I wish to consider two claims discussed by Mr. Donald McQueen in his paper 'Evidence for Necessary Propositions',' (a) that 'a necessary truth has no truth-conditions, since it is unconditionally true' (p. 57), and (b), that no fact can be evidence for believing an a priori proposition. According to McQueen, although (a) is true, (b) is false. The view that (b) is false derives its appeal from the fact that it is proper language both to speak of believing a necessarily true proposition and to speak of having evidence which confirms it. The following description, for example, seems in no way to violate usage: 'Complete tables of primes of 12,000,000 and more have gradually been computed by refinements of [the method of Eratosthenes' sieve], and they provide us with a tremendous mass of empirical data concerning the distribution and properties of primes. On the basis of these tables we can make highly plausible conjectures (as though number theory were an experimental science) ..... '2 The question is whether the fact that there is no impropriety about such a description can be used to go on to the claim the necessary propositions, like empirical ones, are such that nothing in principle precludes their being believed or being rendered probable. Can the natural interpretation of statements of the form 'S believes that p' and 'It is probable that p' which disregards whether p is necessary or contingent avoid paradoxical consequences, and is there an interpretation which will escape paradox where 'p' expresses an a priori proposition? Any argument for the view that a fact, either contingent or noncontingent, can be evidence for a necessary proposition highlights similarities between a priori and empirical propositions. It is of the essence of empirical propositions that they can have a probability attached to them, that they can be confirmed by fact, and that they can be either believed or disbelieved.3 I shall try to bring out the paradox of characterizing in the same way propositions which are necessarily true or necessarily false, and go on to a reinterpretation of 'Evidence E makes p probable' and 'S believes p'. The main requirement the new interpretation must meet is that it be compatible with the fact that neither expression involves a misuse of language. As is well known, histories of mathematics report 'attempts' to trisect the angle with straight edge and compass, to duplicate the cube, to find a rational number which is the value of V;4 and everyone would agree in


This research constructs an approach to engagement with Bama, Indigenous people from the Upper Mitchell River Watershed to develop a model of increased engagement and improved care of natural resource environments. It demonstrates that using Indigenous knowledge and experience can lead to better outcomes for both the land and its peoples.


Each year, History Australia offers a prize for the best article from the previous calendar year. The editors are delighted to announce that Ben Silverstein's article, '"Possibly They Did Not Know Themselves": The Ambivalent Government of Sex and Work in the Northern Territory Aboriginals Ordinance 1918' from issue 14(3) won the prize for 2017. In crisp prose, Silverstein's article wove a theoretically informed line of argument around new empirical material to explore the regulation of Indigenous life in the service of the health of the settler population. Demonstrating 'the malleability of racial categorisations', it is an innovative article that will push the field forward in coming years. This issue also has more than its fair share of ground-breaking new research. Robin Gerster's superbly illustrated contribution explores the gap between official and individual Australian representations of Japan and the Japanese under occupation. Through an analysis of a number of rarely seen images, Gerster makes clear that those fashioning pictorial narratives of their own experiences in Japan often replicated the well-understood visual tropes of a mysterious and ancient oriental world but also juxtaposed these cliches against the jarring presence of the newly inserted Australian occupier. In some instances, this translated into pictures that suggested powerful Australians encountering welcoming (often feminised) Japanese. The most interesting images, he suggests, however, transcended this well-worn visual language to reveal a more complex, modern and even unruly Japan. Also charting the tensions inherent in representations of space, Ewan Morris presents us with the troubled history lurking behind the naming of places. Quite rightly, he points out that toponymy is often seen as an arcane, antiquarian discipline, discovering the provenance of street names dedicated to long-dead town worthies or middle-ranking political figures. He argues, however, that toponymy in fact reveals the local complexion and dimensions of power over space, and how the power to name, un-name and rename a place evolves over time. His conclusion, that historians (particularly in settler-colonial states) cannot adjudicate on the question of the authentic, 'real name' of a place, but can only offer a sense of how and why differing communities have over time come to champion one name over another, is extremely thought-provoking. In a similar vein, Zachary Gorman and Greg Melleuish's study of Australian Prime Ministers Robert Menzies and John Howard points to the need for historians to scrutinise carefully the mythopoeic function of party history and political biography. For many conservatives, worried by the attention paid by their political adversaries to the history of the prominent figures of the Left, the search is now on for a useable conservative past, a narrative of their own political origins and achievements. Not least among these


Hormones secreted from the pituitary-adrenal system during stress affect learning and memory processes. The phenomenon of long-term potentiation (LTP) is a robust example of neuronal plasticity and has become widely regarded as a possible physiological substrate for learning and memory in the mammalian brain. The current study supports our previous finding that stress impairs LTP in the in vitro hippocampal slice. In addition, manipulation of the pituitary-adrenal axis by dexamethasone (DEX), a synthetic glucocorticoid that blocks the pituitary-adrenal response to stress, appears to influence the temporal patterns of the development of the neuronal plastic changes which occur immediately after tetanus (post-tetanic potentiation period, or PTP). Since the stress-induced impairment of LTP occurs, regardless of DEX treatment, we suggest the action of DEX is to modulate the temporal pattern of the PTP/LTP interaction in response to stress.


This final chapter summarises some of the most significant advances in the field of organocatalytic polymerisation. It also highlights some potential opportunities for the future growth of the field.


Sysp(Structured Symbol System Processer) is a base programming language for knowledge representation, and also a non-procedural and non-von Neumman style programming language to the next generation. Logic programming, functional programming, object oriented programming etc. are integrated into a simple and transparent mechanism based on the message passing computation(QA model of computation). An overview of Sysp's framework is presented using simple examples.


Continuing pressures to restrain health care costs have stimulated innovative arrangements for the delivery of health care services. A variety of such arrangements involve use of a so-called "gatekeeper" to monitor and control patient utilization of services. The term "gatekeeper" is frequently used to refer to a person that serves as a case manager, responsible for determining what services are needed and for coordinating the provision of appropriate care. By limiting or replacing patients' freedom to self-select use of health care services, particularly highly expensive services (e.g., hospital and specialist services), this mechanism is seen by some government and private health care payers as a means of assuring that needed health care is provided in a more costeffective manner than through traditional fee-for-service arrangements. However, in the context of providing for the medical needs of patients, we believe a more appropriate term is "patient care manager."


Chapter 12 examines literary sepulchral epigrams where the themes of boundaries and death are intermingled in intriguing and complex ways. The chapter illustrates how these poems bridge, strengthen, or obscure these topics, which originate in inscribed epigram in the form of separation of the dead from the living or of the body from one's soul. As this theme develops, the boundary between sea and land emerges prominently, sometimes mapping onto, and sometimes attempting to resolve, these other separations; this theme spills out into further divisions, between flesh and bone, or between man and fish. Even epigrams seemingly unrelated, such as Agathias's poem (AP 7.204) on a caged partridge eaten by a pet cat, can be seen as clever variations of this scheme, in a never-ending game of poetic debt and competition.


Although most forms of Kampo medicine lack sufficient evidence, YKS is an exception, and multiple clinical studies have been performed. Previous clinical studies of YKS have reported its efficacy as a BPSD treatment. Iwasaki et al. found that several BPSD symptoms, including aggression, agitation, and irritability, improved with YKS in patients with mild to severe dementia including AD.3 In addition, the efficacy of YKS was reported in a systematic review and meta-analysis.4


SUMMARY We have used suspensions of isolated cells to study the metabolism of the mucosal epitheliurn and to compare its activity with that of other tissues in the intestinal wall of guinea pig. Only 4 % of the total glycolytic activity of the intestinal wall could be attributed to the mucosal epithelium. In contrast, about 76% of the activity was located in the intestinal muscle and the remaining 20 % in the intervening tissue. Clearly view


We find solutions of the Dirac equation in curved spacetime. In particular, we consider 1+1 dimensional sections of several exotic metrics: the Alcubierre metric, which describes a scenario that allows faster-than-light (FTL) velocity; the G\"odel metric, that describes a universe containing closed timelike curves (CTC); and the Kerr metric, which corresponds to the spacetime of a rotating black hole. Moreover, we also show that the techniques that we use in these cases can be extended to nonstatic metrics.


This article is a short biography of former television reporter Angela Hale, based on an oral history discussing her education and career.


Many people have written about the life, literary work and pedagogical activity of L. N. Tolstoy, but only the founder of the Communist Party, the great Lenin, fully and correctly indicated his real importance and role in Russian life, explained the sharp contradictions in his world outlook, presented a profound analysis of the great writer's creativity and showed that Tolstoy the artist and thinker mirrored "the specific historical features of the first Russian Revolution, its strength and its weakness."


When events occur in everyday life, it is sometimes advantageous to approach them in two directions to find a solution for them. As a mathematical tool to handle these things, we can consider the intuitionistic fuzzy set. However, when events are complex and the key to a solution cannot be easily found, we feel the need to approach them for hours and from various directions. As mathematicians, we wish we had the mathematical tools that apply to these processes. If these mathematical tools were developed, we would be able to apply them to algebra, topology, graph theory, etc., from a close point of view, and we would be able to apply these research results to decision-making and/or coding theory, etc., from a distant point of view. In light of this view, the purpose of this study is to introduce the notion of a multipolar intuitionistic fuzzy set with finite degree (briefly, k-polar intuitionistic fuzzy set), and to apply it to algebraic structure, in particular, a BCK/BCI-algebra. The notions of a k-polar intuitionistic fuzzy subalgebra and a (closed) k-polar intuitionistic fuzzy ideal in a BCK/BCI-algebra are introduced, and related properties are investigated. Relations between a k-polar intuitionistic fuzzy subalgebra and a k-polar intuitionistic fuzzy ideal are discussed. Characterizations of a k-polar intuitionistic fuzzy subalgebra/ideal are provided, and conditions for a k-polar intuitionistic fuzzy subalgebra to be a k-polar intuitionistic fuzzy ideal are provided. In a BCI-algebra, relations between a k-polar intuitionistic fuzzy ideal and a closed k-polar intuitionistic fuzzy ideal are discussed. A characterization of a closed k-polar intuitionistic fuzzy ideal is considered, and conditions for a k-polar intuitionistic fuzzy ideal to be closed are provided.


