Fractionation by particle size provides a rough differentiation between young active, and older intermediate and passive soil organic matter. Soil samples from three treatments of a 20 years` fertilization experiment, C2 which had been fertilized with 10 t ha -1 (wet wt.) compost per year on average, N2 with mineral N fertilizer at 32 kg N ha -1 year -1 , and the unfertilized control (O) were subjected to particle size fractionation and to density fractionation. After low-energy sonication the samples were separated into the size fractions coarse sand (200-200 µm), fine sand (200-63 µm) silt (63-2 µm) and clay (2-0,1 µm). Density fractionation using Na-polytungstate with 1.8 g cm -3 density was applied to separate particulate organic matter (POM) from the sand-sized fraction. Compost fertilization resulted in an increase in C org in all size and density fractions. In total, the C org content was 10 % higher with compost fertilization than in the unfertilized control. Approximately 40 % of the additional soil carbon was located in the POM, 56 % in the silt-sized fraction and 3 % in the clay-sized fraction. With mineral N fertilization the sum of C org contents of all fractions was about the same as without fertilization, with an increase of POM-C org and a decrease of C org in the silt and clay-sized fraction. Keywords: fractionation, particulate organic matter, POM, soil organic matter


An adaption of the introductory control text which covers analog systems only. The book describes several control systems and develops mathematical models of some common control system components.


Each year, approximately 795000 people experience stroke in the United States. After stroke onset, about 80% of patients suffer from hemiparesis, the weakness of face or limb on one side. These people outside clinical setting may develop learned nonuse, which may result in long-term limitation in the outcome of motor recovery. Interventions such as the Constraint Induced Movement Therapy has shown promise in reversing nonuse. However, many chronic individuals do not have access to such training programs. Therefore, some novel tools capable of continuous monitoring patients' health status and furthermore providing appropriate interventions for patients in ambient setting is required to optimize stroke rehabilitation. Dynamical systems modeling combined with wearable technologies may allow to quantitatively describe nonuse evolution. We developed and validated a pendulum-based dynamical model using experimental and simulated motion data. Without direct access to internal torques, we proposed an inverse dynamics-based metric to quantify and compare motor performance between limbs. The primary outcome measure is RMSE between the simulated driving torque for experimental and reference motions. Using RMSEs, we defined a novel within-person comparison factor w limb [w], and compared it to the Fugl-Mayer Assessment score. Our dynamic model is capable of mimicking upper-extremity shoulder flexion dynamics. RMSE is sensitive to differences in motor performance between limbs for both groups. Finally, the factor w limb [w] is related to post-stroke severity. The arm dynamical model may have great potential for monitoring time-varying motor impairment using noninvasive sensing. Markov decision process (MDP) is a comparatively simple approach of simulation modelling. We implemented MDP to understand the primary factors behind human dynamic decision making on limb choice during rehabilitation. The model showed good performance in


The medical decision-making literature has paid scant attention to how prior expectations of patients and clinicians can influence medical encounters and affect patients' choices whether to accept or reject medical testing or treatment. To illuminate the issue, we offer a reflexive analysis of the experiences of a Mexican-American couple offered amniocentesis based on the woman's age and prior pregnancy history. We examine the impact of three principal factors: incongruity between expectations and reality for both patient and clinicians; the actors' ethnic backgrounds; and the history and nature of relationship dynamics between the patient and her male partner. We conclude that unmet expectations on the part of both patient and clinicians evoked powerful emotions that altered the woman's previous intention to agree to amniocentesis.


The present study was designed to examine factors affecting complex and non-complex writing task performance. To this end, a series of multiple...


I like to paraphrase Philip Schein and suggest that the best way to study variable human disease in variable human beings may be to study variable human disease in variable human beings [1]. Many of us spend our days dashing from patient room to patient room, leading a breathless entourage of medical students, residents, and fellows, mumbling something we read somewhere about secondary signaling pathways, while blithely concealing our terrifying ignorance of the drugs that we use every day. More troubling than our ignorance is our usual lack of interest. Traore and colleagues challenge us to understand better the gritty essence of our trade [2]. As part of their investigation of treatment adherence, they examined red cell 6-thioguaninine nucleotide (TGN) and methylmercaptopurine (MMP) metabolites in adolescent patients on maintenance therapy and identified four-patient clusters. One cluster with high levels of TGN and low levels of MMP, looks something like one might expect in a patient heterozygous for a thiopurine methyl transferase (TPMT) variant, a condition present in about 11% of a Caucasian population [3]. One cluster with very low levels of both TGN and MMP looks something like one might expect with poor bioavailability or poor adherence. Unfortunately, outcome data are not available and we are not told about genotype or whether patients belong consistently to one cluster or another over serial samples. Still, it is a solid beginning. Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia is unique among cancers in the proven role of prolonged therapy [4]. Oral 6mercaptopurine is a mainstay of that therapy. Half dose therapy is less effective than full dose therapy [5]. Cytosine arabinoside and cyclophosphamide add nothing to the basic platform of daily oral 6-mercaptopurine and weekly oral methotrexate [6]. Evening administration is most effective [7,8]. Lennard and Lilleyman first noted the impact of TPMT variants [9]. TPMT variants are associated with excessive hematological toxicity [10] and secondary brain tumors [11,12]. Stanulla and co-workers have recently linked TPMT heterozygosity and better minimum residual disease response to a 6mercaptopurine containing consolidation course [13]. Our colleagues in Gastroenterology have made substantial progress in applying these insights to patient care in inflammatory bowel disease. Better outcomes have been linked with higher levels of 6-thioguanine nucleotides [14] and adverse events to variants of thiopurine methyl transferase and possibly to variants of inosine triphosphate pyrophophatase [15]. The Children's Oncology Group, successor to the Children's Cancer Group, finds itself heir to TGN and MMP data from hundreds of blood samples obtained in the conduct of CCG1922, comparing oral and intravenous 6-mercaptopurine, and CCG-1952, comparing oral 6-mercaptopurine and 6-thioguanine. Unfortunately, analysis of these critical data, for which patient outcomes are fully available, has been assigned too low a priority for early attention and too great an importance for delegation to those who might have time and interest. Biology is still more than molecules. Biology includes cells, individuals, and populations. We pursue clinical and laboratory biology, not clinical trials and biological science.


In recent studies,1,2 switching characteristics of PVDF were investigated in the time domain by measuring charge and current responses to the stepwise application of electric fields in circuits with RC time constants smaller than 1 µS. Switching times for polarization reversal of 4 µS and larger were reported depending on the field strength and temperature.1,2 Similar shapes of current vs. time curves were found in circuits with RC time constants longer than the above reported switching times and these results were also interpreted as being the characteristic switching times of the polymer dipoles.3,4 More recently, we measured the poling current and the piezoelectric stress coefficient e31 as functions of poling time in circuits with RC values ranging between 0.1 and 1000s.5 We found that the time between the voltage application and the occurrence of polarization current maximum was proportional to the value of RC. Furthermore, the temporal buildup of the e31 coefficient also scaled with the time constant. In addition to these studies, similar results were observed in hysteresis measurements at low cycling frequencies where the hysteresis loop of electrical displacement versus field strength was found to be independent of frequency.6 These results suggest that it is possible to perform experiments in the quasi steady state where the time dependence of switching is not important.


Successful resolution of infection and injury and the ability, at a cellular level, to distinguish self from damaged or foreign, are central themes in immunology. However, imperfections in the immune system often contribute to tissue damage: a viral infection becomes persistent, a tumour is not recognized as foreign or a specific organ becomes the target of immune-mediated damage. To function effectively, the immune system uses a wide repertoire of recognition molecules that trigger responses as a result of innate, pattern recognition or secondary to specific antigenic determinants. Within adaptive immunity, the orchestration of Band T-cell effector functions involves a highly complex combination of cell–cell interactions and cytokine pathways, and it has become established that T-cell subsets play an important regulatory role (1). At a superficial level, T lymphocytes are divided into helper cells (CD4) and cytotoxic cells (CD8). Within the T-helper (Th) group, a further broad division into Th1 [which produces interferon g (IFN-g) and is important in cellular immune responses] and Th2 [which produces interleukin IL-4 and IL-5 and is important in humoral responses] is often made. Other groups of T-helper cells include the regulatory T (Treg) and Th17 cell populations. The role of the pro-inflammatory IL-17secreting subgroup pertains probably to host defence and autoimmunity (2), while reductions in Tregs may contribute to autoimmunity, chronic viral infection, tumour immunity as well as allergy. Conversely, an increase in the number or activity of Treg cells may mediate maternal tolerance to the foetus in addition to contributing to tolerance in organ transplantation (3, 4). The inference for the presence of such regulatory cells originates from experiments in which early thymectomy in female mice was shown to lead to autoimmune oophoritis and ovarian atrophy. Such organ-specific autoimmunity was shown to be T-cell mediated, as transfer of splenic T cells from day 3 thymectomized mice could also induce organ-specific disease. Ultimately, confirmation for a subset of lymphocytes with immunoregulatory properties came through the demonstration that specific transfer of CD4CD25cells (CD25 is the IL-2 receptor a chain) could rescue an autoimmune phenotype. Such cells, up to 10% of normal CD4 T lymphocytes, stop the effector functions and proliferation of autoreactive T cells that have escaped negative thymic selection. The mechanism of inhibition involves a combination of direct contact with the target cells as well as cytokinemediated pathways [e.g. IL-10 and transforming growth factor b (TGF-b)]. Treg cells generally develop in the thymus and this is facilitated by T-cell receptors with increased affinity for self-peptide–major histocompatibility (MHC) complexes. IL-2 is important in this context, controlling the number, development and activity of thymic and peripheral Treg cells; the highaffinity IL-2Ra is an important signal for lymphocyte proliferation. Additionally, TGF-b plays a role in the maintenance and generation of Tregs in the periphery (5). Tregs are best defined by demonstrating expression of the forkhead family transcription factor, Foxp3 (6), and the greatest proportion of Foxp3 Tregs expresses CD25 at high levels and are found within MHC class II-restricted CD4 helper T cells. Children born with mutations in Foxp3 suffer from a rapidly fatal autoimmune disorder known as the IPEX syndrome. Typically, high levels of cytotoxic T-lymphocyteassociated molecule-4 (CTLA-4) and glucocorticoidinduced tumour necrosis factor (TNF) receptor are also expressed on Treg cells. CTLA-4 is a negative regulator of the immune response and has thus been speculated to have a role in Treg-cell biology (7). Genetic polymorphisms in CTLA-4 have been linked to susceptibility to type 1 diabetes (8) and autoimmune thyroid disease (9). Similarly, for autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) (10) and primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) (11), reports have suggested that polymorphisms in CTLA-4 are important, although such observations have not always been replicated (12). Bin et al., in this volume of Liver International (see pages 233–239), have now extended previous observations made in PBC relating to Tregs. PBC, which is a disease that is characterized by granulomatous immune-mediated destruction of interlobular bile ducts, has many well-rehearsed features suggestive of an autoimmune aetiology (13). Accordingly, Lan et al. (14) showed last year that there was a relative decrease


