A research to predict flutter margin from experimental signals has been conducted in JAXA. Some signal processing methods has been tried: e.g., the Peak-Hold method, the Random Decrement, RD, method, and the Auto-Regressive Moving Average, ARMA, method. Recently, we tried to apply the Eigen-system Realization Algorithm, ERA, method instead of the ARMA. The discrete flutter margin, Fz, was calculated with the ERA identified system model, and the flutter condition was predicted with the set of Fz. Adding to this process, we used the RD technique to pre-process the system output signal. As a result, the Fz calculated by the present method agrees well with that calculated by the ARMA method. In addition, the present method can also process faster than the ARMA method.


Background: Obstetric haemorrhage is the leading cause of preventable maternal mortality worldwide. One of the major contributors to obstetric haemorrhage is antepartum haemorrhage which is mainly caused by placenta praevia and abruptio placenta. The study aims to quantify the risk of placenta praevia based on the presence and number of caesarean sections and to assess other risk factors.Methods: This study was a prospective case control study conducted in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, Lalla Ded hospital, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India from August 2009 to October 2010. As per the inclusion and exclusion criteria of study 100 cases and 200 controls were selected and the association of placenta praevia with proposed risk factors was analysed statistically.Results: Present study showed that the risk of developing placenta praevia in future pregnancy increased steadily as the number of previous caesarean sections increased, risk being 2.1, 2.8 and 4 times with previous one, two and three caesarean deliveries respectively. Similarly, the risk of developing placenta praevia was more in women with history of previous abortion (risk being 2.8 and 6.5 times more in women with one and two abortions in the past). Previous dilatation and curettage and age more than 30 years also proved to be independent risk factors.Conclusions: To conclude advanced maternal age, previous abortion, dilatation and curettage and a history of previous caesarean section appear to increase the occurrence of placenta praevia. The study strongly emphasises the need to decrease the primary caesarean section rate.


Theoretically,the paper analyzes how to value the section sizes of the short columns of the short-column foundation of workshops,concludes the formula for calculating the short-column section of workshops,analyzes the stressed status of the multi-frame short-column by using finite element ANSYS,and sums up the amplification table for common short columns,so as to provide the direction for the engineering design personnel.


Let $d$ and $n$ be positive integers, and $E/F$ be a separable field extension of degree $m=\binom{n+d}{n}$. We show that if $|F|>2$, then there exists a point $P\in \mathbb{P}^n(E)$ which does not lie on any degree $d$ hypersurface defined over $F$. In other words, the $m$ Galois conjugates of $P$ impose independent conditions on the $m$-dimensional $F$-vector space of degree $d$ forms in $x_0, x_1, \ldots, x_n$. As an application, we determine the maximal dimension of an $F$-linear system $\mathcal{L}$ of hypersurfaces such that every $F$-member of $\mathcal{L}$ is irreducible over $F$.


A random telephone survey of Washington state parents of children between the ages 2 and 17 assesses patterns of interaction with children regarding television viewing. The children's gender did not affect the way parents coviewed or mediated with them about television. Parent's gender, however, did matter. In addition, it was found that the ageof children had a significant effect on how parents coviewed and mediated. A linear relationship showed that coviewing decreased as children aged. A different trend was seen regarding children's age and negative mediation.


In Jia Dao's days,Zhexi Ci poetric school had come down.Crisis out of society and Malpractice of poetry circles made changes become inexorable trend.Zhanghuiyan's anthology of Selectet Works of Ci Poems was first signs of Changzhou Ci school.He laid stress on substantial content and profound meaning.Zhanghuiyan's Ci works was fresh and refind,had elegant style.these works put his view into practice.Many Ci poets resulted from the influence of this view and practice.


My primary research interest lies in the area of natural language processing (NLP) where I have worked on statistical approaches and computational models to extract semantic information from text. I am particularly interested in problems of a semantic nature that are motivated by practical needs: many practical NLP applications require algorithms that can mimic complex human-like understanding of text, albeit in a more limited scope. One theme emphasized throughout my research is the need to balance two often complementary goals (1) the need to recognize and represent the key semantic structures of a given natural language learning problem, and (2) the need to tailor the learning or inference algorithms to exploit such structures [3, 4, 5]. I also believe in the benefit of interdisciplinary research, and have actively adopted classical theories from linguistics, devising statistical approaches to reflect their key insights [4, 7]. In particular, the work of [7] has been published to the web research / information retrieval community, which demonstrates how I was able to draw connections among three different fields: linguistics, NLP, and web/IR. In addition, I have recently embarked on a joint research project among three departments at Cornell – computer science, linguistics and information science – where my collaborators and I are investigating computational models for an NLP task that reflect psycholinguistic theories. During my graduate studies, I have focused primarily on the automatic interpretation of affect and opinions in text [1, 2, 6, 4, 5]. Some might question whether we should dive into such high-level semantically oriented tasks before duly addressing all of the potentially relevant lower-level tasks, such as parsing, word sense disambiguation, named entity tagging, semantic role labeling, to name a few. I would argue, however, that not only it is possible, but also it is much desirable to do such research for three reasons. First, many high-level NLP tasks do not necessarily require rigorous analysis of low-level syntax and semantics. After all, it is possible for people to make sense of a document that is machine translated, even if most of the sentences are not grammatically or pragmatically perfect. Second, even if perfect low-level analyses are available, such as perfect parse trees, it is often not clear how to make the best use of them for high-level tasks. Third, many interesting research questions arise only in the context of investigating high-level NLP tasks, as was the case in my research experience [4, 5]. My research in the area of affect and opinion analysis is described in §1. My research interests include other aspects of text understanding as well, such as extractive summarization for sponsored search [7] and coreference resolution (identity matching) [3]. My contributions in these areas are highlighted in §2. Plans for future research that are directly related to my previous work are noted in §1 and §2. I have a number of other ideas for future research directions, some of which are discussed in §3.


The relationship between vegetation and soil erosion deserves more attention due to its importance to science and practical applications.While most available information is on the mechanisms and benefits of vegetation for soil erosion control,the interference of soil erosion in plant development and vegetation succession is poorly documented as is the plant's resistance to soil erosion.Soil fertility and soil water decline during the erosion process reduces seed activity and production and the seeds on the soil surface will be redistributed or lost during soil erosion.While the seeds of some species have special appendages which can help the seeds persist in the soil,seed germination and seedling establishment are the vulnerable stages in plant life.Seed germination and seedling survival are restricted when soil water and fertility are reduced during the erosion process.Simultaneously,the over land flow and sediment redistribution also affect seed germination and seedling survival thus redistribution of seeds,water and sediment will influence the distribution of seedlings and the vegetation.Plants are selected by the environments and develop with the environments,so only some species can grow in habitats stressed with serious soil erosion.Soil erosion works on the environment and different stages of the plant life.Thus the process of vegetation succession is also influenced by soil erosion.In conclusion,plant growth and development are influenced by soil erosion and may express many traits that resist soil erosion.Eroded habitats are colonized by specially adapted plants.We consider that effective soil erosion control strategies in a region can be developed,only if the level of interference of soil erosion in vegetation development and succession and the traits and capacities of different plant's resistance to erosion are fully considered.


Food-borne pathogens causing infections and intoxications can affect everyone. Escherichia (E) coli is one of the major food borne bacterial pathogens. This study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of E. coli in milk, chicken meat and beef and to determine the multi-drug resistance profile of E. coli in Mymensingh district, Bangladesh. A total of 169 samples including milk (n=108), chicken meat (n=51) and beef (n=10) were collected from Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) dairy farm, American dairy farm, Gazipur and retail markets of municipal area during July 2016 to June 2017. E. coli were isolated and identified by  colony characteristics on selective agar like Eosine-methylene blue (EMB) agar, Salmonella-Shigella (SS) agar, Gram staining, biochemical test and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). The overall prevalence of E. coli in all food samples was 37.86%. A total of 32 (29.63%) milk, 25 (49.02%) chicken meat and 07 (70%) beef samples were E. coli positive through conventional method. Among 64 samples only 23 samples (35.94%) were confirmed by PCR. Multi-drug resistant E. coli were detected by disc diffusion test using 10 commonly used antibiotics. Antibiogram study showed that E. coli isolated from chicken meat were resistant to oxytetracycline (92%), sulphonamide-trimethoprim (84%), amoxycillin (76%) and erythromycin (60%). E. coli isolated from beef sample were resistant to erythromycin (85.71%) and oxytetracycline (71.43%) and sensitive to ciprofloxacin (100%), gentamicin (100%) and neomycin (100%). However, all isolates of E. coli were found sensitive to amikacin (100%). E. coli isolated from milk sample were 100% sensitive to gentamicin followed by neomycin, ciprofloxacin, azithromycin, oxytetracycline and erythromycin. Overall 50% of E. coli isolates of food were found multi-drug resistant. About 28.13%, 57.14% and 76% of the E. coli isolates originated from milk, beef and chicken meat respectively were multi-drug resistant. The higher prevalence of E. coli in chicken meat, beef and milk indicates unhygienic production and processing of these foods. Presence of multi-drug resistant E. coli in these foods might pose serious public health threats. The antibiogram profile of the isolates will help therapeutic decision making in the treatment of colibacillosis in cattle and poultry in Bangladesh.


Aim: to assess the way members of the nursing staff of the University Hospital of Northeast Brazil experience stress in daily life of their work activities. Method: a descriptive study of qualitative approach. Data collection was carried out in June 2015, through semi-structured interview. Twenty-three professionals of the nursing staff, who compose the units that provide specific care to adult inpatients, participated. The data were analyzed according to Bardin's content analysis technique. Results: the following categories emerged: Stressors in daily work - with the sub-categories: routine care experienced by staff; the difficulty in solving problems of surplus and experienced work overload - and family caregivers and nursing staff: implications for care. Conclusions: the stressor agents may interfere directly on the health of professionals that participated in the study, as well as on the development of quality nursing care.


