Lesions of the rotator cuff (RC) are among the most frequent tendon injuries. In spite of the developments in both open and arthroscopic surgery, RC repair still very often fails. In order to reduce the failure rate after surgery, several experimental in vitro and in vivo therapy methods have been developed for biological improvement of the reinsertion. This article provides an overview of the current evidence for augmentation of RC reconstruction with growth factors. Furthermore, potential future therapeutic approaches are discussed. We performed a comprehensive search of the PubMed database using various combinations of the keywords "tendon," "rotator cuff," "augmentation," "growth factor," "platelet-rich fibrin," and "platelet-rich plasma" for publications up to 2011. Given the linguistic capabilities of the research team, we considered publications in English, German, French, and Spanish. We excluded literature reviews, case reports, and letters to the editor.


In the light of several problems in arch dam design,such as relation between calculation and design,adit exploration,geologic condition and dam abutment stability,that the attention should be paid in design is described and the explanation by examples carried out.


Biomaterials play a crucial rôle in the development of engineered tissues and organs. In récent years, great efforts hâve been made to optimize the physical, chemical and particularly biological properties of scaffolds to be used for différent requirements including biomédical applications. Electrically conducting polypyrrole (PPy) and its composite materials are useful to interface electrical components and cells or living tissues. Efforts hâve been made to bioactivate PPy by electrochemically incorporating biomolecules such as heparin and hyaluronic acid. This method is however limited by its small size of électrode, its lack of processability, dénature of biomolecules during electrochemical reaction, and change the mechanical integrity and conductivity of PPy. The main objective of this work was to chemically bioactivate polypyrrole particules by incorporating biomolecules like fibronectin (FN) and bovine sérum albumin (BSA). This material may be useful in tissue engineering as conducting bioactive and biodégradable scaffold for multiple in vitro and in vivo applications.


Proteins of pathogens whether prepared as inactivated viruses/bacteria or recombinantly produced can potentially act as vaccines. However, a recombinant protein alone is usually not immunogenic enough to evoke meaningful antibody production in human bodies, which leads to the formulation with a proper adjuvant. Currently, either aluminum hydroxide or aluminum phosphate is used in the most of adjuvanted vaccines in the market. Considering that the both aluminum salts are prone to aggregation upon freeze in the cold chain, the vaccine formulations with aluminum salts can be greatly stabilized in the absence of water. Since proteins in general become more stable upon heat shocks as well when they are in a solid state drying approaches in vaccine formulation can also be justified. As a part of continued efforts to prove the concept, here we report the stabilization and characterization of Ebola glycoprotein adjuvanted with aluminum hydroxide by lyophilization.


Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) and X. oryzae pv. oryzicola (Xoc), causal agents of bacterial leaf blight (BLB) and bacterial leaf streak (BLS), respectively, are pests transmitted by seeds and suffer restriction on international rice trade, because are absent in many countries and have potential to compromise seriously rice production. Twenty-one isolates from rice seeds from Uruguay and Argentina, Gram negative, oxidase positive, with typical yellow pigmentation of genus Xanthomonas and positive in ELISA for Xoo, were characterized to determine their association with X. oryze pathovars. Isolates were characterized by biochemical, biological and antibiogram methods. PCR and qPCR analyzes were performed to confirm genus Xanthomonas and identification of Xoo and Xoc. Characterization of 21 Xanthomonas sp. isolates positive on ELISA to Xoo, showed variability among isolates and distinction of Xo.


Experts in the field contribute detailed discussions of the fundamentals of refrigeration, liquefaction, storage and handling of cryogenic fluids in these two volumes. Emphasis is placed on helium, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and liquified natural gas (LNG). New and updated information resulting from the great expansion of cryogenic technology and its applications is presented. Applications of the fundamentals to small scale laboratory situations and to large scale installations such as those associated with the international commerce of LNG are considered. Also included are discussions on applications of superconducting, and space and magnetic refrigeration systems.


Using a mobile station subscription to the GSM network Newark is roaming into a CDMA network and authenticated to use the CDMA network is the secret data shared to encrypt the message with no subscription to the CDMA network to be authenticated and encrypted between the CDMA network and the GSM network do. Using the GSM authentication credentials prove (credential) object of the GSM subscriber identity in the CDMA network is achieved by replacing key Kc as SSD-A messages are encrypted by replacing the CAVE algorithm using Kc as SSD-B.


The section which represents a part of a larger fragment of the variable part of pig immunoglobulin λ-chains is constituted by two peptides (18 residues and 4 residues) of variable character. These peptides were fractionated and their amino acid sequence determined. At certain positions two to four different amino acids were found. There is a close relation between the found amino acid sequence

Ala-Thr-Leu-Thr-Ile-Thr-Gly-Ala-Gln-Ala-Glu-Asp-Glu-Ala-Asp-Tyr-Phe-Cys-Ala-Leu-Tyr-Lys

Ala Leu Ala Asn Ser Gly Arg Gly Gly Thr Gly and the amino acid sequence of the corresponding region of human type L Bence-Jones proteins.


Many readers are probably already familiar with this book, which was published in an earlier version by Bibliotheca Islamica in 1988. That edition suffered somewhat from two problems: a less than beautiful publication format and a rather inefficient distribution system that made it difficult to acquire. Anyone interested in Islamic history should be thankful that it is now available in an attractively printed, reasonably priced, and easily obtained edition from the Princeton University Press. The author has also made substantial revisions to the book since its initial publication. There are, for example, perhaps 15 percent more entries in the expanded bibliographical index. The entries have also been rearranged in a more truly alphabetical listing, though there are still a few confusing inconsistencies in this regard. Most of the new items are updated to include publications that appeared in the midto late-1980s. Some older classics (such as three books by Carl Becker) that were overlooked in the earlier edition are now included. In addition, the entries dealing with Islamic law have been much expanded to include a number of books on Shiite fiqh. The main narrative has been adjusted accordingly. The title of the book is perhaps something of a misnomer. As the author readily admits, the chronological coverage is limited to the period 600-1500, and the geographical focus is clearly on the Middle East, with little or no material about Islamic Africa, India, China, or Southeast Asia. Nonetheless, this volume is superior to many earlier bibliographical surveys in several respects. Humphreys makes a definite effort not to see the history of the Islamic Middle East through an overwhelmingly Arab and Sunni filter; Turks and Iranians, as well as Shiism, receive attention. He realizes that urban high culture does not constitute the only aspect of Islamic history and civilization worthy of attention; he recognizes the significance of rural and agrarian interests, and he pays attention to groups such as peasants and non-Muslims who are often left faceless and voiceless in presentations of Islamic history. He also appreciates the importance of the contributions of scholars from the region itself and does not limit himself to Western scholarship or works only in European languages. The thematic coverage in the book is commendably broad. There are chapters on basic reference and source materials as well as on the pitfalls and difficulties involved in working with early Muslim historiography. Additional chapters include analysis of topics in political, economic, cultural, and social history; the rise of the Islamic polity and the Abbasid revolution, concepts of political theory and ideology, fiscal administration, the role of the ulema, and Islamic law, among other things. Moreover, Humphreys's comments about individual authors and their ideas are always incisive and judicious.


The standard framework within which cosmological measurements are confronted and interpreted nowadays, called Lambda Cold Dark Matter, presents a Universe dominated by unknown forms of energy and matter.
My Thesis is devoted to investigate the distribution of dark matter in galaxies and addresses the fact that the local universe-the small objects that orbit galaxies and the galaxy cores-turns out to be a marvelous laboratory for examining the nature of dark matter and the fundamental physics involved in structure formation and evolution.
I develop tests, based on mass modeling of rotation curves, for the validation of dark matter models on galactic scales. These tests have been applied in analyzing the phenomenology of the cusp vs core controversy, and the phenomenon of non-Keplerian rotation curves as modification of the laws of gravity. I further investigate the properties and scaling laws of dark matter halos.
My conclusion is that galactic observations provide strong imprints on the nature of dark matter.


The investigation of stress‐induced voiding (SIV) is one of the key aspects to characterize metallization reliability. Typical test methodologies include the investigation of resistance shifts during temperature storage tests at temperatures between 150° C to 275° C. During these tests, only very small resistance increases dependent on the test structure are allowed. Physical failure analysis of such samples typically reveals voids below the vias of the test structures. However, recently we encountered unusual resistance shifts at the highest stress temperature which did not yield classical stress‐induced voiding detectable by failure analysis. We found changes in barrier integrity explaining the resistance shift by barrier oxidization. This has been verified by specially prepared material as well as extensive failure analysis investigation.


LTE (Long Term Evolution) is the last step towards the 4th generation (4G) of radio technologies, therefore seen as a high priority for the operators in the deployment of future telephony networks. Most of today's operator revenues come from Voice and SMS services, making Voice and SMS over LTE the first services to be offered to customers in the 4G networks. This paper discusses different technologies for Voice over LTE, comparing the requirements and benefits for the operator as well as for the end-user. Both the solutions based on open standards (3GPP, TISPAN) and non-standardized solutions are discussed, although the priority is given to the standards-based solutions.


