Background Aiming to the containment of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, governments worldwide have implemented a series of non-pharmaceutical interventions. Many of them and especially school closures have impacted the circulation of multiple airborne pathogens among children and adolescents. This study investigates the incidence of influenza and invasive meningococcal disease among children aged 0–14 years in Greece during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Data regarding the number of influenza-like illness cases, influenza-related paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admissions and invasive meningococcal disease cases among children 0–14 years old were obtained from the National Public Health Organization. The incidence of the two diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic period (2020/2021) was compared with that of the six preceding seasons (2014–2019). Results A notable decrease was observed in both influenza and invasive meningococcal disease cases during the period 2020/2021 compared with the years 2014–2019. The mean annual rate of influenza-like illness cases and influenza-related PICU admissions in children 0–14 years old has reduced by 66.9% and 100%, respectively, while the mean annual invasive meningococcal disease rate has declined by 70%. Both weekly influenza-like illness and monthly invasive meningococcal disease rates were significantly decreased. Conclusions The activity of influenza and invasive meningococcal disease in the children and adolescents of Greece has decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Reduced transmission is likely related to the public health measures that were implemented to control the pandemic. The value of these measures may have relevance to the future management of influenza or invasive meningococcal disease epidemics.


This paper presents the ground work carried out to achieve automatic fine grained recognition of stone masonry. This is a necessary first step in the development of the analysis tool. The built heritage that will be assessed consists of stone masonry constructions and many of the features analysed can be characterized according to the geometry and arrangement of the stones. Much of the assessment is carried out through visual inspection. Thus, we apply image processing on digital images of the elements under inspection. The main contribution of the paper is the performance evaluation of the automatic categorization of masonry walls from a set of extracted straight line segments. The element chosen to perform this evaluation is the stone arrangement of masonry walls. The validity of the proposed framework is assessed on real images of masonry walls using machine learning paradigms. These include classifiers as well as automatic feature selection.


Definition, classification, terminology epidemiology allergens air pollution food allergy and intolerance rhinoscopy x-ray, CT-scan, MR-imaging cytology allergy diagnosis vasoconstrictors cromoglycate anticholinergic medication systemic steroids, intranasal steroids antihistamines immunotherapy surgical treatment allergic rhinitis non-allergic rhinitis nasal polyps rhinitis in children, rhinitis and asthma, rhinitis and otitis.


Author Institution: Department of Physics, Northwest Normal University; The key Lab. of Molecular Reaction Dynamics, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics


The use of fusion devices as powerful neutron sources has been discussed for decades. Whereas the successful route to a commercial fusion power reactor demands steady state stable operation combined with the high efficiency required to make electricity production economic, the alternative approach to advancing the use of fusion is free of many of complications connected with the requirements for economic power generation and uses the already achieved knowledge of Fusion physics and developed Fusion technologies. "Fusion for Neutrons" (F4N), has now been re-visited, inspired by recent progress achieved on comparably compact fusion devices, based on the Spherical Tokamak (ST) concept. Freed from the requirement to produce much more electricity than used to drive it, a fusion neutron source could be efficiently used for many commercial applications, and also to support the goal of producing energy by nuclear power. The possibility to use a small or medium size ST as a powerful or intense steady-state fusion ...


The Ahnet basin, located in the western part of the Saharan platform exhibits several features witnessing very important and complex structural history. Actually, various trends of large scale folds can be seen in outcrops and subsurface. This makes the area very attractive for hydrocarbon exploration. Indeed, the first well that penetrates the stratigraphic column of the basin was realized in the 1950's. Since exploration was focused on Ahnet basin, several commercial gas accumulations were discovered in various reservoir formations of several ages, like the Ordovician, lower Devonian and Tournaisian-Strunian. There is good reason to believe that significant gas remains undiscovered in non conventional traps. Exploration should be reoriented towards subtle, stratigraphic, and structural complex trapping systems. Geochemical analysis and modeling reveals that Silurian and Fransian shales are widespread in the area and represent the main source rocks in the entire basin. Modeling of the thermal history shows that the complexity and the variability of hydrocarbon generation process and degree of filling of the traps needs to be understood. Well testing results and reserve estimates show evidence of gas potential in the Ordovician and Siegenian tight (low permeability) reservoirs. Production is usually related to the presence of fracture networks.


A srriall hand operated pump-aspirator used for the collection of small insects is described. It is particularly useful around toxic or unpleasant cargoes.


Gemellus was blissfully unaware of the link between lack of vitamin D and the development of colorectal cancer until he read a special article from Austin, Texas (Nutrition Reviews 2012; 70: 721–729). Apparently the active form of vitamin D, 1a25(OH2)D3, targets the wnt/b catenin pathway by upregulating key tumour suppressor genes. Colorectal cell lines have shown that vitamin D receptor levels decrease in the later stages of colorectal cancer (CRC) – hence the hypothesis of reducing cancer by increasing intake of vitamin D either by sunlight (the best method) or by increasing milk intake (not so good). The paper discusses the complex mechanisms through which this might be promoted but this went over Gemellus's cranium mostly. Apparently several epidemiological studies have shown that high levels of 25(OH2)D3 are related to lower incidence rates of many cancers. However, Gemellus was not aware that there has been much work done on sunlight and the incidence of CRC. Nonetheless, it seems that going out in the noonday sun, which Gemellus and most of his fellow European readers love to do, might now be good for the bowels if not for the skin.


In 1973 during a study of 92 patients with Type 1 diabetes for 40 years or more, one of us' found three who did not fit the expected pattern. All were women who had been diagnosed in adolescence and then treated with insulin for over 20 years. None had any microvascular complications, and after 40 years of diabetes all were well controlled on m a l l doses of sulphonylureas. Each woman had a strong family history of a phenotypically similar form of diabetes. Thus of 20 living relatives with a mean duration of diabetes of 22 (range 2-54) years only one was still on insulin, only two had any retinopathy, and none had proteinuria. The pedigrees strongly suggested autosomal dominant inheritance (Figure l ) , and in two of the three families diabetes was associated with a low renal threshold for glucose. A similar form of diabetes had apparently been recognized in the pre-insulin era when the contrast with the dismal prognosis of what was later called Type 1 diabetes must have been very striking. In 191 6 Reisman2 recorded four cases of mild diabetes in children, noted the familial tendency and referred to similar cases in the German literature in which the disease had been named 'diabetes innocens im jugenlichen alter'. In 1921 at the Royal Society of Medicine, Graham3 presented two unrelated girls with diabetes diagnosed at ages 9 and 1 1 years who had been controlled for at least 5 years on diet alone. Joslin's 1924 textbook4 has a table of four patients, each with a strong family history of diabetes, who were diagnosed under age 20 years and survived on diet alone for between 9 and 21 years, leading Joslin to comment that, 'I always look upon a strong family history as a favourable omen'. The most remarkable was a woman who developed diabetes in 1909 aged 20 years, had a baby in 1916, and was still well in 1923 when Joslin suggested that 'she should have insulin as a safeguard against complications'. Dominant inheritance


this subject, we have to accept that in these matters the theories were not based on experimentation, and they therefore belong to the realm of speculation, not science. In these circumstances all similarities or differences are purely coincidental. While in the knowledge of logic, for instance, branches of Indian systems, including the Jaina, have produced concepts equal or superior to Western concepts and provide suitable opportunities for tracing similarities and contrasts, comparisons in the field of biology and biophysics do not seem fruitful or instructive. Despite its flaws, Reals in the Jaina metaphysics is a useful book for students who want to find a quick reference to single concepts and theories current in Jaina philosophy and religion and to their Indian counterparts. It is a pity that, in addition to a host of errors in Sanskrit terms, the book is full of misprints and mistakes in the spelling of words, names, and titles to the point of distracting the reader's attention. The errata slip is of little help and has misprints of its own.


Along with life satisfaction, affect balance is suggested to be a component of subjective well-being. Affect balance refers to the individual's emotional responses when doing evaluative judgments on his/her life. Affect balance results from the consideration of both positive and negative emotions experienced over a given period of time. This paper describes the characteristics of the Affect Balance Scale (EBA, a Spanish version of the Positive and Negative Affect scale by Warr et al., 1983) using a sample of Spanish adults. METHOD: Two hundred and nineteen individuals aged 18 to 64 yr (Mean = 30.54, SD = 10.79, 62.1% females) voluntarily participated in the study. Subjects were selected from several community settings. Participants responded in only one measurement 4 measures assessing affect balance, general personal competence, health status and life satisfaction. RESULTS: The EBA showed appropriate psychometric properties -Cronbach's alphas were 0.82 and 0.75 respectively for the Positive Affect subscale and Negative Affect subscale. Item behavior was also correct, showing their feasibility and relevance for assessing Affect Balance. A two-factor structure was found that fitted the theoretical structure. Nevertheless, two items need to be reformulated. The analysis of the possible relationship between positive and negative affect by means of structural equation modeling supports a close inverse relation between both dimenLa «Escala de Balance Afectivo». Propiedades psicometricas de un instrumento para la medida del afecto positivo... 158 Clinica y Salud, 2008, vol. 19 n.o 2 sions of affectivity. The scale also showed a convergent validity with measures of personal global competence, health status and life satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: Results confirm the utility and appropriateness of the EBA for the assessment of the Affect Balance in the Spanish population. Furthermore, the EBA can be considered a suitable tool for the study of Subjective Well-Being.