Predictions of the ionosphere are important information for users for either mitigation of threats due to ionospheric perturbations or for the purpose of mission planning. However, increasing uncertainties for forecasts of more than one hour can limit the usability of forecasts. Here, users may have individual thresholds. Therefore, we present an estimation of the accuracy of quiet time forecasts to allow judgement of their applicability and identification of development needs.
Empirical prediction of the quiet-time ionospheric total electron content (TEC) is performed with two time-series approaches: the Median Model (MediMod) and a Fourier Transformation approach. Time-series models calculate their prediction values out of the most recent data or maps. The models are applied on real-time map values of the Space Weather Application Center Ionosphere (SWACI). The forecast accuracy is presented for 1 day, 3 days, 7 days and 27 days forecasts ahead and in a comparison between medium and high solar active during the years 2011 and 2015, respectively. A decreasing accuracy of longer forecasts and during higher solar activity is apparent as expected. We will show the definite values to demonstrate the performance of both approaches.


Abstract The authors study the action flux associated with three-dimensional wave–wave interactions of ocean surface waves. Over deep water, two-dimensional wave–wave interactions are dominant: the three-dimensional five-wave interactions are two orders of magnitude smaller than the two-dimensional four-wave interactions. However, the five-wave interactions become increasingly important as the water depth decreases. Because of the effects of finite depth, three-dimensional five-wave interactions, involving steep finite-amplitude waves, dominate over two-dimensional four-wave interactions. Specifically, when the water depth h is less than 10 m, or nondimensionalizing with the spectral peak wavenumber Kp when Kph ≤ 3.6 and nonlinearity, ϵ = Ka(3 + tanh2Kh)/4 tanh3Kh ≥ 0.3, the five-wave interactions completely dominate. Results are consistent with the instability study by McLean.


the multidimensionality of change by moving beyond the fragmentation of historical knowledge into a series of specialized domains (political, military, religious, economic, and so on) (…) being open as well to the other social sciences, to their concepts and problematics. This was the appeal made by the founders of the Annales for the decompartmentalization of research, for interdisciplinarity. 668


A species of the genus Phalacrichus Sharp is described as new, P max n. sp. collected at light in a flooded secondary forest near Iquitos, Peru. According to its externa1 morphology it seems closer to P spangleri Wooldridge, frorn which it can be separated by the puncturation of the head, the shape of the pronoturn, the pubescence. the pronotal tubercles and the aedeagus. Phalacrichus max n. sp. represents the 13th
known species of this Neotropical genus.

Key words: Coleoptera, Dryopoidea, Limnichidae, Phalacrichus max n. sp., Peru, Neotropical region.


There is increasing evidence that anterior pituitary hormones, traditionally thought to have unitary functions in regulating single endocrine targets, act on multiple somatic tissues, such as bone, fat, and liver. There is also emerging evidence for anterior pituitary hormone action on brain receptors in mediating central neural and peripheral somatic functions. Here, we have created the most comprehensive neuroanatomical atlas on the expression of TSHRs, LHCGRs and FSHRs. We have used RNAscope, a technology that allows the detection of mRNA at single-transcript level, together with protein level validation, to document Tshr expression in 173 and Fshr expression in 353 brain regions, nuclei and sub–nuclei identified using the Atlas for the Mouse Brain in Stereotaxic Coordinates. We also identified Lhcgr transcripts in 401 brain regions, nuclei and sub–nuclei. Complementarily, we used ViewRNA, another single-transcript detection technology, to establish the expression of FSHRs in human brain samples, where transcripts were co–localized in MALAT1–positive neurons. In addition, we show high expression for all three receptors in the ventricular region—with yet unknown functions. Intriguingly, Tshr and Fshr expression in the ependymal layer of the third ventricle was similar to that of the thyroid follicular cells and testicular Sertoli cells, respectively. TSHRs were expressed specifically in tanycytes. In contrast, Fshrs were localized to NeuN–positive neurons in the granular layer of the dentate gyrus in murine and human brain—both are Alzheimer's disease vulnerable regions. Our atlas thus provides a vital resource for scientists to explore the link between the stimulation or inactivation of brain glycoprotein hormone receptors on somatic function. New actionable pathways for human disease may be unmasked through further studies.


Norman Hartnell (1901-1979) was a unique British genius. For nearly sixty years he was a major personality in the world of fashion. By the mid 1930s, Hartnell's meteoric rise to fame resulted in London becoming a centre of style that closely rivalled Paris. Known for glamorous evening clothes, Hartnell augmented his early design successes by creating a series of stunning wedding dresses for his younger society clientele. His bridal extravaganzas culminated in the romantic 1947 wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip. While Hartnell clients included members of the English upper class as well as the best-known stage and film actresses of the time, it was his royal patronage that assured him a place in history.The famous "White Wardrobe" created for Queen Elizabeth (and photographed by Cecil Beaton) in the late 1930s changed her image forever; the extraordinary coronation robes designed for Elizabeth II in 1953; and the sublimely simple wedding dress he made for Princess Margaret when she was married to Lord Snowdon in 1960 remain iconic to this day. Decades of achievement were rewarded with a Knighthood in 1977. Sir Norman Hartnell became the first of two fashion designers to be so honoured. Hartnell continued to create both daywear and evening clothes for a well-heeled sophisticated clientele until his death in 1979. In "Top-Notch: Norman Hartnell, Sixty Years of Glamorous Fashion", royal enthusiasts and fashion connoisseurs will be able to examine in greater detail his drawings, vintage photographs, fabric samples and personal scrapbooks that have never been published before.


BACKGROUND
Risk perception is an intuitive risk about hazards to which people are exposed daily and is related to several factors. In the construction context, there is a need to identify and understand how risk perception is related to these factors; construction companies can implement this information to develop measures for effective risk management.

OBJECTIVE
This literature review aims to identify recommendations for future research about factors that may be related to risk perception in construction workers.

METHODS
We used the SPIDER tool and searched available electronic databases for the most recent research articles published on risk perception in the construction area.

RESULTS
We identified main recommendations for future research: Behavior, environment and working conditions, risk assessment methods, culture, individual and demographic factors, and knowledge.

CONCLUSION
Safety behavior is the primary variable of concern in studies related to risk perception in the construction area. Therefore, further research is needed to identify the factors that intervene and impact risk perception to reduce accident rates among construction industry workers.


We study decoherence effects in neutrino flavour oscillations in curved spacetime with particular emphasis on the lensing in a Schwarzschild geometry. Assuming Gaussian wave packets for neutrinos, we argue that the decoherence length derived from the exponential suppression of the flavour transition amplitude depends on the proper time of the geodesic connecting the events of the production and detection in general gravitational setting. In the weak gravity limit, the proper time between two events of given proper distance is smaller than that in the flat spacetime. Therefore, in presence of a Schwarzschild object, the neutrino wave packets have to travel relatively more physical distance in space to lapse the same amount of proper time before they decoher. For non-radial propagation applicable to the lensing phenomena, we show that the decoherence, in general, is sensitive to the absolute values of neutrino masses as well as the classical trajectories taken by neutrinos between the source and detector along with the spatial widths of neutrino wave packets. At distances beyond the decoherence length, the probability of neutrino flavour transition due to lensing attains a value which depends only on the leptonic mixing parameters. Hence, the observability of neutrino lensing significantly depends on these parameters and in-turn the lensing can provide useful information about them.


On the basis of the dynamic mathematical model of the linear induction motor(LIM),a novel reciprocal power-fed linear drive test system is studied in terms of its construction and operation principle.This system consists of two linear induction motors,one being the traction motor and the other being operated as the generator which simulates the loading characteristics of the traction motor,transforms the output mechanical energy of the motor into the electrical energy and then send the electrical energy back to the DC bus.This system has the merits of high efficiency and flexible control.Analyzing the balancing relations of the thrust forces of the twin motors,the associated control strategy of the twin motors based on vector control is proposed.Regulation of the traction motor speed and analog load simulation are discussed.Simulation and test results show that the LIM reciprocal power-fed test system using the above associated control strategy has good steady-state performance,and good speed and load force adjustment.The validity of the test system is verified.


NIERWINSKI, H. P. Liquefaction Potential of Mining Tailings estimated by Field Tests. 2013. M. Sc. Dissertation – Department of Civil Eng ineering, UFRGS, Porto Alegre. Waste generation caused by mining activity emerges as an environmental concern, both because of the large area involved in deposits of t his material, as well as the possible impacts caused by occasional failures that may occur in the se deposits. The method of waste disposal, often used by mining companies, consists by pumping wet material in sequence until completion of the reservoirs contained by dikes or dams. This process makes these areas susceptible to the occurrence of the liquefaction f ailures. When this type of event happens there is a sudden increase in pore pressure with co nsequent reduction shear strength, which can result is risk of containment structures. There fore, verification of liquefaction potential of these materials is essential in the prevention of e nvironmental impacts. The present work analyzes three different reservoirs, one consisting of gold mining tailings and the other two of bauxite mining tailings. The results of field tests (SCPTU/ CPTU and SDMT) are used in geotechnical evaluation of tailings in order to ver ify the compatibility with evaluations already carried out through laboratory tests. The s tatic liquefaction potential observed in laboratory at low levels of stresses is consistent with field assessment from in situ tests. Semiempirical correlations based on field tests are bas ed on small strain measurements (shear modulus) combined with large strain measurements (p enetration resistance), that are used to defined the state parameter of the material. The fi rst proposal consisted in defining a boundary between materials of contractive and dilatant behav ior in space G0/qc versus p'/pa. The proposal presented an appropriate response, however , the concentration of all analyzed points, possibly susceptible to static liquefaction phenome non, in the same graphical region was only possible in space G 0/qc versus qc1. In this space the separation between materials of contractive and dilatant behavior was possible with the inclusion of an empirical boundary. This study demonstrated the good sensitivity of the parameters G 0 and qc to the static liquefaction phenomenon. The cyclic liquefaction su sceptibility of the gold and bauxite mining tailings was also verified by correlation wi th field tests results. This analyzes indicated the possibility of occurrence of the phenomenon to the lowest levels of earthquake magnitude.


