We use primary data to examine the potential role of wild foods in alleviating food insecurity among rural farmers in Bhutan during the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that food-insecure households are more likely to collect wild foods, suggesting that food-insecure households are consuming wild foods as a coping mechanism. Therefore, it is crucial to include wild food considerations in regional, national, and international food security policy to promote resilience and reduce vulnerability in rural communities. Food security policies may enable the use and consumption of wild foods as a complementary source of food and nutrition, especially in remote areas. Further, the government should implement policies on managing wild foods as it is a public good, and its conservation is crucial for preserving biodiversity. JEL Codes: Q18, Q20


Programmed cell death (apoptosis) is a normally occurring process used to eliminate unnecessary or potentially harmful cells in multicellular organisms. Recent studies demonstrate that the molecular control of this process is conserved phylogenetically in animals. The dad‐1 gene, which encodes a novel 113 amino acid protein, was originally identified in a mutant hamster cell line (tsBN7) that undergoes apoptosis at restrictive temperature. We have identified a dad‐1 homologue in Caenorhabditis elegans (Ce‐dad‐1) whose predicted product is > 60% identical to vertebrate DAD‐1. A search of the sequence databases indicated that DAD‐1‐like proteins are also expressed in two plant species. Expression of either human dad‐1 or Ce‐dad‐1 under control of a C.elegans heat‐shock‐inducible promoter resulted in a reduction in the number of programmed cell death corpses visible in C.elegans embryos. Extra surviving cells were present in these animals, indicating that both the human and C.elegans dad‐1 genes can suppress developmentally programmed cell death. Ce‐dad‐1 was found to rescue mutant tsBN7 hamster cells from apoptotic death as efficiently as the vertebrate genes. These results suggest that dad‐1, which is necessary for cell survival in a mammalian cell line, is sufficient to suppress some programmed cell death in C.elegans.


In 2020 and 2021, during thisepidemic period, communication has never been so easy in human history. Social media plays an important role in disseminating information. Yet, there are many pros and cons challenges, and false information to consider. The use of these resources can help to quickly disseminate valuable information, findings in specific new research, exchange guidelines for analysis, treatment, and compliance, and also comparisons of various methods around the world. It is recommended that we follow certain guidelines when sharing information on social networks during COVID19, to use these resources effectively and efficiently. This study highlighted the review o-19 and encouraged further efforts to clarify this field of research.


Photoelectron spectra from a periodic multilayer of (Mo/B4C)30/Si were measured by changing the x‐ray glancing angle. The angular dependencies of the photoelectron intensities of O 1s and Mo 3d revealed the atomic depth profiles of the Mo oxide overlayer, and the compositions of the MoO3 upper layer and MoO2 lower layer. Furthermore, we observed enhancement of photoelectron emission by means of x‐ray standing waves generated near the multilayer surface during x‐ray diffraction from the superlattice.


This is a research paper which is analyzing the Main Figures Characteristic. Here, the writer tries to give another alternative for the reader to know about the Sidney Sheldons literary works. This novel is about 434 pages which are divided into 3 chapters such as Book I, Book II, and Book III. Every chapter is the story that will make our emotion drift. Because there are many intrigue, murder, and action yet the idiolect is brilliant. It means that we can still understand the whole story without losing the main story and we do not have to be bored to read it. Beside, with detail explanation and extensive knowledge about some places in the real world make the readers improve their knowledge and become a part of it. Figure is a fictional person which appears like an individual in the real world and showing the other segments from human life. Figure is also showing certain things that sometimes missed from the readers eyes in the daily life that become the tool realization of certain obsession from the author, is from the yield of his interpretation about the life in the real world. The result of study will show the content of the main figures characteristics. The main figure on this novel is a woman named Mary Ashley. The writer wants to show you that a woman have strength and power to under control the situation. But, Mary Ashley as a fictive figure also has weaknesses. The writer also input the subordinate figures which have great contributed in supporting the main figures characteristics.


The 1980s and subsequent years have seen—influenced by poststructuralist advances in literary studies as well as in history—a surge of interest and a new approach within African American Studies regarding the recuperation of slave narratives. Whereas previous generations of scholars have mostly read slave narratives as transparent documents, as mimetic acts of faithful reproduction of reality, they have now come to be seen as acts of narrative representations. Olney describes the genre's own self-authorizing fiction as follows: a slave narrative was constructed to appear as a "clear, unfailing record of events sharp and distinct that need only be transformed into descriptive language to become a sequential narrative of a life in slavery . . . a mold with virtually obligatory figures, scenes, turns of phrase, observances, and authentications—that carry over from narrative to narrative and give them as a group the species character that we designate by the phrase 'slave narrative'"1 and, as such, it could not possibly be a "transparent rendering of 'historical reality.'2 Different from the slave narratives proper, in the late 1960s, author Ernest Gaines in his The Autobiography of Jane Pittman did have the freedom to shape a fictional narrative and he employed those elements of the genre's conventions that were useful to him. Gaines's novel, published in 1971, then, may be seen as the re-construction of a construction, partaking in the slave narrative's truth claims, while displaying its own particular narrative interests, excesses, and lacunae. As for those excesses and lacunae, I couldn't help but wonder: Why The Narrative Absence of Interiority in Black Writing


We present the first results obtained from the S3 Low-Energy Branch , the gas cell setup at SPIRAL2-GANIL, which will be installed behind the S3 spectrometer for atomic and nuclear spectroscopy studies of exotic nuclei. The installation is currently being commissioned offline, with the aim to establish optimum conditions for the operation of the radio frequency quadrupole ion guides, mass separation and ion bunching, providing high-efficiency and low-energy spatial spread for the isotopes of interest. Transmission and mass-resolving power measurements are presented for the different components of the S3-LEB setup. In addition, a single-longitudinal-mode, injection-locked, pumped pulsed-titanium–sapphire laser system has been recently implemented and is used for the first proof-of-principle measurements in an offline laser laboratory. Laser spectroscopy measurements of erbium, which is the commissioning case of the S3 spectrometer, are presented using the 4f126s23H6→4f12(3H)6s6p optical transition.


Aalto University, P.O. Box 11000, FI-00076 Aalto www.aalto.fi Author Linda Kumpula Name of the doctoral dissertation Computational models and methods for lipoprotein research Publisher School of Science Unit Dept. of Biomedical Engineering and Computational Science Series Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS 25/2011 Field of research Computational Systems Biology Manuscript submitted 26.10.2010 Manuscript revised 08.03.2011 Date of the defence 01.04.2011 Language English Monograph Article dissertation (summary + original articles)


The purpose of this study was to evaluate the apical fitness of non-standardized gutta-percha cones in root canals prepared with rotary Ni-Ti root canal instruments of various tapers and apical tip sizes. Simulated sixty curved root canals of plastic blocks were prepared with crown-down technique using rotary root canal instruments of Maillefer ProFile .04 and .06 taper (Maillefer Instrument SA, Switzerland). Specimens were divided into six groups and prepared as follows: Group 1, prepared up to size 25 of .04 taper ; Group 2, prepared up to size 30 of .04 taper ; Group 3, prepared up to size 35 of .04 taper ; Group 4, prepared up to size 25 of .06 taper ; Group 5, prepared up to size 30 of .06 taper ; Group 6 ; prepared up to size 35 of .06 taper. After cutting off the coronal portion of plastic, blocks perpendicular to the long axis of the canal with the use of a diamond saw, apical 5mm of canal space was analyzed. Prepared apical canal spaces were duplicated using rubber base impression material to evaluate two dimensional total area of apical canal space. Various sized gutta-percha cones were applied in the 5mm-apical canal space, which were size 25, size 30 and size 35 standardized gutta-percha cone, Diadent Dia-Pro ISO-.04 and .06(Diadent, Korea), and medium-fine (MF), fine (F), fine-medium (FM) and medium (M) sized non-standardized gutta-percha cones (Diadent, Korea). Coronal excess gutta-percha were cut off with a sharp blade. Photographs of impressed apical canal spaces and gutta-percha cones were taken with a CCD camera under a stereomicroscope and stored in a computer. Areas of the total canal space and gutta-percha cones were calculated using a digitalized image analysing program, CompuScope (Sungjin Multimedia Co., Korea). Ratio of apical fitness was obtained by calculating the area of gutta-percha cone to the total area of the canal space. The data were analysed statistically using One-way Analysis of Variance and Duncan's Multiple Range Test. The results were as follows: 1. In canals prepared up to size 25 ProFile of .04 taper, non-standardized MF and F cones occupied significantly more canal space than Dia-Pro ISO-.04 or size 25 standardized ones (p of .04 taper, non-standardized F cones occupied significantly more canal space than Dia-Pro ISO-.04 or size 30 standardized ones (p of .04 taper, there was no significant difference in canal space occupation among non-standardized MF and F, size 35 standardized, and Dia-Pro ISO-.04 cones (p>0.05). 4. In canals prepared up to size 25 ProFile of .06 taper, non-standardized MF and F cones occupied significantly more canal space than Dia-Pro ISO-.06, or size 25 standardized ones (p, cones occupied significantly more space than size 25 standardized ones (p of .06 taper, non-standardized FM cones occupied significantly more canal space than Dia-Pro ISO-.06 or size 30 standardized ones (p of .06 taper, non-standardized M and FM, Dia-Pro ISO-.06 occupied significantly more canal space than size 35 standardized ones (p, non-standardized cones showed better fitness than Dia-Pro ISO or standardized ones, which was more characteristic in smaller canals.


Objectives: Natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) is evolving as a promising alternative for abdominal surgery. IMTN Registry was designed to prospectively document early results of natural orifice surgery among a large group of clinical cases. Methods: Sixteen centers from 9 countries were approved to participate in the study, based on study protocol requirements and local institutional review board approval. Transgastric and transvaginal endoscopic natural orifice surgery was clinically applied in 362 patients. Intraoperative and postoperative parameters were prospectively documented. Results: Mean operative time for transvaginal cholecystectomy was 96 minutes, compared with 111 minute for transgastric cholecystectomy. A general complication rate of 8.84% was recorded (grade I-II representing 5.8%, grade III-IV representing 3.04%). No requirement for any analgesia was found in one fourth of cholecystectomy and appendectomy patients. Conclusions: Results of clinical applications of NOTES in the IMTN Study showed the feasibility of different methods of this new minimally invasive alternative for laparoscopic and open surgery.


