Four species of spinocyrtiid brachiopods assigned to the genera Subcuspidella MITTMEYER, 1965 et Tenuicostella MITTMEYER & GEIB, 1967 are described. Subcuspidella cf. subcuspidata (SCHNUR, 1851) occurs in the Hierges and St-Joseph Formations (Upper Emsian) and S. beugniesi n. sp. in the Hierges Formation. S. asselberghsi n. sp. has been collected in the Pesche Formation (Lower Emsian) and Tenuicostella dumonti n. sp. in the La Roche Formation (Pragian).


At the beginning of 2012 the Politecnico di Milano, in collaboration with the Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, launched Polisocial, one of the first public engagement programmes with an academic nature in the Italian context. At the end of 2011 a political change within the institution favoured this launch: the new Rector presented an innovative work plan introducing new issues in the political agenda that will guide the development of the university in the coming years. The political programme is based on three main challenges: 1] internationalisation, aimed at achieving a higher degree of competitiveness in education at the global level; 2] cross-disciplinarity, intended to foster the interfaces among the different disciplines existing inside the Politecnico and, beyond that, in the broader system of universities in Milan; 3] public engagement, aiming to enhance and reinforce the culture of social responsibility and public commitment, thus creating an academic institution more and more able to serve communities and deal with emerging social issues.


Two intervarietal hybrids of common wheat, Triticum aestivum L., are meiotically analyzed using the C-banding staining method. The C-banding pattern of nine meiotic chromosomes (4A, 7A, and the seven of the B genome) permitted their unequivocal recognition at first metaphase plates. The pairing frequency of each B-genome chromosome arm was scored. Data on the pairing frequency of the arms, separately considered, are applied to calculate expected pairing of whole chromosomes and whole genomes. The application of mathematical models to predict the genome pairing using either equal or different frequencies per chromosome arm is discussed.Key words: meiotic analysis, Triticum aestivum L., C-banding.


Hydrologists use double-mass analysis to verify the consistency of a precipitation or streamflow record. Precipitation of a station is plotted against the combined precipitation of the surrounding stations. The consistency of the record is verified if a single straight line fitted through the points is reasonable. The analysis is done on the computer by fitting a straight line and a fourth-degree polynomial through the points and comparing the two sums of squares of deviations of the points from the fitted curves. If a record is found to be inconsistent, it is adjusted by bringing the deviated points along a desired single straight line. The method should be of value to the hydrologists having access to computers.


Neutron diffraction has been used to investigate the magnetic correlations in single crystals of the spin ice materials Ho2Ti2O7 and Dy2Ti2O7 in an external magnetic field applied along either the [001] or [110] crystallographic directions. With the field applied along [001] a long range ordered ground state is selected from the spin ice manifold. With the field applied along [110] the spin system is separated into parallel (alpha) and perpendicular (beta) chains with respect to the field. This leads to partial ordering and the appearance of quasi-one-dimensional magnetic structures. In both field orientations this frustrated spin system is defined by the appearance of metastable states, magnetization plateaus and unusually slow, field regulated dynamics.


High ground‐level ozone concentrations and high air temperatures present two health‐relevant natural hazards. The most severe health outcomes are generally associated with concurrent elevated levels of both variables, representing so‐called compound ozone and temperature (o‐t‐) events. These o‐t‐events, their relationship with identified main meteorological and synoptic drivers, as well as ozone and temperature levels themselves and the linkage between both variables, vary temporally and with the location of sites. Due to the serious health burden and its spatiotemporal variations, the analysis of o‐t‐events across the European domain represents the focus of the current work. The main objective is to model and project present and future o‐t‐events, taking region‐specific differences into account. Thus, a division of the European domain into six o‐t‐regions with homogeneous, similar ground‐level ozone and temperature characteristics and patterns built the basis of the study. In order to assess region‐specific main meteorological and synoptic drivers of o‐t‐events, statistical downscaling models were developed for selected representative stations per o‐t‐region. Statistical climate change projections for all central European o‐t‐regions were generated to assess potential frequency shifts of o‐t‐events until the end of the 21st century. The output of eight Earth System Models from the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project considering SSP245 and SSP370 scenario assumptions was applied. By comparing midcentury (2041–2060) and late century (2081–2100) time slice differences with respect to a historical base period (1995–2014), substantial increases of the health‐relevant compound o‐t‐events were projected across all central European regions.


As is well known within international tax circles by now, the U.S. Congress enacted FATCA in response to publicity surrounding well known foreign institutions, most especially in Switzerland, that helped US customers hide income and assets from the IRS. That publicity continues, reinforcing the need for the protection of the US tax base against erosion through criminal activity. Thus FATCA emerges as a defensive move against criminal behavior. But in the absence of reciprocity from the US itself, the reverse proposition remains possible: the United States perversely positions itself to gain from the very behavior it seeks to eliminate in other jurisdictions. This brief look at what countries give and what they get under an IGA with the US signals the vital role of reciprocity in making sure countries use international agreements to gain mutual advantage through cooperation rather than a unilateral edge in a dangerous game of undermine-thy-neighbor.


Efficient utilization of existing resources, planning for the development of effective supply chain solutions and integration with end-user terminals and processes have been the key factors in determining the usage of ICT-based solutions. With the advent of ERP/MIS solutions and their successful implementations thereafter, it became quite clear that ERP would not only play a role in operational enhancement of processes but also become a way of gaining a strategic and tactical advantage over the competitors. One such industry which witnessed the success stories and failure incidents due to ERP is the aircraft manufacturing industry. The most remarkable feature about this industry is the scale of operations and the amount of mobility that is involved in the development of an aircraft. Planning for manufacturing of an aircraft requires handling complex and intertwined operations based on a supply chain network spread across the globe. In such a scenario, big aircraft manufacturing organizations view ERP as a tool for strategic management providing them a competitive edge and helping them reduce cost-of-operations and complexity of procedures.


The purpose of the present paper is to examine the relationship between the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and students' performance in Higher Education. Earlier economic research has failed to provide a clear consensus on the effect of ICTs' investments on student's achievement. Our paper aims at summarizing the main findings of the literature and to give two complementary explanations. The first one focuses on the indirect effects of ICT on standard explanatory factors. Since student's performance is mainly explained by student's characteristics, educational environment and teachers characteristics, ICT may impact those determinants and consequently the outcome of education. The differences observed in students' performances are thus more related to the differentiated impact of ICT on standard explanatory factors. The second thesis advocates that ICT uses need a change in the organization of the Higher Education. While ICT equipment and uses rates are growing very fast in the European Union, the adoption of complementary organizational designs is very slow and differs from one institution to another. This may explain the observed differences in student's achievement. * This Work is partially funded by the European Commission, eLene-EE project: Creating models for the efficient use of elearning. Introducing Economics of elearning – eLene-EE. European Commission (EAC/23/05 SE001). General Directorate for Education and Culture. Participants: University of Umeå, CANEGE (University of Nancy 2-Vidéoscop, University of Nancy, University of Paris-Sud), UOC, METIDMilano Polithecnic, Maria Curie Sklodowska University (Polish Virtual University). February 2006-July 2008.


Extending the first demonstration of the PPARα- and γ-related anti-proliferative and anti-inflammatory properties via up-regulation of haem-oxygenase-1 (HO-1),1 known for its cytoprotective functions, Ali et al. 2 reported in the March issue of the journal that HO-1 is also up-regulated by PPARδ ligands/activators, with an essential role in the PPARδ-induced HO-1 endothelial cytoprotective effects played by the PPARδ ligand PGC1α. Given the role of endothelial dysfunction in activation of the atherogenetic process, the vasculoprotective and anti-oxidant effects of HO-1, and the induction of endothelial anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory defences via HO-1 stimulated by PPARδ activation,2 Ali et al. conclude that the PPARδ–HO-1 system might have the potential as a target of anti-atherosclerotic therapy. However, extrapolation of the cytoprotective functions of the PGC1α–PPARδ–HO-1 …


The psychiatric side effects of interferon, often responsible for dose reduction or treatment discontinuation, represent a major limitation in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C (CHC).


The railway line in the Biała Lądecka Valley had many advantages such as its natural surroundings, and its main element was being part of an architectural series of station buildings. In the 1990s the popularity of the railway generally decreased, and this affected particularly the local and regional lines. The suspension of railway lines, followed by their definitive closure, is due, among other things, to the lack of investment and necessary repairs, but also to the lack of passengers and profitability. Some station buildings were used for other purposes, others were removed or fell into disrepair. The revitalization of railway lines in the Biała Lądecka Valley received a great deal of attention. That line has unique landscaping as well as technical qualities. Making new use of railway lines in the area Kłodzko area, as for example the railway line Klodzko-Stronie Śląskie, could improve the attractivity of the region and provide some additional diversion for tourists and spa guests and at the same time contribute to better communication with the larger urban centers on a regional and even a national scale.


