The initiation of chromosomal replication must be tightly regulated so that the genome is replicated only once per cell cycle. In most bacteria, DnaA binds to the origin of replication and initiates chromosomal replication. DnaA is a dual-function protein that also acts as an important transcription factor that regulates the expression of many genes in bacteria. Thus, understanding how this protein is regulated during the bacterial cell cycle is of major importance. The α-proteobacterium Caulobacter crescentus is an excellent model to study the bacterial cell cycle, mainly because it is possible to isolate synchronized cell cultures and because it initiates the replication of its chromosome once per cell cycle and at a specific time of the cell cycle. This latest feature is of special interest for the major aim of my thesis work, which focused on the temporal and spatial regulation of the activity of the essential DnaA protein in C. crescentus. In Escherichia coli, the Hda protein converts ATP-DnaA into ADP- DnaA by stimulating the ATPase activity of DnaA, to prevent over-initiation of chromosome replication. We propose that there exists a similar mechanism in C. crescentus, which is not only involved in the temporal control of chromosome replication, but also in the control of gene expression.
First, we provided evidences indicating that the hydrolysis of the ATP bound to DnaA is essential for the viability of C. crescentus. Our results suggest that ATP-DnaA promotes the initiation of chromosome replication, since we found that cells over-expressing a DnaA protein with a mutated ATPase domain, DnaA(R357A), over-initiated chromosome replication, unlike cells expressing the wild-type DnaA protein at similar levels. By contrast, the DnaA(R357A) protein was less active than DnaA in promoting the transcription of three essential genes, suggesting that these may be more efficiently activated by ADP-DnaA than ATP-DnaA. We propose that the ATP-DnaA to ADP-DnaA switch down-regulates the initiation of DNA replication while activating the transcription of several essential genes involved in subsequent cell cycle events.
Second, we studied the role of the HdaA protein, homologous to Hda, in promoting the ATP- DnaA to ADP-DnaA switch in C. crescentus. HdaA is essential for viability and its depletion in the cell leads to an over-replication of the chromosome, indicating that HdaA is a negative regulator of DNA replication. HdaA dynamically co-localizes with the replisome. In this work, we identified DnaN, the β-clamp of the DNA polymerase, as the replisome component that interacts directly with HdaA and that recruits HdaA to the replisome in live C. crescentus cells. We also showed that a mutant HdaA protein that cannot interact or co-localize with DnaN is not functional, indicating that HdaA is probably activated by DnaN. However, we found that another non-functional HdaA protein, mutated in the conserved Arginine finger of its AAA+ domain, was able to localize at the replisome, suggesting that the AAA+ domain of HdaA exerts its essential function after the recruitment of HdaA to the replisome. We propose that HdaA stimulates the ATPase activity of DnaA once DNA replication is ongoing, via its interaction with DnaN and the activity of the two conserved R fingers of DnaA and HdaA. Finally, we created different strains in which HdaA, DnaN or DnaA were over-produced. We observed that the over-production of HdaA seems to lead to a delay in chromosome replication, while the over-production of DnaN had an opposite effect. Our results also indicate that the over-production of DnaA may intensify the over-initiation phenotype of cells depleted for HdaA. We conclude that the dynamic interplay of HdaA and DnaN in the cell contributes to regulating the ATP-DnaA/ADP-DnaA ratio in the cell, to ensure once per cell cycle initiation of chromosomal replication in C. crescentus.
Altogether, our work provided important information on the regulation of the activity of DnaA in C. crescentus. Since DnaA, HdaA and DnaN are well-conserved proteins, most of our findings are useful to understand how chromosome replication and gene expression are controlled by DnaA in many other bacterial species.
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L'initiation de la replication des chromosomes doit etre precisement regulee de telle sorte que le genome ne soit replique qu'une seule fois par cycle cellulaire. Chez la plupart des bacteries, DnaA se lie a l'origine de replication du chromosome et en initie sa replication. DnaA est aussi un facteur de transcription qui regule l'expression de nombreux genes bacteriens. De ce fait, il est tres important de comprendre comment DnaA est regulee au cours du cycle cellulaire bacterien. L'a-proteobacterie Caulobacter crescentus est un excellent modele pour etudier le cycle cellulaire bacterien, essentiellement parce qu'il est aise d'isoler des populations de cellules synchronisees a la meme etape du cycle cellulaire et parce que cette bacterie n'initie la replication de son chromosome qu'une seule fois et a un moment precis de son cycle. Cette derniere caracteristique est particulierement pertinente pour l'objectif de mon travail doctoral, qui consistait a comprendre comment l'activite de la proteine essentielle DnaA est regulee dans l'espace et dans le temps chez C. crescentus. Chez Escherichia coli, la proteine Hda convertie DnaA-ATP en DnaA-ADP en stimulant l'activite ATPasique de DnaA, ce qui empeche la sur-initiation de la replication du chromosome. Nous proposons qu'un mecanisme similaire existe chez C. crescentus. Il serait non seulement necessaire au controle de la replication du chromosome, mais aussi au controle de l'expression de certains genes.
Dans un premier temps, nous avons mis en evidence le fait que l'hydrolyse de l'ATP lie a DnaA est un processus essentiel a la viabilite de C. crescentus. Nos resultats suggerent que DnaA-ATP initie la replication du chromosome, comme nous avons observe que des cellules qui sur-expriment une proteine DnaA(R357A) mutee sans domaine ATPasique fonctionnel, sur-initie la replication de leur chromosome, contrairement aux cellules qui sur-expriment la proteine DnaA sauvage a des niveaux equivalents. Au contraire, la proteine DnaA(R357A) etait moins active que la proteine DnaA sauvage pour promouvoir la transcription de trois genes essentiels, ce qui suggere que ces derniers sont peut-etre plus efficacement actives par DnaA-ADP que DnaA-ATP. Nous proposons que la conversion de DnaA-ATP en DnaA-ADP reprime l'initiation de la replication, tandis qu'elle active la transcription de plusieurs genes impliques dans des etapes plus tardives du cycle cellulaire.
Dans un deuxieme temps, nous avons etudie le role de la proteine HdaA, homologue a Hda, dans la conversion de DnaA-ATP en DnaA-ADP chez C. crescentus. Cette proteine est essentielle a la viabilite de C. crescentus et sa depletion donne des cellules qui sur-initient la replication de leur chromosome, suggerant que HdaA est un represseur de la replication du chromosome. HdaA co-localise de maniere dynamique avec le replisome. Lors de mon travail doctoral, nous avons demontre que DnaN, le β-clamp de l'ADN polymerase, est l'element qui recrute HdaA au replisome in vivo. Nous avons aussi montre qu'une proteine HdaA mutante qui ne peut pas interagir ou co-localiser avec DnaN, n'est pas fonctionnelle, ce qui suggere que HdaA est activee par DnaN. Nous avons neanmoins aussi isole une autre proteine HdaA non fonctionnelle, dont une arginine conservee de son domaine AAA+ etait mutee, mais qui pouvait toujours co-localiser avec le replisome, ce qui suggere que le domaine AAA+ de HdaA est necessaire apres le recrutement de HdaA au replisome. Nous proposons que HdaA stimule l'activite ATPasique de DnaA qu'une fois que la replication a commence, grâce a son interaction avec DnaN et aux deux arginines conservees des proteines HdaA et DnaA. Finalement, nous avons construit differentes souches sur-exprimant HdaA, DnaN ou DnaA. Nous avons observe que la sur-production de HdaA retarde la replication du chromosome, tandis que la sur-production de DnaN a un effet oppose. Nos observations suggerent aussi que la sur-expression de DnaA dans des cellules depletees pour HdaA aggrave leur phenotype de sur-initiation. Nous en concluons que HdaA et DnaN collaborent etroitement et de maniere dynamique pour reguler le rapport DnaA-ATP/DnaA-ADP dans la cellule, pour s'assurer que
la replication du chromosome ne soit initiee qu'une seule fois par cycle cellulaire chez C. crescentus.
Globalement, notre travail a mis en evidence des informations importantes sur la regulation de l'activite de DnaA chez C. crescentus. Comme DnaA, HdaA et DnaN sont des proteines tres conservees, la plupart de nos decouvertes sont utiles pour mieux comprendre comment la replication du chromosome bacterien et l'expression des genes sont controlees par DnaA chez de nombreuses autres especes bacteriennes.


ABSTRACT In the documentaries The Harvest (2017, Andrea Paco Mariani) and Dimmi chi sono (Sarita, 2019, Sergio Basso), the directors seek to raise awareness of a rarely told story, true to the tradition of politically engaged documentary. The Harvest denounces the slavery-like conditions in which Indian harvest hands work in Italy, while Dimmi chi photosono serves both as an archive for forgotten stories of the stateless Lhotshampa (an ethnic group displaced from Bhutan to Nepal) and to reveal the role of audio-visual media as vehicles for individual and collective memory. Though they tell very different stories, the films are united by their search for a suitable documentary language, since they can no longer rely on the authenticity effects that have been made hackneyed by the mass media to lend credibility to their accounts. The directors therefore combine conventional documentary methods with intermedial references to painting and photography, in particular pastiches of Hollywood/Bollywood musical scenes, so as to question Western concepts of authenticity.