The utility model relates to a small-sized work machine tool driven by a flexible shaft, which is suitable for the road maintenance and the repair of railway rail side line roads. The utility model is characterized in that a motive power device drives a series of work machine tools through the transmission of the flexible shaft; therefore, all the matched work machine tools do not need to provide with the motive power itself. The small-sized work machine tool of the utility model has the advantages of low cost, compact structure, portable use and simple repair.


This document analyzes the current state of the art for security
management devices and security devices technologies in industries and
the existing IETF work/protocols that are relevant to the Interface to
Network Security Function (I2NSF). The I2NSF focus is to define data
models and interfaces in order to control and monitor the physical and
virtual aspects of network security functions.


The main concept of the study was to quantify breath holding time to varied packages of yogic practices among Women College students. In order to achieve the purpose of the study 120 women students were randomly selected from Sri Padmavathi Womens Junior college, Tirupati. Their age was ranged between 16 and 20 years. The women students were equally divided in to three equal groups of 40 each as yoga group-I, yoga grpup-II and control group. The control group was not given any training. The experimental groups were undergone yogic practices for twelve weeks and six days in a week. The data were collected on selected dependent variable ie. Breath holding time before and after training period. The collected data were statistically analyzed by using Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and Scheffe's post hoc test. To test the significance 0.05 level of confidence was fixed. Based on the results of the study it was concluded that the second package of yogic practices were significantly improve the breath holding time than that of first package and control group. First package of yogic practices were significantly improve the flexibility and speed than that of control group.


The present invention relates to a co-mining coal bed methane, the method comprising: drilling step; step through fracturing; CBM extraction step; underground gasification step and firing step. The method of the present invention will be underground gasification of coal and coal bed methane extraction technologies, may be heated to high temperatures by using underground gasification of coal seams, the coal seam permeability increasing, enhanced coalbed methane recovery may also be utilized through CBM drilling and fracturing process, improve the efficiency of underground coal gasification.


Membrane material is the core of the membrane technology,and the structure control of it in the preparation process plays a decisive role to the properties of the membrane.In this paper,recent development of UF/MF membrane technology at home and abroad and status quo of the industry are firstly introduced.Based on these,newly development and achievement in the research of membrane structure control and surface modification concerning PE hollow fiber microfiltration membrane by TIPS,PTFE microfiltration membrane by biaxial stretching method,PVDF microfiltration membrane by melt-spinning method and PVDF ultrafiltration membrane by phase inversion process,are summarized.


Matching children with foster carers is an important step in every nonkinship family foster care placement. Although guidelines for matching are provided in several studies, the case-specific context of the decision can influence the practitioners' ability to adhere to these guidelines. Therefore, this study answers the following question: "How does the case-specific context influence the practitioners' decision-making process regarding matching in family foster care?" Using a qualitative design, 20 semistructured interviews were conducted with practitioners matching children with foster families. Three themes emerged representing different layers of practitioners' everyday decision-making: matching as planned, matching being tailored, and matching being compromised. The results show that exceptions are part of practitioners' daily work, either due to the belief that it might benefit those involved or because of obstacles presented during the decision-making process. When the decision is compromised, matching practitioners lower their standards, while at the same time safeguarding the quality of the match. This proves that matching in practice is more than choosing a family, and guidelines are needed to determine what "good-enough" matching should entail.


We report on the first example of epitaxial Mn$_{3 + \delta}$Ge thin films with a cubic $L1_2$ structure. The films are found to exhibit frustrated ferromagnetism with an average magnetization corresponding to 0.98$~\pm~$0.06$~\mu_B$/Mn, far larger than the parasitic ferromagnetism in hexagonal Mn$_3$Ge and the partially compensated ferrimagnetism in tetragonal Mn$_3$Ge. The Hall conductivity is the largest reported for the kagome magnets with a low temperature value of $\sigma_{xy} = 1587~$S/cm. Density functional calculations predict that a chiral antiferromagnetic structure is lower in energy than a ferromagnetic configuration in an ordered stoichiometric crystal. However, chemical disorder driven by the excess Mn in our films explains why a frustrated 120$^\circ$ spin structure is not observed. Comparisons between the magnetization and the Hall resistivity indicate that a non-coplanar spin structure contributes the Hall signal. Anisotropic magnetoresistance and planar Hall effect with hysteresis up to 14 T provides further insights into this material.


Background and purpose: Most often, attention is focused on management of pain and injuries and decreased muscle strength in football players while little attention is given to flexibility. The objective of this study was to assess and compare the immediate effectiveness of a type of Muscle Energy Technique (MET), Post Isometric Relaxation (PIR) and Active Release Technique (ART) in increasing hamstring flexibility among recreational and professional footballers aged 18-30 years. MET is used to lengthen a tight muscle, strengthen weak muscles, reduce localised oedema or mobilize an articulation with adhesion or restriction MET consists of different techniques, one of which is Post Isometric Relaxation Technique (PIR). PIR uses an agonistic isometric contractual phase after a passive stretch. On the other hand, ART is a soft tissue manipulation technique developed my Dr. Leahy which breaks tissue adhesions thereby relieving muscle stiffness/ tightness. There is abundant literature on these techniques. However there is a dearth of documentation comparing these two techniques. So the effort of the study is to compare the effectiveness of MET (PIR) and ART on hamstring tightness in footballers.
Method: This study was an experimental study. The subjects were selected on the basis of Simple Random Sampling method. 30 subjects were selected, in the age ranging from 18-30 years. They were assigned to two groups- Group A (n=15) received a type of Muscle Energy Technique (MET), Post Isometric Relaxation (PIR) and Group B (n=15) received Active Release Technique (ART). Both the groups performed a set of 3 exercises- eccentric and core stability and pilates after the intervention. Pre and post intervention measures were taken to assess the hamstring tightness. This was done by Active Knee Extension Test (AKET) and Sit and Reach Test (S&R Test).
Results: When means were analyzed using Paired 't' test as a parametric and Wilcoxon signed rank test as a non-parametric test have been used to analyse the variables pre- intervention to post-intervention with calculation of percentage of change, there was a statistically significant improvements in means of AKET and S&R Test. The findings of the study suggest that both the interventions have an immediate effect on hamstring tightness. More importantly, the results revealed that the intervention of Group B showed more reduction in hamstring tightness than the interventions delivered of Group A.
Conclusion: Th present study concludes that both MET (PIR) and ART are effective in reducing hamstring tightness and increasing knee extension range of motion in recreational and professional footballers. However, there existed a significant difference between both the techniques on hamstring tightness. ART was more effective in increasing hamstring flexibility and increasing knee extension range of motion among footballers.
Implications: Muscle Energy Technique (Post Isometric Relaxation) and Active Release Technique both can be used to treat people and athletes with hamstring tightness. But effects of Active Release Technique in increasing hamstring flexibility and increasing knee extension range of motion among footballers is more dominant over the effects of Muscle Energy Technique (Post Isometric Relaxation). Hence, in sport physiotherapy protocols, ART can be used.

Keywords: Hamstring Tightness, Muscle Energy Technique, Post Isometric Relaxation, Active Release Technique, Active Knee Extension Test, Sit and Reach Test.


How do children acquire their mother tongue? Are the process in acquiring L1 (first language) and L2 (second language) the same? These questions always arouse the interests of the linguists. For many years, linguists have made a lot of research on first language acquisiton. They have put forward several hypothesis


An indicator (28) of a motor-assisted bicycle for displaying conditions of an assist motor-assisted bicycle provided motor battery that adds assist power to a drive system by human power according to pedaling power applied to a pedal (12), said indicator (28): a first display unit (28c) displaying an amount of regenerative charging of the battery (4), wherein the indicator (28) further includes a second display unit (28B) displaying a control mode condition of said assist motor.


A current tendency in developing tools to support farm management is to make use of advanced sensors closely associated to animals, facilitating the collection of large quantities of data ideally at a low cost without perturbing the animal itself. On a dairy farm level, sensors measuring milk conductivity or pedometers measuring mobility are often cited as examples. This introduces the concept of "precision livestock farming" where a given "bioresponse" captured by a "biosensor" allows the creation of feedback to adjust the "bioprocess". Such on-farm systems are often restricted to a given farm and they are mostly strictly separated from standard performance recording systems. In dairy cows, a particular rich source of information to detect a "bioresponse" is milk and its (fine) composition. Standard milk analysis undertaken in milk recording schemes by mid infrared spectroscopy (MIR) generates spectral data that reflects the milk characteristics. Therefore, spectral data directly reflects the metabolic (e.g., energy balance) and health (e.g., udder health) status of the cow. The use of MIR spectral data to predict fine milk components (e.g., fatty acids) is now becoming commonplace. However the use of MIR spectral data could provide an even more direct method to assess the "bioresponse" in relation to health, fertility, feeding, milk quality and even rejection of pollutants. For this reason, 12 EU milk recording organizations and milk laboratories together with 6 EU research groups have joined forces to develop the North-West Europe INTERREG IVB Project OptiMIR (www.optimir.eu). As a first step to use spectral data for developing decision support tools, the project includes the development of methods to standardize spectral data generated by various apparatuses in different laboratories. Through the OptiMIR project, health indicator traits from milk analysis either through the prediction of milk components (i.e. lactoferrin) or through the direct assessment of the health status of the cow (i.e. clinical mastitis) will become available. These data can then be generated in routine milk recording and can be stored in a central database. Because generating MIR data at the on-farm level is still difficult and expensive, the use of near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy is currently also under investigation by other groups. For a comprehensive use of fine milk composition, as for other automated sensors, the optimum would be a close and bi-directional interaction between in-line on-farm systems and central databases in order to contribute to the successful implementation of powerful health monitoring systems and decision support tools.