In recent years MEMS based microresonant sensors have been given a lot of attention due to their potential as a platform for the development of many novel physical, chemical, and biological sensors. Monolithic integration of micro device with electronics can not only lower manufacturing cost but also minimize total system size. However, the curling of composite metal-oxide microstructures in the thin-film CMOS-MEMS process, greatly limits the device size. Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE) technologies have advanced significantly in recent years and by alternating passivation and etching cycle, silicon etch process can typically achieve high aspect ratios between 20:1 to 30:1 that can be used to reduce the curling of the structure. In this paper, post-CMOS processing of a microcantilever, designed for CO2 detection, by using backside DRIE to control the curling and DC characterization of the sensor is reported. In order to estimate the deviation of the parameters from designed values, due to manufacturing tolerance, the DC characteristics of the sensor have also been calculated theoretically. The theoretical value of 1.65 kΩ for piezoresistor and 7.34 kΩ for pick up coil matches with the measured values of 2.15 kΩ and 6.3 kΩ within an error limit of 23% and 16% respectively.


Earnings management is a disclosure of management asa a means of direct management intervention in the financial reporting processing of income or profits with a view to obtaining benefits or benefits tersmantu for managers or companies based on economic factors. The purpose of this research is to test : 1) the effect of management compensation on earnings management, 2) the effect of tax planning on earnings management, 3) the effect of deferred tax expense on earnings management. The object of this research is the basic industrial and chemical companies listed on BEI with the period of observation 2012-2016. Sample selection using purposive sampling technique. The data used in this research is secondary data collected by taking data on the annual financial statements of the company throught the website www.idx.co.id. the data analysis technique used is multiple linear analysis using the help os SPSS 17.0 program. The results of the research found that : 1) management compensation does not affect the earnings management, with significant value 0,068 > 0,05. 2) tax lanning does not affect the earnings management, with significant value 0,092 > 0,05. 3) the deferred tax expense does not affect the earnings management, with significant value0,218 > 0,05. With the effect of (R2) is 0,110 atau 11%. It means that 11% earnings management is influenced by independent variable that is management compensation, tax planning and deferred tax expense, while 89% is explained by other variable not examined in this research
Keyword : Management Compensation, Tax Planning, Deferred Tax Expense,
Earnings Management


The existing common problems in current Advanced Mathematics teaching were found through a questionnaire. In order to deal with these problems, the study is aimed to provide five teaching forms based on the reform idea of application-oriented teaching of mathematics. Firstly, this work analyzed the importance of the consolidation of students' senior high mathematics foundation, secondly, discussed the necessity of strengthening mathematical concepts, thirdly explored supplementing mathematical application examples, fourthly elaborated adding mathematical experiment content in the process of teaching, and finally, it put forward the adoption of diversified methods for examination and the "club+" platform for practical application. According to the results, it is proved that this teaching reform can improve not only the teaching quality of Advanced Mathematics in engineering colleges but also students' innovative and practical abilities. Keywords—Advanced Mathematics; Application-oriented; Mathematical Concepts; Mathematical Experiments; "Club +"


Abstract Mountain regions provide a multitude of goods and services for much of humanity (Price and Butt 2000; Becker and Bugmann 2001), especially in the realms of water supply, biodiversity, and other ecosystem services (Schimel et al 2002; Körner et al 2005; Viviroli et al 2007; Viviroli et al 2011). However, the future ability of mountain regions to provide goods and services to both highland and lowland residents is seriously threatened by climatic changes, environmental pollution, unsustainable management of natural resources, and serious gaps in understanding of mountain systems (Huber et al 2005). Disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary research is required to maintain these goods and services in the face of these forces. The global mountain research community, however, has historically operated at a suboptimal level because of insufficient communication across geographic and linguistic barriers, less than desirable coordination of research frameworks, and a lack of funding.


HONG KONG, literally translated from the Chinese as Fragrant Harbour, is a British Crown Colony situated in Southern China, south of the province of Guangdong. It is n enigma, a bastion of trade and free enterprise rrounded by a country whose political philosophies are ompletely opposite to all that Hong Kong stands for. Geographically the Colony is made up of Kowloon and the New territories on the mainland and many islands in the immediate coastal waters. The lease, negotiated by Britain, on the New Territories expires in 1997. The most well known island is Hong Kong Island from which the territory takes its name (Fig. 1). The two main population


We present a novel tracking algorithm for an autonomous vehicle equipped with a single camera. Given only monocular visual data, our algorithm utilizes projective geometry to compute concise features of the environment. Using these features, road markings are identified by a multi-class classifier. The classification results are then used with a Rao-Blackwellized particle filter to track the vehicle as it moves back and forth across the road. The resulting position tracker is part of a complete, simulated autonomous driving system. The realistic driving video game Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit was used as a vehicle simulation platform, and the autonomous system is shown to perform competitively against the game's automated opponents.


Abstract: The logrank test is widely used to compare groups on distribution of survival time in the presence of censoring. There is no convention for post hoc pairwise comparisons after a significant omnibus k -group logrank test. This simulation study compares four post hoc pairwise testing procedures: Bonferroni, Dunn-Sidak, Hochberg, and unadjusted post hoc logrank test procedure. Evaluation criteria include, familywise type I error rate, correct decision rate, number of correctly rejected pairs, and false discovery rate. We demonstrated that when conditioned upon rejection of the omnibus test, multiplicity adjustments may be unnecessary and can be overly conservative when k is at most 4, or number of comparisons is no greater than 6. This is supported by the results that the performance of the unadjusted post hoc logrank test procedure is preferred over the others on all criteria except for the false discovery rate. The Hochberg procedure appears to be superior among the adjustments examined. Data from a clinical trial for suicide prevention illustrate these approaches where number of comparison groups is often limited.


What are the implications for industry and commerce of the environmental crisis? The framework conditions necessary to safeguard the environment cannot be set by industry and commerce. The drawing up of these conditions genuinely falls within the jurisdiction of the state. The autonomy of industry within a free–enterprise culture is only a relative autonomy. If nature dies, companies die too. If industry is to operate in the long term, it will rely on environmental compatibility. Legislation to protect the environment does not impose passivity on industry. On the contrary, industry is afforded an active and creative role. Environment–friendly production methods are not invented in ministries, but in factories and companies. This is why the planned economies have failed so badly to meet the environmental challenge. Without doubt, mankind can achieve more than he has already achieved. But there is no progress that does not exact its price. Arriving at the right environmental solutions will only be possible if we optimise the various competing objectives. Needless to say, this will not be possible without an element of compromise.


Recently, a new type of jet mill bit (JMB) has been introduced to improve the cutting transport efficiency in horizontal drilling by comminuting cuttings into dust-like particles immediately after the cuttings are generated. To promote the application of JMBs in the field, in this work, JMBs were further improved by including junk slots (JS) all around to allow cuttings to flow through the annulus and thereby prevent sticking from occurring while tripping out. Moreover, numerical and experimental investigations on the feasibility of horizontal drilling with the new type of JMB were carried out. The finite element method was used to analyze the strength of the new type of JMB, and flow field simulation analysis was also performed for JMBs with different sizes of JS. The simulation results indicated that the weakest point of the JMB was located at the bit connection instead of the bit frame, and it was demonstrated that the structural strength of the JMB met the requirements of actual working conditions. The JMB JS had a negative effect on promoting the upward return of cuttings from the bottom of the hole, and the larger the slot sizes were, the more negative the effects. Through a trip-out experiment with the new type of JMB, this paper studied the influence of the slot size on the trip-out process safety. The experimental results indicated that the minimum safe slot width was 60 mm. Finally, in a synthesis of the simulation and experimental results, the reasonable range of slot width was determined to be 60–70 mm; the aforementioned range was the most suitable for the bit based on safety and efficiency considerations. This paper provides guidance for the improvement and application of JMBs.


This study examined the impact of external debt in stimulating economic growth in Nigeria: mediating on the role of public sector financial management.

Secondary data was explored using ex post facto. The variables employed involves Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as endogenous variable while Debt to GDP Ratio (DGR), Foreign Debt to Exports Ratio (FDER), Inflation Ratio (INFR), Interest Service Ratio (ISR) and Exchange Ratio (EXR) as exogenous variables and were obtained from World Bank International Debt Statistic and Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin for the period of 1989-2019. Diagnostic tests were conducted using Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL), Augmented Dick Fuller (ADF) Unit Root Test, and Co-Integration model.

The result revealed the presence of co-integration among the variables with clear indication that external debt has a significant and positive relationship with economic growth with strong emphasis on public sector financial management as mediating factor. It was concluded that Nigeria debt crisis was attributed to both exogenous and endogenous factors due to dwindling economy.

The study recommends that government should develop home-grown policies to enhance the country's competitive advantage in the global market. Government should exit from all forms of commercial debts that expose the country to another regime of debt overkill.


Wireless ad hoc sensor networks have the advantage of spanning a large geographical region and being able to collaboratively detect and track non-local spatio-temporal events. This paper presents a dual-space approach to event tracking and sensor resource management in sensor networks. The dual-space transformation maps a non-local phenomenon, e.g., the edge of a half-plane shadow, to a single point in the dual space, and maps locations of distributed sensor nodes to a set of lines that partitions the dual space. The detection problem becomes finding and tracking the cell that contains the point in the arrangement defined by these lines. This mechanism can be effectively used for power management of the sensor network - nodes that will not be immediately visited by an event can be turned off to save energy required for sensing, processing, and communication. The approach has been successfully demonstrated on a laboratory testbed built using the UC Berkeley motes sensors. An implemented application of detecting and tracking light shadow edges moving over a sensor field is described.


What is distinctive about human rights, when compared with the rights claims associated with modern citizenship, animals, or nonbiological units of conscious being (artificial intelligence)? It is suggested that each of these discourses constitutes the subject of rights differently. This article concentrates on both philosophical and psychological means of registering the unique individuality of the subject of human rights. Because human rights is predicated of all human beings, it is a universal discourse and one that Kant called "cosmopolitan right." The subject of human rights is also the subject in its existential integrity or wholeness. This article explores tensions between the subject of human rights and the jurisdictionally limited and exclusive subject of modern citizenship, tensions that pose new demands on states with respect to international law and standards.


