The way in which companies increasingly look to the whole world as their potential market means that international business success largely depends on the effectiveness of intercultural communication. Thus, it makes sense to study and to link intercultural communication to international business and to business communication. What distinguishes intercultural communication from other types of communication is the interaction between people perceived as different from us. However, we can easily fail to understand these concepts and their implications. We will then try to address some issues such as culture, levels of cultures and dimensions of cultures, as well as some barriers to intercultural communication. Further analysis and investigation into these theories can lead us to agree or to disagree with them and with their results. But from our point of view, this is not the key aspect. What is important in reading and reviewing them is to get a better understanding of our own culture, to identify and understand the differences in relation to others, to anticipate the risks and the means to minimize their impact, to become more effective intercultural communicators and, consequently, to achieve better results.


Pure GaN is known to show a very high photocatalytic water oxidation activity in the UV range. Recently Shen et al. [J. Phys. Chem. C 2010, 114, 13695] have proposed a sequence of intermediate steps for the water oxidation process at the GaN(1010) GaN/water interface. In this contribution we show that when spontaneous water dissociation occurs, the acidity of the surface can be accurately computed using first principles molecular dynamics simulations. The electronic structure analysis of the adsorbed water and hydroxyl groups shows large differences between GaN and the well studied photocatalyst TiO2. On the basis of our results we argue that the search for efficient photocatalytic materials needs to take into account the water dissociation activity of candidate material surfaces.


OBJECTIVES
Metformin, an oral anti-diabetic drug, is known to possess a powerful antitumor effect by modulating the tumor-immune interaction. The precise influence of metformin on natural killer (NK) cells, a crucial innate immunity player, is not completely understood. In our study, analyses of the effect of metformin on the NK cell functional phenotype were performed, and the potential mechanisms underlying it were investigated.

METHODS
BALB/C wild type mice were treated with metformin, and the functional phenotype of splenocytes and potential underlying mechanisms were investigated.

RESULTS
Metformin significantly boosts NK cell cytotoxicity and the percentage of NKp46+, FasL+, and interferon (IFN)-γ+ NK cells while decreasing interleukin (IL)-10 producing NK cells. Our research also demonstrated that the simultaneous administration of metformin and 1-methyl-DL-tryptophan (1-MT), a specific inhibitor of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), significantly increased the NK cells synthesis of IFN-γ, IL-17, perforin, and FasL and NKp46 expression. These findings imply that metformin potentiates NK cell cytotoxicity through mechanisms other than IDO blockade. Metformin administration strongly increased the expression of immunostimulatory microRNA (miRNA)-150 and miRNA-155, while decreasing the expression of immunosuppressive miRNA-146a.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that metformin can directly potentiate NK cell activation and cytotoxicity. This research may contribute to dissecting key mechanisms of metformin exerting antitumor activity to advance the use of metformin as an antitumor agent.


A communication processing device comprises a storage unit (725) and a control unit (752).  The storage unit (725) stores information relating to a communication terminal wherein information relating to whether a router advertisement is transmitted or not to the communication terminal at a connection destination is recorded corresponding to the communication terminal.  When transmitting the router advertisement to the communication terminal to be connected, the control unit (752) investigates whether the router advertisement is to be transmitted for the first time or not to the communication terminal on the basis of the information relating to the terminal device.  When the transmission is the first time, the control unit (752) sets information for giving higher priority of selecting the device as a communication destination to the router advertisement; when the transmission is not the first time, the control unit (752) sets information for giving priority lower than the priority to be given when the transmission is the first time, to the router advertisement.


This theses deals with social networking and possibilities of this platform in context of marketing strategies. It handles about the area of social media and social networks and the very specific communication in this space. This thesis deals with online social networks and the possibility of marketing strategies in their platform. It handles about social media and social networks, and very specific communication in this environment. First, closer to mass communication, new media and social sites and their context shows the different directions of planning communication strategy. The analytical part deals in detail with the possibility of advertising space in the Internet and social networks and their limitations. Last but not least, the theses explores the extraordinary possibilities of marketing use of space and assigns them to various potential targets and objectives of marketing activities. Hypotheses regarding the recommendations and use these remarkable trends and possibilities are then confronted with the qualitative research among leading experts on social networks. In conclusion there is a specific communication strategy recommendation on social networking sites on the French cosmetic brand L'Occitane.


We present our new results for the QCD equation of state at nonzero chemical potential at N_t=6 and compare them with N_t=4. We use the Taylor expansion method with terms up to sixth order in simulations with 2+1 flavors of improved asqtad quarks along a line of constant physics with m_l=0.1 m_s and approximately physical strange quark mass m_s.


The utility model relates to a self-sucking fully-automatic wastewater recovering and treating apparatus, which is in a tank body structure, wherein a running water pipe is connected with a valve which is connected with a non-return valve; the non-return valve is connected with a self-sucking connector which is connected with a self-sucking pipe; a two-hole water inlet valve of a water tank is connected with the self-sucking connector, and the other end of the two-hole water inlet valve of the water tank is connected with a toilet water tank; a wastewater storing tank is arranged at the lower part of the self-sucking fully-automatic wastewater recovering and treating apparatus; a manual flushing switch is connected with a floating ball by a connecting rod; the floating ball is connected with a flushing valve by a lever; the flushing valve is connected with a flushing pipe; a pulling rope of an automatic-manual blow-off valve is arranged at the inner part of an overflow pipe, the upper part of the pulling rope is connected with a manual blow-off valve switch, and the lower part of the pulling rope is connected with the automatic-manual blow-off valve; the floating ball is connected with a back-flushing pipe by a lever; a water treater is connected with a water draining filter of a water basin; the point of a water draining pipe opening of the water basin is provided with a water draining diverting switch of the water basin. The utility model has the advantages of reasonable structure and water resource saving. The utility model can reuse the wastewater.


In the case that a community would choose to abandon the traditional economic growth model in favor of degrowth with the goal of completely sustainable well-being for the community's population, a transition would have to be made away from the use of non-renewable resources. Agricultural techniques and yields are evaluated for facilitating a rapid transition away from the further extraction of finite, subsurface, fossil and mineral resources. Quantities of biomass are related to an adequate standard of living and basic material needs of a population. Per capita consumption is related to population density, assuming an optimistic and constant agricultural yield.


Domestic violence has increased globally as the COVID-19 pandemic combines with economic and social stresses. Some works have used traditional feature extractors to identify body positions to detect physical violence. Besides, the use of Machine Learning is limited by the trade-off between collecting more data while keeping users' privacy. Federated Learning (FL) is a technique that allows the creation of client-server networks, in which anonymized training data can be uploaded to a central model, responsible for aggregating and keeping the model up to date, and then distributing the updated model to the clients' nodes. This paper proposed an FL approach to the violence detection problem in video. The framework was evaluated on AIRTLab Dataset, in which frames were extracted. It used pretrained Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) to address the image classification problem. Inception v3, MobileNet v2, ResNet-152 v2, and VGG-16 architectures were evaluated, with the MobileNet architecture presenting the best performance, in terms of accuracy (99.4%), with a loss of 0.5% when compared to the non-FL setting.


Colchiceine and ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) are drugs currently in use as therapy for different types of liver damage. We evaluated their ability to reverse the damage induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) in rats. Six groups were analysed: (1) CCl4 (0.4 g kg−1, i.p., three times a week) for 13 weeks; (2) CCl4 for 8 weeks followed by colchiceine (60 μg kg−1) + CCl4 for 5 weeks; (3) CCl4 for 8 weeks and thereafter UDCA (25 mg kg−1) + CCl4 for 5 weeks. Groups 4, 5 and 6 were appropriate controls of colchiceine, UDCA and vehicles respectively. Na+,K+‐ and Ca2+‐ATPase activities and the cholesterol–phospholipid (CH/PL) ratio from erythrocyte and hepatocyte membranes were quantified. Membrane enzymatic activities and CH/PL ratios were affected more in group 1 than groups 2 and 3. We concluded that colchiceine and UDCA were effective drugs in this model of liver damage.


Antibody titers to rubella were determined by the hemagglutination inhibition test in sera of 1,886 female employees of the Hospital das Clinicas, of the School of Medicine, Ribeirao Preto, University of S. Paulo, in 1982-1983, and related to age, color, hospital unit, position and place of work, period of employment, and history of rubella or contagion when pregnant or not otherwise. In 1,617 of the 1,886 sera (85.7%), titers (reciprocal) were > 20, and in 269 (14.3%) ³ 20, distributed as follows: in 9.6% 20 titers; 57.5% denied communicant status, all also having > 20 titers; in 1.1% of 11.1% who reported a history of rubella, titers were £ 20; 97% denied contact with rubella during pregnancy. There was one case of congenital malformation after rubella during the 1st trimester of pregnancy. Specific IgM was detected in 9.4% or 351 employees with ³ 640 titers. No significant titer fluctuation was observed in different samples of one and the same employee. It follows that most employees are immune to rubella (> 20 titer) regardless of the other parameters considered. The specific IgM may indicate subclinical disease or IgM persistence. The survey was considered useful for medical guidance of pregnant employees when they contacted a patient with suspected or confirmed rubella, and phrophylaxis for non-pregnant employees known to be non immune.


The influence of the bias level and the nonlinear gain on the achievable minimum output pulse width due to laser chirping is considered. Using Gaussian input pulses a bias level of about 30% of the optical pulse amplitude yields a two-fold to three-fold increase in the possible bit rate than without bias level.


Collaborative tracking control and formation control are common approaches in which multiple agents work together to perform a global objective. They are increasingly used in a diverse range of applications, however few controllers simultaneously address both tasks. To improve performance of repeated tasks, iterative learning control (ILC) has been independently applied to both methodologies. However, focus has been on centralized structures, and existing solutions typically have limited convergence rates and robustness properties.This paper addresses these limitations by developing a powerful decentralised ILC framework that unites both collaborative tracking and formation control objectives. It enables broad classes of ILC algorithm to be derived with well-defined convergence rates, optimal tracking solutions, and transparent robustness properties. The framework is illustrated through derivation of three new ILC updates: inverse, gradient and norm optimal ILC. Convergence analysis for the proposed framework is also given.


