Effective policies promoting diversity in geoscience require understanding of how the values and practices of the community support the inclusion of different social groups. As sites of knowledge exchange and professional development, academic conferences are important culturing institutions that can alleviate or reproduce barriers to diversity in geoscience. This study examines diversity at a 2017 geoscience conference, the joint Canadian Geophysical Union and Canadian Society of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology annual meeting, through observation of participation, presentation content, and behaviour in conference sessions. Across 256 observed presentations, women constituted 28% of speakers, whereas women of colour made up only 5%. Participation rates differed between disciplinary sections, with the most populous sessions (Hydrology and Earth Surface) having the lowest percentage of women. Examination of presentation content reveals that the methods and scholarly contributions of both women and people of colour differed from the majority, suggesting an intellectual division of labour in geoscience. Examination of audience behaviours between presenters reveals how a "chilly climate" can be experienced by women and other marginalized demographics in conferences. We argue that there is more to be done than simply increasing numbers of women or other minorities in geoscientific spaces, and we suggest pathways to making geoscience a more inclusive and democratic pursuit.


According to the Theory of Comparative Advantage,it exists between Chinese and Russian coal industry that they own complementary advantages.Because of the geographic advantage,Heilongjiang province owns the promising future in the international development and cooperation to Russian coal industry.The article analyses the necessity and feasibility of the international development and cooperation between Heilongjiang province and Russia in coal industry.It puts forward some concrete suggestions in the end.


Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) perform important surveillance functions on the battlefield. When a set of fixed targets for surveillance is known a priori it is desirable to find a minimum length tour subject to the kinematic constraints of the UAV and the terrain and threat constraints of the environment. The UAV path planning problem can be reduced to the traveling salesman problem (TSP) or the vehicle routing problem (VRP), both of which are known to be NP-hard. The problem of finding an optimal tour subject to kinematic constraints, the Dubins vehicle problem (DVP), is also NP-hard and several heuristics have recently been proposed. In this paper several instances of the DVP are posed and solved with a heuristic and the particle swarm optimization method. The particle swarm optimization (PSO) results are compared to another standard optimization method, and the best configurations found for these instances are reported.


Objective To evaluate perianal inflammatory disease by transperineal sonography. Methods Fifty four patients were imaged and 10 normal volunteers were compared with transperineal sonography,respectively. All of them were examined at the supine lithotomy with a 3-6MHz curve probe and a linear transducer of 5-10 MHz. The images included the anal sphincter and perianal structures. The sonographic findings were compared with the surgical procedures. Results Both of internal and external anal sphincters were showed in all patients. Twenty three of 54 patients had associated abscesses,31 patients had perianal fistulas or sinus tracts with perianal abscesses also. Only two cases,one complicated suprasphincteric abscess,and another complicated fistula,were unable to be found by this way. Conlusion Transperineal sonography is an accurate,simple and effective way to image the anal rectal area.


The Logical Coprocessing Kernel (LOCK) began as a research project to stretch the state of the art in secure computing by trying to meet or even exceed the "A1" requirements of the Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria (TCSEC). Over the span os seven years, the project was transformed into an effort to develop and deploy a product: the Standard Mail Guard (SMG). Since the project took place under a US government contract, the development team needed to maintain detailed records of the time spent on the project. The records from 1987 to 1992 have been combined with information about software code size and error detection. This information has been used to examine the practical impacts of high assurance techniques on a large-scale software development program. Tasks are associated with the A1 formal assurance requirements added approximately 58% to the development cost of security-critical software. In exchange for these costs, the formal assurance tasks (formal specifications, proofs, and specification code correspondence) uncovered 68% of the security flaws detected in LOCK's critical security mechanisms. However, a study of flaw detection during the SMG program found that only 14% of all flaws detected were of the type that could be detected using formal assurance, and that the work of the formal assusrance team only accounted for 19% of all flaws detected. While formal assurance is clearly effective at detecting flaws, its practicality hinges on the degree to which the formally modeled system properties represent all of a system's esential properties.


Quantum computers based on superconducting qubits have emerged as a leading candidate for a scalable quantum processor architecture. The core of a quantum processor consists of quantum devices that are manipulated using classical electronic circuits, which need to be co-designed for optimal performance and operation. As the principles governing the behavior of the classical circuits and the quantum devices are different, this presents a unique challenge in terms of the simulation, design and optimization of the joint system. A methodology is presented to transform the behavior of small-scale quantum processors to equivalent circuit models that are usable with classical circuits in a generic electrical simulator, enabling the detailed analysis of the impact of many important non-idealities. The methodology has specifically been employed to derive a circuit model of a superconducting qubit interacting with the quantized electromagnetic field of a superconducting resonator. Based on this technique, a comprehensive analysis of the qubit operation is performed, including the coherent control and readout of the qubit using electrical signals. Furthermore, the effect of several non-idealities in the system such as qubit relaxation, decoherence and leakage out of the computational subspace are captured, in contrast to previous works. As the presented method enables the co-simulation of the control electronics with the quantum system, it facilitates the design and optimization of near-term superconducting quantum processors.


To determine the effects of subtoxic concentrations of boron in drinking water, 12 Hereford heifers were used in a 3 x 3 latin-square experiment with four squares. Treatments were tap-water (0.8 ppm boron), 150 ppm boron-water, and 300 ppm boron-water. Periods were 30 days each. Total urine was collected during the last week of each period, and renal clearance observations (based on creatinine) were made on the last day of each period. While water consumption and total urine weight were not affected by the boron treatments, hay consumption decreased, and weight loss was noted. Plasma boron concentrations were 0.53 +/- 0.151 ppm, 11.2 +/- 0.91 ppm, and 18.9 +/- 0.60 ppm while the heifers were drinking tap-water, 150 ppm boron-water, and 300 ppm boron-water respectively. Urinary boron excretion rates were tap water, 64 +/- 5.6 mg/day; 150 ppm, 2841 +/- 181.2 mg/day; 300 ppm, 4932 +/- 173.3 mg/day. Although glomerular filtration and osmolal clearance were unaffected by the boron-waters, a relative diuresis was indicated by the free water clearance effects. The percent of filtered boron which was reabsorbed decreased with increased exogenous boron, as well as both plasma and urinary phosphate. These data indicate that 300 ppm boron is notmore » acutely toxic to heifers when consumed via the drinking water. The safe tolerance concentration, however, must lie below 150 ppm because this concentration was responsible for some deleterious effects.« less


In semiconductors (but not in metals) all kinetic coefficients are strongly dependent on the external excitation. As a result, nonlinear effects due to heating of electrons by static and alternating electric fields (energy nonequilibrium), excess concentrations of electrons and holes under electric fields, photo‐generation and gradient of temperature (concentration nonequilibrium) can occur for all transport phenomena.


Metal-matrix composites («MMC's») combine high modulus of elasticity with low density and low coefficient of thermal expansion. Measurements were carried out on alumina fibre reinforced aluminium composites, containing 30 vol.% parallel continuous fibres and on specimens containing 16 vol.% short alumina fibres with random orientation. In both cases the aluminium matrix contained about 12 % Si. The following physical properties have been measured: density, thermal expansion, modulus of elasticity and other elastic constants, specific heat, electrical resistivity and thermal conductivity


Neuropsychiatric disorders represent a great economic and social burden, whose estimates range from 14% to 32% of the global burden of diseases. One in four people suffer from mental disorders during their lifetime and the estimates of people suffering from depression and some type of neuropsychiatric disorder are about 322 million and 420 million, respectively. Therefore, this paper presents Eigenroutines, a model based on the hypothesis that the ubiquitous availability of mobile devices and the massive usage of these devices have created an opportunity of identifying behavior, supporting the management of neuropsychiatric disorders. The model is also capable of building psychiatric epidemiological profiles, using context histories. The model evaluation occurred in three steps, where the first confirmed that the model has the ability to identify and distinguish neuropsychiatric disorders, analyzing context histories from a group of 55 individuals, composed of 23 people with unipolar or bipolar depression and 32 healthy people. The model presented an accuracy of 78% for classifying the routine of an individual in depressed or healthy. The second step evaluated the extraction of epidemiological profiles based on context histories from 1066 individuals stored by the platform. Finally, the last step evaluated the limitations of the model regarding temporal complexity and scalability.


Samples of ${\mathrm{Si}}^{+}$ implanted in ${\mathrm{SiO}}_{2},$ annealed at $1150\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}\mathrm{C},$ have an efficient photoluminescence band centered at 1.55 eV, the latter being independent from the annealing time and consequently on the Si nanocrystals' size. We measured resonantly excited photoluminescence at 1.4 K, which shows two phonon steps, shifted by 56 and 112 meV from the excitation energy, similar to porous silicon; however, with significantly different relative intensities. Based on a quantitative analysis of this measurement, on time-resolved spectroscopy and on comparison with similar measurements of direct semiconductors, we conclude that the existence of phonon replicas does not imply that the luminescence originates from quantized levels in Si nanocrystals.


T HROUGHOUT 1948 as in the preceding three years, the German problem was in the forefront of public discussion, but the terms of reference for it were different from what they had been. With the failure of the London Council of Foreign Ministers in December, 1947, followed within six months by the disruption of the Allied Control Authority for Germany and the Allied Kommandatura for Berlin, even the fiction of quadripartite rule for the entire country disappeared. Western tripartism and Soviet unilateralism squarely opposed each other. The result was a tense, crowded and eventful year with a long record of proposals, accomplishments, and failures. Without attempting to consider all the items in the record of 1948,1 attention will be focussed on the main subjects of controversy. For the most part, these consisted of the recommendations which the London Tripartite Conference (the United States, Britain, and France) formulated and with which the three Benelux states (Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg) were also associated.2 Berlin, the topic which, during the last half of 1948, bulked largest in the newspapers, was not in the London recommendations. However, the Berlin blockade was and is obviously the Russian reaction to the London program. That the Russians would oppose tripartism was probably assumed by the London conferees, but it may be doubted that the full scope of the Berlin crisis was foreseen. Otherwise, the Western Allies would not have so casually moved the sine die adjournment of the London Council of Foreign Ministers without at least some reference to a possible future meeting. The consequence was that, at the Moscow negotiations on Berlin in the summer of 1948, the West was forced to agree to another session of the Council of Foreign Ministers on Germany even though Western representatives had previously asserted that they would not negotiate under duress. This is not to imply that the London Council of Foreign Ministers could have succeeded. After Russia rejected the Marshall Plan and organized the Cominform, any such result was clearly out of the question.


Confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate the factor structure of a Chinese version of Pintrich and De Groot's Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Data were gathered from a sample of 477 junior high and high school students, ranging in age from 12 to 19 years (M = 15.4, SD = 1.84), in Hong Kong. Results indicated that a modified five-factor model had a better overall fit to the data than the five-factor model reported by Pintrich and De Groot in a sample of junior high school students in the United States. Although the motivational factors of the original MSLQ and its Chinese version were similar, items from the two self-regulated learning factors of the MSLQ combined to form one factor on the MSLQ—Chinese Version.


undergoing surgical treatment, and U.S.-born Mexican had over 2-fold increased odds of not undergoing surgical treatment (OR 2.68, 95% CI:1.51-4.75). Only AI/ANs had significantly increased odds of undergoing radical nephrectomy (OR 1.67, 95% CI:1.24-2.25). After adjusting for nephrectomy type, NCDB data showed HAs had significantly reduced mortality risk (hazard ratio [HR] 0.85. 95% CI: 0.80-0.90). The ACR data showed both AI/ANs and Mexican Americans had increased risk of mortality, and U.S.-born Mexican Americans had almost 4-fold increased mortality risk (HR 3.84, 95% CI: 2.72-5.42) adjusting for nephrectomy type. CONCLUSIONS: While both datasets showed that AI/ANs and HAs experienced surgical disparities, two datasets showed different associations with overall survival possibly due to bias in case ascertainment in large-size hospitals represented in NCDB.


Cloud computing is an emerging paradigm in the area of distributed systems. While numerous information technology vendors aggressively position themselves in offering various cloud services, many computer technologists earnestly provide their definitions of cloud computing, and compare this paradigm to its predecessors such as grid computing and utility computing. In this paper, we argue and demonstrate that we can extend our meta-scheduling design from grid computing to achieve adaptive usage of resources provided by cloud computing providers. Moreover, our meta-scheduling design has the advantage in managing the cloud resources as a collection instead of individual entities such that the organizations consuming the cloud resources can determine its cloud-using policies and delegate the controlling of the workloads to be executed to meta-schedulers. Evaluations of two workloads from real traces, in terms of user-perspective delay time and system-perspective resource utilization, are presented using our metascheduling algorithms and pools of cloud resources in different sizes. An interesting result is that the interaction between grid workload, backfill scheduling, and job routing from an enterprise cluster to a cloud can achieve better performance than a dedicated cluster of the combined size of the enterprise and cloud systems.


When navigating a ship, it facilitates the task of determining and notifying the required arrival time performed by the operation manager. The operation manager, the agent in charge of the agency, and the ship operator display the management page provided from the server device using their terminal devices. In the management page, the flight manager inputs the departure time, etc., the vessel operator inputs the earliest possible arrival time, etc., and the agent person in charge inputs the berthing period start time, etc. The information entered on the management page is viewed and shared by each of the operation manager, agent representative and ship operator. Operations administrator, with reference to the information that is displayed on the management page, enter the provisional request arrival time RTA S by operating the operating element 907. Server apparatus calculates the estimated fuel consumption amount in the case of performing navigation to arrive the destination point to the temporary request arrival time RTA S entered. The calculated estimated fuel consumption is displayed on the management page and used when the operation manager determines the requested arrival time RTA.


The purpose of this study is to provide a broad idea about current control scheme and equilibrating voltages in DC-link capacitors of the neutral-point clamped multilevel inverter (NPC-MLI), using an innovative hexagonal space vector hysteresis current control (SVHCC) scheme. The main ideology is to force the literal current vector to reach the reference current vector through an appropriate voltage vector selection sequence. This proposed scheme defines two hexagonal hysteresis bands encompassing the error vector, as a first step. With respect to the error vector location, the selection of the adjacent vector is acted to minimise the error vector. In addition to the error vector selection, the capacitor voltage is also equilibrated by controlling the degree of freedom available in selecting the switching vectors. The SVHCC scheme is intelligent in performing modulation depth dependent selection of switching vectors between the groups namely closest three vector and preferred three vector (PTV). This scheme balances the DC-link capacitors' voltages within a tolerance limit for any value of modulation index. The proposed scheme is asserted through MATLAB/Simulink software. The superiority of the proposed technique is validated through the 2 kW NPC-MLI supported with SPARTAN III 3AN –XC3S400 field programmable gate array.


[Objective]To realize the epidemiological characteristics of overweight and obesity in a petrochemical enterprise,provide reference for control and prevention of obesity and other chronic non-communicable diseases.[Methods]Based on the physical examination data of occupational population in this enterprise in 2009,the epidemiological investigation was performed in 1617 people who were 22~62 years old,and the epidemiological characteristics of overweight and obesity were analyzed.[Results]In this enterprise,the overweight rate and obesity rate was 34.0% and 6.6% respectively,and the incidence of overweight and obesity increased with age.The prevalence rate of male was higher than that of female significantly (P0.05).The habits of smoking and drinking had significant influence on the incidence of obesity (P0.05),and obesity was closely related with the incidence of hypertension,fatty liver and diabetes (P0.01).[Conclusion]Over 40% of occupational population was overweight or obesity in this enterprise.The overweight and obesity have become a public health problem,and it is necessary to apply synthetic measures for prevention and control.


A new report commissioned by the Dutch government says that very expensive treatments should no longer be covered by the country's health insurance system.

It says that the system should not cover treatment that costs more than €80 000 (£55 000; $105 000) for every extra quality adjusted life year (QALY).

Doctors and patients' groups are concerned that such proposals could exclude treatments such as liver transplantations for people with liver damage resulting from alcohol misuse and argue that care should not be decided just …


From the comparative folk tales,mutation science attaches great importance on mutation in the cross-ethnic communication when other nations accepts the literature text,while this process is the course of localization and ethnicity.Combining with the history of folk tales,from disseminating process,language and cultural traditions,the author will analyse and explore the mutation law of folk tales in the course of dissemination in the cross-ethnic groups.


— This article puts forward a detailed study of the various genes that are upregulated or downregulated under specific stress conditions in the Drosophila gut. Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly, has been used as an experimental model for elucidation of many novel drug delivery pathways in humans due to 70% similarity between the Drosophila and human genome, as shown by BLAST results. The unique localization of the mammalian membrane or receptor guanylyl cyclase, GC-C at the luminal face of the intestine and its physiological roles recently revealed this receptor as a novel druggable target for the treatment of diarrhea, chronic constipation, and maybe in the prevention and therapy of colorectal cancer. Diarrhea is the third leading cause of childhood mortality in India. Detailed study of molecular mechanisms and pathways functional during diarrheal diseases, the genes responsible for it and preventive and control strategies need to be reviewed for better planning and organization of health services.


Soil quality (SQ) is the ability of soil to provide ecosystem functions and services. Implementation of a certain agricultural system can affect SQ and therefore play an essential role in achieving sustainable agriculture. The aim of this study was to explore how agricultural systems (conventional vs. organic), grazing regime (non‐grazed vs. grazed) and the different proportions of temporary grass‐clover leys in crop rotations (ley time proportion, LTP) affect SQ within a mixed (cropping and pasture/dairy system) commercial farming enterprise in the UK. Seven SQ indicators were evaluated, including chemical (pH; available phosphorus (P); potassium (K)), physical (bulk density, BD; aggregate stability, AS) and biological (total carbon (C); microbial biomass carbon, MBC) sectors. All SQ indicators were measured at three depth intervals (0–0.15, 0.15–0.30, 0.30–0.60 m), except for AS and MBC, which were only considered for the topsoil (0–0.15 m). The findings reflected existing knowledge on the advantages of organic vs. conventional systems for SQ indicators, with the former showing higher MBC and similar K, BD, AS and C in the 0–0.30‐m compared to the latter. Lower topsoil available P in organic systems can be related to the lack of measurements in all P pools. When grazing was included: (a) both agricultural systems showed higher topsoil available P, C and MBC; and (b) there was a higher topsoil K in organic systems, whereas it positively affected topsoil BD and C (0.15–0.30 m) in conventional systems. Increasing LTP to 30–40% of the full crop rotation increased topsoil AS and C (0–0.30 m) in a linear fashion. Subsoil conditions (>0.30 m) favoured K, BD and C in conventional systems, but these results should be considered carefully. It was concluded that both organic and conventional systems delivered similar levels of SQ and that reviving mixed farming systems may be a key factor for delivering multifunctional agroecosystems that maintain SQ and optimize ecosystem services.