The performance of an autonomous mobile robot in acquiring a meaningful spatial model of its operating environment depends greatly on the accuracy of its perceptual capabilities. A key challenge in the field arises from handling sensor measurements and in particular the handling of measurement noise. The current prevailing approach used when attempting to deal with the problem of noisy readings is to tune the sensory model to explicitly accommodate this sensory noise. An alternative approach, however, is to consider the issue of noisy readings as a separate problem and address accordingly. In this paper such an approach is outlined. Experimental evaluation illustrate the associated improvement in map quality across a number of established paradigms.


Chronic alcoholism and nutrition play an important role in liver and pancreatic diseases. To compare drinking habits and nutritional data in patients with alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and alcoholic pancreatitis (ALP).


The invention discloses an inlet liquid flow pulsation vibration isolation device for a high pressure plunger water pump. The device is characterized in that: a vibration isolator inlet pipe of a vibration isolator device is connected with a main water supply pipeline; a vibration isolator outlet pipe is connected with the high pressure water pump; when liquid flow flows from the vibration isolator inlet pipe to the vibration isolator device, liquid flow pulsatile impact caused by the high pressure plunger water pump is avoided under the action of a convolutional vibration isolation baffle plate in a vibration isolator; when the pressure of the liquid flow is higher than that of a compression spring, the pressure of the liquid flow acts on a fixing plate in a corrugated diaphragm, so that the compression spring is compressed, the corrugated diaphragm is extended, and the area of an inner accommodating cavity of the vibration isolator is increased; when hydraulic impact in a pipeline disappears and impact pressure is reduced, the corrugated diaphragm is compressed under the action of elastic force of the compression spring in a corrugated diaphragm component, and the area of the inner accommodating cavity of the vibration isolator is reduced; and the hydraulic impact and pulsation in the liquid flow are eliminated through the change of the inner accommodating cavity. The device has a simple structure, is convenient to install, and can effectively avoid the phenomena of the hydraulic impact and the pulsation in the pipeline.


The technological evolution which occurred in digital systems favored the appearance of new services to be applied in railways. Radio communications played an important role in the management, exploration, and maintenance of railway transports. Due to the vital importance of security, the track-to-train communications system is studied in depth, with significant changes through the integration in its operation of the global system for mobile communication and global positioning systems. This paper presents an integrated system that simultaneously includes a radio communication system and a location solution. The proposed network will work as a redundant and also as a unique system for secondary lines where no other system is available. Moreover, the paper also presents a low-budget system to track the trains inside tunnels.


Measurements of the microwave radiation produced when an intense pulsed ion beam propagated from a field‐free region into a magnetized plasma are presented. The ion beam was initially charge and current neutralized by a comoving electron population. Upon entering the magnetized plasma, some of the neutralizing electrons were stripped from the ion beam by the magnetic field and replaced by plasma electrons which were accelerated to high velocities by a space‐charge imbalance within the ion beam. Electron plasma waves at the background plasma frequency were driven unstable by the high‐velocity plasma electrons.


The chemotactic activity of lowdensity lipoprotein(LDL), oxidized LDL(OLDL),very LDL(VLDL) and oxidized VLDL(OVLDL)for human monocytes was examined, respectively,by micropore filter mothod using modified Boyden chamber. The results showed that LDL was chemotactic for monocytes, and its chemotactic activity increased significantly when it was modified by oxidation. However VLDL was not chemotactic,whereas OVLDL was significantly chemotactic for human blood monocytes.


This paper analyzes the long-term evolution of the costs and benefits associated with a chaebol, a South Korean diversified business group. Chaebol-affiliated firms in Korea have displayed dramatic changes in their costs and benefits along three time periods (1984-1988, 1990-1995, and 2001-2003). They did not suffer a value loss relative to non-affiliated firms in the 1980s, but did so in the 1990s. In the post-crisis period, however, they began to show value gains. To identify the causes of these changes, we examine if chaebol firms prioritize profit stability over profit maximization, over-invest in less profitable industries, cross-subsidize the low performing affiliates of their group, and possess greater debt capacity, consequently enjoying lower tax burdens. We discover that in the 1980s, chaebol firms generally enjoyed various perks such as tax breaks, but shied away from excessive investment activities. In the 1990s, their performance worsened due to substantial over-investment, despite several advantages. However, after massive restructuring and sorting out following the 1997 Asian financial crisis, chaebols emerged as very profitable firms with less over-investment despite fewer tax perks. JEL classification: G32; G34


Agriculture is one of the most vulnerable sectors to the effects of climate change. The objective of this study is to analyze the impacts of rainfall variability on agricultural activities in the Guidimouni basin. The methodology used is based on the processing and analysis of daily rainfall data (Mirriah and Gouré stations from 1961 to 2019). It is complemented by a survey on perceptions of agroclimatic risks, impacts and strategies among a sample of 150 farmers in four villages. The results show that farmers have a good understanding of climate risks (80%) and are developing resilience strategies. These range from the intensification of irrigated crops (40%) to the use of natron (58%). In addition to these responses, the processing of products, particularly cassava (86%), and seasonal migration to Nigeria (28%) were also considered.


Soft drinks are enormously popular beverages consisting primarily of carbonated water, sugar, and flavorings. Nearly 200 nations enjoy the sweet, sparkling soda with an annual consumption of more than 34 billion gallons (Martin, 2007). The research was conducted in 2011 and the analyses have been carried out in the laboratory of the producers of soft drinks localized in Oradea. The objective of the work is in the final product quality testing to determine compliance with the standards in force. In terms of appearance, taste and smell the samples of the fresh bottled final products (juice on the basis of concentrated cola) were normal The monitored carbonated drinks contain a volume of CO2 prescribed by the standards in force of the manufacturing companies in order to ensure the maximum acceptabiliate on the part of consumers. The values of the sugar content were classified with the standards in force.


Taking ground covers at botanical garden of Chengdu as materials,its varieties and application forms were analyzed,after investigating ground covers at botanical garden of Chengdu.Associated with characteristics of ground covers,an evaluation system was given which concerns ornamental value,adaptability and applicability.Ground covers were evaluated and divided into grades by analytic hierarchy process and K-Means cluster analysis.Main patterns of landscaping of ground covers were introduced,such as associated with flower beds,roads,steam,trees,lawn,rocks and so on.38main ground covers that used in botanical garden were comprehensively evaluated by application quality one by one.The results showed there were 93species of ground covers that subordinate to 82categories,47families in botanical garden of Chengdu.The percentage of ground covers that meet the demands of ecology,beauty,social function was 97.39%.


Nutrient removal is essential for swine wastewater treatment to protect receiving waters from eutrophication and for potential reuse of the treated water.The study was conducted to examine the growth status of knotgrass(Paspalum distichum L.) and the wastewater purification effects under various swine wastewater concentration(25%,50%,75%,and 100%) in order to choose the proper swine wastewater concentration for enhanced purification efficiency and productivity.The results show that knotgrass biomass increased significantly and root length decreased significantly with swine wastwater concentration increasing(P0.05).But there was no significant difference in plant height of knotgrass.Knotgrass had excellent nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiencies with removal percentage of 98.75 to 99.31 % for TN and 96.54 to 99.79 % for TP.The highest nitrogen and phosphorus removal amounts were achieved for 100% concentration of swine wastewater at the rate of 507 mg·L-1 for TN and 32 mg·L-1 for TP,respectively.Knotgrass had no significant removal effects on COD and NH+4-N.


Bioacoustic absorption/scintillation spectroscopy (BASS), which exploits frequency selective attenuation and scintillation due to swim bladder resonances, promises classification of fish by size (and with ancillary information and species) and depth and unbiased (by avoidance and proximity of fish to boundaries) estimates of number densities versus fish length. A BASS experiment in the Santa Barbara Channel, which employed a fixed ultrabroadband (0.3–10 kHz) source and a fixed vertical array separated by 4 km, demonstrated the power of this method. The source, which was employed during this experiment, had an environmentally friendly source level of 170 dB. Absorption lines in frequency/depth space, which were associated with year classes of physostomes, sardines, and anchovies, were evident at night when the fish were dispersed. BASS results were consistent with trawl and echo sounder data. Interpretation of absorption lines during daytime was complicated by "bubble cloud" resonances associated with fish...