Fruit set is highly relevant to a plant's reproductive success. Fruit set can vary due to predation on flowers, pollinator services and/or resource availability. Reproductive success, measured as the fruit set of the invasive Lantana camara and the endemic Lantana peduncularis in the cool–dry season and the warm–wet season of the Galapagos Islands, was studied. Also, autonomous self-pollination ability and seed viability were probed for both species. Furthermore, flower visitors and their activity were registered for both species during the warm–wet season. Lantana peduncularis produced fewer flowers per inflorescence, but had a higher fruit set in the cool–dry season, compared to the warm–wet season. In contrast, the fruit set in L. camara did not change seasonally. The fruit set in L. camara was higher than in L. peduncularis in the warm–wet season. Moreover, ∼18% of the bagged flowers of the invasive Lantana produced fruits by autonomous self-pollination, while for the endemic Lantana, the rate of autonomous self-pollination was very low. More than 80% of the fruits for both species had at least one viable seed per fruit. The number of pollinators and their frequency, inflorescence- and flower-visiting rates and the duration of the visit per flower were higher in the invasive Lantana than in the endemic one. The endemic Lepidoptera Urbanus galapagensis (the main pollinator of both Lantana species) and the introduced Hymenia perspectalis were observed pollinating both Lantana species. These results indicate that the alien L. camara is more attractive to pollinators and it has reproductive advantages regarding fruit set in comparison with L. peduncularis, factors that contribute to the colonization pattern of this invasive species.


OBJECTIVE
To analyze the mortality trend of lung cancer (LC) in Mexico, according to the municipality marginalization index (MMI) by age group and sex, during the period 1998-2016.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The information on mortality, population and MMI was obtained from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) and the National Council of Population (Conapo). The adjusted LC mortality rate trends were analyzed using the joinpoint regression analysis. A total of 126 132 deaths were included.

RESULTS
The adjusted LC mortality rate decreased from 7.83 to 4.97 100 000 inhabitants during the period from 1998-2016, but the decrease was found to be less in women and in areas with very high marginalization.

CONCLUSIONS
Unequal reduction in LC mortality according to the degree of marginalization are related to early diagnosis, timely treatment and inequity in medical services. This inequity affects mainly the populations of women, highly marginalized groups and older populations.


The utility model relates to an intelligent gate control by face recognition, which is characterized in that an electromagnetic lock and an exit switch are connected to a gate control controller respectively, a password keyboard and the gate control controller are connected to a server, the server is connected to an exchange, the exchange is connected to a video server, the video server is connected to a camera. Technical effect of the utility model is that 1. the gate control has great reliability, expandability, functional module addition or connection to other systems by the user based on the requirement is facilitated, and secondary development function is provided; 2. the fault acknowledgement rate (FAR) oriented to the recognition module is lower than 0.01%; 3. all the entry and exitof the gate control are automatically collected on the host to facilitate backup management and statistic, and can be exported in EXCEL format; 4. inquiry function is provided, and inquiry conditionis set for entry and exit record inquiry with photos provided; 5. infrared technique is utilized for solving the problem of low accuracy of face recognition under the circumstance of different light intensity.


With the development and increasing use of intelligent vacuum circuit breaker (VCB), the electromagnetic compatibility problem between VCBs and their low-voltage electronic equipment is becoming increasingly prominent. Switching operations of circuit breakers are known to be serious sources of electromagnetic interference (EMI) to their secondary equipment, which can lead to the control and protection devices display error and malfunction. Hence, it is very important to study the EMI problem of the secondary equipment (such as current transformer (CT), PT, and controller) caused by the operations of circuit breakers. This paper carried out the tests of a 10 kV medium-voltage outdoor pole-mounted switch by a synthetic test circuit with large current and high impulse voltage sources, and collected the current signals of the secondary circuit at the same time, then obtained the frequency and energy distributions of the disturbance signals, caused by the breaking operation of pole-mounted switch, by time and frequency characteristic analysis with the wavelet analysis. Results show that the secondary side of the CT and the feeder terminal unit (FTU) controller are bearing EMI when pole-mounted switch is in operation and the distribution of the frequency spectrum is wide. The most serious disturbance appears at the time of arc current passing zero and the frequency distribution is mainly in 7.81-15.63 MHz. The EMI caused by transient recovery voltage is mainly distribution in 31.25-125.0 MHz. The maximum amplitude of disturbance pulses is about 4.5 times as large as that of the normal case. The results can provide a reference to the measures against the EMI for the pole-mounted switch's FTU controller.


Cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis (CTX) is a rare disorder of lipid metabolism. We report two siblings with this genetic disorder. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/cmj.v57i3.4708 Ceylon Medical Journal 2012; 57 : 128-129


A selective deposition of W(Zn) metallization, for formation of diffused ohmic contacts onto InP-based material was realized by means of rapid thermal, low pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (RT-LPMOCVD). The W(Zn) layers were deposited using a reactive gas mixture that contained diethylzinc (DEZn), WF 6 , H 2 and Ar, at temperatures of 450 to 550°C and pressures in the range of 1–5 torr. Uniform andcontinuous layers of W(Zn), 30 to 120 nm thick, were obtained. These layers contained Zn at concentrations higher than 1×l0 18 cm −3 , which was subsequentially in-diffused into the underlying semiconductor layer to form highly doped semiconductor layers as thick as 0.2μm. As a result, the specific contact resistance of the W(Zn)/ In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As contact was reduced to minimum value of 5×l0 −6 Ω·cm 2 . The W(Zn) film were found to be mechanically stable with a small compressive stress of 5.10 −8 dyne. cm −2 , and dry etch rates of up to 90 nmmin.


Objective: Recently, neural differentiation of mesenchymals stem cells (MSCs) provokes extensive interest. However, reports on the application of MSCs in hypoxic-ischemic induced diffuse neuronal degeneration disease are few research about the biological behavior of human derived MSCs (hMSCs) in vivo. Since heterogeneic MSCs could survive in vivo for long-term without significant immunological rejection, this study was designed to explore the migration, differentiation and the therapeutic benefit of hMSCs after hypoxic-ischemic brain damage (HIBD) in rats. Methods: Passage 3~5 hMSCs were prelabeled with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) for 72h before transplantation. Animal models of HIBD were built in one month old Wistar rats according to the method described by Rice. Three days after hypoxia-ischemia, HIBD rats in hMSCs-treated group (n=18) received intracerebral transplantation of 5×10 5 hMSCs, while HIBD rats received PBS of the same volume in control group (n=18). In sham-operated group (n=6) and only HIBD group (n=6), rats did not receive any transplantation. All of the groups did not received any immunosuppression agents. Rats of each group received behavior test (alternative electro-stimulus Y-maze) by single blind method, then were sacrificed and brains were sectioned for haematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining at 4 weeks post-transplantation. Rats in hMSCs-treated group and control group were killed on the date of 0 day, 3 days, 1 weeks, 2 weeks and 4 weeks post-transplantation while rats in sham-operated group and only HIBD group were allowed to survive for 4 weeks. The brains of all rats were anatomized and prepared for immunohistochemistry analysis with antibodies of BrdU, Nestin, Neurofilament (NF-M) and glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP). Results: HIBD model were built successfully. Behavior tests (alternative electro-stimulus Y-maze) showed that the total errors (TE) in hMSCs-treated group (TE=5.0±2.82) were significantly less than those in the control group (TE=12.67±3.72) ( p Conclusion: hMSCs could survive in the central nervous system of rats for at lest 4 weeks without any immunosuppression, moreover, hMSCs could migrate to the lesion area, express NF and GFAP which indicated their differentiation into mature neurons and neurogliocytes, and promote tissue repair and functional recovery of HIBD. Overall, the results suggested that hMSCs could be a promising treatment for HIBD.


The genus Zephyranthes rosea is a member of the family Amaryllidaceae. The plant is widely cultivated as ornamental. The objective of this study was to optimize an in vitro propagation method for the production of genetically stable Z. rosea plant. The chromosomal status of the regenerated plants was also studied to determine their ploidy levels and to identify the structural and numerical variations, if any. Two explants of Zephyranthes rosea, i.e. bulb scale and flower bud (3–4 mm each), were used and incubated in a culture room at 25 ± 2°C in which two different types of calli were induced from two sources. The MS medium amended with 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) (0.5–2.0 mg/l) successfully induced callus from bulb-scale explants (50.25–57.5%). The addition of coconut water (10%) in 2,4-D-added medium further improved the callus induction frequency (68.4%). Bulb-scale calli were found to be highly regenerative while flower-bud calli did not show any organogenetic responses. The use of plant growth regulators, such as naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) + benzylaminopurine (BAP), was found to be very effective for shoot bud development; maximum shoot number (11.50/callus mass) was observed in NAA (0.5 mg/l) + BAP (1.0 mg/l) added medium. Histological analysis of callus revealed that the origin of the shoot bud was de novo. Rooting frequency (65.25%) and the number of roots (7.5/shoot) were best achieved in indole-3-butyric acid (4.0 mg/l)-amended medium, followed by indole-3-acetic acid (4.0 mg/l). The regenerated Z. rosea plants showed 2n = 24 chromosome numbers.


In this work, we present ab initio derived intermolecular potentials for the urea–water system. Our method of calculation, which is termed NEMO, is based on intermolecular perturbation theory. Dipole moment fluctuations as well as many‐body effects in an assembly of molecules are described by including atomic polarizabilities in the potential. For the urea dimer we found a cyclic minimum with an energy of −21.9 kcal/mol and two equivalent hydrogen bonds of length 1.77 A. Noteworthy is that this interaction energy is more than four times larger than the water dimer minimum energy. To be able to satisfactorily model the interaction between two urea molecules we have improved the NEMO approach in the description of the repulsion energy and we have also included a more accurate damping on the dispersion energy. With this improved model we reinvestigated the water dimer and urea–water potentials and found good agreement with earlier potentials derived with similar approaches. From simulations of liquid water w...