Computers allow us to obtain and process data to improve and accelerate the analysis of the information required to optimize the processes of metal forming and to minimize production costs. The computer program Qform 2D, adapted to wheel forming, has been used for several years in the company "Interpipe – Nikopolski tube rolling plants" for solving problems related to the selection of the optimal schemes for the hot plastic deformation of wheel blanks, the analysis of existing shapes and the development of new shapes for the die-forging tool.


The use of support braced systems represents one of the best solutions for retrofitting or upgrading the tall reinforced concrete buildings in areas with a high earthquake hazard. In this study, the behavior of a reinforced concrete tall structure under seismic loads is examined based on the Turkish Building Earthquake Code 2019 (TBEC-2019). Support braced systems were added to the 25-story structure on 0.4H and 0.8H levels (H is height of structure). For two different models, firstly, the Mode-Superposition Method for linear computational methods used within the scope of strength-based design is performed. In order to determinate more accurately the behavior of tall buildings, as in the earthquake regulations of other developed countries, the TBEC-2019 advises a nonlinear deformation-based design approach. In addition, the nonlinear time history analyses of these buildings were performed. As a result of these analyzes, it was determined whether the two models examined were within the targeted performance effects or not. In the model having support braced system, stiffness and shear forces in shear walls were increased. Thus, displacements, relative story drift, plastic rotations and bending moments of shear walls were decreased.


Starting with the peculiar existence of the example and the importance of a paradigmatic method for artistic research endeavours, my contribution to this volume on 'transposition' introduces an idea of 'making use' that is non-utilitarian and immediately brings into existence a relational unity, a profound bond, between that which is used and that or who is using it. Drawing upon my previous research and the current work of Giorgio Agamben, I bring close together the existence of the example and this idea of 'making use' to show that with both there is no residue, nothing preceding left behind, and nothing foundational to be found in a separate realm. This has consequences for not only how we understand 'transposition' but also for the functioning and control of a power that constitutes itself by separating something from it.


Statistics instructors are increasingly using stand-alone applets to illustrate statistics concepts to students. There are hundreds of applets available on the web, but locating a quality applet to serve a particular purpose can be time consuming. This paper presents the STAT-ATTIC (STATistics Applets for Teaching Topics in Introductory Courses) website, located at http://sapphire.indstate.edu/~stat-attic/index.php, as a tool for locating statistics applets for a particular pedagogical purpose. The site has links, with descriptions, to approximately 600 publicly available applets on topics commonly taught in introductory courses, including graphical displays, descriptive statistics, probability concepts, random variables, sampling, confidence intervals, hypothesis tests, regression, ANOVA and chi-square tests. Within each broad topic, applets are organized by intended purpose; for example, applets intended to illustrate properties or behavior are shown separately from those that calculate statistics or perform tests. Advantages of the database over other statistics resources are presented, along with the process that was used to identify and select applets for the site. Lastly, the structure and functionality of the database, including the ability to search and rate or comment on applets, are also discussed.


ABSTRACT The cover blurb reads, "The truth about men, sex and pleasure," but this is not a tabloid feature. It is an update of the author's bestselling 1978 Male Sexuality. The new work, like the earlier one, is intended as public education. The author is a nonmedical professional specializing in sex therapy for now over 20 years, with large numbers of men in group therapy and individual counselling. His book is well written, with clinical examples that keep the reader's interest and clearly illustrate each point.It is estimated that there are over 10 million US men suffering from impotence, so few physicians escape this question during a busy afternoon: "May I ask a private question, doctor?" Young men, old men, fit or sick, single, divorced, or widowed have sexual questions, sexual insecurities, and sexual problems. It is appropriate that they turn to their physicians first. Few men, even in the


Abstract This article describes a method of facilitated communication for extending the well-known benefits of reminiscence by recording the words of nursing home residents and creating a concrete memory resource. Reminiscence sessions were conducted with five cognitively impaired older adults, whose words and phrases were arranged into poetry, revealing the essence of each person. Information gained was used to construct personal Remembering Boxes filled with meaningful objects and writings. As communication tools, the poems and Remembering Boxes helped staff learn more about residents, proving useful when residents were sleepless or agitated. Remembering Boxes offered residents enhanced interactions with their families and staff and greater control of those interactions. These tools can affirm the personhood of the residents amid their confusion and cognitive decline.


It is shown that, in the framework of non-relativistic quantum mechanics, any conserved Hermitian operator (which may depend explicitly on the time) is the generator of a one-parameter group of unitary symmetries of the Hamiltonian and that, conversely, any one-parameter family of unitary symmetries of the Hamiltonian is generated by a conserved Hermitian operator.


This article reflect on the extent to which contract of employment, legislative provisions and collective bargaining assist in protecting employees in the modern labour relations. Contract of employment has traditionally been known as a vital document holistically regulating the symbiotic employer-employee relationship. However, its common law perspective perpetuates inequalities as it fails to accommodate and resolve the inequalities of bargaining power between these parties. It also regards the parties as master (employer) and servant (employee). It is aloof to collective regulation of the employment relationship, meaning that it does not embrace collective bargaining. It was against this backdrop that countries including South Africa, promulgated laws entrenching protection of workers' labour rights. Thus, the statutory provisions are a workable framework in protecting employees as rights to associate and bargain freely got entrenched. It is asserted that the basis of strength regarding contract of employment is fading owing to contemporary trends of employment. This includes externalization, casualization and informalization of work. These trends have alienated a huge net of workers from statutory protection. Because, the modern standard model of employment is of inherent variability, it is high time that our legislative authorities, courts and competent tribunals innovate effective responses towards expanding labour legislative boundaries to benefit those in desperate need. This is achievable through strategic interpretation of the Constitution to augment its transformative ideals of advancing social justice.


This article undertakes an analysis of strategic framing strategies in the Digital Rights Movement by the movement's central Social Movement Organization (SMO), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Through analysis of a series of interviews with key members of the EFF and analysis of the EFF's 'Endangered Gizmos' campaign in response to the MGM vs Grokster case, this article shows how the organization strategically frames consumers as users' and fair use in user-centered fashion. In so doing the EFF develops a legitimizing rationale for expanding consumer privileges in copyrighted works. The analysis shows that the user-centered notion of fair use articulates with broader historical and emerging trends in media consumption/use and thus finds accepting audiences both within the movement and outside of it.


Arriving in Siam as governess to the King's royal children, the recently widowed Anna brings with her a fiercely independent spirit, a passion for justice, and a hidden loneliness. As Anna learns more about her exotic students and their proud, handsome father, the ancient, exotic land of Siam approaches a critical moment in history. fighting to keep his equal -- and more. In Anna and the King, the world will rediscover the "almost true" story of love, loyality, and loss that has moved generations to gentle smiles and bittersweet tears.


FIELD: food industry. SUBSTANCE: method provides for preparing hop extract from granular hop and water using single-stage method. For this purpose, granular hop and water are mixed in ratio 1:88 of weight fractions and obtained mixture is held for 60 minutes at a temperature of 100°C. Then nutrient mixture is cooked for liquid rye starter consisting of flour, water and hop extract taken in quantity of 2-6% to water weight in nutrient mixture. Liquid rye starter is fermented to acidity of 9-13 degrees and then used in production cycle. Dough is prepared, fermented and poured on the baking trays. Finished product is proved, stabbed, baked, cut and dried. EFFECT: obtaining microbiologically resistant product with pleasant flavour; extending its storage life period; decreasing duration of technological process due to dough process intensification. 1 tbl, 3 ex


To control humanoid robots, the reference pose of end effector(s) is planned in task space, then mapped into the reference joints by IK. By viewing that problem as approximate quadratic programming (QP), recent QP solvers can be applied to solve it precisely, but iterative numerical IK solvers based on Jacobian are still in high demand due to their low computational cost. However, the conventional Jacobian-based IK usually clamps the obtained joints during iteration according to the constraints in practice, causing numerical instability due to non-smoothed objective function. To alleviate the clamping problem, this study explicitly considers the joint constraints, especially the box constraints in this paper, inside the new IK solver. Specifically, instead of clamping, a mirror descent (MD) method with box-constrained real joint space and no-constrained mirror space is integrated with the Jacobian-based IK, so-called MD-IK. In addition, to escape local optima nearly on the boundaries of constraints, a heuristic technique, called $\epsilon$-clamping, is implemented as margin in software level. Finally, to increase convergence speed, the acceleration method for MD is integrated assuming continuity of solutions at each time. As a result, the accelerated MD-IK achieved more stable and enough fast tracking performance compared to the conventional IK solvers. The low computational cost of the proposed method mitigated the time delay until the solution is obtained in real-time humanoid gait control, achieving a more stable gait.


The way (tao) of Heaven, isn't it comparable to pulling a bow? That which is too high is lowered down; that which is too low is lifted up. That which is too much is reduced; that which is not enough is compensated. The way of Heaven is to reduce what is too much and compensate what is not enough. The way of man is not like this: It takes from those who have not enough and gives it to those who already have too much. Who can take the too much and give it to all under heaven? Only the one who is in possession of the tao.


