint selection scheme is suggested with which a TWIX ensemble reduces to a single tree if the partition is sufficiently stable. With respect to the second issue, variable selection bias, the statistical sources of this artifact in single trees and a new form of bias inherent in ensemble methods based on bootstrap samples are investigated. For single trees, one unbiased split selection criterion is evaluated and another one newly introduced here. Based on the results for single trees and further findings on the effects of bootstrap sampling on association measures, it is shown that, in addition to using an unbiased split selection criterion, subsampling instead of bootstrap sampling should be employed in ensemble methods to be able to reliably compare the variable importance scores of predictor variables of different types. The statistical properties and the null hypothesis of a test for the random forest variable importance are critically investigated. Finally, a new, conditional importance measure is suggested that allows for a fair comparison in the case of correlated predictor variables and better reflects the null hypothesis of interest.


Objectives We investigated whether changes in mammographic technique and screening policy have improved mammographic sensitivity, and elongated the mean sojourn time, since the introduction of biennial breast cancer screening in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, in 1975. Methods Maximum likelihood estimation, non-linear regression, and Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation were used to estimate test sensitivity, mean sojourn time, and underlying breast cancer incidence in four time periods, covering 40 years of breast cancer screening in Nijmegen (1975–2012). Results Maximum likelihood estimation generated an estimated test sensitivity of approximately 90% and a mean sojourn time around three years, while the estimates based on non-linear regression and Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation were 80% and four years, respectively. All three methods estimated a rise in the underlying breast cancer incidence over time, with approximately one case more per 1000 women per year in the final period compared with the first period. Conclusions The three methods showed a slightly higher mammographic sensitivity and a longer mean sojourn time in the last period, after the introduction of digital mammography. Estimates were more realistic for the more sophisticated methods, non-linear regression and Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation, while the simple closed form approximation of maximum likelihood estimation led to rather high estimates for sensitivity in the early periods.


Online inter-camera trajectory association is a promising topic in intelligent video surveillance, which concentrates on associating trajectories belong to the same individual across different cameras according to time. It remains challenging due to the inconsistent appearance of a person in different cameras and the lack of spatio-temporal constraints between cameras. Besides, the orientation variations and the partial occlusions significantly increase the difficulty of inter-camera trajectory association. Targeting to solve these problems, this work proposes an orientation-driven person re-identification (ODPR) and an effective camera topology estimation based on appearance features for online inter-camera trajectory association. ODPR explicitly leverages the orientation cues and stable torso features to learn discriminative feature representations for identifying trajectories across cameras, which alleviates the pedestrian orientation variations by the designed orientation-driven loss function and orientation aware weights. The effective camera topology estimation introduces appearance features to generate the correct spatio-temporal constraints for narrowing the retrieval range, which improves the time efficiency and provides the possibility for intelligent inter-camera trajectory association in large-scale surveillance environments. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that our proposed approach significantly outperforms most state-of-the-art methods on the popular person re-identification datasets and the public multi-target, multi-camera tracking benchmark.


Objective To investigate the radiosensitization effect of Oridonin on hepatic cancer cell lines (HepG2) in vitro. Methods Clonogenic assay was used to get HepG2 cell line. Different doses of oridonin (1.804,3.608,5.412,7.216 and 18.040 μmol/ L) were used to treat HepG2 cells for 6-72 h, before radiation of 60Co in doses of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Gy, respectively. The survival fraction was observed, the sensitization enhancement ratio (SER) calculated, and changes in radiosensitivity was estimated by SER at a clinically relevant dose of 2 Gy (SERSF2). Results Oridonin enhanced the radiosensitivity of HepG2 cells in a time-and dose-dependent manner. Enhancement of radiosensitivity was observed at 48 h and 72 h after treated with low dose of oridonin (1.804 μmol/L). High dose of oridonin (18.040 μmol/L) produced early radiosensitivity effect observed at 6, 12 and 24 h. Conclusion Oridonin might be a potential radiosensitizer in hepatic cancer cell lines.


Traffic classification is a very important mathematical and statistical tool in communications and computer networking, which is used to find average and statistical information of the traffic passing through certain pipe or hub. The results achieved from a proper deployment of a traffic analysis method provide valuable insights, including: how busy a link is, the average end-toend delays, and the average packet size. These valuable information bits will help engineers to design robust networks, avoid possible congestions, and foresee future growth. This paper is designed to capture the essence of traffic classification methods and consider them in packet-, flow-, and application-based contexts.


We present in this poster our work on a User Interface Markup Language (UIML) vocabulary for the specification of device- and modality independent user interfaces. The work presented here is part of an application-oriented project. One of the results of the project is a prototype implementation of a generic platform for device independent multimodal mobile applications. The poster presents the requirements for a generic user interface description format and explains our approach on an integrated description of user interfaces for both graphical and voice modality. A basic overview of the vocabulary structure, its language elements and main features is presented.


The RDF Mapping Language (RML) allows to map semi-structured data to RDF knowledge graphs. Besides CSV, JSON and XML, this also includes the mapping of spreadsheet tables. Since spreadsheets have a complex data model and can become rather messy, their mapping creation tends to be very time consuming. In order to reduce such efforts, this paper presents Spread2RML which predicts RML mappings on messy spreadsheets. This is done with an extensible set of RML object map templates which are applied for each column based on heuristics. In our evaluation, three datasets are used ranging from very messy synthetic data to spreadsheets from data.gov which are less messy. We obtained first promising results especially with regard to our approach being fully automatic and dealing with rather messy data.


From the books we read to the magazines and newspapers we flick through, the bureaucratic documents we fill in to the expanse of the internet, we are surrounded by texts. And yet, texts do not often feature as heavily in ethnographic accounts as they do in our everyday lives. This is the ontological and methodological concern addressed by Incorporating Texts into Institutional Ethnographies, a collection of 10 exemplar studies edited by Dorothy Smith and Susan Turner. Introduced and concluded with short discussions about the centrality of texts to sociological concerns and institutional ethnographic research, Smith and Turner weave each chapter into a larger methodological narrative of how to do text-focused research, providing models for research, musings on method, and organising their discussion around five big methodological themes. So what is institutional ethnography? For the uninitiated, institutional ethnography can be a daunting research approach to grasp and utilise. Developed by feminist sociologist Dorothy Smith over a period of more than 30 years, institutional ethnography provides both a critique of positivistic 'malestream' sociology and an alternative research approach. Best understood as an ontological and methodological framework for research, this is an approach rather than a method, and as such there are a plethora of ways to use it. The versatility of institutional ethnography is evident from the breadth and variety of texts and methods discussed in this volume. From three studies of technologically specialised texts (financial texts, musical scores and a computerised hospital system) to Luken and Vaughan's extended institutional ethnography exploring public discourse through multiple methods, readers will find many useful blueprints for their own research projects. Whilst the term ethnography might conjure ideas of participant observation and fieldnotes, as becomes evident throughout this term is used more to indicate a commitment to exploration and for mapping what is 'actually going on'. The aim of institutional ethnographies should be to help people navigate complex textual processes in their everyday lives rather than to prove a theory or hypothesis that would pre-determine the findings or focus of one's research. Rather, the researcher commits to following the texts and listening to people's explanations of how they interact with texts. 578792 SOC0010.1177/0038038515578792SociologyBook Reviews research-article2015


Aims To investigate the association between BsmI and DM2 in patients with and without DR and to correlate with clinical parameters in a population in northeastern Brazil. Methods Cross-sectional case-control study in which data were collected from 285 individuals, including 128 patients with DM2 and 157 with DR. Clinical, biochemical and anthropometric parameters were analyzed, in addition to the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) BsmI of the VDR gene (rs1544410), genotyped by PCR-RFLP. Results In the DR group we found a greater number of patients using insulin therapy (p = 0.000) and with longer duration of DM2 (p = 0.000), in addition to higher serum creatinine values (p = 0.001). Higher fasting glucose levels and higher frequency of insulinoterapy were independently observed in patients with DR and b allele carriers, when compared to BB. Conclusion The association of the bb/Bb genotypes (rs1544410) of the VDR gene with increased blood glucose levels and insulinoterapy may represent worse glicemic control in rs1544410 b allele carriers in DR Latin American individuals.