Wireless ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) is an emerging technology where cells are transmitted over wireless channels and part(s) of the connection lies in the wireless network. This introduction of ATM in wireless environment creates many interesting challenges including how to deal with wireless links with possible high and variable error rates. The problem arises as ATM was designed for very low error rate environment and hence does not provide strong error control. This paper discusses error control schemes that can be used in wireless ATM networks. Several major issues including the overhead, delay and impact of an error control scheme on the quality of service are also discussed. The factors that need to be considered in selecting an appropriate error control technique for a certain environment are also identified.


Recent advances in the design and fabrication of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have enabled the development of mobile microrobots that can autonomously navigate and manipulate in controlled environments. It is expected that this technology will be critical in applications as varied as intelligent sensor networks, in vivo medical diagnosis and treatment, and adaptive microelectronics. However, many challenges remain, particularly with respect to locomotion, power storage, embedded intelligence, and motion measurement. As a result, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has organized performance-based competitions for mobile microrobots that are designed to: 1) accelerate microrobot development by providing researchers a venue to demonstrate and observe novel technologies, 2) reveal the most pressing technical challenges, and 3) evaluate the most successful methods for locomotion and manipulation at the microscale (e.g., actuation techniques for crawling). This paper will discuss the goals and structure of the competition, results from past competitions, and plans to make performance characterization methods an integral component of future competitions.


During the development of information system,it's usually to visit different databases.In this paper,the methord using ODBC to resolve this problem is introduced.


While many cloud storage and infrastructure systems exist today, none of them provide a mechanism for accountability of stored or user generated content. This lack of security support has been a major hurdle for auditing documents, claiming data possession, and proof of authorship. In this paper, we present a novel idea for secure accountability of timing element for data in massively scalable systems. The proposed scheme allows a service provider to incorporate timing accountability of data generated at the provider, by requesting proofs from accountability servers in the cloud. Additionally, the size of the proof is independent of the data size and is a unique feature of our system design. The scalability of the system have been evaluated using the Amazon EC2.


By using concepts of local cone approximation, K-directional derivative and K-subdifferential, K-(F,α,ρ,d)-B convex, K-(F,α,ρ,d)-B quasiconvex,K-(F,α,ρ,d)-B pseudconvex, are given based on [6]. Furthermore, optimality conditions for the class of semi-infinite programming involving these generalized convexes are studied, the relatively better results are obtained.


Van Swieten had gained during his residence in Berlin appreciation of and love for the works of Handel, Bach, and their schools, and since his return to Vienna, about I778, had exerted, and was still exerting [in 1793] a very powerful and marked influence upon Vienna's musical taste.... To van Swieten, surely, is due the credit of having founded in Vienna a taste for Handel's oratorios and Bach's organ and piano music, thus adding a new element to the music there.2


Part 1 Theory: self-control as adrenalin theorizing on groups, organizations, nation-states, and alliances the proposition and its justification where it does not apply implications for democracy compensating for the democratic deficit - alternative legitimacy the Europes of our cases. Part 2 Facing classic dangers: Denmark 1933 - an emerging Nazi threat Denmark 1940 - democracy and Nazi occupation Sweden 1939 - democracy surrounded by war Finland from 1944 - democracy in Eastern longitudes. Part 3 Three candidate deviant cases: the proposition - preliminary status Czechoslovakia 1938 - facing a Trojan horse Vichy France 1940 - reaction to disaster the Swedish submarine epoch from 1982 cohesion and Nordicity. Part 4 Facing the European Union: post-Cold War Europe - a new type of dangers? Finland 1992 - substituting the EU for the Soviet Union? Sweden 1990 - inviting new autonomy dangers Denmark 1990 - reacting to German unification. Part 5 Old Nordic lessons and new European challenges: revised status of the proposition? types of danger - a clarification types of danger - more or less adrenalin? the relevant EU peculiarities facing the EU - defensive vs offensive strategies the case of the foodstuffs directives specifying boundary conditions the modern cases as semi-deviant ones centralization in EU policy - an EU-12 overview de-parliamentarization in perspective governmental centralization in perspective Nordic self-control heritage - an asset or an obstacle?. Part 6 Conclusions and perspectives - conclusions and methodological reflections democracy and foreign policy self-control and neo-realism.


Background and objective: Several studies have recently demonstrated that circulating endothelial cells are increased in patients affected by Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) and have assessed a strong correlation between their number and vascular damage. Endothelial progenitor's cells are strongly involved in vascular repair in response to vascular damage, both promoting vasculogenesis and activating angiogenesis. In SSc a defective vasculogenesis inhibits the vascular repair machinery. It is well known the effects of the dual endothelin-1 (ET-1) receptor antagonist, bosentan, on vasodilatation and the positive clinical effects on features such as Raynaud's phenomenon, skin ulcers and pulmonary arterial hypertension. We tested the hypothesis that in patients with SSc oral administration of bosentan may interfere with circulating endothelial cells and progenitor endothelial cells and with their effects on vascular damage. Methods: We enrolled 20 patients affected by SSc (13 patients with and 7 patients without digital ulcers) and 10 sex and age matched healthy controls. Clinical features, laboratory tests and nailfold capillaroscopy were analyzed at baseline and after 3-6 and 12 months from the beginning of the treatment in the subgroup of patients and at the enrollment in the control group. Blood samples were collected from healthy controls at baselineand from all patients before and at different time after bosentan treatment were started. Circulating endothelial cells and endothelial progenitor's cells were detected in the peripheral blood of SSc patients and controls by flow cytometry. Statistical analysis to assess any significant correlation between clinical features and endothelial cells was performed with the SPSS 21 statistical package. Results: The number of both circulating endothelial cells and progenitors correlates with SSc diagnosis, with the presence of digital ulcers and with capillary density and disorganization of the capillary architecture shown bynaifold capillaroscopy. Circulating endothelial cells and progenitors number both increased after the beginning of bosentan therapy as well as improvement of skin ulcers and late improvement of capillaroscopic pattern. No correlation with other clinical features and endothelial cells count was found. Conclusion: In SSc both endothelial cells and endothelial progenitors have a role as predictors of vascular damage, since they are strongly related to skin involvement, in particular with the presence of digital ulcers, and to capillary loss or disorganized structure demonstrated by naifoldcapilloroscopy. In this setting, treatment with dual ET-1 receptor antagonist bosentan due to an increase in both endothelial cells and progenitors and may modulate an effect on vascular repair.


We designed an ultra-compact and low-loss T-junction via a reinforcement learning algorithm coupled with finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations. Simulated insertion loss is < 1dB with a device footprint of 1.2 μm × 1.2 μm.


There is a lack of consensus on the cardiometabolic consequences of mild subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) among children. The objective of the current study was to compare lipid profiles in children with mild SCH with those of euthyroid children.


IntroductionIn 1997, while a graduate student, I picked up — with a fair amount of interest and excitement — Donald Bahr, Lloyd Paul and Vincent Joseph's Ants and Orioles. Showing the Art of Pima Poetry1. I was then, and continue to be, deeply interested in what linguistic anthropology might be able to say about verbal art. That book has remained with me — a book I often return to — now for 20 some years. When Acta Fabula asked me to pick a book to write a review about, I replied that I would like to review Ants and Orioles. Why review a twenty‑year old book ? First, as might be suspected, I have for a long time found the book a quite useful thinking through of issues concerning verbal art, poetics and translation. Second, and perhaps the more important reason, given reason number one, I have always been surprised at how little influence the book seems to have had2. So, in many ways, I want to promote a book I have always found useful. Third, and this is only a post factum reason, D. Bahr passed away in October of 2016 and so I wanted to honor his legacy. I only discovered after having agreed to do this review that he had passed away. I did not know D. Bahr well (we exchanged letters in the mid‑2000s) yet I read much of what he has written on O'odham songs and have thought much about it. In the first half of this essay, I'll work through the book because I believe it is only with an understanding of how the argument progresses, that we can get a sense of the value of the book


Background:This study will appraise the impact of pelvic floor ultrasound (PFU) in diagnosis of postpartum pelvic floor dysfunction (PPPFD). Methods:Studies that report the impact of PFU in diagnosis of PPPFD will be examined in Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PSYCINFO, Scopus, Web of Science, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, CNKI, and WANGFANG up to June 1, 2020. Grey literature sources will also be searched. All potential case-controlled studies (CCSs) exploring the impact of PFU in diagnosis of PPPFD will be considered for inclusion in this study. Data will be extracted from eligible CCSs for data pooling and meta-analysis. Whenever necessary, we will also perform summary effect size, heterogeneity across studies, study quality assessment, and reporting bias. Results: The present study will estimate pooled outcome effects regarding the impact of PFU in diagnosis of PPPFD. Conclusion: This study may provide robust evidence to judge the impact of PFU on PPPFD Systematic review registration: PROSPERO CRD42020187623. Abbreviations: CCSs = case-controlled studies, CIs = confidence intervals, PFU = pelvic floor ultrasound, POP = pelvic organ prolapse, PPPFD = postpartum pelvic floor dysfunction, SUI = stress urinary incontinence.


Objetive To find out antibiotics application situation in clean surgery in order to better manage the use of antibiotics.Methods Uses the restrospective investigation methods,93 cases of thyroid/breast/hernia surgery with a clean surgery in our hospital in April 2009 were reviewed retrospectively for antibiotics use.Results 93 cases all(100%) used antibiotics;Average medication time 4.91 d,in which applies drugs 3 d to account for 79.57%,applies drugs 5 d to reach 36.56%,the prevention applies drugs the altogether 5 kinds of 19 kinds,the cephalosporin class accounts for 52.63%,the penicillin class-accounts for 26.32%,the quinolinones accounts for 10.53%.Conclusion There was an unreasonable to use antibiotics in these cases for preventive application and the doctors should be more trained for the use of antibiotics in clean surgery.And more important it is necessary to set up a rule for the use of antibiotics.


