PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose that a more optimal regulatory focus in conflict reflects a mix of promotion and prevention considerations because conflict often elicits needs for promoting well-being as well as needs for preventing threats to security and interests. Two studies using distinct methodologies tested the hypothesis that social conflict is associated with better outcomes when the parties construe the conflict with a regulatory focus that reflects a combination of both promotion and prevention orientations.

Design/methodology/approachStudy 1 was an experiment that framed the same low-intensity conflict scenario as either prevention- or promotion-focused, or as both. In Study 2, we mouse-coded stream-of-thought accounts of participants' actual ongoing high-intensity conflicts for time spent in both promotion and prevention focus.

FindingsIn Study 1, the combined framing resulted in greater satisfaction with expected conflict outcomes and goal attainment than did either prevention or promotion framing alone. However, a promotion frame alone was associated with greater process and relationship satisfaction. These results were replicated in Study 2.

Originality/valuePrior research on regulatory focus has emphasized the benefits of a promotion focus over prevention when managing conflict. The present research offers new insight into how these seemingly opposing motives can operate in tandem to increase conflict satisfaction. Thus, this research illustrates the value of moving beyond dichotomized motivational distinctions in conflict research, to understand the dynamic interplay of how these distinctions may be navigated in concert for more effective conflict engagement. It also illustrates the value of mouse-coding methods for capturing the dynamic interplay of motives as they rise and fall in salience over time.


Vertically aligned ZnO nanowires (NWs) decorated with Cu nanoparticles (NPs) were successfully prepared on Si (100) by hydrothermal method together with atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique. By varying the number of ALD cycles, size and concentration of Cu NPs on the ZnO NWs can be accurately controlled. Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy were applied to demonstrate the formation of Cu NPs on ZnO NWs. Study of the photoluminescence (PL) characteristics of ZnO NWs decorated with different density of Cu NPs show gradual change in the near band edge emission and deep level emission with increasing ALD cycles. The enhancement of PL with decreasing ALD cycles was due to decreasing the size of Cu NPs. The results are discussed considering two major physical phenomena taking place at the interface between Cu NPs and ZnO NWs, namely passivation of surface dangling bonds of ZnO NWs by Cu NPs and formation of Schottky contact at the boundaries between them. This work not only indic...


We show up the capability of the old Prin-Merz astrograph, completely renewed, to perform narrow-field astrometry. A highly accurate metrological system has been conceived in order to monitor, focus, and track the reference stars. Besides, a high quantum efficiency CCD camera based on a back illuminated chip, allows this instrument to "observe" celestial objects up to 18 magnitudes, in less than 30 seconds of exposure. Due to the small FOV of the instrument we use the most dense star catalogue available USNO B1.0 which can provide us reference stars enough to compute an accurate plate solution. 2 NEO have been observed during the testing phase (3908) Nyx and (85640) 1998OX4 and the results are presented in this paper. All the data have been submitted to the MPC. 1. OBSERVATIONS AND DATA PROCESSING The old F/15.8 Prin-Merz visual astrograph, completely renewed is now able to perform narrow-field astrometry. The instrument is endowed with an Apogee 47P CCD Camera with a thinned, back illuminated, 1kX1k chip. The field of view is 7.6 x 7.6 arcmins. High quantum efficiency of CCD camera (92% at 650 nm) allow us to observe objects up to 18 magnitudes in 30 second of exposure time. The rather limited field of view leads us to the use of most dense star catalogue available at the moment USNO B1.0, in order to have enough reference stars to compute an accurate plate solution. The software used for images reductions and data processing is IRAF [1] in combination with NOVAS routines [2] from USNO. In the first step daofind function from Daophot package is used to extract objects positions from CCD frames. The catalog positions of the reference stars are taken via a small script from Vizier Service [3] and used together with the output of daofind by ccxymatch and ccmap to compute the plate solution.


This case report describes the cytopathological and histopathological features of granular cell astrocytoma. Although this astrocytoma subtype rarely occurs, it should be considered due to its aggressiveness and to provide the appropriate postoperative therapies.


Two enzymes, phosphoglycerate mutase and peroxidase, were purified by using an immobilized metal ion adsorbent for the removal of unwanted proteins. The mutase was obtained pure from a single column, whereas the purification of peroxidase required the use of a thiophilic adsorbent in a tandem. The capacity was 2.5 mg pure peroxidase per mL gel.


The invention discloses a method for distributed wave recording of an intelligent substation, which adopts a data sharing network of the analog quantity, the state quantity and the signal quantity of an intelligent substation to distribute and integrate the fault wave recording function into a spacer layer protection device and to transmit recorded wave data files to a fault information sub-station for analysis of the technical personnel through the communication of the network in the spacer layer equipment and the fault information sub-station in the intelligent substation. The method requires no additional network communication equipment, thereby simplifying the secondary design of the substation. Due to the integrated design with the protection device, the wave recording strategy adopted in the method is more applicable to protection of professional needs, and the method has the value of practical application. The engineering practice shows that the method has advanced and practical features and is suitable for application of each voltage level in the intelligent substation.


According to the meteorological data of the observation stations and the geographical information data,agro-climatic factors space analyzing models were built by multiple regression methods.Based on the Arcgis8.3,the agricultural climate resources in Shihezi desert oasis were reckoned with 100m×100m grids according to the climate models.Then the pictures of the major agricultural climate resources distribution were produced.The principal agricultural climate resources including light,temperature,water and spacial characteristics were analyzed and evaluated,which will demonstrate the potential and advantage of local agricultural climate resources and provide scientific evidence for agricultual climate division.


The US Department of Energy`s (DOE) Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project (YMP) is investigating the suitability of the Topopah Spring tuff in the thick vadose zone at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as a host rock for permanent disposal of high-level radioactive waste. As part of the YMP, a group of field tests, called the Large Block Test (LBT), will be conducted on a large electrically heated block of Topopah Spring tuff. The block will be heated by electrical heaters. The goals of the LBT are to gain information on the coupled thermal-mechanical-hydrological-chemical processes that will be active in the near-field environment of a repository; to provide field data for testing and calibrating models; and to help in the development of measurement systems and techniques. In this second progress report, we present results of the final set of numerical modeling calculations performed in support of the LBT design. The results include block temperatures and heat fluxes across the surfaces. The results are applied primarily to the design of guard heaters to enforce adiabatic conditions along the block walls. Conduction-only runs are adequate to estimate the thermal behavior of the system, because earlier calculations showed that heat transfer in the block is expected to be dominated by conduction. In addition, conduction-only runs can be made at substantially shorter execution times than full hydrothermal runs. We also run a two-dimensional, hydrothermal, discrete fracture model, with 200-{mu}m vertical fractures parallel to the heaters and occurring at a uniform spacing of 30 cm. The results show the development of distinct dryout and recondensation zones. The dryout zones are thickest at the fractures and thinnest in the matrix midway between the fractures.


The invention discloses a wood-plastic composite material made of larch bark and waste plastic and a preparation method thereof, and belongs to the field of wood-plastic composite materials. Larch bark flour replaces wood flour partially or completely to be used as filler, waste plastic is used as a base body, and the wood-plastic composite material is prepared in a two-screw extrusion mode. The wood-plastic manufacturing cost can be reduced, continuous production can be easily achieved, and a way is provided for utilization of larch bark flour. The composite material is prepared from the larch bark flour, the wood flour, the waste plastic, polyethylene-graft-maleic anhydride, paraffin and polyethylene wax. The preparation method comprises the steps that firstly, weighing is performed, and high-speed stirring and mixing are performed; secondly, the materials are poured into a two-screw extrusion machine for pelleting; thirdly, smashing is performed, then the materials are placed in a single-screw extrusion machine, and when the single-screw extrusion machine reaches a set temperature, a single screw rotates at the speed of 10 rpm, and the wood-plastic composite material is extruded. The wood-plastic composite material is used for manufacturing floors, guardrails, baseboards and the like.


Temozolomide (TMZ) is a frontline prodrug for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (brain cancer) approved by the US-FDA in 1999. A limitation with this otherwise potent and selective DNA alkylating agent is degradation of the prodrug to the inactive product 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide (AIC) by incipient hydrolysis during storage. This transformation not only makes the drug less effective (due to hydrolysis of the active drug), but also causes discoloration from white to pink and tan brown colour (due to AIC contamination), which can make patients anxious and suspicious about the drug efficacy. We solved the stability issue of TMZ by preparing its succinic acid (SA) cocrystal and showed that TMZ-SA is stable for over 6 months in accelerated stability conditions of 40°C, 75% RH, as confirmed by PXRD. TMZ-SA retained its white colour for over 6 months compared to the tan-brown discoloration for TMZ in less than 1 month. Based on the enhanced stability and comparable dissolution profile of TMZ-SA, we now take forward TMZ-SA pharmaceutical cocrystal to stability assessment by HPLC analysis and preclinical bioavailability and bioequivalence with the reference drug. We observed that there were no significant differences in the pharmacokinetic profile of the test cocrystal TMZ-SA compared to standard drug TMZ in Sprague Dawley rats. The bioavailability ratio was found to be in the range 102-109%. Pharmacokinetic parameters such as T max , C max , T 1/ 2 , AUC and Ke are slightly superior for TMZ-SA and the toxico-kinetic profile is also better than TMZ. Most significantly, it has been shown that the active drug is released from the hydrogen-bonded cocrystal and was detected in the brain tissue of rats. Thus we report on a pharmaceutical cocrystal complying with the United States Food and Drug Administration guidance on pharmaceutical cocrystals. These results suggest that TMZSA cocrystal with improved physico-chemical properties is bioequivalent and has superior stability compared to the reference drug TMZ and a potential lead for an improved TMZ formulation.


Based on an overall plan of ecological environment construction of soil and water conservation of Yueyang county to control soil and water losses and its conservating improvement are dissussed and to utilize water and soil resources rationally and uphold better soil productive forces and its countermeasures are also analysed.The approach to improve soil productive forces and its countermeasures are presented.


