Non-viral gene vectors have attracted much attention in the last few decades, because of its potential activity and fewer side effects. Headgroup chemistry is a key aspect in lipid design.

In this study, a group of sulfonium lipids were designed and constructed by combining tetrahydrothiophene or tetrahydrothiopyran with an ethoxy linker and carbon aliphatic chains, and were evaluated in terms of their ability as potential gene vectors. The sulfonium lipids were synthesized and characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and Mass. Condensates of sulfonium lipids (SL) and DNA were examined by gel electrophoresis and particle size and zeta potential were measured. Sulfonium compounds were tested on HepG2 cells for cytotoxicity. SL/DNA condensates were studied in cellular uptake and distribution using fluorescent microscopy.

12 sulfonium lipids were obtained. Gel electrophoresis experiments showed that sulfonium cation can effectively interact with phosphorous in DNA. Compounds containing longer lipid chain can effectively retard DNA at S/P ratio higher than 10/1 and can condense DNA into nano size particle with particle size in the range 150 nm ~ 300 nm, zeta potential in the range of +20~+40. Sulfonium compounds were calculated IC50s against HepG2 cells in the range of 0.035 μg/mL to 1.64 μg/mL. The intracellular uptake experiments revealed that SL/DNA nano particle was taken into the cell at low efficiency.

Sulfonium head group can interact with phosphates of DNA. The structural environment of sulfonium ions influences the DNA bonding effect. The designed cyclic sulfonium ion was buried in the middle of the structure, and thus was hindered interaction with DNA. This type of molecule is worthy of further modification to increase DNA capacity and to reduce cell cytotoxicity.


We have designed 2'-C-cyano-2'-deoxy-1-beta-D-arabino- pentofuranosylcytosine (CNDAC) as a potential mechanism-based DNA-strand-breaking nucleoside, which showed potent tumor cell growth inhibitory activity against various human tumor cell lines in vitro and in vivo. When measuring the pKa of the 2' alpha-proton of CNDAC, we found that CNDAC epimerized to 2'-C-cyano-2'-deoxy-1-beta-D-ribo-pentofuranosylcytosine (CNDC) with concomitant degradation of both CNDAC and CNDC to cytosine and 1,4-anhydro-2-C-cyano-2-deoxy-D-erythro-pent-1- enitol. Kinetic analysis of these reactions showed that abstraction of the acidic 2'-proton of CNDAC and CNDC initiated the reactions, which quickly reached an equilibrium. In the equilibrium, a concentration ratio of CNDAC and CNDC was about 3:5. Concomitant degradation of these nucleosides was found to be rather slow. Deuterium incorporation experiments with CNDAC in a D2O buffer suggested the mechanism of the beta-elimination reactions is an E1cB type. These epimerization and degradation reactions were found even in neutral conditions (pH 7.5) and also occurred in RPMI 1640 cell culture medium. The discovery of which nucleoside possesses the predominate tumor cell growth inhibitory activity was important. While both nucleosides showed potent tumor cell growth inhibitory activity against three human tumor cell lines (colon carcinoma WiDr, small cell lung carcinoma SBC-5, and stomach carcinoma MKN-74 cells) in 48 h of incubation, in 20 min of incubation, CNDAC was 11-50 times more effective than CNDC. In vivo antileukemic activity of these nucleosides against a mouse P388 model, CNDAC was obviously superior to CNDC.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


ABSTRACT Most traditional interpretations of literary animals focus on the animals' metaphoric or symbolic significance, exposing the prevailing anthropocentrism of the humanities in general, and literary studies in particular. The present examination of selected Russian fairy tales helps demonstrate that in many Russian fairy tales animals exercise agency and retain subjectivity. Such portrayals of animals and the resulting human–animal relationship suggest an ecosystemic worldview in which humans are positioned on an equal plane with other living beings.


This research is motivated by the level of competition in the business field in Indonesia that is more getting strict in this globalization era. One product that has been competed by the manufacturer in this era is the woman's shampoo product. Sunsilk Shampoo It had become first rank in the Top Brand Index (TBI) in Indonesia since 2010 until 2011. However, in 2012 until 2014, Sunsilk had not been longer at the first rank and the percentage was continously decline. If the declination is not immediately fixed, then Sunsilk shampoo will be fall down. Wherefore, there are so many brands of shampoos on the market that are most likely to shift the position of Sunsilk popularity in Indonesia nowadays. This research aims to detect the influence of product quality, price, advertising for Sunsilk shampoo's customer loyalty. This type of research is explanatory, within collecting data through questionnaires and interviews. The sampling technique used purposive sampling technique. The sample amounted to 96 people who are female students users of Sunsilk shampoo at Faculty of Public Health Diponegoro University, Semarang. This research used a qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis technique. Quantitative analysis uses validity, reliability test, correlation coefficient, simple and multiple regression analysis, coefficient of determination, significance test (t test and F test). The results of this analysis showed that the variable of product quality, price and advertisement has a positive and significant effect partially for customer loyalty. Three variables were analyzed partially and simultaneously, the coefficient of the variable of product quality is greater than the other two variables. From three variables also obtained the result that the variable of product quality has greatest influential on customer loyalty of Sunsilk shampoo users. It was 0.583, while the price variable about 0.217 and 0,215 for advertising variables. While the coefficient of determination (R2) from variable of product quality, price and advertisement toward variable of customer loyalty was 36.2%. It meant that 36.2% of variable of customer loyalty can be explained by these three variables, while the remaining 63.8% is explained by other variables. Suggestions in this research is Sunsilk shampoo should improve the quality of their products function in order to their hair problems can be overcome well and not make new hair problems, create an aroma for all variants so that more visible the special of Sunsilk shampoo, increase the durability of Sunsilk shampoo's aroma that could be durable more than one day, and increase the clarity of message from the advertisement by creating the short slogans but has clear meaning from the message conveyed in order to Sunsilk shampoo can stick out in the competition as today.


It is common to use miscellaneous copper casting colliery cage lining,which costs much,but life-span of the lining is very short.To settle this problem,we use iron matrix graphite composite to make the lining,which costs little and has certain anti-abrasion property.By using powder sintering method cast iron and graphite are mixed in different proportion(1%、1.5%、2%、2.5%、3%、3.5%、4%、4.5%),compacted,and then sintered to prepare iron matrix graphite composite.Different sample's hardness,wear-resistance property are measured and observe the sample's metal metallurgy organization is observed and we make sure that the sample which contains 2.5% graphite has the best comprehensive property,and we expound the composite's application feasibility on colliery vertical cage lining and its developing prospect.


Purpose: This study compared the muscle activities of the Vastus medialis oblique (VMO) and the Vastus lateralis (VL) at three different knee extension angles: 90°, 135°, and 180° in the sitting position. Methods: Twenty subjects between 20 and 30 years of age participated in the study. A mobile phone application called the Clinometer was used to measure the knee joint angle. Electromyography (EMG) was performed to measure the muscle activities of the VMO and VL muscles during knee isometric extension exercises. The pulling sensor was used to maintain 70% of the maximum strength of the knee extensor continuously in the sitting position. After attaching the EMG sensor, the subjects were asked to perform isometric knee extension exercises randomly among three knee extension angles (90°, 135°, or 180°) in the sitting position. One-way repeated measures analysis of the variance and a Bonferroni post hoc test was used to identify the VMO and VL muscle activity during knee extension angles among 90°, 135°, and 180°. Results: The VMO and VL muscle activities increased with increasing knee extension angle in the sitting position (p<0.01). Conclusions: Knee extension exercise at a 180° angle in the sitting position can be recommended to increase the muscle activity of the VMO and VL muscle activities efficiently.


The unprecedented demand for large amount of data has catalyzed the trend of combining human insights with machine learning techniques, which facilitate the use of crowdsourcing to enlist label information both effectively and efficiently. The classic work on crowdsourcing mainly focuses on the label inference problem under the categorization setting. However, inferring the true label requires sophisticated aggregation models that usually can only perform well under certain assumptions. Meanwhile, no matter how complicated the aggregation model is, the true model that generated the crowd labels remains unknown. Therefore, the label inference problem can never infer the ground truth perfectly. Based on the fact that the crowdsourcing labels are abundant and utilizing aggregation will lose such kind of rich annotation information (e.g., which worker provided which labels), we believe that it is critical to take the diverse labeling abilities of the crowdsourcing workers as well as their correlations into consideration. To address the above challenge, we propose to tackle three research problems, namely inference, learning, and teaching.


Poverty, social inequality and environmental destruction represent conflicts that nowadays are exacerbated rather than resolved. Therefore the development of human beings has become complex and is in crisis, so it is important to reflect on this subject, see in what consists, how it has emerged and evolved, the way that they expressing their conflicts and to what extent and how could be solved. In this regard, we have considered the Kuhn's Scientific Historicist Model as an appropriate approach to address the interpretation of a possible Endo-Sustainable Development, centered in the Venezuelan rural environment; which also could refer to all Latin America. We part of the concept of paradigm in its broadest sense, "Social Paradigm", as constellation of beliefs, values and techniques shared by members of a community, and hence the meaning can reach the Endo-Sustainable Development Model, through the interpretation of the different paradigmatic phases included in the Kuhn's Scientific Revolution Model.


The electrostatic method with ring electrodes embedded in pipe walls is widely used for the measurement of dilute gas-solid two phase flow. The signal from electrostatic sensors contains not only the information about the induced charge when the charged particles move through the electrode, but also the information about transferred charge when the charged particles impact on the electrode wall. A current source equivalent model is built to study the sensing mechanism. The mean value of the signal is mainly generated by charged particles impacting on the electrode and charge transferring.


: The Principle of Relations has a new answer how species are created. Then we have the answer which both the theory of Darwins thesis THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES and the Bible´s creationism cannot explain. It is the next step and level for understanding how Nature creates new species and how species are changed step by step. The thesis uses the concept transformers and how they create new shapes of species.