Cysteine is a conditionally essential amino acid in neonates that can be synthesized from methionine by transsulfuration. We previously showed that methionine transsulfuration occurs in the GI tract of young pigs. Cysteine use by the gut epithelial cells may be important for maintenance of glutathione synthesis and cellular redox function. Our aim was to quantify the extent of gastrointestinal first‐pass cysteine metabolism in young pigs. Four‐week‐old, formula fed piglets (n=10) were given an intragastric (IG) and intravenous (IV) [1‐13C]‐cysteine infusion (IR = 15 μmol·kg−1·h−1) on two separate days in a cross‐over design. Arterial isotopic enrichments of cysteine and CO2 were measured by GC/IR‐MS and whole body fluxes are expressed as μmol·kg−1·h−1. Whole body cysteine flux (WB) was higher (P<0.01) during the IG than IV infusion (267 vs 154). Fractional (%IR) 13C‐Cys oxidation was similar during IG vs IV infusion (38.5 vs 36.2%). First‐pass fractional splanchnic extraction was 39 ± 7% of enteral 13C‐Cys intake, of which 17% was oxidized to 13CO2. The mean dietary Cys absorption during both infusion modes was similar, representing 80% of dietary intake, indicating that gut utilization was 20% of intake. We conclude that despite the higher whole body flux with enteral versus IV infusion, the fractional 13C‐Cys oxidation is similar. Gut utilization consumes 20% of the dietary Cys intake and represents half of first‐pass splanchnic use.


In this work we present low-complexity coded-modulation strategies for distributed relaying in 4G wireless networks. The primary goal of these strategies is to improve coverage on the uplink while retaining high spectral efficiency through multiuser spatial-multiplexing using two or more relays between the users and the base station. We contrast layer 2 techniques based on full decoding at relay stations and simple compression-based (quantization) techniques with QAM alphabets. Mutual-information and error-exponent analysis clearly show the benefits of distributed quantization both in the high and medium spectral efficiency regions. We further present these results in the context of evolving LTE-Advanced standardization activities, primarily by suggesting adaptations to standardized coding and retransmission mechanisms for a multiple-relay system. 1


The invention relates to a simulating device for a hard disk. The simulating device comprises a body part and a connecting part, wherein the size of the body part is equivalent to the size of the hard disk; the connecting part is arranged on the body part; a fastening piece which is used for fixing the body part onto a hard disk fixing frame is arranged on a side wall of the body part; first and second hard disk connectors which are exposed outside the body part are respectively arranged at the two ends of the connecting part; the first and second hard disk connectors are correspondingly in electric connection; and when the hard disk fixing frame mounted with the body part is inserted into a to-be-tested server, the second hard disk connector is correspondingly plugged into a hard disk interface in a rear plate of the server. Instead of the hard disk, the simulating device for the hard disk can be used for performing the related test for the server products and is convenient in use.


In his recent writings, Richard R. Nelson has expressed concern at the way intellectual property has been developing. It has never been so much used as it is today, and yet it has never been so widely criticised. To improve it, an EU Committee of Experts has recommended consideration of this author's proposal to add a financial dimension to the existing measurement of grants by time. Empirical work that provides a first evaluation of such a possible change is reported, and some lines are sketched out for more refined research on how it might be introduced.


With increasing accident rates for elderly cyclists when using electrically powered bicycles, behavioural models for cyclists that consider the underlying functional and cognitive processes are req...


9 10 Abstract 11 12 Host rock mechanical heterogeneities influence the spatial distribution of deformation structures 13 and hence, predictions of fault architecture and fluid flow. A critical factor, commonly overlooked, 14 is how rock mechanical properties can vary over time, and how this will alter deformation processes 15 and resultant structures. We present field data from an area in the Borborema Province, NE Brazil, 16 that demonstrate how temporal changes in deformation conditions, and consequently processes, 17 exerts a primary control on the spatial distribution and geometric attributes of evolving deformation 18 structures. Further, each temporal deformation phase imparted different hydraulic architecture. The 19 earliest flowing structures localized upon subtle ductile heterogeneities. Following fault formation, 20 both fault core and damage zone were flow conduits. In later stages of faulting pseudotachylyte 21 welding created a low-permeability fault core and annealed high-permeability fractures within the 22 fault damage zone. Modern flow occurs along a zone of later open shear fractures, defined by the 23 mechanical strength contrast between the host rock and annealed fault. This second hydraulically24 conductive zone extends 100s of meters from the edge of the annealed fault damage zone, creating a 25 flow zone far wider than would be predicted using traditional fault scaling relationships. Our results 26 demonstrate the importance of understanding successive deformation events for predicting the 27 temporal and spatial evolution of hydraulically active fractures. 28


An alternative approach to lumbar fusion surgery is to restore motion to the diseased segment with a disc prosthesis. The goal of the disc prosthesis is to replace the diseased disc while preserving and/or restoring the motion at the operated spinal level. The purpose of this study was to determine the ability of the PRODISC® (Spine Solutions Inc., Paoli, PA) disc prosthesis to restore lumbar spine motion and compare this motion to that of the harvested and fused spines.


Conclusion. The finding of several new unique mutations suggests that the genes causing hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT), i.e. endoglin (ENG) and activin receptor-like kinase 1 (ACVRL1), have a relatively high mutation rate. As no single founder mutation was found, analysis of the whole coding sequences of ENG and ACVRL1 genes remains the first choice in genetic testing of new index patients with HHT. Objectives. Our aim was to characterize specific mutations causing HHT in our hospital in Helsinki serving a population of 1 million inhabitants. Patients and methods. HHT patients were searched from our hospital discharge records and their diagnoses were verified by review of patient records and interviews. Eight index patients who fulfilled HHT phenotypic criteria were tested. ENG and ACVRL1 mutations were identified by DNA sequencing of ENG and ACVRL1 coding regions. Results: Of the eight index patients, four had a mutation in the ENG gene, three in the ACVRL1 gene, and one had no mutations. All the mutations were different and all the four ENG mutations and one of the ACVRL1 mutations were new and had not been described previously in other populations. All the affected first-degree relatives had the same mutation as the index case.


Landlords are important "gatekeepers" for frail elderly tenants including those with urinary incontinence (UI). Interviews with 34 landlords reveal that most have dealt with problems of UI. Whereas most residential managers help incontinent tenants, some landlords are rejecting them. Rejection of older incontinent tenants occurs most often in residential hotels, in for-profit buildings, in buildings with more male than female tenants, and in cases of alcoholism or dementia. Incontinence cases that were not solved and remained public were considered appropriate for eviction or placement in more restrictive living environments. Thus UI is a condition that compromises continued community living among certain older renters.


Parkinson's disease (PD) is a consequence of specific progressive neurodegeneration of substantia nigra pars compacta dopaminergic neuron resulting depletion in Dopamine (DA). Ldopa is first line DA replacement therapy. Caffeine and Antimuscarinic agents are effective adjuvant in PD management. Caffeine is given to counteract the adverse effects of anticholinergics. Caffeine is considered as a very safe psychostimulant. Contrary, higher doses of Caffeine associated with tachycardia, nausea and vomiting. Anticholinergics at therapeutic doses produce amnesia and cognitive impairment, particularly intense in elderly with preexisting neurodegenerative disease. Little is known about association between caffeine use, toxicity and dependence and risk of common psychiatric and substance use disorder. In present study, Decaffeinated Tea Extract (DTE) has been screened for antimuscarnic and anticataleptic activity. The results indicate that DTE significantly inhibited Achinduced contractions and Haloperidolinduced catalepsy. The effects are comparable to Atropine & Caffeine. As per our study findings, decaffeinated tea is an effective option as an adjuvant as compared to Caffeine and Atropine.


A new synthesis procedure for interdigital filters with shorted‐pin feeds is developed by relating the coupling factors and external Qs to the physical structure of the filter. This new procedure is easily understood and applied, extremely flexible, and allows design tradeoffs to be evaluated in an intuitive way. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 51: 2269–2272, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24647


The basic concepts and structural features of Associative Memory Networks as well as its application for tool wear monitoring are introduced in this paper. The structure and learning algorithms of B-spline networks which belong to Lattice-Based Associative Memory Networks are analyzed detailedly. Compared with feed forward back propagation neural networks, the study shows that the tool wear monitoring system based on B-spline networks is provided with the characteristic of rapid learning, high accuracy, local generalization ability and high available practicality.


The printing and distribution of Citizens' Morality Establishment Enforcement Regulations set basic goal and steps for the implementation of administering the country with morals and also establish firm social foundations for the implementation of law. We should correctly understand the relationship between "rule by law" and "rule by morals" and the connotations of "administering a country with morals", do researches on and solve all kinds of contradictions in the process of "administering a country with morals".


This paper presents an analysis by which the dynamic performances of a permanent magnet brushless DC (PMBLDC) motor is controlled through a hysteresis current loop and an outer speed loop with different controllers. The dynamics of the photovoltaic pumping drive system with sliding mode speed controllers are presented. The proposed structure is comprised of a photovoltaic generator associated to a DC-DC converter controlled by fuzzy logic to ensure maximum power point tracking. The PWM signals are generated by the interaction of the motor speed closed-loop system and the current hysteresis. The motor reference current is compared with the motor speed feedback signal. The considered model has been implemented in the Matlab /Simpower environment. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed method in increasing the performance of the water pumping system.


Indiana has a statewide wireless network (SAFE-T) that has been primarily used by the state police. It has enough capacity to accommodate other users. The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) has developed a winter operations tool that utilizes GPS, sensors to produce real-time information on chemical distribution, road temperature and plow position, and road and weather conditions. The data collected at the maintenance vehicle (snow plow) produces maps of time of chemicals placed, type of chemical, application rate, vehicle speed, road temperature, and plow position. Also, road and weather conditions can be displayed. Another feature of the system is transferring the appropriate data into a maintenance decision support system (MDSS). In the 2006–2007 winter, ten snow plow vehicles were equipped with the equipment described above. The equipment was placed in vehicles at three locations: Laporte, Monticello, and Columbus. This paper describes the results of system tests for the last two winters. Also, a summer application, paint stripping, will be described.