In his monograph of the Menispermaceae in 'Das Pflanzenreich' (I9IO), Diels published the first species of Cocculus recorded from Madagascar, C. madagascariensis. It was based on a specimen in the Paris Herbarium which bears a printed label indicating it to be a Scott Elliot collection from Madagascar received on 20oth May I890. The sheet also bears two slips of paper with the numbers 60 and 308 pencilled on them. There is in addition a label -not in Scott Elliot's hand-stating: 'Cocculus sp./Scott Elliot nos. 60-308/ Esp Ace voisine de C. Laeba DC.' A fragment of this specimen with Diels's sketch of the male flowers is in the Berlin Herbarium. No other specimen of this plant is known from Madagascar. Recent examination of the specimens at Paris and Berlin shows without any doubt that the plant is the narrow leaved form of Cocculus diversifolius DC., a species known only from Mexico and the southern parts of Arizona and Texas. It is therefore highly significant that this collection lacks the distinctive red-bordered label generally found on Scott Elliot specimens bearing data, including the locality. There is not a word in Scott Elliot's hand on the Paris sheet (the pencilled numbers are probably not his) and no locality within Madagascar is given. The printed label is a 'Herb. Mus. Paris' label of a type that was printed in the Paris Herbarium, i.e. it is not a label that was distributed with the specimen. A further important fact is that Scott Elliot's collections from Madagascar always bear four-figure numbers well up in the thousands: '60o' and '308' are far too low. The inescapable conclusion is that this specimen was collected not in Madagascar but in Central America and that there must have been an error in labelling when it was originally mounted. This conclusion is supported by Dr. D. K. Ferguson (see p. 487) who has found that the leaf epidermis of the 'Scott Elliot' collection is indistinguishable from that of C. diversifolius. Diels described the male flowers in his original description, stating that the female flowers and fruits were unknown. There is, however, an apparently recent addition to the sheet-an envelope bearing a solitary fruit, which was clearly not present when Diels worked with the specimen. The fruit may belong to another species. The unfortunate result of the erroneous labelling was that Diels was deceived into believing that this specimen of Cocculus really came from Madagascar, which on the face of it is quite possible since the genus occurs in Africa and Asia (C. orbiculatus (L.) DC. is known from the Mascarene Is.). He obviously realized its closeness to C. diversifolius, which he placed next to C. madagascariensis: the two are differentiated in the key by leaf-shape characters which, understandably, do not work. It is possible that Diels later


Why were the modern police created? It is generally assumed, among people who think about it at all, that the police were created to deal with rising levels of crime caused by urbanization and increasing numbers of immigrants.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


Levels ofabscisic acid werefollowed inthexylem sap, matureleaves, andapices offield-grown willow (Salix vihnalis L.)during thesummer months, under natural andartificially extended photoperiods. Although the longdaytreatment prevented thegeneral onset ofdormancy, theplants grownunder natural daylengths showed lower concentration ofabscisic acid thanthose kept under long days.


1. Haamid F, Sass AE, Dietrich JE. Heavy menstrual bleeding in adolescents. J Pediatr Adolesc Gynecol. 2017;30:335-340. 2. Nur Azurah AG, Sanci L, Moore E, Grover S. The quality of life of adolescents with menstrual problems. J Pediatr Adolesc Gynecol. 2013;26 (2):102-108. 3. Peuranpaa P, Helovaara-Peippo S, Fraser I, Paavonen J, Hurskainen R. Effects of anemia and iron deficiency on quality of life in women with heavy menstrual bleeding. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 2014;93: 654-660. 4. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/index.shtml. Accessed December 02, 2020. 5. Duke JM, Sibbritt DW, Young AF. Is there an association between the use of oral contraception and depressive symptoms in young Australian women? Contraception. 2007;75:27-31. 6. Mosher WD, Chandra A, Jones J. Sexual behavior and selected health measures: men and women 15-44 years of age, United States, 2002. Adv Data. 2005;362:1-55.


Oblivious RAM (ORAM) is a cryptographic primitive that conceals memory access patterns to untrusted storage. Its applications include oblivious cloud storage, trusted processors, software protection, secure multi-party computation, and so on. This thesis improves the state-of-the-art Path ORAM in several aspects. On the theoretical side, we improve Path ORAM's memory bandwidth overhead by a factor of O(log logN) when the block size is small. With this improvement, Path ORAM is asymptotically the most efficient ORAM construction with constant or polylogarithmic client storage under any block size. Our technique to achieve this improvement involves using pseudorandom functions to compress the position map, a central component in Path ORAM and other position-based ORAMs. With small block size, managing the position map has huge overhead and is Path ORAM's performance bottleneck. Our technique reduces this overhead. On the practical side, we propose Unified ORAM with a position map lookaside buffer to utilize locality in real-world applications, while preserving access pattern privacy. We also propose a new variant of Path ORAM named RAW Path ORAM, which achieves a constant factor reduction in memory bandwidth and encryption overhead. It also features a much simpler proof for correctness compared with Path ORAM. Combining our techniques results in a roughly 2× improvement in ORAM bandwidth, and over 1.43× speedup on SPEC benchmarks. We also study how to efficiently verify the integrity of ORAM. Besides some customized optimizations for Path ORAM and RAW Path ORAM, we present a novel integrity verification scheme that works for any position-based ORAM and achieves an asymptotic reduction in hashing overhead over prior solutions. Thesis Supervisor: Srinivas Devadas Title: Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science


The Drone Formation Control System (DFCS) was developed by IBM, Federal Systems Division in 1976 under contract to the US Army White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) to provide precise automatic closed-loop control for multiple target aircraft. The unique DFCS distance measuring equipment (DME) data link allows for both range measurement and the transmission of both command and telemetry data on a single frequency (915 MHz). The DFCS is controlled by a federated chain of microprocessors linked to a large scale IBM System 360 Model 75. The unique data link embedded in a system totally driven by software allowed the DFCS to be modified for automatic control of multiple ground targets as well as aerial targets. This paper briefly describes the DFCS and the modifications performed for ground target control. The DFCS RF modulation/demodulation technique is emphasized.


In this work, we focus on the secure transmission in reconfigurable intelligent surface- (RIS-) aided ultrareliable low-latency communications (URLLC) network. Specifically, we investigate the average effective secrecy rate (AESR) optimization via jointly designing the transmit beamforming, the artificial noise covariance at the transmitter (Tx), and the phase shifter at the RIS. Particulary, the AESR in URLLC network contains not only the commonly used information rate expression based on long codewords but also two penalty terms about the decoding error probability introduced by finite block-length coding. Thus, the AESR is a nonconcave objective. In addition, the unit modulus constraint of the reflecting coefficient at the RIS is nonconvex, which makes the formulated problem difficult to handle. To solve the formulated highly nonconvex problem, we first decouple the complicated objective into a linear function by introducing several slack variables. Then, we address the nonconvex constraints by the first-order expression and the penalty concave-convex procedure (PCCP) technique. Thus, an alternating optimization (AO) technique is proposed to solve the reformulated problem, where the convergence can be guaranteed by rigorous proof, and the computational complexity is a polynomial function of the main system parameters. Simulation results demonstrated the performance of the proposed design as well as the superiority of RIS in improving the secrecy performance when comparing with other baselines.


The utility model provides a radial baffle shell type reactor which has good heat exchange effect and can reduce reactor volume greatly, aiming at solving the problem that the prior tube shell type reactor has large volume and poor heat exchange effect, the utility model comprises an outer shell (1) and a cold plate inner member (2), the cold plate inner member (2) is arranged in the outer shell (1), the utility model is characterized in that a gas radially-distributing cylinder (9) and a gas radially-collecting cylinder (10) are arranged in the outer shell (1), according to variable gas flow directions, the positions of both gas radially-distributing cylinder (9) and the gas radially-collecting cylinder (10) are exchangeable, a plurality of circles of radial baffle members (12) are arranged between the gas radially-distributing cylinder (9) and the gas radially-collecting cylinder (10), the radial baffle members (12) are composed of a plurality of baffle components which are arranged at intervals, an axial baffle channel or a hole (16) is arranged between adjacent baffle components, the utility model has the advantages of good heat exchange effect, simple structure and small total size.


In order to test the intraspecific differences of two soybean cultivars in response to enhanced UV B radiation (280~320 nm) under field conditions,The changes of growth,photosynthesis,segments and stable carbon isotope composition (δ 13 C) of Glycine max (L.) Merr.cv Heidou and Glycine max (L.) Merr.cv Jindou were investgated.Generally,cultivars Jindou was more tolerant than Heidou to increased ultraviolet B radiation,Enhanced ultraviolet B was stimulated the 20% atmosphere stratosphere ozone depletion.The reduced biomass (leaves,stem and root) and height in cultivars Heidou were observed and did not in cv.Jindou under supplemental ultraviolet B radiation.Pigment contents (chlorophyll a,b and carotenoids and flavonids) had no obvious response to supplemental UV B radiation in cultivars Jindou,and significant changes were founded in other cultivar.UV B radiation,however,decreased the photosynthesis (Pn),stomatal conductance (Gs),intercellular CO 2 concentration (Ci),evaporation (E) and water use efficiency (WUE) in Heidou while only did in stomatal conductance (Gs) and evaporation (E) of Jindou.Cultivars Jindou contained more flavonoid and trichomes than cv.Heidou.In addition,significantly lower (more negative) stable carbon isotope composition (δ 13 C) under UV B radiation in the leaves of cv.Heidou than control,while no statistical significant change in cv Jindou was observed.These results were indicated that Heidou cultivar was more sensitive to enhanced UV B than Jindou cultivar,and δ 13 C value may be as an useful indicator for determining the sensitive difference to UV B radiation.