David Penman is a former senior manager at Landcare Research and former Chair of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Email: email@example.com Andrew Pearce is a former Chief Executive of Landcare Research and serves as a director of a number of companies. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com Missy Morton is a Senior Lecturer at the College of Education, University of Canterbury. Email: email@example.com interdisciplinary and collaborative programmes, manage overbidding and establish alternative models, such as outcome-based investments, but there were still significant transaction costs in the competitive bidding processes. Doubts remained as to whether the nation was maximising benefits.


The yellow pigment of ce-Ni2P207 system was prepared by calcining the compound of Na4NiPO4 systems, synthesized by wet method from Ni2+ and (NH4)2HPO4 in aqueous solution. Three compounds, NH4Nil:04.1120, Na4NiPO4.61120 and Ni3 (PO4) 2 . 8 1120 were obtained according to the mixing molar ratios of Ni2+ and (NH4) 2HPO4 and aging temperatures. Among these three compounds, Na4NiPO4.6H20 was excellent giving fine colored ce-Ni2P207 after calcination. In particular, the calcined product at 1, 150°C of NH4NiPO4.6 1120, prepared from Ni2+ and (NH4)2HPO4 in molar ratio of 1 : 10 and a o-Prl at nnor chnxxrpri the hpct vivid vpllmvrninr


Rabbit 2‐cell embryos were co‐cultured in Basal Synthetic Medium II + 10% fetal bovine serum with one of the following: primary cultures of rabbit oviduct epithelial cells (ROEC), a rabbit kidney epithelioid cell line (RK13), a rabbit epidermal epithelioid cell line (Sf1), or a rabbit skin fibroblast‐like cell line (RAB9). Embryos cultured in medium alone served as controls. After 4 d of culture at 39°C in 5% CO2 in air, 77–93% of the rabbit embryos which were co‐cultured with somatic cells had reached the blastocyst stage, and 60–76% were hatching through their zonae pellucidae. These percentages, however, were not significantly different (P>.05) from those of embryos in medium alone, of which 90% had reached the blastocyst stage and 83% were hatching. Mean intrazonal embryo diameters also did not differ significantly among treatments (239–302 μm). Bovine 1–8‐cell embryos were also co‐cultured with ROEC. This stimulated 60% of these embryos to develop beyond the so‐called "16‐cell block" in vitro, whereas 0% of the embryos cultured in medium alone developed past this block. Evaluation of the ROEC cultures by light microscopy, immunocytochemistry, and gel electrophoretic analysis of conditioned medium, together with the positive results with bovine embryos, indicate that the ROEC culture partially simulates oviductal conditions in vivo. Therefore, our results suggest that oviduct epithelial cells may play a less pivotal role in regulating early development in the rabbit than in the cow. However, other factors besides those provided by the ROEC cultures must also be important for optimal development, as both rabbit and bovine embryos develop more slowly in co‐culture than in vivo.


Usually, the transmission line models, assume sending-and receiving-end voltages as constant, practically, which becomes difficult to maintain, due to its stochastic nature. Thus, for reliable and secure operation of the power system, their performance analysis becomes important. Availability of time-synchronized voltage measurements, at both ends of the transmission lines, allows their more accurate performance analysis. This paper utilizes circle diagrams, derived from ABCD parameter, as a graphical technique for analyzing the power flow variation, i.e., active, reactive, and apparent power at different voltage levels, at sending- and receiving-ends, both, of the transmission lines. Further, indices are proposed to evaluate the power flow variation with voltage. Also, resorting a third dimension of voltage to the circle diagrams, another useful representation of the power-chart transformation as projective relation is proposed. This method, being graphical, offers advantages of ease in analyzing the power flow on transmission lines to the operator, determining the power flow limits, etc. Also, from the smart grids perspective, these relationships help in maintaining secure power flow in the transmission network.


This paper applies eigenstructure assignment to fault detection and control of a tailless aircraft. An earlier continuous time eigenstructure assignment flight controller is extended to the unified delta operator model. A new result is proposed that extends disk gain and phase margins to the delta operator system. An earlier fault detection observer is extended to the unified delta operator model; a new, less conservative, bound on the observer residuals is proposed; and an optimization is performed over both eigenvalues and eigenvector parameters. A reconfigurable control scheme is proposed by combining the new fault detection observer with the new eigenstructure assignment flight controller. A novel eigenstructure assignment reconfiguration is proposed in which the gains are switched to new recomputed gains to achieve satisfactory time responses. Then, an optimization is performed to achieve specifications on the disk gain and phase margins. Then, the gains are switched to a second set of gains when the...


The purposes of this study were to verify the effects of HMR (Home Meal Replacement) selection attributes on satisfaction and loyalty for HMR. In addition, the moderating role of customer value was examined among selection attributes of HMR, satisfaction and loyalty for HMR. Using a convenience sampling method, the data were collected from those who have bought HMR in Seoul and Kyonggi area. After a total of 235 responses were collected, 220 were used for the analyses. The multiple regression analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses. The results are as follows. First, it was found that product practicality and cooking convenience of HMR selection attributes had an effect on satisfaction of HMR but that ingredients safety and package & circulation period did not have an effect on satisfaction of HMR. Second, satisfaction of HMR significantly impacted loyalty for HMR. Third, in low group for customer value, product practicality of HMR selection attributes had an positive effect on satisfaction of HMR, and ingredients safety of HMR selection attributes had an negative effect on satisfaction of HMR. In high group for customer value, cooking convenience of HMR selection attributes had an positive effect on satisfaction of HMR. In low group as high group for customer value, satisfaction of HMR had a greater impact on loyalty for HMR.


The Romanian Parliament can be dissolved, from a strictly formal point of view, only according to Article 89 of the Romanian Constitution. This constitutional procedure was designed from the very beginning in such a way that it is almost impossible to implement. At first glance, there is no alternative to the procedure described in the Constitution for Parliament dissolution. Still, if one analysis the text of the Constitution, both in relation with the constitutional theory and the practical experiences of comparative law, finds out that there is another possibility. The Parliament can also be dissolved by the election of a new Constituent Assembly, which will draft the text of a new Constitution. The Parliament dissolution can happen at any time, through the initiative of a referendum for the formation of a Constituent Assembly. We are not talking about a revision of the Constitution, for which there are specific norms (Title VII, Articles 150-152) and which can lead to the changing of some articles; we are talking about a completely changed Constitution, with a new structure and a content that will be in accordance with the political realities of Romania's membership to the European Union. It was often said that, until now, the Parliament was not dissolved by applying constitutional provisions. In fact, this is not true. It will be argued that there was a case, under the present Constitution, when the Parliament self-dissolved. This event took place in 1992, before parliamentary elections. The self-dissolution of the Parliament, that year, came as a direct result of the Constituent Assembly ending its activity. Taking into account this precedent, nothing prevents today the dissolution of the Parliament as a consequence of the endorsement by referendum of the formation of a new Constituent Assembly. The setting up of a new Constituent Assembly and thus the dissolution of the current Parliament elected in 2004 through other procedures other than those from the present Constitution can only by made as a result of a referendum.


It is the aim of this study is to test the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of Athletic Coping Skills Inventory-28 (ACSI-28) developed by Smith et al. (28). Back-translation technique was employed during the process of Turkish translation of ACSI-28. The scale is 28 items instrument which have seven subscales, namely coping with adversity, concentration, coachability, confidence and achievement motivation, goal setting/mental preparation, peaking under pressure, and freedom from worry. Respondents of the ACSI-28 indicate the extent to which they agree with each statement on a four-point Likert scale, ranging from 0 ( Almost never ) to 3 ( Almost always ). Items number 9 and 12 have been removed from the scale, which are not meaningful t value according to the analyze. With the remaining 26 items, the analyzes were repeated. After review, all the items were maintain in place. In order to test the inventory's reliability, its Cronbach's Alpha scores was calculated and found for each subscales coping with adversity . 66 , concentration .68, coachability .71, confidence and achievement motivation .65, goal setting/mental preparation .70, peaking under pressure .80, and freedom from worry .62. The scale is shown to be valid and reliable.


As titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles are widely used commercially, their potential biosafety and metabolic mechanism needs to be fully explained. In this study, the cytotoxicity of homogeneous and weakly aggregated (< 100 nm) TiO2 nanoparticles was investigated by analyzing the changes in metabolite profiles both in mouse fibroblast (L929) cells and their corresponding culture media using gas chromatograph with a time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (GC/TOFMS)‐based metabolomic strategy. With multivariate statistics analysis, satisfactory separations were observed in principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS‐DA) models. Based on the variable importance in the OPLS‐DA models, a series of differential metabolites were identified by comparison between TiO2 nanoparticle‐treated L929 cells or their corresponding culture media and the control groups. It was found that the major biochemical metabolism (carbohydrate metabolism) was suppressed in TiO2 nanoparticle‐treated L929 cells and their corresponding culture media. These results might account for the serious damage to energy metabolism in mitochondria and the increased cellular oxidation stress in TiO2 nanoparticle‐induced L929 cells. These results also suggest that the metabolomic strategy had a great potential in evaluating the cytotoxicity of TiO2 nanoparticles and thus was very helpful in understanding its underlying molecular mechanisms. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


As gestural interfaces emerged as a new type of user interface, their use has been vastly explored by the entertainment industry to better immerse the player in games. Despite being mainly used in dance and sports games, little use was made of gestural interaction in more slow-paced genres, such as board games. In this work, we present a Kinect-based gestural interface for an online and multiplayer chess game and describe a case study with users with different playing skill levels. Comparing the mouse/keyboard interaction with the gesture-based interaction, the results of the activity were synthesized into lessons learned regarding general usability and design of game control mechanisms. These results could be applied to slow-paced board games like chess. Our findings indicate that gestural interfaces may not be suitable for competitive chess matches, yet it can be fun to play while using them in casual matches.