Background: Capsule endoscopy is a highly sensitive examination for the detection of small bowel lesions. However, lesions can be missed due to rapid or delayed small bowel transit. The objective of this study was to determine whether the diagnostic yields vary according to intestinal transit times. Methods: In patients with complete small intestinal mucosa evaluation were assessed after negative upper and lower endoscopy, positive findings could be established in twenty-six of 49 cases (53.1%), which included angiodysplasias, active bleeding, ulcers and tumors. The mean intestinal transit time for all patients was 258.3±67.2 minutes. The patients were divided into two groups: faster than mean intestinal transit time (Group Ⅰ) and slower than mean intestinal transit time (Group Ⅱ). The intestinal transit time was analyzed by computerized software SPSS, comparisons between both groups were carried out using x^2 test. Results: The intestinal transit time were 199.6±37.4 minutes in group I and 310.2±38.2 minutes in group Ⅱ. Diagnostic yields were 47.8% in group Ⅰ and 57.7% in group Ⅱ (p=0.69). Conclusion: The diagnostic yields of capsule endoscopy did not significantly increase for group Ⅱ than group Ⅰ. However, the higher diagnostic yield is obtained in patients with slower intestinal transit time.


Unintentional injuries are recognized by the World Health Organization and the European Union as a preventable public health problem contributing to mortality and morbidity burden and expression in the emergency department (ED). According to EuroSafe injury is the fourth most common cause of death within the EU, being the leading cause of death in the youngest.
 Whereas injury related fatalities is only a part of the problem and more patients require hospital treatment it is essential measure the size of the injury problem and characteristics of these non-fatal injuries. Information from Injury Data-Base reveals that the majority of injury related ED attendances and hospital admissions result from accidents occur in home and during leisure times. So, the aim of this study it was to know the proportion of Home and Leisure Accidents (HLA) which needed attendance in the emergency rooms of the Hospitals National Health, in Portugal Mailand, in 2019.
 For the analysis were considered the total number of NHS health entities that have an ED, SONHO information system and National injury surveillance system - EVITA System. Based on hospital emergency records in 2019, was obtained the total number of victims by HLA who needed assistance in this health services. In 2019, there were 526 786 ED attendances due to HLA, so about 11,3% of hospital ED attendances in mainland Portugal were caused by HLA. Globally, it was observed a proportion of HLA with admission in ED higher in males (12,9%) than females (10,1%). Disaggregating the data by age group, it was possible to observe a preponderance of males in victims aged less than or equal to 54 years. On the other hand, females showed a higher proportion in individuals aged 55 and over.
 Additionally, victims aged 75 and over had the highest proportion of hospital admissions by HLA, both in females (15,5%) and males (13,1%). This study represented a relevant advance contributing to the revelation of the dimension of this problem in Portugal.

 The National Injury Surveillance System provides information that allows to know the dimension of this health problem in mainland Portugal. HLA represents 11,3 % of the total hospital ED attendances. HLA are the predominant cause of injury related ED attendances. Males and females have a different proportions of injury. Males aged 54 years and over have higher proportion of HLA than females.


Introduction . Patients suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) demonstrate various degrees of therapeutic effect after treatment using tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI). The response is determined by the presence or absence of mutations in the BCR-ABL gene, as well as by the mutation type. Aim . To establish the prognostic value of polymorphic variants of genes involved in the metabolism of TKI — CYP3A5 and hOCT1 — in patients with CML in the Republic of Bashkortostan (RB). Materials and methods . A series of genetic studies was performed in 114 patients with a clinically and cytogenetically established diagnosis of chronic myeloleukemia (CML), among whom 55 and 59 were men and women, respectively, with the median age of 43 years, from 14 to 76 years. All the patients received TKI treatment according to national clinical guidelines and European Leukemia Net criteria. In order to compare patients with different treatment efficiencies, a group of 64 patients resistant to the therapy was formed. The groups under comparison were similar in gender and age. An analysis of polymorphic DNA loci of the hOCT1 and CYP3A5 genes was carried out using polymerase chain reaction of DNA synthesis and RFLP analysis followed by electrophoresis in 7–8 % polyacrylamide gel. Results . No significant differences were found in the frequency distribution of alleles and genotypes of the rs776746 polymorphic locus of the isoenzyme P3A5 cytochrome p450 (CYP3A5) gene (p > 0.05) between CML patients with different TKI treatment efficiencies. When comparing the frequency distribution of alleles and genotypes of the rs683369 polymorphic variant in the (hOCT1) organic cation carrier gene, the *C*C genotype was established to be statistically significantly more frequent in patients with an optimal response to treatment compared to those treatment resistant. The frequency of occurrence of the *С*G genotype was almost two times higher in CML patients resistant to therapy and comprised 42.86 %, compared to the group of patients with an optimal response to TKI treatment with the value of 21.88 %. Conclusions . In CML patients, in contrast to rs776746 of the CYP3A5 gene, the study of the rs683369 polymorphic locus of the hOCT1 gene has a prognostic value for assessing the efficacy of TKI treatment. The frequency of occurrence of the *C*G genotype was significantly higher in CML patients resistant to TKI therapy, while the G*G* genotype was less common and associated with the shortest life expectancy. The presence of the C*C* genotype was favourable for the overall survival of patients.


This paper analyzes local-global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) accounting reporting practices in Egyptian financial institutions' annual reports and websites. Also, it explores ways forward the Egyptian Corporate Governance (CG) code can enhance CSR accounting reporting after two revolutions. A content analysis is conducted on the annual reports and websites of various banks (public, private and joint venture, branches of foreign banks). The employed disclosure index uses the European Social Justice Index (ESJI), Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI), literature, and a pilot review of Egyptian banks' annual reports and websites. The results indicate that western CSR reporting practices in Egyptian banks' annual reports and websites have hegemony over local concerns of CSR such as zakat fund, quard hassan, public policy, unlawful (haram) transactions, and cultural issues. Furthermore, this research concludes by giving insights for the development of CG code to enhance the quality of CSR reporting.


Focusing on the issues about simplicity and ambiguity of traditional atmospheric polarization macro-modeling,a new modeling algorithm was used.The light waves via electric-field vectors were proposed to capture the changes of natural light librating direction when meeting micro-particles,and the polarization intensity and direction analytically were achieved.With the derivations of transformations between Celestial coordinate system and north-east-up ones built,the single-particle Rayleigh scattering could be extensively applied for multi-point phenomenon as atmospheric polarization pattern.The effective simulation results demonstrate that the novel modeling method can accurately calculate polarization distribution of different spaces and time.With comparison of classical polarization angles,it contains more sufficient 3-D information of polarization direction and characterizes good extensity for further modeling.


An approach for a multiagent model on urban commodity transport is presented. Special attention is paid to the relationship between shippers and carriers. Shippers choose lot sizes, and they commission one or several carriers. Carriers consolidate shipments in hub-and-spoke-transport networks or in en route pickup and delivery tours. Shippers and carriers interact in a transport market where carriers submit offers to the shippers. The effects of urban transport policy measures are transmitted to the ultimate decision makers in transport—the shippers—via prices. Transport tariffs are calculated on the basis of full cost using an activity-based costing schema. The model assesses the effects of a cordon toll in the Tokyo metropolitan area to shippers and carriers. In particular, it analyzes the impacts on market shares and the spatiotemporal structure of truck flows.


ment is simply asserted. The author never considers the opposite conclusion, reached by other knowledgeable observers, namely, that Solidarity's basic mistake lay in its failure to press its advantage when it might have done so. Neither is he concerned with the dilemmas inherent in Solidarity's own conception of a 'self-limiting revolution,' the differences manifest within the movement itself, or the pressures from society to which Solidarity was exposed. Similarly unanalytical is Bromke's treatment of Wojciech Jaruzelski as another Jdnos Kdd~ir who may be expected to usher in 'a broad democratic relaxation.' Virtually the only concession to any comparative discussion of conditions, circumstances, and personalities occurs in the author's grudging acknowledgment that many Poles still 'adamantly refuse ... to cooperate' (p 58) with their ostensible benefactor. To augment the scant i 18 pages of his text, Bromke has added three appendices, each a major documentary source bearing on recent Polish developments. Like other volumes in the Eastern European monograph series, this book suffers from various typographical errors, including at one point (pp 31-2) the apparent omission of one or more sentences. Nonetheless, Professor Bromke's debatable message comes across only too clearly.


In a survey of practitioners of discrete-event simulation from industry and research institutes who "build models for money," we asked about project goals, user backgrounds and training, organizational types and activities, software and hardware choices, modeling team composition, and effort allocation within a modeling project. We found that (1) only about half of the practitioners have three or more years experience, (2) many academics feel strongly affiliated with their industry clients rather than with their university employers, (3) shop-floor supervisors rarely lead simulation projects, even though their knowledge of the system may be unparalleled, (4)simulation models are generally described as unique custom models, yet practitioners indicate that they commonly build similar models, (5) although simulators (parameter-driven simulation environments that require no user coding) are now available, few respondents indicate using any simulators for simulation projects.


Understanding of induced seismicity during stimulation and production of geothermal reservoirs is a key aspect towards future large-scale application of deep geothermal energy. At the European research project at Soultz-sous-Forêts (Alsace, France) several well stimulation experiments have been conducted and a unique dataset has been assembled. In this study we analyze changes of Coulomb stress due to induced seismicity during stimulation. For this purpose we developed an efficient method to calculate coseismic stress changes from an elliptical slip distribution on a circular fracture using superposition of rectangular sources. This method is applied on a dataset of 715 focal mechanisms derived from seismic recordings of the GPK2 stimulation in the year 2000 to calculate temporal evolution of change of Coulomb stress. We find stress changes that align with the microseismic cloud but exhibit heterogeneously distributed stress changes in the order of ±1 MPa.