We propose a novel diminishing learning rate scheme, coined Decreasing-Trend-Nature (DTN), which allows us to prove fast convergence of the Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) algorithm to a first-order stationary point for smooth general convex and some class of nonconvex including neural network applications for classification problems. We are the first to prove that SGD with diminishing learning rate achieves a convergence rate of $\mathcal{O}(1/t)$ for these problems. Our theory applies to neural network applications for classification problems in a straightforward way.


The test for B. coli, while considered the most useful method available for determining the sanitary quality of water, is subject to certain irregularities, chief of which is the occurrence of presumptive positive tests which fail to reveal the presence of B. coli group organisms when subsequently subjected to the usual confirmatory tests. These non-confirming presumptive positive tests, which occur with great frequency in certain waters, particularly after chlorination, have been ascribed by various investigators to the presence of aerobic and anaerobic spore-forming lactose-fermenting bacteria and to gas-producing symbiotic groups. Several mediums, notably brilliant green bile, have been experimented with for the inhibition of these interfering organisms and extensive investigations of a similar nature are at present in progress. In Toronto, positive presumptive tubes which fail to confirm appear to be of at least two distinct types, (1) those probably due to one of the above causes, and (2) those in which colon group bacteria were originally present and lost in the confirmatory procedure. The former, which occur more frequently and constitute over 90 per cent of the presumptive positives from the finally chlorinated water, while consuming a great deal of time and prolonging the period required for interpretation of results, do not affect the reliability of the completed tests, whereas the second type, in which a negative result is recorded for a tube actually positive, may lead to errors of considerable magnitude. It is this latter type which will be discussed in the present paper. The following examples (table 1), selected from results actually obtained in routine examination of raw Lake Ontario water


A prospective long-term study of a general working-age population (16–74 yr) showed that the overall incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome over a 66-month period was 103 per 100 000 people per year (95% confidence interval [CI] 87–119), based on a clinical definition (i.e., clinical symptoms and


Copyright information: Taken from "Chloroquine/Sulphadoxine-Pyrimethamine for Gambian Children with Malaria: Transmission to Mosquitoes of Multidrug-Resistant "PLoS Clinical Trials 2006;1(3):-.Published online 21 Jul 2006PMCID:PMC1513405. © 2006 Hallett et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Bars represent prevalence of gametocyte carriage, with error bars showing 95% CIs. Lines represent arithmetic mean gametocyte density in carriers only.


The infections that affect the binomial mother-son during pregnancy are of great concern to obstetricians and pediatricians because of its frequency and difficulty in reaching an etiological diagnosis that is important for early treatment. Most newborns with congenital infection are asymptomatic; this shows the importance of laboratory screening for diseases that are transmitted during the pregnancy-puerperal cycle of women. This review aims to provide recommendations with regard to congenital infection by Treponema pallidum and Toxoplasma gondii. Syphilis is one of the diseases with the highest rates of mother-to-child transmission and is a public health problem still with insufficient control in the country. The diagnosis of maternal infection, performed with VDRL and confirmed with a treponemic test, indicates immediate treatment in pregnant women and their partners. The congenital infecThe approach to neonatal congenital infections – toxoplasmosis and syphilis Roberta Maia de Castro Romanelli1, Ericka Viana Machado Carellos1, Flavia Alves Campos2, Aline Silva de Paula Pinto3, Barbara Araujo Marques4, Leni Marcia Anchieta1, Glaucia Manzan Queiroz de Andrade1 1 Medica Pediatra. Doutora. Professora Adjunta do Departamento de Pediatria da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais – UFMG. Belo Horizonte, MG – Brasil. 2 Medica Pediatra. Mestre em Ciencias da Saude-Saude da Crianca e do Adolescente. Hospital Infantil Joao Paulo II da Fundacao Hospitalar do Estado de Minas Gerais _ FHEMIG, Hospital Mater Dei. Belo Horizonte, MG – Brasil. 3 Medica. Pediatra Infectologista. Ambulatorio do Programa DST/AIDS da SMS da Prefeitura Municipal de Contagem. Contagem, MG – Brasil. 4 Medica. Pediatra Infectologista. Mestranda em Ciencias da Saude-Saude da Crianca e do Adolescente da Faculdade de Medicina da UFMG. Belo Horizonte, MG – Brasil. Abordagem neonatal nas infeccoes congenitas – toxoplasmose e sifilis DOI: 10.5935/2238-3182.20140053


To characterize serum amyloid A (SAA)‐positive hepatocellular neoplasms/nodules arising in alcoholic cirrhosis, which are detected as hypervascular hepatocellular nodules resembling hepatocellular carcinoma on imaging.


The prospects of using Yudinka yacon as an ingredient ensuring the quality and safety of bakery products are considered. To increase the technological effectiveness of the use of yacon, pre-drying and grinding of root tubers of yacon are proposed. The composition of the powdered semi-finished product has been studied. Qualitative characteristics and prebiotic properties have been demonstrated by preliminary studies. The maturation processes of the dough from varietal wheat flour with the introduction of various dosages of the enriching ingredient have been studied. From the point of view of organoleptic, quality and safety indicators, the content of physiologically valuable nutrients - dietary fiber, iron and selenium, it is recommended to add 7% of powdered semi-finished yacon to the bread recipe from high-quality wheat flour.


1. In 3‐day‐old and 3‐week‐old spontaneously breathing piglets anaesthetized with Saffan, we have studied ventilatory and cardiovascular responses evoked by 5 min periods of hypoxia (breathing 10 and 6% O2). 2. In 3‐day‐old piglets both 10 and 6% O2 evoked an increase followed by a secondary fall in ventilation, a gradual tachycardia and a renal vasoconstriction, with an increase in femoral blood flow that was attributable to femoral vasodilatation. Arterial blood pressure rose initially but fell towards control values by the 5th minute of hypoxia. 3. The stable adenosine analogue 2‐chloroadenosine (2‐CA; 30 mg kg(‐1) i.v.) evoked bradycardia and renal vasoconstriction, but had no effect on femoral vasculature. These responses were blocked by the adenosine receptor antagonist 8‐phenyltheophylline (8‐PT; 8 mg kg(‐1) i.v.). 8‐PT also abolished the secondary fall in ventilation evoked by 10 and 6% O2 and the renal vasoconstriction evoked by 10% O2, but had no effect on the tachycardia, or on the femoral vascular response. 4. By contrast, in 3‐week‐old piglets both 10 and 6% O2 evoked a sustained increase in ventilation, tachycardia and a rise in arterial pressure with renal vasoconstriction, but no change in renal blood flow and substantial femoral vasodilatation with an increase in femoral blood flow. 2‐CA evoked bradycardia and renal vasoconstriction, as in 3‐day‐old piglets, but also evoked pronounced femoral vasodilatation. 8‐PT blocked these responses and the hypoxia‐induced femoral vasodilatation, but had no significant effect on other components of the hypoxia‐induced response. 5. We propose that there is postnatal development of the ventilatory and cardiovascular responses evoked by systemic hypoxia and of the role of locally released adenosine in these responses: at 3 days, adenosine released within the central nervous system and within the kidney is a major contributor to the secondary fall in ventilation and renal vasoconstriction respectively, whereas at 3 weeks, adenosine makes little contribution to the ventilatory response, or renal vasoconstriction, but is largely responsible for hypoxia‐induced vaso‐dilatation in skeletal muscle.


