Part 1 Introduction. Part 2 The euro and its implciations: the effect so far monetary convergence integration of Euroland country markets. Part 3 Europe's banking system: the role and impact of the European Central Bank payment systems ECB policy considerations market consolidation cross-border relationship market specialization retail banking long-term trends and strategies. Part 4 The corporate sector: mergers and acquisitions national champions corporate finance and IPOs industry consolidation. Part 5 Pension funds and asset management: the pension environment investment flows the asset management industry the retail market. Part 6 The rise of e-commerce: capital markets the impact at retail level industries regulation. Part 7 The debt markets: the decline of the government market the rise of the corporate market investor behaviour diversification high-yield market credit research trading competition between investment banks. Part 8 The Pfandbrief market: onto the world stage the German market outside Germany the secondary market the future. Part 9 Securitization: the ins and outs Europe - the boom so far market segments - Europe and the US model balance sheet management, CLOs and synthetics five years of rapid growth to come. Part 10 The equity markets: demand-side trends - the equity culture supply-side trends - sources of issuance a Euroland market? consolidation - a pan-European exchange or a global exchange? growth stocks - the Neuier Markt and beyond the alternatives private equity. Part 11 Securities administration: a European central depository derivatives custody the international context. Part 12 The derivatives markets: bourses and bonds over the counter products the future. Part 13 Credit derivatives: the instruments market forces growth areas new approaches. Part 14 The money markets: the rise of Euribor the ECB's role in the money markets interbank payment systems electronic trading repos commercial paper. Part 15 Conclusion.


Author(s): Steen, Douglas | Abstract: The feral hog is an Old World species introduced to Texas by early Spanish explorers. Populations in Texas are descended from European wild hogs introduced for sporting purposes, and from escaped domestic swine that have established feral populations. Today, Texas has a feral hog population estimated at about 2 million animals, the most of any state. Feral hogs are considered a pest throughout much of their range. They are responsible for damaging crops, pasture, rangeland, livestock, and wildlife resources. Because of their reproductive capacity and their omnivorous eating habits, the feral hog population has rapidly increased across the state over the past 25 years. This increasing population, and resulting economic losses, have led resource managers to investigate alternative methods of managing feral hog populations. The uniqueness of the Texas Coastal Plains habitat lends itself to aerial hunting more often than a habitat type with a more densely formed overstory. We review the impacts of aerial hunting operations in Matagorda County in the Southeast Texas Coastal Plains.


The assembly sequence of products directly affects the assembly quality and assembly cost of products. Artificial planning assembly sequence can no longer meet the increasingly complex requirements of assembly. More and more intelligent algorithms are applied to the field of sequence planning. In order to improve product assembly efficiency, the paper proposes an assembly sequence planning method based on the discrete difference genetic algorithm. Differential evolution algorithm is a heuristic search algorithm that can be programmed with real numbers and has a simple structure and is easy to implement. According to the characteristics of assembly sequence planning, the operations of variation, crossover and mutation were redefined, and the fitness function model with the feasibility, stability, assembly direction change times and assembly tool change times as the evaluation index was established. The algorithm is analyzed by the vise assembly example. The feasibility and stability of the algorithm are verified. The comparison with genetic algorithm proves: the method is more efficient; the convergence speed is faster; the quality and quantity dependence of the initial population is smaller.


Introduction Past studies have found students to perform differently between class grades and standardized test scores – two essential and complementary measures of student achievement. This study examines predictors of the relative performance between these two measures in the context of the advanced placement (AP) program, namely, we compared students' AP exam scores to the class grade they received in the corresponding AP course. For example, if a student received a high AP class grade but a low AP exam score, what characteristics about the student or their learning context might explain such discrepancy? Methods We used machine learning, specifically random forests, and model interpretation methods on data collected from 381 high school students enrolled in an AP Statistics course in the 2017–2018 academic year, and additionally replicated our analyses on a separate cohort of 422 AP Statistics students from the 2018–2019 academic year. Results Both analyses highlighted students' school and behavioral engagement as predictors of differential performance between AP class grades and AP exam scores. Discussion Associations between behavioral engagement and differential performance suggest that the ways in which a student interacts with AP course material to obtain high class grades can differ from study habits that lead to optimal performance on the AP exam. Additionally, school-level differences in relative performance pose equity concerns towards the use of AP exam scores in high-stakes decisions, such as college admissions. Implications are discussed from a pedagogical and policy perspective.


Tom Lehrer, a satirical songwriter and comedian, once observed, "It is a sobering thought that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead ten years." One gets somewhat the same feeling reading the biography of Margaret Wise Brown. She died at age 42 from an embolism that developed following some routine surgery, and each of the years from her mid-twenties until her death was filled with books she wrote and illustrators she worked with, all in a manner that appears utterly natural and effortless. In the chronicle of her life, a year seems like forever since so much is happening to her month by month. The compression is like her work itself. She is a miniaturist who pays at once playful and serious attention to the details that occupy the mind of a small child, able to create a sense of space that is both large and small: "In the great green room / There was a telephone / And a red balloon / And a picture of— / The cow jumping over the moon / And there were three little bears sitting on chairs / And two little kittens / And a pair of mittens. . ." (Goodnight Moon). She came of age into a world that was ready for her talents, and she found the people who would help her shape them—first the founder of the Bank Street School, Lucy Sprague Mitchell, later adventurous and sure-footed editors like Ursula Nordstrom, and, one after the other, illustrators whose sensibilities were congenial with her own. Marcus writes that she was "one of the central figures of a period now considered the golden age of the American picture book, the years spanning the postDepression thirties and the postwar baby boom forties and fifties" (1). In 15 prolific years, she wrote close to 200 children's books. Born in 1910, Brown lived a privileged but somewhat lonely childhood. Her paternal grandfather, B. Gratz Brown, had been both a senator and governor of Missouri, and an unsuccessful running mate for the U.S. presidency with Horace Greeley. Brown's father, who did not inherit his


This study aims to analyze law enforcement policies against psychotropic abuse by persons with disabilities at the Yogyakarta Police Station and aims to determine the factors causing the use of psychotropic substances among persons with disabilities. The approach used by the author is the legal approach. related to the steps taken by the Yogyakarta Police Narcotics Unit in law enforcement of psychotropic abuse by persons with disabilities by implementing Penal and Non-Penal policies, in addition to using a concept analysis approach (analytical appraisal), and a case approach (case appraisal). The conceptual approach method is carried out to determine the process of resolving existing psychotropic abuse towards legal handling, while the Case approach is to analyze cases involving persons with disabilities who commit psychotropic abuse. The analysis used is qualitative, namely the method of data analysis by grouping and selecting the data obtained from research based on its quality and truth. Factors causing narcotics abuse against persons with disabilities are personality, family, education, environmental and economic factors. In general, the factors that cause people with disabilities to use or abuse psychotropic substances are due to inferiority or lack of confidence and feeling isolated due to physical limitations. Policies and legal remedies in overcoming narcotics abuse consist of penal and non-penal policies, which are either legally processed or rehabilitated. Efforts made by the Yogyakarta Police Narcotics Unit in preventing and dealing with Psychotropics are by means of pre-emptive, preventive and repressive methods.


Child abuse is one of the most serious problems in the world. The issue of child abuse is a major concern for governments around the globe, as it has a profound effect on society. As a result of this problem, many media houses, scholars and people from all walks of life are engaged in trying to understand and examine the problem of child abuse, especially in terms of causes and measures. The present study will provide beneficial and purposeful information on child physical abuse and the feasible relationship with cultural factors. Therefore, this study aims to highlight the major problems faced by children in the form of physical abuse in Malakand district. The purpose of the present study is to fulfill the research gap in Malakand District about the consequences of physical abuse of children who have experienced numerous or all types of physical abuse. The study was based on the interviews from the volunteers about Physical punishments in Malakand.


Based on very general arguments we show that for any geometry of the experiment, in the regime when the measurement leads to a quantized Hall conductivity, almost the entire current injected into the sample is carried by the bulk states. The crucial role of the contacts equilibrating di(cid:11)erent edge channels is emphasized. the discovery of the Quantum Hall E(cid:11)ect (QHE) [1] of the current injected into the sample dis-cussion. `edge channel current' currents' gas the inversion current


Dr. Joseph O. Loretan is Associate Superintendent, Division of Junior High Schools, New York City. This article is based on an address to principals by Dr. Loretan. IN NEW YORK, we have challenged ourselves to rethink plans for class schedules so that greater indi7 vidualization can be achieved in the future. A manual to guide principals in school programming is being prepared. Experimentation to achieve better classification is not a new activity in the Junior High School Division. We have had a discussion of large-group and small-group instruction at one of our major conferences of principals, including a review of this subject by an inspiring teacher, Dr. Lloyd Trump. Beginning more than three years ago, we began encouraging large-group instruction techniques in corrective reading. Recently we have expanded this experiment to schools where principals have expressed an interest in the general fields of English language arts and mathematics. We have two experiments going on in preparatory work in connection with programmed instruction, possibly leading to teaching machines. For one, we are receiving some help with funds from the Carnegie Foundation. The introduction of a three-year enrichment program for bright, special-progress students and the development of a career guidance plan for our slow learners are new ventures in classification to suit special needs.


The challenge of 'postmaterialism' has been a tough one on German Social Democracy. The party has had a difficult time in adapting its vote‐maximising strategy to the rise of 'green' issues. In part this can indeed be attributed to factors like a traditionally close linkage to blue‐collar unions and a prolonged participation in government. But that is only part of the story. Even allowing for such structural factors, the SPD's commitment to blue‐collar concerns and the ossifying effects of government tenure were stronger than they need have been. Already by the end of the 1970s, 'greening' pressures were able to muster the support of almost half the party. A closer analysis of the way in which these pressures were checked suggests that contingent factors were playing a powerful role.