This thesis analyses the possibility of taking the opportunity to complete the construction of high-quality faculties on the basis of the current situation encountered by the university after the expansion of enrollment so as to lay a solid foundation for further development of the university.


Fulvia first appears in the sources after her marriage to P. Clodius Pulcher. Their union was arranged by her stepfather, Gaius Licinius Murena, to help Clodius recover from a career-damaging scandal: he had been caught, dressed in women's clothing, at an exclusively female ritual in honor of the goddess Bona Dea; he had snuck in for a tryst with the hostess of the event, the wife of Caesar. Marriage to Fulvia offered Clodius a certain amount of respectability; marriage to Clodius gave Fulvia entrée into a more exclusive social circle than she could have otherwise aspired to. The union was a happy one that produced two children, a son and a daughter, and it lasted until Clodius was murdered by his political rival, Milo. Fulvia played a crucial role in whipping up popular sentiment against Milo, and her testimony helped secure his eventual conviction for the crime.


We study stable marriage problems in the 𝑑 -Euclidean space. Under this setting, each agent is represented as a point in the 𝑑 - dimensional space, and for each agent 𝑎 , the preference of 𝑎 is based on the sorting according to the Euclidean distances between 𝑎 and agents from the opposite gender. Let 𝛿 ( 𝑎,𝑏 ) being the Euclidean distance between two points 𝑎 and 𝑏 . A man 𝑢 prefers a woman 𝑤 1 to another woman 𝑤 2 if and only if 𝛿 ( 𝑢,𝑤 1 ) < 𝛿 ( 𝑢,𝑤 2 ) . If 𝛿 ( 𝑢,𝑤 1 ) = 𝛿 ( 𝑢,𝑤 2 ) , then 𝑢 ranks 𝑤 1 and 𝑤 2 indifferently, and we say there is a tie between 𝑤 1 and 𝑤 2 in 𝑢 's preference list. A lot of variants of Stable Marriage with Ties (SMT) have been shown to be NP-complete when ties occur in preference lists. In this paper, we study the most famous hard variants of SMT in 𝑑 -Euclidean space, namely, Regret-SMT, Forced-SMT, and Egalitarian-SMT. We prove that with 𝑑 = 1, Forced-SMT and Regert-SMT can be solved in polynomial-time, while with 𝑑 = 2, all of the three problems are NP-hard. Then we show that if the preference list can be incomplete (agents are allowed to not give a full rank of the opposite gender), the three problems and another variant Max-SMTI are NP-hard even with 𝑑 = 1. Finally, we provide an algorithm to recognize whether a given preference profile can be embedded into 1-Euclidean space.


From 15 to 16 March, the Belgian and Dutch National Groups of IABSE jointly organized their first Young Engineers Colloquium 2019 (YEC2019) at the Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands. YEC2019 is especially meant for young engineers to exchange knowledge internationally, with the focus on Belgium and the Netherlands. This colloquium offered young engineers the opportunity to present their interesting research, engineering or construction projects—to an audience of structural engineers. The event was sponsored by 14 Belgian and Dutch sponsors and attended by 64 participants.


Spillover effects from equity momentum to credit markets have been shown to lead to excessive premia and, simultaneously, reduced risk measures in credit securities. Here, we present an intuitive theory for this anomaly based on the premise that equity momentum drives leverage to invoke rating changes that ultimately spur the performance of credit securities for as long as corporate financiers deem it economically beneficial. We support this theory by empirically relating idiosyncratic equity momentum to rating migration and the corresponding anomaly and by demonstrating that these dynamics loose steam for higher rating classes as the value proposition of further rating upgrades declines exponentially. In fact, we observe that on average corporate financiers pursue a target rating of BBB. Furthermore, we demonstrate how deeply this anomaly percolates credit markets by confirming its existence across various neglected, yet economically meaningful and scientifically interesting subsamples including international credit markets, emerging markets and subordinate credit securities.


Speaking Pittsburghese: The story of a dialect Barbara Johnstone (2013) Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 266 ISBN 978-0-19-994570-2 (Paperback) Reviewed by Holman TseThe northeastern US city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is the setting of Barbara Johnstone's book about the story of a very distinctive dialect of American English popularly referred to as Pittsburghese. It is a dialect characterized by a set of lexical items such as the word gumband ('rubber band'), a set of phonological features such as /aw/ monophthongization (as in the word downtown [da?nta?n], also spelled as dahntahn), and morphosyntactic features such as the need/want + X'ed construction (ex: this needs washed vs. this needs to be washed in Standard English). Yet, what makes this dialect special is more than simply its linguistic features. As Johnstone shows, Pittsburghese is also special in how it came in to being, in how people have become aware of its existence, and in how people talk about it. A common theme that resonates throughout the book is that Pittsburghers talk a lot about Pittsburghese. Why is this so? How did this formerly unnoticed way of speaking become so consciously linked to local identity? Johnstone addresses these questions by examining the dialect from multiple angles. Each chapter presents a different piece of this captivating story.The story begins with a linguistic description of Pittsburgh speech in Chapter 1. Here, Johnstone makes an important distinction between Pittsburgh speech, which refers to the local dialect as it is actually spoken, and Pittsburghese, which refers to the dialect 'as it is locally imagined' (p. 17). The differences are clearly outlined in more than a dozen pages of tables that list features of both Pittsburgh speech and Pittsburghese. Many of the lexical, phonological, and morphosyntactic features that characterize Pittsburgh speech are not even noticed by speakers. Yet, people also describe noticeable features that are not unique to Pittsburgh as part of Pittsburghese. What is important, Johnstone argues, is that Pittsburghese is more than simply about a set of features. It is also about 'how people act, how they interact, and how they experience the world' (p. 35).The theoretical framework of the book, presented in Chapter 2, is grounded in cultural geography and semiotics. Johnstone follows recent scholarship in cultural geography by treating place as a social construct rather than as simply a physical location. Her approach is also phenomenological in its treatment of place as something that individuals experience. Yet, at the same time, Johnstone also considers material aspects of place as tied to topography and economics. The model of semiotics used is one that builds on the work of linguistic anthropologists. Key concepts include indexicality (Silverstein, 2003; Eckert, 2008), which refers to a relationship between signs and meaning, and enregisterment (Agha, 2003), which refers to the process through which linguistic forms become linked with a social meaning.The explanation of how Pittsburgh speech became indexically linked to the city of Pittsburgh and how certain features consequently became enregistered as Pittsburghese begins in Chapter 3 with an overview of the history of the region. The first major group of English speakers in southwestern Pennsylvania were the Scotch-Irish who arrived in the 18th century. This set the model of English for subsequent generations of Pittsburghers, including the many Eastern European immigrant groups that settled in the region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These immigrants came primarily for employment opportunities in the steel factories, which would transform Pittsburgh into one of the wealthiest cities in America. Throughout much of this period, however, the mountainous topography of southwestern Pennsylvania isolated residents from the rest of the country making it possible for local speech to diverge from varieties of English spoken elsewhere. …


Coronary artery bypass grafting is one of the conventional treatment of coronary heart disease.Though the artery grafts have its own superiority,autologous saphenous vein is still commonly used.The restenosis of veingrafts which result from neointima and atheroscler-osis has became an urgent problem to be resolved.Early,mid and late graft failure may be due to thrombosis,fibrointimal hyperplasia and atherosclerosis,respectively.


Work is reported on the production of terrain elevation data from SPOT imagery. An important step in this process is determination of exterior orientation parameters for the images. Although an initial estimate is available in the SPOT header, refinements are required based on plan and height data. These are generally derived from photogrammetric measurements (or sources such as global positioning satellite systems), but accurate manual determination is time consuming.

This paper reports an alternative approach by investigating the use of existing map data (located on the earth's surface and in a known projection) to find corresponding "ground control points" in both map and image. Available maps may be in digital or paper form depending on the state of development of mapping in the part of the world being studied. The last revision date and the cartographic generalisation employed will also effect the fidelity of the final result. Practical semi-automatic techniques for determining the height of ground control points from existing map data are described, including multiple profiles through digitised contour data, a commercial terrain modelling package based on Delaunay triangulation and the use of triangulation points on prominent features.

Comparisons between the methods are made and results obtained are compared with Institut Geographique National datasets and photogrammetric measurements. Methods for fully automating not only the height determination but also the location of ground control features within a map database are discussed. Map and image registration is described and illustrated using Laser-Scan's Rover software. Interactive and automated methods of registration are discussed.


In this study, the application of epitaxially grown Si x Ge 1-x films as etch stop layers in a germanium-on-insulator substrate fabrication flow is investigated. Layers with Ge contents from 15% to 70% were epitaxially grown on Si (1 0 0) using silane and germane. It was found that the Ge content in the films is independent of the growth temperature for fixed partial pressure ratios. At low growth temperatures the activation energy is found to be 1.8 eV which points to a hydrogen desorption limited growth rate mechanism. At growth temperatures of less than 500 ℃, the s urface roughness is <1 nm . This surface roughness does not change when the films are grown on Ge substrates. Finally, a fully strained Si 0.5 Ge 0.5 film was grown on Ge strain relaxed buffer at 450 ℃ . This layer demonstrates etch selectivity of >400:1 towards Ge in diluted SC-1. This result enables the integration of the Si 0.5 Ge 0.5 film as an etch stop layer for single crystalline germanium-on-insulator substrate fabrication.


PURPOSE
To report the second case of amenorrhea related to endometrial compaction apoptosis syndrome.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A female with secondary amenorrhea was evaluated with sonography, hysteroscopy, serum estradiol and progesterone levels, serum luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), and endometrial biopsy.

RESULTS
Initially she was found to be ovulatory. However she did not menstruate despite the development of adequate endometrial thickness and a normal secretory endometrial biopsy. Hysterosalpingogram failed to detect synechial. Subsequently she developed hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, but she still failed to menstruate despite estrogen followed by progesterone.

CONCLUSIONS
Amenorrhea can occur despite secretory endometrial changes without a uterine abnormality.