The linguo-axiological specificity of the English-language dramatic discourse is revealed through the prism of the speechgenre organization of the dialogue. The relevance of the work is due to the appeal to the problems of discursive-communicative linguoaxiology as a scientific direction, which is at the stage of formation of an independent research platform. The reasons for the linguo-axiological loading of the dramatic discourse are revealed, and the author's development of a linguo-axiological model of speech genres implemented within the limits of the British and American dramaturgical dialogue of the 20th and 21st centuries is proposed. The author dwells on five systemic parameters that form the linguo-axiological speech-genre model and substantiates the variants of their communicative manifestation. A sample of the matrix actualization of the proposed model is demonstrated on the example of a specific speech genre "small talk" when it is included in the format of a stylized dialogic interaction. The results of a comparative linguo-axiological analysis of textual realizations of the indicated speech genre are presented on the basis of four spatio-temporal fragments of the English dramatic discourse. The novelty of the study is seen in the fact that for the first time it applied the provisions of the theory of speech genres in the linguo-axiological interpretation of a stylized dialogue. It is concluded that the developed linguo-axiological model provides an opportunity to trace both the poly-aspect dynamics of the linguo-axiological indicators of the speech genre along the time axis, and its nationally marked specificity when updated within the dramaturgical dialogue.


A total of 725 patients with mycosis of the skin folds, large areas of the body or feet were entered into this double‐blind, dose‐finding study. Treatment with 0·125, 0·25 or 0·5% amorolfine cream was randomly allocated to patients. The cream was applied once daily for 4 weeks on average. At screening, in 527 patients evaluated for efficacy, a total of 533 pathogens were isolated: T. rubrum (322), T. mentagrophytes (84), E. floccosum (45), M. canis (42), other dermatophytes (14), C. albicans (24) and other yeasts (2). One week after the end of treatment, the culture was negative in 80·5, 81·3 and 84·8% of patients treated with 0·125, 0·25 or 0·5% amorolfine cream, respectively. The differences were not statistically significant. Forty‐four out of 714 patients evaluated for safety had local adverse events: 14 (5·8%), 13 (5·5%) and 17 (7·1%) in the amorolfine cream 0·125%, 0·25 and 0·5% groups, respectively. Due to local adverse events, six patients (2·5%) in the 0·125 group, six patients (2·6%) in the 0·25% group and seven patients (2·9%) in the 0·5% group discontinued the trial treatment. The most common adverse events were burning, itching, erythema and scaling. No systemic adverse events were reported.


The importance of the volleyball block against the quick attack is more important in the modern volleyball with new scoring system. Two types of tactics are used normally: the Read Block System (RBS) and the Commit Block System (CBS). A preliminary study was conducted to identify variables that quantified the differences between these two techniques. Four young players performing the RBS and the CBS were acquired by means of stereo-photogrammetry and kinematic variables were identified. The quantified analysis confirms coaches experience: in the RBS the hands arrive over the net in a shorter time, the feet start "naturally" wider but the jump performed has a lower height with respect to the CBS. Further longitudinal and transversal studies will be conducted with more subjects of different level and gender.


This is the description of the new changes made in version 4.0 of the NLEVP MATLAB toolbox. The collection and its organization are described in a separate paper.
A user's guide describes how to install and use the NLEVP MATLAB toolbox.


AbstractThis chapter draws on the author's film The Voluntourist that has arguably been pivotal in raising the groundswell of objection to orphanage tourism. The film follows young international volunteers in Southeast Asia, working in childcare and construction projects over short periods of time. The overall purpose of the film is to raise awareness of the potential harmful impacts of voluntourism and spark a debate around solutions and/or alternatives. The aim is not to discourage people from helping, but rather to critically ascertain the best ways to do it. These themes also underline this chapter.


To identify the main biological characteristics of Riemerella anatipestiferin the Pearl River Delta region,a total number of 87 Riemerella Anatipestifer strains isolated from the Pearl River Delta region were tested for biochemical test,slide agglutination test,drug susceptibility test,pathogenicity and 16 S rRNA gene sequencing,comparing the relationship of biological characteristics and homology among them.The results showed the biochemical characteristics of all isolates were basically the same;the typical strains had a strong pathogenicity to ducklings as well as a strong drug resistance.They were very sensitive to cephalosporin(cefotaxime,ceftriaxone,cefepime,cefazolin)and generally resistant to commonly used antibiotics(penicillin,ampicillin,chloramphenicol,streptomycin,kanamycin).The predominant serotype was serotype 2,accounting for 65.5%,then the serotype 1,accounting for 14.9%,in addition,16 strains were undefined,accounting for 18.4%.16 S rRNA gene of 19 strains of typical strains dectected had a high homology,it suggested that 16 S rRNA gene didn't have direct relation with the serotype and pathogenicity of the strains.


This paper gives ergodic retraction theorem for almost asymptotically isometric orbits of asymptotically nonexpansive type semigroups in a real reflexive Banach space with a Frechet differentiable norm.Let C be a bounded closed convex subset of a real reflexive Banach space X with a Frechet differentiable norm and G be a right reversible topological semigroup.S is an asymptotically nonexpansive type semigroup which is of type(Γ) acting on C.If D has an invariant mean,there will exist a nonexpansive retraction P.


Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) causes severe dyspnea during physical exercises. In order to detect a reduction in the intensity of physical activities of COPD subjects, we monitored their physical activity during intensive physical exercises as well as during normal daily activities. A field experiment was performed on 13 COPD patients over periods of 8 hours. Our classifier detects static postures (standing, sitting, lying) with sensitivities 77-94 % and specificities 86-91 %.


AIMS
The aim of our study was to investigate possible associations between three SNPs: rs4673 in the CYBA gene; rs1041740 in the SOD1 gene; and rs1001179 in the CAT gene, and type 1 diabetes (T1D) or diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) in T1D patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Allelic variants of the selected SNPs were determined by allelic discrimination assays in 114 T1D patients enrolled in the study group and in 90 healthy individuals from a control group. Associations between each of the three SNPs were tested in subgroups of T1D patients divided according to the presence of DPN.

RESULTS
The TT genotype of rs4673 in the CYBA gene was associated with DPN in T1D patients (OR 4.997, 95% CI 1.403-19.083, p = 0.016). Weak significance was observed for a protective effect of the TT genotype of rs1041740 in the SOD1 gene relative to T1D development (OR 0.318, 95% CI 0.092-0.959, p = 0.056). There was no significant association between the CAT gene SNP rs1001179 and T1D or DPN.

CONCLUSION
We showed a strong association of the CYBA polymorphism rs4673 with DPN in Slovak children and adolescents with T1D. Further studies are necessary to assess the relationship between rs1041740 and T1D or DPN.


The characteristics of the flow through the small turbine components were analyzed in detail based on the mission and operating conditions.It was shown that the effect of boundary layer and secondary flow,including passage vortex,trailing vortex and tip clearance flow,etc,was remarkable.This was determined by the small-scale and high rotating-speed as the basic features of small turbine.By investigating the aerodynamic design ideas and concrete methods of small turbine component,a new turbine for a small turbofan engine with the thrust of 1000daN was designed.The results of 3-D viscous numerical simulation show that,the turbine meets the design requirements with high efficiency.


We consider the problem of optimizing the discriminator in generative adversarial networks (GANs) subject to higher-order gradient regularization. We show analytically, via the least-squares (LSGAN) and Wasserstein (WGAN) GAN variants, that the discriminator optimization problem is one of high-dimensional interpolation. The optimal discriminator, derived using variational calculus, turns out to be the solution to a partial differential equation involving the iterated Laplacian or the polyharmonic operator. The solution is implementable in closed-form via polyharmonic radial basis function (RBF) interpolation. In view of the polyharmonic connection, we refer to the corresponding GANs as Poly-LSGAN and Poly-WGAN. As a proof of concept, the analysis is supported by experimental validation on multivariate Gaussians. While the closed-form RBF does not scale favorably with the dimensionality of data for image-space generation, we employ the Poly-WGAN discriminator to transform the latent space distribution of the data to match a Gaussian in a Wasserstein autoencoder (WAE). The closed-form discriminator, motivated by the polyharmonic RBF, results in up to 20% improvement in terms of Fréchet and kernel inception distances over comparable baselines that employ trainable or kernel-based discriminators. The experiments are carried out on standard image datasets such as MNIST, CIFAR-10, CelebA, and LSUNChurches. The training time in Poly-WGAN is comparable to those of kernel-based methods, while being about two orders faster than GANs with a trainable discriminator.


In this article we consider an extraordinary monochromatic wave incident on an interface formed by two uniaxial crystals. We show a detailed analysis of the variation of the inhibited reflection and total reflection angles in terms of the refraction indices and the directions of the optical axes.


IS THERE A MORE POPULAR pair of terms in social science these days than "memory" and "history"? Probably not; they appear endlessly in the titles of books and articles written in fields such as history, sociology, anthropology, literary criticism, and among specialists in culture. History presumably refers to what is undeniably known about the past, whereas "collective memory" and "personal memory" emphasizes how the past is shaped or constructed in different ways by groups and individuals. This view undoubtedly appeals to our lingering post-modern sensibility: it leads us to see that there is no single truth, but rather varied interpretations that ultimately spring from power and interest. It represents the final triumph of the "inverted commas."