ABSTRACT The pandemic caused by the COVID-19 induced a variety of psychological disorders for the entire community in each country in one way or the other. PTSD is also an important psychological concern in the context of the COVID-19. As observed during previous epidemics, people are growing increasingly dependent on the media for the sake of information, while the media has exhibited a tendency to amplify the public risk in perception of the disease. Hence, the present study investigated that how the media use pattern of the people influenced on the PTSD syndrome in the backdrop of the sever outbreak of the Covid-19. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted during lockdown to collect data from the Indian adults (age≥ 18) on the media use pattern and the PTSD through snowball sampling. Out of the 672 respondent, only 658 samples were selected for the final analysis. Apart from the percentage analysis of demographic data, simple regression analysis model was used to measure the relationship between the media use and the PTSD. To predict the probable associations between socio-demographic characteristics with the PTSD score and pattern of the media use one-way ANOVA and the LSD post hoc was done as inferential statistics. The length of engagement with media of people in quarantine was quiet high and the higher exposure of the media has led to a higher posttraumatic stress among them. As demographic variables, young people, lower income group and the PG qualified respondents have shown higher PTSD than their counterpart.


The invention that relates to a dough and a process for the preparation thereof by the strain used yeomsa, General Inc. and four processing steps to impart bee kiseong by mixing the constructed yarn and yarn formation step of adjusting to a predetermined pre-designed rate to potential ticket barn to shrink the woven fabric and weaving steps to create a fabric by weaving using the dyed yarn yeomsa the dyeing step of dyeing the yarn processed yarn comprising: a post-processing step to increase the elongation at break, in particular potential volume housing and mixture of normal fiber to prepare a finished yarn improves the elongation and the outside of the cone and the roll, the middle part, the tensile strength of the inside, elongation and fabric and color having an easily dyeing and post-processing to be uniform effect using the elongation yarn yeomsa and its It relates to a process for producing the same. Sayeom, finished yarn, crimp potential, high elongation


Structure and deformation behaviour of as-deposited Zr/Nb NMMs investigated by XRD, Nanoindentation and FIB/SEM.Dataset to support:
Callisti, Mauro and Polcar, Tomas (2017) Combined size and texture-dependent deformation and strengthening mechanisms in Zr/Nb nano-multilayers. Acta MaterialiaFunded by EPSRC (South of England Analytical Electron Microscope , EP/K040375/1, 2013 to 2017).


The paper shows the national priority in the field of food security. The market of dairy producers in the Far East was analyzed. The quality of processed cheeses sold in Khabarovsk was assessed


The present invention provides a method for inhibiting tumor cell proliferation and tumor growth using placental stem cells and placental stem cell populations. The present invention also provides methods for the generation and selection of placental cells and cell populations based on tumor suppression and compositions containing such cells and cell populations. [Selection figure] None


High temperature opal glaze has been developed with the use of feldspar,talc and zinc oxide as flux and opacifier. The ideal glaze formula,preparation process,firing system are optimized with the aid of cross experimental design.The result shows that high alumina opal glaze is fully suitable for the high alumina porcelain body,and the main factors affecting the glaze effect are material's composition,particle size and batch ratio.


The development of the tourism industry cannot be separated from its relationship with the experience of tourists who have been involved at an emotional, physical, intellectual, or even spiritual level. Halal tourism is unique and different because the tourist experience becomes bound by Islamic laws and regulations. This research is a literature review study that aims to map and reflect on the literature based on academic databases in the field of halal tourism and tourist experiences. Using a content analysis approach to 51 academic writings, this study illustrates the distribution of tourists and halal tourism, provides context in scientific disciplines and focuses on geographic coverage and an overview of the tourist experience based on typology. The results of the study indicate some areas that are still underexplored and recommend solutions to solve them.


This scoping study aimed to provide a critical understanding of the concept of "graduate resilience" to develop an agenda for future research. The research comprises of a systematic review of the academic, practitioner, policy and 'grey' literatures. This report presents a robust and evidence-based account of current representations of resilience and develops a theoretical framework to inform how we can critically think about graduate resilience in the context of an increasingly competitive graduate labour market. A summary of the key themes and findings are presented below.


Luminescence properties of single-phased materials in the systems CaW04-YNb04 and CaW04-YTa04 are described. The quenching temperature of the W04 emission decreases with decreasing tungsten concentration in these systems. The emission of compositions within these systems is situated at longer wavelengths than the emission of CaW04 and YNb04 themselves.


Beijing is processing the largest historical relics protecting project since the founding of PRC, which provides a chance to break through the customized ideas and probes into a new mode of protecting and using the historical relics. This article probes into the new approach of combining the historical relics protection and landscape architecture construction, illuminated the feasibility and need of landscape architecture's usage in the process of historical relics protecting, to gain the win-win aim of historical relics protecting and construction of urban landscape.


Applied electromagnetic research in recent years has been influenced by the growing importance of geothermal energy, coal, and permafrost, in addition to the traditional area of minerals. The interest in near-insulators such as coal and ice encouraged development of radars and other VHF-UHF techniques. Interpreting such measurements required reliable physical properties data for those materials over a frequency range of 6-10 decades. The utility of the high fre_quency field data has been improved through the use of transient techniques for data acquisition, and data processing schemes similar to those used in reflection seismology. The major developments in the more usual frequency range of applied geophysics (30 Hz-3 kHz) have also dealt with transients. In certain circumstances they appear to have a fundamental sensitivity not readily obtained by discrete frequency methods. Computer modelling of 3-D problems is progressing slowly. Improved 2-D inversion programs are in use, but their capabilities are very limited. Superconductivity plays a role in several new instrument developments. SQUIDs, and SQUID gradiometers have improved considerably since the last Workshop. Robust SQUID magnetometers having noise levels of 10· -10-6 nT/yHz can now be obtained commercially. Gradiometer sensitivities have improved accordingly. A superconducting loop 3 metres in diameter, to be test flown early in 1979, is the prototype of a new low frequency system to map conductivity from a helicopter. It is expected to have greater depth penetration in conductive terranes than the best existing systems, because of the low frequency and anticipated low system noise. A new magnetotelluric procedure, using a remote field reference, reduced the scatter in apparent resistivities and other response functions to a few percent. Further improvements must now be made in modelling and interpreting MT results if we are to benefit from this development.


The article is concerned with studying of the history of corporations and the evolution of scientific and theoretical justification of the activities in corporate sector, the effective corporations' structure and their importance for society and economy. The author emphasizes the importance of corporations in the economy in the context of interaction between state and market. The purpose of the article is to study the evolution of theoretical approaches to determining the place of the corporate sector in the liberal model of market economy. The methods of comparative studies and the problem-personified approach to the study of the history of economic ideas are used. Based on the historical and economic generalization of corporate sector's activities in the twentieth century, the main stages of evolution of the importance of corporations in the economy are determined. The results of the study give a description of the main stages of formation of corporations during which their role in the economy evolved in response to changes in the economic environment. The dual nature of the influence of corporations on economy and society in a free market is determined, which consists in ensuring economic growth and accelerating technological progress as opposed to the negative effects of monopoly. It is established that the need to minimize the impact of destructive factors and strengthen the driving factors of the corporate sector contributed to changes in the relationship between state and market with the strengthening of state regulation of the economy. The results of research are important for understanding the need to create such conditions for the functioning of the corporate sector, which would ensure the most efficient use of corporate opportunities for society.


Evaluating supply chain problems is important yet complex; with vast amount of research and practice using a simulation based approach. However, the least understood aspect of a simulation study is the critical step of 'conceptual modelling'. This paper argues for a conceptual modelling procedure that embeds domain-specific knowledge (i.e. SCOR for SCM applications) and incorporates existing simulation practice applicable at the conceptual modelling stage. Conceptual modelling approaches are reviewed for SCM applications, identifying that no domain-specific guidelines have been provided in the literature. It is argued that developing both comprehensive and focused methodologies would be useful in improving the rigour of supply chain simulation studies and have practical implications. The contribution builds upon Robinson (2008) seminal paper that called for further research on conceptual modelling definitions, requirements and approaches.


The Japanese retail environment is of interest to businessmen, politicians and academics. Different observers tend to base their views on their own vested interests and national expectations, Japanese observers included. There is a need for more objective, unbiased research into Japanese retailing, consumer behaviour and marketing. Presents an overview of Japanese retailing employing predominantly Japanese language sources. Outlines briefly the general structure of the retail industry, emphasizing the large number of outlets overall. Considers the independent retail sector, notably the existence of street associations, and the corporate retail sector, putting emphasis on the latter owing to the lack of information available in English. Considers three forms of corporate retailing in detail, namely department stores, general merchandise stores and groups, and speciality shopping centres – commonly known as "fashion buildings". In conclusion, notes that there is great scope for further research into Japanes...


This paper examines the effect of Huntington's Chorea (H.C.) on family life with particular reference to the consequences for the spouse of the H.C. patient. It describes in some detail the marital and parental difficulties encountered and confirms the severe familial disruption that occurs. It suggests that families or individuals segregating this disorder can be usefully divided into two categories of behaviour which are referred to as *H.C.-orientated' and 'indepen dently-orientated'. It is further suggested that for purposes of practical management and in the hope of avoiding the process whereby families become H.C.-orientated, these families require and should be offered on-going social-work support from the time a family is recognised as being at risk of H.C.