An Fe-N-C catalyst with an FeN4 active moiety has gained ever-increasing attention for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR); however, the catalytic performance is sluggish in acidic solutions and the regulation is still a challenge. Herein, Fe-Mo dual-metal sites were constructed to tune the ORR activity of a mononuclear Fe site embedded in porous nitrogen-doped carbon. The cracking of O-O bonds is much more facile on the Fe-Mo atomic pair site due to the preferred bridge-cis adsorption model of oxygen molecules. The downshift of the Fe d band center when an Mo atom is introduced to the FeNx configuration optimizes the absorption-desorption behavior of ORR intermediates in the FeMoN6 active moiety, thus boosting the catalytic performance. The construction of dual-metal atom sites to regulate the catalytically active moiety paves the way for boosting the electrocatalytic performance of other similar non-precious-metal catalysts.


Substantial myocardial platelet aggregations in the coronary microvascula ture of normal and of naturally occurring hypertrophied myocardia have been documented after ischemia and reperfusion. Eleven normal canine (group I) hearts underwent an isolated cardiac bypass preparation and were compared with 5 myocardia (Group II) hypertrophied by congenital aortic stenosis. All 16 hearts experienced transient ischemia during the isolated cardiac bypass and produced platelet aggregations (111 In tagged: p < 0.05). Hypothermic (25°C) potassium crystalloid cardioplegia did not wash out these depositions, and with the onset of reperfusion, both platelet and erythrocyte (99mTc tagged) radioactiv ity profoundly increased (p=0.0101). These increases progressed during the hour of reperfusion (p = 0.0369) and, specifically, in the endocardium. In summary, intracoronary platelets are activated after transient ischemic episodes, in particular the vulnerable hypertrophied myocardium in naturally occurring aortic stenotic hearts. These ischemia-activated platelet aggregations persist despite the application of hypothermic crystalloid cardioplegia. These depositions, in turn, allowed an ongoing pattern of platelet and erythrocyte aggregations during the reperfusion period. These data have important clinical implications for myocardial protection and reperfusion during acute myocar dial ischemia and infarction for the normal and hypertrophied myocardium.


Discusses the increase in interest (both managerial and theoretical) in the field of corporate culture. Drawing on research in the financial services, points to the critical role of branch managers (middle managers) in the role of corporate culture change. While top leadership was important in providing a catalyst for change, employees' perceptions of such leadership was vague. Branch managers were seen as the leaders on the ground, decoding and indeed reinterpreting corporate messages.


Here we present a playful installation that will allow DIS attendees to (literally) walk through the data produced during a situated design research study where we explored how to design technology for joyful and caring human-nature interactions. Our study unfolded as a one-month backpacking adventure where a researcher engaged 200+ backpackers from 35+ nationalities. While hiking, the researcher co-experienced the nature with other nature-goers, facilitated discussions on the human-nature-technology interplay, and co-imagined how future innovations might make that interplay more joyful and caring. He documented those radically situated engagements in different ways, including quick drawings and short writings, a reflexive notebook, Instagram stories, or photos and videos, among others. Our installation will allow DIS attendees to navigate those data in a way that is both playful, situated, and inspirational – putting themselves into the researcher's boots and getting a more intimate sense of both how the study felt and what it yielded.


Stories have cognitive value—listened to carefully and expertly, they provide knowledge. That knowledge is captured and presented in narrative evidence—the product of the expert act of critical engagement with stories, and with others' engagement with stories. Storylistening is the theory and practice of gathering narrative evidence to inform decision‐making, especially in relation to public reasoning, as part of a pluralistic evidence base. Storylistening is necessary to counter the political deployment of partial, selective, or misinterpreted narrative evidence. There are four ways in which stories can contribute to public reasoning about climate change. Stories play a role in reframing the "idea" of climate change, as well as being integral to many of the new disciplines, perspectives and knowledges drawn in as relevant by that reframing. Stories create and cohere collective identities and climate change beliefs and behavior. Narrative models complement and supplement computational models, creating an ensemble of models that more adequately covers the gaps that result from only deploying big, global, generalized models. Stories play a crucial role in enabling better anticipation for decision‐making, and storylistening can enable the use of narrative evidence from narrative futures methods, as well as perhaps improve the ways scientific evidence about the future is also listened to. Incorporating storylistening into public reasoning about climate change requires the evolution of advisory systems and of the academic humanities, and can play a role in the urgent need to democratize public reasoning about climate change.


Watershed programme is an important intervention in dryland areas to improve livestock productivity through increased feed and fodder supply. The present study has focused on the impact of watershed interventions on crop-livestock linkages with particular emphasis on how the interventions have affected the quantity of stovers/straws as livestock feeding materials in bridging the demand-supply gap. The study has been carried out in three typical Shivalik foothill watersheds (two treated and one untreated) in the Panchkula district of Haryana state. The impact of watershed development programme has been estimated by adopting both with and without approach and before and after approach. The untreated watershed has derived 65 per cent of its total income from animal husbandry. On the contrary, this sector has contributed 42 per cent and 20 per cent in two treated watersheds. The availability of supplemental irrigation enabled the villagers to step up cropping intensity. The number of goats has reduced considerably in both treated watersheds and the number of stall-fed buffaloes has increased. Adult cattle units per household and per hectatre of cultivated area have been found to be highest in the untreated watershed. Green and dry fodder availability, both from cultivated lands and forest area, has increased as a result of implementation of watershed programme. Although the gap between requirement and availability has narrowed down in both the treated watersheds, significant gains could be realized in Sambhalwa watershed due to sufficient water availability to all the households. Bunga watershed has also shown effectiveness of watershed development programme in reducing demand –supply gap of fodder. This gap, however, widened after reaching the saturation point of watershed programme, i.e. after 22 years of its implementation.


The faults of a belt conveyer for phosphorus fertilizer production were analyzed ,and some retrofits of the roll and wheel of the conveyer were made for demands.


Static mixers are increasingly being used to perform a variety of mixing tasks in industries, ranging from simple blending to complex multi-phase reaction systems. Use of static mixers to process non-Newtonian fluids is quite common. Data on the pressure drop of non-Newtonian fluids in static mixers and the degree of mixing of materials through the mixer are very useful in the design and engineering application of these tools. This paper extends a previous study by the authors on an industrial helical static mixer and illustrates how static mixing processes of single-phase viscous liquids can be simulated numerically. A further aim is to provide an improved understanding of the flow pattern of non-Newtonian single-phase liquids through the mixer. A three-dimensional finite volume simulation is used to study the performance of the mixer. The non-Newtonian fluid is modeled by the Carreau law model for the shear stress. The effects of the Reynolds number of the flow and also properties of non-Newtonian fluids on the static mixer performance have been studied. The flow velocities, pressure drops, etc. are calculated for various flow rates. The computed pressure drop is in good agreement with existing experimental data. A comparison of the mixer performance for both Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids is presented. It is shown that for low Reynolds number flows, the fluid type is less effective on the degree of mixing, while as flow Reynolds number increases and the viscosity decreases, it manifests more influence on the downstream mixing. It is also shown that the fluid type has a major impact on the pressure drop across the mixer.Copyright © 2004 by ASME


Abstract Purpose: The expression of high-mobility group box-1 (HMGB1) is upregulated in epiretinal membranes and vitreous fluid from patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy and in the diabetic retina. HMGB1 mediates inflammation, breakdown of the blood–retinal barrier and apoptosis in the diabetic retina. Here, we investigated inflammatory and angiogenic signaling pathways activated by HMGB1 in diabetic retina. Methods: Human retinal microvascular endothelial cells (HRMEC) and retinas from 1-month diabetic rats and normal rats intravitreally injected with HMGB1 were studied using RT-PCR, Western blot analysis and co-immunoprecipitation. We also studied the effect of the HMGB1 inhibitor glycyrrhizin on diabetes-induced biochemical changes in the retina. Results: Diabetes and intravitreal injection of HMGB1 in normal rats induced significant upregulation of the mRNA levels of the chemokine stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1/CXCL12) receptor CXCR4 and protein levels of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α, early growth response-1, tyrosine kinase 2 and the CXCL12/CXCR4 chemokine axis. Constant glycyrrhizin intake from onset of diabetes did not affect the metabolic status of the diabetic rats, but it restored these increased mediators to control values. Stimulation of HRMEC with HMGB1 and intraviteral injection of HMGB1 significantly increased the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and VEGF receptor-2. Co-immunoprecipitation studies showed that diabetes increased the interaction between CXCL12 and CXCR4 and between HMGB1 and receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE), but not between HMGB1 and the CXCL12/CXCR4 chemokine axis. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that HMGB1 activates inflammatory and angiogenic signaling pathways in diabetic retina mediated by RAGE.


The coordination of robot motions is one of the fundamental problems for multi-robot systems. A popular approach to avoid planning in the high-dimensional composite configuration space is the prioritized and decoupled technique. In this paper we present a method for optimizing priority schemes for such prioritized and decoupled planning technique. Our approach performs a randomized search with hill-climbing to find solutions and to minimize the overall path lengths. The technique has been implemented and tested on real robots and in extensive simulation runs. The experimental results demonstrate that our method is able to greatly reduce the number of failures and to significantly reduce the overall path length for different prioritized and decoupled path planning techniques and even for large teams of robots.


A new minor diterpene glycoside has been isolated from a commercial extract of the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana and its structure was identified as 13-[(2- O -β-D-glucopyranosyl-β-D-glucopyranosyl)oxy] ent -kaur-16-en-19-oic acid-[2- O -(2- O -β-D-glucopyranosyl)-β-D-glucopyranosyl-3- O -b-D-glucopyranosyl-β-D-glucopyranosyl] ester ( 1 ) based on extensive NMR (1D and 2D) and mass spectroscopic data, and hydrolysis studies.


