Stress has been an immeasurably investigated theme within Neuropsychology since past few years. Attention training is a therapeutic intervention developed by Adrian Wells that involves the training of attentional skills to treat emotional disorders (Wells, 1990). This study investigated whether the Attentional training works as theorised to reduce stress. In addition, self-esteem and stress were investigated as potential moderators of the relationship between Attentional training and/or self-focus on vulnerability to the stressor. Prior research has shown that self-esteem level and self-focus interact such that self-focus predicts vulnerability to stress in people with low self-esteem, but not in those with high self-esteem. In a laboratory setting, 80 undergraduate student participants were exposed to a single session of either an Attention training analogue or a control treatment to see if Attentional training would reduce their stress to a subsequent stressor task. This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License ANN.MS.ID.000505. Archives in Neurology & Neuroscience Volume 1-Issue 1 Citation: Arpita G. The Effectiveness of Attentional Training on Stress AND Self-Esteem. Arch Neurol & Neurosci. 1(1): 2018. ANN. MS.ID.000505. DOI: 10.33552/ANN.2018.01.000505. Page 2 of 4 Based on previous research this report aimed to look at two different hypotheses. Firstly it was expected that people with higher self-esteem would score less on the Perceived Stress Scale and those with lower self-esteem would score higher. The second hypotheses is that the participants who received ATT (experimental condition) would not show differences in stress level after being stressed with a stress task and their self-esteem would increase. Participants who do not receive ATT (control group) are expected to show higher levels of stress and lower levels of self-esteem after a stressing task than those in the experimental condition. Method Participants The sample consisted of 80 undergraduates (14 men and 66 women) aged in between 18-40 years old. All subjects were randomly allocated into one of two conditions either the experimental condition (find-the-face) or the control condition (find-the-flower). Gender was evenly split into these conditions. Apparatus The Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (SE) [21] consists on ten items and it has excellent internal consistency (Gutman scale coefficient of reproducibility: 0.92), test-retest reliability and validity [22]. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) has 14 questions and it has showed an adequate reliability and validity [23]. To monitor blood pressure an A&D Digital Blood Pressure Monitor was used. A stopwatch and video camera. A computer was used to display either an ATT task or control task. The ATT task consisted of 16 faces, only 1 smiling (Figure 1). Figure 1: Matrix presented to participants in the experimental condition in which they received attentional training (find-thesmile) Dandeneau & Baldwin [19]. Figure 2: Matrix presented to participants in the control task in which participants did not receive attentional training (find-thefive-petaled-flower) Dandeneau & Baldwin [19]. The control task showed a total of 16 flowers with only one flower with five petals (Figure 2). Design Two repeated measures t-test were used to measure scores of stress (PSS and blood pressure) and self-esteem before and after participants received either ATT or the control task. Stress and selfesteem were measured twice: before and after the stressor. ATT was only provided to half of the sample and the control group did a task with no ATT. Participants was randomly assigned to each condition. Procedure Firstly participants completed the PSS and the Self-Esteem Scale and their baseline blood pressure was measured. Then, participants in the experimental condition did the ATT task in which they had to click on the smiling face (or the 5 petaled-flower in the control group) as quickly as possible. Both conditions consisted of 80 trials. In order to create a moderate psychological stress, they had three minutes to prepare a five-minute free speech that they had to speak about in front of a camera. Following, they had to do a mental arithmetic task (2011-13) that involved counting backwards out loud for five minutes and every time they made a mistake they had to start over again. After, their blood pressure was measured, and they completed the PSS and the Self-Esteem questionnaire a second time. Results and Discussion In the group that received ATT the means of the scores before the stressor on Perceived Stress Scale (PSS1), Self-esteem (SE1), Systolic blood pressure (Systolic1) and Diastolic blood pressure (Diastolic1) were not significantly different from the scores after the stressor on PSS2:t(39)=.705, p>.05; SE2: t(39)=0; p>.05.; Systolic2:t(39)=1.23, p>.05 and Diastolic2:t(39)=.897, p>.05 when ATT was provided in the experimental group. Therefore, stress levels stayed stable even after the stressor, hence, the first null hypotheses of no differences between the means is clearly accepted. Notwithstanding, self-esteem was expected to increase as a result of ATT but it stayed stable (Table 1 & 2).


The dataset encompasses 2209.5 square miles in southwestern Oregon. The highest hit digital surface models (DSM) represent the earth's surface with all vegetation and human-made structures included. The highest hit DSMs were derived from lidar data using TIN processing of the all-return point cloud. The bare earth digital elevation model (DEM) represents the earth's surface with all vegetation and human-made structures removed. The bare earth DEMs were derived from lidar data using TIN processing of the ground point returns. The DSM and DEM grid cell size is 3 feet. The projection is Oregon Statewide Lambert Conformal Conic, units are in International Feet. The horizontal datum is NAD 83 (2011) and vertical datum is NAVD88 (Geoid 12A). Some elevation values have been interpolated across areas in the models where there is no elevation data (e.g. over water, over dense vegetation). Watershed Sciences, Inc. collected the lidar and created this data set for the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI). This data set was ingested into the Digital Coast Data Access Viewer. If obtained through that system, the projection and datums may have been changed by user request. See the spatial reference section.


Abstract Let G be a transitive permutation group on a finite set of n points, and let P be a Sylow p-subgroup of G for some prime p dividing |G|. We are concerned with finding a bound for the number f of points of the set fixed by P. Of all the orbits of P of length greater than one, suppose that the ones of minimal length have length q, and suppose that there are k orbits of P of length q. We show that f ≦ kp − ip(n), where ip(n) is the integer satisfying 1 ≦ ip(n) ≦ p and n + ip(n) ≡ 0(mod p). This is a generalisation of a bound found by Marcel Herzog and the author, and this new bound is better whenever P has an orbit of length greater than the minimal length q.


A strain of chromating spec DSM 5,080 is pref. used together with Rhodopseudomonas spec DSM 5,020 in an alkaline culture for the degradation of H2S and volatile fatty acids in a biogas inside an illuminated tubular reactor. ADVANTAGE - Biogas produced in an anaerobic plant is effectively freed from H2S and volatile fermentation prod.


The transition to oxy-fuel combustion power cycles is a prospective way to decrease carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere from the energy sector. To identify which technology has the highest efficiency and the lowest emission level, a thermodynamic analysis of the semiclosed oxy-fuel combustion combined cycle (SCOC-CC), the E-MATIANT cycle, and the Allam cycle was carried out. The modeling methodology has been described in detail, including the approaches to defining the working fluid properties, the mathematical models of the air separation unit, and the cooled gas turbine cycles' calculation algorithms. The gas turbine inlet parameters were optimized using the developed modeling methodology for the three oxy-fuel combustion power cycles with CO2 recirculation in the inlet temperature at a range of 1000 to 1700 °C. The effect of the coolant flow precooling was evaluated. It was found that a decrease in the coolant temperature could lead to an increase of the net efficiency up to 3.2% for the SCOC-CC cycle and up to 0.8% for the E-MATIANT cycle. The final comparison showed that the Allam cycle's net efficiency is 5.6% higher compared to the SCOC-CC cycle, and 11.5% higher compared with the E-MATIANT cycle.


The phenomenon of scouring represents a significant contributing factor in the destabilizing and destruction of civil structures (bridges, earth embankments and buildings) during major flood events, yet our understanding of the mechanisms involved remains highly empirical. These erosive processes are complex and involve many disciplines including soil, fluid and structural mechanics. To overcome the reliance on empiricism, while building general knowledge and proposing optimized methods aimed at diagnostics, advanced warning procedures and infrastructure management, a consortium comprising six complementary partners has been formed within the project SSHEAR (?Soils, Structures and Hydraulics: Expertise and Applied Research?) financially supported by the French National Research Agency (ANR). After a presentation of the project, a first assessment of the achieved results is proposed: experimental developments; numerical modelling; feedback in the field.


Differential capacitance‐voltage (C‐V) measurements were performed on Al and Pt rectifying contacts fabricated on natural (type IIb) diamonds. The C‐V data showed frequency dependence, which decreased significantly after reducing the back contact impedance. The frequency dependence seems primarily to be an effect of the contact capacitance, contact resistance, and bulk resistance of diamond. A model which includes these variables has been proposed to explain this frequency dependence using both large and small back contact impedances.


Winter storms are among the most important natural hazards affecting Europe. We quantify changes in storm frequency and intensity over the North Atlantic and Europe under future climate scenarios in terms of return periods (RPs) considering uncertainties due to both sampling and methodology. RPs of North Atlantic storms' minimum central pressure (CP) and maximum vorticity (VOR) remain unchanged by 2100 for both the A1B and A2 scenarios compared to the present climate. Whereas shortened RPs for VOR of all intensities are detected for the area between British Isles/North‐Sea/western Europe as early as 2040. However, the changes in storm VOR RP may be unrealistically large: a present day 50 (20) year event becomes approximately a 9 (5.5) year event in both A1B and A2 scenarios by 2100. The detected shortened RPs of storms implies a higher risk of occurrence of damaging wind events over Europe.


In this work, a high power high efficiency and high gain class-F power amplifier with low harmonic content was designed and simulated by using CGH40010F and CGHV40050F Gallium Nitride transistors and NI AWR Microwave Office for electromedical and radar applications. According to the simulation results, 47.5 dBm output power, 73% efficiency and 22 dB gain values were obtained in the 2.7-2.9 frequency band.