Aim: The study assessed the effect of oral exposure of toluene on male reproductive parameters.
Methodology: Twenty rats (190±10g bwt) were randomly assigned to four groups (n=5). Group A (Control) was treated with olive oil (0.5ml), Group B received 31.8mg/kg, Group C received 63.6mg/kg and Group D received 127.2mg/kg. All administrations were by oral gavage for 21 days. Thereafter, the rats were anaesthetized and samples were taken as follows: Blood was used for testosterone assay, caudal epididymides was taken to analyze for sperm count and sperm cell characteristics while testes was weighed and prepared for histomorphology.
Results: No significant difference in the relative testicular weights, epididymal sperm count, sperm viability, motility and morphology relative to control. Marked reduction (p = 0.001; group C & p = 0.018; group D) in testosterone level occurred in Groups C and D rats treated with 63.6mg/kg and 127.2mg/kg doses of toluene respectively. No anomaly in histoarchitecture of the testes in all the treated rats in comparison with control.
Conclusion: Exposure to toluene by oral route may be noxious to male reproductive functions due to the reduction in testosterone level at higher doses.


In order to prevent from indepth steam channeling during steam simulation,the performances of the composite system,composed of thermal thixotropic polymer and clay,in the viscosity-temperature,rheological behavior,thermal thixotropic temperature(TTT)and gel strength,were studied by rotational viscometer,rheometer,inverting test tube and breakthrough vacuum method,respectively.It is demonstrated that the gel was formed when temperature was up to the TTT(75℃).The TTT of the composite system(1%~3% polymer+0~4% clay) was about 75~88℃,and the gel strength was 0.01~0.03MPa.With the increase of the content of the polymer or the clay,the TTT decreased,while the viscosity of the composite system and the gel strength increased.The composite system had high shearing resistance,which reflected on the unchanged viscosity with changing shearing rate before forming gel,and viscosity increased first and then decreased with increasing shearing rate after forming gel.Composite system can be applied to shut off channeling steam because of its resistance to high temperature up to 200℃ and not dehydration within 2 h.The results of the physical model test showed that the composite system could enter into the indepth formation because of it's good injection,and the plugging rate of the formed gel was over 95%.


In this article, through the analysis and exploration of modern chinese food culture and Taoist health preservation theories thus conclude the relation between Taoist health preservation theories and modern chinese food culture. To summarize chinese food culture from dietary concept, dietary content and cooking methods perspectives, to explain Taoist health preservation theories from basic concept, philosophical foundation,basic theories perspectives, to make comparison of two aspects. The conclusion is that the Taoist health preservation theories reflected in chinese food culture are mainly manifested in the maintenance of "xing" and "qi".


Land use/cover change as part of the global environment change has been the focus of considera- ble attention for a long time,and landscape ecological analysis is one of the most important research meth- ods. In this paper,based on fractal theory,GIS and remote sensing imagines,the changes of landscape pat- tern of Chongqing City was analyzed in detail by using related indexes of landscape ecology. Taking land- scape pattern fractal model and Landsat TM/ETM images in 1995 and 2000 as the basic data, the spatial- temporal database of land use in Chongqing City was established; and using fractal model of landscape pat- tern,fractal dimension and stability index of landscape pattern, landscape diversity index, landscape apart- ness index,landscape fragmentation index, landscape evenness index and landscape dominance index were obtained. The results showed that during the research period, the fractal dimensions of paddy fields, dry land and wet areas increased obviously, whereas for forest land, shrubbery land and grass land, the fractal dimensions decreased. For all types of land,the values of landscape diversity index and landscape apartness index have increased but landscape dominance index value has rather decreased. Meanwhile it was found that the relation between fractal dimension and landscape fragmentation index showed significant positive correlation. Finally,some advices for the sustainable development of landscape pattern in Chongqing City were put forward.


Resume This paper presents an analysis of the strength of a prototype test rig for testing rotors of unmanned aerial vehicles. Digital design software was used for the design work that covered the creation of a virtual model of the test rig and strength analysis of its key elements. The paper discusses the test rig solutions, applied to date, of the small main rotor research. From the assumed operational parameters and structural parameters of the rotor, the main forces acting on the designed structure were determined: lifting force, reaction torque and empty mass of the test rig. Suitable actuators of the control system enabling the regulation of the total pitch and periodic pitch of the rotor, within the full range of the angle of attack, were selected for the rotor under test. The FEM (Finite Element Method) strength analysis was carried out for the proposed support structure and the correctness of the design was verified. Article info Received 7 May 2021 Accepted 16 December 2021 Online 22 February 2022


Recent R& D advances on megawatt power, high-frequency nanocrystalline transformer [1] and high-voltage, high-frequency SiC based semiconductor devices [2] present possibility of a shift in the design of high-power inverters from a one based on complicated structure with line-frequency switching to the one based on simple topology and operates at 10 - 20 kHz frequency. In line with these ongoing advancements, in this paper, a summary of performance for a multiphase high-frequency-link (HFL) high-power inverter using a new innovation (here after referred to as ldquohybrid modulationrdquo [3] - [5]) have been outlined in the presence of hard-switched and soft-switched front-end. Unlike conventional constant-dc-link inverters, the hybrid-modulation-based inverter applies a high-frequency pulsating dc link voltage to the output ac/ac stage, whose structure is identical to a three-phase voltage source inverter (VSI). The former has comparable bus voltage utilization and total harmonic distortion (THD) performance as the conventional constant dc-link VSI but possesses other additional advantages such as: 1) elimination of dc filter; 2) reduced switching and conduction losses of high-voltage switches; and 3) reduced RMS current and di/dt stress of high-voltage devices. Finally, straightforward topological scalability using the hybrid modulation based converters is also demonstrated.


In this paper, the foliage penetration measurement data is provided by Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). When radar echoes are in good quality, the detection of target can be achieved by applying our differential based technology on received single UWB radar waveform. We compared our approach in case of no target as well as with target against the scheme in which 2-D image was created via adding voltages with the appropriate time offset. Results show that our approach can work much better. When radar echoes are in poor condition and single radar is unable to carry out the detection, we employ both radar sensor networks (RSN) and RAKE structure to combine the echoes from different radar members and successfully detect the target.


The former Soviet Union, within its post-war boundaries and through its potent influence over nations around its borders, held together a commonwealth which contained all of the subjugated kingdoms of the old Russian Empire and most of the remnants of the Austro-Hungarian dominion.' The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe was, at least in part, precipitated by the reassertion of nationalism in some of these former republics and satellite countries and the creation of new forms of nationalism in others. Within a context of considerable conflict, without Moscow's enforced leviathan, nationalist sentiment in and around the former Soviet Union has been given free rein, with both geographical and ethnically based claims to sovereignty leading to a proliferation of 'new' nations and yet another redrawing of the map in eastern Europe. In this article we argue that, rather than being a passive follower of political trends, association football played an important, proactive role in the reformation of the former Soviet Union and the redrawing of eastern Europe's boundaries.


The new Conceptual model of IT service provider is proposed. It could be examined as IT focused Enterprise model, part of Enterprise Architecture (EA) school [5]. According to this school, the purpose of EA is business-IT alignment. The main purpose of EA is to guide the process of IT capabilities planning and design to meet the required organizational objectives. The new IT Model clarify where the business demand is placed, how the service is designed, why the cost is spent and how it communicates with the external world. We find it necessary because the most of methodologies rely on implicit description of the reality which leads to ambiguous interpretation, misunderstandings in business process conceptions and planning. This increases exponentially the risk of project failure and loss of substantial amounts and business positions [8]. The existence of a model is an important step for understanding the business perspective. One interesting application of the first modeling is described in [9]. The paper describes the realization of Conceptual IT Service Provider Model in XML format.


Public procurement constitutes a significant share of public expenditure and as such it is a politically significant instrument that can be used to promote ideas that governing actors find important. Latvia introduced mandatory Green Public Procurement(GPP) in 2014. This was generally seen as a response to foreign policy developments – a means to strengthen local farmers and food industry. However, early on the practices that municipalities used while implementing GPP demonstrated that there are differences in ways how regulations were seen; in ways how municipalities were solving practicalities related to the procurement process; and in communication with actors involved related to school food. Recognizing these differences the paper asks two questions: first, what are the policy making and policy implementation points where the original ideas can be reshaped; second, what consequences these modifications may cause in quality of greenness, for the range of agents who may participate, in the selection process and in other aspects related to GPP. The paper concludes that the openness of GPP offers possibilities for people to push through practices they might benefit from. However, municipalities' and schools' willingness to participate in GPP planning, execution and monitoring can promote pupils access to high quality meals.


Using data from the Failed State Task Force data set, this paper argues entering onto positive growth paths for income and infrastructure per capita depend upon a nation's political stability and its geography. A nation's achieving sustained long-run growth in both variables is essential to its capacity to converge towards countries with high levels of income per capita because high levels of per capita infrastructure are strongly correlated with high levels of income per capita. New nation states seem to face heavy burdens to avoiding negative feedback traps, partly because their youthfulness is associated with political stability; partly because their propinquity to other politically unstable neighbors hampers their capacity to grow through trade and their ability to avert domestic conflict; partly because they tend to be located in the tropics where the incidence of malaria is high.


The article is devoted to the problem of providing medical care to patients with cardiovascular pathology. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there were significant changes in the system of medical care due to the heavy burden on medical organizations. The results of the study indicate the successful return of the activities of medical organizations providing medical care to patients with cardiovascular pathology to the pre-pandemic parameters.


The involvement of citizens in supporting crisis situations is no longer a new phenomenon. In the past, the lack of data was one of the main barriers faced by public managers in the decision-making process. Today the situation has been reversed, such that the challenge faced is managing an excessive mass of data, which is totally dynamic and originating from different sources such as remote environmental sensors, social networks, response teams in the field. During an emergency response, the concern is no longer being able to collect data for a better understanding of the affected environment, but in knowing how to organise, aggregate and separate what is actually useful for crisis managers. This research proposes a collaborative information architecture that considers aspects from environmental complexity in the context of emergency scenarios, in order to support response teams with decision making, through gathering and integrating information that has originated from different media resources and, hence, enriching a decision team's 'current contextual knowledge' base.