Congenital or traumatic loss on the oral and maxillary area or the loss of jaws due to the surgical excision of a tumor causes functional problems, such as masticatory and swallowing disorders, phonetic problems and psychological disorders in patients. In most cases, a prosthetic restoration is needed to resolve these problems and restore the damaged tissue and function. When loss occurs on the maxilla, foods and liquids leak into the nasal cavity, and a nasal sound can be heard due to air leakage into the removed area. In these cases, the palatal obturator can be used to improve the esthetic and functional aspects because it restores the removed area of the maxilla and closes the opened route between the oral cavity and maxillary sinus or nasal cavity. In this case report, a palatal obturator was applied to patients who had a hemimaxillectomy due to the occurrence of squamous cell carcinoma on the right maxillary area. Therefore, fundamental functions, such as phonetic and swallowing functions were restored, and the esthetic aspects of the facial profile were improved.


THE inscriptions running from right to left according to the Etruscan custom record the forms taitle and vikare (Fig. 2). It is almost certain that this (not viicare) is the correct reading of the latter name, although ii instead of i occasionally occurs in Etruscan.' But in the position before a the guttural is represented by k, a spelling that was kept in Central Etruria. Even in the southern region, where it was displaced by c, it is found as late as the fourth century B.C.2 The second vertical stroke therefore forms part of a kappa of rather archaic form, known also from other inscriptions.' The shape of the characters and the whole ductus suggest that the inscriptions date not much later than 400 B.C. and may very well belong to the fifth century (see Hanfmann, p. 191). There is no certain epigraphic evidence to be got from these few letters as to the provenience of the inscription. I am inclined, however, to assume that it comes from Central Etruria.4 The shapes of the characters resemble those of older inscriptions from Chiusi, CIE 1372/73. Furthermore, our inscription contains a specific form of the digamma, E, which is not customary in the ancient period, but according to Hammarstrdm becomes more frequent about the end of the fifth


The purpose of this paper is to fulfill the rapid design and simulation of the thermal test water cooled load waveguides channel, according to the idea of parametric design, using the CAD software Pro/Engineer to build the model of the water cooled load waveguides channel. Calling ProToolkit function library with Visual Studio 2008 to make the program interface, it's like a wizard to help engineers to design the thermal test water cooled load waveguides channel. It realize the thermal test water cooled load waveguides channel rapid design. With the help of software high frequency structure simulator (HFSS) and Thermal Desktop (TD), the electromagnetic and thermal performance of the thermal test water cooled load waveguides channel can be simulated. It greatly improves the efficiency of the thermal test water cooled load waveguides channel design, and guarantees the reliability of the product. The design and develop time can be reduce by 20%.


HOAPS (Hamburg Ocean Atmosphere Parameters and Fluxes from Satellite Data) is a global climatology of sea surface parameters and surface energy and freshwater fluxes derived from satellite radiances for the time period July 1987 to December 1998. Data from polar orbiting radiometers, the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) and the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), have been used to get global fields of surface meteorological and oceanographic parameters but also latent heat flux, evaporation, precipitation and net freshwater flux over ice free ocean areas for various averaging periods and grid sizes. All retrieval methods have been validated with in situ data on a global scale to the extent possible. In this paper some of the major outcomes are exemplarily shown together with the results of comparison studies with the in situ climatology provided by the Southampton Oceanography Centre (SOC).


This study describes the estimation of upstream ungauged watershed streamflow using downstream discharge data. For downstream Dongchon (DC) and upstream Kumho (KH) water level stations in Kumho river basin (), three methods of Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) modeling, drainage-area ratio method and regional regression equation were evaluated. The SWAT was calibrated at DC with the determination coefficient () of 0.70 and validated at KH with of 0.60. The drainage-area ratio method showed of 0.93. For the regional regression, the watershed area, average slope, and stream length were used as variables. Using the derived equation at DC, the KH could estimate the flow with maximum 41.2 % error for the observed streamflow.


The reflection of electromagnetic wave by a magnetized, steady-state, two-dimensional, and non-uniform plasma slab is invesitigated in this paper. The effect of various plasma parameters on the reflected power is dicussed, the partial reflection coefficient at each slab boundary is calculated and the total reflected power is obtained, it can be conclude that the reflected power depends on the electronic density, collision frequency, and angle of propagation. The non-uniform plasma is modeled by a series of slabs, the electronic density is considered as a constant in each slab, and the total electronic density profile across the whole slabs satifies a parabolic function distrbution.


Teaching quality is essential to continuous development of higher education while the quality becomes deteriorated with scale-enlarging enrollment, which restrains higher education at the same time. The article suggests corresponding measures according of the present situation.


This paper considers the improvement of the usual confidence interval for a normal mean from the decision theory point of view.By combining the IERD method of the parameter estimator which is used in the estimation theroy,with the order restriction of the unknown distribution parameters,the usual equivariant minimax confidence interval is improved and a class of improved confidence intervals are constructed.


Equilibrium charge-state distributions have been determined experimentally for chlorine and bromine ions with energies between 1 and 14 MeV traversing ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$, He, ${\mathrm{N}}_{2}$, ${\mathrm{O}}_{2}$, Ar, and Kr gases and a carbon foil. In addition, a few measurements have been made using iodine beams traversing various targets\char22{}at 3, 10, and 12 MeV through carbon foil, at 8 MeV through C${\mathrm{O}}_{2}$, at 10 and 12 MeV through gold foil, and at 12 MeV through a Xe gas target.


An intelligent home remote control system includes a main control unit for receiving operating command of users and status signals of household electrical appliance and generating control signal based on the operating command and status signals; and a control receiving unit for detecting the status of the household electrical appliance and transmitting the detected status signals to the main control unit and controlling the working of the household electrical appliance based on the control signal transmitted from the main control unit, wherein signal exchange is performed between the main control unit and the control receiving unit according to the CAN communication protocol, and these signals are communicated in electric power carrier mode. In the utility model, the main control unit can generate control signals based on the operating command of the user and the status signal of the household electrical appliance, the control receiving unit contrls the household electrical appliance to work based on the received control signal, signal exchange is performed between the main control unit and the control receiving unit according to the CAN communication protocol, and these signals are communicated in electric power carrier mode, thereby realizing application of electric power carrier in the intelligent home remote control system.


We study non-interacting automorphic quantum scalar fields with positive mass in two-dimensional de Sitter space. We find that there are no Hadamard states which are de Sitter invariant except in the periodic case, extending the result of Epstein and Moschella for the anti-periodic case. We construct the two-point Wightman functions for the non-Hadamard de Sitter-invariant states by exploiting the fact that they are functions of the geodesic distance between the two points satisfying an ordinary differential equation. We then examine a certain Hadamard state, which is not de Sitter invariant, and show that it is approximately a thermal state with the Gibbons–Hawking temperature when restricted to a static region of the spacetime.


Mary Kay Cosmetics Company since its establishment 40 years ago, with its unique management thinking and humanized management, it now enjoys a leading position in the international market. Mary Kay believes the golden rule of ″How you expect to be treated, how you should treat as others do″, and they initiates life priorities as ″Belief First, Family Second and Cause the Third″. Thus, the essence of humanized management and the highest purpose to be summed up as: by enlightening the bright side of humanity and returning it to the value of life to create prosperity and happiness. It also raises people-oriented management and effective mechanism in promoting humanized management.


In this paper, I present action research based on Norton's ITDEM model (Norton, 2009), which I applied to investigate an observed course related information problem in the Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Bedfordshire. The data collection was a combination of both interviews and surveys. Three lecturers and 100 students from the department participated in the action research. The collected data was analysed using thematic and content analysis. The findings of the investigation identified a problem in course related information integration and presentation. Both the lecturers and some students thought that the problem has impacted on the students' learning and development. In an effort to tackle the problem, useful approaches proposed by other universities and the valuable suggestions made by the participants have been collected for further investigation and adaptation. Overall, action research is found to be a helpful methodology to improve course related information of computing degree courses, which will not only help prospective students' course selection and enhance existing students' learning and development, but also build up the department's and university's reputation. Keywords Action research, computing course related information, learning experiences and skill development Introduction A problem was observed by the course teams of BSc Computer Animations, BSc Computer Game Development and BSc Computer Graphics – students, especially year one students, have a lack of realism on what skills are needed for the course and a lack of understanding of what the course is about, which has started to impact on the students' learning and development. The course teams think there is a need to improve the students' understanding and realism on the requirements of the course and their skills development. I decided to carry out action research (Earl-Slater, 2002 and Norton, 2009) to investigate what causes the students' misunderstanding and lack of realism on what knowledge and skills are required to complete the course, and how the problem can be resolved. In this paper, I first explain what I believe is the root cause of the problem; second I introduce the methodology of how I investigated the problem; third I report my findings and implications from my investigation; finally a


In this paper, a novel optimization technique based on genetic algorithms (GA) is suggested to optimize highway horizontal alignment. The technique is based on station points to configure horizontal alignment rather than considering the existing conventional principles of design which uses horizontal intersection points (HIP), tangents, and curve fittings. This is expected to reduce the number of highway alignment design elements required and consequently reduce the constraints imposed on alignment planning and design. The introduction of this technique is motivated by the development of computers, computer software, and the highway field instruments (e.g. total station). The resulting solution found is promising and suggests further formulations should be investigated.


The idea presented in paper is inspired from the wide prospect given by the integration of fuzzy sets and linguistic quantifiers in the modeling of context and quantification of similarities measurement. In pervasive services retrieval, dealing with context in a flexible and efficient way is extremely important. In this paper we propose a practical classification of context into functional and non functional context. We use the first type in the service discovery with an ontology based model supporting fuzzy context predicates and fuzzy reasoning, while the second type is used for the best-fitting service selection based on the linguistic quantifier "almost all". Finally, the listed scenario example illustrates the realization and the effectiveness of our approach.