【Objective】To study the influence of Fuerkang capsules on cancer chemotherapy drugs' toxicity and side-effect.【Methods】Mouse were randomly divided into blank group,chemotherapy drugs group and chemotherapy drugs and Fuerkang capsules share group.Then the effects of Fuerkang capsules on the decline of nuclear appear rate and the white blood cells caused by cancer chemotherapy drugs were observed;Another mouse were also divided into three groups in the same way.The influence of Fuerkang capsules on immune organs atrophy and reduction of the function of macrophage cell and decline of the activity of NK cells were studied.【Results】Fuerkang capsules had a prominent antergic effect on mice immune organs atrophy,the reduce of the function of macrophage cell,the decline of NK cells' activity,chromosome aberration and leukopenia and other toxicity and side effects caused by many kinds of cancer chemotherapy drugs.【Conclusions】Fuerkang capsules is a kind of broad-spectrum cancer chemotherapy reduction agent.


Image fusion refers to the process of combining two or more images into one composite image, which integrates the information contained within the individual images. In this paper, we have proposed a new image fusion scheme for remotely sensed images to fuse multispectral (MS) and panchromatic (Pan) images. The existing standard Intensity Hue Saturation (IHS) method as well as "a trous" wavelet decomposition (ATWD) method are effectively integrated to incorporate the benefits of both methods efficiently. ATWD consists of adding the wavelet coefficients of the high-resolution image to the multispectral (low resolution) data, but wavelets have much less spatial information than those fused by standard Intensity-Hue-Saturation (IHS) method. Standard IHS method has high spectral distortion. In our proposed method, a modified IHS fusion new method based on controlling factor is formulated which can preserve more spatial and spectral characteristics. The performance of the proposed method is validated with SPOT SAR and LANDSAT images, where the performance analysis is yielded using correlation coefficient and root mean square error (RMSE). The effectiveness and the performance of the proposed method is found to be superior than the existing ones. The proposed new method gives the best results among all by preserving both spectral and spatial information.


Abstract The crystal structure of a 1,3-diacylaminobenzene, quite close to mesogenic diamide analogues, is described. The compound crystallizes in the P1 space group with two molecules per unit cell: a = 11.007 (2) Å, b = 13.164(3) Å, c = 8.806(3) Å, α = 93.40(3)°, β = 110.44(3)° and γ= 101.03(1)°. The final reliability R and wR factors were respectively equal to 0.065 and 0.078. The two antiparallel polar amide groups of each molecule are partly responsible, beside several weak van der Waals forces, of the crystal cohesion: the molecules are arranged in infinite parallel strands in which each amide group is connected to its two neighbors by four hydrogen bonds between CO and NH, as assumed in mesophases.


If you have an AA or BA degree, you can earn your BA in Education with a Residency Certificate and Endorsements in K-8 and Special Ed from City University's Albright School of Education. Future employers will value your education degree from City University. Widely recognized for our reputation and achievements, City U has one of the highest job placement rates in the state of Washington for graduates of our teacher prep programs. Our notable graduates include Washington's Outstanding Principal of the Year, Teacher of the Year, and the 2006 National Assistant Principal of the year.


In order to extract more abundant information carried by the explosion seismic signals in seismic exploration, the mathematical method of multi-fractal analysis was proposed. The relevant parameter diagrams of seismic signals were obtained through theoretical derivation and calculation by programming in MATLAB software. Then the partial singularity characteristic of the explosion seismic signals was analyzed. The results show that: The single fractal box dimension can't reflect essence of the explosion seismic signal; Multi-fractal can describe the partial feature of explosion seismic signals in more detail. The singularity characteristic and the distribution of explosion seismic signals can be depicted accurately. The data extracted by multi-fractal could provide analysis and forecasting for seismic exploration.


This black-and-white 2009 calendar features all 101 public libraries in Iowa that received funding from the Carnegie Corporation, arranged by their Library Service Areas. Other pages display past locations of the Iowa Library Association's annual conferences, original postcard images, and beautiful fireplaces located


. This study aims to investigate the effects of the formal sector's perception of market competition and tax fairness on tax compliance. The data has been borrowed from the World Bank's Survey for the years of 2006-2018 on 49,788 managers of the formal private firms in 140 countries and is analyzed by using the ordered logistic regression. Our results show that the formal sector's perception of market competition and tax fairness affect tax compliance. This study also finds that the interaction between the formal sector's perception of market competition and tax fairness significantly affects compliance. Firms will exhibit greater tax compliance if they consider the competition with the informal sector less intense and tax systems fair. Overall, the results imply that governments need to create conducive market competition and to create and implement fair tax systems. Our findings demonstrate that market competition between the formal sector and informal sector empirically affects tax compliance. A high level of perceived market competition between the formal sector and informal sector tends to motivate the formal sector to avoid taxes to remain competitive. The results are in line with Keen (2012); Benjamin et al. (2014); and McCann & Bahl (2016). Tax avoidance carried out by formal companies when perceived high level of competition with informal sector through two arguments, first is the effort made by taxpayers to reduce costs so that they can still compete in the market. This is in line with Shleifer (2004). Second, tax avoidance is only a result of the company's strategy to remain competitive in the market by lowering prices, which implies lower corporate profits and lower taxes which are often seen as tax avoidance. Further, perceived tax fairness also significantly affects tax compliance. When taxpayers perceive tax systems fair, neutral, and reliable, they are more likely to exhibit greater tax compliance behavior. Similarly, when taxes paid by the formal sector are commensurate with fairness received by formal taxpayers both distributive, procedural, and retributive, the formal sector tends to comply with tax regulations. Fair, clear, and consistent tax systems will then enhance tax compliance. The findings are supported by Akinboade (2015) and not in line with Zhiyong & Qingyang (2007) and Saad (2012). This study also shows that the interaction between the formal sector's perception of market competition and tax fairness empirically affects tax compliance. The interaction between the formal sector's low perceived market competition and high perceived tax fairness results in the highest tax compliance. The results imply that these two factors are not substitutive in the sense that high perceived market competition and high perceived tax fairness still do not lead to greater tax compliance. In a similar vein, low perceived tax fairness and low perceived market competition do not enhance tax compliance. Thus, governments need to reduce the formal sector's perception of market competition and simultaneously to increase the formal sector's perception of tax fairness to enhance tax compliance significantly. Only focusing on a single variable will not enhance tax compliance significantly.


Ruling the country and in the country. On the process of state formation in early modern times. For more than a decade, the new concept of "negotiating power" has been very popular when it comes to describing processes of statebuilding in early modern times. Schennach's contribution outlines the genesis of this theoretical concept inspired by research activities on early modern "good police" (gute Policey), by discussions on the "myth" of absolutism and by "new" cultural history. The paper illustrates potentials and deficits of this approach by using the example of the so-called Kammerprokurator in the Austrian Hereditary Lands. It can be shown that the concept of "negotiating power" has its limits, tends to blend out the repressive aspects of ruling in early modern times. It can only be seen as complementary to works which analyse the development of administrative and constitutional structures in the long run.


With the use of modern technology, the power grid has been smarter in recent years. Integration of renewable energy sources at the distribution side will enhance the advantages of a smart grid. Attributed to the growing awareness of electric power generation's environmental consequences and new technology used in many generations that is more environmental friendly than conventional plants, distributed generation (DG) is gaining traction. Because of the rising demand for electricity in developing countries, it is important to produce more energy with the aid of DG. Due to innovations such as increased competitiveness, real-time pricing, spot pricing, andaccurate estimation of energy loss is critical for obtaining more technological and economic benefits. When determining the position and size of DG, load modeling is critical. Improper load modeling may result in poor results. This paper examines the impact of load models on the estimated energy loss in DG planning. With the brief information proposed method study effect of load models on the evaluation of energy loss based upon season pattern of a year. Comparative analyses of the traditional static load model and the Voltage Dependent Load Model (VDLM) for energy loss at different load levels are conducted using one of the substations supplying energy from a state grid for a 13 bus system. The findings suggest that the load model used will provide considerably better results than a conventional constant load model.


Contemporary expansions in the field of Micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technology, microelectronics and network communications are making it possible to establish in a wide-ranging Wireless sensor network. Now a days these sensor networks have come into prominence because they hold the potential to revolutionize many segments. The Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is made up of a collection of small and intelligent sensor nodes, these nodes have energy constrained devices. So, to increase lifetime of sensor network and throughput, we have to save energy. This is done by shaping an efficient cluster-head selection technique based on soft thresholding method and by using efficient dual amplification energy. In this paper, we are drawing a new technique for cluster-head selection. The work is simulated in MATLAB 220.127.116.114, and the result will shows increase in the network lifetime and throughput.


Exposited the essentiality that the jointing regulation should be carried out strictly, thoroughly analyzed the main reason causing failure of administration toward jointing regulation, and the harmful effect bring forward by that failure. Put forward some suggestions about how to enhance construction management and the administration of jointing regulation.


In this paper, the high-order space-time discontinuous Galerkin cell vertex scheme (DGCVS) developed by the authors for hyperbolic conservation laws is extended for time dependent diffusion equations. The treatment of the diffusive flux is exactly the same as that for the advective flux. Thanks to the Riemann-solver-free and reconstructionfree features of DG-CVS, both the advective flux and the diffusive flux are continuous across the cell interface in DG-CVS. As a result, the resulting formulation with diffusive fluxes present is still consistent and does not need any extra ad hoc techniques to cure the common "variational crime" problem when traditional spatial DG methods are applied to diffusion problems. For this reason, DG-CVS is conceptually simpler than other existing DG-typed methods. Some numerical results are presented to demonstrate the accuracy of the method.