One configuration in measurements of trace species in the atmosphere uses a massflow controller to regulate airflow through a device that traps the species of interest. Because the flow controller is calibrated with dry air, correction should be made to account for the density effect of water vapor in the ambient air. A common type of massflow controller regulates the flow by measuring temperature difference along a heated tube. It is shown that for these units the true mixing ratio Sc (ratio of mass of trace species c to mass of dry air) is related to the apparent mixing ratio Sc (measurement before correction), as Sc = (1+1.85r)Sc, where r is water vapor mixing ratio of the ambient air, typically varying in the range 0–0.04. Correction should also be made to the surface-air flux measured with such an apparatus in conjunction with micrometeorological flux gradient or relaxed eddy accumulation method and flux chambers; this involves a correction term proportional to surface evaporation rate and for some measurement configurations the same scale factor (1+1.85r) as for Sc. Examples are given for gaseous mercury to illustrate the magnitude of these corrections. No correction is needed if moisture is removed from the airstream before it enters the massflow controller.


v. McCanless, in which Mr. Justice Stone in 1939 did more than any other judge to establish multiple taxation of intangibles; although in the recent case of Northwest Airlines v. State of Minnesota he, in 1944, vigorously dissented against multiple taxation of tangibles. If a new edition of this volume is printed, it will be well to discuss the whole subject of multiple taxation, and also the recent case of United States v. South Eastern Underwriters Association, in which the Chief Justice's dissenting opinion is somewhat inconsistent as to whether insurance is or is not interstate commerce. If there is a new edition, it will be wise also not to give too much weight and emphasis to one member of the Court, but also to paint his equally important influence and relations with those who served with him. This review is not intended as a criticism of Mr. Chief Justice Stone, whose contributions are in some cases overlooked, and whose death brings a great loss to the Court. And it may be added that Professor Konefsky's book is well worth reading, although subject to some criticism, and that it gives a striking illustration of the scholarship of a blind young man who came to this country at the age of eleven.


A new periodic wave solution for a (3+1)-dimensional soliton equation is found by using the Hirota method and Riemann theat function, from which the soliton solution can be obtained in an appropriate limiting procedure. In addition, the special three-dimensional surface graph of this equation is simulated with the help of Mathematica.


The article is devoted the problem of international relations between the USA and Cuba. The combined harm which the blockade of the USA inflicted the economy of Cuba is determined, and in particular of civil aviation of this country for the last 5 decades. Estimated as measures of blockade are violated by main international conventions and norms of right in the field of aviation.


The invention relates to a directional hydraulic power grooving remote control method for gob-side entry top cutting and pressure discharging, and the method can effectively solve the technical problem of coal mine gob-side entry top cutting and pressure discharging.According to the technical scheme, the method comprises the first step of drilling, the second step of installing equipment, the third step of checking lines, the fourth step of conducting grooving and the fifth step of quitting the equipment.Remote monitoring operation of hydraulic power grooving can be achieved by communicating a hydraulic oil cylinder, a camera and a grating displacement sensor with a circuit control box, a monitoring displayer and a grating digital readout on a remote control operation platform respectively, operation safety and reliability are guaranteed to a great extent, a technical guarantee is provided for safe application of the high-pressure water jet grooving technology in a mine, and the method is innovation of a high-pressure water jet cutting method.


The authors suggested the design of one-stage intraosteal dental implant which combines a cylindrical shape in the middle part and a conical one in the apical part. The main internal outline of the implant screw has a conical shape. Together with the external combined outline it provides variable height of the turns. Intraosteal part of the implant has trapezoidal screw profile with the angulation of 15 degrees and 1.25 mm step. The angulation makes up 90 degrees at the turns of the conical part of the implant. Derotating element in the shape of corner turning of the cutting turns at the main screw is included. One-stage itraosteal dental implant application in daily dental practice provides dental defect restorations with the fixed dentures, considerably improves the quality of patients' rehabilitation and enhances the quality of patients' life.


In Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) restoring the mechanical alignment of the knee joint is essential. This can be improved by considering the individual variability in the angle between the mechanical and anatomical axes of the femur (FMA angle). However with the traditional instrumentation and the use of the most common fixed distal femoral resection angle of 6° we assume little or no variation in the FMA angles in different patients. In a previous study we showed that the FMA angle had a wide distribution and that there was a good correlation between the FMA angle and the pre-operative lower limb alignment in the coronal plane. Our hypothesis was that improved post operative limb alignment would be achieved with traditional instrumentation by individual measurement of the FMA angles pre-operatively and adjusting the distal femoral resections accordingly. In the study we compared the post-operative coronal limb alignment for a cohort of patients with a variable distal femoral resection angle to the previous cohort of fixed distal femoral resection angle. The study consisted of 103 patients undergoing 103 consecutive primary TKAs between October 2008 and March 2009. All patients had pre- and post-operative Hip-Knee-Ankle digital radiographs and had TKAs performed using a variable distal femoral cut angle. The FMA angle and the mechanical femoro-tibial (MFT) angles were measured in all cases. Inter-observer variation was measured by second observer readings. We compared our results with the group of 158 consecutive patients undergoing 174 primary TKAs operated between January and October 2007 using fixed distal femoral resection angle. Patient demographics of the two cohorts (age, gender, BMI) were similar. The pre-operative coronal deformity for the variable cohort was less than the fixed, mean 3.7° varus (SD 5.8°) compared to 4.7° varus (SD 7.9°). The FMA angles for the variable cohort ranged from 4° to 8°, (the fixed cohort from 2° to 9°). The variable valgus resection angles cohort showed a correlation between FMA and pre-operative MFT angles as had previously been shown in the fixed cohort (r = −0.499 and r = −0.346 respectively). Post op alignment showed that accuracy within ±5° increased from 86% (fixed resection angle group) to 96% (variable resection group). When using the more commonly quoted accuracy of within ±3°, this changed from 67% (fixed resection angle group) to 85% (variable resection group). These improvements were statistically significant (chi-squared 0.025 and 0.002, respectively). To further evaluate the effect of using variable angles we analysed the improvement of each of the different groups of deformity identified in the previous study (>8° varus, 8° varus to 1° valgus, >2° valgus). The range was reduced in both the extreme varus and valgus groups with the variable angles. The most significant improvement was found in the valgus group with the median reducing from 3° to 2° and range from 14° to 8°. It seems logical to use a variable distal femoral resection angle based on the patient's individual anatomy. By doing so, our results show significant improvement of postoperative limb alignment compared to traditional method of using fixed distal femoral resection angle. In units where preoperative long leg film radiographs are available, measuring the FMA angle and setting the distal femoral resection angle guide accordingly improves the postoperative limb alignment. However, where long leg radiographs are not available, changing the distal femoral resection angle according to the pre-operative varus-valgus deformity is likely to improve the post operative limb alignment. (e.g. 4°–5° distal femoral resection angle for preoperative valgus, 6° for preoperative mild/moderate varus, and 7°–8° for preoperative severe varus).Computer navigation, however, enables us not only to use customised distal femoral cut for each patients, but it also provides many other useful information such as dynamical limb alignment through motion, component rotation, soft tissue balancing.


Effective therapeutics are not available for acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Modified Xiaoqinglong decoction (M‐XQL) is reported to effectively treat pneumonia, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. In this study, the therapeutic effect and mechanism of M‐XQL were examined using a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐induced ALI mouse model. The effects of M‐XQL on lung injury, inflammatory responses, and cell apoptosis were analyzed. Additionally, high‐throughput sequencing was performed to evaluate the therapeutic mechanism of M‐XQL. Pretreatment with M‐XQL significantly and dose‐dependently mitigated the pathological changes and upregulation of pulmonary, nitric oxide content and cell apoptosis and serum tumor necrosis factor‐alpha contents in the LPS‐induced ALI mouse model. RNA sequencing analysis revealed that the expression of several arachidonic acid metabolism‐associated genes in the LPS + high‐dose M‐XQL group differed from that in the LPS group. In particular, the Cbr2, Cyp4f18, and Cyp2e1 levels were upregulated, whereas the Alox12, Ptges, and Ptges2 levels were downregulated in the LPS + high‐dose M‐XQL group. These results suggest that M‐XQL exerts therapeutic effects in ALI mice by regulating arachidonic acid metabolism and exerting anti‐apoptotic and anti‐inflammatory effects. Thus, M‐XQL is a potential agent for the clinical treatment of ALI.


Aesthetic education was formally included into the general educational guideline of the country and regarded as a critical part of the quality education as well on the Third Session of the National Conference on Education whose theme was how to deepen educational reform and to promote quality education. Universities of science and engineering are required to clearly realize that the combination of humanistic spirit and scientific spirit forms the core of the comprehensive quality of students. The art education is right one of the bridges of this combination and the key to enhance the comprehensive quality of students. This paper makes an exploration on how to practice art education in universities based on the authors' experience.


Tunneling spectroscopy played a central role in the experimental verification of the microscopic theory of superconductivity in the classical superconductors. In the case of high-temperature superconductors (HTS), the initial attempts to adopt the same approach were hampered by various problems related to the complexity of these materials. The progresses made in synthesizing high quality samples, and the use of scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) on these compounds allowed to overcome the main difficulties. In this review, we present some of the experimental highlights obtained with STM/STS techniques over the last decade. Most of the results confirm the fact that this new class of materials differ noticeably from the conventional BCS superconductors, and provide convincing arguments toward the understanding of the microscopic mechanisms at the origin of high-temperature superconductivity.


FormerFormer psychotherapist London (b South Africa 1915; q Birmingham 1939; MRCP; FRCPsych), died on 19 June 2005 following a stroke.

Figure 1

After qualifying Agnes Wilkinson (nicknamed "George") was house physician to Professor K D Wilkinson. Despite a 30 year age difference, they were married in 1941 and she acquired four stepchildren. She was widowed in 1951 and moved to Bristol, where she became physician in charge of student health and developed an interest in psychotherapy—training as an analytic psychotherapist. In 1960 she moved to London and entered full time practice as a psychotherapist, retiring in 1986. She remained active in retirement, doing a postgraduate course in gerontology. She leaves a stepson, two daughters, and a son.