Mine has been a long but off-and-on fascination with the theory and philosophy of science, passionate when a young scholar, then subdued by the realities of being a practising scientist, revived by the desire to understand what happened during the revolution in the earth sciences, only to be disappointed once again. Disillusionment, at each stage, followed the discovery that the philosophers of science spoke of an activity entirely outside my experience as a daily practitioner of science. More recently, sociologists of science have come to grips with the subject; they do seem to suffer not only from this disadvantage but also from the patent absurdity of their conclusions. I am greatly indebted to Ronald Giere for a lucid first chapter that has clarified and put into perspective many of these perceptions and experiences. Starting from the sensible fact that science is an activity of the mind, Giere sets out to present an almost wholly novel cognitive approach to understanding and explaining science, with a broad definition of'cognitive' that includes logic and some parts of philosophy, cognitive biology and psychology, parts of linguistics and the cognitive social sciences. The core of his argument is that individual scientists create mental images, schemata, representations, of the world, of nature, of the scientific issue at hand, then use judgemental skills to identify whether these representations suitably correspond to reality. Models and theories, similarly formed, are tested in similar ways. The main thrust of his argument, dealt with in detail in the abstract and in practice, is directed towards the nature of the judgemental processes that include, besides a prime desire to determine whether the representation/model/theory corresponds satisfactorily to reality, a broad array of secondary factors of a professional and personal, psychological and social, and even economic nature. Upon the first chapter praised above follow two dealing with general aspects of theories of science, and with models and theories, the latter illuminated by clear applications. Chapter 4 deals with constructive realism, followed by a very interesting one on realism in the laboratory that is especially comfortable to the practising scientist. Having thus dealt with the creation of representations (individually) and with models and theories (individually as well as communally), the author proceeds to the critical issue of judgement, the choice between realistic and non-realistic models, i.e. those that fit reality and those that do not. Finally, and fortunately for earth scientists, he chooses the geological revolution as his subject for an attempt to illustrate the power of a cognitive approach in the explanation of a case in the history of science. This chapter is a clear synopsis of the content of the preceding chapters but, I must warn, its reading cannot substitute for the struggle through the preceding 200-odd pages. I note at this point that, although the author has made a commendable effort in cross-disciplinary communication, even a major dictionary sometimes fails to clarify the specialized use of the English language. Does the author (and the last chapter specifically) succeed? Yes, to some degree; the sense of an artificial world entirely separate from the reality of science so often experienced when Kuhn, Popper or Laudan appear on the plate tectonics stage, even when not invoked merely to demonstrate some author's erudition, does not return here; this final chapter, and the book as a whole as well, leave one with a sense of recognition: this, indeed, does resemble science as I have experienced it and not infrequently sharpens and clarifies this experience. Does it really explain science? To me, it did not. That should not, however, deter a thoughtful practitioner of our (or any other) science with some time on hand from undertaking the reading. The book is rewarding in many ways. Tj. H. van Andel


Short-range structural disorder of the high-{kappa} dielectric BaTaO{sub 2}N is revealed by the analysis of the extended x-ray-absorption fine-structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy measured at the Ta L{sub III} edge. Although previous neutron, x-ray, and electron diffraction studies have shown BaTaO{sub 2}N to crystallize in a centrosymmetric, cubic structure, these EXAFS spectra show a wide distribution of first shell Ta-(O,N) distances with further implications to nonuniformity of the existing octahedral distortions. A distortion model based upon a density functional theory energy minimization for a 4x4x4 supercell of BaTaO{sub 2}N was used to successfully interpret these EXAFS data. We find that structural distortions with very short correlation lengths exist in this material and that these distortions are consistent with the large dielectric permittivity of BaTaO{sub 2}N .


Redundant or distributed systems are increasingly used in system design so that the required reliability and availability can be easily achieved. However, such an approach requires additional resources that can be very costly. Hence, how to design and test such a system in the most cost-effective way is of concern to the developers. A general cost model and a solution algorithm are presented for the determination of the optimal number of hosts and optimal system debugging time that minimize the total cost while achieving a certain performance objective. During testing, software faults are corrected and the reliability shows an increasing trend, and hence system reliability increases. A general system model is constructed based on a Markov process with software reliability and availability obtained from software reliability growth models. The optimization problem is formulated based on the cost criteria and the solution procedure is described. An application example is presented.


In this article the theme of heroism of the Russian people in the Patriotic War in 1812, tells of the extraordinary manifestations of patriotism representatives of almost all sectors of society from simple peasants to great generals. It is concluded that the need for examples of heroism of the army and the people in the patriotic education of the youth of today.


Several studies have found significant reductions on maximal repetition performance after static stretching (SS). The purpose of this study was to investigate the acute effect of AS on repetitions performed by the agonist muscles. The study included 11 individuals with previous experience in resistance training (24.18 ± 3.54 years, 75.21 ± 9.32kg, 177 ± 0.71cm). In four sessions were performed 4 experimental protocols (48h apart): LC - leg curl without AS; LCS: leg curl after AS; AC - arm curl on scott seat without AS; ACS - arm curl on scott seat after AS. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and paired T test were adopted to compare the differences between protocols. The alpha value of p< .05 was adopted for all inferential analysis. Significant increases (p =.011) were observed in the number of repetitions in the ACS (12.45 ± 1.96) compared to the AC (11.18 ± 1.40). It was also found a significant increase (p =.043) in LCS (14.72 ± 1.55) compared to LC (13.18 ± 2.89). The EF for LCS was classified as small (EF = .53). Therefore, the AS can promote significant improvement in repetitions performance of the agonists.


The large Bayanbaolege Ag polymetallic ore deposit is located in the Tuquan-Linxi Fe (Sn)-Cu-Pb-Zn-Ag-Nb (Ta) polymetallic metallogenic belt, which is an important part of the Great Xing'an Range metallogenic province, northeast China. The sulfide–quartz vein-type orebodies in the deposit are mainly hosted in the Cretaceous granodiorite porphyry and Late Permian Linxi formation. The U-Pb dating of the zircon from the post-ore diorite porphyrite yields an age of 124.8 ± 1.1 Ma, which constrains the mineralization time at the Early Cretaceous. The Sr-Nd isotope values (87Sr/86Sr)i = 0.708576~0.710536; εNd (t) = −0.51~+0.69; the Hf isotope values 176Hf/177Hf = 0.2827278~0.2830095, the εHf (t) = +3.1~+11.2, TDM2 = 615~1341 Ma of the metallogenic granodiorite porphyry. The Hf isotope values 176Hf/177Hf = 0.2828596~0.2829451, and the εHf (t) = +5.7~+8.8 of the diorite porphyrite, TDM2 = 827~1108 Ma, indicating that the ore-forming materials were the possible involvement of heterogeneous juvenile sources including moderately depleted mantle and newly underplated lower crust. The major and trace elements (including REEs) implied that these intrusions are the I-type granite and linked intimately to the westward subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Ocean plate. From these whole-rock major and trace elements and zircon U-Pb ages, as well as Sr-Nd-Hf isotope data, we conclude that the ore-associated I-type granites in the Bayanbaolege deposit formed in an extensional tectonic setting of the Early Cretaceous, and are compactly related to the retreat of the Paleo-Pacific Ocean subducted plate linked intimately to the westward subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Ocean plate rather than the closure of the Mongol–Okhotsk Ocean. Furthermore, by integrating geological background work and previous research work, implying the mineralization age of the Bayanbaolege deposit should have been formed in the 125–130 Ma.


ABSTRACT----What are the all final possible states that a physical system can reach when some energy is applied to the system? This question can be known as one of the physical questions that relate to the probability in physics. The second law of thermodynamics is known as the base of the probability concept that is raised in modern physics, while this concept is extracted in physical theories by different meanings. As a new approach to investigate the probability, at first, the energy space concept is extracted and then by applying the effects of the second law of thermodynamics on it, the energy structure is presented. The energy structure of the system is a new perspective to investigate the probability, and by using it, the relation between all possible accessible states, when some energy is applied to the system, can be determined.


Concrete-filled steel tube (CFT) structure has been gaining popularity in high-rise building construction because of itsstructural effectiveness. Studies on concrete-filled steel tube have been focused on factors such as uni-axial compression,bending, and eccentric compression, and there have been few investigations on CFT member behavior under combined stresses.In order to clarify the behavior of the semi-slim beam-to-concrete filled steel tube column connections under combined cyclicloading condition, experimental studies were carried out on rigid connections with test parameters: diaphragm-yield type orbeam-yield type, the size of the opening hole of the inner diaphragm, and the presence of slab. Test results showed that theconnections had good rotational capacity without strength degradation when the beam was designed to yield first and the jointswere designed such that the beam yields first before the inner diaphragms. It was also found that semi-slim floor beam systemcan be used in CFT structure because of the similarity of its test result with regular composite beam.


Machine Translation is an important part of Natural Language Processing. Machine Translation refers to using machine to convert one natural language to another language. In this paper, transliteration of machine for English to Punjabi and Hindi languages pair has been done by using statistical rule based approach. Various statistical rules are constructed with the help of syllabification approach. In this paper Name entity recognition (NER) techniques are explained and how they find name entity from the text. Translation model calculate the probability of target sentences given the source sentence and decoder maximizes the probability of translated text of target language. Paper contains five sections. In the first section introduction of natural language processing has been described. Second section explains machine translation and its approaches. In third, how name entity can be recognized and method of recognition. Last section represents the literature of all research.


As a jurist,Cicero constructed his own system of law thought by integrating inheritance of ancient Greek law thought with Roman's political situation at that time.His law thought played an important part in the history of western law thought development.Therefore,exploring his educational thought on law and analyzing its basis,content and ways of studying law can not only enrich the research on his educational thought but also provide important enlightenment for today's law education.