We describe a patient with ophthalmoplegic migraine and left sixth nerve palsy, in whom disease's onset occurred at middle age.


The year is set to start with a bang with Drupa at the forefront of everybody's thoughts. And Graphix will be there to cover every exciting moment. Naturally, we'll continue to report on developments in the local printing industry too, and the impact these will have on your business. To improve our interaction with you, you'll notice this month we've finalised the transition to our new, modern layout, designed to make the journal more enjoyable and easier to read from cover to cover.


The feasibility and efficiency of a transverse beam halo collimation system for reducing the background in the ATF2 beamline has been studied in simulations. In this paper the design and construction of a retractable transverse beam halo collimator device is presented. The wakefield inducedimpact of a realistic mechanical prototype has been studied with CST PS, as well as the wakefield beam dynamics impact by using the tracking code PLACET.


A gel phase can be formed in near-critical propylene (T/T{sub c} = 0.83) by introducing a small volume fraction ({phi}{sub dis} = 0.06) of a mixture of the surfactant, L-{alpha}-phosphatidylcholine, with water. As the pressure of the system is increased from 200 to 400 bar at 30{degree}C, a dramatic decrease in the solution viscosity is observed corresponding to a structural transition from a solid-like gel to the low viscosity of a neat propylene phase. We apply spectroscopic methods to probe the origin of the pressure- and water-induced structural changes that are responsible for large changes in dynamic viscosity. In this paper, we determine how the lecithin microemulsion structure and viscosity affect intramolecular excimer formation processes using fluorescence probes and how continuous phase pressure affects micropolarity within microemulsions using fluorescence and vibrational (FT-IR) spectroscopies. These studies bring important new insights into the mechanisms of gel formation for this surfactant system because of the unique ability to use pressure to adjust the density of oillike continuous phase solvents without changing the overall chemical composition of the system. These are also important model systems for studying the solvation of polymers in both near- and supercritical fluids. 51 refs., 11 figs.


The purpose of the research was the complex study of the BioR remedy effects investigation on broilers health and productivity. The tested BioR remedy produced in the Republic of Moldova is obtained through modern technologies from Spirulina platensis.
The study was made in production conditions and involved 5 lots of broilers (1 control lot and 4 experimental lots), 30 broilers each. The remedy was administrated twice: on the 9th and on the 21st day of life in different doses to each lot while the broilers from the control lot were injected saline. The main purpose of our research was to highlight the effects of this drug on the prooxidant (oxidant) – antioxidant system markers and in order to evaluate them were studied the values of some bioproductive indices. The study results revealed that the BioR remedy tested on broilers is well tolerated, reduces the intensity of the oxidant stress which shows in the increase of the malon – dialdehide (MDA) level in serum and in the intensification of the antioxidant system and of other biochemical indices that in general are reflected by higher values of the bioproductivity in the lots treated with BioR.


This article enumerates the complex of problems of investment of manufacture in the conditions of unstable economy, ways of overcoming of investment crisis taking into account world experience are considered.


This paper tells how maximum bandwidth can be obtained from a nondegenerate parametric amplifier which utilizes a circulator. Expressions are derived for the gain bandwidth product and maximum possible gain bandwidth product. It is then shown how the Q of the cavities used for the signal and idler circuits may be kept at a minimum without degrading the noise performance of the amplifier. It is shown that best performance results when the TEM mode is used in coax, or, if waveguide is used, when the operating frequency is far away from the waveguide cutoff frequency. The diode used should have as high a self-resonant frequency as possible and the line admittance should be approximately the diode susceptance. Using a diode with a self-resonant frequency at the idler frequency will be seen to give optimum performance. This paper also discusses double tuning the signal circuit to achieve broader bandwidths. In this case, the addition of the second tuned circuit will be seen to give much broader bandwidths than one would expect from conventional filter theory. Two sample amplifiers are considered and their bandwidths calculated. The effect of double tuning one of the amplifiers is then considered.


The six — Gloria Kowtak and Jeff Tulugak of Rankin Inlet, Tracy Aqatsiaq and Frank Tapardjuk of Igloolik, Teresa Barnabas of Arctic Bay, and Janet Krimmerdjuar of Pond Inlet — were accompanied by two adults, Grace Okada and Steve Metzger, both of Hudson Hope in northern British Columbia. In August, they described their experiences at the Ottawa headquarters of World University Services Canada, one of the program's partners.


Compressed air is widely used in industry as a cross-cutting technology in many areas of application as working, active or process air, for generating vacuum or for control and test applications. Compressed air is discussed as one of the most energy-intensive energy sources in industry; here generally electrically driven air compressors are used for the production of compressed air. In the European Union in 2001 these compressors accounted for about 10 % of the total electric power used in industry. In Germany in 2008 the figure is about 7.3 % (about 17 TWh) (Fraunhofer ISI 2010).


Machine learning algorithms have made immense contributions in various fields including sonar and radar applications. Recently developed Cycle-Consistency Generative Adversarial Network (CycleGAN), a variant of GAN has been successfully used for unpaired image-to-image translation. We present a modified CycleGAN for translation of underwater ship engine sounds with high perceptual quality. The proposed network is composed of an improved generator model trained to translate underwater audio from one vessel type to other, an improved discriminator to identify the data as real or fake and a modified cycle-consistency loss function. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of the proposed CycleGAN are performed on publicly available underwater dataset ShipsEar by evaluating and comparing Mel-cepstral distortion, pitch contour matching, nearest neighbor comparison and mean opinion score with existing algorithms. The analysis results of the proposed network demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed network.


In the optimization of the hydrological model parameters,it is very difficult to obtain the minimum discharge simulation errors for both the calibration period and the verification period simultaneously.In such a case,the multi-objective optimization methods based on the Pareto relationship are often adopted to search for the set of the Pareto optimal solutions.In this paper,a multi-objective optimization method based on the Makov Chain Monte Carlo method is employed to search for the Pareto optimal solutions.This method is applied to the Xinanjiang model of the three water sources,and the Pareto front formed by the objectives of both the calibration and verification periods is presented.The results have shown that the objective of the calibration period is conflicted with the one for the verification period,and they cannot be minimized simultaneously.Because of the existence of such a Pareto relationship between the objectives of the calibration and verification periods,a great deal of uncertainty will arise in the selection of the so-called "global optimum parameter values" for the hydrological models.Hence,how to reduce this kind of uncertainty in the hydrological modeling remains a very important problem to be solved.


Aimed at the great difficulty and high cost to machine shaping mould of equal-thick circular plate blade,the making of upper mould and lower mould combines the layering machining with whole machining,only demanding common machining equipment to complete complex free surface machining,and reducing the difficulty and the cost.The field production demonstrates that the geometric dimensioning of the cold-pressing blade by this mould meets the demand of drawing,and that the performance of the complete machine reaches the design requirements.This method has a good application prospect because of the wide range of work and the low processing cost.


Graeme J. Hankey MD, FRCP Section Editor:

The specific objective of this review was to determine the efficacy of any form of electromyographic biofeedback (EMG-BFB) used after a stroke in order to aid motor function recovery.

We searched the Cochrane Stroke Group Trials Register (last searched March 30, 2006), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL; The Cochrane Library Issue 4, 2005), MEDLINE (1966 to November 2005), EMBASE (1980 to November 2005), CINAHL (1983 to November 2005), PsycINFO (1974 to November 2005) and First Search (1966 to November 2005). We …


The paper presents the impact of connecting Renewable sources to the Smart Grid with regard to improving Power Quality aspects. The impact of integrating renewable sources on Power Quality indices in the grid wes analyzed and the measures for avoiding the negative impact are included in the paper. Challenges coming from the integration of renewables – variability and uncertainty and the correlation with smart grid technologies used in the power system are discussed in detail. Aspects related to the exchange of information among different systems used in the Smart Grid–DMS, SCADA, DFR, OMS, MDMS, security of the grid and security of IT networks have been reached in the work. The final part of the paper contains the authors conclusions on issues addressed in it.


A model of emporium instruction of mathematics, developed at Virginia Tech, will be described. The model was initially created to deal with instruction under the burden of increased class sizes and increasing demands on faculty time. It has, however, proven to be an effective pedagogical method with its own advantages as compared to traditional lecture style instruction.


29 DEW Y sermon' piously begins by citing a text from the literary gospel of our time, Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism. "Shakespeare, we say, was one of a group of English dramatists working around i6oo, and also one of the great poets of the world," so says Professor Frye. "The first part of this is a statement of fact, the second a value-judgment so generally accepted as to pass for a statement of fact," he goes on. "But it is not a statement of fact. It remains a value-judgment, and not a shred of systematic criticism can ever be attached to it." This, if we accept it, does not sound very encouraging for systematic criticism. Rightly to begreat, as Shakespeare himself envisaged it, was difficult and could be illusory, though he never ceased to ring the changes on that theme. That the adjective itself, with its various congeners, has been applied some twenty times by Swiniburne to Victor Hugo, during the course of one short article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, would make a good point for Mr. Frye: an argument which might be termed, in Shakespearean phrase, "the abuse of greatness." Great in the first place, etymologically speaking, had meant something coarse or large, then heavy in the particular meaning of pregnant, or, on another plane, noble by virtue of a designated social rank; it was originally an objective and more or less quantitative conception. Greatness in the sense of acknowledged preeminence had to come as a later moral refinement, a qualitative and therefore subjective evaluation, yet one arrived at through democratic consensus, and authoritative enough to shape men's lives and claim their persistent attention. If Mr. Frye wants facts-and he does not always-I wish he could be present at this conference. I do not mean simply in order to take part in our discussions, much as these may contribute to critical understanding; but, even more significantly, to speculate on what is presupposed by the unique existence of a monumental library primarily devoted to the study of a single author whose work forms the main concern of a professional body of scholars, now converging to celebrate that work in the capital of a foreign country 357 years after his death. The facts of Shakespeare's universal pervasion need scarcely be attested here at the Folger Shakespeare Library, of all places. The accumulated bibliography of editions, monographs, articles, and translations, not to mention productions, makes Ossa like a wart. Mr. Frye is well aware of all this, and I suppose he must regard it as an incidental phenomenon of cultural history. But German critics might call it Rezeptionsdsthetik. The fact that Shakespeare furnished more than one out of every eighteen plays for the theatrical repertory of the Midwestern frontier, as statistically investigated by Ralph L. Rusk, might


Organizational Citizenship Behavior can improve interpersonal skills in PT.Pln Rayon Belanti employees.The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of transformational leadership and job satisfaction on organizational citizenship behavior on PT.PLN Rayon Belanti.This study used primary data obtained from interviews and questionnaires distribution with total sampling technique to 42 employees of PT PLN Rayon Belanti. Data analysis in this study using multiple linear regression technique.The results showed that transformational leadership had positive and significant effect on organizational citizenship behavior. Job satisfaction has a positive and significant effect on the organizational citizenship behavior.