The existence of phase variation in S. exempta has long been known and the possible significance of the phenomenon in terms of the insect's life-system has been discussed previously (ROSE, 1979). Present studies carried out on a comparative basis have shown meaningful differences in many attributes of solitary- and gregarious-phase caterpillars.The solitary-phase caterpillars take longer to develop, possess more protein fractions and higher levels of juvenile hormone in the haemolymph of sixth instars, and their pupae consume more oxygen compared to the gregarious ones. It is suggested that the solitary form of larvae is the normal type for the species, while the gregarious form is able to make maximum use of resources during some parts of the year.


The present invention discloses a means to make the line current breaking, comprising a unidirectional DC circuit breaker; branch further comprises a bridge, the bridge branch comprises four identical two transducers constituting the branch arm, the transducer further four parallel two to two hundred twenty-one set to the series arm with the formed branch, each of said commutation branch with at least one connector comprises a first power semiconductor device to the series; the two said leg bridge branch are connected in parallel with the unidirectional DC breaker, and the ends of the line are connected to two branch arm bridge arm midpoint. This apparatus is capable of ensuring sufficiently rapid breaking velocity and low loss premise, greatly reduce the cost of the apparatus, means to reduce the difficulty of the device layout, wiring and installation. The present invention also discloses a control method for breaking a line current to make.


This is a research article on applications management using AI automation. The research found out that AI automation has greatly revolutionized different industries and sectors. It has had both negative and positive impacts in different areas of society. For example, the research found that the implementation of AI automation in some industries led to the creation of various jobs that relate to computing. However, it also led to the loss of different jobs, especially manual jobs that could be automated. This paper comprises the introduction, literature review, a discussion of how the research is going to help America, and a conclusion.


of grey? We invited two correspondents, both with roots in Zimbabwe, to discuss either side of the equation, with particular emphasis on economy. George Shire, a Zimbabwean writer, political analyst and war veteran of the Zimbabwe liberation struggle says the country's economic troubles can be laid at the door of Britain and that Mugabe has been made the scapegoat. According to the British government and the mainstream press, you would be forgiven for thinking that Zimbabwe's pre-independence history consists of only two periods: before the "land-grab" and after the "landgrab." Before the "land-grab" Zimbabwe was a model African state with a progressive leader; after the "land-grab" it has become a disaster zone with a "madman" in charge! Robert Mugabe, according to these pundits, is solely responsible for Zimbabwe's descent into chaos. He began the slide when he dared, after 20 years of patience, to tell the handful of white farm owners that con-


Children, aged 4 to 5 years, were recorded in everyday classroom interaction at the beginning and the end of their first year at school. Their use of language in pretend play was analyzed from transcriptions of the video record. Although girls directed a greater proportion of their speech to controlling others, there were no consistent differences between girls and boys in the use of directives or instructions to pretend. On their entry to school these children displayed few distinct gender-related patterns in their spontaneous speech.


The invention relates to a mining management system and a working method thereof. The mining management system adopts a GPS (Global Position System) technology to carry out data processing through a GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications)/GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) wireless data transmission network and a computer software platform. The mining management system is characterized by comprising a vehicle-mounted terminal, a central computer room and a scheduling monitoring center, wherein the vehicle-mounted terminal comprises a vehicle-mounted GPS receiver, a communication telephone handle, a terminal display, a camera, a communication controller, a GPS signal antenna and a GSM/GPRS signal antenna; and the central computer room comprises a server, an auxiliary modulator-demodulator, a GPS signal antenna and a GSM/GPRS signal antenna; and the scheduling monitoring center comprises a PC (Personal Computer), a system client and a large-size LED liquid crystal display for monitoring. The mining management system realizes 24-hour continuous monitoring and tracking to improve the safety and the working efficiency of ore hauling equipment and mining equipment.


The practice of holding exit interviews with students graduating from a medium-sized university is described. Such interviews provide unique data unavailable from other sources.


Sequence length polymorphisms between the amelogeninX and amelogeninY genes have been utilized for the design of rapid PCR sex determination assays for various mammalian species, including four cervid species ( Capreolus capreolus , Cervus elaphus , Cervus nippon , and Dama dama ). Several of these assays have been shown to be able to determine sex from non-invasively collected samples such as hair roots, feces, or skeletal remains. Such assays can be helpful for both zoo and wildlife biologists for sex determination, and could possibly be further developed to aid in species identification and SNP analyses if sequence information is also available. In order to further study the amelogeninX and amelogeninY gene polymorphisms that exist within cervids, partial sequences from these genes were generated and analyzed in multiple amelogeninX and amelogeninY samples of mule deer ( Odocoileus hemionus ) and Rocky Mountain elk ( Cervus elaphus nelsoni ); and single amelogeninX and amelogeninY samples of sika deer ( Cervus nippon ), fallow deer ( Dama dama ) and axis deer ( Axis axis ). Within these five species, three sequence length polymorphism regions (two or more nucleotides inserted or deleted between samples) were found. The lengths of these polymorphisms were 45, 9, and 9 nucleotides. In addition, a SNP was found in the amelogeninY sequences of the mule deer samples that were analyzed. Lastly, the primers used to amplify the regions of the amelogeninX and amelogeninY sequences were able to determine sex in all five species that were studied.


A natural gas leakage accident resulting from a cracked gas valve happened unexpectedly.Failure analysis of the cracked gas valve made of 1Cr18Ni9Ti steel was carried out by metallographic examination、SEM analysis and XRD analysis.The results show that poor corrosion resistance and serious metallurgical defects are the main failure cause of the gas valve.


Thymine polyoxin C (2), a common partial structure of polyoxin H (3) and J (4) having anti-fungal activity, was formally synthesized from D-ribose in good overall yield by using L-threonine aldolase-catalyzed reaction as a key step, which affords novel β-hydroxy-α-L-amino acids from glycine and aldehydes in an aqueous medium.


We have an obligation to our patients to prove that what we do works—that the benefits of our procedures outweigh their risks. That evidence base is notably lacking for dural sinus stenting for patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH). We do not dispute that many patients with IIH have a pressure gradient in their dural sinuses, typically due to what is almost certainly extrinsic compression of their transverse sinuses. Stenting of these patients reduces central venous and intracranial pressure, conclusively and dramatically. This is generally accompanied by improvement in many of the symptoms reported by these patients. We also do not dispute that it is reasonable to offer stenting to some patients, but with the caveat that the evidence regarding many aspects of this procedure is weak. There is a long list of unanswered questions regarding venous sinus stenting for patients with IIH. The sum of our knowledge regarding the risks and benefits of this procedure are from case series: no randomized trial has been reported to date. While the risk of complications from this procedure is low in terms of frequency (2–3%), some can be catastrophic. Many studies to date have lacked objective or quantifiable measurements of outcome, such as stabilization or improvement in visual fields, for example. There is uncertainty regarding indications for treatment. Is headache alone an indication? Should we be using an objective threshold value for visual loss? If failed medical treatment is an indication, how should we define that? Is intractable pulse synchronous tinnitus in the setting of IIH an indication? We do not have clear guidance on length of followup and risk for recurrence. Finally, it must be recognized we are not treating the cause of the intracranial pressure increase: the underlying pathologic reason remains present and likely accounts for many of the treatment failures or recurrences. Owing to all these factors, this is a procedure that must be subjected to a randomized clinical trial against best medical therapy. In the following paragraphs we will provide more information supporting the statements above. IIH is a disorder affecting primarily overweight women of childbearing age. It manifests as symptoms of increased intracranial pressure and can result in permanent vision loss if untreated. Weight loss, with as little as a 6% weight reduction, is an effective treatment. Bariatric surgery is superior to a dietary weight loss intervention for both weight loss and a sustained reduction in intracranial pressure. Acetazolamide and diet is also an effective treatment. The Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension Treatment Trial (IIHTT) demonstrated that acetazolamide combined with a lowsodium weightreduction diet was superior to diet alone for improvement in vision in patients with IIH and mild visual loss. Mild vision loss was defined as perimetric mean deviation (PMD), a measure of global visual field loss relative to normal agecorrected values, between −2 dB and −7 dB. The scale is logarithmic, so a PMD of −10 dB indicates a 10fold loss in retinal sensitivity. The study was doublemasked and placebocontrolled. One hundred and sixtyfive subjects were enrolled. The primary outcome was the change in PMD from baseline to 6 months in the most affected eye. Acetazolamide dose was 2 to 4 g/day. The active treatment group had more improvement in PMD, papilledema and visionrelated quality of life. About half of the enrolled subjects agreed to a followup lumbar puncture at 6 months, and intracranial pressure was significantly lower in the active treatment group. They also had more weight loss, and the benefit with acetazolamide was shown to be independent of weight loss. A phase 3 trial is currently underway for newly diagnosed IIH patients for oral exenatide, a glucagonlike peptide (GLP1) receptor agonist that increases insulin secretion, after very promising phase 1 studies showed reductions in intracranial pressure. It should be noted that the IIHTT study excluded patients with severe vision loss, and those with medically refractory, rapidly progressive vision loss. These patients have been treated in the past with optic nerve fenestration and surgical shunting procedures, and more recently, dural sinus stenting. This group of patients will be hard to study owing to challenges related to recruitment and equipoise, but a trial comparing these three interventions with each other and medical therapy including weight loss would be of great value. In the absence of a trial, it is reasonable to offer stenting to these patients, just as it is reasonable to offer shunting or fenestration. The more frequent and perhaps more important question is what to do with the patients without severe or rapidlydeteriorating vision. Medical management—high dose acetazolamide and a lowsodium weightreduction diet as established by the IIHTT study—should be the first line treatment. Visual fields should be carefully monitored. A randomized clinical trial of stenting for the IIHTT population is clearly the next step. The stenting procedure is relatively mature in terms of devices and technique. Periprocedural complications are unlikely to see much reduction from any kind of technological, patient selection, or pharmacological advance. Acetazolamide is generally well tolerated but the maximum tolerated dosage occasionally will not give the desired outcome. Stenting may be more effective than acetazolamide. Why are case series insufficient to answer these questions? Case series, particularly single institution retrospective studies, are at risk for underestimating complications. In addition, many of these studies lack objective criteria to define eligibility or measure outcome, and these outcomes are not done in an independent or masked manner. Our field, and related ones, have many examples of case series data not being validated by subsequent randomized controlled studies. These include jugular venous stenting for multiple sclerosis, warfarin for symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic disease, vertebroplasty for osteoporotic compression fractures, stenting for intracranial atherosclerotic disease, optic nerve sheath fenestration for anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, and angioplasty and stenting for chronic stable angina. Many of these negative trials have been criticized for many reasons— poor operators, poor technology and wrong patient population, for example. However, if these trials were not done, we would still be treating many of these Radiology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, Iowa, USA Ophthalmology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, Iowa, USA