The comparative analysis of qualitative and quantitative structure of peripheral blood cells and reticular tissue of mesonephros of spoonbill catfish (Polyodon spathula) in 30 days after the transition to active feeding has been made. In mesonephros of Polyodon spathula active processes of hematopoiesis have been revealed due to the presence of all groups of blood cells at different development stages. In the peripheral blood almost all types and classes of blood cells have been also found, but their mature forms are dominant. The presence of semi-primitive, unipotent, blast and maturing cells in the peripheral blood show an intensive migration of cells of hematopoietic foci in the bloodstream. At rather early stage of fry development pathology of mesonephros has been found (accumulation of protein, necrosis and destruction of the epithelium of spiral tubules) that may be effect of unfavorable environmental conditions in growing of Polyodon spathula.


The invention relates to a method of making a thermoelectric layer structure on a substrate having at least one electrically anisotropic conductive V-VI layer, in particular a (Bi, Sb) characterized in that at least one V-VI layer (11, 11 ', 11' ') by means of a seed layer (13, 14) or applied by means of a on the substrate (10) structure relative to the substrate (10) arranged so is, that the angle (α) between the direction of highest conductivity (a-axis) of the V-VI layer (11, 11 ', 11' ') and the substrate (10) is greater than 0 °. The orientation by an electric field can occur. The invention also relates to components in which the angle (α) between the direction of highest conductivity (a-axis) of the V-VI layer (11, 11 ', 11' ') and the substrate (10) is greater than 0 ° , Thus, the anisotropy of the known V-VI materials can be advantageously used for the construction of devices.


The eloquent diplomatic speeches were actually the most magnificent literary works in the Spring and Autumn Period and thus formed a unique genre,which started the Chinese tradition of pursuing rhetorical skills in prose writing.The composition of diplomatic speeches,characterized by their refined diction and texture,provides a showcase for the literary practice of the Spring and Autumn Period.Confucius' thoughts on the composition of prose were originally made for how to make effective diplomatic speeches.Such earlier important theorizations of literary creation have exerted far-reaching influences on the later development of literary creation and criticism in China.In this regard,diplomatic speeches were the most splendid prose in the Spring and Autumn Period and the authors of those speeches were the most outstanding writers at that time.


SQLServer2000 background for the use of tools, VB.NET interface tool for the development of distributed, a common, simple and functional,low-cost budget for the financial management software, so that the leadership of the Institute of more intuitive understanding of the financial costs to be incurred in order to reduce the Unnecessary expenditure. According to the system from the actual situation, a scientific and rational system analysis, design and analysis, so the system can meet the economic, flexibility, reliability and systemic.


A laboratory study evaluated the uniaxial penetration test for its suitability to characterize the shear resistance of hot-mix asphalt mixtures at elevated temperatures. Four types of mixtures with three different binders and three different coarse aggregates were tested by the uniaxial penetration test at 40°C, 50°C, 60°C, and 70°C. In addition, triaxial compression tests were conducted for selected mixtures to compare the uniaxial shear resistance with the shear strength. The results of the current investigation indicated that the uniaxial penetration test was able to provide consistent results for the mixtures selected. Further studies were recommended for the uniaxial penetration test to be incorporated into mixture design as a simple performance test.


Introduction: attention is a basic process related to addictive behavior. In smokers, the stimuli associated with consumption are relevant because they are present at the beginning and in the consolidation of the smoking habit. Therefore, to contribute to the understanding of addictive behaviors with objective measures, a study through eye-tracking techniques is presented. This would support the clinical process of people seeking to quit smoking.
Objective: to study the attentional bias with images related to tobacco consumption in smoking and non-smoking participants, using an eye-tracking technique.
Method: eight university students participated, who were assigned to two groups based on their Fagerstrom Test score. The experimental task consisted of the random presentation of 15 images related to tobacco consumption and 15 neutral images. During the experiment, visual fixations, latency and time to each image were recorded using an eye tracker.
Results: a statistical analysis showed significant differences between moderate smokers and non-smokers when images related to tobacco use were presented in the three measure. Likewise, a qualitative analysis of the results shows differences between the participants when they were presented with neutral images and images related to tobacco.
Discussion and conclusions: it is suggested that in the smoking participants there is an attentional bias towards the images related to tobacco consumption.


: In order to obtain transmission spectra through a phononic crystal as well as its waveguide, a new algorithm is presented in this paper. By extracting displacement-based forms of elastic wave equations and their discretization, Displacement- Based Finite Difference Time Domain ( DBFDTD ) algorithm is presented. Two numerical examples are solvcd with this method and the results are compared with the conventional Finite Difference Time Domain ( FDTD ) method. In addition, the computational cost of the new approach has been compared with the conventional FDTD method. This comparison showed that the computation time of the DBFDTD method is 40 percent less than that of the conventional FDTD method.


Multiple ply structural panels, such as veneer-overlayed particleboard panels, are manufactured by bonding together the component materials under conditions of elevated pressure and temperature using a binder system comprising an organic polyisocyanate and formaldehyde. Through the use of this novel binder system, structural panels may be produced incorporating quantities of tree-derived materials such as bark and evergreen needles, previously considered unusable. Moreover, the physical properties and moisture resistance of the resultant products are competitive with those of conventional wood-based structural panels.


Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 128 female students of high schools in the second grade Friedan city in 2015. They were randomly divided into intervention and control groups. The data gathering tool was a questionnaire including demographic characteristics, HBM constructs and health performance questionnaires which were used after confirmation of validity and reliability of the tool. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, paired and independent t-test in SPSS 22 software.


Quantum confinement effects in Ge nanocrystals in the size range 26–130 A have been investigated both on the electronic joint density of states and Raman spectra. The high degree of crystallinity of the particles as well as the minimized interaction with the matrix allow detection of shift and broadening of the TO Raman peak, which can be compared with theoretical expectations based on phonon confinement. The evolution of Raman and absorption spectra and their dependence on the nanocrystal dimensions can be related.


A catheter (100) comprising: a catheter body (104) with a hole catheter (202) extending from a proximal portion decateter (112) to a distal catheter portion (114); a manifold (102) coupled to the proximal catheter portion (112), one manifold hole (200) extending through the manifold assembly (102) from a proximal manifold portion (106) hastauna distal portion manifold (108), the manifold hole (200) in communication with the decateter hole (202) and including the manifold hole (200) having a mounting cavity (206) extiendealrededor of the proximal portion of catheter (112) ; a loop fluid jet (300) coupled to a high pressure tube (204) in the distal catheter portion (114) extending the loop fluid jet (300) around a hole loop jet fluido320) including the loop fluid jet (300) holes fluid jet (302) along unasuperficie guide tapered loop (304), and the guide surface of tapered loop (304) an outer perimeter ahusadesde loop fluid jet into an inner perimeter loop defluido jet and the orifice fluid jet loop (320); a composite guide (128) comprising: an insert proximal guide positioned within the mounting cavity (206) including the insert deguia proximal surface of plug guide (210) substantially flush with body wall decateter inner (212 ) and the insert proximal guide configured to guide an instrument allade mounting cavity (206) and into the bore of the catheter (202), and a distal guide including the guide surface of tapered loop (304) and being surface intermediate guide (310) hole coupled catheter flush manner with an edge (308) of the deguia surface tapered loop (304), wherein the distal guide is configured to guide the instrument lasuperficie guide intermediate (310), the tapered guide surface loop (304) and through the fluid jet projecting loop (300).


Substituents placed on the phenyl rings of 2,3‐diphenyl‐1,3‐thiazolidin‐4‐one affect the electron density surrounding both the methine proton and the C(2) carbon. These changes are reflected in the differing chemical shifts for these atoms relative to the parent compound. The other carbons in the heterocyclic ring appear to be similarly affected by substituents on the phenyl rings. Correlations for the effects of various substituents in both the 2‐ and 3‐phenyl rings with the 1H and 13C chemical shifts for the aforementioned sites are discussed using both Hammett and Swain–Lupton dual parameter methods. A conformational analysis using ab initio calculations is in agreement with the observed NMR data.


Dissatisfaction and expectancy disconfirmation are the emotional and cognitive source of consumer complaints. It is possible that individual complaints will spread around a certain group,and there exist two different spreading mechanisms such as emotional contagion and negative word of mouth. Based on Hofstede's five dimensions of cultures,an I-G model can be postulated,which shows how individual complaints affect group satisfaction under different cultural backgrounds. From the perspective of power dimension,the group with intentions of higher power distance is more easily influenced by the opinion leaders,and the complaints have stronger and quicker interpersonal influences. From the perspective of relationship dimension,collectivism group is more possible and irrational to follow public word of mouth than individualism group does. From the perspective of gender dimension,the expectancy disconfirmation and dissatisfaction of a consumer in a masculinity group are prone to turn into public knowledge,and which in femininity group are more likely to turn into tacit knowledge. From the perspective of risk dimension, individual complaints in a group with strong uncertainty avoidance are influenced by rules,while the consumers in a group with weak uncertainty avoidance are hazardous and prone to get the compensation for the reason of complaints. From the perspective of time dimension,the effect of individual complaint will be more persistent in a long-term orientation group.