In this study, we provide a framework for how to have cost discussions with parents of children who are hospitalized. BrightcoveDefaultPlayer10.1542/6138653311001PEDS-VA_2018-4029 Video Abstract OBJECTIVES To explore parent attitudes toward discussing their child's health care costs in the inpatient setting and to identify strategies for health care providers to engage in cost discussions with parents. METHODS: Using purposeful sampling, we conducted semistructured interviews between October 2017 and February 2018 with parents of children with and without chronic disease who received care at a tertiary academic children's hospital. Researchers coded the data using applied thematic analysis to identify salient themes and organized them into a conceptual model. RESULTS: We interviewed 42 parents and identified 2 major domains. Categories in the first domain related to factors that influence the parent's desire to discuss health care costs in the inpatient setting, including responsibility for out-of-pocket expenses, understanding their child's insurance coverage, parent responses to financial stress, and their child's severity of illness on hospital presentation. Categories in the second domain related to parent preference regarding the execution of cost discussions. Parents felt these discussions should be optional and individualized to meet the unique values and preferences of families. They highlighted concerns regarding physician involvement in these discussions; their preference instead was to explore financial issues with a financial counselor or social worker. CONCLUSIONS: Parents recommended that cost discussions in the inpatient setting should be optional and based on the needs of the family. Families expressed a desire for physicians to introduce rather than conduct cost discussions. Specific recommendations from parents for these discussions may be used to inform the initiation and improvement of cost discussions with families during inpatient encounters.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most common forms of dementia, affecting the elderly population globally. The occurrence of the ailment is on the rise; one person is being effected every 71 seconds. This rate is higher than many other fatal diseases, e.g., cancer, stroke, and heart failures. Therefore, searching for compounds with minimal side effects along with significant activity against acetylcholinesterase (AChE), are needed to be discovered to fight AD. In order to achieve this goal the study was undertaken to screen 32 medicinal plants based on their total phenolic contents (TPC), total flavonoid contents (TFC), antioxidant activity (AOA), and antiacetylcholinesterase activity (AChE) to select the best source of the active compounds that can be used for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. For the purpose, crude extracts from all 32 plants were subjected to determine TPC, TFC, AOA, and anti- AChE activity, and 3 plants out of 32 were finally selected for further study. The selected lants include Solanum tuberosum (Potato), Solanum melongena (Brinjals), and Capsicum annuum (Chilli). All three species belong to genus solanum and family solanaceae. TPC was determined following the Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetric method and TFC was determined using aluminium chloride colorimetric assay. AOA was determined by DPPH-scavenging and β-carotene assay methods, while anti-AchE activity was assayed by Ellman's method. A pure compound α-solanine was isolated by TLC, followed by HPLC and prep-HPLC. The fractions and isolated compound both showed significant bioactivities. The crude extract of S. tuberosum showed the highest anti-AChE activity (IC50 = 689.9 μg/mL), followed by, S. melongena (IC50 = 731.99 μg/mL), and C. annuum (IC50 = 851 μg/mL). Purified α-solanine demonstrated the second highest anti-AchE activity (IC50 = 725.70 μg/mL). A similar trend was seen for their antioxidant activity. In this case, TPC and TFC showed significant correlation with AOA and anti-AchE activity; attributing the bioactivities to be due to phenolic and flavonoids compounds present in plant fractions. The correlation between AChE,DPPH, TPC and TFC, were all found to be statistically significant (P<0.05). Furthermore, the finding shows that a good antioxidant compound can be a potent inhibitor of AChE. The data revealed that S. tuberosum fraction had higher activity compared to α- solanine that might be due to the synergistic effect of alkaloidalcompounds and the polyphenols present in the crude extract. The structure of the isolated compound was elucidated by different chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques including HPLC, FTIR, NMR and LC-MS. The research results indicated that Solanum species could be the candidates of choice in further search for new AchE inhibitors


Choice- "This study of the "literature of Israeli Arabs" is recommended ... for comprehensive graduate and research collections with holdings in the field" Times Literary Supplement "...has many interesting observations." Journal of Islamic Studies "refreshing and ...promising...an even-handed critique of both Arab and Israeli critical contributions to this still largely unexplored field of study


1Department of Social Medicine, Wroclaw Medical University, Wrocław, Poland; 2Department of Dietetics, Wroclaw Medical University, Wrocław, Poland; 3The Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Geodesy, Department of Mathematics, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Wrocław, Poland; 4Department of Angiology, Hypertension and Diabetology, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland Purpose: The aim of the study was to assess if FINDRISC score was associated with diabetes development after 6 years of observation. Methods: Polish cohort is a part of global PURE study. Hereby analysis presents data from baseline (2007–2010) and 6-year follow-up (2013–2016) and was conducted on 1090 participants (702 women) from urban and rural areas in Lower Silesia region (Poland) without diabetes at the baseline and with complete data throughout course of the study. Results: At the baseline, women had significantly higher FINDRISC score than men (10.43 vs 8.91; p=0.000) and participants from rural areas had higher score than from urban areas (10.97 vs 9.33; p=0.000). At the baseline, 25.87% of the participants had low risk of diabetes according to FINDRISC score, 38.90% had slightly elevated risk, 16.79% moderate risk, 16.42% high risk and 2.02% very high risk. Participants, who were healthy at baseline, but developed diabetes after 6 years of observation had significantly higher FINDRISC, than those who did not (13.39 vs 9.36; p=0.000). In 6-year follow-up, diabetes was diagnosed in 2.8% of participants, who were ascertained to "low risk" according to FINDRISC score in baseline; in 9.9% of participants of "slightly elevated risk", 17.5% of participants of "moderate risk", 26.8% in participants of "high risk" and 50.0% of participants of "very high risk". Conclusions: Results of PURE Poland cohort study indicates that higher FINDRISC score at the baseline was associated with higher risk of diabetes development during 6 years of observation.


A reduced, genotype-dependent ability to form a protective subintinal layer that serves as osmoprotective barrier to increase viability is identified as a source of recalcitrance to induction of microspore embryogenesis.


This study aims to analyze the problem of legal uncertainty for MHA related to the establishment of a Land Bank as mandated by the Job Creation Perppu. This research is a normative legal research with a conceptual and statutory approach. The results of the study concluded that the obligation to involve the Customary Law Community in land use through the Land Bank agency is said to be urgent, especially in an effort to maintain the mandate of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia and the UUPA to provide guarantees for recognition, protection as well as empowerment of the Indigenous Peoples. Efforts to realize legal certainty for Indigenous Peoples (MHA) in land use through the Land Bank agency with reference to grammatical, authentic, and teleological (sociological) interpretations, it is necessary to expand the meaning of the word "community" in Article 8 paragraph (2) PP Agency Land Bank which does not only cover society in general (individuals as legal subjects) but includes the Customary Law Community.


The pooling problem is a non-convex mathematical program that arises in blending materials to produce products, such as the blending of crude or refined petroleum. Each material has a set of attributes with associated qualities, such as percentage sulfur and octane rating. Pool qualities are determined by a flow-weighted average of the source qualities, and product qualities are similarly defined by a flow-weighted average of pool qualities. Product qualities are constrained to lie in specified ranges. The pooling problem is to minimize the total cost of flows, subject to flow and quality constraints. Present solution methods are based on sequential linear programming, and sensitivity analysis relies upon Lagrange multipliers. These methods are not exact and can lead to erroneous conclusions. A new method is presented that is based upon computational geometry, which provides exact answers to questions of sensitivity analysis and infeasibility diagnosis. INFORMS Journal on Computing, ISSN 1091-9856, was pu...


macropores should be less than 140 cm for the crusted loam soils with moderate inclinations. Inclination enhanced infiltration through the artificial macropores, but precise estimation for more realistic geometries will be conducted with COMSOL software package.


This text is foundation of education appraise study,classroom appraise study,sports statistics etc.following the law of training course,study of factors of trainning course in department of PE.It utilized the scientific quantitative means to state the problem of determining the nature in the classroom instruction quality evaluation,combining quantitative with abstract analysis,overcaming subjection in the quality evaluation of classroom instruction,aimming at improving quality of course in universities.


What follows is a response to Dr Grotstein's current paper on the psychoanalytic Subject. The discussion highlights the paper's main ideas, giving a developmental context by citing Grotstein's previous work in Do I dare disturb the universe? It is suggested here that the expanded view of the Subject of psychoanalysis that Grotstein describes is similar to Jung's description of the Self and Edinger's explication of the ego-Self axis. It is noted that Grotstein arrives at his ideas through Lacan, Bion, Matte Blanco, as well as other Freudian analysts. In reviewing Grotstein's case material the possible impact of Grotstein's contribution on both Jungian and Freudian communities is discussed.


The purpose of this study is to examine how variables related to a speech community's use of language influence not only which language variety is chosen for communication but how each particular variety is used in faceto-face interaction. More specifically, this study examines how the variables that comprise the construct social situation — interlocutor, setting and topic — influence whether standard English (SE) or black English (BE) is chosen as a means of communication within a black English-speaking community; and how that language variety is strategically used to elaborate topics of conversation. Traditionally, sociolinguistic studies have shown that specific features of the social situation act selectively upon linguistic choice so that a speaker adjusts his language to the various contexts in which he employs it (Bernstein 1972a, 1972b; Ervin-Tripp 1968; Joos 1968). When a speaker regularly adjusts his language to different social contexts, and the same language variety systematically occurs along with the same types of social situations, the language variety indicates something about the social relationship between two speakers or about the particular social constraints of the setting and the delimiting factors of the topic of conversation. Each constraint is also affected by the social and cultural values that the speakers share. This kind of relation between language use and setting has been defined as diglossia (Ferguson 1964; Fishman 1972a). In diglossia speech communities the choice of a language variety is made based on its appropriateness to the social situation. Within the confines of each social situation there are additional variables that influence language use and allow speakers to make sense of the conversation. Recent studies of language acquisition among children have indicated that meanings are conveyed via particular combinations of utterances and social settings. Meanings are chosen to fit contexts and are integrated into these contexts in such a way that the two are inseparable.