The study involved a numerical analysis of trusses under cyclic loading. Particular components of such structures are exposed to plastic deformation and corrosion damage and they dissipate energy, including the contributions of irreversible phenomena such as the work of non-elastic strains. The lifetime of individual structural components may be estimated applying the energy-based criterion. During numerical simulation, the most degraded component was replaced after the set number of load cycles. The aim of the analysis was to determine the optimal cycle during which a given component should be replaced with a new one. The paper presents the results of calculations regarding a sample truss construction. An analysis of those results provided a basis for determining the optimal cycle during which the most degraded component should be replaced. ANALIZA KONSTRUKCJI W ASPEKCIE WYMIANY DEGRADUJĄCYCH SIĘ ELEMENTÓW Waldemar Dudda Katedra Mechaniki i Podstaw Konstrukcji Maszyn Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski w Olsztynie S ł o w a k l u c z o w e: analiza numeryczna, obciążenie cykliczne, degradacja korozyjna, kryterium energetyczne.


An economical, simple, and versatile MOS cell that lends itself to the MOS implementation of feedback/feedforward neural networks is introduced. The new cell achieves vector scalar product of the form Sigma T/sub ij/V/sub j/, where y=1 . . ., n, i is fixed, V/sub j/ is the output of neuron i, and T/sub ij/ is the assigned positive or negative weight that is realized through voltage levels. The new circuit comprises only one operational amplifier (op-amp) and two input MOS depletion transistors. The vector scalar product of 2 n-tuple vector inputs is achieved by using 2(n+1) MOS transistors. This offers an economical alternative for VLSI analog neural networks. The analog neural network is realized by interconnecting double inverters through the new vector scalar product circuits. Moreover, the output voltage is tunable via programmable DC control voltages. The technique is demonstrated with an example of a two neuron circuit.<<ETX>>


Existing end-to-end signal compression schemes using neural networks are largely based on an autoencoder-like structure, where a universal encoding function creates a compact latent space and the signal representation in this space is quantized and stored. Recently, advances from the field of 3D graphics have shown the possibility of building implicit representation networks, i.e., neural networks returning the value of a signal at a given query coordinate. In this paper, we propose using neural implicit representations as a novel paradigm for signal compression with neural networks, where the compact representation of the signal is defined by the very weights of the network. We discuss how this compression framework works, how to include priors in the design, and highlight interesting connections with transform coding. While the framework is general, and still lacks maturity, we already show very competitive performance on the task of compressing point cloud attributes, which is notoriously challenging due to the irregularity of the domain, but becomes trivial in the proposed framework.


Dinitroanilines are commonly used herbicides and their residues have become a significant concern. Thispaper reviews methods used over the last 20 years for pretreatment and determination of dinitroaniline herbicideresidues in environmental and food samples, primarily including trifluralin, pendimethalin, ethalfluralin, benfluralin,nitralin, fluchloralin, oryzalin, prodiamine, profluralin, buralin, dinitramine, and isopropalin.


Gas turbine blades are operating under very demanding conditions. In modern industrial gas turbines, the rotating blades and the guide vanes of the first stages are hollow to allow internal cooling. This means that there is a possibility of having crack initiation on the internal surface of the components. Due to the complex casting geometry, this type of defects is very difficult to detect with conventional nondestructive testing techniques such as ultrasonic and radiographic testing. Siemens has developed a new non-destructive testing technique based on acoustic thermography, SIEMAT. The test object is energized by an ultrasonic excitation device. Due to the vibrations, a very slight heating will develop at cracks in the test object. The local increase of temperature is captured by a highly sensitive IR camera. The SIEMAT technique is capable of detecting both surface-breaking and internal cracks, including cracks under coatings. The testing time is very short, and the IR sequences are recorded for subsequent analysis. A major advantage for service applications is that the technique is mostly sensitive to closed defects such as cracks, since open defects where no contact between the faces is present, for example pores and scratch marks, will not cause any heat generation. Siemens is currently implementing the SIEMAT technique for assessment of service-exposed turbine blades from medium size gas turbines, which are due for reconditioning. By being able to verify that no internal cracks are present, the reliability of the reconditioned blades will be increased. This paper describes the SIEMAT testing technique, and the results obtained when applied on service-exposed industrial gas turbine blades.Copyright © 2008 by ASME


A heavy rainfall occurred in eastern Hexi Corridor on 27 June 2012 which triggered floods in 20 villages and towns and mudslides in several places,and caused the direct economic loss of over 17 million yuan. The heavy rainfall process mainly concentrated from 05: 00 to 09: 00 on June 27,2012,and the maximum rainfall intensity was 19. 1 mm / h and the 24- hour precipitation was 44. 1mm,so its prediction was very difficult. Based on the hourly precipitation from 82 regional stations and 6 automatic meteorological stations,Micaps conventional data,FY- 2D satellite cloud images and NCEP / NCAR reanalysis data with 1° × 1° spatial resolution,the characteristics of the heavy rainfall process were comprehensively analyzed from weather pattern,the upper and lower level jets,moisture condition,meso- scale unstable conditions and vertical motions. Results are as follows:( 1) The large scale circulation characteristic of the rainstorm was typical'north- trough with south- vortex'type. During the cold trough over Lake Baikal on 500 h Pa moving southeastward,the cold air invaded into the back of Qaidam vortex and intersected in middle- eastern Hexi Corridor. At the same time,the stabilizing and sustaining of saddle field provided background for Qaidam vortex,then strengthened the low- level front area and dynamic convergence,jointly caused the local heavy rain and rainstorm weather.( 2) The uplifting conditions of the heavy rainfall were the surface convergence line and meso- scale vortex on 700 h Pa.( 3) The invasion of cold air to the low vortex on 700 h Pa triggered the rainstorm.( 4) The heavy rainfall was directly linked to the merging and strengthening of meso- scale convective cloud clusters over Tibetan Plateau moving northward and local new convective clouds over eastern Hexi Corridor.( 5) The westerly jets on 200 h Pa were coupled with the southern and southeastern low level jets. On the one hand,the coupling strengthened the high- level divergence and ascending motion by pumping action. On the other hand,the convergence of southerly and southeasterly jets below 700 h Pa with northwest wind triggered the unstable energy to release,and formed strong upward motion. Meanwhile,the southerly and southeasterly jets transported water vapor to northern Minqin of Gansu Province,and joined with local water vapor and strengthened.


This paper aims to discuss issues related to the improvement of management accounting in the dairy industry by implementing standard cost method. The methods used today do not provide informational satisfaction to managers in order to conduct effectively production activities, which is why we attempted the standard cost method, it responding to the managers needs to obtain the efficiency of production, and all economic entities. The method allows an operative control of how they consume manpower and material resources by pursuing distinct, permanent and complete deviations during the activity and not at the end of the reporting period. Successful implementation of the standard method depends on the accuracy by which standards are developed and promotes consistently anticipated calculation of production costs as well as determination, tracking and controlling deviations from them, leads to increased practical value of accounting information and business improvement.


Precious metal content is much higher in electronic waste than in most worldwide mines, and therefore recycling is encouraged and mostly performed by hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processes. This paper addresses a combined mechanical bio-hydrometallurgical recycling process for extracting gold, copper and iron from printed circuit boards as a less expensive technology feasible for the Brazilian context. Metal recovery was carried out by combining physical, chemical and biological processes. The combined process proved to be technically viable; the microbiological route using adapted bacteria Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans-LR is also eco-friendly. Mechanical processes recovered 97% of the iron by magnetic separation, the bioleaching extracted 99% of the copper, and 86% of the gold was recovered during the last stage of cyanidation.