Today the mobile operating system Android has a firm grip on the mobile market due to its open source code and the availability due to the variety of phones available, from very cheap models to the high-end exclusive ones. However, Android currently has no defined design pattern which causes a bit of a problem during the initial stages of development because the developer has to make that decision before the initial development starts. This sometimes causes excessive complexity in the finished application, which then becomes difficult to test and manage.In this report we compare the two design patterns Passive Model View Controller (PMVC) and Model View View-Model (MVVM) to decide which one is the least complex. For this we used so called metrics to show the complexity of the finished applications. The metrics were calculated using the existing library of functions called Cyclomatic Complexity Numbers (CCN). The study is based on the workflow Design & creation and aim to contribute with: knowledge that will make it easier to choose design pattern when developing an Android application, and if you can with CCN point out which areas in an application will take more or less time to conduct tests on.During the study we also analyzed how big of an impact the Single Responsibility Principle (SRP) had on the complexity. This was part of the study so that we could see the difference of separated views versus non-separated views.The study shows us that the complexity in small applications is very similar, no matter which design pattern you're using. However, it also shows that there are certain parts of the applications that are diverse in their complexity and that code complexity on method-level can give directions to test cases.


The legal profession is held in poor regard by much of the public. What is not known is whether there is indeed something inherently rotten in the legal profession or whether it acquires a bad reputation due to the isolated bad acts of a few unrepresentative lawyers. In this article, I document the extent of misconduct among American lawyers and investigate its determinants. To do so, I construct a novel dataset of the history of disciplinary actions taken against roughly 1 million lawyers across 19 states. I then use this data to investigate three aspects of lawyer misconduct. First, I document the prevalence of misconduct. I find that 5 percent of lawyers have a misconduct record at some point in their career, and the majority of lawyers with a misconduct record are repeat offenders. Second, I document the patterns of misconduct across lawyer demographics and over changing economic conditions. Rates of misconduct are higher among lawyers who attended lower ranked law schools, among lawyers who practice in areas of the country with vulnerable populations, and when local economic conditions in an area worsen. Third, I investigate the effectiveness of one potential way to deter misconduct: through professional responsibility training. Using states' staggered adoption of a required exam on professional responsibility, I find that requiring lawyers to pass the exam does indeed decrease misconduct.


LFS and MT were supported by the NSF grant No. DMR-
1147430. FPB was funded by MINECO grant FIS2014- 53448-C2-
2-P and by Spanish Consolider-Ingenio 2010 (CPANCSD2007-
00042). LFS and FPB thank Pedro Perez- Fernandez and Jorge
Dukelsky for discussions, as well as the hospitality of Alejandro
Frank and the Centro de Ciencias de la Complejidad (C3) at the
UNAM in Mexico, where part of this work was carried out.


Tobacco habit encountered around the world is fundamentally in the form of tobacco smoking, tobacco snuff and tobacco chewing use, while in India, tobacco is used in the form of bidis (34%), cigarettes (30%), chewing tobacco (19%), hookah (narghile) (9%), cigars and cheroots (5%), and snuff (2%) [1], In Iraq the smokers mostly use either cigarette, or narghile and sometime their combination. The works of many chemists and biologists over the past 50 years have shown the harmful effects of many tobacco components [2]. Today tobacco is the single most common preventable cause of death in the world. In the 20th century, more than 100 million people died worldwide due to use of tobacco and tobacco related products [3]. Even though the pancreas has been reported as one of the first organs pathologically affected by the tobacco smoking, the mechanism of its effect of action is not eventually recognized [4]. The exocrine function of pancreas involves the production of many enzymes used in the digestive process including serum alpha amylase [5]. Tobacco smoke has been pointed out to contain multiple agents with cytotoxic or carcinogenic effects on the exocrine pancreas as well as the existence of a close correlation between cigarette smoking and pancreatic cancer [6]. Moreover cigarette smoking among other reported bad effect on the body has been implicated as a risk factor for the development of pancreatitis, the exact mechanism of which remains controversial [7]. One of the suggested mechanism is the injury to the pancreatic acinar cells causes a complex cascade of events that includes increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) resulting in the oxidation of lipids and proteins and disruption of the pancreatic membrane [7]. On the other hand it was reported that during smoking, free radicals are formed that can activate inflammatory cells which generate high levels of reactive oxygen metabolites [8]. Tobacco smoke contains a stimulant, nicotine, "which is a highly addictive drug such as heroin, or cocaine. Nicotine creates a pleasant feeling which makes the smoker wants to smoke more [9]. A common belief is that smoking reduces aversive effects of stress, particularly negative effect, but there is relatively little behavioral evidence of this [10]. A recent systematic review of attitudes to narghile smoking affirmed this and added that the main motives for its use were socializing, relaxation, pleasure and entertainment [11]. Others believe that stress could increase smoking by dampening responses to nicotine, that is, smokers may smoke more after stress to compensate for attenuated effects [10].


The invention relates to a composition (P) based on wax dilutable in water and containing amphoteric surfactants comprising, as wax (W), an oxidized and optionally partially saponified hydrocarbon wax, or a mixture of such waxes and, as surfactant (A1), at least one amphoteric surfactant which contains a polyethylene glycol chain and optionally other surfactants and other additives. These compositions are suitable as hydrophilic softeners and are compatible with optical brighteners and resin primers.


Review(s) of: The systematic screening and assessment method: finding innovations worth evaluating (New directions for evaluation No. 125), by Laura C Leviton, Laura Kettel Khan and Nicola Dawkins, Publisher/year: Jossey-Bass, San Francisco (an imprint of Wiley) and the American Evaluation Association (AEA), 2010, Extent/type: 123 pages, paperback, Price: A$37.95/NZ$42.99 from Wiley Australia which offers a 15% discount to AES members, ISSN: 1097-6736.


Surprisingly, transportation planners and policy makers do not have the ability to estimate the cost of shipping a quantity of a commodity between two locations for broad categories of goods. Costs of shipping are important components in mode, route, and location choice processes. Good knowledge of costs can aid public sector decision makers in determining the economic benefits of infrastructure improvements or determining the impacts on the private sector of various policies and operational strategies. Shipping costs relate to logistics practices of businesses, and these practices have been changing rapidly in recent years. In this study, the authors inventory cost models that have been used in the past and evaluate the availability of data sets containing shipment cost information. The authors then build a cost model for shipping various commodities and commodity groups by truck and present several examples to show how the model can address issues of interest to carriers, shippers, and governments.


This article examines the progressivity of the educational and health public utilities in Guinea, by using the patterns of consumption from the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) of 2002-2003. The results suggest that the primary public education is more progressive than the secondary and university public education, the medical consultations and the antenatal care in the "centres de sante" and "postes de sante" are better provided than in hospitals. However, we observe an anti-feminine bias in the distribution of benefits pulled (fired) by the supply of the educational public utilities. These research results lead the necessity of making fairer the access to public utilities even if the size of the budget remains constant. They also show that, in spite of the progressivity of the primary and secondary public education, the expansion of their total cover is not a guarantee for the improvement of the equity in the access to these services.


Background In molecular level, competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) regulates other RNA transcripts through competing for shared microRNAs (miRNA). miRNA negatively regulate gene expression at the levels of mRNAs stability and translation suppression. Methods We tested the mRNA level of miR-218-5p and RNASEH1-AS1 in clinical lung squamous cell carcinoma tissues by qRT-PCR. In the exploring of the role of miR-218-5p and RNASEH1-AS1 in the malignant phenotype of NCI-H520 cells, colony formation and MTT assay were used to test the cell viability and proliferation capability, trans-well invasion and wound healing assay were performed to examine the cell migration and invasion. ChIP assay was conducted to confirm the direct interact of POU2F1 and RNASEH1-AS1 promoter. Results In this investigation, we found that LncRNA RNASEH1-AS1 is up-regulated in human lung cancer, and serves as a miRNA sponge for hsa-miR-218-5p in human lung squamous carcinoma cells. lncRNA RNASEH1-AS1 facilitates growth and motility of lung squamous carcinoma cells, while miR-218-5p does the opposite. NET1 and POU2F1 are validated as direct and functional targets of miR-218-5p. The downregulation of miR-218-5p releases the suppression of NET1 and POU2F1. POU2F1 binds directly to the lncRNA-RNASEH1-AS1 promoter and acts as transcription factor to enhance the promoter activity of RNASEH1-AS1. Conclusion Above all, the positive feedback loop of RNASEH1-AS1/ hsa-miR-218-5p/ NET1/ POU2F1 can help us to understand the regulatory mechanism behind genesis and progression of human lung squamous carcinoma, possibly providing new biomarkers for its diagnosis and treatment.


Debris flows can be considered as mixtures of coarse particles dispersed in a viscous matrix, composed of fine sediment and water. Experiments in a rotating drum with a diameter of 2.5m have been carried out to study the flow behaviour of different material mixtures, ranging from granular avalanches to viscous fluids and grain – fluid mixtures of varying sediment concentration and matrix viscosity. The bulk shear stress at the channel boundary was measured for the different mixtures. The macroscopic flow behaviour is described on the basis of the evolution of flow resistance with increasing flow velocity, and is used as a criterion to differentiate between the frictional, viscous, and collisional flow regime. Our results are only in partial agreement with a classification of flow regimes based on threshold values of dimensionless Bagnold and Savage number found in literature.