Positioning has become primary obstacle for a number of cities to develop urban tourism.The paper firstly analyzes the important erroneous area existing in the strategic approach of the positioning of urban tourism in Tianjin.Then it makes an in-depth analysis of the double-nucleus driving mechanism,which is the basic methodology of the positioning of urban tourism.Based on this,the method for refining key elements of positioning urban tourism is discussed,which provides direct evidence for positioning.Finally,the strategy assumption of positioning urban tourism in Tianjin is advanced.The paper aims to provide theoretical support for strategic approach in positioning urban tourism in other cities.


Circuits designed and fabricated with nanometer-scale technology are increasingly sensitive to power ground noise across a wide frequency range, thus necessitating a strict examination of circuit robustness against noise during manufacturing tests. Conventional at-speed testing techniques possibly result in the escape of marginal timing failures, as they are unable to account for the impact of middle- and low-frequency noise on circuit timing. To address this challenge, we propose, in this paper, a novel multi-functional-cycle test scheme that targets the noise-induced failures on critical paths of the circuit. The proposed technique explores the noise profile of at-speed functional cycles and approximates it in delay testing through the application of multiple capture operations, thus maximally detecting the timing failures that potentially take place under the worst case functional mode noise. The noise impact of individual devices on the critical paths is characterized through simulations on the power mesh model extracted from the circuit layout. This enables a computationally efficient yet SPICE-accurate estimation of the compound noise profile of the test pattern through the linear superposition of individual ones. Guided by this noise estimation technique, a test pattern transformation flow is proposed to maximize the noise in pseudo-functional test operations. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can examine the effect of wide-bandwidth noise and thus perform a much more rigorous testing on critical paths than conventional delay testing schemes, thereby significantly improving test quality.


With global levels rising every year, climate change is becoming a larger, looming CO2 threat. Cities around the world have an important role in reducing the negative impacts of climate change through strategic and sustainable urban planning. The purpose of this study is to conduct an introductory analysis of Geldinganes island and its potential and capacity for land development that will support and expand upon the city of Reykjavik's 2010-2030 municipal plan and 2040 climate neutrality goals. Within this study three proposals for Geldinganes are considered, the current proposal and two new proposals. The lowest development impact proposal for Geldinganes is leaving it as it currently exists, preserving it as a green space with the potential for adding minimal infrastructure to increase public accessibility to the island. This is the plan for Geldinganes within the current municipal plan. The second proposal of medium development impact is to forest the island with native birch trees. This plan simultaneously preserves the area as a green space and provides a carbon sink for the city. Lastly, the highest impact plan considered is to develop a wind turbine farm on Geldinganes, creating an additional renewable energy source for the city to help it meet its increasing energy demands with the potential to support a growing electric transportation industry.


Despite their proven effectiveness in combating the pandemic of COVID-19, measures of social isolation, quarantines, and lockdowns have drastic consequences in the social and economic spheres. This paper presents results from an ongoing study in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, to evaluate the effect of social isolation on MP10 concentration. The monitoring point was chosen in a wooded area within a university campus. Social isolation was analyzed in terms of vehicle movements recorded by speed cameras, during all phases following the partial lockdown (PL) instituted in the city. The social isolation index (SDI) showed a maximum isolation percentage of 49.5%, reached in the first week of the PL, with a subsequent continuous downward trend. The results showed a 65.2% reduction in PM10 due to the PL, when comparing the mean values monitored before (22.2 ± 3.0 µg m-3) and during (7.7 ± 4.2 µg m-3) the PL. The relationship between vehicle movement and PM10 concentrations in the monitoring region was evidenced and found to be significant (r(XY) = 0.782, p-value = 0.000). Such reduction, observed in such a short term, but due to force majeure, certainly has beneficial effects on the population's health, reinforcing the reflection about the positive impacts that could come with policies that favor the reduction of vehicle movement in the cities.


This paper introduces a method of similar measure and weighted similarity measure between fuzzy sets.How to select loader arms should be based on the similarity measure between fuzzy sets.The similarity degree between design and desired ones should be as an evaluating value.The bigger the value of similarity measure is,the better the similarity degree is.It also offers a real example to show that selecting loader arms based on similarity measure between fuzzy sets is feasible.


Stationarity is a well-studied concept in signal processing and the concept of stationary random processes has been extended to graph domains in several recent works. Meanwhile, in many scenarios a globally stationary process model may fail to accurately represent the correlation patterns of the data on the whole graph, e.g. when data is acquired on big graphs or when the behavior of the process varies significantly throughout the graph. In this work, we first propose a locally stationary graph process model, where the overall graph process is expressed through a combination of several local models. We then propose an algorithm that learns a locally stationary graph process model from partially observed realizations of the process. Experimental results show that the proposed locally stationary process model can provide significant gain in signal estimation performance compared to globally stationary models, even in cases where the process is highly stationary.


The neutron time-of-flight facility n_TOF at CERN has been designed to produce crosssection data for neutron induced reactions in the neutron energy range from thermal to GeV. In the first ten years of operation, the facility has produced a large body of new and accurate data on neutron capture and fission cross-sections, relevant to nuclear astrophysics and advanced nuclear technologies. In 2014 a second experimental area, with a shorted flight path, will be available. It will allow to perform highflux measurements of isotopes of relatively short half-life, very low-cross sections, or available in very small quantities. The main results obtained so far at n_TOF and the future perspectives are here presented.


Abstract Gaza Strip is a poor and densely populated area by the Mediterranean Sea; β-thalassaemia is a socioeconomic problem in Gaza Strip. The number of thalassaemia patients in Gaza is 321, with an annual increase of about 5%. Patients receive free treatment. The cost of treatment of these patients is considered a burden on the budget of the Ministry of Health, not to mention the emotional suffering of the patients and families. The classical methods of thalassaemia control (public education, population screening, gene counseling, prenatal diagnosis) are costly. Gaza adopted the obligatory premarital tests in 2000, with the number of premarital tests made per year reaching about 10,000. Out of 100,000 marriages in 10 years, the number of couples where both are carriers is 223 and of those, the number who refused to separate was 71 couples. Ten years after the adoption of the obligatory premarital tests the evaluation of the program showed excellent results, and the number of new β-thalassaemia cases has dropped to zero.


In this paper, an exact solution for the equation of two-dimensional transient heat conduction in a hollow sphere made of functionally graded material and piezoelectric layers is developed. Temperature distribution, as function of radial and circumferential directions and time with general thermal and mechanical boundary-conditions on the inside and outside surfaces, is analytically obtained for different layers, using the method of separation of variables and Legendre series. The functionally graded material properties, are assumed to depend on the variable r and they are expressed as power functions of r.


Abstract The present work explores an interactive model of spatial and temporal information in map memory. In four experiments, participants learned a map with temporal and spatial information confounded or unconfounded. Attentional and representational levels of information were made apparent through tasks that tap spatial, temporal, or other information. Learning criteria emphasizing sequential order or location imposed differential weighting of the information types in memory. Results indicate that map memory is spatial, but also interacts with the order in which map locations are encountered. Findings show flexibility in allocating attention and information indexing of location and sequential order information in map learning.


A photochemical process for synthesizing VD3 includes such steps as dissolving 7-dehydrocholesterol in the mixture of polar solvent and non-polar solvent, adding antioxidizing agent, stirring, light radiating at 23-30 deg.C, evaporating, adding polar solvent, separating the unreacted 7-dehydrocholesterol, adding maleic acid anhydride and aqueous solution of KOH or NaOH while stirring to obtain viscose material, dissolving in refined oil, vacuum heating to 60-70 deg.C and vacuum relief. Its advantage is high output rate about 70%.


My purpose in this paper is modest in dimension. I shall invoke Marie Nimier's novel, La Girafe, the story of a young zookeeper who falls deeply in love with one of his charges, a giraffe named "Hedwige." I shall then turn toward a couple of texts by Jacques Roubaud, a sonnet and a novel, in which he invokes—with a great deal of affection—a German shepherd by the name of "Lucy." Finally, I shall speak briefly about two recent Christine Montalbetti pieces, wherein she speaks about that very same "Lucy," and introduces yet another dog, a young Welsh corgi named "Oscar." Along the way, I shall offer some remarks about the little-known art of canine tauromachy, tailored especially for non-aficionados.


Plasma membrane disruptions (PMD) form in cortical bone osteocytes with mechanical loading, and may be involved in mechanisms underlying how osteocytes sense their mechanical environment and drive bone adaptation. Our group recently reported that osteocyte PMD repair is sensitive to oxidative stress, with reactive oxygen species inhibiting repair and antioxidants promoting repair. Estrogen is a physiologically relevant antioxidant, and exercise increases oxidative stress. The goal of the current study was to determine whether exercise‐induced osteocyte PMD formation would be affected by estrogen depletion from ovariectomy (OVX), and if this process would affect cortical bone adaptation to exercise.


Numerical investigations are carried out to determine the effect of change in geometrical parameter of annular fin on thermal and hydraulic characteristics. Fin shape is changed by varying horizontal diameter of fin. Three different cases of annular fin are investigated corresponding to fin diameter ratio (X) of 0.65, 0.85 and 1. Turbulence is modelled using k-ω shear stress transport model. Relative assessment of tube with annular fin of different horizontal diameter (D01) is done for 2500 < Re < 13000. The comparison of Nusselt number reveals that circular tube with annular fin enhances heat transfer rate. Nusselt number augments by 35% and 10% in case of annular fin with diameter ratio of 0.65 and 0.85 as compared to that of annular fin with diameter ratio of 1.00 for 2500 < Re< 13000. Pressure drop augments with increase in horizontal diameter of fin and Reynolds number. Annular fin with diameter ratio of 0.65 performs better in terms of heat transfer and pressure penalty as compared to other cases for range of reported Reynolds number.