Impervious surface is one of the major land cover types of urban and suburban environment. Conversion of rural landscapes and vegetation area to urban and suburban land use is directly related to the increase of the impervious surface area. The impervious surface expansion is straight-lined with decreasing green spaces in urban areas. Impervious surface is one of indicator for detecting urban heat islands. This study compares various indices for mapping impervious surfaces using Landsat 8 OLI imagery by optimizing the different spectral characteristics of Landsat 8 OLI imagery. The research objectives are (1) to apply various indices for impervious surface mapping and (2) identifies impervious surfaces in urban areas based on multiple indices and provide recommendations and find the best index for mapping impervious surface in urban areas. In addition to utilizing the index, land use supervised classification method, maximum likelihood classification used for extracting built-up, and non-built-up areas. Accuracy assessment of this research used field data collection as primary data for calculating kappa coefficient, producer accuracy, and user accuracy. The study can also be extended to find the land surface temperature and correlate the impervious surface extraction data with urban heat islands.


The embodiment of the utility model discloses a subsidiary on-off operation device, comprising a subsidiary on-off pedal, a subsidiary pedal support, a subsidiary on-off tie line and a subsidiary on-off tie line support; wherein the subsidiary on-off pedal comprises a pedal and a pedal arm connected with each other and one end of the pedal arm opposite to the pedal is fixed on the subsidiary on-off pedal support and connected with the subsidiary on-off tie line; the subsidiary on-off tie line is fixed on the subsidiary on-off tie line support and connected with an on-off rocker. The subsidiary on-off operation device also controls the clutch at the copilot side. The device is a pure machine linkage device with features of simple structure, strong reliability and obviously increased safety reliability of the vehicle.


The energy levels in $sup 50$V have been observed up to 3.9 MeV with the $sup 52$Cr(p, $sup 3$He) reaction at 40.2 MeV incident energy. Forty-five levels have been seen, and a distorted wave analysis permitted L assignments for most of them. These results are compared to existing information and to f$sub 7$/$sub 2$ /subn shell-model calculations. (AIP)


Electrons colliding with spatially fixed ions in strong laser fields are investigated by solving the time‐dependent Schrödinger equation. Considering first simple one‐dimensional model systems, the mechanisms and energy spectra of fast electrons are analyzed, starting from collisions on a single ion. By using these electrons as projectiles for a second and third collision, the maximum possible energy obtained can be significantly increased. We then generalize the analysis to 2D systems where additional angular degrees of freedom lead to a drastic loss of efficiency. This problem can be overcome by introducing external confinements, which allow to focus the electrons and increase the intensity of high‐energy electrons (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


The Recently, one of the most popular wireless network technologies is wireless body area networks (WBAN). And WBAN is a key technology for the ubiquitous era including U-health and U-society. WBAN will be used not only in medical applications but also in non-medical applications within human body area. In this paper, we introduce the applications for WBAN and bring up the guideline for application based on the technical requirements. Finally, we design a novel multimedia service framework for wireless body area networks in terms of application. In WBAN, multimedia service is very important and essential to support a variety of applications. The proposed multimedia service framework has 5 modules (text-based data module, multimedia data module, data process module, data control module, data delivery module) according to application characteristics. According to the kind of application, we can make a multimedia service framework and several mechanisms. Also, we should consider the real environments to realize the multimedia service in WBAN. And we assume that the multimedia service framework is used for the non-medical application rather than the medical application in many cases.


The method of measuring CTOD, and the effects of notch position, heat treatment, specimen thickness, and test temperature of CTOD and the CTOD design curves are examined on the basis of tests made on a 200mm thick mild steel plate and its welded joint.


This research has studied the environmental durability of CFRP strengthened steel circular hollow section (CHS) member under cold weather and a marine environment at different temperatures experimentally and numerically under bending. A significant reduction of tensile strength was found for adhesives material in both environments. The cold weather and a marine environment adversely affected the durability by reducing strength and stiffness of CFRP strengthened CHS members. An embedded GFRP layer together with CFRP layers enhanced durability in marine environment. A suitable durability design factor has been proposed under both environments.


What's literary quotation? On the one hand, although Cihai had distinct definitons in the early times,people still stick to their own views,so literary quotation resulted in more than ten kinds of definition. Those so- called self" view definitions aroused many problems, and widened people's visual field and thought, which benefits further research in the field of literary quotation. On the other hand,the literary quotation in Cihai, as a definition about one item,has experienced time's test and still is a reliable definition.Therefore,we can follow and apply them boldly when we discern and define literary quotations.


Patients with liver disease have higher nutritional requirements, which are often difficult to meet with oral diet alone; thus supplementary nasogastric tube-feeding is required to prevent further decline in their nutritional status. Protein–energy malnutrition occurs in 80–100% of patients with decompensated liver disease and is associated with higher rates of complications and mortality. Nutrition support improves clinical outcome in those with alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and naso-gastric (NG) tube feeding should be considered to ensure nutritional requirements are met. However, frequent tube dislodgement may prevent effective enteral feeding. A prospective audit was performed to quantify the scale of this problem. Data were recorded on twenty-one consecutive patients with ALD, over a 10-week period. Information on type/amount of feed prescribed and delivered, number of NG tubes dislodged, reasons for dislodgements, degree of encephalopathy and methods of tube confirmation were recorded. Fourteen males and seven females, with a mean age of 47 (range 28–61) years received NG feeding for 173 d. Of the 155 810 ml total volume of feed prescribed, only 46% was delivered. This equated to 49% of prescribed protein/kcal.


Received February 28, 2020 Revised from March 25, 2020 Accepted April 29, 2020 Available online September 15, 2020 The main aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between bank concentration and bank risk in the Jordanian banking industry from 2005 to 2016. While controlling for bank fundamentals and business cycle, we used two measurements to measure bank risk (Z-score and Non-performing loan ratio) and three measurements of bank concentration (Herfindahl–Hirschmann Index, Concentration Ratio and the Lerner Index). We applied the two-step Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) to analysis this relationship between concentration and risk. The empirical evidence shows bank concentration has a positive relationship with risk measured using non-performing loan ratio, and a negative relationship using Z-score. This suggests greater market power leads to greater risks, which in turn supports the concentration-fragility theory. JEL classification: G32 G21 G33 DOI: 10.14254/1800-5845/2020.16-3.3


There is no more doubt that the climate is changing and the Earth is warming, which is mainly attributed to human activities. The current concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere (387 ppm) is higher than it was during the past 800,000 years before the Industrial Revolution, when it ranged from 170 to 280 ppm [1]. This resulted in an increase in average global temperature of 0.74 ± 0.18°C over the last 100 years [2].


BACKGROUND: Diuretics are commonly prescribed in response to fluid retention in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). This study aimed to determine whether diuretic use is associated with increased risk of chronic dialysis and increased risk of death in patients with CKD. METHODS: A prospective cohort study of 295 stage 3 ~ 5 CKD patients was conducted to compare the volume status of diuretic users to those of diuretic non-users using bioimpedance (Study 1). It was followed by a nationwide population-based, propensity score-matched cohort study of 16,992 advanced CKD patients (serum creatinine > 6 mg/dL) from 2000 to 2009. This later study compared renal outcome and all-cause mortality of diuretic users to those of diuretic non-users using Cox proportional hazards models (Study 2). RESULTS: In Study 1, the diuretic users were significantly more volume overloaded than the non-users (relative overhydration value: 10.8 ± 9.4 versus 6.9 ± 8.0%, P < 0.001). In Study 2, the diuretic users were at significantly higher risk of chronic dialysis (hazard ratio, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.26 ~ 1.35; P < 0.001) and death (hazard ratio 1.19; 95% CI, 1.11 ~ 1.28; P < 0.001) when compared to the diuretic non-users. Volume overload may be an unmeasured confounding factor that is behind the relationship between diuretic use and increased chronic dialysis, and between diuretic use and increased mortality rate. CONCLUSION: Volume overload is common and may be an important mechanism contributing to adverse outcomes in patients with CKD. Although diuretic use was associated with more adverse outcomes, the association might be confounded by a greater severity of fluid retention in diuretic users. A prospective randomized study is warranted to clarify whether the correction of volume overload by diuretics would improve outcomes of patients with CKD.


ABSTRACT The US has signaled a retreat from its efforts aimed at promoting nation-building and protecting human rights and democracy worldwide, while China has yet to demonstrate any commitment to embracing the human rights and democracy aspects of the liberal international order (LIO). Canada, a traditional American middle power ally, has been navigating its place in the relationships between two competing powers, China and the US, while attempting to preserve the LIO. Canada cannot afford to unilaterally take coercive measures against China toward protecting human rights and democracy: it is too dependent on trade, investment and science-related collaboration with China. Canada can, however, promote a less unilateralist, more globalist attitude toward international politics. It can play a more active role in improving the work of the existing multilateral institutions and emerging partnerships, while also contributing to shifting the US foreign policy priorities toward more collaborative solutions and approaches in international affairs.


In this chapter, a measurement of electromigration is analysed. The 'rapid chloride permeability test' (RCPT) is described in ASTM standard C1202. The aim of the analysis is to obtain the fundamental properties of the concrete (diffusion coefficient and capacity factor) from the test. A computer model is described. The model represents the key processes of diffusion and electromigration using standard equations but then maintains charge neutrality by modelling changes to the voltage distribution. Results are presented to show that the measurement of the non-linearity of the voltage distribution can be used to detect cement replacements such as pulverised fuel ash (PFA) and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) in concrete.


Theoretical studies on the binding and reduction of dinitrogen at the iron–molybdenum cofactor (FeMoco) of nitrogenase are reviewed. Before considering the enzyme, mechanistic scenarios for the protonation and reduction of N2 in related small-molecule models are discussed. Particular emphasis is laid on describing DFT calculations of catalytic systems. With respect to corresponding calculations on the enzyme, theoretical treatments of the FeMoco and of dinitrogen reduction at this cluster published by Noodleman, Norskov, Blochl, Dance and others are reviewed and compared with the available experimental data.