This report includes an introduction to the concept of exploratory and communicative exercises and what they can consist of in the SACODEYL context. In addition, it offers a short guide of how to go about when constructing these types of exercises with the SACODEYL search tool. Furthermore, it includes prototypical exercises for the English component of the SACODEYL corpus that serve as an illustration of the pedagogical potential of the corpus. The full sets of exercises for all 7 SACODEYL corpora are available online and can be accessed with the help of the SACODEYL search tool.


The innovative results obtained at present in the DBS Reception are the following: comparatively lower costs and higher performance of the receiving equipment; the article gives indications to carry out the link-budget calculation (both as tables and diagrams), and hence to choose the receiving equipment and the antenna size necessary to assure a given reception quality of the OLYMPUS-F1 satellite signals, also outside the national coverage area


Abstract Macracanthorhynchus ingens infections in humans are rare in North America. While one case has been reported in 1985, the best therapy remains unclear. A case is presented of successful therapy in a 15-month-old child using mebendazole at a dose of 100 mg bid for three days.


The hydroinformatic system Telemac is based on unstructured grids, it includes a Shallow Water Equations solver (Telemac-2D), a Navier-Stokes solver in 3 dimensions with a free surface (Telemac-3D), and a morphodynamics model for suspension and bed load (Sisyphe). Dealing with dry zones is now common practice but hinders a lot classical advection schemes. We present here a new class of advection schemes combining the best properties of implicit finite element and explicit finite volume schemes. The resulting capabilities of the method are: mass-conservation (water and tracers), be it in 2D or 3D, monotonicity (depth and tracers), along with very large time steps, as there is no CFL condition, even with tidal flats, which was the main goal. The technique works in parallel and can also be used to gain flexibility in building highly distorted 3D meshes between bottom and free surface. It can also be used to solve the Exner equation for bed load transport. Test cases are presented.


[Objective] To summarize the characteristics and misdiagnosis of multiple myeloma in elderly patients. [Methods] Clinical manifestation and laboratory index of 43 elderly patients with multiple myeloma, as well as the misdiagnosis in 12 cases out of them were analyzed. [Results] 88.4% and 27.9% patients presented ostalgia and anemia as the first manifestations, respectively. 90.7% patients had anemia, 53.5% patients had renal insufficiency, 76.7% patients had M protein, and 93.1% patients had X-ray changes. [Conclusion] Most elderly patients with multiple myeloma presented ostalgia and anemia as the first manifestations. We should avoid misdiagnosis.


ing at the University of Besançon, who has exceptional training in both medicine and physics. His first textbook Understanding MRI was a great success (currently in its 6 edition; first edition in Hungarian published by Centauro Srl, 1993) and was used by all students and teachers working in the field of MRI. This volume is devoted to a fascinating field that Kastler has explored for 15 years. I remember the impact of his first presentation in this field, when he was among the guest speakers at a meeting devoted to recent advances in radiology. The reader will find all possibilities offered to patients in different areas involving facial, cranial, and vertebral or paravertebral areas. But this book, written collaboratively by numerous specialists, is not limited only to the technical aspects of these different methods concerning nerves or bones. Great attention is paid to the psychological and psychiatric approach to patients with often-intractable pain. A special chapter is devoted to the metastasis of bones. It is an important message for every specialist in medicine or surgery to understand that in the hands of interventional radiologists with the collaboration of many other colleagues from pain therapy, psychiatry, anaesthesiology and from scientific imaging laboratories, pain -benign or intractablecan be treated with exceptionally good results. I extend my best wishes for great success of this textbook dealing with important developments in a field that has so many human implications.


To compare the attitudes of women from two different ethnic backgrounds to prenatal testing for a range of conditions, and to see if "clusters" of attitudes to different conditions could be identified, for which prenatal testing might be offered as a package.


In England, there were 4500 cases of femoral hernia for the year 2005-2006, accounting for 3.5% of all herniae [1]. The femoral hernial sac contents may be varied: preperitoneal fat, omentum, small bowel, or colon. In rare instances, the appendix can be found in the hernial sac, a reported incidence of 0.8%. Whether inflamed or not, the finding of vermiform appendix inside a hernia sac is known as Amyand's Hernia, and it classically refers to an inguinal hernia. Claudius Amyand (1681–1740), a French refugee in England, was one of the leading surgeons of his day; and held the accolade of being surgeon to George II of England. In 1735 he was the first to note the presence of a perforated appendix within the inguinal hernia sac in an eleven-year-old boy, and he subsequently performed a successful appendicectomy (Hutchinson, 1993; Franko and Sulkowki, 2002). Acute appendicitis in a femoral hernia is a rare, potentially serious complication. The presence of a vermiform appendix in a femoral hernia sac is termed De Garengeot hernia after Rene Jacques Croissant de Garengeot, an 18th century Parisian surgeon, who is quoted in the literature as the first to describe an appendix in a femoral hernia sac.

It presents as an incarcerated or strangulated hernia, and the surgical management is different for the two conditions. Prompt surgery is needed to avoid complications. Awareness of this condition may help to avoid delay in management.

We report a case of a patient with an acute appendicitis in a right femoral hernia presenting with a painful groin mass.


In this chapter, we will consider another form of market structure in the Ramsey model. Specifically, we consider monopolistic competition. In the model, there is a representative firm that produces the final good. Also, there are a number of firms that produce differentiated intermediate goods. Because each of these intermediate-good firms sells a differentiated product, it has market power and charges a markup over the marginal cost. This monopolistic distortion in turn causes the decentralised economy to have a different allocation of resources from the centralised economy. In other words, the first fundamental theorem of welfare economics does not hold in this setting due to the distortion of monopolistic competition, which in turn gives rise to market failure…


Most of the complications of herpes zoster are sensory. Segmental motor weakness is an unusual complication. We present a case of 50 years old male who presented with phantom hernia 3 weeks after the appearance of herpes zoster rash. Our emphasis lies on recognition of this benign self limiting entity to avoid unnecessary studies and procedures.


Based on DRM paradigm,a 3x2 mixed experiment was designed,aiming to examine the degree of false memory through the control of subjects' degree of learning condition and the methods of material presentation.Under the condition of three different degrees of learning,21 subjects were randomized to take random test and group test respectively.The results of the research show that the rate of subjects' correct judgement to the critical lure increases with the development of the degree of learning and the false recognition rate decreases accordingly.Significant differences can be seen among different groups,but they are not found as for the critical lures errors of vocabulary among group presentations and randomized presentations.


This paper develops three-stage production and ordering models to discuss supply chain coordination mechanisms with options under demand information updating.At the first stage,the retailer makes decisions on fixed order and option quantities,and then at the second stage,which begins with demand information updating,the retailer respectively makes adjustments to them.In the third stage, the demand will be realized;if there is shortage,it will be satisfied first through exercising option contract, and second by invoking an urgent order.The option contracts consist of two option prices,an exercise price,and a wholesale price under the urgent order.Both of the latter two can be expressed as binary implicit functions of the two option prices.We simulate the three-stage production and ordering mode with option contracts,and find that and both the system profit and the two members' profit have got Pareto improvement,and the option prices and the proportionality factor between them play an important role on decisions of ordering quantities and the allocation of the extra system profit.Moreover,both a smaller first-stage option price and a higher second-stage option price will bring motive for the manufacturer to speculate;to posses some negation power is the just rational choice of the retailer.


In topological phase transitions involving a change in topological invariants such as the Chern number and the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological invariant, the gap closes, and the electric polarization becomes undefined at the transition. In this paper, we show that the jump of polarization across such topological phase transitions in two dimensions is described in terms of positions and monopole charges of Weyl points in the intermediate Weyl semimetal phase. We find that the jump of polarization is described by the Weyl dipole at $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological phase transitions and at phase transitions without any change in the value of the Chern number. Meanwhile, when the Chern number changes at the phase transition, the jump is expressed in terms of the relative positions of Weyl points measured from a reference point in the reciprocal space.


Dimethyl glutarate was prepared with glutaric acid and methanol as reactant,phosphotungstic acid as catalyst and toluene as azeotropic agent.The reaction mechanism was studied.Kinetic parameters were obtained by experiments carried out at various conditions.Results of experiments showed that the synthetic reaction of dimethyl glutarate appeared to be a third-order irreversible reaction.The rate constant k of the Arrhenius equation was determined.The apparent activation energy was Ea=93.133 kJ·mol~(-1),and the frequency factor was k_0=2.006×10~(10)e~(-93133/RT) (L/mol)~2/min.


Thirty-one inbred strains were tested for their reaction to drinking water which contained a low concentration (10 −4 M) of sucrose octaacetate (SOA). One strain, SWR, showed a strong aversion to drinking the SOA solution. The other thirty strains, and two samples of wild-derived mice, tended to prefer the SOA solution to untreated drinking water. The pheno-typic difference between SWR and the other strains was shown to be determined by an autosomal gene. The allele present in SWR is dominant. The gene is not closely linked to jerker ( je ), pearl ( pe ) or waved-2 ( wa -2).


Soil and related main factor digitization are one of the main contentses of land suitability evaluation based on GIS.The text builded up the database of land utilization current situation,investigating the result diagram,eight kinds of land suitability evaluation maps and the attribute database by applying technologies such as GIS,space interpolation etc to the investigation of soil quality,which had builded up the land informationize platform for land suitability evaluation


This aim of this paper is two–fold: to analyze the relationship between socio–emotional competence and creativity in different intelligence levels (high, medium and low intelligence) and to study the differences on emotional socio–competence and creativity depending on those intelligence levels. A total of 679 Secondary Education Spanish students, aged between 12 and 18 years (M = 13.90, SD = 1.28), took part in this study. The following instruments were used: a) socio–emotional competence was assessed using Bar–On's Emotional Intelligence Inventory–Youth Version (EQ–i:YV, Bar–On and Parker, 2000); b) cognitive ability was assessed using the Differential Aptitude Test (DAT–5, Bennett, Seashore and Wesman, 2000; and c) creativity was assessed using Torrance's Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT, Torrance, 1974). The data showed statistically significant differences in the total self–perceived emotional competence and in the elaboration of creativity dimension depending on the participants' intellectual level. Finally, no statistically significant correlations were found between socio–emotional competence and creativity.