We report on the measurement of the multi-photon absorption dispersion of polydiacetylene-decorated silver nanoparticles in water solution. They were prepared by self assembly of the monomer 10,12-pentacosadiynoic acid (PCDA) onto pre-formed chitosan-stabilized Ag nanoparticles (Chit-AgNps) followed by photopolymerization of the diacetylenic outer shell. Z-Scan technique with fs pulses in open aperture configuration was employed: the spectral range covered the region between 1150 and 1350 nm. We tentatively attribute our results to a two photon state (2Ag) which peaks at 600 nm. This result is consistent with the fluorescence spectrum that shows an emitting state lying at about 650 nm, in addition to a peak at 568 nm which is attributed to the emission of an orange form of the polymer. However we cannot rule out the possibility that we are also dealing with higher order absorption processes and further studies are needed to clarify this point and to provide a deeper insight into the origin of the emission spectrum.


In recent years, the increasing importance of access to the World Wide Web has necessitated the development of alternative technologies that can facilitate Internet access for people with disabilities. In previous research, we proposed a new system that allows users unable to accurately operate a pointing device (such as a mouse) to efficiently navigate the web. In that system, users could select any element (links, buttons, form fields) on a web page by typing one or two characters [4]. The web navigation system was designed to minimize the number of required characters to uniquely select any element, and to separate the typing interface from the selection system. This allowed the user to navigate the web using any input device that was capable of producing alphanumeric characters.


MEANING AND IMAGINED MEMORIES: EXPLORING LITERARY LANDSCAPE THEORY THROUGH THE AESTHETICS OF LUCY MAUD MONTGOMERY Sarah C. Osborne Advisor: University of Guelph, 2014 Professor Cecelia Paine This thesis explores the theory of literary landscapes. The research is composed primarily of an interdisciplinary literature review that draws on landscape architectural theory, tourism studies, literary criticism, and landscape history and cultural geography, as well as archival research and site visits. It positions literary landscapes in relation to the landscape meaning discourse, and argues that they are an essentially experiential way of perceiving landscape through the use of "imagined memories" by the literary visitor. Using the example of L.M. Montgomery, the research explores how understanding an author's landscape aesthetic can reveal past and present meaning in the landscape, and how this aesthetic—understood formally, thematically, and as embodied experience—allows us to understand the range of literary visitor motivations and expectations, as well as encouraging the exploration of how landscape architects might design, manage, and interpret literary landscapes based on an author's aesthetic.


Extrusion is a well-established and powerful processing technique for the production of aluminium products with constant cross-sectional dimensions. However, the understanding of weld seam phenomena at billet change-over and in the longitudinal weld seams in hollow products is far from complete. In this chapter some of the relevant issues are summarised, the key challenges are identified and the scope of the thesis is presented. _________________________________________________ Andrew J. den Bakker email@example.com / firstname.lastname@example.com 10 Weld Seams in Aluminium Alloy Extrusions: Microstructure and Properties C h ap te r 1 1.1 Background In aluminium extrusion of hollow continuous products structural discontinuities such as charge welds and longitudinal weld seams are formed which are inherent to the nature of the process and the applied tooling configurations. These phenomena can have an impact on the extrudate properties and can therefore affect the performance of structures in which these extrusions are incorporated. In the following sections the most prominent phenomena originating from the discontinuous nature of extrusion are introduced, together with the impact of such discontinuities on product properties.


Culture is an important spiritual motivation to support the survival and development of human.A man without spirit is not a complete one.Corporate culture is an significance source of enterprise's survival and development,a corporate without culture won't have a prospect of sustainable development.Corporate culture is a representation of culture in modern business.Fully understanding and building corporate culture is the necessary requirements for the enterprise in our country on current conditions.


Practice, JSS College of Pharmacy, SS. Nagar, JSS University, Mysore-570015. ABSTRACT Health care professionals are one who has potential role in preventing risks of self-medication.Because he is the one who work on three main therapeutic aspects of professionalism in his daily practice: Information, therapeutic advice and education. Pharmacists play a valuable role in identifying, solving and preventing potential drug-related problems for the purpose of achieving optimal patient health outcomes and quality of life. Ambulatory based pharmacists have the opportunity and responsibility to foster safe, appropriate, effective and economical use of all medications, especially those therapies patients are self-selecting.Pharmacists should guide their customers to consult the physician before taking any medication by self. A community based cross-sectional study carried out at Sohiong area of Mawphlang Block, East Khasi Hills district, Meghalaya, India by research investigators on self-medication practices reflected that most common source of information for self-medication was family members and friends (38.7%). Local chemists were the second most common source of information (29.3%). Shuvashis Saha research investigator team conducted a cross-sectional study on evaluation of medicines dispensing pattern of private pharmacies in Rajshahi, Bangladesh on 75 randomly selected private pharmacies. The recommendation rate for antibiotics was highest for the quacks (26.48%) though the major amount of the antimicrobials (n = 3039, 65.83%) were dispensed on prescription. Anti-infectives were found to be the more dispensed medicines through over the counter compared to other class of medicines to customers who approached to community pharmacy. Macrolides, quinolones, metronidazoles and cephalosporins were most favourite drug of quacks. Interestingly pharmacists and clients did not ask


The presence of Oedipoda caerulescens (Linnaeus 1758) on the Maltese Islands is confirmed while the occurrence of Sphingonotus obscuratus (Walker 1879) is recorded here for the first time


OBJECTIVE
The present study aimed to explore the clinicopathological characteristics, potential heterogeneity and prognostic factors in synchronous bilateral breast cancer (SBBC).

METHODS
We performed a retrospective review and paired comparison of the clinicopathological characteristics of 114 patients with SBBC in the Peking Union Medical College Hospital from January 2008 to September 2019. The prognostic significance of triple negativity status and coexistence ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) with bilateral invasive ductal carcinomas of no special type (IDC-NST) was analyzed in SBBC.

RESULTS
Most bilateral lesions on both sides were of IDC-NST, grade 2, luminal subtype, and stage I. Although most lesions were concordant between the left and right side, discordances were observed in histological type (25 cases, 21.9%), histological grade (31 cases, 27.2%), pTNM (61 cases, 53.5%), molecular subtypes (20 cases, 17.5%), and immunohistochemical staining of ER (18 cases, 15.8%), PR (26 cases, 22.8%), and HER2 (12 cases, 10.5%). Moreover, there was no significant difference in disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) between IDC-NST with coexisting DCIS on both sides and IDC-NST with coexisting DCIS on one side or pure IDC-NST. SBBC with triple negativity on both sides exhibited a significantly shorter DFS and OS when compared with triple negativity on one side or non-triple negativity on both sides (p<0.001), and remained an independent prognostic factor by multivariate analysis.

CONCLUSIONS
A considerable proportion of discordance in clinicopathological characteristics is observed in SBBC, supporting the necessity of comprehensive pathological examination including immunohistochemical testing on both sides in clinical practice. Moreover, SBBC with triple negativity on both sides is a prognostic for poor survival.


This detailed and accessible text gives readers a general introduction to all aspects of Mexican politics and the necessary historical grounding to understand it. Camp provides up-to-date information on such timely topics as decision-making, political participation, citizen socialization, voter behaviour, and electoral politics. The book also offers original analysis of the 2006 presidential election, and compares voter behaviour and electorial outcomes with the 2000 and 2003 elections. This text is perfect for classes in Mexican Politics, Latin American Politics and comparative politics.


Objective To explore the efficacy of magnesium-valproate combined with risperidone in the treatment of schizophrenia with impulsive and aggressive symptoms.MethodsForty-twocases of schizophrenia with impulsive and aggressive symptoms were randomly divided into two groups who treated with magnesium valproate combined with risperidone and risperidone alone respectively for 4 weeks.The efficacy and side effects were assessed with the positive and negative symptoms scale(PANSS)and treatment emergent symptoms scale(TESS).ResultsAfter 1 week and 4 weeks treatment,the total scores of PANSS,scores of positive Symptoms and psychopathology were significantly decreased in magnesium valproate group than in Controlled group.ConclusionCombined magnesium valproate with risperidone responds earlier and is more effective for schizophrenia with impulsive and aggressive symptoms.


Uttarakand constitutes 5.43% of Indian Forest cover with extremely and highly fire prone forest areas. The objective of this study is to assess the recent occurrence of forest fires in Uttarakand and to map the burnt areas with Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and validate it with the Sentinel-2 as CoVID-19 hindered the field assessment and ground truth validation. The data is processed in Sentinel Application Platform (SNAP) and mapped with ArcGIS. Cross-validated with optical indices such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Water Index NDWI, Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) and the firsthand information from Forest Survey of India (FSI) for an area of 10. 83sq.Km, the results are summarized.