Abstract Background Cytomegalovirus (CMV) causes substantial morbidity and mortality after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). There are limited data on risk factors for CMV viremia and the safety of antiviral medications used to treat CMV in children. Methods We conducted a single-center retrospective study of children who underwent HSCT between 2000 and 2016. We used log-logistic regression to evaluate associations between clinical characteristics and CMV-free survival at 100 days after HSCT. We compared the incidences of laboratory-defined adverse events (AEs) during treatment with ganciclovir and foscarnet. Results Among 969 children, the median (interquartile range) age was 6.5 (3.1–11.5) years, and 80% underwent allogeneic HSCT. Two hundred forty-four (25%) children developed CMV viremia. Older age (odds ratio [OR], 0.95; 95% CI, 0.92–0.98), male sex (OR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.51–0.99), non-Black, non-White race (OR, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.36–0.87), umbilical cord blood donor source (OR, 0.28; 95% CI, 0.08–0.97), and CMV seropositivity (R-/D+: OR, 0.17; 95% CI, 0.07–0.41; R+/D-: OR, 0.14; 95% CI, 0.09–0.21; R+/D+: OR, 0.08; 95% CI, 0.04–0.15) were associated with lower odds of 100-day CMV-free survival. Compared with foscarnet, ganciclovir was associated with lower incidences of thrombocytopenia (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 0.38; 95% CI, 0.15–0.97), electrolyte AEs (IRR, 0.42; 95% CI, 0.24–0.75), endocrine AEs (IRR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.34–0.79), and renal AEs (IRR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.19–0.65). Conclusions CMV viremia occurred commonly among children after HSCT, and ganciclovir and foscarnet were associated with distinct toxicity profiles among children with CMV infection. These findings should be considered when developing CMV prevention and treatment strategies for children after HSCT.


At the early stages of the USSR`s development, much attention was paid to involving masses of the population into regular physical exercises. During the post-war period (after 1945) the sport of superior achievements was top priority, though. The GTO (this Russian acronym means 'ready for labour and defence') complex fell short of the expectations owing to the faulty experience of forcedly taking tests and lack of systematic reasonable exercises. The mythical idea of the GTO complex`s exclusiveness has been concealing the truth about it for the last three or four decades.


How often have you said you will not attend conferences where your pre-conference workshop was not accepted or your proposed prime-time paper was turned into a late-night poster? Given that propensity, it was great to see several prominent consciousness scientists and philosophers attending ASSC-9, even though they played no (or only a minor) official role. Their active involvement is a tribute to ASSC conferences being major gatherings of the 'consciousness community'. Many of them were more officially involved in the preor post-conference satellite meetings: 'Neurophilosophy: The State of the Art' (June 21-23) and 'Problems of space and time in perception and action' (June 28). In terms of greats in the field, the assembly honoured the late-greats Francis Crick and Joseph Bogen. Christof Koch hosted the programme for his home-town 'technical school', giving announcements and introducing introducers. At times Koch must have felt like he was herding solipsists, especially once when, because we were running late, he announced that a scheduled 30-minute coffee break would be 'a short 10 minutes'. Needless to say, it was a full half hour before he could resume the sessions. Patrick Wilken, in his organizational remarks to the conference, called us a membership conference of an Academic Society, mentioning that our membership has grown from 340 last year to 480 this year, with about one-third being graduate students. In response to the latter fact, the organizing committee developed a student prize presentation and a student social event this year. They also lined up the Mind-Science Foundation, who served as a conference sponsor and gave Tom Slick Research Award in Consciousness grant money to the five scholars comprising the first plenary symposium of this conference. (The


The time management of the beginning of the first operation was carried out in our operation room through five steps"Define-Measure-Analysis-Improve-Control"of six sigma.Emphasized the necessity and applicability of introducing the advanced management tool in hospital.


Since 1960s,American academia increasingly turned to union organization for professional help in academic profession.As one of the main academic unions in U.S,AAUP grew up increasingly in enhancing the rights and benefits of academic profession for its essential characters.Four main factors distinguish AAUP unionism: a commitment to academic freedom and shared governance,local autonomy,an emphasis on organizing,and dedication to organizational democracy.


Negative energy balance (NEB) is a common pathological foundation of fatty liver and ketosis. Liver and fat tissue are the major organs of lipid metabolism, which is also a key metabolic pathway that regulates NEB development during the perinatal period. Fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF-21) is a protein hormone that plays an important role in adipose lipid metabolism and liver gluconeogenesis. Our aim was to investigate the effects of exogenous FGF-21 on characteristic parameters related to energy balance in dairy cows. Ten non-pregnant, non-lactating Holstein-Friesian dairy cows were randomly allocated into two groups. The interventions were exogenous FGF-21 injection group received 1 ug/kg BW (body weight) of recombinant bovine FGF-21 by intravenous injection, and control group received physiological saline injections by intravenous injection. In comparison to saline injections, intravenous injections of FGF-21 either increased or tended to increase concentrations of FGF-21 (p < 0.05), BHBA (p < 0.05), adiponectin, leptin and HDL-C. FGF-21 injections decreased or tended to decrease concentrations of insulin, glucose, glucagon (p < 0.05), ALT/GPT (p < 0.05), AST/GOT (p < 0.05), urate, creatinine (p < 0.05), BUN, triglyceride (p < 0.05), T-CHO and LDL-C (p < 0.05). The results indicate that FGF-21 has only negative effects on the metabolites and metabolic hormones related to NEB in serum of dairy cows, but it has more beneficial effects on prominent adipokines, liver function index, renal function index, lipoprotein profiles related to the pathological changes that occurred in NEB.


In our view, the Universe can be described as having two forms of energy: one related to attractive gravitational forces, which is negative, and the other related to mass according to Einstein's formula E = mc2, which is positive. The generation of nonequilibrium structures (such as Benard vortices or chemical oscillations), where energy is conserved, also corresponds to a free lunch, for the price of nonequilibrium structures is entropy, and not energy. In this context, we can specify the origin of negative gravitational energy and its transformation into positive matter-energy. The idea of the Cartesian Theater is that somewhere in the brain, there is a perceptual space that contains the contents of consciousness. Implied by the supposition of this space is that there must also be a viewer (or viewing process) that is the experience of this content. Contrary to this we think that consciousness can be explained without the Cartesian Theater.


An 80-year-old man was admitted with 'acute confusion'. Previously he was completely independent (modified Rankin score of 0). The day before the presentation, he was performing complex accounting work for his family business. He had a medical history of hypertension and diabetes mellitus. His


The volnmc of the parathyroid glands was studied both to contribute to the knowledge of the anatomy of the rat and to furnish a criterion of size for experimental studies. As far as could he d rmiiied from available literature the only qimilar stnclies made previoasly were those by Jackson ( 'IS), Overliolser ( 'as), Jacksoil and P'an ( '32) arid Rosof ('34). (3 in this work consisted of sixty femalc and animals dcrired from the Wistar strain, groupecl as listed in table 2. They were raised in wire bottom cages, fed on NcColIum diet I plus 1% of cod liver oil, md furnishccl frcsh water daily. The rats mere killed with chloroform at 28 days, 3 montlis, or 6 montlis of age. From some the thyroid and parathyroids were removed together with adjacent portions of the trachea and larynx ; from others the thyroid, with tlie parathyroids, was carefully dissected free from surrounding structures. The glands were fixed immedjatel? in Rouin's fluid, Bcnslep's moclificatioii of flelly 's fluid, o r Regaud's fluid, care bcing taken to assure comparable fixation in each gronp of rats. Washing, dehyclration, clearing, and embedding mere done in tlic usual xriaimer. The glands were seetioiled serially at a thickness of either 8 o r 10 p, and wtaiired witli Harris ' hematosylin and eosiii P. The volume of thc parathyroids W R S cldermined by tlie papcr outline method, employing a Tleitz-Edinger projection apparatus a id tracing tlic sections at a magnificatioii of 97 diameters on 'Artesian Liiieii Record' paper. The clrawjngs mere cut out and weighed, and having pi-evionsly determined the weight of a lriiown iirea of paper, tlie roliime was calculated. This


In the Schiff base molecule of the title compound, C22H20N4O2·C3H7NO·2H2O, the cyclohexane ring adopts a chair conformation with the two imine groups linked at the equatorial positions. The two indolin-2-one ring systems make a dihedral angle of 65.63 (5)°. In the crystal, the Schiff base molecules are connected through bifurcated N—H⋯(O,N) hydrogen bonds, forming inversion dimers. The water molecules link the dimers and the dimethylformamide molecules via O—H⋯O, O—H⋯N and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. Together with C—H⋯π and π–π [centroid–centroid distance = 3.3889 (10) Å] interactions a three-dimensional supramolecular structure is formed.


Abstract
 Greater White-fronted Goose Anser albifrons has a holarctic breeding distribution and is polymorphic. Three subspecies winter in the Palaearctic region, one of which also winters in the Nearctic region: European White-fronted Goose A. a. albifrons breeds in the far north of Europe and Asia and winters in the south and west of Europe; Pacific White-fronted Goose A. a. frontalis breeds in east Siberia and Arctic Canada and winters in East Asia and United States; and Greenland White-fronted Goose A. a. flavirostris breeds in Greenland and winters in Ireland and western Scotland. The phylogenetic relationships among these three subspecies are unclear. We determined the mitochondrial DNA control region sequences of Pacific Whitefronted Goose, using 66 shed feathers collected from wintering sites in Japan, and compared the sequences with those previously published for Greater White-fronted Goose subspecies. Phylogenetic trees and networks revealed that there are three clades within the species. The sequence divergence among the clades corresponds to divergence long before the last glacial maximum (15–25 thousand years ago), which suggests the existence of at least three ancient refugia for the species. However, all three subspecies consist of haplotypes from two of the three clades. This suggests that they originated from individuals that survived in two refugia during the last glacial period.


Organic acids are extracted by supported liquid membrane(SLM)from acidified broth of municipal sludge.Based on the optimization of extraction conditions,its feasibility was studied.Results showed that organic acids could be extracted by SLM system involved in microfiltration membrane module,extractive solvent,organic solvent and anti-extractive solvent.After 360min,the extraction system reached steady state with 50.8%of extraction efficiency.It increased with the increase of organic acid concentration.When the concentration of organic acid was 5g/L,it was 52.8%.Although the higher extractant concentration could increase the extraction efficiency,it increased slightly.Under 360min extraction time,20g/L organic acids,30℃and 10%carrier,the efficiency of extraction amounted to 79.3%,which can preferably realize the synchronous separation and condensation organic acid by supported liquid membranes.