Web Analytics (WA) tools offer an increasing amount of analysis options. This amount of possible data overwhelm business users who are not familiar with WA and therefore the potential of WA is not fully exploited. We address this demand of individual information needs with the development of an indicator selection process. By using participatory design methods future users from different business units are involved in order to adopt WA into their workspace through building individual WA reports. The developed iterative model consists of five main steps. After the presentation of the developed model, we demonstrate the applicability in a case study at an industrial company. The case study shows a greater adoption by the different users, as the dashboards are individually tailored to them.


Fred Pollack! April 29, 2014! ! This is part 2 of my review of the Chowdhury metaanalysis study [1] that was published online at the Annals of Internal Medicine on March 18, 2014. The study effectively said that the current guidelines on saturated fatty acid (SFA) intake (<10% of calories from SFA) were not justified by the evidence and should be reconsidered. That led Mark Bittman, the NY Times Magazine's lead food columnist to write, Butter is Back, and said, "Julia Child, goddess of fat, is beaming somewhere. Butter is back, and when you're looking for a few chunks of pork for a stew, you can resume searching for the best pieces — the ones with the most fat."! ! From my own extensive reading of the medical/nutritional research, I doubted Chowdhury's conclusion, and thus was compelled to do an in-depth review. And, the only way to do this is to read and analyze all 20 of the SFA intake studies that were used in the Chowdhury meta-analysis. Part 1 of my review, published in last month's McDougall Newsletter, looked at just 2 of the 20 studies one that showed the most benefit to higher intakes of SFA (MALMO) and one that showed the most harm (Oxford Vegetarian). My analysis of MALMO study described the major flaws, which were pointed out by the authors themselves in the paper that Chowdhury referenced. And, the conclusions in the paper are quite different than what Chowdhury's analysis indicated.! ! Last month, my expectation was that I could complete and document my analyses of all 20 studies, provide a summary for the newsletter, which would have a link to download my detailed (and, as my wife says, esoteric and boring) analyses of all 20 papers. But there just wasn't enough time. So for that, you will have to wait for part 3, next month.! ! So what is this part about? Two related topics. One is how one country, Finland, which had the highest coronary heart disease mortality in the world in the early 1970's, reduced their rate by 80% over a 35 year period. The other is about a study in east Finland (part of the Chowdhury et al meta-analysis), the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Risk Factor (KIHD) study. With the data that I uncovered, the KIHD paper (2005) [3] should not have passed the peer-review process and been published. ! !


Cantaloupe melons (Cucumis melo L. subsp. melo var. cantalupensins Naudin) cv. 'Chianti' were evaluated for quality traits during 14 days of storage at three different temperatures i.e., 2, 10 and 18oC with 85-95% relative humidity. The weight loss of fruits slightly increased during the stored period studied, as well as insignificant differences between the temperatures. Whereas significant texture was lost more rapidly in the samples stored at 18oC and 10oC than those stored at 2oC. TSS were also affected by storage time and temperature. The TSS (total soluble solids) content of fruit at 2oC increased and then remained constant over storage. At higher temperatures and at every stage of storage time TSS increased as storage time increased. The predominant carotenoid in all samples was β-carotene. The carotenoids components were increased and then decreased with the time ; however, the decrease processes were delayed by low temperature. The alpha form was the predominant tocopherol fraction. The level of tocopherol isomers significantly (α- tocopherol) and gradualy (γ- and δ- tocopherol) increased during the 7 days, but after 1st week of storing for all isomers a significant decrease was measured. High temperature storage at 18oC in comparison to 10oC and 2oC promoted γ- and δ- tocopherol level.


In this paper we study the Fokker-Planck operator with potential V(x), and analyze some kind of conditions imposed on the potential to ensure the validity of global hypoelliptic estimates. As a consequence, we obtain the compactness of resolvent of the Fokker-Planck operator if either the Witten Laplacian on 0-forms has a compact resolvent or some additional assumption on the behavior of the potential at infinity is fulfilled. This work improves the previous results of H\'erau-Nier and Helffer-Nier, by obtaining a better global hypoelliptic estimate under weaker assumptions on the potential.


Background : Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) patients show decreased inspiratory muscle strength and weakness of the expiratory muscles associated with ineffective cough production. The breath-stacking maneuver (BS) increases inspired volume and may influence cough flow generation. Aim : To evaluate the effects of BS in cough flow and chest wall volume in ALS patients and healthy subjects by opto-electronic plethysmography (OEP). Methods : 22 subjects were assessed, 7 ALS subjects(4 M), (51.0 ± 14.53 years, BMI 24.57 ± 2.12 kg/m2, FVC 2.57 ± 0.93 L, FEV1/FVC 0.82 ± 0.08 L) and 15 matched healthy subjects (8M), (45.8 ± 15.5 years e BMI 25.3 ± 1.84 Kg/m2), with normal lung function. Voluntary cough flow and tidal volume of chest wall (VTCW) compartments were analyzed before and after the BS maneuver in 45o inclination position by OEP. Results : VTCW increased after the BS in both groups, ALS patients 0.35 ± 0.10 L vs 1.79 ± 1.11 L (Δ 1.44 L) and healthy subjects 0.42 ± 0.19 L vs 2.87 ± 0.64 L, (Δ 2.44 L), p < 0.0001 (two-way ANOVA). Cough flow significantly increased in both groups ALS (2.21 ± 0.71 L/s vs 3.39 ± 0.73 L/s) and healthy subjects (5.19 ± 1.28 L/s vs 6.30 ± 1.07 L/s), p < 0.001 (two-way ANOVA). Conclusion : Breath-stacking maneuver increases pulmonary volumes leading to an increase in cough flow in the 45o inclination position in both groups. Despite the smaller increase in ALS chest wall volume compared to healthy subjects, BS maneuver produced significant increase on flow cough generation, essential for the assistance of these patients.


Flexibility can be considered as the capability of an organization to face uncertainty. Since field services are characterized by a high degree of uncertainty, flexibility can be considered an important competitive weapon in field service business. Flexibility has been extensively studied in manufacturing environments, however, to the best of our knowledge, there are no papers addressing this topic in the field service literature. In this paper, we develop a conceptual model where the most important dimensions of field service flexibility are defined and the relationships between them are described. Such a model can help service managers understand how flexibility can be achieved and leveraged to compete in field service business.


&NA; A review of the case histories of 200 patients admitted to this hospital for the treatment of minor psychiatric conditions revealed a group of 25 patients who had, as their chief complaint, symptoms referable to the upper gastro‐intestinal tract, which symptoms had had their onset during some period of military service. The emotional attitude of this group, as contrasted with that of the other patients, was frequently found to be one of conscious and freely expressed angry resentment. A case report was presented illustrating this emotional attitude and the therapeutic measures used in relieving tension and giving insight.


A large quantity of Steel Balls Automatic precise Counting device is introduced in this paper. Inductance sensors are used for ball detection and STC15F2K60S2 microprocessor is used to do the signal processing. When steel balls are sent to the PVC pipe at the same time, some balls will connect together because of the collision. The sensor will send a connected signal instead of multiple signals if it meets the connected balls. This could cause counting mistake of the device. A correction method is used to solve this problem. The device setup angle could be gotten by using dual sensors to get the average moving speed of the steel balls according to the fixed relations between the setup angle and the speed, which is not affected by whether the steel balls overlap or not because it used two voltage Jump edge to judge the start and end moment of timer. After that, the device setup angle is used to get the standard moving time to single sensor according to the known function relationship. The counting numbers are corrected by using the standard duration to compare with each recording low voltage duration passing single sensor. This method solves the counting mistake problem when a lot of steel balls are pushed into the PVC pipe together. The device improves the efficiency and accuracy of the ball counting.


Christian Houdre has kindly pointed us to a paper by A. Fuks, A. Joffe and J. Teugels, where their Theorem 5.3 is our Proposition 3 in the case $0 < \alpha < 1$.


Revenue collection requires the intensive exchange of financial information on economic transactions, revenues, expenditures, and incomes with a high degree of voluntary compliance. Furthermore, over the past 15 years the world has experienced a revolution in communication and information technology. It also has experienced a revolution in the opening of markets to global opportunities and competition. If a high degree of voluntary compliance is to be achieved the tax administration must be able to interact with taxpayers using the same types of technology and skills which they are using to carry out their business transactions.


"Blackness is an immense and defiant joy," Imani Perry recently declared in The Atlantic. This embrace of Black life reflects the Black feminist praxis of understanding joy and pleasure as forms of resistance, self-care, and power. To be clear, Perry asserts that "exhilaration in black life is not to mute or minimize racism, but to shame racism, to damn it to hell... . Do not misunderstand. This [joy] is not an absence of grief or rage, or a distraction. It is insistence." Unlike Black feminist praxis, mainstream media has largely ignored or distorted the immense and defiant joy to which Perry refers in its representations of Black life. Narratives of loss, sorrow, violence, and anger have overwhelmingly driven most media that centers blackness. As such, it is not surprising that the relationship between blackness and joy or pleasure has been underexplored within communication scholarship. This forum, "Embracing Black Feminist Joy and Pleasure in Communication Studies," places Black feminist explorations of joy and pleasure—broadly defined as a feeling of happiness, enjoyment, or satisfaction—in conversation with the field. The insistence on embracing individual and collective pleasure that has long been integrated into Black feminism is illuminated in Audre Lorde's influential 1978 essay "Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power." Lorde argues that women have a particular capacity to experience a pleasurable sense of satisfaction in all areas of their lives when they are in touch with the internal sensation that she refers to as "the erotic." Following Lorde's work, contemporary Black feminists, such as Jennifer Nash, Joan Morgan, and adrienne maree brown, to name only a few, have similarly centered the role of pleasure in the lives of Black women. However, when Black feminist scholar bell hooks considered Black women's relationship to media in her essay "The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators," she observed that, for many Black women, their "encounter with the screen hurt." While hooks placed hope in Black women's ability to "contest, resist, revision, interrogate, and invent on multiple levels" as critical spectators, she primarily emphasized that the "oppositional gaze" that Black women employ when engaging with media can support Black women in navigating the pain, rather than embracing the pleasure, in media. It is worth noting that communication scholarship has addressed the affective sensation of enjoyment or pleasure gained from media. And there is a glimmer in recent


Objective: To observe the protective effect of acupuncture preconditioning on rat's cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury.Methods: The model with ischemia reperfusion injury was made by four vessels blocking method,changes of neuron nissl bodies in hippocampus CA_1 after ischemia reperfusion was observed by methylene blue special staining,the apoptosis of neuron in cerebral cortex and hippocampus CA_1 after ischemia were tested respectively by TUNEL and electron microscope.Results: The number of positive caryons by TUNEL staining in cerebral cortex and CA_1 in acupuncture preconditioning group was less than that of model,the number of positive nissl bodies in acupuncture preconditioning group was more than that of model.Conclusion:Acupuncture preconditioning can relieve the neuron injury after ischemia reperfusion,inhibit the neuron apoptosis.