The reliability study of thermal shock and damp heat tests for high-power white-light-emitting diode modules (WLEDMs) incorporating Ce:YAG doped glass, instead of conventional Ce:YAG doped silicone, as a phosphor layer is presented. The Ce:YAG doped glass as a phosphor layer is used for the glass to possess high transition temperature (Tg) of 750°C that can exhibit higher thermal stability and humidity resistance than conventional silicone. A comparison study of lumen loss, chromaticity shift, and transmittance loss of high-power WLEDWs with Ce:YAG doped glass and Ce:YAG doped silicone under thermal shock and damp heat tests was performed. The damp heat results showed that the high-power WLEDWs with Ce:YAG doped glass at 2∼8 wt% doping concentrations exhibited 67∼69%, 49∼65%, and 35∼67% better improvements than doped silicone for the lumen loss, chromaticity shift, and transmittance loss, respectively. The damp heat test demonstrated the larger improvement of glass doped in transmittance loss. The thermal shock results showed that the high-power WLEDWs with Ce:YAG doped glass at 2∼8 wt% doping concentrations exhibited 57∼68%, 53∼58%, and 58∼67% better improvements than doped silicone for the lumen loss, chromaticity shift, and transmittance loss, respectively. These results demonstrated that the Ce:YAG doped glass exhibited higher humidity resistance than the Ce:YAG doped silicone under damp heat and thermal shock tests. A better thermal stability and humidity resistance of doped glass phosphor layer may be beneficial to the many applications where the LED modules with high-power and high reliability are demanded.


The objective of this study was to determine the gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) levels and its relationship with diarrhea and passive transfer of immunity in Holstein calves within 24 hours and 30 days of life from Leopolis municipality, the north Parana region. Colostrum is rich in immunoglobulins and vital for immunity to newborn calves, since bovine placenta does not allow the passage of immunoglobulin to the fetus. Calves undergo various challenges that can lead to disease and death in the first month of life, including diarrhea. Diarrhea has a multifactorial etiology, and the passive immunity transferred through ingestion of colostrum is able to protect the calf against many of these etiologic agents. GGT measurements indirectly infer the amount of immunoglobulin ingested by the calf. Higher serum GGT levels (381.72 IU / L) were found at 24 hours, and a significant reduction was observed at 30 days (66.22 IU / L). When the presence or absence of diarrhea was associated with GGT levels above and below 200 IU / L, no statistical significance (P> 0.05) was observed, since 80% of animals with diarrhea had serum GGT levels higher than 200 IU / L. Under the conditions of this study, there was no relationship between the GGT concentration and the occurrence of diarrhea, and no mortality was observed despite some animals presented diarrhea.


The American Economic Association (AEA) data editor's stated mission is to "design and oversee the AEA journals' strategy for archiving and curating research data and promoting reproducible research" (Duflo and Hoynes 2018). How to follow through on this mission was articulated in the 2018 Report by the Data Editor (Vilhuber 2019). Over the past year, we have worked on infrastructure to allow for greater reproducibility of empirical articles in economics, at the journals and elsewhere. Since July 2019, the first elements of that infrastructure have been emerging and made visible and available to researchers and editors alike. In particular, we have updated the Data and Code Availability Policy (DCAP) (Section I), started comprehensive prepublication verification of reproducibility (Section IIB), made historical supplemental archives more accessible and findable (Sections IA and IIA), and coordinated with other journals, societies, and registries on these topics (Section III).


This article investigates retirement decumulation behaviours using the Grouped Fixed-Effects (GFE) estimator applied to Australian panel data on drawdowns from phased withdrawal retirement income products. Behaviours exhibited by the distinct latent groups identified suggest that retirees may adopt simple heuristics determining how they draw down their accumulated wealth. Two extensions to the original GFE methodology are proposed: a latent group label-matching procedure which broadens bootstrap inference to include the time profile estimates, and a modified estimation procedure for models with time-invariant additive fixed effects estimated using unbalanced data.


Under the influence of the global change and human activity, the land use/land cover change (LUCC) is remarkable. The evapotranspiration is one of the key taches of the water cycle. And it's the component of both water balance and energy balance, which embodiments the balance of the substance, energy and the information system. The evapotranspiration is closely related to the land use and land cover change. In this paper, we first gives the dynamic characteristics of the land use and land cover change; and then, the distribution of the land surface water and heat flux and evapotranspiration, by means of the SEBAL equation, based on the radiation balance equation and energy balance equation; and finally, based on the tempo-spatial characteristics of evapotranspiration, we discusses the influence of land use/cover change to the land surface evapotranspiration from two aspects: land use/land cover type and fresh/salt water.


It is of great urgency for us to search for teaching methods which gradually enable students to obtain English communicative competence within 45minutes each class in secondary education. This paper has made an attempt to explore the solutions to managing class atmosphere and to make forward steps to achieve the teaching results of interplaying between teachers and students.


Application of molecular markers in phylogenetic studies has become increasingly important in recent times. Availability of fast DNA sequencing techniques and robust statistical analysis methods provided new momentum to this field. Different nuclear encoded genes (16S rRNA, 5S rRNA, 28S rRNA), mitochondrial encoded genes (cytochrome oxidase, mitochondrial 12S, cytochrome b, control region), and few chloroplast encoded genes (rbcL, matK, rpi16) have been used as molecular markers. This method allows researchers to obtain new evidence concerning their phylogeny and biodiversity. Measurement of genetic diversity is important for development of strategies for effective germplasm management. The DNA-based technologies can overcome all the limitations of traditional methods used for the estimation of genetic diversity. This chapter deals with historical developments of molecular phylogeny, use of molecular markers in phylogeny, and evolution of phylogenetic tree building methods.


Discusses the law of structural stress variance during the standard period of the design of.Considering the process of the stress is stationary binomial process and strength obeys the distribution of Erlang,gives the distribution of the maximum of stress and then obtains the UMVUE of structural reliability.


Markers or primers derived from genes encoding deubiquitinating enzymes are provided to detect the differentiation or undifferentiation of human embryonic stem cells into vascular endothelial cells, so that they are useful for detection whether the human embryonic stem cells maintain undifferentiation state during cultivation. A microarray for detecting the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into vascular endothelial cells comprises a marker consisting of 10-100 consecutive nucleotides selected from genes of SEQ ID NO:1 to SEQ ID NO:29 encoding deubiquitinating enzymes. A microarray for detecting the undifferentiation of human embryonic stem cells into vascular endothelial cells comprises a marker consisting of 10-100 consecutive nucleotides selected from genes of SEQ ID NO:88 to SEQ ID NO:94 encoding deubiquitinating enzymes. A method for detecting the differentiation or undifferentiation of human embryonic stem cells into vascular endothelial cells comprises the steps of: collecting a nucleic acid sample from the human embryonic stem cells during cultivation; and measuring the expression amount of genes of SEQ ID NO:1 to SEQ ID NO:29 or SEQ ID NO:88 to SEQ ID NO:94 encoding deubiquitinating enzymes by performing RT-PCR(reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction) or real time-PCR by using primers.


The legalization of the executive in our country essentially r efers to the state or degree of the civilization which the executive authority c an achieve by acting in accordance with the laws in the processes of their admin istration .To join the WTO will not only speed up China's internationalization o f market economy but make the legalization of its executive ways an imminent tas k as well.For this purpose ,we must change our concept of executive,construct a rational platform of legalized executive;perferct the law systems to provide a i nstitutional guarantee;regulize the executive procedures and thus give the legal ized executive a sense of "sunlight".


Pastoral production is a component of the South Asian rural economy that has rarely excited curiosity in historical research. Pastoralists who are mobile and do not live iw substantial houses leave such scant remains at their halting places as to be virtually untraceable in the archaeological record, whereas the discarded remains of those who have village headquarters during one part of the year may not be particularly different from those of the other villagers who do not move with animals. When pastoralists occupy the interstices of a settled region and are controlled only indirectly by states, they find little mention in royal inscriptions or land grants; and in any case it has always been easier to tax peasants than mobile pastoralists. In contrast with Central Asia and Africa, we do not have vast stretches of natural grassland in South Asia which would have provided habitats for large and consolidated pastoral groups; here grassland is confined to small


Urban ventilation corridors serve as channels of fresh air flow between the city and suburbs, helping to improve the wind and thermal environments and thermal comfort. However, owing to the limited number of weather stations, it is impossible to quantitatively reveal the effective effect range of urban ventilation corridors on urban thermal comfort at the scale of 100 × 100 m, which is optimal for urban ventilation corridors. In this study, we integrated building data, the European Centre for Medium-Range weather forecast data (ECMWF), MOD13Q1, and other multisource data to analyse the effect of urban ventilation corridors on urban thermal comfort at a unified scale of 100 × 100 m. The results showed that ECMWF and Landsat8 data could be used as substitute factors to improve the universal thermal climate index (UTCI) urban spatial resolution. The effective range of urban ventilation corridor effects on the urban surface temperature and urban comfort was ≤1000 m, with building density and vegetation coverage as the main factors limiting this range. Therefore, attention should be paid to the effective range of urban ventilation corridors, the surrounding building density, vegetation coverage, and the rational use of urban ventilation corridors to reduce the energy consumption of air conditioning in summer.


The present invention discloses an anti-axis winding cutting means cutting disc cutting machine cutting, comprising a cutting disc saw (1), the inertial disk (2), the connecting bolt (3), base (4), the bearing base (5) pressure on the saw cutting serrations (10), the rotation shaft (11), the gland (12) on the positioning, positioning the follower (13), tight locking nut (18), the rotation of the spiral shaft (19), positioning cover hole (20), gland hexagonal hole (21) is positioned on the gland inner ring (22) positioning, wherein: a movable blade (6) and a movable handle (7) by a fastening bolt knife (9) fixed to the rotary shaft (11), fixed blades (8) fixed by welding on base (4), a gap is opened (23) within the bore (20) is positioned on the upper lid, is positioned under the pressure the bore also cover a gap is opened, the fastening tableting inner tongue (16) is fastened on the sheeting (14) extends into the inner bore of the notch on the upper and lower gland (23), the fastening tableting fastening tabs on the outer (14) locking securing pieces (15) pressed against the curved stop pull cap nut (19).