Background: Transendocardial Stem Cell Injections (TESI) decrease scar size. We hypothesized that there is greater scar size reduction when TESI occurs in infarct-border zone (IZ/BZ) with more viability (>6mV Unipolar voltage) compared to segments with less viability ( Methods: Gottingen mini-swine (n=28) underwent 150-minute occlusion of the LAD coronary artery followed by reperfusion. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) was obtained before and after therapy. At 90 days post-MI, transendocardial injection of either: Combination of CSCs and MSCs (1M/200M, Combo, n=7), MSCs (200M, n=6), or placebo (Plasmalyte, n=6) were administered to the IZ/BZ. Biplane left ventriculography and endocardial border tracings were recorded and compared. TESI was guided to 10 sites in IZ/BZ using ventriculographic wall motion correlated with CMR. Sites were mapped according to the 16-myocardial segment model. We analyzed 320 segments in 20 swine pre-and post-TESI. Injection sites were recorded with the electroanatomical mapping of the NOGA system. The unipolar voltage of each injection site and the occurrence of premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) were recorded. Results: Agreement between NOGA regional map and endocardial tracings regional map was 0.749 with 95% CI (0.670, 0.828). Allocation of TESI sites were assessed according to the endocardial tracing generated 16 segment maps. Scar size was only reduced in segments with TESI site voltages greater than 6mV (Combo: from 0.67g to 0.51g P=0.02, MSC: from 0.7g to 0.61g P=.002) compared to no change in scar size in segments with 6mV vs. 0.05). Additionally, there was a greater reduction of transmural scar (from 1.09g to 0.62g P=0.03 ) compared to an unchanged non-transmural scar after TESI (between group comparison P Conclusions: These findings suggest that the site of TESI is an important parameter, and responses to TESI are voltage dependent. A unipolar voltage of >6mV, but not the presence of PVC, predicts scar size reduction.


Technique. The polarographic analysis was originated by J. H E Y ROVSKY who used a dropping mercury electrode. The method was applied to 'in vivo' studies by D A VIES and BRINK in 1941. A constant voltage of 0.6 volt is applied to two electrodes, the negative electrode being of platinum and the larger positive, or reference, electrode of silver-silver chloride. When these electrodes are immersed in an electrolyte containing dissolved oxygen a reduction of the oxygen will take place at the negative metallic surface causing a current to flow in the circuit, which (measured in ampère) will be linearly proportional to the oxygen available at the electrode surface. Provided that the polarographic electrode is small, the system is only slightly oxygen-consuming and the body of the solu tion will remain practically unchanged. In the present experiments the electrodes were inserted into the muscular tissue of the thigh, and in one case also into the cortex of the brain. The general and local blood pressures were measured through catheters connected to strain-gauge manometers. The impulses from the polarizing circuit and from the manometers were lead through pre amplifiers to a Sanborn four-channel recorder.


The invention provides a preparation method of high-purity Daptomycin, which comprises the steps of: first removing mycelium, soluble protein, culture medium, partial pigments and the like from fermented liquid by adopting primary membrane filtration; then concentrating by a secondary membrane filtration system to remove some micromolecular impurities like monosaccharide and a large number of inorganic salts so as to result in clarified Daptomycin concentrated solution; and then causing the clarified Daptomycin concentrated solution to be subject to chromatography of cation exchange resin andneutralization of anion exchange resin as well as nanofiltration membrane concentration and normal reduced pressure concentration in order to obtain high-purity Daptomycin by means of crystallization. Based on the comprehensive usage of membrane separation technology and resin chromatography technology, the invention provides a production-feasible and operationally-easy method for preparing high-purity Daptomycin.


Language occupies a very crucial role for humans in this life, especially in terms of communication with other humans. One of the language skills used to communicate indirectly is writing skill. In the world of writing, writing mistakes have become a natural thing. Therefore, this study aims to improve and describe various errors in the Indonesian language at the phonological and morphological levels in the story synopsis text by students of class V SD Negeri Menuran 03. The method used in this study is a qualitative descriptive method. The data source in this study came from written data in the form of story synopsis text results, while the data collection technique used was reading and note-taking techniques. The results of this study indicated that there were 45 language errors at the phonological and morphological levels. At the phonological level (adding phonemes, changing phonemes, and removing phonemes) there were 30 errors or 66.7%, while at the morphological level (affixation and reduplication) there were 15 errors or 33.3%.


This paper presents an annual property price index for Dublin over the period 1708-1949. Obtaining the data for a historical index and presenting it was the objective of this research. It was done in the belief that any better insight into property prices via a long range price index would help in delivering more accurate historical facts as they relate to housing. Data for the index was researched from examination of actual property transactions recorded in the Registry of deeds. The index is constructed using the Hedonic method and is estimated in real and nominal terms.


The School of Industrial Engineering at LIUC Università Cattaneo offers Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Management Engineering, carefully designed to nurture engineers with managerial skills. The curriculum combines fundamental areas like mathematics and physics with advanced topics, including innovation management, organizational design, marketing, and operations management. The program stresses five main areas: analysis, design, implementation, validation, and management, preparing students to apply engineering methodologies to complex processes in various contexts. A unique Business Services specialization focuses on equipping management engineers for the service sector and steering digital transformation in businesses. The undergraduate program includes modules such as Digital Enterprise Management and IoT Systems Design, while the graduate program incorporates Management Information Systems and offers optional courses. The school partners with Microsoft Italia, promoting educational innovation in digital business management using tools like MS Power BI and Azure cloud services. Offering a range of internships and international experiences, the School of Industrial Engineering at LIUC successfully secures an employment rate of 89.1% for graduates within three months post-graduation.


In this study, aimed at preparing PEG-grafted silica particles, PEGME-IPTES with a silane coupling agent was synthesized by the reaction of poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether (PEGME) with 3- (triethoxysilyl)propyl isocyanate (IPTES). The molecular weight of PEGME was varied (350, 750, or 2000). By utilizing a sol-gel method in a W/O emulsion, both spherical silica particles and PEG-grafted silica particles were obtained. The syntheses of PEGME-IPTES and the PEG-grafted silica particles were confirmed using FT-IR spectroscopy. As the molecular weight of PEGME used in the synthesis of the PEGME-IPTES precursor increased, the amount of PEG grafted onto the surface of the silica particles increased. In addition, the surface areas of the PEG-grafted silica particles were smaller than that of the bare silica particles. The surface morphologies were characterized by FE-SEM, TGA and BET surface area measurements.


This work was carried out with the objective of studying the effect of the anti-reflux device for ovine insemination (DARIO) on the fertility rate in ewes of the native Portuguese breed Churra Galega Bragançana (CGB) artificially inseminated at fixed-time. Eighty-one ewes aged between one and five years were used. At the end of April 2021, ewes' reproductive control was carried out, using a short progestagen treatment (five days) + equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG). Cervical artificial insemination (AI) was performed at fixed-time (55 hours after the end of the hormonal treatment), with cooled semen. All ewes were inseminated by the same inseminator: 39 ewes with the DARIO tip on the end of the sheath and 42 without this tip. The pregnancy diagnosis was made by ultrasonography 41 days after AI. Age and body condition (BC) did not affect the ewes' response to the applied hormonal treatment or the fertility rate. Approximately 95.1% of the ewes responded to the progestagen + eCG treatment. Forty-one days after AI, 86.4% of the ewes were pregnant. The use of the DARIO tip did not affect the fertility rate.