Two new naphthyl‐containing homologous series of mesogenic ligands, the 4‐n‐alkoxy‐2‐hydroxybenzylidene‐2′‐naphthylamines (series I) and 4(4′‐n‐alkoxybenzoyloxy)‐2‐hydroxybenzylidene‐2″‐naphthylamines (series II), as well as the related metallomesogens of higher homologues containing a Cu(II) atom, have been synthesized. All the ligands and complexes were characterized by a combination of elemental analysis and standard spectroscopic methods. In series I, n‐heptyloxy and n‐octyloxy derivatives are non‐mesogenic whereas the remaining higher members synthesized exhibit a monotropic nematic mesophase. In series II, all the members synthesized exhibit an enantiotropic nematic mesophase. All the metallomesogens of series I synthesized exhibit a monotropic smectic A mesophase, except for the n‐octyloxy derivative, which is non‐mesogenic, whereas metallomesogens of series II exhibit enantiotropic nematic mesophases up to the n‐tetradecyloxy derivatives; the n‐tetradecyloxy and n‐hexadecyloxy derivatives also exhibit smectic C mesophases. All the members of series II and their metallomesogens exhibit mesophases with wide temperature ranges and greater thermal stability as compared to series I and their metallomesogens, respectively. The mesomorphic properties of both the present series and their metallomesogens are compared with each other and with other structurally related series to evaluate the effect of the naphthalene moiety on mesomorphism. † This paper was presented at the 9th International Symposium on Metallomesogens held at Lake Arrowhead, Los Angeles, California, USA, 31 May to 3 June 2005.


Our economy is in a transition state to the market. Definition of the maintenance of stabilization both converting functions and a proper correlation establishment between them is in the present state of affairs very important. Specificity of a place and a state role in a transition period consists that realization of the requirement of maintenance of stabilization occurs at simultaneous realization of the converting measures acting as the factor of destabilization. In work the analysis of a condition of public sector in economy is carried out, existing problems and ways of their decision come to light


The area-based methods, such as using Laplacian pyramid and Fourier transform-based phase matching, benefit by highlighting high spatial frequencies to reduce sensitivity to the feature inconsistency problem in the multisensor image registration. The feature extraction and matching methods are more powerful and versatile to process poor quality IR images. We implement multi-scale hierarchical edge detection and edge focusing and introduce a new salience measure for the horizon, for multisensor image registration. The common features extracted from images of two modalities can be still different in detail. Therefore, the transformation space match methods with the Hausdorff distance measure is more suitable than the direct feature matching methods. We have introduced image quadtree partition technique to the Hausdorff distance matching, that dramatically reduces the size of the search space. Image registration of real world visible/IR images of battle fields is shown.


Abstract
This paper will analytically study the Islamic meaning of akhlaq as portrayed by two Western writers in the article entitled "Akhlak" published in the Encyclopedia of Islam. The author highlights the contribution of Western scholars especially Walzer and Gibb to the understanding of history of the development of Islamic thought and disciplines. By employing the qualitative methodology, the author uses textual analysis and comparative method on the writings of both thinkers and others.  Findings indicate that there are several weaknesses in the writing that include limiting the scope of akhlaq to practical ethics of selected virtues, the lacking of clear detachment between akhlaq and ethical thought, and others.
Key words: Ethics, Akhlaq, Philosophy, Islam, Encyclopedia of Islam.


In recent work by Beeler and Hoilman, the game of peg solitaire is generalized to arbitrary boards. These boards are treated as graphs in the combinatorial sense. Normally, the goal of peg solitaire is to minimize the number of pegs remaining at the end of the game. In this paper, we consider the open problem of determining the maximum number of pegs that can remain at the end of the game, under the restriction that we must jump whenever possible. In this paper, we give bounds for this number. We also determine it exactly for several well-known families of graphs. Several open problems regarding this number are also given.


In the title compound, C16H15BrO4S, the dihedral angle between the thiophene and benzene rings is 13.08 (16)°. The C atoms of the meta methoxy groups of the substituted benzene ring lie close to the plane of the ring [displacements = 0.049 (5) and −0.022 (4) Å], whereas the para-C atom is significantly displaced [−1.052 (4) Å]. In the crystal, molecules are linked by weak C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming C(11) chains propagating in [100].


1. Introduction. Consider a random variable (r.v.) h such that Eh2 l distributed like h. To each t = (tk)k>1 of ?2 one can associate a r.v. XI = Ek>l tkhk. This defines a stochastic process (Xt)t,e2. (By stochastic process we simply mean a collection of r.v.) This process could be called the canonical process associated to h. A long range (and rather ambitious) program would be to understand, given h, for which subsets T of ?2 the process (Xt)tCT is bounded. Let us first discuss the case where h is (centered) Gaussian. The special importance of that case stems from the fact that, for the question of boundedness discussed here, Gaussian processes of the type (Xt)tCT are the most general Gaussian processes. (This fact is closely related to the rotational invariance of Gaussian measures.) For a stochastic process (Xt)tcT, where the set T is possibly uncountable, we set


Single rovibronic levels in the perturbed 1B2(1Δu) state of CS2 molecules in a cold molecular beam were excited by ultraviolet (UV) photons from a frequency doubled single mode continuous wave (cw) dye laser. The dispersed fluorescence spectrum, detected by a liquid nitrogen (LN) cooled charge coupled device (CCD) array behind a monochromator allowed the determination of vibrational term values in the X(1Σg+) state from the (0,00,0) level up to 20 000 cm−1. Based on calculations including Fermi resonances, most of the measured vibrational bands could be assigned to several vibronic ground state level progressions. A statistical analysis of the positions of all measured levels shows for the nearest neighbor distances and the Δ3 statistics a pure Poissonian distribution. This indicates that no strong correlation between neighboring vibrational levels nor long range interactions are present and therefore no chaotic behavior could be found in contrast to the cases of NO2 and SO2.


On June 2013, Joan Vila Dilme was condemned to one hundred and twenty-seven and a half years by the murder of eleven old people at a geriatric residence. His case provoked a strong media effect and he became the most prolific serial killer in Spain on the current century, and the fourth for sixty years before. The goal of this article is to analyze in depth the living process as an important factor in the genesis of these criminal acts. To do so, we study the mental processes associated with motivations, feelings and fantasies. The methodology used is based on the analysis of the forensic reports made by psychological experts and psychiatrists, forensic interviews in prison and the documentary material taken from the crime scene. The results show the presence of disorders in the individual's psychosexual development, like identification with female role and a personality structure marked by his handicap to create stable and secure emotional bonds from his childhood. Both factors affect the individual's emotional development throughout his life, promoting the appearance of anxiety/depression symptoms, frustrations and insecurities. The conclusions show a serial killer, mercy-hero type, whose main motive is determined by the moral need to finish their victims' agony, in order to reduce his own suffering. That's why the lack of sadistic components. The psychosexual disorders, the absence of emotional bonds and the shortage of a stable and autonomous psychological structure, are compensated after beginning his professional activity at the geriatric. His first significant and firm emotional bond in his life appeared then, even though it involved a change in his morality. The analysis of his lifelong process reflects inconsistency and personal ambivalence in his criminal behavior, and allows understanding why the victims were the most important persons in his emotional life.


The piezometric, water table and vulnerability baseline of the outcropping Guaraní Aquifer System (GAS) in the departments of Rivera and Tacuarembó (Uruguay) is presented. The flow network and chemical composition are essential to understanding underground dynamics and identifying recharge and discharge zones, preferential flow directions, and determining hydraulic gradients. It is essential to analyze its evolution in time and space from the baseline, for the management and protection of the resource. Vulnerability was determined by applying the GOD and EKv methods, obtaining similar results, with areas of high and moderate vulnerability in most of the studied area. The risk of groundwater contamination was determined using the method of Foster & Hirata(34), obtaining high risk for potentially polluting loads from lack of sanitation, solid household waste, irregular settlements, and gas stations, in areas of moderate and high vulnerability. Industrial and mining activity and a cemetery represent a moderate risk in most cases. Having maps of vulnerability and risk of groundwater contamination is essential to identify the most vulnerable areas and implement detailed study, control, and protection tools aimed at conserving and mitigating impacts on GAS.


One and two component velocity measurements were made in smooth laminar falling liquid films formed on the exterior of a vertical column using laser-Doppler velocimetry (LDV). Solutions of water and propylene glycol were used to create thick films and allow room for relatively large traverses of the measuring probe volume. These viscous solutions yielded smooth laminar films at Reynolds numbers as high as 4997, contrary to commonly accepted criteria for transition between falling film regimes. Measurement of the Reynolds stress verified that these films were indeed laminar. Modeling was performed via the integral momentum approach adapted to cylindrical coordinates with the assumption of a velocity profile preserved along the film development region. Velocity predictions varied from experimental results by less than 12.5% while film thickness predictions were within 8.7%.


The entertainment industry is part of the growing service sector in the state and national economy. The industry both creates employment opportunities and contributes to the quality of life within communities. To fully grow the entertainment industry, however, a city requires appropriate venues to host entertainment events. In the City of Lincoln, Nebraska, there has been a recent proposal to develop a new arena facility for this growing City. The following report addresses some of the economic consequences of developing a new arena in Lincoln. In particular, the report estimates the potential economic impact of the proposed project, that is, the net increase in business receipts, employment and income the project can bring to Lincoln. Analysis is conducted both for the construction phase of the project as well as the annual impact when the proposed arena is in operation.