In a survey of 850 students at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, students were asked four questions: What is happiness, what makes you happy, what makes you happy in the work place, and does happiness impact job performance? The responses, while remaining fairly consistent with current trends, provided some insight into one sector of the general public's perceptions of what the ideal life would be and how this ideal would impact job performance.


Increasing values of inbreeding can reduce fertility, health and productivity of dairy cattle. The objective of this study was to estimate the inbreeding coefficient of the population of registered Argentine Holstein dairy cattle with genealogical records in the Argentine Holstein Breeders Association database. The population comprised 422563 animals with known ancestors, from Argentine origin, and born between 1990 and 2009 corresponding to the genealogy of females from Offspring Registration (grade) and Pedigree Registration listed in the National Official Milk Control System with genetic values for the characteristics milk kg, fat kg, protein kg. Inbreeding coefficients were obtained by implementing a modified recursive algorithm which considers the consanguinity of unknown parents. The average inbreeding for the 422563 animals was 3.38%. The trend of 1Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires Paraje Arroyo Seco s/n Tandil, CP 7000, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Correo electrónico: email@example.com 2Facultad 2 INIA Las Brujas – Ruta 48 Km 10 Canelones, Rincón del Colorado, Uruguay. Recibido 11 de abril de 2016 // Aceptado 02 de diciembre de 2016 // Publicado online 19 de abril de 2017 ANDERE, C.I.1; RUBIO, N.1; RODRIGUEZ, E.1; AGUILAR, I.2; CASANOVA, D.1 Sitio Argentino de Producción Animal


where {K) n is a sequence of absolutely integrable functions (kernels) integrating to 1, and X1 , . . ., X,~ are iid random variables with common density f on the real line [Rosenblatt (1956) and Parzen (1962)] . The expected L 1 error E(f I fn f I) is a function of n, f and Kn . Of these factors, the user can only choose Kn , the kernel. We note in passing that the most popular form for Kn is K(x) _(1 /h) L (x/h) for some fixed function L integrating to 1 and a scale factor h > 0 depending upon n only. In this case, we will call fn the standard kernel estimate . We do not allow h to depend upon the data in this paper. In general, the shape of K n can vary with n, and in this general setting the estimate is known as the delta function estimate [Walter and Blum (1979)] . The arguments for focusing on the L 1 error are expounded in Devroye and Gyorfi (1985) and Devroye (1987a) . Since this error is equal to twice the total variation distance between the probability measures induced by f and f,~, the L1 error provides us with absolute numbers with a clear physical (and even graphical) interpretation . Lower bounds for the L 1 error allow us to draw direct conclusions about minimal sample sizes below which we are bound to have errors that are at least as big as a given value . Since the density f is not known beforehand, it seems useful to have bounds that do not depend upon f such as


While the literature on expatriate adjustment has focused on the importance of back-home mentors and their instrumentality for future career advancement, this research explores the importance of on-site mentors for the effective socialization of expatriates into their current overseas assignments. Using a sample of 179 expatriates located in nineteen countries, this paper presents a structural equation model illustrating the relationships among mentoring received, expatriate socialization and socialization outcomes. Amount of mentoring received positively impacts on expatriate socialization, which in turn positively influences job attitudes, intention to finish the expatriate assignment and expatriate understanding of global business issues. Using Hofstede's typology of national cultures, this research also suggests that the international context of the overseas assignment affects how much on-site mentoring expatriates receive. Specifically, expatriates are more likely to receive mentoring in small power ...


A new antifungal substance, gougeroxymycin (m. p. 103°-105°C, λmax 234 -235 mμ in methanol) has been isolated from a Streptomyces. Production, isolation, physico-chemical, and biological properties of the antibiotic are described.


An architecture that improves serial I/O operation speed, reduces layout area, and permits simple control is presented. The architecture features a high-speed, simple configuration, an easy controllable data shifter, and an high-speed redundancy circuit. With this architecture, a 4-Mb field memory with 100-MHz serial access capability has been developed. The process technology used is 1.0 μm CMOS, and the die size is 12.94 mm×25.9 mm. The data register circuit area of the prototype chip was 40% smaller than that of conventional chips


Dear Editor, Urticarial vasculitis (UV) is characterized by persistent urticarial rashes that last for more than 24 h and heals with hyperpigmentation. It can be idiopathic or due to drugs, infections, malignancy, autoimmune or autoinflammatory diseases. Rarely, vaccines have been implicated in the causation of UV. A 27-year-old man developed multiple itchy reddish, elevated lesions following one after the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine (whole virion inactivated coronavirus vaccine). It was associated with fever and bilateral knee and ankle joint pain. He received the 1st dose of vaccine 1 month before the 2nd dose. There was no prior history of a similar disease, and the patient denied intake of any other form of medications. Cutaneous examination showed multiple erythematous urticarial plaques over the trunk and extremities (Figure 1A). In most of the lesions, the erythema was non-blanchable in nature, and the plaques were persistent for more than 1 day. Few lesions had healed with post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. Dermoscopy under polarized mode revealed red dots and globules on a reddish background. Other mucocutaneous, general, and systemic examinations were within normal limits. The biochemical and hematological parameters were normal, except for raised C-reactive protein. Histopathology revealed disruption of the walls of the small vessels, endothelial swelling, erythrocyte extravasation, and mild perivascular infiltration comprising neutrophils, eosinophils, and lymphocytes (Figure 1B,C). Direct immunofluorescence did not reveal any immune deposition. A diagnosis of UV was made, and the patient was treated with oral indomethacin 75 mg once daily, topical calamine lotion, and tab levocetirizine


The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between fifth to eighth grade students' tendencies toward academic risk-taking and their attitudes to science. A total of 680 students participated in this study which used a relational survey model. The "Science Attitude Scale" and "Academic Risk-taking Scale" scales were used to collect data. Simple linear regression, stepwise multiple regression, t tests, and ANOVA statistics were used to analyse the data. It was concluded that there is a statistically significant positive correlation at a moderate level between students' tendency to take academic risks and their attitudes to science. For the academic risk sub-factors, there was a low positive correlation between the tendency to have negative feelings after failure and attitudes to science. Similarly, there was a low positive correlation between the tendency not to do any homework and attitudes to science. There is a statistically significant difference between students' attitudes to science and their tendency to take academic risks based on gender (female), grade level (low) and academic success (high). In addition, the students' tendency to take academic risks significantly predicted attitudes to science. Whether students' tendencies to take academic risks predicts their creativity, and their critical, analytical and innovative thinking skills can be examined using these results.


How we deal with our trials and what we learn and take away from them will determine whether we are moving forward in our spiritual lives or backward.


highlight the inherent complexity of working with youths with SED, the range of resources often required, including mobilization and extended use of natural supports, the important role of parents, integration of evidence-based pharmacological and other interventions, the role of peers in fostering problem behavior ("deviancy training"), siblings' potential for aggravating problems, disturbances in family transactions, and the importance of maintaining youths with SED in their naturalistic environments. Although MST is mainly focused on fitting strengths and needs with the environment, it does not automatically follow that a focus on reducing risk factors will result in clinical improvement once significant symptoms have developed. Efficacious treatment depends on the clinical and interpersonal skills of the clinician, and adhering to MST principles alone is insufficient to ensure better outcomes. The assumption that kids are always best treated in the home environment is also suspect, especially given the adverse potential for serious abuse and neglect, parental psychopathology, and underresponsive community services. The authors also fail to make a convincing argument that, given the high risk of harm, serious functional difficulties, and/or serious comorbidities, avoiding hospitalization or out-of-home placement is achievable, especially in the current climate of poor community resources (Pumariega et al., 2001). Although the authors suggest that child and adolescent psychiatrists "may be" part of the assessment process, it is the opinion of these reviewers (and of most experts) that given the severity of problems and symptoms typically seen, every child with SED referred to MST should have a thorough psychiatric assessment. Not only are biological factors almost always found that fuel SED, but child and adolescent psychiatric assessment ensures a comprehensive understanding of the complex developmental, psychosocial, and cultural needs of children with SED. Although the authors suggest that the role of psychiatry with children with SED is "at least substantive and often primary," this is only explored in two short paragraphs. In fact, the authors appear to relegate child and adolescent psychiatry to a position of last resort, which can result in failure in secondary prevention of serious morbidities, more treatment refractoriness, and (ultimately) increased hospitalization and residential treatment. Many authors in the systems of care field have advocated the full integration of child and adolescent psychiatrists (Pumariega and Winters, 2003), but sadly the pioneers of MST have not heeded that call. Neither of us had previously read a manual on MST nor attended MST training, although we had some familiarity with its principles. We found the book valuable in providing a good orientation to MST and its primarily psychosocial, community-based, and evidenced-based contributions to treating youth with conduct disturbances and chemical de


The purpose of this article is to reflect on liberty, based on the concepts of power relations in Michel Foucault. It analyzes documents presented in interviews, articles or organized in books, as well as courses at the College de France given by Foucault. Analytical elements about liberty are found in this material from this author who gave strong emphasis to the study of power relations. The understanding of liberty, in Foucaultian cartography, presents itself as a strategic possibility for the confrontation of power relations, which operate as mobile devices enmeshed in all spaces of social life in capitalist society.