This paper addresses the improved performance of linear orthogonal space-time block codes (OSTBC) for three and four antennas at two specific data rates. Considerable performance improvement is achieved through the application of different size constellations for the linear OSTBC to obtain data rates of 2 bits/s/Hz and 4 bits/s/Hz with the sporadic OSTBC designs of code rate 3/4 rather than the code rate 1/2 designs typically utilised to obtain these spectral efficiencies.


Part I. Introduction to Theory and Method: 1. The macroeconomics of income distribution James K. Galbraith 2. Measuring inequality and industrial change Maureen Berner and John K. Galbraith Part II. Inequality, Unemployment and Industrial Change: 3. The American wage structure: 1920-1947 Thomas Ferguson and James K. Galbraith 4. Inequality in American manufacturing wages, 1920-1998: a revised estimate James K. Galbraith and Vidal Garza Cantu 5. Industrial change in the OECD: new evidence from the STAN Amy Calistri and James K. Galbraith 6. Inequality and unemployment in Europe: the American cure Pedro Conceicao, Pedro Ferreira, and James K. Galbraith Part III. Inequality and Development: 7. Towards a new Kuznets hypothesis: theory and evidence on growth and inequality Pedro Conceicao and James K. Galbraith 8. Measuring the evolution of inequality in the global economy James K. Galbraith and Lu Jiaqing 9. Economic regionalization, inequality, and financial crises James K. Galbraith and Lu Jiaqing 10. Inequality and state violence: a short report James K. Galbraith and George Purcell 11. Grading the performance of Latin American regimes, 1970-1995 James K. Galbraith and Vidal Garza Cantu 12. The evolution of industrial earnings inequality in Mexico and Brazil Paulo Du Pin Calmon, Pedro Conceicao, James K. Galbraith, Vidal Garza Cantu and Abel Hibert 13. The legacy of the HCI: an empirical analysis of Korean industrial policy James K. Galbraith and Junmo Kim 14. Inequality and economic development: concluding reflections Part IV. Technical Appendices: 15. Constructing long and dense time series of inequality using the Theil statistic Pedro Conceicao and James K. Galbraith 16. Cluster and discriminant analysis on time series as a social science research tool James K. Galbraith and Lu Jiaqing.


Enabling technologies for augmented reality (AR)/mixed reality have been improved and refined throughout the last years and more recently they seem to have finally passed the demo stage to become ready for practical industrial and commercial applications. But what are the measurable advantages in using them? This study tries to answer this question by presenting the results of a comprehensive evaluation study conducted in a real industrial environment on the widest number of real users involved in such kind of experiment so far. The assessment concerned an AR-based guidance system for assisting technicians during servicing operations on complex electronic equipment often featuring small components sometimes with a distance of a few millimetres for the ones from the others. The authors exploited the most referenced and acknowledged metrics available in literature for both objective and subjective evaluation of the data gathered, providing a detailed report about the users' experience, to finally shed light on the real benefits of AR to the industry and on the limits still present.


Although the HRD literature is fairly consistent in affirming the recognition that employee learning is critical to organizational performance, there has been little agreement about how best to demonstrate the contribution of employee learning to the organization's bottom line, with approaches varying from industry to industry and from organization to organization. Focusing on the professional services sector, an industry sector that has garnered little attention in terms of HRD measurement research, this paper draws on the analytical techniques from Grounded Theory to explore how 15 professional service firm (PSF) decision-makers who are responsible for their firm's learning and development strategy measure the business impact of professional employee learning. The outcome of this study is a preliminary theory, grounded in the interview data, that explains what learning opportunities are offered to professional employees and why, how the business impact of professional employee learning is measured, and how PSF decision-makers use those business outcome measures to make decisions. The unifying theme emerging from the study is Win Rate, a composite of multiple quantitative measures that include direct as well as indirect contributors to the firm's bottom line. Implications of our findings for HRD research and practice are also addressed.


Abstract : This study describes and analyzes the origins, creation, announcement, and dissemination of the U.S. NavyMarine CorpsCoast Guard Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower: Forward, Engaged, Ready (CS21R), published in March 2015


Safety concerns continue to mar the development, commercialization and acceptance of nanomaterials and nano-objects. To safeguard human and environmental health, and the economic potential of nanotechnologies, a diversity of hard and soft responses have been implemented by governments and regulators over the past five years. This article focuses on the evolving policy and regulatory landscape for nanotechnologies in Australia. Since the independent review examining the adequacy of relevant federal health and safety regulatory regimes in 2006-07 for nanotechnologies, the technology has continued to receive attention from the public, private and community sectors. This article traces these developments and debates. It notes that while critics continue to voice concern over the approach adopted by the federal government — especially in light of the recent legislative reforms in the European Union — the regulatory status quo has been challenged. Preference for softer regulatory approaches is evident, as too is a focus on scientific principles rather than contested definitions. We speculate that this light-touch approach to regulation shall continue for the foreseeable future.


The stress wave speed is the necessary condition to make sure pile length and pile defects position in low strain integrety testing of foundation pile with the stress wave echo method.Quantifying the stress wave speed is very difficult,because it is affected by multi-factors.This has been the bottleneck in point for developing test technology of foundation pile.In this paper,some factors affecting the stress wave speed were analyzed according to stress wave theroy and experiment results,the quantity relationships of the stress wave speed in pile and time and concrete age were determined.Lastly,five brief methods to quantifying the stress wave speed in pile were presented to control pile quality for test engineers according engineering practice.


The Ministry of National Education of Colombia (MEN), is increasingly concerned about the continuous improvement on teaching processes of teachers of foreign languages and has commissioned the assessment of this process to the Instituto Colombiano para la Evaluación de la Educación (Icfes), in order to assess the knowledge of those teachers and ensure that they conforms to the quality standards of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). The reduction of the estimation error is a key objective in the rating process of the tests implemented by the Icfes, in order to improve accuracy when evaluating parameters such as the difficulty of the test and the performance of those who take it. In this paper a brief comparison between the classical and the bayesian methodology of the Rasch model is provided, comparing the behavior and conservation of classical assumptions in the second methodology. This paper shows besides how the Bayesian methodology reproduces a decrease in the estimation error of the parameters of skill and difficulty against classic methodology.


Energy consumption data of individual appliances at home can be obtained by nonintrusive appliance load monitoring (NILM) which aims at disaggregating total amount of power consumption into that of each appliance. NILM can be implemented utilizing pattern recognition algorithms, one of which is Factorial Hidden Markov Model (FHMM) that was employed in previous researches. In spite of the known importance of real-time disaggregation system, it has not been actively studied compared to the batch system. This study suggests a prototype of real-time NILM system via ZigBee smart plug and FHMM algorithm.


Biomedical prosthetics utilizing electrical stimulation have limited, effective spatial resolution due to spread of electrical currents to surrounding tissue, causing nonselective stimulation. So, precise spatial resolution is not possible for traditional neural prosthetic devices, such as cochlear implants. More recent, alternative methods utilize optical stimulation, mainly infrared, sometimes paired with nanotechnology for stimulating action potentials. Infrared stimulation has its own drawbacks, as it may cause collateral heating of surrounding tissue. In previous work, we employed a plasmonic method for stimulation of electrically excitable neuroblastoma cell line, which had limited success. Here, we report the development of a hybrid electro-plasmonic stimulation platform for spatially and temporally precise neural excitation to address the above deficiencies. Primary trigeminal neurons were co-stimulated In Vitro in a whole-cell patch-clamp configuration with sub-threshold-level short duration (1-5 ms) electrical and visible light pulses (1-5 ms, 1-5 V, 10 Hz). The visible light pulses were aimed at a gold-nanoparticle coated nanoelectrode placed alongside the neuron, within 2 µm distance. Membrane action potentials were recorded with tri-fold higher success rate and five-fold better post-stimulation cell recovery rate than with pure optical stimulation alone. Also, electrical stimulus current input was being reduced by up to 40%. The sub-threshold levels of electrical stimuli in conjunction with visible light (532 nm) reliably triggered trains of action potentials. This single-cell hybrid activation was reliable and repeatable, without any damage as observed with pure optical stimulation. This work represents an empirical cellular study of the action potential membrane effects produced by the cultured primary sensory trigeminal neurons when co-stimulated with plasmonic and hybrid stimulation. Our hybrid neurostimulation method can be used towards development of high-acuity neural modulation prosthetic devices, tunable for individual needs, which would qualify as a preferred alternative over traditional electrical stimulation technologies.