Diatom records from Euro-Arctic urban lakes sediments have been carried out. It was reconstructed significant changes in the diatom taxa composition as a response on anthropogenic pollution and transformation of catchments area. Diatom assemblages from diverse urban aquatic ecosystems reflect the current Arctic climate warming, industrial pollution and eutrophication. Diatom records from surface sediment (0 1 cm) can be as an integral environmental assessment for the urban lakes ecosystems and water quality tool. Historical anthropogenic mineralization and alkalization of Lake Semenovskoe (Murmansk, Russia) have been reconstructed.


Russian Abstract: Исследуется влияние политической культуры на общественные процессы. Анализируются различные подходы к определению понятия «политическая культура». Рассматриваются различные типы и классификация политической культуры. Подчеркивается возрастающая роль Интернета, его влияние на политические процессы и культуру.
English Abstract: The influence of the political culture on social processes is studied. Various approaches to the definition of "political culture" are analyzed. Different types and classification of political culture are considered. The focus is on the increasing role of the Internet and its influence on political processes and political culture.


This study aims to determine the effect of good corporate governance on CSR disclosure moderated by earning management. This study used secondary data from manufacturing companies on the Indonesia Stock Exchange during 2014-2018. Data were garnered through purposive sampling and analyzed by employing the absolute difference of moderation test. Research findings expose that good corporate governance, i.e. institutional ownership and independent commissioners, had no significant effect on CSR disclosure, while audit committees gave a positive effect on CSR disclosure. Earning management, likewise, strengthened the positive influence of the institutional ownership on CSR disclosure and the negative influence of the audit committee on CSR disclosure. Nevertheless, earning management failed to moderate the role of independent commissioners on CSR disclosure. The study promotes the portrayal of performance evaluation for manufacturing companies and stakeholders to establish good corporate governance in controlling practices of earning management and CSR disclosure.


The superconducting tunnel effect predicted by Brian Josephson in 1962 is looking increasingly promising for another very practical application—as logic and memory circuits for computers. Josephson‐junction circuits are capable of high switching speeds (50–100 picosec have already been obtained). And because such circuits operate at voltages comparable to the superconducting energy gap, the heat generated is typically microwatts, thousands of times lower than high‐speed transistor circuits. The diminished heat‐removal problem allows one to pack the Josephson circuits much closer than semiconductor circuits. Once high switching speeds are achieved, this packability becomes extremely important because then the major limitation on computer speed is how fast the electrical signal takes to move from one circuit to another.


These studies sought to determine if neurons in the estrogen receptor-a knockout (ERaKO) mouse brain concentrated 16a-[125I]iodo-11b-methoxy-17b-estradiol (125I-estrogen), and if so, whether estrogen binding augmented the expression of progesterone receptor (PR) mRNA. Mice were injected with 125I-estrogen and cryostat sections thaw mounted onto emulsion-coated slides. After 30–90 days of exposure, cells with a nuclear uptake and retention of 125Iestrogen were observed in a number of ERaKO mouse brain regions including the preoptic nucleus and arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and amygdala, although the number of labeled cells and intensity of nuclear concentration was markedly attenuated when compared with wild-type littermates. Competition studies with excess 17b-estradiol, diethylstilbestrol, or moxestrol, but not with R5020 or dihydrotestosterone, prevented the nuclear concentration of 125I-estrogen. To determine if the low level of estrogen binding was capable of regulating gene expression, in situ hybridization was used to evaluate PR mRNA in the brain. ERaKO and wild-type mice were ovariectomized and treated with vehicle or 17b-estradiol, and brains were sectioned and hybridized with a PR cRNA probe. Analysis of hybridization signal revealed a similar, low level of PR mRNA in ovariectomized wild-type and homozygous mice, and a marked increase in expression after treatment of ovariectomized animals with 17b-estradiol, with the level of hybridization signal being significantly higher in wild-type animals when compared with ERaKO mice. The results demonstrate that estrogen binds in the ERaKO brain and is capable of modulating PR gene expression, thus supporting the presence and functionality of a nonclassical estrogen receptor. Estrogen is known to act in discrete regions of the female brain to regulate gamete production, proceptive and receptive behaviors, and other aspects of reproduction. Estrogens appear to regulate these physiological events by binding to the intracellular estrogen receptor (ER). The ligand-bound receptor then interacts with an estrogen response element on DNA and thereby modulates the transcription of specific genes. ER and its mRNA have been detected in brain regions where estrogen plays a central role in the regulation of events essential for procreation (1, 2). Recently, a transgenic mouse was constructed that lacked a functional ER-a (3). Initial analysis revealed that ER-a knockout (ERaKO) mice were infertile, failing to show reproductive behavior or a normal estrous cycle (3). Interestingly, in vitro ligand binding studies revealed a 5% residual estrogen binding in the ERaKO uterus (3), although Western blot analysis was unable to detect ER protein (4). Immunocytochemical studies with the ERaKO mice were also unable to detect ER immunoreactivity in the brain (5). In spite of these findings, our laboratory has shown that several neurotransmitter and hormone receptor systems, thought to be dependent on estrogen, were not dramatically attenuated in the ERaKO hypothalamus (P.J.S. and I.M., unpublished observations). These observations suggested that some genes that are regulated by estrogen in the wild-type animal were still sensitive to changes in estrogen in the ERaKO mouse brain. By using high resolution steroid autoradiography with iodinated estrogen, this study has demonstrated the presence of estrogen target cells in the wild-type and ERaKO brain. Moreover, in situ hybridization studies have shown that estrogen regulates progesterone receptor (PR) gene expression, a gene known to be dramatically up-regulated by estrogen (6), in the preoptic nucleus of the ERaKO mouse hypothalamus. MATERIALS AND METHODS C57BLy6J ER-a-disrupted mice (3) were genotyped by using PCR analysis of tail samples to assess the presence of the neomycin resistance andyor ER-a mRNAs (4). Pups exhibiting only the neomycin resistance mRNA were considered homozygous mice, whereas animals that express only the ER-a were wild types. The studies described in this paper were reviewed and approved by the Radnor Animal Care and Use Committee at Wyeth–Ayerst Research. On postnatal day 18, ERaKO (n 5 5) and wild-type (n 5 3) mice were ovariectomized (ovx) and returned to their mothers. Seven days after surgery, the ovx mice were s.c. injected in the dorsal cervical region with 0.2 mgy100 g body weight of 16a-[125I]iodo-11b-methoxy-17b-estradiol [125I-estrogen; see ref. 7; specific activity 2,200 CiymM, 1 Ci 5 37 GBq; purchased from R. Hochberg (Yale University, New Haven, CT)] dissolved in 50% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)y40% PBSy10% ethanol. For competition studies, 1 hr before injecting 125Iestrogen, additional ovx postnatal mice were each injected with 20 mg of an estrogenic compound, 17b-estradiol (Sigma; n 5 4), diethylstilbestrol (Sigma; n 5 2) or moxestrol (RU2858; a gift from R. Hochberg; n 5 2), a synthetic progestin R5020 (NEN; n 5 2), or the androgen dihydrotestosterone (Sigma; n 5 2), dissolved as described above. Two hours after injection of 125I-estrogen, the brains were collected, frozen, and 10 mm coronal cryostat sections thaw mounted onto emulsion-coated slides (Kodak NTB3, Eastman Kodak). Section-mounted slides were exposed at 230°C in light-tight desiccator slide boxes. After 3–90 days of exposure, the slides were developed and coverslipped. Brain autoradiograms were scanned at low magThe publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge payment. This article must therefore be hereby marked ''advertisement'' in accordance with 18 U.S.C. §1734 solely to indicate this fact. © 1997 by The National Academy of Sciences 0027-8424y97y9411008-5$2.00y0 PNAS is available online at http:yywww.pnas.org. This paper was submitted directly (Track II) to the Proceedings office. Abbreviations: ERaKO, estrogen receptor-a knockout; PR, progesterone receptor; 125I-estrogen, 16a-[125I]iodo-11b-methoxy-17bestradiol; ER, estrogen receptor; ovx, ovariectomized; ER-a, estrogen receptor-a; ER-b, estrogen receptor-b. †To whom reprint requests should be addressed at: Women's Health Research Institute, Wyeth–Ayerst Research, 145 King of Prussia Road, Radnor, PA 19087. e-mail: email@example.com. §Present address: Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc., San Diego, CA 92121.