A comparative study of x- and gamma -ray effects on the B/sub 12/ vitamin content has been made on 85 white mice. All the mice were given a 760 r dose of total irradiation. The vitamin B/sub 12/ content in the liver and kidneys of the killed mice was determined 24 and 46 hr after the irradiation. In comparing the results of x- and gamma -ray effects, a greater concentration of the vitamin in question in the liver and the kidneys of the mice irradiated with gamma rays was observed. (auth)


Fishing businesses in Indonesia are generally small-scale fishing fisheries, which is highly dependent on season and weather conditions. In the Palabuhan Ratu, the area of West Java, the capture fisheries mostly operate a fishing boat under 10 GT. Various techniques to increase the success of fishing efforts in Pelabuhan Ratu have been carried out, one of them is by testing the use of vessel multi aid (VMA). The study aimed to examine the effectiveness of fishing aids in increasing the catch of fishermen by using the VMA on several fishing vessels in Pelabuhan Ratu. The experiment was conducted from September to November 2019 on ten payang fishing vessels with a capacity of 2GT - 5 GT, using YUKOM VMA. YUKOM VMA is a fishing aid using radio waves and has features: fishing area information, weather condition information, SOS, which can be used during emergencies and e-logbook for recording catches. The results showed that the average fish catch per trip tended to increase by 58.08% per trip. This suggests that the use of fishing aids technology in the form of VMA in small-scale fishing efforts may be an effective way of increasing the catch.


Sprouting of grains improves their nutritional value and functionality, but information on the appropriate sprouting time required to obtain an optimum quality of mungbean flour is limited. This study evaluated the attributes of mungbean flour as influenced by sprouting time. Mungbean seeds were cleaned, sorted, surface‐sterilised, rinsed and sprouted (28°C and 26% R.H) for 24 to 120 hr. Proximate, amino acids (AA), vitamins, mineral, anti‐nutritional (phytate, tannin, oxalate, trypsin inhibitor, raffinose and stachyose) composition, functional properties (viscosity, bulk density and swelling index), microbial quality (total plate and mould counts) and energy of the flours obtained from the sprouted seeds were analysed. Data were subjected to analysis of variance and the means separated by Duncan's Multiple Range Test. Significant (P < 0.05) differences were observed in the energy contents, chemical and functional properties of mungbean flour. There was no fungal growth in the samples until after 72 hr. Leucine, followed by lysine, was the dominant essential AA while methionine was the least. In conclusion, increase in sprouting period improved the nutrient composition but reduced the anti‐nutrients of mungbean flour. Samples sprouted for 24 hr had the highest total essential and conditionally essential AA.


Due to high polymorphism, common sequences, and ubiquitous presence, short tandem repeats (STRs) may enhance genomic typing to determine prostate carcinoma (CaP) predisposition. The human phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK1) gene is located within Xq11‐Xq13, a region implicated in familial prostate carcinoma, androgen insensitivity, perineal hypospadias, and other genitourinary abnormalities. The PGK1 STR is the most polymorphic site described in the Xq11‐Xq13 interval and was investigated for its ability to detect differences comparing a heterogeneous CaP population versus controls.


1. Introduction, Paul Pennings and Jan-Erik LanePART 1: COMPARING PARTY SYSTEM CHANGE2. Electoral Instability and Party System Change in Western Europe,Svante Ersson and Jan-Erik Lane 3. Coalitional Potential and Governmental Power,Stefano Bartolini 4. Parties, Party Systems and Policy Effects,Uwe Wagschal 5. The Triad of Party System Change: Votes, Office and Policy, Paul PenningsPART II: CHANGE AND STABILITY IN ESTABLISHED SYSTEMS 6. Electoral and Parliamentary Aspects of Dominant Party Systems, Francoise Boucek 7. Great Britain: A Stable, but Fragile, Party System? 8. German Unification and Party System Change, Oskar Niedermayer 9. Party Sytem Change in Israel, 1949-96: A Conceptual and Typological Border_Stretching of Europe, Reuven Y. Hazan 10. Electoral Politics and Governance: Transformation of the Party System in Iceland, 1970-96, Svanur Kristjansson PART III: CHANGE AND STABILITY IN RENEWING SYSTEMS11. Party System Change in Redemocratizing Countries, Anne Bennett 12. The End of the Beginning: The Partial Consolidation of East Central European Parties and Party Systems, Atilla Agh 13. The Logics of Party System Change in Southern Europe, Jose M. Magone


The atmospheric absorption effect greatly increases the transmission loss of terahertz waves, that limits the transmission distance. In this paper, with the support of sufficient antenna gain, a series of high-frequency terahertz transmission windows in ground-satellite link are presented. Firstly, the more ideal ground-based site is determined. Based on the path loss model and layered transmission theory, total path loss is obtained. Combined with signal transmit power, antenna gain, Signal-to-Noise Ratio and noise power, total usable bandwidths and transmission windows in the 0.2-15 THz corresponding to antenna gain from 0 to 100 dBi are given. By taking the High Altitude Platform as a relay link, the usable transmission windows are also given. The first six transmission windows are identified as, [0.4776-0.48645 THz], [0.4906-0.49975 THz], [0.6618-0.6811 THz], [12.1015 - 12.10355 THz], [12.10425 - 12.11285 THz] and [12.11505-12.14355 THz] bands against 100 dBi gain near 1 THz and 10 THz bands, respectively. Furthermore, the influence of ice clouds on the transmission characteristics is analyzed. The additional attenuation in the partial usable atmospheric window frequency range can reach 1.84 dB typical, which is directly related to the effective radius and shape of particles.


Formation of a concentrated solid/liquid suspension, as an industrial intermediate, is often necessary in many industrial manufacturing processes, particularly for paints, paper coating, ceramics, catalysts, etc. Polysaccharides have been widely used for the control of the stability of suspensions. In this paper, various rheological parameters; such as viscosity—shear rate, shear stress—shear rate, storage and loss modulus frequency at various temperatures, and strain stress; have been measured for different compositions of silica powder in water with 0.3 wt% tragacanth gum as a phase stabilizer.


This book provides the first comprehensive overview of Japan's arms control policy, unilateral and multilateral, analyzing its origins and later development. Japan has played an important part in shaping non-nuclear policies and the author pays particular attention to this global aspect of Japanese policy. First published in 1990, this title is part of the Bloomsbury Academic Collections series.