Herb-drug interactions have received more attention in recent years because of the widespread popularity of herbal supplements. However, there is limited data on the effect of herbs on glucuronidation in humans. The goal of this work was to examine the effect of Ginkgo biloba extract and its main flavonoid and terpene lactone constituents on mycophenolic acid (MPA) 7- O- glucuronidation. Human liver (HLM) and intestinal (HIM) microsomes were incubated with MPA and G. biloba extract (unhydrolyzed glycosides or acid-hydrolyzed aglycones), quercetin, kaempferol, ginkgolide A, ginkgolide B, or bilobalide. MPA-7- O -glucuronide (MPAG) formation was inhibited in HLM and HIM incubations by unhydrolyzed (IC 50 = 84.3 [HLM] and 6.9 [HIM] µg/ml) and hydrolyzed (IC 50 = 20.9 [HLM] and 4.3 [HIM] µg/ml) G. biloba extracts, quercetin (IC 50 = 19.1 [HLM] and 5.8 [HIM] µM), and kaempferol (IC 50 = 23.1 [HLM] and 7.7 [HIM] µM). Terpene lactones did not show inhibition of MPA glucuronidation. Quercetin was a mixed-type inhibitor in HLM and HIM incubations ( K i = 11.3 µM [HLM] and 2.8 µM [HIM]), while kaempferol was a non-competitive inhibitor in HLM ( K i = 33.7 µM) and a mixed-type inhibitor in HIM ( K i = 4.5 µM). These results indicate that G. biloba extract or quercetin- and kaempferol-rich supplements may inhibit intestinal and hepatic glucuronidation of MPA. Future studies are needed to evaluate the clinical significance of this interaction. incubation tubes in a bath at 37 o for 30 µl of ice-cold and 20 µl of internal (0.5 mg/ml were vortex-mixed for two minutes and centrifuged for 10 min at 20,000 x g . supernatant 12-fold purified and 5 µl injected into the HPLC system. Incubations with herbal extracts and the corresponding controls contained 1% acetone. The HLM and HIM used in all experiments were from the same lot. nonlinear


The nature of the low-temperature inversions γ-α' and α'-β was investigated by various techniques: hydrothermal and "dry" quenching runs, differential thermal analysis at atmospheric and elevated nitrogen pressures, X-ray diffractometer patterns obtained at elevated temperatures, "static" pressure techniques, and infrared absorption spectrometry. A revised energy-temperature diagram is presented for Ca2SiO4, with the transition γ' to α' taking place at about 725°C. and the α'-β transition, although not reversible at an exact temperature, taking place at about 670° C. At low water pressures (2000 lb. per sq. in.) the inversion γ-α' was placed at 675°C. Attempts to extrapolate the value obtained at 2000 lb. per sq. in. to obtain a more accurate reversible inversion temperature at atmospheric pressure, although limited in accuracy by the reliability of heat-of-transition data, would indicate a temperature of about 725° C. at atmospheric pressure. Three new compounds, 8CaO.3SiO2 -3H2O (X), 6CaO 3SiO2.H2O (Y), and 9CaO-6SiO2 H2O (Z), were found to be stable above 700°C. at H2O pressures greater than 7500 lb. per sq. in.


This paper considers robust output regulation of uncertain Euler-Lagrange (EL) systems by error (or relative position) and velocity feedback. We shall develop an adaptive internal model approach for the problem. Particularly, the proposed control law does not require apriori knowledge of reference signal and its derivatives, which are commonly assumed in literature. It enables a self-learning mechanism of the closed-loop EL systems where the adaptive internal model-based controller is able to learn the desired trajectories and adapt itself to the uncertain plant parameters. We also present a numerical example to illustrate the proposed result.


The studies to evaluate the effectiveness of mini-circular intersections at the Volgograd street road network to improve traffic safety, which is achieved by eliminating the traffic flows intersection conflict points and reducing speed have been conducted.


The structural response of internally pressurized composite cylindrical panels, representative of a transport aircraft's fuselage skins, is predicted by means of a one-dimensional, geometrically nonlinear analysis. An analytical study is conducted for the response of 4-, 8-, and 16-ply graphite/epoxy skins. The results obtained indicate that the response is geometrically nonlinear, and that a boundary layer with a severe bending gradient exists at the panel edges. The importance of through-the-thickness shearing deformations in the bending boundary layer is illustrated through comparison of analyses based on Kirchhoff-Love and shear deformation theories. Numerical results for the bending boundary layer lengths of the different panels are presented, and two bending boundary layers are predicted with the shear deformation theory.


An X-band microstrip patch PIFA antenna is proposed in this paper. The feedline part is bent in several sections and forms an L shape structure on the upper part, which is printed on the substrate. By adding a short-circuit wall at the zero electric field point of the patch, the size of the antenna is reduced by half. Through simulation, the bandwidth reaches 18.9%, the vertical cross polarization ratio is about 45.3dB. However, the cross polarization ratio in all directions is above 30dB. In practical application, this kind of antenna is not easy to be interfered by other antennas because of its good cross polarization, and its structure is relatively simple, so it has a certain application value.


The depolarization of light in diffused medium was studied by observation of temporal profiles of orthogonally polarized components. The time dependence of depolarization of light in diffused medium was simulated by using the Monte Carlo method. The projection data of absorbers hidden in highly scattering medium were taken by the method for detecting photons which preserved initial polarization using a phase modulator. The floor level due to diffused light was significantly suppressed by our method. The reconstructed optical CT image exhibited high spatial resolution in comparison with the image from the projection data taken by a conventional method.


The literature abounds with papers on the subject of function approximation using neural networks. Many of these attempt to improve some aspect of the approximation by imposing a constraint, or introducing a new algorithm. The underlying strategy of our work has been to attempt to pull together some of these strands as part of an overall aim of establishing the parameters of networks which will be more robust function approximators. The underlying strategy of our work has been to attempt to pull together some of these strands as part of an overall aim of establishing the parameters of networks which will be more robust function approximators. Rather than exploring a few topics in depth, the scope has been broad; searching for more general properties and behaviour of different networks, with a view to designing more focused studies in the future. We studied the ability of neural networks with different architectures, and with either sigmoid or radial basis node activation functions, to approximate a variety of target functions. Some of the properties of these networks were investigated by studying the behaviour of the networks' variables during training.


Water efficiency advanced in the 1990s The 1990s brought major advances in water efficiency technologies, practices, programs, and research. Progressive water utilities in Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.; and Albuquerque, N.M., reduced their total water demand by more than 20 percent in a matter of years. Albuquerque has cut total water use by 24 percent since 1995 and is working toward a 30 percent reduction by 2005.


A rectifying curve $\gamma$ in the Euclidean $3$-space $\mathbb{E}^3$ is defined as a space curve whose position vector always lies in its rectifying plane (i.e., the plane spanned by the unit tangent vector field $T_\gamma$ and the unit binormal vector field $B_\gamma$ of the curve $\gamma$), and an $f$-rectifying curve $\gamma$ in the Euclidean $3$-space $\mathbb{E}^3$ is defined as a space curve whose $f$-position vector $\gamma_f$, defined by $\gamma_f(s) = \int f(s) d\gamma$, always lies in its rectifying plane, where $f$ is a nowhere vanishing real-valued integrable function in arc-length parameter $s$ of the curve $\gamma$. In this paper, we introduce the notion of $f$-rectifying curves which are null (lightlike) in the Minkowski $3$-space $\mathbb{E}^3_1$. Our main aim is to characterize and classify such null (lightlike) $f$-rectifying curves having spacelike or timelike rectifying plane in the Minkowski $3$-Space $\mathbb{E}^3_1$.


We unveiled the effect of doping on the morpho-structural and opto/electrical properties of Ca-doped ZnO:Al thin films obtained by RF magnetron sputtering. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was performed to reveal the surface morphology, while the composition and crystal structure were investigated by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The correlation between the microstructure and the electrical conductivity identifies an increase in electrical conductivity up to 145 × 10−3 Ω−1·m−1 at 5 wt.% Ca doping level with the decrease in the grain size. Furthermore, the presence of Ca dopant triggers the occurrence of the emission peak at 430 nm and an increase of the green emission peak in PL spectra. Corroborating the electrical measurements with X-ray diffraction and optical measurements, one can infer that the electrical conductivity is dominated by intrinsic defects developed during deposition and by the existence of dopants.


Can the history of European integration be told on the basis of the textual development of the preambles to the European treaties? This is the fundamental question of this text which looks at European integration through the eyes of its treaties' preambles. In a first step, possible forms, content and functions of preambles are introduced. This provides the analytical framework for the following part that explores the European treaties' preambles and layers of integration. It focusses on three central hypotheses: Beginning with thoughts on the speaking entity of the preambles, i.e. their subjects, the text examines directions and reasons of European integration. Starting point to this is the "ever closer union among the European peoples" and the discussion on values.


Angular momentum transport in protostellar disks can be achieved by the action of a large scale magnetic field that runs vertically through the disk. The magnetic field centrifugally drives material from the disk surfaces into a wind, initiating a bipolar outflow. One apparent difficulty for this model is that the conductivity of the disk is extremely low in the inner 0.1--10 AU of the disk, where grains are the dominant charge carriers. Near the midplane, charged grains are unable to drift through the neutral gas and there is negligible coupling between the magnetic field and the disk material. However, the removal of angular momentum and acceleration of a wind by a magnetic field can still take place in the surface layers of the disk where the gas conductivity increases dramatically. Solutions to the multifluid MHD equations for the vertical structure of a disk at a particular radius are presented. Most of the disk material sits in hydrostatic equilibrium and does not interact with the magnetic field running vertically through it. Near the disk surfaces, the coupling between the magnetic field and disk material is sufficient to initiate an outflow from the disk surface.


way and see things from a different perspective has been important when conducting this research as well as trying to better grasp the idea of this world. When it comes to practical assistance I want to thank you Amanda Sircombe for your excellent transcribing services. The costs for the transcribing were covered by contestable funds available to postgraduate students at Auckland University of Technology. A huge thank you must also go to the librarians at


The investigation on the structure formation in the bainitic area for high-speed steel HS18-0-1 is performed. The austempering is carried out at 270 °С after austenitizing at 1280 °С following by isothermal retention in the area of high resistance of the undercooled austenite(500÷650°С). The kinetic of the bainitic transformation, the obtained structure by means of optical metallography (OM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray analysis and hardness measurement by Rockwell method are studied. The influence of the preliminary destabilisation of the undercooled austenite at 560 °C and 650 °C on the characteristics of the austenite-to-bainitе transformation in steel HS18-0-1 is established.