Background: Intensive care unit (ICU) consumes large amount of resources to manage critically ill patients. It is important to evaluate the outcome and performance of ICU service for optimization of resource allocation.
 Methods: We analysed the demographic data and outcomes of patients admitted to our ICU between 1 January, 2007 and 31 December 2014. Results: Totally 8,037 records were analysed. The annual admission was around 1,000. The mean age of the patients ranged from 57.87 to 59.98 years old and there was male predominance. Almost half of the admissions were non-operative cases. For the post-operative admissions, about half of them had emergency surgeries and the other had elective surgeries. The mean Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) IV acute physiological score (APS) ranged from 57.78 to 64.01. The overall readmission rate was 4–5% and about 1.5% of patients were readmitted within 72 hours. The mean length of stay (LOS) was around 5 days and the median LOS was about 2.5 days. The ICU mortality rate was approximately 10% and the hospital mortality rate was approximately 20% respectively. After risk adjustment, the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) was about 0.8 and the LOS ratio was about 1. Conclusions: The case-mix of the patients in our ICU was comparable from 2007 to 2014. During the study period, there was no wide fluctuation of the ICU outcome and performance in terms of SMR and LOS ratio.


This paper introduces the function of Vericut which can realize CNC machining simulation, and gives an example to elaborate the general process of CNC milling machining simulation with CAXA Manufacture Engineer and Vericut. The analysis of this paper interprets that Vericut has advantage of CNC machining simulation.


Self-sovereign identity (SSI) enables the creation of user-centric applications where the user has complete control over his data. This research evaluates the performance of SSI-based applications; to do this, we implemented healthcare use cases using Hyperledger Indy and Hyperledger Aries frameworks, deployed it in a cloud environment, and executed their empirical evaluation. The results indicate that the bottleneck is the CPU; a simple setup can support up to 80 concurrent users without relevant errors and 120 simultaneous users before system degradation. Finally, we discuss the system bottlenecks and possible optimization techniques.


The deformation around a 500-nm deep Berkovich indent in a large grained Fe sample has been studied using high resolution electron back scatter diffraction (EBSD). EBSD patterns were obtained in a two-dimensional map around the indent on the free surface. A cross-correlation-based analysis of small shifts in many sub-regions of the EBSD patterns was used to determine the variation of elastic strain and lattice rotations across the map at a sensitivity of ∼±10−4. Elastic strains were smaller than lattice rotations, with radial strains found to be compressive and hoop strains tensile as expected. Several analyses based on Nye's dislocation tensor were used to estimate the distribution of geometrically necessary dislocations (GNDs) around the indent. The results obtained using different assumed dislocation geometries, optimisation routines and different contributions from the measured lattice rotation and strain fields are compared. Our favoured approach is to seek a combination of GND types which support the six measurable (of a possible nine) gradients of the lattice rotations after correction for the 10 measurable elastic strain gradients, and minimise the total GND line energy using an L1 optimisation method. A lower bound estimate for the noise on the GND density determination is ∼±1012 m−2 for a 200-nm step size, and near the indent densities as high as 1015 m−2 were measured. For comparison, a Hough-based analysis of the EBSD patterns has a much higher noise level of ∼±1014m−2 for the GND density.


Background: Facilities for intensive care are scarce in low-resource settings. Evaluating critical care service utilization and outcome among eclamptics requiring intensive care will provide insight regarding prioritization as to which group of eclamptics would benefit from earlier admission to Intensive Care Unit [ICU]. Methods: A two years prospective, hospital based case-control study on the outcome of eclamptics admitted to the ICU Results : A total of 40 patients were studied. The majority were above the age of 30 years nulliparous and did not receive ante natal care. The overall ICU case fatality rate was 50.0 %. Age greater than 29 years; being multiparous, having respiratory failure, HELLP syndrome and the presence of lateralizing signs at admission were significantly associated with the risk of mortality. Conclusion: More vigilant attention should be given to eclamptics older than 29 years with respiratory failure, HELLP syndrome multiparous mothers and presence of lateralizing signs at admission. Prioritizing ICU admission to these groups may improve survival.


ABSTRACT Molluscum contagiosum virus (MCV) is unique in being the only known extant, human-adapted poxvirus, yet to date, it is very poorly characterized in terms of host-pathogen interactions. MCV causes persistent skin lesions filled with live virus, but these are generally immunologically silent, suggesting the presence of potent inhibitors of human antiviral immunity and inflammation. Fewer than five MCV immunomodulatory genes have been characterized in detail, but it is likely that many more remain to be discovered given the density of such sequences in all well-characterized poxviruses. Following virus infection, NF-κB activation occurs in response to both pattern recognition receptor (PRR) signaling and cellular activation by virus-elicited proinflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF). As such, NF-κB activation is required for virus detection, antiviral signaling, inflammation, and clearance of viral infection. Hence, we screened a library of MCV genes for effects on TNF-stimulated NF-κB activation. This revealed MC132, a unique protein with no orthologs in other poxviral genomes, as a novel inhibitor of NF-κB. Interestingly, MC132 also inhibited PRR- and virus-activated NF-κB, since MC132 interacted with the NF-κB subunit p65 and caused p65 degradation. Unbiased affinity purification to identify host targets of MC132 revealed that MC132 acted by targeting NF-κB p65 for ubiquitin-dependent proteasomal degradation by recruiting p65 to a host Cullin-5/Elongin B/Elongin C complex. These data reveal a novel mechanism for poxviral inhibition of human innate immunity and further clarify how the human-adapted poxvirus MCV can so effectively evade antiviral immunity to persist in skin lesions. IMPORTANCE How human cells detect and respond to viruses is incompletely understood, but great leaps in our understanding have been made by studying both the early innate immune response and the ways that viruses evade it. Poxviruses adapt to specific hosts over time by evolving elegantly precise inhibitors targeting the rate-limiting steps of immunity. These inhibitors reveal new features of the antiviral response while also offering potent new tools for approaching therapeutic intervention in autoimmunity. Molluscum contagiosum virus (MCV) is the only known extant poxvirus specifically adapted to human infection, yet it remains poorly characterized. In this study, we report the identification of the MCV protein MC132 as a potent inhibitor of NF-κB, an essential regulatory crux of innate immunity. Furthermore, identification of the mechanism of inhibition of NF-κB by MC132 reveals an elegant example of convergent evolution with human herpesviruses. This discovery greatly expands our understanding of how MCV so effectively evades human immunity.