As we enter the era of ecological civilization,ways of production from the consumption of the traditional mode of production have been changed to the sustainable development of green production style.Green production method is the use of resources,we should "lean" and the production process to "food chain" of sustainable production methods.In this paper,green production theory and its realization of the path are discussed.


The impact of Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) on sediments, together with the ultimate transport and migration of constituent chemicals in their dissolved or sorbed states, has led to environmentalists to develop several techniques for cleaning contaminated sediments. Dredging operations for opening new channels or just for maintenance of the existing channels will resuspend the sediments increasing the release of PAHs into the aquatic environment.The impact of Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) on sediments, together with the ultimate transport and migration of constituent chemicals in their dissolved or sorbed states, has led to environmentalists to develop several techniques for cleaning contaminated sediments.Cleanup of petroleum contaminated sediments using reactors is presented in this paper. Applicability of biological treatment alone or in combination with other technologies is discussed in detail.Copyright © 1997 by ASME


Laboratory experiments have generally supported the theorem that, in classical property rights environments, noncooperative behavior in markets yields efficient social outcomes. Experiments, however, regularly fail to support the game theoretic prediction of noncooperative behavior in small-group strategic interaction and in large-group public good environments. In these two types of experiments subjects frequently achieve more efficient social outcomes—they collect more money from the experimenter—than noncooperative game theory predicts. Many subjects in these experiments exhibit reciprocity even in single-play games. Evolutionary psychologists hypothesize that humans have evolved mental algorithms for identifying and punishing cheaters in social exchange. {JEL Al 1, A12, B41, C70, C72, C92)


SUMMARY

Laboratory tests using a slide dip technique confirmed that strains of Tetranychus urticae resistant to demeton-S-methyl and dimethoate had developed on strawberries in south Hampshire. These pesticides had been used very successfully for many years for the combined control of aphids and red spider mite.

In small plot screening trials dicofol, phenisobromolate, chloropropylate, quinomethionate and dinobuton gave consistently good results. Binapacryl was very effective but caused damage to the plants. A number of other acaricides including formetanate and methiocarb were shown to be worth further investigation.

Tetradifon, also used for some years on strawberries, gave variable results.


Conventional agriculture has negative effects on one or several natural resources. The main degraded resource is the soil which suffers the most quick and intense changes. At the same time with the physical, chemical or biological degradation, the useful fauna from the soil is also affected, fauna represented by coprophagous or necrophagous insects, but especially by earthworms (Oligochaeta Lumbricidae) which have a role in the soil aeration and formation of humus. Our research aims to accurately describe the Lumbricidae fauna in the soil of several greenhouses, with different tillage or exploitation degrees and the relationship between their presence or absence with the land usage. For the comparison, there have been used the available resources on the Lumbricidae fauna in the area.


Multicast is a very important communication paradigm. However, the deployment of multicast at IP layer is very slow, due to development and deployment issues such as ISPs' lack of incentives to update routers and inter-operability among multicast routing


Starting from the view that students who have low achievement in mathematics
is often perceived as less intelligent. This causes the students become less confident.
Self-confidence is believing in yourself, optimistic, courageous and not influenced
by others in order to overcome or face problems in appropriate conditions. The
confidence should be built from an early age through the potential of the students. One
of the potential that is the potential of multiple intelligences. Biopsikologis multiple
intelligences is the potential or capacity related to the eight areas of intelligence
that is linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, kinesthetic, music, interpersonal,
intrapersonal, and naturalist. Learning math intelligence-based compound can be an
alternative to building student confidence.
Keywords: self-confidence, learning math, multiple intelligences


It has been a concern that European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to boycott the utilization of palm oil in all European biofuels by 2020, referring to ecological concerns. This study re-examines the trend analysis of the factors that affecting the palm oil export in Malaysia during the period of 1986 until 2016 by employing Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). The annual data series that was used in the study is crude palm oil price, soybean oil price, and finally exchange rate. The Phillips-Perron root test shows that at level, all the series are non-stationary. In the 1st difference, palm oil export, crude palm oil price, soybean oil price, and exchange are stationary. The Johansen co-integrating approach shows that the presence of co-integrating relationship in the model. The findings shows that in the long run, crude palm oil prices have a significant effect on the palm oil export in Malaysia. However, the short run indicates that only exchange rate influence the palm oil export. In conclusion, a suggestion can be made which is increasing activities in the production and processing of palm oil-based products by foreign firms so that it can encourage the increase in the export demand for palm oil.


The maize yields of two agronomic experiments conducted in The Ivory Coast are analyzed. These experiments compared pure maize or maize intercropped with peanut at high or low density and fertilization level, with good or bad weeding, and with or without insecticide protection against borers. Insecticide protection gave a significant yield increase of 22-36% when compared to the control. Good weeding resulted in a yield increase of 11 and 28% when compared with late weeding. The comparison between pure crops and intercrops at various levels of density-fertilization gave different results in each locality. In one case, there was no difference between these modalities; in the other instance, yields increased with the fertilizer level. The study of rainfall and of its influence on the yield components (plant sterility, grain number per cob-carrying plant, and average weight of grain) enabled us to explain this difference. No interaction between the various factors was noticed. It is concluded that when there is some hydric stress risk, cultivation at low density and fertilization should be preferred whereas in other cases, high densities and fertilizations would give better results. Use of herbicides and insecticides gives good profits when rain conditions are correct, but is of less interest when low-density fertilizing crops have to be recommended because of water stress risk. 0-87371-919-693150 00 Ts 50 Q 1993 by Lew5 Publirhen . .


The wheat curl mite, Aceria tulipae Keifer, is the vector of wheat streak mosaic virus, which caused an estimated loss of 30 million bushels of the 1974 Kansas wheat crop. Rye cultivars are more resistant than wheat cultivars to mites, but individual rye plants varied from highly resistant to susceptible. Lines of wheat carrying different rye chromosomes in a disomic condition were tested to determine which chromosome(s) in rye carries the gene(s) for mite resistance. Addition lines with chromosome lR from "King II" and "Dakold" rye were essentially as resistant as the rye donors. Gene(s) on rye chromosome lR may serve as a valuable source of mite resistance when translocated into wheat.


Possible ways in which U (4) multiplets can be filled with mesons and baryons are discussed. In the U (4) scheme higher multiplets are possible than when baryons and mesons are constructed with the four GIM quarks. The distribution of quantum numbers is obtained for a 20-plet of mesons and for multiplets of 1/2/sup +/, 3/2/sup +/, 5/2/sup +/ baryons, and the relations between Q, Y, and C are found.


We show that a manufacturing system in which the machine tools are serviced by a circular conveyor belt which brings the pieces to the tools has a "thrashing" type behaviour which has been observed in other multiple resource systems. This behaviour is due to statistical deadlock between the machine tools and the conveyor belt. These results 'are first presented with simulation experiments. We then provide a theoretical explanation of the instability of the behaviour of the conveyor. We prove under fairly general assumptions that an uncontrolled open syste.m has a null thruput for every input rate.


The stacked-mask process (S-MAP) is a tri-level resist process by lithography and dry etching, which consists of thin resist, spin-on-glass (SOG), and spun-on carbon (SOC). However, as design rules progress below 60nm, two problems arise in the conventional S-MAP: 1) the deformation of SOC line pattern during SiO2 reactive ion etching (RIE), 2) the degradation of lithography performance due to high reflectivity at the interface between resist and SOG in high NA. In this study, we clarified the origin of the above problems and improved S-MAP materials and processes. Firstly, we found that the pattern deformation is induced by the inner stress due to volume expansion by fluorination during RIE, and that the deformation is suppressed by decreasing hydrogen content of SOC. Secondly, we developed new carbon-containing SOG that coexists with low reflectivity and acceptable etching performance. Using the above SOG and SOC, we developed a new S-MAP that shows an excellent lithography / etching performance in sub-45nm device fabrication.


KABoffdXAdXBPA(XAB(X)exp[ AG(XA, XB)kT] cur due to the fact that at higher concentrations a protein would KAB = J ABpA)PBB)e AB)/Tbe more likely to find itself close to another-perhaps even as= ((exp(-G/kT)))o. [8] sociated through dispersion forces or such-although not bound in the sense that is registered by the experimental procedure. Thus, the equilibrium constant is an average of exp(AG/kT) Thus, there is ample room in a traditional equilibrium descriptaken over the uncomplexed equilibrium distributions. By astion to allow for a binding constant that depends on concensumption ii above, the interaction free energy AG(XA,XB) betration or on the degree of complex formation. tween subunits depends only on their respective internal states. By detailed balance, pO and pO are independent of the degree DISCUSSION of complex formation. Eiltofcomple , f ione c d t ec b To explain their dissociation data for enolase, Xu and Weber Equivalently, one could derive the effective binding con. a c e bni stant from the chemical potentials. For a free A molecule in require a concentration-dependent equilibrium binding consbtt XA th ce ica ptnial i .stant. As discussed above, this could be achieved by introducsubstate xA, the chemical pot ntial is . ing nonideal solutions or by considering higher-order aggret/A(XA) = GA(XA) + kT In[cAP?(xA)], [9] gates; i.e., one should go beyond the simple two-body interaction scheme. No new principle need be invoked at the expense of where CA is the total concentration of free A such thatphysical thery. CAPA(XA) is the concentration of free A in state XA. Thus, the average chemical potential is The author has benefited from discussions with Drs. M. Ehrenberg, _ dA?(A0 t(A = kT ln(ZA/cA). [10] G. Lindblad, and C. Blomberg. Financial support from the Swedish AA -fdXAP?A(XA)AA(XA) =-kT ln(ZA/cA)[10] Natural Science Research Council is gratefully acknowledged.


The concept of customer rektionship management has been introduced into China for several years. Many enterprises have implemented CRM in practice. However few of them have succeeded. A number of factors can account for it. One reason is that the enterprise has no culture to match CRM. The success in practicing CRM is not only the result of the application of high technology, but also the embodiment of the successful enterprise culture. This paper explicates the urgency that Chinese enterprises should learn customer relationship management. Moreover, through analyzing the core thought of CRM, it brings up some suggestions that how enterprises should reform the culture to match CRM.