Abstract Bush beans (Phascolus vulgaris L. var Improved Tendergreen) were grown for 21 days in noncalcareous Yolo loam soil with 0, 500, and 1000 ppm of DTPA (diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid) and also of EDDHA (ethylenediamine di(o‐hydroxyphenylacetic acid)) applied as the Na salts. The objective was to learn more of DTPA‐increased uptake of some heavy metals. The high levels of both agents tended to depress yields and result in leaf symptoms of excesses of metals. Both agents resulted in large increases of Fe in shoots. DTPA resulted in much larger increases in Zn, Cu, Mn, Co, Ni and Pb than did EDDHA. For Cu, Co, and Ni the proportional increases with DTPA were greater than that for Fe. Aluminum was increased more by EDDHA than by DTPA while Mo was increased almost equally by the two chelating agents. Chromium was increased slightly by each agent, but V was unaffected. Leaf/stem ratios were increased by DTPA for Co and Ni and to a lesser extent for Fe and Zn indicating some transport through the pl...


From the perspective of English jurists, the incoming tide of Community law still carries some suspicious pieces of flotsam onto the shores of the English legal system. It may be that the origin of certain general principles of Community law has contributed to that suspicion. The principles of proportionality1 and of the protection of legitimate expectations,2 for instance, have a reputation of being 'made in Germany. ' Their claim to acceptance in English administrative law is met with reservations.3 English lawyers may in fact think that European administrative law is the Trojan horse by which a continental tradition is about to supersede well-established English principles of administrative law and judicial review. They may also legitimately ask themselves whether their system is not particularly susceptible to change, since the Common Law tradition is the exception rather than the rule in the European context. German administrative law has acquired the reputation of being influential in the shaping of the general principles of European administrative law4 as they are being developed by the European Court of Justice and also, to a certain extent, by the European Commission and Court of Human Rights.5 Such a proposition, however, is difficult to prove or to disprove since it is frequently impossible to trace the origins of rules directly.6 In one or other form, other national systems of administrative law also know the concepts and principles which are at issue here. It is quite obvious, however, that these principles have acquired a particular significance and an extraordinary legal force in Germany. For these reasons, this article adopts an indirect approach. In Part One, some important principles of European administrative law are analysed in order to determine whether they have an equivalent in German administrative law. The relevant differences between these two systems and the system of English administrative law are also examined. Part Two attempts to explain why some of


We investigated the relationship between self-compassion and proactive coping. Participants were 99 undergraduate students at a Toronto university who completed two questionnaires: the Self-Compassion Scale and the Proactive Coping Inventory. As a significant positive correlation was found between the two scales, our results supported the hypothesis that individuals high in self-compassion cope proactively during difficult times. Moreover, among the varying types of coping styles, proactive coping best predicted self-compassion, although emotional support seeking also seems to play an important role. An additional outcome of this study was to assess the validity of the Proactive Coping Inventory with a new sample. It was found to be internally consistent in terms of both Cronbach's alpha and the pattern of correlations among the seven subscales.


Heavy ozonated C60 fullerene, known also as "fullerene ozopolymer" is able to reduce silver ions to silver nanoparticles. The silver ions reduction was followed spectrophotometrically through the development of the surface plasmon resonance absorption band at 420 nm which is typical of the colloidal suspension of silver nanoparticles. The kinetic rate constant of silver ions reduction was determined. Fullerene ozopolymer acts as a reducing agent and as silver colloid protecting agent as demonstrated by the value of Z-potential which suggests the formation of a thermodynamically stable colloidal suspension.


Phytophthora root rot is a severe disease on blueberry ( Vaccinium corymbosum L.) in poorly drained soils. Little is known about how mulching and frequent waterlogging affect disease severity in blueberries. Phytophthora cinnamomi Rands was grown on rice hulls, which were incorporated into the soil at the rate of 10% (v:v). Waterlogging conditions were imposed for 48 hours 1 week after planting on mulched and nonmulched blueberry plants at weekly, biweekly, and monthly intervals for a total of 3 months. Control plants were not subjected to flooding. The severity of Phytophthora root rot increased with time. Significant linear relationships were found between flooding interval and disease severity rating of shoot, percentage of root infection, and shoot and root dry weights of plants. Disease symptoms were minimal in control plants, but shoot disease rating and percentage of root infection were high in mulched and nonmulched plants that were flooded every week. Shoot and root dry weights were higher in 1997 than in 1996. In 1996, mulched plants had higher shoot dry weights than did nonmulched plants. Disease incidence was higher with weekly and biweekly flooding than with monthly or no flooding. However, mulching did not affect root infection.


Looking at the way the new communication technology has dominated Kenyan's daily lives, it is hard to imagine how they functioned without it. In spite of these developments, the traditional institutions that mediate social relations of power remain unchanged. Essentially, the new communication technologies have only succeeded in providing a new arena where the traditional discourse is reproduced. Standing at the intersection between these new technologies and communication is language—the medium that facilitates interpersonal interaction both in traditional modes of interaction and in digital interactions. We shall be examining how the linguistic practices interact with these new communication technologies. By emphasizing on the centrality of language in mediating social interactions, we argue that posttraditional discourse fails to extricate itself from cultural hegemony due to global trends that favor the hegemonic languages as well as the ingrained habitus1 that predisposes Kenyans to reproduce linguistics structures inspired by the discourse of power of hierarchy of languages in the linguistic marketplace. Our discussion opens with a brief overview of the place of language in a technological world.


The modelling of mountain hydrology is characterized by a series of challenges: continuous accessibility of sites is usually difficult, the accuracy of measurements is limited or even unknown, and their areal representativeness is highly variable in space and time. The spatial variability of many variables that serve as model input undergoes significant scale dependence, and the validation possibilities for model output are limited. Finally, the quantification of uncertainties is usually limited to ensemble simulations across reasonable parameter spaces. Even though sophisticated mountain hydrology modelling schemes have been developed recently, many early concepts have survived: temperature index snowmelt modelling, the neglect of snow sublimation, pragmatic gauge corrections, evapotranspiration estimations, and simple soiland overland flow representations. Many of these models lack the ability to be transferable in space and time, and in scenario applications they produce artefacts. By means of combining physically-oriented parameterizations and statistical approaches, multi-scale sensitivity studies and integration of remote sensing data in the meantime we can compile improved versions of our models. This is additionally facilitated by an increasing number of new hydrometeorological observatories in mountain areas that are currently built up. As an example of the potential and limitations of modelling mountain hydrology, we present an approach to combine a distributed hydrological model, physically-based snow process parameterizations and an artificial neural network for an enhanced modelling of water fluxes in a high Alpine catchment in the Berchtesgaden Alps (Germany). The hydrology there is highly complex due to the very steep topographic gradients, related spatial variability of all meteorological variables, the very heterogeneous snow cover and the karst nature of the groundwater system. We demonstrate the benefit of single model enhancements, and provide a generally climate change scenario-capable application. With operational observatories, international cooperation and networking, new opportunities arise for joint mountain hydrological process and modelling studies. We conclude with an outlook of upcoming scientific challenges in coupled human–natural water systems.


Revealing latent structure in data is an active field of research, having introduced exciting technologies such as variational autoencoders and adversarial networks, and is essential to push machine learning towards unsupervised knowledge discovery. However, a major challenge is the lack of suitable benchmarks for an objective and quantitative evaluation of learned representations. To address this issue we introduce Morpho-MNIST, a framework that aims to answer: "to what extent has my model learned to represent specific factors of variation in the data?" We extend the popular MNIST dataset by adding a morphometric analysis enabling quantitative comparison of trained models, identification of the roles of latent variables, and characterisation of sample diversity. We further propose a set of quantifiable perturbations to assess the performance of unsupervised and supervised methods on challenging tasks such as outlier detection and domain adaptation. Data and code are available at this https URL.


We report progress in the design, theoretical modeling and experimental characterisation of microchannel plate (MCP) X-ray optics for the BepiColombo Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (MIXS). We show that MCP optics technology allows the design of a highly capable imaging telescope with 1 m focal length, a 1° field of view and approximately 50 cm2 of on-axis effective area at 1 keV. Of a total instrument mass budget 7.3 kg, less than 2.3 kg is allocated to the optics assemblies, telescope tubes, support structures and the electron diverters (used to deflect electrons from the focal plane). The instrument science goals require an imaging resolution of 9 arcminutes, with a design goal of 2 arcminutes. Recent experimental data, taken from individual optic elements is presented to show that MCP quality is in good agreement with the error budgets assumed in theoretical calculations of performance.


The main purpose of the present study is to examine the role of visual materials in teaching English vocabulary. The first-mentioned researcher took a sample of grade 8 students and their English language teachers teaching in three Second Cycle Primary Schools in Robe town and its surrounding in Bale Zone. One hundred and twenty students out of 580 and all eight English language teachers were participated in the study. Four research instruments: questionnaire, observation, interviews and document analysis were used to collect the data. The questionnaire was filled in by the entire subjects, while interview was conducted to sixteen students and four teachers. Eight lessons were observed while teachers were presenting vocabulary in three sample schools with the help of checklist. The results of the study reveal that the majority of the


For robots manipulating objects, more sophisticated manipulations would be possible if surface information about the object were available. This information becomes even more critical when the manipulation is to be carried out in an unstructured environment. Tactile sensing has been the norm for collecting such surface information. In this paper, a sensor for recognizing surface texture was developed, in which a ridged structure on its surface, which generates vibrations when moved along the surface of the object of interest, is used. The pattern used for the ridged structure combines two distinct patterns that are found in different parts of a human fingerprint. In this work, sensors with two distinct fingerprint-like structures were first developed and tested to acquire surface texture information. Texture features were also extracted and identified with these sensors. Then a hybrid pattern was created by combining the two previously tested distinct structures. Finally, a series of experiments was conducted to compare the performance of sensors with a ridged structure having a single fingerprint pattern and a hybrid sensor whose ridged structure consists of two fingerprint patterns. In the experiments, the sensors collected surface information from nine different textured samples. Through these experiments, it was confirmed that the sensor using the hybrid pattern has better surface identification capabilities than the sensors using a single pattern.