Due to the widespread usage of Android-based smartphones in the current era, Android malware has become a significant concern. From the perspective of t he a dvances in machine learning-based approaches in the previous decade, the research community has shown a dominant interest in applying these to counter Android malware. However, these ML-based classifiers are vulnerable to attacks. An attacker can deliberately fabricate the input application to force the classification algorithm to produce the desired output (evasion attack). In this study, first, w e propose HybridDroid, a n M L-based Android malware classifier trained o n hybrid features a nd optimized using the tree-based pipeline optimization technique (TPOT). Our experiments show that HybriDroid achieves a remarkable detection accuracy of up to 99.2% on a balanced excerpt of 36,000 malware and benign Android apps. Secondly, we explore the effectiveness of the proposed model in adversarial environments. We apply mimicry attacks, feature removal attacks and feature removal with injection attacks on HybriDroid. Our experiments reveal that ML-based malware classifiers are highly vulnerable to adversarial evasion attacks. Finally, we propose future directions to harden the security of ML-based Android malware classifiers in adversarial settings.


This paper presents an evaluation of landfill leachate management systems at three waste disposal sites in the wet equatorial climatic zone of Ghana. This particular climatic zone experiences the highest annual rainfall in the country. It was observed during walkover surveys that none of the waste disposal sites had any active or passive leachate management systems. It was also seen and demonstrated through computer simulations that the highest leachate flows occur during the months of June and October. Groundwater pollution, vadoze zone pollution, soil contamination and human health risks at all the locations were characterised as high. However surfacewater pollution risks were considered as low due the fact that there is adequate buffer distance from the Pra and Ankobra rivers to each of these individual dumpsites. The significance of this study is that it will provide guidance to decision makers and technical officers in other municipalities and districts within this climatic zone.


A device (29) for transmitting electrical power between AC power systems (2, 3) via DC lines (8a, 8b, 9a, 9b) of the inverter connected to one another (6, 7) each having a plurality of six-pulse converter bridges (19, 20, 21 , 22), wherein the six-pulse converter bridges (19, 20, 21, 22) of the same inverter (6, 7) via inductors (4, 5) with different phase offset to a (the inverters 6, 7) each associated with alternating voltage network (2 , 3) are connectable and a control unit for igniting converter valves (28) of the six-pulse converter bridges (19, 20, 21, 22) is provided to provide, which is less expensive, it is proposed that the converters (6, 7) over several direct current circuits (30, 31) are connected to each other, each direct current circuit is galvanically isolated from at least one alternating voltage network (2, 3) separated.


Thirty-two animals from one to over 15 years of age were selected from three horse establishments near Guelph, Ontario. There were 17 Thoroughbreds, seven Hunters, four Appaloosas, and two grade horses, one Shetland and one grade pony. Two mares were two and one-half, and nine months pregnant, and three others had been bred 17 to 37 days at the time of treatment. The pyrantel pamoate was a liquid formulation (suspension) containing 50 mg pyrantel base/ml in 30 ml vials. Each horse or pony received in one treatment between February and June 1973, the content of one or two 30 ml vials mixed in with its grain ration. Based on estimates of body weight the dose rate of the anthelmintic ranged from 2.5 to 13.9 mg pyrantel base/kg body weight. Fecal samples were collected on the day of treatment (DT) and 14 days after treatment (AT) for counts of nematode eggs and infective larvae. The Cornell-McMaster technique (4) was used to estimate the number of nematode eggs per gram (EPG) in a 10 g sample of feces. A 20 g fecal sample was cultured as described by WVhitlock (13). This latter sample was broken up, placed in a 16-ounce jar, and moistened with 0.1% sodium carbonate to reduce mold. A screw top lid was applied firmly but not too tightly to the jar and it was placed in a dark-


Received: 10/Jan/2009, Accepted: 18/Mar/2009 Objective: Receptor activator for nuclear factor kappa B ligand (RANKL), which is also called osteoclast differentiation factor, is an important regulatory factor in osteoclast maturation. Knowledge of bone and cementum similarities and RANKL role in bone resorption suggests the possibility of a role for this protein in root resorption induced by orthodontic tooth movement. The aim of this study is to examine the expression of RANKL mRNA during root resorption induced by orthodontic tooth movement in rats. Materials and Methods: In order to move maxillary right first molars mesially fixed Ni-Ti closed coil springs (Dentaurum®-Germany) were tightened to the teeth. Sample consisted of 20 male seven week old Wistar rats. For each animal, the contralateral tooth was used as, an internal control. At day 21 the rats were sacrificed. Tissues from 10 rats were embedded in paraffin for histologic examination. Scratched material from resorptive lacunae on mesial sides of the roots of the other ten rats was used for extracting mRNA by RTPCR. Results: The histologic sections, analyzed histomorphometrically, showed a significant increase in root resorption in the case group as compared to the control (p<0.001). Densitometric studies of RANKL mRNA expression band on gel electrophoresis showed significantly increased RANKL expression in the resorptive lacunae of the case group (p<0.001). Conclusion: This observation indicates increased RANKL expression is associated with orthodontic tooth movement induced root resorption.


The rhetorical qualities of Achilles Tatius' Leucippe and Clitophon are often noted; this article argues that the novel exhibits an equally legalistic orientation. The trials in Ephesus that dominate the novel's final two books are a sustained variation on the trial scene, an important topos in the Greek novels. The ambiguous relationship of Clitophon and Melite sets in motion a complex legal dilemma. The narrative framework in which the trial scenes are embedded allows the reader to assess the 'truthfulness' of the inset speeches and the efficacy of the law.


Abstract : Plasma and erythrocyte acetylcholinesterase(AChE) activity changes in response to hemorrhage were studied in two groups of conscious immature swine (21 + or - 1 kg) 7 to 10 days after chronic implantation of arterial and venous catheters. One group was immobilized in a Pavlov sling, the other remained unrestrained in portable holding cages. The animals were hemorrhaged 36 ml/kg over 60 minutes and studied over another 120 minutes. Compared to unrestrained pigs, animals in the sling showed less of a decline in mean arterial blood pressure (37 + or -(-3 vs 61 + or - 11 mmHg) at the end of hemorrhage and a more marked increase in heart rate (201 + or - 17 vs 133 + or - 12 beats/min); these group differences were significant (P<0.05). In both groups hematocrit was reduced significantly to the same level, and arterial blood gases showed no differences. Erythrocyte AChE activity also showed no difference between groups or significantly change during hemorrhage. Plasma AChE activity fell significantly during hemorrhage. The between-group difference was not statistically significant. The decrease in plasma AChE activity persisted for over two hours after hemorrhage. Following hemorrhage there was a 57% reduction in total intravascular AChE activity and an 18% reduction in total plasma activity . Although immobilization altered cardiovascular variables, it did not modify AChE activity. The reduction of AChE activity following hemorrhage may increase susceptibility to anesthetic agents.


The redescription of Coleophora carelica Hackman 1945 is given. Hitherto unknown host plants Achillea millefolium L. and Artemisia vulgaris L. are recorded. The larval case is described for the first time and the known distribution is mapped.


We introduce a variant of Dependence Logic in which truth is defined not in terms of existence of winning strategies for the Proponent (Eloise) in a semantic game, but in terms of lack of winning strategies for the Opponent (Abelard). We show that this language is a conservative but paraconsistent extension of First Order Logic, that its validity problem can be reduced to that of First Order Logic, that it capable of expressing its own truth and validity predicates, and that it is expressively equivalent to Universal Second Order Logic. Furthermore, we prove that a Paraconsistent Non-dependence Logic formula is consistent if and only if it is equivalent to some First Order Logic sentence; and we show that, on the other hand, all Paraconsistent Dependence Logic sentences are equivalent to some First Order sentence with respect to truth (but not necessarily with respect to falsity).


The positioning of application-oriented universities is directly related to the training of creative talents in China's higher education.Here the application-oriented universities do not mean the levels,just the types.The government should give macro and classified guidance to promoting the diversification of higher education.Application-oriented universities should set up applied courses and train applied creative talents serving the locality,by production-teaching-research cooperation.


Heavy metal waste produced by industry is classified as B3 waste. Some adapted microbial mechanisms in metal-contaminated environments include microbes capable of using metal as an energy source, precipitating metals in the form of insoluble metal salts, immobilizing metals in cell walls, producing chelating agents, changing the permeability of microbial cell membranes to metals, and reduce the metal to a non-toxic form.
This study aims to determine the colony diversity of bacterial types contained in activated sludge, the tolerance level of isolated isolates from activated sludge against environmental stress and heavy metal contamination based on their growth patterns, as well as the ability of isolates of bacteria with the best tolerance level in produce a plant growth hormone and secondary metabolites. This study uses research stages, namely sampling, tool sterilization, manufacture of solid LB media, bacterial isolation, isolation of isolates, stock-culture, gram staining, re-culture isolates, and GC-MS analysis.
Bacterial isolation carried out resulted in 14 bacterial isolates by purifying bacteria with morphological diversity of cells and varying cell colony morphology. Heavy metal tolerance test was carried out on 6 bacterial isolates namely S1aB1, S1aB2, S1bB4, S2aB5, S3aB7, and S4bB11. S4bB11 isolates become bacteria that have the best growth in environmental stress and heavy metal stress. The results of GC-MS analysis on S4bB11 bacterial isolates, it is known that metabolites that play a role in the bioremediation process as a form of adaptation to heavy metal stress environments, namely α ketoglutaric acid, diaminopimelic acid, and mannose. 3 indoleacetic acid and kinetin are the results that can act as biofertilizers for plants


The paper focuses on the development of the VBS-GECKO only. However, some observation/simulation comparisons for a few plume conditions were already performed in the past using the GECKO-A modeling tool (e.g. Lee-Taylor et al., 2011, 2015; Hodzic et al., 2013). Furthermore, the VBS-GECKO has been implemented in the chemistrytransport model CHIMERE and results compared with both in-situ measurements and other model outputs. Results show that the use of the VBS-GECKO parameterization slightly improves the performances of the model on OA concentrations compared to the current parameterization in CHIMERE. Detailed results will be included in a companion paper, to be submitted in ACPD (Lannuque et al., 2018).