The objective of this study was to compare the effects of oilseed-based supplements, rapeseed and linseed, against a barley-based control, on the fatty acid composition, and subsequent solid fat ratio, of the milk fat from dairy cows. In addition, as a means of understanding the digestive processes which influence the milk fat composition, ruminal extracts were collected from the cows and analysed for fatty acid composition. Four lactating dairy cows each fitted with a rumen fistula were provided with silage and one of four concentrate diets. The main constituent of the concentrate supplements was either rapeseed (ground or unground), linseed (unground) or a barley control. The diets were offered in accordance with a 4 x 4 Latin square arrangement. The oilseed-supplemented concentrates provided the cows with 620-640g fatty acids day -1 . Experimental treatments were provided to the cows for 2 weeks, after which ruminal extracts were collected over a 24 h period and a milk sample was taken. All extracts were analysed for fatty acid composition. The diets fed influenced the long-chain fatty acid composition of the ruminal extracts and milk fat. The proportion of C18:1n-9 in the ruminal extracts increased from 202-224 to 282-321 g kg -1 of the total fatty acids when the cows were provided with the rapeseed-based diets. The linseed-based diet increased the C18:1n-9 proportion of the ruminal extracts from 164 to 218 g kg -1 of the total fatty acids. Both rapeseed-based diets also resulted in a higher proportion of C18:0 in the ruminal extract, possibly owing to biohydrogenation of the dietary fatty acids. This proportion of C18:0 in the ruminal extract was lowest immediately after feeding, increasing to a maximum 4-6 h later. Both rapeseed-based concentrates increased the proportion of C18:1n-9 in the milk fat to approximately 300 g kg -1 of the total fatty acids as compared with 214 g kg 1 for the control. The proportion of C18:1n-9 in the milk fat from the cows offered the linseed-based concentrate was 246 g kg -1 of the total fatty acids. There were also significant decreases in the proportions of C16:0 in the milk fat from the cows offered all oilseed-based concentrates. There was no difference between the fatty acid compositions of the milk fats from the cows fed the ground or unground rapeseed-based supplements. The oilseed-based supplements also resulted in significant decreases in the solid fat content of the milk fat at temperatures ranging from 0 to 35 °C, which would be indicative of a softer, more spreadable butter. L'objectif de cette etude est de comparer les effets de supplements alimentaires a base de graines oleagineuses, colza et lin, sur la composition en acide gras et le ratio solide/matiere grasse des matieres grasses du lait, par rapport a un supplement a base d'orge. De plus, pour comprendre le procede de digestion qui influence la composition du lait, des extraits du rumen sont collectes sur les vaches et analyses pour leur composition en matieres grasses.


Acanthopanax species (Araliaceae) has been traditionally used to tonic, analgesic, stimulant of immune system, and replenishment of body function. The...


UNLABELLED
Overactive bladder (OAB) is not rarely observed clinical entity affecting lower urinary tract. The OAB pathogenesis is still poorly understood. Two main pathophysiological concepts are postulated: neurogenic theory and miogenic one. The aim of the study was to estimate autonomic nervous system activity by heart rate variability (HRV) assessment in two experimental models: with acute overactive bladder (AOAB) and chronic overactive bladder (COAB) comparing to control.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Study was performed in three groups: control one (10 rats), group with AOAB evoked by i.p. administration of cyclophosphamide (200 mg/kg body weight) (20 rats) and in COAB group caused by 4-times i.p. administration of cyclophosphamide (75 mg/kg body weight). In each case, after urethane anesthesia (1,2 g/kg body weight), 20-minutes ECG recordings were performed with subsequent HRV analysis. Standard time- and spectral (frequency) domain analysis parameters were calculated.

RESULTS
Most of differences in time domain analysis parameters were insignificant, except those concerning SDNN and rMSSD. In frequency analysis, a power decrease of all standard spectral components was revealed in both OAB groups, comparing to control. In AOAB, TP and VLF power diminishing were markedly noticed, while COAB group were mostly characterized by LF and HF decrease. In all groups, there were no differences in standardized spectral compounds (nLF, nHF) values.

CONCLUSIONS
ANS disturbances, found as standard spectral parameters abnormalities, were demonstrated in both AOAB and COAB. Moreover, the findings of statistically significant differences lack in normalized nLF and nHF powers suggest that VLF changes play essential meaning, reflecting the bladder inflammatory changes progression. Further studies defining precisely ANS disturbances and their reflection in HRV in OAB are required.


The existence is proved of a class of open quantum systems that admits a linear subspace C of the space of states such that the restriction of the dynamical semigroup to the states built over C is unitary. Such subspace allows for error-avoiding (noiseless) enconding of quantum information. PACS numbers: 71.10.Ad , 05.30.Fk


Aims To describe the biodiversity patterns of plants along an altitudinal gradient oil the Quighai-Tibetan Plateau and to clarify file bias in plant specimen records at high altitude Methods We conducted a large-scale investigation of vegetation at a wide range of altitudes, focusing oil a high-altitudinal range (3 200-5 200 m) at different locations on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau We then compared the altitudinal distribution of plant species obtained from our field investigation with that in plant specimen records from published sources and an online database Important Findings Our data provide evidence that altitude plays a large role in regulating species composition on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau WC Could not, however, detect a clear relationship between altitude and spe cies richness, although a weak monotonically increasing trend of richness was detected with increasing altitude According to specimen records, most species have been sampled at a wide range of altitudes, and the average range of 145 species is >2 000 m Despite this wide range, more than half of the species we observed were at higher altitudes than the specimen records indicate High-altitude areas have probably been so poorly sampled that Only a small fraction of the resident species has been recorded This' Study clearly shows the regional bias of specimen records in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau


"One can say that the city is the collective memory of its people, and like memory it is associated with objects and places. Th e city is the locus of collective memory" (Rossi, 1982, 130). In his statement, the postmodernist architect and theoretician, Aldo Rossi, concisely integrated the theory on collective memory, as developed by Maurice Halbwachs (2001), into his analysis of urban history, planning and design. However, urban planning in particular can work as an Althusserian ideological apparatus of the state (Rotar, 1980). Considering that urban environment is the space of representations (Lefebvre, 2013) par excellence, the attitude towards the urban, especially historical built environment as well as to public sculpture, consequently becomes a direct expression of power. In fact, the latter aims at representing the offi cial memory of the groups in power, and hindering other collective memories that do not fi t in dominant discourse (Halbwachs, 2001). Memorials especially, as intentional monuments, are representations of political power par excellence. In relation to the dominant power in society, art can be used in diff erent modes (Šuvaković, 2015, 18): as performance of power through spectacularity; representation through mimesis; apology through allegorization, mythologization, fetishization, identifi cation, didactics and optimal projection; subversion through criticism, action, engagement, activism, destruction; or as hiding power by exercising complete autonomy of art. A challenging context for investigating the importance of collective memory linked to space and art are contested spaces, especially in multi-ethnic areas.


We propose a novel hierarchical Bayesian framework, word-distance-dependent Chinese restaurant franchise (wd-dCRF) for topic discovery from a document corpus regularized by side information in the form of word-to-word relations, with an application on Electronic Medical Records (EMRs). Typically, a EMRs dataset consists of several patients (documents) and each patient contains many diagnosis codes (words). We exploit the side information available in the form of a semantic tree structure among the diagnosis codes for semantically-coherent disease topic discovery. We introduce novel functions to compute word-to-word distances when side information is available in the form of tree structures. We derive an efficient inference method for the wddCRF using MCMC technique. We evaluate on a real world medical dataset consisting of about 1000 patients with PolyVascular disease. Compared with the popular topic analysis tool, hierarchical Dirichlet process (HDP), our model discovers topics which are superior in terms of both qualitative and quantitative measures.


Objective:Understanding of developments and trends in women's diseases in Chenghua district.Method:General survey of married women gynecological diseases about married women under the age of 65 in 2008 in Chenghua district.Analyze on the proportion and trends of common diseases according to the result of general survey and status of illness.Results:The total number of married women above the age of 65 is 90421.(Household population:85258 Floating population:5168),The planning number of women in general survey is 30142,the actual number is 17913,the rate of general survey is 59.43% in Chenghua district.4703 people were found ill,the disease incidence is 26.25%.And 4703 were cured,the cure rate is 93.47%,five kinds of disease were checked out,The first two is Vaginitis and Chronic cervicitis.Conclusion:Vaginitis、Chronic cervicitis、Acute eczema and Breast disease are diseases that have seriously impact on women's reproductive health and the focus of preventive health care,in order to improve the overall health of women,It is essential to popularize the knowledge of women's health vigorously.Treasures like having women know the importance of reproductive care,raising the awareness of self-care,regularly carrying out surveys of gynecological diseases and Tracking the implementation of the work visit after treatment should be taken,which aims to lower the disease incidence and protect the physical and mental health of women.


The article is devoted to the philosophical grounds of world perception and the poetics of I. Bachmann, which are revealed through the problem of interaction between the language and consciousness. The problem of border crossing between reality and utopia as the form of mental escapism is considered in the article. I. Bachmann set utopia against love, treated as a special language, which is able to reconcile the subject to the reality.


The inclusive branching ratio for the process b --> tau (-)(v) over bar X-tau has been measured using hadronic Z decays collected by the OPAL experiment at LEP in the years 1992-2000. The result is: BR(b --> tau (-)(v) over bar X-tau) = (2.78 +/- 0.18 +/- 0.51)%. This measurement is consistent with the Standard Model expectation and puts a constraint of tan beta /M-H(+/-) < 0.53 GeV-1 at the 95% confidence level on Type II Two Higgs Doublet Models. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.