Based on defining the concept of an enterprises' key products, this paper establishes an evaluation index for an enterprises'key products and its model of choice. According to the indexes of each product like sales income, product profit, rate of increase of profit, technology level and the period of product during its life cycle etc., a non-linear entropy model of choice is used to calculate the synthetic benefit index of each product. This process could serve as a guide to determine the key products in an enterprise and also be helpful for management and decision making work.


A class of programs, $L_ + $, is introduced which lies between $L_1 $ and $L_2 $ in the loop program hierarchy. As a tool for analysis of this class, we use formulas in Presberger's arithmetic and we show that $L_ + $ realizes these formulas both relationally and functionally. Moreover, the realization is exact in the sense that every program in $L_ + $ realizes some Presberger formula. Using known decidability and complexity results for Presberger's arithmetic, we are able to obtain a decision procedure for equivalence of $L_ + $ programs and to obtain upper bounds for the complexity of this procedure.


MOST of the homes of Europe have been cold this winter. They lacked the X ;5 BERLIN coal needed for heating. Most of the % 7' .ONO RUHR factories have lain idle. They lacked coal X 4 , '^ ' :: ~< 'N ~ ' ..... for power. Public-utility plants suffered, ,;i-FT RAN A Nc '.? C s N and lights were dim in the houses and * PARIS ' l . 'oo MILES ". CD PARIS /~ . *..OO, L -. on the streets. The coldness, idleness, FIG. I-Location of the Ruhr. and darkness of Europe are due to many causes, but the most important single factor is the breakdown of coal production in the vital Ruhr coal-mining district of northwest Germany. Reports indicate that in the months immediately after the cessation of hostilities the production of coal dropped to about a million tons a month, only a tenth of the normal production before the war. To a slight extent the breakdown of coal production in the Ruhr was the result of actual physical damage to the coal mines, but to a greater extent it reflected the general breakdown in the economic organization of the region-shortage of laborers, dearth of food, scarcity of livable housing, gradual deterioration of equipment, and, above all, difficulties of transportation. Canals were obstructed by broken bridges and temporary fills; railroads had been so intensely destroyed that they could carry only a fraction of their normal prewar capacity either within the Ruhr or from the Ruhr to other parts of the Continent. The breakdown of production, although tragic for the peoples of Europe, is temporary, at least in its severer aspects. Because ot the urgent need for fuel and power in Europe on the one hand and the richness and availability of the coal and the presence of established facilities in the Ruhr on the other hand, the Ruhr coal district is being resurrected and may become once again the greatest European center of coal mining and, perhaps, of heavy industry. This article will discuss, first, the resource background and history of the Ruhr coal-mining district and, second, its chief economic activities on the eve of the war. The Ruhr district is the most important coal field in Europe; among world centers it ranks second only to the Pittsburgh district of the United States. In 1937 it produced I27.8 million metric tons of coal-three times as much as all France and more than the entire Soviet Union. Its coal of


The distribution network design model for a class of deteriorating items with short selling seasons is investigated in this paper.It is assumed that the shortage costs of the retailers are dependent on the holding costs of the distribution centers which are assigned to serve the retailers,respectively,and the supplier offers a second order opportunity to the retailers at the end of the selling season.The suppliers choose the optimal locations to set up distribution centers,as well as determining each retailer served by which distribution center,and to minimize the total operation costs(facility location cost,transportation cost,inventory cost and deterioration cost),where the transportation cost and inventory cost of the distribution centers are dependent on the order quantities of the retailers'.The retailers determine the optimal replenishment decision according to the supplier's decision,respectively.The method of Stackelberg game analysis is introduced,and a class of distribution network design models for deteriorating items is established.A Lagrangian relaxation algorithm is also presented to solve the proposed models.At last,a numerical example is given to illustrate the sensitivity of the optimal solution on the change of the parameter.


In this work we propose a semi-supervised learning approach for object detection where we use detections from a preexisting detector to train a new detector. We differ from previous works by coming up with a relative quality metric which involves simpler labeling and by proposing a full framework of automatic generation of improved detectors. To validate our method, we collected a comprehensive dataset of more than two thousand hours of streaming from public traffic cameras that contemplates variations in time, location and weather. We used these data to generate and assess with weak labeling a car detector that outperforms popular detectors on hard situations such as rainy weather and low resolution images. Experimental results are reported, thus corroborating the relevance of the proposed approach.


This article deals with the images of the woman, the man and the preferred relationships on the material of the dating game show «Love at first sight» (1991 vs. 2011). Plausible reasons of the identified differences in the mental representations of the woman, the man and the preferred relationships are outlined.


This paper is primarily about how the EU -European Union- dealt with and further deals with its role in promoting the human rights within the context of its internal human rights policy. In this context, the results of the potential evolutions regarding the possession of a binding Charter of Fundamental Rights and the accession of the EU to ECHR -The European Convention on Human Rights- are also analyzed. Furthermore, the importance of the Copenhagen political criteria from the perspective of Turkey - EU relations is discussed. Turkey's progress in human rights is examined as an example for showing the effects of the EU's role in promoting respect for human rights with regard to its external human rights policy. Finally the underlying reasons beneath the decrease of the progress speed are asessed.


The model of school management involving introduction and management of ICTs is considered at different levels: organizational and managerial, informational, methodologicl, and scientific research level. At different levels of management, school managers must have a sufficient level of professional, reflexive, managerial, communicative, and technological competencies. It is not possible to achieve high results in the fields of professional activity and management if reflexive and communicative competences of the school principal and staff are not sufficiently formed and developed.
At the informational level, the school management model implies creation and constant updating of the relevant software and methodical complexes of various forms of education. From the point of view of implementation and application of ICT, this model includes provision of educational programs, organization of remote seminars, conferences, meetings, development of information support tools for methodical and experimental work.
At the organizational and managerial levels, the school management model ensures the implementation of educational activity content and technology, educational process, personnel, and logistics management functions. The functions of this model include usage of information technologies for analysis of the quality of education and the evaluation of the effectiveness of educational work.


Abstract Dikta, Kvesic, and Schmidt proposed a model-based resampling scheme to approximate critical values of tests for model checking involving binary response data. Their approach is inapplicable when the binary response variable is not always observed, however. We propose a missingness adjusted marked empirical process under the framework that the missing binary responses are missing at random. We introduce a resampling scheme for the bootstrap and prove its asymptotic validity. We present some numerical comparisons and illustrate our methodology using a real data set.


Asynchronous switching is proposed to achieve low power Network on Chip. Asynchronous switching reduces the power dissipation of the network if the activity factor of the data transfer between two ports αd is less than A αc + B αclk. Closed form expressions for power dissipation of CLICHE topology are provided for both synchronous and asynchronous switching. The area of the asynchronous switch is 50% greater than the area of the synchronous switch. However, the power dissipation of asynchronous switching could be decreased by up to 75.7%. Asynchronous switching becomes more efficient as technology advances and network density increases. A reduction in power dissipation reaches 82.3% for 256 IPs with the same chip size. Even with clock gating, asyn-choronous switching achieves significant power reduction of 77.7% for 75% clock activity factor.


Currently, available digital signal processors (DSPs) offer extremely high computational performance, yet no convenient mechanism is available to solve the interconnection problem. Transputers are designed as building blocks for large processor arrays. Both hardware and software support the distribution of processes across configurations of multiple processors in a scalable way. An array of processors can be reconfigured by means of commercially available crossbar switches. A module is described that integrates the computing power of the DSP with the communication facilities of the transputer in an industry standard package.<<ETX>>


Muslim Brotherhood is listed as prohibited organization in a number of countries, including Russia. Nevertheless, in different periods and in different countries of the MENA region it turned out to be well represented in the legal political field. The temporary failures of this largest branch of political Islam of a radical nature have not yet led to a fatal loss of the organization in the competition between different Islamic groups, or to defeat as a result of repression. The author explores the problem of such stability of an extremist organization for many decades. He defends the hypothesis of its longterm strategic action planning along with the accepted tactics of waiting for a convenient moment for the realization of power ambitions. To analyze the strength of the social base, a variant of the deprivation theory is proposed, which was considered in detail in other works of the author. The historical origins of the organization are identified using published as well unpublished archival documents. A historical retrospective substantiates the assumption that a prototype of this structure used to be existed in Istanbul and Damascus back in the period immediately following the Young Turks revolution in the Ottoman Empire. The strongest external factor in the development of MB is emphasized. It is support throughout the history of the movement from forces outside the region, which have seen and continue to see the possibility for themselves of a tactical alliance with the Islamists of this direction to realize their own ideas and pursue their interests in the East.