This article presents a detailed description of the main components of a model developed recently for the prediction of turbulent non-premixed flames, namely for turbulent diffusion flames and turbulent spray flames. The model is developed using an approach based in the characterization of the reactant plan. This approach leads also to the results achieved by the classical conserved scalar approach but instead of the fast chemistry assumption it introduces the assumption of sufficient residence time of the reactants. The consideration of only two reactants that lead to the known SCRS is also skirted. The combustion model uses the chemical equilibrium hypothesis but it illustrates also that this assumption influences only partially the predictions of concentrations of species. An important component of the model is a recently developed probability density function of a passive scalar, which is used to account for the mean effects of the turbulence-chemistry interaction. Using two third order polynomials, this distribution has the flexibility to assume different shapes, which are consistent with the experimental observation. To deal with more than two inlets, an alternative approach that doesn't require the analytical definition of the distribution is also analysed. This approach uses stochastic trinomial trees to simulate Wiener processes associated to the passive scalars. The evaluation of the instantaneous values of temperature under non-adiabatic conditions is also investigated. The models are evaluated using experimental data available in the literature. The predictions obtained show, in general, a good agreement with the experimental results.


Hypoplasia of the mitral leaflets is rarely reported in adults. We reported a 45‐year‐old man presented to us with palpitation, dyspnea, and severe mitral regurgitation. In echocardiographic examination, an immobile hypoplastic posterior mitral leaflet (PML) was detected. A review of clinical and echocardiographic findings of all reported cases revealed that mitral regurgitation was the most common finding associated with PML hypoplasia/uni‐leaflet mitral valve. PML hypoplasia is rare and often an incidental diagnosis during echocardiography, which could be relatively well tolerated since adulthood and carries a good prognosis.


The current study examines young Japanese women's attitudes toward work and marriage, and the degrees to which they see their career goals as complementing or conflicting with other aspects of their lives. The data were collected using a questionnaire-based survey: providing unique information on awareness of gender differences in workplaces among undergraduate women (N = 577) at a large national university in Japan. The results are complex: indicating an increase in the numbers of careerminded women, but also that many women still approach their careers in a very conservative way. This implies that Japan remains far behind many other developed countries in terms of how women are encouraged to approach their careers, and in how companies make use of female human capital as well. The results indicate a need to educate both male and female students on these issues in order to support female students in their decisions on how to participate in the labor force. Implications of the results and directions for future research are also discussed.


In Gujarat, medical colleges' libraries are shifting towards automation and e-resources services. This is more prominent in the case of medical college libraries. Generally medical college libraries are positive towards automation and the application of IT in library operation and e-resources services. Application of IT helps to provide more advanced effective and efficient services in medical college libraries. Medical college libraries are using advanced e-resources for accessing and retrieving information. This research paper has been impact of e-resources services of medical college libraries user in Gujarat. The use of faculty, researchers and students has electronic resources in medical college library starting in the opening years of the 21 century. Most of the Medical college libraries are purchasing eresources for their users. There are so many e-resources are available on Internet like e-journal, e-book, edatabase, e-blog, e-portal etc. but to some limitation here two e-resources, e-journal and e-book are mentioned here.


Junctional adhesion molecule A (299 aa, ~33 kDa) is encoded by the human F11R gene. This protein is involved in the regulation of cell-cell junction formation.


This report discusses United States' relations with Brazil, which is the seventh-largest economy in the world and is recognized by the Obama Administration's National Security Strategy as an emerging center of influence.


The major purpose of this article is to understand the concept of marketing and evolution in marketing discipline over the time. This paper presents conceptualization of marketing and elaborates the role of marketing in the field of management sciences. This study covered in the two major paradigms in the marketing management and their importance for marketer: marketing-mix and relationship marketing. Marketing is a border field and due time constraint, the focus was too narrow.


Proinflammatory cytokine‐mediated injury to oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) has been proposed as a cause of periventricular leukomalacia (PVL), the most common brain injury found in preterm infants. Preventing death of OPCs is a potential strategy to prevent or treat PVL. In the current study, we utilized an in vitro cell culture system to investigate the effect of insulin‐like growth factor‐1 (IGF‐1) on tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNFα)‐induced OPC injury and the possible mechanisms involved. OPCs were isolated from neonatal rat optic nerves and cultured in chemically defined medium (CDM) supplemented with platelet‐derived growth factor and basic fibroblast growth factor. Exposure to TNFα resulted in death of OPCs. IGF‐1 protected OPCs from TNFα cytotoxicity in a dose‐dependent manner as measured by the XTT and TUNEL assays. IGF‐1 activates both the PI3K/Akt and the extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (ERK) pathway. However, IGF‐1‐enhanced cell survival signals were mediated by the PI3K/Akt, but not by the ERK pathway, as evidenced by the observation that IGF‐1‐enhanced cell survival was partially abrogated by Akti, the Akt inhibitor, or wortmannin, the PI3K inhibitor, but not by PD98059, the MAPK kinase/ERK kinase inhibitor. The downstream events of IGF‐1‐triggered survival signals included phosphorylation of BAD, blockade of TNFα‐induced translocation of Bax from the cytosol to the mitochondrial membrane, and suppression of caspase‐9 and caspase‐3 activation. These observations indicate that the protection of OPCs by IGF‐1 is mediated, at least partially, by interruption of the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway via activation of PI3K/Akt. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Type of funding sources: None.
 Aim/Introduction:
 Heat-not-burn cigarette (HNBC) constitutes a non-combustible smoke product.

 We compare the effects of heat-not-burn and conventional cigarettes on coronary flow, myocardial and vascular function, platelet activation and oxidative stress.

 We compared the effects of HNBC to those of tobacco cigarette (TCig), on arterial stiffness, oxidative stress, and platelet activation, acutely and after 1 month of switching to HNBC, as well as on endothelial, myocardial, and coronary function after 1 month of switching to HNBC. In the acute study, 50 smokers were randomized into smoking a single Tcig or an HNBC and after 60 minutes were crossed over to the alternate smoking (HNBC or Tcig). For the chronic phase, 75 smokers were examined. Of those, 50 were switched to HNBC and 25 continued Tcig for 1 month. Pulse wave velocity (PWV) and biomarkers [malondialdehyde (MDA), protein carbonyls (PC), and thromboxane B2 (TXB2)] were assessed in the acute and chronic study. Myocardial deformation [global longitundinal strain (GLS), myocardial work index (GWI) and wasted myocardial work (GWW)], coronary flow reserve (CFR) by Doppler echocardiography, total arterial compliance (TAC), and flow-mediated dilation (FMD) were additionally assessed in the chronic study.

 Compared to baseline, TCig smoking acutely increased exhaled CO, PWV, MDA, and TxB2 (p < 0.05), while no changes were observed after HNBC. Compared to resuming Tcig smoking, switching to HNBC for 1 month improved CO (mean change: -55% vs -2.4%), FMD ( +55% vs +15%), CFR (+46% vs +4%), TAC (+9% vs -0.5%), GLS (+6% vs +1%), GWW (-19% vs +0.5%), MDA (-19% vs 1 %), and TxB2 (-12% vs 4%) (p < 0.05 for all comparisons).

 HNBCs exert a less detrimental effect on vascular, cardiac and platelet function than combustible tobacco.


Abstract The Pyrgomorphidae represent a distinctive family of acridoid Orthoptera comprising 127 genera and over 400 species. The systematic history of the group is outlined and its name is discussed. On the basis of external morphology and phallic structures it has been found possible to divide the family into tribes. Most of these have been recognized previously, but several new ones have been erected to accommodate anomalous genera or parts of former tribes that have proved to be heterogeneous. The genera fall into no fewer than 29 tribes and 8 subtribes, which reflect the antiquity of the group; phylogenetic relationships remain rather obscure. An extensive key to the tribes and subtribes (incorporating both external and phallic characters) is given and the genera belonging to each are listed. Diagnoses of three new genera and a new subgenus are appended. Geographical distribution is discussed. The great majority of Pyrgomorphidae are found in the Old World tropics and subtropics, but some are American and a few reach temperate latitudes both north and south. A very high degree of endemism amongst genera is shown by all regions in which the group occurs, except the Palaearctic. The African and Malagasy faunas are the richest, but the group probably originated further east. Madagascar, Australia, the Papuan subregion and C. and S. America all have their own very distinctive tribes and genera. No genera are common to Old and New Worlds. The latter was probably invaded from Asia at least twice. Pyrgomorphidae appear to be comparatively recently incursive into the Palaearctic region. A new Palaearctic fossil genus is proposed.


United States Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California. Chief Scientist: Jingping Xu. Geophysical data (subbottomprofiler) of field activity F-1-07-NC in Monterey Bay from 03/19/2007 to 03/21/2007, http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/infobank/f/f107nc/html/f-1-07-nc.meta.html.