The two body abrasion wear characteristic of Mn copper nickel alloy matrix cast tungsten carbide composite has been studied using high chromium cast iron as a reference material.Vacuum infiltrating casting method was employed to produce the composite.It is shown that the wear resistance of Mn copper nickel alloy matrix cast tungsten carbide opposite was much higher than that of high chromium cast iron,being 8 times and 10 times high when garnet and green SiC were used as abrasives.And the age hardening of the matrix had little effect on the two body abrasion due to the fact that exists high fraction of WC/W 2C particles with large size in the matrix.


Silencing contralateral barrel cortex using muscimol injections reversibly reduced performance to chance levels (53 ± 2% correct, n=3 mice); silencing of the visual cortex had little effect (95 ± 0.2% correct, n=2 mice). Furthermore, ablation lesions of somatosensory cortex contralateral to the whisker stimulus brought performance to chance levels (50 ± 3% correct, n=3 mice), whereas performance remained unaffected with a similar lesion applied to the ipsilateral hemisphere. These experiments indicate that our discrimination task depends critically on somatosensory cortex.


New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman conditionally vetoed a bill that would have mandated HIV testing of all patients in State psychiatric hospitals. The bill would have required patients upon admission to undergo testing for HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, syphilis, gonorrhea, and other sexually transmitted diseases. Except in limited circumstances, New Jersey does not mandate HIV testing. The measure passed both houses with little opposition but the governor decided to invoke her power of conditional veto. The governor recommended that the mandatory testing and disclosure portions be deleted and replaced with a provision requiring that the patient be informed of the benefits of HIV testing and be given the option of voluntary testing.


In this work related to the use of a commercial medical CT scanner for the non-destructive analysis of highly attenuating materials (mineral samples), the effect of backprojection techniques and truncation artifacts corrections were explored. For small ROIs, the CT couch interferes significantly in images of small samples (few centimeters). An iterative reconstruction algorithm (OSC-TV) was used to perform reconstructions from uncorrected raw projection data made available through a collaboration with the CT vendor, who provided binaries and methods to remove low-level, proprietary data corrections (for beam hardening). The OSC-TV algorithm is customizable, allowing for the use of different forward-projection and backprojection techniques. Reconstruction parameters were tuned by performing simulations in a virtual phantom involving highly attenuating materials. Strategies to reconstruct small ROIs were also explored, with the objective of reducing truncation artifacts. Three samples were scanned to compare a ray-driven backprojection and a voxel-driven backprojection technique based on bilinear interpolation. The voxel-driven approach led to better results in terms of noise and reconstruction artifacts. An iterative ROI reconstruction technique was used to reconstruct small ROIs. This technique allows obtaining a sinogram with the projections of the ROI only. With that, truncation artifacts were reduced, which led to images with less blurring.


Background: Patient safety is a fundamental principle of health care and the right of every patient in receiving health services. Patient safety performance as the quality of a hospital organization is affected by the performance of nurses. Objective: This study aimed at investigating the implementation of the theory of reason action model to explain the perception of professionalism and the implementation of patient safety in nurses. Method: The design of this study is a correlational quantitative analytic study with a cross-sectional approach. The analysis technique used is path analysis. The sample of this study was all nurses at Hospital ABC Tangerang, with as many as 105 respondents. Results: This research showed that 1) workload and motivation variables simultaneously affected the implementation of patient safety with the perception of professionalism as an intervening variable (probability level 0.285> 0.05), 2) there was a negative and significant effect of workload on the implementation of patient safety (p-value 0.012 <0.05),3) there was a negative and significant effect of workload on the perception of professional (p-value 0.000 <0.05), 4) motivation variable positively affected the implementation of patient safety (p-value 0.032 <0.05), 5) motivation variable positively affected the perception of professional (p-value 0.000 <0.05) and 6) the perception of professionalism positively affected the implementation of patient safety (p-value 0.000 <0.05). Conclusion: Nurses who have a high motivation to work will behave and act professionally to the duties and responsibilities so that the implementation of patient safety can be achieved. Management should manage the remuneration system of nurses, monitoring, evaluation, and the human resources management system so that the implementation of patient safety remain qualified


The results presented here are concentrated to the significant differences which will be presented in text and tables. All the variables of the seventeen hypotheses were tested regarding 1980. Some results not reaching levels of significance are also included. Some mean values and total figures are included to give a background and facilitate comparisons with other studies. Complete results including differences and mean values are available to interested researchers upon request to the author. The results arc presented for each of the seventeen hypotheses.


Radial velocity studies have provided the majority of all exoplanet discoveries. Using the radial velocity techniques on young stars suffers from problems with magnetic activity jitter, which has been studied for years, and the effects of circumstellar disks, which has remained unstudied. Here we study the disk‐embedded star BP Psc using high resolution, high accuracy HARPS spectra. We derive radial velocities, activity indices, and line profile information. We find that the presence of a disk severely limits information about the star. We find that even the line profiles are distorted by the disk reprocessing of the stellar light and we conclude that the disk of BP Psc is highly inhomogenious.


Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of domestic injectable cefoselis in the treatment of acute bacterial infections.Methods A multicenter double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted. Patients with acute respiratory or urinary tract bacterial infection were randomized into treatment group or control group. Patients in treatment group were treated with injectable cefoselis. The patients in control group were treated with injectable cefepime. Both drugs were administered intravenously at a dose of 1-2 g twice daily for 7-14 days. Results A total of 241 patients (121 with respiratory tract infections,120 with urinary tract infections) were enrolled and completed the trial.The cure rate and efficacy rate were 60.2% and 96.7% in treatment group,and 54.2% and 94.9% in control group,respectively. The bacterial eradication rates in treatment and control groups were 94.4% and 100% respectively. There was no significant difference between the two groups (P0.05). The incidence of adverse reaction was 3.3% in treatment group,and 5.1% in control group. There was also no significant difference between the two groups (P0.05). No serious adverse reaction was reported. Conclusions Injectable cefoselis is effective and safe for the treatment of acute respiratory or urinary tract bacterial infections.


This article explores the value that students, acting as novice facilitators, bring in supporting professionals to innovate. This empirical research took a grounded theory and action research influenced approach to investigate a series of innovation support workshops with sole traders and SMEs delivered by Northumbria University. These workshops were part of a wider regional research project entitled Creative Fuse North East. The research found that there was trust and rapport between the expert facilitators, novice facilitators and enterprises participating which supported co-creation. In this safe environment, novice facilitators and enterprises worked together to learn and grow. It is argued that this enabled both parties to build their creative confidence. Thus, this approach offers a route to stimulating innovation in the region through supporting small scale enterprises and sole traders, and by developing strong creative graduates to participate in future workforces.


This paper is concerned with the metric properties of the generalized continued fractions (GCFϵ) with the parameter function ϵ(kn), where kn is the nth partial quotient of the GCFϵ expansion. When -1 < ϵ(kn) ≤ 1, Zhong [Metrical properties for a class of continued fractions with increasing digits, J. Number Theory 128 (2008) 1506–1515] obtained the following metrical properties: which are entirely unrelated to the choice of ϵ(kn) ∈ (-1, 1]. Here we deal with the case of ϵ(k) = c(k + 1) with constant c ∈ (0, ∞). It is proved that: which change with the real c ∈ (0, ∞). Note that as c → 0, it indicates that when c → 0, the GCFϵ has the same metrical property as the case of -1 < ϵ(kn) ≤ 1.


(1) Background: Acute neck pain is common and usually managed by medication and/or manual therapy. General practitioners (GPs) hesitate to refer to manual therapy due to uncertainty about the effectiveness and adverse events (AEs); (2) Method: To review original randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing the effect of spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) for acute neck pain. Data extraction was done in duplicate and formulated in tables. Quality and evidence were assessed using the Cochrane Back and Neck (CBN) Risk of Bias tool and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) criteria, respectively; (3) Results: Six studies were included. The overall pooled effect size for neck pain was very large −1.37 (95% CI, −2.41, −0.34), favouring treatments with SMT compared with controls. A single study that showed that SMT was statistically significantly better than medicine (30 mg ketorolac im.) one day post-treatment, ((−2.8 (46%) (95% CI, −2.1, −3.4) vs. −1.7 (30%) (95% CI, −1.1, −2.3), respectively; p = 0.02)). Minor transient AEs reported included increased pain and headache, while no serious AEs were reported; (4) Conclusions: SMT alone or in combination with other modalities was effective for patients with acute neck pain. However, limited quantity and quality, pragmatic design, and high heterogeneity limit our findings.


Tags are widely acknowledged as being an important feature of colloquial British English. In this article, I examine a type of tag that has to date received little attention in the literature beyond sociolinguistic research into its interpersonal functions: right-dislocated lone pronouns, or ProTags. Biber et al. (1999) acknowledge that the demonstrative pronoun that can be used as a right-dislocated tag in conversational British English, but corpus data reveal that other pronouns can also be used as ProTags. Based on a range of examples, primarily taken from large-scale corpora, I examine the form of the ProTag construction and its functions, comparing it with other tags used in British English, particularly question tags. In common with other tags, ProTags are a classic case of language conveying more than straightforward propositional content. I consider to what extent proposed analyses of the functions of tag questions carry over to ProTags, and briefly whether this construction has been a feature of British English for longer than might at first be assumed.