Remote off-grid communities across northern Canada and Alaska are traditionally powered by diesel generators. Fuel delivery, often by ice roads, can be difficult and expensive. Wind turbines and solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays can be deployed to offset the need for diesel generation, but they can destabilize the system at anything more than modest penetration levels. Using energy storage can help renewables achieve much higher levels of penetration to maximize fuel savings. This article describes the control strategies for such systems and the particular challenges of Arctic installations. Recent projects in Colville Lake, in Canada's Northwest Territories, and Kotzebue, Alaska, are outlined.


Wild taxa of crop plants have been valuable sources of genes for cultivar improvement in several species. Genes for yield, resistance to pests and diseases, protein quality and quantity, maturity and other characteristics have been transferred from wild species of Avena to the cultivated oat crop (A. sativa L.). In an attempt to preserve some of the genetic variability in the wild species and taxa of Avena, two collecting missions were organised in 1985 and 1988. During the 1985 expedition 49 accessions were collected on mainland Spain and the Canary Islands, and 74 accessions were collected in Morocco. In 1988, a further 64 accessions were collected in Morocco. These accessions included representatives from 10 of the 14 known biological species of Avena and 16 of the 30 generally accepted taxonomic entities. These collections have increased the size of the available gene pool and extended the known geographical distribution of some of the species. Key words: Avena, distribution, germ plasm, genetic resou...


ABSTRACT:  The fatty acid composition in horse mackerel caught off Nagasaki, off Tsushima Island, and in the middle of the East China Sea was investigated. The ratios of monoenoic and polyenoic acids to the total fatty acids in the Nagasaki and bull trawl catch specimens had a negative correlation. The docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6n-3) ratios of total fatty acids in summer-caught specimens were lower than those in winter-caught specimens, and this tendency was significantly clearer in smaller-sized fish, while DHA levels in tissues varied little throughout the year. Consistently high levels of DHA were found in various fishing areas, which suggests that horse mackerel offers a stable source of DHA.


BACKGROUND
Vonoprazan is a potassium competitive acid blocker (P-CAB) approved in Japan in 2014 to treat endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD)-induced ulcer and bleeding perforation, and this meta-analysis is to compare whether Vonoprazan is more effective than lansoprazole in the treatment of ESD-induced ulcers (including ulcer healing , shrinking rate and so on).

METHODS
Collected randomized controlled trials (RCT) and retrospective studies from the PubMed (Medline), Embase, Web of science, and Cochrane Library databases that discussed the effectiveness of Vonoprazan and lansoprazole on ESD-induced ulcers. Studies were selected according to predetermined qualification criteria and data were extracted by two researchers. We evaluated the quality of the methods for published papers using the modified Jadad scale.

RESULTS
There were five studies included in this meta-analysis, the ulcer healing rate effect was not significantly higher in the intervention groups than in the control groups at 4 weeks, [OR:1.07 (0.51, 2.22), 95% CI, I2=2%, Z=0.18, P=0.86]. The ulcer shrinkage rate was not significantly higher than the control group at 4 weeks, [MD:0.20 (-1.51, 1.92), 95% CI, I2=0%, P=0.82]. The ulcer shrinkage rate was not significantly higher than the control group at 8 weeks, [MD: -0.09 (-0.30, 0.12), 95% CI, I2=0%, P=0.39].

CONCLUSION
There were no significant difference between Vonoprazan and lansoprazole in the ulcers induced by treatment at 4 weeks and 8 weeks after treatment with ESD.


This paper proposed a new method of extracting texture features based on Gabor wavelet in different color space. In addition, the application of these features for bark classification applying radial basis probabilistic network (RBPNN) and SVM (support vector machine) has been used. To extract the bark texture features, Gabor filter the image has been filtered with four orientations and six scales filters, and then the mean and standard deviation of the image output are computed. In addition, apart from these features of parameter of Gabor filter features, other features such as color distribution angles were also extracted. Finally, the combined Gabor feature vectors and color distribution angles are fed up into RBPNN and SVM for classification. The performance of colour space features is found to be better than that of the features which just extracted from grey image. Experimental results show that features extracted using the proposed approach can be used for bark texture classification.


Capturing users' specific preferences is a fundamental problem in a large-scale recommender system. Currently, Sequence-based session recommendation has become a hot research direction in the industry. However, the current approach is somewhat inadequate in capturing user's long-term preferences. We propose a session model based on convolution sequential fusion (CSF) to capture users' specific preferences by fusing users' long-term behaviors and short-term sessions. Compared with existing sequential recommendations, we address two inherent weaknesses of session recommendations: 1) The interaction of long-term interest features is not sufficiently extracted. 2) The combination of long-term interest and short-term interest is too simplistic. The long-term interests of users are varied and complex. simultaneously, users' long-term interests are closely related to their short-term interests, so they should be better integrated. We propose to encode the behavior sequence with two corresponding components: the convolutional network for interactive extraction of users' long-term interests and the long-short term gated fusion module for better combination of long-short preferences Our entire model has been test on multiple real-world data sets, and the results demonstrate that our model is more effective than other recent models on multiple evaluation benchmarks.


FOREWORD Endometriosis is one of the most frequent benign gynecological pathologies occurring in 7-10% of women in reproductive age and causing chronic pain and infertility. This is a young and healthy population otherwise. The diagnostic suspicion of this entity must be high and its management multidisciplinary. Colorectal endometriosis represents a highly disabling condition and needs more aggressive treatment for its resolution. Faced with this we ask ourselves, what role does surgery have? What would be its advantages and disadvantages? Why should we choose it as a therapeutic method? The present monograph was inspired by all patients who raised this controversy, motivated interdisciplinary consultations, meetings, bibliography search, generated discussions, doubts and uncertainties, and made us leave the role of surgeons we are used to, and taught us to accompany when we could not heal. María Agustina Casas. Tutor: Maximiliano Bun Hospital Alemán de Buenos Aires


The present invention is a substituted 2 of formula (I) as defined herein [2-halogen-alkyl-4- (phenoxy) phenyl] -1- [1, 2,4] triazol-1-yl-ethanol compounds and their N- oxide and a salt, the present invention relates to intermediates for their preparation and manufacture of him. The invention also relates to a composition comprising a seed and also one or more such compounds in coating applications, and one or more such compounds of these compounds for combating harmful fungi. Wherein, R is C


Stochastic optimization problems often involve the expectation in its objective. When risk is incorporated in the problem description as well, then risk measures have to be involved in addition to quantify the acceptable risk, often in the objective. For this purpose it is important to have an adjusted, adapted and efficient evaluation scheme for the risk measure available. In this article different representations of an important class of risk measures, the spectral risk measures, are elaborated. The results allow concise problem formulations, they are particularly adapted for stochastic optimization problems. Efficient evaluation algorithms can be built on these new results, which finally make optimization problems involving spectral risk measures eligible for stochastic optimization.


More individuals actively express their opinions and attitudes in social media through advanced improvements such as visual content and text captions. Sentiment analysis for visuals such as images, video, and GIFs has become an emerging research trend in understanding social involvement and opinion prediction. Numerous individual researchers have obtained good progress in outcomes for text sentiment analysis and image sentiment analysis. The combination of image sentiment analysis with text caption analysis needs more research. This article presents a VGG Network-based Intermodal Sentiment Analysis Model (VGGNET-ISAM) for transferring the connection between texts to images. A mapping process is developed using the VGG Network for gathering the opinion information as numerical vectors. The Active Deep Learning (ADL) classifier is used for opinion prediction from the obtained information vectors. Simulation experiments are carried out to evaluate the proposed approach. The findings show that the model outperforms and gives better solutions with high accuracy, precision with low delay, and low error rate.


Excerpt The association of chronic liver disease, splenomegaly, and hematologic disturbances has been known for many years. Banti's classic description in 1894 (1) has been followed by other studie...


The rapid and deeply rooted evolution that modern culture is undergoing is the subject of this study. The article underlines the anthropological and methodological changes that are taking place : man and his experience being paramount to the elaboration and interest of today's culture. From the concern of transmission in which tradition dictated culture, using commonly accepted models, the A. studies the hermeneutic aspect that is preoccupied with the need to interpret the present and future projects on the basis of the new and unexpected. This method is disturbing to deal with and creates the need to review present thinking in all areas of education. This article is an analysis and evaluation of this aspects in the light of religious tradition and the desire for innovation that springs from it


Pellets were collected under an active Long-eared Owl (Asio otus) nest in the city centre of Denizli, Turkey. The nest was located in a conifer tree in a 5.7 ha urban park, centrally-located in the city of Denizli, with a human population of 577,000 people. During April-June 2014, a total of 64 pellets containing remains of 86 individual prey items was found. All prey were Passeriformes and consisted of two species belonging to Passeridae and Hirundinidae. 78 of the 86 prey items (90.7%) were House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) and the other eight (9.3%) were House Martin (Delichon urbicum). This is one of the first studies to indicate that the Long-eared Owl's nesting season diet consists entirely of birds. The main factor affecting this result is probably the fact that the owls live in an urbanised setting.


In Vanuatu, there have been concerns that Bislama (the national language of Vanuatu and a creole with an adapted English vocabulary) hinders English language learning. Consequently, previous language policy restricted the use of Bislama in schools. The findings from this study offer significant insights and implications that may assist teachers with using Bislama in their classrooms in a way that furthers English language and literacy development. This research is timely because the Vanuatu Government have recently implemented a new language policy that allows the vernacular island languages and Bislama to be used as a linguistic resource in schools.