Why men won't ask for directions: the seductions of sociobiology. By Richard C. Francis. ISBN 0-691-12405-1 (U.S., Canada, Latin America, Asia, and Australia), ISBN: 0-691-12405- 1 (Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India), 2004, XIV + 325 pp., 15 line illustrations, 3 tables, paperback; prices U.S., Canada, Latin America, Asia and Australia US $ 18.95, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India UK £ 12.50. A field guide to the tiger beetles of the United States and Canada: Identification, natural history and distribution of the Cicindelidae. By D.L. Pearson, C. Barry Knisley and C.J. Kazilek. ISBN-10: 0-19-518155-7 (hardback), ISBN-13: 978-0-19-518156-5 (paperback), 2005, X + 227 pp., 24 color plates, 107 maps, 52 line illustrations; prices UK £ 16.99 (paperback), UK £ 54.00 (hardback). Rational animals? Edited by S. Hurley and M. Nudd s. ISBN-10: 0-19-852827-2 (paperback), ISBN-13: 978-0-19-852827-2 (paperback), ISBN-10: 0-19- 852826-4 (hardback), ISBN-13: 978-0-19-8528276-5 (hardback), 2006, VI + 561 pp., figures and tables, price UK £ 29.95 (paperback), UK £ 75.00 (hardback). Self-organization in the evolution of speech. By Pierre-Yves Oudeyer. ISBN 0-19-928914-X, 2006, XIV + 177 pp., halftones, line drawings, figures, hardback; price UK £ 50.00. Introduction to population ecology. By Larry L. Rockwood. ISBN 1-4051-3263-9, 2006, XII + 339 pp., 235 illustrations, paperback; prices US/Canada US $ 44.95, Europe/Rest of World UK £ 27.99, Australia/New Zealand A $ 92.95. Compositional evolution: The impact of sex, symbiosis, and modularity on the gradualist framework of evolution. By Richard A. Watson. ISBN 0-262-23243-X, 2006, XX + 324 pp., 75 illustrations, cloth; prices US $ 50.00, UK £ 32.95.


Biomass feedstocks contain roughly 10-30% lignin, a substance that can not be converted to fermentable sugars. Hence, most schemes for producing biofuels (ethanol) assume that the lignin coproduct will be utilized as boiler fuel to provide heat and power to the process. However, the chemical structure of lignin suggests that it will make an excellent high value fuel additive, if it can be broken down into smaller molecular units. From fiscal year 1997 through fiscal year 2001, Sandia National Laboratories was a participant in a cooperative effort with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the University of Utah to develop and scale a base catalyzed depolymerization (BCD) process for lignin conversion. SNL's primary role in the effort was to utilize rapidly heated batch microreactors to perform kinetic studies, examine the reaction chemistry, and to develop alternate catalyst systems for the BCD process. This report summarizes the work performed at Sandia during FY97 and FY98 with alcohol based systems. More recent work with aqueous based systems will be summarized in a second report. Batch microreactor studies demonstrated that the conversion of lignin to ether solubles by KOH in methanol or ethanol was rapid at 290 "C, reaching the maximum value (only 7% ether insoluble material remaining) within 10-15 minutes. Model compound studies confirmed that the dominant depolymerization route is the solvolysis of ether linkages. Strong bases (KOH, NaOH, CsOH) were shown to convert more of the lignin to ether soluble material than weaker bases (LiOH, Ca(OH)2, and Na2C03). An excess of base relative to lignin monomer units is required for maximum conversion. However, a synergistic interaction between NaOH and Ca(OH)* allows reasonable conversions of lignin to be achieved with small amounts of NaOH by coupling it with Ca(OH)2. Ethanol and methanol are converted to acetic and formic acid respectively under the reaction conditions with an activation energy of approximately 50 kcal/mol. This results in a loss of solvent, but more importantly neutralizes the base catalyst, halting forward progress of the reaction, and accounting for the excess base requirement.


Ten Suffolk (Sfk) and 10 Outaouais (Out) ram lambs were selected to study the relationship between testosterone, thyroid hormones (T3, T4), IGF-I, glucose, semen production and testicular histology at the onset of puberty in lower prolific (Sfk) and higher prolific (Out) breeds. SC, BW, ADG, RG and DM consumption were recorded weekly. Semen was collected by electro-ejaculation from 32 to 35 wk of age and evaluated. Blood was collected weekly by indwelling jugular catheters, every 20 minutes from 0900 to 1520 h to measure the concentration of glucose, T4, T3, IGF-I and testosterone. At wk 35, histological sections of testes were evaluated. Number of spermatozoa in the semen of Out was higher than Sfk (P   0.1). However, there were negative correlations between levels of glucose, T4, T3 and age of the lambs. Testosterone concentrations and pulse frequencies were higher in Out ...


Maraviroc (MVC), the first approved CC‐chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) antagonist, is used for treating HIV‐1‐infected patients with CCR5 tropism. MVC has been proved safe in all respects and showed beneficial effects on lipid profile of HIV patients with dislipidemia. Adipocyte dysfunction seems to be responsible for many metabolic alterations such as insulin resistance and dislipidemia. Subcutaneous and visceral fat depots are not only physiologically but also metabolically different and metabolic disturbances are more closely associated with visceral than subcutaneous fat accumulation. It has been suggested that antiretrovirals affect both fat depots in a different extent. Thus, whether isolated human adipocytes display regio‐specific sensitivity to the metabolic effects of MVC have been tested in this study. Human subcutaneous and omental preadipocytes were used as the source of human adipocytes. These cells were treated with therapeutic concentrations of MVC (0.5–25 µM) at day 14 post‐differentiation (4 and 24 hours of treatment). Glucose utilization, lactate production and glycerol released into the media were measured using an autoanalyzer. Adiponectin secretion was determined by an ELISA array. A dose‐dependent increase in glucose uptake was observed in subcutaneous adipocytes treated with MVC (+72% of stimulation for MVC 25 µM, p < 0.01). This stimulatory effect was tissue specific, as no effects were observed in omental adipocytes. MVC did not exert any significant effect on adiponectin secretion. No significant effects were observed on lactate production neither in subcutaneous nor omental adipocytes. Interestingly, 4 hours of treatment with MVC induced a significant increase in the amount of glycerol released into the media by subcutaneous adipocytes (p < 0.001), but this effect disappeared with longer exposure of adipocytes to MVC (24 h). No effects were observed on lipolysis in omental adipocytes although a slight tendency to decrease lipolysis was observed (p = 0.08). These data suggest that MVC exerts direct and differential effects on adipocytes depending on their origin. Thus, a stimulation of glucose uptake has been reported in subcutaneous but not in omental adipocytes and a slight decrease of lipolysis was observed in omental adipocytes whereas no effects were observed in subcutaneous adipocytes. These actions could underline the neutral and even beneficial effects demonstrated for MVC in lipid and glucose metabolism of HIV‐infected patients.


Video snapshot compressive imaging (SCI) system enables high-frame-rate imaging by projecting multiple frames into a 2D snapshot measurement during a single exposure, and the original video frames can be reconstructed by solving an optimization problem. However, existing methods usually cannot achieve a good balance between reconstruction time and reconstruction quality, which has become a major obstacle for practical application of video SCI. In order to cope with this issue, we propose a residual ensemble network to learn the explicit inverse mapping from the 2D snapshot measurement to the original video. Specifically, the proposed network aims to exploit the spatiotemporal correlations between video frames for improving reconstruction quality. The spatiotemporal correlations of video frames demonstrate multiple types, including intra-frame spatial correlation, inter-frame forward and backward temporal correlation. With the purpose of fully capturing these differentiated correlations, we design four sub-networks, namely, a pseudo-3D U-shape sub-network, two residual sub-networks, and a serial forward and backward recurrent sub-network, and further assemble these four sub-networks into an ensemble network through alternate residual links. This ensemble network can effectively fuse the predictions of each sub-network and maintain spatiotemporal consistency between video frames. We further design a compound loss function to guide the network learning, and the new video can be fast reconstructed by simply feeding its 2D snapshot measurement into the learned network. The experimental results demonstrate that our network can significantly improve the reconstruction quality while maintaining low computational cost.


As aerospace, electrified railway, weapon equipment manufacturing, and other fields have leapt forward, the operating environment of current-carrying friction pairs is becoming increasingly severe, and research on the current-carrying friction and wear theory and its vital technologies are progressively in demand. This study summarizes the relevant research on the current-carrying friction and wear. In this study, the essential characteristics and classification of current-carrying friction and wear are summarized, the effect of working parameters on current-carrying friction and wear performance is clarified, and the generation mechanism, failure mechanism, and factors of current-carrying friction and wear are emphatically investigated. Moreover, the mechanism of arc generation and the effect of environmental conditions and surface facial masks on the friction and wear process are summarized. This paper also introduces the preparation technology of a conductive wear-resistant self-lubricating material, the main factors affecting the conductive wear-resistant property of the coating, and the action mechanism. The simulation and prediction results of the current-carrying friction and wear temperature field and the wear amount are presented. Finally, the problems in the current-carrying friction and wear research are classified, and future research directions in this field are proposed. The future's critical development and improvement directions are also proposed from the aspects of developing coating quality evaluation equipment, optimizing the coating quality, and studying the coating self-lubricating mechanisms.


. Recently, several researchers have suggested that personalized game-ful systems can be more effective than generic approaches. However, there is still scarce empirical evidence that the suggested factors for personalization, such as gender, age, user types, and personality traits, will be effective in improving user engagement and performance for personalized gameful systems. In this work-in-progress, we present a research plan for empirical evaluation of a customizable gameful system. Upon completion of this study, we expect to provide empirical evidence that the participants' selection of gameful design elements in a practical application will correspond to the theorized relationships suggested by prior survey-based research, and that the system can suggest the gameful design elements that users are more likely to enjoy. The results of this research will provide an actionable path for gamification designers to implement personalized gameful systems and for researchers to develop recommendation algorithms for gamification.


Abstract In this article, I argue against understanding and treating nature as external. Arguing against such externality of nature, I suggest that the human situation is best understood by reference to postnatural right. As abstract and revolutionary, such right is critical, leveling, and teleological. This forms the basis of a formative metaphysics that I proceed to test against the concept of the common good and a recent theological engagement with climate change. At the conclusion, I argue that the plurality of nature recommends understanding society as a "greater society" that in turn has implications for how we think about civil society.