Unconformity between man's needs and the available resources , the principle of competitive market and increasing changes in organizations' environments, have moved man toward new commercial horizons like network marketing. Therefore, understanding network marketing and measurement of its effectiveness is highly important. The present research is a type of descriptive study aims to examine the impact of network marketing on rate of effectiveness among employees and customers of Zarnegah Parsian Co. in 2010. The research instrument is a researcher- made questionnaire and the Cronbach alpha and experts' comments were used to verify validity and reliability. The obtained data was analyzed via descriptive and inferential statistics methods. The obtained findings on network marketing for four effectiveness criteria of 400 samples including decrease of cost effective, customer's satisfaction, speed of services and collective knowledge showed a significant value for the impact of network marketing 12.724,9.818,9.293,and 9.293 respectively. According to the impact of network marketing on increase of the company effectiveness, this type of marketing can be a good alternative for common and traditional methods in all public and private Iranian companies for increase of the rate of effectiveness. The main result of the current research is that the network marketing has a direct impact on affectedness. The structural equations modeling measurement showed that the impact of network marketing on decrease of cost effective, speed of services, collective knowledge and customer's satisfaction is meaningful. Also, the results indicated that rating research variables in descending order includes cost effective, speed of services, customer's satisfaction and collective knowledge.


A process for producing a fuel container (1) comprising the steps of: (a) On an inner shell 2), which serves to receive a fuel, an elastomer layer (3) of rubber mixture is applied; b) the elastomer layer (3) is surrounded by a protective jacket (4) made of a fiber composite material; c) (with the elastomer layer 3) provided with the fuel tank (1) is inserted into a mold into which the fiber composite material was placed above, wherein the fiber composite material within the mold with the elastomer layer (3) is bonded; d) For the production of the protective jacket from the fiber composite material is first introduced a cover layer in the mold, then a coupling layer is applied to connect the outer layer with a fabric layer which is applied to the coupling layer, wherein the topcoat is a system based on epoxy gelcoat, which has a higher flash point than the elastomer layer and then another layer of fabric is applied under at least incorporation of a laminating resin, wherein said further fabric layer over brushed with the laminating resin ...


In Singapore, five species of geometrid moths in the genus Dysphania Hubner, have been previously recorded, with the mature larva of Dysphania malayanus (Guerin-Meneville, 1843), being recently documented (Leong et al., 2009). Here, the final instar larva and pupa of Dysphania glaucescens (Walker, 1861) are described and illustrated (possibly for the first time), based on a successful attempt at rearing to metamorphosis. The geographical range of Dysphania glaucescens encompasses Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo, with a recognised subspecies (Dysphania glaucescens tsukadai Yazaki, 1989) occurring on the Philippine island of Palawan (Holloway, 1996).


Background and purpose:  Tissue deposits of the anti‐arrhythmic drug amiodarone are a major source of side effects (skin discoloration, etc.). We addressed the mechanism of the concentration of amiodarone in cells, and characterized the resulting vacuolar cytopathology and its evolution towards macroautophagy.


The changing world of work requires that employees possess a repertoire of cultural competencies for managing their career development. As borders of trade, travel, and immigration shift throughout the world, people need to be prepared for working with others whose cultural background is different to their own. Key demographic and market trends that have impacted the cross-cultural nature of work, a framework for understanding cross-cultural transitions, and core competencies for managing transitions are discussed. Career development practices need to be expanded with both individuals and organizations in a world of work that is increasingly characterized by cross-cultural transitions.


This paper explores the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in revolutionizing medical billing processes worldwide. As healthcare systems face increasing complexities and challenges, AI offers innovative solutions to streamline billing operations, enhance accuracy, and improve financial outcomes. By automating the claims processing workflow, AI can significantly reduce the administrative burden on healthcare providers, allowing them to focus more on patient care. AI-powered coding accuracy systems can analyze medical records and suggest appropriate billing codes, reducing coding errors and claim rejections. AI can also optimize reimbursement strategies by analyzing historical data and identifying patterns to ensure optimal reimbursement rates for healthcare providers. To address the growing concern of healthcare fraud, AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data, detect suspicious patterns, and flag potentially fraudulent activities, thus preventing financial losses. Moreover, AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can enhance patient engagement by providing personalized support, answering billing-related queries, and guiding patients through the payment process. Adoption of AI in medical billing brings various benefits, it also presents challenges such as data privacy, algorithm bias, and the need for robust infrastructure and training. Successful case studies from various healthcare settings worldwide demonstrate the tangible advantages of AI implementation, such as reduced billing errors, accelerated reimbursement cycles, and improved patient satisfaction. By harnessing the power of AI, healthcare systems can achieve greater efficiency, financial sustainability, and improved patient experiences.


This paper collects the articles about the research on medicinal powder for boiling over the past 20 years. It elaborates the development of medicinal powder for boiling from its clinical application,experimental study and technology improvement. It provides the basis for the further promotion and research of medicinal powder for boiling.


The slightest scratch given the intima during the manipulations required in any blood-vessel work almost invariably spells failure in the form of a thrombus. Sharp-pointed instruments are, therefore, scrupulously avoided in all such work. Indeed, most men find their fingers the best and safest of all instruments. But since the work can at times be facilitated by a delicate pair of forceps, I have had one constructed which has a small, polished metal knob about the size of an ordinary pin-head on each end. These knobs enable one to grasp the vessel firmly without doing the slightest damage to the intima.


In this paper we examine whether the conventional result of a greater degree of integration leading to lower price-cost margins (i.e., the pro-competitive effect), would hold when two countries integrate by forming a common market. We propose a general framework of reference, in order to assess the extent of the pro-competitive effect when the role of other variables is allowed for, both for a "small" and "large" common market. By solving the model, the price-cost margin of domestic firms would depend on a set of variables in addition to trade costs with the partner country, which might eventually offset the conventional result.


The publishers of Physics in Medicine and Biology (PMB), IOP Publishing, in association with the journal owners, the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM), jointly award the Roberts prize for the best paper published in PMB during the previous year. The procedure for deciding the winner is a two-stage process. First, a shortlist of contenders is drawn up based on those papers that had the best referees' quality assessments, with a further quality check and endorsement by the editorial board. The papers on the shortlist are then reviewed by a specially convened IPEM committee consisting of members with fellow status. This committee reads the shortlisted papers and selects the winner. We have much pleasure in advising readers that the Roberts Prize for the best paper published in 2013 is awarded to Costas Arvanitis, Margaret Livingstone and Nathan McDannold from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA for their breakthrough paper that implements a real-time method to produce cavitation maps in vivo in the setting of transcranial MRI-guided focused ultrasound. The importance of this paper is that it suggests this hybrid ultrasound/MRI approach can help guide the development and facilitate the clinical translation of emerging microbubble-enhanced therapies in the brain.


Abstract The NIOSH Analytical Method 7400 for airborne fibers specifies the use of electrically conductive cowls for air sampling. Data collected from a number of laboratories indicate that a significant fraction of collected dust may be deposited on the inside of electrically conductive cowls during air sampling for man-made mineral fibers. The purpose of this article is to present a cowl rinsing procedure for airborne fiber sampling. This method is the consensus of an ad hoc group formed to evaluate existing cowl rinsing procedures. A number of issues related to cowl rinsing are also addressed.


ABSTRACT This paper illustrates how theoretical integration in criminology might be achieved, in part, through the use of such research methodologies as mediation and moderation. Analyzing data from the first three waves of the National Youth Survey (N = 1725, 53.2% male, mean age = 13.87 years), the current study utilized a moderated mediation methodology to test whether neighborhood disorder moderates the peer influence effect. In this study, peer influence was defined as a mediated relationship running from peer delinquency (Peer) to proactive criminal thinking (PCT) to serious offending. The simple mediated relationship was evaluated first and found to be significant. Moderated mediation analysis then revealed that neighborhood disorder moderated the effect of peer delinquency on PCT (a path of the indirect effect) and of PCT on serious offending (b path of the indirect effect). Consistent with predictions, the a path interaction was negative and the b path interaction was positive, although the indirect effect was significant at all levels of neighborhood disorder. These findings indicate that neighborhood disorder may suppress, though not eliminate, the effect of delinquent peers on PCT, while enhancing the effect of PCT on serious offending.