The agreement between the United States and Venezuela was designed to further energy research and development in six areas. This report focuses on Annex I - The Joint Characterization of Heavy Crude Oils. Annex I has separated this portion of the cooperative energy research and development effort into three tasks for study. Research into the characterization of heavy oils has as its goals (1) the determination of data that can be utilized in developing correlations for processing of heavy oils, and (2) the development of new or modification of old analytical techniques to acquire these data. One of the critical problems requiring considerable research concerns the timely developments of methodology to acquire data. Although mass spectrometry, NMR, and other analytical methods have enjoyed some success in analyzing materials below 600 molecular weight, applications to higher molecular weight materials has not been satisfactory. This cooperative project examines both the lower boiling range materials with currently known and improved techniques and then higher boiling range materials with methods developed in joint efforts of both countries. Data generated through these efforts will be later integrated into process correlations for heavy oils such as the oil under present study: Cerro Negro from the Orinocomore » Oil Belt.« less


Abstract A new spectrofluorimetric method is proposed for determination of human serum albumin (HSA). Using tetracycline (TC)–europium (Eu3+) as a fluorescent complex, in the buffer solution of pH = 10.2, HSA can remarkably enhance the fluorescence intensity of the TC–Eu3+ complex at λ = 612 nm and the enhanced fluorescence intensity of Eu3+ ion is in proportion to the concentration of HSA. Optimum conditions for the determination of HSA were also investigated. The linear ranges for HSA are 0–2.5 × 10−5 mol L−1 and 2.5 × 10−5–2.0 × 10−4 mol L−1 with limits of detection are 2.4 × 10−6 mol L−1 and 1.5 × 10−5 mol L−1, respectively. This method is simple, practical, and relatively free interference from coexisting substances and can be successfully applied to determination of HSA in samples of serum and urine.


The present study, we report about the effect of UVC irradiation on the mechanical properties of chitosan membrane in the sterilization process. The membrane used was chitosan membrane 2% which prepared by a casting method using chitosan as matrix and acetic acid 1% as a solvent. The UVC source used was germicidal ultraviolet (UVG) which widely used for sterilization purposes. Variation doses were done by the varying time of irradiation, e.g. 5 min, 15 min, 30 min, and 60 min. Those samples are named as S1, S2, S3, and S4, respectively. Chitosan membrane before irradiation namely S0 also used for comparative study. The effect of UVC irradiation on the mechanical properties of membranes has been examined by different techniques including FTIR, DMA, and the water uptake capability. The results showed that ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and moduli of elasticity (E) were increased by increasing the irradiation time. From FTIR analysis obtained that no new molecules were formed in irradiated membranes. The water uptakes capability of the membranes after irradiation was smaller compared with before irradiation, and among the irradiated membranes, the water uptake capabilities were increased by increasing the exposure time. These observations suggested that more care should be taken during the sterilization process and outdoor used of the membrane. The other side, the UVC irradiation can improve the mechanical properties of the membranes.


The author considers a typical phenomenon in rail transport: the construction during the last 20 years of heavy special-purpose industrial railways between mines and ports. Such railways have specific features: low cost, simple technical conditions, transport of millions of tons of ore. The trains are very heavy, up to 15,000 gross metric tons (12,000 net tons). As few trains run each day, single track will suffice, together with simplified fixed installations. The author then lists the different lines built or in the project stage and points out that there is much similarity between the projects from the railway technical standpoint, irrespective of where the lines are constructed.


Based on the method of load transfer from rigid drum and X-Y force sensors,the transfer relationship of the variations of radial force and lateral force,which are used to characterize the tire uniformity,is deduced.The structure and principle of core detecting equipment and data acquisition and control system of tire uniformity tester are described.The core detecting equipment consists of rim component,drum component and force sensors;the data acquisition and control system consists of sensor detecting,signal transformation data acquisition,data processing and output,and process control module;and the control is realized by IPC and PLC coordinately.


ABSTRACT The majority of the province of Saskatchewan's craft breweries are housed in the two largest cities, Saskatoon and Regina. Current planning practices in both cities direct breweries to limited geographies in central established areas. I argue that the extent to which craft breweries play a role in processes of gentrification in mid-sized cities is directly tied to planning practices which regulate the geography of craft beer. In order to assess the potential for gentrification, I focus on neolocalism and third places, two consumption practices which shift the image and identity of a space, and which are intertwined with processes of urban change. Drawing together an analysis of community plans, zoning bylaws, local media, site observation, and brewery websites, I demonstrate how in the case of Saskatoon and Regina, strategic planning approaches aimed at increasing intensification in the central areas, coupled with regulations directing breweries into limited zones, has positioned craft breweries as agents of urban change. The findings suggest that craft breweries that display strong neolocal practices and develop third places are the most likely to trigger/extend gentrification. These breweries are typically located in close proximity to residential zones with consumption as a primary focus (taprooms, tasting rooms, in-house restaurants).


dysfunction, reactive oxygen species (ROS), mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), and 2-[N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4-yl) amino]-2-deoxy-d-glucose (2-NBDG) assays were performed to explore energy metabolism and oxidative stress damage in high glucose-induced hRMECs and STZ mouse retinas. Immunofluorescence and Western blot were used to investigate the expression of inflammatory cytokines [vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), SCG3, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α ), interleukin (IL)-1 β , IL-18, and nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich-containing family, pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3)]. The protein expression of the receptor of AGEs (RAGE) and the mitochondria-related signal molecules CHGA, GLUT1, and UCP2 in high glucose-induced hRMECs and STZ mouse retinas were measured and compared with the genipin-treated group.


ABSTRACT The processing of complex plates is increasingly used in large marine and hull structures, and multi-point pressure forming equipment has been developed to process complex hull plates. In order to improve forming accuracy and reduce residual stress, multi-point repeated forming technology has emerged with the development of processing technology. However, the bending problem of curved plates with initial curvature is too complicated for engineering applications for multiple bending processes, and the simplified theoretical model should be proposed to analyse the stress distribution of curved plates. Based on the theoretical analysis of the elastic–plastic bending of curved plates, an approximate method suitable for the stress analysis of repeated forming was proposed, and the formulas for calculating the residual stresses of curved plates were also deduced. Meanwhile, a procedure to simulate the residual stresses of curved plate with the multi-point repeated process was developed to verify the theoretical results.


A building panel structure is disclosed, in which composite building panels are used to form a structure. A composite building panel is disclosed which includes a core and a coating applied over the core. In some embodiments the core consists of a frame and one or more than one insulating structural block. The insulating structural blocks can be encapsulated polystyrene (EPS) foam blocks. In some embodiments the coating includes an inner scratch layer and an outer main brown layer. The inner scratch layer can be formed of at least two layers. The outer main brown layer can include a fiberglass mesh embedded into the outer main brown layer. A method of forming a building panel structure is disclosed which includes forming a core using a frame and one or more than block, applying an inner scratch layer to the core, and applying an outer main brown layer over the inner scratch layer.


The Philadelphia Bibliographical Center and Union Library Catalogue developed out of two separate organizations: the Union Library Catalogue of the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area and the Bibliographical Planning Committee. It attemps to combine the function of a union catalogue—the location of books—with a more ambitious programme, to render assistance in work of bibliographical nature to individuals and librarians, and to act as a focal point of library co‐operation. The individual library, in Philadelphia as in any other book centre, is primarily concerned with serving its own stock to its own clientele. Any activity which is concerned with the community or the nation as a whole, which reaches outside the library's own sphere of influence, has to be attended to in spare time. In contrast, a bibliographical centre serves no specific group; it is concerned with all printed material available in the area and, so far as bibliographical research is concerned, with all such records available anywhere. Its fun...


April 21, 1967 Master and servant — Redundancy — Dismissal — Renewal of contract — Employees served with notice — Subsequent request by employer to stay on to finish a job — Refusal by employee having new employment — Offer accepted by other employees for short time — Whether employer "offered to renew" contract — Whether unreasonable refusal — Whether "contract of employment . . . renewed" — Redundancy Payments Act, 1965 (c. 62), ss.2(3), 3(2), 56(1).


This paper proposes an algorithm for estimate the damping ratio of power system oscillation in real time. In this paper, we utilize the Four-Max-Min-Points (FMMP) method to estimate the instantaneous damping ratio of the signals. The proposed method is simple and fast. It can be used for wide-area monitoring and control of power system oscillation from online PMU measurement. The algorithms are tested using simulated data from the synthetic signal which known damping ratio and frequency of oscillations. The results are shown that the estimated frequency damping ratio obtained using the proposed technique is quite interesting.


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 This article explores the construction of the category 'Woman' in the official history and social studies curricular documents distributed by the Chilean ministry of education to all public and charter schools in 2014. It answers two major questions: what are the characteristics and acceptable gender performances of the category 'Woman' in these Chilean curricular documents? Are there differences in the expected/acceptable performances of woman according to her categories of ethnicity/race or social class? I will argue that these curricular documents construct a historical narrative where two archetypal categories represent possible, oppressive and thinkable gendered citizens. Students that wish to be identified as 'Woman' will be able to read these categories as scripts for gender performance. There are other unthinkable but yet identifiable gender categories that represent the ghosts of danger and un-governmentality for 'Woman'. One of the objectives of this paper is to disrupt untroubled 'inclusive' historical narratives in neoliberal democracies.


Background: The degree of general awareness of the recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) therapy determines its success. However, poor compliance with therapy has previously resulted in negative clinical outcomes. Our study assessed the awareness, treatment practice, and compliance of pediatric patients and their parents, with regard to rhGH therapy.

Methods: Data for this descriptive cross-sectional study was obtained through clinical interviews with 301 children and their parents regarding their personal and demographic and clinical characteristics.

Results: Majority of the participants (92%) correctly identified that rhGH increased the linear growth of the child. Additionally, 88.4% of the sample preferred the nocturnal injection, and 85.3% complied with the therapy.

Conclusion: Adherence to rhGH therapy is essential in maintaining growth velocity, and long-term satisfactory results. Therefore, it is imperative to educate patients, along with their families, about the importance of adhering to their treatment protocols and the factors that enhance their effects.