T he Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center is committed to providing patient-focused care in an environment devoted to innovative care, excellent service, and exceptional outcomes. T he Center is dedicated to bringing the finest cancer care and research to Iowa and beyond. It is affiliated with University of Iowa and was designated as an NCI comprehensive cancer center in 2000. Qeios · Definition, February 7, 2020


A two-dimensional zonal wind model has been developed by solving basic wind equations under quasi-geostrophic and quasi-hydrostatic approximations. A realistic value of mean Kelvin wave flux observed experimentally is used to reproduce the westerly phase of semi-annual oscillation (SAO) in the model. The computed winds are qualitatively in good agreement with the observations. Further efforts to incorporate quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) by way of model refinement are undeway.


Intel processors utilize the retirement to orderly retire the micro-ops that have been executed out of order. To enhance retirement utilization, the retirement is dynamically shared between two logical cores on the same physical core. However, this shared retirement mechanism creates a potential vulnerability wherein an attacker can exploit the competition for retirement to infer the data of a victim on another logical core on the same physical core. Based on this leakage, we propose two new covert channels: the Different Instructions (DI) covert channel using different instructions for information transmission, and the Same Instructions (SI) covert channel using the same instructions to transmit information. The DI covert channel can achieve 98.5% accuracy with a bandwidth of 1450 Kbps, while the SI covert channel can achieve 94.85% accuracy with a bandwidth of 483.33 Kbps. Furthermore, this paper explores additional applications of retirement: Firstly, retirement is applied to Spectre attacks, resulting in a new variant of Spectre v1, which can achieve 94.17% accuracy with a bandwidth of 29 Kbps; Secondly, retirement is leveraged to infer the programs being executed by the victim, which can infer 10 integer benchmarks of SPEC with 89.28% accuracy. Finally, we discuss possible protection against new covert channels.


We present constraints on a cosmic string network with a measurement of weak gravitational lensing from CMB temperature map. The cosmic string network between observer and last scattering surface of CMB photons generates vector and/or tensor metric perturbations, and the deflection of CMB photons by these gravitational fields has curl mode which is not produced by the scalar metric perturbations. In this paper, we use the power spectrum of curl mode obtained from Planck to constrain the string tension, G\mu, and the reconnection probability, P. In demonstrating the parameter constraints with Planck curl mode, we also measure the lensing power spectrum from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) 2008 season data, which have better angular resolution with lower instrumental noise on a much smaller chunk of the sky. Assuming P=1, the upper bound on tension is G\mu = 6.6\times 10^{-5} with 2\sigma (95% C.L.), using curl mode from Planck, which is weaker than that from the small-scale temperature power spectrum. For small values of P, however, the constraint from curl mode becomes tighter compared to that from temperature power spectrum. For P\lsim 10^{-2}, we obtain the constraint on the combination of the string parameters as G\mu P^{-1}\leq 3.4\times 10^{-5} at more than 2\sigma (95% C.L.).


AIMS
Trials in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Spain have found that heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) as maintenance treatment for opioid-dependent patients reduces illicit drug use. A German trial also found diamorphine treatment to be superior to methadone treatment. The present study describes the association between 2 years of heroin treatment and improvements in health and social stabilization, as well as illicit drug use.

DESIGN
A prospective cohort study design.

PARTICIPANTS
A total of 515 patients were assigned to diamorphine treatment; 278 patients remained in the study treatment for the entire period of 24 months (54.8%).

MEASUREMENTS
The results on physical (Opiate Treatment Index Health Symptoms Scale) and mental (Symptom Checklist 90-Revised Global Severity Index) health and illicit drug use (number of days with drug use within the last month-European Addiction Severity Index) were examined by repeated-measures analyses.

FINDINGS
Symptoms of physical (Pillai's trace = 0.837, df = 4, P < 0.001) and mental health (Pillai's trace = 0.450, df = 4, P < 0.001) improved during treatment. Street heroin use declined rapidly (Pillai's trace = 0.836, df = 4, P < 0.001), as did cocaine use (Pillai's trace = 0.280, df = 4, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
HAT is associated with improvements in mental and physical health in the long term.


ABSTRACT The present study examined the psychometric properties of a brief measure of the Triarchic model of psychopathy based on the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI-Tri-S) among a forensic sample of detained female youth offenders (M = 16.41 years; SD = 1.19 years) from Portugal. Results supported the expected three-factor structure and cross-gender measurement invariance. The YPI-Tri-S showed good psychometric properties in terms of factor structure, internal consistency, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and criterion-related validity. Findings suggest that the YPI-Tri-S is a valid and reliable measure of the Triarchic model of psychopathy, which can be used to assess female juvenile offenders.


In order to enrich indium from B# tower bottom lead,industrial experiment of electrolytic process has been carried out in this paper.The experimental results demonstrate that the electrolytic process for indium enrichment is feasible.The dissolving ratio of indium is higher than 94%,and high-purity lead is obtained simultaneously.


The utility model discloses an electronic type electric energy meter current divider which has two input end buttons. A manganese copper plate or a constantan plate is arranged between two input end buttons, and a sampling connecting head is arranged on the manganese copper plate or the constantan plate; the input end button and the manganese copper plate or the constantan plate is welded into integration by a soldering or an energy storage welding. The utility model has the advantages of material saving, the improvement of efficiency and more reliable connection, and because of mature technology of the soldering and the energy storage welding, under the short-time heavy current action, a contact surface is melted, cooled and solidified between the manganese copper plate or the constantan plate and an end button; so the utility model has the advantages of very reliable contact, very little contact resistance and easy control.


At least five different paramagnetic RhII species have been detected by e.s.r. following activation by O2 at 200–475 °C of ion-exchanged RhNa-Y prepared either from [Rh(NH3)5Cl]Cl2(sample I) or from RhCl3· 3H2O (sample II). The conditions of formation of these species, their stability and their possible locations have been studied. Almost no paramagnetic species were detected in samples activated in O2 at temperatures higher than 500 °C, indicating a total oxidation of rhodium. In samples activated in O2 at temperatures > 200 °C and then evacuated at increasing temperatures, all RhII species disappeared progressively, while a new species E(Y) with g∥= 2.068 and g ⊥= 2.674 developed. The same species E(Y) was also generated in sample II following evacuation at temperatures > 200 °C without O2 activation. It is believed that species E(Y) is composed of isolated RhO atoms stabilized in the secondary channel of Y zeolite. Possible reduction mechanisms are discussed. A striking similarity between the overall chemistry of Rh in Na-X as revealed by e.s.r. and that of Rh in Na-Y was found.


ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I cannot begin an acknowledgement section without first thanking my fiancée Jordan for her unyielding support over the past 8 years of my life, especially as I transitioned into my master's studies, and now as I transition into my doctoral studies. While she was building her career, I was becoming a professional student. I also want to thank my parents for pushing me to pursue the things I love in life, and not settling for the mundanities of pragmatic occupational sacrifice, as well as my sister Erin and brother Ryan, who have been two of the most important people in my life, always showing me love and support. I wish that my sister Kaitlin had the opportunity to read this acknowledgement. She was one of the most selfless, kind, and genuine people I have ever been lucky enough to know. All she ever wanted was for her family to be happy and full of love, and she always made it known how much she wanted each of us to succeed. I also cannot thank Jesse Goldstein enough for all the guidance, mentorship, and opportunities he has provided me over these past two years. I entered this program right after the passing of my sister and immediately began working with Jesse. His conscientiousness, realness, and unwillingness to overburden me with GTA work allowed me to stay focused throughout my studies, and successfully integrate into the program as I dealt with the grief from the loss of my sister. I am also indebted to him for the two publication opportunities I have been lucky enough to enjoy. To Dr. Honnold and Dr. Hirsch, the both of you have been hugely inspiring to me throughout my graduate and undergraduate career, fundamentally shaping my understanding of the political and social world, and contributing to the development of my methodological proficiency. To everyone mentioned in this acknowledgement, thank you so much.


We present the results of a set of high-resolution chemo-dynamical simulations of dwarf galaxies in a ΛCDM cosmology. Out of an original (3.4 Mpc/h)3 cosmological box, a sample of 27 systems are re-simulated from z = 70 to z = 0 using a zoom-in technique. Gas and stellar properties are confronted to the observations in the greatest details: in addition to the galaxy global properties, we investigated the model galaxy velocity dispersion profiles, half-light radii, star formation histories, stellar metallicity distributions, and [Mg/Fe] abundance ratios. The formation and sustainability of the metallicity gradients and kinematically distinct stellar populations are also tackled. We show how the properties of six Local Group dwarf galaxies, NGC 6622, Andromeda II, Sculptor, Sextans, Ursa Minor and Draco are reproduced, and how they pertain to three main galaxy build-up modes. Our results indicate that the interaction with a massive central galaxy could be needed for a handful of Local Group dwarf spheroidal galaxies only, the vast majority of the systems and their variety of star formation histories arising naturally from a ΛCDM framework. We find that models fitting well the local Group dwarf galaxies are embedded in dark haloes of mass between 5 × 108 to a few 109 M⊙, without any missing satellite problem. We confirm the failure of the abundance matching approach at the mass scale of dwarf galaxies. Some of the observed faint however gas-rich galaxies with residual star formation, such as Leo T and Leo P, remain challenging. They point out the need of a better understanding of the UV-background heating.