This system is used to control HIRFL power.The design of system is based on RTX51 tiny OS.We developed programes on the MSC1210.The HIRFL power controller software is adopted multitask structure.It can deal with multi-instruction in the same period.The article introduces designes of the hardware and the software in the HIRFL power controller.The last is the report of useing.


Of a flat cable electrical connector, the locking catch (12) having a lever-like arm portion (20) extending in the direction of the flat cable housing (C), the one end side of the lever-like arm (20) provided locking claw portion (2OA), provided the fulcrum portion (22) in the middle portion, is provided extending portion (20B), the pressing member (14) having a restricting portion (14B) at the other end, the restricting portion (14B) in not open position (20B) in contact, in the closed position blocking the extension portion (20B) displaced with the locking catch (12) extending portion. When the pressing member (14) in the open position, said lever-like arm (20) is freely displaceable state, allowing the insertion and ejection operation of the flat cable, when it is in the closed position, without a lever arm (20) to increase the locking claw portion of the engaging portion retaining the card in the direction of the displacement amount, while preventing a lever arm (20) displaced in a direction to reduce the amount of the locking. According to the present invention, when the use of the connector, without excessive stress is applied, the flat cable can be prevented falling off.


Impatiens capensis (Meerb.) (orange jewelweed) and Impatiens pallida (Nutt.) (yellow jewelweed) are annual species with similar phenotypes that grow in similar environments throughout the eastern U...


Pavel Ya. Groisman, Bomin Sun, Russell S. Vose, and Jay H. Lawrimore National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, North Carolina, USA Paul H. Whitfield Meteorological Service of Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Eirik Førland and Inger Hanssen-Bauer Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Oslo, Norway, Mark C. Serreze University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA, Vyacheslav N. Razuvaev Russian Institute for Hydrometeorological Information, Obninsk, Russia, Genrikh V. Alekseev Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia.


Provided is a vehicle body end portion structure capable of distributing the load of a small overlap collision or oblique collision to various parts of the vehicle body at the initial stage of collision. A vehicle body front portion structure (10) is provided with: a front side member (12) including an inner box (14A) disposed at an end portion thereof in the vehicle front-rear direction; a lower side member (40) including a lower crush box (34) disposed at an end portion thereof in the vehicle front-rear direction on a lower side with respect to the inner box (14A); and a link plate (44) linking the inner box (14A) side section of the front side member (12) and the lower crush box (34) side section of the lower side member (40).


Trajectories of S-matrix poles in the complex k plane are presented for a complex square well potential. The conformal character of the connection between the potential and the location of the poles is used to deduce the properties of these trajectories, including their behaviour for very strong absorption. Detailed results are presented for s and p states.


Abstract Vinyl polymerization of acrylonitrile initiated by the redox system Mn3+/tartaric acid was investigated in aqueous sulfuric acid in the temperature range 30–50°C, and the initial rates of polymerization, Mn3+ disappearance, etc. were measured. The effects of certain water-miscible organic solvents, neutral electrolytes, dyes, and solid substances on the rate of polymerization have been investigated. A mechanism involving the formation of a complex between Mn3+ and tartaric acid, whose decomposition yields the initiating free radical with the polymer chain being terminated by mutual interaction of growing radicals, has been suggested.


Many school districts nationwide are experiencing rapid growth in the number of students of color, culturally and linguistically diverse students, and students from low-income families. From my work with education leaders in some of these diversity-enhanced school districts, I know they are places of vibrant opportunity— places that call us to meaningful and exciting work. In these "welcome-to-America" schools, the global community shows up in our classrooms every day, inviting us— even requiring us—to grow as we learn from and with our students and their families.


The RC (Reinforced Concrete) structures in the spent fuel dry storage is required structural integrity for a long period of the service life time. A study on the concrete cracking behavior by stress on concrete is necessary for life time estimation of structures because concrete cracking can reduce the radiation shielding performance and deteriorate the durability of spent fuel dry storage. The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between the range of the steel expansion and the crack creation and propagation using the ABAQUS tool. Parameters used in this study were concrete strength, concrete cover depth and the steel diameter. The value of steel radius to volume expansion was applied to suppose the expansion of reinforcing bar under the load condition. As a result of this case study, it is confirmed that the critical steel expansion which can initiate cracking is proportional to tensile strength. And primary factors which effect crack creation of concrete cover are in order of concrete strength, cover thickness and steel diameter. If concrete strength is lowered about its 30%, the rate of surface crack occurrence accelerates 15 times maximally. The critical expansion value of steel increased as the increment of concrete cover depth. The surface cracking of concrete cover was created at the value of steel expansion, ranging from 0.019 to 0.051mm under the cover depth 50mm.


During the recent years Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPCs) are facing major political, institutional, economic and societal changes. As a matter of fact, the agricultural sector has been interested by global trends and has become more and more exposed to world dynamics. The resulting exposure of MPCs'primary sectors to risks has called great attention on existing and feasible risk management tools, as well as on the role of public interventions. Our paper deepen on the risk management status quo in Syria and explore the possibility of new policy interventions. The analysis has been carried out through a field activity that allowed to understand the issue based on experts' opinions. We performed a Delphi Method in selected Farming Systems in order to underline the key aspects of risk management in Syria: while providing empirical evidences of the main issues in risk management in Syria, the paper aims to put new feasible policy interventions under the spotlight.


The direct oxidation of glucose in animal tissue was first studied by Harrison (1931), who discovered an enzyme present in liver which was able to oxidize glucose to gluconic acid without previous phosphorylation. This dehydrogenase was later shown to be active with either diphosphopyridine nucleotide (DPN) (Andersson, 1934), or triphosphopyridine nucleotide (TPN) (Euler,Adler, Schlenk & Gunther, 1935), and this activity with both coenzymes has recently been confirmed using a purified preparation of the enzyme (Strecker & Korkes, 1952). The primary oxidation product of glucose has now been identified as gluconolactone, the hydrolysis of the latter to gluconic acid being non-enzymic (Strecker & Korkes, 1952). The further metabolism of gluconic acid has been studied mainly in intact animals. Stetten & Stetten (1950) showed that when rats were injected with 14C-labelled sodium gluconate, approximately 57% of the administered 14C was excreted in the urine and 14% appeared in the expired CO2. This, as well as the presence of some isotope both in the liver glycogen and the liver nucleic acids, shows that gluconate can be fairly readily oxidized in vivo. It therefore seemed of interest to determine which tissues of the body break down gluconate, and to study the products of its metabolism.


Despite the impact of historic antisemitism on the study of race and racism, and despite its ongoing discussion in the media and politics, there has been limited academic research of antisemitic hate crime in Britain. In particular, little is known about the consequences of antisemitism for British Jews today. Drawn from qualitative research examining Jewish experiences of contemporary antisemitism, this paper discusses the practical significance of hate crime for the everyday lives of Jews. It considers some of the ways in which personal experiences of victimisation, and fears of abuse and prejudice might affect the day to day decisions of those in the minority community. Some of the key issues discussed include the individual management of 'safe space', practices to control personal and communal public visibility as Jews in a desire to minimise risk, and the potential impact of antisemitic hate crime on socialisation habits and life choices.


It is well-recognized that American English has been preferred in Korea and thus has been the target language among various regional dialects of English. The goal of this paper is to elucidate whether English learners are influenced on their listening comprehension by their exposure to a specific English accent used in the classroom. For the study, we investigated the listening scores of the two groups of students in the same department, one of which is taught by an American and the other by either a British or an Australian professor. Results indicated that exposure to American English in the class did not improve comprehension of the listening tests given in American English, and that exposure to either British English or Australian English did not severely impair listening comprehension, either. Such a result provided little or no support for the claim that Korean students have advantage or disadvantage depending on the type of English accents used in a classroom. Hence, even though American English is preferred and is more available in the society in general, Korean students might produce similar results in listening and understanding American English regardless of the English regional accent that they hear in the class.


The power consumption is a critical problem in cooperative multicast. In this paper, we proposed a relay selection scheme for achieving energy efficiency. A request frame was inserted between the stage I and stage II downlink bursts, by which the unnecessary successful users was excluded for relay in stage II. It is show by simulations that compare with previous cooperative multicast scheme, the proposed relay selection scheme reduces the number of relay and power consumption without scarify throughput performance.


Today, hundreds of vessels are lost every year with high economical costs, major environmental impacts and unfortunately the loss of lives. This review shows current technologies used on ships and shore stations to avoid wrecks, collisions and contacts between ships. It is also presented that these technologies are not enough to prevent the actual number of maritime accidents. Therefore, governments, naval industry, captains, vessel traffic centers, harbors, search and rescue forces need better tools to prevent accidents and increase safety at sea. On this paper, new smart technologies on vessels and the use of cloud, bigdata and analytic/cognitive real time process are presented as new intelligent tools to improve the safety of sailors. Ships using these technologies are so called Smart Ships. Finally, it is also shown the architecture, initial tests and developments of a novel smart ship project that uses this new approach focused on AIS technology.