This paper presents a novel linear regression-based polynomial chaos (PC) approach for the efficient multidimensional uncertainty quantification of general distributed and lumped high-speed circuit networks. The key feature of this paper is the development of a modified Fedorov search algorithm based on the D -optimal criterion that expeditiously locates a highly sparse set of nodes within the multidimensional random space where the original network needs to be probed. Specifically, the number of selected nodes is kept equal to the number of unknown PC coefficients of the network response, thereby making this approach substantially more efficient than the conventional linear regression approach which is based on an oversampling methodology. Additionally, due to the D -optimal criterion, this approach ensures highly accurate recovery of the PC coefficients. The validity of this paper is established through multiple numerical examples.


Abstract : The Hot Gas Decontamination System (HGDS) is an innovative technology which utilizes low temperature heat (350 F) to decontaminate structures which have been operationally contaminated with chemical warfare agent. The field demonstration of the HGDS at Rocky Mountain Arsenal (RMA) Colorado, successfully proved the effectiveness of the Hot Gas technology for decontamination of structures (concrete and steel) contaminated with mustard agent. Sampling and analysis for agent after the field demonstration proved that the process had decontaminated the area to an analytically clean level.


This paper proposes a novel MOSFET structure that offers the low on-state resistance typical of trench technology coupled with the superior switching performance of planar DMOS technology. The proposed novel structure exhibits a simulated on-state resistance typical of trench technology but exhibits a simulated figure of merit [Rdson /spl times/ Qgd] of /spl sim/mOhms.nC and, more importantly, exhibits a simulated switching loss that is >60% less than that simulated for planar DMOS technology.


Although anemia occurs commonly in patients with malignant disease, overt hemolysis is an uncommon cause of it except in conditions involving the reticuloendothelial system. 1 This report describes the occurrence of severe hemolytic anemia, in a patient with metastatic carcinoma of the breast, which was cured by splenectomy. This is believed to be the first report in which splenectomy has been used to successfully treat the hemolytic anemia of malignancy. Report of a Case A 42-year-old white woman was transferred to Letterman General Hospital because of a ten-pound weight loss and back and leg pain which had developed three months earlier. She had been examined at another hospital and was found to be severely anemic. There she was given a blood transfusion with 2,000 cc of whole blood and immediately sent to the authors for examination. Two and one-half years previously, the patient had been examined by a physician for


The evaporation of the nanofluids based on Al2O3 nanoparticles and different fluids was experimentally investigated. The distilled water and isopropyl alcohol were used as base fluids. The average diameter of Al2O3 particles was 100 nm. The investigations of fluids evaporation rates were carried out using the Simultaneous Thermal Analyzer STA 449 C Jupiter (NETZSCH). The investigation of the evaporation rate dependence on the carrier media was carried out. It was found that the average relative evaporation rate of fluids increased, and the time of complete evaporation accordingly decreased with an increase in the volume concentration of nanoparticles. In addition, the absolute value of the evaporation rate was found to significantly depend on the type of base fluid. However, the relative value of the evaporation rate for different base fluids remains approximately the same.


Observation of Low-Earth-Orbit space objects by optical sensors (telescopes) is a rather complex task that requires equipment with appropriate characteristics. Througput can be considered as one of the main characteristics of optical sensors for observing Low-Earth-Orbit space objects. An approach to the theoretical estimation of the optical telescope's throughput when observing Low-Earth Orbit space objects is proposed in the paper. It is based on the representation of the telescope as a queuing system. The queuing system can be of various types depending on the observation methods that are used. The input flow in this queuing system is the flow of Low-Earth Orbit space objects' passes through the viewing area of the telescope, and the output flow is the flow of observed passes. The average total time spent for observing one Low-Earth Orbit space object is taken as the average service time. Quantitative characteristics of these values can be obtained by simulating the Low-Earth Orbit space objects' passes through the telescope's viewing area. The throughput of the queuing system was chosen as the main estimated characteristic. An example of evaluating the characteristics of such a queuing system is given. It is based on the "Sazhen-S" quantum optical station of the Centre for Special Data Reception and Processing and Navigating Field Control of the National Space Facilities Control and Test Center of State Space Agency of Ukraine. Possible ways of increasing the throughput of "Sazhen-S" quantum optical station according to the observation of Low-Earth Orbit space objects are proposed.


THE INDUSTRY IS CALLING FOR A NEW KIND OF AI SOLUTION FOR THE EDGE AND LATTICE SEMICONDUCTOR AIMS TO DELIVER.


We consider the defocusing nonlinear Schr{\"o}dinger equation with a gauge invariant power-like nonlinearity. We prove global dispersive estimates in a semi-classical scaling, after rescaling the solution thanks to a suitable distorsion of the natural dispersion rate. We show a uniform bound on the modulus of the solution in some space providing compactness properties. We discuss the consequences of these estimates in the light of both scattering theory and semi-classical analysis.


The risk of surgical site infection in developing countries is more than developed countries (especially in Saharan Africa, the average wound infection rates are 2 or 3 times higher than developed countries) due to malnutrition, anemia, poverty and environmental pollution; poor preoperative preparation, wound contamination, poor selection of antibiotics or immudepression. A research work will be carried out in order to determine if maternal anemia is a risk factor for operative site infection in ceased patients; through a study that will be analytical, observational, retrospective, cases and controls; Caesarean pregnant women treated at the Victor Lazarte Echegaray Hospital during the 2015-2018 period that meet the selection criteria will be included; where the association between 2 variables will be evaluated through a case and control design; the odss ratio (OR) offered by maternal anemia in relation to the development of an operative site infection will be obtained. The calculation of the 95% confidence interval of the corresponding statistician will be performed.


When previous studies analyze the relationship between compensation scheme and corporate behavior, they do not explicitly consider the personal risk aversion of executives. We directly measure the degree of risk aversion by a survey with Japanese data. We find that the higher the personal risk aversion of CFOs, the lower the level of high-risk investment. We also find that this effect of the risk aversion on investment is strengthened when the portfolio of CFOs is less diversified and weakened by the compensation scheme with a convex payoff.


Abstract Objectives. To examine the influence of intracoronary autologous bone marrow cell transplantation after acute myocardial infarction on circulating growth factors and their relationship to left ventricular function. Methods. Circulating insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), stromal derived factor-1-alpha (SDF-1α), and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) were measured in patients randomized to cell treatment or control, in the ASTAMI study. Autologous cells were injected intracoronary on day 6; blood was sampled on days 5, 9, and at three months. Left ventricular ejection fraction was recorded by electrocardiogram-gated single photon emission computed tomography at six months. Results. Only change in IGF-1 from baseline to three months differed between groups (p=0.024). A weak but significant correlation was found between left ventricular ejection fraction and the averaged IGF-1 concentrations of all patients (r=0.24, p=0.02). Patients with IGF-1 above or below median (102 ng/ml) had a left ventricular ejection fraction of 52.3% (±11.4) versus 46.4% (±12.2) respectively (p=0.017). Conclusions. Intracoronary bone marrow cell treatment after myocardial infarction attenuates a reduction in circulating IGF-1. IGF-1 levels over time were weakly, but significantly correlated to left ventricular ejection fraction.


Innovation has gained growing attention in the strategic management field, and — as a strategic orientation — it has been predominantly considered as a homogenous class of differentiated strategic mindsets. This contribution aims at distinguishing different sub-typologies of innovation strategies and validating their profiles and consistency. It explores approaches discussed in the mainstream literature as well as the possibility that other orientations could exist. A cluster analysis outlines four strategic orientations showing differences in terms of competitive drivers, value creation architectures, outsourcing and alliance policies, and managerial processes. Findings offer scholars and practitioners a better understanding of strategic alternatives in pursuing innovation through the identification of systems of consistency among managerial variables — e.g., configuration of the supply chain — thus fostering uniqueness and sustainability of the competitive advantage, and driving managers' decision. In particular, what really characterised the different innovation strategies here shown is the way they deal with the value chain structure, meaning a key part of the business model.


We report on a novel addressable switching micro corner cube array for wide free-space optical applications. The corner cube, composed of three mutually orthogonal reflective surfaces, may reflect incident light beam at any angle to its incoming direction. The use of the reflective corner cube array is equivalent to an integration of a lens and a well-aligned mirror array in an appropriate optical configuration. Critical alignment problems can be greatly alleviated. Incorporated with a grating and other optical components, the corner cube is preset to maintain reflective light to its incoming direction, or allowed to provide actuation on one of the reflective planes, causing destruction of its three mutually orthogonal planes for free-space wavelength selection or intensity variation.


【Objective】 To analyze the influential factors in children with allergic rhinitis in Nantong area.【Methods】A case-control study on risk factors in children with allergic rhinitis,which is hospital-based,was conducted in Nantong,from January 2010 to December 2010.【Results】 The highest five positivity among all allergens in children with allergic rhinitis were: Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus(68.9%),dermatophagoides farinae(65.4%),Alternariasp(30.3%),cockroach(22.7%),Aspergillus fumigatus(18.6%).Based on multi-factor logistic regression analysis,the results showed that heredity(OR=2.93,95%CI: 1.50~3.96),the history of allergy(OR=2.72,95CI: 1.68~8.36),having the asthma(OR=2.86,95%CI: 1.44~3.99),second-hand smoker(OR=3.47,95%CI: 134~ 6.69),air-condition in room(OR=1.94,95%CI: 1.09~3.45),eating fish or shrimp often(OR=1.85,95%CI: 1.01~ 4.74),rearing pet(OR=1.72,95%CI: 1.45~3.33) were associated with increasing the risk for AR.However,big room(OR=0.77,95%CI: 0.45~0.98),feeding with mother's milk(OR=0.78,95%CI: 0.23~0.91),the born weight(OR=0.71,95% CI: 0.47~0.84) were factors that might decrease the risk for AR in children.【Conclusions】To analysis the risk factors of AR can provide some scientific information for prevention and treatment,so that to improve the quality of life in children with AR.