Objective: Racanisodamine hydrochloride is a muscarinic receptor antagonist used surgically as an anaesthetic drug (acesodyne) or vasodilator. This study was designed to investigate whether racanisodamine hydrochloride has a suppressive effect on allergic responses. RBL-2H3 cells activated by the IgE-antigen complex were used to assess whether racanisodamine hydrochloride could stabilize the cellular membrane. Methods: RBL-2H3 cells were sensitized with monoclonal anti-dinitrophenol (DNP) specific IgE and challenged with the antigen DNP-bovine serum albumin (DNP-BSA) in the presence or absence of racanisodamine hydrochloride. Results: It was observed that racanisodamine hydrochloride significantly inhibited β-hexosaminidase release and IL-4 production in IgE-antigen complex-stimulated RBL-2H3 cells and that this anti-allergic activity was concentration-dependent. The maximum inhibition rates for β-hexosaminidase release and IL-4 production were higher than for 1mM dexamethasone. Conclusions: Racanisodamine hydrochloride could suppress IgE-mediated degranulation and may be useful in the prevention and treatment of allergic diseases.


AbstractTwo conceivable types of mathematical model, i.e., exponential or hyperbolic, that describe the sequential pickup of a contaminant from a substrate upon successive treatment with magnetic particles have been developed and tested. The models were applied to sets of experimental data spanning extremes of system behavior. Allowance was made within each model to account for departure from ideality. The nonideal hyperbolic model was identified as being the one that can be better applied to the experimental data. The successful application of this model to a given data set enables a pickup efficiency that is based on all of the available experimental data to be accurately determined. Thus, it was found that the pickup efficiency is highly correlated with one of the fitting parameters introduced to account for nonidealized behavior. The ability to accurately assess removal efficiency in the sequential pickup of chemical contaminants by magnetic particles is essential for the optimization of this technolo...


Objective To explore the expression of c-Fos protein in brain tissue of neonatal rats with white matter damage(WMD)and its significance.Methods Two days old postnatal SD rats were used in this study,the pups were randomly divided into normal control(NC)group(n=10)and WMD group(n=12).The rats in WMD group were lightly anesthetized with ether,the right common carotid artery was dissected and ligated.After 2 h of recovery,the litters were exposed to 940 mL/L nitrogen and 60 mL/L oxygen mixtures gas for 4 h.NC group had done nothing.Ninety min after WMD models performed,HE and immunohistochemical technique was used to examine the structure and expression of c-Fos protein in brain tissue of ligated side.Results There was no apparent abnormality in both groups at HE stains,besides edema in ligated side of WMD group.c-Fos immunoreactivity of WMD group enhanced,especially in cortex and caudate-putamen nucleus.The number of c-Fos protein positive cells of cortex and caudate-putamen nucleus in WMD group were 100.10±1.48,115.20±1.08,those in NC group were 7.20±0.63,5.60±0.51.The number of c-Fos positive cell of cortex and caudate-putamen nucleus in WMD group were increased than that of NC group,and there were significant differences(Pa0.01).The average gray of c-Fos protein of cortex and caudate-putamen nucleus in WMD group were 115.10±1.13,108.50±1.29,those in NC group were 153.20±1.93,162.90±2.00.The average gray of c-Fos protein of cortex and caudate-putamen nucleus in WMD group were significantly reduced than that of NC group,and there were significant differences(Pa0.01).Conclusions WMD can result in excessive expression of c-Fos protein,and it occures in ultra-early stage after models have been done.c-Fos protein is a sensitive marker of WMD in immature brain.


Abstract
This chapter explores the perceived impact of strategic learning plans on growth-focussed small service firms from the owner-manager's (OM) perspective. Adopting a social learning lens, the study employs the action research method, involving three cycles performed over a 12-month period wherein the authors studied the co-created design and implementation of a strategic learning plan in each of the three participant firms. Findings present insights into the ways in which firms that wish to grow can be facilitated to learn strategically. A contextualised approach involving OMs in both design and implementation resulted in openness to the formal planning process. Notably, OMs may impede growth depending on their learning orientation, planning perspective, and their ability to delegate tasks. Over time, the OMs honed their reflective skills to the benefit of organic learning strategies. There was a distinct preference for social learning, and a perceived need for external monitoring to sustain plan momentum. The proposed framework offers a process for embedding a strategic learning approach in order to leverage strategic position. It also highlights the value of considering and evaluating OM perceptions of their own learning activities and the impact that these perceptions may have on the enactment of enabling policies to promote growth in their firms.


The formation of a postpartum hematoma is an uncommon but serious complication after delivery. The reported frequency of hematomas after delivery varies widely (1–3). A postpartum hematoma may be potentially lethal, if the hemodynamic status and cardiovascular stability is threatened. There are various methods for the treatment of postpartum hematomas including observation, surgical evacuation, drainage, and ligation of bleeding vessels and gauze packing of the vagina (1–5). Rectal tamponade, hysterectomy, and internal iliac artery ligation are less common (9). Angiographic embolization of bleeding sites is the newest technique described (10, 11). The purpose of this report is to describe two cases of life-threatening puerperal hematoma treated by vaginal packing with a blood pressure cuff.


Supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) is a promising and very effective method for the oxidation of organic wastes. Its high solubility for organic compounds and its special physical properties (i.e. density, viscosity) resulting in a key advantage over standard processes like incineration. Due to the formation of HCl during oxidation of chlorine organics, a severe corrosion attack of most of the materials has been observed. This paper describes the results of investigations of high temperature alloys like alloy No. 214, alloy 602 CA, G-30 alloy, alloy 625, and alloy 686, exposed at 400 bar and 420 C for 24 hours in a CH{sub 2}Cl{sub 2}/H{sub 2}O{sub 2} mixture with about 2,000 wppm of chloride. The weight losses of all, samples varied between 3 mg/cm{sup 2} for G-30 alloy and about 73 mg/cm{sup 2} for alloy 686. The alloy No. 214 showed an increased corrosion for the preoxidized material, whereas the corrosion rate of alloy 602 CA was reduced by a factor of 3 due to the preoxidation at 900 C, prior to SCWO-exposure. The post mortem analysis revealed that alloy 686 has lost most of its nickel down to a depth of about 150 pm. The G-30 alloy showed a goodmore » corrosion behavior because of the formation of a protective oxide layer during the exposure. The layer was homogeneous with a thickness of about 12 pm, but a slight nickel leaching was observed, too.« less


This paper proposes a method which can monitor and control the ink in the press ink fountain automatically using ultrasonic sensor. After analyzing physical properties and the installation location of the ultrasonic, a monitoring system that consists of ultrasonic emitter, ultrasonic acceptor and voltage-magnified circuit, detecting circuit and alarming circuit is designed and then a developed method is put forward. The system will give an alarm to add the ink as the ink in the ink fountain reaches the minimum position and the developed system can display the number of the ink in the ink fountain. The system using on-line monitoring method can realize the automation of the inking-up.


Carbon sequestration of four kinds shrubs in Ningxia was studied by testing leaf photosynthetic rate and plant biomass.The results indicated that if the research was on photosynthesis of each individual leaf,carbon sequestration was in the order of Buddleja alternifoliaAmygdalus mongolicaAtraphaxis bracteataLycium barbarum in the vigorous growth season(in July);or L.barbarumB.alternifoliaA.bracteataA.mongolica in the whole growth season.We also measured a single-leaf area,the area of whole plant leaves and the carbon sequestration of whole plant.The results indicated that sequence of the average daily amount of carbon assimilation of the whole plant was B.alternifoliaL.barbarumA.bracteataA.mongolica in both of the vigorous growth season and the whole growth season.The similar results were obtained on the measurement of biomass.Therefore,it can be concluded that the plant carbon sequestration in whole plant leaves should be considered if the photosynthetic rate is used as a testing target.In addition,it should be paid attention that there is a strong carbon sequestration of L.barbarum forests due to the good maintenance,such as irrigation and fertilizer.


The invention relates to an electronic apparatus having a CPU and a working memory containing an operating system. When switched on, a code stored in the device is tested to determine if the program is executed directly in working memory, or must be downloaded from a non-volatile memory inside the unit. An external command received by the apparatus initializes the value of said code. The command may be directly inputted by the user, is received from a network. According to an improvement, even if the code value specifies that there is no download to perform, after a number of ignition cycle and turn off the power, the program is downloaded from the nonvolatile memory. The present invention also relates to an apparatus implementing the method.


In a population-based study, mitral regurgitation (MR) has been found to be the most common form of valvular heart disease in the United States.1 The incidence of MR rises sharply at ≈65 years of age: moderate or severe MR is estimated to occur in 1% of the 55 to 64 age group, increasing to 6.4% for individuals aged 65 to 74 and to 9.3% for those older than 75.1 In view of the increasing life expectancy of the general population, we can anticipate encountering a substantial rise in the number of patients with hemodynamically significant MR. Because heart failure, ischemic heart disease, and other disorders affecting the left ventricle become more prevalent with older age, one can speculate that it is particularly functional MR that will contribute to the overall increase in MR cases, with the numbers caused by degenerative disease rising less dramatically with age.

Article see p 334

As the rate of rheumatic disease has decreased dramatically in the Western world, degenerative disease, largely resulting from myxomatous degeneration, constitutes the most common reason for mitral valve surgery. The true incidence of functional MR, in which the primary cause of regurgitation does not originate from the leaflets themselves, is not well known. Many patients with functional MR never undergo surgery, and the disease can remain silent for some time or can be masked by the underlying pathology of the left ventricle and the coronary arteries.

Functional MR is an entity that was poorly understood until some years ago. Whereas it was believed that in the setting of ischemic heart disease, MR is often caused by "papillary muscle dysfunction,"2 we now know that in the absence of rupture, isolated ischemia or even infarction of a papillary muscle rarely causes regurgitation3 unless accompanied by displacement of the …


Scoured induced free span is one of the major engineering hazards for submarine pipelines/cables (P/Cs) in offshore oil and gas industry and offshore renewable energy industry. Due to the lack of knowledge about scour propagation along spanwise direction, conservative and costly stabilization methods are usually adopted for span mitigation. To address the concern related to free spans, great efforts have been made to establish the prediction models for scour propagation rate, most of the research is based on laboratory experiments to propose semi-theoretical equations. However, due to the limitation of present measuring techniques, it is hard to physically measure the gap flow and bed shear stress distribution under the P/C models. Thus, the physical mechanism for scour propagation is still not well understood. As a complement to laboratory experiments, numerical simulations can reproduce the whole flow fields around a P/C undergoing three-dimensional scour, which makes it a great tool to understand the interaction between flow and evolution of erodible seabed. Thus, in the present study, a scour model is used to simulate the three-dimensional scour below a P/C under steady current conditions. Two scour propagation stages are observed, the different mechanisms for the two stages are explained using the bed shear stress amplification factor. The flow fields around the scour hole are also analyzed. The present results, combined with the available laboratory experiments [1,3], will give a better understanding about the mechanism of 3-D scour.