Two methods for detecting the location of structural damage in an aircraft fuselage using modal test data are presented. Both methods use the dynamically measured static flexibility matrix, which is assembled from a combination of measured modal vectors, frequencies, and driving point residual flexibilities. As a consequence, neither method requires a mode-to-mode correlation, and both avoid tedious modal discrimination and selection. The first method detects damage as a softening in the point flexibility components, which are the diagonal entries in the flexibility matrix. The second method detects damage from the disassembled elemental stiffnesses as determined using a presumed connectivity. Vibration data from a laser vibrometer is used to measure the modal mechanics of a DC9 aircraft fuselage before and after induced weakening in a longitudinal stringer. Both methods are shown to detect the location of the damage, primarily because the normal stiffness of the reinforced shell of the fuselage is localized to a few square centimeters.


Hypoglycemia in cystic fibrosis (CF), in the absence of glucose‐lowering therapies, has long been identified as an important issue in the management of CF. There is currently still no unifying hypothesis for its etiology.


The influence of milk production on return of ovarian cyclicity in puerperium of Simmental cows was the aim of research. It included the total of 25 cows at the ages of 2 to 10 years. We determined following metabolic parameters: glucose, total proteins, urea, AST, ALT and creatine kinase and following hormones: progesterone P4 and IGF-I. Cows were divided into two groups and examined gynaecological and by ultrasound. In the first group of 13 cows the milk production was 25 L. We took blood samples twice weekly from 4th till 45th day of puerperium. We determined significantly higher level (P 0, 05) between the groups in the level of proteins, urea, glucose and creatine kinase. The group of cows with higher milk production the level of progesterone was 8, 81± ; ; 1, 52 nmol/L, and the group of cows with lower milk production it was 10, 82± ; ; 2, 23 nmol/L. The group of cows with higher milk production the level of IGF-I was 75, 06± ; ; 3, 28 ng/mL, and in the group of cows with lower milk production it was 81, 36± ; ; 2, 03 ng/mL. We didn't find significant differences between the groups (P>0, 05) for progesterone P4, as well as for IGF-I. We concluded that for the reestablishment of ovarian cyclicity in Simmental cows the milk production is not of critical importance. Also that the combination of rectal and ultrasound examination, and progesterone P4 and IGF-I serum concentration can precisely diagnose ovarian disfunctions during puerperium.


Participants (N = 202) were students at a college in the northeastern United States who participated in the 2010 Core Alcohol and Drug survey. Data were collected on prepartying behavior, preparty social norms, and individual-difference variables. Using multivariate logistic and least-squares regression, it was found that descriptive social norms were associated with prepartying in women and injunctive social norms were associated with prepartying in men. Prepartying also was found to be negatively related to underage status and GPA in women and positively related to Greek membership and athlete status in men. Implications for social-norms interventions and suggestions for future social-norms research are discussed.


A 12-year old boy, presented with skin colored raised lesions on dorsum of his hands for 2 years. There were multiple, 1 to 4-mm, skin-colored, firm, discrete, smooth surfaced papules, present on the dorsal aspect of both hands. Skin biopsy revealed hyperkeratosis, hypergranulosis, acanthosis and a normal dermis. Elastin stain did not reveal any degeneration. The child was diagnosed with focal acral hyperkeratosis. The differential diagnosis include verruca vulgaris, acrokeratoelastoidosis of Costa, degenerative collagenous plaques of the hands, keratoelastoidosis marginalis of the hands, punctate palmoplantar keratoderma, digital papular calcinosis, acral mucinosis, acrokeratosis verruciformis of Hopf and xanthoma. The skin lesions in hereditary papulotranslucent acrokeratoderma are characteristically exacerbated after exposure to water. Marginal papular acrokeratoderma encompasses a group of disorders that share crateriform, keratotic papules along the margins of the hands and feet. Warts exhibit verrucous surface as compared to smooth papules of focal acral hyperkeratosis. Punctate palmoplantar keratoderma is associated with thickened palms and soles, acral mucionosis and xanthoma have a shiny white coloured appearance. Probably a biopsy with special staining (presence of elastorrhexis, mucin, fat, calcium deposits) would aid in their definite differentiation. Although the condition is benign, it may cause psychological and cosmetic concern to the patient. Multiple therapies have been attempted like topical keratolytics (urea, salicylic acid, and lactic acid), topical retinoids (tazarotene) and systemic agents like acitretin. Recurrences are reported on discontinuation.


The control of water vapor (moisture) contamination in process gases is critical to the successful manufacture of semiconductor devices. As specified moisture levels have become more stringent, there is a growing demand for more sensitive analytical methods. Instrumental methods currently being used or in development for measuring trace moisture at ppbv levels include Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy, cavity ringdown spectroscopy, intracavity laser spectroscopy, electron impact ionization mass spectrometry, and atmospheric pressure ionization mass spectrometry. In addition, sensor-based technologies such as oscillating quartz crystal microbalances, and chilled mirror-, capacitor-, and electrolytic-based hygrometers operate in this regime. These approaches are presented and reviewed. As the success of each trace moisture method is dependent on the degree to which the different process gases interfere with the measurement process, important process gas app...


Objective: To determine characteristics of brain morphology in children and adolescents with neurofibromatosis type 1 and relate these characteristics to neuropsychological functioning. Background: Neurofibromatosis type 1 is associated with numerous CNS abnormalities and cognitive impairment. Abnormal high signal intensity visible on brain MRI, brain tumors, and macrocephaly are common. Research into links between neuroanatomic and cognitive features has been inconclusive. Methods: Fifty-two children and adolescents with neurofibromatosis type 1 were compared with 19 control subjects on several quantitative neuroanatomic and neuropsychological measures. Results: Total brain volume, especially gray matter, was significantly greater for neurofibromatosis type 1 subjects than the control subjects. Group differences in the ratio of gray matter to white matter were more prominent in younger than in older subjects. Volume of gray matter in the subjects with neurofibromatosis type 1 was related to their degree of learning disability. Corpus callosum size was significantly larger for subjects in the neurofibromatosis type 1 group, and diminished performance on measures of academic achievement and visual–spatial and motor skills were associated with greater regional corpus callosum size. Conclusions: Neuroanatomic morphology and the developmental pattern of gray matter and white matter in subjects with neurofibromatosis type 1 differed from in control subjects. Some of these differences are related to the neuropsychological status of the neurofibromatosis type 1 group. We propose that delayed developmental apoptosis results in macrocephaly and a delay in the development of appropriate neuronal connections in children with neurofibromatosis type 1. We further propose that these morphologic delays are related to the cognitive profile of neurofibromatosis type 1.


Instability in spirits is partly inherent, partly caused by contamination during maturation and partly due to bad filtration techniques. Instability occurs as deposition with metallic contamination and alteration of the pH to critical values. It is distinct from the formation of "inks". Chill-proofing is not sufficient in itself to provide a stable product if sufficient contamination occurs afterwards. Ion-exchange in the H+ form removes an instability factor.


In view of the problem of bridge pier's transverse rigidity insufficient after acceleration of railroad and movement of the heavy load trains. Proposed the plan of surrounding concrete outside the bridge pier to enhance its transverse rigidity,introduced and discussed essential technology and the important parameter,checked the reinforcing effect through actual examples.


To the Editor:

As it turns out, I am an engineer involved in radiation detection systems. This past Earth Day, I gave a talk at my kids' school advocating the greatly increased use of nuclear power instead of fossil fuels for electricity generation. New Jersey derives about 50% of its power from nuclear energy. If the entire country did the same, we would stop the emission of perhaps 400 million tons of CO2 per year. The entire country of France gets about 75% of its electricity from nuclear power. Many people who think of themselves as environmentalists oppose nuclear power out of what can only be called a phobia, a wild overestimation of both the risk of accident and the actual level of risk even in the event of an accident. Chernobyl was horrible, yet 20 years later the excess cancers can only be statistically detected in 2 groups. First, there were about 4000 excess childhood thyroid cancers over 10 years, which is particularly shameful because most could have been prevented with potassium iodide prophylaxis had the population been notified promptly. Second, a physician in Scotland has found a statistically detectable increase in cancers among the children of mothers at an early stage of pregnancy, when the developing fetus is known to be highly sensitive to radiation. Spread over the entire population of Europe and 20 years, this is regrettable but hardly the Black Death all over again. The scary numbers you see bandied about are statistical projections over the entire population for its entire lifetime, and undetectable against background cancer rates. And that was a worst-case accident. New technology makes the loss-of-coolant accident typified by Chernobyl and Three Mile Island impossible, and also makes it much harder to divert the fuel for nuclear weapons. See the article "Heavy Metal Nuclear Power" by Eric Loewen. The technology is also briefly described at http://www.ne.anl.gov/research/ardt/hlmr/, which discusses small reactors for third-world application that don't need refueling for 15–20 years. No less an environmental icon than Stewart Brand, author of the Whole Earth Catalog, has turned in favor of nuclear power. See http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/14406/. Nuclear power is the only technology that has a chance of substituting for a significant fraction of fossil-fuel consumption over the coming decades. China is building one new coal-fired power plant every week. So if you really want psychiatry to help stop global warming, cure our national phobia of nuclear energy![1]

Sincerely yours,


Burning of asphalt roofing waste as a fuel and incorporating asphalt roofing waste in bituminous paving were identified as the two outstanding resource recovery concepts out of ten studied. Four additional concepts might be worth considering under different market or technical circumstances. Another four concepts were rated as worth no further consideration at this time. This study of the recovery of the resource represented in asphalt roofing waste has identified the sources and quantities of roofing waste. About six million cubic yards of scrap roofing are generated annually in the United States, about 94% from removal of old roofing at the job site and the remainder from roofing material production at factories. Waste disposal is a growing problem for manufacturers and contractors. Nearly all roofing waste is hauled to landfills at a considerable expense to roofing contractors and manufacturers. Recovery of the roofing waste resource should require only a modest economic incentive. The asphalt contained in roofing waste represents an energy resource of more than 7 x 10/sup 13/ Btu/year. Another 1 x 10/sup 13/ Btu/year may be contained in field-applied asphalt on commercial building roofs. The two concepts recommended by this study appear to offer the broadest applicability, themore » most favorable economics, and the highest potential for near-term implementation to reuse this resource.« less


With some people, everything they do is done extremely well. But with most people, there are one or two things they do incredibly well, and the rest is about average. Others—the one-trick ponies—are great in one or two things, and terrible at many others. Having the ability to assess realistically how one performs in each endeavor and working diligently to improve those skills, will aid personal and professional success.