ABSTRACT OBJECTIVES: To assess characteristics of coronary arterial lesion (CAL) by means of invasive coronary angiography in young patients, aged <35 years, who sustained acute myocardial infarction (AMI).METHODS: This prospective study of one-year duration was conducted from December 2009 to November 2010 at the cardiology departments of three teaching hospitals in Peshawar, Pakistan.  All patients aged <35 years, evaluated angiographically after an AMI, were included. The individual CAL were characterized.RESULTS: About 101 patients with AMI underwent coronary angiography. Mean age of the patients was 32.56±3.26 years (range 22–35 years). Out of 101 patients, 86 (78.18%) were males, while 15 (21.81%) were females. On coronary angiography, there were 25 (24.8%) patients with non-atherosclerotic coronary arteries, 39 (38.6%) with single vessel disease (SVD), 18 (17.8%) had double vessel disease (DVD), and 19 (18.8%) had triple vessel disease (TVD). Of the total, 3 patients (2.97%) had disease in the left main stem. One hundred thirty-two lesions (39x1=39 in SVD; 18x2=36 in DVD & 19x3=57 in TVD) were studied. The lesions were mostly discrete to tubular with less diffuse involvement and had either no or mild calcification. Thrombus was found in 5 patients with SVD (12.82%), 2 with DVD (11.11%) and 1 with TVD (1.75%).CONCLUSION: This study shows that young (age <35 years) patients who have sustained AMI, have less extensive coronary artery disease but complex morphologic features. There was a higher incidence of normal vessels on coronary angiography with a very few cases of left main coronary arterial involvement.KEY WORDS: Myocardial Infarction (MeSH); Coronary Artery Disease (MeSH); Coronary arterial lesions (Non-MeSH); Coronary Angiography (MeSH), Atherosclerosis (MeSH)


PT. KOMATSU INDONESIA has a new machine that does not have a standard cost. This machine is a machine PWHT (Post Weld Heat Treatment), in FY2012 PWHT machine another using standard cost, which is the standard cost of painting, which is the highest standard cost during the year 2012. So the standard cost used is invalid because it does not fit with the actual. This resulted in periodic reports to the management (manager) is not right about the costs actually incurred. Standard Cost improper influence profitability. For the calculation of standard cost in accordance with PWHT machine. Calculations performed use FY2012 data and approaches the Full Costing method and the method of calculation of depreciation Sum of the year digits) produces a standard cost of $ 66,8 / hour. With the results of the analysis showed that the level of profitability of 0,59% profit decline of prices set in FY2012. With the correct standard costs ease in controlling production costs. Kaywords : PWHT, Standard Cost, Full Costing method, profitability


The mechanical properties of Ni-W alloy films electrodeposited in the system of citrate amine-HEDP are sdudied.The testing chip is fabricated with UV-LIGA technology and measured by uniaxial micro-tensile system.The gauge section of Ni-W thin film specimen is 5μm×50μm×100μm.The results show that the Young's modulus of Ni-W film is about 100.4GPa,tensile strength is about 1.96GPa and strain is about 3.6%,respectively.


A method for determining the topographic characteristics of a grinding wheel is developed based on acoustic emission (AE) technology. For implementing the procedure, an AE monitoring system was integrated in the CNC of a grinding machine in order to detect a precise reference position on the grinding wheel's periphery, allowing an AE online mapping procedure to characterise the topography of the grinding wheel. The AE mapping procedure is carried out by acquiring the AERMS signals originated from the minimal interferences between grinding wheel and an AE instrumented diamond tip. The interferences are in the elastic deformation range. The obtained AE map of the grinding wheel's topography is compared with the grinding wheel's imprint topography as well as to a previous developed model aiming at the results validation. The AE mapping procedure is sensitive to different grinding wheel's topographies caused by changes in the dressing parameters and the inherent grinding wheel's wear.


Hospitals are the most costly part of the health care service budget. Hence it is sound economics to do everything feasible to minimize hospital expenditure. If there is no sound and efficient system of internal transportation of supplies like drugs linen equipment and food to the patients however efficient and competent technical and administrative staff may be the standard of patient care will be poor. Modern hospitals require efficient methods of transporting a wide variety of items because of the various activities which are required for patient care located at considerable distance and at different places. To meet this need a range of systems has been developed. The requirement of a particular type of transportation system will depend upon the needs type location and architectural pecularities of the hospital. A modern hospital manager has to be knowledgeable about these methods to bring about efficiency and effectiveness of these in the hospital. The internal transportation system consists of: 1) the automatic transportation system; 2) electric vehicles; 3) the cabin lift; 4) the penumatic tube system; 5) the rally post; and 6) the 3-D batin. Because of the increased cost of and unavailability of personnel for manual transportation automation has become advantageous. It allows reduction in nursing staff improved service time conservation 24-hour operation release of nursing staff for other duties and improved hygiene. Electric vehicles are reliable efficient machines that can perform hospital duties at a controlled speed. The cabin lift an electrically driven and automatically controlled system is an overhead suspended transport system with a capacity of 12 persons or 1000 kg. The pneumatic tube system which can be carrier or station controlled is used for transporting requistions prescriptions medications x-rays or emergency supplies. The rally post consisting of 3 components is essentially a number of containers that can travel on a rail and transport items like mail cash and fluids. The 3-D batin is a 3-dimensional car conveyor by which metal boxes are moved along a track and are controlled by a central programming office. Collision and accidents are impossible in this system. (summaries in ENG HIN)


Migraine is one of the most common forms of headache, which can lead to a significant reduction in quality of life. There is migraine with aura, migraine without aura, as well as chronic migraine, which significantly reduces the efficiency of patients and is often combined with mental disorders and drug-induced headaches. Complications of migraine include migraine status, persistent aura without a heart attack, migraine heart attack (stroke) and epileptic seizure caused by migraine aura. The diagnosis of migraine is established based on complaints, medical history, objective examination data, and diagnostic criteria of the International Headache Classification of the 3rd revision. Additional research methods are recommended only in the presence of "red flags" — symptoms that alert to the secondary nature of the headache. Migraine treatment is aimed at reducing the frequency and intensity of attacks, reducing the number of pharmatherapeutical analgesics. It includes three main approaches: seizure relief therapy, preventive therapy, and non-drug methods. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, simple and combined analgesics, triptans, as well as anti-nausea drugs (for severe nausea or vomiting) are recommended for seizures relief. In case of frequent or severe migraine attacks, as well as in case of chronic migraine, prophylactic therapy is indicated, which includes antidepressants, topiramate, beta-blockers, angiotensin II receptor antagonists, botulinum toxin type A-hemagglutinin complex and monoclonal antibodies to calcitonin gene-related peptide receptors. Pharmacotherapy is recommended to be combined with non-drug methods, which include cognitive-behavioral therapy, the method of transcranial magnetic stimulation, the method of biological feedback, postsphygmic period, acupuncture, therapeutic exercises, block of greater occipital nerve, and stimulation of the first trigeminal nerve.


Sketching is an important task in early design. In general, designers begin their work by sketching their ideas because of the freedom and productivity that hand drawing provides. Nowadays there are many computer interfaces that allow sketching directly onto the computer. However, few sketching applications combine recognition of elements, modeling, simulation, and automated verification with collaborative features in order to promote simultaneous andremote group work. This paper presents a discussion on how to promote collaborative sketching and kinematic simulation for digital ink applications. In order to support the discussion, we built a prototype by modifying an existing digital ink application. The proposed prototype allows users located in geographically distributed sites to cooperate by sketching, exploring, simulating, and developing their ideas interactively. Potential applications of our prototype include collaborative design and simulation of mechanical engineering machines, rapid prototype of ideas, animation, education, and recreational usage.


Pesticides can negatively influence on the attractiveness or behavior of floral visitors. Thus the present study aimed to evaluate the influence on species diversity and frequency floral visitation in chili and tomato crop after the application of pesticides. The products applied were ciantraniliprole, ciantraniliprole + thiamethoxam, thiamethoxam, imidacloprid, ciantraniliprole + abamectin and diafenthiuron. Assays were performed in the field during the period from June to November 2012. It was evaluated the total number of species and the number of visits of floral visitors in the period from 26/06/2012 to 11/09/2012 for the tomato crop and 25/09/2012 to 13/11/2012 for the chili crop. In the tomato crop was found a total of eight species of flower visitors, and to the chili crop was verified 27 species. The pesticides applied both in the tomato and chili crop did not reduce the number of floral visitors and the frequency of visitation of insects, showing ecological selectivity.


The Integrated Family of Test Equipment (IFTE) has acquired a verify probe capability for the Base Shop Test Facility/Commercial Equivalent Equipment (BSTF/CEE) similar to the probe capability of the General-purpose Electronic Test Station-1000B (GETS-1000B). Verify probe is a system software routine with which the operator can confirm suspected fault locations. Verify probe is used with Test Program Sets (TPS) developed with Logic Automatic Stimulus and Response (LASAR), a digital automatic test program generator tool. The verify probe capability will enhance the fault detection and fault isolation for IFTE TPSs. The Abbreviated Test Language for All Systems (ATLAS) module reads data files generated by LASAR and then executes the entire LASAR-generated test. If the test should fail, the ATLAS module performs a look-up in the LASAR-generated fault dictionary, displaying the simulated fault which best matches how the Unit Under Test (UUT) has actually failed. The fault dictionary procedure is a good approximation and is completely automatic, requiring no operator intervention. Since it is unlikely that a failure will always match one of the simulated failures exactly, the operator has the option of confirming the diagnosis before initiating repair action. The operator can confirm the diagnosis with the verify probe procedure. Verify probe is a system software routine, originally developed for the GETS-1000B, that allows the operator to probe around the vicinity of the suspected failure and confirm that all nodes before the suspected failure are good while the nodes beyond the suspected failure are bad. In this manner, the operator confirms that the fault lies between the last good and the first bad node. A good candidate for the fault location is the primary cause of failure listed as a result of searching the LASAR fault dictionary. The operator has the option to probe both the inputs and the outputs of the indicated integrated Circuit (IC) to confirm that the inputs are good and the outputs are bad. The operator begins by specifying the location needed to probe. Verify probe runs the LASAR test patterns and measures the Wizard-I probe (hand-held probe), comparing the probed levels with what was expected by the LASAR simulator for the selected node. The operator is then told whether the node is good or bad and selects the next node to probe accordingly. To aid in determining which IC pins are connected to each other on the UUT, verify probe also displays all fanouts connected to the node just probed as well as all inputs to the IC that drives the selected node.