Objective: Serum ferritin is known as a marker for iron deficiency anemia and for used to indicate disease activity and severity in various diseases. In this study, serum level of ferritin with inflammatory markers in patients with respiratory symptoms presenting to emergency department(ED) were measured and compared to confirm ferritin as a diagnostic and prognostic marker for pneumonia. Methods: A prospective, observational study was conducted in 184 patients presented to a tertiary care ED with respiratory symptoms including dyspnea, chest discomfort and/or fever from March to July 2017. Serum WBC, hemoglobin, CRP, ferritin, procalcitonin, LDH were measured upon admission to ED. The patients were divided into survivor and non-survivor groups and compared. Results: Among 184 patients, 139(75.5%) patients survived (survivor group) and 45 (24.5%) patients died within 28 days (non-survivor group). WBC, CRP, ferritin, pro-BNP and lactate were higher in non-survival group compared to survivor groups. Although ferritin level was higher in non-survival group, ferritin did not show superiority as a prognostic marker compared to procalcitonin using ROC curve. Conclusion: Increased serum ferritin level in patients presenting ED may be used as a diagnostic marker for pneumonia. However, ferritin did ferritin did not show superiority as a diagnostic marker for pneumonia compared to procalcitonin.


The upcoming stringent environmental aircraft regulations and the environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework targeting net zero emissions has forced aircraft manufacturers to seek innovative feasible technical solutions. Often, there is the need to consider entirely radical solutions, such as hybrid-electric aircraft, which are not fully understood when compared with conventional kerosene driven aircraft. The recent development of a probabilistic set-based multidisciplinary optimisation methodology has demonstrated the ability to explore trade-offs when the requirements are uncertain. In this way, the weaknesses and potential to enable the feasibility of hybrid-electric aircraft can be studied from a systems perspective but maintaining the connection with more detailed trade-off studies of components of the sub-systems. We have developed an interactive interface, where the user is guided through the steps of the design methodology and the produced data is visualised to aid an informative decision-making process. In our illustrative case study, decision-makers are enabled to interactively explore the hybrid-electric propulsion design space while considering the impact to the figures of merit from expected improvements in the coming years of key enabling technologies, such as energy storage.


Ye Yusen's study achievement on inscription on animal bones and tortoise shells is outstanding.As for himself,he is very diligent and has a firm and sincere aim,with abundant unique interpretation.His study has a more important influence on the later study on inscription on animal bones and tortoise shells and his study mainly displays two aspects: one is writing textual research and explication,the other is synthetic study.


Designing multimodal freight transport networks can facilitate the economic development of regions and countries as well as help to reduce negative environmental impacts. It is therefore crucial that such be undertaken in areas where more priority is given on road-based freight transport systems. This paper proposes a model for strategic transport planning, particularly in freight terminal development and interregional freight transport network design. The model determines a suitable set of actions from a number of possible actions, such as improving the existing infrastructure or establishing new roads, railways, sea links, and freight terminals. Modelling is undertaken within the framework of bilevel programming, where a multimodal multiclass user traffic assignment technique is incorporated within the lower-level problem, whilst the upper-level problem determines the best combination of actions such that the freight-related benefit-cost ratio is maximised. The upper-level problem involves combinatorial optimisation, and a heuristic approach based on genetic local search is applied as a solution technique. Empirical results of the model as applied to an actual large-sized interregional intermodal freight transport network show that genetic local search could provide better performance as compared to other genetic algorithm-based, as well as tabu search-based, heuristics. The model is successfully applied to transport network planning in the Philippines, where the development of a freight transport network is necessary to increase the utilisation of other modes rather than road-based vehicles.


There are many investment opportunities in a society that are not taken advantage because their benefits cannot be appropriated by the private sector, but which could generate positive externalities of undoubted benefit to society. Therefore, it is a matter of creating public-private schemes that guarantee the appropriateness of these externalities by private agents, and which therefore trigger virtuous circles of economic growth that are beneficial to society.

In this sense, this work evaluates an infrastructure construction program through public-private partnerships, using a Dynamic Computable Recursive General Equilibrium Model, which explains in detail the functioning of the Colombian economy. The model considers formal and informal markets, monopolistic competition, and includes heterogeneous companies, using a Melitz type model

The emphasis of the modeling is on 3 aspects: 1) short-term effects associated with the impact of investment in roads on the level of economic activity; 2) the inclusion of externalities in production functions, to capture supply and productivity effects; and 3) the careful and detailed modeling of public debt, including endogenous revenues that reflect productive activity, the financial costs of borrowing and the payment of investment through future budgetary commitments.

The results of a base scenario, which projects the Colombian economy over a 20-year horizon, are compared with an alternative scenario that simulates the effect of investing 73.5 trillion Colombian pesos in 2017 over 9 years. In the alternative, the program of execution of the works is adjusted so that they are carried out between the years 2020 and 2028 and paid in full on the projection horizon (2018-2037). All possible effects are incorporated into the projection horizon, extinguishing the commitments acquired by the government with the program, and thus closing the investment-payment cycle in the horizon used.


Technology is advancing at an incredible rate, and the number of people using that technology is constantly on the rise. The number of people worldwide who have access to the Internet has grown over 566% from the year 2000 to the year 2012. Access to the Internet means having an incredible amount of resources right at your fingertips. Things that used to be done in person are moving more and more into the digital world. People keep in touch with old friends, send messages, buy clothes and food, play games, and start businesses all over the Internet. As with almost everything else, though, new technologies can be used for bad along with good. Alongside seeing family from across oceans and keeping in touch with friends from elementary school, people have begun to use the internet for online stalking and bullying, sharing of copyrighted and contraband material, and finding victims for illegal activity that will be conducted both on and offline. Because of this, it is important to have a way to legally intercept communication sent over these new technologies to both catch bad guys and prevent crimes from happening. The government has strict laws regarding interception. It is not as widely-or easily-done as television shows would like you to believe, but sometimes it is necessary. There are limitations on what, how, and how long a law enforcement officer may intercept a person's communications that stop them from just tapping everyone's phones and sniffing everyone's Internet traffic. As technology advances, though, these are not the only obstacles they face. It is getting harder to keep up with new technologies. It is important to find ways to intercept online communication when the need arises. Finding new ways to intercept technology includes things that range from writing new laws, changing a company's policy, developing and adapting technology, and everything in between. While the computer forensics community has tried to develop tools and techniques to analyze computers and phones as they are being introduced, it is sometimes difficult to keep up with all of the new things being put out there. The computer forensics field is still growing, and compared to the number of people around the world that are constantly developing new programs and launching new technologies, it is almost miniscule. Just like with security, computer forensics is rarely one of the first priorities of a developer of a new technology. In some …


in the case where f(x) = sin x (the simple pendulum), f(x) = x (the simple harmonic motion equation) and/(x) = 1/x (the acceleration due to gravity). For example, a solution of this differential equation may be used in the case of gravity to compute the time a free falling body takes to return to Earth. In describing an appropriate science and technology for a two-dimensional world it has been suggested that the inverse square law be replaced by a plain inverse law. In this case we would be dealing with the dynamical equation


With manual and mechanical equipment stack-turning,chicken manure and bacteria bran were as raw materials for preparation of mirobial compoud fertilizer.Key indicators change in process of high temperature composting fermentation were studied,which would provide an effective method for resource utilization of animal manure.The experiment results showed that: In the whole compost cycles,the change of organic matter content appeared the trend of gradual decline and temperature changes reached the maximum temperature 65 ℃ in a short time and kept the high temperature stage about 60 ℃ in 8-10 d,and then temperature droped.The nutrient test of the product at the former fermentation and after fermentation analysis showed that,the organic matter reduced from 46.0% to 41.2%,total nutrient remained basically unchanged but the total of phosphorus and total potassium increased slightly and water droped from 35.82% to 25.40%,which accorded with the national NY/T798—2004 "Microbial Compound Fertilizer" standards requirements.


We have recently described the occurrence among Caucasians of a genetically determined polymorphism in respect of the alicycic hydroxylation of the antihypertensive drug, debrisoquine (Mahgoub, Idle, Dring, Lancaster & Smith, 1977). About 6% of British Caucasians exhibit a defect for this reaction (PM phenotype) while the remainder are extensive hydroxylators of the drug (EM phenotype). Subsequently, it has been shown that PM subjects are also relatively defective in respect of the oxidative de-ethylation of phenacetin and the aromatic hydroxylation of guan-


Double-flower ornamental crabapples display eye-catching morphologies in comparison to single flower, but the genetic basis of double-flower development is not yet well known in apples. In order to comprehensively understand the differential expression of genes (DEGs) between single and double flower, the transcriptome of double flower crabapples Malus Kelsey, Malus micromalus, Malus Royalty, and a single flower cultivar Malus Dolgo were compared by RNA-sequencing. The results showed that there were 1854 genes in overlapped DEGs among all sample comparisons in apple single and double flower varieties. A large number of development and hormone related DEGs were also recognized on the basis of GO and KEGG annotations, and most of the genes were found to be down-regulated in double flowers. Particularly, an AGL24-MADS-box gene (MD08G1196900) and an auxin responsive gene (MD13G1137000) were putatively key candidate genes in the development of double flower by weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). The study provides insights into the complex molecular mechanism underlying the development of the double flower in apple.


Since the late 1950s Marvin Charton, physical organic chemist, of Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York has studied structure-property relationships through correlation analysis, and has become one of the leading authorities in this field.


A new subsurface CW (continuous wave) interference radar having the great advantage of detecting a fine shallow target is presented. The horizontal location of the target submerged in a dissipative half-space may be detected easily by using the symmetry of the measured electric field pattern. A simple relationship between the field pattern and the depth of the target is derived and confirmed with experimental results.


Road traffic safety is a key concern of transport management as it has severely restricted Chinese economic and social development. With the objective to prevent and reduce road traffic crashes, this study proposes a comprehensive spatiotemporal analysis method that integrates the time-space cube analysis, spatial autocorrelation analysis, and emerging hot spot analysis for exploring the traffic crash evolution characteristics and identifying crash hot spots. These analyses are all conducted by the corresponding toolbox of ArcGIS 10.5. Then, a small sized-city of China (i.e., Wujiang) is selected as the case study, and the historical traffic crash data occurring at the road intersections of Wujiang for the year 2016 are analyzed by the proposed method. The analysis process identifies the high incidence locations of traffic crashes, then presents the spatial change trend and statistical significance of the crash locations. Finally, different types of crash hotspots, as well as their evolution patterns over time, are determined. The results illustrate that the traffic crash hotspots of road intersections are primarily distributed in the Northeast area of Wujiang's major urban area, while the crash cold spots are concentrated in the Southwest of Wujiang, which points out the direction for crash prevention. In addition, the finding has a potential engineering application value, and it is of great significance to the sustainable development of Wujiang.