Ecosystem services (ES) is a significant research topic with diverse modelling and mapping approaches. However, the variety of approaches—along with an inconsistent terminology—cause uncertainties concerning the choice of methods. This paper identifies and qualitatively assesses methods for mapping ES in terrestrial landscapes, based on a systematic review of the scientific literature. It further aims to clarify the associated terminology, in particular the concept of landscape and landscape scale. In total, 347 cases of ES mapping were identified in the reviewed papers. Regulating and maintenance services were most commonly mapped (165), followed by cultural (85), and provisioning services (73). For individual ES, a large variation in number of mapping cases was found. This variation may either reflect the perceived


Unestablished good relationship between members of the local parliament and constituents in 3rd Constituency, Central Pariaman Subdistrict, Pariaman City had caused difficulty to establish a good collaboration. A good relationship was intended to capture the aspirations of the community in finding solutions to community problems. This research aimed to get a description of the relationships between local parliament members and their constituents, inhibiting factors in relations, and efforts to solve inhibiting factors. The author used a descriptive method with a technique of data collection are semistructured interviews, observation, and documentation. As the results, the shape of relationships between Local parliament members and constituents freely mandate, the inhibiting factor in the relationship because the policy program of local parliament members has tried to make constituents not yet felt by the whole community, the lack of constituent awareness for legislative roles and the multiparty system created some local parliament members. To solve the problems are by political education, increasing the sense of care of local parliament members to their constituents. As the suggestion by adding a service function (serving to their constituent) into legislative function by using social media.
Keywords: Relationships, Local Legislative, Constituent


This study aims to determine the quality of civilian personnel resources of the State in the administrative services at the Village Office Pandu District of Bunaken, Manado. The method used is a qualitative research method. Research techniques using triangulation method. The results showed that the quality of Administrative Resources in the State civil administrative services at the Village Office Pandu still not been implemented properly. This is due to the work possessed knowledge has not kept pace with the skills and ability to perform their duties, due in part to the State Civil Apparatus has not mastered the technical and operational jobs, high discipline, loyalty to the job and work responsibilities. Keywords: Quality, Service


Ti containing USY Zeolites were prepared by impregnation with titanium tetra - butoxide and by the secondary synthesis method with (NH^TiFg. The samples were characterized by X - ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, n - heptane adsorption isothermal, UV - DRS, and FT - IR. The results indicated that the titanium species were highly dispersed on the surface of USY zeolites when Ti content was below 4.8%TiO2. The states of titanium in zeolites were different depending in the preparation conditions. The Ti species in the samples prepared by the secondary synthesis method are mainly located in the framework of zeolites. While the Ti species in the samples prepared by impregnation are in the states of monofunctional and bifunctional bonding to the hydroxyl groups of zeolites.


A millimeter-wave Gunn oscillator based on Whispering Gallery Mode (WGM) resonator is introduced and studied in details. We use full-wave numerical simulations to accurately model the coupling mechanisms and the interactions between various parts of the proposed WGM-based oscillator. Moreover, we propose an equivalent circuit model that can be used in oscillation analysis through harmonic balance simulations.


Background: BRCA1-associated protein 1 (BAP1) is a nuclear-localized deubiquitylase (DUB) that belongs to the ubiquitin carboxy terminal hydrolase family of DUBs. BAP1 acts as a tumor suppressor inactivated in various cancers. Several studies in cancer cells containing BAP1 mutations indicated that BAP1 nuclear localization and catalytic activity are required for its growth and suppressive properties. Methods: Subcellular localization of BAP1 was studied in B-16 cells (WT BAP1), as well as 15 fresh frozen samples of Uveal Melanoma (UM) cases using immunofluorescence staining and confocal microscopy imaging. Wound Healing Assay was used to evaluate the role of BAP1 in the regulation of cell migration in B-16 cells. Clonogenic Assay was used to assess cell proliferation and the effect of BAP1 on DNA repair after irradiation (IR). Results: WT BAP1 was mostly nuclear and small amount was cytoplasmic. Among 15 UM samples 2 showed nuclear localization, while 4 showed only extranuclear BAP1. In 3 samples BAP1 was both nuclear and extranuclear, while 6 specimens appeared with no BAP1. In wound healing assay, BAP1 stimulated cell migration, while BAP1 knock-out slowed it down. In clonogenic Assay, more proliferation rate was detected in B-16 cells colonies with WT BAP1 even after IR confirming the role of BAP1 in cell proliferation and DNA repair. Conclusion: Mutant BAP1 is localized in a different way in the same type of cells (nuclear or cytoplasmic or absent). BAP1 is important for cell proliferation, migration


We read the article ''Gamma glutamyltransferase, inflammation and cardiovascular risk factors in isolated coronary artery ectasia'' by Dogan et al.1 They aimed to investigate major cardiovascular risk factors, serum gammaglutamyltransferase (GGT) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels in a large population of patients with coronary artery ectasia (CAE). They concluded that CAE can be independently and positively associated with obesity, GGT and hs-CRP levels, but inversely with diabetes. Moreover, its severity may be related to GGT and hs-CRP levels. Coronary artery ectasia is defined as a localized or diffuse non-obstructive lesion of the epicardial coronary arteries with a luminal dilation exceeding 1.5 times the normal adjacent segment or vessel diameter. Although the etiology of CAE is not well understood, atherosclerosis may be considered a major part of the process.2 Inflammation is an important step in the atherosclerotic process.3 We have reported elevated inflammatory markers in CAE compare with controls.4--6 In the present study,1 the authors showed a relation between CAE and inflammation. In this respect, we argue that some aspects should be considered when assessing the relation between CAE and inflammation. Firstly, classification of CAE is an important factor in study design. In the CAE classification proposed by Markis et al.,7 in decreasing order of severity, diffuse ectasia of two or more vessels was classified as type I, diffuse disease in one vessel and localized disease in another vessel as type II, diffuse ectasia of one vessel only as type III and localized or segmental ectasia only as type IV. Inflammatory markers may be different depending on the severity of CAE according to Markis' classification. Secondly, certain


A large earthquake has occurred several times in the area of West Sumatra. At present, the potential for earthquakes still threatens the area of West Sumatra. The risk of earthquake disaster can be minimized by mitigating disasters. Mitigation is an effort made to reduce and minimize the consequences of disasters, which include preparedness, alertness and ability. The integration of earthquake disaster material with teaching materials is one of the effective steps in disaster mitigation efforts in the education field. One of the right teaching materials to use in the modern and technologically advanced era is electronic book (e-book). The purpose of this study was to determine the preparedness of students facing earthquake disasters as a preliminary study for the development of high school physics e-book on the theme of earthquakes. This research uses a descriptive method. The study subjects were SMAN 1 Sawahlunto students. The data of the study are primary data obtained from questionnaires using the Likert scale. This study indicates that it is necessary to develop physics e-book on earthquake themes to improve students' preparedness in facing earthquake disasters.


With local ordinary college Ascending university and the number of expanded enrollment,combined with infrastructure,educational ideas,curriculum setting,major construction and other not integrating modern market economy,rural vocational education is facing unprecedented existence predicament.How to get rid of this dilemma? On the one hand,we should update the concept of education,improve our professional standards and strive to build a team of expert teachers;on the other hand,we should raise funds through multi channels,adhere to the "Students First" principle to strive to create for students a good educational environment,establish practical technical courses and build a platform for employment and business.


The Internet can be a double-edged sword. While offering a range of benefits, it also provides an opportunity for criminals to extend their work to areas previously unimagined. Every country faces the same challenges regarding the fight against cybercrime and how to effectively promote security for its citizens and organisations. The main aim of this study is to introduce and apply a data-mining technique (decision-tree) to cybercrime profiling. This paper also aims to draw attention to the growing number of cybercrime victims, and the relationship between online behaviour and computer victimisation. This study used secondhand data collected for a study was carried out using Jordan a s a case study to investigate whether or not individuals effectively protect themselves against cybercrime, and to examine how perception of law influences actions towards incidents of cybercrime. In Jordan, cybercafe's have become culturally acceptable alternatives for individuals wishing to access the Internet in private, away from the prying eyes of society.


Abstract : In the currently envisioned architecture none of the Strategic Defense System (SDS) elements to be deployed will receive scheduled maintenance. Assessments of performance capability due to changes caused by the uncertain effects of environments will be difficult, at best. In addition, the system will have limited ability to adjust in order to maintain its required performance levels. The Materials and Structures Office of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) has begun to address solutions to these potential difficulties via an adaptive structures technology program that combines health and environment monitoring with static and dynamic structural control. Conceivable system benefits include on-orbit system health monitoring and reporting, threat attack warning and assessment, and improved target tracking and hit-to-kill performance.


Gosford City Council (GCC), in partnership with the NSW Government's Land & Property Management Authority (NSW Lands), is currently undertaking a comprehensive masterplanning process for the Gosford City Centre. The masterplanning process aims to regenerate Gosford into a w orld class waterfront city as befits the regional capital of the New South Wales Central Coast. This project is a rare opportunity to redesign and renew a w hole city centre. Flooding was identified as one of the main environmental constraints that wo uld affect the development potential of the city. Part of the Gosford City Centre wa s developed on low lying reclaimed marshland that is bounded by steep slopes to the east and Brisbane Water estuary to the south and has a history of flooding. Gosford is affected by various flooding issues. Overland flooding is the dominate form of flooding in terms of potential impact to the City Centre area, w hilst estuary flooding and Sea Level Rise (SLR) impact the low er areas of the catchment. To identify the overland flooding extents, the Gosford Overland Flood Study [1] was commissioned during the masterplanning process. As GCC had not undertaken an Overland Flood Study before and due to time constraints, Council was seeking an innovative, cost effective and technically sound approach to achieve the desired outcomes at nominated deadlines.