My interest in the problem of the role of viruses in chronic obstructive respiratory disease (CORD) of man is as a virologist and epidemiologist rather than as a specialist in CORD. Hence, my presentation will take the form of speculations made in a state of at least partial ignorance of past and current studies of CORD. My hope is that, uninhibited as I am by "knowledge" as to what cannot be done, I may have some advantage over workers now fully immersed in the problem. These speculations will be concerned with two somewhat different problems. The first has to do with mechanisms by which viruses might play a role. Hopefully, identification of these may suggest approaches to development of animal models. The second relates to means by which viral contributions to human disease might be detected, some of which I am sure, are currently being explored. An important question is whether additional efforts to collect information and specimens relevant to human disease should be encouraged now.


Abstract : The purpose of this research was to develop a model which will identify aircraft equipment items for potential reliability improvement. A model was constructed to utilize a recently compiled data base comprised of four Air Force data collection systems (G033B, D056, D041, and K051). Included in the data base are 31 active Air Force aircraft weapon systems. The model analyzes the data under three replacement policies: (a) Replace on depot condemnation, (b) Replace or repair at the base, and (c) Replace on failure. Given the estimated investment required to improve the reliability of an item, the model will estimate the benefits that would accrue in terms of reduced support cost and increased availability. The investment and benefits are used to form an estimated return-on-investment ratio. The model was exercised on the 1650 stock class of items for the 31 mission design series aircraft. The results of the model, in terms of potential candidates for reliability improvement, were discussed with personnel assigned at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center. (Author)


The present study a total of 72 day old chick of male broiler hatch were procured and randomly distributed into four groups. Treatment T 1 is control and treatment T 2 , T 3 , and T 4 with six sub groups comprising of two birds in each to serve as replicates. Broilers in treatment T 1 was fed diet as per NRC standard CP 22 and ME 2900 but broilers in T 2 , T 3 and T 4 were fed standard ration T 1 supplemented with 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 present FSP adlib. The mean body weight of broiler in different treatment T 1 , T 2 , T 3 and T 4 were 1236.39gm, 1298.61gm, 1303.38gm and 1314.44gm respectively and give significant effect among that treatment. The mean feed intake of broilers at five week of age in T 1 , T 2 , T 3 , and T 4 were 1870.0gm, 1889.65gm, 1921.65gm and 197.65gm respectively and give non-significant effect among that treatment. The mean feed consumption ratio of broiler at five week of age in T 1 , T 2 , T 3 and T 4 were1.69kg, 1.43kg, 1.67kg, and 1.69kg respectively and among that treatment give non-significant effect. It was concluded that treatment T 4 give high feed intake, and high feed consumption ratio (FCR) per broiler among those treatments. conversion ratio (FCR), Day old chicks (DOC), Electronic weighing machine, feed-supplemented probiotics ( FSP ), National research council (NRC).


This paper presents a novel method to determine the flow rate and fluid resistance of membrane-type restrictors. The coupled fluid pressure and membrane deformation is solved utilizing a fluid and structure interaction algorithm. The arbitrary boundary condition of a membrane is properly handled by adding the displacement springs and torsion springs to the boundary nodes of the membrane, and the finite element method is used to calculate the membrane deformation. Three different methods are studied using several case studies: the arbitrary boundary method, the large deformation method, and the traditional method. The results are compared with the experimental data available in the literature. It has been found that among all three methods, the arbitrary boundary method offers the best results. The membrane deformations show a nonlinear relationship with different supply pressures. The results reveal the boundary condition of the membrane is not a fixed boundary or a simply supported boundary; it is an arbitrary boundary condition, which varies with respect to the supply pressure. By taking the statistical model into consideration in the design process, the proposed arbitrary boundary condition method offers the potential to accurately calculate the flow rate and improve the reliability of the designs for membrane-type restrictors.


A new rapid, simple and cheap method is presented for spectrophotometric determination of reduced glutathione(GSH) with phosphorusmolybdenum heteropoly blue. The method is based on the reaction of phosphorusmolybdenum heteropoly acid with GSH. The reactive product exhibits maximum absorption at 710 nm . At the optimal conditions , the absorptivity is linearly proportional to GSH concentration in range of 3. 3 ×10-7- 1.3×10-4 mol· L-1 (r = 0.9982). The detection limit of 1.6×10- 7 mol· L-1 . the relative standard deviation of 1. 1 % ( n =6) and the recovery of 97. 1 %- 103. 5% are given . The method has been applied to the determination of GSH in medicinal sample with satisfactory results.


Abstract : The Vertical Flight IFR Terminal Area Procedures (VERTAPS) Program Plan was developed by Systems Control Technology, Inc., Boeing Defense & Space Group, Helicopters Division, and Bell Helicopter TEXTRON. The plan describes tasks to be performed in a five year program to develop vertical flight instrument procedures (VFIPS) and air traffic control (ATC) procedures to integrate advanced vertical flight aircraft into the National Airspace System. The plan proposes the development and evaluation of instrument procedures using high-fidelity, piloted simulators and flight test. VERTAPS is intended to produce usable VFIPS and ATC procedures, and validate simulation as a valuable counterpart to flight test in instrument procedure development.


The new combination Melanthium woodii (Robbins ex Wood) Bodkin, made but not effectively published in my doctoral dissertation, is here validated in anticipation of its use in the forthcoming account of the genus in Flora of North America. Melanthium L. (Liliaceae) is a genus of perhaps eight species, four of them found in North America from central Iowa eastward to southern New York, south to northern Florida and eastern Texas; the other four are found in southwest China. The type species, M. virginicum L., occurs over this entire range, commonly in swamps, marshes, and bogs. Melanthium latifolium Desrousseaux, found mostly on rich wooded slopes, and M. parviflorum (Michaux) Watson, of higher elevations, occur mainly in the mid-Appalachian mountains. Another species, recognized previously as Veratrum woodii Robbins ex Wood and here transferred to Melanthium, is known only from rich deciduous slopes of the Ozark Plateau, where it is rare, and from five small disjunct populations in North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. In my revision of Melanthium (Bodkin, 1978), I maintained this genus as distinct from Veratrum L. on the basis of leaf size and shape, inflorescence characters, features of the tepal glands and claws, adnation of stamens to tepals, and general habit of the plants. According to these criteria, the species heretofore recognized as Veratrum woodii belongs with the other species of Melanthium. In anticipation of its use in my forthcoming account of Melanthium in Flora of North America, the new combination, made but not effectively published in my 1978 work, is here validated. Melanthium woodii (Robbins ex Wood) Bodkin, comb. nov. Basionym: Veratrum woodii Robbins ex Wood, Class-book bot. ed. 2, 557. 1847. TYPE: U.S.A. Indiana: Greene Co., deep woods, July, Wood s.n. (holotype, GH). Veratrum intermedium Chapman, Fl. S. U.S. 489. 1860. SYNTYPES: U.S.A. Florida: Gadsden Co.: rich, shady hummocks, 1835, Chapman s.n. (lectotype, here designated, GH); U.S.A. Florida: s.l., s.d., Chapman s.n. (probable type, GH). When Wood published the name Veratrum woodii and the accompanying description, he cited Robbins as author. There has been some confusion as to whether Robbins should be cited "in Wood" or "ex Wood." There is no indication or acknowledgment that Robbins actually wrote the description, so the correct citation is Robbins ex Wood. The description is thorough and agrees in all characters with the type at GH. Acknowledgments. I deeply appreciate the assistance given by James Reveal, University of Maryland, and Robert Kiger, Hunt Institute, in the preparation of my revision of North American Melanthium.


Hepatitis B is an infectious disease that attacks the liver can be acute and chronic and can cause cirrhosis (hardening of the liver) and liver cancer. Hepatitis B is quietly one of the leading causes of death, causing liver damage that occurs gradually over the past 20 years. Hepatitis B is transmitted directly from infected pregnant women as much as 90-95% has the potential to become chronic with the risk of various complications as well as a source of transmission of Hepatitis B during his life and even death in young adulthood. This study aims to obtain in-depth information and analyze the causes of hepatitis B in pregnant women (Phenomenology Study) at the Perhentian Raja District Health Center. Kampar was conducted from December 2019 until June 2020. This type of research is a qualitative study with a Phenomenology research design. The number of informants is 19 people determined by purposive sampling. Informant's knowledge, family history of Hepatitis B, and history of immunization are factors that cause hepatitis B in pregnant women. It is expected that Health Officers can increase socialization and counseling about infectious diseases of Hepatitis B in the community, so as to increase public knowledge in order to reduce the number of Hepatitis B among pregnant women.


One of the promised methods for nanolithography is the tip-induced modification by a scanning probe microscopy, particular an atomic force microscopy (AFM). Also AFM becomes an important tool for the imaging surface down to the atomic scale even under the ambient condition. The advantage of an atomic force microscope is the possibility to modify the semiconductor or metal surface locally. The characteristic size of the nanomodification for this method varied from 10 to 100 nanometers at lateral directions. There are two basic methods of the nanofabrication with an AFM probe: the local anodic oxidation by applying oxidized potential [1] and "direct scratching" of the surface by an AFM tip [2]. The both methods have been tested by the fabricating of nanostructure objects. Unfortunately the local anodic oxidation of semiconductor and metal surfaces demonstrates the small modification depth, generally not more than 10 nanometers [3]. Also the "nanoscratching" allows to produce the modification only at 1-2 nanometers in the depth without observing changing in the tip shape [4]. We present results of the investigation of the simultaneous application of the local anodic oxidation and direct scratching to semiconductor surfaces by an AFM probe.