The invention provides a processing method of high-purity aloe acetylated polysaccharide, comprising the steps of: peeling and crushing the aloe, filtering to obtain the aloe juice, adding the pectinase in the aloe juice according to the additive amount of 50-70 ml/ton of aloe juice, adding the active carbon in the aloe juice according to 0.1-0.3 of the mass of the aloe juice, then stirring for 20-40 min for enzymolysis and decolorization, and standing until the aloe juice is clear; thereafter, filtering by the microfiltration membrane with filtration aperture of 10 mu m, the filtration membrane with filtration aperture of 0.2 mu m and the ultrafiltration membrane with filtration aperture of 0.001 mu m, concentrating by the reverse osmosis membrane and drying to obtain the aloe powder, the mass content of the aloe acetylated polysaccharide reaches 15%. The invention realizes continuous separation at the normal temperature and enables various functional compositions in the aloe to be fully separated without adding any assistant, thereby the purity of the aloe acetylated polysaccharide is guaranteed and the extraction and separation costs are reduced.


Abstract This study is an attempt to construct a spatial database that captures the heterogeneous character of the residential district in the medieval city of Kamakura. The landscape in Kamakura is mainly housing and alleys multi-layered on a historical urban frame. The landscape is apparently a miscellany of irrelevant artifacts, and thus, contemporary planning is limited to individual preservation. In contrast, the historical urban frame is almost imperceptible from the perspective of residential artifacts. In this study, archival research is undertaken in terms of site, architecture and street network to reveal characteristics in different stages. By further analysis, artifacts are sorted and interrelated to clarify the structure and spatial features unique to this district. As a conclusion, possible typologies and spatial trends are suggested, which can lead to methods of synthetic preservation/reconstruction of the landscape.


We introduce different variant of fastidious travelling salesman problem (travelling salesman problem through n sets of nodes), which consists not only one tour but more subtours. We represent this problem as a bivalent linear programming problem and introduce some special properties of integral polyhedron, which we use to simplify the model. For the solution of the problem we use a branch and bound algorithm. The main feature of the algorithm lies in the relaxation of the integrality constraints.


Moment‐independent regional sensitivity analysis (RSA) is a very useful guide tool for assessing the effect of a specific range of an individual input on the uncertainty of model output, while large computational burden is involved to perform RSA, which would certainty lead to the limitation of engineering application. Main tasks for performing RSA are to estimate the probability density function (PDF) of model output and the joint PDF of model output and the input variable by some certain smart techniques. Firstly, a method based on the concepts of maximum entropy, fractional moment and sparse grid integration is utilized to estimate the PDF of the model output. Secondly, Nataf transformation is applied to obtain the joint PDF of model output and the input variable. Finally, according to an integral transformation, those regional sensitivity indices can be easily computed by a Monte Carlo procedure without extra function evaluations. Because all the PDFs can be estimated with great efficiency, and only a small amount of function evaluations are involved in the whole process, the proposed method can greatly decrease the computational burden. Several examples with explicit or implicit input–output relations are introduced to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Objective To investigate the clinical characters of early infections after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation(HSCT).Methods The clinical data of 36 cases of early infections after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation from Jan 2001 to Jul 2006 were analyzed.Results Infection after transplantation occurred in 31 patients(86.1%).The main pathogens of the early stage were microbes,among which 23.8% were Gram positive and 71.4% were Gram negative.Infection occurred mainly in respiratory tract(54.1%),followed by oral cavity,intestinal tract and skin.No infection focus was found in 3 cases.There existed no significant difference in infection incidence rate between patients complicated with acute graft versus host disease and without.Conclusions There is a high infection incidence rate for patients in early stage after HSCT.The pathogens are mainly Gram-negative bacteria.A reasonable use of antibiotics and preventing the fungal infection are good ways to control early infections after HSCT.


Previous works have shown that modern neural networks tend to be overconfident; thus, for deep learning models to be trusted and adopted in critical applications, reliable uncertainty estimation (UE) is essential. However, many questions are still open regarding how to fairly compare UE methods. This work focuses on the task of selective classification and proposes a methodology where the predictions of the underlying model are kept fixed and only the UE method is allowed to vary. Experiments are performed for convolutional neural networks using Deep Ensembles and Monte Carlo Dropout. Surprisingly, our results show that the conventional softmax response can outperform most other UE methods for a large part of the risk-coverage curve.


This is the second part of a series of papers dealing with the statistical approach to families of triple close approaches in three dimensional space. The three-dimensional case is completely different from the two di- mensional case. In this paper, the complete statistical solutions (i.e. the distributions of eccentricity e of the binary, binary energy b E and the escape velocity of escaper s v etc.) of the system are calculated and are in good agreement with the numerical results of dynamical evolution in the range of 1 10 Abstract This is the second part of a series of papers dealing with the statistical approach to families of triple close approaches in three dimensional space. The three-dimensional case is completely different from the two dimensional case. In this paper, the complete statistical solutions (i.e. the distributions of eccentricity e of the binary, binary energy v may be.


This study focuses upon variations in income among nonmetropolitan areas in the US during 1959-89. It particularly questions whether nonmetropolitan income levels have converged during this period of industrial restructuring and if so which factors are associated with reducing spatial inequality within the nonmetropolitan sector. Multivariate analysis provides support for a lessening of spatial inequality within the nonmetropolitan sector over the period. Specifically results indicate that the closing of the nonmetropolitan intercountry income gap was at least partly due to more rapid income change among areas which began the period at the lowest income levels. Low income counties pursued a traditional strategy of building core industry from which they continue to benefit. Concurrently however wealthier areas moved away from this strategy and did not benefit from the sector in the 1970s and 1980s. Inconsistencies in the expected direction of determinant factors such as adjacency to a metropolitan area employment differentiation and educational attainment reduce the ability of the model to describe the process through which certain counties exceed others in income change. Analysis also revealed that counties at both extremes of income level at the beginning of the study period experienced greater change in income if they has higher rates of population growth lower unemployment rates higher population density greater labor supply as indicated by labor force participation rate and a greater concentration of older persons who are eligible to receive social security and other sources of transfer income.


Managing risk in supply chains is an important topic in supply chain management.This paper proposes a risk propagation model(SIS-RP),based on the susceptible-infected-susceptible(SIS) model,in supply chain risk management(SCRM).Considering the small world network as an illustration,we use simulation analysis method to analyze this model from the supply chain network perspective.The results indicate that,the risk propagation can be controlled by improving the antiinterference ability in supply chain network.The SIS-RP model can reflect evolution process of risk in supply chain network to a certain extent,and demonstrate the feasibility of complex network theory in the supply chain risk propagation study.


The reinforcement of a monumental organism is unique only if the evolutionary process of the building unit is known, the history and its rearrangements will show the effective static functioning as well as the inadequacy of certain structural modifications. The research starts by investigating the crack pattern observed on the back of Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, and particularly the damage found on a pillar of the %ade in Via della Ninna. The crack seems to involve the part facing Via dei Leoni and some internal bearing walls. The study is an inspection to best comprehend the structural functioning and analyze which stresses to use in a model, whether numerical or experimental photoelastic. The annotated survey rebuilt the architectural history all around the third court of Palazzo Vecchio, confirmed and supported by iconographic and historical documentations as well as latest essays on the monument. The paper runs over the building phases of the part of palace interested by the damage, noticing two ancient pre-existing structures and their pertinencies, the modifications and inclusions occured during the centuries up to the present setting.


The pressing need to eliminate health disparities calls on public health professionals to use every effective tool possible. Health communication defined as the study and use of methods to inform and influence individual and community decisions that enhance health was first recognized as a subset of the field of communication in 1975 when the Health Communication Division of the International Communication Association was founded. The National Communication Association formed a division of the same name in 1985. In 1997 the Public Health Education and Health Promotion section within the American Public Health Association formally recognized health communication as part of its group. The peer-reviewed journal Health Communication began in 1989 followed 7 years later by the Journal of Health Communication. Today while many communication departments and schools of public health offer limited graduate course work in health communication there are fewer than a dozen comprehensive programs in health communication. The federal government has recognized the contributions of health communication. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed an office of communication in 1996 with the purpose of diffusing the science of health communication throughout the agency. The National Cancer Institute in 1999 developed an "Extraordinary Opportunity in Cancer Communications" which included awarding Centers of Excellence in Cancer Communication to 4 universities; 2 of the 4 centers explicitly focus on research in health communication aimed at health disparities. In addition for the first time health communication is part of the Healthy People 2010 objectives. (excerpt)


This paper describes designed reliability evaluation algorithm for inprocess gage control module on the basis of statistical control (control chart X/R) and determination of particular and integrated indicators of reliability.