The increasement and development of economic growth in Indonesia cause increasement of the construction of warehouse to support business expansion. However, there is an opinion about expensive steel prices which is causes the use of the steel its self is not optimum. In this case, there must be a calculation to determine the model of gable frame and the dimension of steel profiles for the warehouse.  In this study, the frame model is limited of four types that have differences in haunch span.  This study also use the Direct Stiffness Method to calculate structural analysis and  SNI 1729: 2015 to calculate section analysis.  From structural and section analysis, obtained weight for each type of frame.  Frame Type 1 has 4.771,89 kg, Frame Type 2 has 3.348,18 kg, Frame Type 3 has 3.682,24 kg and Frame Type 4 has 10.541,1506 kg.  Based on the volume and weight calculation in each frame type, Frame Type 2 has the lowest weight. Hence, this type of portal can be considered as the most optimum portal type . Key word : gable frame construction, SNI 1729: 2015, Direct Stiffness Method


I first came across the second edition of this book while studying for the intercollegiate Part 3 examination in general surgery last year. It was recommended to me by a previously successful candidate and initially I couldn't really see what it offered over other surgical textbooks earmarked for my revision programme. However, it quickly became apparent that not only does this text meet a genuine need – it does so in a concise, focused and authoritative manner. Although other texts may cover some of the topics found in this book, it is the compilation of diverse emergency conditions and their management in well laid-out chapters that is its unique selling point.


Detecting breast cancer in early stage is not straightforward. This happens because biopsy test requires time to determine whether the type is benign or malignant. Data mining algorithm has been widely used to automate diagnosis of a disease. One of popular algorithms is nearest neighbor based because of its simplicity and low computation. However, too many features can cause low accuracy in nearest neighbor based models. In this research, nearest neighbor based with feature selection is developed to detect breast cancer.  Conventional k-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) and Multi Local Means k-Harmonic Nearest Neighbor have been chosen as nearest neighbor based models to experiment. The feature selection method used in this study is filter based, namely Correlation based, Information Gain, and ReliefF. The experimental result shows that the highest recall metric of MLM-KHNN and Information Gain is 94% with 5 features. In brief, MLM-KHNN algorithm with Information Gain can increase the recall of the prediction of breast cancer compared with the conventional K-NN algorithm and have been deployed into website using Streamlit such that the model can be used to detect breast cancer from chosen Wisconsin dataset features.


Storage temperature is not always constant in the distribution chain of modified atmosphere fresh food packages. A change in temperature means an alteration in the respiration rate of the product and in the gas transmission rates through the film. Because of their high metabolic activity, minimally processed products are particularly sensitive to temperature variation, and hence this study has been carried out with five cultivars of fresh-cut peaches (Prunus persica). Their respiratory activity has been determined by a closed system at 4, 15, and 25 °C. The peach segments are wrapped in microperforated films whose transmission rate is determined according to the size of the microperforations (between 100 × 130 μm and 215 × 190 μm). To quantify the effect of temperature fluctuations (5 h at 25 °C) on the O2 and CO2 concentrations of the packaging atmosphere of the product, a mathematical model has been applied. Using experimental data, it has been established that the rate of O2 consumption is a potential function of the O2 concentration, while the production of CO2 is linear. Although, all cultivars are of nonmelting fresh with no big differences in respiratory activity; these differences are accentuated with O2 concentrations greater than 10% and raising the temperature. The solution of the model provides knowledge of the behavior of the product during its nonstationary period and equilibrium once reached. The results show in all cases that the CO 2 concentration is more sensitive (increase of 5 units) to a break in the cold chain than that of O2 (reduction of 2 units).


Teaching activities on Internet have recently drawn wide attentions from many specialists on education.Focusing on distance network teaching, this paper elaborates its nature,discusses the content of instruction and proposes several conditions in which to perform instructive strategies successfully. Provided the three teaching cases writers have conducted on distance teaching network,it is discussed in details that how teachers can adapt themselves to and make full use of the network in the course of conformity.


This material submits information on Department of Oncologic Haematology of CRI "Children's Clinical Hospital" as one of the Russian leading regional centers majoring in children's haemotology and oncology. The history of the Department began in 1988, when a detached department was opened within Children's Hospital of Simferopol, managed by V.P. Usachenko. The Department contributed to implementation of various chemotherapy protocols within the cooperation between the international research groups. The history of Department development is remarkable by the names of western scientists – D. Pinkel, G. Shellong, А. Righter and others. In 2014 the Department was visited by the Prime-Minister of the Russian Federation D. Medvedev and Ministry of Health V.I. Skvortsova. The article sets out data on number of beds and medical staff of the Department, adult and children population in the Republic of Crimea, incidence of haemotological diseases for the recent years. It sets out details of 5-year relapse free survival for: acute lymphoblastic leukemia – 78 %, acute myeloleukemia – 55 %, non-Hodgkins lymphoma – 78 %, Hodgkin's lymphoma – 95 % and gives an information on the charitable entities helping people.


phenotypes. The most extreme is DiGeorge syndrome;1,2 velocardiofacial syndrome2,3 and conotruncal anomaly face syndrome4 are less severe manifestations. In addition, the deletions have been documented in other syndromes, such as Cayler cardiofacial syndrome.5,6 Recent reports have addressed a relatively high frequency of familial transmission of 22q11.2 deletions and different phenotypes have been proposed among members with deletions, even within a family.7–9 We present here two siblings and their mother who have 22q11.2 deletions with their different clinical expressions and stress that an asymmetric crying face can be a clue for detecting the deletions.


Voltage Source and Current Source Inverters have some common problems. The Z-Source Inverter is a novel power conversion topology that can buck and boost the input voltage using passive components. With its unique structure, Z-Source Inverter can utilize the shoot through states to boost the output voltage and provides an attractive single stage DC to AC conversion that is able to buck and boost the voltage. The shoot-through duty cycle is used for controlling the DC link voltage boost and hence the output voltage boost of the inverter. In this paper MATLAB/SIMULINK model of Z-Source Inverter has been developed and harmonics analysis is carried out. Simulation results and harmonics analysis are compared with traditional inverters. It is found that for 0.1 pulse width the Total Harmonics Distortion (THD) and Weighted Total Harmonics Distortion (WTHD) are 0.22% and 0.08% respectively.


The dynamics of symmetry breaking during out of equilibrium phase transitions is a topic of great importance in many disciplines, from condensed matter to particle physics and early Universe cosmology with definite experimental impact. In these notes we provide a summary of the relevant aspects of the dynamics of symmetry breaking in many different fields with emphasis on the experimental realizations. In condensed matter we address the dynamics of phase ordering, the emergence of condensates, coarsening and dynamical scaling. In QCD the possibility of disoriented chiral condensates of pions emerging during a strongly out of equilibrium phase transition is discussed. We elaborate on the dynamics of phase ordering in phase transitions in the Early Universe, in particular the emergence of condensates and scaling in FRW cosmologies. We mention some experimental efforts in different fields that study this wide ranging phenomena and offer a quantitative theoretical description both at the phenomenological level in condensed matter, introducing the scaling hypothesis as well as at a microscopic level in quantum field theories. The emergence of semiclassical condensates and a dynamical length scale is shown in detail, in quantum field theory this length scale is constrained by causality. The large N limit provides a natural bridge to compare the solutions in different settings and to establish similarities and differences.


For many years now the world has anticipated a global pandemic Aware of the devastating impact of pandemic influenza after the first World War, we have been awaiting a similar threat and the changes it would bring to our way of life, health, and the global economy Alarm bells rang out loud and clear with significant epidemics in recent years Outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Ebola, and Zika provided an indication of the health, social, economic, and political impacts that rapid infectious disease spread can have in a globally interconnected world This did accelerate preparations, but as we have seen, significant weaknesses in global systems have been exposed The world has been on a journey to build preparedness and epidemic and pandemic response capacity The International Health Regulations, which were updated in 2005, provided a clear framework against which countries could assess their capacity to respond, with an 'all hazards' response to potential threats However, the World Health Organization's (WHO) Joint External Evaluation (JEE) process helped highlight that significant weaknesses remained after more than 100 countries undertook voluntary assessments of their global health security status (1) Efforts to mobilize global resources to strengthen preparedness were underway, and progress was being made, but it is now clear, with the benefit of hindsight, that in many cases preparations were too little, too narrow, and too late


The method of preoperative local irradiation of the uterus by a protonic medical beam with simultaneous tele-gammatherapy of the areas of regional pelvic metastasization is described. A total of 35 patients suffering from cervix uteri cancer of the I and II degrees undervent complex treatment. Preopertive radiation therpy of the whole uterus was carried out in doses up to 300 rad including protonic irradiation with a one-time dose of 100 rd with intervals of 5 to 7 days. The areas of regional metastasization were subjected to telegammatherapy with a cummulative dose of 2000 to 2600 rad. with a daily focal dose of 200 rad with exclusion of the sphere of action of proton irradiation. Owing to scattered gamma-radiation, the dose in the rectum and urinary bladder was not higher than 200 to 300 rd. In 2 to 4 weeks following an extensive extirpation of the uters with adnexa no difficulties associated with irradiation were encountered during surgery. Cancer elements were not observed in excised material (16) cases during histological studies, in 19 cases there were revealed remnants of the tumor against the background of radiation changes. (auth)