The benefits of CS injection are clear and include easing pain and improving mobility, allowing a patient to potentially better tolerate or combat viral infection. However, a significant patient cohort will experience worsening of symptoms. In light of this and the current context of a global pandemic, this begs the question of whether it is worth continuing with CS injections at all. While steroids are known to reduce inflammation by inhibiting cytokines, they can potentially inhibit the body's ability to mount an immune response to illness by decreasing viral clearance and prolonging viremia.[1] The true immunological impact of CS injection in a patient with COVID-19 is currently unknown. There is a theoretical danger that asymptomatic patients harboring the virus could become unwell following CS injection. This risk is clearly more profound in at-risk groups, including the elderly and those with multiple comorbidities. However, these groups, unfortunately, make up the vast majority of patients that radiologists and clinicians see and perform CS injections on. There is also a risk of patients passing on the infection to patients, hospital staff, and person performing the procedure itself.


Segmenting neonatal brain images is challenging due to reduced MR signal-intensity contrast between tissues of interest compared to older subjects. In this paper we discuss a new strategy that we are currently employing in our neonatal brain studies and present the segmentation problem within a Bayesian framework. We show results validating this method and a previously published method from our group against a group of manually drawn segmentations. We achieve good to excellent results, on particularly challenging data, with greater speed and ease of use


Mindfulness-based interventions are feasible for individuals with substance-use disorders, and their effects are at least comparable to other interventions. To use these interventions wisely clinicians need to know why they are using mindfulness and how to integrate mindfulness with other approaches. The authors suggest that mindfulness-training provides experiential practice in functional attention and emotion regulation. Both skills are helpful in managing reactivity and impulsivity, in making better decisions, and in increasing self-care and enhancing mentalizing abilities. The authors provide examples of how to use mindfulness when facing triggers and cravings. Although defined as paying purposeful, non-judgemental attention to present experience, mindfulness is compatible with therapeutic use of distraction and visualization. The authors recommend mindfulness as part of the therapeutic «tool kit» in the treatment of substance-use disorders. Keywords: distraction, mindfulness, substance-dependence, treatment


A direct texture synthesis method on arbitrary surfaces is proposed in this paper. The idea is to recursively map triangles on surface to texture space until the surface is completely mapped. First, the surface is simplified and a tangential vector field is created over the simplified mesh. Then, mapping process searches for the most optimal texture coordinates in texture sample for each triangle, and the textures of neighboring triangles are blended on the mesh. All synthesized texture triangles are compressed to an atlas. Finally, the simplified mesh is subdivided to approach the initial surface. The algorithm has several advantages over former methods:it synthesizes texture on surface without local parameterization; it does not need partitioning surface to patches;and it does not need a particular texture sample. The results demonstrate that the new algorithm is applicable to a wide variety of texture samples and any triangulated surfaces.


The relationships between fiber parameters and spatial capacity of uncoupled multicore fiber are investigated theoretically. Preferable fiber design and characteristics enabling high spatial capacity transmission is proposed.


This work has as its objective the evaluation of the effect of incorporation of petroleum coke in the physical and mechanical properties of red ceramic. Compositions were prepared with 0%, 1%, 2% and 4 wt.% of petroleum coke incorporated into a kaolinitic clayey body. Rectangular specimens were formed by extrusion to fire at 850 oC and 1050 oC. The determined physical and mechanical properties were flexural rupture strength and water absorption. The microstructure of the fired ceramics was evaluated by optical microscopy. The results show that the petroleum coke waste can significantly contribute to reduce the energy consumption during the firing stage. However, incorporations must be done in amounts around 1 wt.% to avoid deleterious effect on the water absorption of the ceramic.


We describe an algorithm for rapidly computing the surface displacements induced by a general polygonal load on a layered, isotropic, elastic half-space. The arbitrary surface pressure field is discretized using a large number, n, of equally-sized circular loading elements. The problem is to compute the displacement at a large number, m, of points (or stations) distributed over the surface. The essence of our technique is to reorganize all but a computationally insignificant part of this calculation into an equivalent problem: compute the displacements due to a single circular loading element at a total of m n stations (where m n is the product m × n). We solve this "parallel" problem at high computational speed by utilizing the sparse evaluation and massive interpolation (SEMI) method. Because the product m n that arises in our parallel problem is normally very large, we take maximum possible advantage of the acceleration achieved by the SEMI algorithm.


OBJECT
Chronic subdural hematoma is common in elderly individuals and surgical procedures are simple. The recurrence rate of chronic subdural hematoma, however, varies from 9.2 to 26.5% after surgery. The authors studied factors of the recurrence using univariate and multivariate analyses in patients with chronic subdural hematoma

METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed 239 consecutive cases of chronic subdural hematoma who received burr-hole surgery with irrigation and closed-system drainage. We analyzed the relationships between recurrence of chronic subdural hematoma and factors such as sex, age, laterality, bleeding tendency, other complicated diseases, density on CT, volume of the hematoma, residual air in the hematoma cavity, use of artificial cerebrospinal fluid.

RESULTS
Twenty-one patients (8.8%) experienced a recurrence of chronic subdural hematoma. Multiple logistic regression found that the recurrence rate was higher in patients with a large volume of the residual air, and was lower in patients using artificial cerebrospinal fluid. No statistical differences were found in bleeding tendency.

CONCLUSION
Techniques to reduce the air in the hematoma cavity are important for good outcome in surgery of chronic subdural hematoma. Also, the use of artificial cerebrospinal fluid reduces recurrence of chronic subdural hematoma. The surgical procedures can be the same for patients with bleeding tendencies.


Method of reconstruction and model simplification are two key optimization technologies for three dimensional model, there are several problems in these methods, such as, low time consume, bad interface and accuracy problem. Firstly, existing methods and implementation toolkits related with our research are introduced. Secondly, a modified reconstruction algorithm based on Voronoi diagram is proposed. Thirdly, a new algorithm of semi-automatic mesh simplification is presented with the aim of simplifying error correction and achieving higher efficiency. Finally, two tests are implemented to prove that our new methods can improve the efficiency of reconstruction and has a good visualization performance. Keywords—Three Dimensional Model; Optimization Technology; Reconstruction; Mesh simplification


In our study, an inventory was carried out of plants used in managing sexual diseases by Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni tribal people in Rivers State, Nigeria. Ten (10) communities (Kreigani, Odugili, Oboh, Agah, Obakata, Obirikom, Ndoni, Agwe, Egbema and Omoku) were randomly selected within the ethnic clan for the study. Structured pre-tested questionnaires were then administered among Traditional Medicine Practitioners (TMPs), Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs), herb vendors and knowledgeable individuals. In all, 111 randomly selected informants were interviewed. The collected data was analysed using descriptive statistics and utilization tables. Accordingly, males constituted 50.5% and females 49.5% of the studied population, and a majority of the respondent were subsistent farmers (50.5%), petty traders (22.5%), TBAs (10.8%), TMPs (9.9%) and herb vendors (0.9%). Prevalent health conditions were categorized into twelve areas (miscarriage, menstrual disorder, hernia and weak erection, among others). As a result of the work, taxonomic diversity showed 119 medicinal plants species, belonging to 47 families and 71 genera. Most cited plant families were Malvaceae (7 species) and Fabaceae (6 species). The plant parts that were mostly used were the leaves (52.28 %), roots (37.54 %) and barks (3.86%). This study shows that rural inhabitants still rely on traditional medicine for health care needs, and that many of the medicinal plants should undergo research for future drug development and conservation.


Limited knowledge and devastating perceptions about mental illness remain a concern in various countries of the world, especially in developing countries. This lack of knowledge has been found in studies as a key cause of weird beliefs people have about mental illnesses (particularly schizophrenia). Generally, schizophrenics are widely misunderstood and stigmatized in Kenya. They are made fun of, blamed and criticized for their sickness. There is a dearth of information in the Kenyan context. This study sought to find out the cultural attributes associated with deviant language among trilingual schizophrenics in Nakuru Level Five Hospital. The study adopted a phenomenological qualitative design underpinned by the Multilingual Production Model. The main instrument of data collection was questionnaire and group focus discussion.Data were drawn from six health personnel and six relatives of the schizophrenics obtained through purposive sampling. The data were analyzed descriptively. The transcribed data were evaluated for social attributes linked to schizophrenia. The study's findings indicate that superstitions; family living condition; stressful life events and divine are some of the cultural and belief systems associated with the trigger of schizophrenia for those predisposed to the condition. This study will enlighten linguists, psychologists, relatives and kin of the patients and teachers in all institutions of learning. Keywords— Belief systems, social world, spirits, superstitions, local expectations, symbols.


Abstract In this study, micro machinability of Mg5Sn4Zn (TZ54) alloy produced by a hot-pressing process (one of the powder metallurgy methods) is investigated. For this purpose, micro-milling experiments were carried out, considering different cutting parameters. In order to determine the appropriate cutting parameters, the variation of cutting forces, surface quality and burr width were investigated. The cutting forces obtained in micro-milling of the TZ54 alloy are relatively small compared to other biomedical materials. In terms of both cutting forces and surface roughness, the minimum chip thickness is between 7% and 34% of the tool edge radius. However, compared to alloys such as Ti6Al4V and 316 L, the burr width is about 80% smaller. An important contribution of the study is that the minimum chip thickness (0.1 μm) has been confirmed in terms of both cutting force and surface roughness. In addition, even at high material removal rates, the minimum cutting forces are important findings of the study. The predominant wear mechanism in the cutting tool is abrasive wear. In view of tool life, surface roughness and burr formation, it is envisaged that the TZ54 alloy can be an easy machinable, alternative biomedical material.