The blended and online learning ecosystem is a complex multistakeholder environment. Not until the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic hit did technology-enabled education become an integral feature of many higher educational systems, including Canada's. Its scope has expanded massively and rapidly in recent years, and as a result, research priorities in this emerging field must also adapt. While the needs and conditions in societies where the research is taking place are critical, true knowledge about pertinent factors is rarely readily available (Holmberg, 2005). The Finest Blend fills the gap by delving further into the research and practice of blended and online learning in Canadian higher education and introduces the reader to the complexities of transitioning into technology-mediated instructional designs and practices.


The concentration dependence of the fluorescence intensity of vinylpyrene-methyl methacrylate copolymers is studied. A model of photophysical processes causing excimer fluorescence is considered. The extinction coefficients of pyrene dimers at certain wavelengths within the absorption band of the molecule are calculated


BACKGROUND
Previous data suggest that bone demineralization may promote bone graft consolidation as well as proliferation and differentiation of pre-osteoblasts, but the biological mechanisms involved in this process need to be clarified. This study investigated the effects of bone demineralization with citric acid (CA) and tetracycline (TCN) on the repair of onlay bone grafts.

METHODS
Onlay bone grafts were performed on the calvaria of 126 Wistar rats. The contacting surfaces between bone graft and receptor bone bed were demineralized for 15, 30 and 60 seconds with TCN (50mg/ml), or 10% CA, (pH 1), constituting the following test groups (n = 18): TCN15, TCN30, TCN60, CA15, CA30 and CA60. Control grafts (C) were performed without demineralization (n = 18). After 7, 30 and 60 days, biopsies were obtained for quantitative and qualitative histological analysis (n = 6).

RESULTS
Demineralization accelerated the bone repair early from 7 days of healing. Higher percentage area of newly formed bone was observed in CA15 and TCN60 groups when compared to C in all evaluation periods (p = 0.02). At 30 days, C specimens had lower percentage of consolidated surfaces than TCN60, TCN30 and CA15 (p = 0.0015). At 60 days, CA15, CA60, and TCN60 presented bone surfaces almost completely filled by newly formed bone, against about 75% in C specimens (p = 0.0015).

CONCLUSIONS
Both CA and TCN were effective in accelerating osteogenesis at the interface between bone grafts and receptor bone beds, especially when applied for 15s and 60s, respectively. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


Now in its 10th year, the current economic expansion is the second longest in American history, and the sustained economic growth has begot a strong economy; Gross Domestic Product will grow well above three percent in 2018, unemployment is below four percent, and wage growth is exceeding (modest) inflation. Yet it pays to be cautious. Although most economists believe the economy will grow through 2020, continued expansion is not inevitable. In fact, an in-depth examination of the global economy reveals several weak points that could potentially threaten the current expansion.


A 22‐year‐old woman presented with a 9‐month duration of pain and continuously enlarging lump appearing at 4th week gestation which was at the beginning "walnut‐sized" of the right breast. Chest CT showed that multiple slightly enlarged lymph nodes can be seen in the right axilla, and the structure of large mass is not clear with normal breast structure. The enhanced scan showed that the mass was obviously enhanced, and there were multiple areas without en‐ hancement (Figure 1). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed that the right breast was obviously enlarged with a visible large mass whose signals are mixed. T1WI and T2WI were mixed high and low signals, and mixed with flaky and flaky fat‐like signals. DWI showed an uneven, slightly hyperintense or hyperintense signal. On contrast‐ enhanced scan, the mass showed uneven and marked enhancement with large and irregular patchy enhancement areas. Small pleural effusion on both sides (Figure 2), which suggested liposarcoma of


As advanced computing technology becomes part of the control system for power plants, the opportunity arises to address the real goals of plant control. Digital control systems are able to monitor more information and to accomplish more simultaneous tasks than human operators. In future nuclear plants, intelligent supervisory control systems should be responsible for maneuvering the plant in a fashion to minimize the component stress damage. The control system should generate strategies based on traditional operational objectives and on the current plant state and the stress history of various components and transients. In this paper, the authors elaborate on the desirability of including component mechanical stress information in digital control systems. Explicit consideration of stress constraints in the control strategy can significantly reduce the impact of transients on critical components, providing a significant contribution towards meeting current lifetime design goals of approximately 60 years. For illustration, one of the Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor design duty cycles events is discussed from this perspective for three hypothetical response scenarios. 7 refs., 4 figs.


The corrosion properties of Zr were studied with the addition of Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, W, Re, Y, Nb, Mo, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ta, Os, and Ir (from 0.05 to 1.6%) in a 50% solution of HNO/sub 3/ at 35 deg C on the basis of 48 g weight loss. The greatest increase in the resistance of Zr to corrosion resulted from the addition of Fe, Co, Ni, Ru, Rh, Pd, Os, or Ir. The addition of Y, V, Nb, and Ta increased the corrosion resistance of Zr less, while Ti, Cr, Mn, Mo, W, and Re increase it still less. The corrosion resistance of Zr is discussed on the basis of the electron structure of the metal. (JPRS)


Dielectric investigations of the photoinduced effects in the vicinity of the smectic A (Sm-A)–antiferroelectric smectic C (Sm-CA*) transition of a guest–host system consisting of photoactive azobenzene-based guest molecules and non-photoactive host molecules have been carried out. The frequency-dependent dielectric data is analysed in terms of a molecular mode and a high-frequency mode. We observe that the dielectric parameters associated with the two modes show primary as well as secondary photoferroelectric effects, in agreement with the effects observed in our previous study (Nair et al 2006 Phys. Rev. E 73 011712, referred to as [1] in the present article) for polarization and response time. Here the primary photoelectric effect is associated with changes in the polar ordering and/or transverse molecular dipole moment at a constant reduced temperature and the secondary effect is due to the radiation-induced reduction in the transition temperature. The temporal variation of the relaxation parameters shows that the photoinduced isothermal transition as well the thermal back relaxation occurs on fast timescales.


Cell-free supernatant derived from broth cultures of Mycoplasma arthritidis functions as an effective T cell mitogen for lymphocytes from H2k and H2d strain mice. Lymphocytes from animals of the H2b, H2q, and H2s haplotypes failed to respond to this mitogen. By employing lymphocytes derived from congenic and recombinant strains we established the H2 linkage and mapped the controlling gene to the I-E/I-C subregion. In addition, these studies suggested that a correlation existed between responsiveness to this microbial product and the presence of the Ia7 specificity, a product of the I-E subregion.


This study investigates the refusal and acceptance strategies realization in sundanese context among students of a private university in Kuningan. The study is purposely designed to investigate the types of refusal and acceptance strategies used in Sundanese context. This study employed a qualitative method as a research design. A Discourse Completion Task (DCT) was used to collect the data which was spread into 30 respondents. The questionnaire was in Bahasa Sunda because the respondents were Sundanese people, so it can be easier to be analyzed. The findings showed that there were 240 utterances consisted of 150 utterances of refusal and 90 utterances of acceptance. The refusal strategies consisted of 12 strategies and the acceptance strategies consisted of 6 strategies. Most of the respondents which are Sundanese are polite as it can be seen from their responses when they were asked to accompany their lecturer or when they refused to the person with higher power. They always say punten, hapunten sateuacana or it can be called �sorry�. The term �sorry� showed that they try to be polite when talking with the higher power and distance. Yet, they use different talking when they talk to their friends who have the same power. So, they can place where they should be polite and to whom they talk. ���Keyword: acceptance strategy, refusal strategy, sundanese culture.