One of myth about entrepreneurship is that an entrepreneur was born not made. Even that is a myth, but many people still believe the myth is true. However, many research result educations of entrepreneur show that have a significant result to increase motivation, skill and spirit of entrepreneurship with education, and creative learning method, but some result does not have a significant result. This topic still ongoing and interesting to discuss. This
research paper wants to show the effectiveness of learning method to teach and to equip the student to be motivated,
skill and spirit of entrepreneur from the student point of views in study case from several classes of entrepreneur-
ship and innovation subject at Universitas Kristen Maranatha, Bandung Indonesia. The result from 73 students of
entrepreneurship and innovation revealed learning method entrepreneurship project and sales session can increase the
skill, motivation, and spirit of entrepreneurship, and 64.1% interest be an entrepreneur and 67% want to learn more
about entrepreneurship.


Scientific literature is growing unattainable for any medical professional who wants to be up to date with developments in their field. Access to the more than four hundred thousand biomedical articles that are published annually in the world, with chapters in papers or dissertations, it is an impossible task without the help of computer technology. Subscriptions to magazines prestigious interrogation to bibliographic databases, or revision of bulletins summary prepared by libraries and documentation centers are some systems used by professionals that try to keep abreast.


Fracturing (jointing) affects large volumes of rocks and strongly impacts their mechanical stability and permeability. In layered sedimentary basins, the fractures typically form subparallel sets with different fracture spacing S. This parameter has been extensively studied both in the field and in mechanical models in relation to the thickness T of the fractured layers. A linear relation was suggested by most studies. A few geological investigations involving wide ranges of T values have shown that the T(S) relation is generally strongly nonlinear and that in thick beds (T >∼1.5 m), S practically does not depend on T. The origin of this relation remained hitherto unexplained. Here we obtained such a relation in 2‐D finite‐difference models of 3‐layer sedimentary sequences where layers interact through the interfaces of strength R. The middle layer has elastoplastic properties with coupled tensile and shear failure mechanisms. The number of fractures forming in this layer increases under horizontal extension to a saturation value S depending on R. At T < ∼0.5 m, the increase of S with T is near‐linear. At ∼1 m < T < 2 m, it is strongly nonlinear; and S changes little at larger T where S is more than certain value Scr. The increase of ratio D = T/S with T is, on the contrary, close to linear. This behavior is explained by the fact that for D >∼2, the stress state in the upper and lower horizons of the middle layer between fractures spaced 2Scr apart is practically independent of T.


It has been suggested [Kleva and Guzdar, Phys. Plasmas 6, 116 (1999)] that reconnecting ballooning modes in which electron inertia replaces resistivity in a nonideal magnetohydrodynamic Ohm's law can have substantial growth rates in the low collisionality regime. Numerical calculation, albeit necessarily at unrealistically large values of the collisionless skin depth, showed that strongly growing ballooning modes exist at beta values which are below the ideal beta limit. In order to investigate stability at more realistic values of the skin depth we exploit an analytic approach. As in the case of resistive ballooning modes, we find that inertial ballooning modes are stabilized by favorable average curvature effects at moderate values of ΔB′, the stability index for resistive ballooning. Instability only becomes possible close to the ideal stability boundary (ΔB′→∞) or at unrealistically large values of the toroidal mode number n (e.g., n≳102). Another ballooning mode, the collisionless analogue of the Car...


The NASA Strategic Plan identifies the long-term goal to provide safe and affordable space access, orbital transfer, and interplanetary transportation capabilities to enable research, human exploration, and the commercial development of space; and to conduct human and robotic missions to planets and other bodies in our solar system. Numerous scientific and engineering breakthroughs will be required to develop the technology necessary to achieve this goal. Critical technologies include advanced vehicle primary and secondary structure, radiation protection, propulsion and power systems, fuel storage, electronics and devices, sensors and science instruments, and medical diagnostics and treatment. Advanced materials with revolutionary new capabilities are an essential element of each of these technologies. This paper discusses those materials best suited for aerospace vehicle structure and highlights the enormous potential of one revolutionary new material, carbon nanotubes.


Objective:To evaluate the long-term result of anterior route correction for thoracolumbar or lumbar scoliosis.Method:Between Jan.1980 and Jan.2001,168 patients with scoliosis underwent anterior route spinal correction and fusion.There were 115 females and 53 males.The average age at surgery were 14.2 years (ranged from 7 to 31 years).The average preoperative Cobb angle were 47.5° (ranged from 34° to 89°).Coronal Cobb angle were measured to assess coronal correction.Result:One hundred and fifty-one cases were followed-up from 3 to 24 years with an average of 12.5 years.Correction with the postoperative Cobb angle averaged 41°(85.4%)(ranged from 26° to 45°),but with an average 3.2°(7.1%) loss of correction.Complications included l case of spinal cord injury,4 cases of superior mesenteric artery syndrome,2 cases of screw fracture,3 cases of steel cable breakage,3 cases of rod fracture and two pseudoarthroses occurred.Conclusion:Anterior route correction constitute effective treatment of thoracolumbar or lumbar scoliosis.It provides 3-dimentional correction and rebalance of the trunk through a shorter fusion segment.


Present statuses on the development of ship building and repairing industry in domestic are analyzed.Both problems and advantages are pointed out for shipbuilding industry in Zhangjiang,and some solutions and suggestions on the development of ship building and repairing industry in Zhangjiang are proposed.


A real time data acquisition system for load monitoring using human machine interface is presented. The design proposes a real time data acquisition whose parametric values are monitored and recorded for analysis purposes in a typical power system set-up. The parametric measurements includes the load voltage, load current, active power, reactive power, apparent power, power factor and line current. A perfect interface design is developed using graphical system design software. The recorded data is highly helpful in power monitoring and analysis for performance evaluation. The design gets complete with a manual supervisory control based on the data acquired through the interface module.


Introduction & aims: Septic arthritis is an emergency, potentially causing irreversible joint destruction and disability. Synovial WCC and polymorphonuclear cell percentage are the best predictors of septic arthritis likelihood. Yet, synovial white cell and differential count are not routinely assessed. We aim to investigate the incidence of failure to perform these tests, and to develop correct synovial fluid analysis practices. Method: This is a retrospective analysis of native joints having undergone arthrocentesis for suspicion of septic arthritis at Box Hill Hospital (BHH) during September 2011 and September 2013 inclusive. Recruitment was from the Eastern Health Decision Support Service (DSS), a database compiled from all systems within Eastern Health, of which BHH is a member. The study was limited to large joints, including hip, knee and shoulder. All prosthetic joints were excluded from the patient population. All patient histories were examined for suspicion of septic arthritis and subsequent arthrocentesis. Pathology records were accessed to determine incidence of cell count and differential. Results: One hundred and thirty-six cases of joint aspirations were identified within the time frame, of which sixty-seven fitted our criteria for evaluation. All but two cases were delivered using the DSS, which was limited to data compiled only until June 2013. The two remaining cases were identified with a manual search of the radiology and pathology databases from June to September 2013. 22 of the 67 joint aspirates studied did not have a cell count carried out. Four of these 22 cases had a diagnosis of septic arthritis. In five aspirates, there was a failure to confirm a definite diagnosis and they were thus conservatively treated as a septic joint. The remaining acute joints in which no cell count was done were gout (7 cases), pseudogout (5 cases) and rheumatoid arthritis (1 case). Cell counts were not routinely detected for a variety of reasons. Eleven aspirates were deemed too viscous, and in eight cases the sample had clotted prior to pathologist assessment. Two cases had insufficient volume, and one sample was too bloodstained to calculate a cell count and differential; likely due to traumatic aspiration. Conclusions: 33% of acute monoarthritis' evaluated over the study period failed to have a synovial fluid WCC and differential. This may be due to inadequate samples, or lack of appropriate collection tube. Better education is required for appropriate collection and test requesting wherein a diagnosis of septic arthritis is in question.


The social workers who panicipated in this survey strongly believed that: (1) practitioners' involvement in the fee process is of therapeutic value and (2) the payment of fees by clients positively influences the treatment relationship, clients' and workers' use of time, and treatment progress. The principle of clients' fees based upon ability to pay may allow social workers to reconcile beliefs about fees with the profession's commitment to service based upon clients' needs. The response rate testifies to the willingness of social workers to participate in research that addresses aspects of their practice that are of serious concern to them.


This paper used the spatial autocorrelation method to analyze the similarities and differences of spatial arrangement in the three major economic regions of eastern coastal areas in China,which is marked as the Bohai Sea region,the Yangtze Delta region and the Zhujiang Delta region.To make the analysis,the Global and Local Moran's I index,along with the spatial weighted matrixes which is revised according to the total mileage of highway,were used as the model,while the ArcToolbox was used as the spatial analyst tool.The result showed that the Yangtze Delta region and the Zhujiang Delta region present significant positive spatial autocorrelation.Compared with the other two regions,the Yangtze Delta region is in a more advanced status and its development pole is greater.Meanwhile,the geographic environment has an impact on the regional economic development.The core cities gather in plain and riverside areas.


Designing NURBS surfaces by manipulating control points directly requires too much trial and error for immersive VR applications. A more natural interface is provided by deforming a NURBS surface so that it passes through a given target point; and by repeating such deformations we can make the surface follow one or more target curves. These deformations can be achieved by modifying the pseudo-inverse matrix of the basis functions, but this matrix is often ill-conditioned. However, the application of a modified FE approach to the weights and control points provides controllable deformations, which are demonstrated across a range of example shapes.


Isothermal-isobaric molecular dynamics simulations have been performed for the generic Gay–Berne (GB) mesogen, GB(4.4, 20.0, 1, 1), to investigate director and molecular rotational motion during the field-induced alignment of a nematic. The alignment process for the director is discussed within the context of a hydrodynamic analysis based on the Ericksen–Leslie theory and this is found to predict the simulated behavior well. The dependence of the relaxation time for the alignment on the field strength is also in good accord with the theory. The rotational viscosity coefficient estimated from the simulation is smaller than that typically observed for real nematics and the possible reasons for this are discussed. However, the simulation results are found to follow not only the theory but also the experiments, at least qualitatively. No significant variation in the local and long-range structure of the nematic phase is found during the field-induced alignment process. In addition, we have explored the molecular dynamics in the nematic phase in the presence of the field using the first- and second-rank time autocorrelation functions. More importantly we are able to show that the director relaxation time is longer than that for molecular rotation. It is also possible to use the two orientational correlation times to explore the relationship between the rotational viscosity coefficient and the rotational diffusion constant. The diffusion constants determined from the orientational correlation times, based on the short-time expansion of the autocorrelation functions, are found to be significantly different. In consequence it is not possible to test, unambiguously, the relationship between the rotational viscosity coefficient and the rotational diffusion constant. However, it would seem that the second-rank rotational correlation time provides the most reliable route to the rotational viscosity coefficient.