A surface-resistance measurement method using an open-circuit terminated cavity constructed from a shielded pair of cylindrical conductors is described. The validity of this technique was confirmed by an experiment with copper specimens from 1 to 8 GHz. The measured and theoretical values of the copper specimens were within 10% of each other. In addition, the microwave surface resistance of the bulk YBaCuO superconductors from various sources was evaluated from 1 to 8 GHz at 77 K.<<ETX>>


Most industrial applications of computer vision can be categorized into two groups. They are (1) visual inspection and (2) machine parts recognition. There are several review articles for automatic visual inspection [1,30,31]. This paper gives a brief review of robot vision system for machine part recognition. A robot vision system for machine parts recognition contains four sub-systems: (1) sensing, (2) segmentation, (3) description, and (4) recognition. A block diagram of such a system is shown in Fig. 1.


The smart city concept has been gaining momentum in the scientific community because of its potentially huge impact on citizens' quality of life. However, expectations have not yet been met in practice. This is firstly due to the sheer breadth of such projects and secondly to the lack of methodologies available to guide the development of flexible and sustainable platforms over time. In this work, we propose to address these issues by using a university campus as a less complex mock-up version of a city. Despite differences between them, we find services that are common to both, and a medium-sized city's population is comparable to that of a university community. We propose an IT conceptual framework to model and implement smart university projects, which supports the design of a platform that is both in line with the strategic plans of universities and is flexible, sustainable, stable, and sufficiently modular to support the addition of different value-added services over the years. Our framework is based on a service provision model materialised in an IT architecture and managed following a methodology to integrate IT components that ensure the insertion of new, smart initiatives of value to the community, aligned with the university's needs, via a value-added service planning process. The results are presented in the University of Alicante case study and the SmartUA project.


for this article has been published. It can be found at: A corrigendum http://ajpregu.physiology.org/content/295/4/R1359.full.html for this article can be found at: Supplemental material http://ajpregu.physiology.org/content/suppl/2008/08/11/90337.2008.DC1.html 136 articles, 74 of which can be accessed free at: This article cites http://ajpregu.physiology.org/content/295/2/R704.full.html#ref-list-1 12 other HighWire hosted articles, the first 5 are: This article has been cited by


Thank you very much for downloading animal rights human wrongs an introduction to moral philosophy. As you may know, people have search hundreds times for their chosen readings like this animal rights human wrongs an introduction to moral philosophy, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than enjoying a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they cope with some harmful virus inside their desktop computer.


At yet another international congress using English as the only language, I experienced two linguistic impediments.

The first is the way that some speakers with English as their mother tongue use their language. Such speakers seem to apply the talking speed and kind of pronunciation that they would use back home in an …


Ten representative programs are compared. A listing of additional programs encountered during the course of this effort is also included. Tables are presented to show the structural analysis, material, load, and modeling element capability for the ten selected programs.


The medical history and observations of physical conditions on which this discussion is based are unusual in that accurate data have been available over a period of fifteen years. During this time the patient was under the supervision of competent physicians, to whom I am indebted for their observations. REPORT OF CASE History. —An intelligent white woman, aged 50, who entered St. Elizabeth's Hospital in February, 1927, complaining of general weakness, nausea and slight pain in her back, stated that during the past year she had had frequent attacks of nausea and diarrhea which she attributed to food poisoning. The nausea was relieved by the taking of food, but roentgenray examinations and other studies had not revealed an ulcer. At times she had spit up clots of blood and had lost about 30 pounds (13.6 Kg.). During this period she had also noticed a progressive brownish tinge to her skin


A paramagnetic (S=1/2) manganese complex containing two tridentate ligands has been studied in 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (MTHF) using electron spin resonance (ESR). The complex, MnR 2 , has screw-propeller geometry (approximate f 2d symmetry). The ESR line widths have been used to determine the correlation time, τ, for reorientation about the axes perpendicular to the «propeller shaft» axis of the complex. τ has appreciable contributions from the translational as well as rotational motions of the individual ligands because they are reorienting about axes at a distance r b from their centers. The dependence of τ on temperature and viscosity is consistent with a hydrodynamic model that uses stick boundary conditions and approximates the ligands of MnR 2 as oblate ellipsoids


Most existing theories of the firms define a firm as a collection of physical assets, and hence can not explain the firm from a human-asset perspective, which is of particular importance for understanding human-capital intensive firms. To fill in the gap, this paper proposes an alternative definition -- a firm is a group of people who work in a very close way so that outsiders cannot clearly distinguish one group member from another. By this definition, the boundaries of the firm matter because they can alter investment specificity and hence alleviate or aggravate the hold-up problem. Specifically, when there is substantial investment externalities integration is more efficient, and conversely separation is more efficient when investment externalities are small. This result is obtained under both Nash and alternating-offer bargaining. The effect of `relational contracts' (Baker, Gibbons and Murphy [2002]) is also examined to show that the newly defined organization structures matter even when relational contracts can be signed


Acute epiglottitis by nonbacterial pathogens is an uncommon but life-threatening clinical entity. Herein, we report the concomitant occurrence of Candida epiglottitis and mucosal and visceral Varicella zoster virus infection in a child with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Both infections were atypical in their presentation, occurred in a severely immunocompromised host, and required invasive procedures for diagnosis.


Nano-SiO_2/polyacrylate composite emulsion was prepared by in-suit emulsion polymerization, the size distribution of nano-SiO_2 was with in 100nm,the polyacrylate film which contained nano-SiO_2 was also characterized with FTIR. The results showed that optical and thermal properties of polyacrylate film containing nano-SiO_2 were obviously improved.


TanDEM-X is a single-pass satellite-borne SAR interferometer [1]. It consists of two almost identical X-band (9.6 GHz) SAR satellites flying in a tight tandem formation. The helical shape of the orbit allows for flexible image acquisition geometry. The primary mission goal of the TanDEM-X system is to acquire a global digital elevation model (DEM). However, TanDEM-X data can also be used for forest mapping. Forest height can be mapped with TanDEM-X interferometry if a high-resolution DEM is available as ground reference. By the removal of a simulated DEM interferogram from the acquired image interferogram, a height difference map is obtained, which in forested regions gives an estimate of forest height [2]. For this work, we have produced forest height maps from TanDEM-X interferometry and lidar DEM over the boreal test site of Remningstorp, situated in southern Sweden. A processing algorithm based on [3] was developed. The general agreement of the TanDEM-X-derived forest height maps and the reference lidar maps is very good, especially for the cases with favourable baseline setup. Best mapping results were obtained with baselines giving height-of-ambiguity (HOA) values between 50 and 80 metres. Larger HOA values result in reduced height precision, which makes forest height maps noisier. Lower HOA values give better height sensitivity, but also an increased risk of phase wrapping and more pronounced baseline decorrelation. Especially in the case of mature forest with a few, tall trees, and a significant vertical scatterer distribution, phase wrapping and baseline decorrelation can cause very low coherence, which results in poor height estimates. To address this problem, and to improve the general understanding of X-band scattering from forests, a forward model simulating TanDEM-X-derived forest height from small-footprint, high-density lidar height maps is developed. Lidar data over Remningstorp were acquired within the BioSAR 2010 campaign (pixel size 0.5 m x 0.5 m). In the model presented here, each pixel is assumed to be a scatterer. For each resolution cell, a weighted coherent sum of the contributions from all pixels is computed. The weighting factor is a number describing the degree of exposure of each pixel to the incident electric field. It is derived from the distribution of scatterers in the line-of-sight of the radar. This approach makes it possible to model the influence of gaps in forest canopy. Also, non-homogeneities in the canopy are handled. However, since the model uses deterministic forest height maps, analytical treatment of the problem is difficult. In the simplified case of constant forest height, random distribution of scatterers, and exponential attenuation profile function, the model reduces to the well-known random volume over ground model, which can be treated analytically. References [1] G. Krieger, A. Moreira, H. Fiedler, I. Hajnsek, M. Werner, M. Younis, and M. Zink, "TanDEM-X: A Satellite Formation for High-Resolution SAR Interferometry", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. 45, Issue 11, Nov. 2007


Our interest in the effect on allopolar isomerism of molecular electron distribution and intramolecular van der Waals interaction has led to the preparation and solution of the crystal structures of several merocyanine and chain-methyl merocyanine dyes derived from various heterocyclic nuclei. Bond lengths and torsion angle comparisons for the merocyanine dyes completely confirm qualitative predictions based on the Brooker deviation, an experimentally determined electron attracting/donating scale, and recent molecular orbital calculations by Bowler. Chain-methyl crowded merocyanine dyes have not behaved as expected. Crystallographic evidence has shown that crowding by a methyl group isn't sufficient to cause the molecule to twist its end groups out of the plane of each other. Unexpectedly, the chain carbon-carbon bond lengths increase to relieve van der Waal interactions. We-have also shown that this must be true in the solution state. Chain-methyl and uncrowded merocyanines are expected to remain planar in the solution state because their wavelengths differ by approximately five nanometers and they retain their epsilon values. NMR spectroscopy also suggested that this is true. Modern techniques have provided the means for the first rigorous assignment of these dye systems. Brooker deviations and chain carbon-carbon bond lengthening were observed by proton chemical shift information. CONFORMATIONAL STUDIES OF CROWDED AND NON-CROWDED MEROCYANINE DYES by John Joseph Monson j/l'V A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of. Doctor of Philosophy in


The article reports that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has voted for the proposal of rules to address cross-border transactions. It notes key areas that the proposals want to define including application of swap provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), and cross-border registration thresholds. The article also discusses the designation of a Foreign Conslidated Subsidiary (FCS) to expand the CFTC's jurisdiction.