For the protection of human health from contaminants in ambient and drinking water, EPA is required to set the Ambient Water Quality Criteria and Maximum Contaminant Level Goals (MCLGS) for contaminants in ambient and drinking water. The current method has been driven by the cancer effect via ingestion. For ambient water quality, the criteria were published in 1980; the risk (10{sup {minus}5} to 10{sup {minus}7}) for all carcinogens was estimated by the linearized multistage model. The method for setting the MCLGs is based on 1986 EPA Cancer Guidelines. These Cancer Guidelines classify chemicals into alpha-numerical groups. To estimate cancer risk, the practice has been to rely on the default linearized multistage model (LMS) for low-dose extrapolation. The LMS assumes non-threshold and gives a 95% upper bound on risk. Cancer biology has advanced substantially since 1986, EPA is in the midst of revising the existing cancer guidelines. In parallel, EPA`s Office of Water is proposing to revise the methodology for both ambient water quality criteria and MCLG, including cancer. This new approach will provide more narratives with rationale as to whether the agent is likely to be a human carcinogen. Risk assessment will integrate the whole database, including human and animalmore » tumor data, mode of action, genotoxicity, pharmacokinetics, physical/chemical properties, structure-activity relationship and the route and level of exposure on the agent. Also, depending on biological and physical/chemical considerations, either linear, nonlinear or both approaches will be used for low dose extrapolation. Applications of the revised cancer guidelines to ambient water quality criteria and MCLG development will be presented.« less


This chapter presents an overview of the progress that has been made during the last decade with respect to our understanding of the anammox metabolism, focusing on the physiology, cell biology, and information derived from genome sequencing projects. Thereafter, the current concepts on the biochemistry and bioenergetics of the anammox bacteria are discussed, and the chapter concludes with the perspectives and urgent issues in this field of research that need to be addressed. A challenge in culturing of anammox bacteria was their long doubling time. Apparently, anammox bacteria have geared their metabolism toward high affinities for their substrates at the expense of the activity. During growth under autotrophic conditions, anammox bacteria rely on nitrite. In nature, however, the compound is not abundantly present, which raised the question how anammox bacteria obtain nitrite. Over time, when anammox bacteria proliferated, influent concentrations of nitrite and ammonia could be increased from 2.5 mM to 45 mM. Studies during the last decade have revealed many unique structural and metabolic properties of the anammox bacteria. Furthermore, the comparisons between the different genomes may give a clue with respect to niche differentiation. Above all, genome sequencing projects can provide the basic information for future expression studies, both at the gene (genomics) and protein (proteomics) levels. Eventually, such studies will allow an understanding in the way anammox bacteria are able to adapt to changes in the supply of the substrates and other environmental conditions in their highly dynamic habitats.


Silicon carbide whiskers, a strong material that resembles cat's whiskers, are produced, primarily, for strengthening ceramics and metals. The current method for producing these whiskers is to use a semibatch process, extremely difficult to model mathematically. An alternative model utilizes the expertise of operators accumulated from years of experience in initializing and running the process. We designed two expert systems in which the process can be set up and run by nonexperts. One system uses crisp logic and the other fuzzy logic. In this article, we compare the two systems.


In this paper, the mechanism of oscillation frequency shift and the occurrence of the non-detection zone (NDZ) of the state-of-art islanding detection method (IDM) with current disturbance of selected frequency is revealed by developing the current disturbance sensitivity model. On the basis of this, an IDM based on the adaptive resonant frequency selection is proposed to eliminate the NDZ by dynamically selecting the disturbance frequency according to different system power. Finally, the theoretical development is verified through simulations.


Objective : The purpose of this study was to evidence the effect of Dong-Shi Acupuncture by improving degree of forty four patients who have received a Dong-Shi Acupuncture therapy at Dong Eui oriental hospital OPD and chiefly complained for neck pain and related symptoms. Materials and Methods: For...


The article describes theoretical, methodological approaches to defining and measuring the economy of happiness. The theoretical basis of the economy of happiness involves the study of economic and other factors that determine human happiness, its dependence on the level of economic development of the country and determine the parameters for assessing the level of happiness of society as a whole. The «Easterlin paradox» is highlighted, which notes the limited impact of economic growth on the level of happiness of citizens. The economy of happiness at the macro level is due to happiness at the micro level, in our study - at the University. Its purpose was to determine the level and measure the factors of happiness, and their impact, taking into account modern network communications on the productivity and creativity of students and teachers. The article presents the results of a study of 323 students and teachers of various higher education institutions of Ukraine, interviewed using a cloud questionary created using Google Form. The results of the study showed that most students and teachers are satisfied with life in higher education, believe that the factors of happiness are material, spiritual and social benefits together. It has been proven that young people are generally happier than older people rate, their level of happiness in terms of their role at the University at 4 (on a 5-point scale). It is shown that almost half of the respondents use their time irrationally on the Internet, but they are satisfied with it; most of the respondents would feel happier if they used their time as productively as possible and had the opportunity to spend more time on self-development and creativity.


Dear Editor: We greatly enjoyed reading the recently published case by Cudmore et al. 1 The case emphasises the importance of keeping a broad differential and a low threshold for suspecting an ominous diagnosis viz. 'secondary pericardial metastasis or encroachment', especially with the history of a known systemic malignancy. Metastatic and infiltrative/invasive involvement of the pericardium may often be the initial …


Diesel particulate matter (PM) produced from Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD), Soyderived B20 and Animal fat-derived B20 was collected at two engine operating conditions. Gravimetric analysis showed the PM emissions to depend on both fuel and engine operating condition. B20 fuels exhibited higher PM emissions at low load conditions, but lower PM emissions under high load conditions. The differences between the operating conditions were less significant for B20 fuels than for ULSD. Elemental Carbon analysis revealed the B20 PM to contain greater proportions of organic carbon, which may improve diesel particulate filter (DPF) regeneration. Finally, TEM images showed considerable differences between ULSD and B20 soot at low engine loads. The B20 soot displayed a more disordered arrangement of graphene layers. At higher loads, the differences are subtle, but the B20 PM still displayed a more amorphous structure. There was little difference between the Soy and Animal fat-derived B20 soot.


The aim of our study is to examine stepparents´experiences of their role in the new family, we also want to examine if the role as stepparent is affected to the role as a biological parent. Our stu ...


The slot antenna at its second resonance (also call anti-resonance) is a wide band antenna [1]-[2]. A centrally fed, open slot provides direct match to 50Ω over a bandwidth of about 25% at its second resonance [2]. The wide bandwidth is insensitive to groundplane details, such as its size and shape, as long as the groundplane size is large enough to support the current distribution for the second mode.


Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has become an accepted routine therapy for a subgroup of heart failure patients. Haemodynamic evaluations have yielded data that are essential to our current understanding of the mechanisms of CRT and nearly every step of CRT innovation has been introduced following studies employing relatively complex, invasive haemodynamic measurement techniques, such as conductance catheters for constructing pressure-volume loops and sensor tipped pressure wires in the left ventricle. These studies have been valuable in demonstrating the importance of selecting optimal pacing site and to understand the interactions between right and left ventricles, including the optimal timing for stimulation. The invasive measurements were the only investigations which showed that CRT decreased oxygen consumption and improved work efficacy without additional oxygen demand as seen with catecholamines. The acute haemodynamic effects also appear to be chronically maintained. Even if the invasive haemodynamic evaluations are time-consuming and not always applicable in routine clinical practice, their use should be considered in patients with new or borderline CRT indications to avoid deleterious effects by suboptimal lead placement or programming.


An adhesive based interconnect design in which the contact force between a bumped die and substrate is maintained by the shrinkage stress of the adhesive was investigated for use in high performance applications. In general, heating will reduce the contact force because of the differential thermal expansions and load relaxation in the adhesive. Special experimental techniques have been developed to measure the relevant materials properties. The potential for optimization in terms of materials selection is discussed.


Objectives: Gaseous microemboli (GME) are a cause of neurocognitive deficit postcardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass. However, the measurement of microbubbles during cardiopulmonary bypass is not easy, because blood is an opaque fluid and contains microparticles. Recently, two new microbubble counters, the Gampt BC200 and the emboli detection and classification (EDAC) quantifier, were developed for use during cardiac surgery. The accuracy of both devices was validated against industrial standards. Methods: A clear blood analogue (30%y70% glycerol–water) was pumped, by means of a rollerpump out of a partially filled arterial line screen filter with a nominal pore size of 20 mm. Downstream the pump, all test sensors and an optical cuvette, were inserted in a vertically mounted 3y8 inch tubing. Measurements were taken at flows of 405, 1080, 3000 and 6000 mlymin. Backlight shadowgraphy and optical counting were used as industrial reference techniques for measuring size and counts. Results: On average the EDAC quantifier underestimates average bubble diameter by 35"1%, 13"8%, 71"7% and 33"4% at 405, 1080, 3000 and 6000 mlymin, respectively. The Gampt BC200 has good sizing agreement at 1080 ml/min (q5"17%) and 3000 mlymin (q33"6%) but overestimates average diameter by 220"40% and 295"49% at 405 and 6000 mlymin, respectively. Both devices only partially count the number of microbubbles at higher flows. At 3 lymin the EDAC counts 38%, the Gampt 18% of total counts and at 6 lymin both the EDAC and Gampt only count 3% of total counts. Conclusions: Both the EDAC and Gampt can be used in a clinical setting for monitoring basal GME production. However, both devices have some major limitations when used for studying 'worst case' scenarios. One should take great caution when correlating measured data with neurocognitive outcome. Finally, results obtained by one device in a first study cannot be compared nor exchanged with results from the other device in a second study.