The discipline of Computer Theorem Proving (TP) distinguishes itself by formal rigor in doing mathematics in various application domains [1]. This short paper is, however, not on TP but on educational software based on TP components. Such software promises advantageous features [7] some of which are demonstrated by a prototype [3] called Isac. Isac is based on the TP Isabelle [2] and generates dialogues similar to interaction with chess software: moves in chess are considered as rigorous formal as steps in calculations are when solving problems in engineering disciplines. Isac checks input of students by use of Isabelle's [2] automated provers, which in turn are provided with necessary logical context by Lucas-Interpretation [6]. This interpreter also allows to propose next steps towards a solution, so róles can be arbitrarily switched between student and system. This paper reports work in progress in cooperation with universities of applied sciences in Austria. The work concerns a feasibility study on how Isac could serve in engineering education at these universities. Since Isac has been designed for "pure" mathematics, the study encounters several challenges. Below one running example presents three major challenges for discussion; the example is from [9] and slightly changed for reasons discussed in §2:


An 11 ‐year‐old male presented with a 2‐year history of headache and lethargy. Serum PRL was elevated at 14 000 mU/1 and computerized tomography showed a pituitary macroadenoma. Visual fields and fundi were normal and the testes showed early pubertal changes. There was normal responsiveness of serum Cortisol but absence of GH response to hypoglycaemia. After bromocriptine therapy for 4 months serum PRL had fallen to 90 mU/1 and the tumour was not visible on repeat computerized tomography. After 7 months treatment, repeat pituitary function testing showed restoration of GH response to hypoglycaemia. Treatment with bromocriptine was continued and there was spontaneous progression of normal puberty; the serum testosterone continued to rise, and height maintained the 50th centile. Bromocriptine therapy should be considered as initial therapy in the management of prolactinomas in prepubertal patients.


This study treats a particular control problem of an inverted pendulum with flexible structure. An inverted pendulum problem is a fundamental of stabilizing unstable systems such as a walking robot. Furthermore, consideration of the flexibility is essential for control of a light weight mechanical system with quick motion. A controlled system in this study consists of a wire-driven carrier, a flexible beam hinged to the carrier and a weight fixed at the other side of the beam. Linear quadratic control was applied to stabilize the system using a personal computer. However, steady vibration due to the coulomb friction was observed in the system. Characteristics of the nonlinear vibration were well explained by the analysis using the method of averaging. A simple recursive algorithm was employed to estimate the value of the Coulomb friction. With an on-line estimation and compensation of the Coulomb friction, linear quadratic control was successfully applied to stabilize, the system.


Two precomputed-gain nonlinear filters are proposed for estimating the states of nonlinear systems corrupted by both external and parametric noises and subjected to linear noisy measurement systems. The exact nonlinear filters are first formulated through the Kolmogorov and Kushner's equations. The concepts of equivalent external excitation combined with statistical linearization or local linearization are then employed to derive two precomputed-gain nonlinear filters. The resulting filters are shown to have the same structure as that of extended Kalman filter but filter-gain histories can be precomputed. Simulation results obtained from the proposed nonlinear filters and the corresponding linear filters for Duffing-type stochastic systems are compared through Monte Carlo techniques.


The generation of naturally-sounding F0 contours in TTS is important for the intelligibility and perceived naturalness of synthetic speech. In earlier works the author developed a linguistically motivated model of German intonation based on the quantitative Fujisaki model of the production process of F0. The extraction of parameters for this model from the extracted F0 contour, however, poses problems since model components are superimposed in a particular contour and cannot be calculated directly. The current paper introduces a novel fully-automatic multi-stage approach which was applied to a larger speech database of German. After explaining the modeling procedure in detail, the paper presents first results concerning the relationship between the Fujisaki parameters and the linguistic information underlying an utterance.


Be stars are rapidly rotating stars with circumstellar envelopes in the form of outowing gaseous Keplerian disks, which are responsible for the observed emission in Balmer lines. Matter redistribution in the disk is governed by viscosity. The current models of Be stars suer from an uncertainty concerning the outer parts of their disks. These parts can be observed only in mid-IR to mm wavelengths due to their free-free and free-bound reprocessing of the stellar radiation. In the near future, we aim to constrain the structure of the outer disk of classical Be star CMi by obtaining new sub-mm/mm observations and modeling them along with archival spectroscopic, polarimetric and near-IR interferometric observations. For the modeling we use a fully 3D, NLTE, Monte Carlo radiative transfer code HDUST. The compilation of archival data and the modeling procedure are described here.


A spectral domain optical coherence tomography system is integrated with an optical reflectometer to provide dualfunctional eye measurement. The system is capable of performing anterior segment imaging and tear film thickness evaluation at the same time. The axial resolution of the anterior segment imaging is 6μm while for tear film thickness measurement the resolution is about 21 nm. We use the integrated device to examine a model eye with artificial tear film. Structures such as the cornea, the ciliary muscle, and the front boundary of the crystalline lens are clearly visible. Artificial tear film thickness is determined simultaneously with anterior segment imaging. The integrated device is also flexible for separated anterior segment imaging or tear thickness evaluation.


Rice blast is the rice plant disease which breaks out in most areas of Japan causing heavy damage. In the past few years, the average loss in harvest caused by rice blast has reached 300,000 tons a year. About 5 billion yen worth of fungicides are used to protect the disease annually. However not all of the fungicides have been effective since there have been considerable fluctuations in the process of disease outbreak and degree of disease occurrence by the year and region. Therefore, it is necessary to determine whether or not spraying of fungicide is required or effective time of spraying, both from an economic point of view and from the view of lessening pollutions from agricultural chemicals. There are such forecasting methods of rice blast as the one based on meteorological conditions, on inoculum intensity, or on predisposition of rice plant, etc. In this article, the latter two methods of forecasting will be explained.


lishers' lists since the last issue of the bibliography. A starh5refixed to a title indicates that it was taken from a review of the work in the periodical cited after the title. It may or may not be a new announcement. The arithmetical signs 2 following the citation to a review indicate the tenor of the review: X, uncertain; +, favorable ; -, unfavorable; +-, favorable, but with reservations; +, unfavorable, but with commendation; + + , very favorable; -very unfavorable; + + -, very favorable, but with reservations; +, very unfavorable, but with commendation. Absence of any sign indicates that review has not been read. The jAublication date when not given is understood to be the current year. Prices quoted are usually for volumes bound in cloth or other inexpensive binding.


Earnings information becomes one of the main information in the financial statements that can be taken into consideration by investors in making decisions to invest, sell and retain shares owned. Investor response to earnings information can be measured using earnings response coefficient. The purpose of this research is to get an overview of corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) and earning response coefficient (ERC) as well as to know the influence of CSR disclosure to earning response coefficients at public company listed on Indonesia Stock Exchange 2014-2016. The research method used is descriptive study and verification study. To obtain the value of ERC then used the events study. The number of companies was analyzed is 27 companies with descriptive analysis techniques and panel data regression. The results showed that CSR disclosure of sample companies in the observation period showed scores that tend to be low. Likewise, the ERC values tend to be low. Disclosure of CSR has a negative and significant effect on ERC. The results from this study are expected to contribute to companies in Asia by showing that current investors not only consider earnings information but also information about CSR activities. In addition, this study is further expected to contribute in encouraging the government to oblige go public companies to disclose CSR activities on annual reports.


Abstract Background: Meaningful segmentation of intracranial lesions can be of assistance for planning open navigated microneurosurgical procedures, as well as for radiotherapy. Meaningful segmentation, however, may be hampered by lack of computational power. The respective segmentation method should be based on state-of-the-art mathematical tools, and it should be suitable for real applications. Methods: A three-dimensional computational method for interactive segmentation of intracranial tumors is presented. It is based on a front propagation method, in which the evolving front gradually approaches the boundary of a given segment. It generates and remembers the entire evolution of the interface. The segment boundary is chosen from a oneparameter family. User interaction is realized by selecting "seed points" inside the object/lesion. External evolution velocity regulates the segmentation process, while approaching the boundary. Adaptively resolved grids ensure computational efficiency for larger segments. The resolution is steered by an image-based indicator, which allows coarse representation of the solution in low-frequency regions, but high resolution along suspected edges of the image. Results: Model-based segmentation was performed on the imaging data of n = 12 patients and the results compared with manual segmentation of the same tumors. The method allowed for basic segmentation in all tumors <3 minutes. This increased 2–4 fold in four irregular tumors, where discrepancies existed in comparison with manually performed segmentation. Discussion: The implicit formulations of this method establish methodical and topological flexibility in three dimensions. It is thus suitable for the segmentation of objects with non-sharp boundaries such as intracranial tumors.


In a CALL environment for Japanese EFL university students, we have long been successfully enhancing students' reading efficiency (RE) using customised application software with a dynamic display of chunked text. In this practice, students read silently or aloud a certain number of passages using a software named Mint in each lesson. In order to assess the learning effects of this practice, we measured students' WPM (Words per Minute) and comprehension rate, and provided affective questionnaires in pre- and post-test during one semester. Under such conditions, the recent attempt of phonetic training to enhance RE has had some significant effects. However, in 2014, we revised our software to allow more precise measurement of WPM and comprehension rate, and to provide instant feedback. More importantly, this new software, Mewm, integrates the effect measurements and classroom practice, so that students can see their results not only in the pre- and post-tests but in every lesson. This integrative software has the potential to motivate our students and facilitate their reading efficiency, acting as a pacemaker. Finally, we examine the potential of this software according to responses from students who tentatively used it during one semester.