The authors reveal the economic and cultural foundations of Dagestan peoples' unity formation, consider defensive factor as a powerful stimulus of the mountaineers' consolidation, and pay special attention to Dagestan region formation within the Russian Empire, which contributed to Dagestan peoples' unity strengthening.


Objective:To detect NspA-specific humoral immunological response and cellular immunological response in BALB/c mice which were induced by a DNA vaccine pcDNA3.1(-)/ltB-nspA through intranasal immunization.Methods:Recombinant eukaryotic expression plasmids pcDNA3.1(-)/ltB,pcDNA3.1(-)/nspA,pcDNA3.1(-)/ltB-nspA were identified by Polymerase Chain Reaction(PCR)and enzyme digestion.Female BALB/c mice were inoculated with the recombinant eukaryotic expression plasmids through intranasally immunization at the weeks 0,2 and 4.Then humoral immunological response and the cellular immunological response were detected in female BALB/c mice by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)and methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium(MTT)colorimetric assay.Results:The level of NspA-specific sIgA(A450:0.316±0.045)in genital tract in the group pcDNA3.1(-)/ltB-nspA was showed significantly higher than in the group pcDNA3.1(-)/nspA and other controls.The levels of serum IgG(A450:0.643±0.156),stimulation index(SI:1.65±0.32)of the splenic lymphocytes and IFN-γ(160.56±25.67 pg/ml)induced by splenic lymphocytes in the group pcDNA3.1(-)/ltB-nspA were significantly higher than in the pcDNA3.1(-)/ltB,pcDNA3.1(-)and PBS controls(P0.01),but had no significant difference compared with pcDNA3.1(-)/nspA group(P0.05).Conclusion:Humoral immunological response(especially for mucosal immunological response)and cellular immunological response could be effectively induced by the DNA vaccine of pcDNA3.1(-)/ltB-nspA in mice through intranasally immunization,and the mucosal adjuvant LTB could assist NspA to induce high level of mucosal immune response in the genital tract mucosa of mice.


A method for the purification of anti-H(O) agglutinin of eel serum utilizing preparative Disc electrophoresis apparatus was described. The purified hemagglutinin showed a single band on starch gel electrophoretic analysis. In the analytical ultracentrifuge, the agglutinin had an s020, w value of 6.2 S, and was found to be inhibited weakly by human group OSe saliva. The minimum agglutinating dose against human O group red cells was around 0.2μg/ml.


The condition that 35kV electromagnetic voltage transformer shows capacitive is discussed.The anti-resonance ability and manufacturing method of capacitive electromagnetic voltage transformer are presented.The examples of product preproduction are given.


Sp1801 was a new disease lesion mimic mutant from Zhongxian 3037.It was hybridized with 02428 and the segregation population was structured.It was analyzed by means of RAPD technique.OPI11556 and OPL03944 were identified closely linked with the mutant gene with genetic distance of 0.6 cent Morgan(cM) and 5.6 cent Morgan (cM) respectively.Analysis of sequence homology shown that OPI11556 was highly homologous with pib, gene resistant to rice blast.


ture of the subject. At the same time, however, I think it only right to state that it is unfortunately not within my power to lay before you anything of an original nature, for the reason that I have had, I regret to say, neither tlle time nor opportunity of carrying out research work in tllis direction. Still it may possibly be open to question as to whether this very fact is altogether a disadvantage in the case of the opener of a discussion, who will, for this reason, perhaps, be likely to take a more thoroughly wide and impartial view of the matters under consideration than is altogether possible to a worker who has devoted his energies to the elucidation of one particular section of a subject, which under these circumstances, as I know from my own experience, is liable to appear of greater relative importance than by other persons may be considered to be quite justifiable. Just as the drill serbeant &dquo;sizes&dquo; his men and ranges them in line for inspection by his superior officer, so, as it appears to


This study reports on the physical properties of Ba2CoO4 single crystals grown in a high pressure mirror furnace at oxygen pressures of 20 bar. Direction dependent magnetic susceptibility measurements on the single crystals below TN≈25 K reveal a spin direction which is parallel to the crystallographic a‐axis. Therefore, the spin structure of Ba2CoO4 has been re‐analyzed and a different magnetic structure with magnetic moments pointing mainly in a‐direction is proposed which reconciles neutron, µSR, and magnetic susceptibility measurements.


In this paper, we developed a new method for label-free detection of biomolecules by using the nanowall array chips. Our method is based on the detection of diffracted light by nanostructures inside a microchannel, and also has a great potential not only to distinguish the difference between water and buffer solution but detect biomolecules without any fluorescent molecules. Moreover, as for the detection limit, DNA molecules as much as zepto-mole level could be detected by using our label-free method.


In this paper we discuss the problems about constructing dual and inverse operator for a loaded first order differential equation of a special form with general boundary conditions. We construct an explicit form of the Green function in the class of continuous functions with the first order derivatives. We establish all posed problems, which are already in general boundary conditions, for the loaded first order differential operator. Closure of the general solution in the norm of square-integrable functions is showed. Completely continuity and boundedness of the inverse operator is proved.


This paper proposes an algorithm to enhance the performance of the spatial partitioning method for a flocking behavior. One of the characteristics in a flocking behavior is that two agents may share many common neighbors if they are spatially close to each other. This paper improves the spatial partitioning method by applying this characteristic. While the conventional spatial partitioning method computes the k-nearest neighbors of an agent one by one, the proposed method computes simultaneously the k-nearest neighbors of agents if they are spatially close to each other. The proposed algorithm was implemented and its performance was experimentally compared with the original spatial partitioning method. The results of the comparison showed that the proposed algorithm outperformed the original method by about 33% in average.


An abstract of this essay would reveal two interests, one civil and one religious. The first has to do with a public debate over values in American elementary and secondary education and what this debate symbolizes about national life in general. Specifically, I want to suggest that the stated intentions of citizens who demand religious instruction in the public schools could only be fulfilled, logically, if this instruction included doctrines of eternal punishment—in short, the possibility of hell. This is especially true if they wish to restore moral instruction "as it used to be." My second argument urges that such a teaching would impose on schools a doctrine that has disappeared or been drastically diminished in the preachments of most American religious groups. It is a doctrine that is hence not culturally available.


Traffic on road segments provide nonlinear models affected by time delays. They are unusually actuated accumulation plants for which control design must ensure stability and robustness to segment length variation. In this study we present a model for road evacuation and design a closed loop predictor-based controller that aims at mitigating risk of congestion. The parameters of the controller are tuned with real-coded genetic algorithms, for which an evaluation function is designed, based on control deviation minimization with constraints pertaining to loop stability, robustness, and settling time. Preliminary results for two roads of different lengths with calibrated and non-calibrated platoon dispersion variations are excellent, showing significant increase in stability and robustness margins, desired step response behaviour, as well as disturbance rejection.


The basis for comparing rates of convergence of two null sequences is that \x = (xn) converges (stat T ) faster than z = (zn) provided that (xn=zn) is T-statistically convergent to zero" where T = (tmn) is a mean. In this paper we extend the previously known results either on the ordinary convergence or statistical rates of convergence of two null sequences.We also consider lacunary statistical rates of convergence.


In 1982 professor Selivanov N.A. suggested to include methods of investigating crimes of tactical complexes used typical situations happening. The article considers several problems adoption tactical complexes in the typical startings situations pre-trial proceedings.


The association was studied between the polymorphism at leptin (LEP), Pit1, and STAT5A loci and meat production traits in 145 Black-and-White growing/fattening bulls. Genotypes of LEP, Pit1 and STAT5A were determined with the PCR-RFLP technique. Over the 8th month of age the 28-day performance test was introduced to assess growth rate and feed conversion during which the fullconcentrate diet was offered ad libitum. At the age of 15 months the bulls were slaughtered, and their carcasses cut and dissected into lean, fat and bone. The allele frequencies were 0.85, 0.07, and 0.08 for A, B and C LEP variants, 0.25 and 0.75 for A and B Pit1 variants, and 0.90 and 0.10 for C and T STAT5A variants, respectively. Polymorphism of leptin significantly affected some carcass traits, and among them the weight of carcass-side that was highest in the AA homozygotes. The effect of Pit1 genotype was observed on carcass dimensions only. The AA homozygotes had higher chest circumference, chest depth, and circumference of round, but BB homozygotes had a higher round width. CT genotype of the STAT5A-encoding gene significantly af fected four out of 36 carcass traits measured and was related to higher weight of bone of best + fore ribs (4.2 vs 3.8 kg) and of sirloin (1.6 vs 1.3 kg) as well as to oblique carcass length (140.5 vs 138.5 cm). The CC STAT5A genotype was associated with significantly higher live weight gain from 8 to 15 months (1.04 vs 0,97 kg daily).


A 77-year-old male patient with a diabetic foot ulcer on his right great toe visited the outpatient clinic. As necrosis of the toe had already progressed, the patient underwent toe amputation to prevent extensive gangrene. With the goal of enabling future ambulation, an anterolateral thigh fasciocutaneous free flap was planned to preserve the metatarsal head and to cover the defect. Subfascial dissection was performed when elevating the fasciocutaneous flap, but the sole healthy perforator was in an extremely proximal area and allowed only a 4-cm-long pedicle. The pedicle had to be at least 8 cm long to ensure secure anastomosis to the medial plantar artery. To overcome this unexpected challenge, we pierced the deep fascia near the perforator and dissected the perforator distally within the deep adipose layer. The necessary additional length of the pedicle was obtained through intraadiposal dissection. The flap survived without any complications, and the foot was reconstructed with successful ambulation. This case demonstrates the value of attempting intraadiposal pedicle dissection when the pedicle turns out to be unmanageably short.