We characterize the three generic quasi-reversible instabilities of closed orbits: the quasi-reversible saddle-node, the Krein collision and the period doubling bifurcation. We show that after a periodic change of variables the asymptotic normal forms of the last two instabilities are the Maxwell–Bloch and the Lorenz equations. We exhibit a simple example of the quasi-reversible period doubling bifurcation, the quasi-reversible 2 :1 resonance.  2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. The study of bifurcations plays a central role in the modern theory of dynamical systems [1], and allows one to describe in a universal way phenomena which belong to different fields [2]. Recently in Ref. [3], we have characterized the instabilities of stationary solutions, which occur generically in one parameter families of finite-dimensional quasi-reversible dynamical systems. These are systems in which the terms which break the time reversal symmetry are small (irreversible effects), i.e., the system is in the neighborhood of a reversible one. The aim of this Letter is the characterization of the instabilities of periodic solutions of quasi-reversible systems. First, we shall describe the generic instabilities in one parameter families of periodic solutions for dissipative dynamical systems. After, we shall consider the instabilities of periodic solutions of reversible dynamical systems in the presence of small terms which break the time reversal symme* Corresponding author. E-mail address: email@example.com (M.G. Clerc). try (quasi-reversible systems). Finally, we shall study a simple example of the quasi-reversible period doubling instability, the quasi-reversible 2 : 1 resonance. A closed orbit in phase space, that is a periodic solution, exhibits a bifurcation when the modulus of a Floquet multiplier associated to this orbit crosses the unit circle in the complex plane [4]. The local bifurcations which occur generically in one parameter families of finite-dimensional dissipative dynamical system are [4] (a) two complex conjugate Floquet multipliers cross the unit circle, (b) one real multiplier crosses the unit circle through +1, and (c) one real multiplier crosses the unit circle through −1. The first bifurcation is characterized by the appearance of quasi-periodic motion [5]. The second is the saddle node bifurcation of a closed orbit, and the last one is the period doubling instability. In reversible systems, i.e., systems which are invariant under a time reversal transformation (see the review [6] and references therein), the previous classification presents some changes. One has that if λ is a Floquet multiplier thenλ−1 is also a multiplier 0375-9601/01/$ – see front matter  2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S0375-9601(01)00490-X M.G. Clerc et al. / Physics Letters A 287 (2001) 198–204 199 Fig. 1. Schematic representation of the Floquet multipliers for the generical instabilities of the reversible systems. (a) Reversible saddle node bifurcations, (b) Krein collision or or Neimark–Sacker bifurcation, and (c) the reversible period doubling. for the reversed closed orbit [7,8]. Therefore the only "stable" or marginal states are those for which all Floquet multipliers are on the boundary of the unit circle (cf. Fig. 1), that is their modulus is equal to one. For this kind of systems the spectral instabilities in one parameter families are: • The reversible saddle node bifurcation, i.e., two Floquet multipliers of modulus one on the unit circle have a collision in the point +1 of the real axis (see Fig. 1(a)). • The Krein collision, which is the collision of two Floquet multipliers of modulus one and of their respective complex conjugates on the unit circle as it is illustrated in Fig. 1(b) [9,10]. This bifurcation is well known as the reversible Hopf bifurcation [8] or Neimark–Sacker bifurcation [11]. • The reversible period doubling bifurcation, i.e., two Floquet multipliers of modulus one which are on the unit circle become real through a collision at point −1 of the real axis as shown in Fig. 1(c). A perturbation of the closed orbit in the direction of the orbit is marginal and has a Floquet multiplier equal to one. On the other hand, reversibility implies the transformationλ → λ−1 for Floquet multipliers, and consequently the multiplier one is degenerate. This is a consequence of the fact that, in reversible systems, one always has families of periodic solutions [7], and then a perturbation in the direction in which the family changes gives rise to another periodic solution with a period close to the period of the unperturbed solution. The reversible saddle node bifurcation is described by four real variables{θ,ρ, x, y}, where {ρ,x, y} are the variables which describe the evolution in a neighborhood of the closed orbit [12]. The variables ρ andθ parametrize the family of periodic solutions and the closed orbit, respectively, and one has the time reversal transformation t → −t, θ → −θ, ρ → ±ρ, x → x, y → −y, whereθ → −θ comes from the fact that the parametrization of the closed orbit changes its sign through time reversal. For the sake of simplicity henceforth we consider only the case t → −t , θ → −θ , ρ → ρ, x → x andy → −y. If the initial system is invariant under temporal translation ( t → t + to) then the phase variableθ does not couple to the other variables in the normal form, which is obtained after a T -periodic change of variables where T is the period of the closed orbit [4,13]. This property eliminates nonresonant periodic perturbations which play a fundamental role in the presence of structurally unstable objects such as homoclinic orbits. The asymptotic normal form is ∂tx = y, ∂ty = ε± x2 − ρx + aρ2, ∂tρ = 0, (1) ∂tθ = 2π T + f (ρ, x), wheref is a polynomial function, ε is the bifurcation parameter anda is a coefficient of order one. The scaling which leads to the previous equations is ∂ttx ∼ O(ε), ∂tx ∼ O(ε3/4), ∂tρ ∼ O(ε3/4), x ∼ O(ε1/2), y ∼ O(ε3/4), ρ ∼ O(ε1/2), and∂tθ ∼ O(1). We add now the small irreversible effects which will appear as terms of the unfolding of the instability, and obtain asymptotically ∂ttx = ε± x2 − ρx + aρ2 − ν∂t x, ∂tρ = δ −μρ + ηx, (2) ∂tφ = cρ + dx, whereφ ≡ θ − 2πt/T , δ ∼ O(ε3/4), μ ∼ ν ∼ η ∼ O(ε1/4), d ∼ c ∼ 1, and∂tφ ∼ O(ε1/2). The parametersμ andν correspond to dissipative terms when they are positive, whileδ and η are responsible for injection of energy. The dynamics around the closed orbit is given by the first two equations of the above set. These equations describe the appearance through a saddle node bifurcation of stable closed orbits, which can then lose stability through a Hopf–Andronov bifurcation. This corresponds to the appearance of quasiperiodic motion in the original system. When the stable limit cycle solution created in the Hopf–Andronov 200 M.G. Clerc et al. / Physics Letters A 287 (2001) 198–204 bifurcation intersects the unstable fixed point of the first two equations of (2) we have an homoclinic bifurcation and for a certain region of parameters the system exhibits Shilnikov chaos [14]. Hence, if the bifurcation parameter is increased, one peak of the Fourier spectrum moves towards zero and when it is close to zero, for certain values of the parameters, the system (2) shows chaotic dynamics which correspond to the period doubling route [15]. Note that, from the Fourier spectrum of a given signal, either experimental or numerical, one can identify the previous universal scenarios. It is important to note that the energy is injected into the system through a forcing at the same frequency as the periodic solution. When the reversible system has more marginal modes (Floquet multipliers) without resonance between them, the quasi-reversible one is governed by the above equations, since the intensities of the other modes decreases in time. In the case of the quasi-reversible Krein collision or Neimark–Sacker bifurcation, the system is described by six variables{A,B,ρ, θ} with A andB complex amplitudes. We consider the time reversal transformation t → −t, θ → −θ, ρ → ρ, A→ Ā, B → B̄. Near the threshold of the bifurcation and after making a T -periodic change of variables and including the small irreversible terms the system is described by the asymptotic normal form ∂tA= iΩA+B, ∂tB = − ( ν − i(Ω +∆))B + εA± |A|2A− ρA, ∂tρ = −μρ + η|A|2, (3) ∂tθ = 2π T + f (ρ, |A|2), wheref is a polynomial function, exp (iΩ) the point of the unit circle where the two Floquet multipliers collide, ε the bifurcation parameter, ∆ the detuning parameter, and the terms with coefficients ν, η, μ are irreversible terms. The scalings which lead to the previous equations are ∂tA ∼ O(ε), ∂tB ∼ O(ε3/2), ρ ∼ O(ε), A ∼ O(ε1/2), B ∼ O(ε), ν ∼ η ∼ μ ∼ ∆ ∼ O(ε1/2) and ∂t θ ∼ O(1) and we can see that one has again the phase invariance θ → θ + θo which decouples the first five equations from θ . These equations describe the 1 : 1 resonance in presence of a neutral mode and in the absence of resonance, i.e.,ΩT/2π = p/q with p andq integers. They are formally equivalent to the Maxwell–Bloch equations [16], which describe the interaction between two level atoms and an electromagnetic field [17]. The quasi-reversible period doubling is described, as the quasi-reversible saddle node bifurcation, with four variables{θ,ρ, x, y} which are obtained from the variables of the original problem through a 2 T periodic change of variables [13]. But now as a consequence of the Floquet multiplier at −1, one has reflection invariance in the variables {x, y}, i.e., the normal form that describes the instability is invariant under the transformation(x, y) → (−x,−y). It is pertinent to recall here that for a stationary solution the saddle node and Hopf instabilities are the two local bifurcations which occur generically in one parameter families of finite-dimensional dissipative systems, and that the saddle node bifurcation, with the extra property of reflection symmetry, is the anal


This paper presents a micromechanical study of the effective heat conduction and thermoelastic properties of a twisted-cord/rubber composite. The homogenization method is utilized to define the overall effective properties on a macro scale, based on the microscale behavior of the composite. We develop a homogenization analysis system for heat conduction and thermoelastic problems. The microscale boundary value problem, defined over a periodic unit cell of the composite, is solved using the finite-element method. After we discuss the accuracy of this system, effective orthotropic properties are computed using this system for the twisted-cord/rubber composite as a function of pitch length.


Institutional Changes in the Russian Economy: The Russian economy - market in form but "feudal" in content?, Richard E. Ericson Corruption and organized crime in the Russian transition, Jim Leitzel Strong institutions are more important than the speed of reforms, Vladimir Popov An evolutionary analysis of Russia's virtual economy, Clifford Gaddy and Barry W. Ickes Russia's economic policy at the beginning of the new phase, Vladimir Mau. Taxation in Transition Economies: The tax system and the peculiarities of the Russian economy, Michael Alexeev Soft budget constraints and tax arrears in transition economies, Ruvin Gekker Effective versus statutory taxation - measuring effective tax administration in transition economies, Mark E. Schaffer and Gerard Turley. Regional Developments and Institutional Reforms: Regional disparities and transfer policies in Russia - theory and evidence, Era Dabla-Norris and Shlomo Weber Regional development theory and policy - and example for Russia?, Michael Cuddy and Sarah Callanan.


Nigel Hawkes discovers how shortlisted teams are using the principles of co-production to provide the care that patients want and need