A method to estimate turbulent eddy viscosity and thermal diffusivity during a four-dimensional variational data assimilation process is proposed to retrieve microscale atmospheric boundary layer flow structures. Vertical profiles of eddy viscosity and thermal diffusivity are treated as part of control variables in data assimilation to circumvent subgrid-scale modeling and laborious parameter tuning. These profiles are optimal in that they lead to best data fitting. The proposed method is validated and evaluated by conducting two sets of identical twin experiments. In one set, profiles of viscosity and/or diffusivity are assumed to be the only control variables and are recovered accurately. The other set aims to recover profiles as well as initial velocity and temperature fields. The proposed method accurately recovers eddy viscosity. The optimized parameters also improve retrieved velocity and temperature data quality compared to approaches using prespecified parameters. Issues of initial guess, observat...


Sequences, Series, and Limits.- Sequences.- Series.- Limits of Functions.- Qualitative Properties of Continuous and Differentiable Functions.- Continuity.- Differentiability.- Applications to Convex Functions and Optimization.- Convex Functions.- Inequalities and Extremum Problems.- Antiderivatives, Riemann Integrability, and Applications.- Antiderivatives.- Riemann Integrability.- Applications of the Integral Calculus.- Basic Elements of Set Theory.


Abstract Sex estimation models form a vital part in Forensic human identification but they are usually population-specific. This study aimed to develop and test sex estimation models for a Ghanaian population using percutaneous lengths of the femur (FL) and ulna (UL). The study was cross-sectional from June to July 2020, involving 99 adults (male: 52, females: 47), aged between 19 and 31 years. The lengths of the femur and ulna were measured using standard anthropometric techniques. All measurements were taken twice from the left side and then averaged. The sample was randomly divided into training (n = 60) and holdout (n = 39) samples before been analysed using discriminant function analysis (DFA). Cross-population studies were performed to test the reliability of the models. Males had longer femur and ulna than females (p < 0.001). Sex estimation accuracies from all the models ranged from 68.2% to 81.8% for males and 52.9% to 86.7% for females. The standardized mean difference (SMD: Cohen's d) by sample type ranged from −0.19 to 3.08 (living samples), 0.19 to 4.73 (cadaveric samples) and 0.30 to 5.46 (skeletal samples). The SMD by population type were: Africa, excluding Mixed or White ethnicities (d= −0.02 to 3.08), Asia (d = 0.83 to 4.85) and Europe or the Americas (d = 0.30 to 3.38). When other population-specific models were tested on the holdout sample, the difference in the average sex estimation accuracy ranged from 0 to 25.6%. Sex estimation models from the lengths of the femur and ulna are specific to a the studied population and the type of sample used.


Let me start by saying how significant it is for me to take part in this conference commemorating and celebrating Stanley Cavell. I am grateful to Cathleen Cavell and Richard Moran for this opportunity, not only to speak, but mainly to listen to dear friends, friends whose companionship was indelibly marked by our common love for Stanley, by the admiration for his thinking, and by the inspiration and sustenance he provided for our own work.
What I will say will be inflected by the way Stanley touched my life and work. I must apologize therefore for having to speak, in the short and precious time I have, also a bit about myself. As I wrote these remarks I thought that I will most likely not be the only one to choose to speak of the ideal, the paradigm of the unity of person and thought that is Stanley Cavell. It is what was so striking to me when I first encountered him; it also became central to my dissertation project with him, and it remains to this day that through which I think of his continuous presence in my concerns with philosophy.


The contributions of bound-state excitations and continuum ionizations to the total inelastic (sum-rule) cross section are examined in Born approximation. The results of an investigation of this problem for the case of one-electron ions colliding with neutral atoms are presented. Emphasis in this work is placed on the general features of these types of cross sections and on the relative contributions of excitation and ionization to the total Born cross section. In addition, extensive numerical results for the parameters which determine the cross sections for electron loss, and for excitation to bound states, are given for one-electron ions having atomic numbers up to 30 colliding with He, N, and Ar target atoms. It is shown that for the asymptotic (high-velocity) Born cross sections, excitation never contributes more than a certain fraction of the total sum-rule inelastic cross section, and this fraction has a bound which is determined by the dipole limit of the transition amplitudes for the incident ion. This bound is given by M/sub ex//sup 2//M/sub tot//sup 2/, where M/sub tot//sup 2/ is the -1 energy moment of the dipole-oscillator-strength distribution and M/sub ex//sup 2/ is the contribution to this moment from transitions to bound excited states. This resultmore » is independent of the target atom involved in the collision. Since M/sub ex//sup 2//M/sub tot//sup 2/ does not depend on the atomic number for one-electron ions, this bound is also independent of the incident-ion atomic number in this case. As a consequence, ionization never contributes less to the sum-rule cross sections than the fraction (1-M/sub ex//sup 2//M/sub tot//sup 2/) = M/sub ion//sup 2//M/sub tot//sup 2/. The more general problem, which involves multielectron ions (or atoms) colliding with atoms, is discussed from several viewpoints, and similar results are suggested for that case. In particular, separate upper bounds on the Born-excitation cross section, and lower bounds on the Born electron-loss cross section, are proposed.« less


Development is the permanent pursuit for mankind,but we won't ignore the crises brought about by the development.For example,economic development is pounding at traditonal national culture.Tradional national culture is the broad foundation for social development,and is also the fundamental resources for changes and reform.To safeguard traditional national culture is to safeguard history,national confidence and the foundation of national development.The development course in the western developed countries have proved it and give us great enlighhenment.


Influenced by the contact explosion shock,the reinforced concrete slabs are the main structural components of a protective structure under the blast loads.The explosion contact resistance performance of 5 different steel ratio high strength RC two-way slabs and 5 common RC two-way slabs were experimentally studied to explore the mode of failure mechanism.Explosion cratering,explosion spalling and explosion perforating.The contact explosion damage feature and local damage effects of the two kinds of slabs were also systematically analyzed.The experimental results indicate that raising the strength grade of steel bar and steel ratio can enhance the explosion resistance performance of RC slab.Preliminary analysis of the main influence factors on explosion cratering and structure spalling can provide a reference for the design of local damage resisting structures and development shielding covers for protection engineering.


Mining mineral resources destroys environment very much, the cost of resuming and governing is high, so the enterprises of mining mineral resources are difficult to pay the expense for governing environment on their own, and ecological environment is deteriorated seriously in the area of mining mineral resources. So this thesis discusses to be sure that we can resume and govern environment in the process of producing mineral resources through establishing the special fund of mining mineral resources from the view of stabilizing of environment protection fund.


BACKGROUND
Eyebrow rejuvenation is a common cosmetic concern among patients presenting to dermatologists. Due to increased patient demand for non-invasive procedures, multiple non-surgical, and minimally invasive eyebrow rejuvenation techniques have been developed.

OBJECTIVE
This review aims to highlight the various non-surgical eyebrow rejuvenation therapeutic techniques described in the medical literature. Methods & Materials: A review of published articles on non-surgical and minimally invasive eyebrow rejuvenation using neurotoxins, fillers, lasers, threads, bimatoprost solution, and tattooing was conducted using the PubMed database.

RESULTS
Currently available non-surgical options for eyebrow rejuvenation include neuromodulators, fillers, laser resurfacing, radiofrequency, and minimally invasive procedures such as tattooing and brow lift using threading.

CONCLUSION
The eyebrow is a complex and dynamic region. A thorough understanding of the anatomy of the supraorbital region and familiarity with available, minimally invasive treatment options is essential to tailor an individualized approach consisting of one or more treatments to achieve optimal rejuvenation outcomes. J Drugs Dermatol. 2021;20(9):970-978. doi:10.36849/JDD.6188.


Background. Despite the availability of effective vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), the emergence of variant strains and breakthrough infections pose a challenging new reality. Booster vaccinations are needed to maintain vaccine-induced protection. Methods. ENSEMBLE2 is an ongoing, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 pivotal trial including crossover vaccination after emergency authorization of Covid-19 vaccines. Adults aged [≥]18 years were randomized to receive Ad26.COV2.S or placebo as a primary dose plus a booster dose at two months. The primary endpoint was vaccine efficacy against the first occurrence of molecularly-confirmed moderate to severe-critical Covid-19 with onset [≥]14 days after booster vaccination in the per-protocol population. Key efficacy, safety, and immunogenicity endpoints were also assessed. Results. The double-blind phase enrolled 31,300 participants, 14,492 of whom received 2 doses and were evaluable for efficacy (per-protocol set, Ad26.COV2.S n=7,484; placebo n=7,008). Baseline demographics and characteristics were balanced. Vaccine efficacy was 75.2% (adjusted 95% CI, 54.6-87.3) against moderate to severe-critical Covid-19 and was similar against symptomatic infection (75.6% [55.5-99.9]). Efficacy was consistent across participants with and without comorbidities, and reached 93.7% (58.5-99.9) in the US. Vaccine efficacy against severe-critical Covid-19 was 100% (32.6-100.0; 0 vs 8 cases). The booster vaccine induced robust humoral responses and exhibited an acceptable safety profile. Conclusions. A homologous Ad26.COV2.S booster administered 2 months after primary single-dose vaccination in adults led to high vaccine efficacy, including against any symptomatic infection and SARS-CoV-2 variants prevalent during the study. (Funding: Janssen Research and Development and others; ENSEMBLE2 ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04614948.)