DNA methylation play an important role during the maliganant transformation of hematopoietic malignancies.Decitabine is a hypomethylating agent which incorporate into DNA and lead to trapping and depletion of the enzyme DNA methyltransferase.Additionally,decitabine is an active therapy for myelodysplastic syndromes and leukemia.The epigenetic effect of decitabine will likely extend its use for the treatment of other malignancies.


OBJECTIVE To establish a method for determination of vitamin B 2 in the tablet of vitamin B complex. METHOD Diffuse reflectance FTIR was used for determination of vitamin B 2.RESULTS The content of vitamin B 2 could be detected directly,and the relationship between the absorbance and the concentration was linear. The average recovery of vitamin B 2 was 99.79%,and RSD was 1.85%.CONCLUSION The method is simple,fast and reliable;it has been proved to be a good practice for determination of vitamin B 2 in the tablet of vitamin B complex.


Objective To study effect of lower genital tract infection on premature rupture of membranes and maternal and child outcomes. Methods Selected 413 cases with lower genital tract infection on premature rupture of membranes and maternal and child outcomes were divided into term subgroup and preterm subgroup. Selected 420 cases without premature rupture of membranes as control group. Cervical secretions were collected to detect Chlamydia and Mycoplasma, and vaginal secretions were collected to detect candida yeast, bacteria and trichomoniasis. Membranes were collected for pathological examination. Effect of lower genital tract infection on premature rupture of membranes and maternal and child outcomes was analyzed. Results Mycoplasma infection, chlamydia infection, bacterial vaginosis,candida, trichomonas infection rates of premature rupture of membranes group were higher than control group(P0.01 or P0.05). In group of premature rupture of membranes, Mycoplasma infection, chlamydia infection, bacterial vaginosis, candida, trichomonas infection rates of preterm subgroup were higher than term subgroup(P0.01 or P0.05).Premature birth, puerperal infection, chorioamnionitis, neonatal pneumonia incidence of cases with lower genital tract infection were higher(P0.01);premature birth, puerperal infection, chorioamnionitis, neonatal pneumonia incidence of premature rupture of membranes group were higher(P0.01). Conclusion Lower genital tract infection increases the chance of premature rupture of membranes, and is an important factor leading to maternal and infant adverse outcomes.


S (I-naphthyl-N -methylcarbamate) has been used extensively for the control of pests of both plants and animals because of its broad spectrum of insecticidal activity. Analytic methods for the determination of sevin in water had to be developed in order to study the persistence and fate of this compound in natural waters. Colorimetric procedures described for the determination of sevin residues and its breakdown product, l-naphthol, have utilized p-nitrobenzene diazonium fluoborate 1-4 or diazotized sulfanilamide 5 as chromogenic reagents. Enzymatic procedures based on the anticholine esterase activity of sevin 6 are nonspecific, except in the absence of the other choline esterase inhibitors, and do not detect I-naphthol if present. Absorption in the ultraviolet 7 and thinlayer chromatography B. 9 are other methods that have been described in the literature but have not been applied to the determination of sevin residues. In this investigation, a sensitive method has been developed for the determination of sevin and I-naphthol in natural waters. The quantitative determination involves the hydrolysis of sevin into l-naphthol which reacts with 4aminoantipyrine and an oxidizing agent in alkaline medium to form a redcolored complex. Free I-naphthol, if present, is separated and determined prior to the determination of sevm,


In this paper, we described a multi-agent architecture for our new Cooperative Quality of Service Management. The basic idea is that QoS agents installed on every node of the distributed system cooperate with each other in order to provide the QoS requested by the different participants of the application. We are currently in the process of implementing a sample application based on this architectural framework, namely a teleteaching application where a lecture given by a teacher can be " virtually " attended by a large number of students using their own workstation. The application is not developed from scratch; rather, it is based on existing code from our previous news-on-demand prototype and on the MBone Tools vic, vat, wb [11] and vcr ([9], to record a session). Contrary to " normal " MBone applications, we only handle one media stream per group address and with one tool instance. This approach allows us to switch between qualities simply by stopping the currently running instance of the tool and starting a new one with a new multicast address, resulting in the reception of the media stream in a different quality. For the agents, we are looking into possibilities offered by the Web languages Java and Perl which offer powerful constructs to handle distributed and cooperative environments. We are especially interested in agent mobility in order to provide for a more flexible agent distribution throughout the network. 15 of traffic transmission from the old path to the new path is performed; otherwise, the agent performs the following operations: if the agent is a router agent, then-C_List_QoS=C_List_QoS-V_List_QoS1;-for each tuple (V_Agent,) Downstream_Agent that corresponds to the entry Tree_Id, the agent sends Available_QoS (Tree_Id, , V_Agent, C_List_QoS); otherwise /*the agent is a media sink agent */-it initiates a renegotiation with the user (via the user interface) to decrease the QoS currently provided; endif-When a Available_QoS (Tree_Id, Sender_Id, Received_Id, List_QoS) signal is received: If the agent is a router agent, then-if (C_List_QoS) then C_List_QoS=C_List_QoS-[ ]; /* this means that Available_QoS() is received because of some QoS violation */-if (C_List_QoS) then C_List_QoS=C_List_QoS [ ]; /* this means that Available_QoS() is received because of some recovery */-for each tuple (V_Agent,) Downstream_Agents that corresponds to the entry Tree_Id, the agent sends Available_QoS (Tree_Id, , V_Agent, C_List_QoS); otherwise /*the agent is a media sink agent */ it initiates a renegotiation with the user (via the user interface) to increase or decrease …


J. Wallace, J. Tharion. Complications of bush thoracotomy in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. ANZ J. Surg. 1995; 65: 182–4 Bush thoracotomy is still practised in the South Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea by traditional bush doctors. These bush thoracotomies are performed with the aim of letting out the 'bad blood' that is believed to have collected in the body cavities following injuries. During a 3-year period between 1989 and 1992, 183 patients with complications of bush thoracotomy were treated at the Sopas Hospital in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Of these patients, 55 had chest wall infections only, without any pleural involvement. Of the patients with empyemas, 14 were treated by decortication of the empyema with one death and all remaining patients were treated by drainage procedures with one death. We recommend early treatment by adequate drainage of the empyema and, where feasible, early decortication. Continuing education to eradicate the procedure, and provision of adequate surgical facilities for management of complications, should be the long-term aim for this continuing problem. K.A. Gunning, M. Sugrue, D. Sloane, S.A. Deane. Hypothermia and severe trauma. ANZ J. Surg. 1995; 65: 80–2 During the period from May 1992 until April 1993, 108 patients were admitted to Liverpool Hospital with Injury Severity Scores (ISS) >15. Temperatures had been recorded for 100 patients. Of these, 17 had a core temperature of less than 35 C documented within 24 h of arrival. The hypothermic group presented with more severe injuries and contained a disproportionate number of females. Hypothermia was found to be more common in the winter months, but it was not associated with a delay in reaching hospital from the time of injury. When injuries were ranked by ISS, both hypothermic and normothermic patients were equally likely to have received a blood transfusion; however, the mean number of units of packed cells transfused was greater for the hypothermic group with ISS <41 than for the similarly injured normothermic group. Two patients in the hypothermic group had sustained burns, and both of these were hypothermic on arrival. All of the hypothermic patients who required surgery developed hypothermia in the operating theatre.


Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive study was to establish the validity and reliability of the measurement of body image and body attitudes among Mexican American women. Data sources: Completed measures of height, weight, waist circumference, body mass index, acculturation, body image, and body attitude of 35 U.S.‐born Mexican American women between the ages of 18 and 65 years of age. Also included were repeated measures of body image and body attitude and verbatim face‐to‐face interviews with 13 study participants. Conclusions: Most study participants were overweight; however, body image discrepancy (difference between perceived actual and ideal body image) did not increase as anticipated and was negatively related to body mass index; suggesting those participants' perceptions of ideal body image increased with increasing body size and was reliable. Body attitude subscale scores had varying relationships to weight status. Implications for practice: Further study is warranted examining why an acceptance of a greater body image occurs, potentially leading to a greater understanding of the influences of body image integration on health behaviors. Clinicians working with Mexican American women should consider weight reduction interventions that are based on an individual assessment of the perceptions of body image and body attitudes.


STUDY DESIGN
Level 3, cohort study OBJECTIVE.: To assess long-term clinical outcome, and rate of reoperation following microsurgical subtotal discectomy (MSD).

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA
Lumbar disc herniation (LDH) is a common cause of discomfort. Studies with more than 25 years of follow-up are rare and the reported rate of clinical success and reoperation are not well understood.

METHODS
Retrospectively, files with complete documentation of preoperative and postoperative neurological status, process during hospitalization, detailed report of MSD, outpatient visit notes and full contact information of patients who underwent MSD for the treatment of LDH with a minimum follow-up of 25 years were reviewed. Patients were contacted for personal follow-up assessment which included Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), EQ-5D, and MacNab criteria, usage of pain medication for leg and back pain, limitations in daily life and repeated procedures at the lumbar spine.