This paper introduces two different models in Neural Machine Translation task and evaluates their performances. In the evaluation, the research is based on the Chinese-English news and English-Chinese news machine translation evaluation task. For the translation of the Chinese-English orientation, we used traditional hierarchical phrase model. In the English-Chinese translation direction, we used not only the traditional hierarchical phrase model but also the RNN neural network model and the attention model. At the same time, we compared and analyzed the translation results. In the remainder of this article, we introduce the system framework, data process approach and evaluation results in various evaluation tasks. Key-Words: Machine Translation; Hierarchical Phrase Model; Neural Network; Attention Model


Earthen levees of three isolated salt ponds known locally as the Alviso Island Ponds were intentionally breached in March 2006 to allow tidal exchange of the ponds with water from Coyote Creek. The water exchange transformed the previously fishless hypersaline ponds into lower salinity habitats suitable for fish life. This study documented fish utilization of the ponds, adjacent reaches of Coyote Creek, and an upstream reach in nearby Artesian Slough during May-July 2006. By the time the study was initiated, water quality conditions in the ponds were similar to conditions in adjacent reaches of Coyote Creek. The only variable exhibiting a strong gradient within the study area was salinity, which increased progressively from upstream to downstream in Coyote Creek. A total of 4,034 fish represented by 18 species from 14 families was caught during the study. Judging from cluster analysis of presence-absence data that excluded rare fish species, the 10 sampling units (3 ponds, 6 reaches in Coyote Creek, and 1 reach in Artesian Slough) formed two clusters or groups, suggesting two species assemblages. The existence of two groups was also suggested by ordination with non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMS). One group, which was composed of the three ponds and four of the lowermost reaches of Coyote Creek, was characterized by mostly estuarine or marine species (e.g., topsmelt, Atherinops affinis; northern anchovy, Engraulis mordax; and longjaw mudsucker, Gillichthys mirabilis). The second group, which was composed of the two uppermost reaches of Coyote Creek and the one reach of Artesian Slough, was characterized by freshwater species (e.g., Sacramento sucker, Catostomus occidentalis) and by an absence of the estuarine/marine species noted in the first assemblage. Judging from a joint plot of selected water quality variables overlaying the ordination results, salinity was the only important variable associated with spatial distribution of fish species. Water temperature, dissolved oxygen, and pH had little influence on fish distribution during this study. ALVISO ISLAND PONDS UTILIZATION FOLLOWING RESTORATION 39


Lifetime or long-term employment is key to understanding Japan's approach to employment. Typically, an employee enters a company immediately following graduation and enjoys secure and stable employment until he or she reaches the mandatory retirement age, which is usually sixty.He or she receives systematic in-house education and training (so-called On-the-Job Training) and experiences various types of work under a program of periodic transfers.


Abstract Current functions and future directions of Australian hospital psychologists were assessed in a survey returned by 34 administrators of large acute general medical hospitals throughout Australia. The results indicated that although there appeared to he a large number of roles for psychologists, their contribution was most likely to be restricted to five treatment areas (neurology, psychosomatic medicine, death and dying, pediatrics, substance abuse). Future trends suggested an increase in three major service categories (pain control, substance abuse, psychosomatic medicine) and three consulting areas (organisational development, employee relations, research and program evaluation). Reasons for underutilisation of hospital psychologists were discussed along with possible strategies for increasing their range of services.


Analysis and recognition of human facial expressions from images and video forms the basis for understanding image content at a higher semantic level. Expression recognition forms the core task of intelligent systems based on human– computer interaction (HCI). The study explores the use of Artificial Neural Networks in performing expression recognition. The system analysis seven basic types of human expressions – neutral, happy, sad, disgust, anger, surprise and fear. The ability of humans to recognize a wide variety of facial expressions is unparalleled. Researchers in the recent past have been trying to automate this task on a computer, employing a combination of image/ video processing techniques, along with machine learning techniques like ANNs. The system has been made by doing changes in Gabor filter & ANN and result shows more accuracy to detect the Facial Expression..


The paper considers that although Hetuvidyā doesn't expatiate clearly logic laws in common meaning,it expresses preliminary logic laws by mealanguage in its considerable logic thought,which indicates common between Buddhist logic and the world logic as well as its particularity.It is worth researching thoroughly.


The electroreduction of hydrogen peroxide was studied at a chloroperoxidase-modified graphite electrode. The reduction of H2O2 starts at more negative potentials than 0.45 V versus SCE at pH 7.0. The steady-state reduction currents are greater at acidic pH values, and in the presence of chloride ions in solution. The apparent Michaelis–Menten constant and sensitivity were evaluated to be equal to 105 µmol l–1 and 1.3 mA l mol–1 for the electrode responses to the H2O2 in 0.1 mol l–1 phosphate buffer solution free of chloride ions. On the basis of these results direct electron transfer is postulated between the active site of chloroperoxidase and the graphite electrode.


Sobel-Zernike moments operator has some advantages of both runtime and location accuracy. For well understanding this algorithm, some influencing factors on location accuracy and runtime are discussed in the paper. Test results show that average-adaptive smoothing operator can evidently improve location accuracy. The reason is that the combined smoothing operator can eliminate noise and make edge sharp. The relationship between new criterion amp and old criterion k is obtained by theoretical analysis. The ratio k/amp is equal to 1.5 when edge parameter l is predetermined as a small value and the influence of amp on location accuracy to judge edge can be ignored. The calculating result shows that the runtime of Sobel-Zernike and Zernike moments operator is equal at 87.75% of edge points. Since the ratio of edge points is low than 50% in real image, the runtime of Sobel-Zernike moments operator is always shorter than that of Zernike moments operator.


The study aims to examine as to whether there exists gender differences in management style among a group of 124 men and 63 women managers of public organizations in Malaysia. Using Ministry Style Matrix of Berkley (1995), results indicate that men managers are most likely to practice commander style of management, followed by maintenance, shepherd and entrepreneur. On the other hand, women managers tend to portray the style of shepherd, entrepreneur, commander and maintenance. The study concludes that the managerial workforce is strongly gender constructed. The study implies that management should capitalize on gender variations in management style to the advantage of the organizations.


This study aimed to identify the effects of Basic Life Support course for healthcare providers on the knowledge and attitude of the health science college students. The study was a quasi-experimental design with a non-equivalent pre-post test. The subjects included 140 health science college students from a D college in D city. BLS course for healthcare providers was given to the experimental group from August 3 to August 29, 2010. The knowledge and attitude of cardiopulmonary resuscitation were measured. The data were analyzed with x 2 test, Fisher's exact test, independent t-test, paired t-test and ANCOVA using the SPSS/PC 12.0 win. For the CPR knowledge, a significant increase was observed in the experimental group (F=47.227, p<.001). For the CPR attitude, the experimental group were significantly increased compared to the control group (F=40.204, p<.001). The study showed that BLS Course for Healthcare Providers has positive effects on CPR knowledge and attitude for the health science college students. Subject related to CPR through the division of health science needs to be recommended and systemic and standard educational programs should be developed.


This paper illustrates the versatility of mono- and heterobinuclear complexes with dissymmetric compartmental ligands in designing molecular and supramolecular heterometallic systems. Mononuclear complexes with side-off bicompartmental ligands derived from o-vanillin act efficiently, through their empty compartment, as hydrogen-bond receptors and as second coordination sphere ligands. These Schiff- bases are also suitable for synthesizing 3d-3d′ and 3d-4f heterobinuclear complexes. Both 3d-3d′ and 3d-4f complexes can be employed as nodes in obtaining coordination polymers with various dimensionalities and network topologies, as well as interesting magnetic and optical properties.