The ventral pallidum (VP) is part of the mesolimbocortical pathway involved in reward 'liking' and 'wanting.' Recent studies demonstrate that anandamide and orexin are involved in food intake and reward, and that the VP receives direct endocannabinoid and orexin signals from the nucleus accumbens and lateral hypothalamus. To test whether endocannabinoids and orexin mediate hedonic circuits in the VP, we assess behavioral taste reactivities ('liking') and appetitive food intake ('wanting') after drug microinjection. To indicate the spread of drug, the behavioral functions are mapped onto the Fos plume map; neurochemical maps of 'liking' and 'wanting' can thus be constructed. Based on the functional mapping procedure, our data indicates that hedonic hotspots may be located in the posterior VP, in which microinjections of anandamide and orexin amplify the natural 'liking' reactions to sweetness. VENTRAL PALLIDUM AND HEDONIC HOTSPOTS 3 Comparison of Endocannabinoid and Orexin Hedonic Hotspots for Sensory Pleasure in the Ventral Pallidum Why do most individuals favor sweet over bitter flavors? What is the fundamental factor that determines pleasure and aversion? These questions are important to address, since a variety of eating disorders and compulsory behavior disorders (e.g. drug addiction, compulsive gambling) are associated with disrupted sensations of 'liking' and 'wanting'. While 'liking' refers to the pleasurable sensation and hedonic impact of an unconscious reward, 'wanting' refers to the motivation for reward that comprises unconscious incentive salience or desires for cognitive goals (Berridge & Kringelbach, 2008). 'Liking' and 'wanting' are two dissociable elements of reward as exemplified in the incentive-sensitization theory of drug addiction. To shed light on the psychological brain functions in behavioral disorders, the understanding of those two major psychological components of reward—'liking' and 'wanting'—is the first priority. Ventral Pallidum The reward circuitry of the mammalian brain consists of synaptically interconnected neurons associated with the medial forebrain bundle (Hernandez et al., 2006). Within this mesolimbocortical reward system, the ventral pallidum (VP) is identified as a convergent point for limbic reward signals. Thus, it earns its name as a "limbic final common pathway" for mesolimbocortical processing of many rewards (Smith et al., 2009). The original notion VENTRAL PALLIDUM AND HEDONIC HOTSPOTS 4 of VP serving only as a motor expression is remodified to incorporate its reward and motivation functions. Not only does VP translate the limbic motivation signals into motor output, it also mediates reward and motivation in a more complex limbic-related anatomical circuitry. First, it receives reward signals from various brain structures such as orbitofrontal, prefrontal and infralimbic cortex, amygdala, lateral hypothalamus, ventral tegmental area, parabrachial nucleus, and subthalamic nucleus. Then, it conversely projects the signals back to almost all of its input structures. Further, it relays the output signals to the corticolimbic loops via direct projections to medial prefrontal cortex, and dense projections to mediodorsal nucleus of thalamus, which eventually transmits the signals to prefrontal cortex (Smith & Berridge, 2005; Smith et al., 2009). Therefore, by manipulating neurotransmitter release in the VP, the brain can decide when to intensify the impact of rewarding external cues (Pećina et al., 2006). Cannabinoids Endocannabinoids are a group of retrograde neurotransmitters that mediate their effects through cannabinoid receptors. Naturally there are exogenous and endogenous cannabinoids. Exogenous cannabinoids (such as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC)) are active constituents of marijuana, which has been used for centuries as recreational drugs and medicinal agents. So far, two major endocannabinoids derived from arachidonic acid have been identified: anadamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) (Yates & Barker, 2009; VENTRAL PALLIDUM AND HEDONIC HOTSPOTS 5 Muccioli, 2010). The functions of cannabinoids are shown to result from the actions on cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 (Maileux & Vanderhaeghen, 1992; van der Stelt & Marzo, 2003; Villares, 2007). CB1 and CB2 are Gi/o-coupled receptors that can inhibit the second messenger adenylyl cyclase and stimulate mitogen-activated protein kinase. CB1 is predominantly expressed in the brain, and CB2 is primarily found on the cells of the immune system. Even though CB1 is the major receptor involving in the neuroactive functions of cannabinoids, CB2 receptors have also been reported to occur on glial cells and neurons in the ventral striatum (Gong et al., 2006). Cannabinoids have been documented to contribute to a range of physiological systems, including cognitive function, control of eating behaviors, regulation of appetite, neuroprotective and immune suppressive properties (Lupica et al., 2004; Pagotto et al., 2006; Fernández-Ruiz et al., 2010; Roser et al., 2010). Cannabinoids have been shown to have rewarding effects and an ability to stimulate increases in food intake (Pagotto et al., 2006). Systemic administration of Δ9-THC is shown to cause an increased intake of sweet foods such as sucrose (Koch & Matthews, 2001; Jarrett et al., 2005). Anandamide can also stimulate eating behavior and food intake (Pagotto et al., 2006). Recently the roles of cannabinoids in the regulation of appetite and body weight have raised great interest (Kirkham, 2005). It is now confirmed that endocannabinoids, acting at brain CB1 cannabinoid receptors, stimulate appetite and ingestive behaviors partly through VENTRAL PALLIDUM AND HEDONIC HOTSPOTS 6 interactions with orexigenic signals (Crespo et al., 2008). Both the nucleus accumbens and hypothalamic nuclei are sensitive sites for the hyperphagic actions of these substances. Studies have indicated that the functional interaction and integration between cannabinoids and other neurotransmitters are important in reward. In this aspect, CB1 receptors are located on GABAergic presynaptic axons in the nucleus accumbens shell (Mátyás et al., 2006) and are often co-localized with opioid receptors at the same synapses in the striatum. In addition, by activating presynaptic cannabinoid CB1 receptors cannabinoids can reduce glutamate release in the dorsal and ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens) and alter synaptic plasticity, thereby modulating neurotransmission in the basal ganglia and in the mesolimbic reward system. Interactions have been demonstrated between the endogenous cannabinoid and opioid systems in 'liking' reward: CB1 and μ-opioid receptor type 1 (MOR1) co-localize in the same presynaptic nerve terminals and signal through a common receptor-mediated G-protein pathway, suggesting the additive effects of endogenous opioid and cannabinoid systems in the regulation of appetite (Tallett et al., 2008). Both cannabinoids and opioid can induce taste hedonics of reward within the ventral striatum (Kelley et al., 2002). Orexin The orexins (also called hypocretins) are recently discovered hypothalamic neuropeptides that are synthesized by neurons located mainly in the perifornical area of the VENTRAL PALLIDUM AND HEDONIC HOTSPOTS 7 posterolateral hypothalamus, a region classically implicated in feeding behavior (Tsujino & Sakurai, 2009). Two kinds of orexins, orexin A (OXA) and orexin B (OXB), have so far been found. They act through two subtypes of receptors (OX1R and OX2R) that belong to the G protein-coupled receptors superfamily. Both receptors have been shown to be widely distributed in brain regions where orexin neuron projection has been discovered (Laburthe et al., 2007) Orexin A and orexin B appear to play a role in various distinct functions such as energy homeostasis, appetite and regulation of feeding, reward, gastric secretion, arousal and the sleep-wake cycle (Tsujino & Sakurai, 2009). In the regulation of food intake, studies demonstrate that cannabinoid and OXA share a common mechanism. Hypothalamic orexigenic circuits are involved in cannabinoid CB1 receptor antagonism-mediated reduction of appetite (Crespo et al., 2008). Orexin deficiency causes abnormalities in energy homeostasis and reward systems. Studies suggest that the orexin system interacts with systems that regulate reward and energy homeostasis to maintain proper vigilance states. Recent studies suggest that OXA has a more robust stimulatory effect on energy expenditure relative to OXB. Further, OX1R predominately mediates behaviors known to influence energy expenditure (Teske et al., 2010). Therefore, orexin's role in mediating reward and energy homeostasis may be a potentially important therapeutic target for treatment of obesity and drug addiction (Tsujino & Sakurai, 2009). VENTRAL PALLIDUM AND HEDONIC HOTSPOTS 8 Hedonic Hotspots Recent studies have shown that pleasure 'liking' reactions are coordinated by a network of hedonic hotspots distributed across subcortical brain regions, including the rostral-dorsal quadrant of the nucleus accumbens shell, the posterior half of VP, and the parabrachial nucleus in the pons (see Figure 1). It is the weighted combination of sensory signals in those distributed hotspots that forms the functional integrated circuit regulating pleasure. An analogy, according to Berridge & Kringelbach (2008), is several scattered islands that form a single archipelago. While each hotspot is capable of enhancing hedonic 'liking' reactions when opioid, endocannabinoid, or related neurochemical receptors in these hedonic hotspots are activated, together, they obey the hierarchical and unanimous rules to control pleasure generation in the brain. In 2005, Smith and Berridge endeavored to find the actual spot within the VP that mediates the hedonic impact of 'liking' and incentive motivation of 'wanting' by microinjecting drugs into the VP that could affect neurotransmitter release. They measured


Capturing and reliving memories allow us to record, understand and share our past experiences. Currently, the most common approach to revisiting past moments is viewing photos and videos. These 2D media capture past events that reflect a recorder's first-person perspective. The development of technology for accurately capturing 3D content presents an opportunity for new types of memory reliving, allowing greater immersion without perspective limitations. In this work, we adopt 2D and 3D moment-recording techniques and build a moment-reliving experience in AR that combines both display methods. Specifically, we use AR glasses to record 2D point-of-view (POV) videos, and volumetric capture to reconstruct 3D moments in AR. We allow seamless switching between AR and POV videos to enable immersive moment reliving and viewing of high-resolution details. Users can also navigate to a specific point in time using playback controls. Control is synchronized between multiple users for shared viewing.


Innovative boundary conditions are proposed for the efficient truncation of FDTD grids in the analysis of low-frequency transient problems, in which the minimum excited wavelength is hundreds times greater than the space discretization step. The electromagnetic transient source is coupled inside the discretized FDTD domain by enforcing electric- and magnetic-field integral-equations on the grid borders. Critical aspects of the numerical implementation are discussed. Numerical applications demonstrate the validity of the proposed procedure.


1. Motivation and objectives In the foreseeable future, Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS), a technique in which all flow scales are resolved, will remain computationally unaffordable for turbulent reacting flows at technically relevant high Reynolds numbers Thus, Large Eddy Simulation (LES), which resolves only the large scale motion of the flow while modeling the contribution of the small (subgrid) scales, has been recognized as a powerful alternative approach. The LES set of equations is obtained by applying a spatial filter to the governing transport equations of mass, momentum, and energy. Several subgrid-scale models for the filtered means of the unresolved turbulent transport of momentum and species have been developed. They range from the widely used constant-coefficient model of Smagorinsky (1963) to dynamic models where the model coefficients are computed as functions of the instantaneous flow field (Moin et al., 1991; Germano et al., 1991). These dynamic models, which have proven to be successful in many types of non-reacting flows, are well established tools in LES. In combusting flows, however, the subgrid-scale modeling of the chemistry is still a major challenge; our present study is focused on this issue. In an LES of turbulent reactive flows, a spatial filter is applied to the governing set of differential conservation equations. Let


than his hips. He wants to turn this way and that way. He realizes he is unable to help himself. In this particular instance the most important part of the nursing care is to make the patient as comfortable as possible, mentally as well as physically. Very often a patient is satisfied by the nurse giving a simple explanation of the traction produced by such a position. A body cast is applied after a fracture of the spine has been reduced. In preparation for this, the alimentary tract is thoroughly cleansed. Following the application of the cast, the patient is placed on a firm bed, given a restricted amount of fluids for a few hours and then solid food. If the above precautions are not carried out, abdominal distention due to position and the added pressure of the new cast, cause the patient a great deal of discomfort. After the cast is dry and adjusted to meet the needs of the patient, the nursing care becomes relatively simple. The patient is turned over on his face for at least one hour, twice a day, and encouraged to help himself as much as he can. The work of the orthopedic nurse is never completed. It is one continual adjustment of arms, feet, pillows, cradles, traction, splints, et cetera. Oftentimes pressure must be relieved by adding extra padding of cotton or felt. The leather ring of the Thomas splint must always be dry and powdered. A foot rest may be needed to keep a foot fn position. The tone of the muscles of the hand may be maintained by placing a firm roll of cotton in the palm of the hand. Dry skin may be avoided by oiling the part with olive oil at least once a day. A pressure sore may develop on any prominent part of the body or whereever the cast or splint exerts unnecessary pressure. The nurse must keep an ever vigilant eye on all these conditions. She needs time and encouragement in order to take care of all these details.


This paper analyzes the utilization condition of crop residues in Xinjiang region and summarizes several types of existing plant fiber composite wallboards.Based on these,the cement-based cotton composite wallboard,the soilbased block of wheat straw fiber composite wallboard and the cotton stalks block wallboard applied in Xinjiang region are presented,and the main production processes and application of these wallboards are described


One of the deepest issues facing us humans is why we exist, and the starting fundamental issue is why anything exists at all. This book is a great resource for students and researchers alike who wi...