RESULTS
A total of 355 patients were randomly selected and contacted for final follow-up and 158 patients with a mean follow-up 32 years participated in the study. Clinical success rate was 86.0%; mean ODI was 9% (0-58%), 69.6% of the patients were pain free, 13.9% of patients reported the daily intake of pain medication for back and leg pain. Reoperations were performed in 47 of the patients (29.7%) whereas the rate for recurrent disc herniation at the same level was 8.2%. Reoperation within the first two years after initial MSD had negative influence on clinical success. The preoperative physical working status and gender and working status had no influence on the clinical success.

CONCLUSION
The MSD is an effective technique to achieve a high rate of patient satisfactory, and high rate of functional recovery. The overall reoperation rate is 30% within 30 years but only 8.2% of the patients underwent reoperation due to recurrent disc herniation at the same level.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
3.


Understanding how feed rate (ft) affects tool deterioration during milling of Ni-based superalloys is practically important, but this understanding is currently insufficient. In the present study using a 718Plus Ni-based alloy and cemented tungsten carbide tool inserts, milling experiments were conducted with ft = 0.10 mm/tooth under either dry or wet (with coolant) conditions. The results are compared to those based on using ft = 0.05 mm/tooth from previous studies. The milling force (F) was monitored, the cutting tool edge was examined and the flank wear (VBmax) was measured. As would be expected, an increase in ft increased F. It was found that F correlated well with VBmax for the high ft (0.1 mm/tooth) experiments, as opposed to the previously observed poor F-VBmax relationship for the lower ft (0.05 mm/tooth) value. This is explained, supported by detailed failure analysis of the cutting tool edges, by the deterioration mode to be dominantly edge chipping with a low occurrence of fracturing along the flank face when the high ft was used. This dominancy of the deterioration mode means that the tool edge and workpiece contact was consistent and thus resulted in a clear F-VBmax relationship. A clear F-VBmax relationship should then mean monitoring VBmax through monitoring F is possible.


Abstract A multistage multiple decision procedure is developed to test if a number of sets of independent variables are binomially distributed and if so is the case, to test if they are homogeneous with respect to the binomial parameter p. The homogeneity hypothesis is decomposed in a hierarchy of homogeneity hypotheses of the nested type. The binomial distributions are either untruncated or truncated in different ways. In the multiple procedure the goodness of fit test is included as an integrated part. For those test situations which cannot be considered as two-sample tests, chi-square tests are applied throughout. Small-sample and large-sample versions of all tests are given, also of the goodness of fit tests. Special merits of the procedure are its power to exclude deviating and heterogeneous sets of variables and to separate different sets of variables where the variables within each set are homogeneous with respect to p, but the different sets have different values of p. The significance level of th...


This paper examines the impact of exogenous treaty reform on the internal organization of the European Parliament (EP). After each major reform of the European Union's (EU's) treaties the EP took the opportunity to fully revise its own internal Rules of Procedure (RoP). This work reviews the key revisions of the Single European Act, Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice Treaties relative to the EP to gain an understanding of what types of internal EP reform were required by each new treaty. The actual reforms then undertaken by the EP to its RoP are then analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. This research highlights some broad patterns of Rules reform, but also how these have changed over time. In particular the balance between required Rules reforms and internally and externally oriented strategic reforms is examined.


Specification error resulting from the choice of an incorrect functional form can lead to biased estimates. A new, more flexible and more general demand system is derived in this paper, and applied to evaluate the effects of functional form choices on the estimated effects of beef and pork advertising on the demand for meat in the United States. The new demand system, the Nested PIGLOG (NEP) model, combines three types of generalizations used previously in the literature: (1) the inclusion of pre-committed quantities (analogous to the Linear Expenditure System (LES) generalization of the CobbDouglas model), (2) nesting the Almost Ideal (AI) and Translog (TL) models together (Lewbel 1989), and (3). using the Fourier flexible functional form to augment other functional forms (Chalfant 1987). In particular, the new demand system augments the expenditure function of the Generalized Almost Ideal Translog (GAITL) model (Bellino and Violi 1990) with the expenditure function for the Fourier flexible functional form (Gallant 1981, 1982). The NEP model nests all of the previously existing demand systems that are consistent with PIGLOG preferences, and five new models. In this paper, we estimate the NEP demand system including advertising variables, using U.S. meat consumption data, and test the appropriateness of the sets of parametric restrictions in the NEP model that define its nested special cases. We also test the statistical (and economic) significance of advertising effects, given each of the functional form restrictions. • Selected paper, AAEA meetings, August 1998, Salt Lake City, Utah. Authors are listed by weight aoo not by volume. Alston and Chalfant are Professors in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California at Davis, and members of the Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics; _Piggott is ~ssis~ant Professor in the Departme1}\~~1tsrr~~ ~E~U81Kt1:Economics, North Carolina State Umvers1ty. ECONOMICS LIBRARY OCT' 9 2000 ' UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS A Globally Flexible Model of the Effects of Generic Advertising of Beef and Pork on U.S. Meat Demand In the United States, agricultural producer groups spend almost $1 billion per year on generic promotion programs, funded using mandated assessments. The controversial nature of the programs, combined with their economic importance, has led to a growing interest in evaluating their effects. A first step in any such evaluation is to establish the statistical and economic significance of the demand response to advertising. Previous studies have shown that the choice of functional form for demand equations can have important effects on hypothesis tests and ·measures of demand response to price or advertising. It is desirable to choose a demand system that will do a good job of approximating the true (but unknown) functional form without involving too many parameters; a flexible, but parsimonious, model is desired. In addition, the chosen demand system should be integrable (i.e., consistent with consumer theory). In this paper, we derive a new demand system that meets these requirements, the Nested PIGLOG (NEP) model. This demand system is more general than previously existing demand systems, and nests a total of thirteen demand systems as special cases. The NEP model is used to test whether advertising by the Beef Industry Council (BIC) and the National Pork Producers' Council (NPPC) had statistically significant effects on the per capita demands for beef, pork, and poultry in the United States. Each alternative functional form is estimated with and without advertising, and the resulting estimates are compared and evaluated. Deriving the Nested PIGLOG (NEP) model The NEP model combines the expenditure function of the Generalized Almost Ideal Translog (GAITL) model (Bellino and Violi 1990) with the expenditure function for the Fourier flexible functional form (Gallant 1981, 1982), and nests all of the known demand -systems that are consistent with PIGLOG (Price-Independent Generalized Logarithmic) preferences: the LES, AI, TL (exactly aggregable), Generalized Almost Ideal (GAi),


This study investigates changes in the relationship between maternal education and infant health using American Vital Statistics data from 1983 to 2000. I find that the disparity, as measured by infant deaths, between infants whose mothers have different levels of education, has remained constant over time while these differences, measured by Apgar scores, have been narrowing over the past two decades. This is in sharp contrast to the increasing disparities in health among adults of different educational backgrounds. A simple decomposition reveals that an increase in access to medical care is the dominant factor explaining the closing gap. Given that Hispanic women tend to have favorable birth outcomes while African-Americans tend to have worse-than-average infant outcomes, the gap has also declined because an increasing share of births to less-educated women was accounted for by Hispanics rather than by African-Americans. There are also several behavioral factors which have had an important impact. Namely, the gap has decreased because less-educated women smoke less, but this improvement is partially offset by an increase in the number of less educated women who gain excessive gestational weight. Finally, the gap has decreased because an increasing number of college-educated women are seeking fertility treatments.


somewhere around 5% depending on the species. Only few of the cloned embryos develop into viable embryos that can be transferred to an uterus and of these only few are born and of these many experience welfare problems. The welfare problems for the animals in vivo is usually collected under the heading of Large Offspring Syndrome that among other things encompass an unacceptably high level of losses during early and late pregnancy, stillbirths, early postnatal deaths, short lifespan, obesity and malformations. The reasons for these problems are still poorly understood and much research effort goes into understanding the reasons behind the low efficiency of the technology to make it a viable economical alternative to other kinds of animal reproduction. More information


Despite the predominance of cash-flow based methods in business valuation, other theoretically sound methods may also be applied to valuation, leading to accurate estimates of firm value. In this article, we first reflect on the key steps to value a business. After briefly reviewing widely used valuation models,


This study was conducted to find out the variation in agronomic trait and chemical composition in the collected Perilla frutescens from China and Japan. From the results of growth investigation, the maximum number if branches was 26.7ea in Japan 134 line, followed by 25 nodes number in China 119 line. Among the different lines investigated, maximum number of panicle number (108.8) were observed in China 114 line. 1000 seed weight was maximum (4.12 g) in China 118 line. Flowering time of different collected lines varied significantly with average value of 175.5 days and the average line required for maturation of seedlings was 205.1 days. Plant height was the highest (248.9 cm) in China 107 line. Highest number of total picking leaves was 965ea, and the average picked period was 54 days. The major phenol compounds contained in Perilla frutescens showed wide variation for Syringic acid, Benzoic acid, Naringin, o-Coumaric acid, Myricetin, Naringenin and Hesperetin. Japan 139 line showed the highest level of total phenol contents (, dry weight).


Based on the evaluated Yellow River surface runoff and observed annual runoff at the Yellow River mouth from 1956 to 2000,the status of flood water resources utilization during different periods of time is analyzed using different calculation methods,and the relationships between the spatial layout and operation mode of hydropower projects and flood water resource utilization in the Yellow River Basin are discussed.A new method of calculating the relative efficiency of flood water resources utilization is proposed to facilitate comparison among river basins in different climate zones.It is demonstrated that from 1990 to 2000 the flood water utilization level and relative efficiency of flood water resources utilization exhibited different trends: the former stayed at around 40 billion m3 while the latter increased rapidly,rising to around 90% in 2000.The effects of water resources utilization of upstream low sediment floods on utilization of downstream high sediment floods are analyzed.