Extracted from text ... T
The role of sport in
leadership
development and testing
18 Management Today May 2006
Rakesh Sondhi, who has written a series
of articles on strategy over the past few
months, is now also contribute a 15 part
series on leadership. This is another
article in this new series. Sondhi is
visiting executive faculty at Henley
Management College and managing
director of BMC Global Services based in
the UK. He visits South Africa regularly.
Sondhi is the author of Business Improvement
for Learning and Transformation
and Total Strategy - see
www.bmcglobalservices.com.
There are many different views of the role
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Defining the role of the National Gallery in relation to contemporary art, Nemiroff enumerates recurrent themes in art from 1964 to 1984 including abstraction, minimalism, conceptual art, landscape, and a consideration of the subjective and the social.


Upper and lower bounds are presented for the rate of energy loss by a high intensity Gaussian pulse of finite length propagating in a cold dense homogeneous plasma. For sufficiently high plasma conductivity these bounds coalesce yielding an explicit expression for the dissipated power.


This paper explores the nature of two IT policies, one in Singapore and one in Thailand. The analysis employed suggests that IT policies are socially constructed and thus reflect discourse and ideologies that are pervasive in society. As such then a comparison of the two policies should reflect a difference. This paper argues that the differences between the Singaporean and Thai national IT policies reflect differences in the discourses that frame the social construction of the policy in each case. This paper argues that one fundamental difference between the IT policies implemented in Thailand and Singapore is that the Thai policy is introspective reflecting a deferent society, whilst Singapore's is outward looking and pointedly global, reflecting a society markedly more extrovert. In analysing the text of the two policies it is argued that IT policy reflects a discourse framed by the state, which in turn represents the dominant discourse in society.


Measuring the causal eeect of a treatment from observational data is often diicult because the treatment status of a subject may be confounded with non-randomized factors, such as those that aaect a subject's choice of treatment. An approach to remedying this problem is through the use of instrumental variables. We extend the instrumental variables framework proposed by Angrist, Imbens and Rubin (1996) by introducing a latent \threshold to receive treatment" parameter for each unit in the study. Incorporation of latent thresholds in the model permits the inclusion of discrete or continuous instruments, covariate information, and exible choices of distributions. We apply our methodology to examine the eeect of cardiac catheterization on short-term survival of a cohort of elderly heart attack patients.


This study aims to investigate the classical problems of boundary layer flow and heat transfer characteristics past a semi-infinite static flat plate (Blasius problem) and past a moving semi-infinite flat plate(Sakiadis problem) in a water-based nanofluid with Prandtl number 2.6Pr= which containing three different types of nanoparticles, namely Copper (Cu), Alumina)O(Al32, and Titania)(TiO2. The model used for the nanofluid incorporates the effects of Brownian motion Nb, thermophoresis Nt and solid volume fraction φ
parameters. The governing partial differential equations are transformed into a system nonlinear ordinary differential equations using a similarity transformation which is then solved numerically. Numerical results are presented in tables or graphs for the skin friction coefficients and local Nusselt number which represents the heat transfer rate at the surface as well as velocity, temperature and nanoparticle volume fraction profiles and the physical aspects are discussed in details. It is found that the Brownian motion, thermophoresis and solid volume fraction affects the fluid flow and heat transfer
characteristics.


This study was initiated in July, 1983 to develop a water management plan for the release of water purchased from Painted Rocks Reservoir. Releases were designed to provide optimum benefits to the Bitterroot River fishery. Fisheries, habitat, and stream flow information was gathered to evaluate the effectiveness of these supplemental releases in improving trout populations in the Bitterroot River. The study was part of the Northwest Power Planning Council's Fish and Wildlife Program and was funded by the Bonneville Power Administration. This report presents data collected from 1983 through 1986.


According to analyze the actuality and buildings in the consumer society,this essay considers many urban buildings as the consumed symbol on the effect of pop culture and media.It also clarifies that architectures based on both consumer and autonomous system are the parts of contemporary architecture.


This chapter discusses.. how advances in information technologies are informing the design of knowledge networks and markets (KNMs), drawing heavily on experiences and insights from the ICT sector before applying some of the concepts from that sector to KNMs in biomedicine. The chapter first describes how, theoretically, knowledge markets are structured and function, and how some market failures could be overcome through better mechanism design. The chapter then discusses the importance of interoperability of separate data resources in biomedicine, and how to make these resources more interoperable and useful to many researchers. Finally, the chapter proposes how to apply these theoretical approaches to KNMs design, and to create a framework for understanding real-world examples of KNMs in biomedicine. LinkToContentAt: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264168596-6-en Knowledge Type: Thematic report [1] Other Tag: information system [2] life sciences [3] access to knowledge [4] mining [5] information exchange [6] research results [7] business models [8] information asymmetries [9] intellectual property rights [10] engineering [11] data access [12] Parent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264168596-en [13]


The incidence of lung cancer, with attendant mortality, remains high in the developed world and is rising rapidly in developing countries throughout the world [1]. Surgery remains the best hope of cure for this condition but the characteristic late clinical presentation ensures more patients are inoperable at diagnosis because of local or distant tumour spread. The implementation of screening for lung cancer with the aim of early detection at an operable stage offers an attractive approach to reducing mortality rates. The Erfurt 10 yr prospective study of 6 versus 12-24 monthly radiological screening for lung cancer was recently published in this journal [2). Although no reduction in mortality was shown in the 6 monthly screened group over that of the control group screened approximately every 18 months, the paper concluded that annual screening of male smokers of high cigarette consumption should be instituted to reduce mortality rates in this group. But is such a recommendation justified on the available evidence? The earliest prospective studies of lung cancer screening were unable to demonstrate a mortality benefit in the populations screened [3-7). The Philadelphia Pulmonary Neoplasm Detection Research Project [7) illustrates some of the reasons for this lack of success. In the Philadelphia study fluoroscopy screening was instituted at approximately 6 month intervals over a 10 yr follow-up period in a population of 6,027 male smokers over the age of 45 yrs who volunteered for the study. One hundred and twenty one subjects developed lung cancer during follow-up, their survival was a disappointing 8% at 5 yrs. Forty five percent of those developing lung cancer did so between 6-12 months following their previous radiological examination due to default in attendance. Twenty percent of lung cancers were detected within the 6 month screening period but appropriate recall, investigation and referral added a 3 month delay in management. Fifty one percent of subjects with lung cancer were found to be inoperable because of advanced age or serious concomitant medical illness. In all, 84% of men with lung cancer suffered one or more of these disadvantages. Overall there was no significant reduction in mortality compared with historical population controls. This failure can be mainly attributed to the rapid doubling time of lung cancer combined with the relative insensitivity of radiology in early detection of this malignancy.


Simple Summary As we grow older, our muscles become smaller and weaker, a condition called sarcopenia. Several lung diseases can further worsen sarcopenia. Among them, COPD, asthma and tuberculosis are well-recognized causes of muscle loss. However, it is difficult and time-consuming to assess muscle health in elderly people with lung diseases. Here, we aimed to overcome this problem by measuring the blood levels of specific molecules that are related to muscle size and strength. We first show that elderly people with lung diseases have a greater degree of sarcopenia than healthy people. We then show that the blood levels of certain molecules (Dkk-3, CAF22, microRNAs) have varying degrees of associations with muscle size and strength in these patients. Thus, we propose that these molecules can be useful in assessing muscle health and the physical capacity of the elderly with lung diseases. Our findings have clinical applications since the quality and/or quantity of muscle tissues decide everyday lifestyle in the elderly, such as walking, lifting from chair and going to the bathroom etc. Abstract Skeletal muscle dysfunction is a critical finding in many respiratory diseases. However, a definitive biomarker to assess muscle decline in respiratory diseases is not known. We analyzed the association of plasma levels of glycoprotein Dickkopf-3 (Dkk-3), c-terminal agrin fragment-22 (CAF22) and microRNAs miR-21, miR-134a, miR-133 and miR-206 with hand-grip strength (HGS) and appendicular skeletal mass index (ASMI) in male, 54–73-year-old patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), asthma or pulmonary TB (n = 83–101/group). Patients with respiratory diseases showed a reduction in HGS and gait speed, while a reduction in ASMI was only found in patients with pulmonary TB. Among the sarcopenia indexes, HGS showed the strongest correlation with plasma CAF22, miR-21 and miR-206 levels while ASMI showed the strongest correlation with Dkk-3 and miR-133 in respiratory diseases. We found a modest-to-significant increase in the plasma markers of inflammation, oxidative stress and muscle damage, which had varying degrees of correlations with Dkk-3, CAF22 and selected micro RNAs (miRs) in respiratory diseases. Taken together, our data show that plasma levels of Dkk-3, CAF22 and selected miRs can be useful tools to assess accelerated sarcopenia phenotype in the elderly with respiratory diseases.