This discussion paper focuses on measurement-related factors that contribute to the neglect of womens health in developing countries in resource allocation for local national and international programs and in public health research. There is a tendency to compartmentalize womens lives on the basis of childbearing events. For example the maternal mortality ratio expresses maternal deaths to live births. A more true expression of maternal death is the lifetime risk of maternal death. Three striking needs for information on maternal health are establishment of the levels and trends of specific health outcomes in women identification of the characteristics and determinants of health outcomes and monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of programs designed to affect health outcomes. Thus the current emphasis on operational research must be complemented by an equal emphasis on methodological studies. All countries especially developing countries must confront inadequate information. The elements of this inadequacy comprise the quality quantity and scope of health-related data. The neglect of womens health and inadequate information reinforce each other. Indicators data sources measurement techniques and the conceptual framework have produced this measurement trap. The very center of this measurement trap is a weak conceptual framework. The conventional view of maternal health is preoccupied with one extreme of the health continuum (i.e. maternal death) rather than including social or mental manifestations of womens health. Broad operational definitions need to be developed. This paper proposes a working definition of womens health that recognizes the relevance of positive and negative physical social or mental outcomes; the value of a life-cycle perspective; the complex links between direct and indirect effects and their determinants; and that womens health is holistic and complex.


A multidimensional fluid model of the DC elevated pressure glow discharge has been used to study the growth of the instability near an anode inside a parallel plane surface geometry. This model is based on a fluid description of electron and ion transport coupled with Poisson's equation. The numerical results of studies of the anode glow stratification, resulting in the formation of separate glowing regions extended along the gas flow, are presented. The electron diffusion, full current, and volume electron-ion recombination have a profound effect on the collective interaction of current structures.


Making a connection between 'post-modernism' and post-truth has by now become a standard trope, both within academia and popular discourse, despite post-truth's only recent emergence as a concept. Such claims are often rather vague and fanciful and lack an altogether credible account of either phenomenon in many cases. This Chapter argues however that within a legal context, there is the emergence of a legal post-truth which is the direct consequence of a concrete form of post-modernity within legal practice and thought. While law may be called upon to engage in judgments of 'truth' in numerous interesting ways, it does not itself have any particular form of privileged access to the truth of statements or allegations, even though it is often treated as doing so. However, the most persistent question which law must deal with, and indeed the most persistent question within legal philosophy, relates to a deeper form of inquiry into truth: the question of legal truth. In simple terms this refers to the correctness of any particular proposition of law. Within legal theory, this expands to the larger question of what makes, in general, any legal proposition valid, or true. Reflecting upon legal scholarship through the lens of truth reveals that theories of law can be broken down into two broad and radically distinct categories. On the one hand, there exist empirical accounts of law which fundamentally understand questions of legal truth as social questions whose answers are empirically demonstrable. On the other hand, there are 'idealist' accounts of law which view legal content, and hence truth, as existing in some way or other in a manner which transcends social practice and which is autonomous from it. Both of these classical accounts, while radically different, share an interesting paradox: they see truth in law as an objective fact, but one which is fleeting and distant, far from the paradigm of legal certainty upon which the ideology of law is partly based.


The present invention discloses a liquid fermentation mash Hericium beverage preparation method, Hericium liquid fermentation mash is prepared using a special strain of licorice matrix containing medium. Hericium liquid fermentation medium comprising the mash jujube, malt, chrysanthemum, wolfberry, corn meal and / or soybean meal. The Hericium liquid fermentation mash containing 100mL per fresh weight of mycelium Hericium ≥25g. Hericium liquid fermentation mash drink further comprising fruit body of Hericium extract, Hericium Hericium liquid fermentation mash and fruiting bodies of water extract weight ratio of 4: 1. The present invention is rich in liquid fermentation mash Hericium beverage nutrients and fermenting the resulting polysaccharide content was significantly higher than in mycelia of Hericium polysaccharide content Hericium fruiting bodies. Hericium the beverage preparation cycle is short, high yield, low cost, has a practical value.


The applications of X-rays in medical practice Have steadily gained in importance during the last few decades, their progressive utilisation being 'due to the simultaneous development' of theory and practice in two outstanding directions. Firstly, there has been the marked technological '<l:dv~nce made in the construction of apparatus háving a much greater. ,range of application 'and affording bot~ the patient and the radiologiet better proteenon again~t the injurious action of, the rays 1) t~~ hitherto. The other development is the recognrtton of the fact that in certain circumstances diagnosis cannot be based solely on' the findings of ordinary. clinical examination, a~d radiological examination is necessary to supplement clinical diagnosis. The omission 'to avail oneself of the ~d'.'~ntages of a radiological examination is inmany instances due to a lack of appreciation of its ' potentialities and value. '" " , " , The aim of the radiological methods as an aid in diagnosis is to render visible the internal organs of the. human body, either by radiography or by screenmg; Such examination can be based on either a. natural contrast, (e.g. in pulm~)llary diagnosis) or on an artificial contrast as produced for the stomach, intestilles and kidneys when using harîum or other substance which has a marked absorption for Xvrays. ' A very important, field of X-ray diagnosis lies , ~n the ,examination of the thoracic cavity. Owing to the contained air the lungs produce a nat-ural contrast With respect to surrounding organs, such . as the he~rt ~nd vascular. ~yst~m, and it is just this characteristic which can he used to advantage in the investigation of one of the most common


When thinking about product or service quality, one does not usually think of its role with marketing. However, this study indicates otherwise. The study explores how companies conduct market research to optimize customer satisfaction by utilizing process improvement tools. The evidence in this research demonstrates that marketing and quality are in fact correlated. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how quality and marketing are linked with one another. Marketing strategies will not be successful if organizations are not providing quality products. Both quality and marketing are dependent upon the consumer's needs and wants; successful organizations constantly study the consumers in an effort to improve their products. It is important that marketing departments in organizations analyze clients in order to produce quality products that satisfy all customer needs and give the organization a competitive edge in the marketplace.


The Le′an River is one of a number of rivers flowing into Poyang Lake. The Dexing Mineral Factory which located near the Le′an River is one of the largest mineral factories in our country and is the main pollutant source of heavy metals in the Le′an River and Poyang Lake . A survey on the contents of heavy metals in water,sediments and aquatic plants was conducted to evaluate the contamination of heavy metals. The heavy metals such as Cu-Zn-Pb-Cd and their compounds were determined.The results indicated that the water in the investigated areas was not contaminated by heavy metals,and the water quality meets to the first evaluation criterion of surface water. But the content of heavy metals of Cu-Pb-Zn in sediments and soils are relatively high.And different plants have different selective enrichment of heavy metals .The enrichment coefficient was correlated to the background of heavy metals in soils,the higher concentration of heavy metals in soils,the more enriched of heavy metals in aquatic plants.


Introduction There is a lack of evidence in the literature about the impact of offspring addiction and their parents' mental health. Objective is to explore psychiatric disorders in parents of patients with substance dependence and their effect on the severity of their addiction. Objectives To evaluate psychiatric disorders in parents of patients with substance dependence and their effect on the severity of their addiction. Methods This is a cross sectional study contained group (A) 150 patients diagnosed with substance dependence according to DSM-IV. Patients were recruited form Psychiatry and Addiction Hospital of Cairo University. Group (B) included one or both parents of the patients group. The Addiction Severity Index (ASI) was used for the patients. Results In the patients group, mean age was 24.89 (±4.52). 96% of them were males 4% were females. In the parent group, mean age was 51.59 (±5.48). 84% of them were mothers 16 % were females. Patients group was associated with moderate degree of education (46.7%), 73.3% were single and 64% were unemployed. Anxiety disorders (80%) and depressive disorders (69.3%) were the most prevalent among parents group. ASI score was statistically significant in predicting the incidence of parents psychotic and schizoid disorders (100% sensitivity, 86.3% specificity, AUC=0.887, P value <0.0001).Besides we found a significant correlation between patients ASI scores and parents psychiatric disorder. Conclusions This result emphasizes the relation between patient substance use disorder and psychiatric disorder of their parents. Patients ASI score may be a possible measure for parents mental disorder. Further research is needed to validate our findings. Disclosure No significant relationships.


More than five years have elapsed since the death of Mao Zedong, and the arrest of the "Gang of Four" in autumn 1976 effectively ended China's Cultural Revolution. The new policies associated with Deng Xiaoping and the four modernizations strategy have gradually become clearer, particularly since the third plenum of the eleventh Central Committee held in December 1978. In education, more than in most other areas, distinct differences in orientation separate the present leadership from those who instituted the Cultural Revolution reforms. Whether one refers to these differences-or, more precisely, strategies-as egalitarian versus hierarchical (Pepper, 1980a) or redistributive versus developmental (Unger, 1980), there seems little question of the intense commitment China's leadership groupings have given to one or the other of them. For those who stress the necessity for rapid economic development, an educational system was required that early on selected the brightest students and placed them in the best secondary schools and later in the best universities. Those who believe the development of socialism goes beyond rapid economic development and includes such elements as the redistribution of opportunities in favor of formerly deprived classes, the gradual elimination of the "three great differences" (between worker and peasant, mental and manual


e13034 Background: This study assesses the impact of 6 cycles of adjuvant TMZ (conventional arm) versus 12 cycles (Extended arm) on Progression free survival (PFS), evaluate the toxicity and correlate the outcome with EGFR, P53 and MIB I labelling Index. Methods: Between December 2010 to October 2012, 36 post operative patients of Glioblastoma between age 18-65 years and Karnofsky Performance Score (KPS) ≥ 70 were included. Patients were randomized to receive Radiation with a dose of 60 Gray in 30 fractions over 6 weeks at 2 gray/fraction with concomitant TMZ (75 mg/m2/day) and Adjuvant therapy with either 6 or 12 cycles of TMZ(150 mg/m2 for 5 days, 28 days cycle). Patients were then assessed monthly clinically and imaged with MRI/CT every 3 monthly or when symptomatic. Toxicity was assessed using CTCAE version 3.0. Statistical Analysis was done using SPSS version 17.0.Kaplan Meier method was used for analysis of survival and log rank test was used for assessing the impact of variables on survival. Result...