Intrauterine device (IUD) is one of the most common ways of pregnancy prevention which is widely used in the world. About 13.9% of population of developed countries and 8.9% of population of developing countries use IUDs. According to the world statistics in 2013, approximately 7.6% of females in pregnancy ages use IUD (1). The IUDs containing copper were introduced to the world markets in late 1960s and nowadays are available in various types (2), from which Tcu380A is the most effective kind (3). IUD is for longtime use and has been considered as an irreversible pregnancy prevention method for 10 years (4). IUDs are not only effective and safe for pregnancy prevention, but also they have very important health advantages; for instance, IUD protects endometrium against cancer (5). In addition, copper IUDs do not create any disorders in pregnancy and the rate of unexpected pregnancies is less in IUD users compared to the users of other methods (6). Despite the wide use of IUD, early interruption of this method is considered a major problem and early IUD exodus causes pain and bleeding along with menstruation (7). Besides, use of IUD with increasing irregular uterine bleedings decreases the number of sexual intercourses and accordingly the sexual functioning (8). Sexual disorders may result from mental and physical factors. In cases with a physical reason for sexual problem, mental factors may play secondary role in complicating the condition and can cause disorders in sexual responses and dysfunctions (9). Paying attention to the sexual health in users of pregnancy prevention methods can have a role in the continuous use of prevention methods. Lack of attention to females' sexual health leads to the incorrect use of pregnancy prevention methods and accordingly unwanted pregnancies, induced and unhealthy abortions, and some other problems (10). Using non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs except Abstract Objectives: Intrauterine device (IUD) is one of the most common methods of pregnancy prevention that is widely used in the world. Bleeding is one of the key reasons of stopping the use of IUD. Vaginal bleeding can be occurred due to the reduction of adequate motivation and functioning of neuroendocrine system and subsequent hormones (oxytocin, serotonin); and accordingly sexual functioning would be decreased. Therefore, the hemostatic impact of Capsella bursa-pastoris through several mechanisms can play a leading role in increasing the orgasm and sexual responses. The aim of current study was to determine the impact of C. bursa-pastoris on sexual functioning of females having copper IUD. Materials and Methods: This triple blind clinical trial was done in 2014 on 90 females visiting healthcare centers of Ardebil city, Iran. Women were complaining about excessive menstrual bleeding which occurred at least 3 months after placing IUDs. The first group received C. bursa-pastoris (700 mg) and the second group received mefenamic acid (500 mg) from first day of menstruation till bleeding completion, one every 8 hours. The questionnaire of sexual functioning was completed by the participants prior and 3 months after the treatment. The analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) test was used for comparing sexual functioning after the intervention among the studied groups with some adjustments on baseline scores. Results: Mean (standard deviation) score of sexual functioning in mefenamic acid group was 23.39 (4.18) before the intervention which was increased to 24.24 ± 3.45 after applying intervention. In C. bursa-pastoris group, mean (standard deviation) score of sexual functioning was 21.40 (4.70) before the intervention which was increased to 24.85 ± 3.81 after applying intervention. According to the findings of study, mefenamic acid and C. bursa-pastoris were effective in improving the sexual functioning, but increase of sexual functioning score after the intervention was significant in the C. bursa-pastoris group (the justified mean difference: 0.60, 95% CI [-0.91–2.13], P = 0.01). Conclusions: Capsella bursa-pastoris can be more effective compared to chemical drugs including mefenamic acid in increasing the sexual functioning of females with IUD.


Regional synergy innovation has gradually become a new trend in science and technology innovation. In recent years,the accumulated innovational achievements gained by Taihu Lake areas,have laid a solid foundation for further comprehensive regional synergy innovation. However,some problems still exist,such as the deficiency in the innovation system,lack of vitality,a single pattern in synergy innovation,an indistinct regional core image and so on. To remove obstacles of regional synergy innovation,Taihu Lake areas should conform to the trend of regional economic integration,focus on activating innovative resources,improve innovative mechanisms,and create an innovative environment so as to reconstruct a synergy innovative model. With reference to the experience of American,EU,Zhongguancun and other advanced regions,the path of "government,enterprises,universities,research institutions,financial departments,agencies,users' Architecture Innovation + regional linkage to build a core image of the innovation platform + regional cooperation with Shanghai" will be the optimal and feasible model of regional synergy innovation in Taihu Lake areas.


The invention discloses a high efficiency and energy-saving environment-friendly drinking water pumping device and belongs to the field of drinking water equipment. A water pumping shell and an electromagnetic coil are installed in a buoyancy shell of the high efficiency and energy-saving environment-friendly drinking water pumping device, and the electromagnetic coil is arranged outside the water pumping shell. The water pumping shell is fixed in the buoyancy shell. A water outlet valve is fixed in a center hole of the water pumping shell. An iron core spring and an iron core piston are arranged in the water pumping shell. The iron core spring is pressed on the lower end face of the iron core piston. A water inlet channel of a water inlet cavity is sealed through a sealing cap. A water inlet channel of an extrusion cavity is sealed through a sealing cone or a sealing ball. A limiting plug is fixed in a plug hole of the iron core piston. A sealing cone or a sealing ball is installed in an inner cone hole. The high efficiency and energy-saving environment-friendly drinking water pumping device is compact in structure, high in power, suitable for pumping drinking water from a drinking water tower and pumping drinking water from a drinking water tank or a drinking water well and capable of floating on the water surface of drinking water to automatically ascend or descend along with changing of the water surface, sediment and sludge at the bottom of the drinking water cannot enter a water pump, and furthermore, drinking water can automatically flow to be supplied.


The sudden spread of coronavirus infection has made its own adjustments in the activities of the company "Plant SST Warm Floors". The company was able to overcome difcult times without stopping its work. Thanks to ensuring the safety of employees, well-coordinated work of the team in conditions of constantly changing circumstances, it was able to show an increase in product output in all categories. Anton Lutsuk, head of the equipment service and repair group, SST Teplyi Poli Plant, tells about the measures taken by the company to prevent viral infection.


The physiological mechanisms which affect the transformation of nutrients into body fat in bulls of secretion type or into muscle tissue in bulls of accretion type is still not fully revealed. Hence, we designed a study of segregating family structures using Charolais (Ch) cattle as a representative for the accretion type and German Holstein (GH) cattle as a representative for the secretion type of cattle. In further experiments, the P0 generation was characterized phenotypically. This study compares selected phenotypical results of the F2 bull generation (n= 65) with the P0 data to get rst insights in potential segregating of growth and carcass traits. The F2 bulls of ve segregating families showed an average nal weight at 18 mo between 676.69 kg and 739.18 kg. These data were intermediate between the P0 Charolais bulls, which gained a nal weight of 750.6 kg and were 84.7 kg heavier than the GH bulls with 665.9 kg (P<0.001). The Charolais bulls exhibit a hot carcass weight (HCW) of 450.26 kg, the GH bulls 356.74 kg (P< 0.001). The average HCW of the F2 bull families extends from 387.85 kg to 414.46 kg and is within the P0 data (P< 0.001). The Rib eye area of the F2 bulls (103.18 cm2 – 108.17 cm2) varies (P< 0.001) within the P0 bulls (Ch = 125.82 cm2 and GH = 82.14 cm2). The average dressing percent in the F2 bull families (56.46 %– 58.01 %), was between the P0 bulls (Ch = 60.31, GH = 53.96) with (P< 0.001). The inner fat content of the F2 bulls varies from 39.6 kg to 43.3 kg and is within the P0 range (Ch = 35.4 kg, GH = 51.06 kg) with (P< 0.001). In conclusion, the F2 animals showed intermediate data with high variation between the values of the P0 animals in the observed traits, which conrms the expected results for the F2 generation. No atypical effects of these traits were recorded. Further experimentation will be conducted on the F2 bulls.


This paper describes a new method of power-grid signal variation measurement, consisting of a demodulation algorithm and a set of measures (indices). The measures that will be presented are the abstract functionals, operating on the complex envelope of a signal. This paper presents a demodulation algorithm, definitions of proposed functionals, results of simulations, as well as laboratory experiments.


We synthesized the general structures of biomedical electric impedance biotechnical systems as a part of cyber-physical systems and propose methodological recommendations on the electric impedance equipment development.


The method that increasing the number of the medium layer and optimizing the thickness of each medium layer by Dixon algorithm is used to achieve the wideband of the radome and radar absorbing material.The results indicate that the bandwidth becomes wider with the increasing number of the medium layer,and the goal function gets the maximum or minimum value in a fixed frequency and the optimized thickness of the medium layer.


We used receiver functions to determine lateral variations in mantle transition zone thickness and sharpness of the 410- and 660-km discontinuities in the presence of subducting lithosphere. The mantle beneath the central Andes of South America provides an ideal study site owing to its long-lived subduction history and the availability of broadband seismic data from the dense BANJO/SEDA temporary networks and the permanent station LPAZ. For LPAZ, we analyzed 26 earthquakes between 1993-2003 and stacked the depth-migrated receiver functions. For temporary stations operating for only about one year (1994-1995), station stacks were not robust. We thus stacked receiver functions for close-by stations forming five groups that span the subduction zone from west to east, each containing 12 to 25 events. We found signal significant at the 2σ level for several station groups from P to S conversions that originate near 520- and 850-900 km depth, but most prominently from the 410- and 660-km discontinuities. For the latter, the P to S converted signal is clear in stacks for western groups and LPAZ, lack of coherent signal for two eastern groups is possibly due to incoherent stacking and does not necessitate the absence of converted energy. The thickness of the mantle transition zone increases progressively from a near-normal 255 km at the Pacific coast to about 295 km beneath station LPAZ in the Eastern Cordillera. Beneath LPAZ, the 410-km discontinuity appears elevated by nearly 40 km, thus thickening the transition zone. We compared signal amplitudes from receiver function stacks calculated at different low-pass frequencies to study frequency dependence and possibly associated discontinuity sharpness of the P to S converted signals. We found that both the 410- and 660-km discontinuities exhibit amplitude increase with decreasing frequency. Synthetic receiver function calculations for discontinuity topography mimicking observed topography show that the observed steep topography can adequately explain the observed frequency dependence. The large transition zone thickness beneath LPAZ can be explained by a ∼300 K cooler slab or a mantle saturated with water (∼1 wt %).


Nigeria as a country operates Federal System of government where the principle of separation of powers is hinged on a separation of the three arms of government namely, the legislature, executive and the judiciary. The essence of their separation is to avoid fusion of powers among the three arms so as to ensure checks and balances that guarantee good governance in the country. Using a qualitative study which is based on a historical analytical descriptive approach that revolves around a combination of historical literature where both secondary and primary sources of data were utilized, to arrive at logical findings, the study argued that, the Nigerian judiciary which has been described by certain scholars as the last hope of a common man and also the bastion of democracy is saddle with the responsibility of interpreting the laws as well as determining and resolving dispute between individuals on one hand, and between states and other levels of government on the other hand. But regrettably, right from the military regime up to the present-day democratic experiment in Nigeria, the judiciary has been deeply abashed or embroiled with corrupt practices of various degrees. The paper is therefore, tailored towards examining not only the causes of corruption in Nigeria's judicial system but also the implications of corruption on our justice system. The paper finally canvases for total over hauling of the judiciary system for optimal performance of the sector in order to rekindle the lost confidence of Nigerians on the justice ministry or sector.