The invention discloses a reel-to-reel continuous horizontal high-current electroplating system, comprising a flexible circuit board, a feeding reeling machine connected with the flexible circuit board and equipped with two feeding reels, an electroplating mechanism and a receiving reeling machine equipped with two receiving reels. The electroplating mechanism comprises a main tank and a plurality of groups of winding and bending units; each winding and bending unit comprises two drooping bent sections, four insoluble positive electrodes, two negative electrodes and two spray boxes; the main tank is filled with an electroplating solution; and a positive column is formed between each spray box at one side of the drooping bent section and one of the insoluble positive electrodes, a negative column is formed between two spray boxes at two sides of each drooping bent section, and the negative electrodes are located in the negative column. The reel-to-reel continuous horizontal high-current electroplating system has the characteristics of high production efficiency, a small occupied area compared with a machine with same production power, etc.


To test several predictions derived from a behavior-systems approach, the authors assessed Pavlovian fear conditioning in rats after 30 trials of forward, simultaneous, or unpaired training. Direct evidence of conditioned fear was collected through observation of flight and freezing reactions during presentations of the conditioned stimulus (CS) alone. The authors also tested the CS's potential to reinforce an instrumental escape response in an escape-from-fear paradigm. On the one hand, rats that received forward training showed conditioned freezing, but no conditioned flight was observed. On the other hand, rats that received simultaneous training showed conditioned flight, but no conditioned freezing was observed. Rats that received either forward or simultaneous pairings showed instrumental learning of the escape-from-fear response. Implications for several theories of Pavlovian conditioning are discussed.


Software of EPANET hydraulic model was applied to simulate the operational status of network on water supply which combine practical engineering in Kunming.It proposes the program on the pipe network of water diversion to meet the pressure requirement.It provides scientific basis for program on laying of network on water supply.


The fulfillment of the functional personnel as Expenditure Treasurers becomes the target of not only central
government offices but also local government offices. The legal foundation of the reform of the
government's financial management making a treasurer a functional position opens an opportunity for the
development of a civil servant's career. The pattern of trainings for expenditure treasurers in education and
training centers is still oriented to classroom learning. The target of fulfilling functional personnel through
training in terms of quantity and quality has to be attained immediately. The development of information
technology in the field of education makes information-technology-based training patterns possible. An e-
learning model can become a form of training for treasures in the future. The advantages of e-learning serve
as an attempt to minimize the pattern that has been applied in the training so far. E-learning can be only a
dream if there is no willingness on the part of the participants, instructors, and education and training
institutions to change the training pattern. However, it can be the best solution in the future as an efficient
and effective training pattern.


The initial development of solid state power amplifiers for phased arrays will be covered, both one port and two port active devices, including the use of multipliers. This will lead into a review of some of the key advances that have led to today's X-band power amplifiers that are used in active array modules.


Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy of consistent the procedure for prolapse and hemorrhoids(PPH) in the treatment of severe hemorrhoids.Methods One hundred and fifty-six cases of severe hemorrhoids patients in our hospital were equally divided into treatment group and control group,each of 78 cases,patients in the treatment group were given PPH treatment,the control group were treated with traditional surgical treatment.Operation situation of two groups were compared.Results The bleeding rate of the treatment group was significantly higher than that of the control group(P 0.05),all postoperative bleeding were external hemorrhoids wound oozing;the surgery time,pain,urinary retention,the recurrence rate,anal stenosis,length of stay of treatment group were significantly lower than those of control group(P 0.05).Conclusion The mucosa circular stapler hemorrhoid excision in the treatment of severe hemorrhoids is effective,the recurrence rate is low,it is safe and reliable,worthy of clinical promotion.


The quality of bentonite has a key effect on the formation of sand inclusion and scab, and also has important effect on the formation of some other defects of pastings. Therefore the quality testing of bentonite should be attached great importance. The paper presents some supplementary and recommendatory suggestions for the quality test technique of bentonite. In the first part of the paper, fol- lowing testing items are described:simple methods to distinguish ordinary clay, calcium-based bentonite, and sodium-based bentonite; moisture content test of bentonitre; grain size analysis of bentonite; wet cohesiveness test of bentonite and the blue absorption amount test of bentonite.


1 Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2 Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada 3 Hamilton General Hospital, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada 4 Program for the Assessment of Technology in Health (PATH), St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Correspondence RWP: email@example.com Submitted 07-10-16 Accepted 07-10-27


As opposed to this approach, the authors propose a technique using independent meshes: geometry, input data and the unknowns. Each particular mesh is obtained by a local nested refinement of the same coarse mesh at the parametric space. This strategy is based on the parametrization obtained by the meccano method [1], where the computational mesh is an smoothed projection of a parametrization mesh in the physical space. This technique gives flexibility to generate different meshes with the necessary number of degrees of freedom for the unknowns without using the total number of degrees of freedom necessary for geometry and input data. The numerical integration in a given element of a solution mesh uses its nested elements of the geometry and input data meshes at the physical domain. In this process a local element parametrization of the geometry mesh is considered. The hierarchical composition of the meshes is used to integrate the different mesh data in an efficient way.


In this work, the propagation and attenuation characteristics of both TE and TM waves in a waveguide structure consisting of left handed material (LHM) film by using the equivalent current theory of optical waveguide coupling method have been derived and obtained. The dispersion relations and the attenuation coefficient were numerically solved for a given set of parameters: allowed phase angles; core's thicknesses; and propagation constants. We found that lower attenuation is realized for higher propagation constants. Moreover, attenuation coefficient has same small positive values for all thickness in phase angles range of values (00-570). Besides that, the attenuation decreases to negative values with thickness increase in phase angles range of values (570-590) which means a gain of the wave is achieved for wider buffer layer and at larger phase angles. We also found that, TE waves have lower attenuation than that of TM waves.


Introduction One of the main places in the structure of diseases of the child population belongs to chronic diseases of the digestive system. Their prevalence among children ranges from 58.1% to 100% [1, 2, 3]. Thus, the number of children with chronic gastroduodenitis has increased by 10.1 times, the number of adolescents with peptic ulcer disease has increased by 1.7 times, and the proportion among children with diseases of the digestive system has gone from 14.5% to 55. 3% over the past 10 years [4, 5]. The question of combined lesions of the oral cavity and internal organs occupy a prominent place among the problems of dentistry nowadays. They allow to reflect the genesis of many diseases that manifest themselves in the oral cavity [6, 7]. Aim of the study was to analyze information on the relationship of diseases of oral cavity and various diseases of gastrointestinal tract (GIT). It was made to value the future prospects of development of therapeutic prophylaxis an treating some dental diseases, such as lessions of hard dental tissues, gingivitis and periodontitis.


Abstract There is a task-specificity in the visual-tactile interaction for perception: The polymodal posterior parietal cortex is related to the comparison of the shapes coded by different sensory modalities, whereas the lateral occipital complex is the part of the network for multimodal shape identification. These interactions may be mediated by some latent pathways potentiated by sensory deprivation or learning.


Abstract The X-ray crystal structure of the AuIII-cyclam complex 1 shows a four-coordinate square-planar N4 geometry with the trans III conformation (or RRSS configuration) of cyclam and an average AuIII-N bond distance of 2.04 A. A block-diagonal-matrix least-squares refinement yielded a final R value of 0.069 for 2463 independent reflections. Crystals of 1·(NO3)1.5 (ClO4)1.5.H2O (C10H26N5.5O11.5AuCl1.5) are triclinic, space group P1 with a = 15.148(8), b = 8.668(5), c = 8.267(5) A, α = 109.17(6), β = 101.08(5), γ = 82.08(4) A, V = 1003(1) A3, d calcd = 2.177 g cm−3, and Z = 2. The reduction potential for AuIII in 1 to Au˚ varies with pH: -0.16 V vs SCE (pH 1.0) to -0.55 V (pH 9.0) at I = 0.50 (NaClO4) and 25˚C, according to the degree of cyclam NH deprotonation. The macrocyclic gold (III) complex 1 has been found to possess very useful electrochemical properties for a novel gold-plating agent. The new properties of gold (III)-cyclam complexes have been characterized by the tetrafluorinated cyclam 7, tet...


A system (10, 20) and method including a wavelength tuning mechanism and a laser path length tuning mechanism for reducing discontinuities in a sweep range. A processor (14) is coupled to a wavelength monitoring device (18) and the tuning mechanisms. The processor analyzes data from the wavelength monitor to adjust the wavelength tuning and cavity length tuning at discontinuities in the wavelength sweep to reduce the discontinuities.


Compensation for losses in the law is certain and the civil liability system is designed to respond to this need. Nowadays, it is necessary to check compensation in different fields, and specialists in each field are seeking data to recognize liability issues and even reduce the risk of liability in their work. The legal recognition of the subject is necessary because the field of remote sensing and mapping is one of the fields with many activists and plays an important role in various aspects of the life of the community, but many people still do not have any data about their rights, and even those involved in this field as producers or consumers does not have legal data on this issue, and due to the involvement of this data in the lives of individuals and the existence of relevant cases in the judiciary. Therefore, the accurate recognition of this issue will cause questions in this field to be answered in law. And lawyers and judges can also rely on the recognition and analysis of this issue to avoid error and work more efficiently.Key words: Liability, Remote Sensing, Fault, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)


We propose a theoretical model of wavelength locked F-P LDs. The measured noise evolution in a WDM-PON agrees very well with the predict results by the theoretical model.