The velocity distributions inside a centrifugal separator with outside and inside diameters of 152.4 mm (6″) and 76.2 mm (3″), respectively, have been investigated experimentally and numerically to obtain optimum separation efficiency. Two 12.7 mm (1/2-inch) holes were drilled on the external surface of the separator to measure the velocity distribution in the separator. Two direction velocities (tangential direction along the cylinder surface and axial along the vertical direction) were measured to compare with the numerical simulation results. A 6060P Pitot probe was employed to obtain the velocity distribution. The dust samples (a mixture of steel particle and dust) from the dust collection box were analyzed using a Phillips XL30 Scanning Electron Microscope.
 FLUENT code is used as the numerical solver for this fully three-dimensional problem. The fluid flow in the separator is assumed to be steady and incompressible turbulent flow. The standard k–ε model was employed in this study. Non-uniform, unstructured grids are chosen to discretize the entire computation domain. Almost 100,000 cells are used to discretize the whole separator. The constant velocity profile is imposed on the inlet plane. The pressure boundary condition is adopted at outlet plane. Comparing the velocity distribution and separation efficiency from the experiment and the numerical modeling shows that the experimental results and the estimated data agree fairly well and with a deviation within ±10%.


Several approaches, which allow increasing the reliability of diagnostics of plane layered medium in Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) applications, are considered. This increase is reached due to accurate account of parameters of transmit-receive antenna (via electrodynamic modeling) and radio frequency channel of GPR.


Membrane proteins are essential to mediate the traffic of solutes in and out of the cell and in translating extracellular stimuli into function. Membrane proteins can be challenging to structurally characterize with traditional techniques, due to their low expression yields and difficulty in producing diffraction quality crystals. Here we apply native mass spectrometry to structurally characterize the membrane protein Aquaporin-0 (AQP0), which exists as a tetrameric homooligomer and is found in the eye lens. Bovine and rabbit AQP0 was isolated and purified from lens tissue, specifically from both the cortex and the nucleus. Samples were prepared in 200 mM ammonium acetate containing twice the critical micelle concentration of the detergent tetraethylene glycol monooctyl ether (C8E4), and analyzed at 1-7μM. Experiments were performed on either an in-house modified Thermo Exactive Plus EMR (modified to include a quadrupole and SID device) or a Thermo Q Exactive UHMR. AQP0 is the most abundant membrane protein in the eye lens, comprising >50% of the membrane protein content. Interestingly, there is no protein turnover in lens fiber cells and, therefore, age-related modifications accumulate with time and are likely related to age-related cataract formation. We have isolated AQP0 directly from two distinct regions of eye lens: the cortex which contains young fiber cells and the nucleus which contains older fiber cells. We can introduce the tetramer intact into the gas-phase and can observe different proteoforms from the tetramer including singly and doubly phosphorylated tetramer and truncated species. In addition, we can observe non-covalent lipid binding. CID provides further insight into the proteoforms present at the monomer level and SID provides information on subunit connectivity. Native MS can provide insight into the structure of membrane protein complexes isolated from eye lens tissue, and provides information on the proteoforms present.


Barcode reading mobile applications that identify products from pictures taken using mobile devices are widely used by customers to perform online price comparisons or to access reviews written by others. Most of the currently available barcode reading approaches focus on decoding degraded barcodes and treat the underlying barcode detection task as a side problem that can be addressed using appropriate object detection methods. However, the majority of modern mobile devices do not meet the minimum working requirements of complex general purpose object detection algorithms and most of the efficient specifically designed barcode detection algorithms require user interaction to work properly. In this paper, we present a novel method for barcode detection in camera captured images based on a supervised machine learning algorithm that identifies one-dimensional barcodes in the two-dimensional Hough Transform space. Our model is angle invariant, requires no user interaction and can be executed on a modern mobile device. It achieves excellent results for two standard one-dimensional barcode datasets: WWU Muenster Barcode Database and ArTe-Lab 1D Medium Barcode Dataset. Moreover, we prove that it is possible to enhance the overall performance of a state-of-the-art barcode reading algorithm by combining it with our detection method.


Many uses of information theory have recently been discovered in the field of bioinformatics - clustering and classification of data, sequence alignment scoring, discovering dependencies between sites in amino acid alignments, etc. Mutual Information has proven itself to be a very convenient metric for determining the dependency between two sets of data, and has advantages over other common statistical methods such as correlation. Models of evolution, or substitution matrices, have always been at the very heart of bioinformatics, with a large variety of applications based on PAM, BLOSUM, JTT or other matrices. In this paper we describe a novel algorithm that incorporates substitution rates from a given matrix when calculating the mutual information between sites in an amino acid alignment. We formally describe this algorithm in detail as well as some experimental results. As a result of this work we demonstrate that the incorporation of substitution matrices in the calculation leads to an improved detection of patterns of similarity between sites within a multiple sequence alignment.


Trajectory analysis of 1975 Mercury mission via Venus flyby, considering closest approach altitude at Venus, impulse radius and launch energy


Geographical data sets contain a huge amount of information about spatial phenomena. The exploitation of this knowledge with the aim to make it usable in an internet search engine is one of the goals of the EU-funded project SPIRIT. This project deals with spatially related information retrieval in the internet and the development of a search engine, which includes the spatial aspect of queries. Existing metadata as provided by the standard ISO/DIS 19115 only give fractional information about the substantial content of a data set. Most of the time, the enrichment with metadata has to be done manually, which results in this information being present rarely. Further, the given metadata does not contain implicit information. This implicit information does not exist on the level of pure geographical features, but on the level of the relationships between the features, their extent, density, frequency, neighbourhood, uniqueness and more. This knowledge often is well known by humans with their background information, however it has to be made explicit for the computer. The first part of the paper describes the automatic extraction of classical metadata from data sets. The second part describes concepts of information retrieval from geographical data sets. This part deals with the setup of rules to derive useful implicit information. We describe possible implementations of data mining algorithms.


Abstract : The main objective of our research program is to develop new electrode materials for oxygen reduction based on polymeric aminophthalocyanines, poly-MTAPc's. Reaching this objective depends on successful outcomes in the following endeavors: optimization of monomer syntheses, of polymer formation, and of transition metal exchange in the polymer; characterization of O2 reduction at poly-MTAPC-modified electrodes, in terms of both mechanism and kinetics; description, at a molecular level, of the polymer film based on electroanalytical and spectroscopic studies.


The spatial and temporal features of grassland cover conversion(GCC) serve as a useful input for understanding the desertification process and degradation of grassland caused by anthropogenic activities and extreme natural events in general.Thematic Mapper data(TM 30 m) were used to detect and map degraded grassland features both spatially and temporally.Two data sets of TM 30 m data were collected from the years 2000 to 2010.Supervised classifications were developed for each of the GCC change detection of the three cases(degradation,desertification,and salinization).To address this situation,the field data were used to test the GCC detection of change results presented in this paper.The GCC change detection methods worked reasonably well and detection accuracy of deserted and salinized output was 90% although degraded output identified only 75% of the covered pixels within the ground observed perimeter polygons.The applications presented in this paper also evaluated the transition matrix between 2000 and 2010 of each of the three change detections,and predicted dynamic characteristics of grassland using the Markov model.The results showed that for the next decade,and even for a further ten years,the grassland will develop positively with a reduced trend of degradation and desertification.The research also indicated,it is credible to use remote sensing technology combined with the Markov model in analyzing the dynamic characteristics of grassland cover changes.


Brand attitude always is one of most important factors influencing consumer behavior. This paper would focus on the effect of brand attitude on the brand buying intention. The results show that the brand attitude can moderate the relative importance of purchasing intention determinants. Detailedly, when consumers own positive brand attitude, the purchase attitude is more important; whereas when consumers own negative or ambiguous brand attitude, the subjective norm becomes more important. At last, the implication and limitations of this paper are presented.


Contents: List of Figures Foreward Acknowledgements Introduction 1: Living History Fiction: A Past to Excite the Senses 2: Perceptions of Reality: Joan Of Arc In Historical Fiction For Young Readers 3: Agentic Heroines: Re-Inscribing Female Selfhood in Historical Fiction for Young Readers 4: Shaping Identities: Constructing National Character in The Scholastic Press Historical Journal Series 5: Memory and Power: Discourses On War in Historical Fiction For Young Readers 6: Re-writing the Past: An Historical Multicultural Australia? Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index a


This paper proposes a novel continuous control set model predictive control (CCS-MPC) method for torque control of induction motors (IMs). A systematic way to define a reference state for the given torque reference is provided. The reference state is determined according to the operational modes to yield the highest possible efficiency. Maximum torque per ampere (MTPA) operation is adopted considering Ohmic loss minimization below and above the base speed. MTPA in field- weakening region is adopted. In the proposed CCS-MPC, a cost index is defined using the derived reference state and the optimal control input is determined considering the input constraints. The proposed control method is implemented and validated by simulation and experimental studies. The results confirm that the proposed approach gives a very good dynamic performance overall speed with minimal torque and current ripples.