A combustion apparatus having a housing including an inner surface that defines at least one chamber, a rotor, a rotor shaft, an intake shaft, an exhaust shaft, and a gearing mechanism. The chamber includes an intake valve port and an exhaust valve port, and the rotor shaft is coupled to a gear at one end and has at least two opposing flat surfaces received by an opening in the rotor. The intake and exhaust shafts are geared to the rotor shaft and have at least one opening each that is aligned with the intake and the exhaust valve ports. A gearing mechanism selectively controls the duration in which the openings are aligned with the ports. Two or more rotors may be utilized to produce more power and reduce vibration.


Overall, the readings this week presented a nice survey of topics related to methods of evaluation and analysis for relational experiments. This helps to present various techniques to be used when conducting an experiment, what methods to use in the analysis of the results and comparison to previous work. They also help to give new perspective to how the human-computer relationship should be viewed.


Sensorimotor (SMR) neurofeedback is a promising therapy for several health disorders but is still not widely used due to the high cost of the equipment. URGOnight offers a low-cost solution to democratize these therapies by providing an at-home EEG headband with dry electrodes connected to a mobile application. The first aim of this study is both to validate the URGOnight EEG signal and to compare it to Enobio-20, a medical grade EEG device. The second aim of the study is to propose a new method to detect SMR rhythm based on its oscillatory properties and discriminate it from alpha oscillations. In our study, we compared the URGOnight headband EEG signal (C3/C4) to Enobio-20 (CP3/CP4), placed on subjects simultaneously equipped with the two headbands. All subjects (n=33) performed a dual blocking task inspired by Kulhman (1978) based on the blocking effect of movement and eyes opening on SMR and alpha respectively. This task was followed by SSVEP stimulations to evaluate the frequency response of the two EEG devices. The performance of the EEG headbands was statistically identical for most of the characteristics of the EEG signal, including the frequency response to SSVEP (from 4Hz to 20Hz). The main difference was a larger amplitude in the 8-15Hz due to the location of the reference in URGOnight that did not impair the detection of both alpha and SMR. In addition, we show that our new method allows to discriminate alpha and SMR rhythms based on their oscillatory properties with a single recording site (C3/C4). The method is fast enough to be used in real time. We show that the detected SMR rhythm is modulated by movement as opposed to the 12-15Hz frequency band often used as indicator of SMR in most neurofeedback studies. Altogether, our results validate the quality of the EEG recordings obtained with URGOnight since it gives similar results as the one obtained with Enobio-20, a validated EEG medical grade system. In addition, we provide a new method allowing the identification and the separation of the alpha and SMR with a single recording site C3/C4. This method opens up a new research lead to improve SMR neurofeedback efficiency and thus of its clinical possibilities by focusing on the reinforcement of the SMR oscillation strictly speaking. Highlights - Validation of the URGOnight EEG device suitable for neurofeedback at home - New method for the detection and the discrimination of alpha rhythm and SMR rhythm with a small number of recording sites - The oscillatory activity related to the SMR displays different properties compared to the 12-15Hz frequency band. - Description of a full validation procedure for wireless EEG devices usable at home for neurofeedback - Comparison of the signal of URGOnight (dry electrodes) with a wet electrode EEG device


Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate differences in athletes' (7 females, 10 males) motor performances (countermovement jump and handgrip) before and after official youth (13–14 years) taekwondo matches. Exercise load was evaluated by means of the heart rate responses during the match. Independent of round and gender, during the competitions mean heart rate was 187 beats·min−1 (s=11). During the match, the frequency of heart rate responses above 85% of an individual's maximum heart rate was 77% (s=27). Jump performances showed differences for gender (P=0.044; ES = 0.47) and its interaction with session (P=0.045; ES = 0.49). Female athletes' post-match countermovement performances were no different from their pre-match performances (pre and post: 22 cm, s=2), whereas male athletes post-match performances (28 cm, s=6) were better than their pre-match performances (25 cm, s=6). Handgrip performances related to the body mass of the athletes showed main effects for session (P=0.017; ES = 0.20) and for gender (P=0.026; ES = 0.47), with no significant interaction. Male athletes showed higher handgrip values (5.8 N·kg−1, s=0.6) than their female counterparts (5.1 N·kg−1, s=0.7). For absolute grip strength performances, values were higher pre-match (290.3 N, s=61.4) than post-match (272.4 N, s = 58.3). The heart rate responses indicate that official youth taekwondo competition imposes a high load on athletes. In particular, post-match decreases in isometric grip strength suggest that coaches should better prepare their very young athletes to prevent reductions in muscle force during fighting. Considering that lower limb power remained unaffected or increased depending on gender, further research in this area is strongly recommended.


Background and Objectives : With the wide use of cochlear implants, there have been many published studies which report that cochlear implants have a suppressive effect on tinnitus in profoundly deaf patients. The aim of this study was to understand the clinical and audiologic characteristics of the tinnitus in patients with cochlear implantation and to observe changes of their tinnitus after cochlear implantation. Subjects and Method : A total 23 patients who had undergone cochlear implants in our hospital from August 2003 to December 2006, were included in this study. The patients were divided into tinnitus (n=11) and non-tinnitus groups (n=12) according to the presence of tinnitus at the time of surgery. We compared clinical and audiologic features between the two groups. We also studied changes in tinnitus after surgery in the tinnitus group using validated self-report measures [tinnitus handicap inventory (THI), tinnitus handicap score (THS), and visual analogue scale]. Results : There were significant differences between the two groups with respect to the age of cochlear implant recipients, whether or not the subjects had impaired hearing or were wearing hearing aids. Tinnitus was rarely observed in patients under 20 years of age with cochlear implantation (11.1%) in contrast to the higher rates in the patients of 20 years old and over (71.4%). Marked reduction of THI, THS and visual analogue scale of tinnitus were observed in all patients. Conclusion : For the adult patients who had undergone cochlear implant surgery and had tinnitus preoperatively, cochlear implants had shown suppressive effect on their tinnitus. Considering the significant prevalence of tinnitus in profoundly deaf patients, tinnitus of these patients should not be overlooked and further studies should be made to define relationship between cochlear implant and tinnitus.


From 2015 through 2017, the Russian-government affiliated Internet Research Agency produced nearly 2.8 million English-language tweets from accounts that purported to be operated by U.S. nationals or organizations ("trolls"). Almost half of the trolls' output were retweets of or replies to other accounts, overwhelmingly from outside the network. We analyze the characteristics of outside accounts that were targeted by the trolls in this way, and how this behavior changed over the life of the operation, in order to infer what role contacts with outsiders played in the trolls' propaganda strategy. We document the three stage life-cycle of these externally-oriented trolls: introduction, growth, and amplification. In a quasi-experiment of the amplification stage, we estimate that in the month leading up to the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, the trolls induced about 4 million additional tweets from and 3 million additional followers for the 25,000 unique accounts they amplified, an impact that rivals the direct output of the trolls themselves over the entire three-year campaign. ∗Linvill:Department of Communication, Clemson University. Email:firstname.lastname@example.com Warren: John E. Walker Department of Economics, Clemson University. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com. Address: 222 Sirrine Hall, Clemson, SC, 29634. This research was supported by a grant from the Charles Koch Foundation


Condensation of 2-chloro-3-nitropyridine-2-chloro-5-nitropyridine and 4-chloro-3-nitropyridine with aniline, o-, m-, and p-anisidine, o-, m-, and p-fluoroaniline and with p-aminophenyl methyl sulphone gives the corresponding arylaminonitropyridines in good yield. These compounds have an ultraviolet absorption band in the 350–420 mµ region, characteristic of the contribution of a "quinonoid" charge-transfer form to the excited state. The position of this band is influenced more by substituents in the nitrated ring than by those in the un-nitrated ring. NH stretching frequencies in the infrared are also recorded, the position of which can be correlated with the conclusions derived from the ultraviolet spectra.


The technique of image histogram modification can be applied to the problem of image enhancement. Global and local histogram equalisation and local area histogram equalisation are two well-known techniques for the same purpose. In this research work, a new method is proposed to enhance the contrast of bimodal SAR images using histogram specification with Gamma distribution. The method is aimed to read the original image and calculate its original histogram. Then apply the maximum likelihood with Gamma distribution (ML) technique on the original histogram to get accurate statistical parameters as the means and prior probabilities of the two modes. The two estimated modes are thus separated by shifting the first mode to the left or shifting the second mode to the right or performing both shifts. After shifting, a new histogram called 'desired histogram' is generated from a mixture of Gamma distributions using updated data. By applying a histogram specification method, a high contrast SAR image will be produced. The new method of contrast enhancement of SAR image has been applied on bimodal SAR images and showed good results.


Image quality has been estimated and predicted using the signal to noise ratio (SNR). The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between body mass index (BMI) and SNR measurements in PET imaging using patient studies with liver cancer. Three groups of 59 patients (24 males and 35 females) were divided according to BMI. After intravenous injection of 0.1 mCi of 18F-FDG per kilogram of body weight, PET emission scans were acquired for (1, 1.5, and 3) min/bed position according to the weight of patient. Because liver is an organ of homogenous metabolism, five region of interest (ROI) were made at the same location, five successive slices of the PET/CT scans to determine the mean uptake (signal) values and its standard deviation. We obtained the liver's Signal-to-Noise Ratio from the ratio of both. Weight, height, SNR, and Body Mass Index were determined using a spreadsheet, and graphs were created to show the relationship between these variables. The graphs demonstrated that SNR decreases when BMI increases and that, despite an increase in injection dose, SNR also decreases. This is because heavier individuals take higher doses and, according to reports, have lower SNR. These results show that, despite receiving larger FDG doses, heavier patients' images, as measured by SNR, are of lower quality than thinner patients' images.