To the Editor Heterozygous microdeletions involving the 12q15 chromosomal region have been associated with a phenotype of developmental delay, nasal speech, hypothyroidism, and facial dysmorphism (Lopez et al., 2012; Schluth et al., 2008; Vergult et al., 2011). Analysis of different copy number variations (CNVs) involving this locus led to the identification of a minimal overlapping region where CNOT2 is the only commonly deleted gene (Alesi et al., 2017; Uehara, Takenouchi, et al., 2019; Vergult et al., 2011). More recently, a heterozygous intragenic deletion of CNOT2 was described in a 13-year-old male with clinical features resembling those associated to 12q15 microdeletion syndrome (Alesi et al., 2019). Another report of a truncating variant in CNOT2 in 6-year-old male with characteristic facial features and developmental delay further suggested that haploinsufficiency of this gene was causative of the phenotype (Uehara, Tsuchihashi, et al., 2019). CNOT2 protein is a structural component of the "carbon catabolite repressor 4 negative on TATA-less" (CCR4-NOT). The CCR4-NOT complex is composed of 11 subunits and is involved in the regulation of gene expression (Miller & Reese, 2012; Shirai et al., 2014). Its main role is to initiate the degradation of mRNA by deadenylation of the poly (A) tail (Webster et al., 2018; Yamashita et al., 2005). Interestingly, the disruption of the CNOT1 and CNOT3 genes, encoding two other subunits of the CCR4-NOT complex, has also been identified as causative of novel developmental disorders (Martin et al., 2019; Vissers et al., 2020). Here, we document ade novo heterozygous deletion involving the first three exons of CNOT2 in an adult patient who, in addition to developmental delay and facial characteristics typical of this syndrome, presented with autism spectrum disorder and epilepsy. The patient is a 40-year-old male. He was born to healthy unrelated parents at 8 months of gestation, with weight and length at the 10th percentile. His development was delayed (independent walking at 30 months, language acquisition at 5 years) and he received special education. From infancy, the proband presented with febrile and spontaneous generalized tonic-clonic seizures, currently well controlled by treatment with carbamazepine. Moreover, he had focal seizures with electroencephalographic recordings suggesting of an origin in the left hemisphere. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at age 32 revealed an irregular border of the left ventricle and a parietal loss of white matter on the same side, considered compatible with a perinatal hypoxemic-ischemic encephalopathy. Autism was suspected during childhood and the recent assessment with standardized tools including "Autism Diagnostic Interview–Revised" (ADI-R), "Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-II," and "Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2" (ADOS-2), confirmed difficulties in social interactions and communication as well as restrictive interests, repetitive and stereotype behaviors, corroborating the diagnosis of low-functioning autism without regression. In addition, the proband exhibited challenging behaviors, including sexual offending, mood fluctuations, excessive activity, and impulsivity, that significantly improved under carbamazepine. At age 15, following a streptococcal pharyngitis, acute rheumatic fever was suspected because of joint pain and aortic and mitral regurgitations. Subsequent cardiac evaluations showed Received: 17 February 2021 Revised: 8 April 2021 Accepted: 30 April 2021


The role of acetaldehyde (AcH) in producing fluorescent compounds as a result of interaction with food constituents was studied. A model system consisting of albacore (Thunnus alalunga) muscle and AcH in 0.1 M phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) was used. Fish muscle was submitted to three different temperatures (5, 15, and 30 degrees C) and four different concentrations of AcH (0, 1, 2, and 5%) during 1 month. Resulting fluorescent compounds were analyzed in the aqueous and organic extracts at three different excitation/emission maxima wavelengths: 327/415, 393/463, and 479/516 nm. Brown color formation was also measured in organic extracts at 420 nm. A strong relationship between fluorescence formation as a function of AcH concentration, time, and temperature of reaction was evident. An augmentation in all three variables produced a significant shift of fluorescence to higher excitation/emission maxima wavelengths which was accompanied by a marked increase in browning.


The compositions of stars and planets are connected, but the definition of "habitability" and the "habitable zone" only take into account the physical relationship between the star and planet. Planets, however, are made truly habitable by both chemical and physical processes that regulate climatic and geochemical cycling between atmosphere, surface, and interior reservoirs. Despite this, an "Earth-like" planet is often defined as a planet made of a mixture of rock and Fe that is roughly 1 Earth-density. To understand the interior of a terrestrial planet, the stellar abundances of planet-building elements (e.g., Mg, Si, and Fe) can be used as a proxy for the planet's composition. We explore the planetary mineralogy and structure for fictive planets around the 10 stars closest to the Sun using stellar abundances from the Hypatia Catalog. Although our sample contains stars that are both sub- and super-solar in their abundances, we find that the mineralogies are very similar for all 10 planets—since the error or spread in the stellar abundances create significant degeneracy in the models. We show that abundance uncertainties need to be on the order of [Fe/H] < 0.02 dex, [Si/H] < 0.01 dex, [Al/H] < 0.002 dex, while [Mg/H] and [Ca/H] < 0.001 dex in order to distinguish two unique planetary populations in our sample of 10 stars. While these precisions are high, we believe that they are possible given certain abundance techniques, in addition to methodological transparency, that have recently been demonstrated in the literature. However, without these precisions, the uncertainty in planetary structures will be so high that we will be unable to confidently state that a planet is like the Earth, or unlike anything we have ever seen.


The invention discloses a method for improving the activity of methanogens while reducing high-concentration ammonia nitrogen in the anaerobic process, and belongs to the field of water treatment. The method comprises the following steps of: contacting high-concentration nitrogen-containing organic waste water with anaerobic microorganisms fully in an anaerobic reactor to perform reaction, and degrading to obtain a large amount of ammonia nitrogen; introducing the waste water into a crystallizing sedimentation tank partially, adding a dissoluble magnesium source and phosphates in a certain ratio, and regulating the pH value to 7.0 to 10.0, so that Mg , NH4 and PO4 in the waste water react to generate an ammoniomagnesium phosphate (MAP) crystal, and precipitating the MAP crystal; and stabilizing the pH value of treated supernatant to 6.5 to 8.0 by a pH regulating tank, and refluxing to the anaerobic reactor. By the method, ammonia nitrogen resources in the waste water can be recovered effectively, the phenomenon of the reduction of the activity of anaerobic sludge due to overhigh concentration of the ammonia nitrogen can be prevented, and the operation effect of the anaerobic reaction and the yield of methane can be improved.


Kidney is an important organ – vital for excretion, osmoregulation and maintenance of homeostasis; various environmental pollutants like xenobiotics and heavy metals are known to affect its morphology. Fishes can thus act as heavy metal indicators and assess pollution in the aquatic environment. The present work deals with treatment of fishes with cadmium chloride (8ppm for 6days). The changes brought about by cadmium toxicity to the kidney of Oreochromis mossambicus (Peters) was studied using electron microscopy. Light microscopy and ultrastructure of kidney indicates that it consists of 5 distinct regions, namely, neck region, proximal region, central slender region, distal region and collecting tubule. Kidney of cadmium treated fishes show presence of electron dense material within the cytoplasm. Blocking of junctional complex, dilation and fragmentation of endoplasmic reticulum, wavy plasmalemma invaginations, large scale appearance of cytoplasmic vacuoles, occurrence of autophagic vesicles, increased lysosomes, vacuolation/fragmentation of mitochondria are the other changes seen.


A simple accelerated third-order Runge-Kutta-type, fixed time
step, integration scheme that uses just two function evaluations
per step is developed. Because of the lower number of function
evaluations, the scheme proposed herein has a lower computational
cost than the standard third-order Runge-Kutta scheme while
maintaining the same order of local accuracy. Numerical examples
illustrating the computational efficiency and accuracy are
presented and the actual speedup when the accelerated algorithm
is implemented is also provided.


Mexican migrants in the United States are still widely assumed to be an ethnically homogeneous population. Historically, most Mexican migrants did share many common characteristics, coming primarily from rural communities in the central-western part of the country. Over the last two decades, however, the Mexican migrant population has diversified dramatically, both socially and geographically.


The purpose of this study is to make a comparison of the curriculum changes made in the secondary schools of Texas and Louisiana since 1920, and to determine if these changes conform to changes in accepted educational aims.


As could be expected, the low titres of the allantoic fluids are reflected in the concentrates; the mean titre of these is I0"-" which is less than half of what is usually obtained with other influenza strains. The low virus content in the concentrate is mainly due to the low titre in the allantoic fluids, but low recovery of virus in the final concentrate is a contributing factor. Only about 50% of the original HA activity was recovered in the concentrate. This is in contrast to results obtained with previous influenza strains, where the recovery rate has consistently been at least 70%. An analysis of the losses during centrifugation is shown in Table 2, which records the haemagglutinating activity in the allantoic fluids and in the Sharples centrifugal fractions for various vaccine preparations. Two columns show representative results as obtained with Asian 1957 virus and the B/Johannesburg strain. To the right are shown results obtained with 3 different batches of Hong Kong virus. The recovery rates of haemagglutinins in the final concentrate are listed in the bottom row. The recovery rates with the 3 Hong Kong preparations were only 54%, 48% and 38%, respectively, as compared with a recovery rate of more than 70% with both the Asian and the B strains. Virus antigen is lost during centrifugation with the effluent liquids, but the loss is insignificant with all strains, and, if anything, it is lower with the Hong Kong virus than with the other strains. Some antigen is also lost in the pellet after the final low-speed centrifugation. This loss is very small with the Asian and B strains, but surprisingly high with all 3 preparations of Hong Kong virus. It appears likely that the comparatively poor recovery of Hong Kong virus in the final concentrate may be due to an aggregation of viral antigen which is sedimented and removed at low gravity. In summary, the production of Hong Kong influenza vaccines was carried out at the Statens Serumrrinstitut by conventional methods without any particular difficulties, but with a relatively poor yield. This was due mainly to low titres of the allantoic fluids and partly to a lower than usual recovery of virus by differential concentration. Most likely the adaptation to eggs of the Hong Kong virus strains we used was insufficient. I know of other smaller vaccine production units which have had similar experiences. For such smaller laboratories it would undoubtedly be a great advantage if the adaptation of new strains could somehow be centralized (for instance by the World Health Organization) so that virus could be made available which had been sufficiently adapted to eggs to be suitable for the preparation of seed virus for vaccine production.