In a prospective study of patients without evidence of infection, which were cesarean, postoperative infectious morbidity was assessed. In a group ampicillin he was given 8.8 days, in a second group ampicillin was used in the perioperative and a third group received no antibiotic. Postoperative infectious complications (endometritis, wound infection, urinary tract infection, pelviperitonitis) were significantly less frequent in patients in whom preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis was used in the other 2 groups. Ampicillin resistance of germs grow observed was achieved. Therefore, in our hospital we would recommend the preoperative use of ampicillin or not use any prophylactic antibiotic in cesareada woman, because of side effects and disadvantages and dangers of indiscriminate use of ampicillin.


The Accounting Bodies Network established by A4S, HRH Prince of Wales Accounting for Sustainability Project, have designed a survey to gain a sense of where sustainability is integrated within the education of the professional accountant.


e336 © Europa Digital & Publishing 2019. All rights reserved. *Corresponding author: Division of Heart and Lungs, Department of Cardiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Heidelberglaan 100, Room E.04-511, Post office box 85500, 3508 GA Utrecht, the Netherlands. E-mail: email@example.com Active tracked intramyocardial catheter injections for regenerative therapy with real-time MR guidance: feasibility in the porcine heart


High-resolution 13C n.m.r. spectra were measured for platinum, palladium, and nickel dithioacetato complexes with various structures and oxidation states in the solid state. The [Pt2(S2CMe)4] complex showed one methyl signal, while [Ni2(S2CMe)4] and [Pd2(S2CMe)4] showed two and three methyl signals, respectively. These results are well explained in terms of the single-crystal X-ray structures of these complexes. Compared with the spectrum of [Pt2(S2CMe)4], the quaternary carbon signal of [Pt2(S2CMe)4I2] is shifted to lower-field, while the methyl signal appears at a similar position, indicating the greater effectiveness of Pt3+ over Pt2+ in removing electron density from the surrounding quaternary carbon atoms. The one-dimensional [M2(S2CMe)4I](M = Ni or Pt) complexes showed two broad methyl signals owing to the slight magnetism.


A structure with rocking mechanism is able to prolong the period of vibration and reduce seismic internal force. Recent research demonstrated the effectiveness of a tendon made of superelastic material wire connected in series with steel wire in controlling the amount of rotation and providing a source of hysteretic energy dissipation, thereby lowering the risk of overturning to a rigid structure undergoing whole‐body rotation. This article proposed to extend the use of superelastic tendon restraint on a (flexible) shear frame to strike a balance between the need to reduce the seismic force demand and the need to exercise control of the overturning risk. Initially, an analytical model for the rocking response of shear frame with the superelastic tendon restraint was developed. In addition, a physical model of the shear frame with tendon restraint was fabricated and tested under base excitations. Analysis results showed to match with experiment on both strain gauge and rotation sensor readings in the dynamic testing. Simulations and tests were also applied to an unrestrained shear frame for comparison. It was also found that the total deflection of the shear frame during the rocking phase could be described as horizontal vibration about a non‐constant balancing deflection. The analytical models developed for flexible rocking systems were extended in the current study to deal with superelastic tendon restrained rocking shear frames. The validity and versatility were confirmed by shaker table test results.


BACKGROUND
Low-dose aspirin is used to prevent thromboembolic complications in dogs, but some animals are nonresponsive to the antiplatelet effects of aspirin ("aspirin resistance").

HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES
That low-dose aspirin would inhibit platelet function, decrease thromboxane synthesis, and alter platelet cyclooxygenase (COX) expression.

ANIMALS
Twenty-four healthy dogs.

METHODS
A repeated measures study. Platelet function (PFA-100 closure time, collagen/epinephrine), platelet COX-1 and COX-2 expression, and urine 11-dehydro-thromboxane B(2) (11-dTXB(2)) were evaluated before and during aspirin administration (1 mg/kg Q24 hours PO, 10 days). Based on prolongation of closure times after aspirin administration, dogs were divided into categories according to aspirin responsiveness: responders, nonresponders, and inconsistent responders.

RESULTS
Low-dose aspirin increased closure times significantly (62% by Day 10, P < .001), with an equal distribution among aspirin responsiveness categories, 8 dogs per group. Platelet COX-1 mean fluorescent intensity (MFI) increased significantly during treatment, 13% on Day 3 (range, -29.7-136.1%) (P = .047) and 72% on Day 10 (range, -0.37-210%) (P < .001). Platelet COX-2 MFI increased significantly by 34% (range, -29.2-270%) on Day 3 (P = .003) and 74% (range, -19.7-226%) on Day 10 (P < .001). Urinary 11-dTXB(2) concentrations significantly (P = .005, P < .001) decreased at both time points. There was no difference between aspirin responsiveness and either platelet COX expression or thromboxane production.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE
Low-dose aspirin consistently inhibits platelet function in approximately one-third of healthy dogs, despite decreased thromboxane synthesis and increased platelet COX expression in most dogs. COX isoform expression before treatment did not predict aspirin resistance.


AbstractMicroirrigation has become quite a common practice in agricultural production in various parts of the world. To achieve the optimum (hydraulic and economic) system performance, designers are often faced with the problem of designing a maximum lateral length which results in a desired coefficient of uniformity (CU) or an allowable pressure head variation (δH). Previous theoretical design approaches are usually based on a constant Darcy–Weisbach (DW) friction factor along the lateral and this assumption can lead to substantial errors. In the research reported in this paper, a new analytical design approach does not require the constant DW assumption for zero-slope laterals while it still takes into account the emitter exponent and the effect of minor friction losses caused by emitters. Assuming a constant friction factor along the lateral might result in errors up to 14% in the calculation of the maximum lateral length. Conversely, the maximum relative error caused by the application of the proposed...


Sesame is affected by many diseases caused by viruses, bacteria and fungi. Among the fungal diseases, the charcoal rot caused by Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi.) Goid is the most serious one. In the recent years, this disease causes significant losses in sesame growing areas of Krishnagiri and Cuddalore Districts and also poses great problems at such magnitude that the farmers are inclined to think about the cultivation of other crops in place of sesame. Hence, the present study was taken up to assess the damage caused by root rot disease in Krishnagiri and Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu, India and also studied the variability in the cultural characteristics and pathogenicity among the isolates of M. phaseolina. The studies were initiated with survey on the dry root rot incidenceof different locations of Krishnagiri and Cuddalore district revealed endemic nature of the root rot disease incidence. Among the different locations of Krishnagiri and Cuddalore district surveyed for sesame root rot incidence, Eggoor (MP6) village registered the maximum incidence of the disease (36.25%), followed by Maganoorpatti (MP2) village with 32.57%, Pudhuchathiram (31.45%) while the minimum root rot incidence of 17.20 percent was recorded in Harur village. In general, the crop grown under rainfed conditions showed more root rot incidence when compared with the crops grown under irrigated conditions. In respect of soil type, sandy soil had more root rot incidence than clay and clay loam soil. The isolates collected from different locations showed varied levels of pathogenicity. All the fifteen isolates of the root rot pathogen M. phaseolina showed variations with regard to mycelia growth, sclerotial size and production and also well attributed to the difference in virulence of the isolates of M. phaseolina prevalent in the respective areas.


Control of polarization of light with light is demonstrated in thin slabs of linear material promising ultrafast all-optical data processing at arbitrarily low intensities. In proof-of-principle experiments we access any polarization azimuth and any ellipticity.


Coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19], caused by infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 [SARS-CoV-2], is rapidly spreading as a global pandemic. Because the severe pneumonia induced by COVID-19 has a high fatality rate, there is an urgent need to develop efficacious treatments. It is suggested that severe COVID-19 is induced via cytokine storms, and some cytokine blockers may prevent COVID-19-driven pneumonia.1 Tursi et al. reported a Crohn's disease patient who developed only mild COVID-19-driven pneumonia under treatment with adalimumab.2 Here, we report a similar development in an older, more intensively immunosuppressed patient, who was infected with SARS-CoV-2 but did not develop pneumonia despite anti-tumour necrosis factor alpha [TNF-α] antibody treatment. A man in his late 60s embarked on a cruise ship with his wife and mother-in-law. He had been treated with infliximab [5 mg/ kg/8-weekly] together with azathioprine and high-dose oral mesalazine for refractory ulcerative colitis. He had been well for several years and received his latest infusion of infliximab 4 days before boarding. On the cruise ship, he developed cough and high fever, and polymerase chain reaction [PCR] analysis confirmed SARS-CoV-2 positivity. He was soon transported to our hospital for suspected COVID-19-driven pneumonia, but no findings of pneumonia were observed on chest computed tomography [CT]. His symptoms resolved within a few days without special treatment. His wife and mother-in-law, who were sharing the same cabin space, also became infected with SARS-CoV-2. His mother-in-law, who was in her late 80s and was taking angina pectoris treatment and methotrexate for rheumatoid arthritis, did not develop pneumonia. However, his wife, who was the youngest family member and was undergoing angina pectoris treatment but was not receiving immunosuppressive medication, developed COVID-19-driven pneumonia. It would seem that patients with inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] could be at high risk of COVID-19, because the inflamed gut represents an optimal route of entry for SARS-CoV-2, based on its enhanced expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 [ACE2], the binding receptor for SARS-CoV-2.3 However, despite many patients receiving immunosuppressive therapies, there is no evidence that IBD patients have an increased risk of COVID-19 or of developing severe disease.4 Interleukin [IL]-2R, IL-6, and TNFα are highly expressed in severe COVID-19 patients, and Feldmann et al. proposed the need for clinical trials of anti-TNFα therapy for COVID-19.5 Notably, there have been recent reports of paediatric patients who developed Kawasaki disease following COVID-19, and infliximab among biologics has a therapeutic effect on Kawasaki disease. Tursi et al. and Allocca et al. also suggested the potential preventative effect of anti-TNFα antibodies on COVID-19-driven pneumonia. Taken together with our elderly cases, we speculate that anti-TNFα antibodies may inhibit COVID-19-driven pneumonia, although this hypothesis must be confirmed by large epidemiological studies and the currently ongoing clinical trials.