Incessant monocropping of more nutrient consuming maize leads to subsequent land deterioration, gradual food productivity reductions, and challenges the sustainability of local food production systems. Research trials were conducted for three years (2015, 2016 and 2017) to assess the equivalent yield (EY) of maize and relative production efficiency (RPE) of intercropping of maize with four legumes at three different altitudes (1500, 1800 and 2200 MASL) using randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three blocks. In 2015, maize was intercropped with mungbean and fababean using three nitrogen levels (28, 56, 113 kg N ha-1) and in 2016, with mungbean and cowpea using two types of row arrangements (alternate single row, alternate double row). In 2017, maize was intercropped with mungbean and soybean with two types of seeding times, namely, simultaneous and staggered. Monocropping of maize and each of the legumes were also arranged for comparison at each location. Statistical results indicated the differences of EY and RPE among the altitudes, nitrogen doses, row patterns and time of sowing. Values of EY and RPE were greater at 1500 m altitude and for intercropping (maize + legume) established with a nitrogen dose of 113 kg N ha-1 with alternate single row arrangement and staggered sowing. On the basis of RPE, intercropping of maize with mungbean is recommended for cultivation.


During the past decade, advances in processor and memory technology have given rise to increases in computational performance that far outstrip increases in the performance of secondary storage technology. Coupled with emerging small-disk technology, disk arrays provide the cost, volume, and capacity of current disk subsystems but, by leveraging parallelism, many times their performance. Unfortunately, arrays of small disks may have much higher failure rates than the single large disks they replace. Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) use simple redundancy schemes to provide high data reliability. This dissertation investigates the data encoding, performance, and reliability of redundant disk arrays.
Organizing redundant data into a disk array is treated as a coding problem in this dissertation. Among alternatives examined, codes as simple as parity are shown to effectively correct single, self-identifying disk failures.
The performance advantages of striping data across multiple disks are reviewed in this dissertation. For large transfers this parallelism reduces response time. Striping data also automatically distributes independent, small accesses across disks to increase throughput. This dissertation evaluates the performance lost to the maintenance of redundant data. This loss is negligible for large transfers but can be significant for small writes because of increases in aggregate disk service time.
Because disk arrays include redundancy to protect against the high failure rates caused by large numbers of disk components, it is crucial that disk failures be characterized. This dissertation provides evidence that disk lifetimes can be modeled as exponential random variables.
Building on an exponential model for disk lifetimes, this dissertation presents analytic models for disk-array lifetime, evaluates these against event-driven simulation, and applies them to an example redundant disk array. These models incorporate the effects of independent and dependent disk failures (shared support hardware) as well as the effects of on-line spare disks. For the example redundant disk array, these models show that a 10% overhead for an N + 1-parity encoding plus a 10% overhead for on-line spares can provide higher reliability than the 100% overhead of conventional mirrored disks.


The flexible formula of the British Constitution results in a relative openness to external influences. Notwithstanding this fact, the United Kingdom's (UK's) membership in the European Union's (EU's) structures (1973–2020) resulted in a progressive limitation of the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. Brexit will not reverse the effects of the 'soft' modification of the foundations of the UK's system, which occurred in the sphere of the practical implementation of the competencies of the branches of governance. Prima facie, the decision on the UK's withdrawal from the EU should result in a 'renaissance' of the traditional doctrine of Westminster sovereignty, per A.V. Dicey. However, judicial activism, continued validity of the European Convention on Human Rights (incorporated on the basis of Human Rights Act 1998) and the irreversible consequences of the devolution of competencies in the UK for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are the factors that hinder the possible revitalisation of the sovereignty of the British Parliament.


A quasi-coherent high-frequency mode (HFM), with frequency ∼300 kHz, has been observed in EAST H-modes obtained by lower hybrid current drive or combined heating of lower hybrid wave and ion cyclotron resonance frequency wave after lithium wall conditioning. The HFM with an initial growing phase in frequency and amplitude appears both following L–H transition and between edge-localized modes at a relatively high-collisionality . Detailed analysis from edge Langmuir probe has revealed that the HFM propagates in the electron diamagnetic direction in both the lab frame and the plasma frame. The decorrelation rate of HFM is smaller than the maximum E × B shearing rate at the steep gradient region by an order of magnitude. Furthermore, the growth, saturation and oscillations of HFM, including both frequency and amplitude, are strongly correlated with the evolution of pressure gradient. Thus, the limit-cycle-like oscillations between the amplitude and the frequency of HFM may play an important role in the formation and saturation of pedestal. During the saturation phase of pedestal pressure gradient, the HFM, sometimes accompanied by a mid-frequency (∼80 kHz) quasi-coherent mode, drives strong cross-field transport resulting in small crashes of pressure gradient and finally limits the pressure gradient.


The article makes an attempt at interpreting the Latin syntactic-semantic structure traditionally referred to as nominativus cum infinitivo , with the application of the methodological premises of semantic syntax described in the Gramatyka Wspolczesnego Jezyka Polskiego ( Skladnia ) [ A Grammar of the Modern Polish Language (Syntax) ] published in 1984. The structure which is interpreted is a sentence in nature. Its constitutive element is the finite form of the verb in passivum accommodated by the noun-based nominative element (the subject) which constitutes the exponent of an argument of the predicate represented by the verbal form in the infinitive. Traditionally this structure was characterised as a result of the passivisation of structures which are known as accusativus cum infinitivo . However, such an approach is not justifiable neither formally nor semantically. As a matter of fact, the use of passive finite forms within the framework of the nominativus cum infinitivo structures does not determine the sentence diathesis, but it constitutes an index of imparting a marked epistemic modality to the predicative content expressed by the infinitival form. Therefore in terms of semantic syntax the type of a sentence which is discussed should be interpreted as a formalisation of the predicative-argumentative structure featuring a predicate of a higher order, in which the core predicate is of modal nature.


This study uses the knee Osteoarthritis (OA) rat (constructed by the anterior cruciate ligament transection) and the inflammatory chondrocyte (constructed by 20 ng mL−1 tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α)) to study the improvement effect of injectable β‐ecdysterone (β‐Ec) hydrogel consisting of poly (D, L‐lactic‐co‐glycolic acid)‐hyaluronate (HA‐β‐Ec‐Gel) on cartilage damage. The results show that the HA‐β‐Ec‐Gel improves the three‐dimensional of bone structure. The HA‐β‐Ec‐Gel treatment improves cartilage tissue injury of OA rats. It advances the levels of autophagic factor Beclin1 (Beclin1) and microtubule–associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3) in cartilage tissue. The lysyl oxidase like 3 (LOXL3), ras homologue enriched (Rheb), phosphorylated (p)‐V–akt murine thymoma viral oncogene homolog (AKT)/AKT, and p‐mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR)/mTOR signal expression are inhibited by HA‐β‐Ec‐Gel intervention. In inflammatory chondrocytes, β‐Ec improves the cell viability, autophagosome numbers, and Beclin1 and LC3 II/I levels, also inhibits apoptotic rate, LOXL3 and Rheb expression levels, and the AKT/mTOR pathway. The 3‐methyladenine addition reverses these effects of β‐Ec. The Rheb or LOXL3 knockdown chondrocytes aren't sensitive to TNF–α‐induced damage. Their autophagy level is high. This study reveals the improvement effects of injectable HA‐β‐Ec‐Gel on OA, which provides a scientific basis and new direction for the development of OA treatment strategies.


This article briefly analyses the effect of the computer as tools and media in the era of "digital architecture".It expounds the influence of the computer and the network era originated from computer on the ideology of the contemporary architecture design.


Technical innovations that will shape the railroad of the future are the subject of this article. The author begins by describing technical changes in the 19th and 20th centuries, and then presents a partial list of what might follow in the next 20 years. These include electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP)brakes, which are available but have yet to be implemented universally. Conventional braking systems take more than a minute to be applied throughout the train; with ECP brakes a 20-ton taconite train running at 40 mph can stop in just 1,800 feet. Other new technologies include: positive train control, which can improve safety as well as efficiency by keeping more trains on the rails at the same time; remote control on main lines; digital inspection for track and rolling stock; electrification to replace costly fuels; and, nanotechnology in wireless sensors that can alert mechanical and maintenance-of-way personnel to potential failure.


No CLEARER PRIEST-HOLY TEXT RELATIONSHIP exists in modern academe than that which obtains between the folklorist and the text. "A text, in the parlance of the folklorist, represents the basic source, the pure stream, the inviolable document of the oral tradition. It comes from the lips of a speaker or singer and is set down with word to word exactness by a collector" (Dorson 1964:1). This desire for accuracy is justifiable in spirit, but it has resulted in what may be serious distortions of texts. The problem is that linguistic accuracy is sought, but linguistic sophistication is not used in the quest. Such admonitions as Dorson's provide not the least bit of information about how the folklorist is to deal with levels of linguistic facts. This paper examines the professional folklorist's representation of linguistic facts below the level of the word, that is, representations of "pronunciation" details. Consideration of such details is at the very bottom of more complex notions such as word and grammar and must be dealt with before a comprehensive set of procedures may be outlined for the spelling of folk texts. Folklorists and linguists agree on at least one matter-the oral text will always be poorly represented by the written one. Even a Dolbyized, 36mm production of a folk event is not the event. Writing is a poor, secondary system when compared to speech. No tone or quality of voice can be represented; no helpful and delightful accompanying body language is seen; and no dramatic or embarrassing pauses or rapid tempo can be provided. This criticism of the spelling of folk texts will not focus, then, on the inability of writing to do the job of speech, though the folklorist's apparent hope that it can may be much of the cause of all this discussion. It is important to note, as well, that I will not distinguish among field transcripts, transcripts made from tapes, or any other subsequent written representations. It will become obvious that my major concern is with texts that are most widely circulated, though I believe the principles eventually derived apply to the written record of any verbal folklore. All of the articles from theJournal of American Folklore (JAF) for the 1970s were examined. Only those articles that contained folklorists' representations


Conducting studies of motivation, evaluation and satisfaction of the demand of sun and beach tourism provides important information to adapt the products according to demand. The present study was conducted in situ in the city of Manta, Ecuador. Using a questionnaire, variant and bivariate statistical techniques were used to achieve the study objectives. The findings show that the main motivations of tourists are to rest, enjoy the beach and the sun, and enjoy the typical local gastronomy, which ratifies the main motivations in destinations with these characteristics. The most valuable aspects of the visit were the hospitality of the residents, the sun and the beach, and the restaurant service. The satisfaction of the destination is high, which shows the potential of this site for this type of tourism.