We derive an equation of the energy of a particle equal to Planck h times the frequency plus/minus the Heisenberg uncertainty energy as based on our previously constructed "combined spacetime four-manifold." At the same time, we provide more details to our spacetime geometry, in particular, that of the "wave universe."


Aging diseases are often called as the age-associated diseases. Age plays a vital role in these type of diseases. Generally these diseases are occurred at the very elderly stage of the humans. Cancer, Diabetes, Kidney, Lung, Liver etc., are comes under aging diseases. In this project, we collect and prepare 5 different types of datasets that comes under the Aging Diseases (AD). The five different types of aging diseases datasets that we collected are Breast Cancer, Diabetes, Heart, Liver, Kidney datasets. For the mentioned datasets we perform Classification, Prediction, Model fitting using the Various Machine Learning Classifiers (Algorithms) and prepare a Ranking Table which include the Datasets and the Accuracies of ML classifiers that obtained. In this research we calculate the average of all the accuracies of all the ML classifiers of each aging disease dataset and provide the highest average accuracy. The various Machine Learning classifiers that we used for our analyses are Naïve-Bayes (NB), K-Star, J48(C4.5), Random Forest(RF) and Random Tree(RT). These five Machine Learning Classifiers are applied on each dataset that we collected which are related to the aging diseases. We also perform statistical Analyses for each individual dataset and also we perform Attribute Ranking to determine which attribute is considered to be highly prioritized. Our main intention of this project is to say which Machine Learning Model is the best classifier among the other classifiers in giving the best and highest Accuracy and taken the least amount of time to construct the model. As per our Machine Learning Analyses Random Forest (RF) ML classifier gives the highest Average Accuracy of 83.0494% and ranks 1 among all the Machine Learning Classifiers. Key Terms: Aging Diseases, Machine Learning (ML), Random Forest (RF),Ranking.


SYNOPTIC ABSTRACT The asymptotic order of the expected length of excursions above a fixed level u for a Gaussian process in continuous time is O(u−l) when u is sufficiently large. The expected length of excursions above level u in discrete time can be defined in a similar manner to the case of continuous time. Asymptotic orders in the discrete case are O(u−1) for the Gaussian process and O(u0) for the process having the Pearson Type VII distribution. This paper shows that, for the non-Gaussian processes having generalized Laplace and logistic distributions, their asymptotic orders of the expected length of excursions in the discrete case are equal to O(u−1/2).


The forecasting accuracy of tourist flow in scenic spots directly affects the management level of scenic spots. The modeling efficiency of the current tourist flow forecasting models in scenic spots is poor and it takes a long time. In order to obtain the ideal tourist flow forecast results in scenic spots, the design is based on the characteristics of changes in tourist flow in scenic spots A forecasting model of tourist flow in scenic spots based on big data analysis. First, analyze the current tourist flow forecasting progress of the scenic spot, find out the various shortcomings of the tourist flow forecast of the scenic spot, and then collect the passenger flow data of the scenic spot for a period of time, and use the ARIMA model and the BP neural network to analyze the seasonality and randomness of the tourist flow of the scenic spot. The change characteristics are modeled, and their prediction results are weighted to obtain the tourist flow forecast results of the scenic spot. Finally, the comparison test is carried out with the current classic scenic spot passenger flow prediction model. Compared with the classic model, the big data analysis of the tourist flow fitting of the scenic spot The accuracy of forecasting and forecasting has been improved to a certain extent. At the same time, the modeling efficiency of tourist flow in scenic spots has been improved, which can provide valuable information for scenic spot managers, thereby improving the management level of tourist flow in scenic spots.


When rat anterior pituitary (AP) was incubated at 37.5 C in a Dubnoff metabolic shaker for 2 hr, 169% more prolactin was found in the combined medium and AP than in nonincubated AP. When AP was inc...


[Objective] To observe the clinical effect of treatment of asthma in children and asthma soup Self.[Methods] Of pediatric asthma patients admitted to our hospital from August 2011 to August 2012,80 patients were randomly divided into the treatment group and the control group,40 cases in each treatment control group of children given routinely and asthma,oxygen,anti-infection and Gina programs,the treatment group in the control group on the basis of self antiasthmatic soup.Two groups of children 3 to 5 days after the medication observe its efficacy.[Results] Compared to the control group,the clinical effects in the treatment group add services Pingchuan soup more favorable difference both statistically significant.[Couclusion] Pingchuan decoction for the treatment of children with asthma clinical curative effect,worthy of promotion and application of.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore and expand the legal discussion on T-Visa requirements and how it can be better structured to provide support for victims of sex trafficking that suffer from severe mental health injuries. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted extensive US legal and sociological research compiling human trafficking mental health report data, primarily conducted in Europe. Based on these finding, the authors interviewed practitioners in the legal field to verify assumed legal hurdles. Once validated the author's attempted to address and design an equitable approach towards mitigating the demonstrated legal shortfall. Findings – There is a dearth of US research on mental health trauma survivors of trafficking endure. This void prevents the legal system from adequately addressing likely outcomes suffered by the victims of this crime and prevents policy makers from structuring legal requirements equitably. Policy makers often need concrete examples of problems before reacting. This paper attempts to demonstrate how the current T-Visa requirements fail to fully recognize mental health injuries of sex trafficking and begins to provide a pathway to balance. Originality/value – While the statistical data was previously conducted by outside sources, the legal analysis is completely original by the author's and is likely to have a very high value to policy makers when addressing these issues. This paper also highlights the need for a more robust research program into human trafficking and mental health injuries within the US so that many of the analogies and assumptions can be supported.


Abstract The present study reports hitherto unknown in vitro antioxidant and in vivo hepatoprotective activity of essential oil from leaf galls on Pistacia chinensis ssp. integerrima. The identification of 29 compounds comprising 99% of essential oil was done by GC-MS analysis. The major components of essential oil were found to be α-pinene, terpinene-4-ol, β-pinene, Δ3-carene, limonene, γ-terpinene, and α-terpineol. It exhibited remarkable photochemiluminescence inhibition, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and 2,2-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) radical scavenging activity and inhibited lipid perioxidation with IC50 values 118.4 ± 1.89 and 103.5 ± 2.67 μg/mL, respectively. Treatment of mice with carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) resulted in significant changes in the biochemical parameters. Pretreatment of essential oil to mice at doses 0.1 and 0.2 mL/kg significantly (p < 0.001) decreased the elevation of biochemical parameters and the effects were comparable with standard drug 'Silymarin'. Decreased necrotic zones and lymphocyte infiltration were observed in liver sections of mice treated with the essential oil. This is first report of essential oil of P. chinensis ssp. integerrima preventing CCl4 induced damage in mice liver.


Compared to Cr-Ni stainless steel, nickel-saving stainless steel is a low-cost austenitic stainless steel. We studied the deformation mechanism of stainless steel at various annealing temperatures (850 °C, 950 °C, and 1050 °C). The grain size of the specimen increases with increasing annealing temperature while the yield strength decreases, which follows the Hall–Petch equation. When plastic deformation occurs, dislocation increases. However, the deformation mechanisms can vary between different specimens. Stainless steel with smaller grains is more likely to transform into martensite when deformed. While twinning occurs when the grains are more prominent, the deformation results in twinning. The phase transformation during plastic deformation relies on the shear, so the orientation of the grains is relevant before and after plastic deformation.


Cellulose acetate propionate(CAP) was synthesized through heterogeneous esterification of cellulose.Cellulose acetate propionate with various degree of substitution was synthesized in acetic acid/acetic anhydride/propionic anhydride system with sulfuric acid as catalyst.The product was identified by means of FT IR.The effect of ratio of acetic anhydride/propionic anhydride,molecular weight of cellulose,amount of catalyst and esterification time on viscosity,thermal properties and dissolubility of CAP was studied.The suitable conditions were obtained as follows: molecular weight of wood cellulose was DP=1926,amount of catalyst was 10%(wt) to cellulose,reaction temperature was 40℃,and reaction time was 3 h.


The restrictive doctrine of state immunity from enforcement measures in relation to diplomatic immunity : an anlysis of the Sedelmayer case


This paper reports the results of a field study examining the ability of decision-makers to effectively account for evolving and sporadically changing information in their subjective probability judgments. The research is conducted in a naturalistic setting where it is possible to measure the extent to which dynamic information is employed in probability judgments: the horserace betting market. The study explores the subjective probabilities of bettors concerning 16,344 horses running in 1,671 races. The results suggest that bettors are skilled in discounting evolving and sporadically changing information in their probability judgments. They appear to achieve this by adopting effective heuristics to simplify their dynamic information environment and by learning to improve their judgments using outcome feedback. A number of task, individual and environment related factors which help bettors' effectively handle sporadically changing information, and which could be of value to decision-makers in other areas of human endeavor, are discussed.


TRANSITION INITIATIVES LOCATED in college settings and aimed at non-college bound youth with disabilities have reported positive results. These results lend credibility to the view that people with limited intellectual capacity who participate in appropriate and timely education programs can learn skills and behaviors that positively influence their transition from school to community and, subsequently, their quality of life.