In spite of lack of randomized control study, laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy (DP) is regarded as appropriate treatment in managing benign and low grade malignant tumor in distal part of the pancreas. With the advance of laparoscopic skills, innovative instruments, and perioperative management, clinical effort to reduce the access injury for laparoscopic DP has been attempted to enhance the cosmetic effect and the benefit of minimally invasive surgery. Due to inborn technical limitation of laparoscopic surgical system, it is not easy to perform laparoscopic reduced port-or single port-distal pancreatectomy (LRP/LSP-DP) in daily routine clinical practice, however, surgical technique for safe and effective LRP/LSP-DP has been developed. Till now, only a few experts reported the technical feasibility and safety of LRP/LSP-DP in selected patients. According to literature review, the number of the patients who underwent LRP/LSP-DP seems to gradually increase. In this moment, surgical experiences may be too limited to reach the conclusion, but, with the help of robotic surgical system, LRP/LSP-DP has potential room for further investigation. Therefore, minimally invasive surgeons need to pay attention to this innovative movement. In this review, currently available surgical techniques for LRP/LSP-DP has been summarized with some future perspectives on this technique.


Intermediate goal of this investigation to correlate nature and concentration of lattice defects with physicochemical conditions of preparation; namely, temperature, partial pressures of constituent elements and/or dopant concentration. Result of this investigation: possible to predict and control nature and concentration of defects as function of preparation conditions.


Shakespeare being the leading dramatist of the age was very much aware of the fast changes which were taking place in his contemporary society, from around the middle of the 16 th century; English trade started flourishing through naval adventures on high seas. The British merchants began to explore and exploit the overseas markets. The poets of the Renaissance were quick to celebrate the efforts and exploits of the sea hawks of England. Sea faring turned out to be central to the bourgeois prosperity. This paper deals with the fact that Shakespeare took a different line; he refused to play the poet laureate of the bourgeoisie. In the above context, the play which is of crucial importance is The Merchant of Venice. It is Shakespeare's most detailed critique of a society dominated by merchants. The merchants of Rialto are ruthless, cunning animals of prey. Malice and greed inform all their actions and gestures. I have examined in detail the utterances that Shakespeare gives to Antonio and others in the opening scene of the play. One cannot miss the savage irony which informs these lines. WhatSalerio says is utterly blasphemous, even while this merchant is attending the church; all he can think about is merchandise, rides with the waves. His ships loaded with spice and silk run into storm. To Salerio nothing, not even god, is more sacrosanct than the state of his business. In my present paper the crux of the thing is that Shakespeare's portrait of new economic man of Renaissance is a typical picture of self centred, business oriented man whose chief interest lies with his profit making enterprise at any cost and that guided his very thought marginalising other human feelings.


This research was to study the possibility of using local agricultural and industrial wastes for the cultivation of Pleurotus species. For the propagation of the main culture 2% malt extract agar was used whereas wheat grains were used for the propagation of spawn. For the formation of basidiocarp, wheat straw (WS), cotton straw (CS), corn straw (AS), rice bran (RB), lentil straw (LS), bean straw (BS), soybean straw (SS) and pelt waste (PW) were used as culture media. The shortest mycelium growing period was determined as average 10 days on WS-BS (1:1) + 5% RB for P. eryngii and the longest was 15 days on WS-CS (1:1) + 5% RB for P. eryngii var. ferulae. The shortest primordium formation period was determined as 28 days on WS-SS (1:1) + 5% RB for P. ostreatus, while the longest was 103 days on WS-CS (1:1) + 5% RB for P. eryngii var. ferulae. The harvest period was determined as 33 days on WS-AS (1:1) + 5% LS for P. sajor-caju, while the longest was 116 days on WS-CS (1:1) + 5% RB for P. eryngii var. ferulae. The lowest average yield per 100 g of material (70% moisture) was 15 g on WS + 5% PW for P. eryngii, while the highest was 22 g on WS-BS (1:1) + 5% RB for P. eryngii. In conclusion, it was determined that various local agricultural and industrial wastes can be used for the cultivation of Pleurotus spp.


Background: Neck pain is the fourth leading cause of disability, with an annual prevalence rate exceeding 30%. Nearly 50% of individuals will continue to experience pain or it often occurs to some degree. This study aimed to analyze the magnitude of the effect of using a cervical collar on reducing the degree of pain in neck pain patients compared to manual therapy (exercises). Subjects and Method: This research is a systematic review and meta-analysis carried out by following the PRISM diagram flow. The process of searching for articles through a journal database that includes: PubMed, Google Scholar and Science Direct by selecting articles published in 2000-2020. The keywords used include: "cervical collar" OR "neck collar" OR "soft collar" OR "hard collar" AND "neck pain" AND "cervical pain" AND "cervical radiculopathy" AND "cervical syndrome" AND "randomized controlled trial". The inclusion criteria were full paper articles with a randomized controlled trial study design, articles using English and Indonesian, and bivariate analysis with adjusted odds ratio. Articles that meet the requirements are analyzed using the Revman 5.3 application. Results: A total of 6 articles were reviewed in this study with a randomized controlled trial study design. Meta-analysis of 6 randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies showed that there was no difference in effectiveness in using cervical collars compared to manual therapy (exercises) in reducing neck pain (ES = 0.04; 95% CI -0.31 to 0.39; p = 0.083). Conclusion: This meta-analysis concluded that there was no difference in effectiveness between the use of cervical collars and manual therapy (exercises) in reducing the degree of pain in neck pain.


In order to solve the problems of different thickness electrolysis nickel boards, spot welding,it developed one kind of special electrolysis nickel board multi-functional microcomputer spot welding controller.This controller can measure workpiece thickness online and choose the optimum standard parameters based upon constant voltage and constant current supply.In order to study the weldability of electrolysis nickel board,it selects the optimum parameters by orthogonal experiment to simulate the thickness.It can realize welding current,voltage display,and workpiece thickness display,especially suitable for the different thickness spot welding.


Configurations of lines of principal curvature on constant mean curva- ture immersed surfaces are studied. Analytical models for these configurations near general isolated umbilical points and particular types of ends are found. From the existence of transversal invariant measures for the foliations by principal lines, established here, follows that the union of recurrent lines of principal curvature is an open set. Examples illustrating all possible cases are given. 1. Introduction. This paper is devoted to the study of the possible configurations of lines of principal curvature and umbilical points of surfaces immersed in R3, with constant mean curvature. Except in the case where the image of the immersion is contained in a plane or a sphere, the umbilical points are isolated (10, 11). A very precise analytical model is found for the family of principal lines near the isolated umbilical points. This model is related to a result of H. Hopf (10, 11), which permits the computation of the index of the umbilical point. The behaviour of the principal lines, at infinity near particular types of ends, called here elementary ends, of the immersion is also described through precise analytical models. In connection with the global behaviour of the principal lines it is shown that their foliations have a natural smooth transversal invariant measure. This implies that the compact principal lines (cycles) appear in cylindrical open sets, and that the closures of recurrent principal lines have nonempty interior. Examples illustrating all possible situations are given. However the recurrent lines have been found only for immer- sions of tori into spaces which are not more than locally isometric to R3. The existence of such immersions into R3 seems to be a very difficult question related to a conjecture of H. Hopf (24, p. 684 (Problem 63)).2 From the point of view of principal lines, an immersion with constant mean curvature presents a global configuration which is quite opposite to that of the principally structurally stable immersions studied in (4, 5). For a large class of this kind of immersions it is shown that the principal cycles are isolated and do not present recurrent lines (4, 5). Examples of immersions of the sphere and torus into


The benefits associated with making research data available post-PhD are many. PhD students are increasingly an integral part of research groups; it is frustrating and timeconsuming for researchers to search for data on computers and hard drives when the student has left the research group. The cost of reproducing lost or inaccessible data can be high. The student may wish to re-use the data that s/he has produced as part of their PhD in future projects.


Ferroelectrets can be significantly improved in their piezoelectric activity by DC-biasing of the properly expanded cellular films. Experiments with polypropylene films have resulted in piezoelectric d33-coefficients of up to 750 pC/N in the near-ultrasonic range. Stacks of up to 3 layers of ferroelectrets exhibit d33-values in excess of 2000 pC/N. Ultrasonic senders built with such ferroelectrets generate high sound pressures, the levels depending on transducer size, applied AC-voltage, and distance from source. Unbiased receivers consisting of stacks of 4 or 5 films exhibit sensitivities of about 10 mV/Pa in the near ultrasonic range.