There is a critical need to understand mechanisms of resistance and develop combinatorial strategies to improve responses to checkpoint blockade immunotherapy (CBI). Here we uncover a novel mechanism by which the human papillomavirus (HPV) inhibits the activity of CBI in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Using orthotopic HNSCC models we show that radiation combined with anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy significantly enhanced local control, CD8+ memory T-cells, and induced preferential T-cell homing via modulation of vascular endothelial cells. However, the HPV E5 oncoprotein suppressed immune responses by downregulating expression of MHC and interfering with antigen presentation in murine models and patient tumors. Furthermore, tumors expressing HPV E5 were rendered entirely resistant to anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy and patients with high expression of HPV16 E5 had worse survival. The anti-viral E5 inhibitor rimantadine demonstrated remarkable single agent anti-tumor activity. This is the first report that describes HPV E5 as a mediator of resistance to anti-PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapy and demonstrates the anti-tumor activity of rimantadine. These results have broad clinical relevance beyond HNSCC to other HPV-associated malignancies and reveal a powerful mechanism of HPV-mediated immunosuppression which can be exploited to improve response rates to checkpoint blockade.


A 1 B0-ch ar acte r-p e r-second d ot-m atr i x p r i nti n g m ech an i s m achieves high throughput by skipping over blanks and I printing in either direction under microprocessor control. ; Versatility is enhanced with vailable horizontal pitch, a full t 1 28-USASCI l-character set, and flexible interfaci ng. the final prod-I uct resulting from data collection, storage computation , and manipulation is a printed page that transmits information to a person. At present, devices that produce these pages fall into the general category of printers. With the possible exception of tape and disc drives, these are the only devices in a computer system whose role is primarily mechanical. Since computer systems range from compact desktop units to elaborate multiprocessing main-frame units, it is not surprising that the available printers range from those that basically resemble typewriters to high-speed machines that produce complete pages at rates faster than one per second. Nevertheless, although each computer system requires a somewhat different set of printer capabilities, there are several identifiable printer groupings within which the performance requirements are essentially alike. One such grouping would be in the low-to medium-speed range, defined as about 200 lines per minute. Printers capable of this speed typically are used as small system printers where they are generally dedicated to only a few users and are not required to supply the massive throughput typical of the larger systems. These printers are generally used for program listings and for short jobs such as might be needed by small businesses, scientific investigations, and individual programmers during program development. In these applications, the printing rate is most often measured in lines per minute, since traditional line printers with their fast, parallel interfacing are most easily adapted to this measure of performance. When combined with a keyboard, a printer becomes a terminal and is generally used as a system console or a remote terminal. The performance of terminals is most often measured in terms of their Printed in U S.A transmission rates, with those capable of operating at data rates of tzoo baud and above being classified as Cover: The end result of most compuler processes /s a printed page, requiring the use ol a mechanical device that often resfricts the com-puter's throughput rate and print flexibility. Described in this issue are print mechanisms that have a mechanical simplicity conducive …


Increasing the energy efficiency of the built environment, in the buildings, transportation and other sectors, and reducing harmful emissions of greenhouse gases are rapidly becoming important components of community planning processes. The effectiveness of planning decisions can be greatly enhanced by providing planning professionals, policy makers, and other stakeholders with methods and tools to evaluate the different impacts of proposed planning decisions on urban sustainability at different scales. This paper describes the methodology and preliminary results from a study to develop a neighborhood sustainability assessment model for the City of San Antonio using the INDEX PlanBuilder GIS-based tool, and to implement this model throughout the city's neighborhoods. The paper will describe the methodology, tools, and information sources used in the study, and will present a brief summary of the study's preliminary findings and the potential impact these findings can have on improving the sustainability of the city's neighborhoods and the city as a whole.


Studies on the radiological impact of oil and gas exploration activities in some production land area in Nigeria insitu,, using two radiation meters (Digilert 50 and 100) synchronized and calibrated and a geographical positioning system (GPS). Readings were taken in nine different facilities in each of the oil and gas fields and their host communities. Measured radiation values in the oil field facilities ranged from 0.011+0.003mR/h in Evwreni camp site to 0.031+0.01mRm at the Otorogu gas plant. Mean field exposure equivalent dose rate in the oil field ranged from 0.016+0.006mRm (0.839+0.34mSvy) to 0.0213+0.008mRh (1.134+0.44mSvy) while in the host communities values ranged from 0.0115+0.003Mr/h (0.612+0.16Svy) in Evwreni community to 0.021+0.007mRh (1.117+0.37mSvy) in Otujeremi town and the control study area value been 0.009+0.002mR/h (0.479+0.11mSvy).The results show that Ughelli East, Kokori ,Eriemu, Evwreni ,Eriemu ,Oweh, Olomoro-Oleh oil and gas field radiation levels are still within the 1Svy maximum permissible limit recommend for the public and non-nuclear industrial environment by International Council on Radiological Protection (ICRP 1999).But Oturogu, Ughelli West, Afiesere and Uzere west and East oil and gas fields.Olomoro, Uzere and Emeragha communities radiation levels exceeded the maximum recommended values and other reported values in similar environment. Thisshow that the oil and field's environment and the host communities have been impacted radiological. Though these result obtained indicates no immediate health hazard, but will pose some long-time health side effects on the staff working in the facilities and residents of the host communities. Interim proactive measures are recommended while further detailed study is suggested to confirm likely hazards of exposure. Keywords; Radiologicalimpact, oil and gas facilities, land Area, Delta State. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Date of Submission: 16-04-2018 Date of acceptance: 04-05-2018 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Objective
To observe the changes of plasma N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide(NT-pro-BNP) and cardiac performance in children with ventricular septal defect (VSD) before and after interventional therapy, and analyze the relationship between the cardiac performance and NT-proBNP level.

Methods
A total of 100 children[43 male, 57 female, 5-8(6.3±2.1) years old] with VSD for cardiac catheter occlusion in the First Hospital of Hebei Medical University were enrolled in this study as the VSD group.The control group included 50 healthy children.Concentrations of plasma NT-proBNP were measured before operation and the 3rd day and the 6th month after cardiac catheterization, respectively.Before operation and the 7th day and the 6th month after cardiac catheterization, the parameters of left ventricular end diastolic diameter(LVEDD), left ventricular end systolic diameter(LVESD), left ventricular end systolic volume(LVESV), left ventricular end diastolic volume(LVEDV) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were measured by echocardiography.The relationships between plasma NT-proBNP levels and echocardiographic cardiac functional indexes were analyzed.

Results
There was a significant difference in plasma NT-proBNP levels measured between the 2 groups before catheterization(P 0.05). The para-meters of LVEDD, LVESD, LVESV and LVEDV in the 6th month and the 7th day after catheterization were decreased significantly as compared to those before catheterization in VSD group(all P<0.05), and those in the 6th month were more decreased as compared to those in the 7th day(all P<0.05). The plasma NT-proBNP level was significantly correlated with LVEDD, LVESD, LVESV, LVEDV in VSD group(r=0.82, 0.56, 0.62, 0.77, all P<0.01).

Conclusions
The value of plasma NT-proBNP in the children with VSD was decreased after catheterization was correlated with the recover of the heart function.It is indicated that the test of plasma NT-proBNP will be of important significance in asses-sing the heart function change of the children with VSD after catheterization.

Key words:
Ventricular septal defect; N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide; Heart function; Interventional therapy


Adjuvant chemotherapy has been established as the standard of care for patients with node-positive resected colon cancer. 5-fluorouracil modulated with leucovorin given for six months is currently the most widely accepted "standard" regimen. The role of adjuvant chemotherapy in stage II remain investigational and some prognostic indicators that correlate with higher risk for subsequent recurrence may be used for these patients when consider adjuvant chemotherapy. Other investigational approaches include regional, portal vein infusion and intraperitoneal therapy, immunotherapy, and new drugs, with proven activity in metastatic disease. Patients older than 70 years are also candidate for adjuvant therapy of colorectal cancer. Adjuvant chemotherapy of rectal cancer is often associated with radiotherapy and enhances local control seen with radiotherapy and improves survival of these patients.


While the power of music in politics is a well-established fact, the actual influence of celebrities in election campaigns is not that straight-forward. Nonetheless, the assumed ability of the stars to harvest voters' support offered reason enough for US politicians to recruit celebrities to their campaigns. While this is historically true for both Democrats and Republicans, it was only with Bill Clinton and especially with Barack Obama that celebrity endorsement has become more massive and potentially more influential. The article tackles role of musicians in 2016 US presidential election.


Introduction: This study examined the experiences of mindfulness training for five adults living with rheumatic disease. Method: Focus group data were used to explore the experience and impact of mindfulness training in participants aged between 46 and 69 years diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, fibromyalgia or rheumatoid arthritis. All participants had completed an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme 6 months prior to the study. Findings: Interpretative phenomenological analysis produced two themes: 'responding to pain' and 'psychological wellbeing'. All participants spoke similarly and with enthusiasm, reflecting the strength of the impact of mindfulness upon the daily lives of these individuals. Methodological limitations are considered along with clinical applications and suggestions for future research. Conclusion: The findings from this study reinforce the outcomes of previous research and indicate that mindfulness has the potential to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals living with rheumatic disease.


This paper reports on the 'and'-word nyʌ́ŋ in Ibibio verbal coordination. Like English and, Ibibio possesses morphologically invariant coordinators linking NPs, PPs, and CPs. However, these cannot coordinate verbs and predicates, unlike and in English. Many African languages distinguish between nominal and verbal coordinators (Welmers 1973: 305), but Ibibio showcases this distinction in a unique way. Subject agreement and inflection for tense and negation suggest that nyʌ́ŋ is a verb, resembling "'and'-verbs" in Walman (Brown & Dryer 2008). Closer inspection reveals that nyʌ́ŋ patterns more like an adverb or functional head, expanding our understanding of what constitutes 'and' cross-linguistically.