Aims: To investigate the potential of a signal processed by smartphone-case based on single lead electrocardiogram (ECG) for left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) determination as a screening method. Methods and Results: We included 446 subjects for sample learning and 259 patients for sample test aged 39 to 74 years for testing with 2D-echocardiography, tissue Doppler imaging and ECG using a smartphone-case based single lead ECG monitor for the assessment of LVDD. Spectral analysis of ECG signals (spECG) has been used in combination with advanced signal processing and artificial intelligence methods. Wavelengths slope, time intervals between waves, amplitudes at different points of the ECG complexes, energy of the ECG signal and asymmetry indices were analyzed. The QTc interval indicated significant diastolic dysfunction with a sensitivity of 78% and a specificity of 65%, a Tpeak parameter >590 ms with 63% and 58%, a T value off >695 ms with 63% and 74%, and QRSfi > 674 ms with 74% and 57%, respectively. A combination of the threshold values from all 4 parameters increased sensitivity to 86% and specificity to 70%, respectively (OR 11.7 [2.7-50.9], P < .001). Algorithm approbation have shown: Sensitivity—95.6%, Specificity—97.7%, Diagnostic accuracy—96.5% and Repeatability—98.8%. Conclusion: Our results indicate a great potential of a smartphone-case based on single lead ECG as novel screening tool for LVDD if spECG is used in combination with advanced signal processing and machine learning technologies.


T ele-education systems promise wider access to education and support for lifelong learning. These systems are either asynchronized or synchronized. Asynchronized systems are relatively simple. An organization can use the Internet to publish hyperlinked multimedia content and reach a wide audience. Yet, most current courseware is simply textbook material transferred to HTML; instead of reading the book, students read the screen. In most cases, live instruction catches students' attention and interest much more effectively than static materials. Real-time interactive virtual classrooms therefore play an indispensable role in distance learning. In this type of tele-education, multimedia communication systems let teachers and students in different locations participate in the class synchronously. Most systems are desktopbased, however, so the teacher must remain at the computer, using the keyboard and mouse to operate the class—an awkward experience for a teacher. By applying smart space technologies in a real classroom, the Smart Classroom project bridges the gap between tele-education and traditional classroom activities in terms of the teacher's experience and seamlessly integrates these two currently separate educational practices. (See the sidebar for a discussion of other projects seeking to merge pervasive computing technologies and education.) More specifically, we extend the user interface of a legacy desktop-based tele-education system—SameView1,2— into the 3D space of an augmented classroom. In the Smart Classroom, teachers can use multiple natural modalities while interacting with remote students to achieve the same effect as a teacher in a classroom with local students. Figure 1 gives an overview of the Smart Classroom. The system turns a physical classroom into a natural user interface for tele-education software. Teachers in the Smart Classroom can move freely, using conventional teaching methods to instruct remote students. Because they are in a real classroom environment, they can accommodate local students at the same time. Simultaneously instructing local and remote students also requires a smaller workforce than separate on-campus and tele-education operations. Furthermore, the lecture, recorded as hypermedia courseware, is available for playback after class.


tary Zionism: Nationalism and the Origins of the Israeli Right (I.B. Tauris, 2006). The value added here is the recognition that Israel's political right has changed in part due to external factors and forces, such as the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and conquest of the West Bank, the decline of Labor Zionism and the general weakening of the Jewish left, and changing demographics. Indeed, as Shindler correctly notes, beginning in the 1980s, "a plethora of Israeli parties which deeply believed in the ongoing Jewish settlement of the West Bank were elected by an electorate which did not, but regarded it as the price to pay for security and protection" (p. 334). The dominance of the right is, then, as much a story of the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict as it is of other things, and reducing the explanation for it to the settlements (one of the more popular common examples) is incomplete and misleading. Chronicling this history is important. But at the same time, we need more discussion of the contemporary period. The story of the present-day right begins only on page 338, under the heading "Netanyahu and the Transformation of the Likud." This era is the least-studied in general and so requires more elucidation than any other. In particular, a focus on the younger generation of activists on the nationalist right and the religious right is very much needed. This should include a discussion of the Holocaust, the several wars fought between Israel and the Arab states, and the fedayeen attacks in the 1950s and 1960s. All of these laid the groundwork for the Hamas suicide bombers in the 1990s and Hamas and Hizbullah rockets in the 2000s, which in turn helped drive voters toward the right. Related, Shindler has it right when he concludes that since the 2000s "there has been a dilution of intellectual thought on the right," partly replaced by a "crude populism" (p. 12). But the emergence of a more tribal version of Jewish nationalism, one that is far more intolerant — I would go so far as to say totalitarian — than the kind of rightwing Zionism that Jabotinsky and even Menachem Begin spoke of should also be part of the analysis. Indeed, the Jabotinskyite liberals were mostly expelled from the Likud in the 2010s via party primaries. A study of the changing preferences among the electorate, particular of centrist voters, then, is necessary, as well. Where Shindler sees the Netanyahu-Likud victory in the 2015 election, for example, as having "reversed the political fragmentation of the Right" (p. 365), I would argue it is a result of a fearful and skeptical electorate that simply perceives the Likud as the least worst option, while other votes that might have gone to both Likud and the far right have migrated to the centrist parties, Yesh 'Atid (There Is a Future) and Kulanu (All of Us). It is not, then, about the political right itself but also about how Israeli voters perceive their options. Despite these gaps, Colin Shindler has done an admirable job of setting out the history of the political right over time. I highly recommend The Rise of the Israeli Right for those who want to understand both contemporary Israel in general and right-wing Zionism in particular.


We use the known soft and collinear limits of tree- and one-loop scattering amplitudes -- computed over a decade ago -- to explicitly construct a subtraction scheme for next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) computations. Our approach combines partitioning of the final-state phase space together with the technique of sector decomposition, following recent suggestions in Ref. [1]. We apply this scheme to a toy example: the NNLO QED corrections to the decay of the Z boson to a pair of massless leptons. We argue that the main features of this subtraction scheme remain valid for computations of processes of arbitrary complexity with NNLO accuracy.


article i nfo We propose an automatic pest identification method suitable for large scale, long term monitoring for mobile or embedded devices in situ with less computational cost. A procedure of segmentation and image separation was devised to identify common greenhouse pests, whiteflies, aphid and thrips. Initially, the watershed algorithm was used to segment insects from the background (i.e., sticky trap) images. Color feature of the insects were sub- sequently extracted by Mahalanobis distance for identification of pest species. Accuracy and computational costs were evaluated across different image resolutions. The correlation of determination (R 2 ) between the proposed identification scheme and manual identification were high, showing 0.934 for whitefly, 0.925 for thrips, and 0.945 for aphids even with low resolution images. Comparing with the conventional methods, pests were effi- ciently identified with low computational cost. Optimal image resolution for species identification regarding long-term survey was discussed in practical aspect with less computational complexity.


Abstract Pristine Li 1− z Ni 1+ z O 2 ( z =0.02, 0.07, and 0.25) and deintercalated Li x Ni 1.02 O 2 ( x =0.82 and 0.63) phases were characterized by neutron diffraction. In all cases, the amount of nickel in the lithium sites was found to be identical to that deduced from X-ray diffraction experiments. The sensitivity of the neutron studies allowed us to show that no lithium ions are in the NiO 2 slabs for z =0.02 and 0.07. A Li/Ni mixing appears only for the most lithium-deficient phase leading to the [Li 0.73 Ni 0.27 ] 3b [Ni 0.98 Li 0.02 ] 3a O 2 cationic distribution for the Li 0.75 Ni 1.25 O 2 phase. Determination of the anisotropic atomic displacement parameters confirms the results previously obtained from EXAFS data. The structural characterization of partially deintercalated phases was in good agreement with the XRD analysis. However, in the case of Li 0.63 Ni 1.02 O 2 , it gave evidence for the presence of a small amount of rhombohedral phase due to fluctuations in the composition of the starting material.


The invention relates to an apparatus and a method for protecting data, wherein the predetermined data (m) are stored in a first memory in a control unit, wherein the data (m) from a subscriber (i) from a participating in a signing process group of subscribers (1 ... n) by means of a signature to be signed (σ_i), wherein the signature depending from an associated said subscriber (i) first key (gsk_i) is generated, wherein the signature (σ_i) stored in a second memory in the control unit is wherein prior to use of the data (m) is checked by means of a second key, whether the predetermined signature (σ_i) of one of the participants (i) from the group of subscribers (1 ... n) has been generated, and wherein the includes signature (σ_i) an encrypted for decryption using a third key, the identity of the signer party (i) characterizing size.


This paper provides a vision that sketches insights from behavioural economics, and illustrates their potential use in the design of travel information systems, with a specific focus on personal mobile applications.


The influence of quasihydrostatic pressure on the electrical transport in epitaxial La0.7Ca0.3MnO3/MgO(100) thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and metalorganic aerosol deposition (MAD) was studied for temperatures T=4.2–300 K and magnetic fields B=0–12 T. Usual or "intrinsic" pressure effect, characterized by a decrease of the resistance in the region of the metal–insulator transition TMI was observed in PLD film for p=0–16 kbar and also in MAD films for p⩽8 kbar. An anomalous, or "extrinsic" pressure effect, characterized by a 2–3 order of magnitude increase of the resistance at low temperatures, persisting after the pressure release, was found for p>8 kbar in films with extraordinarily high values of the pressure coefficient d(TMI)/dp=2.70–3.85 K/kbar. The lattice strain originated from the substrate due to epitaxy was found to control the TMI values and intrinsic pressure behavior in the films. The extrinsic pressure effect in MAD films is caused by a plastic deformation of the film, ...