duction strategies in small mammals (Bronson 1989; Blank & Ruf 1992) we have developed microsatellite markers (Queller et al. 1993) for two species showing this phenomenon. We describe 10 microsatellite loci isolated from the yellow-necked mouse Apodemus flavicollis and the red vole Clethrionomys glareolus. Some of these loci were also tested for the wood mouse Apodemus sylvaticus. Microsatellite loci were isolated essentially as previously described (Tautz 1989; Rassmann et al. 1991) with slight modifications. Genomic DNA isolated from the liver of one male of each species was digested with AluI, HaeIII and RsaI and electrophoresed in an 0.8% agarose gel. DNA fragments ranging from 300 to 500 bp were collected by electro-elution and ligated into M13mtvh, a modified M13mp19 vector which allows a particular simple cloning strategy (Schlötterer & Wolff 1996). Approximately 15 000 recombinant plaques were screened using [α32P]-labelled dinucleotide simple sequence polymer probes (GT/AC and GA/TC, Schlötterer & Tautz 1992) under hybridization conditions of intermediate stringency (68 °C, 2 × SSC). Approximately 50 clones were plaque purified and sequenced. Primers were designed with the help of the program O L I G O (National Biosciences Inc., Version 4.0). Eleven primer pairs were found that yielded clear polymorphic amplification patterns in different individuals. To test for the occurrence of null-alleles (Pemberton et al. 1995), we typed laboratory animals with known pedigrees. One locus had to be rejected because null-allele(s) occurred in this test. Although this does not exclude that null-allele(s) might also occur for the other loci in larger population samples, primers for five loci in A. flavicollis (MSAf-3,-7,-8,-16,-22) and five loci in C. glareolus (MSCg-4,-9,-15,-19,-20) were further characterized. Allelic variability and heterozygosity of the loci was determined using DNA isolated from blood or tissue samples. The following procedure was used to isolate DNA from the blood samples (≈ 100 μL). First, the serum was removed for further radioimmunological assays. The remaining haematocrit was stored in 50 μL of lysis buffer (1% SDS, 50 mM EDTA, 50 mM Tris-HCl pH 8.0; Rassmann et al. 1991). In a second lysis step, the sample was mixed with two volumes of blood-lysis-buffer (8% DTAB, 1 M Tris/HCl pH 8.6, 50 mM EDTA, 1.5 M NaCl), incubated at 68 °C for 5 min and deproteinized with chloroform/ isoamylalkohol (48 : 2 v/v). DNA was then precipitated from the supernatant with two volumes of ethanol. The pellet was washed with 70% ethanol and redissolved in water. DNA yields ranged from 0.2 to 1.2 μg. DNA extraction from tissue was performed according to standard protocols using proteinase K to digest the tissue (Sambrook et al. 1989). PCR amplification (Sakai et al. 1988) was carried out in a DNA thermal cycler (Biometra) in 10 μL of reaction mixtures countering about 10–100 ng of template DNA, 0.2 mM dNTP, 0.5 μM of each primer and 0.016 units of Ampli-Taq DNA polymerase (Perkin Elmer). Salt concentrations were optimized for each primer-set resulting in different final concentrations of KCl, MgCl2 and different pH-values (see Table 1). The following PCR cycles were performed (30 cycles): denaturation at 94 °C for 30 s, annealing for 30 s (temperatures listed in Table 1) elongation at 72 °C for 1 min and a final elongation step for 10 min. PCR products from three different primers were combined, each labelled with a different dye and resolved by electrophoresis using a 4.5% polyacrylamide gel on an Applied Biosystems Inc. (ABI)-Prism 377 automated sequencer. Data were collected and analysed using G E N E S C A N 2.0.2. (ABI). Samples of A. sylvaticus were genotyped using unlabeled A. flavicollis-primers by electrophoresis on a 6% denaturing polyacrylamide gel, blotted on to a positively charged nylon membrane PRIMER NOTE


In the case of linear equi-spaced (LES) array, High-resolution estimation of DOA-Doppler frequencies in the presence of mutual coupling between sensors, sensor gains, phases and positions errors is addressed in this paper. Based on rotational invariance techniques, only needing to rotate the sensor array twice, this method can estimate the DOA-Doppler frequencies of multiple targets. Moreover, it can simultaneously estimate array error parameters, so that the array manifold can be calibrated in the presence of combined errors. Finally, some computer simulations are given.


In recent years, individuals and organizations have been using digital services created by digital transformation. With smart mobile devices, there is a lot of enthusiasm for providing users with the ability to shop, communicate, and access to information anytime and from anywhere. The Ad hoc mobile network (MANET) as an important wireless technology can be used to exploit these services. In consideration of the sensitivity of users' data routed through network nodes, secure routing must be the priority of MANET networks. Due to their characteristics such as a dynamic topology, a distributed control system, limited resources and multi-hop communication, these networks are particularly vulnerable to different security threats. This study present the security extensions for some basic routing protocol in MANET networks such as AODV, DSR, and DSDV, and we focus on analyzing the techniques and mechanisms developed to perform security services. Next, we propose an analysis and comparative study of the effectiveness of these extensions to prevent potential routing attacks from malicious nodes.


Adolescent girls in the early years after their first menstruation are characterized by frequent irregular menstrual cycles and absence of ovulation, often associated with clinical signs of hyperandrogenism, including hirsutism and acne. Often in these adolescent girls, both the ovarian structure and endocrine characteristics do not allow to distinguish the disease from polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) observed in adults.


This article compared several knowledge-based fault diagnosis methods which common used last ten years under nonlinear small sample condition. The main content focused on accuracy, speed, generalization and implementation. The comparison result of these methods showed the parameter optimizated surpport vector machines have higher efficiency and broad prospect.


Since the introduction of 2 forms of periodontitis, chronic periodontitis (CP) and aggressive periodontitis (AgP) (Armitage, 1999), based on major differences in clinical phenotypes, questions still remain regarding the exact biological features that correspond to the separation of destructive periodontal disease into these 2 entities. Why not just one form, or why not at least 4 types based on age of onset (Van der Velden, 2000)? Scherp (1964), in his notable epidemiological survey on periodontitis, wrote that "the varieties of periodontal disease are almost limitless, depending on one's taste for subclassification." Periodontitis diagnosis and classification continue to be under debate (Van der Velden, 2005; Armitage and Cullinan, 2010). An interesting study in the current issue of the Journal of Dental Research (Kebschull et al., 2013) proposed that there are characteristic gene expression signatures (transcriptomes) in gingival biopsies from CP and AgP. These molecular patterns are distinctive between the 2 disease forms and possibly could identify characteristic features and specific pathophysiology pathways. To date, no unequivocal histopathological or clear microbiological features have been found to establish a clear biological basis for the distinction between CP and AgP (Armitage, 2010; Smith et al., 2010). Although Kebschull et al. (2013) observed differences in gene expression profiles between CP and AgP, the authors also rightfully wrote that the CP and AgP lesions displayed surprisingly limited differences: for AgP, "the magnitude of the differences was generally modest, with 30 over-expressed and only one under-expressed probe by an absolute change of >1.5 fold in AgP vs. CP lesions." How to put this into perspective? Obviously, gene expression signatures per se may not really reflect the complex pathophysiological pathways of periodontitis; they may merely reflect in both CP and AgP, closely resembling "end points" of immune and tissue physiologies in response to a given biofilm. For example, the experimental gingivitis study by Offenbacher et al. (2009) showed, also with transcriptomic signatures from gingival biopsies, the up-regulation of genes in response to the increasing dental plaque mass. Periodontitis is a complex disease, where multiple causal factors play simultaneous and interactive roles (Laine et al., 2012). There are 4 main causal risk factors, i.e., the intriguing dental and subgingival microbiota (the bacterial biofilm), individual genetic variations, lifestyle, and systemic factors. Complexity is not just a word to describe our inability to cope with a large number of parameters involved in a system. Complexity has now been found to be a fundamental law in nature, rooted to almost every phenomenon we observe, even those appearing to be simple (Nicolis and Nicolis, 2012). There are several attributes of complexity that are well-recognized:


Listening preferences for two pieces, Prelude and Forlane from Le tombeau de Couperin by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), were assessed in two experiments conducted with 8-month-old infants, using the Headturn Preference Procedure (HPP). Experiment 1 showed that infants, who have never heard the pieces, could clearly make a distinction between the Prelude and Forlane when the latter are played in multiple (i.e. orchestral) but not single (i.e. piano) timbres. In Experiment 2 infants were exposed repeatedly to one of the two piano pieces over a 10-day period. Concurrent with previous studies, results suggested that babies can recognize a familiar piece after a 2-week delay. Implications for early childhood music education are outlined at the end of the article.


Two algorithms have been used based on different road condition. The algorithms improve real-time character and accuracy. For the road with middle line, the paper introduces an improved algorithm to get the road line. The method improves the veracity and efficiency of the system. For the road without middle line, the road recognition algorithm is composed of two modules. The road boundaries detection module is used to get the information about road boundaries when vehicle just runs. Meanwhile the boundaries following module is started to predict the position of road edge when vehicle runs stably with the prediction knowledge. The road boundaries detection module mixes two kinds of information together and uses the adjacency of them in the space to get the exact information of road boundaries.


Coincident with the isolation of crystalline stercobilin,1, 2 a substance resembling mesobiliviolin as first described by Fischer and Niemann 3 was regularly found in human feces. 2 Mesobiliviolin, as described by Fischer and Niemann, 3 exhibited absorption in the region of 600 and 500 mm. and showed green fluorescence with Zn acetate, the solution of the zinc salt having absorption at 626, 573, and 500. The similar substance found in feces had very similar characteristics, 2 and was consequently given the name kopromesobiliviolin. It has now been determined that this substance still contained stercobilin as an impurity which accounted for the absorption in the region of 500 mm. as well as the green fluorescence of the zinc salt. Their complete separation has now been effected by virtue of the somewhat greater solubility of mesobiliviolin in ether. After this separation, the violet pigment obtained possesses no "urobilin" absorption. Its hydrochloride has a more bluish violet color with 2 closely adjacent absorption bands, the narrower from 608-598 (max. 604) and the broader 594-550 (max. 575). The free substance has one broad band 587-570 (max. 578-582). On treatment with alcoholic zinc acetate the color of the solution becomes a light blue and a beautiful intense red fluorescence is exhibited. This solution has the following absorption: 625-627 (well defined, narrow), 583, max. (faint, broader). The most highly purified substance was obtained in the following way: (1) repeated acetic ether extraction of the stool; (2) removal of the ether by vacuum distillation; (3) precipitation of fatty acids and koprosterin by dilution of the remaining acetic acid solution with a large volume of 1% HCl; (4) repeated ether extraction after making the aqueous filtrate congo negative with sodium acetate.


The current status of ecotourism in rural China was analyzed in this paper. Empirical surveys covering the whole country indicate that ecotourism in rural China has attracted a large number of tourists who, however, didn't generate revenues that can match the number. Although the environmental quality of those rural ecotourism destinations is high with little negative impacts, several problems have already appeared, suggesting a need to monitor those areas. The current practice of interpretation in most rural ecotourism destinations did not provide environmental education opportunities to the tourists. And local communities need more effective ways to decide on the prospects of local ecotourism development by themselves. Finally, a few recommendations for improving the sustainability of ecotourism destinations were provided.