Nuclear safety is the lifeline of nuclear power development, the premise and foundation of nuclear power development. The safety of cooling water source is an important part of nuclear safety. The safety of cooling water source of nuclear power plant is related to nuclear safety, and it is the final heat sink of nuclear power plant, which undertakes the safety function of reactor residual heat export. Littoral nuclear power plants take seawater as the cooling water source. When the solid suspended solids, floating objects and marine organisms in the seawater exceed the filtering and cleaning capacity of the cooling water filtering equipment, the water intake or filtering equipment will be blocked and unable to provide the required cooling water, which will cause the cooling water source safety event. In view of these problems, this paper proposes to optimize the cooling water source security defence system in depth, improve the cooling water source risk monitoring and early warning system, establish the cooling water source overall status monitoring platform, and improve the emergency response and unit control capacity of the power plant.


AbstractThis research introduces a new effective approach, including a weak vertical wall (WVW) and a strong inclined wall (SIW) under a shallow foundation, to reduce the rotations caused by a faul...


Objective:To observe the effects of Diane-35 and metformin on the endocrine function of patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome(PCOS) combined with insulin resistance,evaluate their curative values for PCOS.Methods:Seventy-two patients with insulin resistance and ovulation barrier were selected and divided into group A,group B,and group C randomly.The patients in group A were treated with metformin,the patients in group B were treated with Diane-35,and the patients in group C were treated with Diane-35 combined with metformin.Transvaginal ultrasonography and hormones detection were conducted before treatment and on the third day of menstrual cycle after treatment;the changes of indexes,including ovarian volume,body mass index(BMI),follicle stimulating hormone(FSH),luteinizing hormone(LH),testosterone(T),fasting blood glucose(FBG),and fasting insulin(FINS),were observed before and after treatment;the differences of recovery of menstruation,the ovulation rate,and the pregnancy rate were compared among the three groups.Results:After treatment,ovarian volumes,BMI,levels of LH,T,FINS,FBG,and insulin resistance indexes in the three groups increased to varying degrees,but FSH levels didn't change significantly.After treatment,the improvements of various indexes in group C were superior to those in group A and group B,there was significant difference(P0.05).The degree of menstrual recovery,ovulation rate,and pregnancy rate in group C after treatment were significantly higher than those in group A and group B(P0.05).Conclusion:Diane-35 or metformin used alone can improve the endocrine disorder and metabolic disorder of the patients with PCOS to varying degrees,promote the recovery of normal menstruation,and induce ovulation.But there are a certain limitations,combined Diane-35 and metformin can reduce the levels of LH,T,and insulin,correct metabolic disorder,improve the efficacy of insulin resistance,increase ovulation rate and pregnancy rate more efficiently,which is an ideal therapy for PCOS.


A new cross heterogeneous domain authentication model based primarily on PKI is proposed.Detailed authentication processes are designed when users access resources across heterogeneous domains in different domains. Cross-domain authentication between PKI and Kerberos domains can be accomplished,and mutual authentication is supported.Analysis was conducted on the protocol model.Theoretical analysis shows that the proposed scheme has good compatibility,expansibility,reliability,parallelism,and security.Thus,this model is suitable for PKI-based large-scale network environments for achieving crossdomain authentication between PKI and Kerberos domains.


Bubble columns are widely used in the chemical and biochemical process industry. In order to develop design tools for engineering purposes, a large amount of research has been carried out in the area of CFD of gas-liquid flows. Amongst others, Becker et al. (Chem. Eng. Sci., vol. 49, p. 5747-5762, 1994) found that the gas-liquid flow in bubble columns shows pseudo-periodic behaviour. Sokolichin and Eigenberger (Chem. Eng. Sci., vol. 54, p. 2273-2284, 1999) used the k-ε model and 3D transient simulations to simulate the gas-liquid flow in 2D flat and 3D cylindrical bubble columns. Using this method, they found a grid independent pseudo-periodic solution. In the present paper the commercial code CFX 4.3 is used to simulate the gas-liquid flow in 3D rectangular bubble columns. Both these codes are 3D transient, and based on the two-fluid model. The turbulence viscosity in the liquid phase is modelled by the k-ε model and an expression, which takes the bubble-induced turbulence into account. The results of the simulations are compared with PIV and LDA measurements. The simulations of the flow of a bubble plume in a flat bubble column correspond well with both the experiments and simulation results obtained by other researchers. Both the velocity and the velocity fluctuations are in quantitative agreement with experiments. The movement of a bubble plume in a 3D bubble column was also simulated. In contrary to the other case only little temporal behaviour was found. This disagrees with the strongly time dependent flow, which was observed experimentally. In the simulation the bubble plume moves into one corner and stays there for the rest of the simulation time. This resulted in asymmetric velocity profiles. The velocity profiles are better predicted higher up in the column.


Abstract The air pollution index (API) is commonly used for describing the air quality status. Values of API are evaluated by the maximum value of five pollutants: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone (O3), and suspended particulate matter (PM10) at a particular hour. Values that exceed the concentration of 100 are considered unhealthy. This study investigates the exceedance of API values and its dominants, using peaks-over-threshold method based on the generalized Pareto distribution (GPD), in three urban areas in Peninsular Malaysia for the period of January 2005 to December 2014. Dependency between unhealthy API and its main dominants has been evaluated by the Pickands dependence function. The GPD has been fit to all variables. The GPD fits well with all variables except O3 in Klang and Malacca. Results obtained showed that PM10 and O3 are the underlying pollutants of unhealthy API values in three highly polluted areas of Peninsular Malaysia. Results of study will help detect source...


Objective Through detection the urine cystatin C,α1-MG,NAG and β2-MG to evaluate the function of renal tubular in patients.Methods 222 subjects with kidney disease were selected as case group from January 2010 to December 2010,50 subjects of healthy people for the outpatient were selected as control group.Two groups were examined with urine cystatin C,α1-MG,NAG and β2-MG in the determination of content by ELISA,and results were compared and statistically analyzed.Results The levels of urine cystatin C,α1-MG,NAG and β2-MG in case group were significantly higher than those in control group,and the differences showed statistically significant(P0.001),the area under the curve of urine cystatin C was 0.756,95% confidence interval was 0.628~0.885,more sensitive(P0.001).Conclusion The content of urine cystatin C,α1-MG,NAG and β2-MG had an important clinical significance in the evaluation of renal tubular function in patients,and it could be regarded as an efficiency index of the early diagnosis,effect observation and justice prognosis in renal tubular injury.


The objective of this article is to provide the basic formulation of the affordance of environment. Study on affordance has been mostly focusing on the significance of perception, behavior and workspace, while leaving the problem of application unaddressed. Using the proposed method, it is possible to apply reinforcement learning algorithm on the robot within a certain environment, making the abstraction of affordance of the environment with interaction between the reinforcement learning agent and the environment available. Conclusion is made in the latter part of the paper that the percipient(robot) should simplify the number of perception in order to get enough valid equivalence relationship which abstracts affordance from environment with in the limit of incomplete perception; and the structure of the environment(workspace) would restrict the robot's behavior. The prospect of this study, therefore, focuses on the interactive processes between the robot and the workspace from which the robot could set up it's perception for particular tasks, and on how the robot could continuously manage it's perception.


Singers dressed in red on stage at a performance of Blue, Black, and Hot, part of the Dress Performance Theater Series.


We consider perturbed nonlinear ill-posed equations in Hilbert spaces, with operators that are monotone on a given closed convex subset. A simple stable approach is Lavrentiev regularization, but existence of solutions of the regularized equation on the given subset can be guaranteed only under additional assumptions that are not satisfied in some applications.
Lavrentiev regularization of the related variational inequality seems to be a reasonable alternative then. For the latter approach, in this paper we present new error estimates for suitable a priori parameter choices, if the considered operator is cocoercive and if in addition the solution admits an adjoint source representation. Some numerical experiments are included.


Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from thirteen asthmatic children, and from normal control subjects, were pre‐incubated with and without concanavalin A (con A), washed, and cultured with fresh allogenic PBMC from healthy donors. The con A pre‐treated cells from fifteen of seventeen normal controls clearly suppressed the blast transformation response to con A by normal allogeneic PBMC. However, con A‐generated suppressor activity was found in only seven of the asthmatic patients studied, most of whom could be classified as 'short‐term' asthmatics. It is thus possible that either dysfunction or a reduction of the (con A)‐inducible, T‐suppressor cell subpopulation in peripheral blood is frequent among 'long‐term' asthmatic patients. This may suggest that a different pathogenesis may be operating in early‐onset, long‐continued asthma, when compared with those investigated early in the course of asthma which has begun later in childhood.