The role of neurally derived peptides affecting insect visceral muscle has been explored by many investigators over the past thirty years (e.g. Raabe, 1982; Miller, 1985; Huddart, 1985). One set of myoactive neuropeptides that have been well characterized physiologically is the cardioacceleratory peptides (CAPs) found in the tobacco hawkmoth Manduca sexta. The CAPs act as cardioregulatory neurohormones in the adult moth, increasing heart rate during wing inflation (Tublitz and Truman, \9%5a,b\ Tublitz and Evans, 1986) and flight (Tublitz, 1989). In addition to their involvement in adult behaviour, one of the CAPs, CAP2, has been implicated in the modulation of the embryonic hindgut in Manduca sexta. Broadie et al. (1990) demonstrated that CAP2 is released in the latter half of embryonic development to aid in the digestion of extra-embryonic yolk by stimulating frequency of gut contractures. This interpretation was supported by quantitative immunocytochemical studies using an anti-CAP monoclonal antibody to identify a group of central nervous system (CNS) neurones that were CAPimmunoreactive (Broadie et al. 1990). The distribution of CAP-immunopositive neurones in the CNS of fifth-instar Manduca sexta caterpillars is identical to that described in embryos (Tublitz and Sylwester, 1988, 1990). This observation, coupled with a previous report suggesting the presence in Manduca sexta larvae of a cardioactive peptide factor with


In this chapter we present a parallel computational method for 3D image segmentation. It is based on a three-dimensional semi-implicit complementary volume numerical scheme for solving the Riemannian mean curvature flow of graphs called the subjective surface method. The parallel method is introduced for massively parallel processor (MPP) architecture using the message passing interface (MPI) standard, so it is suitable, e.g., for clusters of Linux computers. The scheme is applied to segmentation of 3D echocardiographic images.


.................................................................................................................................. viii
 Chapter
1:
Salmonella
Pathogenesis
is
Effector
Driven..............................................1
 Background
and
significance ................................................................................................................................2
 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................2
 Salmonella
pathogenesis
in
human
and
mouse
models
of
infection .....................................2
 Type
III
secretion
systems
(TTSS)........................................................................................................3
 TTS
and
the
intestinal
phase
of
infection ........................................................................................................4
 SPI‐1
effectors
SopE,
SopE2,
SopB,
and
the
SPI‐1/2
effector
SptP .........................................4
 SPI‐1
effectors
SipA,
SipC,
and
SopD....................................................................................................8
 TTS
and
the
systemic
phase
of
infection..........................................................................................................9
 Salmonella
containing
vacuole
(SCV)..................................................................................................9
 SPI‐1
effector
SopB
and
the
SPI‐1/2
effector
SptP
associate
with
the
SCV ..................... 11
 SPI‐2
effectors
SifA
and
SseJ................................................................................................................. 11
 SPI‐2
effectors
SseF,
SseG,
PipB2,
and
SopD2............................................................................... 13
 SPI‐2
effectors
SpvB
and
SteC.............................................................................................................. 14
 Replication
within
the
spleen .............................................................................................................. 14
 Infected
epithelial
and
phagocytic
cells
undergo
apoptosis
and
pyroptosis,
 respectively ................................................................................................................................................. 15
 Salmonella
manipulates
particular
aspects
of
innate
and
adaptive
immunity ............................ 15
 NF‐κB
is
targeted
by
multiple
Salmonella
effecotrs................................................................... 15
 Major
histocompatibility
complex
(MHC)...................................................................................... 16
 Dendritic,
T,
and
B
cells .......................................................................................................................... 17
 Research
objectives................................................................................................................................................ 20
 Chapter
2:
Salmonella
Typhimurium
Disseminates
within
its
Host
by
 Manipulating
the
Motility
of
Infected
Cells .................................................................. 21
 Abstract ....................................................................................................................................................................... 22
...................................................................................................................................................................... 22


The session will introduce participants to curricular modules (projects) based entirely on primary historical source material, developed by an interdisciplinary team of seven computer science and mathematical sciences faculty at New Mexico State University and Colorado State University Pueblo. More than twenty projects have been developed and are available on the Internet at: http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/historical-projects/ . The projects are intended for courses in discrete mathematics, algorithm design, automata, graph theory, and logic.


Because of increasing power densities, refrigeration systems are being explored for two-phase cooling of ultra high power electronic components. This paper presents a framework for the transient analysis of pressure-drop refrigerant flow instabilities under both steady-state and transient imposed heat loads. Based on an analytical two-phase flow model, the system pressure and other effects on flow characteristics are quantitatively studied, so as to predict the associated flow instability margin. The most significant effect on electronics cooling system dynamics is the imposed heat load. One of the main research topics here is to study the boiling oscillatory flow responses to transient heat load changes, which can reflect the transient two-phase cooling capacity. Furthermore, the effect of wall thermal inertia on flow oscillation is systematically studied. Application-based pulsed heat load scenarios are finally evaluated. This transient instability analysis offers useful insight for future active thermal management system design.


This paper addresses a gap in the literature on urban climate justice by examining inequity at the "urban scale" and adds to growing discussions and acknowledgment about the need for climate justice at the city scale. This is accomplished by drawing on work in geography and urban political ecology on climate justice and urban governance. Such a perspective builds on the concept of a climate-just city, a perspective which prioritizes the needs and issues of those most marginalized and vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In particular, this study focuses on Bangkok, Thailand, a city not only highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, but also with one of the highest carbon emissions per capita in the world. To highlight instances of climate injustice at the urban scale, the paper presents three case studies from within the city: Bangkok's public transportation sector, the state's response to the 2011 floods in Bangkok, and coastal erosion in southern Bangkok. As evidence, the paper draws on a mixture of primary sources—interviews conducted with government officials, activists, and community members in Bangkok during 2014-15, policy discourse analysis, and city plans— and secondary sources. Ultimately, the main argument presented is that the city's governance of climate change has unjustly benefited the upper echelon of society, while low-income communities have been adversely affected.


We present an elementary proof that, for a multivalued map φ R R with nonempty connected values and monotone margins, the existence of a periodic orbit of any order k > 1 implies the existence of periodic orbits of all orders. This generalizes a very recent result of this type in terms of scalar ordinary differential equations without uniqueness, due to F. Obersnel and P. Omari, obtained by means of lower and upper solutions techniques.


Investigation of filamentary structures was performed on the spherical tokamak Globus-M by the Doppler backscattering (DBS) method. Filaments were detected in the H-mode regime both during the edge localized mode event and in the periods between them. They manifested themselves as bursts of quasi-coherent fluctuations (BQFs) of the output signals of the DBS quadrature detector. To confirm BQF appearing due to backscattering from a moving filament, special experiments were carried out with two DBS systems located at different poloidal angles. Using the new filament research method one could evaluate their velocity, mode number, and radial and poloidal positions. Using this technique, it was possible to estimate the size of the filaments. Experiments have shown that the filaments move predominantly in the direction of the electron diamagnetic drift with a velocity exceeding the velocity of background small-scale fluctuations. Filaments were recorded more frequently when the density gradient on the plasma periphery increased.


Objective To purify the IgYs from the egg yolk of peacock and quail and ladyhood-chicken.Rabbits were immunized with the purified IgYs.Methods We employed the methods of water dilution affinity chromatograph and salt precipitation.The antiserum were characterized by double immunodiffusion(DID).Results The purified products were identified by SDS-PAGE.The molecular weight of egg yolk antibodies of peacock and quail and ladyhood-chicken was 180 KD.The titer of the antiserum is high.Conclusion The purification methods for IgYs from peacock,quail and ladyhood-chicken were established.


By bringing "Inquiry Learning" method and Humanities Study into "Basic English" teaching, together with the attention on the psychological feelings of the students, it is possible to unearth the potential speaking ability and the synthetic language ability of the students.


Farmers speech should be finishing soon #farmaction in the meantime the standoff in front of police line is getting more tense #watercanon already used to


Imidazolylacetic acid amides of the formula: or pharmaceutically acceptable nontoxic salts thereof WHEREIN EITHER R1 is phenyl or cycloalkyl, unsubstituted or substituted by one or more substituents; and R2 is hydrogen; OR R1 or R2, together with the nitrogen atom to which they are attached, form a saturated 5 to 7-membered heterocyclic ring which ring may contain an -SO2- or -NY- moiety wherein Y is alkoxycarbonyl, dialkylaminocarbonyl, or phenyl or diphenylmethyl, unsubstituted or substituted by one or more substituents and wherein said 5 to 7-membered heterocyclic ring itself is otherwise unsubstituted or substituted by one or more substituents; and X1, X2, and X3 and X4 are the same or different and are each hydrogen or halogen, ARE PRODUCED BY A. REACTING A HALODIPHENYLACETIC ACID AMIDE OF THE FORMULA: wherein R1, R2, X1, X2, X3 and X4 are as above defined, and Hal is halogen, with imidazole; or B. REACTING A HALODIPHENYLACETIC ACID HALIDE OF THE FORMULA: wherein X1, X2, X3 and X4 are as above defined and Hal is halogen with imidazole to produce an imidazolide of the formula: wherein X1, X2, X3 and X4 are as above defined which in turn is transaminated by reaction with an amine of the formula:


A young doctor wanting to be a good interventional therapist,would be confused by the complicated materials using in blood vessels,the complex DSA machine and obstacle of transferring the 2D picture into 3D image.In our hospital virtual reality technique as a new strategy of teaching was applied to culturing young doctors.The advantage of virtual reality is high simulation and interaction which are good for young doctors to master interventional therapy technique.


Slags are essential in high temperature metallurgical processing to purify molten metal at competitive prices. Large volumes are produced annually, leading to important economical and ecological issues regarding their afterlife. To maximise the recycling potential, slag processing has become an integral part of the valorisation chain [1]. Production of steel slags in Europe was 15 Mt in 2004 [2], of which, stainless steel slags constitute a more than proportional fraction due to the higher slag to metal ratio in stainless steel production. Stainless steel slags are currently used for a number of applications and some alternatives have been suggested in literature [3]: aggregates, additives or raw materials for cement making, carbon sink, as well as fertilisers and additives for soil treatment are only a few of the potential routes. Nonetheless, disintegration of stainless steel slags hinders the valorisation and increases considerably the landfilling cost. It is well established that this kind of disintegration is driven by the presence of dicalcium silicate (2CaO·SiO2 or C2S) in the slag [4]. This mineral undergoes several phase transformations from one polymorph to another when the slag is cooled. As the athermal, martensitic-like transformation of the monoclinic β-polymorph to the orthorhombic γ-polymorph [5] is accompanied by a volume expansion of about 12%, high internal stresses finally cause the disintegration of the slag. The potential routes to avoid the formation of γ-dicalcium silicate explored in this work are: a) chemical stabilization by additions, b) change in slag chemistry and c) fast cooling.