Acknowledgements Preface Abbreviations Introduction Part I. The Origins Of Imperial Russian Foreign Policy: 1. Imperial consciousness in eighteenth-century Russian foreign policy E. V. Anisimov 2. The role of the Baltic in Russian foreign policy 1721-1773 Hans Bagger Part II. Imperial Russia and the Western Borderlands in the Eighteenth Century: 3. Rusian projects of conquest in the eighteenth century Hugh Ragsdale 4. Runaway peasants and Russian motives for the partitions of Poland Robert E. Jones Part III. Imperial Russia in the Coming of the Crimean War: 5. Policy traditions and the Menshikov Mission of 1853 David M. Goldfrank 6. The personal responsibility of Nicholas I for the coming of the Crimean War V. N. Vinogradov Part IV. Imperial Russian Foreign Policy in Mid-Nineteenth Century America: 7. Russian policy in the US during the Crimean War V. N. Ponomarev 8. The sale of Alaska in the context of Russo-American relations in the nineteenth century N. N. Bolkhovitinov Part V. Adventure and Disaster in the Late Empire: 9. Russian policy in the Balkans in the reign of Alexander II, 1855-1881 David MacKenzie 10. The foreign policy of Russia in the Far East at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries A. V. Ignatiev 11. The interaction of foreign and domestic interests in central and southeast Europe, 1900-1914 David McDonald Part VI. Perspectives and Conclusions: 12. Persistent factors in Russian foreign policy: an interpretative essay Alfred J. Rieber.


As companies seek to become lean enterprises, they can take several alternative paths. One extreme is to mechanistically copy tools that work in another company's context to give the appearance of "doing lean" (mechanistic); another is to work to learn and adapt the principles to the local environment developing a culture of organizational learning (organic). Companies that have had some degree of success with lean in manufacturing often decide to move upstream to the engineering design phase. One set of tools for doing this is Design for Six Sigma (DFSS). This article recounts a detailed case study in which executives managing a mechanistic organizational culture, General Motors, decided to copy DFSS, which was purported to be a key success factor in Hyundai's greatly improved product quality. By converting the problem into one of mechanically copying specific tools, General Motors failed to incorporate DFSS into a learning culture, and the process led to mechanistic individual learning of rote procedures with little sustained organizational learning by the company. A model for effective implementation of programs like Design for Six Sigma is proposed.


Objective
To investigate the effects of paroxetine on the cell viability and expression of the phosphorylated ERK1/2 in lipopolysaccharide LPS injured hippocampal-derived neural stem cells (NSCs).

Methods
The NSCs were derived from hippocampus of fetal rats,after the primary neurospheres passaged,the cells were divided into sham,LPS and LPS+ paroxetine groups (include 1,5,10 and 20μmol/L concentration),each group was treated with LPS (200μg/L) and different concentrations of paroxetine for 72 h,then the cell viability and the protein level of pERK1/2 were measured by the kit of WST-8 and Western blot,respectively.Furthermore,in order to investigate the role of ERK pathway that involved in the effects of paroxetine,the NSCs were divided into sham,LPS,LPS+ paroxetine groups (include 1,5,and 10μmol/L concentration),U0126,U0126+LPS and U0126+LPS+paroxetine groups (include 1,5,and 10μmol/L concentration),72 h later,the apoptosis rate was measured by Annexin-Ⅴ-FLUOSstaining kit.

Results
The cell viability in 5μmol/ L paroxetine treated group (0.338±0.016) was higher than LPS group (0.306±0.016) (F=23.019,P<0.01),but there were no significant differences between other paroxetine treated groups and LPS group.When detected by Western blot,the expression of pERK1/2 in paroxetine 5μmol/L treated groups (1.092±0.113) or sham group (0.982±0.131) was significant higher than LPS group (0.749±0.144),respectively (F=6.887,P<0.05).Furthermore,coincide with cell viability,the apoptosis of 5μmol/L treated groups[ (14.42±1.22) %] or sham group[ (13.40±2.87) %] was significant lower than LPS group[ (17.85±1.26) %] by using flow cytometry (F=26.520,P<0.05).U0126 promoted the apoptosis of LPS treated groups,and there was no significant difference between paroxetine+LPS treated groups and LPS group.

Conclusions
The cellular damage of NSCs injured by LPS could be restrained by paroxetine,which is possibly carried out by affecting ERK1/2 pathway.

Key words:
Paroxetine; Neural stem cells; Lipopolysaccharides; Phosphorylated ERK1/2


MR. MICHAEL SOBIESKI (Louisville, Kentucky): The pocket controller has been fixed and they are currently doing a study showing that it is actually more inaccurate than the External Percutaneous Controller (EPC). So, wait for that a little while longer because right now I only have ten patients on whom we have done these Transonic flow probe measurements. Clearly, Thoratec is interested in those results. You pointed out that pump thrombosis can occur within the system. How do you go through the process for assessing the validity of flow and adequate support of the patient? Is it through tranesophageal echocardiography (TEE) or blood measurements? What are you using to determine you have adequate flow?


Using a new type electro-spark deposition,WC-15Co electrode was deposited on the surface of cast steel roll by electro-sparking deposition(ESD).The microstructure and wear resistance of the coating were investigated.The results show that the coating consists of Fe3W3C,Co3W3C,Fe2C and Fe phases.The coating is well metallurgical bonded with cast steel roll substrate.The Fe3W3C,Co3W3C and Fe2C phases distribute in the coating dispersedly,with the extra-fine structure for the phases in some area.The average hardness of the coating is 660HV.The coating has good wear and the average wear resistance rate is 2.7 of that of the cast steel substrate.The wear mechanism is adhesion wear,fatigue wear,oxidization wear and abrasive wear.Fine hard phases distributed in the coating dispersedly are the main factors leading the high hardness and wear resistance of the coating.


Short review of the most important and interesting sections of the textbook in solid state chemistry "Solid state chemistry and its applications" written by the well-known chemist Anthony R. West. John Wiley and Sons, Ltd., Chichester, 2014. 556 pages. ISBN: 978-1-119-94294-8


In this paper, binary phase diagrams of the five main fatty acids present in edible oil based mixtures are shown. While previously the binary systems of one saturated and one unsaturated acid were investigated, in this work the binary mixtures comprise of palmitic (C16:0) and stearic acid (C18:0) or a binary mixture of oleic (C18:1), linoleic (C18:2) or linolenic acid (C18:3). In order to obtain the phase diagrams with all the solid liquid and solid phase transitions, the mixtures were analyzed by means of Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). Phase change boundary functions based on thermodynamic models and experimental values were fitted and compared. The phase diagrams obtained show behaviors in good agreement to literature. The paper contributes to the deeper understanding of the essential phase change effects during industrial crystallization processes.


Energetic particles streaming outward from an intense source near the Sun reach a maximum-intensity plateau when scattering by self-generated waves restricts the streaming. We compare calculated theoretical values of the streaming-limited intensities with observations from the Helios 1 and 2 and the NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) spacecraft and examine the energy dependence and radial gradient of the intensities.


Myasthenia Gravis (MG) is a rare, multifactorial autoimmune disease. It is caused by the presence of autoantibodies to the postsynaptic membrane of the neuromuscular junction causing impairment to neuromuscular transmission [1]. Various SNPs have been associated with MG with a number of genes possibly contributing to the disease pathogenesis [2]. Through the Disease's Genomic Grammar (DGG), as formulated by Bioinformatics tools, common genetic associated components have been established with RA, thus suggesting a genetic overlap in the manifestation of both diseases and possible concurrency in patients [3].To create an ensemble of the genetic factors contributing to MG, to evaluate the most credible SNPs associated with disease manifestation, to establish a relationship with RA and to potentially assist in prognosis, prevention and personalized treatment of both diseases.PubMed publications containing the term "myasthenia gravis" were analyzed with data mining and semantic techniques. Data Annotation enhanced the data collected, including SNPs obtained through GWAS, with information including variation type, alleles, relevance with phenotypes and additional clinical, genomic and functional information from databases including dbSNP, LitVar, ClinVar and Genes. Strong-Associated SNPs were further analyzed and validated. Genes related with both MG and RA were used to estimate a gene network with the use of the GeneMANIA tool and genetic and protein interactions, pathways and co-expression was studied.A candidate DGG was established containing a total 77 SNPs associated with MG and further categorized into three major classes. Within this database, different types of SNPs were identified with 27 SNPs representing Intron Variants (32.5%), 17 were 2KB Upstream/500B Downstream Variants (20.5%), 12 concerned Missense Variants (14.5%) and 7 SNPs were identified as 3' or 5' UTR Variants (8.4%). Class A included 40 Strong-Associated SNPs, related with 24 genes. MG and RA share 10 common Strong-Associated (Class A) SNPs (25%) related with 10 genes, based on the retrieved data. In a second level of analysis, these common genes create a functional network of a total of 29 genes and 855 total links, with 90.1% co-expression as generated by the GeneMANIA tool (Figure 1).A higher frequency of concurrent autoimmune diseases is observed than the background prevalence and it has been demonstrated that MG coexists with other ADs in population studies [4,5]. Patients with concomitant MG and RA encounter more challenges in the therapeutic aspects of their health, considering that known disease-associated polymorphisms can be utilized in early diagnosis, prognosis and specialized treatment. Identifying the optimal genomic grammar in MG with the use of novel Bioinformatic tools may assist in the better understanding of this polygenic disease, while its association with RA and other ADs is a helpful step towards comprehending the shared biological pathways leading to autoimmunity. The data resulting from our study can be utilized towards the development of an application designed to assist clinical diagnosis by using the patients' genomic data, like the integrated bioinformatics tools Demetra for endometriosis [6] and Epione for SLE [7].[1]Golfinopoulou R. et al. Mol Med Rep, 2021.24(1):512[2]Chia R. et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2022.119(5): e2108672119[3]Papageorgiou L. et al. Annals Rheum Dis, 2022.81(Suppl 1):70[4]Shi J. et al. Front Neurol, 2021.12:790941[5]Mao Z.F. et al. Int J Neurosci, 2011.121(3):121[6]Papageorgiou L. et al. Int J Mol Med, 2021.47(6):115[7]Papageorgiou L. et al. Int J Mol Med, 2022.49(1):8Figure 1.Functional network of the 9 common genes between RA and MG as generated by GeneMANIA.NIL.None Declared.