At a Senate Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry Committee hearing this month, a very dark picture was painted of the U.S. pesticide industry. Agricultural chemicals that are not registered in the U.S. were described as destructive to foreign farm workers and the environment, and dangerous residues were said to be imported on unknown amounts of produce. The hearing was held to support the so-called Circle of Poison Prevention Act introduced by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D.-Vt.) in the Senate (S. 898) and Rep. Mike Synar (D.- Okla.) in the House (H.R. 2083). "This is one of the most important food safety proposals Congress will consider this year," Leahy says. "This is a fight between chemical companies and consumers." Circle of poison is the phrase used to describe the exporting of unregistered or banned pesticides by U.S. manufacturers to other countries. These are then used on food crops that are imported into the U.S. Residues ...


Objectives : This study was performed to investigate the applications of 47 prescriptions containing Ginseng Radix and Aconiti Lateralis Preparata Radix in Dongeuibogam. Methods : 47 prescriptions containing Ginseng Radix and Aconiti Lateralis Preparata Radix which have been used separately or concurrently in Oriental Medicine for a long time as a treatment for various disease in Dongeuibogam were studied through order of frequency, symptoms, dosages, etc. Results : 1. 17.02 % prescriptions are used in cold chapter with the 8 frequency, 14.89% in fatigue chapter with the 7 frequency, 10.64% in stool and wind chapter each with the 5 frequency, and 6.38% in children chapter with the 3 frequency. 2. Cold-diarrhea, Yang deficiency treating herbs, General fatigue treating herbs are most used chapters and articulation pain, severe cold, convulsion chapters are following frequency among 38 symptoms in prescriptions including Ginseng Radix and Aconiti Iateralis Preparata Radix. 3. In the prescriptons which has used more Ginseng Radix than Aconiti Lateralis Preparata Radix, the dosage ratio between Ginseng Radix and Aconiti Lateralis Preparata is ranged from 2.5 puns:1.5 puns ~ 1 jeon:7 puns. Among the range, 1 jeon:5 puns is recorded 2 times(33.33%), the rests are 1 time(16.67%). 4. In the prescriptons which has used same amount Ginseng Radix and Aconiti Lateralis Preparata Radix, the dosage ratio Ginseng Radix and Aconiti Lateralis Preparata is ranged from 2 puns ~ 1 nyangs each. Among the range, 1 jeon is recorded 12 times(41.38%), 1.25 jeon and 5 jeons are 3 times(10.34%) each, 0.5 jeon, 0.7 jeons and 3 jeons each are recorded 2 times (6.90%), the rests are 1 time(3.45%). 5. In the prescriptons which has used less Ginseng Radix than Aconiti Lateralis Preparata Radix, the dosage ratio between Ginseng Radix and Aconiti Lateralis Preparata is ranged from 3 puns:1 jeon ~ 1 nyang:3 nyangs. Among the range, 5 jeons:1 nyang is recorded 2 times(25.00%), the rests are 1 time(12.50%). 6. 5 jeons:1 piece are used 2 times(50.00%), the rests are 1 time(25.00%) each used among 3 prescriptions including Ginseng Radix and Aconiti Lateralis Preparata Radix. Conclusions : The 47 prescriptions including Ginseng Radix and Aconiti Iateralis Preparata Radix in Dongeuibogam are mainly composed of Samboo-tang, Sayeok-tang, Eejoong-tang, Samool-tang, Sagoonja-tang and Gobangpoong-tang, Bowon-tang, etc.


The reputation of the Maly Theatre of St Petersburg has been growing steadily in this country and elsewhere – ironically, since the economic problems of its native Russia have made touring as much a matter of economic necessity as of cultural cross-fertilization. In the following article, Maria Shevtsova offers a detailed explication of four of the Maly's most notable productions under its present director, Lev Dodin – Aleksandr Galin's Stars in the Morning Sky, appropriately one of the final offerings within the ambit of the former Soviet Union; Brothers and Sisters, a view of a Russia in 'perpetual motion' in the immediate post-war years which has come to be regarded as the company's 'signature piece'; a transposition onto the stage of Dostoevsky's masterpiece, The Devils; and – following briefer studies of Gaudeamus and Claustrophobia – a revival of The Cherry Orchard which, like so much of Dodin's work, offers a bleak vision of disintegration as Chekhov's portrayal of a crumbling society at the turn of the last century comes full circle to reflect our own fin de siecle. Maria Shevtsova is Professor of Contemporary Performance and Theatre Studies at the University of Lancaster, and has published on a wide range of subjects including the work of Peter Brook, Ariane Mnouchkine, Patrice Chereau, and Robert Wilson, having also contributed a three-part study of 'The Sociology of Theatre' to NTQ17–19 (1989). Her most recent full-length work is Theatre and Cultural Interaction (1993).


Abstract The quantitative theory of multiphoton vibrational relaxation of a molecule in a host crystalline matrix is developed. A simple closed formula for the relaxation rate is obtained. Interpretations of several experimental results based on this formula are discussed.


Abstract How do parties and candidates react to electoral system reform? While the literature on causes and consequences of electoral reforms is receiving increasing attention, we lack a systematic micro-level account on how parties and candidates adopt to changes in electoral rules and district boundaries. This paper examines the case of the Japanese Liberal Democrats to explore how the party has managed to accommodate a surplus of incumbents to a reduced number of nominal tier seats following the 1994 electoral reform. By using micro-level data, I examine how the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has matched candidates based on their expected electoral strength and ideological positioning to new districts. Moreover, I investigate how the newly instituted party-list allowed the LDP to avoid its disintegration at the local level by systematically defusing local stand-offs through the handing out of promising list positions. My findings help to understand how the LDP could avoid its disintegration and could continue to dominate Japanese politics until today.


This study sets the framework for uncertainty propagation in hypersonic aeroelastic and aerothermoelastic stability analyses. First, the aeroelastic stability of typical hypersonic control surface section is considered. Variability in the uncoupled natural frequencies of the system are modeled using beta probability distributions. Uncertainty is propagated to the


Through introducing effects of main environmental factors(light intensity,temperature,CO2 concentration,water) on regulation mechanism of photosynthetic characteristics,the research trends of photosynthetic characteristics were discsussed,which will provide theoretical basis for better understanding adaptation mechanism of plants under the global climate change and simulating high-efficient energy switch of photosynthesis.


Focuses on the history of perfect competition with economist Adam Smith's treatment of the subject. Concept of Smith on competition through his acquaintance with the economic literature of his time; Competition as a familiar concept of economic reasoning; Perfection of the Smithian concept of competition by the economic theorists.


Moldova : The EU Agendas of Conflict Management and "Wider Europe"
Ten years after its independence, Moldova has become the poorest country in Europe and has been all but abandoned to its fate. Today, the country has to undergo four dependencies: Moldova depends on Russia's energy resources and the political goodwill of Moscow, the tense relations with Bucharest, the conditions for supplying credit and assistance from Western Europe, and finally, the deadlock in negotiations with the separatist regime of Tiraspol. The necessary impetus for the resolution of the Dnester conflict, the consolidation of a Moldovan sovereign state and the transformation of Moldova into a democratic and market-based economy, will have to be largely initiated by the European Union (EU).


Objective:To investigate the application of human services in the outpatient infusion room. Methods:In outpatient infusion room,changed the traditional model,updated the concept of service; improved infusion process; took flexible scheduling; enhanced training and improved the success rate of puncture; health education were taken through to the end; continuous improvement on the medical treatment environment,and actively created personalized service atmosphere and a series of personalized service measures. Results:There were zero complaint of responsibility,continuous period of more than 95% of satisfaction in our department during two years. Conclusion:To take personalized service to improve nurse-patient relationship in outpatient infusion room,the hospital would won a good reputation and social effects.


The electronic band structure of arsenic is studied by means of a pseudopotential approach. The pseudopotential has been chosen by (a) fitting the "atomic" pseudopotential of Ge to a four-parameter curve and (b) adjusting the parameters slightly so as to allow comparison of the various theoretical curves with the experimental data. The energy bands are determined by diagonalizing a fairly large (\ensuremath{\approx}90\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}90) secular determinant. Spin-orbit coupling is included a posteriori. Group-theoretical analysis is carried out throughout the Brillouin zone and use is made of the classification of the levels as well as the compatibility relations. It is found that the holes are located at $T$, the center of the hexagonal face. The electrons are probably distributed in six equivalent pockets, each one located along a binary axis in a pseudohexagonal face, near its center $L$.


The paper gives a brief account of the present situation of researching the seed priming of vegetables mainly from such aspects as priming methods,priming effects,influencing factors and priming mechanisms,and sets forth the application of seed priming and the problems of concern.


1548 Background: TP53 is one of the most commonly altered genes in lung adenocarcinoma, with as many as 50% of all cases possessing somatic inactivating mutations. Germline mutations in TP53 predispose to a wide variety of cancers in Li-Fraumeni syndrome. While lung cancer is generally not considered a classic Li-Fraumeni malignancy, several studies have indicated it may appear at an earlier age in this cancer-prone syndrome. Methods: We tested the frequency of germline TP53 mutations in an unselected cohort of lung adenocarcinoma cases sequenced as part of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project. At the time of data access (October 1, 2014), germline exome and genome data were available for download from 531 subjects, and clinical information was available on 94% of these cases (n = 497). After Data Access Committee approval, we extracted raw bam files that included the TP53 sequence, called and annotated the variants. We considered variants with high (greater than 20x) coverage, and then excluded those w...


A high performance system design using AC coupled interconnect (ACCI) technology not only achieves shorter and faster interconnection between dies but also increases packaging density. AC-coupling enables chip placed face-to-face for signal transmission using close-field capacitive coupling. This paper describes a loopback architecture suitable for testing three-dimensional integrated circuit (3D IC, 3D-IC, or 3-D IC) stacked applications. The AC-Coupled face-to-face (F2F) chip was simulated using HSPICE with TSMC 0.18-μm 1P6M CMOS technology process file under a 1.8 V supply voltage. The simulation results indicated the proposed circuit with the self-test characteristics can achieve differential signal transmission up to 2.5 Gbps.