INTRODUCTION: Xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis (XGC) is a rare disease associated with focal or multifocal chronic inflammation of gall bladder wall and gall bladder carcinoma. Xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis is considered to be a type of chronic cholecystitis and occasionally mimics gall bladder cancer. We report a case of 60 year-old-female with an incidental diagnosis of xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis at the Northwest General Hospital, Peshawar. KEY WORDS: Xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis, Gall bladder


ABSTRACT In the present work, the sloshing phenomenon in a rectangular tank with non-Newtonian Bingham fluid is modeled. The numerical method used is the Incompressible Smoothed particle Hydrodynamics (ISPH) method. In the present study, first, a proper algorithm has been developed for modeling the Bingham fluid with the free surface. The method is validated by the famous previous works and experimental results. Then, to investigate the behavior of Bingham fluid, first, a proper Bingham number for sloshing phenomena is defined and the results are extracted according to this number. Three different Bingham numbers are considered and sloshing phenomena are analyzed and discussed for each of them. Finally, the effect of the baffle on the control of the sloshing phenomenon for the Bingham fluid is examined. The results show that increasing the Bingham number decreases the amplitude of the sloshing phenomenon. Also, the vertical baffle significantly controls the sloshing phenomenon.


The mass spectra of the compounds C12F8M2 (M = S, Se), (I), C12F8M (M = S, Se, Te), (II) and C12F8SX2 (X = Br, I), (III), have been measured. Results indicate that sulfur-carbon bonds are more stable under electron bombardment than either selenium-carbon or tellurium-carbon bonds. Numerous metastable-supported transitions are evident, which are incorporated into comprehensive fragmentation schemes for these compounds. Many metastable transitions, not previously reported, were observed for the fluorocarbon fragments and a fragmentation scheme is reported.

The bromine and iodine-containing compounds behave remarkably like the heterocyclic systems, I and II, presumably due to initial loss of Br2 or I2 to form a ring system of type II.


Segmenting vertebral bodies (VBs) and intervertebral discs (IVDs) in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data is an important step towards the creation of 3D spine models for image-guided surgical treatement of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). Recent advances in deep learning have established state-of-the-art results in medical image segmentation. Thus, in this paper, we present a method based on convolutional neural networks to simultaneously segment VBs and IVDs in MRI data sets of AIS patients, a difficult problem which has not yet been adressed in the literature. Our architecure is inspired by the U-net architecture, combined with the recently proposed and promising squeeze-and-excitation (SE) block and an objective function incorporating Cohen's kappa to deal with the imbalamce class problem. Our model is first trained using a public dataset of non-AIS patients, then fine tuned using a few images of AIS patients. Results in 8 test AIS patient MRI volumes show that the fine tuning and SE strategies both improve segmentation considerably while remaining highly complementary to each other.


Objective To analyze clinical features and risk factors for death of 24 cases of SARS in Shanxi province.Methods Clinical materials of 24 dead cases of SARS from March 7 to June 4,2003 in Shanxi were retrospectively analyzed.Results There were 13 (55%) male patients and 11 (46%) female patients,the main clinical features were fever,coughing,and dyspnea,etc.The amounts of WBC and lymphocyte obviously decreased.Chest X-ray examination revealed the changes related to pneumonia.Three cases (12%) died within seven days,eleven cases (47%) died within seven to fourteen days,and ten died after two weeks.Fourteen patients (50%) had basal diseases,of them 4 (16%) had diabetes,4 (16%) had cerebrovascular disease,3 (12%) had cardiovascular disease,and 6 (25%) with hypertension.There were 7 (29%) patients with more than two diseases.Of the 24 dead cases 19 cases died of SARS,5 cases died of basal diseases.Conclusion The risk factors of SARS are age over 50,obvious decrease in early lymphocyte count.


Design of experiments (DoE) is a widely used approach for powertrain calibration tasks to reduce testing time. The generation of DoE points and the test execution are normally performed in two separate and sequential steps. However, while building the models for certain highly nonlinear engine responses (e.g., particulate mass), state-of-the-art designs cannot distribute sufficient points in areas that are particularly relevant for the later optimisation. To improve the conventional DoE approach, this paper suggests a methodology that leaves out candidates which appear to have compromised performance in one or more output channels. The behaviour of defined measurement channels is modelled during the test execution and additional candidates are positioned iteratively. After each measurement, the models are updated. Practical examples show that this proposed and unique method known as 'COR DoE' leads to a reduction of testing effort, as well as a significantly improved modelling, optimisation and verification accuracy.


As is known finite difference methods or multistep methods can been applied to solve scientific and technical tasks as the numerical methods with different properties. For this, here have considering application of the finite difference methods to solve initial-value problem for both ODEs and Volterra integro-differential equation by using some similarities between these tasks. It is known that initial value problem (ivp) for ODE can been received from the ivp for the Volterra integro-differential equation as the partial case. By using these relations of the named problems, here the methods, which are used in solving of the ODEs, have modified and applied to solve ivp for the Volterra integro-differential equations. For this purpose have used the multistep methods with constant coefficients. And have recommended some ways for application of above mentioned methods to calculation of definite integrals. And also have given some recommendation to select appropriate methods. By using some model problems have illustrated the advantages of the investigated here methods which have recommended to solve above mentioned problems. To increase the reliability of the receiving results obtained by using some numerical methods, here have considered the possibility of using bilateral methods.


Mukta Majumder, Department of Computer Science and Application, University of North Bengal, Siliguri – 734013, West Bengal, India. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com Abstract Conventional biomedical analysers are replaced by digital microfluidic biochips and they are adequate to integrate different biomedical functions, essential for diverse bioassay operations. From the last decade, microfluidic biochips are getting plenty of acceptances in the field of miscellaneous healthcare sectors like DNA analysis, drug discovery and clinical diagnosis. These devices are also bearing a vital role in the area of safety critical applications such as food safety testing, air quality monitoring etc. As these devices are used in safety critical applications, clinical diagnosis and real‐time biomolecular assay operations, these must have properties like precision, reliability and robustness. To accept it for discriminating purposes, the microfluidic device must endorse its preciseness and strength by following sublime testing strategy. Here, an optimized droplet traversal technique is proposed to investigate the multiple defective electrodes of a digital microfluidic biochip by embedding boundary cum row traversal and KNIGHT traversal procedure (based on the famous Knight Tour Problem). The proposed approach also enumerates the traversal time for a fault‐free biochip. In addition to identifying the faulty electrodes, a Module Sequencing Graph based reconfiguration technique is proposed here to reinstate the device for normal bioassay operation.


Various similarity/distance information measures for the extensions of fuzzy sets have been proposed and utilized in different fields such as data science, clustering techniques, medical diagnosis, econometrics, decision-making, etc. In the present communication, we propose a new kind of parametric distance measure for the picture fuzzy sets and study various set-theoretic binary operations and properties related to the measure along with their mathematical validation. The parametrization feature of this measure provides additional flexibility in processing the information. Further, for a given unknown pattern, based on the proposed parametric picture fuzzy distance measure and the methodology of minimum discriminant information, we classify it into a set of known patterns. A numerical example to show the implementation has also been provided for clarity and better readability.


When mapping land cover with satellite imagery in montane tropical regions, varying illumination angles and ecological zones can obscure the differences between spectral responses of old-growth forest, secondary forest and agricultural lands. We used multi-date, Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery to map secondary forests, agricultural lands and old-growth forests in the Talamanca Mountain Range in southern Costa Rica. With stratification by illumination and ecological zone, the overall accuracy for this classification was 87% with a Kappa coefficient of 0.83. We also examined spectral responses to forest successional stage, ecological zone and aspect illumination for the TM Tasselled Cap indices, TM (2 x 6)/7, TM 4/5 and TM difference bands, and whether using digital data from multiple decades improved classification accuracy. Digital maps of ecological zones should be useful for large-scale mapping of land use and forest successional stage in complex montane regions such as those in Central America.


Thymomas, which account for 20% to 30% of all mediastinal tumours and 50% of anterior mediastinal
masses, are uncommon tumours in the anterior mediastinum. About 50% of individuals with thymomas
have accidental chest radiographic diagnoses, meaning there is no known cause for them. The typical main therapy for these
tumours is thymectomy, and the prognosis and manner of care are determined by the distinct stages of thymoma. In this
instance, a female child aged 7 months arrived with shortness of breath, cough and fever that had been present for the past 15
days. Each ailment appeared gradually. Mediastinal widening was seen on the chest x-ray, and a big mass lesion with
homogenously elevated soft tissue density was seen on the CT scan. Although FNAC and a tiny biopsy were performed, the
histology reports produced conicting results, creating a diagnostic quandary. It was later determined to be a malignant
thymoma following surgery


Forgiveness WorkA History of Islamic LawIslamic Law in PracticeMuslims in America: Examining the FactsIslam in Modern ThailandConcept And Application Of Shariah For The Construction Industry: Shariah Compliance In Construction Contracts, Project Finance And Risk ManagementResearch Handbook on Islamic Law and SocietyWomen and Sharia Law in Northern IndonesiaLocal Interests and American Foreign PolicyWomen and Sharia Law in Northern IndonesiaIslamic Law and International LawThe Oxford Handbook of Islamic LawThe Unsteady StateSharia TransformationsIslamic LawCrime and Punishment in IndonesiaPride, Faith, and FearCorporate IslamLiving ShariaHumanitarian EconomicsSharia DynamicsSharia and the State in PakistanRecasting Islamic LawReligion and the Politics of DevelopmentShariaSharia and Social EngineeringThe Chinese and Indian Corporate EconomiesIslamic Law and International Commercial ArbitrationMuslims Talking PoliticsIslam and the Limits of the StateIslamic LawContemporary Islamic Law in IndonesiaThe Sharia StateAre Four Isms Killing America?The Making of Islamic HeritageAnti-Social Engineering the Hyper-Manipulated SelfThe Ashgate Research Companion to Islamic LawIslamic Law and Society in IranThe Politics of Court ReformRebuilding Asia Following Natural Disasters