From our experience infants' with the late form of Vitamin K deficiency bleeding the following statements can be made : This disease occurs predominantly in breast fed infants. There is a prevalence of males (1.6 to 1). Eighty percent were between 2 and 6 weeks old. Over 50% had intracranial bleeding. At the time of diagnosis risk factors known to cause Vitamin K deficiency were not evident. In order to detect the vitamin K deficiency, PIVKA-II (Protein-Induced Vitamin K deficiency) is available as well as Hepaplastin test. Hepalastin tests were carried out. These tests revealed markedly reduced values. PIVKA-II was present in all examined samples. In 1986 the committee recommended Prophylactic administration of vitamin K to all full-term newborn in West Germany as well as in all Japan. Incidence of idiopathic cases has decreased about three quarters (from 16 to 4 out of 100,OOO birth in Japan) during le years.


Two spherical composite adsorbents namely polyacrylonitrilepotassium cobalt hexacyanoferrates (PAN-KCoCF) and polyacrylonitrilepotassium nickel hexacyanoferrates (PAN-KNiCF) were synthesized. The effects of liquid flow rate, bed height and presence of other cations on the adsorption of cesium were investigated by conducting fixed-bed columns. The results showed that the column performed well at lowest flow rate for PAN-KNiCF. Flow rate examined had little influence on the adsorption of PAN-KCoCF. The breakthrough time decreased with decreasing bed height for both PAN-KCoCF and PAN-KNiCF. In addition, the existence of K+, Na+, NH4+, Ca2+ and Mg2+ in solution caused a reduction of maximum adsorption capacity for both of the composites. The bed depth service time (BDST) model and the Thomas model were used to analyze the experimental data and the model parameters were evaluated. Good agreement of the experimental breakthrough curves with the model predictions was observed.


Designing and fabrication a multipurpose desk for student is a product that fulfills the students needs. This project uses many materials such as zinc, hollow steel bar and others. Overall, this project involves many processes, starting from the design concept, fabrication and assembling procedures. Even though there are many types of multipurpose desk for student in the market, the completion of this new model provides a more practical usage.


Yb3+, Ho3+: Lu2O3 nanocrystalline powders were synthesized by a reverse-strike co-precipitation method using NH4HCO3 and NH3·H2O as precipitators. X-ray diffraction analysis and field emission scanning electron microscopy observation showed that the phase composition of the powders was cubic and the particle size was 30–50 nm. Under the excitation of a 980 nm continuous wave diode laser, green and red emissions centered around 548 and 667 nm, respectively, were observed and the green emission dominated the upconversion spectrum. Power studies revealed that a two-photon process was involved in the upconversion emissions and the possible upconversion mechanisms were discussed.


Background  Haptoglobin (Hp) is an acute‐phase reactant, known to be produced mainly in the liver. Haptoglobin can also be detected in the cytoplasm of normal epidermal Langerhans cells (LCs), and can prevent their functional maturation. The synthesis of Hp in skin cells has not been well studied.


The use of such recently developed techniques as quantitative immunochemistry, electron microscopy, and immunohistochemical methods accounts in part for the renewed interest in a group of diseases collectively named connective tissue diseases. It is the purpose of this article to review some of the results and interpretations of our studies of both human and experimental conditions in this group of diseases, in which these techniques (chiefly the fluorescent antibody method of Coons et al.1*2) were used. It would be repetitious to review the numerous papers stressing the common aspects of the socalled connective tissue diseases, the reasons for grouping them together, and their possible pathogenetic mechanisms such as those based on hypersensitivity, especially. Acknowledgment is made of studies similar to those presented here.3 If one accepts the hypothesis that a lesion of hypersensitivity may involve an antigen-antibody reaction, the fluorescent antibody technique can test for the presence of such reactants a t the lesion. It is possible to take this direct approach to certain experimental conditions such as "serum sickness" and related states, but in the case of human diseases of suspected hypersensitivity origin little or no information is available concerning possible antigen or, thereby, antibody, making this approach quite difficult. One approach that may be used, however, is that of testing human lesions for the presence of homologous gamma globulin on the assumption that this protein will indicate antibody. With the fluorescent antibody technique, still a third approach has been used, that of determining the presence of tissue-localizing antibody in the serum of a given case, on the assumption that, if any is found, it may be instrumental in the production of a pathological change. It should be mentioned that, although many positive and interesting results have been obtained by these methods, one of the greatest difficulties has been the interpretation of results, that is, of assigning to a given immunological reactant a role in the pathogenesis of a lesion or disease. The studies to be presented are grouped under the following headings: (1) diseases in which a direct demonstration of antigen, antibody, or both has been made at the lesion sites, (2) diseases in which a significant concentration of a given plasma protein (gamma globulin or either fibrinogen or fibrin) has been found, and (3) diseases in which the serum contains tissue-localizing "antibodies."


Book Review of Stephen Barkoczy, Don Maloney and Wayne Ngo, Pooled Development Funds Handbook 2001 Australian Tax Practice, ISBN 0864602952, 305pp This book review is available in Revenue Law Journal: http://epublications.bond.edu.au/rlj/vol12/iss1/10


For the chaotic systems with sampled data input, the discontinuous nonlinear system is transformed into a discrete system, and the switched system is proposed considering the control inputs missing. By using the zero input method, a sufficient condition is derived for the exponential stability of the error system. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed sampled-data control method.


This volume is in two parts.

The literature review asks what we know of facial emotion processing in genetic neurodevelopmental syndromes associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Of the five syndromes most frequently associated with ASD in the literature, empirical investigations of facial emotion processing were found for two: Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) and Down's Syndrome (DS). People with DS may be impaired on tasks involving the recognition of facial emotions. People with FXS demonstrate atypicalities when processing facial emotion, such as possible autonomic differences. Implications for the association with ASD are considered.

In the empirical paper, recognition of facial "threat" emotions (fear, anger and disgust) was assessed in chronic neurological patients with anatomically diverse, stable brain lesions. They were found to perform more poorly than a group of age-matched healthy participants. For the patient group, we then used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to assess in an unbiased fashion the relationship between accuracy of recognition of fear, anger and disgust (individually and then together) and the integrity of grey matter across the whole brain. There was evidence of brain regions in which damage correlated with reduced emotion recognition ability for the three emotions individually, and also for accuracy combined across the three emotions.


Intestinal mucosal barrier function in obstructive jaundice was assessed in an animal model and in patients. The effect of internal biliary drainage in patients was also examined. Bile duct ligation for 1 week in the rat resulted in significant bacterial translocation (in seven of 12 animals following ligation versus none of the sham‐operated controls, P<0·01). Intestinal permeability, measured by the urinary recovery of orally administered polyethylene glycol, was also significantly increased (+ 66·2 per cent for ligation versus −11·6 per cent for sham, P<0·01). A prospective study was performed on 33 patients with obstructive jaundice undergoing internal biliary drainage, and results were compared with those in six non‐jaundiced patients undergoing laparotomy or endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and in 11 healthy volunteers. The lactulose: mannitol ratio was used as an intestinal permeability index. Mean(s.e.m.) intestinal permeability assessed before operation was significantly increased in jaundiced patients compared with control patients (0·050(0·010) versus 0·016(0·003), P<0·005). The mean(s.e.m.) lactulose: mannitol ratio in the healthy volunteers was 0·020(0·003), which was similar to that in control patients. In the jaundiced group of patients the intestinal permeability index fell to within normal levels after 28 days of internal biliary drainage (0·050 before operation versus 0·021 at 28 days, P<0·02). These data indicate that intestinal barrier function is impaired in obstructive jaundice and that this impairment is reversed by return of bile to the gastrointestinal tract.


Consulting practicum (CP) is a form of experiential learning technique to prepare students for professional careers. While CP has become a popular way to help students acquire the essential practical skills and experience to enhance career readiness and ensure a smooth transition from college to employment, there is a lack of empirical studies that establish any link between CP and the career readiness of students. This study seeks to fill this gap. Undergraduate students enrolled in practicum classes undertook consulting projects for several organizations in the areas of management and information systems (MIS) with the purpose of implementing projects and solving real-life business problems while gaining valuable professional experience and career specific skills. Each team had a mentor who was also the contact person representing the client organization. At the end of the projects, the teams' supervisors evaluated the performance of the consulting teams based on 10 criteria, classified into behavioral and technical skills. The results show that students developed essential career-related competencies and behavioral skills as an indication of career readiness, thus affirming CP as an innovative pedagogical strategy that can enhance students' readiness for professional careers in MIS.


In this study, pumpkin seed oil was microencapsulated by spray-drying for stabilization of oil quality during the storage. Different carbohydrates including gum arabic, modified corn starch, modified manioc starch, maltodextrin, sucrose, maltose, lactose and glucose were alternatively combined with whey protein isolate for microencapsulation of pumpkin seed oil. Mixture of whey protein and maltodextrin generated the spray-dried powder with high microencapsulation efficiency as well as high microencapsulation yield. This wall system also produced the powder with the lowest peroxide value at the end of the acceleration storage. The appropriate whey protein/maltodextrin ratio was 1/3 under which the microencapsulation efficiency and yield for pumpkin seed oil were 94.5% and 65.6%, respectively. Microencapsulation was a potential method for protection of pumpkin seed oil against deterioration.