to 1.02; 189 (adjusted PD: 4 eligible articles with a total of 2,971 patients for meta-analysis. data regarding distinction between omental roll-up and roll-up were pooled using random effects model to obtain the diagnostic ORs and their 95 % CIs. There were a total of 1,129 patients in omental roll-up group, 1,842 patients in non-omental group. Omental roll-up during PD could not prevent post-operative pancreatic fistula (OR = 0.81, 95 % CI: 0.40 to 1.63, p = 0.56). it also could not prevent post-operative intra-abdominal bleeding (OR = 0.67, 95 % CI: 0.28 to 1.59, p = 0.37). These researchers used the sensitivity analysis that found the pancreatic fistula was lower in the non-omental roll-up group than in the omental roll-up group (OR = 1.24, 95 % CI: 1.03 to 1.50, p = 0.02). The authors concluded that the use of omental roll-up could not decrease the risk of pancreatic fistula after PD. They stated that further RCTs are needed to identify the effect of omental roll-up technique for PD. of MIPD outcomes compared with open surgery. Studies published to May 2017 were searched in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science. Main outcomes were comprehensively reviewed and measured including conversion to open approach, operation time (OP), estimated blood loss (EBL), transfusion, length of hospital stay (LOS), overall complications, post-operative pancreatic fistula (POPF), delayed gastric emptying (DGE), post-pancreatectomy hemorrhage (PPH), re admission, re-operation and reasons of pre-operative death, number of retrieved lymph nodes (RLN), surgical margins, recurrence, and survival. outcomes, CIs. 11 studies involving 1,462 subjects in the review. Application of fibrin sealants to pancreatic stump closure reinforcement after distal pancreatectomy: included 7 studies involving 860 participants: 428 were randomized to the fibrin sealant group and 432 to the control group after distal pancreatectomy. Fibrin sealants little no difference in POPF sealant control 20.1 RR 0.96, 95 % 0.68 to 1.35; 755 participants; studies; low-quality Fibrin sealants may also lead to little or no difference in post-operative mortality versus 0.5 0.05 to 5.03; 804 participants; 6 studies; low-quality overall post-operative morbidity to 1.71; 376 participants; 2 studies; very low-quality evidence). There was probably little or no difference in LOS between the groups (12.1 days versus 11.4 days; MD 0.32 days, 95 % CI: -1.06 to 1.70; 755 participants; 4 studies; moderate-quality evidence). The studies did not report serious adverse events (AEs), quality of life (QOL), or cost-effectiveness. group versus 14.5 % control group; 29 participants versus 12 participants). The studies did not report POPF, QOL, or cost-effectiveness. The authors concluded that based on the current available evidence, fibrin sealants may have little or no effect on POPF in people undergoing distal pancreatectomy. Moreover, these investigatorsstated that the effects of fibrin sealants on the prevention of POPF are uncertain in people undergoing PD. internal or external) versus no stents, and comparing internal stents versus external stents, replacement versus no replacement following pancreaticoduodenectomy. Two review authors independently extracted the data. The outcomes studied were incidence of pancreatic fistula, need for reoperation, length of hospital stay, overall complications, and in-hospital mortality. They calculated the results as risk ratio (RR) or mean difference (MD), with 95% confidence interval (CI). They assessed the quality of evidence using GRADE. The investigators included eight studies (1018 participants). The average age of the participants ranged from 56 to 68 years. Most of the studies were conducted in single centers in Japan (four studies), China (two studies), France (one study), and the USA (one study). The risk of bias was low or unclear for most domains across the studies. The effect of stents on reducing pancreatic fistula in people undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy was uncertain due to the low quality of the evidence (RR 0.67, 95% CI 0.39 to 1.14; 605 participants; 4 studies). The risk of in-hospital mortality was 3% in people who did receive stents compared with 2% (95% CI 1% to 6%) in people who had stents (RR 0.73, 0.28 to 1.94; 605 participants; 4 studies; moderate-quality evidence). The effect of stents on reoperation was uncertain due to wide confidence intervals (RR 0.67, 0.36 to 1.22; 512 participants; 3 studies; moderate-quality evidence). They found moderate-quality evidence that using stents reduces total hospital stay by just under four days (mean difference (MD) -3.68, 95% CI -6.52 to -0.84; 605 participants; 4 studies). The risk of delayed gastric emptying, wound infection, and intra-abdominal abscess was uncertain (gastric emptying: RR 0.75, 95% CI 0.24 to 2.35; moderate-quality evidence) (wound infection: RR 0.73,


Numerical modeling of two-phase flow under centrifugation is presented in 1D.A new method is analysed to determine capillary-pressure curves. This method is based onmodeling the interface between the zone containing only wetting liquid and the zone containingwetting and non wetting liquids. This interface appears when into a fully saturated sample withwetting liquid we inject a non-wetting liquid. By means of this interface an efficient and correctnumerical approximation is created based upon the solution of ODE and DAE systems. Bothliquids are assumed to be immiscible and incompressible. This method is a good candidate tobe used in solution of inverse problem. Some numerical experiments are presented.


Tooth loss may be a modifiable risk factor for dementia, but the causal relationship has not been evaluatedsufficiently. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between tooth loss and dementia on the Indonesian elder. The subjects consisted of 208 volunteers (36 males and 172 females) aged 60 years or older. The mini mental state examination (MMSE; score range: 0-30) is used as a screening test for cognitive impairment. In the logistic regression analysis, odds ratio (OR) of cognitive impairment (MMSE score < 23) were 6.34 (95% CI, 2.76 to 14.55) and 2.82 (95% CI, 1.30 to 6.10) for subjects who had remaining < 10 teeth and those who had remaining 11-19 teeth, respectively, when compared with subjects who had remaining > 20 teeth. It can be concluded that tooth loss have association with dementia in Indonesian subjects.


Introduction: Topic detection can be used to identify trends in literature, providing valuable insight into the direction of the field. We developed a natural language processing (NLP) based method to identify topics from given abstracts and assessed the main topics of published articles by top medical journals in the last three years.
Methods: This study utilized a two-part methodology to extract and classify original articles published by four non-specialized medical journals; Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and British Medical Journal. The first part employed bibliometric data collection to search for original articles published between 2020 and 2022. The second part used an NLP approach based on the BERTopic model to classify the articles included into separate topics.
Results: The model was able to classify 1,540 articles out of the included 2,081 (79.42%) into 39 different topics in 11 fields. COVID-19-related and cancer treatment-related articles constituted approximately 25% and 7% of all published papers during 2020-2022 respectively. The study found that each of the included general medical journal tended to focus on certain topics more than others.
Conclusion: We identified a new methodology that can identify topics discussed in medical literature from abstracts as an input. We also demonstrated the potential of this methodology for analyzing trends in medical literature more efficiently and effectively. This study's methodology can be replicated on a larger scale with more papers, more journals, and over a longer period, highlighting the importance of further research using NLP models.


A reform-oriented teacher education model and its effect on the eventual classroom practice of preservice program graduates is examined. An ethnographic description is provided of the program, which emphasized an experiential philosophical base that permeated both the program and the compulsory educational milieu of the training site. Research consisted of three tiers: (1) a preliminary re-analysis of qualitative evaluation data; (2) interviews with graduates concerning their perceptions of their experiences and how these experiences impacted their first year's practice; and (3) an examination of data pertaining to possible implications for improving teacher education for students from diverse cultural backgrounds. Preliminary analysis of program evaluation data revealed that preservice teachers regularly employed learner-centered instructional strategies in their own practice teaching. Later interviews found use of democratic pedagogy to be integrated into these subjects' classroom practice a year later. Distinctive traits of this program contributing to these outcomes included: a site-based learning context combined with a calculated shift from a social behaviorist to a pragmatic approach toward curriculum and instruction methods; a common philosophical base shared by the university and public school sites; and simultaneous teacher socialization and methods training. (Contains 53 references.) (Author/PB) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** Shifting the Paradigm in Preservice Teacher Education. Modeling Democracy in a Collaborative Site-based Program


To The Editor: In the paper by Vauhkonen et al. [1], recently published in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology, the investigators observe that CDX2 is expressed focally and at low intensity in normal stomach, particularly in the antrum, and that this expression is enhanced in Helicobacter pylori gastritis and reversible after eradication of the bacteria. In accordance with the results by Vauhkonen et al., we observed, in vitro, an increase in CDX2 expression upon infection of a gastric carcinoma cell line (AGS) with a cag PAI-positive H. pylori strain, 26695. In our experiment, AGS cells were infected at two different ratios of bacteria to epithelial cells, 100:1 and 200:1, during 3 h and 8 h. We observed an increase in CDX2 expression, determined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), after 8 h of infection (Figure 1A). Next, we evaluated the putative involvement of the CagA gene in the regulation of the CDX2 promoter, by co-transfecting three gastric carcinoma cell lines with the proximal CDX2 promoter (-871/-1) [2] and a CagA expression vector [3]. However, we did not observe any increased transcriptional activity of the CDX2 promoter (Figure 1B) by CagA. CDX2 is a marker and, more importantly, a master gene for intestinal differentiation both in the intestine [4] and in aberrant locations, such as intestinal metaplasia (IM) of the stomach [5 7], which is a preneoplastic lesion that is strongly associated with H. pylori infection, in epidemiological [8] and in vivo studies [9]. Vauhkonen et al. address two very interesting points on the regulation of CDX2 in the stomach, the association with H. pylori infection and the reversibility of CDX2 expression. Our results complement the ones obtained by Vauhkonen et al., since we show that the presence of H. pylori is sufficient to increase CDX2 expression in a gastric carcinoma cell line, and that this regulation is not directly through CagA in an in vitro system. The importance of this demonstration stems from the fact that, in vivo (in tissues), it is not possible to separate the role played by the bacteria and by the concomitant inflammatory process. In fact, the circumstance that CDX2 is also aberrantly expressed in other locations, such as Barrett's oesophagus [10], and even in autoimmune gastritis, strongly suggests that the inflammatory process may play an important role. In summary, although the mechanism has not been clarified, both the report by Vauhkonen et al. and our own data show that CDX2 expression in the stomach is regulated directly by H. pylori.