To validate a new squeeze film damper (SFD) bearing design introduced in [1], a pair of 3.5 inch SFD bearings were manufactured and tested. Static spring compression test was conducted to prove the spring design stiffness calculated through the geometry parametric spring model. High cycle loading fatigue testing of the spring was conducted to validate the design spring fatigue limit. The entire SFD bearing assembly was inspected and checked through a SFD centering bench test before the rotor dynamic test.
 Unbalance response correlation and logarithmic decrement (Log. Dec.) measurement using the operational modal analysis (OMA) method were employed for the rotor-dynamic tests. An agreement was seen between the analysis and the experimental measurement. It was seen that the SFD bearing provided the extra damping as expected to suppress the unbalance vibration when passing through the critical speed and also improve the stability (Log. Dec.) of the rotor. It was found that the measured SFD damping was closer to the full film damping model when the squeeze oil film was sealed with O-rings. The SFD improved the logarithmic decrement of the rotor-bearing system from 0.07 to more than 0.21 as compared to the system without SFD.


The present work has the aim to present the structure and main objectives of the elaboration of the 2006 Sustainability Report for Catalonia. It is a description and evaluation of the present trends and pressing situations relevant for sustainable development in Catalonia, until 2006. The report has been developed by the research group on "Sustainability Measurement and Modeling" of the UNESCO Chair in Sustainability at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.
Regional (Catalan) national (Spanish) and European data bases have been used. The selected indicators have been classified in four wider groups: environmental, social, economic and institutional. A total of 465 variables and indicators were proposed by a group of experts through an open-ended process and have been analyzed. As a result, a total of 262 were finally chosen. Besides conducting the follow-up of a series of indicators, the report evaluates the goals achieved by the Catalan society towards sustainability from a systemic perspective.


We analyzed the role of gangliosides in the association of the ErbB2 receptor tyrosine‐kinase (RTK) with lipid rafts in mammary epithelial HC11 cells. Scanning confocal microscopy experiments revealed a strict ErbB2–GM3 colocalization in wild‐type cells. In addition, analysis of membrane fractions obtained using a linear sucrose gradient showed that ErbB2, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and Shc‐p66 (proteins correlated with the ErbB2 signal transduction pathway) were preferentially enriched in lipid rafts together with gangliosides. Blocking of endogenous ganglioside synthesis by (+/–)‐threo‐1‐phenyl‐2‐decanoylamino‐3‐morpholino‐1‐propanol hydrochloride ([D]‐PDMP) induced a drastic cell‐surface redistribution of ErbB2, EGFR and Shc‐p66, within the Triton‐soluble fractions, as revealed by linear sucrose‐gradient analysis. This redistribution was partially reverted when exogenous GM3 was added to ganglioside‐depleted HC11 cells. The results point out the key role of ganglioside GM3 in retaining ErbB2 and signal‐transduction‐correlated proteins in lipid rafts.


The paper proposes its opinions on the following aspects concerning the development of Ningbo: the influence of the Bridge across Hangzhou Gulf upon Ningbo, Ningbo's relationship with Shanghai, the construction of new areas and the protection of the old ones, evaluation of ecological environment of Ningbo, the establishment of Ningbo special characteristics.


The trombone class at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory is known, first of all, thanks to V. Blazhevich and V. Shcherbinin - great musicians, whose creative and pedagogical activity allowed the Russian school of playing the instrument to become one of the leading in the world. At the same time, Christopher Bork (1832–1916), a German musician who was invited as a professor at the Moscow Conservatory during its formation, played an important role in the formation of the principles of teaching the trombone. It was he who was one of those who laid the foundations of the performing and pedagogical school of trombone in Russia, stood at the origins of the formation of the department of wind and percussion instruments at the Moscow Conservatory. Being a brilliant performer, Christopher Bork created the first trombone course in Russia, systematizing his many years of pedagogical experience, revealing methodological recommendations for mastering the instrument. The article, based on archival sources, examines some important points in the creative biography of Christopher Bork and his curriculum for playing the trombone, which, importantly, was written by him with a view to studying the "class of scientific subjects."


Based on the rock characteristics of strain-softening and dilatancy, this paper developed a theoretical formula for calculating broken zone thickness of roadways, analyzed the influence of buried depth, rock strength, strain-softening extent, and support pressure on the surrounding rock stability of the deeply buried roadways. The new concept of 'three bolting' support is put forward, which refers to a supporting method combining bolt and shotcrete, grout, and anchorage cable. This new supporting method has been applied to engineering practice; and favorable technical and economic benefit is obtained.


Urban visibility analysis is always concerned in urban spatial structure analyzing. Based on the 2D space syntax, taking into account the height of the buildings as the third dimension, this paper processes urban visibility analysis using 3D space syntax. It creates 3D axial lines from 2D axial map and calculate the slope of each line. The average slope value of the two intersecting lines is assigned to that intersection point as the visibility measure. The urban visibility surface is created by interpolating points using Kriging.


In a brief but suggestive article published recently, J. B. Hainsworth l) made the interesting observation that particular formulae tend to recur within short stretches of the Iliad, and then drop out of use. He proposed that this is an example of a phenomenon commonly encountered in oral and written literature, whereby an author tends to repeat the same phrase for a while, and then ceases to use it. The discovery of such behaviour in the traditional poetry of Homer is not surprising, however that poetry was composed. However, Hainsworth's method is open to the objection that the recurrence of these phrases is dependent to an incalculable extent on the unfolding of incidents in the story that permit their


The thermal life expectancy of a transformer insulating system can be estimated by analyzing the load cycle supplied by the transformer. By using the thermal and electric characteristics of the transformer, winding hot-spot temperature can be determined throughout the loading cycle and translated into aging data by means of aging curves applicable to the given insulation system. Application of this method of analysis to typical residential load cycles shows that significant thermal aging is confined to a relatively small portion of the annual load cycle and that load factor as well as peak load is important in determining life expectancy.


The invention relates to a method of modifying the rate of temperature change of an epoxy resin composition in a resin container (D, F) during a resin casting process, wherein the resin composition comprises at least one epoxy monomer component and a curing agent, the method comprises the step of adding a passivation agent for the curing agent to the epoxy resin composition. Furthermore, the invention relates to a resin container arrangement (D, G , H) for the use in such a resin transfer moulding process. In addition, the invention relates to a composite product comprising an epoxy resin composition, and to the use of an organic acid in an epoxy resin casting process as a passivation agent for modifying the rate of temperature change in a resin container (D, F) containing an epoxy resin composition comprising at least one epoxy monomer component and a curing agent.


The rate of decrease of mean molecular weight and the change in molecular weight distribution of PVP by ball-milling in an atmosphere of nitrogen, air or oxygen were investigated. The influence of an atmosphere on the probability of the degradation of a PVP molecule in a unit time and molecular size distribution of the polymers formed by the degradation was then discussed.If the function representing the probability a PVP molecule to be cut off in a unit time, S(M), was proportional to (M-M∞)α, α was considered to be between 1.0 and 1.5, and to be 1.0 for the case of ball-milling in nitrogen or air and to be larger than 1.0 for the case of ball-milling in oxygen.It is considered to be probable that a PVP molecule with molecular weight of 1.6×106 is broken both at the center and at the molecular weight between 6.0×103 and 1.1×104 from the end of a main chain by ball-milling in nitrogen, and at the molecular weight of 3.6×104 from the end by ball-milling in air or oxygen. It seems to be possible that the PVP molecule is broken at the molecular weight between 5.0×104 and 3.7×105 from the end by ball-milling in oxygen.


n the internet era, a number of traditional legal rules need to be revisited and adjusted in order to fit the new circumstances. The rules on internat


In late 1980s, radical changes happened in a chain in eight Eastern European countries, which renounced respectively their socialism systems implemented more than 40 years for transition of marketization, democratization and Europeanisation. After 20 years, for better understanding and reflection of the serious proposition "what is socialism and how to build socialism," it is of both theoretical and practical significance to review this unusual historical process and study the inner roots for the collective collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe.


Using Monte Carlo simulations, I show that typical out-of-sample forecast exercises for stock returns are unlikely to produce any evidence of predictability, even when there is in fact predictability and the correct model is estimated.