Kuehl and Lym conducted greenhouse and field experiments to determine the most cost-effective quinclorac treatment for leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula). They found that quinclorac at 1.14 kg per ha (5.7 lb per acre) plus picloram at 0.56 kg per ha (2.8 lb per acre) provided 85 percent control of leafy spurge nine months after treatment. This compared to 49 percent control when quinclorac was applied alone. They believe that quinclorac may become widely used to control leafy spurge.


Objective: Researchers are studying the use of antimicrobial peptides as functional biomaterials to prevent and treat dental caries. This study aims to investigate the global research interest in antimicrobial peptides for caries management. Methods: Two independent investigators systematically searched with keywords ('Caries' OR 'Dental caries') AND ('Antimicrobial peptide' OR 'AMP' OR 'Statherin' OR 'Histatin' OR 'Defensin' OR 'Cathelicidin') on Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus. They removed duplicate publications and screened the titles and abstracts to identify relevant publications. The included publications were summarized and classified as laboratory studies, clinical trials or reviews. The citation count and citation density of the three publication types were compared using a one-way analysis of variance. The publications' bibliometric data were analyzed using the Bibliometrix program. Results: This study included 163 publications with 115 laboratory studies (71%), 29 clinical trials (18%) and 19 reviews (11%). The number of publications per year have increased steadily since 2002. The citation densities (mean ± SD) of laboratory study publications (3.67 ± 2.73) and clinical trial publications (2.63 ± 1.85) were less than that of review articles (5.79 ± 1.27) (p = 0.002). The three publication types had no significant difference in citation count (p = 0.54). Most publications (79%, 129/163) reported the development of a novel antimicrobial peptide. China (52/163, 32%) and the US (29/163, 18%) contributed to 50% (81/163) of the publications. Conclusion: This bibliometric analysis identified an increasing trend in global interest in antimicrobial peptides for caries management since 2002. The main research topic was the development of novel antimicrobial peptides. Most publications were laboratory studies, as were the three publications with the highest citation counts. Laboratory studies had high citation counts, whereas reviews had high citation density.


Background. Games and simulations are evaluated for serving different functions, such as learning, design, communication and collaboration. Research on the relationship between the constructs of ga ...


As the first volume in a new series titled "Contextualizing the Sacred," the Redefining the Sacred edited volume was born out of a 2009 workshop held at the European Science Foundation in Oxford. The editors note, however, that the book is not simply a packaging of the papers presented at the workshop but rather a carefully crafted collection of studies, some drawn from workshop contributors, and others invited by the editors (p. 5). Beyond the introductory chapter written by the editors, there are eight chapters: the first, by Joachim Ganzert, is, according to the editors, the conceptual guide and position chapter that shapes the succeeding seven chapters (p. 8), which are arranged in two sections, the first considered more macro in treatment, called "Regional Perspectives," and the second taking a more micro approach, entitled "Places, Communities, and Individuals." Chapters in each section are arranged in rough chronological order. In their introduction, the editors attempt to outline the major themes expressed in the collected chapters. They also note that they have endeavored to bring together textual and archaeological evidence in a productive investigation of the sacred past. It is in this intersection that some of the most successful contributions to the volume may be found. Major themes outlined include the examination of performance as central to ritual practice and the "architectural frame" of locations for such performances (p. 5); the original meaning of material culture and sacred spaces in religious locales, and how these might transform over time, even into secularity (pp. 6–7); and the "architectural language" of sacred structures, and how these communicate various elements, such as power and the "zones of passage" that transition a visitor from sacred to profane (p. 7). These themes are very broadly drawn in the introductory chapter, and the editors rely on Ganzert's framing chapter, titled, like the new series, "Contextualizing the Sacred," to flesh out how these themes are explored. Given the stated importance of Ganzert's chapter to the volume, an overview of it here is warranted. He begins with a journey from the macro view of human experience, as seen from the Milky Way, and ends with the molecular structure of a single human. In this way, he outlines the overall range of perspectives a researcher should take toward the study of sacred architecture, from macro to micro. A second related theme permeating his chapter involves the architectural footprint, which is also the basis of the final theme discussed below and conforms to the editors' notion of "architectural frame" described above. Ganzert notes that the footprint of a sacred building can be invaluable in illuminating the role of the building and activities therein, but it can also mislead on a number of levels. He gives several examples, such as late medieval Hamburg's 12 churches and 300 clerics serving a population of 14,000 versus today's Hamburg with 70,000 people, the same number of churches, and only 50 clerics (p. 20). Reading the footprints would suggest a lack of change in religious practice over the centuries, which is not at all the case. Ganzert also cites the massive churches built in the West earlier in the twentieth century that attracted an audience that would fit a much smaller space. Again, the footprint points the archaeologist to a conclusion that may not be accurate. The third theme covered in Ganzert's framing chapter involves the power that is expressed by built sacred space, again correlating with the editors' overall conceptualization of the volume's focus. He asserts that, particularly in the ancient world, sacred architecture was constructed in a way that transported parishioners from the earthly to the spiritual, passing through a liminal stage along the way. This was accomplished architecturally when the parishioner entered from the outside (the domain of the earthly) to a set of liminal stages that consist of various types of passages, steps, and antechambers, finally to the innermost sacred space, the altar room. Not everyone is allowed to reach this final destination, making it all the Redefining the Sacred: Religious Architecture and Text in the Near East and Egypt, 1000 BC–AD 300. edited by elizabeth frood and Rubina Raja. Contextualizing the Sacred 1. Turnhout: Brepols, 2014. Pp. xx + 260, 70 illustrations and 1 table. Hardcover, €80.00. ISBN 9782503541044.


This study describes and analyzes outgroup linguistic racism in parodies of Ebonics ('Mock Ebonics') that appeared on the Internet in the wake of the December 18, 1996 resolution of the Board of Education of the Oakland (California) Unified School District on improving the English-language skills of African-American students. We examined 23 World Wide Web pages containing 270,188 words, from which we chose nine pages containing 225,726 words for in-depth analysis. Drawing on a characterization of Mock Spanish, our analysis shows that Mock Ebonics is a system of graphemic-phonetic, grammatical, semantic, and pragmatic strategies for representing an outgroup's belief in the imperfection and inferiority of Ebonics and its users. We show how producers of Ebonics parody pages employ these strategies, which are common in speech stereotypes, to articulate an anti-Ebonics language ideology and shift the blame for the poor academic performance of African Americans from a racist society to learners and the community from which they come.


Political setting negotiating Israeli withdrawal in search of a consensus the withdrawal agreement from the May 17 agreement to Geneva the way to Lausanne a change of emphasis the road to the tripartite agreement elusive reforms between Washington and Damascus. Appendices: Main principles for solving the Lebanese crisis, 13 June 1987 agreement between the government of the Republic of Lebanon and the government of the state of Israel.


Mao Zedong's poetry creatively blends a wide variety of expression techiques,contains a brilliant content which is convincing.To some extent,it is these forms of rhetoric devices that make the works more artistic and charming,as the flowers in the socialist cultural landscape that will never wither.


Joint inversion of microwave and ultrasonic data for breast imaging is investigated with deterministic edge-preserving regularization by introducing auxiliary variables indicating whether a pixel is on an edge or not. These edge markers are shared by dielectric and acoustic parameters and are the link to fusion between modalities. They can be jointly optimized from the last parameter profiles of microwave and ultrasonic cases and guide the next optimization as coefficients of the regularization term. Alternate minimization is used to update acoustic contrast, edge markers and dielectric contrast. Comprehensive numerical experiments are carried out on breast phantoms, a simple synthetic one and three extracted from a database. The results show, with comparisons to more classical approaches involving total variation or cross-gradient regularization developed in parallel, that the joint inversion algorithm can gain from the high resolution of ultrasonic imaging and the high contrast of microwave imaging. The quality of microwave imaging is enhanced in clear fashion and small tumors detected.


The temperature dependence of the one phonon Raman spectra of ZnS (hex.), ZnO and a-Sic crystals is studied over the temperature range 15 to 1000 K. For ZnS frequency shifts are calculated by Griineisen theory and the k = 0 longitudinal and transverse optic phonon Griineisen parameters determined. The results are compa, indicating that the principal interactions are the cubic anharmonicities. Various calculated properties include the area, second moment, and simulated Raman bands to illustrate the anharmonic behaviour in the solids.


Machine-to-machine (M2M) communications is expected to be supported in the next-generation wireless LAN, IEEE 802.11ah. One of the most important issues for M2M communications is designing an effective medium access scheme to handle many devices. In this letter, we propose a new medium access control (MAC) enhancement to increase the uplink access efficiency. The proposed algorithm estimates the number of devices for the uplink access from the success probability. In the proposed algorithm, an access point (AP) determines the optimal size of the restricted access window (RAW) considering the relationship between the estimated number of devices and the size of RAW. We show that the success probability for the uplink access is improved by using our proposed algorithm through analysis and simulations.