Abstract Background The use of oral antimicrobial agents in patients with short bowel syndrome (SBS) is challenging due to the changes in gastrointestinal anatomy that may result in diminished absorption and altered drug bioavailability. Prospective studies evaluating bioavailability of antimicrobial agents after oral administration in SBS patients are lacking. Objectives To determine the bioavailability of orally administered antimicrobial agents commonly used for treatment in SBS patients to guide clinical decision making when faced with infections. Methods We performed an explorative, clinical study investigating the pharmacokinetics (PK) of clindamycin, ciprofloxacin, flucloxacillin and fluconazole in SBS patients with intestinal failure. Participants received a combination of two antimicrobial agents simultaneously. To determine the oral bioavailability, participants received a single oral and IV dose of both agents on two occasions, after which they underwent intensive PK sampling on six predefined time points up to 12 hours after administration. Primary outcome was the oral bioavailability of these antimicrobial agents. Secondary outcomes were intravenous PK characteristics following non-compartmental analysis. Results Eighteen SBS patients were included: the mean (SD) age was 59 (17) years and 61% of participants were female. The median observed (IQR) bioavailability of ciprofloxacin, clindamycin, flucloxacillin and fluconazole were 36% (24–50), 93% (56–106), 50% (32–76) and 98% (61–107), respectively. Conclusion The bioavailability of selected antimicrobial agents in certain patients with SBS appeared to be better than expected, providing a feasible treatment option. Due to the large observed differences between patients, therapeutic drug monitoring should be part of the treatment to safeguard adequate exposure in all patients. Trial registration Registered in the Dutch Trial Register (NL7796) and EudraCT number 2019-002587-28


At the turn of 2013-2014, Ocean Robotics International launched an underwater vehicle with the main purpose of filming and collecting data under the surface. In order to make the vehicle operate weightlessly in the water, buoyant material is used but unfortunately the manufacturing costs to produce the shape in this material is very high. Therefore, there is a request from the company to develop a vehicle which will enhance the manufacturing and expectantly reduce the production cost. In addition, the company's main customers have expressed new requirements of the product, which entail a new version of the vehicle in order to meet those requests. The purpose of this work is to make a further development of the underwater vehicle that meet the new demands and requirements, and is adapted for production. The goal is to provide production documentation for the developed vehicle.The work structure followed a general, established model of product development by Ulrich and Eppinger (2008), and included the maintenance of a requirements specification, concept generation including structured as well as unstructured methods and concept selection. The working model was complemented with DFMA (Design for Manufacturing and Assembly); theory regarding designing products suited for production.In the project an investigation was made of different ways to create buoyancy; most techniques are based on the principle of encapsulated air. The vehicle is designed to operate at the depth of 3000 meters under the surface of the water, where the pressure is approximately 300 times the atmospheric pressure. This creates problems for several of such techniques due to the high pressure difference between the encapsulated air and the ambient water. Therefore, syntactic foam was chosen for the purpose which the company already uses, a material with a lower density than water which therefore creates buoyancy. The material is well suited for the intended depth. Stability of the vehicle is another factor that is important in design consideration, since it strongly influences the easiness of the operation. Right conditions are obtained by buoyant material well spread out around the vehicle, a large distance between the thrusters and furthermore an elongated form of the vehicle is preferable. A long and narrow vehicle with rounded edges also offers advantages in flow capacity.The work resulted in detail design of a concept and production documentation. To meet the new requirements, the vehicle is larger than the previous model. The shapes of the floating blocks are to a great extent simplified to avoid machining, which is a manufacturing process of high cost. Where it is desirable with double curved surfaces, bodywork of glass fiber is used, made by composite lamination – a method well suited for creating organic shapes.


Nowadays Cloud Computing is considered as the ideal environment for engineering, hosting and provisioning applications. A continuously increasing set of cloud-based solutions is available to application owners and developers to tailor their applications exploiting the advanced features of this paradigm for elasticity, high availability and performance. Although these offerings provide many benefits to new applications, they also incorporate constrains to the modernization and migration of legacy applications by obliging the use of specific technologies and explicit architectural design approaches. The modernization and adaptation of legacy applications to cloud environments is a great challenge for all involved stakeholders, not only from the technical perspective, but also in business level with the need to adapt the business processes and models of the modernized application that will be offered from now on, as a service. In this paper we present a novel model-driven approach for the migration of legacy applications in modern cloud environments which covers all aspects and phases of the migration process, as well as an integrated framework that supports all migration process.


In this paper, a specific region called affine noisy invariant region is extracted from a query and database images to help accurate retrieval on different attacks. Then, only a 64×1 codebook based feature vector is obtained from this specific region applying vector quantization and codebook generation based on the Linde-Buzo-Gray algorithm, which reduces retrieval feature comparison calculations. Also a number of texture and frequency domain based features are computed and established for the region. Finally combination of these two groups of feature vectors improves the retrieval system efficiency. Besides, in order to optimize weighting combination coefficients of the feature vectors, the particle swarm optimization algorithm is applied. The experimental results show a real-time content-based image retrieval system with higher accuracy and acceptable retrieval time.


When the periphery of cells in tissue culture appear to boil in slow motion, they are said to be undergoing "zeiosis" (Gk. zeio, "boil over"). This term was first introduced by Costero and Pomerat' in a study of nerve cells and appears to be related to similar episodes observed in mitotic cells.24 Several workers4-9 have described other types of cells undergoing similar phenomena when subjected to special environments. Cellular elements, derived from numerous tissue types, cultivated under dialysis cellophane membranes in multipurpose culture chambers have been observed in this activity, and some of these have been reported.10'11 It is probable that any cell cultivated by this technique will show signs of zeiotic activity if lodged in a specific environmental area between the cellophane membrane and the glass cover slip. Most often this phenomenon has been observed in cells lying between a closely apposed cellophane and cover slip. The purpose of this report is to emphasize the zeiotic response, induced by the cellophane environment, in greater detail and to show, in particular, two unusual results of zeiosis that occurred in a culture of strain KB'2. In one instance a zeiotic bleb involved the nucleus, and in the other it apparently involved elements of the cytomembrane system. A series of phase-contrast micrographs documents these special phenomena as resulting from a series of constriction rings that formed about the zeiotic blebs.


Residual stress is induced in the sample of a material stressed by external forces (tension, pressure, thermal stress, etc.) from the beginning of the stress. An instantaneous level is a function of the intensity of the external deformation work, the time and speed of the deformation, and the degree of immediate surface and volume deformation. It is proportional to the individual deformation limits, i. e., the elastic limit, yield point, flexural strength and breach limit; the maximum is reached at the level of the breach limit. Furthermore, it is dependent on the physical‐mechanical properties of the material and on the method, i. e., the technology of straining, or machining. The same applies to the roughness distribution and other topographical features on the machined surface. The tension that has not been exhausted is partly returned to the volume of the sample and partly acts in contact with space, within a certain distance and time. This paper aims to present a reverse reconstruction of the surface topography from residual stresses after chip‐forming machining of the material. Our original approach to the solution fully exploits the rules of roughness distribution and other topographic features of the surfaces of the given materials after machining, not only by chip‐forming machining.


Powder x-ray diffraction patterns of BaFe 4 As 12 with synchrotron radiation have been studied at ambient pressure and at high pressures. A crystal structure of BaFe 4 As 12 was refined by the Rietveld analysis of the powder x-ray diffraction data at ambient pressure. The electrical property of BaFe 4 As 12 have been studied at low temperature. This arsenide shows the metallic behavior. The volume vs. pressure curve for this arsenide has in detail been investigated at room temperature. The cell volume of BaFe 4 As 12 decreased smoothly with increasing pressure up to 10 GPa. A bulk modulus was estimated from the volume vs. pressure curve fitted by a Birch equation of state. The bulk modulus ( B 0 ) and its pressure derivative ( B 0 ') of BaFe 4 As 12 are 107(1) GPa and 3.6(3), respectively. The value of B 0 for this arsenide is the same as that of CeFe 4 As 12 , smaller than that of BaRu 4 As 12 .


A previously unreported major urinary metabolite of the antiepileptic drug ethosuximide (I) was isolated from a patient suffering from petit mal epilepsy. The metabolite was identified as the ring-hydroxylated ethosuximide, 2-ethyl-2-methyl-3-hydroxysuccinimide (II), by GLC, low- and high-resolution electron-impact mass spectrometry, and proton NMR spectroscopy of its N-methyl derivative.


Asymmetrical dimethylarginine (ADMA) and symmetrical dimethylarginine (SDMA) are produced by the breakdown of proteins that have been methylated post translationally at an arginine residue. Plasma levels of ADMA are elevated in insulin resistant states. ADMA is metabolized in the liver, while SDMA cleared by the kidney. Non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver disease in humans and is associated with insulin resistance. We hypothesized that plasma levels of ADMA will be increased in subjects with NAFLD and with the progression of NAFLD from hepatic steatosis to non alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Plasma levels of ADMA and SDMA were measured by HPLC in 48 patients with histologically confirmed NAFLD (16 steatosis and 32 NASH) and 29 healthy controls. Estimates of kidney function in all subjects were in normal range. Plasma ADMA levels were significantly higher (P<0.002) in patients with NAFLD compared with controls. SDMA levels were not different between any groups. ADMA/SDMA ratio was significantly higher in patients with NASH compared with controls (1.7±0.5 vs. 1.4±0.3, p<0.05). Estimates of insulin resistance as measured by HOMA, did not correlate with plasma levels of ADMA or SDMA. ADMA/SDMA ratio correlated with plasma insulin levels and with insulin resistance. We conclude that ADMA and ADMA/SDMA ratio can be used as an additional biomarker of NASH in combination with measures of insulin resistance. Since ADMA is an inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase, high levels of ADMA in NASH may contribute to the vascular abnormalities in NASH.


Throughout this article, it's developed the task of exploring, from a logical point of view inspired by Lacan in his re-reading of Freud, the analysis of the...


A population of 3,067 Mexican-American, Pueblo Indian, Navajo Indian, Black, and Anglo elementary children were administered the Draw-A-Person for norming and comparison against the existing Koppitz scoring procedure. A significant number of items for each of the five ethnic groups changed categories with final score interpretation affected. A significant difference in percentage of items drawn by the five ethnic groups was also found, as were regional differences on certain items.