Stem cells, specifically induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), hold immense promise for the future of regenerative medicine and personalized therapeutics. However, the lack of advanced technologies has been hindering the current pace of research and discovery. One of the greatest challenges lies in the manipulation of stem cells. Lipofectamine® 3000, a new transfection reagent, has been developed for nucleic acid delivery to enable the use of new technologies for stem cell applications. In the present study, we first demonstrated that Lipofectamine® 3000 can be used to efficiently deliver the EPi5™ episomal reprogramming vectors to BJ skin fibroblasts for the generation of iPSCs. This method allows researchers to perform efficient in-situ reprogramming at lower cost, providing a great alternative over electroporation techniques typically used for iPSC generation. Furthermore, it was discovered that Lipofectamine® 3000 can achieve optimal transfection efficiency of various sizes of plasmid DNA and low toxicity in both embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and iPSCs which have been traditionally proven to be hard to transfect. More importantly, manipulation of stem cells can be achieved utilizing TALs and CRISPRs for genome engineering purposes. Transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs) allow for editing and engineering of DNA at specific loci. However, the effectiveness of these tools depends on efficient delivery and the intrinsic properties of the locus of interest. Lipofectamine® 3000 demonstrated improved delivery of CRISPRs into iPSCs for targeted genome engineering. Taken together these advancements in delivery greatly improve downstream workflows, enable easier stem cell manipulation, and enhance site-specific insertion or deletion of transgenes for the generation of knock-in or knock-out cell models and transgenic small animal models.


Soil nonlinear behavior is often triggered in soft sedimentary deposits subjected to strong ground shaking and has led to catastrophic damage to civil infrastructure in many past earthquakes. Nonlinear behavior in soils is associated with large shear strains, increased material damping ratio, and reduced stiffness. However, most investigations of the high-frequency spectral decay parameter κ, which captures attenuation, have focused on low-intensity ground motions inducing only small shear strains. Because studies of the applicability of the κ model when larger deformations are induced are limited, this article investigates the behavior of κ (both κr per record and site-specific κ0 estimates) beyond the linear-elastic regime. About 20 stations from the Kiban–Kyoshin network database, with time-average shear-wave velocities in the upper 30 m between 213 and 626  m/s, are used in this study. We find that the classification scheme used to identify ground motions that trigger soil nonlinear behavior biases estimates of κ0 in the linear and nonlinear regimes. A hybrid method to overcome such bias is proposed considering proxies for in situ deformation (via the shear-strain index) and ground shaking intensity (via peak ground acceleration). Our findings show that soil nonlinearity affects κr and κ0 estimates, but this influence is station dependent. Most κ0 at our sites had a 5%–20% increase at the onset of soil nonlinear behavior. Velocity gradients and impedance contrasts influence the degree of soil nonlinearity and its effects on κr and κ0. Moreover, we observe that other complexities in the wave propagation phenomenon (e.g., scattering and amplifications in the high-frequency range) impose challenges to the application of the κ0 model, including the estimation of negative values of κr.


Affective learning and assessment in education is not a simple process, because it involves the "values" that are complex and involve "personality" complex which is an active subject who has the will and has the ability to make choices by themselves. Nevertheless, the formation of character must be done, because the character is formed from the process of interaction with the external environment. While personality is as a complex reality in a person and involves many determinants. Therefore, affective learning and assessment in shaping the character needs to be done continuously by developing patterns of learning for the purposes of educational value in order to form the good character.


Most state highway agencies specify incentives, disincentives, or acceptance criteria based on one or more attributes that can be measured during or immediately after construction (smoothness, early completion of construction, and nuclear density). In many scenarios in which contractors were awarded incentives, the pavement showed premature distress after construction. Furthermore, the magnitude of the incentive or disincentive is typically determined on the basis of intuition and past practice, without assessing the effect of the incentive's attribute on pavement performance. In a study sponsored by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and conducted by the Pavement Research Center of Excellence at Michigan State University, the impact of segregation on pavement performance was assessed, and an expedient test to detect segregation was developed so that MDOT could establish incentives, disincentives, or acceptance criteria. The study included 17 segregated pavement projects and 2 nonsegregated projects. Two types of segregation-related distress were observed: raveling, which was observed on 11 projects, and cracking, which was observed on 7 projects. Three projects showed both raveling and cracking. For each project, the raveled areas and the length of the cracks were measured over time, and their rates of growth were assessed. On the basis of the results, the reductions in the pavement service life due to raveling and cracking were estimated. It is shown that areas with heavy and medium degrees of segregation experience on average 73 and 56 percent reduction in pavement service life, respectively, due to raveling and 46 percent due to segregation-related cracks.


A Ferrari Spin across Italy? A party in your private yacht? Or, the show stealer in that Swarovskistudded tie? The super-rich Indian is spoilt for choice, India has now emerged as the fastest growing wealth creator in the world and as per the Forbes Annual List of world's wealthiest people, India has the most billionaires of any Asian country. Some of its attractive offerings include stay at Necker Island and Ferrari rides in Italy in four spanking models, "The profile of Indians has changed dramatically only because of globalisation and liberalization.


The invention provides a reticle having functions of a digital display screen and a manufacturing method thereof. The reticle comprises a substrate, a metal shading layer and an LED Nixie tube, wherein the metal shading layer and an LED Nixie tube are sequentially stacked on the substrate. The metal shading layer comprises cross division lines for aiming and a digital display zone for being bonded with the LED Nixie tube, wherein the LED Nixie tube is bonded on the digital display zone of the metal shading layer. The invention further provides the manufacturing method of the reticle having the functions of the digital display screen. The manufacturing method comprises the following steps of designing photo-etching mask plate patterns, utilizing the photo-etching mask plate patterns to prepare the metal shading layer on the substrate, and bonding the LED Nixie tube on the metal shading layer. The reticle has the advantages that the reticle having the functions of the digital display screen can keep functions of a common division plate under the no-power situation, can be used for observing or aiming a target on the premise that the same light transmittance is kept and can be connected with an electronic distance-measuring device to directly display a measurement result.


The invention discloses a virtual open network building system based on a software definition network. The virtual open network building system comprises a network topological information detection module, a network performance detection module, a network resource integration module, a network resource display module, a user virtual node selection module, a virtual network management module, a network resource virtualization module, a host unit resource virtualization module and a user interaction interface module. A virtual open network building method based on the software definition network comprises the steps that (1) a user logs into the virtual open network building system; (2) the system collects network resource information and visually displays the information to the user; (3) the user finds resources for specific service and provides a service request; and (4) the system provides virtual network customization service for the user. According to the virtual open network building system and the virtual open network building method, the aim of the user for opening and self-building a virtual network is achieved.


In this paper, we provide an extension of the Ostrowski's inequality for vector-valued functions for $k$ points via a parameter. We also provide a sharp Ostrowski-Gruss type inequality for vector valued functions for $k$ points. Our results generalize some of the results for the real-valued case in the literature.


The objective is to use future simulated well behavior to optimize well management within a complex reservoir simulation model. This can be used to increase simulated plateau life and reserves. Traditional well management systems often rely on instantaneous well potential to choose guide rates to determine the well allocation within a group of wells. This has proved to be a very effective strategy. However, for the problem of plateau optimization, one can observe the high instantaneous potential of many wells after the plateau is exhausted; this is because the traditional well management system has no knowledge of future behavior.
 In this work, the future behavior of all the wells and groups with a large and complex giant reservoir simulation model is determined by spawning a coarsened "Look-Ahead model" (LAM). This is performed concurrently, while the main model is still running. After a pre-determined simulation time the LAM model is harvested by the main model, and approximate future behavior is integrated into the well management system of the main model. One simple yet effective technique is to evaluate the current potential of the well to be an average of the current instantaneous potential and the future potential, in, for example, 10 years ahead of the current simulations time. Thus wells whose future performance is inhibited because of high GOR or high water cuts will get there current allocation reduced, and wells with future high potential will get allocated more rate.
 The use of LAM models is demonstrated in a water flood problem to increase plateau time of a large and complex reservoir model. The LAM model is automatically constructed by collapsing the grid, maintaining some resolution of the current wells and future wells, and coarsening heavily the areas of the grid with spent wells. By doing so a 10x improvement in elapse time of the LAM model, which enables the frequent spawning of LAM models from the main model, and a subsequently the most up-to-date LAM model is integrated into the main well management system.
 The use of LAM to approximate future behavior of wells, and integrated this behavior into the well management of the reservoir simulator is a novel and practical approach to further optimize the well management system of a reservoir simulator.


Provided is a thin-profile beta-alumina-based solid electrolyte sheet having a high ion conduction value. The solid electrolyte sheet is characterized in containing β-alumina and/or β''-alumina, measuring 1 mm or less in thickness, and having a void content of 20% or less.


Abstract The electron impact mass spectra of some p-substituted styryl-2-benzothiazoles 1-6 and p-substituted phenyl-butadienyl-2-benzothiazoles 7 and 8 have been recorded and the identity of various ions in the mass spectra established. The compounds 1-6 exibit one main fragmentation route which include the formation of M-1 ion as the base peak, and after elimination of p-substituted phenylacetylene molecule, the formation of benzothiazole cation. Compounds 7 and 8 show the fragmentation pathway which include the formation of butadienyl-2-benzothiazole ion as the base peak.


Social Science has paid a great deal of attention to income comparisons in the determination of well-being. These comparisons can either be to others or to oneself in the past.


Golden pompano (Trachinotus blochii) is becoming increasingly popular and produces high yields, but the growth differences between males and females are a concern. In this study, the differences between the growth of males and females were compared, and the transcriptome analysis of muscle tissues was performed. A significant difference between the growth of males and females was observed; females were found to be 17% larger than males after reaching 7 months of age. Gonadal histological analysis revealed that the ovaries were arrested in 7- to 9-month-old golden pompano, whereas the testes continued to develop. The AMPK and adipocytokine signaling pathways were also found to be involved in the regulation of muscle growth and metabolism. After reaching 7 months of age, the expression levels of glut1, glut4, ldh, gys, acsl and cpt2 in the muscle of females were lower than those in males, but the hk gene, which is involved in glycolysis, was found to remain highly expressed in females. Additionally, in females, the synthesis of arginine and ornithine and the production of carnosine were found to be inhibited, but the breakdown of glutamine was found to be enhanced and OXPHOS ability was found to be stronger in females after reaching 7 months of age. These results support a certain negative correlation between gonadal development and muscle metabolism depending on differences in energy distribution. Clearly, the faster growth in females after reaching 7 months of age was found to be associated with the more active metabolism of glucose, and amino acids, as well as stronger oxidative phosphorylation levels.