Direct response, and more specifically direct mail, is frequently positioned as the vehicle of the 90's for media targeting and individual level micro-marketing.
The efficiency of direct mail however, faced with increased competition and mail box clutter, as well as escalating postage, printing and paper costs, is in serious jeopardy. The ability to better target individual prospects (current non-customers) who have both interest in a product and the propensity to purchase through the mail has seen little refinement beyond subjective or experientially based judgements.
Perhaps the richest source of data on individual consumers has traditionally come from projectable sample surveys. Yet, surveys, by definition, provide information on only a small sample (often 1500 people or less) of prospects and, therefore, have not been utilized for purposes of list selection. On the other hand, increased availability of commercial databases, with both extensive population coverage and exponentially accumulating data, is seen as an under realized opportunity for targeting guidance.
Coupling these databases with sample surveys presents a unique and potentially powerful solution to the dilemma of declining direct mail efficiency.
A successful linkage of such attitudinal and behavioral intention information, from sample based survey research to readily available national databases, allows for the quantitative assessment and subsequent ranking of direct mail prospects. The obvious benefits of such ranking includes both increased efficiency and effectiveness of direct marketing efforts, with ultimate benefits to bottom line profitability.
With applications for a variety of marketing efforts, testing environments include target group membership identification, direct response purchase propensity and alternate positioning affinities. The project outlines a systematic approach to the mathematical linkage of survey results to available demographic databases, and the subsequent development of procedures for individual level identification and evaluation of direct mail prospects for specific marketing objectives. Alternative analytic procedures for both model selection and strategies for overcoming the limits and problems associated with missing values are explored.


Customer-orientation of salespeople has a significant influence on sales performance, behavioural intentions of customers and their satisfaction levels. Yet, there have been studies which point towards the fact, that although the SOCO (Saxe & Weitz, 1982) scale has been used by a number of researchers as a measure of customer-orientation, its efficacy in measuring individual sales performance based on salesperson skills or traits is still incomplete (Singh, A. & Koshy, A., 2011, p. 70), reinforced by the fact that customer-orientation is more of an individual level construct being supported by organizational-orientation. Salespersons have a tremendous impact on loyalty exhibited by customers, to the extent that customers may cease to be loyal to a firm when a particular salesperson is transferred or leaves the firm (O'Leighlin, D & Szmigin, I., 2006, p. 285).This paper explores conceptual foundations surrounding salesperson customer-orientation, customer loyalty as its consequence and the role played by personality traits of individual salesperson in influencing these constructs by a thorough examination of literature. Additionally, it is also proposed that the relationship be studied from salesperson perspective as very few researchers have focussed on this side of the relationship, and shall also be helpful for firms to understand key salesperson motivations. Key personality indicators are identified as moderators of the relationship and a model is re - developed by adapting from other models of customer orientation and customer loyalty.


Integrating the protection of worker safety and health with evidence-based health promotion is a strategic approach enhancing the safety, health, and well-being of the employee population and reducing costs for the organization. An integrate approach can reduce injuries; improve health; lower health claims, absenteeism, and workers compensation claims; and enhance overall wellbeing of the workforce and company.


The system of agricultural cooperatives, collectively referred to as JA, is one of the most politically powerful organizations in Japanese politics. Based on its strong ties with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which has been in government for almost the entire postwar period, JA has lobbied the Japanese government to maintain its various restrictive trade policies regarding agricultural commodities. JA is regarded by many as being Japan's biggest obstacle to further international trade liberalization. How has JA become so politically powerful, and will JA continue to dictate the position of the Japanese government in international trade negotiations? In order to provide clear answers to these questions, this study focuses on JA's sociopolitical role and influence in rural communities.


This study applied the exploratory research method and interviews with specialists to figure out factors to determine a contract method for reconstruction projects. Based on factors derived from literature review and interviews, this research developed a decision support model to determine a reconstruction contract method. The decision support model consists of various items divided into 4 levels. The items at the level 2 consist of project and participants, which are the major aspects of determinant factors. Cost, project schedule, and quality are the factors evaluated for the project, and client and contractor are the factors evaluated for participator at the level 3. More detailed factors were developed in each factor at the level 3. Based on these factors, the decision support model also figures out the correlation and importance of the evaluation factors and transforms them to numeric numbers so that they can be sorted out by the degree of importance in the contract method. The correlation and importance of the contract methods are composed to create a model that can be used in decision making for the contract method at the early stage in reconstruction projects.


Intestinal dysbiosis is a key feature in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Bacterial quorum sensing mediated by acyl-homoserine lactones (AHL) might play a role in the dialogue between the gut microbiota and the host. The main objective of our study was to investigate the presence and expression of AHL synthase and receptor genes in the human gut ecosystem during IBD.

 To confirm the presence of AHL in the gut, mass spectrometric detection was performed on stool samples from IBD patients and non-IBD subjects. Then, by an in silico approach, we exploited the open access database: Inflammatory Bowel Disease Multi'omics Database, an American cohort with bacterial metagenomes and metatranscriptomes data of stool samples from non-IBD and IBD subjects. To characterise gut dysbiosis, the most discriminating bacterial species between non-IBD and IBD patients were identified by multivariate analysis and allowed us to define two groups (dysbiosis/non-dysbiosis). The search for AHL synthase (luxI) and receptor (luxR) known homolog genes, was performed using Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) from previously assembled gene files (presence/absence) as well as raw data sequencing files (relative abundance and expression).

 Mass spectrometry confirmed a higher concentration of AHL molecules in healthy subjects than in relapsing IBD. Regarding in silico analysis, 103 subjects were selected including 50 with Crohn's disease (CD), 27 with ulcerative colitis (UC), and 26 non-IBD subjects. No luxI-like synthase genes were retrieved by BLAST searches. However, several homologs of receptor genes were identified: sdiA gene from Escherichia coli (7/103 patients) and luxR-like homologs from Bacteroides fragilis and Bacteroides dorei present in all patients. According to disease, only one luxR-like gene from Bacteroides dorei was under-expressed in IBD patients (p = 0.02) compared to non-IBD, especially in CD (p = 0.02) (Figure 1). In dysbiosis situation, one luxR receptor gene from Bacteroides fragilis appeared to be over-expressed (p = 0.04) compared to non-dysbiotic patients (Figure 2).

 Through this computational approach, AHL-synthesising bacteria have not been found. However, the expression of quorum sensing receptor genes appears to be modulated by IBD-associated gut dysbiosis. The role of LuxR receptors, especially in Bacteroides species, should be investigated to understand its impact on gut microbiota (Figure 3). Targeting LuxR receptors of bacterial quorum sensing might represent a new approach to modulate the gut microbiota in IBD.


To the Editor. —The astonishing pace of advance in the neurological sciences presents the practicing neurologist with a painful problem. Not to "keep up" with current knowledge means facing the scorn of one's colleagues (and secretly, oneself) and, more disastrous, the possibility of doing a patient disservice with its attendant chance, always lurking in the shadows, of thereby engendering a malpractice suit. Meanwhile, the numbers of medical journals proliferate, the scientific language becomes more highly specialized and abstruse. There does not seem to be adequate time to remain current with all the new knowledge about, for example, the site of the dystrophin gene on the X chromosome and on the relationship of the human T cell lymphotropic virus type 1 to tropical spastic paraparesis. Fortunately, recent discoveries in human physiology point to light at the end of this tunnel. Three revolutionary "shortcuts" to acquisition of knowledge are available involving new


Abstract Japanese quail, housed one to a cage, were exposed to reduced living areas caused by an accumulation of their own eggs. After an average of 14 eggs had accumulated, these birds began to destroy their eggs at the same rate they laid them. The effect was to maintain about .026 m.2 of clear floor area. No changes in egg production were found. Behavioral control of living space is suggested by these results.


The Robot Operating System (ROS) is rapidly becoming the de facto framework for building robotics systems, thanks to its flexibility and the large acceptance that it has received in the robotics community. With the growth of its popularity, it has started to be used in multi-robot systems as well. However, the TCP connections that the platform relies on for connecting the so-called ROS nodes, presents several issues in terms of limited-bandwidth, delays and jitter, when used in wireless ad-hoc networks. In this paper, we present a thorough analysis of the problem and propose a new ROS node called Pound to improve the wireless communication performance. Pound allows the use of multiple ROS cores and introduces a priority scheme favoring more important flows over less important ones, thus reducing delay and jitter over single-hop and multihop networks. We compare Pound to the state-of-the-art solutions and show that it performs equally well, or better in all the test cases, including a control-over-network example.


F.D.R. Refreshed MIAMI, Fla., April 4 (AP)-WeU Ian ned Rnd refreshed by two weeks on the open seas of tills southern cllm~ , President Roosovelt turned 1hbughts tonight to a return ashoro and po.elbly to the busy days ahcad In his campaign year. His shIp, the U.S.S. Potomac, lay within striking dIstance of the M A J h United States coast line a.nd there rs nna 0 nston .. were Indications the president was ' • / , ~~~It:~~:k . fo,' a debarkation early Horton Condemned to


Structural vibration control is categorized into passive control, active control and semi-active control. Semi-active control using a variable damper stabilizes building responses in an earthquake better than the conventional passive control and active control.This paper used variable hydraulic damper and MR damper. The servo valve of variable hydraulic damper controls the oil flow between two rooms of the cylinder divided by the piston. MR damper changes its damping force by changing the magnetic field acting on the MR fluid according to an electric current. As the first step of the research, in order to evaluate the performance expected from the theoretical study, a dynamic loading test was conducted. Next, authors conducted experiment by the base-isolated specimen of two-degree-of-freedom structure. Finally, the damping performance and control characteristics of semi-active damper were verified.