This study examines the intent behind a textual modification introduced with the reimpressio emendata of the editio typica tertia of the Missale Romanum, regarding the mention of the Bishop in the Eucharistic Prayer, an ancient expression of ecclesial communion. Summarizing the point of the intercessions in the Eucharistic Prayer and surveying the various drafts of the relevant paragraph of the Institutio Generalis, the A. offers some theological reflections on the sacramental significance of episcopal ordination and the implications deriving from the Bishop's relation with his particular Church.


A random sampling of Hiroshima residents, comprising 1,051 males and 1,872 females, has been studied with respect to the interrelations of hypertension, ischemic heart disease, blood lipid levels, and ionizing irradiation experienced during the atom bombing of 1945. No significant effect of ionizing irradiation upon the cardiovascular system has been detected. No major difference in age-sex specific mean blood pressures between Hiroshima residents and a suitable white American comparison group was found. Dissimilarities noted with other groups compared are considered due to the sum of sampling bias, varying technics, and coincidental environmental factors rather than a true racial difference. Blood pressure levels, stable from puberty through young adulthood, begin to rise early in middle age and continue to rise into old age. As a result, hypertension as clinically defined (140/90), is common in middle-aged and elderly Japanese. In 94.4 per cent of instances, or more, a demonstrable etiology for hyperten...


The main objective of this study is to establish the determinants of All Inclusive package on the performance of the hotel industry. The research was guided by the following research questions; what is the effect of cost of package on organizational performance, what is the effect of package content on organizational performance, what is the effect of package timing on organizational performance, This research used descriptive research design. The target population of this study comprised of management staff working in the hotel. The study targeted the top, middle and lower level management staff who are directly dealing with the day to day management of the hotel. Sample of responding staff was drawn from top, middle and lower managers from the staff working in the hotel where stratified and simple random sampling technique was used. The study collected both primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire while secondary data was obtained from annual reports obtained from the hotels, books and journal papers. The questionnaire designed in this study comprised of two sections; Personal information and the main issues of the study. Data collected was analyzed by descriptive analysis techniques using SPSS v 22. The study indicated that 46.2% of organization performance of hotels in North coast were attributed and determined by combination of the three independent factors investigated in this study ANOVA was established showing the significance of the study. The study model was statistically significant in predicting the determinants of all inclusive package on organizational performance of hotel industry in North cost. Where the Df was (56.690) at significant level of 0.00 thus less than the (P) value of 0.05. The study also reviled that cost of package and package timing had positive and significance effect on performance of Hotels. Key terms: A la carte Menu, All-inclusive holidays, Bar Experience, Customer, Dining Experience, Financial management, Front Office Experience, Hotel Access Packaging, Price, Service


The energy dependence of the formation rates of the hydrogen-helium and hydrogen-lithium mesomolecules and the elastic cross sections for the scattering of muonic hydrogen on helium and lithium are calculated. The Ramsauer-Townsend effect is predicted for the elastic scattering. The elastic cross section for the t mu atom attains the magnitude of the atomic dimensions. The electron screening effect is shown to be essential for the elastic scattering.


The effects of sideslip on the performance and stability of a double-delta wing and wing-body configuration were determined experimentally. The wake total pressure reveals the vortex size, location, and shape. Sideslip angle resulted in a decreased stall angle of attack, lower C/IV1AX, enhancement of post-stall lift recovery, increased upwind vortex sheet si/e, and decreased downwind vortex size. Adding the body to the wing increased the levels of adverse rolling and yawing moments at the stall. The wake surveys show that a narrow band at the edge of the vortex sheet has a very steep total pressure gradient present in all configurations. A b c() c c,, s 3


Equations of motion of a multi-beam system undergoing overall rigid body motion are derived by employing finite element method. An orientation angle is employed to allow the arbitrary orientation o f the beam element. Modal coordinate reduction technique, which has been successfully utilized in the conventional linear modeling method, is employed for the present modeling method to reduce the computational effort. Different from the conventional linear modeling method, the present modeling method captures the motion-induced stiffness variations which are important for the dynamic analysis of structures undergoing overall rigid body motion. The numerical results are compared to those of a commercial program to verify the reliability of the present method.


It is almost a quarter of a cen- tun/since the earliest reported attempts to use a computer to analyse human chromosomes x. While the effort oftheinterven- ing years has been successful to the extent that a number of manufacturers now pro- duce machines that assist cyto- genetic analysis z, there are also some notable gaps in the capabilities of these machines. In this review of the application of image analysis techniques to automating chromosome analy- sis, we shall not attempt to review the performance of particular machines, but instead try to explain more generally why some tasks have been successfully automated, while others that may appear equally simple to the cytogeneticist have proved elusive. The techniques of image processing and analysis are conceptually simple. Animage, for example of a field of a microscope slide, is captured in digital form by measuring the light intensity at each of a regular array of points, known as picture elements or pixels. The digital image may then


Open holes are present in many composite structures, producing an increment of stress in its proximity and a strength reduction. The stress concentration factor in laminates depends on the material properties and laminate lay-up. Therefore, the influence of a hole has to be considered in the design of composite structures. In this work, the Discrete Damage Mechanics model of Barbero-Cortes is employed to study damage evolution in open-hole composite laminates subjected to uniaxial in-plane tensile loads. The model is validated with experimental and numerical data taken from the literature with different hole diameters and laminate widths. The influence of the stacking sequence on the evolution of crack density, stress-displacement, and notched strength of the laminate are analyzed.


Abstract A convenient method for the synthesis of the new heterocyclic system, 1H-1, 5-benzodiazepino-[2,3-b]quinoxaline (1) and some of its derivatives are described.


BACKGROUND It is generally believed that any intervention in skin while on isotretinoin or within 6 months after the treatment can lead to prolonged healing and scarring. OBJECTIVE The objective was to evaluate the side effects of laser hair removal in patients undergoing isotretinoin treatment. METHODS Seven female patients undergoing isotretinoin therapy for acne were treated with a diode laser with a wavelength of 810 nm, a contact-cooling device, and a variable pulse width of 50 to 1000 ms. All volunteers received first treatment in the axillary or bikini area at 21 J/cm2 (80 W) and the second treatment was done in the same area at 24 J/cm2 (90 W). Six volunteers received additional treatments of chin area with a fluence of 21 or 24 J/cm2. All volunteers were evaluated and photographed 1 week and 1 month after each treatment and degree of erythema, pigmentary change, vesiculation, swelling, and scarring was documented. RESULTS There was no erythema, pigmentary change, swelling, or scarring at any follow up visits. One volunteer presented with a bulla 1 week after second treatment, which was resolved at 1-month follow-up. All volunteers were satisfied with the degree of hair removal with two treatments. CONCLUSION This limited study suggests that diode laser hair removal is safe in patients undergoing isotretinoin therapy.


In this paper, I consider the lessons recent academic research and historical experiences with monetary targeting and inflation targeting offer for the design of monetary policy regimes. The practical experiences with both monetary and inflation targeting suggest that successful policies have incorporated a great deal of flexibility. In principle, both monetary targeting and inflation targeting can ensure the economy has a nominal anchor and be implemented in a transparent manner that promotes accountability. However, a policy that focuses on a goal, such as inflation, is less sensitive to structural change and instability in the economy than is an intermediate targeting procedure such as monetary targeting. However, inflation targeting should not be interpreted as a commitment to an instrument rule such as a Taylor rule. Such rules suffer from the same sensitivity to structural change that intermediate targeting rules do. And, to date, inflation targeting central banks have been transparent with respect to only one of their policy objectives.


Angiokeratoma corporis diffusum (ACD) was long thought to be a specific dermal sign of Fabry disease (FD, X‐linked alpha‐galactosidase A [GLA] deficiency). However, other lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs) have also been identified as triggers of ACD. Generalized vasculopathy is an important pathogenetic factor in FD and may also lead to the acroparesthesia (AP) often predominant in FD. We report on an 85‐year‐old woman with ACD present since her youth and associated with severe AP. Ultrastructure of the dermal lesion showed no lysosomal involvement, but the absence of the basement membrane of the endothelial cells of the capillary vessels was noteworthy. Repeated analyses of the GLA gene revealed no evidence of FD. Whole‐exome sequencing was negative for FD and other LSDs, and allowed us to also study FD‐related intronic regions of the GLA gene. This is the first report of a patient with FD‐like ACD with an endothelial abnormality, otherwise unexplained vasculopathy and severe AP, which are not due to FD or another LSD. Based on family history, another genetic, yet unidentified, defect may cause the disease in this patient. In unexplained ACD, extended genetic analysis is required to exclude particular pathogenic variants of the GLA gene and other genes.


Abstract:  Several nondestructive and semidestructive analyses were used to discriminate colorless transparent polyethylene bags. Transparent plastic bags made from low‐density and linear low‐density polyethylene usually contain antiblocking agents to prevent sticking of the film, which makes it difficult to open the mouths of plastic bags. Inorganic antiblocking agents are uniformly dispersed in polyethylene films, so they are easily observed using optical microscopy. The particle size distributions of the antiblocking agents were compared by statistical tests. Particle composition was examined by elemental analysis using energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectrometry with a scanning electron microscope and by molecular vibration analysis using a sensitive microscopic Raman spectrometer. The compositions could be determined nondestructively on the basis of the results. These data reinforce the morphological discrimination. Morphological discrimination of the dispersed antiblocking agent powders, statistical comparison of particle size distributions, and compositional analysis of the antiblocking agents strengthen the ability to discriminate polyethylene films.


Summary Among the floating weeds which are invading water surfaces in tropical world, Pistia stratiotes is the most important. This study states on the case of Togo.